Books are not fish sticks.
Now, we’re really in the Free Kingdoms. We spent a book learning that there’s a hidden world and another mostly underground (in the Library of Alexandria!), so it’s nice to get something really ‘hidden world’.
And man, the Free Kingdoms are strange. But that’s probably just the Librarian brainwashing coming through. Castles. Glass pigs. More castles. Kings. Councils. And even more Smedrys!
“Farting barf-faced poop!” a voice exclaimed from inside the pig’s butt.
(Sigh. Sorry. At least that’s another great paragraph to try working into a random conversation.)
Exactly.
One of the hilarious (from our point of view) issues that comes up this book is Alcatraz coming to his ‘Harry Potter’ moment. A world where he knows next to nothing, but everyone knows who he is. Apparently via the in-universe Alcatraz books, which is an extra level of weirdly meta.
Fame is like a cheeseburger. It might not be the best or most healthy thing to have, but it will still fill you up. You don’t really care how healthy something is when you’ve been without for so long. Like a cheeseburger, fame fills a need, and it tastes so good going down. It isn’t until years later that you realize what it has done to your heart.
There are just so many book/other geeky media references. I love them.
For example, take this story: “Once there was a furry-footed British guy who had to go throw his uncle’s ring into a hole in the ground.” Sounds dumb, doesn’t it?
Nothing is sacred!
“That’s bad,” Folsom said.
“She Who Cannot Be Named?” I asked. “Why can’t we say her name? Because it might draw the attention of evil powers? Because we’re afraid of her? Because her name has become a curse upon the world?”
“Don’t be silly,” Himalaya said. “We don’t say her name because nobody can pronounce it.”
Exactly.
Overall, it’s more Alcatraz. You have a fun plot, wacky characters, and just on the edge of too much meta commentary on writing/being a work of ‘fiction’. I’m still quite enjoying it.
And this is only halfway.
If a train left Nalhalla traveling at 3.14 miles an hour and a train left Bermuda at 45 MHz, what time does the soup have pancakes?
Where in the world (literally) can they go from here?