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The Reluctant King #1-3
The Reluctant King
Laws of Xylar decreed that each king shall be beheaded upon the end of their five-year reign. So with the help of a wizard, King Jorian escaped. Unfortunately, his wife had been left behind. In order to pull off a rescue, Jorian would have to locate a trove of ancient spells, deal with an enemy wizard, steal an item from a 500-year-old princess, and then some.
Contains three complete novels: The Goblin Tower, The Clocks of Iraz, and The Unbeheaded King
Contains three complete novels: The Goblin Tower, The Clocks of Iraz, and The Unbeheaded King
681 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1983
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144 people want to read
About the author
L. Sprague de Camp
760 books314 followersLyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 31, 2020
This is a three-story series written in 1968, 1971, 1983
Competent adventure thread, in a reasonably plausible kingdom of swords and not-very-strong magic. Interesting dilemmas and characters. Some humour.
But it suffers badly in the modern era in its assumption that a good-lookin' well-endowed man will have lineups at his bedroom door, and that sort of thing is exempt from moral rules. But let's be fair, De Camp was born in 1907. As far as I recall, his other works don't notably have this issue.
Competent adventure thread, in a reasonably plausible kingdom of swords and not-very-strong magic. Interesting dilemmas and characters. Some humour.
But it suffers badly in the modern era in its assumption that a good-lookin' well-endowed man will have lineups at his bedroom door, and that sort of thing is exempt from moral rules. But let's be fair, De Camp was born in 1907. As far as I recall, his other works don't notably have this issue.
March 30, 2018
Unlike most fantasy novels, this one is a bit aimless. It's the adventures of some guy on the run in a made-up world. The hero is amost absurdly over-qualified for his new-found role, and it is easy to pan the book for using obvious or well-worn scenarios.
What makes the series enjoyable is that it serves as a platform for L. Sprague de Camp to share his observations and insights on various social and political systems. A good skewering of many fantasy tropes is included, always accompanied by a historical or biological justification (e.g. what mermaids or unicorns would really look like, the limitations of being a cold-blooded dragon, etc).
Remarkably cynical for such a light-hearted adventure.
What makes the series enjoyable is that it serves as a platform for L. Sprague de Camp to share his observations and insights on various social and political systems. A good skewering of many fantasy tropes is included, always accompanied by a historical or biological justification (e.g. what mermaids or unicorns would really look like, the limitations of being a cold-blooded dragon, etc).
Remarkably cynical for such a light-hearted adventure.
May 10, 2019
Another book that I would have enjoyed back when I’d read fantasy for the sake of fantasy. Had I found it when I was in my middle teens, this would have been a favorite. It would have expanded my vocabulary, when now it comes off as trying too hard. The syntax of sentences is off but doesn’t feel consistent. The humor/satire wasn’t doing it for me. Maybe picking on Christian prudishness was funny in its time, but this work is over 50 years old by now. And when trying to make a point is done in a fantasy setting, it can never amount to anything more than a straw man argument, which makes for a boring read.
Recommended for a younger younger audience, or anyone looking for a light read.
Recommended for a younger younger audience, or anyone looking for a light read.
February 1, 2024
If I remember correctly, Alexandre Duma’s The Count of Monte Cristo was published as a weekly series, chapter by chapter, which as a result had that each chapter would not just be a story for itself, but also each chapter would end on a high note, with a cliffhanger.
Similar attempt was made here, although neither the story nor the character are nearly as interesting as Duma’s.
All three of these books in the series are plagued with “make your protagonist act stupidly so we could move plot forward”, from which then Jorian simply complies.
It is satirical mix of both sword and sorcery and swashbuckling adventures, often derailed by author’s views on world politics of the time.
Similar attempt was made here, although neither the story nor the character are nearly as interesting as Duma’s.
All three of these books in the series are plagued with “make your protagonist act stupidly so we could move plot forward”, from which then Jorian simply complies.
It is satirical mix of both sword and sorcery and swashbuckling adventures, often derailed by author’s views on world politics of the time.
