Amazon.co.uk Review
James Bibby's comic fantasies have an almost relentless pace to them--hardly has
Shapestone opened but we have been introduced to a dead tomb robber, a ghostly soldier who cannot remember what his mission is, a magic pendant, a stroppy princess and a holy fool of a monk and magic worker. As these converge on the threatened city of Minas Orgun, Bibby adds to the mix some of the denser city guards in fantasy (whom he uses for parody of one of television's more popular detective series), and a variety of jokes about bad pubs, rotten food and clumsy assassins. Bibby's humour is usually good-natured, but never less than extremely broad--he explores a vein of magical slapstick as well as proliferating mildly amusing inventions about bawdy nuns and what orcs eat for breakfast. What makes
Shapestone work is the tight and inventive plotting; Bibby manages an elaborate process of multiple bluffs about precisely who the villain is and why so many humans and orcs died in an unnecessary battle. There are touches of genuine insight into motive and Bibby's good guys win because they lead rather more complex inner lives than his villains. --
Roz Kaveney
Product Description
Death is nasty and not a little inconvenient. Being dead even more so. Especially when you're tied to an amulet that has its own designs on the world. For the Princess Macoby the annoying ghost with the axe in his head who keeps hangng around is just plain irritating. Little do either of them know that the fate of the world is in their substantial and not-so substantial hands. Jim Bibby has created a world peopled with real people, with real concerns. Their lives are not played for laughs, these come from Bibby's acute eye for timing and sympathy with human foibles/ This is a serious cut above your average humorous fantasy.
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