Splashdance Silver by Tansy Rayner Roberts

I had some difficulty picking which book to review this week, but I finally decided to go with an old favourite of mine: Splashdance Silver by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Splashdance Silver is a delicious high fantasy comedy. It's set on the tiny island of Mocklore where high fantasy tropes make everyone's lives more interesting, occasionally by cutting huge swatches of destruction through them. Kassa Daggersharp, the daughter of the infamous Pirate King, has just learned that her father is dead and now she is now expected to take up his responsibilities of terrorizing and looting, and while she's at it, lay claim to the giant pile of treasure he hid somewhere.

This book is written in the style of Terry Pratchett, which is not a bad thing. It has the same joyful randomness and affection for the very things it parodies. Yes, you will laugh yourself silly at its version of chivalrous romance and epic adventure, but at the heart of this story is a deep love for the source material.

Kassa herself has the dangerous potential to be a Mary-Sue (if you don't know what that is, follow this link), being a golden-eyed girl who has two amazing destinies pulling at her, but just wants to be an 'ordinary' tavern dancer. Not to mention having a dead dad, steaming sexual tension with the designated 'bad boy', and a dark secret in her past. Also, she can sing.

She avoids Mary-Sue territory by being immature, bad tempered and fixated on her wardrobe. But not in a jerkass way. She's like the version of you that just got dragged out of bed at five o'clock on a Sunday morning to do chores someone else already promised to do. She's not very enthusiastic, will commit violence if you push her too far, but by god, if she's going to do it, she's going to do it in style. It also helps that when humiliation rains down on her rag-tag crew of misfits (as it does several times) she's not spared in the slightest.

I won't say too much on the crew, to avoid spoilers. However, I did enjoy her cousin Daggar's unapologetic cowardice and vague concern about her antics, while Aragorn was most fun when he and Kassa were snarking at each other. The antagonist, Talle, is the villain we all wish we could be. Self-possessed, scheming, with an excellent PR manager, she enjoys the perks of villainy to their fullest.

Splashdance Silver is a wonderful romp and I highly recommend it. It's difficult to find in bookstores, but it is available online through Amazon.