Book Tour Book Review: The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington
- Fiction Fans
- Jun 7, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 8, 2023
Today we're taking part in the book tour organized by Escapist Book Company for The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington! Continue reading for our review. If you want to listen to our podcast interview with Andi, you can find that here.
The Hero Interviews by Andi Ewington is not going to be to everyone’s taste with its long page count, tongue-in-cheek references to tabletop RPGs (particularly Dungeons & Dragons), and its copious amount of footnotes (it averages roughly 1.8 footnotes per page), but if that sounds right up your alley, you’re likely to have a great time reading this book.
The story follows Elburn Barr, a Loremaster who has decided that instead of following in his family’s footsteps and becoming a hero, he’s going to figure out just why heroes are so popular. In the process, he’s hoping to find out what exactly happened to his brother, a hero who disappeared some years ago. Uniquely, the book is actually presented as a series of interviews between Elburn and a variety of characters, from heroes to necromancers to farmers to villain underlings.
The interviews start off mostly unconnected to each other, but as the novel progresses we see a larger story start to form, with Elburn discovering how tight a hold the Heroes Guild has on adventuring–and not for the better. In my opinion it’s here that the story starts to really shine, as we see Elburn growing and developing as he starts piecing together the patterns of injustice coming out through his interviews. He has to decide what he’s going to do about what he’s learned, and whether or not he’s going to publish his interviews against the will of the Heroes Guild.
Ewington masterfully weaves humor, D&D references, and social commentary into The Hero Interviews, and I can’t wait to see what is next for Elburn Barr.
