Sir Apropos of Nothing

Rating:
Summary: Very Nice.
Review: This book is great. Very readable, with fascinating, unpredictable characters, great plot twists, and an exciting premise. One particular scene, when Apropros has a confrontation with a childhood friend, is brilliant; and will stick with you. I hope the book gets enough sales to justify a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: Cynical attitude gets a bit too much
Review: This book starts off well enough - it has good pacing and a sense of humor. It is told in the 1st person narrative. the story opens with Sir Apropos seducing a buxom little hottie out from under the nose of her hulking knight boyfriend. With this situation, my first impression of our hero was of a charming and handsome thief-like character (like Tacit, of whom I mention later in this review). But as we learn of the hero's past and history, I found myself becoming thouroughly UN-endeared of Apropos. Their is nothing remotely heroic about him - he is negative and disdainful of most everything. He does the right thing only through happenstance. His first and only concern is of himself. This is made apparent time and time again, and soon I began to wonder what trait it was that caused the buxom little hottie in the beginning to risk all in having an affair with Apropos.

The adventure is written well, but with the main character always being such a downer, I got weary of listening to his cynical and whiny ways. The character, Tacit, on the other hand, of whom Apropos hates solely because he has a positive outlook on life and wants to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do would have made a much better choice as narrator of this tale.
This book tries to be a light-hearted and fun fantasy adventure, and easily could be, if only the protagonist was a lot more likeable. Apropos is such a grump that I began to not care about his adventures anymore; especially after he betrays his once-friend Tacit so brutally. I got halfway thru this book, and then I became uninterested and quit reading because I disliked the main character so much.
I give this book 3 stars because it is, indeed, well written and fast paced, but Tacit with his do-gooder attitude would have been a much better choice as leading man.

Rating:
Summary: Decent book, but not a great read
Review: This book was entertaining, but ulimately got boring, and then stupification set in (both in the author, and the reader). Unlike any other fantasy book I have read in the past ten years, I didn't finish the last few chapters. Thus, although I enjoyed parts of it, I can't give it a great review, it was too formulaic.

Admittedly, it is a clever idea to have the hero really be the sidekick, and he does a good job with many of the scenes. However, many of the scenes are also simply not that well written. You would be better of reading the trilogy "Sword, Ring, Chalice" if you want something modern, or anything from any of the old masters. Sorry, but this book really wasn't worth the time.

It gets three stars for the wit it does contain, although if you don't like puns, look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, Witty, and Unexpected
Review: This book was well written, had a good pace, entertaining, and had some unexpected twists and turns.

I've enjoyed Peter David as a Trek writer for many years, and I very much enjoyed this foray into original work! Apropos was a wonderfully anti-heroic hero, who I couldn't help but love even when I wanted to hate him.

This work wasn't as funny as some of his previous works, but it had its touches of humor, which I very much enjoyed.

I hope Mr. David decided to share a sequel with us!

Rating:
Summary: Get this book and read it!
Review: This is a ***great book!***
Great if you like funny books, great if you like sword and sorcery books, great if you like fantasies with knights and princesses, great if you like fantasy, great if you've read lots of other books like the above.
One of the things I like best about this book is Apropos' questioning himself of whether he's the hero of his own journey or the sidekick. Can he be a hero by pretending to be a hero? Can he be a hero and be afraid all the time? Can he be a hero if he doesn't believe he's hero? Why would he want to be a hero?
For a very funny, exciting book, it's also quite thoughtful.

All this and I can't *wait* for the next book in the series: _The Woad to Wuin_ which has Apropos finding the sexual aid that is "The One Thing to Rule them all." That looks *funny.*

Rating:
Summary: So help me, I can't decide if I like this book...
Review: This is a difficult review to write because, frankly, I'm still trying to figure out if I like this book or not. Peter David's clean, easy writing style is still there, as is his rapier wit, and the story is as epic a fantasy as one can attempt in a medieval setting without having people scream that you're just aping "Lord of the Rings." Still... I'm still not sure how I feel.

Apropos, our protagonist, has two main goals -- find the knight who raped his mother, thus resulting in his existence, and find the Journeyman who later killed her. In neither case does he have a clear idea of what the heck he'll do when this goal is accomplished, and along the way he winds up becoming a Squire, the escort to a princess and an unlikely hero in a story that by all rights belonged to someone else. Or did it?

The book raises cynicism to a new bar, and that's probably why I have problems with it. I'm not a big fan of cynical fiction. But then, the ending leaves you wondering if the previous 646 pages were really as cynical as you were led to believe. It's longer than Peter David's usual work, but it reads at lightning speed. It is liberally peppered with enormously bad puns, usually (but not always) revolving around the names of various characters, but even those don't really hurt the book any further than causing the reader to look up just long enough to say something like, "The Harpers Bizarre. Cute," and then keep reading.

Apropos is, to put it bluntly, a Grade-A creep, but even though he's our first-person narrator you start to feel like you know him a bit better than he knows himself. You start to believe that somewhere amidst all that anger and self-loathing and utter disregard for anyone else there may well be a hero after all.

