Customer Reviews

Sir Apropos of Nothing

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After I finished reading Peter David`s novel "Sir Apropos of Nothing" it took me a while before I was able to move on to reading another book. It left a very strong impression on me, something that is not unusual with his books. But this one is not the next chapter of my favourite series, New Frontier, or any other Star Trek written by him, this is something completely different. Peter David created his own universe, his own characters. He has written other non-media books before, but "Sir Apropos of Nothing" is his first non-media book I have read so far. Here we enter a world where we meet kings, knights, squires, witches and some more phantastic creatures. But Peter David`s version is not as simplistic as meeting a noble king who is surrounded by noble knights who go out into the world in order to do heroic deeds, slay dragons and save the odd damsel in distress. I am quite tired of that pattern and therefore I welcomed it that this book is different, much more complex. I often had the feeling that Peter David was challenging this pattern deliberately. We find out quickly that appearances can be very deceiving, that people who seem to be nice have some dark secrets. Sometimes good and evil can`t be separated easily. Sometimes good people are pushed into doing something bad. Peter David put very complex people into his book, people with strength and weaknesses, people who make mistakes. Peter David`s strength has always been characterizations and this book is no exception. The people in his book are very alive.

This is first of all the case with the main character, a young squire names Apropos. I liked him immediately. He is a very positive character but he has some darker layers as well which make him even more interesting. Apropos has a wonderful sense of humour. On top of that he is able to deal with all kinds of adventures and problems, mainly by using his wit. This makes the book fun to read. Some parts really made me laugh.

On the other hand, "Apropos" is not a comedy. Therefore I think comparing it with "Blackadder" is not accurate. The book also has some very serious scenes, a mix I find very intriguing. I find it remarkable with how much ease and skill Peter David combined the fun and the serious parts in this book. He is able to insert humour in some very dark scenes without ever giving me the feeling that it is forced. Sometimes I was caught between laughing and being touched by the seriousness of the situation.

Not only is Apropos a very likeable character, also because of his weaknesses, he is on top of that a very strong character. He makes mistakes and there are setbacks as well, but his determination, his cleverness is remarkable. We can see during this story that this character grows, that he is learning from mistakes. This is especially visible at the end of the book.

What I find also remarkable is how Peter David handled the topic disability in this book: Apropos was born with a physical disability. Being disabled myself I know what I am talking about, and I think he handled this aspect in a very realistic but also appealing way. I hate it when people with disabilities are shown as objects of pity and being helpless victims. Apropos learned from very early on to see and treat his disability as a challenge. In time he became more and more able to defend himself if he has to. But first of all he learned to use his wit and how to evade physical confrontations. I find this very interesting. Apropos reminded me in some ways of Miles Vorkosigan, the main character in Lois McMaster Bujold`s series.

Peter David is openly challenging cliches and prejudices, not only concerning the "heroism and chivalry" stuff in fairy tales and about disabled people, but there is a lot more. The book often made me think. One other aspect is that Peter David obviously shares my opinion that having feelings is not a weakness, it is a strength. He is also challenging the cliché of the overly male hero who is only allowed to show feelings of the more aggressive kind. Apropos also has a very sensitive side. The richness of his character also left such a strong impression on me because Peter David wrote the book from the first person perspective. He already showed me in the past that he is very skilled at using the advantages this form of storytelling has to its full potential.

"Apropos" is a whole story. It has a definite end. But it can also be seen as the first chapter in a series of books. Peter David is considering writing a sequel. I am very much hoping he will do that. I think it is an excellent book, very cleverly written with some surprises especially at the end. To me it is much more than just entertaining. In other words, if you ask me, it is definitely worth buying.

David's Apropos is a thoroughly unlikeable character, an anti-hero with nearly nothing to recommend him. David manages to run him through one situation after another to reinforce this impression, allowing Apropos to demonstrate, over and over, that he's a selfish manipulator who would betray a friend at the drop of a hat.

And yet ...

We can all relate to Apropos. I think most people wish, sometimes, that we could allow the bitterness of the past to rule our present actions, that we could use the excuse of "Well, other folks screwed me, so I'm gonna screw other folks first" to justify being right bastards to each other. If anyone has such an excuse, it's Apropos.

Therefore, that at times Apropos rises above his selfishness and self-serving ways to actually do good -- sometimes inadvertently, sometimes seized by a destructive fit of morality, sometimes because ... it's the right thing to do -- keeps this book from being a mere celebration of an anti-hero and gives us the same hope that we can rise above our own pettiness and greed, no matter how good the excuses for it are that we carry with us.

I'm not sure how soon I'll revisit Apropos. But I'll remember the final lessons he teaches.

I had never heard of Peter David before reading this book, and now I find myself looking for his novels whenever I go to bookstores. The book is well written, it has an exciting story line, and one of he most interesting main characters I've ever read about.

How many fantasy novels tell a tale of bold heroes, born from nothing only to achieve everything they set out to accomplish? Probably a vast majority of novels follow this model. Not Apropos.

Not only does this book deviate from the beaten path, this is a book where you feel the emotions right with the character. He carries with him so many emotions. You will find yourself cheering for him, feeling his pain, his anger, and sometimes wishing he were right in front of you so you could kick him right in the rear for some of the crazy things this young man does (all these insane adventures take place before he is even twenty years of age).

Another thing I enjoyed about this novel were the few, well placed references to other fantasy works. For example: at one point in Apropos, Apropos and Entipy are dealing with some irate unicorns, and the comment made by Entipy was directly from Beagle's "Last Unicorn."

I don't think I have to go any further to show you that I loved this book. Any true fantasy lover will enjoy it!

To comic book fans, Peter David is the writer who makes The Incredible Hulk incredible and puts the super in Supergirl. To Star Trek fans, David is known as the co-creator of the New Frontier series and author of the New York Times best-seller, "Imzadi". But this book has NOTHING to do with any of this, for it's Mr. David's first original novel in several years. It's also about the age of chivalry, and a cowardly young man named Apropos, the bastard son of a tavern wench and an unknown father, who may or may not be of royal blood.

Born with a deformed leg and a mischieveous attitude cynically weened on the pompous airs of knights and royalty, Apropos' presumed lowly existence suddenly gains purpose when his mother is murdered one night while 'servicing' a mysterious customer. Shortly afterward, he journeys to the king's palace, where in seeking vengence, Apropos inadvertently becomes squire to the most inept knight in the kingdom, the aging Sir Umbrage of the Flaming Nether Regions. However, Apropos' sudden ascent to notariety does not sit well among other aspirers of noble station. But a scandalous incident soon moves Apropos closer towards an unintended destiny that his mother seemed to have foretold.

Armed with irreverent puns and a plethoria of memorable characters, this tale not only skewers the divisions of class structures, but the idea that one's greatness is hereditary. Many of the skirmishes between Apropos, his acquaintances and his adversaries center around preconceived public myth versus one's personal desires and responsibilities. And as Apropos weasels through each situation, one senses his growing unease at possibly becoming what he had loathed. There's an inner rivalry and distrust towards heroic idealism, as if aspiring to selflessness is the stuff of idiots and lunatics.

Often juxtiposing the humorous with the horrific, Apropos' adventures meet with surprising twists of fate, leaving one breathless over what might come next. The tale is told in a breezy first person narrative, with relatively few lapses into self-indulgence. Mr. David's penchant for strong female characterization is also in fine form here, with memorable portrayals of mothers, wives, and the amorously-minded. And the title character of Apropos is a magnificent rascal, who compares favorably to like-minded compatriots Flashman or Blackadder. SIR APROPOS OF NOTHING is a rare treat of satire for those who always thought that the proclaimed feats of the knights of old seemed a bit greasy.

Sir Apropos of Nothing, by Peter David, is a wonderfully funny fantasy novel that takes potshots at most of the clichés in standard fantasy fiction, turning them on their heads. It looks at the roles of the hero, sidekick, and villain, and asks "What if the sidekick isn't happy with his lot in life and wants to be the hero instead?" The narrator, Apropos, is very self-aware, especially of his role in the proceedings. And he's not happy about it. The tale becomes a comedy of coincidences, missteps, and daring-do, and it's told wonderfully by the ever-talented David.

This book starts with one of the greatest opening lines I've read in awhile. "As I stood there with the sword in my hand, the blade dripping blood on the floor, I couldn't help but wonder if the blood belonged to my father." Thus, Apropos is introduced, along with his tragic lineage. I know it seems strange to call a book with something as horrific as a gang-rape a "comedy," but David writes with such a deft touch that you will find yourself laughing at the appropriate times, and being horrified at the appropriate times. He's that good of a writer, as he's shown in his other books and the comics he writes. Apropos narrates the tale as if he's speaking to the reader, and when he's talking about both his being conceived and his childhood in general, he relates the tale in a very off-hand way, as if he's repressing his emotions about it a little bit. Because of that, you don't get just a narration of the events as they take place. Instead, you also get a bit of a psychological insight into him.

