You may recall that in December I reviewed a short story called Klondaeg Saves Fromsday. In that review I mentioned that there is a collection of novels about Klondaeg, and I was planning to read it.
Klondaeg the Monster Hunter is about the titular character, Klondaeg, and the adventures he has while searching for the monster who killed his parents. Accompanied by his talking battle-axe and a rotating cast of companions, he travels the world on a journey for vengeance.
One of my favourite aspects of this book is its interesting structure, where instead of chapters there are 5 episodes. Each episode contains its own mini story and unique adventure. On top of that, Thomas employs a cold open (a technique used in television where part of the episode is aired before the opening) to each of the episodes, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen used in a book before.
The stories really pay homage to the ‘monster of the day’ type story that was common in cartoons 20 years ago. Each episode is its own adventure with occasionally reoccurring villains and a loose overarching plot. This really adds to the atmosphere, though, since Thomas is able to introduce a variety of aspects of his world without taking away from the hack ’em slash ’em type adventures.
This book is a really good palate cleanser since it’s light and amusing. The way it is broken up into 5 smaller stories allows the reader to go through it at their own pace and enjoyment. My only gripe with this book is that there isn’t the focus on character development that I usually go for.
Overall I give it 7/10 stars for ridiculous shenanigans, and short but sweet adventures.
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