My Sparking Misfortune

(The Lakeland Knight: Book 1)

by
Laura Lond

illustrated by
Alla Alekseyeva

CreateSpace, March 2011, 125 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-460-92236-1

Genre: Young Reader
Subgenres: Fantasy / Humor
Reviewed: 7/22/2011

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

Lord Arkus and his freshly captured evil spirit . . .

"Your glow is gone," I said. "I hope you have not lost all your strength."

He looked up at me and, quite unexpectedly, grinned.

"That would be a disappointment, wouldn't it? Don't worry, it's just because I am settling in the physical world."

Well, at least he was not too upset about it.

"Has this happened to you for the first time?"

"I would think those to whom it had happened once will not come to the lake again."

"You have a point." I looked him over again and noticed that he had no weapon. "Where is your sword?"

"Always with me." With that, the shining orange blade showed up in his hand, and before I could blink it was pointed at me. "Why? You want to taste it?"

Uh-oh. So he was a little upset.

"Hey now. You promised to be loyal to me."

"True." He smiled and removed the sword. "But I never promised not to have fun."

A feisty one. It looked like I'd have to teach him some manners.

"You must do what I tell you, and I'm telling you to be respectful. Is that understood?"

He gave a quick bow.

"Yes, Mr. I-Don't-Know-What-To-Call-You."

Well, he had a point here, too. I had not yet introduced myself.

"'My lord' or 'master' will do very well," I said, "but if you wish to know my name, it is Lord Arkus of Blackriver Castle. Now, what is yours? I assume you have a name, too?"

"Of course. I am Tulip."

"Tulip?? What kind of name is that for an evil spirit?"

"I am no evil spirit."

I gave him a long, hard look.

". . . Don't you joke like that. I appreciate a good bit of humor, but not of the kind that makes one's heart stop."

"But I am not joking. I am not an evil spirit, I am what you call a sparkling."

The world faded before my eyes.

"WHAT?? A sparkling?! Are you telling me I have caught a sparkling?! A goody-goody spirit that helps heroes, watches over little children, and messes up villains' plans?!"

"Well, that's a rather broad definition, but yes, generally speaking, that's what a sparkling does. What seems to be the problem?"

I wanted to scream. And I did.

"I WANTED A GORMACK!!!"

"Oops. Your mistake. You should have picked Ragnar then. The one I was fighting."

I grabbed him by the tunic collar.

"Why didn't you tell me who you are?!"

"I do not recall you asking."

Synopsis

If there is one thing he knows, Lord Arkus of Blackriver Castle knows he is a villain. Arkus is paid a visit by his do-gooder arch-nemesis, Prince  Kellemar. Kellemar wants to enlist Arkus' aid in fighting off some Dolmanians that have been attacking several of the prince's regions. Kellemar promised to tell Arkus where the Dolmanians hide their horde of gold if he promised to help defeat them. Arkus agrees to the deal.

Arkus receives a map from Kellemar and heads off with his men to defeat the Dolmanians. In the cave, Arkus finds the horde, but is also confronted by a large, lizard-like beast that has been hunting him for years. Arkus flees toward the nearest white tower, and finds that it has been destroyed. With the monster hot on his tail, he runs toward the next tower and also finds it destroyed. The white towers were the only protection he had from the beast and Arkus relieves that he has been lied to by Kellemar about the Dolmanians and has been led into a trap.

Several years before, Arkus had fought with and killed a wizard named Magner. With Magnor's last breath, he cast a spell on the beast to hunt down Arkus and kill him. Arkus discovered that the beast is unable to approach one of the white towers that dots the land, so Arkus had built several of the towers to form a protected zone. Now, with the towers destroyed by Kelleman, Arkus felt extremely vulnerable.

Bent on revenge, Arkus attempts to capture a powerful evil spirit, called a gormack, who would make him nearly invincible, but a last-minute mistake leaves him with a Sparkling instead—"a goody-goody spirit that helps heroes, watches over little children, and messes up villains’ plans."

Bound to Lord Arkus for five years of service and sworn to act in his best interests, the Sparkling, whose name is Tulip, is happy to lend a hand. Arkus renames Tulip to Jarvi, because Tulip is such a goody-goody name. Of course, Jarvi's understanding of “best interests” is quite different from what Lord Arkus has in mind.

Arkus plans on capturing Princess Litinia of Ulkaria while attacking her caravan, but finds himself coming to her rescue when bandits attack it before he has a chance to attack himself. Labeled a hero by the princess, Arkus soon finds himself to be one of the "good guys," a person that people respect, and is given a new name . . . The Lakeland Knight. When Kelleman hears about this new knight and finds out that it is Arkus, he finds himself doing everything in his power to prove that The Lakeland Knight is not who he appears to be.

My Sparkling Misfortune is a the first book in The Lakeland Knight series and is Young Reader Fantasy Humorous book written by Laura Lond and illustrated by Alla Alekseyeva. This book is intended for readers ages 12 and up.

Review

My Sparkling Misfortune is a fun and interesting tale about a villain whose finds himself stuck in the role of the hero all because he captured a sparkling instead of a gormack. The sparkling has his own agenda, which is vastly different from Arkus', and he uses his magic to turn events to his favor. Arkus sees it happening, but doesn't realize what is going on until it is too late and he has been branded a hero by the people of Ulkaria. So, a man who strived to be the worst villain in the land is now a worshipped hero. I love it!

I really do enjoy a comedy fantasy novel, as can be attested by the books I have reviewed in the Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin starring Skeeve and Aahz. Then, along comes Laura Lond and the first book in The Lakeland Knight series and I found myself enjoying the book immensely. The main character, Lord Arkus, is well-developed and I really enjoyed witnessing a villain making the slow traqnsformation into a hero. As for Tulip, he has many secrets, which I will not reveal here, and I also enjoyed his character quite a bit.

The artwork by Alla Alekseyeva is very nice, but I was disappointed by her rendition of the lizard-like beast. It just looks too much like a giant iguana. I guess I wanted something more dragon-like and a fierce plant-eating iguana just didn't fit the bill. Another thing I didn't like was the placement of the artwork in the book. Most of the artwork appears at the end of each chapter, frequently many pages after the action has already taken place that the artwork is depicting. In my opinion, the artwork should be on the next page so the reader can glance at it while they are reading about what is happening in the artwork.

Laura Lond has created a new wonderful series that starts off in My Sparkling Misfortune. Young Readers will find the book a blast to read and zip through it with a hunger for more. All of the characters are brilliant and the story is very interesting. I know that when I finished reading it, I was disappointed that this fantasy romp was over and wanted to read the next book in this series. Too bad that the next book isn't out yet. Darn it!

Overall, My Sparkling Misfortune is a great start to a series that has a lot of promise. I highly recommend this book to any lover of fantasy and to readers that like humorous twists in a story. I cannot wait to read the second book in this series, My Royal Pain Quest, and just hope that it comes out soon. I guess I will just have to wait patiently, something I am not good at.

I rated this book an 8½ out of 10.