Book #65 of 2024: Handbook for Dragon Slayers

[thistlechaser]

Handbook for Dragon Slayers by Merrie Haskell.

Quick synopsis: A princess with a deformed foot has to learn confidence. This involves going on an adventure and encountering magic horses, dragons, the Wild Hunt, and generic evil men.

Brief opinion: There was nothing bad enough to DNF this book, but I really should have anyway. It never hooked me and I disliked a lot of the choices the author made.

Plot: Set in old Germany, but all fairy tales and supernatural stuff is real.

Princess Tilda seems to be hated by her mother and her whole (small) kingdom because she has a deformed foot and that's bad luck. So when her evil cousin tries to take over, Tilda is happy to let him do so so she can leave the kingdom and go join a nunnery as a scribe. (All she wants out of life is to be a scribe.)

Her handmaid and her friend/boyfriend set out on the road with her, ending up meeting everything from a trio of magic horses, dragons, and the Wild Hunt. And more evil men.

In the end she learns that her kingdom did in fact love her all this time and she learns the confidence to tell her mother what she wants to do in life.

Writing/editing: There were some issues missed by the editor, but nothing so bad that it interrupted my reading or made me want to reach for a red pen.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: Set your story in Germany if you like, but literal translations of insults just do not work. "Pig-hound" (Schweinhund) and "Dumbhead" (Dummkopf) do not work in English.

Some of the writing style choices just did not work for me either. "The water tasted of rock and secrets."

If I never read another book with a kid main character with a deformed foot, it will be too soon. How about a missing arm instead? Why is it always a foot?

The bad guys were so flat and boring, just Evil McEvil.

The only thing I liked were the magical horses, they were realistically written.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️ - Two stars/disliked. I really should have DNFed this book early on. The story never hooked me, I didn't like any of the characters, and I really did not like the world setting the author came up with.

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

"Clubfoot" was a common birth defect. It still is, but we learned that simply putting a cast on an infant's foot will fix it quickly and permanently.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

I think I've read a book where the main character was missing an arm or hand- but now I can't remember what it was!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Interesting! That would be a nice change from a foot.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so it makes sense for authors to use it... it just gets boring to see the same one across multiple books.