New Page 1

Matt Southers isn’t enjoying his low-paying job teaching at the local community college, and he misses his home, his friends and their cutthroat role-playing games. So when two oddly dressed men make him an unbelievable proposition, Matt is willing to hear more - especially when the hearing involves supper in a local greasy spoon and a great deal of beer.

But when Matt awakes in a castle on a distant world so obviously not his own, and everyone starts calling him ‘Prince Methos,’ he suspects that Verene the mage and Captain Imre weren’t kidding about their offer - they’ve brought him here to Urrathe to take the place of the recently-deceased prince of the realm and to rally the troops against a dangerous menace.

This menace turns out to be the powerful wizard Gremian Brecc, who is close to taking over the land. With the help of his new friends, and the distant and enigmatic commander of the prince’s guard, Ria Hawkmoon, Matt must scramble to learn all he can before he ends up in the same state as the real prince - quite uncomfortably dead!

"McAbee also puts an extra twist on the typical medieval setting of fantasy by making the dominant prejudice of the fantastic world one of class. Thus Commander Hawkmoon is discriminated against entirely because of her slaveborn status, not because she is a woman. It's much more than can be said for characters in fantasy novels where the main prejudice is against women, and often unspoken and assumed. The Plausible Prince is cleanly and clearly written, often wryly funny. It's short and light, but never pretentious."