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MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.25/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
In a realm ruled by idiots, their only hope is the Fool.
You’d think an army of zombie trolls and undead ogres would catch the nobility’s attention. You’d be wrong. The rulers of Halfsock are deeply in denial. Besides, they have taxes to avoid, neighbors to plunder, and relatives to backstab.
With war looming, a goblin latrine slave named Shelly resolves to save Castle Halfsock from itself. He must take on many roles… jester, detective, spy, and political fixer. But his most challenging role—especially after a lifetime spent cleaning other people’s toilets—is as a confident secret agent worthy of trust, friendship, and maybe even love.
Can the least powerful person in the realm overcome his insecurities to depose rulers, forge alliances, and fend off an undead horde?
A comic tale of politics, friendship, and found family for fans of Nicholas Eames, Terry Pratchett, and J. Zachary Pike.
MY REVIEW
I didn’t realize when I started reading Jester that it was a participant in the SPFBO-XI, not only that, but when I finished, I found out that it was actually a FINALIST in the contest. For those that don’t know, SPFBO is the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off, it is a contest for self-published authors, judged by 10 review groups. 300 novels enter, 1 novel wins.
I was expecting Jester to be a bit funnier than what it was, based on some of the reviews I had read, and the fact that Amazon has its genre under humorous fantasy. I was starting to question things after 15%, but by the 30% mark I realized that the comedy wasn’t my type of funny. With that said, I did find it amusing at times, but the reviews made it seem as if it would be throughout. It says for fans of Nicholas Eames, which I thought had funny stuff in his series, but Eames style is quippy and full of hilarious banter. This to me is closer to Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief. I’m a fan of all comedy, but like The Blacktongue Thief, it just didn’t land much for me.
I know that this sounds like a major criticism on this book, but I want to say that while I was let down by what the reviews said, I thought the story and characters still worked very well. If I had gone into this without the idea that this was humorous or comedic, I would’ve loved it more. So I’m not going to dwell on that too much, when I still enjoyed every other aspect about Jester.
I really liked Shelly, aka Shelliac the goblin. It’s not often you get to read a story with a goblin as the main character of the story. He has a type of rags to riches type of story arc, but it’s earned, not given. He’s an underdog type of character that has a lot of growth from the first meeting as a lowly dung chute cleaner to a hero. Carter definitely nailed him. I also really enjoyed the narration by Aubrey Parsons because I feel like he carried Jester with his performance. He really gave Shelly, and all the other characters a lot of personality that kept me immersed into the world.
Carter blends genres quite nicely. He started with murder mystery and political intrigue, then opened it up into epic fantasy stakes with strong action and a few twists I did not see coming. The mystery mostly served as a launch point for the bigger story of fighting the Skeleton Queen and her undead horde. The final battle was very exciting, but with how much lead-up there was to the Queen, her moment felt a bit anticlimactic. With that said, I loved the way Carter ended the story, it had a very Star Wars: A New Hope-like finale.
I would recommend this to anyone that is a fan of Buehlman, a fan of a certain type of humor, an underdog story, or in for an exciting light read. I definitely want to give his novella Majordomo, winner of the SFINCS-2 (Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship) a shot. He’s clearly a good writer with one winner and the other currently a finalist.
Wolfmantula.com 