Review: Hoard by Django Wexler

Blurb:

Eva and her party thought their job was simple: deal with the dragon. But when they find a vast cache of treasure, getting it back to civilization becomes an adventure in itself, with gold-sniffing monsters, courteous bandits, and worst of all: bankers.

Review:

I first discovered Hoard on Reddit, when Django Wexler posted about it in r/Fantasy. I immediately fell in love with the cover, and signed up to his newsletter so I could jump into the story. About a month later, when r/Fantasy’s Fantasy bingo card was put out, it had a square that said “Judge a book by its cover”. I knew exactly what I was going to read for that square. 

I went into this book blind, the only context for me being what was on the cover. And it says “Slaying the dragon was only the start of their problems”. Judging by that line alone, I expected a funny, light-hearted satire about the cumbersome logistics it would entail to transport a hoard of gold or the bureaucratic nightmare of having to get that wealth attested. 

The book is somewhat that, but not entirely. I hadn’t read any of Wexler’s works before, so I didn’t have any idea about his writing style or the kind of stories he told. However, with Hoard, I was intrigued enough to explore his bibliography. 

Hoard follows a rag-tag bunch of heroes as they are tasked with transporting a massive hoard of gold they procured after slaying a dragon. The character work in this book was definitely what stood out to me. We follow the entirety of the book through Eva’s POV. She’s a knight of a religious order, and somewhat of a leader to the group. She’s a typical fantasy protagonist, with a heart of gold (pun intended) and a moral compass that refuses to budge. 

And then there’s the rest of the crew. Another typical group of fantasy heroes—magician, dwarf, thief, orc…  sounds like a DnD campaign, no? I haven’t had the fortune of playing DnD myself, but I’ve seen quite a few videos online to be able to judge. 

Hoard did not progress the way I expected it to. There was a lot more action than I had expected, or liked. SPOILER: The plot quickly went from “how do we transport this” to “how do we stop the bandits from stealing this” to “Damn, we gotta get our gold back from the bandits and the bankers”. 

Speaking of bankers, the antagonist didn’t work for me at all. He was a typical corrupt banker-type, except I wasn’t able to hate him or care about him. With a plot like this, the banker’s role could’ve been utilised in a very different way, which could’ve led to some real golden (yes, pun intended) moments. But, he was just a villain, nothing more. 

Also, the action sequences. I think there were at least two action sequences that I skimmed through because they sorta broke my flow. I really enjoyed the interactions between the characters, and the action sequences really hampered my reading experience. I wanted to spend more time with the characters and their individual quirks. This one is subjective, so it’s very much possible you will love the action way more than I did. 

Hoard is the perfect fun weekend read. It has some real gold (yes, I said it) within its pages. However, there are some aspects of the narrative which may hamper your experience. 

TL;DR:

WHAT I LIKED: the main characters and their interactions, quick and fun light-hearted read

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: didn’t particularly like the action sequences, wasn’t a fan of the antagonist