The Feywild Job by C.L. Polk is the first official D&D novel set in the realm of faerie. I’m a touch surprised one didn’t come out closer in time to the 2021 release of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Giving the Feywild attention is long overdue.

As the title suggests, it’s a heist story, but twistier than the typical heist adventure because when dealing with the fey, nothing is as it seems.

The book opens with Saeldian as a child and explains how and why they made a pact with a Fey Lord. Not surprisingly, it seemed like an easy vow, maybe even a beneficial one, when Saeldian was a child. As an adult? Saeldian tells themselves it’s necessary or even a matter of safety, but over the course of the novel, it becomes a burden and obstacle.

As an adult, Saeldian the warlock has become a grifter, pulling cons with Jubilee, and the story proper begins with one such con job. But just as Saedldian and Jubilee have their goal in reach, a woman rushes in and breaks up scheme. Away from the prior mark, Briona promises that she has a better, far more lucrative job for them.

The plan seems easy—don’t they always—retrieve a stolen item, a spell gem called “The Kiss of Enduring Love” and return it to its original owner in the Feywild without them realizing it. Briona says she has no expectations that they’ll need to kill anyone or do anything that would disturb their consciences. The promise of the very hefty payment leads Saeldian and Jubilee to agree.

But—there’s always a “but” in heist stories—the toast making an agreement triggers a geas (magical vow) so neither one can back out. That quickly becomes important when Saeldian discovers that they are expected to work with two other people. One is Lorzak, a very chill orc druid. The other is Kell Redsong, an elven bard and Saeldian’s former partner. To say that things ended badly when they were last together 10 years ago in Baldur’s Gate is an understatement.

Not wanting to deal with the ex that broke his heart, Kell wants to leave, but he owes the Zhentarim his life. Briona makes it plain that it’s time to pay up, and this job is the method. Dealing with his ex can’t be avoided no matter how much Kell fumes about it.

On top of that, the stone must be stolen during a ball happening tomorrow, giving them little time to plan. The current owner of the spell gem has no idea it was stolen, and Lady Elezia wouldn’t give it up even if that was revealed so theft, err, “Item retrieval” is necessary.

Needless to say, things don’t go as planner. They never do in a heist story.

And when the foursome finally reach the end of their caper, they learn there is far more to the spell gem’s restoration than they ever realized. As per fey schemes, there are plans within plans, twisting like gnarled branches.

I really liked the details in the book. Saeldian’s relationship with their patron and demonstrations of how their bond, along with its boons and banes, were interesting.

At another time, Kell makes some interesting points about how the first thing a thief steals tells a lot about them. Saeldian’s focus on appearance isn’t just about changing identities for con jobs, but also an insight into their personality and the nature of their pact. It also provides some inspiration for services and shops in Waterdeep that many overlook.

The exes that have to work together aspect was of less interest to me for pacing reasons. Kell’s anger is understandable but long after he’s seen ample evidence that Saeldian isn’t the same person they were in Baldur’s Gate, Kell keeps insisting that Saeldian is. At a certain point it crossed the line for me from “understandable anger” to overly repetitive. Kell didn’t need to forgive Saeldian, but it became a bit tiresome. The pacing for that subplot does improve, but it felt like it took awhile.

Otherwise, I really liked the twists and turns, and the feeling you get of everyday life in Waterdeep and the Feywild. There’s a sort of cameo appearance at the end I enjoyed. I also loved the bits with Jubilee’s family. We don’t always get a look at retired adventurers and their families so that was fun.

Really, Lorzak and Jubilee were probably my favorite characters even though Saeldian and Kell are the main characters. Part of that is the writing and part of it is the audiobook performances.

The Details

The Feywild Job is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats. It’s 352 pages long or 14 hours and 36 minutes.

Audiobook narrator Vico Ortiz actually has a wide range of voices as evidenced by the choices made for Lorzak, Jubilee, and various Feywild characters to name a few. That’s why it frustrated me that the voice Ortiz uses for Saeldian and Kell were a little too similar to my ear. Worse, it sounds to me like Saeldian’s voice has a faint, occasional lisp, which made me nuts. I found it an odd choice since Saeldian is so focused on how they appear to others, though maybe that imperfection was the point. Either way, it annoyed me.

What didn’t bother me was a slightly breathy delivery at times. It’s strategic, emphasizing when Saeldian is in a rush or stressed. It bothered someone I recommended the book to when they listened to a sample. Your mileage may vary.

I loved the voice used for Jubilee. The dry, sarcastic, sometimes world-weary tone vaguely reminded of Selena Gomez in Only Murders in the Building when Steve Martin and Martin Short’s characters exasperate her.

In Summary

I love heist adventures so it’s not surprising that I enjoyed The Feywild Job. I had some quibbles, as noted above, but it was a fun change of pace from the typical D&D novel.

I hope we get more Feywild-set D&D novels. I also always like stories set in Waterdeep so The Feywild Job made me happy on both counts since those were the locations except for flashbacks to Baldur’s Gate to explain why Kell owes the Zhents, and what happened between him and Saeldian.

My rating: The Feywild Job is B+. While the heist and character conflict/development are center stage in the story, if you like the romance between bitter exes than it might be an A for you.