Tales Of Pell (Delilah S Dawson) Books in Order

The Tales of Pell books show Delilah S. Dawson in one of her loosest, most openly comic modes. Written with Kevin Hearne, the series takes the furniture of fairy tales and quest fantasy, chosen heroes, princesses in towers, witches, pirates, dark lords, magical objects, and then starts nudging all of it sideways. The joke is not that fantasy is silly. The joke is that fantasy is silly and wonderful, and Pell knows both things at once.

Pell is chaos with structure.

Kill the Farm Boy starts with the kind of setup that sounds familiar on purpose. There is a farm boy, a quest, and a sleeping princess somewhere out in the story distance. But the book is much more interested in the people who are not supposed to be at the center, the hangers-on, oddballs, failed archetypes, and accidental heroes who keep derailing the neat version of destiny. That is where Pell really lives.

The later books keep changing the lead while holding onto the same spirit. No Country for Old Gnomes turns a brewing war into a story about misfits, beards, alpacas, and courage that does not look heroic at first glance. The Princess Beard takes the usual waking-princess setup, throws it overboard, and turns toward pirates, self-invention, and the freedom to refuse the part you were assigned.

What makes the series stick is the warmth under the nonsense. Dawson and Hearne like wordplay, absurd reversals, and running gags, but they also like found family, people building strange little alliances, and characters deciding that maybe the old script was never written for them anyway. That keeps the books from feeling like sketch comedy in armor.

So if you come to this page from Dawson's darker work, Pell is the reminder that she also loves brightness, group chemistry, and a world where the joke and the heart land in the same place. Expect fantasy parody with affection, fast-moving ensemble casts, and a happily-ever-after that usually arrives wearing the wrong hat.