Lloyd Alexander

Westmark — (1981-1984) Ages 9-12. Publisher: Falling in with a roguish doctor, his dwarf attendant and an urchin girl, Theo embarks on an unforgettable adventure in the kingdom of Westmark.

Stand-alone novels for children:

The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen — (1991) Young adult. Publisher: When Prince Jen volunteers to search for the legendary court of T’ien-kuo, a mysterious old man chooses six gifts for him to bear in homage: a saddle, a sword, a paint box, a bowl, a kite, and a flute. Puzzled by the gifts but full of high spirits and pride, Jen sets off—but stumbles almost immediately into a series of misfortunes. Only with the help of his faithful servant, Mafoo, and valiant flute-girl, Voyaging Moon, and only after a breathtakingly exciting string of adventures can Jen discover the real meaning of the gifts and face his true destiny...

The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen: "Were They Valuable Objects when I first set out with Them? No, you have made them so..."

If I ever have kids, I'm going to make sure that their bookshelves are stocked full of Lloyd Alexander's books. Most famous for his award-winning The Prydain Chronicles, Alexander has carved out a little niche for himself in children's literature by taking his often-used (but never stale) technique of adapting a particular culture's mythology and shaping it to include his own brand of wisdom, poignancy and humour. For The Prydain Chronicles Alexander borrowed heavily from Welsh mythology as found in the The Mabinogian, whereas The Iron Ring focused on India's The Ramayana and The Arkadians was based on Grecian legend. For The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, the story is given a Chinese setting.

Jen Shao-yeh is an innocent, yet good-hearted young prince who hears about the kingdom of T'ien-Ko from a mysterious stranger named Master Wu. Enraptured by the tale of the peaceful and happy kingdom, Jen is given permission by his father to seek out T'ien-Ko and learn the secrets of King Yuan-ming's safe and happy governance. Accompanying him is his faithful (though grumbling) servant Mafoo, and a collection of strange gifts chosen by Master Wu to present to Yuan-ming. Jen is initially confused at the seeming worthlessness of the six gifts: an old sword, a saddle, a flute, a bowl, a paint-box and a kite. However, Master Wu insists that they are valuable, and Jen sets off optimistically to find the legendary kingdom.

Of course, nothing goes according to plan. As Jen's royal entourage slowly dwindles (as does his strange assortment of gifts through a series of misfortunes) the prince's hopes of reaching T'ien-Ko gradually begin to dwindle — despite his meeting with the lovely Voyaging Moon, an intelligent flute-girl who cleverly uses the prince to escape her lecherous master. And yet, it is not with our protagonist, but through the gifts that the narration flows. As they part from Jen and constantly change hands throughout the story, we see the true value of each of them — realizing that this value comes from the personal gifts of their owners.

Furthermore, it becomes clear that this is a coming-of-age story, as the naïve prince goes from innocence to experience throughout the course of his journey, learning wisdom, patience, love and a fuller understanding of the world: particularly the injustices of his own kingdom. With the loss of his possessions, his honour and his identity as prince, he ends asking himself the inevitable question: who am I? Struggling with his integrity and sense of worth, Jen finally succumbs to despair in a bone-chilling chapter, though he is helped along at the most opportune times by the enigmatic Master Wu — or is it Chu? Or Shu? Or Fu?

Lloyd Alexander's warm, humorous narration just leaps off the page. On describing the elderly man who approaches the gate of the royal palace we are told: "He was not a beggar, because he asks for no alms. He was not a man of wisdom, because he asked for something ridiculous: he demanded an audience with King T'ai." Likewise, if you were amused by the tendency toward extravagant titles in The Princess Bride (the Cliffs of Insanity for example), then you'll love the lengths to which this book goes to in naming various objects, including the Rod of Correction, Hand of Enthusiastic Obedience and Pavilion of Joyous Mornings.

Alexander also has some fun with the chapters, usually giving each one several subtitles, and ending each one with a few lines to entice the reader onto the next installment of the story, for example: "Our young hero is eager to start his journey, but Master Wu seems to be casting a dark shadow on a bright prospect. What can be the difficulty? To find out, read the next chapter."

