Fantasy At Its Zaniest

Dark Lord of Derkholm
By Diana Wynne Jones
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Greenwillow; 1st edition (October 29, 1998)
Rated 5 stars of 5 possible

Derkholm is a fantasy world peopled with wizards and griffins and dragons and a variety of other interesting types of people, including some who are ordinary and some extraordinary.  It is also a tourist attraction for another world, but the people of Derkholm are fed up with the tyrannical Mr. Chesney and his pilgrim parties so they petition their High Chancellor to put a stop to these expeditions once and for all.

What follows is more fun than a barrel of monkeys when Wizard Derk is chosen to be this year's Dark Lord and his son Blade is chosen to be the Wizard Guide. Even the dragons and griffins have to get into the act... and then, of course, Murphy's Law intervenes. Dark Lord of Derkholm is fantasy at its zaniest. I haven't laughed so hard since I first read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy many years ago.

Recommended to fantasy lovers age 12 and up who are not put off by some violence in the story, which, in this case is a necessary part of the plot.