Castle Roogna, by Piers Anthony

Dor has many problems: his parents are always away on business for the King, the other boys pick on him for having a ‘dumb’ talent and for being so small, Irene (daughter of King Trent and Sorcerer Iris) would love for him to die, the fact that one day he will be king, and Millie the former ghost is looking decidedly too interesting for him to want her to be just his nursemaid any more. But King Trent is a wise man, and knows that what Dor needs is a self-confidence booster and a little life experience. So he has the Good Magician Humphrey send him back in time a few hundred years to the Fourth Wave of barbarian invasions in Xanth. Now Dor is in a man’s body, but it only seems to be multiplying his problems. He finds himself caught up in a struggle between two Magicians of the time: Magican Roogna, and Magician Murphy. Both of them want to be King, but they can’t decide who should take the position. Murphy’s talent is making things go wrong, and Roogna’s talent is transfiguring an object into something similar. To peacefully decide who should be King, Roogna is building a castle, and Murphy is trying to stop him. If Roogna can finish the castle before the year is out despite Murphy’s talent for making things go wrong, he will be King. If Murphy can stop Roogna, he will be King. But Murphy’s talent is certainly operating overtime, because the goblins and Harpys are about to start a war together, and most inconveniently, they have chosen Castle Roogna as the battleground. Dor is caught up in the middle, trying desperately to make the right decisions that everyone must make if they are truly to become a man.

Like all Xanth books, Castle Roogna must not be taken seriously. It is a book meant for fun and laughter and terrible puns. The different characters are always enjoyable to me, because they are so varied and odd in their own rights. The journey that Dor takes to become a man is really interesting and funny, even though absolutely no 12 year old would ever make those sorts of decisions. Hey, I suspended my disbelief and enjoyed myself.

I seriously wish that Jumper could come back as a character, but that is impossible given his nature and his life span. The idea of a giant spider is not pleasant to me (who is seriously arachnaphobic) but I love reading his parts and seeing how he guides Dor to make good decisions. I must say that sometimes it is nice just to relax and read a thoroughly entertaining book.