The Great Geek Manual

Book: A Princess of Landover
ISBN-13: 978-0345458520

Author: Terry Brooks
Series: Magic Kingdom of Landover
Publisher: Del Rey
Genre: Fantasy
Release: August 18, 2009
Length: 352 pages (Hardcover)

Rating: F

Verdict

Terry Brooks has always written his Landover series like a Saturday morning cartoon, but with A Princess of Landover he actually manages lower the tone of the entire series. This book is bad – even for young adult fantasy. Seriously bad.

Any who has ever enjoyed a fantasy novel should avoid this one like the plague.

Pros: It’s short and there’s none of Brooks’ signature overblown romance in sight.

Cons: Ridiculously simple plotline. Flat characters. Spurious motivations. Plot holes galore. All the franchise’s best characters all get sidelined.

Synopsis

In Brief: Princess pitches a snit, runs away for no good reason, and (predictably) finds herself trapped by ne’er-do-wells.

Official: Ben Holiday, Chicago lawyer and mere mortal turned monarch of enchanted Landover, has grappled with scheming barons, fire-breathing beasts, diabolical conjurers, and extremely wicked witches. None of whom have prepared him for the most daunting of challengers–a teenage daughter. Sent by Ben and his beloved sylph bride, Willow, to an exclusive girls’ prep school, headstrong (and half-magical) Mistaya Holiday has found life in the natural world a less than perfect fit. And when her latest rebellious antics get her indefinitely suspended, she’s determined to resume her real education–learning sorcery from court wizard Questor Thews–whether her parents like it or not.

But back home in Landover, Mistaya’s frustrated father is just as determined that the precocious princess learn some responsibility, and he declares her grounded until she successfully refurbishes the long-forsaken royal library. Mortified by the prospect of salvaging a king’s ransom in moldy books–and horrified by word that repulsive local nobleman Lord Laphroig seeks to marry her–Mistaya decides that the only way to run her own life is to run away from home.

Review

It’s been thirteen years since Brooks published the last Landover book, Witches Brew, and it looks like he should have let the series die. The poorly developed and despicably cliche world of Landover has always made Brooks the biggest mystery of the New York Times bestsellers list, but this entry in the series is particularly bad. It reads like a short story padded out for length and has all of the sophistication of an episode of Power Rangers.

A Princess of Landover is a coming-of-age story that centers around a fifteen year-old princess named Mistaya, who experiences very little no actual growth during the course of the story. The girl is written as an ultra-narcissistic teen rebel who rationalizes away her every mistake in a series of unconvincing internal monologues that do little to actually explain her motivations.

First, she is expelled from a private girl’s boarding school in a principal’s office scene that is clearly intended to be humorous but isn’t. Then, her father tries to send her to a library called Libiris to teach her responsibility, but she runs away to – wait for it – Libiris, which she decides is the last place her father will look for her. She travels in the company of two G’home Gnomes who serve no other function within the story but comic relief and a wise but aloof Prism Cat that does nothing but push the plot along when it stalls. At the library, she meets a group of mysterious character doing something mysterious, which she initially doesn’t care to investigate, and she poses as a common village girl, despite the fact that all the other character clearly know who she is.

After a book full of wildly illogical leaps land her in hot water, a mild confrontations between Mistaya and the Disney-esque crew of somewhat menacing villains finally ensues. It ends anticlimactically with a rather unimaginative magical show-down in which the girl prevails, because, evidently, the villains were never really much of a threat to begin with. Que reunion with estranged father and exchange of apologies. Roll credits.

Blech!

Brooks’ latest flavorless tale definitely deserves a pass. It may have some appeal to children but only very young, very dull children.

Similar Books

If you enjoy this book, you may also enjoy these very similar series:

• Castle Perilous by John DeChancie
• Malady Of Magicks by Craig Shaw Gardner
• Xanth series by Piers Anthony

Further Information

• Author Terry Brooks Official Site.
• Read an excerpt of A Princess of Landover.
• Terry Brooks at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.