The Amulet of Kings (The Banned Underground) [Kindle Edition]

I'll be honest, I've never been a huge fan of comedy fantasy. Perhaps it's a sense of protectiveness I have about the fantasy genre- after all, it's just gagging for someone to take the piss out of it.
But this book surprised me at how much I enjoyed it. I think the author has a great affection for the fantasy genre. It comes across in his plot and his prose. He's taken great care to build a background secret mystical world that hangs together very well. The various dwarves, faeries, wizards, trolls and witches that populate it interact wonderfully and the story is engaging and well-paced.
But this is, after all, a work of comedy. So how does that fair? Very well. The jokes fly at you thick and fast, varying from wince-inducing puns, to inane dialogue, to pop culture references, to great music gags. It made me laugh at loud in places and some of the characters are priceless: my personal favourites are the Edern, High Elf managers who talk about the Board and CEOs. And the authors love of music hits you from the first page and doesnt let up.
The footnotes definitely work better in the print edition than the kindle version, although the links in the latter were OK (just distracting).
Eager to read the sequel, which has just come out. An easy 5 stars here.

I don't know why I didn't read this book ages ago - funny fantasy is so far up my street it's practically sitting on the doorstep. I think the blurb put me off and I expected a weak knock-off of Pratchett's Band with Rocks In. I've been wrong before. (Often!) The story was built from classic fantasy components; witches, mages, dwarves, dark lords, the Tuatha; and was embellished with some wonderfully witty humour and decorated with musical allusions. A couple of teenage siblings are packed off to stay with their Auntie in the Lake District. She has some strange powers and give the kids a couple of pendants to wear which come in very useful as they get embroiled in a battle under the Lakeland fells.

I have to say though, that I don't like footnotes outside of a technical work. In almost all cases the material they contain is better used in parentheses so as not to hold up the flow of the story. There are many characters, so I didn't feel I got to know any very well but of course this is the beginning of a series so there's still time for that. I don't want to sound as if my minor quibbles coloured (colored!) my view of the book though. Its light-hearted nature made it a joy to read. The author expresses himself well and clearly and he evidently enjoys and delights in the word-play he uses to entertain us.

Will Macmillan Jones has a clever, jolly wit and it makes his work very enjoyable. I shall be following this series with interest!

Now this book is a fine example of how subjective reviews are - I hated it and was all ready to give a scathing review but as I threw it down in disgust my adult son picked it up and thoroughly enjoyed it! He read it almost in one evening, and I could hear him chuckling from behind his bedroom door.

The story was a backdrop to all the jokes and puns blowing through the author's mind at the time of writing it, and as a character-loving type of reader I found this frustrating as I couldn't get to know any of the characters.

I'm not sure even which age-group to recommend this for: teens wouldn't understand some of the references to "old" TV shows/stars. Adults could find following the teenage main characters (if there was a main character!) a put-off.

The footnotes were also cumbersome on my Kindle, and I found it impossible to read, in fact. The book (which I also had) was better. These footnotes were jokes/observations from the author and although they fell flat with me, my son found hilarious.

I'm giving it a three, but my son (who's lent the book to his friend) would have given it a much higher mark.