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Summary
Summary
How hard can it be to write a fantasy trilogy? From Carnegie Medalist Mal Peet comes an outrageously funny black comedy about an impoverished literary writer who makes a pact with the devil.
Award-winning YA author Philip Murdstone is in trouble. His star has waned. The world is leaving him behind. His agent, the ruthless Minerva Cinch, convinces him that his only hope is to write a sword-and-sorcery blockbuster. Unfortunately, Philip--allergic to the faintest trace of Tolkien--is utterly unsuited to the task. In a dark hour, a dwarfish stranger comes to his rescue. But the deal he makes with Pocket Wellfair turns out to have Faustian consequences. The Murdstone Trilogy is a richly dark comedy described by one U.K. reviewer as "totally insane in the best way possible."
Author Notes
Mal Peet was born in 1947. Before becoming a children's author, he worked as a teacher and for educational publishers. His first novel, Keeper, won the Branford Boase award and Nestle Children's Book Award. He also won the Carnegie Medal in 2006 for Tamar and the Guardian children's fiction prize in 2009 for Exposure. He co-authored a series of children's books with his wife Elspeth Graham. His first novel for adults, The Murdstone Trilogy, was published in 2014. He died from cancer on March 2, 2015 at the age of 67.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Philip Murdstone has written five quiet books in the "Sensitive Dippy Boy genre," which his agent-the curvaceous, ferocious Minerva Cinch-insists he must abandon if he (or, more importantly, she) is ever to make any money. "You may be perfectly content in your badgery little cottage living on poached mice and hedge fruit," she tells him, "but my tastes run a little richer." Cinch wants high fantasy, "Tolkien with knobs on," and she even draws him a hilarious template (on the back of a page from Murdstone's most recently submitted manuscript): "mock-Shakespearean without the rhyming bits.... Bags of capital letters." Murdstone has no aptitude for this, but Peet is certainly up to the task, alternating the writer's story with a summary of the epic fantasy he produces after a fateful (and highly drunken) encounter on the moor with a dwarfish creature named Pocket Wellfair. Whether the story Murdstone turns in is actually his or he is merely taking dictation from Wellfair will depend on what readers conclude about Murdstone's sanity/sobriety. Either way, the fantasy is a big hit, which means Murdstone has to come up with the next book in the trilogy-quick. The novel was published for adults in the U.K., and it's easy to see why: there isn't a teenage character in sight, and the concerns-about career, reputation, parochialism, and looming bankruptcy-are all adult, too. Regardless, Peet's book is enormous fun, especially for those familiar with the literary conventions it skewers, and it's a brilliant valedictory for the author, who died in March. Ages 16-up. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Guardian Review
Like his creator, Philip Murdstone is a prize-winning children's writer who lives in rural Devon. Let's assume that's where the similarities end, for Philip is morose, solitary and poor, and his prize-winning days are, alas, behind him. His agent - the sexy, rapacious and despairing Minerva Cinch - outlines his predicament: the previous tax year, his five books earned Philip pounds 12,000. Actually, that's a pretty impressive salary by the Society of Authors' standards, and one Philip can just about survive on. But, to Minerva, 15% of not much is appallingly little - "You may be perfectly content in your badgery little cottage living on poached mice and hedge fruit, but my tastes run a little richer. Eighteen hundred hardly pays for lunch for a week." Minerva instructs our hapless hero to turn to the surefire money-spinner that is fantasy - or, better, phantasy "with a pee aitch". It's all pretty straightforward, Minerva assures him: the setting will be an intermittently magical world, called something like the Realm, withering under the rule of a Dark Lord. His minions - "That's a word you must use, OK?" - oppress the populace of dwarves (who live underground), elves (who live in the woods) and humans (who live in either walled cities or cutesy thatched hamlets). As for the story, that has to be based on a Quest, which must feature a dragon, a special sword and some magick with a k. The thing being quested for has to be a mystical amulet or similar, with whose powers the Dark Lord can be overthrown and bucolic order restored to the Realm. Philip dutifully tackles a random reading list of phantastic fiction - The Alchemist's Daughter, parts I and II, Dragon Summoner vol 1, The Sword of Nemesis IV, The Firedrake's Pestle, parts VII and IX . . . His mind remains a depressed blank. Until, one lunchtime, he gets hammered on a real ale warningly named Dark Entropy. He falls asleep and is visited by a long, clear and detailed dream of an entire phantasy - story, cast and landscape, from the plains and forests of the Realm to the yonder-distant Thule of Morl. Dark Entropy and its successor, Warlocks Pale, bring Philip fame, fortune and, doubtless best of all, a rave review in the Guardian. But Philip has bought the success of both books in a Faustian pact. As the Realm starts to take over his world, will he complete the trilogy? Or will the trilogy finish him off? Not many novels about novelists are as acute or as entertaining as this: a genuinely funny comedy that takes the piss - out of Devon, the writer's lot, the whole fantasy genre - with a Pratchettian mix of gusto and warmth. The latter quality is particularly helpful in the literary satire, which skewers the tropes of an entire genre while managing to keep the phantastic storyline going as a valid part of the plot. Peet's prose also boasts a Pratchettian vigour and invention, most obviously in the exotic "gremes" and "porlocs" of the Realm but also in the diurnal comedy of the real world. This may be Mal Peet's first book for grownups, but it is an assured, even virtuoso, performance fully deserving that most prestigious of accolades - a rave review in the Guardian. Harry Ritchie's English for the Natives is published by John Murray. - Harry Ritchie Minerva instructs our hapless hero to turn to the surefire money-spinner that is fantasy - or, better, phantasy "with a pee aitch". It's all pretty straightforward, Minerva assures him: the setting will be an intermittently magical world, called something like the Realm, withering under the rule of a Dark Lord. His minions - "That's a word you must use, OK?" - oppress the populace of dwarves (who live underground), elves (who live in the woods) and humans (who live in either walled cities or cutesy thatched hamlets). Peet's prose also boasts a Pratchettian vigour and invention, most obviously in the exotic "gremes" and "porlocs" of the Realm but also in the diurnal comedy of the real world. This may be Mal Peet's first book for grownups, but it is an assured, even virtuoso, performance fully deserving that most prestigious of accolades - a rave review in the Guardian. - Harry Ritchie.
