“All those years traveling the countryside, being paid paltry sum to draw the blood of others, I have been running away from my destiny. It’s time for me to find out who I really am…”
This is a repost of a review I did last year on my blog. But Jeffrey Speight, throughout the month of October is donating all royalties from the sale of his books to the Hurricane Helene Relief Fund. If you wish to support him and this important cause, then you can do no wrong in buying and reading his fun, D&D inspired novels. Below is a short review I wrote about book one in the Archives of Evelium Tale, Paladin Unbound.
Oh man, this was such a joy to read. Deeply entrenched in the ethos and world D&D, we follow Umhra the Peacebreaker, a half-orc mongrel who has a secret past that, if exposed, could ruin him. He must gather a ragtag group of unlikely heroes and rid Evelium of an ancient, awakening evil which will cover the world in fire and darkness.
Jeffrey writes with such ease and vitality and that translates to the reader, providing us with an accessible world, filled with vibrant, funny and dangerous characters that will steal your heart. For those older readers, like me, who grew up on the likes of Dragonlance and Ian Livingstone’s adventure books, you will find yourself in very familiar territory, and find yourself awash with nostalgia and joy.
I can not tell you how much fun I had reading ‘Paladin Unbound’. Jeffrey writes with a singular enthusiasm and love for this world, bringing his D&D character and world-building experience and skills to bear on a novel that I devoured in a couple of days. The story is filled with wonderful nuggets of worldbuilding with the history and culture of Evelium, much of which is given through fascinating epigraphs. The narrative is punctuated with brilliant fight scenes, injecting gleeful sword and sorcery feel and fist-pumping moments of victorious joy. This is the perfect book to read as a palate cleanser between the usual breeze block-sized fantasy books. When I finished this, I immediately wanted to play Skyrim, D&D and dig out my old 80’s Fighting Fantasy books. This book is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Follow Jeffrey on social media to support him, he’s a great author and wonderful human being. This was an easy 4/5 for me. More please!