July 3, 2019
Fun homage to hack and slash fantasy material that inspired Gary Gygax and D&D (thats where I got the recommendation) but misogynistic and lots of lineages of royalty and side stories that seem like filler instead of enriching the fantasy world.
March 7, 2024
Revisiting 30 years later
It’s difficult to describe the pleasure of re-reading a book that, despite its supposedly “light” genre, taught my teen self so much about life and literature. What a beautiful time I have had with it, again.
It’s difficult to describe the pleasure of re-reading a book that, despite its supposedly “light” genre, taught my teen self so much about life and literature. What a beautiful time I have had with it, again.
October 31, 2024
The first book, The Goblin Tower, is a solid L. Sprague de Camp fantasy. A protagonist of dubious morals who nonetheless manages to do more or less the morally right thing when faced with a crisis, wandering a world where magic is everywhere but not yet common; just enough for wizards to hold regular conventions and plot over each other’s discoveries.
Whenever Jorian follows his own gut feelings, he’s in good shape; whenever he follows someone else’s gut feelings—especially his traveling companion and taskmaster Karadur’s—it all falls apart.
I suspect a lot of influence on D&D. The first full-on magic we see looks a lot like a D&D rope trick. D&D’s version of rope trick isn’t nearly as powerful as this one, but I suspect that if this is a source for D&D’s spell the changes were less due to reducing the power level of the spell and more in order to reduce the chances the party completely forgets what they were doing and goes off on an unrelated tangent in a new dimension.
This would be a cool version of rope trick, however. Instead of hiding in an extra-dimensional space, if you want to escape whatever it is you’re hiding from you have to brave the dangers of that other dimension and find a new location to drop the rope back down.
Jorian is also under the compulsion of a geas for the entire book. The early D&D geas looks a lot like this one in its effects. It doesn’t force the character to do anything; it just puts them through a lot of pain and suffering if they refuse. Of course, D&D has to define pain, suffering, and refusal; here, Jorian just does what he has to do to avoid the pain.
The Clocks of Iraz follows closely on The Goblin Tower and sees Jorian enticed by Karadur to come to Iraz to fix some clocks that had been installed by Jorian’s father. Because the clock tower figures in a divisive Penembian prophecy the mere act of fixing it embroils Jorian in the politics of Iraz.
A lot of the humor in both of these books so far is in poking humor at the same arguments that tend to fill college dorms, mostly about political systems but occasionally about other forms of learning as well.
For “Novarian”, read “English”, and for the rest replace just about any language that’s been compared to it.
This is light-hearted fantasy, and yet it gets away with a human realism that is rare in the genre. People who might have been the book’s antagonist turn out to just be nice guys. The person who normally would have been Jorian’s sidekick are instead kicked to the side for all of the book. Incompetence isn’t automatically a sign of evil. And ingratiating yourself with the king does not do one bit of good toward making yourself a hero to the rest of Iraz.
The third book, The Unbeheaded King takes up exactly where The Clocks of Iraz leaves off. In fact, Clocks doesn’t really end; these two books are mostly two sections of the same book. Mostly, but not quite. If the copyright years are trustworthy guides, the first two books came out in 1968 and 1971; Unbeheaded King didn’t come out until 1983.
This is a fantasy heist; Jorian, three wizards, and, eventually, a lady-in-waiting plan the escape of Jorian’s favorite queen Estrildis from the first book. Of course there are complications. Heist stories always have complications.
Given the years, only the final book came out after Dungeons & Dragons. But the kinds of adventures in all three of these books are very close to the kinds of adventures D&D is suited for. While L. Sprague de Camp is not one of the authors who is merely listed by name in the infamous appendix n, he is one of the authors whose listed works are suffixed with “et al”. It is not at all surprising that the two sets of works should resemble each other so much.
Nor is it surprising that, having come up with an idea for a freeform game based around fantasy themes, Gygax would choose these as inspiration.They’re a lot of fun, with a variety of interesting characters with interesting abilities at the fore.
Whenever Jorian follows his own gut feelings, he’s in good shape; whenever he follows someone else’s gut feelings—especially his traveling companion and taskmaster Karadur’s—it all falls apart.
