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The Quest for the White Duck
Blood River Down
Doorway into a magical realm.
The back wall of Gideon Sunday's pantry was missing that night--and in its place was a doorway into another world. Not the sort of thing an unemployed ex-football player expects to find when he's looking for a jar of jam!
Worse, the magical forces of this other world have determined that he, Gideon, is the mythic hero destined to combat and destroy the dreaded Tide of Blood that threatens to engulf the land of Chey. But when Gideon Sunday is handed a ball, he takes it and runs...
And so, with the lovely lady Glorian, her long-lost and long suffering brother Tag, a magical weapons maker and the great telepathic lorra, Red, Gideon sets off on a most improbably quest: first, to locate and recover an enchanted duck who holds the key to Gideon's power, and then to turn back the tides of horrific destruction.
The back wall of Gideon Sunday's pantry was missing that night--and in its place was a doorway into another world. Not the sort of thing an unemployed ex-football player expects to find when he's looking for a jar of jam!
Worse, the magical forces of this other world have determined that he, Gideon, is the mythic hero destined to combat and destroy the dreaded Tide of Blood that threatens to engulf the land of Chey. But when Gideon Sunday is handed a ball, he takes it and runs...
And so, with the lovely lady Glorian, her long-lost and long suffering brother Tag, a magical weapons maker and the great telepathic lorra, Red, Gideon sets off on a most improbably quest: first, to locate and recover an enchanted duck who holds the key to Gideon's power, and then to turn back the tides of horrific destruction.
310 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1986
4 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 25, 2013
{Audiobook Review}
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you're looking for non-stop action, edge-of-your-seat suspense, or a complicated mystery, this is definitely not the book for you, but it does have its own special charm. It's a book about a guy, Gideon Sunday, who is pretty down on his luck and knows it, but isn't really sure what to do about it. Then a very strange world opens up in his pantry ... yep, right there off the kitchen. He kills a monster and then accepts a challenge to help a lovely young lady from that world, and so begins his quest. The reader, Jack Checkijian, has a comfortable story-telling tone and does an excellent job of conveying both Gideon's faint bewilderment with his situation and his dry humor when things go wrong, as they inevitably do. Because, though his partners in the quest don't really want to tell him anything about it - ever! - he does eventually find out that he is on a quest for a duck ... a white duck. The reason for the quest, and the significance of the duck, only become clear near the end of the book, and Gideon's lack of understanding contributes to some priceless moments of humor. I thought this book was great low-key entertainment. Because really, who could resist a quest for a white duck???
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you're looking for non-stop action, edge-of-your-seat suspense, or a complicated mystery, this is definitely not the book for you, but it does have its own special charm. It's a book about a guy, Gideon Sunday, who is pretty down on his luck and knows it, but isn't really sure what to do about it. Then a very strange world opens up in his pantry ... yep, right there off the kitchen. He kills a monster and then accepts a challenge to help a lovely young lady from that world, and so begins his quest. The reader, Jack Checkijian, has a comfortable story-telling tone and does an excellent job of conveying both Gideon's faint bewilderment with his situation and his dry humor when things go wrong, as they inevitably do. Because, though his partners in the quest don't really want to tell him anything about it - ever! - he does eventually find out that he is on a quest for a duck ... a white duck. The reason for the quest, and the significance of the duck, only become clear near the end of the book, and Gideon's lack of understanding contributes to some priceless moments of humor. I thought this book was great low-key entertainment. Because really, who could resist a quest for a white duck???
October 28, 2021
Man buvo -niolika, kai paėmiau šią knygą iš Mažvydo vaikų skyriaus, iš tos tolimiausiame kampe stovinčios lentynos, dedikuotos fantastikai. Perskaičiau, nuėjau į sandėliuką, visos uogienės ir agurkai buvo savo vietose, portalas į kitą pasaulį neatsivėręs. Atsidusau, grįžau į savo kambarį, ir pradėjau skaityti ją iš naujo.
Tik tiek ir prisimenu šios knygos: portalą sandėliuke. Bet mano -niolikinį stogą gerai nurovė, ir -niolikinė aš tikrai būčiau davusi visas 5 žvaigždutes.
Įdomu, kaip dabar skaitytųsi :) bet netikrinsiu, tegu lieka pirmasis įspūdis.
Tik tiek ir prisimenu šios knygos: portalą sandėliuke. Bet mano -niolikinį stogą gerai nurovė, ir -niolikinė aš tikrai būčiau davusi visas 5 žvaigždutes.
Įdomu, kaip dabar skaitytųsi :) bet netikrinsiu, tegu lieka pirmasis įspūdis.
May 21, 2012
I like this book... it definitely come from a time when fantasy had a sense of humor about itself... i found it refreshing.
July 20, 2022
nonstop funny
I read the first of this series in 1989 and it was wonderful to find it again and it is still hilarious.
I read the first of this series in 1989 and it was wonderful to find it again and it is still hilarious.
May 3, 2016
Gideon Sunday, an in between jobs professional football player, one day discovers that the back wall of his pantry has disappeared, and that it now leads to another place. Glorian has come from this new place and asks Gideon for help to try to find a white duck.
This is one of those fantasy books pretending to be humorous by using of absurd scenes. It did not quite work for me this time, in part because the characters were plain and one-dimensional, which prevented me to connect to them, and because the situations and conversations were not really funny. If at least I could see some depth I could have enjoyed the jokes and puns, but the characters were very caricaturesque and their speech was absurd most of the time.
