Review - Witch and Wombat

Witch and Wombat is a fanciful little jaunt through the idea of a magical world connected to the mundane world and the further idea that the former derives its energy from the latter. In this case that energy is seriously depleted as the mundane is losing faith in dragons, fairies, and magic in general due to their burgeoning technological marvels.

However, hope is still alive in the form of the fantasy role-playing gamers. Enter Bentwood and his idea of taking fantasy gamers on real adventures in the magical world. So four gamers are chosen to go on an adventure with Hali the witch, their babysitter/guide and her familiar Bernie, normally a crow but for the adventure changed into a wombat because of "marketing analysis".

Of course nothing goes as planned with the monster unions go on strike and the Tooth Fairy leading an actual revolt. But our intrepid gamers, Hali, and Bernie make everything come out right in the end. Bentwood gets rave reviews for his "tour" and Hali gets the ugly hut she's been looking for.

This book is fluffy. It is not a dark swords and sorcery story nor does the plot have much depth. That said, it is easy to read and pleasant to read. It is recommended for someone who is looking for light fantasy but written for the mature reader (i.e. NOT the Jewel Kingdom or Droon).

Witch and Wombat is available in Kindle edition but is out of print currently (it was originally published in 1994 by Warner). There are plenty of second-hand copies available online (we even have ours up on Biblio.com for $3.77, free shipping).