Like the first book (which you should probably read first), this fantasy book sarcastically makes fun of fantasy novels and fantasy computer games. The story turns many of the typical fantasy themes upside-down, mercilessly shakes them to see what falls out of the pockets, and then sadistically tortures them just for giggles. It centers around the most unlikely of protagonists and the effects of his self-centered, idiotic, often-lucky, usually misguided actions as it adventures through an otherwise standard fantasy world, causing havoc wherever he goes. The book introduces a new character, a gnome, a very likable female artificer (tinkerer) who is the best part of the book. Warning: this book includes bad language, sex, rape, torture, murder, gore, etc. in excess of the first book. Several parts were, in my opinion, unnecessarily graphic. Even worse, the main character, while growing significantly in power and just slightly in intelligence, remained pretty much the same in terms of goals, ethics, social responses, and choices. When I read that the characters in the third book were pretty much the same as books one and two, but with even more disturbing violence, sex, torture, and rape, I decided that the debauchery was too much and the ingenuity of the idea was not worth the assault on my moral fiber.
