The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington

I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Forty-Five Limited

Published – Out Now

Price – £6.99 kindle eBook

Heroes… you can't swing a cat without hitting one. You can't even hatch a nefarious plan without some adventuring party invading your dungeon to thwart you. So, it stands to reason they're a force for good—right?

Well—yes and no…

Elburn Barr is a Loremaster who has turned his back on his family's tradition of adventuring and stepped out into the realm of heroes to interview a whole smörgåsbord board of fantastical characters from stoic, swear-shy Paladins through to invisible sword-carrying Mime Warriors.

Through his transcribed journal, he'll take a cheeky peek at the truth lurking behind the hero myth—and everything associated with them. Across his many encounters, he hopes to uncover his brother's fate—a brother who has been missing for ten summers after brazenly setting out to forge a heroic name for himself.

Will Elburn discover what really happened to his brother, or will he fail in his quest and become another casualty of the adventuring trade?

The Hero Interviews is a departure from the usual swords and sorcery yarn—it's a sometimes gritty, sometimes amusing, but completely bonkers look at the realm of heroes.

What do I think is the hardest thing to write in fantasy? Comedy. But wait, says you we have Pratchett; and I say ‘yes and how many others can do books that make you laugh have you read recently?’ Oh I can think of authors who I think have that mix of humour and pathos and can match Pratchett for storytelling – Zen Cho, Claire North and T Kingfisher all come to mind but delivering pure funny comedy is hard. In many cases I’ve read novels where it all feels very dated and obvious – all a bit too easy and so more a polite grimace than any real fun being had. So, I am extremely pleased to say I found The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington to be funny, caring about its subject matter, deliciously topically geeky and also provides a very good story unfolding before you to boot. In short this is a huge amount of fun and well worth your attention.

Elburn Barr comes from a long family line of heroes but has followed a different path – he is a Loremaster, a wordsmith and while his younger brother went to become a good old-school hero ten years ago; but he never returned. Elburn has set himself a different project to understand what is a hero?  How do they fit with all the other key roles people have in the realm? Elburn travels far and wide to interview amongst others Barbarians, Wizards, Paladins, Necromancers, Evildoers and the lesser known Mime Warriors, Shovelsmiths (gravediggers to everyone else) , Fans and Tour Guides who all alongside the secretive Heroes Guild keep adventures going and making people into legends.

This is a joyous read for anyone who loves fantasy, D&D and knows the genre’s strengths, weaknesses, and alllllll the archetypes! The format for the novel is quite unusual as Elburn narrates his interview with a particular guest usually in the location they’re best known for. While we get the conversation, we also get Elburn’s very helpful (or sometimes quite honest) footnotes. Yes, footnotes!! I know that will make you think of the books with the Turtle but while there is a sense of homage to Pratchett I think Ewington manages to do his own thing. These footnotes are more like a fourth wall breaking aside. Sometimes we get information about a strange creature, tradition and sometimes you may find its Elburn’s more internal reaction to the thing they’ve just been told and in many cases all of these are an affectionate joke using fantasy, movies and any other genre we can find. Importantly they’re funny and also not reliant purely on knowledge of the 1980s fantasy scene as so many other fantasy comedies tend to do so.

What instead we do get is a series of interviews that are not afraid to mock their subjects – Wizard’s notorious love of fireball spells; Barbarian’s love of violence and various mocking of Clerics and Paladins for being Clerics and Paladins abound. Ewington could have just gone for the easy option – the fantasy world often to outsiders as we know just looks silly but importantly the jokes are about the internal plotlines; gaming conventions and so on that I think you gentle reader probably will understand more than the wider public. The ludicrousness of scoring systems; loot and dungeons traps versus potions all get explored. How bards may be more rock stars than we’d like to think and also the joys of finding a pristine action figurine are rightly enjoyed and played with. There is a warmth to the humour here that I really appreciated rather than laughing at fantasy its laughing with us.

All of which is nice but could easily have again just stayed with the obvious tropes, but Ewington pays with the format a lot quite early on. We get unexpected characters. Two examples to watch out for is the totally Chosen One Mime Warrior and her life story. It’s remarkably funny playing so close to a chosen one myth but with the added joys of someone whose skills is invisible to ours and their own eyes. You will have to wait for the full origin story of Seymour the talking skull…but it is worth it. We also get funny and tender moments such as an elderly hero in an old folk’s home; a merchant’s lost dwarf love and exactly how a Dark Evildoer gets their job. There is a very impressive mosaic tale where plot lines intertwine and certain adventures get re-interpreted that as the story progresses you really appreciate the depth of the plotting that emerges.

Lastly for a humorous novel there is a decent plot that would still work if you had taken all the jokes out. Elburn starts to see that this realm is having a glut of heroes that is exhausting the level of adventures it can actually support. Everything we see is now tightly controlled by the mysterious Heroes Guild and you start to think the game may be a little more rigged. While this is not grimdark there is a fascinating plot line of how fantasy can turn into cold hard business for some; all focused on profit and forgetting the joy we actually all read and play in this genre for. I’m sure this makes no points in relation to any D&D or publishing related issues in the real world – none at all….nada…ish. But if there were I would say they’re delivered very smartly and pointedly. We also get invested in Elburn’s own family tale and he finds unexpected personal connections too and by the end we realise we too were on an adventure all along…hopefully not the last.

The Hero Interviews is light yet smart, nimble and most of all very funny and knows its targets well. Actually, that may be more how to describe an assassin but in fact that too is a really suitable description because this crept past my usual prejudices on comic fantasy and delivered on target something refreshing, warm and never cruel. Reader - it made me laugh a lot! It is a delight to read and well worth a fantasy fan’s attention – plus I want more mime warriors in this genre now. Go get it!