Off to See the Wizard by Clay Johnson

Off to See the Wizard by Clay Johnson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Off to see the Wizard has nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz, though that’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw the title. Nope, nothing at all. But it does have a lot to do with the typical quest found in table top games and fantasy books. Evil demon lord sparking the end of the world and brave, oh so heroic wizard leading a group of heroes to save the day, and that’s where it’s also different.

The story is hilarious, poking fun at everything normally accepted in a fantasy story and, at the same time, spoofing crime stories you might find on TV. You know, those ones that feature the recordings of witnesses giving their testimony, cutting over to reenactments, and then to another witness who either tells it from a different perspective or reacts to the prior witness. That is this story, only awesome and off-color to the extreme. I alternated between giggling, mouth agape at the lack of propriety, to outright laughing, to grimacing at the rather vivid images the story brought to mind.

And those images start off pretty strong and disturbing, both funny and stomach turning at the same time. It may be too much for some readers, but I say if you can handle the High Lord of Toth’s initial testimony, then I think you’ll enjoy the rest. I’d like to say it gets better from there, but it only gets delightfully worse, so yeah. Be prepared.

I was worried at first that it would downplay everything I like in fantasy because that what the description implied. But, I think having read tons of fantasies makes this even funnier because you can see the parallels, where things might have gone if the heroes weren’t so heroic or the villains weren’t so villainous, and particularly, where the amazing feats were nothing short of accidental. It’s a train wreck, and I couldn’t put it down.

Overall, I loved his story. It’s hilarious and shocking, definitely for adults. I’d highly recommend this to folks who want a good laugh at the expense of two popular genres, fantasy and crime story, all told without a single regard for propriety.

I received a copy of this book from the author so that I could write this review for the blog at Pure Textuality.com.




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