What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
► UNSOLVED: One specific book
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Fantasy - Wizard Learning Magic by Progressing up tower
Well, there are magic tests involving ascending tower in Feist's books, I think the tests are in _Magician: Apprentice_ (after being transported to another world, enslaved, then selected by the magicians).MC's name is Pug / Milamber.
Thanks for your helpful replies but that is not the book. I quite fondly remember the magician apprentice / master stories and have re-read them recently as well.The story I'm thinking of is just a memory and a fairly vague one at that. I think the learning process was simply studying the walls and passing a test administered by the tower itself, perhaps to open a door to the next level. So no teacher involved. I think.
I remember learning about the Borobudur temple in java and thinking it reminded me of the tower in this story. Also, I think the story predates the Feist stories.
Was he all alone for most of the story then?
Any vague memories about some of the tests?Was he wanting to pass these tests and save his people or was it forced on him?
My trouble is search results keep pulling up D&D/RPG-type games instead of books.
I do not remember much about the test except that to fail was to be incinerated magically or at least magically killed. I don't think there were other pupils because they were too risk adverse or perhaps did not have any magic mana or whatever to qualify. He eventually became master of the tower and that was when the external threat to his village/city/island showed up. I think. Sorry, I'm so lean on details but that's really all I remember except it was a paperback at the library, probably around 1984ish when I checked it out.
Do you recall if this was a Dungeons and Dragons type book (Forgotten Realms, Krynn, etc, etc are all differing worlds that're AD&D), or if it was a stand-alone type fantasy novel?
Sorry, but I don't. It most likely was, considering the subject matter. I just remember it was the first adult type fantasy book I read.
Hey, not all fantasy is D&D. I actually actively avoid the D&D fantasy, I like the new/different stuff (ie: people from outside the RPG field), if I can get it.Just saying, that if it is, maybe people who love that genre would be better at recognizing which of the many 100s of books it might be.
Mod
I don't recognize the book, but will probably be adding it to the Iftcan Mountain Range of TBR's when it's found.
Thanks for the help anyway. I feel like I submitted a stinker to the list but, perhaps, someday it will pop up.
Roscoe wrote: "Thanks for the help anyway. I feel like I submitted a stinker to the list but, perhaps, someday it will pop up."Not at all. Some books take a long time. One of mine took a year and that's far from the longest. Just give the thread a bump every 30 days or so and it will get solved eventually.
It's a stumper, not a stinker. And stumpers are the fun kind! :D
Might have been the Dragonlance series Dragonlance Chronicles . It's from the early 80s and there was a Tower of High Sorcery where they learned stuff.
Mod
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I'm fairly certain it was not a dragonlance. I did get into pretty heavy for a while and would have made the connection.
*v-d bump*Hope you're having a lovely day :D
I know that you think it's not Dragonlance, but it really, really fits with the story about Raistlin doing the tests and then becoming master of the deserted tower/place of Dark magic and moving from neutral magic to dark... I remember the part about the tower remaining closed until the new master comes, as prophesied by the mage who kills himself either by, at or on the gates. Then Raistlin masters the tower at risk of being zapped like all the previous tryers, saves the day somehow after a big ol' 'the great conjunction is at hand' style peril... I think it was a by-line story, and not in the main Dragonlance books. Although I was about twelve when I read that... more than 20 yrs ago!
And I think there was some time twisting involved so he was master of past present and future, and so his earliest trials were involved somehow.
Very similar to what you gave us to go on... have any more details come to mind?
And I think there was some time twisting involved so he was master of past present and future, and so his earliest trials were involved somehow.
Very similar to what you gave us to go on... have any more details come to mind?
I think it might be Angie Sage: Septimus Heap - Magik
The Septimus Heap books aren't nearly old enough. But they do involve a tower, though many of the details are different.
You're right - I missed the 80'ies part
Definitely not the Septimus Heap books, though I enjoyed them as well. Thanks for your thoughts however!My stale brain does not remember too much more on the story. I am fairly certain that there were no other magicians who played a major part. In fact, I believe that the protagonist was self taught by reading and studying the inscriptions on walls of each level of the tower. I am thinking also that he was perhaps a shepard or some other low level job that young adults would have been given and that he herded sheep in the area of the tower.
Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "I also know of one book that was found after 5 years"Digression: Ooh, we should have a Topic for "Coldest cases solved so far" where we post the ones that have taken the longest but been successfully trapped eventually...
Mod
Michele, now we do thanks to Justanotherbiblophile:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Kris wrote: "Michele, now we do thanks to Justanotherbiblophile..."Yay!!
The Crystal Stair review (the only one on GR?) doesn't mention a tower - but does have travel (looking for a master) and horse-theft... Cover has floating disks, which doesn't sound like the ambience described by OP... What're you reading Melani? I want to see that.
I read the book years ago. But I recall that part of his training involved going up a tower to learn is magic. It's been years, but the description by Roscoe triggered that book in my memory. (PS: I wouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Particularly an older fantasy novel)
If you search the text of the book in books.google, there is a "shining crystal tower" mentioned. And we're in luck - the ebook is available to borrow for fromm from Open Library!
I don't think it is Master of Five Magics, or the sequel that has Six in the title, have read both of those.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have read Master of Five Magics, and while good, it's not what I was referring to above. I grabbed the kindle sample for "Gom on Windy Mountain", the first book in the series which includes "The Crystal Stair" that was suggested by Melani above. I'm pretty sure that it is not the book - it seems too YA whereas I kind of think the book I was referring was more adult-ish. I would have been pretty young so who knows.
I liked the GOM sample and think I will buy the book. Even though I have recently been told to stop buying so many Kindle books...
Nope - Definitely not The Book of Deacon. The kindle version is free today - I just added it to my reading list. Thanks!
I suspect you are referring to the Dragonlance novels.In those stories, students of magic must face "The Test" at "The Tower of Wayreth". The tower is magical and moves around.
You take the test alone and are changed/dead at the the end.
I don't remember which book Raistlin Majere takes the test in, but it was in that series.
Apparently, it may have been a spin-off novel that I didn't read, called The Raistlin Chronicles: The Soulforge/Brothers in Arms by Tracy Hickman Margaret Weis.This books provides a more detailed description of Raistlin's experiences taking The Test and how he ended up with the golden skin and hourglass pupils.
Mod
One reviewer on Amazon says, "...the attempts of a young man, one Guerrand DiThon, who wishes to become a mage, despite the orders of his older brother, Cormac, and Cormac's influential wife. But when a mysterious man wearing red robes named Belieze rolls into town and gives Guerrand a magical piece of glass that allows him to see to far places, he and his familiar, a seagull named Zagarus, both set out to the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayrenth to study the arts of magic and, perhaps, even take the Test and become a legend."
Has this post been abandoned, by the OP, Roscoe?
Yeah, even if OP abandons it, I'm still interested in suggestions on this one (and I think Ann is too). :) I'm hoping it's not a memory-merging of the story of Raistlin and something else...
Mod
Technically, no. He last posted in March 2015 so even if he never posts again, we would wait until he either left the group, or 2 years from his last post, to declare it Abandoned.
Hi All - I haven't abandoned but, I'm feeling pretty bad for all the suggestions that aren't panning out. I can say with some certainty that it was not a Raistlin story as I got into those later in my teen years and would have known if they were the same.
Too bad. The Raistlin story almost perfectly fits your descriptions.Well, good luck.
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Magician: Apprentice Volume 1 (other topics)The Wizards and the Warriors (other topics)
Sufficiently Advanced Magic (other topics)
Mister Monday (other topics)
The Seventh Tower (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ursula K. Le Guin (other topics)Robert Lynn Asprin (other topics)
Robert Fisher (other topics)
Mary L. Kirchoff (other topics)
Tracy Hickman (other topics)
The book was about an person who was learning to become a wizard. I remember that he had to pass magic tests to progress up to higher levels of the tower. I think after he mastered the tower he had to defend his village or island or something. Sorry - I'm fairly lean on details.
I don't really remember much else except that my younger self liked it; i think it was the first fantasy story i read. I'm curious to how I would find it now.