The Princess and the Goblin

Reading this was an odd experience. It is a fairy-tail fantasy story from over a hundred years ago, so it an old fashion story but no where near old enough to be a "folk-tale" or anything like that. It's different, like the introduction says. The language used, both by characters and by the narration, is not something I am used to. Not better or worse, specifically, just different. 

Also, seeing the different concept of "fantasy" from the author's day is interesting. One can see the development of certain things between now and then. The goblins, for instance, don't look or sound like the goblins from many fantasy depictions today. They look kind of like demented dwarves, and the hogpoge creatures they domesticate are also really bizarre looking. 

As for the plot, its split between what Princess Irene does and what Miner Curdie does in relation to the goblins and such. While Curdie has a pretty clear thread of spying on the goblins after accidentally overhearing them talk about an evil-plan, I can't say as much about Irene. She is not a passive protagonist, but also often seems to be skirting the edges of the events. 

I'm not really sure what grade to give this book. I'm going to settle in the range of "I liked reading it". 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Princess and the Goblin" a B+

Click here for my next book review: Robin Hood (Barefoot Books version)

Click here for my previous book review:  Vidia and the Fairy Crown

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Vidia and the Fairy Crown

 I like this story for a strange reason. I'm not particularly fond of the Tinkerbell franchise, and I am way outside the target audience for this book, but I still found something fun. This book is like role-playing game's fetch quest. 

No, really! Going from one NPC to the next, talking to them and learning about the next step in the chain, and leading up to a chance-based mini-game, and all the while, one NPC is assisting the player, who is frustrated by this scenario. There's even the chance for Video-Game Cruelty Potential. I can imagine that being in a game with a morality meter. 

I also like this because it is totally an Aesop story but with a reverse angle. That is, it is a story with a moral to teach, but Vidia herself isn't the one who needs to learn anything. She really didn't do anything wrong. It is EVERYONE else who needs to learn the moral about not jumping to conclusions and the like. Furthermore, Prilla recounts a lesson that she already knows as if to remind herself; she didn't need to learn it, but it would be good for a real-life reader to learn it.

Finally, cute art! It is cute, and bright and whimsical; totally fitting the Disney idea of pixies. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Vidia and the Fairy Crown" an A+

Click here for my next book review:   The Princess and the Goblin

Click here for my previous book review:  Jewel Kingdom - the Emerald Princess Plays a Trick

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Book review - Jewel Kingdom - the Emerald Princess Plays a Trick

 A cute story about a nice and mischievous girl learning about empathy. It's fairly straightforward, being as it is for very young readers, but there is also some complexity here. 

Princess Emily is not a mean person. Her pranks are not in the least bit malicious. They are just harmless fun, and that is what Princess Emily thinks they are, moments of fun playing around with her friends. She is sincerely shocked that her friends/subjects don't enjoy her pranks and were just playing along because she has a higher social status than them. 

Thus, the immediate and explicit moral of the story is to practice empathy and read between the lines in one's relations with others, but there is another moral here. It is thus, "When someone does something that bothers you, just tell them". The only person in this story who straight-up tells Princess Emily to knock it off with the pranks is her cousin and fellow-princess, Roxanne. Even Arden, Princess's Emily advisor, has to be pushed by Roxanne to be honest.

This moral works because Princess Emily is a nice girl, not a bully. Telling an actual bully to stop would be less likely work because their motivation is different. The story makes this distinction. At the very start of the story, Princess Emily hugs Staghorn after pranking him and thanks him for being a good sport, because she thought that's what he was doing. She later tells Arden that she thinks of Staghorn as her grandfather, and so she doesn't want to upset him or have him be angry at her. 