There is always one requisite female character in Alexander's books, who inevitably acts as the love interest to the male lead. However, Alexander always writes her with such wit, affection and twice as much intelligence as any other character in the story that you cannot help but fall in love with her yourself. By the skill of his storytelling, Alexander always manages to keep her from becoming a Mary Sue, and Voyaging Moon is no exception. Bright, clever and cheerful, it's no wonder Jen falls head over heels in love with her!

In short, this is a terrific book. Filled with life-lessons that never sound preachy or heavy-handed (something not even Philip Pullman or C.S. Lewis could completely pull off), a satisfying conclusion in which all of Alexander's scattered pieces come together to a climactic finish, and several laugh-out-loud moments: "Give the task to the lowest-ranking official in the palace. If something fatal happens to him, he won't be missed. Better yet, send a high official, who will be missed even less."  —Rebecca   Comments

Time Cat — (1963) Ages 9-12. Publisher: Jason’s cat has nine fantastic lives—and he’s taking Jason along for the ride! Jason and his magic cat Gareth travel through time to visit countries all over the world during different periods of history.

Time Cat: "A Cat Likes to Know What's on Both Sides of the Wall..."

Published way back in 1963, Time Cat was the first book ever written by Lloyd Alexander, and as such, exists as an interesting comparison to many of his later books, with echoes of plots and characters that will later be used in his more famous and sophisticated works. It is quite a simplistic book, with a straightforward story told in clear but sparse prose, but there are certainly traces of the excellence that is to come in Alexander's later books, particularly the award-winning The Prydain Chronicles.

Jason has been sent to his bedroom in disgrace, only to find that his black, orange-eyed cat can talk! Gareth informs him that rather than the oft-believed saying that cats have nine lives, it is in fact the ability to visit nine lives that make cats so special — and Gareth offers to take Jason on the journey that he intends to take that very moment. What follows is not so much a single over-arching story as a series of short-stories detailing the adventures that take place in nine different locations across time that Jason and Gareth make. Starting in Egypt in 2700BC and working their way forward to America in 1775, Jason learns about history, personal wisdom, and himself, before finally returning to his own time. In each location there is some commentary on mankind's progress and how it relates to their relationship with cats, moving from Egypt in which cats were venerated as gods, to Germany in the 1600s, in which they were destroyed as devils. As Jason puts it: "In Egypt they thought you were a god. Here they think you're a demon. Won't anyone ever understand you're a cat?"

It is an odd format for the book to take, as each "time-zone" is only given two chapters each (except for the second-to-last one, which has three) making the adventures fly past rather swiftly, with little in the way of delving deeply into the context of the time and places they visit. Although there is a small amount of intrigue or danger to each location, the two time-travelers move on quickly from place to place. However, it is not the intention of the book to create a deep, drawn out story, and it would be unwise to approach this book expecting this. Instead, look for a breezy, fast-paced time-travel adventure with hidden undercurrents of awareness and intellectual growth. Alexander is the master of hiding bits of profound wisdom in his stories without ever becoming preachy (not even C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman have fully mastered this art). There are too many to list here, though I can't resist adding one of my favourites: "You can say some of the loveliest things in the world — without words."

As well as witch-hunts in Germany, cat-worship in Egypt and the Revolution in America, the story also involves a love story on the Isle of Man, Leonardo da Vinci's youth in Italy, and the beginning of Saint Patrick's missionary work in Ireland — not to mention visits to Japan, Britain and Peru. In each story, Alexander incorporates his love of cats and has some rather beautiful things to say about their intelligence, beauty, liveliness and ability to bring comfort to human beings. Cat-lovers will adore this book, and Alexander follows up on his 'ode to cats' with Dream-of-Jade: The Emperor's Cat and The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man.

It's not all perfect: the time-traveling itself is a little spotty (there's no rhyme or reason to shifting from place to place), and often Alexander takes short-cuts in the storytelling — for example, Jason's sea voyage from Rome to Britain is described in the space of a couple of lines, which is a little disconcerting — just how long is Jason away from home exactly? Likewise, Jason himself makes a rather bland protagonist, as although he's polite and kind-hearted, he doesn't have much in the way of a personality! More reactive than proactive throughout the entire book, he acts mainly as a vessel for the experiences and life lessons that Alexander has strewn within the story.

