I had never read any of Hank Quense's previous novels, but when I received several emails promoting his latest, Character Revolt! Characters Behaving Badly, the premise was enough to pique my curiosity.

Quense has written several books set in three distinct worlds: a science-fiction series that takes place on Zaftan 31B, a fantasy series set in Gundarland, and a King Arthur (excuse me, "King Artie") spoof set in Camelot. More recently, he has devoted his professional life to writing nonfiction and lecturing, so, as the back cover of this book explains, his numerous characters are fed up with being ignored. They are demanding new stories, and things might get violent if they aren't satisfied.

Character Revolt visits each of his three settings in turn, introducing readers to the characters, explaining the reasons for their dissatisfction and setting them on quests or missions to find Quense and persuade (or threaten) him into writing more. In some cases, they actually find some method of contacting him, and -- rather than being flummoxed by the notion that his creations are real, sentient and demanding change -- he takes literary measures to ensure they can't harm him. (We as readers don't get to see whatever stories he writes in response to the threats, but we see the resulting changes in each world's circumstances after the fact.)

It all sounds fairly silly, and I like a good, amusing romp as much as the next guy.

Unfortunately, the book doesn't live up to its promise. I get the sense that Quense had read a few Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt books in his day, maybe some Douglas Adams, and perhaps he watched a little Monty Python's Flying Circus, and he decided to channel that sort of hilarious, British-inflected nonsense into his own writing. Don't get me wrong, those are some mighty fine icons on which to hang one's aspirations, but not everyone can be a Pratchett, a Holt, an Adams or a Python. Sadly, as the expression goes, Quense is in the right church, but he's in the wrong pew.

This book is just not all that funny.

Much of the humor might appeal more to a juvenile audience, but the slavering focus on, for instance, boobs in one chapter and the inconvenient virginity of three aging and corpulent witches in another suggests that perhaps this book isn't meant for young eyes.

And, while the premise alone is enough to warrant a certain amount of fourth-wall breakage -- after all, if the characters are aware of their author, then they all most know someone is reading, right? -- Quense intrusively makes pitches for his earlier books whenever he introduces characters into this one. That's just a little too meta for my taste. Just post a list at the end of the book, like authors usually do, and readers who want to read more of this stuff know how to follow through.

Worse yet was turning the page after one in a series of "Faux News Network" interviews with either the author or one of his characters and seeing an author's note confessing that the interview "was created by an AI app." Sorry, Hank, but if you can't be bothered to write it, don't put it in your book. I will never be a fan of using technology to supplant the creative work of actual humans in areas such as literature, art or music.

At the end of the day, I didn't laugh at Quense's jokes, I didn't care about his characters, and I didn't get caught up in his plot. Character Revolt is a bit of fluff that will no doubt appeal to readers who are already fans of his work, but this certainly didn't inspire me to explore his back catalogue. Sorry, Hank, I'm sure you meant well.

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