 There's every reason to believe that if Staghorn had just told her the truth right then, she would have apologized. She probably wouldn't have stopped with the pranks, but she would have realized that he didn't enjoy that particular prank. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Jewel Kingdom - the Emerald Princess Plays a Trick" an A+

Click here for my next book review:  Vidia and the Fairy Crown

Click here for my previous book review:   The Magic Attic Club - Princess Megan

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

The Magic Attic Club - Princess Megan

I found this at a thrift shop, drawn by its beautiful cover. It is truly a gorgeous illustration of the protagonist in an archetypal medieval princess dress. Even the tall hat truly looks "elegant" as described in the book. There are other illustrations in this book, of Megan, of a unicorn, even of maids cleaning up in a room, and all of them fantastic. 

The story itself is very simple; rather it is simply written, but it involves some complex stuff. A scheduling conflict between Megan and her mother leads to stress and frustration for both, which then leads Megan to seek relief in the Magic Attic. This leads to a new adventure in fantasy medieval Europe, where the locals believe Megan to be a princess. 

The fantasy plot has a decent set-up and execution, though the conclusion feels weak. There isn't much space to really develop it, so there is room to argue that Michelle and her mother were worried over nothing. Even so, it is strangely engaging. I really wanted to read through it. The "real life" plot also a good resolution. To my surprise, I actually liked that resolution better than the fantasy plot's; I was thinking that the fantasy plot would be the main attraction and the real-life plot would be rushed, but I feel like it was the opposite. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Magic Attic Club -  Princess Megan" a B+

Click here for my next book review:  Book review - Jewel Kingdom - the Emerald Princess Plays a Trick

Click here for my previous book review:  She Proclaimed Herself Pupil of the Wiseman - volume 2

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

She Proclaimed Herself Pupil of the Wiseman - volume 2

This one has a strange introduction - setting the scene, a carriage hit-and-run which turns into some kind of black comedy and is ultimately rendered moot because the "victim" was a zombie. I suppose it is to set the tone for the story. What sounds like a crisis, actually is not. 

Mira's purpose here is two-fold, to travel to Karanak, the City of Requiem to investigate the nearby dungeon, the Ancient Temple Nebrapolis, and seek information about the recent demon incursion as well as the possible whereabouts of one of her fellow Wisemen, Soul Howl the Elder of Necromancy. What follows is much like the first volume. 

A lot more world-building: About the city of Karanak, the structure of the Mage's Guild, and how becoming " real" has changed the VRMMORPG game.

There's also more of Mira showing off her summoning skills as well as her "immortal arts", which are basically magical martial arts. What I like about this is that it is not "just" her showing off. It's not about a power-trip or just some vicarious power fantasy for the reader. No, Mira's showing off has a purpose. 

You see, Mira is a summoner who is passionate about summoning magic, but in the 30 years since Danbulf's disappearance, summoning has declined in popularity to the extent that summoners are rare. The fairly high-level party she encounters in this book, who has seen and done a lot over a long period of time, has no idea what she is capable of, because they have never seen a high-level summoner before. Thus, Mira's showing off is actually promotion of her profession in order to attract others to it. Given how under-staffed her kingdom is right now, and how a competent summoner can generate a small company of knights on a moment's notice, she has every reason to toot her own horn. 

Because I enjoyed all of the above in the first volume, I very much enjoyed this one as well. I think the author is enjoying plotting up drama or suspense only to immediately deflate it. There's this one scene where a boss-level enemy is introduced, and the narration talks up how difficult it would be to defeat, requiring a large group of high-level players, "Or one Wiseman".  

This is one of the perks in having an (over)powerful protagonist, there is no need to waste words or space trying to convince a reader that each and every situation is hopeless/perilous/etc. while simultaneously writing some sort of victory for the protagonist. The author can instead focus on some other goal, in this case, demonstrating the "immortal arts" and expositing on a goal of the protagonist besides "survive". 

Frankly, it is impressive that the author managed to hold my attention for over 270 pages without a central villain or major drama while still using the listed premise. Well, there is a wide-scale crisis at the climax, but no central villain just yet. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "She Proclaimed Herself Pupil of the Wiseman - volume 2" an A+

Click here for my next book review:  The Magic Attic Club - Princess Megan

Click here for my previous book review:  Sword Art Online- Alicization volume 13

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.