The story is slowly paced and there is a lot of deus ex machina. New characters are introduced with new situations, but the way it is done is quite chaotic and it gives a disjointed feel to the book.
This is one of those books where the way has more importance than the goal itself, and neither Gideon nor us know what is at stake in the search for the duck. This made the quest a bit pointless, but I understand that Grant wanted us to focus on the little things along the way. I just wish that his humor would have worked better with me. I found most of the things not funny at all.
The narration was correctly done but the characters voices just emphasized the fact that they seem dumb and just mere caricatures. The female voices were especially annoying. I understand that some male narrators could have some difficulties with this, but other seem to be able to pull it off. Why Jack Chekijian decided to have them sound plain and dumb, I do not know. Maybe the jokes did not work for me because this was overdone.
All in all, it is not a bad book. It is full of imaginative details and jokes that could have worked if they did not overload the book and the character voices were done in a bit subtler way.
This is one of those fantasy books pretending to be humorous by using of absurd scenes. It did not quite work for me this time, in part because the characters were plain and one-dimensional, which prevented me to connect to them, and because the situations and conversations were not really funny. If at least I could see some depth I could have enjoyed the jokes and puns, but the characters were very caricaturesque and their speech was absurd most of the time.
The story is slowly paced and there is a lot of deus ex machina. New characters are introduced with new situations, but the way it is done is quite chaotic and it gives a disjointed feel to the book.
This is one of those books where the way has more importance than the goal itself, and neither Gideon nor us know what is at stake in the search for the duck. This made the quest a bit pointless, but I understand that Grant wanted us to focus on the little things along the way. I just wish that his humor would have worked better with me. I found most of the things not funny at all.
The narration was correctly done but the characters voices just emphasized the fact that they seem dumb and just mere caricatures. The female voices were especially annoying. I understand that some male narrators could have some difficulties with this, but other seem to be able to pull it off. Why Jack Chekijian decided to have them sound plain and dumb, I do not know. Maybe the jokes did not work for me because this was overdone.
All in all, it is not a bad book. It is full of imaginative details and jokes that could have worked if they did not overload the book and the character voices were done in a bit subtler way.
October 25, 2015
A failed football player Gideon Sunday looking for his deceased sister terribile fruit preserve open his house pantry and finds another world in his pantry in the form of a meadow. Oh yes, and A beautiful girl, Glorian, who needs his help to recover, of all things, a duck! A golden duck, precious one ? No, just a white duck. And then something else entire the meadow bene on killing everything it sees.
This is how a story begins, of travels in a strange world full of dangers. Gideon finds it hard to be lieve in this world, where he is supposed to be a hero, with a bat to over come all evils. Along the way, ad in all questa he finds some companion, in the form of a suicidal boy, Tag, Glorian' S brother, an oversized goat which he calls Red and an armorer and a strange girl, Ivy, who offende starts unbottining her blouse and never completes the act.
Functional book, that is why I gave it 5 stars, humour is not slapstick, but tongue in cheeck and the level is quite high. The humour is pervasive and balanced with a hero who is never told what to expect, everybody wonders at why he was not told before what is happening, and a funny hunt for this write duck, which can su her the end of the world. A duck ?
Maybe it would have bene better a 4.5, it is not a masterpiece, but among all the books I am reading it certainly stands out.
This is how a story begins, of travels in a strange world full of dangers. Gideon finds it hard to be lieve in this world, where he is supposed to be a hero, with a bat to over come all evils. Along the way, ad in all questa he finds some companion, in the form of a suicidal boy, Tag, Glorian' S brother, an oversized goat which he calls Red and an armorer and a strange girl, Ivy, who offende starts unbottining her blouse and never completes the act.
Functional book, that is why I gave it 5 stars, humour is not slapstick, but tongue in cheeck and the level is quite high. The humour is pervasive and balanced with a hero who is never told what to expect, everybody wonders at why he was not told before what is happening, and a funny hunt for this write duck, which can su her the end of the world. A duck ?
Maybe it would have bene better a 4.5, it is not a masterpiece, but among all the books I am reading it certainly stands out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2016
This was a fun read.Jack Chekijian is a great narrator for this book.
Gideon is an ex football player waiting by the phone for a new opportunity,drinking himself into the ground.He walks into his pantry to see a meadow,a woman and a beast come out of it.As he is sucked in to the other world he learns that he is in for a Quest for a White Duck. It's not any white duck,it's THE white duck. He meets odd people and animals on his journey and finds a long lost loved one...kind of.
This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review
Gideon is an ex football player waiting by the phone for a new opportunity,drinking himself into the ground.He walks into his pantry to see a meadow,a woman and a beast come out of it.As he is sucked in to the other world he learns that he is in for a Quest for a White Duck. It's not any white duck,it's THE white duck. He meets odd people and animals on his journey and finds a long lost loved one...kind of.
This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review
June 30, 2015
This is a reprint of a book written in 1986 by prolific award-winning author Charles L. Grant under the pen name of Lionel Fenn. Not horror. Not rapid action. A simple fantasy tale with quiet humor suitable for any age.
Narrator Jack gives a fine voice performance with narrative and character interpretation in clear voice and enunciation.
This book was received as a gift
Narrator Jack gives a fine voice performance with narrative and character interpretation in clear voice and enunciation.
This book was received as a gift
August 29, 2014
Good fantasy. A man is transported to another world and must go on a quest to save a duck. Yep. He is able to do a few things which confound the natives and prove to be a boon on his quest. Several companions join him. Humorous and not totally predictable.
July 14, 2017
Fun read but what's up with the duck?
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews