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A review by cheryl6of8
A Fate Worse Than Dragons by John Moore
3.0
I was shopping at the Friends of the Library used bookstore and, as I waited in line, I spotted this book from the corner of my eye. I am not much of a reader of fantasy novels, but something about it caught my eye and I saw it was "fairy tale parody". And it was 50 cents. Sold.
I was in the mood for reading a bit of fluff and decided to try it. It is just off-center enough to work for me. There is a knight in love with a princess who is plotting on getting him sanctioned to marry her -- but the dragon he slays turns out to be in the part of the kingdom that recently changed hands and he has won the hand of another princess. He is able to fix that snafu and his beloved comes up with a new plan in which he rescues her from being "kidnapped". That has promise, except she has just been announced to be engaged to marry the son of the richest family in town whom she has never met. Her fiance feels duty bound to search for her and is accompanied by the knight. And then she is kidnapped from her "kidnapper's" and there are monsters and wicked counts and magicians and escape plans gone wrong and a young woman who was supposed to have been the kidnapping victim who falls in love with the rich fiance and . . . Well, things happen.
I don't know what is better, the fake histories and legends recounted as the basis for the way things are done (I recall a reference to Queen Donna the Wannabe), the allusions to modern bureaucracy, or the clear spoofs of other fantasy tropes. One of my favorites was a fun twist on the "battle of wits" from The Princess Bride. And the other one is the invisibility of The Middle-Aged Man of the Mountains to the attractive young women in the book. A nice drop of fun in my day.
I was in the mood for reading a bit of fluff and decided to try it. It is just off-center enough to work for me. There is a knight in love with a princess who is plotting on getting him sanctioned to marry her -- but the dragon he slays turns out to be in the part of the kingdom that recently changed hands and he has won the hand of another princess. He is able to fix that snafu and his beloved comes up with a new plan in which he rescues her from being "kidnapped". That has promise, except she has just been announced to be engaged to marry the son of the richest family in town whom she has never met. Her fiance feels duty bound to search for her and is accompanied by the knight. And then she is kidnapped from her "kidnapper's" and there are monsters and wicked counts and magicians and escape plans gone wrong and a young woman who was supposed to have been the kidnapping victim who falls in love with the rich fiance and . . . Well, things happen.
I don't know what is better, the fake histories and legends recounted as the basis for the way things are done (I recall a reference to Queen Donna the Wannabe), the allusions to modern bureaucracy, or the clear spoofs of other fantasy tropes. One of my favorites was a fun twist on the "battle of wits" from The Princess Bride. And the other one is the invisibility of The Middle-Aged Man of the Mountains to the attractive young women in the book. A nice drop of fun in my day.