Castle Perilous

Castle Perilous #1

by John DeChancie

Imagine life in an ironically magical world where 144,000 doors separate fiction from reality. A place that can hypnotize even the most grounded philosophy major and deliver a fantastical rhyme to his reason. A place where a best buddy resembles a shaggy carpet, and adventures surpass a boy's dreams?welcome to Castle Perilous.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Comedy, Magic

249 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

From his website:
John DeChancie is the author of over two dozen books, fiction and nonfiction, and has written for periodicals as widely varied as Penthouse and Cult Movies. His novels in the science fiction and fantasy genres have been attracting a wide readership for more than fifteen years, and over a million copies of his books have seen print, many in foreign languages.

John's first work was Starrigger (Berkley/Ace ,1984), followed by Red Limit Freeway (1985) and Paradox Alley (1987), completing the Skyway Trilogy, one of the most imaginative, mind-expanding series in science fiction. Beloved of SF readers around the world, the trilogy has become a cult classic. It is no exaggeration to say that the trilogy has found a place in the hearts of readers along with the works of Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke. Jerry Pournelle, co-author with Larry Niven of the classics The Mote in God's Eye and Lucifer's Hammer, has compared the series to the best of A. E. van Vogt, and better written. The convoluted plot takes the reader on a mind-bending journey to the end of the universe and back.

His humorous fantasy series, beginning with Castle Perilous, became a best seller for Berkley/Ace. William Morrow published MagicNet, which Booklist said was "a welcome sigh of comic relief ... shamelessly droll, literate, and thoroughly entertaining. Magicnet is the fantasy genre's whimsical answer to Neuromancer." He has also written in the horror genre. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and in numerous original anthologies, the latest of which is Spell Fantastic. His story collection, Other States of Being, was recently published by Pulpless.com, Inc., an online and print-on-demand publisher.

He currently lives in Los Angeles and is at work writing novels, articles, short stories, and screenplays. His latest book was the short story collection THE LITTLE GRAY BOOK OF ALIEN STORIES published by Borderlands Press. John's most recent short story publication was in the original anthology SPACE CADETS, edited by Mike Resnick and published by LAcon IV, the 64th World Science Fiction Convention. The book was published in both limited and trade hardback editions. The book is available here . He has just completed a mystery novel and information on this new book (something different from anything he has ever written) is forthcoming. He will also have two new film articles in the second big issue of the new cult film magazine MONDO CULT, also forthcoming.

Reviews

[Kat Hooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Castle Perilous is a giant castle with 144,000 rooms that are portals to other worlds. These portals are constantly shifting in and out of other dimensions and occasionally they temporarily open up somewhere on Earth. At those times people may stumble into the castle and not be able to get back out. They become one of the permanent “guests” who have great food, luxurious accommodations, and servants to wait on them. Best of all, they get to explore some of the stable portals leading to exotic places. When Gene, Linda, and Snowclaw each stumble into Castle Perilous, it’s under siege by the jilted lover of the castle’s owner.

Here’s a novel that’s got some fun and whimsical ideas but never really capitalizes on all of its creative potential. I love the premise and the story is amusing, but it lacks passion and depth. The characters are shallow, we spend little time exploring the other worlds, and the humor is rather juvenile.

Castle Perilous is like one of those cool-looking kitchen gadgets you see on TV. It promises to be awesome, but when you get it you realize that it only does one job well and it takes up lots of drawer space, so you would have been better off just using your trusty paring knife. Castle Perilous is gimmicky and doesn’t deliver what it promises. But, still, sometimes gimmicky kitchen gadgets are fun... until you want your drawer space back.

I’d recommend Castle Perilous to a teenager looking for a fluffy fantasy read. Fans of Piers Anthony’s Xanth series or Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures are likely candidates. Castle Perilous is the first in an eight-book series. Because I like the premise so much, I may give the second book, Castle for Rent, a try, but my guess is that this series is just too light for me.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/28/18 $1.99 for Kindle.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, pretty typical fantasy. I read a later book years ago & always wanted to find the rest of the series, but never got around to it. It was tough putting together series back before the Internet & easy inter-library loans. This was a casualty of that barbarous period.

