I picked up The Murdstone Trilogy by Mal Peet because I liked the doodles on the dust jacket. Yeah, I said it. I judged this one by its cover. I’m not ashamed. Especially not after I read it. It was really entertaining.

The book follows an author (the eponymous Murdstone) who gets roped into writing a high fantasy trilogy by his agent. After attempting to find inspiration, he gets further roped into participating in a very real fantasy realm. He might be using this fantasy world to write his books, but he’s being used just as much. Some might get annoyed with the amount of things Murdstone just falls into and goes along with, but he’s a guy who’s floundering in his career / life so I figure it fits perfectly.

At first I found the protagonist to be a whiny, pompous jerk, but as the story progressed, he mellowed out enough to be sympathetic. Once the fantasy stuff started up, I really started to love it. Not because it was fantasy (though, yay fantasy!), but because it was a refreshing take on the tropes. It’s a quietly, Britishly funny story, and I burst out laughing a few times too.

My rating: Devoured! – If you like humorous books about fantasy / writing, this is worth a try!