Knights of Madness: Amazon.co.uk: Peter Haining: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

Following on from his comic-fantasy anthologies The Wizards of Odd and The Flying Sorcerers, Peter Haining presents a third collection of oddities, now with a somewhat wider scope. Besides funny fantasy and SF, these 24 stories include absurdism, allegory, historical tomfoolery and even offbeat crime fiction. They range from inevitable names like Terry Pratchett--here with an SF riff on the old mystery of why or how the chicken crossed the road--to unlikely ones like L. Frank Baum of Oz fame, who contributes a wholly uncomic murder story.

Jerome K Jerome spoofs SF's utopian socialist futures, Robert Bloch introduces a Tuxedo of Invisibility into the lowlife world of Damon Runyon, Ray Bradbury is exuberantly funny about low-budget SF/horror movies, Peter Beagle explores the embarrassments of being a lady werewolf's boyfriend, Mark Twain deliberately paints his daft mediaeval-romance plot into a corner, John Kendrick Bangs invents a new and silly Munchausen adventure and Gene Wolfe actually lives up to his splendid title "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion". It's a wildly eclectic mix, whose famous names also include Woody Allen, GK Chesterton, Philip K Dick, Mervyn Peake, Spike Milligan, AA Milne, Peter Sellers and James Thurber.

Everyone has different views on what's funny and what isn't, and some of Haining's choices seem eccentric--but most readers should find enough chuckles in this plump anthology to make it well worth the price of admission. --David Langford

Review

'Following on from his comic-fantasy anthologies The Wizards of Odd and The Flying Sorcerers, Peter Haining presents a third collection of oddities, now with a somewhat wider scope. Besides funny fantasy and SF, these 24 stories include absurdism, allegory, historical tomfoolery and even offbeat crime fiction. They range from inevitable names like Terry Pratchett--here with an SF riff on the old mystery of why or how the chicken crossed the road--to unlikely ones like L. Frank Baum of Oz fame, who contributes a wholly uncomic murder story. Jerome K Jerome spoofs SF's utopian socialist futures, Robert Bloch introduces a Tuxedo of Invisibility into the lowlife world of Damon Runyon, Ray Bradbury is exuberantly funny about low-budget SF/horror movies, Peter Beagle explores the embarrassments of being a lady werewolf's boyfriend, Mark Twain deliberately paints his daft mediaeval-romance plot into a corner, John Kendrick Bangs invents a new and silly Munchausen adventure and Gene Wolfe actually lives up to his splendid title "How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion". It's a wildly eclectic mix, whose famous names also include Woody Allen, GK Chesterton, Philip K Dick, Mervyn Peake, Spike Milligan, AA Milne, Peter Sellers and James Thurber. Everyone has different views on what's funny and what isn't, and some of Haining's choices seem eccentric--but most readers should find enough chuckles in this plump anthology to make it well worth the price of admission.' - David Langford, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

A very enjoyable read 19 Jan 2003

By doll-lady56

Format:Paperback

I bought this book as I always thought I would appreciate comic fantasy and wanted to read work from a wide variety of authors, this book features stories from a lot of the great comic fantasy authors and I enjoyed most of the stories immensly (although I have to say Pratchetts went over my head a little). For me the real gem of a story was kept till last and although I have never heard of David L Stone, I really enjoyed his tale about a would be assasins final exam, and hope to see much more from this author in the future. Overall I would say this book is a must for comic fantasy fans particularily if you enjoyed peter hainings other anthologies.

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Mix-bag of Nuts 25 April 2011

By Rev. Timothy S. Yau

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love the idea of the short-story compendium, but what constitutes the length of a short story? Apart from the shortness of some entries and the fact that some of the so-called humourous content was not that funny the book was a great introduction to some modern, albeit dead, authors of fiction.

Average at best 27 Jun 2009

By D. Storey

Ok, so the writers are often well known (although many of these stories were mercifully written under little known pen names), but the majority of the stories are poor, or worse, and calling them 'Fantasy' is stretching a point just a little too far - unless of course all stories are so regarded.

The highlight is probably the Josh Kirby cover. OK, there are worse books to be stuck on a plane with, at least this is a readable collection, but it doesn't make 'good' in my scheme of rating.