Been a while since I posted anything mainly due to life happening. That doesn't mean that I haven't been consuming movies, books and playing games. One thing I did before life started to take over was download the first 3 books in Terry Brooks's Landover series from Amazon (link here) and start reading it (again). The book, The Magic Kingdom of Landover Volume 1 consists of Magic Kindgom For Sale - SOLD!, The Black Unicorn and Wizard At Large all for $9.99 on Kindle. The first novel, MKFS-S! was first published back in 1986, which was about the time I first read it.
The book is about a dissatisfied Chicago widower lawyer who decides to take a risk on an offer in a department store catalog to buy a fantasy kingdom and become it's king. For the rest of the story we follow Ben Holiday and see how his purchase works out for him.
Not as well known as Brooks's Shannara series and possibly not as good as the Sword of Shannara, MKFS-S! reminded of a particular sub-genre of fantasy that I really like, the kind where seemingly normal people are transported to another world. A sub-genre best known by classics like The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia , A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Alice in Wonderland, I personally have found The Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg to be my favorite example. There is something great about the idea that we (any of us) might someday stumble into another world (and hopefully survive).
Some of the things that Terry Brooks does very well in MKFS-S! is give us insight into Ben's doubts and concerns as he questions his sanity for even buying into the idea of this kingdom for sale. Plus Landover is interesting in it's own right, but I don't want to spoil the surprises. Luckily I originally read it so long ago that I didn't remember all of the twists (of which there are a few).
The book probably best falls into a young adult age range, with nothing too violent (more suspenseful) and nothing too sexy. I read it at 16 or 17 and anyone 13 and up would have a good time with the story. I haven't read books 2 or 3 in the series (which currently spans six novels) and am looking forward to reading them as well. I give MKFS-S! 3.5 Mick Happies and highly recommend you go out and grab a copy of the 3 book set if you like Brooks's other novels or want a decent fantasy story with nearly all the trappings of the trope.
Back again soon with a roundup of all the movies I have seen lately.
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