Too Many Curses by A. Lee Martinez
Well, looking at my reading queue for the next few books, one might think I'm on something of a humor binge...
Too Many Curses is a pretty straightforwards book. It takes a very simple concept and then runs with it as far as it possibly can... and it does so in a fun manner. Perhaps this is the fantasy book equivalent of the Urban Iditarod, zany fun and a warm fuzzy feeling by the end of the read.
A kobold named Nessy is the caretaker of the evil wizard Margle's castle. In the middle of one of his usual threatening spiels, he dies leaving Nessy essentially the one in charge of all the cursed and transformed people therein. Unfortunately for all of them, their curses did not lift when the evil wizard died and so Nessy has to deal with the fallout.
This is one of the better examples of a book that takes a simple concept and runs with it as far as it can possibly go. Nessy is not the most complicated of creatures, but even tempered, hard working and pragmatic. I found her ability to recognize and work around her limitations endearing. I loved how she looked at each new disaster more as setbacks that would have to be dealt with in due time. I found the castle's response to her perfectly appropriate. It was a very good play on showing who was the master of whom. The ending is just a little bittersweet, but I appreciate how it keeps its optimism.
The collection of cursed people around the castle and the castle itself make this a book to keep as far away from GM's and DM's as humanly possible. I found the side characters to be extremely good for laughs, especially the heroic fruit bat, the alliteration owl and of course, the one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater was ever so cute.
Things I didn't like... hmmm... ummm... I'm drawing a blank. It promised to be a delightful, funny read and it was. Mission accomplished, have a cookie.
I would happily recommend this book to anyone who wants a something to lighten the day.
Too Many Curses is a pretty straightforwards book. It takes a very simple concept and then runs with it as far as it possibly can... and it does so in a fun manner. Perhaps this is the fantasy book equivalent of the Urban Iditarod, zany fun and a warm fuzzy feeling by the end of the read.
A kobold named Nessy is the caretaker of the evil wizard Margle's castle. In the middle of one of his usual threatening spiels, he dies leaving Nessy essentially the one in charge of all the cursed and transformed people therein. Unfortunately for all of them, their curses did not lift when the evil wizard died and so Nessy has to deal with the fallout.
This is one of the better examples of a book that takes a simple concept and runs with it as far as it can possibly go. Nessy is not the most complicated of creatures, but even tempered, hard working and pragmatic. I found her ability to recognize and work around her limitations endearing. I loved how she looked at each new disaster more as setbacks that would have to be dealt with in due time. I found the castle's response to her perfectly appropriate. It was a very good play on showing who was the master of whom. The ending is just a little bittersweet, but I appreciate how it keeps its optimism.
The collection of cursed people around the castle and the castle itself make this a book to keep as far away from GM's and DM's as humanly possible. I found the side characters to be extremely good for laughs, especially the heroic fruit bat, the alliteration owl and of course, the one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater was ever so cute.
Things I didn't like... hmmm... ummm... I'm drawing a blank. It promised to be a delightful, funny read and it was. Mission accomplished, have a cookie.
I would happily recommend this book to anyone who wants a something to lighten the day.