No Country for Old Gnomes: 06/29/22

No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne is for me a stark reminder that I should avoid purchasing books on whims. This volume was my last impulse by when I was unexpectedly in a Barnes & Nobles. It's the second book in the Tales of Pell series. Realizing that when I got home led to my rather lackluster read of Kill the Farm Boy (2018). That one faired better at two stars.

This one opens first with your typical witches from Macbeth via the Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (1988) and then in a brief promising scene involves gnomes fleeing their home as it's being firebombed by halflings.

Unfortunately like those early Pratchett's, this book goes from scene to scene, adding more characters until finally landing on Pell's new king. When the goat is offhandedly compared to Moist van Lipwig (see Going Postal, also by Pratchett (2004), I realized this book and I were doomed to come to any sort of cordial agreement.

I could either waste my time reading this excruciatingly bad attempt at the same humor of the Discworld books or I could just go back and re-read my collection of Pratchett books. It was an easy decision to make.

One star

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