Sean Gibson
Autore di The Part About the Dragon was (Mostly) True
Opere di Sean Gibson
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Recensioni
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.This book missed the mark for me. I felt like it was hard to follow and was slow to start. I wasn't able to make it all the way to the end but what I did read was just a tad too annoying in the writing style.
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.Great book and very different. I have heard the tales of Bards in many books but only as a part of the book never as in this case has a Bard narrated the whole story. I would classify the book as young adult or adult due to some of the language. I thought Heloise did a great job describing characters and developing the story. I especially enjoyed the double story 1) the epic bard's tale and 2) the actual story. I tend to believe the actual story would be closer to real adventuring. I was a dungeon master for D&D games for years and I think this book did a masterful job of combining a mixed race group of adventurers and making if work and fun to read. It was especially enjoyable to watch Nadi, Whiska, Rummy and Borg (I will let the reader find out what Borg's real name was) bumble through their adventure with Heloise and eventually get exactly what was coming to them (read the book and find out exactly what that was). I think Sean Gibson has a hit here and I look forward to his second book with these mighty? adventurers.… (altro)
I am, if not the most well-known bard in Erithea (yet), arguably the most talented, and unarguably the cleverest. I also wouldn’t quibble if you suggested that I’m the most beautiful, but that’s just because I’m very agreeable (and beautiful)...
Decades ago, I was sworn to secrecy regarding the true story of the great and terrible “Dragonia,” but recent developments have released me from that promise, and so I can finally tell the tale.
WHAT'S THE PART ABOUT THE DRAGON WAS (MOSTLY) TRUE ABOUT?
This is that true story about Dragonia, told alongside the "official" account so the reader can see how the details were adjusted and tweaked to create the story everyone knows.
The town (or village, depending on who you ask) of Skendrick is being terrorized by a dragon—crops are being ruined, trade is disrupted, and the town is about to fall apart. Desperate, they put out a call for adventurers to come and kill the dragon. But they get no takers—so they go to Plan B. The villagers (or townspeople) pool their meager resources to hire a bard. This bard is to compose a song to make the attempt to kill the dragon sound appealing enough—and its treasure (which may or may not actually exist) enticing enough—to get a band of adventurers to come.
This is where Heloise comes in. She takes the gig and soon gets a new and yet unaccomplished band of adventurers to take up the call to action. I don't want to get into describing the group, you want to meet them in the book.
They encounter difficulties from without and within; nasty, malodorous geography; orcs and other creatures; and, well, the dragon.
HELOISE THE BARD
“You’re not half as funny as you think you are, as I suspect you have a very high opinion of yourself.”
“My opinion of myself is in direct proportion to my amazingness,” I said sweetly.
The half-elf, Heloise the Bard is our narrator—as you can tell from the quotations above, she has a fairly high opinion of herself and her abilities. She's also rather impressed with her hair and certain other physical attributes. Probably her greatest skill is self-promotion.
She decides to accompany the adventurers, to chronicle their journey and the outcome of their clash with the dragon. Her wit and quick thinking prove valuable to their effort and her particular set of skills make all the difference.
She is a hoot. It'd be easy for Heloise to be an annoying, over-the-top character, but somehow Gibson keeps her as an entertaining, over-the-top character. I've been trying to come up with a character to compare her to, and I'm failing. Maybe she's the Fantasy version of Evanovich's Lula, except Heloise has the skills that Lula thinks she has. Maybe she's the equivalent of High Fidelity's Barry. Somewhere in the Venn Diagram featuring Fantasy, Lula, and Barry, I guess.
She appears in a couple of other books by Gibson, and I'm eager to spend some more time with her.
THE HUMOR
The section could easily be merged with the previous one because the humor displayed in the book is primarily Heloise's. The jokes are pretty much non-stop—even in the middle of fight scenes, or when death is nigh. The danger is still present, and the combat (and so on) is as deadly as it would be in another book—it's just surrounded by laughs.
It didn't take me long before I'd highlighted too many lines to quote—not that it stopped me from going on. My notes on this one are ridiculous. I kept chuckling throughout the reading. I probably would've finished the book in 2/3 the time, if reacting to the jokes didn't make me stop reading for a moment.
If you've read The Tales of Pell , you've got a good idea for the pace of the jokes—and tone of the book, too.
There's slapstick, there's scatological humor, a great Meatloaf (the singer) line, some fantastic bursts of alliteration for the sake of a laugh, some general silliness, clever dialogue, and...honestly, I'm having a hard time thinking of a kind of humor that's not in there. There's a running gag (that I've alluded to) throughout about whether Skendrick is a town or a village—I can't tell you how often it's brought up. And the joke works every time—I should've gotten sick of it, and I never did. I don't know how Gibson pulled that off, but that alone is the mark of a fantastic humor writer.
