The Kingless Land

I buy about twenty fantasy and sf titles a month, and best like books that I can relax in, enjoy again and again, and that don't try to impress me with "the greatest since Tolkien" stuff. This was one of the best of those I've read in the last four or five years...just good fun. The bad guys are bad, everybody in the story is well-rounded, I can see sequels ahead...and I'll line up to buy them, you can be sure. Aside to "James" from France, who posted a review here: Richard Knaack wrote the Huma Dragonlance book, not Greenwood.

The action is wonderfully written. The magic is mesmorizing. While the plot is nothing new, the way it is woven through the action is spectacular. If you want deep woven mysteries and twisting plots, try this book with caution. However, if you want action and magic and a book you can never put down, this is your ticket.

Not since Roger Zelazny has a fantasy writer that I've discovered had so much FUN with his stories (except for out-and-out comics like Terry P, Holt, and Gaiman, of course). I like this guy's gentle sense of humor behind everything. This is popcorn reading, not great fantasy...but then, anyone trying to write great fantasy usually comes crashing down, and some of the reviews that sneer at "fanfiction" and suchlike tell me the reviewers are reading the wrong genre in the first place! This is good ol' hero storytelling, done with flair and gusto. Give me sequels!

I'm getting used to yawning my way through lots of the new fantasy books. Same old, same old. This one is same old only told great! Slowish start, and then--zap! zap! zap! Characters you can believe in for once, too. Gets my top vote.

Over forty years of reading fantasy novels, I find they are either: brilliant (very rare), good but flawed (lots of those), and drek. This new Greenwood book is good but flawed. It doesn't try to be anything more than popcorn-and-beer reading, and gives the reader a whumping good ride. Lots of cinematic scenes and blasting action but little touches of characterization here and there that tell us these people are real and we should care about them. I really liked it, and will buy any sequels that appear. Expect the Lord of the Rings, and you'll be disappointed. Expect a really fun read, and this is it.