I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons is a pretty hilarious fantasy by Peter S. Beagle. Robert is the local exterminator who is only called in to help with dragon infestations. While Robert doesn’t actually like the job due to his fondness for the dragons it does allow him to support his mother and siblings after the death of his father several years earlier. When the nearby princess finally locates a prince she is able to fall for she wants to impress him by showing off her family’s castle. Only one problem with that, there is a huge dragon infestation so they have to call in an exterminator for an emergency situation. Robert naturally gets the call and goes to help even though he knows he has no chance of smuggling any of the dragons to safety when doing so like he normally is able to. However, things get rather tricky when the prince who is visiting decides that he wants to prove his heroism by fighting a dragon and hires Robert to help him find some large and dangerous dragons that might live in the vicinity. With the princess insisting on tagging along on their hunt things quickly go from bad to worse, both for Robert and for the prince and princess.
I am not sure what I was actually expecting from this book as I have never read this particular author before and am unfamiliar with his work. That being said, it was actually an incredible read even if it was nothing like what the description might have implied. Honestly, you really need to take both my description and the description on the book with a big grain of salt and expect it to go right out the window pretty early on. This book had so many twists and turns that you start out going one direction and by the time you are done you are completely lost and have absolutely no idea how you managed to get from where you started to where you ended up. I love books like that, the ones where you seem unable to predict where you are going to end up because there are so many different changes to how things are developing over the course of the story. Now the story is not actually that confusing and does have a semi-logical progression but the course of events changes things so drastically that the ending is drastically different from the beginning. On top of that there is actually quite a bit of humor present in the book as the characters do seem to speak sarcasm pretty well, some more so than others, and the antics of the various characters are rather entertaining. The characters are also pretty entertaining as many of them tend to break the mold for their typical character type. I don’t want to provide spoilers but they are very much atypical though I don’t say that in a bad way. They were a delight to get to know though and definitely well thought out and portrayed. Overall, a great book that I am happy to give 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This is a good example of a fantasy novel and one that I am rather happy to recommend to others. If you enjoy fantasy novels, especially ones about dragons or that are somewhat humorous, than I suggest you consider trying this one. While I don’t think it would appeal to other readers I will say that it is worth considering anyway as it is pretty good. It is aimed primarily at adults but I will also state that outside of some minor violence there wasn’t any content that would make it unsuitable for younger readers. Honestly, it could probably be read by readers as young as about thirteen and it be fine. Like I said it is a good book and I hope you will consider trying it. Remember to share your thoughts in the comments if you do.