In addition to The Tales of Pell, if you've enjoyed Christopher Healy, Dave Barry, K.R.R. Lockhaven, Peter David, Scott Meyer, Joe Zieja, Jim C. Hines' Jig the Goblin series, or John Scalzi—you're going to dig the humor here. And if you dig the humor, you're going to really enjoy the book. It's that simple.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE PART ABOUT THE DRAGON WAS (MOSTLY) TRUE?
You know by this point that one of my main goals in telling this story is to show that the adventuring life isn’t all it’s thought to be. It’s mostly boring, frustrating, dangerous (though not excitingly dangerous), smelly (dear gods, so smelly), and not particularly lucrative. Occasionally, however, it’s exactly how the songs make it sound, and in those moments, it’s easy to see why people—even smart, capable people like Nadi—would devote their lives to doing something so irrational. Let the record show that entering a dragon’s lair for the first time is one of those moments, and it’s fair to say that each member of our intrepid band experienced more than a frisson of excitement as we crept across that threshold.
I think it's pretty clear that I had a blast with this book, but I should probably make that explicit. I had a blast reading this book.
I think I should not that this is not a book to read if you're in a "find out what happened and get to the end of the story" frame of mind. This is a "enjoy the trip, not the destination"/"stop and smell the roses" kind of book. The destination/what happens is fully satisfying, but the getting-there is so much better.
In addition to the jokes and the dragon, there is a running commentary on what "the adventuring life" is like outside of the glamorous or exciting bits. A lot of fantasy novels will show bits of it, but not enough of them do—and most don't do it this way. For example, The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True contains more description of various odors than every 99% of the fantasy novels I've read by a significant factor. If this were a scratch and sniff book...well, I can't imagine anyone would stock it—you just don't want that in your warehouse/store. Sure, it's silly talking about realism in a book featuring orcs, halflings, elves, etc.—but this factor does ground the book and give it a seriousness (for lack of a better term) that makes this more than a collection of jokes.
This is the funniest book I've read in 2022, and I can't imagine it'll face much competition. It's got it all, go get your hands on it.… (altro)
Decades ago, I was sworn to secrecy regarding the true story of the great and terrible “Dragonia,” but recent developments have released me from that promise, and so I can finally tell the tale.
WHAT'S THE PART ABOUT THE DRAGON WAS (MOSTLY) TRUE ABOUT?
This is that true story about Dragonia, told alongside the "official" account so the reader can see how the details were adjusted and tweaked to create the story everyone knows.
The town (or village, depending on who you ask) of Skendrick is being terrorized by a dragon—crops are being ruined, trade is disrupted, and the town is about to fall apart. Desperate, they put out a call for adventurers to come and kill the dragon. But they get no takers—so they go to Plan B. The villagers (or townspeople) pool their meager resources to hire a bard. This bard is to compose a song to make the attempt to kill the dragon sound appealing enough—and its treasure (which may or may not actually exist) enticing enough—to get a band of adventurers to come.
This is where Heloise comes in. She takes the gig and soon gets a new and yet unaccomplished band of adventurers to take up the call to action. I don't want to get into describing the group, you want to meet them in the book.
They encounter difficulties from without and within; nasty, malodorous geography; orcs and other creatures; and, well, the dragon.
HELOISE THE BARD
“You’re not half as funny as you think you are, as I suspect you have a very high opinion of yourself.”
“My opinion of myself is in direct proportion to my amazingness,” I said sweetly.
The half-elf, Heloise the Bard is our narrator—as you can tell from the quotations above, she has a fairly high opinion of herself and her abilities. She's also rather impressed with her hair and certain other physical attributes. Probably her greatest skill is self-promotion.
She decides to accompany the adventurers, to chronicle their journey and the outcome of their clash with the dragon. Her wit and quick thinking prove valuable to their effort and her particular set of skills make all the difference.
She is a hoot. It'd be easy for Heloise to be an annoying, over-the-top character, but somehow Gibson keeps her as an entertaining, over-the-top character. I've been trying to come up with a character to compare her to, and I'm failing. Maybe she's the Fantasy version of Evanovich's Lula, except Heloise has the skills that Lula thinks she has. Maybe she's the equivalent of High Fidelity's Barry. Somewhere in the Venn Diagram featuring Fantasy, Lula, and Barry, I guess.
She appears in a couple of other books by Gibson, and I'm eager to spend some more time with her.
THE HUMOR
The section could easily be merged with the previous one because the humor displayed in the book is primarily Heloise's. The jokes are pretty much non-stop—even in the middle of fight scenes, or when death is nigh. The danger is still present, and the combat (and so on) is as deadly as it would be in another book—it's just surrounded by laughs.
