John Moore (1) (1959–)

Another great fairy tale parody by John Moore.

Sir Terry kills a dragon in order to win the hand of a princess, but unfortunately he hasn't paid attention to recent history. National boundaries have shifted, and he was a few miles in the wrong country. Only by pretending his squire did the killing does he escape being wed to the crazy princess who talks to animals and rocks and whatever. Meanwhile, the princess that he actually wants is betrothed (much to her disgust) to the scion of a rich baker family. She cooks up a scheme where she is fake-kidnapped so Sir Terry can rescue her and thereby win her hand. But she drops into the middle of a real kidnapping plot and is mistaken for another woman who was supposed to be captured to be used as dragon meat, and... and... and... well, you get the picture.

It's a fairy tale where all the people are hatching schemes right and left, sort of like the "big lie" plots where a lie grows and grows, and gets funnier as it goes. And on the side, there are riffs on lots of other things too. I didn't think it was possible, but he does parody on a parody (there's a hilarious scene in here parodying a famous scene in Princess Bride, you'll recognize it when you see it).

As usual with John Moore's stories, I find I like the characters, and one is always rooting for them, despite their foibles.… (more)

This book is billed as a spoof on fairy tales, and it is certainly that. The humor sucked me in, but oddly enough, I found I was disappointed when it was over, not so much because the jokes were done, but because I liked the characters enough. I say "oddly enough" because the interest of most humor writing is not characters. After reading "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," for example, when you stop laughing, you don't particularly want to pal around with Arthur or Ford; but you might, with Caroline, Emily, and Hal in this book. At least I felt that way.

I think the reason is that, silliness aside, you find that the main characters are in fact quite admirably moral: the kind of people you really want good things to happen to.

As other reviewers have noted, some of the humor is a bit dark, but not all of it. And even in the dark parts, where the characters are making questionable moral choices, one can still see why someone might actually do that without being evil at the core. Fortunately, that was only a relatively minor part of the plot.… (more)

Funny--yes, definitely. Great concept, and like a good spoof, this is a book that will make it hard to take seriously any book about evil overlords ever again. But it's a bit more than funny. Like Moore's other books, I found myself really liking the characters, which in my experience is not typical for these spoofs. This book was more about the silliness than, say, Moore's "The Unhandsome Prince" (which certainly did have plenty of silliness too, but not *quite* so much); but nevertheless the characters are people whom you would enjoy being around.

Moore's books are racy in parts (this one *definitely* is), but it's mostly for the jokes, not romance or eroticism.… (more)