Ratastrophe Catastrophe (The Illmore Chronicles Series #1) Book

This is high fantasy, and I'm extremely picky about high fantasy. The book is about a shepherd boy who is possessed my a dark magic. He uses the magic, or really it uses him. Rats take over Illmoor (hence the name Ratastrophe), and he uses his pied-piper-ish flute to have them follow him out of Illmoor, but when the Duke doesn't pay him, bad things occur.

There are many colorful characters, although there are really too many to keep track of. Diek is the shepherd boy, and he's relatively benign. The ineffectual and scheming Duke is one dimensional, but interesting nonetheless. Gordo the Dwarf and Groan the Barbarian are mercenaries who the author paints fairly well. Tambor, the old sorcerer (and erstwhile chicken) spends the latter part of the book with the mercenaries, which adds an interesting dynamic with the three very different folks wandering around.

The characters are not the good part of the book. As I said, they're interesting but not deep. The plot is somewhat weak. There's not really much to it, but it is effective. What is good is the very English sense of humor and the characterizations in the dialog. I chuckled throughout the book, and the witticisms kept me reading. I will, at some point read more books in the series.