This book jumps right into the action and never stops. Sir Edric is a middle-age, hard drinking, retired-but-adventurous knight prone to dalliances of all sorts. He's tricked into catching a plague that is killing off the elves so that he has no choice but to accept a mission to find its cure. Together with his faithful squire, Dog, a horse named Hamilton's Trousers, and a beautiful elf princess with a superiority complex, they set off through strange and exotic territory on strange, and more often than not hilarious, adventures. Though Edric is quite capable when pressed, Dog saves his butt quite often, and one begins to wonder as the story progresses who the real Hero of Hornska might actually be. Not only that, but the beautiful Princess becomes attracted to Dog instead of Edric. Edric is unfazed, of course; his blustering, bravado and clever quips protect his ego like armor.
Sharply written, this book is chock-full of great locations and wonderful characters. Of the secondary characters, my favorite is probably Jeff the gnome, though Edric's giant troll-like associate Orff No-Balsac comes in a close second.
Sir Edric and the Plague is a stand-alone story, as are all of The Hero of Hornska novels, and has a nifty short story at the end. I was rather shocked to see how few reviews it has on Goodreads and Amazon. I can only imagine this is due to lack of discovery and exposure, because this book is a hell of a lot of fun and deserves far more attention than it's been getting. Check it out!
