Suvudu Universe

A favorite author of mine, Daniel Abraham, and I'm sure many others often mentions Walter Jon Williams as being one of those highly underrated (and therefore under-read) authors, so I've been slowly taking notice. In addition, I thought his story in the Songs of the Dying Earth anthology was just about perfection.
Then I found out that this novelette was free and even won a Nebula award, as nebulous it is whether these awards actually matter (see what I did there, I'm sure I'm first). So it was a win-win situation. I just checked, however, and it's no longer free, and $1.99 is on the higher end for a novelette (looked it up, it's not a novella at least as far as the Nebula Award was concerned).
Sadly, that's probably about the amount of things that have to line up for an author to really get their name out there. And they say this is a tough business to break into...I guess I should start by screaming at you: DO NOT READ THE GOODREADS BLURB FOR THIS BOOK. IT IS FULL OF SPOILERS. I REPEAT, DO NOT READ THE GOODREADS BLURB.Okay, now that that's out of my system, I use Goodreads quite a bit and I know a lot of you do too, so I thought the warning was still important here. I was spoiled from the blurb and I think it ruined the effect I could have had realizing what this weird, magical world was instead of knowing from the beginning. Then again, there's that whole theory that spoilers actually enhance your reading experience that I don't know if I completely buy, but I think has some merit.Anyway, Daddy's World is a strange world, almost like Adventure Time (sorry, no LSP in this one) if you've ever seen that. But nobody is that childish who reads this blog...

(While I love this sentiment, this story is not about being stupid at all which is why I love AT so much, but kind of a bad comparison other than it's a fairytale land of fun stuff.)

A boy goes around his world and random things talk to him (like a flying kite) and there's princesses and castles that only let him in if he knows Spanish irregular tenses (or something like that).
He enjoys exploring this magical land and then hanging out with his family for dinner. But then he starts noticing that his younger sister is actually much more advanced than he is. It wasn't so at first, but now she not only reads and does math at a higher level than he, she also looks older.Any more and I'll do what the Goodreads blurb does such a good job doing. I'd highly recommend this captivating novelette filled with plenty of imagination. If you like Adventure Time, this isn't nearly as odd or weird or crazy, it's quite a few degrees from that. Instead it's an interesting, magical fairy-tale land you'll enjoy with plenty of things to think about such as what defines prison and who should be in control.4 out of 5 Stars (highly recommended)