"One for the Morning Glory" by John Barnes (1996)

 **Delightfully meta fantasy.  Our heroes are pretty certain that they are in a fairy tale, and just hope that it has a happy ending**

"In time to come, when the magic is draining so far out of the world that a vampire can be banished by crossed sticks and a sprinkle of water, when all that we do and say here will be spoken of in the brightest daylight or the darkest, wildest night without fear of bringing anything to pass, wise men will debate why there is any pain or suffering at all, and will say many foolish things and a few wise ones about it, but is it not enough for us to say 'pain has come this way,' and let it be?  We do not yet belong to the gray, dull generations, or to times without meaning, or to times when meaning drains even from stories."

Though more well-known for his more traditional science fiction, in 1996 John Barnes decided to write a fantasy novel, and what came was a charming, unique, and delightful little piece of fantasy that has stuck with me ever since I read it as a child.  Scenes, individual lines, and the eponymous song have been cheerfully camped out in my mind for almost three decades

I've talked about this many times in my past, but one of my absolute favorite microgenres is that particular form of satire that is simultaneously deconstructing the tropes of a genre while simultaneously being a really good presentation of that genre

My go-to example is "Shrek", which was absolutely mocking fairy tales while also being a really good fairy tale.  "Shaun of the Dead" is a fantastic zombie film, "Cabin in the Woods" is a great horror flick, "Galaxy Quest" is an outstanding scifi adventure, "Kung Fu Hustle" is an awesome martial arts movie, and "Unforgiven" has a legitimate case for the greatest Western ever filmed.  "I'm On a Boat" is mocking club songs but was actually a legit banger that got a lot of play in clubs.  "One Punch Man" is a superb action anime, and "Frieren" is a gorgeous magical adventure.  "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" actually does bring up some really interesting points about the way we analyze literature, while also very much being Borges fucking with us because he can.  Sorry, I'll stop listing examples, I just really like this genre

(Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles unquestionably fall into this category as well.  Ok, sorry, I'm done)

Add "One for the Morning Glory" to this list, without a doubt

The setup is simple.  The opening line of the book is, "It was an old saying in the Kingdom that 'a child who tastes the Wine of the Gods too early is only half a person afterwards.'  Because the wise men of the Kingdom had taught from time immemorial that older sayings were truer, no one, as far as anyone knew, had ever given any of the Wine of the Gods to young children."  Two-year-old Prince Amatus manages to drink a cup of the Wine of the Gods, and finds this saying to be quite literally correct--the entire left side of his body vanishes

A year and a day later, four travelers arrive at the Kingdom to take up postiions at the court, and these become young Prince Amatus's (or at least, the right side of him) Companions.  There are lessons to be learned, monsters to be fought, an evil king in the neighboring country to be defeated.  You know, adventure stuff.  Let's have some fun

Our characters know, or at least suspect, that they are in a fairy tale.  King Boniface in particular is well aware of this fact, and multiple times through the book we get insight into his hope that his son is the hero of the story ("Boniface was delighted again, for if [a new character] was not a hero but knew some of their ways, it was likely that the fairy tale, if it were a fairy tale they were in, would reveal someone already introduced as a hero--perhaps Amatus")

This metathread winds its way throughout the story, as multiple characters speculate both internally and externally about the nature of the story they're in.  Of course, they don't let it make them too cocky:

"This is not the way these tales end," Calliope says firmly.

"This is not the way things end when they get to be tales," Amatus said, "but since ours is not yet told, we cannot count on it.  There were a hundred dead princes on the thorns outside Sleeping Beauty's castle, and I'm sure many of them were splendid fellows"

Oh and yes, this book is at times absolutely hilarious, in a deeply wry and delightful manner.  I laughed out loud when Prince Amatus, having barricaded himself in and prepared to defend himself and his companion to the death whatever comes, hears the door opening . . . only to see his friend there, a gallant rescue, and be told, "for the sake of all the gods, Highness, don't pull that trigger or they'll be writing ballads about us both forever"

I loved this book for some many reasons, but primarily its fantastic voice.  Balancing levity and gravity, the book is lighthearted but deals with very heavy themes at times--the very opening scene is about a character losing half of his body.  Metaphor and all that.  It won't be the last loss he suffers.  But in turn, the world is vibrant and full of wonderful characters.  The Prince's Companions and his more mundane friends and associates are the kind of people you just want to hang out with--honestly, for me this book is eminently rereadable simply because doing so is like spending a day with old friends

While we're here though, a brief shoutout to Calliope, for being kind of a badass.  When Prince Amatus suffers a loss, and takes his grief out on her:

"If you want to come to my chamber and weep for six straight days, I'll listen to you and hold you as long as you allow me occasional food and sleep, or if you want me to go as your comrade on some impossible quest you may consider me packed, or if you want to go up in the mountains and howl at the moon for the next year I'll sit down here and wait for you to be better and never look at any other suitor, but I shall not take your abuse, no matter what is wrong with you."

Say that louder so the people in the back can hear you, girl

And yes, Barnes took advantage of the format to really let loose with his prose.  His similes in particular are a joy to read--he clearly enjoyed writing them::

"What he felt in his palm felt like a shock from scraping across a carpet; but it felt in his arm like a hard yank on his shoulder, and if felt in his stomach like the first surge that says that one has eaten something truly wrong, and in his heart it felt like cold rain on the day in November when you think of a lost love.

Ooh, another one, man I had fun highlighting passages in this book:

It must have seemed to him--and would have to anyone else who watched--that when the first dark cloud sailed across the moon, the end would come in a flurry of clashing steel (which would sound much like pots and pans being thrown down the stairs), the thuds of bodies on pavement (which would sound like bags of corn being dropped), the oozing of blood (which would make no sound), and the high mad cacophonous uproar of goblins cheering with their mouths full (which would sound like something best left unimagined).

Like I said, Barnes was clearing having just a grand old time writing this book

One thing I saw in a number of other reviews is people noting, or even complaining about, the "weird" language of the book.  Basically, as a not-subtle way of pointing out that this world is a half-step away from our own, certain objects have slightly different names.  Characters shoot "pismires" and drink cups of "Gravamen" and play songs on their nine-stringed "palanquins".  It seems confusing, but it's really not, when the Captain draws his "escree" out of his scabbard, you can guess from context what's going on.  But apparently some people had problems with this, as it's mentioned in every single review I read (and now in this one, I guess)

I'll say that this book is not for everyone.  A few things:  You have to be willing to enjoy a whole lot of pointlessly ornate prose, because Barnes clearly took away the stops and limits he places upon himself when writing "serious" scifi; you have to be able to handle the malapropisms mentioned above (I still don't understand why so many reviewers couldn't, though?); and perhaps most important of all, without spoiling anything, you have to be willing to accept that not every question is going to be answered.  The nature of this world and the fairytale magic running through it, even the stories of our characters, are not all going to be revealed in detail

Because, in the end, this is a book about loss.  It is.  That's the theme from very first page, no matter how silly the presentation is at times.  When we suffer losses in life, when we lose people we love, we don't always have all our questions answered.  Learning this lesson is one of the hardest that any of us ever have to learn.  This book, for all its wackiness and wordplay, is grounded in that lesson

I loved this book

"None of us would choose to be whole if we fully knew the cost, but we are not free to be anything else"