Customer Reviews

Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For anyone who is a Harry Potter fan or who love the books Magyk and Flyte,you will LOVE this book.Very clever and witty,the characters are well formed and the story zips along,for me it's the humor that I loved so much,it's a fantasy world though with animals and humanoid creatures just one step removed from our world.Easy to read aloud for your 8 to 12 year old,yet very enjoyable for any adult that loves the fantasy genre.I've just ordered book 2. I hope there is a long line of the adventures of Sebastian Darke.

Poor Sebastian Darke is just not funny. For most people, this is a minor inconvenience, but for the son of a successful jester, this is bad news.

After his father's untimely death, Sebastian is forced to put on his father's costume and continue his trade. The jester outfit doesn't really fit and neither does the profession. Undeterred but mostly just desperate, Sebastian sets off with his father's Buffalope, Max, to offer his humorous services to King Septimus of Keladon.

On the ensuing journey, the half-elf, half-human teen and his partner/pack animal meet the fierce but pint-sized Captain Cornelius Drummel and rescue a beautiful princess named Kerin. The four think their problems are over when they reach Keladon, but with a corrupt king on the throne the trouble is just starting.

SEBASTIAN DARKE: PRINCE OF FOOLS by Philip Caveney is a fast and fun-filled ride with bad jokes and worse villains. While the jokes are never good, the characters are wonderfully atypical. Philip Caveney follows in the rich tradition of evil crones, hair-brained schemes, and talking animals, and seems to have a lot of fun with it.

One of my favorite characters was Osbert, the barely intelligible but lovable royal Buffalope. An added plus are the pictures. And though I won't ruin the ending, I will say that it's refreshingly unexpected.

Reviewed by: Natalie Tsang

Hello everyone,
If you're looking for a novel with action,surprises, and some sweet romance then I would highly recommend this book to you. If you are look in for a book with a little hardship,embarissing moments, pretty evil bad guys and a non-traditional ending then this is still the book you're looking for! I will not give you a plot synopsis but I will tell you this is a series worth putting on your series list! Recommended for ages 9-13(depending on the 13-year old)
Hope you enjoy the book!!

I'm often surprised by how dismissive the School Library Journal reviews are on these Amazon pages, but the one for this book is upbeat and exactly on the mark. The story zips along, the characters are well-conceived, there is some funny business, and the result is an entertaining fantasy.

(I even agree with the SLJ that this is like, but falls below, Pratchett's Wee Free Men series. And, with apologies to other reviewers, it's not at all like Harry Potter or the other sorcery/magic books. It's a tongue-in-cheek fantasy adventure. It's closer to "Robin Hood: Men in Tights".)

(By the way, if you are a parent who is reading this to your child, and you sort of like it, there is a wonderful adult novel, (with sex and stuff), that is exactly like a funny grown-up version of this book. I'm thinking of Christopher Moore's "Fool", which retells the Lear story from his jester's point of view. Hilarious.)

This was a really fun read. Some of the characters were so delightful they have stayed in my mind in rich imagery for the 6 months since I read the book. What I like best was the ending. It's a great lesson for the teen readers, and allows for further adventures of the friends we've grown to love. Great fighting scenes, a tiny bit of romance, and good clean fun. Recommended for age 8/9 to adult, and good for a read-aloud, too.

I agree with other reviewers that this is a fun and exciting story. I would like to complain about the physical book itself. The typeface that is used on the paperback copy I received is very tiny. Granted my eyes are quite a bit older than the target audience for this book, but I don't think I have ever seen printing this small in a paperback book. I can understand saving paper and not wanting to make the book too "fat", but the page formatting could have easily been modified. There is no real need to have 3/4 inch margins on the top and bottom of each page (and that is measured from the page number and the page title).

Anyway, enjoy the story, just be sure you have a good light to read by.

This book is like a very, very, very tired Disney movie. There are brief glimpses of originality, but the story mainly consists of stereotype characters in a very predictable plot. There are much better fantasy books out there.