Review by thend157 -- Fish Wielder

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thend157
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Joined: 20 Jun 2020, 17:56
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Review by thend157 -- Fish Wielder

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Fish Wielder" by J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison.]
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4 out of 4 stars
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Fish Wielder by J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison is a hilariously funny satire of a fantasy novel. Thoral is a barbarian hero living in the fantasy world of Grome. Bored and drunk one night, he sets off with his sidekick Brad, a talking fish, and his trusty steed, Warhorse, to find a new adventure. They end up defeating an evil wizard at a castle, from which they obtain a magical compass. Curious about it, they go to visit the kingdom of elves. And so begins their hilarious quest to destroy the pudding of power. This quest leads them into one wild and crazy adventure after another

Jim Hardison's way of turning the typical quest for a magical object into a spoof of fantasy novels was definitely what I most appreciated about this novel. The adventures that the hero runs into in this novel are ridiculous. This, I found, was emphasized by Hardison's sense of humour used in describing the setting and characters. Thus, one of my favourite parts of this novel was the author’s way of using humour to add to the story.

This sense of humour led me to really enjoy the characters in the novel. I found it created a sense of reality in the character of Thoral in particular. I also thought that it led many of the characters in the novel to seem very well-rounded and developed. This helped the characters to seem fairly realistic and believable.

While many of the characters were well developed, I did find the character of Yiz to be less developed. This is because he comes across as being a typical evil wizard. Because of this, I think I was confused about his motivation for his actions in the novel. I also found myself not liking the character of Nancy very much, as she seemed mean and selfish to Thoral, particularly toward the end of the story.

I also felt that the violence was a bit much. There is a lot of people going about getting body parts chopped off. There are also many graphic depictions of the hero killing people with his sword. For me, though, this just added a sense of excitement to the fighting scenes. However, for younger readers, this might be a bit much.

Despite the graphic depictions of violence in the novel, I think it would strongly appeal to young adult readers of fantasy novels. I found this particularly true of the ending. I would, thus, definitely recommend this book to young adult readers. I felt it was well-edited, with few grammatical errors. I would give it 4 out of 4 stars. This is because I found the humour and characters to be so much fun to read about in this delightful book.

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Fish Wielder
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