Review: The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway and Bill Adams

Blurb:

Galdifort Quillpen has grand dreams of writing epic tales of heroic deeds, just like his famous aunt. Unfortunately, he’s been assigned to Tanna the Tendersword, an excruciatingly carefree would-be-champion who can’t seem to find a qualifying entry-level quest.

When things are at their most miserable, the young Questers meet an enigmatic old woman who offers Tanna a quest: follow a peg-legged, sword-wielding rooster to help save a crying mushroom lost within a haunted forest. Tanna heroically accepts, regardless of how incredibly unsafe the odd quest seems.

But Galdifort’s fears become reality when a sorceress sends her fog monster and lizard henchmen after them. Only a true Champion should confront a sorceress, and, in his eyes, Tanna is not up to the task. But if he wants to write his chronicle, Galdifort must learn to do something he certainly isn’t comfortable doing — trust in honest friendship with Tanna the Tendersword.

He’s just a chronicler, after all, not a hero!

Review:

You ever do a group project at school, except you’re the only competent one, and your group partners are someone with extreme ADHD and a rooster? No? Just me? Well, that’s basically the premise of this book. The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword is a relentlessly charming middle-grade adventure story brimming with heart. Dewey Conway and Bill Adams have teamed up to craft a tale (a tenacious one, perhaps) that works just as well for the kids as it does for the parents.

Following in his famous aunt’s footsteps, Galdifort Quillpen wishes to be a chronicler of the grand deeds of heroes, and he finally has the opportunity to do so. The problem? He’s been teamed up with Tanna the Tendersword, who not only cannot find her first entry-level quest, but struggles to even find requests for quests. But that all changes when Tanna at last receives her first quest that any would-be hero would want: follow a peg-legged rooster through a haunted forest to save a crying mushroom. If this quest will come to completion, Tanna—with Galdifort reluctantly in tow—must face a wicked sorceress, a fog monster, and nasty lizard henchmen. And also the rules and guidelines of being an adventurer—because when faced with acts of heroism, the true final villain may just be bureaucratic red tape.

Conway and Adams do a tremendous job of pulling the reader in right from go. This story had a hold on me from the first chapter and sets the stage well. The duo of Galdifort and Tanna is a memorable one, with Galdifort wanting only to complete his first chronicle, but is utterly flummoxed and disappointed at being partnered with Tanna. Much of the book’s humor comes from Tanna’s happy-go-lucky and carefree attitude, misinterpreting or bending guidelines and information, or misusing an archaic language simply for the purposes of sounding “official.” The odd-couple pairing is a simple one, but it works very well here. Add in their sword-wielding peg-legged rooster companion, and you have an adventuring party for the ages here.

Overall, the story presents a very basic setup and world, but with just enough twists on the formula to keep things feeling fresh. At its core, Tanna the Tendersword is an easy sword-and-sorcery tale, but throw in some things like an adventurer’s guidebook, complete with legal proceedings for how one seeks out quests, completes them, and “levels up” their adventuring ranking, and you’ve got a solid recipe for something new pulled from the old.

This is especially evident in the journey itself. You have your evil sorceress and her monster underlings, who, on their own, don’t exactly fly off the page, but it’s everything that surrounds them that lifts the story above its minor shortcomings. It’s Galdifort furiously scribbling everything happening around him, or Tanna stating words wrong. It’s the hidden snippets of lore woven within the narrative that provide a great foundation for future books. It’s the reciting of bylaws to try and get out of doing certain parts of quests on a technicality. It’s so many little things that make this book ooze with charm.

It's by no means a complex story, but it also doesn’t need to be. The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword is a middle-grade book, yes, but it doesn’t “write down” to meet that target. It’s light on danger and suspense, but still manages to have deep characterization and worldbuilding, all the while hitting that sweet spot of being a perfect read for both the younger and older crowds.

If you’re looking for a, ahem, tenacious tale that the younger reader in your life would like, then look no further than The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword. And give it a go yourself, while you’re at it—there’s a ton to like here, no matter the age group.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna convince my wife to stop cooking mushrooms—one of them could have been waiting to give us a quest.