However, as long as you know what to expect from Time Cat, it's a highly enjoyable read. It's especially fun spotting several story components that will pop up again in a slightly-different form in other books, particularly the red-gold haired figure of Diahan, a direct precursor to Princess Elionwy, who at one stage: "refused to speak to [Jason], except to remind him, several times, that she wasn't speaking to him." Sound familiar?  —Rebecca   Comments

The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian — (1970) Ages 9-12. Publisher: When fourth fiddler Sebastian loses his place in the Baron's orchestra, he has to leave the only home he knows--which turns out to be the least of his troubles. He rescues a stray cat from a group of tormentors, who then smash his precious violin; and the troubled young boy he tries to help turns out to be the Crown Princess, on the run from an arranged marriage. Sebastian, Princess Isabel, and Presto the cat soon find themselves fleeing stuffy officials, hired assassins, furious guardsmen and sentries--and, in their journey, find out what is truly important in life. The action and humornever stop in Lloyd Alexander's classic novel, written on the heels of his famed Prydain Chronicles.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian: "They're Waiting for Us, All Those We Love..."

Despite its mouthful of a title, this children's novel has everything that you would expect from a Lloyd Alexander story: a likable protagonist, a colorful supporting cast, plenty of twists and turns, and a profound morality at work that is so expertly melded into the storyline that many won't even realized they've been reading about it.

Set in what feels like sixteenth-century Italy (though Alexander is never specific on the time or location) young Sebastian is a fiddler for the Baron Purn-Hessel, up until the time a badly-timed discord on his fiddle coincides with the gluttonous Treasurer bending over. Thinking his pants have been torn, and then believing that Sebastian deliberately made the noise to embarrass him, the Treasurer demands his immediate dismissal — which is how Sebastian finds himself wandering the countryside with his fiddle and little else.

He's soon accompanied by a white cat named Presto, a burly villager named Nicolas, and the badly-disguised Princess Isabel, learning that the Regent of the country is forcing her hand in marriage and that the people of the country are suffering under his rule. Determined to join forces with the mysterious Captain (a rebel working against the Regent's tyranny), Sebastian first must survive the more mundane trials of angry mobs out to kill him, and the curse of a beautifully carved fiddle that threatens to steal away his spirit with its beautiful music.

The story is reasonably straightforward (several times I was expecting some twists in the plot, but these never came to fruition), but there are plenty of laughs, particularly when Sebastian falls in with a traveling theatre called the Gallimaufry-Theatricus. Sebastian himself is a perfectly nice protagonist whose main attribute is his boundless optimism, though most of the character development goes to Princess Isabel, who we first meet as a stiff, rather nervous monarch (with a very long-winded way of speaking) to a more relaxed young woman with a greater understanding of how her kingdom should be run. Perhaps the story should have been about her, considering she goes through the major character development of the story — but Alexander was no doubt daunted by her dialogue. Here's a sample: "Sir, in future and presumably more favorable circumstances, your courtesy shall be both gratefully remembered and appropriately recompensed." She's like that for pretty much the whole book!

The pace of the story is brisk, and the language is clear and descriptive (but what else would you expect from Lloyd Alexander?) giving young readers plenty of opportunities to extend their vocabulary. There are a couple of loose ends, particularly the exact nature of Sebastian's fiddle, which is hinted to have magical powers — yet in the story's wrap-up, one of the characters pretty much tells Sebastian (and the reader): "We'll never know."

But it's impossible for Lloyd Alexander to write a bad book, and although The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian isn't quite up to the standards of The Prydain Chronicles or The Westmark Trilogy, this is a great little book.    —Rebecca   Comments

The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man — (1973) Ages 9-12. Publisher: When he begins dealing with humanity, Lionel the cat begins to understand why his wizard master was reluctant to change him into a man.

The Wizard in the Tree — (1974) Ages 9-12. Publisher: Mallory notices there's something funny about an old oak tree, takes a closer look, and before she knows it, she's broken a magical spell. Arbican the wizard has been trapped in the oak for thousands of years, and his powers are gone. Will he get them back in time to save Mallory's village from greedy Squire Scrupner?

The Wizard in the Tree: "That was the End of Magic in the World..."

All the wizards have long since departed this land for Vale Innis — but one has been left behind. When Mallory's favorite oak tree is felled, she finds a surprising discovery inside: an old wizard named Arbican who's desperate to follow his fellow wizards across the sea. The orphaned Mallory has grown up with stories of magic and enchantment, and couldn't be more delighted with the discovery — especially if there's a chance that she can go with him. Mallory does not have the most wonderful life as scullery maid to the nasty Mrs Parsel, but Arbican has bigger problems: his magical powers have been severely depleted, and if he does not reach Vale Innis soon, he faces imminent death.

