Friday Fiction: Disenchanted by Robert Kroese

By A.S. Hardin

Hey, fellow book lovers, I am Jennifer’s newest contributor, here to introduce you to some of my favorite reads. This one in particular I found after taking a very long hiatus from reading. It was hard to find time to read while parenting, working, managing a home, and caring for extended family. Having received a Kindle as a gift I figured it was time to get back into the hobby I enjoyed so much growing up. With Kindle and Prime membership in hand I found Robert Kroese’s Disenchanted.

The first book in his Land of Dis series is about King Boric the Implacable: Remarkable warrior, brave renegade, and King of Ytrisk, and also…dead. Well mostly.

King Boric knew that death would eventually come to all warriors, including himself, especially with Ytrisk at war with the neighboring Kingdom of Skaal. He wasn’t afraid of dying though. Spending his afterlife as a cabbage-smelling corpse and not feasting in the Hall of Avandoor was a different matter altogether.

I found this satirical fantasy to be a fun and easy read because the author filled it with adventure, wise cracking, and humor to take his readers on an entertaining journey. The hilarity begins right away with Kroese telling of the Ytriskian sheep whose own wool was so itchy they would eagerly throw themselves into the nearest chasm to end their suffering. The story then quickly progresses to Boric’s untimely death and follows the corpse-lugging King across the Six Kingdoms of Dis in an attempt to break the curse.

Kroese weaves his yarn by alternating between Boric’s past as a rousing youth and through his…well afterlife, introducing the reader to many common and even more not so common creatures along the way. I love the way Kroese used footnotes at the end of some chapters to add even more wit and backstory.

So how did King Boric end up as a wraith tied to his lifeless body? Give it a go and find out for yourself.

Content warning: mild language.

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Robert Kroese’s Disenchanted comes fully loaded with the wit and charm of The Princess Bride and a sense of humor all its own. This clever take on the traditional fantasy includes footnotes that keep the narrator honest, a cast of characters that resembles something out of the Island of Misfit Toys, and a fantastic setting filled with words and names that test pronunciation skills.

Being assassinated doesn’t have many upsides, so when King Boric is felled by a traitor, the king comforts himself with the knowledge that, like all great warriors, he will spend eternity carousing in the Hall of Avandoor. There’s just one problem: to claim his heavenly reward, Boric must release the enchanted sword of Brakslaagt.

Now, to avoid being cursed to walk the land of Dis forever as an undead wraith, he must hunt down the mysterious Lord Brand who gave him the sword twenty years ago. So begins Boric’s extraordinary journey across the Six Kingdoms of Dis, a walking corpse who wants nothing more than to be disenchanted and left in peace. Along the way he’s advised by the Witch of Twyllic, mocked by the threfelings of New Threfelton, burned, shot at, and nearly blown to bits. But nothing can prepare him for coming face-to-face with Lord Brand. For in that moment, Boric discovers that nothing—in life, in death, or in between—is exactly what it seems.