The writing was pretty tight, the world interesting, & the magic was pretty typical. Good characters on both sides & plenty of tension. Glad I finally got around to it.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book in a fantasy series that was remarkably popular in the late '80s - early '90s. It's a good kick-off to the series, which features the trope of a castle with 144,000 doors that open into different worlds and situations. A lot of the wandering about simply introduces quirky new characters and ends with a joke or pun, but there are serious events that play against the humorous ones in good contrast that highlight one another. There are also some pop-culture references that have, of course, passed their use-by date. I would have given it another star, but thought the ending was kind of a cheat. It's a good early example of cozy-fantasy, for fans of Asprin's Myth, Anthony's Xanth, or perhaps Terry Pratchett.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Several Earth humans and some non-humans randomly find themselves Guests in a huge, rambling castle that is also under serious attack. However, they find they're each developing magic powers that may be able to keep them from harm.

Review
There’s nothing fundamentally new about Castle Perilous – you’ll have seen many of these elements before – the huge, unmappable castle; the magic portals to other worlds; the clever/brawny pairing; the bubbly, can-do woman with talent. They all play pretty much the roles you expect. But, to be fair to DeChancie, he deploys them all well, and this is a fast, fun read – enough so that I was willing to pick up most of the series. My database tells me I have only one in paperback, though I recall reading more. I have 8 of 9 in e-form. They’re a bit like John Morresey’s Kedrigern books – not groundbreaking, but light fantasy entertainment with some humor.

DeChancie does cheat quite a bit at the end of the book, with respect to sequels, and I don’t remember how that later plays out; we’ll have to see. For this first book, though, it’s easy, lazy entertainment.

[John Eubank · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember seeing this book on a friend's shelf many years ago, and the original paper book's cover really caught my eye - people playing golf in front of a huge castle with a T-Rex on the prowl. "Castle Perilous" was written in the height of a whimsical or humorous fantasy period and is a whole lot of fun to read. If you're expecting a Ring of Power type story or a Game o' Whatever - well, curb that expectation (already) and prepare for a different approach to fantasy. What goes on in Castle Perilous is epic in its own peculiar way, but you need to understand that while the epic stuff is unfolding (and John DeChancie's imagination is fantastic), ordinary characters from our world, who get sucked into Castle Perilous, have to react to the sudden and shocking change - and that juxtaposition (of normal people trying to maintain their dignity while their whole world has been pulled out from under them) is where the humor and fun are found. You'll either get it or you won't, but I hope that if you've enjoyed other humorous fantasy books (Pratchett, Asprin, etc.), you'll give the Castle Perilous series a chance. DeChancie's prose voice is marvelous.

[Hidekisohma · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I was recommended this book since i like portal fantasies. and let's just say...um... yeah this wasn't a good recommendation for me.

The premise is essentially people from other universes get teleported into this magical castle that has 100,000+ rooms in it. 2 humans and a snow beast get sucked in and wander around trying to find their way back all while seeing the wacky rooms.

See, this is what the book SHOULD be about. unfortunately it can't stay that simple and has to get incredibly convoluted.

The biggest issue with this book was there were WAY too many points of view. As I began to read this, i equated it to something similar of the "Myth" series by Robert Asprin. it was a shorter fantasy comedy series with wacky shenanigans. and by far and large, i LIKE the myth series. But myth did something this book didn't. It paced itself. I'm around book 11 of the myth series, and yes, there are like 10 main characters, but that's the thing. It's book 11. It started with 2 and gradually got more and more main characters added on so you weren't overwhelmed. It didn't do that here. It immediately jumped in with "NOPE! HERE'S 10 PEOPLE FIGURE IT OUT!" and it was SUPER overwhelming.

There are a lot of characters and they all have their different emotions, goals, and everything so yeah, jumping into the middle of a conversation with a guy you never met after just having 3 chapters of 3 different characters you never met before can get very confusing, very fast.

This book should have simply been about the 3 main characters learning about the castle. But that's apparently not enough as we had to add in this "Wizard lady is attacking the castle" storyline and something about a magical stone that's the brain of the castle and the owner of the castle handling the battle. And that's just the major storyline, let alone the smaller ones.

Another issue i had with this book was the juxtaposition of violence and comedy. it tries to play itself off as a whimsical fantasy, but then characters are getting violently murdered quite often. and it's not really given any sense of gravity, it's kind of just like "welp, that's a thing." There's a way of doing dark comedy, but this doesn't really feel like one. it just feels like a fantasy comedy that threw violence in there because they could.

