Ah, comic fantasy. There's plenty of it out there, even if some people insist that Terry Pratchett is the only author in the genre. Humour is a very personal thing and my sense of humour is quite idiosyncratic, so I generally don't read too much of it.
I picked up Triumff: Her Majesty's Hero by Dan Abnett in a post-christmas impulse shop in Waterstones. On this occasion I was swayed by an hot boy on the cover and an admirable commitment to voice in the blurb. I wasn't expecting much, just a bit of fun.
And it was indeed fun. I laughed out loud quite a lot, which was occasionally embarrassing on the train. Abnett is a good writer and his elizabethan twenty-first century is an engaging world, although it did strain my suspension of disbelief somewhat that fashion and architecture wouldn't have changed in all that time. However, the book is so entertaining that it really doesn't matter.
There's quite a bit of head hopping which I normally don't like but as the narrator is kept well away from the action for the majority of the time, it works on this occasion. I think it is an indication of Abnett's skill that he is able to do this.
The character's are well-drawn, the dialogue is good, the world-building is good and all the loose ends get wrapped up tidily. Highly recommended - for those with a well-developed sense of the ridiculous.
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