The Builders - Daniel Polansky

Coming across like a demented Beatrix Potter Polansky's short adventure fantasy novella is typically unique and not just for it being a novella rather than a three-volume epic. There's no shortage of action either in The Builders, for all its brevity.

The Captain is gathering the old team together again for one last adventure that might be their last. In fact it's lucky that they are still alive after being betrayed during the war between two brothers to rule the kingdom of the Garden that saw their side defeated. Some, like the bartender Reconquista, have suffered noticeable life-changing injuries, others like the Underground Man, have prospered in ...well, underground criminal activity, being a mole and all that. Literally a mole, just as Requita is a rat (well, half a rat) and the Captain a mouse. A pretty fearsome and formidable one at that.

The Captain is gathering his crew, that include a stoat, a dragon (salamander), an oppossum, a badger and an owl. Definitely no weasels in this team, but based on their last failure, perhaps a traitor. Nonetheless, there's work to be done to remove the Toad from the throne, and this group of experienced adventurers with terrific speed and skills - ruthless killers all - intend to do just that. Unfortunately, the skunk Mephetic, High Chancellor and the true power behind the throne, has been alerted to  their new enterprise. It looks like they still have a traitor in their midst.

Not that there was ever any chance that this would turn out to be a cute anthromorphic acventure, but as the team are assembled and get into action, The Builders becomes something of Beatrix Potter meets Sam Peckinpah, and yes, with Daniel Polansky, that's every bit as witty, imaginative and fun as you would like it to be.

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