Cbr16bingo Fiasco
A guy wakes up, injured, on the floor of an evil looking castle room. Who did this to him? What evil force has been at work?? Who is responsible for the tacky decor??? Though his memories are mostly gone, he realizes he did it. He is a dark wizard and he somehow is responsible for all of it. It’s a dreadful conclusion to reach, and Gav (aka the Dread Lord Gavrax), looking around at his garishly evil castle and the way his goblin servants fear him, knows he is in some trouble. This is a pretty fun story, with a lot of humor and gore, as Gav tries to piece together his past while hiding his memory loss from those who would take advantage of it and kill him immediately. That would be everyone. Further complicating the situation, it seems Gav has kidnapped a princess and is expected to take part in a ritual with some other wizards, including the powerful and evil Zarconar. But Gav is having second, third and fourth thoughts about that. He wants to live and maybe not be a bad guy anymore, but that turns out to be harder than you think.
I really enjoyed this story for the way it takes every fairy tale trope — about evil wizards, damsels in distress, servile goblins and simple townsfolk — and turns them on their head. No one is what they seem on the outside, and that is a theme running throughout this story about the difficulties of owning up to your past and putting in the hard work to be a better person. Even when no one believes you can be. Even when you aren’t sure yourself that you can be. Gav was clearly an absolute monster before his accident, and everyone expects the worst of him. The townspeople are rather fatalistic about the whole situation. After all, Gav wasn’t the first evil wizard in the village and he wouldn’t be the last. But time is running out, and Gav has to figure out what Zarconar’s plan for Princess Eliasha is, somehow win her trust, and maybe even enlist the help of some unlikely folks to save the princess, the town and his own life. The final set up, involving a garlic festival, a convocation of evil wizards and an onslaught of heroes trying to save the princess manages to be both terrifyingly violent and somehow hilarious.
This book fits the “fiasco” square quite well. Gav’s memory-erasing accident is the first fiasco to set the story rolling, but then there are a number of other hilarious fiascos throughout the story as Gav tries to remember how magic works and how he might prevent catastrophic devastation. My favorite fiascos involve Gav’s goblin cook Orla, who is so excited to be able to show off in the kitchen, but whose dishes are, well, inedible at best and deadly at worst.
This was a staff recommended book at my local B&N and it did not disappoint. It’s a fun, quick read, and if you enjoy magic/fantasy with some snark, I think you’ll find Dreadful delightful.