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Loading... The Complete Compleat Enchanter (1989)by L. Sprague de Camp, Fletcher Pratt
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. A fun jaunt into the realm of heroic fantasy, this is actually three short books starring Harold Shea, a modern-day psychologist bent on practicing magic in the lands of epic myth. Bungling magical spells and inventing himself along the way, our hero discovers he can even use a sword when the need arises. Somehow we are led to believe that it is possible to access these places using mathematical formulas. All highly improbable, but fantasy that nevertheless retains its sense of humor. ( ) Contains the first three books in the series. L. Sprague de Camp (and his editors) and his erstwhile collaborator, Fletcher Pratt, knew a good thing when they saw it. These were some very popular stories (they were fun, the writing was great, popularity was deserved). The first two novels were combined into "The Compleat Enchanter" and when there was additional work, it became this work. Thank goodness they didn't try to add in the fourth; this book is thick enough as it is. These are fun. They are just honestly fun. Get a snack and curl up in a chair, and read for a while. It'll be good for you. http://nhw.livejournal.com/684127.html Reading "The Compleat Enchanter", when I came to the fourth section, (set in Finland's Kalevala) somehow I began to wonder: Can one write LiveJournal entries in iambic tetrameter? (Yes, I know that last word's bogus and perhaps that gives the answer.) This, a five-book compilation of the works of Pratt and de Camp, brings together the adventures of a man called Harold Shea from Ohio, mid-20th century, who is, with his friends and lover, thrust in various fant'sy poems, first Norse legends, second Spenser, third Orlando Furioso (also Kubla Khan here featured), fourth (as mentioned) Kalevala ending in Cuchulain's Ireland. Though Mark Twain perhaps began it writing of King Arthur's Yankee (don't think I can really mention which state that wayfarer came from as it has two unstressed vowels in succession, so won't scan here) this ambitious and effective merging of mundane and mythic surely was an inspiration for much else in the same genre. Even the stock story setting - visitors arrive from elsewhere, get entwined in local issues, solve the problem (sometimes fail to) disappear to next adventure using magic means of travel sounds a bit like Doctor Who, ne? Also, use of spell components such as "verbal" and "somatic" was employed by Gary Gygax in so far as I remember from my teenage D&D days. Anyway, this book is harmless. Irish bit is, sadly, least good - use of silly plot devices to prevent our heroes making any diff'rence to the story. But the rest is entertaining. And I think I'd recommend it. Four stars in my on-line cat'logue. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesHarold Shea (omnibus of 1-3) Belongs to Publisher SeriesFantasy Masterworks (10) Science Fiction Book Club (15035)
AN EPIC FANTASY, AN OMNIBUS VOLUME FROM A TRILOGY: THE INCOMPLETE ENCHANTER, THE CASTLE OF IRON AND THE ENCHANTER COMPLETED. PROFESSOR HAROLD SHEA HAS MASTERED TIME TRAVEL AND HE AND HIS FRIEND REED CHALMERS HAVE ADVENTURES, BOTH IN THE PAST AND PRESENT. 5/10/87- 608PP: B: 10000 @ $3.99: UC=73P: MAX. 3 X INDIVID A FMT EDITIONS TO B FMT OMNIBUS. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.52Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1900-1944LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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