review; quests and quandaries

Title: Quests And Quandaries
Author: Alda Yuan
Genre: YA, fantasy
Type: E-Novella
Publisher: Khanda Books
Series: The Floating Isles

The Floating Isles were created millions of years ago when a beetle the size of a continent churned up mud from the seabed for a perch. And things have only gotten weirder since.

This is a tongue in cheek account of a princess forced to go on a quest, very much against her will. With the proverbial band of sidekicks at her side, Rahni leaves the familiar comforts of home for the mysterious Eigen States, a place where, of course, nothing is as it seems. Or else it wouldn’t be much of a quest. Rahni is determined not to let the laws of the land dictate anything, least of all how seriously she has to take the whole matter.

Her dearest wish is to get through the quest with as few near scrapes and mortal enemies as possible. If she has to go on a quest, she wants it to be bland, with no nonsense about holding the fate of the world in her hands. Naturally, nothing goes quite as she plans. But what else is new?

I received this copy in exchange for an honest review from the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you Alda!

When I first read the synopsis for the novel, I was immediately intrigued, because it sounded like it would be a little funny and irreverent, and honestly made me think of Dungeons & Dragons in the sense that anything could happen depending on how your dice rolled. I expected a fun story.

And that is what I got.

This was a satirical take on quest stories and fairytales, and gender roles in these stories. It poked fun at the stereotypical heroes and heroines and damsels in distress, all the while very much aware that it was a quest story with a princess at the helm. There was a very real chance of the characters becoming caricatures, but they did not, because they were allowed to make fun of themselves, and the story made fun of everything.

The footnotes were very reminiscent of The Princess Bride and more recently for me, Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens, and it made the whole story feel like an inside joke that the readers were also in on.

The story did not take itself too seriously, and everything was very tongue-in-cheek, making it a very quick and enjoyable read.