Need Help finding a book.

[Lonnie]

I don't know if it is appropriate to ask this here, but I am having the dickens of a time trying to find a book I read as a child/teen.

Here is what I remember:


I remember there was a wizard in it. The "bad guys" were referred to as "the dark" and everyone was afraid to go out after dark because the Dark kidnapped people and turned them into mindless slaves. I remember in the end that the Dark ended up not being maliscious but rather just trying to survive and they send them through a portal to another world/dimension to live peacefully. The mindless slaves I remember were carrying the darks food (moss) and it was sad to see them being mindless... the Dark lived in an extensive underground cave system too. I remember that.

I think the book starts with an after dusk scene of people trapped outside the castle walls and its really scary because they are scared of the Dark?

ANY of this ring a bell?

I have thought of this book several times over the years and wanted to reread it. I have googled as best I can without success( as you can imaging googling "the dark" was not very helpful)

Anyways, here is to hoping someone knows what this is.

[Mapleson]

"they send them"? Can you clarify that statement? Also, when were you a child?

A couple thoughts that come to mind are Philip Pullman or Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury?

[Lonnie]

Definitely not Phil Pullman. And though I loved Something wicked, it wasn't that either.

Sorry, this would have been about 15-20 years ago.

By they send them, the best I can say is after the climax of the story, and the confrontation with "the dark" a peace is struck and the wizard (I think) finds another world/dimension they can live and opens a portal and they all go through it to live peacefully, but they take their mindless slaves with them. I know it isn't much to go on, thanks for trying.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

How about The Darwath Trilogy by Barbara Hambly ?

[Lonnie]

HUH! I think that might be it! I read the first few pages of book one on Amazon and didn't recognize it, but on a whim jumped to book 3 and read the beginning of that and TOTALLY recognized it! I think I must have just read the 3rd book as a kid not knowing it was a trilogy! I ALSO didn't know it was a pulled from the real world into a fantasy world book series either!

Thank you Tassie! I already ordered the first book!