It sounds like another wonderful Lloyd Alexander story, but sadly The Wizard in the Tree falls short on several levels. It is a very slim novel, and so does not have time to delve very deeply into character or plot development — instead the story is made up of Mallory and Arbican running from various members of the neighborhood who are intent on exploiting Arbican and harming Mallory. This complete lack of likeable secondary characters is surprising for Alexander, since friendship and teamwork is a major theme of many of his other books (particularly his beloved Chronicles of Prydain). Although Mallory is a spunky young heroine, Arbican is not as easy to like. He's bad-tempered and arrogant, faults that are not balanced or made endearing with the inclusion of more likeable traits. The more intriguing magical elements of the plot are overshadowed by the sinister designs of the corrupt Squire Scrupner who is too much of a one-dimension villain to be particularly interesting (a greedy land-developer who's out for all he can get). There's also some surprisingly strong language: Mallory is called "slut" throughout the novel by various characters.

Alexander also adds a general theme of environmentalism and love of countryside that is much akin to Tolkien's use of the topic with his Ents versus Saruman subplot. However, his general setting of early 19th century countryside, with rustic occupations and dialect is quite appealing, and his commentary on the true nature of magic is thought-provoking (though sadly there's not enough of it).

Laszlo Kubinyi provides simple, but lovely illustrations that portray Mallory particularly well and capture the time-period of the story in the clothing and hairstyles of the characters.

Ultimately, The Wizard in the Tree is a harmless enough story, but is simply not up to the exceptional standards of other Lloyd Alexander publications. —Rebecca   Comments

The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha — (1978) Ages 9-12. Publisher: After paying a silver penny to encourage a magician to perform in the town square, a carpenter's helper is conjured to a strange place where the people call him King of Abadan.

The Fortune-Tellers — (1992) Ages 9-12. Publisher: This original folktale set in Cameroon is full of adventure and sly humor. Lloyd Alexander's story of a young man visiting—and then becoming—the village fortune-teller is brought to vibrant life with some of Caldecott Medalist Trina Schart Hyman's most memorable artwork.

The Arkadians — (1995) Ages 9-12. Publisher: To escape the wrath of the king and his wicked soothsayers, an honest young man joins with a poet-turned-jackass and a young girl with mystical powers on a series of epic adventures.

The Arkadians

Lloyd Alexander follows his usual technique of incorporating various myths from around the world into his own original story (as he’s already done with The Chronicles of Prydain, The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, and The Iron Ring) but this time it’s with a clever twist. Instead of taking aspects of myths to work into his own story, here Alexander traces several Greek myths back to their source, outlining the roots of these stories and exploring how they may have been changed over time into the myths as we know them today. For example, we meet a character in the course of the book who provides the inspiration for The Odyssey — a sailor who helps a group of warriors fetch a runaway youth and maiden from a fortified city by constructing a wooden ass and sneaking it inside the walls. This is only one of many myths adapted and “de-mystified” during the course of the story, and other aspects of Greek myth — such as centaurs and satyrs — are also stripped of their supernatural connotations and given a more down-to-earth interpretation.

The more one knows about Greek mythology, the more amusing and enlightening this book will be, as nearly every character, place and circumstance can fit in some way or another to a story in the vast range of stories in Greek mythology. Because it’s set in pre-Classical Greece, there is an element to realism in the way the origins of these stories are presented, and the on-going theme of storytelling between the characters means that any young reader can see the way in which stories are formed, told, and embellished over time. Several chapters are devoted to telling stories that have little or no impact on the over-arching story, making The Arkadians a book about stories themselves.

Lucian is a young bean-counter in Metara, who mistakenly uncovers an embezzlement plot and tells the wrong people about it. Soon he’s on the run from the royal soothsayers who have been pocketing the difference between supplies brought and money spent, and is joined by a talking ass, who was once a poet named Fronto, and is now desperately seeking a cure for his animal-form.

