Kill the Farm Boy: 12/12/21

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne is the first in the Tales of Pell fantasy series. A farm boy is told by a very disagreeable pixy that he's the Chosen One. Next to him his goat ends up with the ability to talk. Together the set off on their quest until a very tall warrior woman accidentally kills him.

Thus the quest becomes revive the farm boy. Except nothing goes anyone's way. It's one hiccup after another. Each thing that waylays them is more frustrating or disgusting than the next.

The novel is presented as a parody of the Chosen One fantasy tropes. It tries desperately to be a mixture of early Discworld (Terry Pratchett), the Myth Adventures (Robert Lynn Asprin), Xanth (Piers Anthony) and the Shrek films. It fails at being much like any of them and especially fails at having its own voice. Worse yet, it isn't funny.

The jokes always default to gross out humor. The set up to the jokes are broadcast so loud that there's no natural flow to the story. There's no character growth or anything else memorable. It's just a string of vaguely related gags all more or less related to Chosen One tropes and clichés.

The second book is No Country For Old Gnomes (2019) which I have on hand. We'll see if I manage to make my way through it.

Two stars

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