It was a quick read (an hour-and-a-half) and the story kept me reading. It was a typical sword and sorcery piece with some bloody action, some monsters, and a magical MacGuffin. However, it was very light on atmosphere and lacked the juicy bits of purple prose at the height of a scene or at its lowest point that good pulp S&S has. Some of the dialogue between characters is very overtly expositional and kind of reminded me of those old early 1980s Italian sword & sorcery flicks.
This is a reimagining as it were of [b:The Eye of Argon|2129518|The Eye of Argon|Jim Theis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347758875l/2129518._SY75_.jpg|2134961] retaining its main plot points and trying to cobble that fragmentary plot into something decent. This work does do that with a smattering of simple character development and a coherent plot built onto the original's bones. At a few points, it seemed that the author tried to insert some jokes near the beginning via corny dialogue but they did not fit taking me out of the story.
The narrative, for the most part, did keep me reading all the way through in a single sitting, so it's not bad, not particularly good but I'm not mad I read it. The author's preface to the work is just as if not a little more interesting than the main story. Basically, a repeat of the original's origin as opposed to the actual text. As a piece of sword and sorcery fiction, it's okay. If you've been dry for a while this will wet your lips a bit. However, it feels like sword and sorcery lite, like an old eighties Italian barbarian exploitation flick without the nudity, a decent main monster, and better characters. I could recommend this to those who fit the previously mentioned criteria; those who don't mind those old exploitation flicks and that have not read a bit of sword and sorcery in a while. I mean it lacks the awful hilarity of The Eye of Argon but it's also not [b:Brak the Barbarian|509045|Brak the Barbarian (Brak the Barbarian, #1)|John Jakes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1175371607l/509045._SY75_.jpg|3058663] bad. ( )