Encountered thanks to my personal random book challenge.

This is a book for kids and it definitely shows with chapters that are written from the kids' POV, but then there are a lot of chapters from adults POV and I can honestly say those could have come from some adult fantasy. I really enjoyed those parts. But even the rest was quite nice. Lot of good jokes, not so many that fell flat. ( )

I am clearly NOT the target audience for this sci-fi fantasy adventure knock-off of Harry Potter.

There are two main domains: The Magrus (i.e. the place of magic) and the Techrus (the “technological” world … i.e. reality). In between these two worlds is the Mesoshire. At least I think that’s right. I frankly lost interest in keeping everything straight.

Anyway, there’s a book – the Codex of Infinite Knowability – that been lost to the ages, but middle-schooler Max Spencer finds it under his bed. He doesn’t know he has magical abilities, but he is a direct descendant of the author so is the only one who can read any of the material in the Codex.
Princess the Destroyer is a magic unicorn who is a spoiled brat intent on wreaking havoc everywhere. She’s got a toady wizard who helps her (or kowtows to her to avoid being destroyed). She wants the Codex so she can move freely between worlds.

Max and his friends Sarah and Dirk, along with Dwight (a dwarf), and Glenn (a talking dagger) find themselves transported through time to a far future Techrus, where all humans are dead and the world is run by machines with rudimentary AI capabilities.

Anyway …. It took me two months to slog through this and I completed it only because of a challenge and I just refused to give up. There were a couple of things that redeemed it. I loved Sarah. She rises to the challenge every time. She’s strong, intelligent, a born leader and will never give up. Max also, eventually, rises to the challenge of being the leader.
I do admit that the last couple of chapters were pretty interesting with Max going up against Princess and her giant killing machines.

So, I can understand why some kids would find this entertaining, but I still thought it was pretty terrible. Clark spent way too much time trying to prove how clever he is rather than crafting a compelling and entertaining story.

Oh, and it ends in a cliffhanger because Clark cannot trust that his audience will want to read more so he has to try to force them to read another book. ( )

Okay, in my quest to read this book, -I am not finished, but already from the first chapter this is going to be a ride- I can already say the humor is on point, the cover draws you in, the title itself is an eye catcher, and the first page is a doozy. I'd say it's a breathe of fresh air but breathing is hard when you have to take breaks between pages. If I were younger this would have me rolling in laughter like Wayside School did.

I can already tell by the time I finish this book, I will need stitches and to see about surviving to the second book. If Princess isn't in book two I'll have to learn how to recover from that, but it reads amazing, I'd definitely recommend this for many people and kids! ( )

Ok, I read this book for the cover, which is extraordinary and hilarious and just flat-out delightful. There weren't enough squirrels in the book, but Princess the Destroyer is a worthy evil unicorn. On the whole, an excellent story for middle grade boys. Not quite enough in it for middle aged ladies, but some priceless dialogue between bad unicorn and her minion, and remarkably funny frobbit antics. ( )

This review originally found at The Children's Book and Media Review

Princess the Destroyer is a carnivorous unicorn that is determined to find Max Spencer so that she can be given free rein to eat all of the humans in Texas. Max Spencer is a seventh grader who might not be smart or popular, but he is the heir of a powerful sorcerer and so is the only person who can read the Codex of Infinite Knowability. Max accidentally transports himself and his friends to a future where the humans have all been eaten by Princess the Destroyer. After making friends with the frobbits, some of the last friendly survivors on earth, Max and his friends have to defeat Princess and her legions of robots to save their lives and the last of humankind.

While the idea behind the book is fun, many of the ideas are not executed well. The book is clever with its plays on fantasy tropes, but too many plot lines are forgotten in the favor of too many gags. There is enough humor to prompt a few chuckles, but many of the jokes are likely to go over the heads of the book’s target audience. The characters have little depth and are not very interesting, often using stereotypes to create character. The ending is highly dependent on waiting for the next book to explain things. The humor may keep some people entertained, but the overall impact of the book is not as high as it could have been. ( )