Or maybe not.

So you see, I still can't tell you if I liked this book, but I can tell you I'm extremely anxious to read the next one in the series. And in the end, what more can you ask from a novel?

Rating:
Summary: HAHAHAHA
Review: This is a laugh out loud book. Even if I wasn't laughing out loud, I at least maintained a smile throughout this book. So, if you want a witty, hilarious read, this is the book.

Rating:
Summary: What Can I Possibly Say!
Review: This is by far one of the most witty, intelligent, non-standard fantasy book that I have read in a long, long while! What Can I Possibly Say? WOW! Peter David - YOU ARE THE MAN! Apropos, not the true hero, nor the reluctant or unitentional hero, is the main focus of this book. Apropos turns everything about the standard hero on its head, what other books have tried to accomplish and failed. Apropos is a scoundrel, a rogue, a coward, an unrepentant, selfish, self-centered you-know-what. In short, everything you loathe and hate in a character. Everything you love to despise! Everything that David Eddings' character Althalus (Redemption of Althalus), strove to be but miserably failed at.

Apropos' moments of heroism are selfish and self motivated. Lying comes as naturally to him as breathing. A firm believer in "every man for himself" and "no good deed goes unpunished", he is everything a cowardly villian should be - but he's not! With him the lines of hero and villian are truly blurred, as are cowardice and bravery, truth and lies, self and selflessness (although with this last quality its more self). I won't spoil the book for you by pointing out specific actions on his part. But if you are the type of person who enjoys, wit, humor, sarcasm, adventure, horror, betrayal, redemption, despair, defeat, victory, and a host of other emotions and actions, then this is the book for you.

Apropos is the main charcter, but by no means the only one of interest. There is also the Princess Entipy, who turns the standard princess-in-distress, pure-as-a-dove, euphemism on its head. Try psychotic-do-not-turn-your-back-on and you would be closer to the truth. There is also Tacit, the hero's hero, the righteous, deserving, pure-of-heart character who MUST triumph at the end. Normally I would pull for such a character and cry foul at his unjust treatment, but for some reason (Apropos) I couldn't do it.

For a recently (to me) discovered author, Peter David has been catapulted to my "A" list of fantasy authors. To say that I am eagerly awaiting getting my hands on "The Woad To Wuin" is an understatement.

Do yourself a favor and get this book. The only regret you'll have is that the book ends!

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This was a great book, but unlike most novels of this sort the hero was not one I could love whole-heartedly. There were times I hated him, but it was actually refreshing to read a book where the hero wasn't all golden looks, honor bound, and duty bound. This was an easy reading book and I enjoyed it all the way through. The characters were unique and unforgettable.

Rating:
Summary: Infectious fun within is certainly apropos!
Review: To comic book fans, Peter David is the writer who makes The Incredible Hulk incredible and puts the super in Supergirl. To Star Trek fans, David is known as the co-creator of the New Frontier series and author of the New York Times best-seller, "Imzadi". But this book has NOTHING to do with any of this, for it's Mr. David's first original novel in several years. It's also about the age of chivalry, and a cowardly young man named Apropos, the bastard son of a tavern wench and an unknown father, who may or may not be of royal blood.

Born with a deformed leg and a mischieveous attitude cynically weened on the pompous airs of knights and royalty, Apropos' presumed lowly existence suddenly gains purpose when his mother is murdered one night while 'servicing' a mysterious customer. Shortly afterward, he journeys to the king's palace, where in seeking vengence, Apropos inadvertently becomes squire to the most inept knight in the kingdom, the aging Sir Umbrage of the Flaming Nether Regions. However, Apropos' sudden ascent to notariety does not sit well among other aspirers of noble station. But a scandalous incident soon moves Apropos closer towards an unintended destiny that his mother seemed to have foretold.

Armed with irreverent puns and a plethoria of memorable characters, this tale not only skewers the divisions of class structures, but the idea that one's greatness is hereditary. Many of the skirmishes between Apropos, his acquaintances and his adversaries center around preconceived public myth versus one's personal desires and responsibilities. And as Apropos weasels through each situation, one senses his growing unease at possibly becoming what he had loathed. There's an inner rivalry and distrust towards heroic idealism, as if aspiring to selflessness is the stuff of idiots and lunatics.

Often juxtiposing the humorous with the horrific, Apropos' adventures meet with surprising twists of fate, leaving one breathless over what might come next. The tale is told in a breezy first person narrative, with relatively few lapses into self-indulgence. Mr. David's penchant for strong female characterization is also in fine form here, with memorable portrayals of mothers, wives, and the amorously-minded. And the title character of Apropos is a magnificent rascal, who compares favorably to like-minded compatriots Flashman or Blackadder. SIR APROPOS OF NOTHING is a rare treat of satire for those who always thought that the proclaimed feats of the knights of old seemed a bit greasy.