Back when Cisco was a teenager, he and his friends saved his town, and the world, from disaster by closing a Hell Mouth opened by an evil pirate and killing him. Of course, no one knew except them and that suited them just fine. They grew up, got jobs, married and had children. Now Cisco has returned to town, divorced and with a five year old son. He has noticed things are starting to appear again and there have been several suspicious deaths. It looks like the pirate wasn't really killed and is strong enough after all this time to make another attempt to destroy the world.

But not everyone is ready to save the world. Cisco's friends now have jobs and responsibilities. It's not easy to fit in world saving around child care, meetings at work and spouses who aren't on board. Even worse, for some reason his friends don't even remember saving the world but as Cisco tells them about it and things start to happen around them, they slowly start to remember and agree to help him kill the pirate once and for all.

With their help plus the help of a talking fox and other magical beings such as fairies and gnomes, Cisco goes for to face the pirate for a final showdown. He is helped by a girl he met back then who was trapped on the other side of the portal and who has the sword that the pirate has been looking for all this time. Can they defeat the pirate and once again save the world?

Dan Hanks is an English author and an archaeologist whose work is in the fantasy genre. He captures the spirit of the eighties in this novel and the longing of adults to return to their younger days with no responsibility. It takes another worldwide disaster for Cisco to realize what is most important in his life; his son and his friends. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

A surprisingly fun fantasy tale filled with nostalgia, heroes, and aching joints.
As children Cisco and his friends saved the world from an evil pirate. As they grew up they all, except for Cisco, forgot about it.. But the pirate is awakening and the world needs saving again, and the next generation can't be bothered. So Cisco must remind his friends what they had done and try to do it again. This time encumbered by adult responsibilities and adult bodies.
Enjoyable, fun read (on in this case listen, as I had the audio version)

Swashbucklers! This book was as if the kids from Stranger Things grew up and came back to not only be there for THEIR kids but to more importantly fight a ghost pirate/ other monster all while trying to save the world!

The thing that drew me into this one was 1) the interesting cover and 2) the synopsis almost promising readers to embark on this rollercoaster of a journey with our characters! Gladly, the story stayed true to that because once the ship started sailing, there was no turning back as between every page was an action packed adventure waiting for me. Although I couldn't relate to having any kids to take care of, the love, responsibility and affection shown to our characters kids didn't go unnoticed.

My favorite quote from this book was actually quite simple and made me reflect on my short 22 years of life, “The nostalgia might have held him back, but it had also kept him alive.” It was interesting reading this because it made me think of my father and all of the stories he's always telling me about his childhood and growing up. The point of life is to live and keep moving forward so without a doubt that's what I'm going to be doing after reading this.

This is a book is for a VERY specific audience as not all "fantasy" lovers would enjoy this story. The plot was slow through parts but really picked back up at the end. Since I was granted the audiobook, while listening to the narrator, I REALLY had to pay attention to the words he was saying because of his accent to me in the United States and trying to understand this magical world. It only briefly kept taking me out of the story.

In conclusion, if this book calls out to you and seems like one you would enjoy, DEFINITELY go for it! This might be your new favorite of the New Year!

3.5 stars.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went into this one, but I’m glad I took on chance anyways.

This is the realistic side of being superheroes in your mid 40s that I didn’t know I needed.

Here you seen the painful reality of fighting crime as a middle aged adult: needing to hire babysitters, the acid reflux and bubble gut aftermath of late night fast food, and HR calling you in to discuss your maxed out PTO.

Most of the story I found to be engaging, and I enjoyed the ragtag cast of characters. There were parts in the middle where the plot meandered a bit, but the pacing picks back up towards the end.

Overall, a solid read.

I was sold almost as soon as I read the blurb. I am a sucker for the "getting the gang back together" trope and the humor was promising to be everything I wanted Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids to be.

Cisco as a main character was super relatable - trying to find his place in the world and struggling between the nostalgia for his childhood and trying to raise his own son. I loved the side characters, though I wanted some more time with them because at times Cisco's inner monologue about his son felt a little whiny. I particularly loved the glimpses we got of Doc and Michelle's relationship.

The story was bizarre but in a good way. It was so action packed that I struggled putting it down because I kept wanting to learn what happened next and every time I thought I knew where the author was going he introduced a whole new element. Literally there were pirates and killer Christmas decorations and school plays and talking foxes and so much more.

As for the audiobook, I think the narrator did an excellent job. The accent and humor provided fit the tone of the story perfectly and I loved it. I also appreciated how differentiated the characters sounded.

Overall, I would recommend this to fans of Kings of the Wyld or Ready Player One as well as movies/shows like The Goonies or Stranger Things. And for anyone who likes seasonal reads, this very much takes place at Christmastime so now would be the perfect time to pick it up!

This was a pretty fun ride that mixed a lot of your favorite elements of Ready Player One, Goonies, Ghostbusters, Stranger Things, and that Adam Sandler Movie PIXELS. Humorous over-age reluctant heroes trying to unlock their childhood memories of their past antics coming together again in an epic battle of apparitions and animated lawn decorations!
This was a great popcorn read. Just 'eye candy' for the reader with references and battles and all kinds of fun stuff. all the while trying to hide it from their spouses! It was fun and i would recommend you check it out for that light 'palette-cleansing' sci-fi read.

