The Prince and the Dressmaker

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang  276 pp.

This graphic novel is a wry twist on story of a prince falling in love with commoner when he is supposed to choose a princess for his bride. In this case, the Prince Sebastian is enamored with a dressmaker who designs amazing dresses . . . for him to wear as his alter ego Lady Crystallia. When the dressmaker leaves him to design for a new department store, the prince is bereft. Soon his secret is made public and he runs away. The ending includes a marvelous twist that gives a new look to "happily ever after."

Gentlemen of the Road

Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon  204 pp.

This book starts out promising to be great entertainment but settles into a so-so story shortly after that. The story of a skinny physician and his ex-soldier giant-sized companion armed with an axe is set in the 10th century along the Silk Road. The story opens with Zelikmann and Amram conning the customers at an inn and barely escaping with their lives. At this point I had flashes of Umberto Eco's Baudolino. The comparison ended there. After that there is much travel and battles as the duo are commandeered into escorting Prince Filaq of the Khazar Empire who is trying to regain his throne from an evil uncle. It's not a bad story and the swashbuckling parts were but I was expecting more from this author. The afterword by Chabon is more entertaining than the novel and I think he should have kept the original title "Jews with Swords."