Review: Noble Roots (Spells, Swords, & Stealth, Book 5) by Drew Hayes

The book:

Noble Roots (Spells, Swords, & Stealth, book 5) by Drew Hayes

Find it at:

• Amazon
• Goodreads

The summary:

Look, let’s just get this out of the way, I like Drew’s books, ok. I really like the Spells, Swords, and Stealth series. So it should not surprise any of you that the newest installment in that series was preordered the second I saw it was available to be preordered and I most likely will do the same with the audiobook version as well. What I’m saying is, if you’re looking for an unbiased review, you’re in the wrong place. Also, please note, I’m fresh off finishing this book, so right now, my brain is still all at the ending, and by extension at Drew, so bear with me while I attempt to corral my thoughts into something that makes sense.

The review:

We start off with a mysterious mage having a mysterious dream and then we’re back in “our world,” where the gaming group of Russel, Cheri, Burt, Alexis, and Tim get an invite from Broken Bridge to an event celebrating Gorrian’s Eve, and our, well ok, I don’t care about how you feel about them, one of my favorite group of NPCs, Gabrielle, Eric, Thistle, Grumph, and Timuscor get some very special Gorrian’s Eve plans of their own, after they work through various preliminary tasks.

That’s about all the high-level review I’m gonna give you, because well, others will do a better job and I hate to be redundant. So let’s talk about what is most important to me, which is what I thought about this book. Given angry skeletor up there, you might have reason to think I was not a fan, but boy would you be wrong.

This installment gave more depth to our NPCs (especially Gabrielle and Eric, but with a dash of Thistle) and to Russel and Cheri in the “our world” gaming group, in the form family stuff. You’ll get to ponder some very interesting crossovers between the gaming group and our NPCs (yes, they’re ours now, sorry Drew^*). You’ll get fighting, stealth, and magics galore. You’ll get to see more of Kalzidar, Madroria, and a godly temper tantrum. You’ll get to meet a new god in the SS&S pantheon, who feels a wee bit like a certain other god in another series. You’ll get teamwork and a chaotic ultra battle. You’ll get an old deed that is still impacting the current SS&S world. You’ll get handed at least 3 different puzzles/potential plot lines for book 6.

All of these things, to me, are what I came to see. Read? Whatever.

You’ll get to the last paragraph and maybe also feel Angry Skeletor-y. Then you might go to Drew’s page and try to get it to tell you when Spells, Swords, & Stealth book 6 will be out. If the previous is true, I think you might be my new friend, because that’s exactly what I did.

You may miss the gentle, but occasionally snarky humor of one god. You may wish the gaming group got a little more of the limelight. You may wish the gaming group had gotten a little more … social? face time with groups who had similar situations? something along those lines. You may wish some other characters also got a deeper backstory. Don’t fret, I do too.

Hopefully, regardless of the things you may wish there had been more of, you’ll feel that this was a really great addition to the SS&S series, and be tapping your toes like me, waiting to throw your money at Drew for SS&S 6.

Let me know what you think. About the book, about the review, or you know, whatever.

^*not even really a bit sorry, Drew. you knew that was going to happen, right?