This is the second book in Flint’s “Joe’s World” saga; it’s a fun ride,
though it intersects oddly with The Philosophical Strangler,
the first book in the series, and though very little seems to actually be
resolved at the end of it.

In fact, “odd” describes the whole book remarkably well. For example,
the bulk of it is narrated by a family that witnessed the whole thing: a
tribe of body lice that live on one of the main characters. Then there’s
the section that consists entirely of very long chapter headings. And the
world in which the action takes place resembles your typical fantasy
world, but only slightly. In fact, the whole place seems to have been
created, long ago, by this guy named Joe, though it seems to have gotten
away from him. I have a vision of a Dungeons and Dragons world, worked
out in great detail by some teenaged gaming nerd, that has been steadily
developing on its own since he got to college and discovered girls.

One of the blurbs compares Flint with Terry Pratchett, and
while that’s wishful thinking on somebody’s part the book is genuinely
funny, if a bit purple and crude by turns.