Blurb: (From Book 1) Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best -- the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.
Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk - or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay's door with a plea for help. His daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.
It's time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld.
Review: The first novel is without a doubt the book of the year from its respective year. It's also substantially better than the second installment. That isn't to say that the second is bad, far from it, but it doesn't have the insane magic of the first. So that insane magic makes these books. The author does a fabulous job of capturing what a truly magical wild can be like, and how heroes can affect that wild. It also is one of the few fantasies that has an older cast yet hasn't had to sacrifice energy or pace.
The main characters were great. They were well written, you felt attached to them and their motivations, and the overwhelming amount of back-story that exists yet wasn't mentioned was handled amazingly well. I fucking loved Clay as well. The books in this series are linked, and it would be better to read them in order, but they're nearly entirely self-contained and I think reading any of them is a great choice. I cannot recommend them enough if you're looking for a proper action fantasy, with beautiful writing and an actual feeling of adventure.