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An AffectionateParody fantasy novel series by Creator/KevinJAnderson. The books follow some RagtagBunchOfMisfits con artists who navigate a duplicitous yet gradually progressing medieval society while also encountering some genuine dangers and adventures. An older Cullin (TheSquire), whose career of cons and occasional genuine feats of heroism led to him becoming a king, tells his son and heir about his adventures as a FramingDevice. The series currently consists of two books: ''The Dragon Business'', and ''Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure''. The final act of the first book is an expanded version of an earlier Anderson short story, "Short Straws" (which can be found in the anthology collections ''The Ultimate Dragon'' and ''The Funny Business'')
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An AffectionateParody fantasy novel series by Creator/KevinJAnderson. The books follow some RagtagBunchOfMisfits con artists who navigate a duplicitous yet gradually progressing medieval society while also encountering some genuine dangers and adventures. An older Cullin (TheSquire), whose career of cons and occasional genuine feats of heroism led to him becoming a king, tells his son and heir about his adventures as a FramingDevice. The series currently consists of two books: ''The Dragon Business'', and ''Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure''. The final act of the first book is an expanded version of an earlier Anderson short story, "Short Straws" (which can be found in the anthology collections ''The Ultimate Dragon'' and ''The Funny Business'')Business'').
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An AffectionateParody fantasy novel series by Creator/KevinJAnderson. The books follow some RagtagBunchOfMisfits con artists who navigate a duplicitous yet gradually progressing medieval society while also encountering some genuine dangers and adventures. An older Cullin (TheSquire), whose career of cons and occasional genuine feats of heroism led to him becoming a king, tells his son and heir about his adventures as a FramingDevice. The series currently consists of two books: ''The Dragon Business'', and ''Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure''. The final act of the first book is an expanded version of an earlier Anderson short story, "Short Straws"
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An AffectionateParody fantasy novel series by Creator/KevinJAnderson. The books follow some RagtagBunchOfMisfits con artists who navigate a duplicitous yet gradually progressing medieval society while also encountering some genuine dangers and adventures. An older Cullin (TheSquire), whose career of cons and occasional genuine feats of heroism led to him becoming a king, tells his son and heir about his adventures as a FramingDevice. The series currently consists of two books: ''The Dragon Business'', and ''Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure''. The final act of the first book is an expanded version of an earlier Anderson short story, "Short Straws"Straws" (which can be found in the anthology collections ''The Ultimate Dragon'' and ''The Funny Business'')
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* DrawingStraws: In the final act, a group of warriors after a StandardHeroReward draw straws to see which of them will face a dragon in battle, [[spoiler:and repeat this in a DwindlingParty manner as they keep getting killed, with Cullin only surviving because the dragon is fat and slow after eating the others.]]
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Changed line(s) 1 (click to see context) from:
An AffectionateParody fantasy novel series by Creator/KevinJAnderson. The books follow some RagtagBunchOfMisfits con artists who navigate a duplicitous yet gradually progressing medieval society while also encountering some genuine dangers and adventures. An older Cullin (TheSquire), whose career of cons and occasional genuine feats of heroism led to him becoming a king, tells his son and heir about his adventures as a FramingDevice. The series currently consists of two books: ''The Dragon Business'', and ''Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure''. The final act of the first book is an expanded version of an earlier Anderson short story, "Short Straws", as both feature [[spoiler:a group of warriors after a StandardHeroReward DrawingStraws to see which of them will face a dragon in battle, with the last man standing only surviving because the dragon is fat and slow after eating the others.]]
to:
An AffectionateParody fantasy novel series by Creator/KevinJAnderson. The books follow some RagtagBunchOfMisfits con artists who navigate a duplicitous yet gradually progressing medieval society while also encountering some genuine dangers and adventures. An older Cullin (TheSquire), whose career of cons and occasional genuine feats of heroism led to him becoming a king, tells his son and heir about his adventures as a FramingDevice. The series currently consists of two books: ''The Dragon Business'', and ''Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure''. The final act of the first book is an expanded version of an earlier Anderson short story, "Short Straws", as both feature [[spoiler:a group of warriors after a StandardHeroReward DrawingStraws to see which of them will face a dragon in battle, with the last man standing only surviving because the dragon is fat and slow after eating the others.]]Straws"
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An AffectionateParody fantasy novel series by Creator/KevinJAnderson. The books follow some RagtagBunchOfMisfits con artists who navigate a duplicitous yet gradually progressing medieval society while also encountering some genuine dangers and adventures. An older Cullin (TheSquire), whose career of cons and occasional genuine feats of heroism led to him becoming a king, tells his son and heir about his adventures as a FramingDevice. The series currently consists of two books: ''The Dragon Business'', and ''Skeleton in the Closet: A Dragon Business Adventure''. The final act of the first book is an expanded version of an earlier Anderson short story, "Short Straws", as both feature [[spoiler:a group of warriors after a StandardHeroReward DrawingStraws to see which of them will face a dragon in battle, with the last man standing only surviving because the dragon is fat and slow after eating the others.]]
