The Banned Underground: The Amulet of Kings [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The Banned Underground is a pretty funny piece of writing. I laughed out loud on more than one occasion, and I had to wonder about the author's clearly warped sense of humor and just how many puns, jokes, and obscure references he has up his sleeve.

The story follows (sort-of) two teenagers shipped up to the aunt's house while their mother recovers in the hospital. But this is not your normal aunt. She is a witch ("good" or "bad," I am still not completely sure), and the teenagers arrive just as Ned, a dark lord starts his quest for world domination. Things get progressively more and more strange as the cast of characters includes dwarves, musical bog trolls, fire trolls, a malevolent refrigerator, Tuatha, Edrens (sort of elvish people), mages, Bodgandor (sort of evil spear holders), and a flatulent goat.

The dwarves lost the Amulet of Kings, a device which gives them power to keep out invaders and take out the garbage. When Ned finds it in an old guitar case, he keeps it for himself instead of turning it over to his boss, the Grey Mage. The bulk of the tale follows the teenagers and other characters as they fight their way around the dwarves' mansion and at their Aunt Dot's home as the Bodgnador invade.

The story, to be honest, is almost an afterthought. It merely serves as a vehicle for the author's immense collection of all forms of humor. Some puns can be seen coming from a mile away. Others sneak up on the reader, smacking him (or her) between the eyes before he knows what hit him. At about 3.2 laughs per Kindlized page, that is a lot of laughs.

There are going to be numerous comparisons to Terry Pratchett by readers of this book, and the comparison is not quite appropriate. While Pratchett tells a story with a degree of plot and character development, Jones merely used his story as a set-up line. Pratchett's jokes are more subtle and take longer to develop while Jones fires his out like machine-gun fire. Oh, there were a few very subtle jokes of which I am sure many will miss (myself included), but most of his are as subtle as a pie-in-the-face. Whereas Pratchett is more of a Bill Cosby, Jones is Carrot Top.

I should point out that while I love my Kindle, this book might be better in the physical form. There are numerous footnotes which are quite funny, but reading them well after the text they reference takes quite a bit away from their impact. In a physical book form, the reader could just glance down immediately and read them in context.

If you are expecting Joyce or Faulkner, forget it. But if you want a good laugh or two (or a thousand), then this book is well worth reading.

This book is filled with word games, diliberate puns (some good), and lots of one-liners or zingers. The author references many old movies/TV programs and events/celebrities of the 60s-90s that may confuse younger readers who may not get the connection(s). Sometimes the story itself gets lost in all the witty banter that is often off topic. There is very little character development and some chapters start out introducing new characters that take awhile to figure out who they are and what they are doing in the story. I occasionally got a little lost but could catch up as it is light, amusing reading.

I did learn how to access the footnotes on my kindle (seems so simple once I figured it out). The numerous footnotes at first were irritating as all get out. By the time I got to the end of each chapter, I no longer knew what each footnote was in reference to. Moving forward in the book to see the footnote and then trying to go backwards was time consuming and annoying. For those of you (like me) that don't know (don't laugh - it's easy when u know how), just click on the footnote number within the text and your kindle will jump right to that footnote. Then hit the back button and you're right back into the story. For me it was worth reading just to glean that info!

Oh this is really silly and cheesy, fortunately it was exactly what I needed today. Loved the bad puns, cheesy jokes and doing spot the reference. Obviously it isn't going to appeal to everyone, but it'll do me fine. If you are looking for a combination of the Goon Show and Lord of the Rings, with a bit of Douglas Adams and a distinct flavour of Terry Pratchett's Soul Music, this will be right up your street. I even noticed a Muppet Show reference.
The characters are all silly and obnoxious, but somehow manage to be likeable as well. Half the time it doesn't really matter if they are baddies or goodies, as long as they are funnies. The plot is fairly standard but thats not the important bit, the cheesy jokes are and the funny bits. I particularly like the fridge as a character, and the accountancy bits were hilarious!
I am very happy that I have book 2 on my Kindle to read tomorrow.