Bane of Kings writes a short review of Vegas Knights, published by Angry Robot and written by Matt Forbeck.

“Vegas, Magic, Zombies, what more could you want? A Hollywood Blockbuster waiting to happen.” ~The Founding Fields

Note: This is an advanced review for Angry Robot, and this book is not available for purchase until March 2011.

 Now then, time I took a break from different universes, and read another modern-day fantasy novel. This time, it’s my first Angry Robot book ever, and by author Matt Forbeck, responsible for the novel Amortals.

To start with, if you’re a fan of novels where our world is combined with a magical one, you’ll like this. So that means that The Power of Five, Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter fans should love this, even if it isn’t children who are the heroes. Well, they’re college students in this case.

 This leads me onto the main plot of the novel. It’s basically summed up on the front cover for you, as two college students attempt, and I mean attempt, to scam a Vegas casino, using magic. However, when things go horribly wrong, they’re stuck in a very bad situation.

Now, if you’re a fan of Casino Games, then obviously this book is for you. Poker and Blackjack, they’re all seen in this novel.

Vegas Knights does have moments though where it’s fast-paced, particularly at the beginning, however, there’s a large chunk in the middle of the novel where it goes at a relatively slow pace.

You’ll find that you can get through this book pretty quickly, mainly because you simply won’t be able to put it down, there are a lot of fantastic scenes in this, and did I mention that there’s also zombies?

Also, what makes it a change from most of the Black Library books that I’ve been reading recently is that the novel’s in first person, and there are some humorous parts in here as well.

The plot of this novel is well constructed, and written in a way that you don’t know what’s coming next, and I for one, was surprised when the zombies made an appearance.

And on that bombshell, I leave you with this:

Rating: 4.5/5