The Dragon Hoard

Such a great take on fantasy, it plays with a lot of tropes and subverts them in fun unexpected ways and still has a lot of heart and happiness in the story and setting.

Tanith Lee is an excellent author of fantasy fiction. her heroes are unique, her stories are compelling, the dragon hoard, though written for a younger audience, does not lose any of her talent. this is a fantastic book. my dad read it to me when i was a child. and when i have kids, i'll read it to them. :)

It's always refreshing to read a fantasy that can laugh at itself-- as The Dragon Hoard is constantly doing. Tanith Lee's inventiveness never lags, strolling briskly from talking goats and owls to a witch's unpaid chariot fees to a pair of silly wolves. All traditional characters are in place...with outrageous twists! The prince isn't much for heroics and scarcely knows how to seek his fortune, the princess is cursed with a kindness spell, and everything in general is turned completely upside down. Wonderful book-- pity it's so hard to find.

Superb stylist Tanith Lee offers a wry picaresque fable for the young and the young at heart. A children's book peppered with things to entertain the grownups who might be reading along. Sweet and goofy. The characters are delightful and hilarious and always heading in unexpected and wonderful directions. At times laugh out loud funny. It manages to be both a fairy tale quest and a parody of the genre... so that (unlike many books in this vein targeted at little readers) it never dissolves its own goo. My only complaint about the book is that I can't find it in print to give to the kids in my life.