The Shield of Daqan by David Guymer

I'm rarely this official with any book reviews I cobble together, but for the sake of transparency, I'll let you know that Aconyte Books sent me a review copy of The Shield of Daqan by David Guymer for an unbiased review, and so thanks to them and David.

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I feel like I've read a fair number of David Guymer books at this point. As a pretty avid Black Library reader I think that's to be expected, it was bound to happen, he's got a few of them by now. And I bring this up in the discussion of a non-Black Library story to first get across the notion that I believe that we have an understanding, he and I. An unspoken one, sure, and a heretofore unacknowledged and one-sided one, but an understanding nonetheless - he writes books that I like and I, in turn, read those books. Simple in both it's conception and execution, it's an understanding that has served…at least me, personally on this side…well. So at the very least now you know that this book had that going for it coming into this.

The thought crossed my mind at some point, and maybe it crossed yours too, that perhaps my affection for the writings of Mr. Guymer historically stem from my enthusiasm for the settings in which he writes, and that plucking him from the worlds of Warhammer and plopping him in what ends up being a similar but decidedly lighter setting wouldn't quite translate to the same degree. Now I've dabbled in Terrinoth (the setting in which The Shield of Daqan takes place) previously, played a few rounds of Descent, skimmed the Realms of Terrinoth RPG book on my shelf, but by no means have I been as steeped in this setting as I'm normally used to when I pick up one of Guymer's stories. I wondered if that would hold this book back, if it would remove some necessary part of enjoying it.

Hey, you guys, I don't think it did! Turns out Guymer writes pretty darn good wherever his books take place. That's a relief, right? I was worried.

The Shield of Daqan is yet another great example of a Guymer story, which means that it's fun, that's it's exciting, that it has characters with personality (more on that in a moment), that it moves rapidly - taking you to interesting places to see interesting things. This story that he's written here actually almost mirrors the setting of Terrinoth and Descent, in a sense, in that they both take something familiar and shine just enough of a new perspective on it to make it interesting again. Terrinoth is itself just enough of a variation on classical medieval kingdoms to be both familiar yet refreshing, and so too Guymer gives just enough of his own take on a classic "knights defending a realm" story to keep you both comfortable yet on the edge of your seat. Familiar yet foreign at the same time.

Speaking of refreshing, and maybe this says something more about me than it does anything else, but I can't remember the last time I read a book with such legitimately heroic heroes. It's something I didn't know I was missing, but I was thrilled, and at times relieved, honestly, whenever I got to follow along with characters who were just trying to do some good in the world. The "good" side of this "good vs. evil" story just brightened the experience, and I'm sure they way it struck me had nothing to do with the real-life state of the world while I was reading it. Anyways.

As I'm mulling this one over, I think I'm a point where I can say that this was one of my favorite David Guymer books (that doesn't feature a character who eats bears), and I wouldn't have expected that. But at the end of the day it was very well-written, very enjoyable book, and if he finds himself writing more stories in Terrinoth, I believe our "understanding" will remain in place.