Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
fun concept but a little too heavy handed on the. everything. and the quippy fourth-wall-breaking insincerity in the name of “subversion” is not comedic or interesting it’s just annoying
I'm not much for comedy at the best of times - most of it just comes off as unfunny at best and cringeworthy at worst. And that's exactly what happened with this book. I very nearly gave up on page 11 because the protagonist insisted on making a fool of herself while both literally and metaphorically shoving away another character trying to help her avoid doing so. But sometimes the inciting incident is a little rough and then it gets better, so I pushed on. And admittedly after that one scene, I no longer felt like cringing out of my skin. But it didn't improve by much. The characters were caricatures with little depth whose main purpose seemed to be subverting tropes. The humor ranged from just not funny to awkward and forced. And the plot was far too straightforward and unexciting to hold my interest on its own. I appreciate that the book was trying to subvert all of the fantasy quest novel tropes - I am absolutely here for trope subversion. But Promises, Promises took the concept of subverting tropes and just kinda forgot to build an actually enjoyable story around it. I will admit, though,, comedies aren't my jam generally. The problem here may be me and not the book. But regardless of where the fault lies, I couldn't find the desire to continue.
This book laid bare all the tropes in fantasy video games. It pokes fun at them as you take off to adventure in a video game. Sandy Blunt makes improbable promises to a princess, and telling the fortunes of princesses is illegal, so she has a year and a day to make them all come true or be she and her friends will be beheaded. Sandy is a wizard, but she’s terrible at being a wizard. Tyrone is a palace guard, but he’s a terrible fighter and more concerned with keeping his armor rust-free. The ogre is a horticulturalist who is more likely to tear you limb from limb for treading on his Heliotropium arborescens than to eat you. The unicorn is the size of a small goat. Sandy thinks Drusilla is crazy because she claims to be a disposed princess of a far-off land who must fend off assassins at every turn. Which she is telling the truth. The task ie adventure quest is ridiculous and pokes fun at how adventures in games are such as do the quest with what the quest task ask for with metal armor on in water which you know should rust if you are wearing it in water. This story makes fun of all that is fantasy and how people who love fantasy understand some of the things portrayed in fantasy is inaccurate but the adventurer needs to do it anyways.
Anyways this book is so funny you have to have some understanding of what exactly the author is making fun of and way. The author does it in a great way with so much humor that you get how crazy some of the adventure quests are. I assume that L. J. Baker is a gamer and spun this tale off of adventuring in fantasy games.
Anyways this book is so funny you have to have some understanding of what exactly the author is making fun of and way. The author does it in a great way with so much humor that you get how crazy some of the adventure quests are. I assume that L. J. Baker is a gamer and spun this tale off of adventuring in fantasy games.