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Hero Adjacent
Not yet published
Expected 11 May 27A reluctant old wizard. A chinchilla(ish) sidekick. A busboy with the voice of an angel and the fingers of a pickpocket. Of course they’ll save the world! If only they could figure out what to fight, and where…
A life-affirming and humorous fantasy debut, perfect for fans of TJ Klune, Travis Baldree, and Terry Pratchett.
When the Chosen One rejects your call, you might need to choose…another one.
After years of drudgery, Athragast the wizard is ready to retire. But the world needs saving in under two weeks, and when the Prince rejects Athie’s big “destiny” speech, he isn’t left with many options. A thieving busboy, a cigar-eating rodent that goes peep, and some troubled sellswords might be the best he can scrounge up on a budget.
Then Athie’s furry familiar steals the wrong warlock’s cigar, and things get a whole lot worse. A brooding villain flings the Runes of Destiny across the land, and Athie must get them back in time to figure out where the world-ending battle is taking place. The crew must séance with druids, party with goblins, and charm rhyming sages right out of their couplets. Along the way, Athie might just learn what it means to be a hero—at any age.
This whimsical, witty hug of a book is calling all lovers of fantasy, found family, crackling fires, and cozy socks. Stand up and face your destiny. Think of the children! Be a hero, or at least, be hero-adjacent.
A life-affirming and humorous fantasy debut, perfect for fans of TJ Klune, Travis Baldree, and Terry Pratchett.
When the Chosen One rejects your call, you might need to choose…another one.
After years of drudgery, Athragast the wizard is ready to retire. But the world needs saving in under two weeks, and when the Prince rejects Athie’s big “destiny” speech, he isn’t left with many options. A thieving busboy, a cigar-eating rodent that goes peep, and some troubled sellswords might be the best he can scrounge up on a budget.
Then Athie’s furry familiar steals the wrong warlock’s cigar, and things get a whole lot worse. A brooding villain flings the Runes of Destiny across the land, and Athie must get them back in time to figure out where the world-ending battle is taking place. The crew must séance with druids, party with goblins, and charm rhyming sages right out of their couplets. Along the way, Athie might just learn what it means to be a hero—at any age.
This whimsical, witty hug of a book is calling all lovers of fantasy, found family, crackling fires, and cozy socks. Stand up and face your destiny. Think of the children! Be a hero, or at least, be hero-adjacent.
ebook
Expected publication May 11, 2027
About the author
Alexis Veenendaal
2 books4 followersAlexis Veenendaal was born and raised in rural Canada and now lives in Wales with her husband, daughter, and cat. She's the author of several Fantasy and Sci-Fi short stories, as well as the debut Comedic, Cozy Fantasy novel HERO ADJACENT. When she's not writing, you'll find her with a cup of coffee or a pint, crocheting, painting, drawing fantasy maps, bookbinding, or travelling the world.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A ready to retire wizard, a charismatic busboy and an emotional support chinchilla(ish) sidekick walk into a tavern… shenanigans ensue; because what happens when the world needs saving and destiny’s “chosen” tells you to take a hike? Well you might need to find another ‘Chosen One’ or a few actually.
Hero Adjacent by Alexis Veenendaal, tells the story of Athragast, an average wizard, who is sent on a final mission before he can retire, but things don’t go according to plan and he’s got to scrounge up a new hero quick because the world is ending in 15 days! What results is a group of oddballs becoming allies as they go on a journey to who knows where, to stop what you may ask, well your guess is as good as mine; and they might find love along the way because what hero doesn’t deserve their happily ever after.
The quest is to save the world, but they’ve got to decode the where and the what all while dealing with warlocks out for blood, goblins, druids, sages, creatures that may or may not exist and the wizarding academy being unhelpful and bureaucratic.
The novel is whimsical and funny in an on the nose type of way that will make you shake your head at the antics our band of heroes get up to. The story is an upending of the traditional hero’s journey, like imagine if Gandalf was just done with everything and found himself isekai'd into Tal'Dorei and he had to wrangle the members of Vox Machina.
While the adventuring party is definitely dysfunctional there is an emotional depth that is evident despite the humour. The story is of adventure and friendship, it is about working together and finding people who will back you despite your age or quirks or side hobbies. The novel throws the concept of what is a hero on its head, makes fun of typical fantasy tropes and proves that if you want it enough and you’ve got the support then you can succeed, chosen or not.
Veenendaal incorporates connection, friendship, found family, otherness, aging and queer themes alongside silly, emotional and teachable moments. If you enjoy cozy fantasy that is 100% satire, chaotic, hilarious, character driven and wholesome with a furry little “pocketchilla” along for the ride, then give this book a try.
