Ronan the Barbarian

Oh yeah baby.  It said laugh out loud on the cover, and I did twice.  Right there that was worth the couple of bucks I shelled out at a used bookstore.  I loved the spear/dart scene.  "One Undead and eighty!"  (That only qualifies as a minor spoiler.)  This is a pretty funny read, and it plays on all of the high fantasy stereo-types and hero nonsense that pervades most of the rather insipid fantasy work that has flooded the market over the last number of years.

Ronan's Rescue

Boy howdy, further translations from the original gibberish.  Even better than the first one.  The writing was tighter this time around, and there was even a touchy feely element to this one.  If you're a fan of Anthony, Pratchett, and Grant Naylor this is definitely worth a read.

Ronan's Revenge

Yet another volume painfully translated from the original gibberish.  Oh goody.  Another Ronan book.  This is apparently the last in this trilogy (sniff).  Each book was better than its predecessor.  I'll miss Tyson, Puss the talking Donkey, and Ronan.  This is a series worth reading if you can find it.

That's one of the nice things about Canada, we get a lot of stuff from the U.K. that may not make it to the American market.

Shapestone (©1999)

I searched this one out, and eventually had to succumb to ordering a copy from the U.K. For those of you not familiar with James Bibby, he’s a talented comic author who should be more well known than he is – although more for his Ronan adventures than this one. Shapestone is essentially a convoluted murder mystery that is at times very funny, and inventive – and other times, it’s just not that funny. You win some. You lose some. I’m not sure what Mister Bibby has been up to lately, but here’s hoping he gets the chance to write more. This one may have been a little flat, but it was still better than a prostate exam by a doctor with cold hairy fingers the size of nun chucks.

Reviewed February 22, 2005