Book #25 of 2019:
Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne (The Tales of Pell #1)
This novel aspires to be a tongue-in-cheek fairy tale sendup a la Discworld or Shrek, but it doesn’t have anywhere near the heart or cleverness to pull that off. Instead it reads more like just the plot beats of someone’s first tabletop roleplaying campaign — and although that’s a common criticism of the fantasy genre, most stories still offer more than just the thin characterization and intended punchlines on display here.
Look, I love a good pun probably more than most readers, and there are a few nice ones within these pages. But a lot of the book is just puerile jokes and lazy referential humor, as though the height of comedy is for elves to live in a forest called Morningwood. I would call it sophomoric, but even high school sophomores would likely find this a tad immature.
The nicest thing I can say is that the authors have avoided many easy opportunities to be sexist or racist, and there’s a lesbian relationship that is mostly not played for laughs. Overall, the farcical elements punch up, not down. But it’s hard to really appreciate that when the main focus is literally on a goat that keeps pooping everywhere.
★☆☆☆☆
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