The Hero's Guide Trilogy

The first impression was “What a great idea/premise! And who better to pull it off than Christopher Healy!” These books are hilarious, like, laugh-out-loud hilarious; they are clean (it’s a junior fiction book, the swear words are made up) and they are an enjoyment, reading-wise. I read the first two books a long time ago, when I was young enough that “junior fiction” was the only section I perused. I remember enjoying them, but I didn’t remember much else. I recently read the last book, which came out a few years ago but that I never got to read, and I enjoyed it so much I decided to go back and read the first two. I was not disappointed. It was just as funny and sometimes even funnier than the third book, which I read only once.

The premise is a bit lengthy to lay out without divulging the whole series and giving away anything, but the basic basic idea is “The Real Princes Behind Prince Charming”. It follows the adventures—actually, mostly misadventures—of four princes who have all been named “Prince Charming” by each kingdom’s royal bards. They are the so-called heroes of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, although that last one turned out to be a total spoiled brat who was arguably the worst villain, worse than even the menacing warlord of a distant realm, but he doesn’t come in until the second book. Anyway, this is supposed to be a critical paper, but it’s a little difficult, since these books are so hilarious each chapter has you in stitches. Even the chapter titles can have you chuckling. Just for the fun of it: here are a few (from the first book):

(2.) Prince Charming Defends Some Vegetables

(6.) Prince Charming Has No Sense of Direction

(13.) Prince Charming is Completely Unnecessary

(15.) Prince Charming Should Not Be Left Unsupervised

(25.) Prince Charming Really Needs to Figure Out What’s Going On

As far as things that are contrary to the Scripture, there is some minor magical stuff, but it’s a fairy tale. There’s a witch (who does all the bad stuff because she wants attention, and she wants her name to be mentioned for once in the bards’ tales, instead of always being the nameless witch in the Prince Charming stories) and she has magic powers, does spells, and has a dragon, that kind of thing. Another thing is the mythical creatures typical of a fairy tale, albeit an alternate one. Dwarves (not dwarfs, they are very anal about the pluralization of their species, like elves), goblins, dragons, giants, gnomes, trolls, fairies, sprites, among others. Other than the gratuitous use of cliched witchcraft (most of the stuff she uses are props, like cauldrons and newts’ eyes) by only one person in the whole book—okay, more than that, if you count the Warlord of Dar’s usage of the mind-control djinn gem and the genie granting wishes to basically all of the protagonists, both significant and insignificant in the third book.

However, all the magic users in the kingdoms were usually shunned and sometimes hunted and killed. Like medieval times.

The books were, for the most part, rather shallow and repetitive, but in a good way. Healy wrote these for young children, after all, and while no profound or meaningful things happened to cross my eyes as I read them, and while I learned nothing really from the stories, they were a good read.

Would I read them again? Actually, yes, I probably would. In a year or so, so I can read the funny parts again. They’re worth it for those reasons, at least. You can laugh over a children’s book sometimes.

A Few Quotes, Just For the Sake of it:

“Believe it or not, not everybody likes you. These people are called villains, and everybody else likes you.” (Duncan, the idiot, goofy, comic relief prince)

“When writing down a plan, I suggest writing down the steps. But just in case your plans fall into the wrong hands, make sure you number them in the wrong order” (Also Duncan)

“I cannot overstate the importance of good allies. But I will try: Good allies are more important than breathing.” (Also Duncan)

“My favorite sandwich! Jelly, jelly, dragonfruit and ginger!” “You put jelly on twice?” “I have to. I hate the taste of dragon fruit.” (Snow White, Duncan’s equally goofy comic relief wife)

“The best disguises are so good, you won’t even recognize yourself. To avoid forgetting who you are, you may want to consider disguising as yourself.” (Duncan)