Tales From Gundarland. Gundarland Stories, #1

This fantasy comedy book is filled with laughter and laughter is like free health insurance. This book has eight fantasy adventures. All are new stories and are filled with memorable characters. Among the stories in this book, you'll find two parodies of Shakespeare's plays: Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venison. Both stories are now fantasy adventures stocked with dwarfs and elves. Both stories pay lip service to the Bard's plots, but end up with quite different climaxes.
A novella, Chasing Dreams, was nominated for a Nebula award by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Boggerts Blue features one of my favorite characters, Burga the Warrior Chef. Burga is on a quest for more recipes and to rescue a kidnapped princess. The Big Bang is a tale of magic, both white and black. Mixing both types is mostly a fatal mistake. The Queen's Hero is a fantasy quest concerning a young knight, Knuben, who eager to earn a reputation and three beautiful princesses with a bet on who can bed him first.
In Inter-racial Musical Playoff's we witness a band competion with various fantasy races competing for the award while nasty wizards try to influnce the outcome. Finally, in Tactical Surprise we see a dwarf general famous for winning wars with mostly non-violent battles. This time, he's also fighting a female dwarf who he has long and secretly admired. Tales From Gundarland was awarded a bronze medal by Readers' Favorite.