The Great Troll War (The Last Dragonslayer Chronicles)

The Great Troll War is the fourth (and final) book in the Last Dragonslayer 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 just days after the events of The Eye of Zoltar, and while it is not essential to have read earlier books, it does help with understanding this one, and they, too, are brilliant reads.

At this stage, the Troll have conquered most of the island of UnUnited Kingdoms, and either enslaved or eaten the inhabitants. They are held back from a tiny corner of Cornwall by the Button Trench, constructed at the cost of a wizard life. Jennifer Strange, Last Dragonslayer, and Court Mystician to the Kingdom of Snodd, gathers with survivors and escapees from what is now Trollvania, including her Quarkbeast, Tiger Prawns, Princess Shazine, the Once Magnificent Boo, and young dragons Colin and Feldspar, for a Sorcerer's Conclave.

In league with the Troll, the planet's most powerful wizard, the Mighty Shandar has set up a HENRY (Hex Energy Neutralising Reversal Yieldiser) which is a spell sucker, rendering their remaining two sorcerers powerless, and reducing communications to old telephones and two-way homing snails.

They will require physical force to take the HENRY out. However, thanks to the ambiguity and homophones that plague the English language, their two-thousand-strong fighting force of Fencers, Marksmen and Warriors is not at all what they had hoped for, but might ultimately be exactly what they need...

It would appear that Shandar has a plan to increase his power exponentially, that it will likely result in the destruction of human life on Earth, and it seems that Jenny is the only one who can stop him. But first they need to deal with the Troll invasion, and a mere forty-eight hours in which to do it. If they can manage to utilise buttons and a certain shade of cerulean blue, they might succeed.

Another entertaining dose of Jasper Fforde offering a very satisfying resolution. As well as featuring a replica of New York's Chrysler Building, a sub-terranean ship, and a fake princess, there is lots of loyalty and bravery and self-sacrifice. Jenny finally gets a key to the glovebox of the Volkswagen, and learns more about her family and her destiny.

The author makes a very amusing, sort of anonymous, cameo appearance, there are many handy and often humorous footnotes, and it is all contained within some marvellous cover art by Jo Wilson. What an excellent conclusion to this incredibly imaginative series!