About

Stout is Taylor Small's debut book.

Stout book cover

Blurb

Dysfunctional gothic couples. Duck-obsessed knights. Plungdugglers.

Rhev must face it all in a race against time across the length of the Peninsula. His quest: to deliver a package before his soul is taken from him. The road was always going to be bumpy, but Rhev might come away with what he's always wanted: the chance to be a hero.

Stout is a whimsical and somewhat satirical take on the fantasy adventure genre. Heartwarming, hilarious, and hair-raising!

Review

I had a great start to this month, with a re-read followed by three books that I enjoyed a lot. Then, I had to DNF two books in a row! I struggled a bit reading Stout as well, but overall I had plenty of fun reading it.

When I started reading, I immediately noticed there were no chapters. At first I thought it was due to some technical difficulty faced by a self-published author. As I kept reading, I realized it was perhaps a delibrate choice, given all the Discworld vibes I was noticing. After finishing the novel, I was more confident that the entire novel was some sort of a love letter to Terry Pratchett (which was confirmed after I checked the post by the author that put this book on my TBR list).

I'd say humor, puns, worldbuilding and characters were all well written. Not just the main characters, but every side character too. Hat tip to the author for this quote by a minor sidekick character:

'Do they make them going forwards and backwards, instead of up and down? I spend lots more time going forwards and backwards,' mused Grunthry.

Especially because I had been thinking how such characters are mostly just cannon fodder to elicit laughs in action scenes before this came up. I don't usually note down quotes to be posted in reviews, but this made me take the effort to stop reading and type the words.

There were plenty of sub-plots in this book that came together at the end. Some of these resulted in character growth, powerful emotional scenes, etc. With so much packed into this novel, I feel that a re-read would be very rewarding too.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From Leon's review on goodreads:

A wonderful self contained fantasy story with a good helping of humour and action and characters who feel like people, not just 2D cutouts. I particularly enjoyed one of the sideplots which leads into the ending. Excellently written, thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend!

From Stephanie's review on goodreads:

The story, the characters, and the setting all remind me of Pratchett's style while also being the authors own voice. Many times I found myself laughing at the situations and descriptions and hated when I had to put it down to sleep. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a lighthearted adventure through a creative and interesting world.

Bingo

/r/Fantasy/ 2022 bingo categories:

  • Standalone (HM)
  • Anti-Hero
  • Cool Weapon (HM)
  • Revolutions and Rebellions
  • Published in 2022 (HM)
  • Non-Human Protagonist
  • Self-Published OR Indie Publisher (HM)
  • Shapeshifters (HM)
  • No Ifs, Ands, or Buts
  • Family Matters