The premise for this is fantastic: a disillusioned lawyer with a fridged wife (Boo! alright, that part's not so fantastic) buys his way into absolute power in a fantasy kingdom - or so he thinks. In reality, this rather privileged character is dumbfounded when the people he's bought the rule of don't want a bar of him. Or perhaps that's more of a modern interpretation, because of course he wins them all over in the end. (Fantasy as a genre does tend to have a fairly conservative base.)

The execution doesn't quite live up to the premise, however. The characterisation in particular is barely there and I would have liked to see more women in Landover (all we get is the thinly drawn love interest so lacking in personality that she might as well be all plant instead of half, and the even more thinly drawn witch, who is supposedly super powerful but in reality is subjugated and disposed of very quickly).

One wonders what Terry Pratchett would have made of this premise: a story both more cynical and hopeful and self-aware, I think.