Sunday, October 14, 2018

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde


The book happens in an alternate present-day Britain, where magic works. It has lost its power during the last few decades, or centuries, and has degenerated to something used for mundane tasks, like rewiring the electronics of a house or using flying carpets for pizza deliveries. And all uses of magic must be carefully filed with correct forms. A young orphan girl, Jennifer, is working for a group of magicians (or, rather, managing the whole group). It turns out that all soothsayers are seeing that the last dragon will die soon. Jennifer is a bit perplexed when it turns out that she is the last dragonslayer and she is supposed to kill the dragon. That is not something she is looking forward to, as she doesn’t want to kill anyone or anything: least of all a rare animal which is last of its kind. As there are considerable financial and political repercussions if the dragon dies, Jennifer soon finds that there are many parties trying to influence her. A fun book where the world is interesting. The story happens in the Ununited Kingdoms of Britain, where the different kingdoms have fairly common skirmishes, and even minor wars. The narrative style is very entertaining and plays a lot with language, with an ironic flair. The style is fairly similar to the other books by Fforde. There are two more parts in the series. The TBR pile is just growing and growing.

289 pp.

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