Having rediscovered Alexander's Prydain Chronicles (and the joys of witty children's books), I picked up this triple volume. They're very similar to the Prydain Chronicles and each other. The main character, a young man, flounders around looking for his purpose in life, encountering characters along the way who impart lessons to him. Though each has a different, amusing set of adventures and a different mytho-historical setting (Homeric Greece, Classical China, and the India of the Panchatantra, respectively), I don't think any of these three stack up to the Prydain books. But they're pleasant.