Apropos is not a very likable character. He's self-centered, looking after his own skin when the going gets tough. He gets involved in things because they will benefit him, not because it's "the right thing to do." A lot of times, he ends up doing the right thing anyway, or at the very least hiding the fact that he was looking after himself when he did it. When his boyhood friend Tacit jumps into a clearing to save a weaver (wizard) from being burned at the stake by 20 villagers, Apropos holds back because that's suicide. When Tacit is about to meet a heroic death, Apropos comes up with a plan that has as little risk to himself as possible. Yet he's deemed a hero when it works. If you're the type of reader who has to actually like the protagonist, then you may have to go elsewhere.

The other characters in the book are interesting as well. The most important ones are Entipy, the princess that Apropos must rescue, and Tacit, Apropos' boyhood friend who he drives away and then meets again later in his life. Tacit and Apropos' destinies are intertwined, and it's very interesting how Apropos deals with that. It also isn't very likable, so see the paragraph above if that bothers you. However, it's fitting, not only because of Apropos' personality, but also because it's about time a fantasy novel was written where the protagonist isn't all sweetness and light.

Entipy is a possibly psychotic arsonist who is suspected of burning down the convent where her parents had placed her. The relationship that develops between her and Apropos on their journey also bucks all fantasy conventions. Entipy is not a damsel in distress, but a very tough, but spoiled, young woman. She develops a love-hate relationship with Apropos: he thinks she's insane, she thinks he's an idiot and beneath her. Not to mention the fact that she's waiting for her place in destiny to fall into place. She doesn't realize that Apropos has hijacked it. It's entertaining to watch Apropos slowly fall in love with her, even though he can't tell her that it all shouldn't be happening as it is.

Since Apropos is narrating the book directly, it is filled with wry asides and observations on life, people and society. David is one of the best writers of this sort of thing. You may find yourself laughing hard and then find that you agree with what Apropos is saying. Or maybe you won't, but you'll still be laughing. There are a couple of atrocious puns to watch out for if you hate that sort of thing. Personally, I like them even when they're cringe worthy. There's a military general saying "You all know my motto: Live fast. Die young. And leave a good-looking corps." Fair warning to you pun-haters.

The other problem with the book, though, is something that David usually handles well. I say above that he handles the combination of horror and comedy very well. That is usually the case, but at times the juxtaposition is a little too jarring. It's a bit understandable when Apropos is discussing his childhood, because you can tell he's repressing a bit, but certain events later on are pretty horrific and they jar with the light tone of the novel. It's nothing really major and it doesn't ruin the enjoyment of the book, but it does make you stop for a few seconds before continuing.

For the most part, though, it is a wonderful book. It makes great summer reading, as it doesn't feel very deep (even though, when you look at it, it is). If you already like Peter David, you will love this. If this is your first introduction to him, I think you'll still love it. And it's a definite must-read for sword & sorcery fans everywhere.

I'd give this book three and a half stars if I could, but I can't quite justify a fourth star. It was very good in parts, and the idea of making a hero of the wry comic relief stock character was a good concept. But the book suffers from a bit of a cumbersome back story and a tendency to overstate the obvious. I did like the book, but I wouldn't follow this character's adventures through more than a couple books. If this is an open-ended series, I wouldn't pick up the next book. As of this review, there are three books in the series. If it's going to stop at 3, I might finish them. Time will tell.

It starts out with a genuinely funny situation in which Apropos is holding the sword that is protruding from the chest of a knight. Unfortunately, once out of that situation, the author launches into the origin story of how Apropos arrived in that situation - which lasts over 200 dull and somewhat depressing pages. If you can persevere past page 300, you might find the story entertaining after all. If the story were about 250 pages shorter, it would be a lot better, and a lot of that extra bulk could be taken out of this origin story.

The story is told from the perspective of Apropos, who is the product of the gang-rape of a tavern wench by a group of visiting knights. After the rape, she feels she has nothing left to lose and so continues to support herself by becoming a prostitute at that tavern. After Apropos is forced to leave home (is it a spoiler to tell something that has happened before page 1, but isn't told until page 200?) he goes to the court of King Runcible of Isteria to right some wrongs that were done to him, and instead becomes a squire to the doddering old Sir Umbrage. After he is sent on a mission to retrieve the Princess, who has spent the last several years being schooled in a far-off convent, his adventure truly begins. In his origin and early adventures, Apropos is a thoroughly contemptible character, very self-centered and cowardly. However many of the things he does out of greed or cowardice end up working out better than the heroic options might have. Later on in the story, he grows a little bit, which in a way spoils his appeal. His unheroic methods defined the character, and to see the resolution of the book hinge on his learned selflessness is a bit of a disappointment.

