Access Today The Compleat Enchanter Scripted By L. Sprague De Camp Accessible Through Ebook

takes a lot to make me laugh out loud while reading a book, yet I found myself doing so several times while reading this collection.
books regarding the trials and errors of one Harold Shea, psychologist, He travels through various worlds of myth and legend, meets strange and wonderous people and creatures, and meets the "dreamgirl" he had been waiting for.
Let's say Xanth meets MiddleEarth, before either had been imagined,

Have fun! This is a very difficult book for me to review I chose to read it because the authors appear on Gary Gygax's revered "Appendix N" list of authors and stories that were seminal to his thinking in creating the original Dungeons amp Dragons.
It features what is, by now, a familiar theme of the swordsandsorcery adventures of Appendix N ordinary people from our world specifically, from the time of the writing,s USA being transported to fantasy worlds and having to survive there.
I did find some of the influences on Gygax here, such as the division of spell components into verbal, somatic, and material.
Another common theme in Appendix N, though it may appear here for the very first time, is the concept of the "mathematics of magic" that magic is simply a sort of science, in a milieu where the laws of reality are slightly different an idea which probably finds its full flowering in Jack Vance's work.
I personally found the first installment, in which a psychologist is transported to the world of Norse mytholoy, very appealing.
The other stories, which involved trips to the world of Spencer's "Faerie Queen," Coleridge's Xanadu, and Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," far less compelling L.
Sprauge de Camp apparently agreed with me about the "Faerie Queen" sequence, though Pratt had apparently been mad for it, and De Camp came to appreciate it later.
Anyway, it is welltold, though the colloquial nature of the dialogue suffers after so longs slang rings a bit oddly, now, in modern ears, and I fear that most people have lost the sensibilities, as well as the grounding in Western literature, to appreciate the artistry with which Pratt and De Camp recreate the settings of Spencerian or Carolingian literature.
I can't give itstars, I imagine most moderns would be hard pressed to give it more than, But I DO appreciate the language of Spencer and Carolingian chansons de gestes, so I shall give it, Just be advised it is a kind of scifi/fantasy writing that requires certain education and sensibilities to enjoy it may be an acquired taste.
This was the first fantasy book I read that I fell in love with, It is different and an easy read, Will forever have a special place for me, I picked this book up on the recommendation of Lester del Rey in his The World of Science Fiction,: The History of a Subculture reviewed sitelinkhere, and having greatly enjoyed de Camp's short story "A Gun For Dinosaur" as performed on the X Minus One radio show in the lates.
Unfortunately, in marked contrast with that story, I don't think The Compleat Enchanter holds up that well in.


The premise is amusing enough: a research psychiatrist because it's thes, and psychiatry is hot shit discovers that one can translate oneself to parallel worlds by reciting alternative logical formulae, such as the laws describing how magic works like affects like, etc.
. The Compleat Enchanter follows Harold Shea as he bounces between worlds from Earth's mythical and literary history, interacting with the characters therein: first as he accidentally winds up in the world of Norse mythology on the eve of Ragnarok, second in the world of Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and third in the world of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.


And that's about the right decreasing order of quality, Shea's adventure in Asgard is actually pretty fun, mostly because of the incongruity between a brashs guy and the heroic characters of Norse myth, and Shea's discovery of how magic works.
The key humorous element of the stories is that magic works, but not very reliably: if you scrounge up the right materials and chant some doggerel poetry, supernatural effects happen, but maybe at/th ortimes the desired effect.


I suspect there are other elements that are intended to be humorous, but let's just say that the stories are pretty relentlesslys.
Shea and, in the third story, the seemingly pointless character of Polacek speak in a to myears ridiculous style, giving the whole thing an almost toopulpy feeling.
This might have been the point, but the highcontrast was probably funnier back in the day when pulp style hasn't been mocked with and without irony for the past halfcentury.


The other thing is that Shea and Polacek more so never seem to get that the worlds they travel to are consequential, even as those worlds continuously demonstrate that they are.
This comes to a head in the third book again with Polacek, where the characters from Earth are held hostage in the castle of a Muslim sorcerer: no matter the situation, Shea and Polacek blunder around saying "What's the big idea" and casually challenging people to fights or just threatening them with knuckle sandwiches.
Again, maybe that's supposed to be funny, and maybe it was back inf the Fifties, but to me it's just dumb.


For all that, I liked the book well enough there were some pretty cool moments and enough amusing scenes especially when magic is involved to keep my interest.
But I think the premise has been done better by later authors, in both humorous and straight contexts, Overall I would recommend this mostly for its historical value, This is the book that put L, Sprague de Camp so high on my list of favorite authors, I found the three novellas in The Compleat Enchanter: The Magical Misadventures of Harold Shea so utterly fun and charming that as soon as I finished the book, I was overcome by a great sadness resulting from knowing that I would never again get that magical experience of reading it for the first time.
However, I soon realized that the novellas in this book are so wonderful that they will be just as good upon a second or third or any other thereafter reading.
My preference for the three novellas within The Compleat Enchanter: The Magical Misadventures of Harold Shea is the same as the order in which they appear: “The Roaring Trumpet” is my absolute favorite of the three novellas, but “The Mathematics of Magic” and “The Castle of Iron” come in close second and third.
The Compleat Enchanterby L, Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt is a collection of the first three Harold Shea books from thes.
The book is most notable for its inclusion in Appendix N of the first edition Dungeon Master's Guide as an inspiration to that game.


The stories center around Harold Shea, a modern man and psychologist who travels to different literary adventure universes.
"The Roaring Trumpet" is Norse myth, "The Mathematics of Magic" is The Faerie Queen, and "The Castle of Iron" is Orlando Furioso a tale that I've never heard of before.
The stories themselves are tongue and cheek, as Harold is a modern man in a highly stylized and notatall politically correct tale.
If you've ever wanted to see cultural appropriation in its native habitat, this is it,

The tales themselves read dully, I had to take rests to actually read this book through,

These are sexist tales, There no denying it. Oddly enough, Harold is bored of all the "approved" women stereotypes and wants one that's spirited, Here's an indication that the requirements on women of the day were so restrictive that even men were wanting to loosen things up.


When it comes to DampD, this book is rife with source material, Verbal, somatic, and material components for spells originate from these tales, In there, we also see scaled trolls with pointed noses, the basic giant types, web spells that are burned with flaming swords, flying carpets, illusions, fool's gold, magic choking hands, random encounters, and a great deal of the tongueincheek humor that pervades early DampD.


While it's

not badly written, I can't recommend the book, It's not a total stinker, but aside from curiosity or raging determination, there's no reason to go here, I'll happily lend you the book if you do, You don't need to give the book back, .