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Self-centered titled character is an entertaining unreliable narrator.

I alternated between disliking Will Hawthorne and REALLY disliking him, between the times he made me laugh as only a full-of-himself 18-year old theatre major can - times when I shake my head and like him just a little. Dr. Hartley does an excellent job of recreating the feel of a Shakespeare farce, complete with a moral ending, but in a prose-fantasy format.

(Checked out through my local library - support your libraries!)

The spoilers are all editing comments - things that most other people don't care about, but part of the reason the book has only a three-star rating instead of a four.
(view spoiler)[A couple things at the very beginning, to set up the initial-action to draw a reader end invalidates the main character (Will) multiple times. For the second half of the book to work, at least how it is defined, Will needs to be a master of questioning and noticing things. Yet, we opened the book to him totally being taken in by a scam run by a very bad spy. Later, to prove he is clever, Will says things he shouldn't have said as a "story" around the campfire - completely misreading a friend. The truth is Will is an extremely unreliable narrator and the only reason the group of adventurers survive is the balance of woeful failures and fantastic miracles end with slightly more good than bad.

Will often asks why he is friends with this group and why they are friends with him. And after reading this book, I agree. Maybe they, like me, have a great deal of toleration for the stupidity and self-centerness of the teen crowd and have taken him in to help him finish his adult-apprenticeship. Kids need time around adults who do adulting - and Will, having only been in a stage-environment hasn't really had that opportunity available. Maybe they keep him around for entertainment - because watching an 18-year old figure out the world can be very entertaining.

Anyway, the disconnect between his abilities and the end-result sets my teeth on edge. Also things like the "semi-illiterate" female fighter plucking the letter from Will's hands and reading it to him. Nothing indicates before or after that she is interested in reading, yet she easily reads a specialized calligraphy letter. Of course, we are seeing her through the hormonal eyes of a teenager, so he may be understanding her completely wrong.

On the one hand, this may be a masterpiece of the "unreliable narrator" or, on the other hand, it may be a tumble of inconsistent character development as they are modified via deus ex machina for the complicated adventuring plot to work. I lean towards the later, hence the one star reduction, but you might find it more the former. Good readings!
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