Kings of the Wyld

The Band, Book 1

By: Nicholas Eames

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2018 Gemmell Award for Best Debut

Winner of Fantasy Faction's Best Fantasy Book of 2017 Award

Winner of Reddit Fantasy's Best Debut Novel of 2017 Award

Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best - the meanest, dirtiest, most feared and admired crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld. But their glory days are long past; the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk - or a combination of the three.

Then a former bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help: his daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy horde 100,000 strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of impossible mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.

It's time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld.

©2017 Nicholas Eames (P)2017 Little Brown Book Group

Critic reviews

"An outstanding debut which will make you laugh and cry and hold your breath. This is a book that has it all." (K. J. Parker)

"A fantastic read, a rollicking, page-turning, edge-of-your-seat road-trip of a book." (John Gwynne)

"Could very well be the debut of the year." (Fantasy Book Review)

faaantastic

Loved the book. Hours flew by. Felt like a tale og an old D&D party.

refreshing taste of comedic fantasy

I'm not usually someone who enjoys comedy, but I was pleasantly surprised with this one. the perfect flair of self-referential fantasy clichés, dark grit, humour and D&D references. I fun ride.

Stunning Adventure

a fantastically good adventure, I love the point of view, written from the view quiet heart of the group this story takes you on a winding adventure with intrigue and action at every corner, even the quiet times in the story are fill with soul and character.

Great tale

Somehow is both relatable, fantastical. funny and somber all at once. Would listen to again.

A magical mix of adventure, humour and philosophy

The author has a gift for describing the perspectives of old retired heroes, and bring comedy to otherwise terrible events.
Voice is fantastic.
Read. Listen. Repeat.

Better than I expected, and I expected good book

This book was recommended to me, and I had some expectations that it will be a good one, but now that I finished it, I can say it surpassed my expectations and blew me away.
The gist of the story is somewhat standard, done many times. The schtick of the mercenaries groups being handled as if rock bands, is cool, and not overused - I mean it is always there in the story, but not to the detriment of the details or anything. It is just part of the world building, and feels natural. And cool :)
And yet, I ended up caring for pretty much all of the characters - be it main or side, all of them were relatable by one way or another. the heroes' journey was well crafted, well built, and to top it off, well handled at the end.
The villain, well, he probably could have been fleshed out a bit more, but nevertheless served the story well, and too was relatable and "grey" enough to evoke some sympathy which made story better.
The narrator did fantastic job with the different characters. I enjoyed his reading tremendously. Well done to him too!

What a fun ride.

Is it the most complex world with a hard magic system?
No.
Have we seen this kind of story before?
Yes.
Does it take it self serious?
No.

And still this book was amazing, it had me from the start to finish. I just love the callback to old rock ledgends. It felt like an amazing D&D campain with your best friends.

great fantasy + super humor = fantastic book

I love the humor and the old guys. A fresh breath on classic fantasy.
A small warning though, the language is a little strong, but that's part of the fun...
but if you don't want your younger children asking what clusterfuck means, perhaps it's not for the youngest audience.
Both thumbs up. Way up.

Excellent!

Loved it. True DnD and lovable characters. The story borrows a lot from the Dungeons and Dragons mythos but manages to put its own spin on it.

a love letter to roleplayers

If you enjoy dnd or other RPG's and have a dry sense of humour you are probably gonna enjoy this book.