Book Review / The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

I had been looking forward to reading this one for a good long time since I have read and enjoyed several of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels.  I wouldn't have had to look at the cover or the title page to know that this is his work - Fforde's writing has such a delightfully quirky style to it that his work is immediately recognizable!  The Last Dragonslayer, his newest work which is marketed as a novel for "younger readers" is a fun, snarky, and magical read.  It's set in an alternate England where magic is slowly dying out and a young teen named Jennifer Strange is working as a kind of agent for a ragtag group of wizards and magicians.  Miss Strange inadvertently becomes entangled in a battle between the king of the realm (and lots of greedy citizens) and the last aging dragon in existence.

The novel started off slow for me, but after about a third of the way through, I was thoroughly sucked into the extremely quirky and slightly ridiculous world that Fforde created.  The only problem I have about this book is that it's probably more suited to avid high school readers (and adults) - the snarky, tongue-in-cheek humor (not to mention British slang & pop culture references) would be largely lost on younger readers.  All in all, however, The Last Dragonslayer is great fun and I'm already looking forward to the next book in the series!  I'd recommend this for really strong readers who enjoy fantasy and intelligent humor.  (Side note: we did decide to keep this book in the Children's Room because our teen librarian had ordered a second copy for the YA collection.)

Reviewed from a library copy.