Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya.

Anybody who has seen the movie of The Princess Bride knows this quote by heart: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." This quote, like all the great quotes in the movie, is also in the book. Now: if you have not seen the movie, go get it. If you have not read this book, go get that. If you have done both: good job. Since I've already reviewed the movie I'm going to focus on the specifics of the novel now, mainly how it differs from the movie since most people reading this have probably seen the movie.

Well I was one of those fans who started wondering if the book that the grandfather reads Fred Savage in the movie was real or not so I set out to look for it. Well I didn't have any luck when I first looked in 1994. Of course at that point I was looking for a Morgenstern. Well walking through a Barnes and Noble in 1998 I saw a whole display of The Princess Bride in wonderful hardbound form. It was the 25th anniversary edition of the novel that sparked it all.

This is the "abridged" (Morgenstern is Goldman's pen name, he needed an out to make the story stick and so pretended that he was abridging another book. This is a similar tactic that was stolen by the creators of The Blair Witch Project) version of The Princess Bride. For those of you who love the movie and are afraid of spoiling it: Fear not. For those of you who have not seen the movie and are afraid you won't understand: Fear not.

Like most novels this book goes into more detail than the movie so it is great for those die hard fans (like myself) who need more. For those who have never seen the movie the book is literally the work that the script is based on. The book was written long before the script, although by the same man, and so has everything that you need to fall in love with The Princess Bride. The ROUS's are in the novel as are all the fight scenes (elaborately described and slightly different than in the movie) and there is even detail on Inigo and Fezzik.

If you ever wondered exactly why Inigo was out to kill the man with six fingers you can learn that in the book. If you ever wondered what a giant like Fezzik did before he fell in with Vizzini you can learn that too. You can learn all the tricks that the movie is forced to skip over. You can get all the detail and explanation that is too much for a movie, and you can still have the same fun.

William Goldman writes everything with a wonderful style that is light and humorous. As he says this is an abridged novel he includes notes on sections he "abridged" and talks about how he would have written parts differently than Morganstern did. It is a great way of getting through the story and adding extra flair. This is a truly well written and humorous novel that greatly accentuates the movie and should be in the collection of any true Princess Bride fan.