The Part about the Dragon Was (Mostly) True

Evoking the dry humor of Terry Pratchett and absurdist trope subversions of Monty Python, Gibson (The Chronicle of Heloise and Grimple) flips the classic fantasy setup of a ragtag band of heroes on a quest to slay a fearsome dragon. Half-elven Heloise is the most talented and beautiful bard in Erithea—at least according to her. Sworn to secrecy until now, Heloise is finally at liberty to disclose the true story of Dragonia, a great dragon that once terrorized the hamlet of Skendrick, revealing all the ways the bardic legends have mythologized and distorted the facts. In Heloise’s account, the townsfolk of Skendrick are all as long-winded as they are dim-witted and entirely deserve being eaten by the dragon. The scrappy heroes who come to save them are also not much to write home about: there’s pint-sized grifter Rumscrabble, a half-halfling/half-dwarf; Whiska, a quick-tempered wizard; Nadinta, a cash-strapped elf; and Borg, a slow-moving rock giant. Only Heloise herself saves the team from total incompetency. Alternating between the idealized version of events and “how it actually went down,” Gibson’s story is clever, twisty, and bursting with sidesplittingly funny one-liners. Fantasy fans are guaranteed a laugh. [em](Dec.) [/em]