Thanks to NetGalley and DAW, for this free arc/copy of Hero Adjacent by Alexis Veenendaal; all opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Hero Adjacent by Alexis Veenendaal, tells the story of Athragast, an average wizard, who is sent on a final mission before he can retire, but things don’t go according to plan and he’s got to scrounge up a new hero quick because the world is ending in 15 days! What results is a group of oddballs becoming allies as they go on a journey to who knows where, to stop what you may ask, well your guess is as good as mine; and they might find love along the way because what hero doesn’t deserve their happily ever after.
The quest is to save the world, but they’ve got to decode the where and the what all while dealing with warlocks out for blood, goblins, druids, sages, creatures that may or may not exist and the wizarding academy being unhelpful and bureaucratic.
The novel is whimsical and funny in an on the nose type of way that will make you shake your head at the antics our band of heroes get up to. The story is an upending of the traditional hero’s journey, like imagine if Gandalf was just done with everything and found himself isekai'd into Tal'Dorei and he had to wrangle the members of Vox Machina.
While the adventuring party is definitely dysfunctional there is an emotional depth that is evident despite the humour. The story is of adventure and friendship, it is about working together and finding people who will back you despite your age or quirks or side hobbies. The novel throws the concept of what is a hero on its head, makes fun of typical fantasy tropes and proves that if you want it enough and you’ve got the support then you can succeed, chosen or not.
Veenendaal incorporates connection, friendship, found family, otherness, aging and queer themes alongside silly, emotional and teachable moments. If you enjoy cozy fantasy that is 100% satire, chaotic, hilarious, character driven and wholesome with a furry little “pocketchilla” along for the ride, then give this book a try.
Thanks to NetGalley and DAW, for this free arc/copy of Hero Adjacent by Alexis Veenendaal; all opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The failure mode of "funny" fantasy is just relying on silly names, pratfalls and parodying the most low-hanging fruit in the trope orchard, while writing a story that's mostly just a series of stupid incidents, and characters who never get any depth beyond a combination of an archetype and a plot role.
I'm happy to report that this book avoids those common pitfalls. Each of the characters we follow throughout the book has at least one extra quirk on top of their archetype and plot role, and the central character has significantly more depth than that. He's a grumpy, disillusioned middle-aged wizard who has been part of the Academy's system of Chosen Ones his whole working life, functioning as a mentor and guide for good-looking teenagers with a Destiny. (These are remarkably common.) What he would love is to be able to contribute something more to the saving of the world, and this time, he finally gets to do so. Along the way, he's forced to question all of his assumptions about Chosen Ones, the Academy, magic, wizardry, goblins, warlocks, the Hero's Journey, destiny and himself. It's amusing, rather than hilarious, but on the upside, it doesn't try too hard to be funny and fail.
He's believably flawed, as are his companions, and things look dire on many occasions, but they finally manage to learn to trust each other enough to pull off their world-saving feat. Side quests develop their abilities and their bonds, and encourage the wizard to re-evaluate what he'd always believed.
It's not, of course, as good as mid-career Terry Pratchett, but what is? Certainly not early-career Terry Pratchett, which it more closely resembles. I look forward to seeing this author develop further.
I had a pre-publication version from Netgalley for review, and the commas are mostly in the right places (apart from the usual excess ones between adjectives occasionally - very few authors avoid that trap). The apostrophes are occasionally not in the right places when the noun is plural, and there are some minor vocabulary glitches as well, which I'll report to the publisher in the hopes that they'll be fixed before publication. But overall, it's cleaner than average in editing, as well as being above average in other respects.
I'm happy to report that this book avoids those common pitfalls. Each of the characters we follow throughout the book has at least one extra quirk on top of their archetype and plot role, and the central character has significantly more depth than that. He's a grumpy, disillusioned middle-aged wizard who has been part of the Academy's system of Chosen Ones his whole working life, functioning as a mentor and guide for good-looking teenagers with a Destiny. (These are remarkably common.) What he would love is to be able to contribute something more to the saving of the world, and this time, he finally gets to do so. Along the way, he's forced to question all of his assumptions about Chosen Ones, the Academy, magic, wizardry, goblins, warlocks, the Hero's Journey, destiny and himself. It's amusing, rather than hilarious, but on the upside, it doesn't try too hard to be funny and fail.
He's believably flawed, as are his companions, and things look dire on many occasions, but they finally manage to learn to trust each other enough to pull off their world-saving feat. Side quests develop their abilities and their bonds, and encourage the wizard to re-evaluate what he'd always believed.
It's not, of course, as good as mid-career Terry Pratchett, but what is? Certainly not early-career Terry Pratchett, which it more closely resembles. I look forward to seeing this author develop further.
I had a pre-publication version from Netgalley for review, and the commas are mostly in the right places (apart from the usual excess ones between adjectives occasionally - very few authors avoid that trap). The apostrophes are occasionally not in the right places when the noun is plural, and there are some minor vocabulary glitches as well, which I'll report to the publisher in the hopes that they'll be fixed before publication. But overall, it's cleaner than average in editing, as well as being above average in other respects.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews