George the Dragon, actually the Vegan Dragon was in a quandary. He was out of hummus to spread on his freshly baked bread. So he need to waddle his way to Farmer Fred's organic food store to by more. But that involves traveling the length of Dragonville on his way to People Town where Farmer Fred's is located. But will Farmer Fred's be there when George arrives as Julian Pinkerton Smith is facing off with the repo man. A fun quest that reveals George as someone willing to be only put up with so much guff before he roars. A comedic quest that lands George more than delectable foodstuffs!

I was granted complimentary access to The Quest For The Holy Hummus by James Allinson via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the access and sorry that it went on the back burner for so long!

The Quest For The Holy Hummus is the story of a vegan dragon named George who's utterly failing to run a successful restaurant. In an effort to pay rent and save his business, he sets off to find the perfect hummus.

This book is clearly supposed to be a light, tongue-in-cheek comedy of errors, and I think the bones for such a story are there but it all felt too forced. The writing is very plain and very cliche for the genre it's trying to make light of. I gave up in chapter 4.

I had a hard time reading this one. I LOVE Terry Pratchett and picked it based on that recommendation. The beginning seems all over the place. It has made it difficult for me to stay focused on this book. I plan to move on for a week and revisit it.

The Quest for the Holy Hummus by James Allison is the first book in The Chickpea Chronicles, publishing day 12 March 2021. When vegan dragon George goes to Peopleville to get his beloved hummus from Julian Pinkerton Smith’s organic food store, things go foreseeably wrong. It’s a short witty introduction (think Pratchett, Atkinson, Monty Python) to the two characters and the world the following six stories are set in.

This was amusing at best but I got rather bored with it the further in the book I got. I had high hopes because this seemed right up my alley but it was just ok.

After all the health and diet books I've read in the last few years, trying to get to the root of some health issues, a little satire about whole and organic foods is welcome. Kale will cure everything! Dehydration is the true cause of every disease on the planet!

There are some world-building gaps that wouldn't work in a straight novel-- how is it that a town of dragons lives so close to a town of humans, and none of the residents know about the other?-- but that don't take away from the purposeful silliness here.

This would be a good title for readers who liked Kill the Farm Boy-- similar pacing, big personalities, and mad-cap silliness. I don't feel compelled to seek out the rest of the series, but this provided an enjoyable afternoon or two.

This was a very interesting story. It had a lot of satirical humor that made me both groan and laugh at the same time. I think it might be more targeted to a younger audience. I read it out loud to my kids and they seemed to enjoy it.

I found this book a really interesting and bizzare read and thus i have very mixed opinions. I thoroughly enjoyed the use of humour and sci-fi /fantasy elements and the characters were well developed and interesting.
I wasn’t a fan of the large amounts of capitalisation throughout the book when a character is shouting as it became annoying and frustrating. That being said, I think younger readers would get along with this style of writing really well as it adds to an interactive, comic style experience.
Overall I did enjoy this book but I can accept that i’m not the target audience to read it.

‘The Quest For The Holy Hummus’ is the first volume of seven of ‘The Chickpea Chronicles’. Main protagonists are George and Julian. Julian is human, lives in People Town, and owns a vegan grocery store that is, unfortunately, not doing very well. At the start of the book he is on the verge of bankruptcy. It is 9 AM and a man from the bank is inside his shop, telling he has until 12 o’clock to pay over 50,000 pounds of debt. On the other side of the hills lies Dragon Town, where George lives. George is a vegan dragon, seriously overweight (with a Body Mass Index on the wrong side of 40) and he faces some issues due to which he has a restraining order that forbids him to set foot within 50 yards of a takeaway. He lives at the edge of town because he gets chased and beaten every time other dragons see him. Dragons are not welcome in People Town, because they happen to kill and eat people. Nevertheless George decides to take a trip to Julian’s shop to pick up some of his beloved hummus. It doesn’t exactly go as planned.

‘The Chickpea Chronicles’ is advertised as a hilarious series. The first book is short and you can read it for free. According to the author it is intended to set the scene for the other six, much funnier books. The website dedicated to this series claims this first book is “Fast-paced, irreverent satire. You probably shouldn't laugh but you will...!”. Fast-paced: yes. Satire: yes. You don’t want to but will laugh: no. Although it has its moments, and while I’m usually in for this kind of humour, I never laughed. The overkill of ranting about society fails to become funny. The way both dragons and humans are portrayed – as short-sighted and ignorant beings – makes them ideal subjects for stupid (in a funny way) behaviour. It reminded me slightly of the Discworld style, but James Allinson only scratches the surface of the characters’ potential and the events in general remain rather childish. Because of that, I believe this will appeal to the average fifteen year old, but not to seasoned readers.

There is a lot of capitalisation in the book. Every bit of screaming, yelling or voice raising is put in capitals, which is unnecessary and annoying. The same is true for all possible sounds, which on top of that get repeated a lot. Not every “thwack” or “ding” should be put on paper in threefold, and certainly not in capitals. Almost on every page, you find sections like these:

THWACK! CLANG!
THWACK! SMASH!
THWACK! SNAP! “Owwwwwwww!”

or

“Yowwwww!” Snapped back into reality by the sensation of being encased in fizzling lemon knitwear, George rolled frantically onto the floor, trying to extinguish himself. “Aaaaaaaargh! Aaaaaaaargh!
Aaaaargh! Aargh! Ahhhh! Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhh!”
FZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

This turns the book into a very visual and cartoonesque experience, and while this might score among younger readers, adult readers will perceive the story as thin and immature. After reading it, however, it becomes clear that this book is indeed an introduction that sets the scene. The main characters get introduced and their backgrounds sketched, but there is no real story. Judging the entire series based on book 1 alone is therefore not completely fair. One should at least read the second instalment as well, which is supposed to contain a fully developed plot.

I enjoyed the use of scifi and humor and enjoyed going through this read, the characters were great and I really enjoyed reading this.

While this is a funny book, it is a bit too baudy for me. The main character is a vegan dragon who is picked on , bullied and beat up by everyone he comes near. He also has a foul mouth. He is trying to travel to People town to get hummus from the local health food grocery. The grocery is owned by an unethical man who gouges his customers, threatens them with untruths and generally bullies people in an effort to get them to buy his organic and vegan wares. He is about to lose his business to the bank because he is in debt over his eyeballs and he has run off most of his customers. Will the store be foreclosed on before George , the Dragon, can get his hummus. The style of this book is similar to Kevin Hearne's "Kill the Farmboy" but I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a glutton for this type of humor..