#nicholas eames

Review on Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Sorry for the extended hiatus! Life is crazy. But I'm coming back strong with one of my favorite books of all time :)

Rating: ★★★★★

This book is, perhaps, the ultimate comfort read. It is thrilling, clever, and completely hilarious and had me smiling on every page. Like, fully grinning while flipping through a book. In public no less!

Pratchett has mastered comedic timing in a way I didn't know could be achieved on a printed page. He uses so many clever, innovative tricks (the footnotes!) to construct a joke and deliver the punchline; and how incredible that a joke told thirty five years ago can land just right today!

The cast has so much heart-- even Nobby Nobbs, who in fact has my entire heart-- that by the end you feel like you've gotten drinks with them every week for the past twenty years. And they're kind of gross, but you love them. Vetinari is my personal favorite for his... everything. But even characters who only appear in a single page (Cut-me-own-throat, for one glorious example) come to life on the page. Pratchett can craft an entire person in a single line of dialogue.

And all that not to mention the brilliant prose. Pratchett's control over the english language blows me away. He can weave the same phrase into both a powerful symbol, novel bit of imagery, and hilarious punchline all at once. Genuinely, I've never read anyone else who can manage that, and I doubt I ever will.

Guards! Guards! is, in my opinion, the perfect foray into Discworld, which requires no prior context or reading. Just crack it open and get into it. This is my most-well lent book of my personal collection, because I can't help but force it on my friends-- so far, I haven't gotten a single complaint. Nor have any of them rated it below five stars.

Recommendations:

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. If ever a comedy-fantasy could live up to Discworld, it's this one. Eames' humor is distinct from Pratchett's, in a way that brings his own unique voice to life. He tells a story not just about fantasy (featuring all your favorite and least well known DND creatures), but also about growing old, and rock music! The Band is one of my favorite adventuring parties I've ever had the pleasure to accompany. In every bit of this book, you can tell Eames is writing something he absolutely loves, and to me it was impossible not to love it too.

So I tested out my new eReader with Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, and one day and 18 Google Doc pages of quotes later, I found it quite interesting and motivating. These quotes resonated with me most:

I was built with a love of the night and the unquiet coffin, that’s all. If you disapprove, I can only shrug my shoulders. It’s what I have.

Write what you love! Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames immediately comes to mind. I could tell Eames had so much fun writing the book, and it made the whole reading experience that much better. (Highly recommend if you like your fantasy with some blunt, laugh-out-loud humor.)

…let me reiterate that it’s all on the table, all up for grabs. Isn’t that an intoxicating thought? I think it is. Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, toss it. Toss it even if you love it. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch once said, “Murder your darlings,” and he was right.

Don't restrict yourself before you've even begun. I need to remember this more often. "But the audience—" "But the plot—" Write for you. Experiment! Especially in your first draft. Even if it doesn't work out, that's wisdom you can take with you.

You can’t please all of the readers all of the time; you can’t please even some of the readers all of the time, but you really ought to try to please at least some of the readers some of the time.

Something else I like to hear. I tend to put wine glasses in my audience's hands and raise their noses, telling myself they would disapprove if I did it like this, the way I want. But there's also a whole world of others that might just enjoy the same things as me, and maybe I can focus a little more on them. (Key: still keeping some semblance of an audience in mind.)

You must tell the truth if your dialogue is to have the resonance and realism that Hart’s War, good story though it is, so sadly lacks—and that holds true all the way down to what folks say when they hit their thumb with the hammer. If you substitute “Oh sugar!” for “Oh shit!” because you’re thinking about the Legion of Decency, you are breaking the unspoken contract that exists between writer and reader— your promise to express the truth of how people act and talk through the medium of a made-up story. ... The point is to let each character speak freely, without regard to what the Legion of Decency or the Christian Ladies’ Reading Circle may approve of. To do otherwise would be cowardly as well as dishonest, and believe me, writing fiction in America as we enter the twenty-first century is no job for intellectual cowards.

