Craig Shaw Gardner
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Delightful 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.
Suspended somewhere between the shallow-silly world of Xanth and the wry quirkiness of Discworld is the strange world of Ebenezum and his hapless apprentice Wuntvor. Wuntvor is the apprentice of the famed magician Ebenezum (whose main vice is being somewhat greedy). But when a sinister demon, Guxx Unfufadoo, is conjured up -- the worst kind, a rhyming demon, whose power grows with every rhyme he utters. (Fortunately he's not too good at it) And Ebenezum manages to survive Guxx's attempt to kill him. But he soon discovers that Guxx has made him allergic to magic: whenever he's near magic, he starts sneezing uncontrollably.
After self-treatment fails (miserably) Ebenezum concludes that he can only be cured in Vushta, the City of Forbidden Delights. Wuntvor, being a typical teenage male, has no problems at all with this. But their way is fraught with peril -- much of it with silly dialogue, beautiful girls, and more than a few lunatics. Along the way they will encounter a singing-dancing dragon, a used-weapons dealer (who is also a demon), a mildly crazed warrior Hendrek with his club called Headbasher, Death in a game-show setting ("Now, Wuntvor, are you ready to double your lifespan?"), a cult that worships Plaugg the Fairly Magnificent, trial by custard, and demons trying to invade the world from the supernatural Netherhells.
As you can tell, this is not a particularly serious book. It reads like a series of loosely interconnected vignettes (because it was originally published that way) but somehow the episodic tendencies never bothered me. Every chapter is started with a hilarious quote from the Teachings of Ebenezum.
The humor ranges from the character oriented (Wuntvor's perpetually hormone-addled state) to the wry and funny (the hideous torment of aspirin commercials) to the low ("Neebekenezer's Syndrome of Universal Flatulence" and the chicken that... well, never mind).
The humor generally stems from the characters (Wuntvor's perpetually hormone-addled state) or the silly situations (Ebenezum being chased out by Grandmother) or the delightful dialogue ("What rhymes with silver?" "Orange!") such as Ebenezum critiquing Guxx's terrible rhymes. ("There is no justice in the cosmos. At least no poetic justice.")
The characters are hilarious: Ebenezum is the archetypical wizard, with a few secrets and flaws up his voluminous blue sleeve. Wuntvor is the character we see the world through, but he is as quirky as Ebenezum in his own realistic manner: He falls for every pretty girl nearby, looks forward to Vushta, and is a little too gangly and earnest for his own good. Supporting characters (with the exception of Snarks and Hendrek) are generally not developed as well, since they often vanish after a few chapters. This book is okay for most kids and all teens -- a few kisses between Wuntvor and his various love interests is about all that is objectionable.
It's fantastic that this book is back in print. A must-read for fans of fantasy and comedy.
Editorial Review:
A wizard and his hapless apprentice search for a cure to the wizard's allergy to magic-while avoiding such perils as tap-dancing dragons, enchanted chickens, and sinister shrubbery...
"A lot of fun." (Christopher Stasheff)
