Bad Prince Charlie

by John Moore

We set our scene in Damask: A kingdom that couldn't get ransacked if it tried...

But now tha the king is dead, that's exactly what his brothers have in mind. All they need is a bad king to take his place. The population will rebel, the neighboring kingdom will be "invited" to restore order, and they'll be in business. . .

Bad Prince Charlie will do. His reputation for "badness" preceds him, and everyone knows that he wouldn't spit on Damask to save it from drought. At the mention of Lady Cathering (Va-va-voom) Durace, he's in on the scheme.

But his father's ghost has been skulking around the castle, and we all know that means trouble. If Charlie ever gets around to hearing the old man out, he may learn that his uncles' mildly sinister scheme is actually a bona fide evil plot. Ransacking Damask is just a cover for the real game:

Weapons of Magical Destruction.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Comedy, Fiction, Fairy Tales, Young Adult, Comic Fantasy

230 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

John Moore is an engineer who lives and works in Houston, TX. His stories have appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Tomorrow, New Destinies, Aboriginal SF, Writers of the Future, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, and other magazines and anthologies. He is the author of six novels in the fantasy and science fiction genre, with the newest, The Lightning Horse , just released from YD Press.

In 2017 he will be at the Nebula Awards Conference in Pittsburgh, the World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio, Armadillocon in Austin, Texas, and Comicpalooza in Houston, Texas.

Reviews

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another fun fantasy/fairytale parody story set in John Moore's hilarious Twenty Kingdoms. Just like Moore's other books this had a great mix of humor, action, magic, romance, and surprises twists. This was definitely a comedy fantasy but there was still an engaging story and a bunch of likeable characters to root for.

The king of the backwater kingdom of Damask has just died. The king's brothers have struck a deal with a neighbouring kingdom's ruler to place an unpopular king on the throne and rouse the populace into rebellion. Once the rebellion is under-way the King of Noyle's troops can rush in and save the day. The king of Noyle will become a hero instead of a villain and the old king of Damask's brothers can collect a massive pay-off. It is a win win situation. Well, for everyone except the new patsy king of Damask. That king is the notorious Bad Prince Charlie, rouge and bastard son of the old king. Charlie is not all that interested in ruling but gets on board with the plan when he is promised exile will be the worst he suffers and, most importantly, when he learns one of the main plots to turn the populace against him involves imprisoning the beautiful Lady Catherine. The "prison" is a fancy set of tower rooms at the top of the palace and since the Lady Catherine is in on the plot he sees this as a great chance to court her!

The story was pretty fun. Charlie soon figures out that pretty much everyone involved in the whole scheme has plots of their own and that no one can be trusted. Then there is the ghostly appearance of the old king, who claims he was actually murdered! In another hilarious twist "Bad" Prince Charlie actually manages to cement his unpopular reputation by trying to weed out corruption among the nobility and put a stop to the bigotry of some of the commoners!

Like all John Moore books this one was not without its flaws. The humour is just slightly over the top at times and Moore can also tend to be a bit juvenile in tone at times but none of it is bad enough to really hurt the story.

All in all this was a quick and fun story.

Rating: 4 stars.

Audio Note: Ramon DeOcampo did a good job with the audio. He really got the humorous tone of the story.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided to read Bad Prince Charlie because I was in the mood for something funny and light hearted. This is what happens when you don't have any unread Peter David in the house. I found this novel to be less than spectacular. However there is enough of a gleam of promise here I will probably try another book by John Moore in a few years.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of John Moore’s “20 Kingdom Series” until somebody lent me Bad Prince Charlie. The funny thing about the series is that—well, it’s not technically a series. John Moore wrote approximately 20 books that are all stand alone novels, unique characters, and different settings. I was reluctant to hear about Bad Prince Charlie belonging in such a collection. I was asking myself whether or not it would be just another generic fantasy novel with no clear direction.

Thankfully, I managed to overcome my lazy-ass mentality and read the entire thing. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I originally thought I would.