!!Tropes in the Series:
* BaitAndSwitch: Many lines of dialogue go off in a different direction than they initially seem to be going for comedic effect.
--> ''But the group had gotten used to soft, flea-infested beds at local inns, and Reeger felt they were getting spoiled.''
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Sir Tremayne, who volunteers to slay dragons for free and inconveniences the MonsterProtectionRacket protagonists but initially seems like a KnightInShiningArmor who is far more honorable than they are. However, he has a misogynistic streak and also views some lives as more worth saving than others, [[spoiler:trying to sacrifice Affonyl to a dragon to improve his own chances of catching it off guard.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Sir Dalbry is a former nobleman who sought to be a fair and generous provider to the needy after his father died, only for con men and {{False Friend}}s to deplete his treasury, kick him out of his castle, and cut down his beloved family apple orchid for siege engines.
* DragonAscendant: The head of the orc mercenaries in the second book ends up taking over as the main antagonistic force after [[spoiler:his boss belatedly discovers his fatal PlotAllergy to peanut butter during a feast celebrating the successful storming of Longjohn’s castle.]]
* FoodSlap: When orcs storm King Longjohn’s castle in the second book, a serving girl injures one orc by throwing hot chowder in his face. A second servant tries this with her dish, but the finger sandwiches she’s carrying are less effective.
* IgnoredExpert: Affonyl is the most well-read person in her castle, but every time she tries to tell her father that the old maps don’t support Duke Kerrl’s claims that much of their land is rightfully his, she gets no response beyond a StayInTheKitchen dismissal.
* KarmaHoudini: King Norrimund the Corpulent may be an amiable dunce, but between his UngratefulBastard cheapness and misogynistic treatment of his daughter (with him saying that princesses don't even qualify as real people and are only good for marriage alliances), he is an objectively unpleasant person. He avoids getting killed, and [[spoiler:when his eviler neighbor Duke Kerrl convinces Norrimund to adopt him for a planned InheritanceMurder, Norrimund even ends up doubling the size of his kingdom when Kerrl dies instead, and the adoption makes Norrimund Kerrl's heir.]]
* MonsterProtectionRacket: Sir Dalbry, his squire Cullin, and a thug named Reeger pose as dragon slayers, bribe witnesses to fake sightings, and make fake dragon parts to show off after their supposed victories over the beasts. However, it eventually turns out that dragons and other monsters are actually real, leading to the racket having a not-entirely-willing FakeRealTurn.
* RebelliousPrincess: Princess Affonyl spends most of her time in scientific pursuits and other education and is fed up with her father and his DecadentCourt, eventually faking her death to flee his castle and join Dalbry and his crew.
* RealAfterAll: Sir Dalbry and his allies initially think that dragons are nothing more than stories for their MonsterProtectionRacket, but eventually, they have to fight a real one that is just as dangerous as the ones in their tales.
* RedShirt: Sir Tremayne's fellow knights in the first book, the mercenary fishermen after the lake monster in the second book, and the castle guards in the second book all end up slaughtered after a few chapters of page time. This gets lampshaded with the fishermen when, right before they introduce themselves, Reeger complains that this is a waste of time due to how those people are about to get eaten.
* ScoobyDooHoax: The second half of the second book has Dalbry and his friends pretend a castle is haunted to scare away the orcs who have just taken the residents prisoner.
* StandardHeroReward: The first book features a queen who pledges her daughter's hand in marriage to whoever slays a vicious dragon. Said daughter's unattractiveness takes away some of the enthusiasm of the dragon slayers.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In the second book, King Longjohn has a collection of sculptures (like a goat-moth hybrid and a sphere with a smiley face) that he ascribes with profound meanings that only the gifted can understand. Cullin thinks the sculptors must have been eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. Affonyl plays on Longjohn’s taste to make him overpay for her artwork by shoving an uprooted tree and a boulder together. Reeger's attempts to cash in on this by smearing poop on a board (or mixing "the raw material of the earth" with "a fresh fecal palette from the king's finest horses" as he calls it), and claiming that "the power of the air around us" is enhanced "by the terrible fumes wafting up," but his efforts meet with a decidedly tepid reception.
