Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
Buy a US || UK Copy

This short and sprightly fantasy promises "dragons, dinosaurs, magicians, ghosts, an Ice Queen, and organized gang of thieves and a hero" and certainly delivers the goods, packing an admirably large amount into an equally admirably small number of pages - particularly for a fantasy. The narrator (who is never named, as he has lost his memory) wants to be a hero, so he goes off looking for a quest and soon finds one. He has to find three people: the baron's son and daughter and the Upright Man, the leader of a gang of outlaws. Nobody in Dracheburg Valley thinks that he has a chance, and getting in the way is most people's willingness to accept that everything may not be as it seems.

All this is a fairly clever allegory for the author's theories about the fallacies of religion and superstition. If you are a religious person, then I would say that this is probably not for you, but if you want a cheerful debunking of this type of belief system then you will probably enjoy it. Tossed in as an optional extra for US readers are a few famous characters that appear as various people in the book. I failed to spot any of these
but then I live in the UK. I didn't find that it detracted from my enjoyment or understanding but what I did find got in the way was the odd bursts of slapstick humor delivered through a small group of characters that does appear to rather spoil what is otherwise a good story.

For your added enjoyment there is a website to explore at http://www.herotale.com