Witch and Wombat by Carolyn Cushman

 

I found this book while randomly hopping republished fantasy novels and I found the cover and the premise so charmingly '90s. Basically, this magical world is losing magical power, and in true Peter Pan fashion, one of the ways that magic enters their world is through the power of belief and imagination. The culprit? Television. So this ogre-cum-producer has decided to enlist the region's most powerful witch, Hali, to lead a bunch of Earthlings around their world while convincing them that they're playing a video game. Like I said, so. '90s.

Unfortunately, the premise quickly loses its charm. Apart from Hali, who does a good job playing the grumpy, maliciously complaint witch, all of the characters except Tracy are pretty unlikable. Leo, the overweight character, is fat-shamed throughout the book and he likes food guys, omg. Jamison, the asshole video game critic, is basically like Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park but without any of Goldblum's charm. And Oliver, the fratty gamer guy, is, well. A fratty gamer guy. Tracy is a teenage girl who comes along because she loves games, and of course all the guys mansplain fantasy and games to her at basically any opportunity.

WITCH AND WOMBAT is definitely dated, and this almost makes it charming. But I think what makes it un-fun to read is that it feels so joyless. None of the characters are particularly likable and since most of the book is a journey of them trekking and exploring this world, you're stuck with them. Character-driven stories only really work if the characters are likable or-- at least-- compelling. There are also a HUGE amount of typos in this book. I cut indie publications slack because I get it. That shit costs extra. But this book was once traditionally published. I'm not sure if this happened during the conversion or if this book had to be retypped or what, but the quality of proofreading was very poor.

This was a little like Piers Anthony's KILLOBYTE but better realized. So I think I would only recommend this to people who really, really like campy fantasy, even if it's dated.

2 out of 5 stars