Kings Or Pawns

Kings Or Pawns is epic fantasy so there were lots of unfamiliar names to get my head around, both elves and places. I love Sherwood's descriptions of her sumptuous locations in Elvorium, especially when this contrasts with the icebound northern city of Darival. Starring roles in the predominantly male cast are well characterised with elves like new King Hairem and General Jikun being truly fleshed out creations although subject to a surprising volte-face or two as the story progesses. Only two significant characters are female and one of these is mute - I wondered if this was a comment on traditional roles for women in the fantasy genre!

Our story takes in murderous political shenanigans, huge battles, supernatural abilities and wielding of the dark arts. I almost thought there was to much crammed in for just one book! The fast pace meant my interest never waned even though I would have liked to spend more time in some situations. We occasionally jumped several weeks in time without me realising which got a tad confusing. However, Sherwood has a fabulous imagination and I was thrilled by scenes such as the Thakish hunt which is wonderfully vivid. It's difficult for me to say much more about Kings Or Pawns without giving away any of the plotline and I definitely wouldn't want to do that. Suffice to say that it has a satisfy story arc and yet still manages to leave threads open for its sequel