Alda Yuan

Today, I have been in a fantasy reading mood. I think is due in part to me watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks earlier this week. Grim but hopeful worldbuilding captivates me as do maps.

I LOVE MAPS! So, in searching through my TBRs, I selected Quests & Quandaries by Alda Yuan.

This Fantasy opens and you are immediately aware it will defy expectations. This captivating read introduces us to princess Rahni Gazi, age 17, at her birthday dinner with her minder Jak. She eating the fourth course and we see she has copped an attitude as she states she is so bored she is thinking about pegging a drumstick at Emir Withercox. To untangle the enchantment of reading a Princess story, Rahni informs us she has the title of the most ill-mannered princess on this side of the Zah Rivercloud.

The worldbuilding begins quickly! When the clouds flash bright red a creature often appears. Rahni believes she is in a tussle with a questing fairy but soon realizes she had been cursed by her parents and must follow the Inviolable Rules of the Eigen States.

There are well-written character archetypes. Serge, a blacksmith enters the story, and rooms turn. Next, we meet Keran, Ila, and a Wolfhound. This story also has a green lizard named Naga that speaks and a dozen goblins with one four-foot-tall.

Rahni is aware this will be the last resort but she knows she needs to fetch the elixir. The Floating Isles map will help, She'll decipher the map of the Eigen States to follow her quests, while the Storybook alerts her to the villains and heroes.

Rahni's character remains outspoken, has moxy and a zany sense of humor.

“We’ll find out,” I answered as I pushed forward. After a few
more hallways, all of which looked similarly benign, I cupped
my hands over my mouth and shouted, “Will any prisoners
please release some bloodcurdling screams?”

Overall, I enjoyed the writing! We get to question what is in the broom closet, travel through the forest, talk to villagers and search for portals

In closing, I appreciate this quest's focus on realigning good and evil. All characters are catapulted into the spotlight with the use of fantasy tropes. Along the way, there is a propensity for absurd antics that surround the twists and turns of the quest- making it a fun and engaging read.

I received a copy of this book through the generosity of the author.… (meer)

I really like the sort of self aware, satirical angle this book took. It was refreshing to see a character acknowledging how things turn out a specific way, because that's how quests and epics always go in the stories! The characters and different lands were lots of fun as well. I particularly enjoyed when Rahni watched how her world came to be (a beetle created her land, and the world is suspended by wires). Cementing a mythological story as "truth" was very cool.

The only thing I didn't enjoy was all the footnotes. There were 324 footnotes and they're very hard to open and read on a kindle device. I was curious to what they contained, so I read them all. Unfortunately, only about 10% actually answered a question a reader might have in the relevant scene. Most of the footnotes did not add anything to the story, and some of them even confused me more by mentioning characters not in the book! Furthermore, it would have been nice if the 4 rules *were* footnoted whenever they were mentioned, but they were not important enough to get footnotes I guess. The rules are read once towards the beginning, and rule #4 isn't brought up again until the end. I had no clue what the rule was by then!

That being said, the footnotes only brought this book down by one star. It's still a hilarious fantasy book that I would recommend to those who don't take their tropes and cliches too seriously.… (meer)