A burglar is hired by thirteen dwarves and a wizard, largely because the wizard says so, and the whole thing is narrated by someone who keeps leaning in to explain things to you.
It is a children’s book and it behaves like one, which is what makes the jump to The Fellowship of the Ring eight years later so jarring. Same world, told by someone who has stopped being charming about it.
Read November 1980. Riddles in the Dark is still the best chapter.
