Eye of Zoltar, The (Dragonslayer)

The Eye Of Zoltar is the third book in the Chronicles of Kazam series by Welsh author Jasper Fforde. Aimed at the Young Adult reader, the heroine is a 16-year-old foundling raised by the Blessed Ladies of the Lobster, Jennifer Strange. This book is set some weeks after the events of The Song of the Quarkbeast, and while it is not essential to have read that book, it does help with understanding this one, and it, too, is a brilliant read. Jennifer is summoned by the Mighty Shandar, who is annoyed with her Dragon saving exploits (see book 1). He gives her an ultimatum: either she and all the wizards battle against him for the two remaining Dragons (sure to end badly for both wizards and Dragons); or she finds for him the Eye of Zoltar. A bit of research reveals that this legendary magical jewel was last seen by ex-sorcerer, Able Quizzler, around the neck of the legendary Sky Pirate Wolff. Legend has it that Wolff had tamed a Cloud Leviathan and had a hideout in the Leviathans Graveyard on the mountain Cadair Idris, near Llangurig in the Cambrian Empire, but most believe it highly unlikely. Undaunted, Jennifer heads to Cambria with newly minted wizard Perkins in tow, as well as the very spoiled Princess Shazine (luckily in not quite recognisable form), entrusted to Jennifer for a bit of character-building by Queen Mimosa. Their secondary mission is to retrieve the Once Magnificent Boo from the Ransom Clearing House in Cambrianopolis where she is being held for importing a captured Tralfamosaur. Colin, the Dragon, will back them up aerially. They pose as adventure seeking tourists, Cambria being a popular Jeopardy Tourism destination, and soon acquire the services of young Addie Powell as their guide into a dangerous region where their estimated chance of survival is 50%. This instalment features a riddling gravedigger, a trial that lasts less than 20 seconds, quite a lot of human drones, a Bugatti Royale, a succinct lesson in basic economics, and a slug farm; someone turns to stone; another to rubber, many turn to lead, others are eaten and stuffed and one regenerates into an Australopithecine; a hand is lost in battle; an ornithologist and wizard give their lives to save others; the reader learns about the importance of licquorice, angel feathers, goats and homing snails; about the tenacity of Railway companies; and the Cambrian penalty for share market manipulation. Fforde gives the reader a clever plot with plenty of turns and an ending that leaves ample scope for further books. Readers will look forward to the fourth instalment, Strange and the Wizard. The illustrations by Roger Mason are excellent. Once again, Fforde does not disappoint.