rhays40's review against another edition
4.0
fun. very British w lots of English references, which means I'm not sure my teens would think it was funny-
sharnibee's review against another edition
2.0
Well, that was painful. There were parts of this that were rather delightful but rather more parts that I found extremely tedious. Bah!
bookworm_630's review against another edition
3.0
3 stars for the first 2/3. I'm guessing this is a lot like movies that skewer Hollywood...the people in that business get all the obscure humor, in-jokes, and caricatures but the rest of us blink and wonder what's so funny. It was a quick read and I did enjoy the first 2/3, before it sunk into terrible bleakness.
mhall's review against another edition
2.0
This was a Nancy Pearl suggestion. Dry British humor about an author of sensitive YA books about outcasts. He won some literary prizes but now his books aren't selling and his agent convinces him to try writing epic fantasy because that's what people want to read. Then he summons a creature from another dimension, a scribe who does all the work of writing an astonishing tale for him. He strikes a bargain involving recovering an amulet that has been hidden in our dimension. Throughout all the place and character names are ridiculous puns. The main character, Murdstone, was sort of nasty and ridiculous, hard to root for, and some of the humor felt outdated. It kind of fell apart for me about halfway through. Back of the book comparisons to Terry Pratchett? Maybe a little, but Terry Pratchett's humor never punched down.
mfeibel's review against another edition
5.0
This book was EXCELLENT. A parody but also a homage to the stereotypical "Fantasy (or Phantasy) Novel". Laugh-out-loud funny in so many places (there's a stoner in the town who claims to be growing tomatoes....it's weed with red Christmas ornaments attached). I had to stop reading at work because I was most likely scaring people with how much I was laughing.
A truly unique and interesting plot that really draws you in.
A truly unique and interesting plot that really draws you in.
verityw's review against another edition
4.0
I really really liked about the first two thirds of this book, but the last bit didn't work for me as well. I loved the wit and the humour of the descriptions of the fantasy genre and of Philip's unlikely success. But the end is much darker and goes more into more horror-y territory which isn't really my thing and the ending is a bit of a downer. Still I laughed a lot at the start of the book and a few points subsequent to that and for that I give it 4 stars - because even if I didn't lie the end, it's still very, very clever and well written.
molotov_apologist's review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75