The Christening Quest

Argonia #4

by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Carole, a witch with a talent for magical music, and handsome Prince Rupert set out to rescue Princess Bronwyn's newborn daughter from the mercenary magicians of Gorequartz

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Dragons, Humor

231 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1985

About the author

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough was born March 23, 1947, and lives in the Puget Sound area of Washington. Elizabeth won a Nebula Award in 1989 for her novel The Healer's War, and has written more than a dozen other novels. She has collaborated with Anne McCaffrey, best-known for creating the Dragonriders of Pern, to produce the Petaybee Series and the Acorna Series.

Reviews

[MargaretDH · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

Even though I should have liked this - fairy tales for grown ups with sarcastic heroines are my jam - this just fell a bit flat for me. The plot seemed a bit draggy, and the characters never quite came alive for me. I can't point out anything obviously terrible and it kept me entertained enough, but I know I will have forgotten this in a couple of weeks. I remember enjoying the first books in the series a lot more. Unless you really really love the first books in the series and Scarborough is your favourite, you could probably give this a miss.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

4th in the series.

[James]

Going on a quest with a handsome prince might sound like a dream, but Prince Rupert’s cousin Carole came to feel that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Carole agreed to accompany her hunky cousin to Miragenia to christen his baby niece. But it was really hard to even explain the situation to anyone, how the little Princess had been stolen from her mother’s side by Miragenians who had demanded fifteen years of the first-born’s life in exchange for a bit of help during wartime. Or how the baby had been taken before magical christening gifts could be bestowed upon her for her protection and character development. The ladies surrounding Rupert (also known as Rowan the Romantic and Rowan the Rake) didn’t care about some baby and didn’t hear anything about the mission because they were too busy sighing over him. Crowd control was an obvious problem, as was extricating Rupert from more than one involuntary engagement. When at last the two, with the help of dubious questing companions including a love-stricken pink and purple dragon, arrived at the theocracy of Gorequartz where the baby had been fostered out to a queen, they found themselves in trouble of a completely different complexion. Their most deadly nemesis was none other than a giant crystal “god” seemingly created in Rupert’s own image!

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2020/0...

The problem with promising your firstborn child away is that inevitably you will have a firstborn child, who will then be whisked away by a magic carpet before she can even be given magical gifts at her christening. So then your brother and cousin have to go on a journey to christen her and have magical adventures along the way. I was less interested in these characters than the ones in earlier books (whistling magic is just not as cool or versatile as hearth magic) and there are still a lot of gross cultural stereotypes. The last two books in this series were written this millennium, so I have hopes they will be less racist. B.

[Sion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had read nothing like it when I first read this. Don't think I'd even discovered Pratchett yet. All the EAS books I read around that time thrilled me for being both funny and full of female characters who were not at all one's usual princesses. I've dipped back into them a few times in the last 30-odd years and they still make me laugh.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The hearthwitch's name is Carole (take off the e and you have my first name) so of course I liked this book.

[Kathryn Baron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty sure I liked this series MUCH more as a teenager.