Playing With Fire: Bad Prince Charlie

John Moore writes fantasies where the characters have all read Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland, where princes and magicians are real but soothsayers may not be, where bureaucracy and evil aristocrats compete to strangle the realm, where eggs are banished from the kingdom but new coffee shops spring up on every corner.  They suffer a bit in characterization, and a dull mood can spoil the enjoyment, but in general Bad Prince Charlie gives a sharp dash of satire and self-mocking to an often over-worked genre.  Throw in a few excited footnotes and even some emergency awful blank verse and he's written a fun story that kept me entertained as I read it in dribs and drabs over several months.  I'll keep my eye out for more of his books.