Swashbucklers by Dan Hanks

 

Back when Cisco was a teenager, he and his friends saved his town, and the world, from disaster by closing a Hell Mouth opened by an evil  pirate and killing him.  Of course, no one knew except them and that suited them just fine.  They grew up, got jobs, married and had children.  Now Cisco has returned to town, divorced and with a five year old son.  He has noticed things are starting to appear again and there have been several suspicious deaths.  It looks like the pirate wasn't really killed and is strong enough after all this time to make another attempt to destroy the world.

But not everyone is ready to save the world.  Cisco's friends now have jobs and responsibilities.  It's not easy to fit in world saving around child care, meetings at work and spouses who aren't on board.  Even worse, for some reason his friends don't even remember saving the world but as Cisco tells them about it and things start to happen around them, they slowly start to remember and agree to help him kill the pirate once and for all. 

With their help plus the help of a talking fox and other magical beings such as fairies and gnomes, Cisco goes for to face the pirate for a final showdown.  He is helped by a girl he met back then who was trapped on the other side of the portal and who has the sword that the pirate has been looking for all this time.  Can they defeat the pirate and once again save the world?

Dan Hanks is an English author and an archaeologist whose work is in the fantasy genre.  He captures the spirit of the eighties in this novel and the longing of adults to return to their younger days with no responsibility.  It takes another worldwide disaster for Cisco to realize what is most important in his life; his son and his friends.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.