On the HahaFiction shelf
Dragon Princess
Dragon Princess · Book 1 · 2014
Frank Blackthorne takes a job rescuing Princess Lucille from a dragon. The wizard's spell leaves Frank in Lucille's body and Lucille in the dragon's, so the supposed rescuer and his intended rescue have to work together to put things right.
From the publisher’s blurb
“magic is rarely perfect, heroes are rarely honorable”Read the full description at DAW / Penguin Random House publisher description
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What makes it funny?
Frank tells his own story because he doesn't trust bards to get it right. He refuses the customary lengthy history lesson and gives his bad decisions the sort of careful explanation that makes them sound briefly defensible.
The comedy at work
The rescue quest keeps losing its expected shape, while its narrator objects to the conventions used to tell heroic adventures. Frank supplies the excuses and complaints of a working thief where a more dignified hero might offer noble intentions.
Try this if…
A rogue's first-person account carries this quest. Its appeal is in Frank's self-justification and the practical trouble caused by bad magic, for readers who enjoy familiar fantasy roles being disrupted.
Good to know
Sexual innuendo, profanity and drunkenness accompany the adventure. The danger can be bloody, even when Frank is making jokes about his predicament.
A few distinguishing details
- A thief narrating his own failed rescue
- A princess and her rescuer in the wrong bodies
More funny fantasy
Sources & further reading
- Penguin Random House lists Dragon Princess by S. Andrew Swann as a mass market paperback, ISBN 9780756409579, with 336 pages.
Publisher
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