King repeats the importance of honesty in writing, and how it invests readers with a layer of life and meaning. This is something I strive for.

My first-draft characters tend to curse more than they probably should—even the ones supposedly known for being more wholesome—but I should strike a four-letter-word for being out of character rather than for worrying what my parents might think when their unvulgar daughter relinquishes one of her chapters to them.

4.5⭐

Hey. You. Yeah, You. 

Do you like Fantasy? Have you even vaguely heard about the concept of famous classic rock bands? Do you want a fun, fast read?

Do you like

DILFS?

Is the idea of Just Some Guy, an Emotionally Broken Father, a Gay Wizard, a Rogue-Turned-King-Turned-Alcoholic, and A Rejected Fate Series Berserker all adventuring in one group really funny? I got the book for you!

Kings of the Wyld is an easy-reader fantasy adventure romp that, despite clocking in at around 415 pages, is fast, fun, and funny.

From the get go, this book has the makings of a good time. Adventuring groups being treated like rock bands? An incredible idea. Old men who used to be one of the best adventuring group-rock-bands getting together for a farewell tour? An even better one. If you find this premise enjoyable in the slightest, this book has the quality to deliver on it. It rides the knife's edge of humor, action, and genuine emotion. 

What’s this book about? The cover blurb was actually quite accurate for this book. After some 20 years retired, Saga, one of the most famous bands in the modern time, is rallied back together to save their frontman Golden Gabe’s daughter from a nigh-unbreakable siege. Like, that's what happens. That's the book. Sure, they gotta deal with their old booker, some ex-wives, a very much alive wife who's trying to kill one of them, and also a super evil dude with bunny ears, but that’s the jist of it, really. However, this blurb would have you believe that the famous Golden Gabe is our narrator. That is not true. We view this story through the eyes of someone much more interesting: Clay Cooper.

Clay Cooper was made in a lab for me to be a fan of him, I love grimy little dudes who are Just Some Guy. His signature weapon is a giant shield and his nickname from his youth is Slowhand because he kept getting his ass beat during fights. He’s our narrator, our entrypoint into the world, and also the keystone of the band itself. He’s funny, just observational enough you can pickup whats going on, but also just lame enough to ignore things that aren’t his business. He’s great. No notes. 

Something to note about this book before you pick it up: I gave it a 4.5⭐ instead of a 5 because it definitely raises some plot themes/threads/beats before dropping them, however, I would state that those plot threads aren’t super important to the main focus of this story, which is 5 old dudes grappling with getting old and growing apart and the emotions around that. Additionally, there are some instances of mildly tasteless/outdated/not PC humor. I’m used to that so I can handwave it, but others may not be able to. 

I was likely not this book’s exact target audience, being a young adult woman who has no nostalgia for the great rock bands of our times, but I was familiar enough with things. Through my casual knowledge (and a couple live Iron Maiden shows) I was able to pick up on just enough easter eggs to be proud of myself.Some of the jokes and references are probably enhanced by more extensive knowledge, but most of the comedy is good enough to stand on its own. Having knowledge of music history is not required at all to enjoy this story. If you are any kind of fantasy enjoyer who's sick of reading about plucky young teens doing coming-of-age nonsense, you'll probably like this book. If you have any more knowledge of rock music than I, you'll probably like it more. 

I am debating picking up the sequel, the main perspective not being Rose is a bit strange to me, and I will agree with many reviewers that Clay Cooper was absolutely integral to the way this book is delivered to you as a reader. Maybe I'll revisit reading the sequel after I've checked a few more things off my list, but for now, this is solid to me as a stand-alone novel. 

[PREVIEW] Barbaric: Wrong Kind of Righteous [one-shot] (November 29, 2023)

writer(s): Michael Moreci and Nicholas Eames | artist [penciller & inker]: Nathan Gooden | colorist: Addison Duke | letterer: Jim Campbell | cover artist: Nathan Gooden | publishing company: Vault Comics

synopsis: Double-sized one-shot introducing an all-new talking weapon, Flail!