Buttercup's Baby

Author: William Goldman

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Comedy

Rating: C-

I really didn't enjoy Buttercup's Baby.  I get that it's incomplete (and likely to stay that way), but it just didn't captivate me.  Instead, really it did the opposite: it took characters that I (for the most part) loved, and made me kind of really dislike them.  It made me dislike Inigo, Fezzik, Westley, and Buttercup.  Okay, I already disliked Buttercup, but I loved Inigo and Fezzik.  I swear I did, and by the end of the first chapter of Buttercup's Baby I hated Fezzik.

For those of you who don't already know, Buttercup's Baby is the announced but as of yet not actually completed sequel to The Princess Bride.  So far all that's been released of it is a sample chapter composed of the introduction and the first chapter, attached to the 25th and 30th anniversary editions of the book.  For the George R.R. Martin fan who is used to waiting for sequels to books the state of Buttercup's Baby should be almost comforting: the next A Song of Ice and Fire novel is going to be finished eventually, the next Princess Bride story, however, probably isn't.  To be honest, I'm really not going to be disappointed if Buttercup's Baby never takes any form beyond this first chapter.

In my review of The Princess Bride I wrote that Westley and Buttercup were in essence Mary Sues.  Things are just a bit too easy for them and they're a bit too perfect - or they're supposed to be.  In Buttercup's Baby Fezzik and Inigo seem to be determined to join the Mary Sue, especially following the birth of the titular baby, Waverly.  Sure the whole chapter sets up that Fezzik's about to die and thus fail at something, but the connection between Fezzik and Waverly is just.. it's lame.  Making things worse is the many inturruptions by Goldman himself.  While The Princess Bride was able to develop somewhat of a flow before Goldman began to interrupt himself here he just goes off, as if he has become overly obsessed with the sound of his own voice (metaphorically speaking, of course).  Thus, there's no real flow to the first chapter of Buttercup's Baby and as it all progresses you just can't help but cringe.  It's really just not enjoyable.