The main problem with this book is the same as with most of the fantasy I've seen labeled as comical satire or humor. With very few exceptions, the genre fails on the same point - it just isn't that funny all the way through. And given the comical nature of the title, along with the description on the back of the book, a lot of the book is far too serious. There are long stretches where it reads just like any other adventure novel. There are numerous puns populating the world of Apropos. Some of the puns are passable, but some are heavily strained, like the 3-page back-story to arrive at the pun-based name of the group of male harpies - the Harpers Bizarre. There are a number of very funny parts of this book, but they're rather scattered.

The writing itself is not as good as it could be. While parts of the dialogue are brilliant, there is a tendency to overstate a point in narration, needlessly complicating the prose. Almost every page for the first 400, I found a paragraph that, were I Peter David's editor, would have picked apart as shamelessly overwritten. David also has a tendency to overuse certain words. I counted about a dozen too many uses of the word "formidable" in various contexts in the first chapter alone. Almost as many "endeavor" abuses in later chapters.

So, other than the fact that it's too long, this is not a bad book. Not a must-read by any means, but not without its merits. It sets up the history and adventures of Sir Apropos of Nothing, with just enough comedy to keep it from turning into a serious attempt at heroic fantasy. The next books probably wouldn't be encumbered by the need to take 12 chapters out of the narration to set up the characters. Most of where it falls down is in the writing, with the writer taking three sentences to say what the reader already knows from one. It could have gone through a couple more re-writes before seeing print.

Peter David's "Sir Apropos of Nothing" is well written, fast paced, funny (and punny), and overall an enjoyable bit of fluffy fantasy. But satire it ain't, even though that is its main selling point.

We are introduced to Squire Apropos through a bawdy brawl in which he accidentally kills a knight. How Apropos weasels his way through explaining the incident to the king and his knights is reminiscent of David's fantasy-satire predecessor, Robert Aspirin, and is about as funny. It should set the tone for the remainder of the book, but strangely does not.

We whip through Apropos's ignoble conception and birth, childhood, "maturity," and finally his accidental elevation to squire. Along the way we meet Tacit, who defends the lame Apropos and befriends him, although Apropos later severs the friendship because he feels that Tacit is using him. This conflict within Apropos, his violently mixed feelings about his friend, should really be the main focus of a story that wants to set up Apropos as an anti-hero that becomes a hero, and Tacit as a man who wants to be the hero but fails. But Tacit plays an unfortunately small role in this book, appearing mainly to punctuate the changes within Apropos, and the story instead focuses on Apropos's adventures.

Clearly David intends for us to believe that the noble, gallant, and handsome Tacit is a hero, while Apropos, the sneaky, conniving, selfish son of a [women], is simply hijacking Tacit's heroic story. It is true that in modern fantasy novels, heros often appear more like Tacit than Apropos. But the older tradition holds that Apropos is the hero precisely because he uses his brains to outwit the opposition, rather than charging into mortal danger like a fairy-tale Prince Charming. Read "The Hobbit" and you'll immediately see what I mean. Read nearly any of the hero stories from any mythology (older than medieval, chivalric Europe anyway) and you will find a wide range of characters that trick, steal, bribe, connive, backstab, etc. in order to serve their own needs, but in doing so end up serving greater needs beyond themselves. Coyote, Maui, Edshu, Prometheus, Odysseus... Han Solo, perhaps... just to name a few heros who had no problem with thievery, trickery, or just plain using your head before using your brawn.

I found it impossible to actually dislike Apropos, which I assumed was a necessary condition for understanding the story as a satire. I also found it impossible to lend any credibility to many of Apropos's schemes to avert disaster and death. Too much of it smacks of deus ex machina... or at least author ex machina. Many of the plot points work only because David allows them to, not because they follow logicially or sensibly. True, this sounds like it might be a satirical element. However, I have read far too many "serious" fantasy novels that suffer the same problem to be able to say that David has avoided the same trap that other authors fall into.

There is one element that does set this novel apart from other fantasies, and that is the amount of time spent on developing Apropos as a complex, conflicted, and kinetic man. Characters in most fantasy novels, even the central protagonists, often end up with the complexity of a Teletubbies episode and the depth of a puddle. They serve more to show off the "wondrous" fantasy world the author has dreamed up, rather than to actually tell us their stories. This book is firmly focused on Apropos and his story, with the world around him solidly in the background. This, more than anything else, I found to be the book's greatest feature and the real reason to choose it amongst other fantasy titles.

"Sir Apropos of Nothing" is not genuinely a satire of the fantasy genre. A real unmasking of the cliches of fantasy has yet to be written. It is, however, an enjoyable read and sure to bring you back to the book store for the next installment.

This is a difficult review to write because, frankly, I'm still trying to figure out if I like this book or not. Peter David's clean, easy writing style is still there, as is his rapier wit, and the story is as epic a fantasy as one can attempt in a medieval setting without having people scream that you're just aping "Lord of the Rings." Still... I'm still not sure how I feel.

Apropos, our protagonist, has two main goals -- find the knight who raped his mother, thus resulting in his existence, and find the Journeyman who later killed her. In neither case does he have a clear idea of what the heck he'll do when this goal is accomplished, and along the way he winds up becoming a Squire, the escort to a princess and an unlikely hero in a story that by all rights belonged to someone else. Or did it?

The book raises cynicism to a new bar, and that's probably why I have problems with it. I'm not a big fan of cynical fiction. But then, the ending leaves you wondering if the previous 646 pages were really as cynical as you were led to believe. It's longer than Peter David's usual work, but it reads at lightning speed. It is liberally peppered with enormously bad puns, usually (but not always) revolving around the names of various characters, but even those don't really hurt the book any further than causing the reader to look up just long enough to say something like, "The Harpers Bizarre. Cute," and then keep reading.

Apropos is, to put it bluntly, a Grade-A creep, but even though he's our first-person narrator you start to feel like you know him a bit better than he knows himself. You start to believe that somewhere amidst all that anger and self-loathing and utter disregard for anyone else there may well be a hero after all.

Or maybe not.

So you see, I still can't tell you if I liked this book, but I can tell you I'm extremely anxious to read the next one in the series. And in the end, what more can you ask from a novel?

As much as I love fantasy novels, I find that many follow a very similar formula and can become very repetitive. Whast a joy to find something totally different. Imagine a heroic epic which is narrarated by the sidekick, not the hero.

Apropos is born of a violent gang rape and is lame at birth. Fighting every step of the way to improve his life, he finds a friend in Tacit, who is everything that Apropos is not. But about half way through the book, you see Apropos decide that he will be the hero of his life, and things quickly start to happen. The most sigificant difference in this book is that the character does not grow. He remains true to his own thoughts and feelings, for better or worse. The usual elements of fantasy, i.e. kings, princesses, unicorns, phoenixes, populate the story but serve to really enhance the action, not just simply to create elements of fantasy.

I really enjoyed this novel and look forward to a sequel. The humor is especially welcome and yet I think the author makes some very serious comments on how to live to one's own destiny.

What other reviewers largely fail to mention is that this book is fantastic (no pun intended) satire. This is a book for readers of fantasy (especially for those who have suffered through bad or mediocre fanatsy.)

The... protagonist of this book has been consistantly described as an "anti-hero" which is mostly misleading. In any other book, or even this book if told from any other perspective, Apropos would be the villain, not the hero. The sole thing that makes him the "hero" is that we are him and we see it all his way.

Apropos is nasty, mean spirited, cruel and unlikable. At times you will find yourself trying not to feel sorry for or sympathetic toward him; or, you will feel slightly ashamed of yourself for feeling sorry for him. He mostly stumbles through the plot, half by chance and the rest mostly by luck. The decisions he does make are almost always intended to be selfish, but he's not lucky enough for that to work (ever).

The actual hero of this book is seen several times throughout. I wont say who it is, but it becomes clear that he is the hero and one gets the sense that Apropos is intruding into his tale. Without Apropos this would be another light, trite (boring) fantasy story about heroes and princesses. But there he is anyway, a little chaos injected into and disrupting the plotline so that the reader may bask in the warm glow of satire as the normal fantasy plot goes at every turn slightly, deliciously, awry.

In the end the plot wraps mostly up with just a few unanswered questions to play with in the sequel. But it doesn't wrap up traditionally, it wraps up as it must: slightly wrongly. This preserves the structure of the world, or at least the world as Apropos sees it, and provides a few more excellent points for contrast with the usual fantasy fare.

I cannot recommend this book too highly to fans of fantasy, You'll laugh at some of the jokes, but more importantly you'll weep painful, delightful teers at the ironic and satirical turns.