SOLVED. YA SF novel from '80s/'90s, in which the medieval "fantasy" world is revealed to be science fantasy, where ancient "spells" resemble our technology and mages learn the ancient tongue from filmstrips (also intelligent mutant rat antagonists) [s]

[Jeremiah]

I read this book probably in the very early 1990s, and I believe it was middle grade fiction. I think I was looking for a book similar to John Christopher's Tripods books.

The premise seemed to be that it was a fantasy novel, set in a world with medieval-level technology. I think there was a young adult character traveling with someone older who was interested in ancient artifacts. I also think that there was a group of giant mutant intelligent rats that served as an antagonist.

The scene that I recall most clearly is when some of the characters, exploring a ruin full of ancient technology, trigger a device which the explorers quickly realize is trying to teach them the language of the ancients (which turns out to be English), and they have to hurry to write it down. This device is clearly an educational filmstrip, of the type that was so common prior to late 1980s.

[Tab]

Maybe, on of the "Magician's Apprentice" books by Tom McGowen
The Magician's Apprentice
The Magician's Company
The Magician's Challenge

Do you remember the cover?

[Jeremiah]

That sounds almost exactly like it, even if I have no memory of the covers at all. I'll have to read some old copies and see. Thanks so much!

[Andy Phillips]

Bits of this remind me of Hiero's Journey but I would have thought you would have remembered the intelligent moose-like companion and the psychic bear! It is a fantasy-type setting that's actually set in North America thousands of years after a nuclear and biological war. There are mutants of some sort, I think rat-like. They go in search of ancient artefacts but I don't remember the talking machine.

It also reminds me of Kelwin but that doesn't have the rats.

[dj adams]

I can't think of title or author, but it sounds like a series where the boy escapes through a tunnel and finds the natural world, starts sneaking others out through the river/tunnel from this high-tech place.

The other idea is Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicals

[Jeremiah]

Just finished re-reading "The Magician's Apprentice", and Tab definitely got it. The mutant rat-people are called isst or reen, and there are a lot of other mutant animals too, like hornbeast and rabbideers. The main character befriends an intelligent burrowing mammal called a grubber. I think the scene with the filmstrips is in one of the sequels: in the first book, they just get some treasures from the Age of Magic 3,000 years prior to carry back, but manage to survive. So, I think this is solved.

It's a great little book!

[Ayshe]

Would "revealed to be a post-apocalyptic society" be a spoiler? If so, it should be removed from topic's title.

[Jeremiah]

Very mild spoiler perhaps. It's clear that it's postapocalyptic about halfway through the first book. He writes this to very gradually reveal it. I revised it nonetheless.