Customer Reviews

Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming

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Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming starts out like gangbusters, starts to hit some slow patches midway through, and sort of just fizzles at the end, but it's still a very funny book by the writing duo of Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley. The main character is Azzie Elbub, a demon who finally gets the chance to get out of the pits and go back up to earth, thanks to the Grim Reaper's slightly premature harvesting of a certain soul; even the devil wants nothing to do with lawsuits, so he sends Azzie along to make sure the not-dead guy makes an easy transition back into life. Azzie's luck is even better than he initially thinks, as his return to earth just so happens to fall in the days leading up to the year 1000. Every millennium, the forces of Good and Evil stage a contest to determine who will control the universe for the next ten centuries. Azzie just so happens to have a great idea to pitch to the Millennial Evil Deeds committee. He will recreate the whole Sleeping Beauty-Prince Charming story, but this time evil will rise up and destroy any chance of a happily ever after ending. Having gotten his idea approved and received an unlimited credit card for the purchase of necessary supplies, he sets to work. He needs a good assistant, of course, and a couple of castles, and an Enchanted Forest which simply must have flaming trees and such, and of course he will need a fitting Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty. Here is where the magic of his plan really shines, as he takes parts from different bodies and brings them together in an act of magical creation that guarantees, he thinks, the success of his nefarious plan. Thus, his Prince Charming has the legs of one of mankind's biggest cowards, Sleeping Beauty gets such nifty features as a left arm born for stealing, etc.

Of course, Azzie faces obstacles along the way. His otherworldly suppliers are less than cooperative with his requisition requests, he has to deal with an angel of good overseeing his whole operation (no cheating, even for Evil), and his initial plans for micro-managing the activities of Prince Charming in particular have to be rethought several times over. He does have an old witch flame at his side, and the god Hermes can always be counted upon to give good advice, but Azzie keeps falling into little traps set by little girls wanting wishes, dwarves who don't take kindly to having their precious gems forcibly loaned out, and other magical snares.

Unfortunately, the novel's cohesion threatens to come apart at the seams as the novel progresses. There is never a sense of discontinuity between both authors; rather, it is as if another author failed to deliver his part of the whole story. Transitions become much more rapid and forced, certain minor characters seem to be forgotten along the way, and the climax comes and goes so fast you might miss it. The idea behind the story is brilliant, and the authors clearly start out with the power and will to make it work, but something goes wrong along the way, making the second half of the novel feel forced and unsatisfying. Still, though, there is a lot of fun and laughs to be found in these pages, and the reader's thoughts about what could have been do not necessarily destroy the entertainment value of this farcical fantasy.

Robert Zelazny and Robert Sheckley join forces in this tag team satirical take on good and evil. Auzzie is an happily irreverent demon, with all the right corruptions and an evil credit card to match, bent on demonstrating the hopeless fate of the Prince Charming fairy tale in the "real world". The prize at stake is none other then the fate of the human race for the next thousand years. With the assistance of some old aquantencies and the infernal powers, coupled with a Angel who helps out since helping people is a good thing to do; the satire flys fast and furious. Of course Auzzie, being a demon, is not under much compulsion to play fair! Let the misadventures begin.

This book was the beginning of a fairly large number of books I read taking a sideways view of fairy tales and popular stories. I found "Bring me the head of Prince Charming" the best of a very entertaining bunch. Sharper and just plain more fun then Robert Asprin's excellent "Myth-Adventures" series and with a lighter touch then Gregory Maguire's enjoyable "Wicked: The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West" I cannot help but give this book high praise. I would be delighted to find a less tattered copy or other books in this niche. If you have the chance to snap this book up, grab it before I do.

The Millennium brings change, even between the angels and devils! Azzie is the demon who will do anything to win the Millennium contest, where either Good or Evil will rule for the next 1000 years. Babriel is the angel observer sent to make sure Azzie observes the forms. Add in Ylith, Azzie's on-again witch girlfriend, an Igor like lab assistant, and the idea to recreate the Prince Charming saving the Princess story (with a demonic twist) and you have a setting for hilarity! This is the first of a set of books about Azzie and it is a real stitch!! Follow it up with "If at Faust You Don't Succeed".

Zelazny always had a little bit of fun with his stories of various supernatural beings, and Sheckley was known for writing with a bit of tongue in cheek, so this novel portraying the exploits of one demon, Azzie Elbub, should have been a hand's down snap for them.

Indeed, the book starts smartly, as Azzie, through the fortuitous happening of someone in Hell grabbing a soul too early, and the higher ups not wanting to deal with the resulting lawsuit (obviously, lawyers are much worse than demons), gets to escort the poor soul back to the world of the living. Once there, finding it is the year 1000, and time for the millennial contest between Heaven and Hell for who will hold sway on Earth for the next 1000 years, Azzie conceives of a great plan for winning the contest. He will re-create the fairy tale of Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty, but with one small difference: the Prince will be so much of coward that his quest will fail miserably, proving that man's basest desires and emotions are not noble, but belong to the Dark Angel.

