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  • B07GVM1KZX
  • pages
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Dave Woolliscroft
Author
Tales of Kingshold: (Wildfire Cycle Book 1.5)

I am Mareth and I collect tales - tales that do not make the official histories. Join me and learn the secret stories of those who sparked the wildfire. Stories from our past, from that fateful summer and its aftermath.

If you loved Kingshold, discover the next installment in the epic Wildfire Cycle. Tales of Kingshold, Book 1.5 of the Wildfire Cycle, includes four novelettes and six short stories.

NOVELETTES:

Of Buccaneers and Bards (previously published separately) Vin Kolsen’s chickens have come home to roost. A bar fight turned serious has landed him in the gaol of a two-bit fishing village awaiting the magistrate and his noose. When a stranger becomes his cellmate it signals the beginning of a wild ride from galley slave to pirate captain. This is the untold story of how an optimistic pirate took the first step to becoming King of the North Sea Corsairs, with a bard named Mareth at his side.

All That Shimmers Deep beneath the surface of the earth live unspeakable horrors, safely trapped away. But when an inquisitive dwarf releases a specter, who will stop it from wreaking havoc in Unedar Halt?

Hollow Inside The Hollow Syndicate, the most feared guild of assassins on the Jeweled Continent. And the most exclusive school in all Kingshold When a dead syndicate member is deposited on the doorstep in a handcart, a position among the graduating class opens up. Finabria is still a year away from completing her studies. Will she really compete in the upcoming trials?

Circles Neenahwi promised her brother she would undergo the Quana, the coming-of-age ceremony for her tribe. Four days in the wilderness with a hunger she hasn't felt in years. The visions may provide some answers about her purpose in life, but she's not going to like what she hears.

SHORT STORIES:

Twin Lies Florian— soldier, mercenary and future friend of Motega— is a man with a past. As he and a new recruit watch the smoke rise above the liberated city of Redpool, Florian recounts how he joined the army and acquired some surprising nicknames. It’s a story about being there for your family when it counts, but not living up to your own high standards.

Narrowing It Down Two men, long ago friends and now enemies. Two sisters, desperate to bring change to Kingshold and to prove themselves to each other. Can the sisters solve the riddle of what happened to the old friends and resolve past grievances to get their plan back on track?

The Working Dead Motega hates the undead. When one crypt-diving job ends, another comes along: banish the shadow of a necromancer from the town of Stableford. And though Motega hates the undead, the money is too good to turn down.

From Father to Daughter The unredacted letter Jyuth gave to Neenahwi on the night before his departure

Jyuth on Magic Jyuth, the greatest wizard that Edland has ever known. For the first time, excerpts from his hand-written journals shed light on the secrets of magic.

From the Desk of Lord Marchial Eden The last thing seen of the former Lord Eden was the trail of dust as he fled Kingshold. Discover what befell him afterwards through his own correspondence.

Reviews
Booknest.EU

5/5

Tales of Kingshold is book 1.5 of the wildfire Cycle series, containing short stories, novelettes, letters and some notes on magic from the infamous wizard, Jyuth. This is my first time reading a collection of short stories so I wasn't really sure what to expect or how I would feel about it. So here's my thoughts on the book.

Tales of Kingshold is a fantastic follow up to the first book in the series, Kingshold. The short stories consist of events before and during the election of Kingshold. There's also a short story featuring Mortega and Neenawhi, that takes place after the election.

In my review for kingshold, I wrote about Mareth being my favourite character, so there's no surprise when I say "Of Bards and Buccaneers" was my favourite short story. I thought D. P Woolliscroft picked the perfect back story for Mareth. Who would have thought, the drunken bard turned Lord protector, was previously a pirate?!

Another part that I thoroughly enjoyed was the notes on magic from Jyuth. Rather than it being like a manual on magic, it's more Jyuths research and experience with magic over the 1000 years that he's lived. He talks about his tutor and how he went on an independent journey to research as much about magic as possible, which I thought was really cool. The book also contains the letter Jyuth left for his daughter, Neenawhi, at the end of the first book. I truly hope he makes a return from retirement further into the series.