It didn't take me long before I'd highlighted too many lines to quote—not that it stopped me from going on. My notes on this one are ridiculous. I kept chuckling throughout the reading. I probably would've finished the book in 2/3 the time, if reacting to the jokes didn't make me stop reading for a moment.
If you've read The Tales of Pell , you've got a good idea for the pace of the jokes—and tone of the book, too.
There's slapstick, there's scatological humor, a great Meatloaf (the singer) line, some fantastic bursts of alliteration for the sake of a laugh, some general silliness, clever dialogue, and...honestly, I'm having a hard time thinking of a kind of humor that's not in there. There's a running gag (that I've alluded to) throughout about whether Skendrick is a town or a village—I can't tell you how often it's brought up. And the joke works every time—I should've gotten sick of it, and I never did. I don't know how Gibson pulled that off, but that alone is the mark of a fantastic humor writer.
In addition to The Tales of Pell, if you've enjoyed Christopher Healy, Dave Barry, K.R.R. Lockhaven, Peter David, Scott Meyer, Joe Zieja, Jim C. Hines' Jig the Goblin series, or John Scalzi—you're going to dig the humor here. And if you dig the humor, you're going to really enjoy the book. It's that simple.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE PART ABOUT THE DRAGON WAS (MOSTLY) TRUE?
You know by this point that one of my main goals in telling this story is to show that the adventuring life isn’t all it’s thought to be. It’s mostly boring, frustrating, dangerous (though not excitingly dangerous), smelly (dear gods, so smelly), and not particularly lucrative. Occasionally, however, it’s exactly how the songs make it sound, and in those moments, it’s easy to see why people—even smart, capable people like Nadi—would devote their lives to doing something so irrational. Let the record show that entering a dragon’s lair for the first time is one of those moments, and it’s fair to say that each member of our intrepid band experienced more than a frisson of excitement as we crept across that threshold.
I think it's pretty clear that I had a blast with this book, but I should probably make that explicit. I had a blast reading this book.
I think I should not that this is not a book to read if you're in a "find out what happened and get to the end of the story" frame of mind. This is a "enjoy the trip, not the destination"/"stop and smell the roses" kind of book. The destination/what happens is fully satisfying, but the getting-there is so much better.
In addition to the jokes and the dragon, there is a running commentary on what "the adventuring life" is like outside of the glamorous or exciting bits. A lot of fantasy novels will show bits of it, but not enough of them do—and most don't do it this way. For example, The Part About the Dragon Was (Mostly) True contains more description of various odors than every 99% of the fantasy novels I've read by a significant factor. If this were a scratch and sniff book...well, I can't imagine anyone would stock it—you just don't want that in your warehouse/store. Sure, it's silly talking about realism in a book featuring orcs, halflings, elves, etc.—but this factor does ground the book and give it a seriousness (for lack of a better term) that makes this more than a collection of jokes.
This is the funniest book I've read in 2022, and I can't imagine it'll face much competition. It's got it all, go get your hands on it.… (altro)
Statistiche
- Opere
- 4
- Utenti
- 95
- Popolarità
- #197,646
- Voto
- 3.6
- Recensioni
- 20
- ISBN
- 5
The town (village?) of Skendrick has a dragon problem. But when the council can’t even decide if Skendrick is a town or a village, how are they expected to deal with a dragon? They enlist the help of Heloise the bard to spin a fanciful tale of conquest and treasure. If the dragon has treasure is anyone’s guess, but it makes the deal sound better. Especially because the town (village?) can’t actually pay their future heroes. And spin the tale Heloise does, catching the attention of Nadi and her crew.
The dynamics of the characters are phenomenal. They all play off one another with their personalities and brand of humor. Whiska delivers such deadpan lines, that to the reader are hilarious, but to Whiska are entirely serious. Borg is portrayed as slower to react due to the speed at which rock giants move and comes out with winning one-liners slightly delayed from the conversation. Then there is the play on words where Heloise breaks the third wall to explain things such as insults or slang to the reader. This creates not only humor among the action, but worldbuilding as well. And throughout it all are snarky sarcastic quips. No matter the reader’s brand of humor, there is something for everyone.
Alongside the humor and hijinks, are wonderful forays into action and adventure. And some encounters end in unpredictable ways. Twists and turns abound as the would-be heroes run through faulty plans and mishaps. Readers will also have the chance to read Heloise’s dolled up bardic version of each new adventure first. Then the following chapters will tell readers exactly what happened. And Heloise does not spare any details, even if they are highly embarrassing!
The Part About the Dragon Was Mostly True is pure fun. This is a book able to make readers burst out laughing in public. It is filled with classic fantasy adventuring and endless pages of entertainment. Fans of tabletop adventures, magic, fantasy, and dragons need to read this book.… (altro)