For much of the first half of the book, things cook along quite merrily, given Azzie's problems obtaining the necessary body parts, the infuriating blockages he runs into at the otherworldly supply depot (What? You only have one castle in stock? And it takes how long to set up an Enchanted Forest?), more problems preserving and assembling his body parts into appropriate wholes, etc. But once all these preliminaries are completed, a lot of the fun seems to go away, and the story seems to gallop off in too many different directions at once, with the appearance of a Heavenly Angel to oversee his project, Prince Charming not reacting well to instruction, kidnappings, witches, dragons, etc. The book staggers from one incident to the next, with little cohesiveness to the plot, and worse, an almost total disappearance of all the funny wry jokes.

The ending is almost anti-climactic, and quite a letdown from the expectations raised by the beginning of the book. Net result: still quite readable, but not anywhere near the class of his Jack of Shadows, and even falling shy of his A Night in Lonesome October.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Azzie the demon has come up with an idea. Every thousand years, there is a contest between good and evil to determine the fate of humankind for the next millenium, and Azzie wins the right to compete for the evil team. This book is one of the funniest that I've read in a while. The obstacles that Azzie faces, such as having to find the right body parts to construct the ideal Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty or having to make do with only one castle because Supply is out of stock, are truly hysterical. You will find yourself rooting for evil to win. I highly recommend this book if you're looking for a good laugh!

This is the sort of book that you either really love or really hate. If you're well acquainted with the fairy-tale form, you have to read this. Zelazny makes fun of every single fairy-tale cliche, from the enchanted sword to the glass mountain. Prince Charming is cowardly, the Princess is waspish, and the demon who creates them is one of the most fun protagonists I've ever tagged along with. One warning: if you take books very seriously, or otherwise have no sense of humor, don't even bother. This book is a parody of the fairy-tale and the fantasy genre. It doesn't want to be taken seriously. It CAN'T be taken seriously. For those of you who aren't humor-impaired though, give it a go. I reread it every once in a while, and it always makes me laugh. This is one of my favorite books of all time. Don't pass it by.

Azzie Elbub is just another demon slaving away in The Pit, North Discomfort section 405, when he is summoned topside. Seeing a chance to improve his situation, Azzie comes up with a plan to represent the forces of darkness in the great Millenial Contest between good and evil. The plan: To recreate the Sleeping Beauty story with protagonists made of recycled body parts, the princess murdering the prince in the final act.

The future looks bright and rosy (or dark and gloomy, as the case may be) for Azzie until things begin to go wrong with his infernal plan. Inferior parts, shoddy workmanship, poor customer assistance - Who knew the forces of evil could be so uncooperative?

The story starts out fast-paced and funny, full of zippy one-liners, but as Azzie's difficulties and frustrations mount, the narrative loses its focus and hilarity. This may be intentional on the part of the authors, to make the readers sympathize with Azzie's situation, but I would have preferred a consistently funny story.

If you like this sort of story, you should try the On a pale horse (Piers Anthony's incarnations of immortality) - but only if you have a high tolerance for nauseatingly clever puns.

A fantasy comedy. You have fairy tale spoofs, of course, here. A demon goes about trying to win an evilness competition. Hilarity ensues. Think Good Omens crossed with Xanth, or that sort of thing. The demon is not that bad a guy, it seems, when you see things from his point of view, and what he has to get up to just to get along, particularly putting up with incompetent humans, and others. Fairly funny.

Azzie the demon came up with a brilliant plan for Evil's entry to the End of Millenia Contest: stage a fairy-tale, except that there is no happy ending. Enlisting the help of his semi-girlfriend witch Ylith, the god Hermes and the human former demonic assistant Frike, Azzie sets out to complete the fairy tale. Unfortunately, he comes up against trouble right from the start.

Sheckley and Zelazny make a great team and leave you wishing very much that Azzie's entry had succeeded. And the way EVERYTHING seems to go wrong, it looks like what happens so often when you want to do something: the idea is great, but nothing works. Azzie doesn't seem so much like an evil demon than just some normal guy who finds all his plans ruined. But the story isn't portrayed in a sad way. From a made-to-order enchanted forest to Fairly Lucky Swords (different from Enchanted Swords) to putting together Prince Charming and the Napping Princess from "spare" body parts, Zelazny & Sheckley will have you rolling with laughter.

If you are reader of fantasy, you know that every "pro" something have as well it's dark side which is "anti" that same thing. In this particular case faith of whole humankind is depending on a single thing, and that is a fairytale. But, not ordinary fairytale.

This is like many of Zelazny's books alternate fantasy, something totally gripping and definately worth having in personal library. If you like funny and satirical view of the world, if you believe either one of the murphy's laws are true, you are going to LOVE this book.