The Sword And The Dragon

One of the more reviewed indie authors on this list with nearly half a thousand amazon reviews for this book alone and a horde of reviews from major fantasy blogs.Mathias is arguably, one of the bigger self-published authors on Amazon with over a dozen fantasy books and all of them highly rated, at least on Amazon. Now, I don't put a lot of stock on Amazon reviews â I find them prone to fraud (many authors buy fake reviews). But in this case, I agree with many of the reviews: The Sword and the Dragon is, overall, a good work of fantasy fiction, delivering on most fronts. The author has some real talent, and I'd argue, good enough to land a publishing contract with one of the Big Six publishers. The fact that Mathias has not yet gone the way of the traditional or hybrid publishing route says that there's probably nothing a traditional publisher can do for him that self-publishing can't do better for him at this point (besides putting his books on the crowded fantasy section of some book stores).The series starts of with the first book, The Sword and the Dragon. The plot seems simple at first â the same old âvillage boy finds magic item' plot that we've seen in a thousand spins of The Wheel of Time by now.But.As things turn out, the simple plot, premise, and characters are far deeper and more complex then you first imagine.It's an entertaining epic fantasy read â one that falls in line with the more traditional epic fantasy you are used to. This is not gritty fantasy that tries to subvert. However, the author takes the traditional tropes and uses them in refreshing and well-developed ways.It's a long book and parts do drag at times, but the overall plot, fast pacing, and strong writing keep pulling you forward.One of the better examples of GOOD traditional epic fantasy in the indie space and for the most part, equal to a lot of the published epic fantasy you might read on a whim.