djinn24 reviews a newly released gritty and sassy dungeon crawl by New York Times best selling author Paul S. Kemp, released by Angry Robot Books.

A gritty dungeon crawler that will keep you on your toes with plenty of smartassery to make you laugh out loud. ~The Founding Fields

New York Times best selling author, Paul S. Kemp, brings us the tale about a pair of adventures, Nix and Egil in the story The Hammer and the Blade. A very well written fantasy dungeon crawler about Nix, a mage school drop out rogue, and Egil the High Priest of the momentary god who loves to deal divine retribution with his paired hammers. The book opens with Egil and Nix doing what they do best, robbing a tomb. After avoiding some nasty traps and a murderous demon, they decide to go legit which seems like a great idea, what can go wrong by running your own business right? Everything seems to be going fine until they show up for their first day at work at their new business, and discover that the murderous demon had some very powerful friends then everything hits the fan, or it would if they had them. This is a page turner, filled with demons, tombs, traps, wizards and tons of sassy remarks and should easily be enjoyed by anyone who is an avid reader or loves fantasy.

I have had this books since before it was released and started reading it months ago. I regret not finishing it sooner! This is a very refreshing page turner about two best friends who argue like the guys from the Odd Couple and kick ass like the A Team. I have a personal connection with these characters as I work with my best friend so I see both of us in these characters too. The character development is well done but could be expanded upon which leads me to hope that there is more books coming about this pair of unlikely heroes. There really are no slow moments in this book, the pace is maintained throughout the entire book, making this a possible one sitting read if you have the time The overall plot has been done before but Paul adds life to these two which makes it very refreshing, with several nice twists to keep you guessing. I was happy that my assumption on how it was going to end was wrong. This is Paul’s first Angry Robot book and I am looking forward to seeing more from him on this imprint.

If you are a fan of fantasy and want a refreshing read, or just a well written book, then this is the book to get. My overall score for this is an 8/10 and I am looking forward seeing more about these two, as there is tons of room to expand on this storyline.

This is a multiple reviewed book here at The Founding Fields, you can find the other two here:

https://thefoundingfields.com/2012/05/the-hammer-and-the-blade-shadowhawk/

https://thefoundingfields.com/2012/06/hammer-blade-paul-s-kemp-advance-review-bane-kings/

 

THE HAMMER AND THE BLADE (A Tale of Egil and Nix)
Paul S. Kemp
Fantasy
Cover by Richard Jones of Artist Partners

UK/RoW
5 Jul 2012
432pp B-format paperback
£7.99 UK
ISBN

US/CAN
26 Jun 2012
432pp mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN
ISBN

eBook
26 Jun 2012
£5.49
ePub ISBN