Book review - Reiksguard

I finished reading 'Reiksguard' last night. This is the first book in the new Empire Army novel series and was written by Richard Williams.

The book follows the initiation of a group of young nobles, the first born of wealthy families, into the famed Reiksguard, through their training, and then to their first campaign.

The book is centered primarily on the young knight Delmar Reinhardt, son of a knight slain on campaign 20 years earlier. However, the book is broken into chapters which focus on a particular individual - either Reinhardt, the famous Kurt Helborg, or one of the other novices - most particularly, Siebrecht Matz. Matz is the other central character. The story weaves around Matz' and Reinhardts early interaction and personal stories, with a central theme, described from their view points.

Both novices are part of one faction within the training cadre, built around novices from the Reikland province (Reinhardt), and those from the other provinces (Matz). Reinhardt has always wanted to be a knight, and is searching for the answers behind his fathers death, whereas Matz does not truly want to be a knight, and feels he has been manipulated by his family into his current predicament.

The early part of the book is quite enjoyable, following the two novices and their cliques through training, introducing a myriad of other characters, and setting the scene for the second half which sees the novices progress to full knighthood and their first campaign - to lend aid to the Dwarfs fighting against a Goblin and Ogre compact.

The book is generally well written. I didn't find it tedious or boring, and it moved along at a fair clip. I wouldn't rank it up there with the Time of Legend series, but it is looking like a promising addition to the Fantasy background.

Overall, I would give it a 4 out of 5.

Cheers,

Pom