A CROWN OF COBWEBS

A spider princess and her crew of misfits tangle with dark gods and the undead in this fantasy.

Spider Princess and reluctant bride-to-be Adrianna Morticia is about to wed dragon Prince Richard Valkanna, a long-arranged marriage (conducted by a lively corpse) that will join the two royal households after generations of enmity. The union will prevent a war and restore the spiders’ claim to their castle. Adrianna, whose shifts between spider and human form may make arachnophobes blanch, would much rather be back with her cadre of fellow adventurers (Ebbo, a diminutive “magick”-addicted islander; Clayton, a fashion-conscious golem; and Asakusa, a human in thrall to the demonic “Ways of the Dead” and in love with the princess). They fulfill missions for a powerful druid dwarf to benefit the multispecies City of S’kar-Vozi. Bent on preventing the wedding, Asakusa establishes a quick route to the remote spider castle using “Gates” to the paths where the dead of all faiths trudge and toil. Amid the chaos that Asakusa causes at the castle, Adrianna escapes, returning to her old life. She discovers that her three cohorts are facing a vampire baron, ravaging skeletons, and a monstrous half-crab, half-squid Kraken, all hell-bent on destroying S’kar-Vozi and adding its inhabitants to the skeleton army. Reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s brand of dark, comical fantasy, this offbeat novel by SF/fantasy author Mitchell is divided into five tongue-in-cheek sections: “An Engagement of Abominations,” “A Tropic of Skeletons,” “To Snort One’s Soul,” “The Vegan of Vengeance,” and “A Homecoming of Horrors.” Leavened by wicked humor and genuinely moving scenes of reflection (Adrianna, unlike her spider kin, doesn’t suck the life fluids of sentient beings and relies on kindly, unexpectedly complex Clayton to be her moral compass), the tale features easily offended half-orcs, snake god worshippers, and a tiny but fearsome assassin. The story details Adrianna’s attraction to both the untrustworthy dragon prince and diffident Asakusa as well as such deliciously repulsive horrors as Asakusa’s maggoty, body-consuming “Corruption.” The author pays sly homage to fantasy icons like Tolkien (the term halflings is a slur here) and George R.R. Martin (an epic battle waged by the undead). Except for some unnecessary recapping here and there, Mitchell’s massive worldbuilding is a blast from start to finish.

A wild fantasy romp propelled by humor, horror, and heart.