Richard Roach

If you like the prologue, don't get put off if the first chapter drags a bit.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting - a hazard of gathering ebooks sometimes - but Flint soon drew me into this humorous fantasy story. I was much disgruntled and disappointed by a viewpoint switch, which took me from an entrancingly novel protagonist to a deeply verbose and rather tiresome character. While this is deliberate and for comic effect, I felt like it was overdone and the story was becoming dull. I was worried this would turn out to be our actual protagonist for the main story.

Luckily, from the next switch vim and vigour returned, and never left again. Flint's writing here resembled my old favourite Craig Shaw Gardner, but while CSG produces pure slapstick farce, Flint offers something less overtly ludicrous. I was grinning through most of my read, and laughed out loud not a few times. Praise indeed. I hope he'll get round to producing a sequel.… (more)