08-22-2018, 07:56 AM
Woohoo, the comedy fantasy novel is back. Now, with more puns!
After the first chapter or so of this novel I was reminded why I hate the fantasy comedy novel so much. There is just something about every character being dumb for comedic sake that makes me want to pitch the book into the fire. This probably why I've never read much of Pratchett and stopped reading Robert Asprin novels before I turned twenty.
I'll give one example. There is a giant with a giant nose that is called Ol' Faktry. Get it? See? Humor!
How about another. The elves live in a forest called Morning Wood. It's a dick joke. They spend an entire chapter talking about how tall and firm and proud their trees are. Then the company of travelers is ejected from the wood in a warm sticky substance.
They also mine great humor out of the pronunciation of the word demesne. Ugh. My brain.
But they also get a lot of mileage out of how aware they are of the current sexual climate in the United States. The book wants to smash the tropes of the traditional fantasy novel. They want a female couple leading the charge. They want women in the leading roles. Which is all fine but, I got the feeling that a lot of the time that it was "Hey, look at us and all the tropes we are breaking"
So, why did I read this dreck until the end. Well, they did the one unusual thing right up front and I needed to find out if it was true or not. I tried just scanning the chapters to see if I could get a clue about the veracity of what they had done, but I couldn't find it. I read the whole book to make sure. Sadly.
This book was not written for me. Glad I got it from the library.
After the first chapter or so of this novel I was reminded why I hate the fantasy comedy novel so much. There is just something about every character being dumb for comedic sake that makes me want to pitch the book into the fire. This probably why I've never read much of Pratchett and stopped reading Robert Asprin novels before I turned twenty.
I'll give one example. There is a giant with a giant nose that is called Ol' Faktry. Get it? See? Humor!
How about another. The elves live in a forest called Morning Wood. It's a dick joke. They spend an entire chapter talking about how tall and firm and proud their trees are. Then the company of travelers is ejected from the wood in a warm sticky substance.
They also mine great humor out of the pronunciation of the word demesne. Ugh. My brain.
But they also get a lot of mileage out of how aware they are of the current sexual climate in the United States. The book wants to smash the tropes of the traditional fantasy novel. They want a female couple leading the charge. They want women in the leading roles. Which is all fine but, I got the feeling that a lot of the time that it was "Hey, look at us and all the tropes we are breaking"
So, why did I read this dreck until the end. Well, they did the one unusual thing right up front and I needed to find out if it was true or not. I tried just scanning the chapters to see if I could get a clue about the veracity of what they had done, but I couldn't find it. I read the whole book to make sure. Sadly.
This book was not written for me. Glad I got it from the library.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm