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Ronan the Barbarian #2
Ronan's Rescue
Sometimes Tyson really wished she hadn't followed her father's trade and become a warrior. In a world of six-foot, muscle-bound men full to the brim with testosterone it wasn't easy being five feet four and female. But Tyson had learned to cope, and the male warriors had learned to respect her (well,they had little choice, it was either that or get very dead very quickly). Then she met up with Ronan, and life became a LOT more fun.
But now someone has kidnapped him - and so Tyson is going to get him back. It shouldn't be too much of a problem; she only has to get past the most powerful witch in Midworld and an orc army several thousand strong. And she does have a couple of friends to lean on. Unfortunately, they happen to be Tarl, a man who claims to have cadged a free drink in every pub in Midworld, and Puss, a psychopathic little donkey with a nasty line in sarcasm and a taste for meat-feast pizza.
And Tyson isn't the only woman with a problem. Amongst the Vagens (a tribe of Yuppie Vikings who have terrorised antique shops and fabric warehouses the length of the coast) lives Klaer, a princess who is determined to captain the first raiding longboat to have an all-women crew.
Will Tyson and Klaer succeed? Will Tarl get thrown out of another pub? Will Puss discover how nice orc-flesh tastes? There's only one way to find out...
Ronan's Rescue is the second book in the Ronan trilogy and has been painfully translated from the original Gibberish by James Bibby.
"A genuinely funny humorous fantasy" - SFX magazine.
"Should grace the bookshelves of anyone who considers themselves afficionados of humorous literature" - Tales from the Broken Drum magazine
But now someone has kidnapped him - and so Tyson is going to get him back. It shouldn't be too much of a problem; she only has to get past the most powerful witch in Midworld and an orc army several thousand strong. And she does have a couple of friends to lean on. Unfortunately, they happen to be Tarl, a man who claims to have cadged a free drink in every pub in Midworld, and Puss, a psychopathic little donkey with a nasty line in sarcasm and a taste for meat-feast pizza.
And Tyson isn't the only woman with a problem. Amongst the Vagens (a tribe of Yuppie Vikings who have terrorised antique shops and fabric warehouses the length of the coast) lives Klaer, a princess who is determined to captain the first raiding longboat to have an all-women crew.
Will Tyson and Klaer succeed? Will Tarl get thrown out of another pub? Will Puss discover how nice orc-flesh tastes? There's only one way to find out...
Ronan's Rescue is the second book in the Ronan trilogy and has been painfully translated from the original Gibberish by James Bibby.
"A genuinely funny humorous fantasy" - SFX magazine.
"Should grace the bookshelves of anyone who considers themselves afficionados of humorous literature" - Tales from the Broken Drum magazine
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 17, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 12, 2014
The trouble with fantasy novels that depend heavily on magic to make them work, even those intended to be humorous, is that the magic is never used in the most appropriate way. Take this book: faced with two heroes armed with swords what does the most powerful magician on the planet choose to do? She orders an orc to shoot them with an arrow. In the words of John Wayne (I think) you don't take a knife to a gun fight. Having demonstrated an ability to turn Ronan into a 92 year old and dwarves into mice, Shakira chooses to try to kill her opponents with an arrow, not a bolt of lightning. Go figure. You can guess the outcome.
And that's pretty much what's wrong with the entire Ronan series. The story is OK, but the author doesn't make the narrative hang together properly. He's too busy working out the next pun based on place names. So we end up in a town named Drolic, the highest point of which is.... no I'm not dignify it by completing the pun. I saw it coming the moment I read the place name. I ended up, once again, spending more time re-reading place names to see if I'd missed a pun and too little time actually enjoying the narrative. That was mainly due to the narrative being too poor and lacking cohesion to make it worth bothering with.
Well, one more in the series to go. Is it too much to hope that Bibby gets it right in that one? Probably but better to live in hope than die in vain.
And that's pretty much what's wrong with the entire Ronan series. The story is OK, but the author doesn't make the narrative hang together properly. He's too busy working out the next pun based on place names. So we end up in a town named Drolic, the highest point of which is.... no I'm not dignify it by completing the pun. I saw it coming the moment I read the place name. I ended up, once again, spending more time re-reading place names to see if I'd missed a pun and too little time actually enjoying the narrative. That was mainly due to the narrative being too poor and lacking cohesion to make it worth bothering with.
Well, one more in the series to go. Is it too much to hope that Bibby gets it right in that one? Probably but better to live in hope than die in vain.
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July 7, 2011loved it!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews