Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!

I read the first five Magic Kingdom of Landover novels a long, long time ago (I think around 30 years ago!! I think it was in late elementary school) I remember really liking them, but I don't really remember them. So I decided I would reread them all, see what I think of them now, and finally read the final book for the first time. This is also my first time reading them in order; I originally read books 4 and 5 first, then went back to read 1, 2, and 3.

So first up is Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!, which tells the story of Ben Holiday buying the Kingdom of Landover for $1,000,000 and becoming the King the fairy kingdom needs. I originally gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

Ben Holiday sees the ad to buy Landover's kingship in a reputable magazine that his wife used to get. His wife, Annie, along with their unborn daughter, had passed away in an accident two years previously. Ben, a partner in a law firm, had mostly withdrawn from everyone, choosing instead to throw himself into his work. But his work is no longer challenging, and he feels he is losing himself; while quite likely a scam, he feels being King of a magic kingdom might be his ticket to start living again. 

I'd like to mention that, reading this now, I didn't like how Ben's grief was portrayed. I especially didn't like the insistence of his friend and fellow partner, Miles, that after two years Ben should be moving on. Grief doesn't work like that, and people need to grieve and feel their emotions at their own pace, not at the pace that society so often demands. 

I'd also like to note that when I read this when I was younger, I probably would have glossed over that part of the story. It seems reasonable when you haven't really experienced grief, especially from an unexpected loss. But now, years later, I was uncomfortable with this part of the story. 

So anyway, Ben Holiday meets with Meeks, the man responsible for selling the Kingship of Landover. Meeks deems him a suitable candidate precisely because he doesn't have any close ties to people (and, of course, because he is capable of paying the $1,000,000 fee). When Ben accepts, he is granted 10 days to experience the Kingdom and decide if he will stay, afterwhich the sale is final. Should he remain, he must also stay for one full year or else his purchase is forfeit.

But once he arrives, Ben discovers that the Kingdom is in shambles. There is a blight destroying the land, the magic castle, Sterling Silver, that he is to live in, is tarnishing and dying. The coffers are empty, and the various people of the land are fighting. But even after losing most of his ten day grace period due to the magical mishaps of Questor Thews, the court magician, Ben decides to stay for the challenge, and to prove he is more than the play-King many people accuse him of being. But his time is limited: the demon lord known as the Mark will challenge him for the throne by Midwinter. Will Ben be able to reunite the people in time to stop the demon, especially when the conditions they give for their pledges of fealty are impossible?

I honestly didn't remember a lot of the plot. I remembered a few bits and pieces here and there, but lots felt new: the stuff with the Mark, the people of the Greensward, how Ben met Willow at the Irrylyn. I remembered that Ben did something to make both Nightshade and Strabo hate him, but not the specifics of what happened between them (and I did find it funny that they got mad at him for tricking him, but they both intended to either trick him, kill him, or both). I remembered the truth of the Paladin, but not what it took for Ben to discover it (basically accepting that Landover was his home). I also didn't remember that he went into the Fairy Mists (I remember Willow getting help from the Fairy People in later books and traveling through thr Mists, and maybe Ben returning to Earth in a later book, too. But not his foray here at Nightshade's insistence). 

I did remember the main characters (Ben, Willow, Questor, Abernathy, Nightshade, Strabo, and sort of the River Master), but not some of the lesser characters like the kobolds Bunion and Parsnip. Or the G'home Gnomes, Filip and Sot (but when they were introduced, I did remember the name G'home Gnomes and where it came from). 

I also had a harder time liking Ben Holiday in this book. At times I liked him: he was clever and loyal to his new friends. But at other times I didn't, like when he would get mad and kick the gnomes for no reason; it felt like there were two versions of Ben Holiday and they were often at odds. I also didn't like Willow. She was very flat in this book. I remember her being a lot more active, and hopefully that will be the case in later books. Even her introduction was weird - I know she's a fairy creature, but her falling in love with Ben (and completely abandoning her home and people) just because he happened to be the man who saw her on a certain night at the Irrylyn felt contrived. And I'm not really sure how old she was supposed to be, but Ben was supposed to be about 40, and the book kept calling her a girl....so yeah, that felt uncomfortable. Again, these are things I noticed now that would have gone right over my head when I originally read the book.

So when I finished rereading Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!, I felt that it didn't deserve the 4 stars that I gave it when I was younger. I downgraded it to a 3 (it would have been a 2.5/5 book I think, but you can't give half stars on Goodreads): I still liked parts of it, but there are other parts that, 30 years later, didn't really sit well with me. I'm interested to see what I will think of the rest of the series!