Lucian and Fronto are not alone in their exile from Metara, as due to an unfavorable prophecy from the local pythoness, King Bromios and his soothsayers have banned all mid-wives, wise women, and healers from the area. This makes especially difficult the two travelers’ attempts to track down someone who can help Fronto’s unfortunate condition. Just when things seem lost, Lucian meets a lovely young maiden named Joy-in-the-Dance who offers to take them to the sanctuary of the near-mythological figure of the Lady of Wild Things.

On the whole, this is a nice little book, with plenty of action, suspense, and humour to keep things interesting. But although it’s a good book, it doesn’t compare to many of Alexander’s other brilliant children’s books. For starters, the plot is a little muddled. About mid-way through the book, the story begins to suffer from character overload. Alexander keeps adding characters to the band of travelers, many of whom seem to tag along without any real impact on the flow of the story. It becomes difficult trying to keep track of them all. Furthermore, some of these characters aren’t particularly likable, such as Joy-in-the-Dance who spends the book ridiculing, disregarding, and laughing at Lucian, adding the further indignity of refusing to call him by his real name and bestowing on him the nickname “Aiee-Ouch.” How Lucian manages to fall in love with her is anyone’s guess.

This is unfortunate, because Alexander can write excellent female characters with spunk and determination, the best of who was Elionwy of Prydain who treated Taran much as Joy treats Lucian, but with one crucial difference: Taran deserved it. Lucian however, is nothing but courteous and kind-hearted, and it was sad to see him so emancipated by a somewhat shrewish character.

Their relationship extends to most of the male/female relationships in the book, with Alexander choosing to take a somewhat feminist slant on the Greek culture of the time. This means that all the females of the book are feisty, intelligent, and correct in their thinking, whilst nearly all the men are foolish, brutish, and invariably wrong about the way they go about solving their problems. Alexander introduces the idea of “women’s mysteries” in the course of the story, which allows various females to communicate with animals, read the stars, heal the sick, and perform the “Jedi mind trick” on various people (obviously it’s not called that, but it amounts to the same thing), gifts that are forbidden to teach to any male. Why? Because men would abuse these abilities, using them to pillage and destroy. I’m female, and even I found this a little harsh!

All this could be the set-up for an interesting take on gender relationships in which the two sides gradually find a sense of balance and equality, but with a few exceptions, the men of the story remain as idiotic at the conclusion as they were at the beginning, whereas Joy-in-the-Dance is just as bossy, self-righteous, and indignant about the control men have over the world. To be fair, one particular female character does admit she was wrong about young Lucian’s intentions, and offers him her apologies, but the book in its entirety does seem to hold an unfair bias toward the innate ‘correctness’ of females, with many of them coming across as Mary Sues in their perfection. Alexander’s usual brand of wisdom and wit feels a little lost.

Despite my grumbling, no book by Lloyd Alexander can be called “bad,” only compared favourably or unfavorably to the rest of his wonderful work. As it stands, The Arkadians is a good book, written in Alexander’s smooth, elegant prose, and a fun commentary on the formation of stories — yet compared with Alexander’s other books (particularly his masterpiece series Prydain) it just falls a little short.  —Rebecca   Comments

The House Gobbaleen — (1995) Ages 9-12. Publisher: Poor luckless Tooley longs for some help from the Friendly Folk, so when an odd little man shows up, Tooley is delighted. But Hooks worsens Tooley's bad luck. It's up to Tooley's wise cat to get rid of Hooks- by summoning the dreaded House Gobbaleen!

The Iron Ring — (1997) Ages 9-12. Publisher: When Tamar, the young king of Sundari, loses a dice game, he loses everything—his kingdom, its riches, and even the right to call his life his own. His bondage is symbolized by the iron ring that appears mysteriously on his finger. To Tamar, born to the warrior caste, honor is everything. So he sets out on a journey to make good on his debt — and even to give up his life if necessary. And that journey leads him into a world of magic, where animals cantalk, the foolish are surprisingly wise, and danger awaits...

The Iron Ring

The trademark feature of Lloyd Alexander's storytelling is to choose a cultural background and weave his own story into the already existing mythology; his most famous example of this is of course The Chronicles of Prydain, in which his own story and characters were melded with the myths and legends of Wales (as found in The Mabinogian). The Iron Ring gets a similar treatment, as worked into the story are elements of The Mahabharata and The Ramayana, India's great national epics.