We learn that everybody who stays in the castle gets a special power. the girl gets the ability to conjure stuff, snowbeast can teleport, and Gene gets.... super good sword fighting abilities i think? Still, a bit of a lame power for Gene who doesn't even know he has one until WAY late in the book.

There's i think 2 other main characters that show up sometimes but i honestly couldn't even remember their names. I think one was Kwip? They were thieves or something, i don't know. That's how much i cared.

*Spoiler warning*
For those of you who care, here's my spoiler warning.
You think, well, even though the book isn't great and it's confusing, at least you get the main characters having character development. NOPE! Once the big baddie is defeated, everyone gets sent back to the beginning and they all lose their memories. WAH WAH WAHHHHHHHHH. Yep...it's one of THOSE endings. So you don't even get to say "Well, at least i got some good character development." because it was deleted.
*End Spoiler warning*

All in all, this book was a major letdown. I really was looking forward to this one and hoped for something really fun, but in the end, i got something that was confusing, couldn't figure out what genre it wanted to be, and had WAYYY too many cooks and it spoiled the pot.

I found myself skimming a lot towards the end when the Gene crew wasn't doing stuff, but honestly, i didn't care about the rest. As i went on, i found myself caring less and less about the characters as they're honestly not good people. For example, at one point Linda (the human girl) randomly body shames the main villain. someone says about her "she's still beautiful-" and linda cuts in with "But skinny, and her bust is nothing to write home about" like...what? what does that have to do with ANYTHING? Snowbeast is basically a murderer, Linda is annoying, and Gene whines a lot. Yes, i get the idea that people who come to the castle are kinda F-ed up in the head. i get that. But like... it would be nice to have characters i actually want to be around.

It's really sad i couldn't enjoy this book. Because i really wanted to. It should not have taken me nearly a week to read a 250 page book. it really shouldn't have. but i kept dreading picking it back up. There were a few interesting tidbits here and there, but overall, i just couldn't find myself enjoying this.

2 out of 5.

[osoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Как известно, самые потрясные книги приходят к нам по воле случая. Вот так мне попался ДДЧ со своим Замком *_*

Замок, который называют Опасным. Попасть в него можно через порталы, коих 144 000 (причем цифра не с потолка). Просто заблудившись на подземной стоянке, упав в расщелину, шагнув в проем, появившийся на месте стенки... Ага)

Огромный замок, созданный при помощи магии, его своеобразная геометрия (Эшер плачет), неиследованные миры, стабильные и не очень порталы, Гости из разных миров и как бонус — каждому Гостю по магической силе, подпитываемой магией Замка. Бегай сколько хочешь, плутай, осваивай силы, открывай миры, социализируйся, исследуй библиотеку, ищи сокровищницу, играй в гольф в джунглях среди тиранозавров...

Но главным героям не дают на все эти удовольствия времени, потому что на Замок нападают гнусные захватчики во главе с бывшей подружкой короля (по совместительству колдуньей), и по чистой случайности они оказываются в самом пекле событий. Вот такой замут. И концовка меня совсем не порадовала! Не простила бы ДДЧ, если бы он посмел закончить все так, но впереди еще несколько книг *_*

Я поселилась в Замке. Ибо:
— ЗАМОК и его плюшки это уах. Как идея.
— Снеголап — мохнато-ворсистое белоснежное медвежеподобное чудо ^^
— Юмор!
— Непредсказуемость. У ДДЧ каким-то образом получилось спокойно вплетать всякие идейки в повествование и поворачивать его безо всякого ажиотажа и резких движений — и получилось загляденье, а не книжка.
— Даже довольно скупые описания позволили мне выстроить в голове весь Замок. Он мне уже снился. Это показатель.

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gene, an unemployed philosophy major, finds himself magically transported to a wondrous castle that’s home to 144,000 portals to as many worlds and realms. It’s run by a genial wizard who welcomes all who come as Guests; even better, everyone who lives there develops a magical talent. But terrible forces besiege the castle and threaten to destroy it forever.

