It seems unlikely that this is the first time in five years that Your Humble Blogger has reread Year of the Griffin, but a search of this Tohu Bohu seems to indicate that is the case. More likely I just never got around to logging it.
This is particularly odd, to me, because I have evidently read the other book in the series twice in that time, and I think of this one as the one that is better to re-read. The other one (Dark Lord of Derkholm) is entertaining enough, but (as I noticed last time) doesn’t quite work for rereading, at least for me. This one does, a little better. Why? Well, let me think about it.
I called the first book a one-joke book, and it really is: in a world that is more-or-less like a fantasy role-playing game (or fantasy novel that is indistinguishable from a D&D transcript), they are forced to be just exactly like a role-playing game, with all the goofy irrational craziness that ensues. There are minor jokes along the way, but really everything derives from that. This book, on the other hand, takes a few minor characters from the first book along with some of the set-up, and writes something that is more properly a comic fantasy novel. There is an overarching joke to the book, which is that the College of Wizardry is run by total incompetents, and for the first time in ages gets a half-dozen or so really talented students. Each of the students has an Issue or two, and those issues combine in entertainingly plot-furthering ways, and while none of it is very deep, it works just fine.
Also, I suppose, the students are on the whole likable characters to spend time with, which is not so much true of the characters in Derkholm. So that’s a plus as well.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.