“I heard something,” she said. “It’s a monster. There’s always monsters when you’re around, Espen.”
“Then why did you invite me to your party?”
She shrugged. “What can I say? A good monster enlivens a party.”
“Now that’s just disrespectful.” He hesitated. “Maybe the next one will eat you.”
“I doubt it. I taste like …”
But Espen never heard her self-evaluation of taste. He personally didn’t care for her taste in clothing, anyways.
The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle (2019; in Norwegian, Askeladden – i Soria Moria slott ) is the sequel to The Ash Lad: In the Hall of the Mountain King (2017), continuing the adventures of the Ash Lad, Espen, his two brothers, and Princess Kristin. In this episode, Kristin’s parents, the King and Queen of Norway, end up dead; the brothers, Per and Pal, end up in a dungeon, where they ambitiously attempt multiple escapes, but fail and end up threatened by an unfortunate fate; and Espen and Kristin go off in search of a cure for the dead Queen and King.
Unfortunately, this script could have a used a few more drafts. As just one example of a plot hole, at one point Espen and Kristin stumble into the ruins of a castle and discover several shriveled bodies. One happens to be holding a desiccated ball, which Espen grabs. He utters no words, there’s been no hints, at least that I remember, that a desiccated ball might come in handy, nothing.
So when it is useful, there’s a definite jolt. Did he know? Is this some of Espen’s knowledge of old fairy tales, which is hardly mentioned in …Castle but was prominent in …King? It felt like a deceitful deux ex machina, not an example of Espen’s utility and wisdom.
This leads me to think that stories are paeans to causality. Random chaos makes for dull story telling, because it teaches chaos as a survival mechanism; however, chaos is precisely not that, and most people know that. Stories featuring random chaos fall into obscurity, and deservedly so. I can remember only one story featuring random chaos, and I don’t recall the title. The author was pulp era standout Jack Vance. Even he could not make it a true classic; it was more of a toss-off experiment. (It’s probably in my library upstairs, but I’m too lazy or in a hurry to go find it.)
Chaos can be made palatable with humor, and there’s certainly some humor here. But between characters who are little more than cardboard and do precisely what is expected of them, and a lack of imagination on the part of the storytellers, this effort is probably not worth your time.
