ABANDONED. A groups of magic rings and the river of immortality?

[Nicole]

I read this book in high school. It starts with the protagonist receiving a magic ring. This ring attracts other rings until the group is complete, with each ring having a specific purpose, and telepathic comunnication being possible between the ring-bearers.

At some point a character falls in a river, and they discover later that he will now heal from mortal injuries. There may be mention of the River of Forgetfulness as well, but I'm not sure.

I also seem to remember that the end of one book is the protaganist kissing the antagonist (who is female, and youngish) to trap them both in a fountain (?). The next book is "? years later" and a side character (maybe the immortal character) is now the protagonist.

A main theme was that good and evil had to be balanced so knocking out the Big god of evil also knocked out the Big god of good.

[Nicole]

No, they aren't the Susan Cooper books. I remember them being on the back wall of the high school library, which means they were probably in the g-t range (probably, I make no promises.) They were older paper backs, and that was around 2003, make of that what you will.

Thanks for your reply though.

[[deleted user]]

Might be a bit of a stretch but what about The Magician's Nephew? There are rings (I forget what they do) and not sure about a river but there are different pools that lead to different worlds. I think the rings are different colors, one is red and one is yellow. It's a young boy and girl, and I think they accidentally do something that makes the evil witch either immortal or invincible. And she ends up as the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And she gets out of her world by holding on to the boy as he goes through the pool, that's kind of similar to being stuck in the fountain?

[Nicole]

Myles - I googled, and it doesn't seem to be Lords of the Middle Dark. I don't remember a scifi element at all.

Tabby - thanks, but I know the Narnia books backward and forward. The series I'm looking for were aimed older.

The character with the initial ring was definitely male.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Nicole, are you still looking for this book?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

No response; moved to Abandoned.