A Recipe for Disaster, by Chris Durston
The Book
Synopsis:
In the desert city of Achten Tan, built within the bones of a long-dead leviathan, there's one truth everyone knows above all others: North Ribs Ribs is the best dang ribs restaurant in town.
Rebellious teenager Old Crawman never wanted to inherit the North Ribs Ribs empire, but when he discovers an unsettling secret about their new competition, he has to do something. Unfortunately for him, that something gets him tangled up with an evil wizard of ancient legends... who is not at all as he expected.
With Achten Tan's powers-that-be keeping a close eye on Old Crawman, he'll need all the help he can get if he wants to have his ribs and eat them too.
My Review
A Recipe for Disaster is a cozy and humorous novella, written by Chris Durston. A story that at some points gave me big Discworld vibes, telling a small part of what's happening in a really big world that never stops.
Old Crawman never wanted to inherit Northern Ribs Ribs, the best ribs restaurant in Achten Tan; he's in the awe of having adventures outside of the city. What he can't imagine is that adventure will find him, and take him to the entire center of the city and into the competition of his family's business. He won't be alone, getting peculiar characters as companions, including the legendary C'Naga, a evil wizard whose appearances are quite different from what it was expected.
While the world is not really explored in this novel, I can't stop thinking that there will be more novellas set there, as it is well developed and there are many foreshadowed details.
With an acute prose and a ton of humour, Durston creates an easy to follow story, but really satisfying to read; you will find yourself laughing many times. If you are a fan of Discworld or other humoristic novellas, A Recipe for Disaster is a book you should preorder!
The Author/s
Chris Durston
'Chris Durston refuses to be dull ... He doesn't see the point of writing a story if he can't take full advantage of the medium and do things within that medium that can't be done in any other.'
From Devon, in the South West of England, Chris Durston has always wanted to be a writer and only just got around to doing anything about it. Each Little Universe is his debut novel, initially conceived while studying English literature and philosophy at Cardiff University and finally published five years later.
In addition to being a new author, he is the host of Philosophiraga, a podcast about video games and philosophy