Title: THE CHRONICLES OF BLARNIA
Publisher: Gollancz
Author: Michael Gerber
ISBN: 0-575-07816-2
264 pages
Reviewed by: Adam Donnison

Pete, Sue, Ed and Loo are sold by their parents for medical research, but in trying to find a way to escape from their captor, they enter the strange world of Blarnia through a wardrobe. It helps that the wardrobe also contained psychoactive Banana Peel Extract. But then, Pete doesn't need any help to be completely psychotic and Loo has a tendency to suicide that isn't all that healthy. Mind you Sue and Ed aren't much better.

Blarnia is in permanent winter, thanks to the Wide Witch, whose enormous bulk strikes terror into even vaguely edible creatures. Perhaps the children can help relieve the land of its cruel, self-appointed monarch, if they can ever stop fighting amongst themselves.

In case the improbable storyline and the familiar sounding title didn't give it away, this is a parody. The author pokes fun at the characters, the editor, the storyline, and even himself in this light-hearted romp.

This book won't change the world, nor even do much to advance the literary arts, but it will give you a hearty laugh and an afternoon of solid entertainment. Just don't read it to the kids at bedtime, OK?