Customer Reviews

Undesired Princess and the Enchanted Bunny

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

 

 

This book consists of two unrelated piece of fiction written by two individual authors. L. Sprague de Camp's The Undesired Princess is your typical de Camp fantasy featuring a practical man thrust into a fantasy realm where magic is very real and unearthly dangers threaten not only the protagonist and the leaders of the realm but, indirectly, the very existence of the fantasy world itself. Rollin Hobart is an exceedingly logical engineer who is recruited (or kidnapped, really) by a strange old man to save the life of his home land's princess. The successful hero can only succeed by answering a riddle posted by an elephantine behemoth. Pointing out false logic is rather a passion of Rollin's, but returning back home to New York poses a much harder problem than saving the royal damsel in distress. Finding himself welcomed into the royal family as the soon-to-be husband to the princess, Rollin goes to great extremes, often using his own form of magic, to find a portal back to his world, but to his dismay he only finds himself acquiring more and more authority and power. This fantasy world is most interesting in that it is a two-value world, meaning that something either is or it isn't. Thus, there is no dusk-night immediately follows day instantaneously, for example. Statements are taken literally (as Rollin discovers after making the statement that he was hungry enough to eat a horse). The method of warfare is especially fascinating. A fair fight involves both armies lining up in equal numbers; when either army gets out of formation in the slightest degree, their logic demands that the minutely disorganized army turn and run. I can't say that The Undesired Princess is as enjoyable as de Camp's Harold Shea stories, but it is certainly an interesting and amusing read.

The Enchanted Bunny was written by David Drake, and it is dubbed an homage to L. Sprague de Camp. The story of this piece, which is a novella of less than 100 pages, is similar to de Camp's style and subject, but it is quite inferior to the writing of the legendary fantasy master. The manner in which the rather uninteresting ghost writer protagonist is transported to a fantasy world is cumbersome, as is the series of events he finds himself engaged in. His main task is to defeat a rampaging dragon, yet that pivotal event happens far too soon and much too quickly. On top of that, the author ends the tale with a time-worn ruse I won't identify. After partaking of Drake's bland literary meal, his dessert of last-minute twist only succeeded in leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

De Camp's The Undesired Princess is a short novel that any De Camp fan will want to read, and it is more than capable of gratifying any reader of this type of fantasy. The only service the Drake novella performs is to highlight the difference between a great fantasy writer such as De Camp and a less skilled practitioner of the same art. I give The Undesired Princess four stars and The Enchanted Bunny two and a half stars.

This was a perfect book for vacation time, lunchbreaks, and deserted beaches. I enjoyed the adventures of poor Rollin "The Logical" in the first part and Joe's predicament in the second half. I'm not one for fantasy or such, but I'm glad I got my hands on this book. Again, save it for your lighter moments.

Stories of extraordinary men who go on quests are common, but the two short stories that appear in this compliation are both about rather mundane businessmen who find themselves in impossible worlds and given seemingly impossible quests.

These stories abound in humor, warmth and romance as the heroes stumble their way about in a world the clearly don't quite understand.

The first story by L. Sprague de Camp is the better of the two with the world itself being an impossible land of two-sided logic where everything much either be one thing or another. Hair can be red or not red. Mountains are yellow. There is no brown or green. Children grow up overnight as one can either be a child, or an adult, but not both. The people of the land reflect this and slowly drive the hero crazy with their ability to interpret any comment or command literally.

The second story by David Drake isn't quite as imaginative, but the intrigue does add an element to the story and the characters are vibrant and alive despite the short length of hte tale.

This is an excellent read for any lover of humor and fantasy.