* WorfHadTheFlu: A big part of the reason that [[spoiler:Cullin and Affonyl manage to kill the first real dragon they encounter is that it has a BalloonBelly from eating several knights who tried to kill it over the last few days.]]
!!Tropes in the Series:
* BaitAndSwitch: Many lines of dialogue go off in a different direction than they initially seem to be going for comedic effect.
--> ''But the group had gotten used to soft, flea-infested beds at local inns, and Reeger felt they were getting spoiled.''
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Sir Tremayne, who volunteers to slay dragons for free and inconveniences the MonsterProtectionRacket protagonists but initially seems like a KnightInShiningArmor who is far more honorable than they are. However, he has a misogynistic streak and also views some lives as more worth saving than others, [[spoiler:trying to sacrifice Affonyl to a dragon to improve his own chances of catching it off guard.]]
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Sir Dalbry is a former nobleman who sought to be a fair and generous provider to the needy after his father died, only for con men and {{False Friend}}s to deplete his treasury, kick him out of his castle, and cut down his beloved family apple orchid for siege engines.
* DragonAscendant: The head of the orc mercenaries in the second book ends up taking over as the main antagonistic force after [[spoiler:his boss belatedly discovers his fatal PlotAllergy to peanut butter during a feast celebrating the successful storming of Longjohn’s castle.]]
* FoodSlap: When orcs storm King Longjohn’s castle in the second book, a serving girl injures one orc by throwing hot chowder in his face. A second servant tries this with her dish, but the finger sandwiches she’s carrying are less effective.
* IgnoredExpert: Affonyl is the most well-read person in her castle, but every time she tries to tell her father that the old maps don’t support Duke Kerrl’s claims that much of their land is rightfully his, she gets no response beyond a StayInTheKitchen dismissal.
* KarmaHoudini: King Norrimund the Corpulent may be an amiable dunce, but between his UngratefulBastard cheapness and misogynistic treatment of his daughter (with him saying that princesses don't even qualify as real people and are only good for marriage alliances), he is an objectively unpleasant person. He avoids getting killed, and [[spoiler:when his eviler neighbor Duke Kerrl convinces Norrimund to adopt him for a planned InheritanceMurder, Norrimund even ends up doubling the size of his kingdom when Kerrl dies instead, and the adoption makes Norrimund Kerrl's heir.]]
* MonsterProtectionRacket: Sir Dalbry, his squire Cullin, and a thug named Reeger pose as dragon slayers, bribe witnesses to fake sightings, and make fake dragon parts to show off after their supposed victories over the beasts. However, it eventually turns out that dragons and other monsters are actually real, leading to the racket having a not-entirely-willing FakeRealTurn.
* RebelliousPrincess: Princess Affonyl spends most of her time in scientific pursuits and other education and is fed up with her father and his DecadentCourt, eventually faking her death to flee his castle and join Dalbry and his crew.
* RealAfterAll: Sir Dalbry and his allies initially think that dragons are nothing more than stories for their MonsterProtectionRacket, but eventually, they have to fight a real one that is just as dangerous as the ones in their tales.
* RedShirt: Sir Tremayne's fellow knights in the first book, the mercenary fishermen after the lake monster in the second book, and the castle guards in the second book all end up slaughtered after a few chapters of page time. This gets lampshaded with the fishermen when, right before they introduce themselves, Reeger complains that this is a waste of time due to how those people are about to get eaten.
* ScoobyDooHoax: The second half of the second book has Dalbry and his friends pretend a castle is haunted to scare away the orcs who have just taken the residents prisoner.
* StandardHeroReward: The first book features a queen who pledges her daughter's hand in marriage to whoever slays a vicious dragon. Said daughter's unattractiveness takes away some of the enthusiasm of the dragon slayers.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In the second book, King Longjohn has a collection of sculptures (like a goat-moth hybrid and a sphere with a smiley face) that he ascribes with profound meanings that only the gifted can understand. Cullin thinks the sculptors must have been eating hallucinogenic mushrooms. Affonyl plays on Longjohn’s taste to make him overpay for her artwork by shoving an uprooted tree and a boulder together. Reeger's attempts to cash in on this by smearing poop on a board (or mixing "the raw material of the earth" with "a fresh fecal palette from the king's finest horses" as he calls it), and claiming that "the power of the air around us" is enhanced "by the terrible fumes wafting up," but his efforts meet with a decidedly tepid reception.
* WorfHadTheFlu: A big part of the reason that [[spoiler:Cullin and Affonyl manage to kill the first real dragon they encounter is that it has a BalloonBelly from eating several knights who tried to kill it over the last few days.]]