We not only get to see stories from the old characters but we also get to meet some new characters. My favourite being Kyle the Chiseller from "All That Shimmers". Kyle is a Dwarf from Unedar Halt. Working with his purple worm, Vidin, he makes a ground-breaking discovery that could prove crucial to the deep people of Unedar Halt. Neenawhi, also plays a huge part in this story so there's guaranteed to be some badass fighting.

The last short story, "Circles", blew my mind! I did not anticipate that at all. I'm not giving you any details, just trust me when I say, it's some of the best writing I've ever read. I take it back, this was my favourite short story!

If you're contemplating reading Tales of Kingshold, don't hesitate, just dive into it. It's a fantastic book that will keep you entertained until we wait for book 2.

Foreverlostinliterature

Tales of Kingshold is a collection of short stories that take place in The Wildfire Cycle, continuing on from the first book, Kingshold, which was published earlier this year. Tales of Kingshold is a fantastic addition to the world established in the first book, and I had such a great time revisiting both the world and some of the characters, as well as meeting new characters.
 

Woolliscroft explains in the beginning of this book his idea of adding these short fiction collections in between his longer novels as a way to provide additional information to the storyline in shorter bursts. I really like this format idea, and I personally found it to be a quick, easy, and enjoyable way to obtain new information about characters we’ve already met, new characters that will show up in the next book, and additional world information and fill-in. Since Kingshold was an abundantly political novel (and I assume future ones will be as well), I think this is a clever method to avoid excessive info-dumping and time that could take away from the main content of the actual novel itself.
 

I’m not generally an enormous fan of short stories because I tend to dislike spending such a short amount of time with different characters and storylines, but because I already had an established world and story from Kingshold, I found this to be a truly wonderful collection. There were plenty of tidbits of information, good humor and characters, and most importantly--adventure.
 

The stories themselves vary in focus and length, though they tend to center on a specific character to give the reader a bit more information or background on them while also adding more to the world itself. There are about twelve individual short stories, and although I found them all interesting, I decided to pick a couple to briefly comment on. (Note: I don’t plan to go into any sort of detail for these brief comments, but do note that I will be mentioning characters from the first book, so if you haven’t read Kingshold and don’t want to see anything potentially spoiler-related, you might want to avoid this section.)
 

“From Father to Daughter”: This story lets the reader into an unseen moment in which Neenawhi reads a letter from Jyuth, her father, about his subsequent departure. I thought this was a rather touching fill-in that showcased some of the relationship between Neenawhi and her father. It also provided some extra information about Jyuth that I found particularly interesting, and I liked being able to Neenawhi’s reactions to some of it.
 

“Twin Lies”: This was a slightly longer story, but also an entertaining and rather humorous one as well. It provided some additional background to Florian’s character that allowed me to get to know him better and also to better understand some of his motivations in the first book and (I assume) future books. It was also nice to meet and hear from some of the other characters involved in this story.
 

“All that Shimmers”: Another longer one that I don’t want to really give too much away about, but it felt like a rather important one as well that contained some useful insights. It was a bit slow to start for me, but once it picked up I was engaged the entire time and was excited to see where the story would go.
 

“Of Buccaneers and Bards”: This was probably one of my favorites and centered on Vin Kolsenn, stuck in the gaol after an unfortunate bar fight. He is eventually given a cellmate--one that readers will immediately recognize--and from there the story really takes off, throwing both characters on an adventurous, pirate-filled journey. I loved getting some background information for these characters.
 

“Jyuth on Magic”: The last one I’d like to mention was a series of excerpts from Jyuth’s own writings on the magic systems at play in this world. These were small snippets stuck in between the stories of this collection that I found truly fascinating and indispensable. I love learning more about the thoughts and workings of magic in different stories, so this added so much more information than I could have hoped for.
 

If you enjoyed Kingshold and plan to continue reading the series, then I strongly recommend you pick this collection up. Not only does it feel entirely necessary to have this information, it's also highly entertaining and carries on that imaginative, wild, and political ride that Kingshold brought.

