The book isn't just humour, however. There is a serious point behind it, to wit: lots of Fantasy these days is awfully full of clichés. The backgrounds start to look the same, and the plots as well. The writers often fail to think through the rationale for their geographies or social structures, to say nothing of the economic underpinnings of these societies! In addition, elementary details such as how long a horse can run, or how people in certain climates dress, are missed. Jones skewers cliché after hackneyed cliché: the MISSING HEIR, the giant SPIDERS, the COLOUR CODING for evil and good. She also catches out pacing problems: I loved her entry on TIME:

"TIME taken on the tour is often vague... You may be slogging happily along and find yourself surprised that you have had months of travel. Or you may think you have been a year on the way and find it has been only days. The Management likes to keep you guessing."

One further cavil: some of the clichés are based in reality. Jones has a lot of fun with the ubiquity of STEW as a Fantasyland meal, and she has a point. However, in the past when meat was hard to come by and often tough, and refrigeration nonexistent, stew really was common and a good way to prepare less than tender meat and vegetables. She also wonders why impractical CLOAKS are so common? Well, because cloaks are easy to make, and they don't waste fabric. (For both of these points, I am indebted to a long discussion on the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf.composition.) Her main point stands, though: the writers who use these clichés seem to be using them because they read about them in another book, not because they understand the reasoning behind it all.

All said, this is a very enjoyable book to read -- in small snippets. And any writer venturing on creating his or her own tour through Fantasyland would do well to read it, and at least think twice about his or her use of any clichés skewered herein!