The Quest for the Typo

The characters of A Novel Idea are back — older, possibly wiser, and just as likely to wander off in directions their author never intended.

Ten years have passed since the events of the first book, and life in the world of Year l has moved on. Khyran is now an accomplished assassin, Dretar is running the Assassins Guild, and Bolgoroth is still around — considerably older, fond of ale, and fully aware that he is a character in somebody else’s book. But when strange events begin to unfold and an ancient prophecy points towards a threat to the entire universe, their relatively ordinary problems rapidly become anything but ordinary.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in creation, a not-so-giant purple mastodon named Happy leaves the end of the universe in search of others of his kind, accompanied by a Chinese Space Chicken; a demon discovers that life after Hell can be surprisingly complicated; and a Little Old Man leaves the only home he has ever known on a journey he does not entirely understand. Somehow, all these unlikely paths are destined to collide.

The Quest for the Typo is the second instalment in Gary J Grobler’s unconventional fantasy trilogy, following A Novel Idea. This time the story expands from the characters’ individual adventures to something rather more serious: the fate of the world — and possibly the universe itself.

Of course, seriousness is a relative concept when the narrator keeps interrupting the story, the characters know they are fictional, prophecies are open to interpretation, and even the end of the universe has a brick wall.

Packed with absurd fantasy, satire, fourth-wall-breaking humour and characters who stubbornly refuse to behave like conventional heroes, The Quest for the Typo continues the wonderfully unpredictable journey begun in A Novel Idea.

If you enjoyed the first adventure, prepare to discover that things can always get stranger.