I'm not quite sure how to classify this book. It has so many different elements! I mean, its a fantasy, for sure. And it's funny, very funny. And yet, it isn't typical to any genre I've ever read.
Apropos of Nothing is the perfect anti-hero. He looks out for number one, first and formost. Actually, I'll go further than that. He really doesn't care about anyone else, except for his mother. Damsels in distress? Don't call on Apropos!
Apropos is the son of a whore. Begot by rape, one night, by knights. He is raised in an inn, where his mother worked, by day and night. As he grows up, he realizes just how discontent he is with life in general.
His adventures include a would-be hero, a mad King, a not mad King, a dreaded War-lord, a berserk phoenix, a possibly psychotic princess, and crazy unicorns...all of which he endures most unwillingly.
Here is a favorite passage, from the very beginning of the book:
As I stood there with the sword in my hand, the blade dripping blood on the floor, I couldn't help but wonder if the blood belonged to my father.
The entire thing had happened so quickly that I wasn't quite sure how to react. Part of me wanted to laugh, but most of me fairly cringed at what had just occurred. I didn't do particularly well with blood. This tended to be something of a hardship for one endeavoring to become a knight, dedicated to serving good King Runcible of Isteria, a ruler who more often than not had his heart in the right place.
The recently slain knight also had his heart in the right place. This had turned out to be something of an inconvenience for him. After all, if his heart had been in the wrong place, then the sword wouldn't have pierced it through, and he wouldn't be dead, and I wouldn't have been in such a fix.
This sets the tone for the whole novel. Peter David is probably the wittiest author that I have ever had the pleasure of reading, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next book in the trilogy about Sir Apropos, of Nothing.
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