Welcome to #CoffeeAndCurrentlyTouring with the killer team at Angry Robot Books! I have been consumed (when not overworking) with the upcoming release of Swashbucklers by Dan Hanks. If you are a fan of Ghostbusters, The Goonies and even Stranger Things I have a feeling this will be the book you’ve been waiting for. In a way it even gives me John Dies at the End vibes with the action-packed goriness that flies across the pages. Ya’ll know I love that stuff like a sugar-holic loves a bakery!

I don’t want to waste your time rehashing the plot (because honestly it says everything you need to know in the synopsis), so I’ll focus on the even more exciting aspects. The 80s nostalgia is reminiscent of Ready Player One but not overly done and not over-exaggerated. It fit the story perfectly and had me reminiscing. Ok let’s be honest… it made me realize how old I am, lol. Whatever, we ‘80s babies freaking rock!

The characters are awesome. Just freaking awesome. It’s like every paranormal fighting squad you have come to love. It’s like the Goonies, the Ghostbusters, the clown fighting IT squad… hell, throw in Scooby-Doo if you want too. I loved this gang and I adored that they were adults too. They brought banter, realistic adulting woes and more to the pages. Easy to connect to and chuckle along with. I have a close bookish friend who read this too, and I totally agree that I would’ve loved a prequel that went into their encounter with Deadman’s Grin.

Lastly, if you love audiobooks I would definitely recommend the audio as well. HighBridge Audio did a wonderful drive pairing the narrator with the characters for this novel. I loved the accent, humorous tone and variation on character persona.

I really don’t want to give too much away. This is one of the best crazy, chaotic and absurd rides I have been on. The real-life duties of parenthood, talking foxes, evil forces, killer… well… I’ll let you find out… It was the wildly fun ride that I needed in my own chaotic life. Add this to our TBR, plop this in your book cart and get ready folks. Releasing November 9th!

Thank you Angry Robot Books for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts are my own! True rating 4.5/5.

The cover to this almost put me off of reading this I will not lie, but the description had me intrigued. Upon finishing this book immediately I looked to my significant other and was like
"do you like Ghostbusters?" "Yeah"
"Did you like that Pixel movie" "lol yeah"
"And did you like Men in Black 3" "well yeah"
"Then you need to read this book.
It's about a guy who saves a town and comes back 30 years to do it again."
And you don't really see main characters that old and I was for it especially when they were talking about being out of shape and his body creaking. I felt that in my knees.

I definitely was not ready for the candy cane scene but this book was just action action action and talking foxes and I was hear for it and I hope the ending means we get another one

This is an incredibly fun fantasy story that was heavily inspired by the tropes of the horror genre. While more fantastical than scary, this novel followed all the beats of horror story in the vein of IT or Stranger Things. 

The tone of the novel was rather light and humorous. Normally I prefer darker story, but this cute narrative worked surprisingly well for me. 

Admittedly, the plot was very predictable, since the author followed the traditional horror tropes so closely. I did not mind because I was not looking for the book to reinvent the genre. Instead this was just an enjoyable nostalgic romp. The characters were quite likeable and the 1980s references were very enjoyable. 

While technically a fantasy story, I would personally recommend this one to horror readers looking for a light, entertaining read to break up their disturbing horror books. Such a fun escapist read!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Angry Robot Books.

I'm a bit confused by this book. I get the whole overarching idea, but I kept wondering if it was a sequel. It kept referring to some other epic battle from when the characters were children, and there was a lot of time spent on background based on that previous battle. It made me super interested in what happened to the characters as children, but I wasn't all that invested in the story as it unfolded when they were adults. After reading the epilogue, I get the impression that book II in the series will tell the story of the children, but it all struck me as backward. Shouldn't the children's story been first?

Then there is the overall issue of this evil pirate. I immediately understood that he was "bad," but I never could grasp what he wanted other than to be "bad." Which is super annoying - one of my pet peeves - because it isn't realistic. I wanted the pirate to have a reason for his desire to enter Earth's realm and kill lots of people. There was some discussion of runes and a special sword, but not enough for me to truly understand why the pirate needed these things so badly, and why killing lots of humans felt necessary for him to achieve that goal. It all just felt like a bunch of murder and mayhem with no cause.

I also felt like the whole genre of the book was a bit confused. There was an 80's video game vibe, but also fairy tales, talking animals, and pirates thrown in there, too. And the magic didn't quite make sense to me either. The heroes just happened to have these magical game consoles that they for some reason could use as weapons. There was mention of the brainy kid creating the game consoles when they were children, but not how or why they worked.

Overall, this book just felt like a mess to me. Like the author was trying to do too many things at once. It could have worked, maybe, but not in its current format and certainly not without first having the background of what had happened to them as children because I'm still completely confused about that.

This novel reminded me of a cross between Ghostbusters, Shaun of the Dead & Peter Pan for different reasons & feelings.

No zombies but as I read I could easily imagine Simon Pegg as Cisco.

Maybe it’s the British narrator?

Cisco returns to his childhood home 30 years after he saved his hometown from certain disaster only to have been all but forgotten. Then he saves it again … as a dad … doing daddy things.

Fun & cute & Simon Pegg should DO IT! 100% Great book!