 

Overall, I've given Tales of Kingshold four stars!

Rockstarlit Book Asylum

Review

Tales of Kingshold is a collection of novelettes, short stories, letters and notes about events that happened before, after and during the election in Kingshold. We meet old and new characters, some of them likely to appear in later books. In my review I will focus on the novelettes and short stories, but let me note that I found Jyuth’s thoughts on magic pretty interesting and it was a good addition, explaining how the magic in this world works.

Twin Lies

This short story tells the tale of how Florian ended up in the army, and in an elite team at that. A bittersweet thing about family, love and fate’s fickleness. We didn’t learn much about Florian in Kingshold, so it was nice to spend some time with him not surrounded by his friends, Motega and Trypp. It also added some depth to his personality and that’s always a bonus.

All That Shimmers

I think this one was my favorite in this collection. Through Kyle’s eyes, we get a glimpse into the life of Unedar Halt. The dwarf city under Kingshold. Kyle is working as a chiseler – someone who is responsible for carving new tunnels and chambers, decorating them – with the help of giant purple worm. One day they find a new cavern with a monster dwelling in it. A creature no one knows much about and there are only a few mentions of it in the archive. Kyle decides to get down to the end of the matter and finds a surprising alley to pull it off. Kyle is not exactly a hero type, but he is stubborn, determined and once he gets something in his head, he sees it through.

Of Buccaneers and Bards

I was actually surprised to find a pirate story in this lot. But that just proves how colorful this world is. Vin Kolsen is a pirate finding himself in trouble, waiting for his trial when first he gets a cellmate then another pirate ship arrives to the village to take everything they can get. Prisoners included whom they use as slaves on the ship. While Kolsen keeps his cool and knows his way around pirates and situations like these, Mareth is not one for physical work. Or piracy for that matter. But for him to get out of this mess and Kolsen to realise his dreams of becoming a pirate captain, they have to work together. There are some cool twists in the story and we can see Mareth in work too, using his extraordinary skills as a bard.

Narrowing It Down

It was an interesting little story about Petra and Alana trying to figure out why the two leaders of the Narrow were so angry with each other. To have a chance at the elections, the girls have to find a way to make peace between the two in order for them to work together. They set out to learn the two sides of the same story, visiting close family members, friends and finally those who actually know what happened.

The Working Dead

Okay, so, if I didn’t expect pirates, then I definitely didn’t see the zombies coming. Personally I’m not into zombies, I totally could do without them, but I didn’t mind them this time around. The three friends, Motega, Florian and Trypp are hired to find out what’s going on in Stableford, where the dead don’t seem to rest in peace. The necromancer who once tried to occupy the town came back? Or someone else is behind these strange events? And will they be able to deal with him?

Hollow Inside

If I had to choose a top 3, Hollow Inside would be totally one of them. Through Fin’s eyes we can look behind the scenes of how the feared Hollow Syndicate works. Specifically, how they choose their members. This story is a kind of Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games, where students train every day so when the right time comes they could fight their way into the higher circles of the Syndicate. Fin, being the only under trained for the challenge has something the others didn’t: knowledge and the ability to read people. Will this be enough?

Circles

After the election, Neenahwi finally agrees to undergo the Quana to receive her purpose in life and to keep the traditions of her tribe alive. First she has to make her body and mind ready to receive the visions awaiting for her. She not only learns uncomfortable truths about her life but she also gets some answers as to what happened to the elves. How did they become an extinct race and why only Llewdon survived. The current emperor of Pyrfew, and former tormentor of Motega and Neenahwi. The things she sees, I’m sure they’ll play some part in the coming events.

Tales of Kingshold is a fun read for those who read Kingshold and want to learn more about the characters and the world. And need something to kill the time with while waiting for book #2 in the series. Woolliscroft managed to put together a wide selection of genres, topics, characters ensuring everyone will find something endearing to them. Be it heartwarming tale, pirates, zombies, magical creatures, diverse cultures, plenty of fights, Tales of Kingshold has them all.

Formats
Kindle Edition eBooks Details
  • B07GVM1KZX
  • pages
  • $
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