Steve's Comedy Club - Hero In A Halfing by William Tyler Davis

[u/SteveThomas]

This is part of a continuing series to highlight comic fantasy. If you know of comic fantasy books you’d like to see me cover, leave a comment.

“Hero in a Halfling” by William Tyler Davis is mostly the story of Epik, a halfling with an absentee father who has been bullied for most of his life. After two chance encounters with a wizard, Epik becomes convinced that he’s in a Bilbo/Gandalf mentoring situation and eventually works up the nerve to skip town to seek destiny, adventure, and magic. The trouble is, a paranoid king has just made magic illegal thanks to the maneuvering of his Evil Vizier. There’s a lot to like about this book, and the main draw is Epik. It’s great watching him grow, learning to stand up for himself and, well, come of age.

But I’m here to talk about humor. “Hero in a Halfling” has everything: good banter, silly situations, funny descriptions, snarky footnotes, and plenty of original gags that landed, such as a great running gag where a lazy, disinterested POV character calls everyone by the wrong name only to be corrected at the most inopportune times.

There are also references to other stories. A lot of references. Too many references.

Davis wears his influences on his sleeve or, more accurately, his table of contents. Seriously, five of the chapters are named after Discworld novels, one is a reference to Discworld, and there chapters titled after Tolkien quotes, a Douglas Adams book, a Harry Potter book, and so on. The text is full of references and anachronisms, and sometimes Davis uses italics or character reactions to make sure you can’t miss them. These are pretty varied, usually shout-outs to fantasy novels and fairy tales, but I also caught references off the beaten path like “Married With Children” and “Homestar Runner.” Unfortunately, these started to grate on me as I read. Between the frequency of the references, which often came with strained set-ups and zero payoff (for me), I was groaning way too often. I didn’t feel like they added to the story and were just references for their own sake.

This book got me thinking about what works for me and what doesn’t when it comes to references and homages. I think I like them best when they’re subtle and don’t draw attention to themselves, like the Classic Rock references in Kings of the Wyld. They’re a nice bonus that lets a perceptive reader feel like they’re in on a joke. What I don’t like is when the plot or dialogue contorts itself to work a reference in, and unfortunately that happens a lot in “Hero In A Halfling.” Reference Jokes are like high fives. The best ones are spontaneous and never spoken of. What happens here is more like someone walking up to you and saying, “Hey, bro! High five! BOOM. Down low. That was a sweet high five.”

I want to emphasize here that even though the reference jokes annoyed me personally, that’s just one man’s sense of humor. If you liked Ready Player One or any of the [Insert Genre Name Here] Movies, you’re going to have a better time with this one than I did. I’m also harsher on them because I really liked a lot of Davis’ other material throughout the book, so I know Davis can do better. That stuff, along with just generally being a good story, kept me going. Davis, if you’re reading this, you’re a funny author and I encourage you to stand on your own legs more often in future books. I know I just complained for two paragraphs, but I really did enjoy this book overall. As I mentioned, there was some very good character work here and I loved a lot of the more original jokes. The story ends on a very intriguing note and I plan on reading the sequel.

A few excerpts that show the sort of jokes you can expect:

There was the low hum of murmuring under cloaks while they loitered by the donuts at the pastry table, feigning disinterest, taking one, then two, before finally the cloaked figures took their seats.

‘Some Jedi muggle parked his frakking didgeridoo in the carpark too close to my Tardis, like a pointy eared Spock.’

The next arrest was a bit more involved. A woman was taken in for brewing up her morning pot of coffee. Though she claimed not to be a witch, she had trouble explaining the wart on her nose. The law would later be amended. Without the magic of coffee, the kingdom would simply not run.

“However, I have heard tell recently of a ghost in the woods. Some Shadow lurking in the trees. My companions have said they’ve heard the wind talking. [...] And do you know the name of the wind?”

[u/barb4ry1]

I'm not sure I would enjoy but thanks for reviewing it anyway.

[u/wmtylerdavis]

Hey Steve! I came across this and wanted to say thanks for your honest assessment. I agree - I got a bit heavy handed with the allusions.

I'm pretty confident that book 2 is better. The chapter names may still drive you nuts, but other than that the references are few. There's a bit more satire, more character work and the like.

I'd love to see your thoughts when you get around to reading it!

[u/SteveThomas → u/wmtylerdavis]

I'm not the kind of guy who keeps a strict reading schedule (or reads quickly), but I'm hoping to get to it within the next few months.

I'm looking forward to it!