Bob the Dragon Slayer
Harry E. Gilleland Jr.
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2005 Lulu Press
ISBN: 1411633156

A tale of dragons, wizards, knights, fair ladies, evil kings & lawyers.

Bob, a mere orphaned peasant lad, hears about the reward being offered to slay a dragon that's terrorizing a village & decides to try his luck. On the way he falls in with an apprentice wizard named Stephen, who gives him Bruce, a magical sword. Stephen tells Bob the secret to slaying dragons. Which Bob promptly does, to everyone's amazement.

However, he's cheated out of his reward when the king says as Bob's not a knight, he doesn't merit the hand of his daughter, & the lawyers are there to prove the king right. So Bob heads off for another dragon-oppressed village, which leads to yet another, unfortunately always with the same result. Until he comes upon a really nice knight who takes him under his banner, offers him friendship & tons of training.

In a couple of months Bob is ready to make his way to the King of the North so he can get his knight's certification. Naturally, on the way he comes upon a damsel in distress. A really fine damsel with a sharp wit who wants nothing to do with a peasant, except her captors come back, & with the help of Bruce, Bob slays 'em all!

& what reward does Bob ask for saving Princess Kate? Why, kisses of course! & so the adventures continue & true love grows. Wizard Stephen returns, in the form of a talking Raven, to help Bob confront a mean king on the battle field, & a ring, which Bob's carried all his life, turns out to be the key to who he really is, & to his destiny.

This is read-aloud-fun filled with all the usual suspects as well as true ineptness, a peasant who doesn't want to be an aristocrat, true love &... wow.... true friendship -- all regularly found in any classic knightly legends -- except those pesky lawyers who do, actually, save the day.

Talk about a cracked, warped & garbled modern faux legend &, like those psychedelic Rock&Roll album covers of yore, Bob The Dragon Slayer may just have a slew of “deeper” meanings -- as in parables or fables. Hey, many a true word's spoken in jest, right?

Whatever your age, if you're looking for a gently told quest tale of courage, honor, deceit, talking Ravens & moving mists, Bob The Dragon Slayer has it all. If you want to see wrongs being righted, peasants being knighted, & destinies coming true, as well as a story that ends well, Bob The Dragon Slayer is just the ticket!

More from Harry E. Gilleland Jr.:
Gilleland Poetry: Stories And Poems
Poetry For The Common Man
(07/31/05)

Rebecca