Tamar is the young king of a small kingdom who is doing a rather successful job at ruling under the guidance of his loyal wise-man Rajaswami and military leader Darshan until one day he foolishly plays and loses a game of chance to the mysterious king Jaya. Waking the next morning, he finds that he has bet his life away and, as proof of his bondage, has an iron ring upon his finger. But was it a dream or not? Determined to find out, Tamar leaves his kingdom for Jaya's mountain city of Mahapura in the hopes of saving his honour and keeping his dharma intact.

On the way however, he becomes severely sidetracked. Meetings with monkey kings and wrestling with giant serpents finally leads him to swear allegiance to King Aswara, a noble lord whose city has been usurped by his murderous cousin Nahusha. Along with his allies (which now include a complaining eagle, a beautiful milkmaid and an odd curiosity-seeker who has lived for the past year in an ant hill), Tamar sets his will against Nahusha. Needless to say, he learns many important lessons on the way, concerning life, death, and love, and most importantly on the infamous Indian caste system that ranks all people from the highest brahamas to the "Untouchables"; the chandalas. Throw in plenty of talking animals, a magical jewel, several daring plans, and Alexander's unmistakable brand of humour, and you have a fantastic story.

Most people will pick up on several components of Indian culture and mythology, namely the caste system and the ideologies behind dharma and karma. I was especially pleased to see that Alexander knows the correct definition of "karma" — most Westerners believe it is the idea of "what comes around, goes around", when in fact it is more akin to our idea of "fate" and the events surrounding a person's destiny.

There are a couple of slight problems, one being the sudden and therefore unconvincing love story between Tamar and Mirri the gopi. She's a typical Alexander heroine: beautiful, headstrong, and wise, but her bond with Tamar is based on love at first sight, something that only Romeo and Juliet has been able to get away with. Furthermore, anyone who has read The Chronicles of Prydain cannot help but notice the similarities between the characters, especially in the main quartets of Tamar, Mirri, Hashkat and Adi-Kavi with Taran, Elionwy, Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam — in fact when Hashkat the monkey king first appeared, for a surreal moment I thought it was Gurgi!

But these are minor quibbles: Lloyd Alexander is one of the best authors of children's fantasy fiction, and The Iron Ring is no exception. Plenty of morals, plenty of magic, and plenty of Indian mythology. You'll not only enjoy it, but you'll be motivated to look more into Indian culture — something that is largely unknown (restricted to Indian food and misinterpretations) to the Western world.  —Rebecca   Comments

The Gawgon and the Boy — (2001) Ages 9-12. Publisher: After a life-threatening illness keeps him out of school for months, David is given a tutor to help him catch up-his elderly, tough Aunt Annie, who is as frightening to him as a monstrous, snake-haired Gorgon. He even secretly nicknames her "The Gawgon." But, to David's surprise, a bright heart lurks inside the old woman. She challenges him more than any schoolteacher ever could, opens all sorts of possibilities in his life, and the two of them-The Gawgon and The Boy-develop a very special friendship. Loosely based upon Lloyd Alexander's own childhood, this jewel of a novel will be treasured by readers of all ages.

The Rope Trick — (2002) Ages 9-12. Publisher: Lidi is not only beautiful-she has the talent to perform the greatest magic feat imaginable-the rope trick. But she must find the one master who can teach her how. On her quest to find master magician Ferramondo, she meets some traveling companions who all help on the journey: a child with true supernatural powers, a handsome outlaw with a price on his head, a successful entrepreneur who wants her in his troupe. But when the child is kidnapped, Lidi must abandon the search and summon her own powers to save the girl. The thrilling conclusion is Alexander at the top of his form in a remarkable fantasy that is both light and dark, funny and serious, believable and mystical.

Fantastical Adventures of the Invisible Boy — (2005) Ages 9-12.

The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio — (2007) Ages 9-12. Publisher: A beautiful Kirkassi girl, cold-eyed villains and smiling killers, a bazaar merchant peddling slightly used dreams—could any young adventurer ask for more? Not Carlo Chuchio, who is seeking hidden treasure on the legendary Road of Golden Dreams. With Baksheesh, the world's worst camel-puller, Carlo leads a caravan through the realm of Keshavar. Robbed of all but his underdrawers, mistaken for a mighty warrior and then for a crown prince, Carlo risks his life for a prize that may not even exist.