Potatoes, Come Forth by H. Jonas Rhynedahl

This was actually intended to keep track of my notes on this book as I was reading it.  But I think I will share it anyway.

I was hesitant to purchase this book but it did sound like it could be amusing. So I got it. Thus far my feelings for this book is ‘meh’. A noble woman who is summoned from her bathtub and transported, totally naked, half way across a continent shouldn’t be that calm and collected. Even in a world where everyone has a few, various, completely random, magical spells. She also comes off a bit to pragmatic when she puts on the filthy, shirt from someone who had been lugging a wheelbarrow of 200 lbs of potatoes around all day, having spent a portion of that day in a railroad engine car helping the engineer out. I just don’t find anything about this character, Sarah, believable.

I’m now halfway into the book and it is absurd.  The problem is, it doesn’t feel like it is absurd on purpose.  But it doesn’t feel like it was on purpose.  Yes, it feels like the author is trying to be funny and amusing but not that he was deliberately trying to write Fantasy Humor.  It ends up seeming absurd in a bad way rather than absurd in an amusing way.

I finished the book on Saturday.  The ending pulled the questionable quality of the book out of the water.  It ended better than expected.  Other than the fact the author didn’t do a very good job of showing the main character’s becoming emotionally entangled so that they end up getting married at the end.  It was rather abrupt and sudden.  Sarah seemed to have very platonic feelings until she crawls into bed with him.  He was clearly attracted to her and had twinges of jealousy but then suddenly he is in love with her.  It was abrupt and awkward.

Other than some of the characteristics mentioned above, I did find myself wanting to know what would happen next.  At the start it had that feeling of a first book, but by the end I no longer had that feeling.  The book didn’t have the editing errors I normally see when a person’s first book is only published in an electronic format.  The writing was actually pretty strong and in the end, I think the only real complaint is the author having trouble showing a growing relationship and it didn’t pull off deliberate Fantasy Humor very well.

It did end well enough that I ordered the next book the very next morning.