Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The bastards were shirking again..." (more)
Key Phrases: medical demon, black credit card, young demon, Prince Charming, Princess Scarlet, Santa Claus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collaboration between adventure SF writer Zelazny (the Amber series) and humorist Sheckley ( Immortality Inc. ) is in the Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams mode. Demon Azzie Elbub is representing Evil in the Millennial contest in the year 1000 to see who will control humanity's destiny for the next thousand years. Azzie's entry is a recreation of the Sleeping Beauty story in which Evil triumphs when the princess kills the prince whose kiss awakens her. Azzie is aided by hunchback Frike and witch Ylith, and is observed by Good's representative, the angel Babriel. There are allusions to the Cinderella story, the movie Frankenstein and Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's classic SF novel Inferno , as well as very P. G. Wodehouse-like multiple digressions and old plot elements resurfacing at inconvenient moments. While the premise shows some promise, the execution falters, never becoming as funny as it might.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Frankenstein meets Sleeping Beauty at the end of the millennium as the forces of Good and Evil vie for dominance over the next thousand years of history in this comic effort by two veteran sf/fantasy authors. The plot--in which an ambitious devil attempts to prove that fairy tales don't always have happy endings--is negligible, serving as an excuse for jibes against bureaucracy (the real hell), Santa Claus, and the civilized world. The humor is forced and vaguely second-hand in this less-than-successful collaboration. Not recommended.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 286 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (November 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553354485
• ISBN-13: 978-0553354485
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #633,911 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Millennial Contest Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant, very funny novel that fizzles toward the end, December 12, 2003

By	Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorate books, March 5, 2000

By	Zoyd Farrell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite Charmed, April 19, 2006

By	Patrick Shepherd "hyperpat" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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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)