Follow Me

Book Review: The Crew

Table of Contents

Kings of the Wyld meets Deadpool in this action-packed fantasy adventure set in an Arab-inspired landscape.

Varcade fled to the deserts of Harrah to escape his past as an Educator, a member of an order of zealot warrior-monks that aims to shape the world according to their sacred Teachings by force. Varcade makes his living as a reckless sword-for-hire, caring only about himself, until his self-centered lifestyle is turned on its head when he is contracted to recruit a misfit team of unruly assassins and take out the mighty Bone Lord of Akrab.

But the Bone Lord is aware of the plot and sends her band of Dusters to stop them; individuals who have gained bizarre and lethal magical powers by snorting the pulverised bones of dead gods. Hunted by Educators and Dusters in a city-state where an escalating conflict between the human and demon population threatens to boil over in a civil war, will Varcade and his ragtag crew save Akrab from the cruel Bone Lord, or will they make things even worse?”

Title: The Crew

Series: The God Dust Saga #1

Author: Sadir S. Samir

Page Count: 388

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Date Read: May 27th, 2023



The world building was another strong aspect to Kings of Paradise. We are introduced to several difference regions and cultures throughout this story. Richard Nell has done a great job in giving us plenty of details so far but allowing for quite the world to be expanded as we move forward.The Crew was the first book from SPFBO-9 added to my personal TBR for this season’s competition. This along with a dozen or so others was already on my radar from other friends of the community reading it.
 
This one sucked me in from the open action sequence and really never took it’s foot off the gas. I’ll admit that this book by Sadir S. Samir might not be for everyone. I’ll touch on that as the review progresses. I will say this one is a very over the top action adventure in a fantasy realm!
 
The pacing was very fast throughout The Crew. I honestly didn’t feel we had many ebbs in this one. It was more high pace or baseline. Not really dipping below that baseline at all. This was a very fun and easy to read boom for me.
 
The world building is where things begin to become very fantastical and over the top. It’s a very interesting world with many races, regions, cultures and a couple different religions. We have magic, martial arts, this worlds form of drug use and God’s to learn about.
 
The character development was just as over the top as the rest of this book. We certainly see growth from many if not all of our characters by the end though. I don’t want anyone to think this is just a wild and crazy story without some fantastic and unique characters to get to know.
 
Overall this was a very exciting and entertaining read to say the least. I couldn’t help but get those over the top vibes from one of my favorite over the top type of movies back in the day. That is none other than Big Trouble Little China. Sure it wasn’t a block buster nor did it win any prestigious awards. But damn was it a lot of fun to enjoy back then! I felt the same way with The Crew and hope to see more of this group in the future from Sadir!
 
I think from what all is mentioned above it should be fairly easy to understand why I might not recommend this for the type of reader looking for a more serious and epic fantasy story. But if you want some wild and crazy adventure in a fantasy setting with unique characters and a solid plot along the way, I’m sure you can have some fun with this one too.

World Building 4.5/5
Pacing 4/5
Character Development 4.5/5

Picture of Chad Barnard

Chad Barnard

Owner/Operator of The Hiking Reader Blog. Sharing thoughts on books and hiking trails and trying to find ways to continue to incorporate both hobbies together.

Recent Posts

Books

Monthly Recap – April 2024

How did the anticipated reading go for the last month?

Read More ยป
Books

Book Review: imPerfect Curse

๐™๐™๐™š ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™ค๐™—๐™ก๐™š๐™ข ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™–๐™ฃ๐™˜๐™ž๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™ค๐™ข๐™ž๐™จ๐™š๐™จ? ๐™๐™๐™š๐™ง๐™š’๐™จ ๐™–๐™ก๐™ฌ๐™–๐™ฎ๐™จ ๐™– ๐™ฅ๐™ง๐™ž๐™˜๐™š ๐™ฉ๐™ค ๐™ฅ๐™–๐™ฎ. Iโ€™m exhausted. Done in. Needing a stiff drink and about a weekโ€™s sleep. But

Read More ยป
Books

Book Review: Dark Theory

A robot yearns to remember. A thief struggles to forget. A galaxy on the verge of collapse. On the fringe of a broken civilization, a

Read More ยป

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Our site uses cookies. By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.