Paperback, 400 pages
Published Feb. 26, 2019 by Del Rey.
Funny and easy read. When I started it felt a bit like Discworld, though the storylines are different. But in a sense its more like the Hitchhikers Guide in a fantasy setting. Fun, silly read!
I wanted to like this, but it was just too silly for my taste.
my struggle with this book is that while I liked it, I felt like it was too slow moving. Having read a lot of Piers Anthony growing up I have a lot of patience for stupid puns and fantasy books that poke fun at themselves and the genre, but I just felt like this book was goign to take forever based on the pace that the ragtag group was assembling and I just don't have that long of an attention span these days. I wouldn't say no to coming back to this at another point, but for now I'm marking as read because my 2020 stats are pitiful.
Hearne and Dawson are awesome writers and together they tell a story that reads like equal parts Pratchett and Python.
A lot of the jokes were overdone and the plot line was thin. Very thin. There were some parts that were fun, and others (when talking about food) that were not. I often was reading and asking myself what the characters were trying to accomplish. Where are they going and why. It was as if when writing the book an idea came up for a joke so the story twisted to fit that in, instead of fitting jokes into the story.
Remember how it used to be really unpleasant to play D&D because of all the gross, unfunny sexist jokes players would make about the fantasy setting? If not this book will help you understand the effect.
Very well executed fun fluff.
Kill the Farm Boy is a silly book that sends up and undermines some well-worn clichés of the fantasy genre’s hero narrative. It asks questions like “What does it mean to be the Chosen One?” and “Who deserves to be a protagonist?” and then unloads goat poop on them. This succeeds with varying results.
I read most of the book on a three-hour plane ride, and at first I did enjoy it. Somewhere in the middle, though, it started to drag a bit, and I still hadn’t finished it by the time my trip was over. Instead, I switched gears and finished Meddling Kids, which I read at a snail’s pace over the last few months.
I think part of the reason that I lost momentum was that the book started feeling a bit muddled, as though the story underlying the jokes and satire wasn’t as robust as it needed …
Kill the Farm Boy is a silly book that sends up and undermines some well-worn clichés of the fantasy genre’s hero narrative. It asks questions like “What does it mean to be the Chosen One?” and “Who deserves to be a protagonist?” and then unloads goat poop on them. This succeeds with varying results.
I read most of the book on a three-hour plane ride, and at first I did enjoy it. Somewhere in the middle, though, it started to drag a bit, and I still hadn’t finished it by the time my trip was over. Instead, I switched gears and finished Meddling Kids, which I read at a snail’s pace over the last few months.
I think part of the reason that I lost momentum was that the book started feeling a bit muddled, as though the story underlying the jokes and satire wasn’t as robust as it needed to be. Also, I was no longer trapped inside a metal tube hurtling through the sky, so I had more things to distract me.
The main twist to Kill the Farm Boy is that the protagonist isn’t who you think it’s going to be after the first chapter. When the book opens, we meet an unremarkable farm boy named Worstley anointed as Chosen One by a sketchy-seeming fairy who also gives Worstley’s goat the power of speech. Worstley and Gustave, the goat, set off on a quest to do something or other involving destiny and then the story takes a decisive left turn that I won’t spoil here.
As the adventure continues, the cast of characters grows and we meet an oddball assortment of misfits and outcasts. Each one gets some time in the spotlight, but it’s sometimes hard to tell which character is driving the story, and I quickly forgot the aim of their quest after putting the book down for a few days.
The general silly tone also means that the stakes feel non-existent, even when characters suddenly and unexpectedly die. Every death plays as comedy. Also, there are several moments where it feels like the authors are summarizing something tedious to save time and jump ahead even though the book still feels like an overlong joke.
I definitely laughed or chuckled several times while reading this book, so it was an enjoyable read. I just wish there was something more interesting underneath all the silliness. Not every comic fantasy author can be Terry Pratchett, though they might try.
Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from Net Galley.
Review originally published at Full of Words.
I would actually give this a 3.5, but I liked it more than I disliked it so I rounded up. This book is funny, endearing, and a great way to spend your free time. But, it meanders, wanders even and doesn't feel very compelling. Definitely a leisure read, but I'll be happy to give the second one a try. Absurd and irreverent are good descriptors for the Pell series.
