An Excess of Enchantments

The Ballad of Wuntvor #2

by Craig Shaw Gardner

Verse the second in The Ballad of Wuntvor...in which an uninformed apprentice learns what comes after "Once upon a time..."

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction, Comedy

180 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1988

About the author

Craig Shaw Gardner was born in Rochester, New York and lived there until 1967, when he moved to Boston, MA to attend Boston University. He graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Broadcasting and Film. He has continued to reside in Boston since that time.

He published his first story in 1977 while he held a number of jobs: shipper/receiver for a men's suit manufacturer, working in hospital public relations, running a stat camera, and also managed of a couple of bookstores: The Million Year Picnic and Science Fantasy Bookstore.

As of 1987 he became a full time writer, and since then he has published more than 30 novels and more than 50 short stories.

He also published under these pseudonyms:

Peter Garrison

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Think Groundhog Day meets Shrek only not as good and you'll have some idea of this second installment in the Ballad of Wuntvor. Wuntvor finds himself stuck in Mother Duck's Fairy Tales and all the normal chaos ensues. Exactly the same chaos that Gardner's been dishing for five books now without variation.

Fortunately, there is only one book left.

[Captain Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

What was that I just read? The dialogue, to me, wasn't particularly clever, though I think it was intended to be, and the scenes seemed forced. There were things that didn't make sense, unless they were meant to be part of the cleverness. For instance, the wolf blows down a house, which results in pieces of it flying up into the air. Only then does the wolf realise that the pieces were weapons such as arrows, scimitars, broadswords and knives. Looking up, he sees them about to rain down on him, so he legs it.

Well, how is it physically possible for the wolf to have blown this house down and the strangely constructed debris from it goes straight up into the air and then straight down again? Or, again, is this part of the cleverness? And why does the wolf then run away from the raining weapons into the woods? All he had to do was wait a minute or less for the danger to pass, whereupon he could then have devoured his victims that had been inside the house.

I like books to make sense, and this one seemed to be in short supply of it.

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book in the Wuntvor trilogy, there just wasn't as much to this one as to earlier volumes. Pretty much the whole thing was based around Mother Duck's multiple failed attempts to cast Wuntvor and his companions in fairy tales. They also involve a giant, a talking wolf who wants to manipulate the stories so he can eat as many people as possible, and the Seven Other Dwarves from the previous book. It's still funny, but it doesn't go much of anywhere.

[Kay Iscah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those loop narratives. The shift between first and third person worked well for setting off the tales from the main story. But I think loops work better when they still advance the plot or some character development. Wuntvor's tales stay firmly in the realm of silly. Again, I can't fault them for being consistent in their lack of depth, but it's why I'm keeping this series at 3 stars rather going any higher. At the same time, they are still fun little nonsense romps.

[Lila · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second of the eternal apprentice series makes more sense. The plot is mostly concerned with escaping "Mother Duck," who creates fairy tales, reworking plots over and over like some demented director. The characters have to escape her spell that traps them in the fairy tales.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is amusing but not thought provoking.

[Joel Malissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was worse than the previous, but I have the third and want to keep reading just for closure.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favorite of the Gardner books, perhaps because I've never been a fan of fairy tales :D

[Joey V. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Someone else recently described this as Groundhog Day meets Shrek, and I honestly can't think of a better way to put it. This should have been a single chapter diversion, but gets padded out to 150 pages of Nothing Actually Happening. There's nothing to see here that you haven't seen before except Jeffrey the Wolf. He's new. If you own one of the omnibus editions, it's okay, but really (assuming book 3 recaps the final chapter) you can actually skip this book. Only one single thing of any importance happens, and it is literally the last page of the book.

[Todd Martin]

Although it begins with clever ideas, it quickly gets old as the clever ideas repeat themselves like an overused third grade joke. Seriously, as Mark Twain would say, "the novel goes nowhere and arrives in the air."

[Vader · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish

[Andy]

1ST UK PUBLICATION. COVER BY JOSH KIRBY.

[Rae Dy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got tired reading the same scene every time. But still, I manage to finish this book. Ha!