Tamsyn Muir is better known for her Gideon the Ninth, winner of the 2020 for Best First Novel. Princess Floralinda & the Forty-Flight Tower is a novella in a very different universe, and is just absolutely wonderful.
A witch has locked up Princess Floralinda on the 40th floor of a tower. Floralinda now just has to sit there patiently till a prince comes along to rescue her. Except to do that, he has to battle out a monster on each of the 39 intervening floors, starting with the diamond-scaled dragon on Flight One. Floralinda agrees to wait.
And waits. And waits …
Twenty-four princes tried to storm the Tower — and failed. Now, they’ve just stopped trying, it’s too risky. Floralinda knows that if she’s going to get out of that Tower, she’s going to have to do it herself.
Except, she’s not very knowledgeable, having lived in luxurious “princessy” comfort all her life. So, how is she going to defeat 39 monsters? I mean, there are goblins, hydras, giant rats, sirens, venomous spiders, ogres, kelpies, murderers… Oh, what’s Floralinda going to ?
“… she let herself indulge in wild flights of fancy about being back home for Christmas, and being made a fuss of, and seeing her mother and father, and everybody saying how brave she had been, and none of the parents of the twenty-four princes blaming her one bit — which is how you can tell that Floralinda still didn’t have much imagination.”
What follows is a delightful, snarky tale of finding oneself backed into a corner, growing a thicker skin, and coming out in spades. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot here, because: spoilers! But there’s so much delicious wit packed into this book, so much practical wisdom, so much feel-good. This is easily one of my favorite reads of 2021.
11 replies on “Princess Floralinda & the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir”
Wow – rave review And I love the cover for this – plus I love the idea of a feel good story with plenty of snark.
Lynn 😀
Yes, and a very quick read. You won’t be able to put it down, each monster is so much fun!
Wow this sounds like a lot of fun! 40 floors… that’s a lot. 🙂 I have a feeling there’s a nice twist. Glad this was so good!!!
You just have to give it a try. I feel maybe my review didn’t do it justice — it’s so much delightfully dry snark. And yes to the twist :E
Great review! I loved this book too — it’s such a delicious twist on the princess needing rescue fairy tale trope.
Ooh nice, fellow fan with whom I can gush over the book. 🙂 I really loved the writing style too, and Cobweb was also such a neat twist, haha
This sounds very good and a lot of story to pack into a novella.
Yes, each flight gets a derring-do, and yet, I could finish the whole book in 3-4 hours! 🙂
Now you make me really curious!!
Oh my gosh! This sounds like soooo much fun!!! Love your snarky review to bits.
Elza Reads
Haha, in that case, you’ll really like the book as it is Snarky x100