The King's Tournament

I was given an ecopy of The King's Tournament by John Yeo Jr. for review.

This book pretty much has it all for fantasy readers; goblins, centaurs, humans, sentient trees, trolls, sorcery, swords, Japanese martial arts weapons, sex, violence, love, honor and intrigue. And even more than that. A very well realized story, I really enjoyed it.

The only real negative was the incidents of repeating word for word short passages. At first I thought it just an editing glitch, but as it happened more frequently, it appeared to be a literary device. Didn't work that well for me. I did tend to skip over these passages when I encountered them.

The story itself was great. A reader could look at the tournament as a type of quest with kind of a Survivor vibe. The tournament takes place on an island and they even mentioned voting people off. We have all the scheming and alliances you would expect.

The action is graphic, the sex less so. Lots of twists and turns, surprises and sorrows. I actually had a hard time putting this book down (pesky things like dinner and such getting in the way). Well defined characters, some sympathetic, some not so much.

All in all, The King's Tournament by John Yeo Jr. definitely qualifies as a Goodread. I recommend it. Enjoy!

Mike