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kittyg's review
3.0
This is the second book of my SPFBO4 (self-published fantasy blog off 2018) titles that I got around to reading and this was much lighter than the first one, with a comedy flavour throughout and some light-hearted banter from the main character frequently thrown in.
The story begins when Sir Edric is given the Kingdom by the King as the King is fading and deathly ill. Edric has to take command, rule well, and prove to all of his doubters that he can lead the way forward against the many surrounding plots and foes.
What I found most entertaining about this is the character of Dog, the manservant to Edric. The relationship that Dog and Edric have is quite a funny one because without Dog Edric is basically useless, and yet he never thanks him, and he’s frequently quite jokingly rude to him. They have a lot of banter together, both in jest and in truth, and they make quite a pair when there is trouble on the horizon too.
We have quite a lot of threats from exterior forces such as Elves, Gnomes, and man-eaters. There are a lot of the classic races of fantasy in this story, but they have a familiar feel, which sets the scene well. There’s definitely an underlying tone of classic fantasy, gallivanting lords and nobles, schemes and tyrants, and fighting for the throne, but also a fair bit of fun being poked at these things.
Overall, I feel like although this is a fun story, the book didn’t really leave me with an overly strong opinion either way. It was a bit forgettable, because so many of the ‘charging-off-to-save-the-day’ scenes were similar to one another just with slightly different spins on how the saving happened.
I did feel like the humour was entertaining at times, and at others I was left a little cold and didn’t find it all that strong. Humour is, however, one of the hardest things to get right, and if you like an entitled Lordling as your lead character you may find this really fun.
I ultimately gave this a 3/5*s, which means it gets 6/10 for SPFBO purposes. This is a likeable read, with some good characters, twists on tropes, and moments, but it also struggles to stand out from the crowd and felt a little forgettable to me.
The story begins when Sir Edric is given the Kingdom by the King as the King is fading and deathly ill. Edric has to take command, rule well, and prove to all of his doubters that he can lead the way forward against the many surrounding plots and foes.
What I found most entertaining about this is the character of Dog, the manservant to Edric. The relationship that Dog and Edric have is quite a funny one because without Dog Edric is basically useless, and yet he never thanks him, and he’s frequently quite jokingly rude to him. They have a lot of banter together, both in jest and in truth, and they make quite a pair when there is trouble on the horizon too.
We have quite a lot of threats from exterior forces such as Elves, Gnomes, and man-eaters. There are a lot of the classic races of fantasy in this story, but they have a familiar feel, which sets the scene well. There’s definitely an underlying tone of classic fantasy, gallivanting lords and nobles, schemes and tyrants, and fighting for the throne, but also a fair bit of fun being poked at these things.
Overall, I feel like although this is a fun story, the book didn’t really leave me with an overly strong opinion either way. It was a bit forgettable, because so many of the ‘charging-off-to-save-the-day’ scenes were similar to one another just with slightly different spins on how the saving happened.
I did feel like the humour was entertaining at times, and at others I was left a little cold and didn’t find it all that strong. Humour is, however, one of the hardest things to get right, and if you like an entitled Lordling as your lead character you may find this really fun.
I ultimately gave this a 3/5*s, which means it gets 6/10 for SPFBO purposes. This is a likeable read, with some good characters, twists on tropes, and moments, but it also struggles to stand out from the crowd and felt a little forgettable to me.
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