This is fun, light fantasy; the premise is a wonderful idea and an enormous wellspring for infinite flights of the imagination (many worlds and times, non-human beings, magical arts, demons, and even fantastic technology). DeChancie knows how to make a character appealing, and a dramatic situation humorous. My one plaint is that I’m always disappointed by books with deus ex machina endings, especially ones that mandate that the main characters forget it all happened! It makes the whole thing somehow pointless, to have characters never have built up a rapport or history at all.
[read twice]

[Charles van Buren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the description on the cover and various blurbs and recommendations, there is nothing remotely hilarious about this book. It is not a humorous novel. It is, instead, a tale of fantasy adventure, magic and danger. As such it is better than the run of the mill fantasy but does not rise to greatness. I will read the sequel as I have already obtained it without charge.

[Tao Werner · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quirky science fiction/ fantasy book that had a fun idea of a castle with 144,000 different doors that lead you to different worlds but lacked any kind of draw into the story. The story line was hard to follow with made up words and names and characters that lacked memorable traits.
A book I finished out of necessity being the only one I had with me on the bike trip.

[Barbara ★ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my kind of book but it didn't have any cohesiveness. Just a lot of random people doing random things. Rather boring actually.

[Bill · Rating 1 out of 5]

This would be a decent book to read on public transportation while thinking of something else if any of the book's plot, character development, or jokes had been better developed. Boys in middle school might like it (and there's nothing inside that most parents should be too concerned about--barely a PG), but anyone else should beware.

There is no character development to speak of, although the dialogue each character speaks is somewhat distinguishable from that of the other characters. The plot is full of holes that the author fills with magical tropes like a bad mechanic would use Bondo to fill in the body of a rusted out Corvair. However, driving a Corvair would at least provide some thrill of danger, whereas reading this book does not.

[Mark A · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know how movie adaptations of books often are stripped of all life and character in order to keep the runtime lower? Castle Perilous reads like that type of movie script.

The characters are stripped to their barest. There really is no life here at all. The main characters have no motivation and their story is just aimless wandering around the castle. Their actions are nearly irrelevant to the climax.

Ultimately, there is just so very little substance here.

If you want something like this, try the Discworld books. There are 50+ books, and I'd recommend any one of those as opposed to Castle Perilous.

[Edie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh gawd, what a waste of time!!!

The entire book-
Character stumbles into the castle from a different realm and doesn’t know how or why

They bump into other characters that have all entered the same way and no one knows how to get back to their own worlds.

They explore a room, look out the window, see a different world, decide not to go to that world, go back into the main part of the castle, go into a different room, look out the window, see a different world, decide not to go to that world, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Needless to say, I will not be continuing with the series. I wish I had DNF’d this book.

[Juli · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, it's fun, just REALLY random

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been struggling to concentrate lately and picked up this book because it looked light enough to be enjoyable without requiring a lot of heavy thought. It also worked for the May reading theme (royalty). And, most importantly, I was sort of challenged to read it by my friend Melydia (not her legal name) because it is the source of the screen name she has used for almost 25 years. I can report now that she is not as mad as her namesake.

This is not the easiest book to review, because it has so many 'aspects'. Castle Perilous is a place where people from all over (and I include Snowclaw -- a yeti-like fellow -- in the term people) can end up when they are out of options in life and ready to surrender everything. There are 144,000 portals to other places within the castle, referred to as aspects, and sometimes they appear out of nowhere, both inside the castle and in those other places. Stepping through the portal could land you in a golf course with wild and tame dinosaurs, 17th century Italy, or the middle of an ocean inhabited by scary things. Oh, and the castle is being attacked by an army guided by the sorceress Melydia who wants to capture the magical source of its existence and destroy it.

All of the main characters in this book are compelling, but my favorite is probably Linda, a woman from California who ends up being a real leader among her group. I would follow her anywhere because she can whip up a meal out of nothing. Snowclaw is just a chill dude you don't want to mess with. Osmirik grows on you. And Incarnadins is an enigma. All in all, this was an enjoyable read. I will keep my eyes open for other books by this author.

[rndgmoat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a cozy Winter read, perfect for getting warm by the fireplace.

It all begins when Gene, an unemployed philosophy grad and law school dropout gets lost in a parking structure and inexplicably wanders into a wonderfully huge magic castle. It turns out that this castle is something of an interdimensional hub and is filled with other lost travelers. Gene quickly finds a love interest among the other "Guests" as well as a Chewbacca-esque sidekick who hails from an ice planet and is deadly with a war axe. Did I mention that being in the castle temporarily imbues its residents with magical powers? Meanwhile, an assembled army is laying siege to the magical castle, led by an evil (?) witch. They hope to gain access to the source of its power. Of course, Incarnidine, the magical patriarch overseeing this world, isn't quite ready to give up his power...

