Description

It all started when a mysterious stranger gave Goody Goblin a most unwelcome gift—an offensive Finger designed to affront anyone who encounters it. Any self-respecting goblin male would have been rendered furious and fuming. But Goody was cursed with a courteous character, a bane that had long made him a laughingstock among his goblin fellows. When Goody asked the Good Magician Humfrey to rid him of the fickle Finger, he was given another burden in return. He was assigned to find an appropriate abode for a baleful bird—the Pet Peeve, a fowl as foulmouthed as Goody is genteel. For only someone as kind as Goody could long coexist with a creature as obnoxious as this Pet Peeve. Aimless and heartbroken after the recent passing of his beloved wife, Go Go, Goody Goblin reluctantly agrees to undertake this unenviable mission, armed only with a bag of half-spent spells and guarded by a brawny woman warrior called Hannah Barbarian. Their daunting quest leads them on a wild and wondrous journey from the chaotic Region of Madness to the gender-bending No Man’s Land, from the wells of memory to the realm of dreams. But Goody’s mission unknowingly triggers an invasion of Xanth by a horde of mechanical marauders from a faraway Robot World amid the many microscopic moons that orbit the head of Princess Ida. To avert this impending disaster, Goody sets out to enlist the aid of Xanth’s many denizens—dragons, zombies, centaurs, demons, elves, and even goblins like himself. And in the heart of Goblin Mountain, Goody finds an unexpected ally—Gwenny Gobliness, a beautiful, strong-willed goblin chief who could help him rally Xanth to repel the robot army, and perhaps mend his broken heart as well.