Kirkus Review
An award-winning author whose young-adult novels have gone out of fashion makes a Faustian bargain with a Hobbit-like creature in this broad, darkly hilarious sendup of high fantasy and publishing. Philip Murdstone, "still good-looking, in a crumply vicar sort of way," is broke. It's been years since Last Past the Post, his novel about sensitive adolescents, won "all those prizes" (like Peet's own teen novels) and "made Asperger's cool." Philip's latest has sold just 313 copies. The solution, says his agent, the delicious Minerva Cinch, is to change gears: produce a trilogy filled with a Dark Lord, Orcs, Shire-dwellers, a magick sword, plenty of capital letters and stray apostrophes, and most important, an Amulet. Unfortunately, Philip loathes Phantasy. After drowning his sorrows in Dark Entropy beer at a pub near his Dartmoor cottage, he belches his way to a nearby stone circle, relieves himself against a standing stone, and subsides into the grass, where he receives a vision. A "Greme" called Pocket Wellfair appears and dictates the first part of a saga of the Realm, complete with exiled hero, corrupt wizard, and the lost Amulet of Eneydos. Philip hurries home to type it up. The resulting novel, which Philip calls Dark Entropy, is brilliant but incomplete. Pocket reappears and offers Philip the rest of the story in exchange for the Amulet, which the evil wizard has hidden somewhere in the real world. Philip's quests for the Amulet, a path into Minerva's panties, fame, and fortune lead him from the New York literary landscape to the Dalmatian coast and the Himalayan highlands, ever deeper into drink, eschatology, and scatology. Bitter and frothy as a pint of stout, this formula-thwarting satire will intoxicate fantasy fans with strong stomachs. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Philip Murdstone is an author whose award-winning, young-adult novels aren't exactly pulling in cash. Nothing can prepare Philip, however, for his agent's solution to this problem: the Sensitive Dippy Boy genre, lovely as it is, isn't selling. Fantasy, on the other hand, is flying off the shelves. Philip, who abhors anything that whiffs of Tolkien, is appalled by the idea of writing it himself, but is left with no choice. After a crash course in High Fantasy's main elements (a realm, dragons, a young hero from a shire, magick with a k, and a Quest to find the Thing), Philip knows himself to be well and truly screwed. So he gets drunk and passes out in his village's stone circle, whereupon he receives a vision that becomes the fantasy blockbuster he needs the only snag being it's all real. Carnegie Medalist Peet (Tamar, 2007) has written a hilarious satire of the fantasy genre with alcohol-laced overtones of Terry Pratchett and William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Blending worlds, wit, and literary allusions with unique narrative voices, Peet's take on fantasy and the writing process will attract adults and teens alike. Darkly comic and a joy to read.--Smith, Julia Copyright 2015 Booklist
Library Journal Review
This is one of the few fantasy send-ups that matches the genius of Diana Wynne Jones's masterpiece Dark Lord of Derkholm and the hilarious companion, A Traveler's Guide to Fantasy Land. YA author Philip Murdstone is recognized for his stories of sensitive teenage boys in contemporary settings, appreciated by critics but not widely read, which is why his pushy agent talks him into an absolutely new writing venture, an epic fantasy novel with all the Tolkienesque trimmings. Murdstone hates fantasy fiction and has no idea what to write, so he's grateful when a complete story arrives in his head. VERDICT Few adult fantasy readers are familiar with the late Carnegie Medal-winning YA author Peet (Tamar), but this work should gain him a mature audience. His clear appreciation and knowledge of the genre, plus adult language, make this clever story best for adults and those well versed in fantasy.-JM © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.