DeChancie's book is built upon a really fun idea, and the magic nature of the castle allows him to use it a sandbox for all kinds of inventive fantasy nonsense, like velociraptor golf caddies. The book speeds by on its way to a happy ending, providing a good amount of fun along the way. A really pleasant detour in my reading journey this year and I really look forward to checking out some other books in the series.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reread of something I remember from when I was a kid that I read to Adam. I remembered the humor and the wide-open world: a castle with doorways to different realities where anything can happen! People who arrive get magic powers! Snowclaw, the big Yeti-like pal!

It was....fine. It was kind of disjointed and a little repetitive, and there is sooooooo much '80s casual sexism. The sort-of main character, Gene, is an everyman who's good at everything and there was a lot of straight-faced "well, actually" moments.

It was fine, and good, and nostalgia, but there was sadly not much there there. I'd probably have rounded down to 2 stars if not for the nostalgia.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recall starting this book nearly three decades ago but never finishing. I found it in a used-book store and thought my son would enjoy it.

The humor is wry and subtle, so if you're expecting more than that based on the cover you'll be disappointed. I appreciated Lord Incarnidine for his nuances, plus a few of the more major characters.

I also appreciated the use of a lot of obscure vocabulary words. Made for an enjoyable read and I'd attempt to read the follow-up book if I chance across it.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had apparently stopped reading this book for a year for no reason (I remember liking it while I was reading it), and when I returned to it recently, found I had left off at the 60% completion point. I opted to just dive right in and finish it from there, and found that I wasn't lost at all, and that I enjoyed the ride all the way to the end. So: this is not a deep or overly complex book. It is, however, perfectly enjoyable fantasy fluff, and I really like that kind of thing now and then. I'm definitely moving on to the next book(s) in the series at some point.

[Adri266 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ojojoj. Anotacia podla mojho gusta. Hlavny hrdina sa teleportuju na cudesne miesto, do hradu, je 140 tisic roznych dveri, ktore vas teleportuju do roznych vesmirov. Okrem neho su tu rozne prisery, ale aj ludia z inych vekov. Teleportovanim kazdy z nich ziska specialnu schopnost /zhmotnit hocico hmotne, prejst cez stenu, atd/

Toto by mohlo byt take super, keby to nebolo suchoparne. Prilis vela postav, nechapala som, o co im ide. Az na par usmevnych prihod som sa strasne nudila a v podstate trpela. Ma to vela casti, citat ich urcite nebudem.
Skoda.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightly humorous, but it's not trying to be out-and-out absurd or laugh out loud funny. Sometimes there gets to be a critical mass of silliness in this type of funny fantasy novel that will wear me out, but this book escapes that for the most part. It's just a pleasant time. I also really appreciate how this books treats the concept of a semi-living castle dimension almost like a science fiction book would: we get a little castle ecosystem of inhabitants. Just a bit more attention to detail than I was expecting, which was lovely.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time I have read this since it originally came out, or around that time at least. I obviously loved this back then as I have another 5/6 of the series that i found in a box with this one.
That isnt to say i didnt enjoy this, i did, but I am not sure what made me keep going with the series. I guess I will find out soon enough as while this was not brilliant as I have the others I will keep reading them. Lets see how it goes

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be very strange. I was confused on the characters for awhile, but then it became clear to me. I was going to DNF it but I stayed with it and it turned out to be a good book. It was not the greatest book I have read but it was enjoyable. I will now start book two and see how that one is.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept that doesn't really go anywhere. I remember loving this book when I was younger. For whatever reason books like this and Xanth have largely lost their appeal. I suspect this would be good YA fiction.

[Michael Sachtjen · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife said she was really into this series when she was young, and she came across this again in a thrift store. I'm glad she shared it with me. I probably would have liked it as a teenager. As an adult, it was a fun read, but left me wanting a little more character development.

[Ken Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice read, that’s why I rated it a four. Of course I’ve always had a thing for wizards in warrelaxing which is in dragons in alternate universes and this book has them all. I recommend it as a good read.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read. I read this years ago and decided to reread the series. The adventures of Gene, Laura and Snowclaw are fun, and the plot for Lord Incarnadine is interesting.

[Vishal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started with a good start. Later it became confusing, I don't know whether the narration is to be better or the story is boring.