I got this softcover at a local Newbury Comics store. It's a funny and clever tale of a young squire whose knight is a bit of a blowhard, cheerfully bragging about his exploits while the poor squire plods along on foot lugging the majority of their baggage.

When they find themselves at a small village where the inhabitants are clustering indoors, the stone bridge is completely shattered, and things in general seem weird - well, it turns out there's a dragon. And a curse. And the abandoned tower of the town's renowned mage, dead for ages now. What's a knight to do?

The knight, obviously, takes off after the dragon - and doesn't come back. The squire spends his time fretting over this, but also does some investigating on his own - including a visit to a delightful bookshop, whose proprietor is a huge three-eyed, horned, goat-footed being of some kind (with spectacles, yet). The squire learns that the town's mage did have a spell book, but nobody knows where it is, and this leads our squire to try and search for it.

Meanwhile, there's a small boy whose dog died - but which is no longer in its grave [side note: cutest undead skeleton dog ever, though the one in T. Kingfisher's Nettle and Bone comes close], and a dragon with a keen appreciation for hard bargaining. But how will the squire pull all this together and save the town - and his boastful boss?

I loved the little details here, with the whole thing feeling like a very clever D&D adventure. Recommended!

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

Released for:

** 2024 May Royalty challenge **

** 2024 Never Judge a Book By Its Cover challenge. **