A Voice for Princess

Originally posted at FanLit.

A Voice for Princess is the first volume of John Morressy???s KEDRIGERN CHRONICLES, a series of novels and short stories about the reclusive wizard Kedrigern. In this first novel, Kedrigern retires from the wizard guild because he???s mad at his colleagues for schmoozing with alchemists (whom Kedrigern considers beneath barbarians on the human worth scale). Accompanied by his ugly but loyal house troll, Spot (whose vocabulary consists entirely of the word ???Yah!???), off Kedrigern goes to build himself a solitary home on Silent Thunder Mountain.

Eventually Kedrigern becomes lonely and decides he???d like a wife. After a couple of unsuccessful courting efforts, he stumbles upon a beautiful and intelligent princess who has been turned into a frog. What luck! Kedrigern???s area of expertise is counterspells, but ... Read More:
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3.5 stars, stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Kedrigern, a cantankerous old wizard, quits the Magician's Guild in disgust at the entry of alchemists. On a rare client service trip from his new refuge, he saves a beautiful princess who's been transformed into a frog. They fall in love. All's well, except... Princess still sounds like a frog.

Review
I was a big fan of John Morressy's Iron Angel trilogy, and I picked up this book soon after it came out. It's a different kind of book, of course – a light-hearted fantasy romp where Iron Angel was fairly serious – but I had hopes. To some extent these were met – the book is fun enough that I picked up three more in the series – but it doesn't have the same magic (so to speak).

The premise is fun, if not innovative – Kedrigern is a grumpy old wizard – and it's fine that some aspects are not too credible – he saves a beautiful princess who falls in love with him for no particular reason. The plot is fairly episodic, and it never really escapes that broad characterization of ‘kind of fun'. There are plenty of moments of good humor, and the story moves along nicely. As I said, I picked up three others in the series, but haven't felt the need to get the remaining two. If you're looking for undemanding light fantasy, this is a good fit.