Wraith Knight by C.T. Phipps

It's Saturday night.  It's gaming night!  We're hanging out with our friends, getting ready to begin a grand new adventure.  Jason's aunt made everybody cupcakes.  Jim brought ten bags of Cheetos.  Shawn (that's me!)  remembered to bring 4 cases of Mountain Dew in various flavors (two of Voltage). After the original jabbing and catching up, we breathlessly begin.  First, we gear up for battle and begin right away.  In our new world, we have political crap going on everywhere.  Somebody's king is a jerk so we're gonna help take him out.  In the meantime, we learn all about this world we're entering.  Afterwards, we sit around and recuperate.  Everyone takes turns talking about their character and back story.  Then, once again, we're plunged into grand adventure.

For me, this (see previous paragraph) was reading this book.  It was a safe, comforting and exciting place.  Then there was a whole lot going on that I didn't understand, but I had fun with it anyway.  Then I tried not to space out while everyone else was talking.  Then I sped through the rest and wondered why I didn't have more.  Don't worry, the sequel is currently in production.  If you're anything like me, you'll have it on pre-order.

Now, on to the real picking apart of the book.

The world and characters have been intricately carved so that there's no doubt that the author sees and knows them clearly during the writing.  It's a fun plot.  There's plenty of action and adventure.  There's also plenty of politics and religion if those are your things. 

The trouble with most fantasy books is that the first book has so much information to give out and there really isn't a good way to do that.  Just getting to know the characters and what's really going on takes close to the first half of the book.  Still, by the end of the book, I didn't really feel connected.  Once I start the second book, I know it will be different.  Everything has been laid in place so there's a lot more room for building the reader/character/world connection. 

Phipps keeps plenty of humor running throughout the book.  His dialogue holds plenty of wit and banter.  It does a brilliant job of breaking up all of the adventure, revenge, hatred, and fear that are the main components of the book. 

If you've read Phipps previous works, expect this to be different.  The writing style, voice, character and world creation, are vastly different than his other books.  Not less, different.  Those who enjoy fantasy are sure to love this book.  They'll love it even more once it officially becomes a series.