Bob the Dragon Slayer
by Harry Gilleland

From the title, you might think that Bob the Dragon Slayer is a children's book. Although it certainly tells of dragons, knights, peasants, damsels in distress, wizards and an evil king, this story, written with tongue-in-cheek humor and a few off-color phrases, is aimed at teenage and adult readers. To make that point early on, the book begins with a great-grandfather gathering his children and their offspring with the promise of telling them a story. The old gentleman then warns the youngest of the children, “A fifteen-year-old girl might want to cover her ears in a place or two during the telling.”

And so the story begins. Bob is an orphaned peasant who, upon hearing that the king is promising land, wealth, and the hand of his daughter in marriage to the knight able to slay a murderous dragon, sets out to slay the dragon himself. With the help of a wizard named Stephen, Bob is able to do just that. The king, however, refuses to grant Bob his rewards, as Bob is not a knight and, “according to the royal lawyers, the agreement is consequently null and void.”

Furious, Bob begins his mission to become a knight. The reader is then led on a whimsical journey as Bob receives knight instruction from his newly acquired friend, Sir Wilfred. Along the way there is the winning of the hand of the fair maiden, Lady Katherine, known as “Kate” only to Bob, who seems to have a liking for names that are short and succinct, for he has also named his horse “Spot,” his magical sword, “Bruce,” and dubbed Sir Wilfred as “Willie.”

There is other humor throughout the book, as the story is interspersed with lines that deviate from your usual tales of yore, such as, “Geez, government bureaucracy is ruining everything these days” and “My God, he has become a weather forecaster! And everyone knows just how reliable their predictions are.” The book also has its moments of intrigue and surprise, as Bob learns of long-held secrets and leads an army of knights into a seemingly insurmountable battle against a monstrous king.

Bob the Dragon Slayer was well edited, in both typesetting and grammar. I found a total of four typos, which could easily be corrected and the book republished without major modification.

For those who like to be entertained by humorous stories of dragons and knights, this novella should fit the bill.

Gloomwing Review by B.R. Jones

Pages: 106
Softcover ISBN:1-4116-3315-6
Softcover ($8.95) available at http://www.lulu.com/content/118897

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