Now that I am elderly myself (In internet years) I am really enjoying these stories that have older people with health issues going on adventures, and couldn’t resist a chosen one story with a little old lady at the helm.
The story follows Edna, a woman in a home for the elderly who is visited by a wizard who is very unhappy to tell her that she is the chosen one to stop an evil wizard who controls dragons from continuing to take out the Knights. As we travel the modern magical world with Edna, she assembles her party and slowly comes to realize that not all is what it seems with this quest or the Knights as an organization.
It is such a fun read—Fast paced and it reads very much like a young adult novel despite the elderly protagonist. Edna is lovely and comes in with a wealth of life experiences, and never feels like she is suddenly much younger or more capable than someone her age might be, and it is a lot of fun to watch her both mentor the young people who surround her and find a way around physical challenges using her life experiences.
There is a predictability to the book, though, if you are familiar with the tropes introduced in the story. None of the twists came as a surprise, which was fine by me but if you are a reader that requires surprise you may be disappointed.
Overall, I think this will be one of my favourites for the year. It’s a unique take on an old classic, with a lot of fun world building and a very nontraditional ending for this kind of story. If you’re looking for a light read with some surprisingly heavy themes, this is definitely worth picking up.