Bad Prince Charlie takes place in the fictional world of Damask, a land who recently lost their king. Charlie, a rough-neck bastard of the late king, is a university sophomore slacker. The author makes several jokes about his university education, including some well-timed Engineering student jokes that took me completely by surprise! At times, I couldn't believe I was laughing out loud at some of John Moore’s jokes. The engineering student jokes got the most, being an engineer myself. The ability to turn a fantasy world into a comedic setting is no easy task.

Funnily enough, “Bad Prince Charlie” actually parallels Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Key characters have been replaced, but the premise is the same. Charlie’s uncles plan to take the Kingdom and sell it’s worth to a neighbouring King of another realm. In return, they pay of Charlie to inherit the kingdom’s monarchy—only if he agrees to rule the kingdom like a complete jerk-off. Charlie’s uncles order him to raise taxes, starve the people, and provoke war.

When he comes to terms, he realizes that he must set things right. Teamed up with a hot “High Priestess” from the Temple of Malka (high as in really stoned), Charlie eventually plans to take back his late-father’s kingdom and wrestle his uncle’s influence away from them.

However, what I did not like about the book was the characters. Some of the characters are just not memorable at all, and sometimes you are wondering what the hell that character is doing in this chapter at all. There are some characters that are just THERE, because—hey why the hell not? Not to mention the plot with the “WMD” or “Weapon of Magical Destruction”, a massive magic erasing bomb that appears half-way in the book. There’s just some concepts in Bad Prince Charlie that completely disconnect from a fantasy setting and go full-speed ahead into a comedic world. While this may not be such a bad thing, I found it borderline absurd.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed John Moore’s Bad Prince Charlie. While it’s not perfect, mind you...it does deliver plenty of laughs and memorable moments. And that’s what a reader expects when they pick up a comedy novel! It certainly delivers in that respect.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Moore is funnier than that droll troll, Terry Pratchett as well as makes fun of Pratchett (albeit, in a friendly & respectful way). But, the key is that Moore is actually FUNNY in his satire of fairy tales where Pratchett is, well, dully droll. Either that or there is an inside joke between Pratchett & his enthusiastic bevy of friends that I am not privy to & causes me to dislike him as not living up to his billing.

Moore was recommended to me by a friend whose tastes in fantasy I respect. I asked for "fun mind-candy" and he (thankfully) handed me this book.

Bad Prince Charlie is being set up by his Uncles to take over the kingdom after his drunkard of a father dies (but his ghost hangs around a la Hamlet). Add to that, a beautiful babe that keeps his tetostrone level high, incomptent, spoiled Royalty, bad weather, a missing Court Wizard who has invented a WMD and a cute Asian Seeress and you have all the ingrEdients for a jolly-good parody. Nothing in Moore's books will educate you or make you more intelligent, but like with Ron Goulart's books, it WILL be entertaining escapism.

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A humorous fantasy with heavy influence from Hamlet, this takes place in the fairy tale Kingdom of Damask, where the king has just died. The royal family and its advisors have come up with a plan to put the king's illegitimate son Charlie on the throne as basically a patsy, while they allow the neighboring country to conquer them. He has no problem going along with this, especially as it involves a relationship with his crush. He turns out to be an unorthodox ruler, emphasizing public works projects and trying to root out corruption among the nobility. It turns out that there's another scheme behind the one Charlie knows about, led by his uncles, who are trying to get their hands on a Weapon of Magical Destruction created by the former court wizard. The book was published in 2006, so I suppose WMDs were very much in the public consciousness. I mean, they were even before that, but nobody CALLED them WMDs. Also involved is a prophetess with a drug habit who has a crush on Charlie. Other amusing running gags included the prominence of modern coffee shops in these fantasy kingdoms (interesting synchronicity since I'm in the process of reading Legends & Lattes), and Damask no longer having any chickens. And there were some pretty silly plays on words in character names, like the highwayman Dick Terrapin and the erotic author, the Marquis de Sadness.

[Tishy Wishy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prince Charlie's father, the King, is dead and his two uncles are plotting a thick scheme that involves using Charlie as a scapegoat. Bad Prince Charlie isn't sure who he should trust and he must now race to figure out their plot before he's killed.

I've been waiting to read this book for a while because it was a bit difficult to get my hands on (shout out to my new library for being amazing). This book is funny, not in a laugh out loud way, but the mental chuckle sort. It hits all the right points, a prince who's a bit charming and a bit annoying, his love interest who isn't a fair, soft spoken maiden, the girl who wants him really badly, his Faithful Family Retainer and other interesting supporting characters. Tons of action, some magic, a bit of casual modern day humour, and it's short *enough*.

[Barry Haworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing reworking of Hamlet, this book tells the story of Prince Charlie, brought in by his scheming uncles on the death of his father, to help them in their plans to sell the kingdom out to one of the neighbouring countries for their personal profit. What they didn't expect was that Charlie might get wind of their real plans and maybe do something to help kingdom rather than just himself.

Cleverly written and amusing. Recommended, for those with the right sense of humour.

[Rebecca Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Middle school appropriate with some innuendo. A hilarious take on Hamlet with tons of clever silliness. Even though I’ve read this book a half dozen times before, my poor husband still had to listen to me read funny bits aloud to him and me giggling as I read.

[Karol Myska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skvělá, vtipná kniha. Určitě se k ní někdy vrátím. :)

[Nibrock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hillariously bad... well written, lots of humour, over the top use of character stereotypes and plot devices. But it kept me hooked and laughing.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unexpected read that I really enjoyed. Reminds me of Terry Pratchett and has a hilarious Parallelism to Hamlet. It won't be everybody is cup of tea, but I enjoyed it.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a super fun romp. Good characters, some fun twists. Charlie was much more well rounded than I expected going into this and I'm interested to read more of Moore's works.

[Mark Coram]

I liked it.

[Chiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wieder ein Glücks- und Zufallsfund. Hätte es fast ungelesen wieder aussortiert, da ich durch den unansprechenden Titel auf eine unansprechende Geschichte geschlussfolgert habe. Das Buch hat mich sehr positiv überrascht. Humorvolle und gleichzeitig spannende Fantasy mit raffinierten und gewitzten Figuren, die man schnell ins Herz schließt - selbst die Bösewichte.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review here:

https://sarahoverbooked.wordpress.com...

[Kit★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up back in '06 when I joined the SFBC through the mail. Then it just sat on my TBR. Finally I decided to go ahead and read it, if only to get it over and done. I didn't have any expectations going in, having never read this author before. So, I was kind of surprised by the comedic style, the way it was like a Shrek type of fairy tale (complete with a college, coffee houses, and other 'modern' type things, including the way the characters talked). I was really reminded of The Princess Bride too in a way, the way the author slipped in the jokes, and in the characters themselves too. I giggled in a few spots, but it wasn't completely hilarious. I did really like Charlie, and Xiao too, even Pollocks. I especially liked how Charlie, despite seeming bad and disinterested, was really a decent ruler. I could see this story as a movie easily. I was entertained by this story, but I'm not sure that it's going to be one I'd re-read. Not even sure if it's one to hang on to. On one hand, it was entertaining, and I'm kind of interested in reading more by this author, I find myself curious to read the other Twenty Kingdoms stories... but on the other, I'm not sure if I really like the more tongue-in-cheek take on fantasy. I think I like mine more serious. Not without humor, but without real world things like frozen yogurt and fizzy bath bombs and characters who talk and act like 21st century people you'd see in a contemporary-set story and all the other stuff like that. It was funny, but I just don't think it's the type of fantasy/fairy tale kind of story that works best for me. So... I might try them, maybe. We'll see.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Moore takes the plot of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and runs with it...and hurls it gleefully into outerspace, cackling like a loon.

Prince Charlie is the hero for the 21st century, earnest, resourceful, cunning, willing to take care of his people while neatly sidestepping any nonsense about destiny, being a Chosen One, noble sacrifices or final climactic showdowns. Mr. Moore gives him and the other dramatis personae corking good dialogue, action scenes and enough secret machinations to make a spy go cross eyed.

Filled with bad puns, worse verse, family retainers, ghosts, damsels in distress, a stoner priestess, plots, counterplots, double crosses, criss-crossing roads, nubile wenches, a Weapon of Mass Destruction and pointless footnotes, this is one screamingly funny spoof on Shakespeare, sword and sorcery and Jacobean revenge plays. If you're looking for light-hearted medieval parodies, this is one of the better ones out there.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming and funny enough to make me laugh out loud on the train. Parodies such diverse elements and fairytale sartorial conventions, Hamlet, frat guys, hippy-trippy-mystical figures, WMDs, coffee chains, meteorology, and light beers, in a refreshingly clever manner.
Besides appealing to fans of Terry Pratchett and Esther Friesner, this struck me as a good choice for an older teen reader (no heavy sex/violence, and good-hearted overall). This was an impulse buy, and I don't regret it!

[Ubiquitousbastard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would compare this book to popcorn. Not very satisfying, or exemplary in any way, but pretty easy snack on for long periods of time. Yeah. Pretty much two-dimensional characters, only the slightest hint of actual plot, and a mostly obvious ending. Despite that, it was occasionally funny; I do like parodies. There wasn't anything actively offensive, and I liked the Hamlet parts, so overall it was worth reading.

[Booknerd Fraser · Rating 3 out of 5]

My problems with this book largely come down to taste. I'm really not a big fan of puns and "funny" anachronisms. There's a lot here in the set-up that's really funny and I did like the send-up of Hamlet. But it's too deep into Robert Alspin/Peirs Anthony territory and much too "clever" for my taste.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've given four stars to the likes of China Miéville and Alastair Reynolds, and this book is not in that league at all.
But it doesn't try to be. It's a lightweight piece of fun with a better than average plot and some good characters.
In its genre, definitely **** and I will look for more of Moore's work.

[Nicole Zapanta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that made me read novels! It's also the very first book that I read and read and read until I finished it! I remember feeling so hungry but did not eat just to finish this book! John Moore is such a hilarious writer! His stories are sooo much fun to read! It would be sooo cool to have this made into a film!

[Jessica Hollo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read, but the more I read of this author the less impressed I am. His books are all a little too similar, although any one is good.
The footnotes and references were funny.
Story of a bad prince, who is really a good prince, and makes good, gets good, evening when the country is messed up.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its no Heroics for Beginners. Probably the next best of the John Moore novels I've read but eh... Fast & easy to read and kept me entertained but I'd probably recommend passing on it.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not really funny like Heroics for Beginners, but the departure from that book's satire benefits this book's characters. It's a has a whodunit feel within a fantasy story and is a nice little read.

[Teresan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This stand-alone novel pokes fun at high-fantasy novels and Shakespeare's Hamlet. Good pacing of quips with actual plot, and I found the protagonist to be more 3D than some of Moore's other books. Nice quick read for fantasy-lovers willing to laugh at the genre's tropes.

[Nemo Erehwon · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first Moore seemed to be going for a "madcap" style of humor, which is difficult to sustain and makes for sketchy plots.

Once he settled down, the tale became rather good, sort of a blend of Terry Pratchett, Hamlet, the Bible and various fairy tales mixed in a blender.

I will read more of him.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun! Witty and parodying! Also a spoof on midevil bodice rippers!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

the novel was talking about selfish people what the get at the end. it also talks about romance.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly entertaining. Definitely a parody; anyone who's ever read a fairytale can see the definite parodies, but also a sweet book, a little sexy, and a lot of fun.