The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

imageWhat do you get when you combine fading magic, a dying dragon and a most unlikely heroine?  If you sprinkle it all with a dose of wacky humor (and a few very odd magicians), you get Jasper Fforde’s The Last Dragonslayer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2010).

Jennifer Strange has everything I want in a heroine:  She’s a foundling (yes, that’s your classic orphan raised by the sisters in the Blessed Ladies of the Lobster).  She’s very capable at running Kazam Mystical Arts Management (an employment agency/retirement home for magicians) ever since its owner disappeared months ago.  She is caught up in a greater destiny than she knows, and she doesn’t know it, but she will play a major role in the coming Big Magic.  Most of all, she has heart and wit.

The Ununited Kingdoms are quirky, to say the least, most of all the House of Kazam.  You never know when you will walk through the Transient Moose (one of the magical residents of Kazam).  Magic may be dying, but plenty of unexplained things abound.  The quarkbeast may look ferocious with its mouthful of razor-sharp teeth, but it is loyal to Jennifer until the very end.  Even the last dragon is not at all what I expected.

I love this book–the magic, they mystery, the humor.  The best news of all is that it is just Book One.  I have more adventures in the Chronicles of Kazam to look forward to, and hopefully will read much more of Jennifer Strange.

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