The Part About The Dragon Was (Mostly) True
Sure, you think you know the story of the fearsome red dragon, Dragonia. How it terrorized the village of Skendrick until a brave band of heroes answered the noble villagers' call for aid. How nothing could stop those courageous souls from facing down the dragon. How they emerged victorious and laden with treasure.
But, even in a world filled with epic adventures and tales of derring-do, where dragons, goblins, and unlicensed prestidigitators run amok, legendary heroes don't always know what they're doing. Sometimes they're clueless. Sometimes beleaguered townsfolk are more hapless than helpless. And orcs? They're not always assholes, and sometimes they don't actually want to eat your children.
Heloise the Bard, Erithea's most renowned storyteller (at least, to hear her tell it), is here to set the record straight. See, it turns out adventuring isn't easy, and true heroism is as rare as an articulate villager.
Having spent decades propagating this particular myth (which, incidentally, she wrote), she's finally able to tell the real story—for which she just so happened to have a front-row seat.
Welcome to Erithea. I hope you brought a change of undergarments—things are going to get messy.
Title: The Story About The Dragon Was (Mostly) True
Genre: Humor / Fantasy
Paperback: 308 pages
Publication Date: 12/15/2020
Publisher: The Parliament House
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9781733386890
My Review
Hear, hear, the tale of unfathomable bravery!
First off, Sean Gibson wrote an immensely funny story for us and I think he did a grandiose job with it, and secondly, from my perspective as a reader, I just ate it up laughing and loving it to bits! It is my semi sound notion to tell you that this book is flipping hilarious and amazing!
The Part about the Dragon Was (Mostly) True tells the story of a town or village (it is a debatable term hashed out numerable times in this book) that is pestered by a dragon destroying fields and the likelihood of Skendrick. What the townsfolk or villagers need is a solution and there are two choices for debate:
Option 1:
Assemble a band of hearty villagers to confront the dragon, or
Option2:
Hire brave adventurers to seek the dragon’s lair and defeat him cold-heartedly.
Without giving away too much of this fantastic tale, this is how it went down.
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
There are two versions of this funny nonsensical adventure. One is told by the renowned storyteller and brave Heloise the Bard in italic format, in which the heroes and actions are depicted as such:
“The noble and humble bard recognized that the group before her was formidable indeed, and so she raised them up their prostrate positions, comforted the suffering Nadinta with a gentle touch on her shoulder, and told them that she would lead them to Skendrick, and that she felt deep in her bones that worthy adventurers would prove mighty enough to slay the dragon.”
And then there is the side of the parts of the reality of it all, as the town has chosen option 2 and sent Goodman Drunkman and Goodman Youngman to sell the deal to Heloise in search of the brave!
“The two men looked at each other. The younger one, clearly deferential, nodded to his older companion. “Well, said the older man, draining the rest of his ale, “I’m Goodman Drunkamn, and this is Goodman Youngman. We’re from Skendrick.”
“Seriously?”
“Skendrick is a fine town, a fine town!” bristled the younger man.
“Skendrick is mildly less boring than Borden, which is one of the five most boring places I’ve ever been to and I’ve been to a lot of places,” I replied. “Though it’s a perfectly valid place to be from. I wasn’t seriously-ing your place of origin; I was seriously-ing your ridiculous names.”
“Well, now, Ms. Heloise,” replied Goodman Drunkman, “it may not be so in other areas you frequent, but ‘Goodman’ is a pretty common form of address in many towns around .“
“Oh, come on! You can’t possibly be this thick.”
The two men looked at each other. Youngman’s eyes were wide, and Drunkman just shrugged.
“Or maybe you are.” I sighed, but Drunkman’s attention was on the barmaid, attempting to get her to bring more ale, and Youngman was looking down as he fiddled with a button on his tunic.”
Oh, the reality of it all!
A song is to tell the story of the aid needed in Skendrick and convince adventurers of the greatest opportunity the lands have ever heard of. And so, Heloise the Bard took it upon her to write a jaunty and catchy melody to convince!
For your enjoyment, here is the earworm!
THE DIRGE OF SKENDRICK
And so, a rag-tag team of wanna-be heroes with brave hearts who run into Heloise at an Inn is hired for the heroic deed.
Meet the new heroes:
As all wanna-be heroes are in need of coin and fame and possess a natural thirst for adventure, Heloise entertains the notion of taking on this gullible team of misfits and joins them on the way to slaughter the dragon.
Their adventure takes them through swamps and poses mindblowing riddles to get to the dragon, on to encounters with orcs, minataurs, chitinoids, and apelike gormalons (cave dwellers) among the long and treacherous path. And all the while Heloise is beginning to chime in less and less. With every new segment in the adventure, the novel takes on a sense of real fantasy. Left aside most of the initial and hilarious silliness, the characters are beginning to actually work together! They may not be the wiser and keep their silly personalities, but the actions they perform start to resemble that of teamwork. The question is, is that all it takes to save the citizens of Skendrick?
***
I really don’t want to give away much more. This story simply was fantastic. From the cover to the content, I loved everything about it. The premise of Heloise telling the story in italic with chapters that follow about the real deal and the crazy catastrophes was such a neat concept and it perfectly came together. I loved reading about the story once so heroic as in classic tales told, and then wind my way through parables of Monty Python style moments. Simply hilarious.
There are so many funny characters to love and read about. I had such a laugh at the Drunkman’s and enjoyed Gibson’s overall witty and sarcastic humor he brought to this novel. Farmer Benton and Widow Gershon of the town of Skendrick were the first to set the tone of what was to come in this novel during the first town’s meeting and from there it just continued.
From the first moment I feasted my eyes on that awesome cover of that book on Instagram to now, it has become one of my favorite reads this year. If I can tell everyone how funny this book is and make them read it, I will be a happy person. Who doesn’t need a bit of silliness and humor in their life?
So, highly recommended reading by me. 😊
Enjoy
Also, Sean Gibson is running a charity photo contest till mid-February on Insta and Twitter, I believe, if anyone is interested. I will certainly throw a pic of my taking into the hat for charity.
This book also satisfies one of my reading challenge goals hosted by SPELLS AND SPACESHIPS
happy Reading :)
