PUNYCORN AND THE PRINCESS OF THIEVES

Multiple quests bring ogres, hooded necromancers, and unlikely heroes to Verdigris Forest, domain of the feared Robin, Princess of Thieves.

In this follow-up to 2023’s Punycorn, our unicorn hero searches for a grimoire and mystical weapons, dubbed “Nosepicker” and “Spork of Slaughter,” all of which have been stolen. This quest draws the doughty if diminutive unicorn into a rematch with hulking Sir Ogre, equally thick of brain and brawn, and the ogre’s clever little sister, Sixsmith. Into the scrum, Watson pitches both a set of pacifistic (though scary-looking) necromancers and a robber who turns out to be the most principled of thieves. Robin is a kindly, if kleptomaniac, princess who’s now living as the head of a band of rough-looking short-order cooks, robbing from the rich to fund a soup kitchen for refugees. Plainly this is all deeply tongue-in-cheek, and aside from one quick rout (“Don’t just stand there! Attack them back!”), the martially posed, comically grimacing figures in the cartoon art rarely come to blows. And if the plotlines cut off in ways calculated to bolster demand for sequels, there at least is some movement in the character-development department—particularly for Wheeze, a dragon with self-esteem issues who’s one of Punycorn’s two companions (the other being intrepid dung beetle P’oo). The human and humanoid members of the cast are diversely hued.

A droll sequel featuring quests, quips, and a nuanced view of what it means to be a hero.