Enchanting, chaotic, sweary, genre-bending. And that’s just the first page. This sequel to the laugh-out-loud twisted fairytale THIS PRINCESS KILLS MONSTERS sits in the same quirky fantasy terrain as its prequel and is equally worthy of our delighted attention.
I can stay with confidence that you do not need to have read the first book in order to enjoy this one. While some characters and events are referred to from the first book, this tale totally stands alone. Well, as much as a knight with six constantly interfering magical sisters can stand alone.
Our young knight Jules and one magical sister must sail off to the neighboring empire undercover, to figure out why all the tributary lands have been called upon to supply soldiers, and whether that bodes ill for the king and queen Jules and their sisters are supposed to be protecting.
But it’s the wrong season for sailing, and they get blown off course, eventually struggling ashore in a swamp that is worthy of The Princess Bride. Or possibly that Bog of Eternal Stench surrounding the goblin king’s castle in Labyrinth.
Hmmm... Those movies as a comparison might give you a sense of what I find entertaining. If you found them not enjoyable, this might not be the book for you. But it might still be because there’s a lot of other things to love besides the over the top swamp: fairytale tropes turned on their heads, talking horses (like in The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis), mysterious towers with mysterious maidens in them, and adventure after adventure, all rendered in prose that flows with wit and precision both.
If you were going to read this to/with a younger person, you’d want to censor out some swearing and mild sexual innuendo. But that is fairly easily done, and there are enough jokes accessible to all ages that would keep an eight year-old has easily entertained as an 18, or an 88.
Highly recommended.
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