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A review by podanotherjessi
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This is maybe the most dad-core book I have ever read, for better or for worse. Unfortunately, it was also incredibly mediocre in almost every way for me.
The characters were bland. The only character we really get to know much about outside of a vague trope is the perspective character Clay, and he barely gets anything. Half the members of the Band I honestly don't think the book would be changed by removing. We meet some more characters about halfway through that I was at least more entertained by, but they still barely were necessary. My favorite character was probably Moog, and he was basically just a walking gay stereotype.
Boy, was the plot predictable and the pacing exhausting. The book could almost be broken in sections, and each one is defined almost the whole way. There's an objective of some kind - a place they're journeying toward, a fight they're trying to win, an object they need to get - and each time it plods through them failing and failing. Eames really just beats the reader over the head with how much peril they're in and that the Band will never make it (but I never once believed they'd actually fail). And then suddenly (when I've become so bored I'm contemplating DNF'ing), they get through it - usually with some kind of deus ex - and then the story will get interesting enough for a bit to draw me back in.
The setting is really fun, and that's the extra half star above 2 this gets. I might read the second novel because I'm very hopeful about the characters it'll focus and that the story will be more original.
The characters were bland. The only character we really get to know much about outside of a vague trope is the perspective character Clay, and he barely gets anything. Half the members of the Band I honestly don't think the book would be changed by removing. We meet some more characters about halfway through that I was at least more entertained by, but they still barely were necessary. My favorite character was probably Moog, and he was basically just a walking gay stereotype.
Boy, was the plot predictable and the pacing exhausting. The book could almost be broken in sections, and each one is defined almost the whole way. There's an objective of some kind - a place they're journeying toward, a fight they're trying to win, an object they need to get - and each time it plods through them failing and failing. Eames really just beats the reader over the head with how much peril they're in and that the Band will never make it (but I never once believed they'd actually fail). And then suddenly (when I've become so bored I'm contemplating DNF'ing), they get through it - usually with some kind of deus ex - and then the story will get interesting enough for a bit to draw me back in.
The setting is really fun, and that's the extra half star above 2 this gets. I might read the second novel because I'm very hopeful about the characters it'll focus and that the story will be more original.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism and Gore
Moderate: Infidelity