I suspect a lot of influence on D&D. The first full-on magic we see looks a lot like a D&D rope trick. D&D’s version of rope trick isn’t nearly as powerful as this one, but I suspect that if this is a source for D&D’s spell the changes were less due to reducing the power level of the spell and more in order to reduce the chances the party completely forgets what they were doing and goes off on an unrelated tangent in a new dimension.
This would be a cool version of rope trick, however. Instead of hiding in an extra-dimensional space, if you want to escape whatever it is you’re hiding from you have to brave the dangers of that other dimension and find a new location to drop the rope back down.
Jorian is also under the compulsion of a geas for the entire book. The early D&D geas looks a lot like this one in its effects. It doesn’t force the character to do anything; it just puts them through a lot of pain and suffering if they refuse. Of course, D&D has to define pain, suffering, and refusal; here, Jorian just does what he has to do to avoid the pain.
The Clocks of Iraz follows closely on The Goblin Tower and sees Jorian enticed by Karadur to come to Iraz to fix some clocks that had been installed by Jorian’s father. Because the clock tower figures in a divisive Penembian prophecy the mere act of fixing it embroils Jorian in the politics of Iraz.
A lot of the humor in both of these books so far is in poking humor at the same arguments that tend to fill college dorms, mostly about political systems but occasionally about other forms of learning as well.
“Gods and goddesses!” he cried. “How do little Penembians ever master so complicated a tongue? I can understand having indicative, interrogative, imperative, conditional, and subjunctive moods; but when you add to those the operative, causative, dubitative, reportative, accelerative, narrative, continuative, and—”
“But of course, my good Jorian! That is why we deem our speech superior to all others, for one can say exactly what one means… once you learn the rules, you have but to follow them to speak correctly. There is none of those irregularities and exceptions that make your Novarian tongue so maddening.”
For “Novarian”, read “English”, and for the rest replace just about any language that’s been compared to it.
This is light-hearted fantasy, and yet it gets away with a human realism that is rare in the genre. People who might have been the book’s antagonist turn out to just be nice guys. The person who normally would have been Jorian’s sidekick are instead kicked to the side for all of the book. Incompetence isn’t automatically a sign of evil. And ingratiating yourself with the king does not do one bit of good toward making yourself a hero to the rest of Iraz.
The third book, The Unbeheaded King takes up exactly where The Clocks of Iraz leaves off. In fact, Clocks doesn’t really end; these two books are mostly two sections of the same book. Mostly, but not quite. If the copyright years are trustworthy guides, the first two books came out in 1968 and 1971; Unbeheaded King didn’t come out until 1983.
This is a fantasy heist; Jorian, three wizards, and, eventually, a lady-in-waiting plan the escape of Jorian’s favorite queen Estrildis from the first book. Of course there are complications. Heist stories always have complications.
Given the years, only the final book came out after Dungeons & Dragons. But the kinds of adventures in all three of these books are very close to the kinds of adventures D&D is suited for. While L. Sprague de Camp is not one of the authors who is merely listed by name in the infamous appendix n, he is one of the authors whose listed works are suffixed with “et al”. It is not at all surprising that the two sets of works should resemble each other so much.
Nor is it surprising that, having come up with an idea for a freeform game based around fantasy themes, Gygax would choose these as inspiration.They’re a lot of fun, with a variety of interesting characters with interesting abilities at the fore.
September 5, 2011
Honestly, the antics of Jorian and Karadur wore out their welcome early in The Unbeheaded King. While all three were meandering picaresque adventures, the last seemed composed entirely of digressions around a slender core: retrieving Jorian's wife from the city-state of Xylar. Karadur, instead of being a hapless instigator of trouble on account of his unbounded gullibility (as in the first two), here is an unwelcome source of discouragement and negativity. This forms a drag on the story.
de Camp lends other elements to the Jack Vance style of picaresque. His engineering background and elements of historical research occasionally appear--Jorian's observations regarding the siege of Iraz, in particular--and this is where I think the series is at its strongest. The humorous angle, in particular the earthy undertones, work less well and sometimes felt forced.
de Camp lends other elements to the Jack Vance style of picaresque. His engineering background and elements of historical research occasionally appear--Jorian's observations regarding the siege of Iraz, in particular--and this is where I think the series is at its strongest. The humorous angle, in particular the earthy undertones, work less well and sometimes felt forced.
