The Murdstone Trilogy

Starred review from June 22, 2015
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.

September 15, 2015

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 Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2015
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.

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Starred review from August 1, 2015
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 needsthe 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)