slowbollard 's review for:

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

DID NOT FINISH

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DNF at 31%. This wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. The humor didn't do it for me and most of the time I just kept thinking the whole plot, characters, writing, etc was just silly and not in a good way. I quit at the part where the wizard tries to turn a battle by using a magic flute which he thought turned swords to snakes and it ended up turning sticks to snakes. So suddenly there are snakes everywhere and 'hilarity' ensues. Clay is identifying vipers and rattlesnakes and cobras and I'm just idly shaking my head thinking there's no way he would know all these snakes from different climates. Then I tell myself to stop being a pedantic jerk. I mean, this book has a running gag about the wizard making his living from a viagra spell, what can you expect? Then Clay grabs an 'unknown' weapon to defend himself and of course it ends up being a snake. It coils around his arm, but conveniently bites his foe and holds on. But Clay identifies it as a rattlesnake and they typically don't do that, they strike and let go. Their venom also doesn't insta-kill, but... yeah you guessed it. So I grimace and try to just keep going and I realize I'm so bored that these silly errors are more entertaining than the material and I really need to just bail. So I did. Glad other people have been entertained, I can sorta see the appeal.

World building: Meh. Fine I suppose. The parody of adventuring parties being the equivalent of rock bands isn't amusing enough to carry a whole novel, let alone a series, but maybe that's just me.
Characters: Clay was well done. That's about it.
Writing: Adequate? Doesn't stand out one way or the other.
Story: Nothing new, really. Couldn't find anything to make me want to see how it ends (though I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to get caught by any twists).