March 17, 2012
This is a trilogy composed of “The Goblin Tower,” “The Clocks of Iraz,” and “The Unbeheaded King.” King Jorian finds himself at the end of his tenure and at the verge of undergoing his kingdom’s method of succession—beheading. His head is tossed into the crowd and whoever catches it becomes king for five years until he is “succeeded.” With the help of a sorcerer friend, he escapes and begins the adventure.
This work, however, goes further and is really a satire. Various forms of government are explored during Jorian’s adventure. In each case it is the people involved that bring it down, be it ineptitude, avarice, corruption, or power struggles. Yes, governments are run by people, and people are fallible. The satirical element makes this a very good sword and sorcery tale. Adult situations and language, properly inserted, add zest.
This work, however, goes further and is really a satire. Various forms of government are explored during Jorian’s adventure. In each case it is the people involved that bring it down, be it ineptitude, avarice, corruption, or power struggles. Yes, governments are run by people, and people are fallible. The satirical element makes this a very good sword and sorcery tale. Adult situations and language, properly inserted, add zest.
March 22, 2016
Clockmaker Jorian becomes King because he accidentally catches the head of the beheaded previous King, which marks him for both for kingship and eventual execution - they take their term limits seriously. With the help of an enchanter, he escapes the headsman, and while pursued by agents of his former government (eager to finish the job) gets caught up in the series of adventures that one would expect to find in amusing satirical comic fantasies - comely maids in peril, barbarian invasions (I particularly liked the siege of Iraz in the middle volume), demons, pirates, and so on.
I'd read the third book out-of-order many years ago, and eventually found this, the collected volume. It's set in the same world as "The Fallible Fiend", which I never realized until a wiki summary incited me to put in a review.
3.4/5
I'd read the third book out-of-order many years ago, and eventually found this, the collected volume. It's set in the same world as "The Fallible Fiend", which I never realized until a wiki summary incited me to put in a review.
3.4/5
March 27, 2013
I wish more people knew about this book. De Camp is more or less forgotten in the younger fantasy circles. It is a fantastic sword and sorcery tale in a fully realized world. It is witty and funny, full of action and more modern view on women than most older fantasy books. De Camp uses his worlds politics to satirize our own politic and our absurd thinking. The character are funny and interesting, thou hardly complex with exception for some of the minor ones. The writing is good and straightforward, no purple prose here. You get heroic journey, politics and adventures, this book dose not deserve to be forgotten.
October 15, 2013
An amusing book. Like all of L. Sprague de Camp's books that I've read, it's very much in his style, which is very distinct. I'm guessing that people generally either enjoy or don't enjoy his style and like or dislike his books accordingly.
I find this book is perfect to read while I'm doing something else, like watching football or re-watching a tv series that also doesn't take much concentration.
I find this book is perfect to read while I'm doing something else, like watching football or re-watching a tv series that also doesn't take much concentration.
October 15, 2023
I loved this book. I read it to my children (with editing of age appropriate content) and for weeks my 6 year old would say "By Imbal's Iron Pizzle!" and giggle like a child. This is a kid's book but with some PG-13 content. On the list of reasons my children love to read I include this book. Daring do, wild stories well crafted, the work of a true story-teller.
April 3, 2008
This is the first fantasy novel I remember reading on my own as a kid. I cannot recall more than a few major plot points, but it has a place in my heart.
October 4, 2012
Fun book, great short stories connecting together to form a over-arcing storyline. I'd recommend it.
December 28, 2015
Okay fantasy adventures. The humor is pretty heavy-handed and even snobbish, in a way. An entertaining read.
June 9, 2016
Interesting premise, funny scenes, but kind of boring over execution.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews