From Publishers Weekly
This sequel to the wildly successful Sir Apropos of Nothing (2001) starts off with a bawdy send-up of Lord of the Rings, but quickly segues into its own territory with the appearance of a mysterious Visionary at Apropos's bar, Bugger Hall. The man tells our antihero, You will become a shadow of your former self while escaping to the "Tragic Waste on the Road to Ruin" (or is that "Woad to Wuin"?), just as Sharee, Apropos's weaver companion from the first volume, bursts in and begs for his help in escaping Lord Beliquose. The very loud lord wants a powerful gem, the Eye of the Beholder, which the virtually powerless Sharee possesses and which Apropos promptly steals during their escape into the dominion of the Rockmunchers beneath Bugger Hall. Unfortunately, the gem enchants Apropos during their subsequent arrival at the Tragic Waste and turns him into Peacelord of Wuin, a barbarian who wears blue "woad" on his face before battle and has, as his consort, the beautiful but possibly quite wicked Lady Kate. When Apropos shakes off his amnesia, he resolves to reverse his fate, and that of Sharee's in a world turned upside down by violence. He also hopes to avenge his mothers death. The wisecracking wordplay that fans have come to expect skips smoothly off the page, lifting this satirical fantasy into a class all its own. Juggling goofy entertainment with gritty philosophical musing, David should build plenty of momentum for the promised third act, Tong Lashing.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
After his last adventure resulted in the destruction of a magical artifact, Sir Apropos settles down for a peaceful life as a tavern-keeper. When a wandering Visionary makes a prediction that launches the reluctant hero on another quest that leaves him stranded and dying in the middle of a desert, Sir "Poe" awakens to find himself the leader of a mighty and ruthless warband bent on the conquest of the world. Continuing the tale begun in Sir Apropos of Nothing, David takes another poke at the conventions of epic fantasy, this time targeting the epic heroes of sword and sorcery. In between large doses of bawdy humor and outrageous puns, the author spins an engaging tale of high fantasy featuring an appealing hero. For most fantasy collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Having seen the good and the bad sides of heroism (more often the latter), Sir Apropos of Nothing believes he has retired to the quiet life of an innkeeper. But the sorceress Sharee barges back into his life, and thereafter she and he are pursued up hill and down dale by ferocious, vengeful Sir Bellicose. After enough nightmarish doings for one novel, Sir Apropos awakes in the desert land Wuin to face new perils. For the host of dauntless warriors, the thousands of adoring subjects, and the more physically adoring consort whom he meets aren't what they seem, and by tale's end, Sir Apropos and Sharee have escaped by the skin of their teeth, Wuin is ruined, the loyal subjects are divided into charred and uncharred corpses, and the wandering antihero beholds the talismanic Eye Eye of the Beholder with his own very jaundiced peeper. David mixes ghastliness and giggles deftly and with the near absence of lapsed taste that continues to distinguish the saga as a major feat of contemporary humorous fantasy. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Roland Green Booklist David mixes ghastliness and giggles deftly and with the near absence of lapsed taste that continues to distinguish the saga as a major feat of contemporary humorous fantasy.
Review
Roland Green Booklist David mixes ghastliness and giggles deftly and with the near absence of lapsed taste that continues to distinguish the saga as a major feat of contemporary humorous fantasy.
Review
Roland Green Booklist David mixes ghastliness and giggles deftly and with the near absence of lapsed taste that continues to distinguish the saga as a major feat of contemporary humorous fantasy.
Book Description
The return of Sir Apropos of Nothing! "This sequel to the wildly successful Sir Apropos of Nothing starts off with a bawdy send-up of Lord of the Rings, but quickly segues into its own territory with the appearance of a mysterious Visionary at Apropos's bar, Bugger Hall. The man tells our antihero, 'You will become a shadow of your former self while escaping to the Tragic Waste on the Road to Ruin,' (or is that 'Woad to Wuin'?), just as Sharee, Apropos's weaver companion from the first volume, bursts in and begs for his help in escaping Lord Beliquose. The very loud lord wants a powerful gem, the Eye of the Beholder, which the virtually powerless Sharee possesses and which Apropos promptly steals....The wisecracking wordplay that fans have come to expect skips smoothly off the page, lifting this satirical fantasy into a class all its own...goofy entertainment with gritty philosophical musing. -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Sir Apropos of Nothing, Book Two: The Woad to Wuin FROM THE PUBLISHER
He's back. By (and in some cases, despite) popular demand, Sir Apropos of Nothing once again stalks the pages of literature, leaving unmistakable footprints wherever he treads. Apropos is the unlikely noble whose life began in the lowest of ways: as the result of a gang assault by a group of drunken knights on a helpless tavern wench.
Last time out, Apropos attempted to seize control of his own fate, and ended up with, appropriately, nothing. Time has passed since he fled the kingdom of Runcible, and Apropos leads a quiet existence as a tavern owner. All that changes abruptly, however, when the sorceress Sharee re-enters his life with the forces of the warlike Lord Bellicose hard on her heels. They want something they're convinced she has stolen. She tells Apropos that it's not true. Thus the medieval era's most notorious antihero suddenly finds himself once again in the middle of events of which he wants no part.
Apropos, a helpless cog in destiny's gear mechanism, is hauled into the middle of another unlikely adventure that finds him dying of thirst and exhaustion in the gods-forsaken desert known as the Tragic Waste. But death is far too simple a fate for Apropos. When he awakens, he is astounded to discover that he is now a fearsome scourge of the land known as Wuin...a deadly and despised "peacelord" (the politically correct term for "warlord") with tens of thousands of troops at his command, cities filled with helpless people trembling before him, and an adoring and sexy consort. How he came to this, what he will do once he discovers the terrible price attached to his new station in life, and how the mystic gem called the Eye of the Beholder fits into all of it are just a few of the challenges our reluctant hero will encounter along the Woad to Wuin.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
This sequel to the wildly successful Sir Apropos of Nothing (2001) starts off with a bawdy send-up of Lord of the Rings, but quickly segues into its own territory with the appearance of a mysterious Visionary at Aproposs bar, Bugger Hall. The man tells our antihero, You will become a shadow of your former self while escaping to the Tragic Waste on the Road to Ruin (or is that Woad to Wuin ?), just as Sharee, Aproposs weaver companion from the first volume, bursts in and begs for his help in escaping Lord Beliquose. The very loud lord wants a powerful gem, the Eye of the Beholder, which the virtually powerless Sharee possesses and which Apropos promptly steals during their escape into the dominion of the Rockmunchers beneath Bugger Hall. Unfortunately, the gem enchants Apropos during their subsequent arrival at the Tragic Waste and turns him into Peacelord of Wuin, a barbarian who wears blue woad on his face before battle and has, as his consort, the beautiful but possibly quite wicked Lady Kate. When Apropos shakes off his amnesia, he resolves to reverse his fate"and that of Sharees in a world turned upside down by violence. He also hopes to avenge his mothers death. The wisecracking wordplay that fans have come to expect skips smoothly off the page, lifting this satirical fantasy into a class all its own. Juggling goofy entertainment with gritty philosophical musing, David should build plenty of momentum for the promised third act, Tong Lashing. (Aug. 2) FYI: The author of more than 50 books, David is the co-creator with John Ordover of the New Frontier Star Trek series, while his TV credits include episodes of Babylon 5 and Crusade. He is also the author of a revised, updated novel, Knight Life (Forecasts, May 27). Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
After his last adventure resulted in the destruction of a magical artifact, Sir Apropos settles down for a peaceful life as a tavern-keeper. When a wandering Visionary makes a prediction that launches the reluctant hero on another quest that leaves him stranded and dying in the middle of a desert, Sir "Poe" awakens to find himself the leader of a mighty and ruthless warband bent on the conquest of the world. Continuing the tale begun in Sir Apropos of Nothing, David takes another poke at the conventions of epic fantasy, this time targeting the epic heroes of sword and sorcery. In between large doses of bawdy humor and outrageous puns, the author spins an engaging tale of high fantasy featuring an appealing hero. For most fantasy collections. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Unaccountably, Davis fails to name this darkly serious sequel to his equally glum Sophoclean epic Sir Apropos of Nothing (2000), The Woad to Wack and Wuin. Perhaps his work on the novelization of that stark tragedy Spider-Man (2002, not reviewed here) left him addled with grief. But after 50 novels, many in the Star-Trek: The Next Generation series, after gargling up grunts for The Incredible Hulk, and wringing his brain for scripts for Babylon 5 and still other TV series, what can be left of man or writer? Well, enough to spell out the woad to Wuin. Who is the stingingly brilliant Sir Apropos, son of a tavern wench raped by a group of knights? Something of a cynic, for whom the world is one of endless betrayal and deprivation. Because his mother saw a phoenix burn to ash in a wood and rise again in flame, Sir Apropos is born with flaming red hair, teeth, a lame right leg, and a hodgepodge of facial features. He now carries about his murdered mother, reborn as Mordant, a phoenix too hideous to be looked upon by his beloved, beautiful weather-weaving sorceress Sharee. Apropos's present antiheroic but Schopenhaurean journey, into a world where will and idea arise knotted in twists and tangles, turns on an enchanted gem known as Eye of the Beholder, which he finds under a deformed dwarf hung from a tree in the forest. The gem is on a ring bearing an inscription, as Nibelungen rings since Das Rheingold (and borrowed by Tolkien) must: "One thing to rule them all." The ring, working its way through a hole in his pocket, lodges at the base of his upright member, and won't come off, not even after an amazing night of arduous ardors with insatiable Sharee. Cyclopean drama by a one-eyed giant, hisprose so golden it smudges your fingers.
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