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Dragon Princess by S. Andrew Swann (DAW, 2014) is a comedic fantasy novel with a transgender body-shuffle plot. Frank Blackthorne, a thief, is on the run from the government of one country, and flees to the neighboring country, where he’s recruited by a wizard to kill a dragon and save the princess he’s kidnapped. He objects that he’s a thief, not a hero, and the wizard responds by giving him an ancient sword with enchantments designed for killing dragons.
He finds the dragon’s lair easily enough, but learns too late that the dragon and wizard are colluding to defraud the kingdom and are using him as a patsy. The wizard’s spell goes wrong when Frank interrupts it, and he winds up in the princess’s body miles away from the dragon’s lair. He naturally assumes that the princess is somewhere in his body, but things turn out to be more complicated: a four-way body shuffle, not a simple swap.
The plot is complex with a lot of twists and turns, and some clever subversions of fantasy tropes. The characterization isn’t as good as the plot, but Frank and Princess Lucille both have interesting character arcs, and there are several other enjoyable minor characters. The transgender element is frequently played for laughs, but also taken reasonably seriously; Frank’s gradual and imperfect adjustment to his female body, and Princess Lucille’s gradual adjustment to her dragon body, are important parts of their character arcs (but not the only thing they’ve got going on characterization-wise). There’s no sex, but Frank in the princess’s body is threatened with rape a couple of times — by comedically incompetent antagonists, so there’s not much feeling of real danger. I won’t give away the ending, whether they get their own bodies back or not; I will say the ending is surprising, clever, and logical.
As for the humor, it’s generally situational humor and witty dialogue and narration, not wordplay. It’s nowhere near Terry Pratchett’s level, but better than a lot of other comic fantasy I’ve read.
Four of my novels and one short fiction collection are available from Smashwords in ePub format and from Amazon in Kindle format. Smashwords pays its authors better than Amazon.
