Kevin Hammond

The King's Peace

Briar's Reviews

The King's Peace is an epic fantasy read to add to your collection!

Fantasy is one of those genres where it can go anywhere - medieval, dragons, superheroes, magic, gods, monsters, creatures, etc - so reading a fantasy book is always a pleasant surprise! This novel focuses on Kings, Dragons, Magic, Gods and action adventure. We follow Nathaniel on his journey, where the King has been murdered and drama and hectic adventures ensue. The book is fast paced and will keep you interested at every turn. For me, I felt this book teetered close to an R rating - so maybe don't read this to your children. There were dark parts of this book, but it's not unbearable R (no endless swearing, excessive gore, etc).

The descriptions of the action in this novel are phenomenal. I really felt like I was transported into this story through Kevin's writing. Mixing that in with the fantastical quest Nathaniel embarks on makes this book soar to a whole new level! I really enjoyed the action and found myself finding this book fun! Throw in a few funny comments and enticing characters, and this book is all around good fiction!

When analyzing the characters, I liked how Nathaniel developed throughout his quest - the thief is sometimes portrayed as a silly or dumb character, but Kevin makes Nathaniel likable and have an actual personality. 

Additionally, the further I got into the novel, the more interested I was in the book. Since the writing style doesn't coincide perfectly with my reading style, it took me a little longer for me to attach to the story. At about page 85 I found myself gripping my device and yearning for more, unable to put it down!

My con for this book is the con I have with all fantasy book - I never know how to properly pronounce the names! All of these cool names are introduced with Kevin's characters, and I'm lost and probably pronouncing every name wrong! It doesn't ruin this book at all, but it always makes me chuckle when I look up the pronunciation of the names after I've read the book and I've created some really weird sounding names in my head. For example - Kelda. Kee-lda? Kel-da? Is the l silent? Is the d silent? Is the k silent? Such a beautiful name, but I probably pronounced it wrong the whole book!

Personally, the writing style didn't mesh well with my reading style. Just because that little fact is true, doesn't mean that this book isn't good. Honestly, it was fantastic! It was kind of nice to have a change from my normal reads to dive into this beautifully written tale. 

Overall, this book was awesome! I think it's a fun fantasy book that should be on my local bookstore's shelves! Considering this is more of an indie fantasy novel, it will really blow you out of the water! I never expect this much talent and creativity in a novel, let alone from an indie author! This book could be converted to the big screen with how beautifully it was written.

I'm giving it a 3 out of 5 based on my rating system - 3 means I like it! If you look at the Amazon rating, it'd be a 4. 

I received a free copy of this novel from the author Kevin Hammond in exchange for an honest review.