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The Incompleat Enchanter #2
The Castle of Iron
The Mathematics of Magic—it was the greatest discovery ever. Or so thought Professor Harold Shea. With the proper equations, he could instantly transport himself and his long-suffering colleagues back—or sideways—in time to all the wondrous lands of ancient myth and legend.
But slips in time were a hazard, and Shea's magic sometimes backfired. When it did, the results were usually bizarre at best—and potentially lethal at worst. The imaginary lands to which Shea travelled held countless real dangers that even the magic equations couldn't predict.
But slips in time were a hazard, and Shea's magic sometimes backfired. When it did, the results were usually bizarre at best—and potentially lethal at worst. The imaginary lands to which Shea travelled held countless real dangers that even the magic equations couldn't predict.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
2 people are currently reading
281 people want to read
About the author
L. Sprague de Camp
759 books312 followersLyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction literature. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, both novels and works of non-fiction, including biographies of other fantasy authors. He was a major figure in science fiction in the 1930s and 1940s.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 11, 2022
I abandoned this one.
Meek Harold Shea, looking for his fairy bride, first finds himself in Coleridge's Xanadu, alongside some quasi-comical sidekicks. How DeCamp and Pratt treat Xanadu is pretty racist and sexist - some of that will be inherent in the source poem, but the contemporary commentary, such as it is, doesn't make it better.
Then Shea and company get transported to the world of Orlando Furioso, where to the titular iron castle of the wizard Atlantes. At this point I started to leaf furiosoly through the book, whether there'd be any mention of Bradamante, the female knight at King Charlemagne's court. She does appear, 20 pages near the end: "The knight faulted down and Shea realized that 'he' was a handsome, brown-haired woman of show-girl size." Ah, well then.
I'm sure that DeCamp, writing his draft, found himself clever and funny, and that he and senior partner Pratt had a lot of fun writing these Harold Shea tales. I found their humour rather smug and self-congratulatory, and their protagonist pretty annoying. It's fine to do something with older source material, even to critique it - but it seems to me that DeCamp/Pratt don't really respect their sources, and are mostly out to show how clever and more refined they are. And with their 1940s attitudes, that really doesn't hold up - they have become the outmoded relics they mock.
Meek Harold Shea, looking for his fairy bride, first finds himself in Coleridge's Xanadu, alongside some quasi-comical sidekicks. How DeCamp and Pratt treat Xanadu is pretty racist and sexist - some of that will be inherent in the source poem, but the contemporary commentary, such as it is, doesn't make it better.
Then Shea and company get transported to the world of Orlando Furioso, where to the titular iron castle of the wizard Atlantes. At this point I started to leaf furiosoly through the book, whether there'd be any mention of Bradamante, the female knight at King Charlemagne's court. She does appear, 20 pages near the end: "The knight faulted down and Shea realized that 'he' was a handsome, brown-haired woman of show-girl size." Ah, well then.
I'm sure that DeCamp, writing his draft, found himself clever and funny, and that he and senior partner Pratt had a lot of fun writing these Harold Shea tales. I found their humour rather smug and self-congratulatory, and their protagonist pretty annoying. It's fine to do something with older source material, even to critique it - but it seems to me that DeCamp/Pratt don't really respect their sources, and are mostly out to show how clever and more refined they are. And with their 1940s attitudes, that really doesn't hold up - they have become the outmoded relics they mock.
May 25, 2016
I'm a big fan of Conan, so I wanted to think that Mr. de Camp was a good writer... but it turns out that he's really the Kevin J. Anderson of his era.
Granted, I haven't read the first book of the series, but that doesn't cover the fact that this was a hot mess. The premise seems to be anything ever written in fiction is an alternate universe locked in place and time, I guess, since where they go is Crusades-era Arabia, and it's still the Crusade era.
Also, there's magic, which anyone at all can do if they just say a goofy rhyme and think really hard.
The plot revolves around one of the characters finding his lost wife from a previously visited alternate universe, and doesn't really offer anything one wouldn't expect. I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity about the series, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.
Granted, I haven't read the first book of the series, but that doesn't cover the fact that this was a hot mess. The premise seems to be anything ever written in fiction is an alternate universe locked in place and time, I guess, since where they go is Crusades-era Arabia, and it's still the Crusade era.
Also, there's magic, which anyone at all can do if they just say a goofy rhyme and think really hard.
The plot revolves around one of the characters finding his lost wife from a previously visited alternate universe, and doesn't really offer anything one wouldn't expect. I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity about the series, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.
November 21, 2020
Third story in the Incompleat Enchanter series.
The series of stories tells a continuous narrative with this one picking up where the second one, "The Mathematics of Magic", left off (stories one and two are in the book, "The Incompleat Enchanter"). There's a one page summary that might allow you start off with this one but it will make a lot more sense to read the series from the beginning.
I found stories one and two reasonably entertaining but this one was not quite as a good as the first two. This story starts with a brief visit to Xanadu in the parallel universe on which Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan was based. Two of our minor Earth characters are stranded there but the rest move on to the universe of Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" where most of the action takes place.
During the course of the story more details about the physics and operation of magic are learned by the main character, Harold Shea, but he still has an incomplete grasp of it and frequently gets his spells wrong. Chalmers, the more analytical of the two, gains more understanding of the logic behind spells and why they work differently or not at all in the various parallel universes.
The plot of this story mostly concerns Shea's wife, Belphebe, who he met in the universe of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. When Chalmer's pulls Shea and Belphebe into the Furioso universe, he inadvertently causes Belphebe to merge with the related character, Belphegor, who inhabits the Furious universe - the one character being the literary antecedent of the other. Belphebe loses her memory of her previous life and of her husband Shea. She wanders off thinking she's Belphegor. Shea has to travel through the world facing various dangers to find Belphebe/Belphegor in the hope they can reverse the process and return her to her true self.
The series of stories tells a continuous narrative with this one picking up where the second one, "The Mathematics of Magic", left off (stories one and two are in the book, "The Incompleat Enchanter"). There's a one page summary that might allow you start off with this one but it will make a lot more sense to read the series from the beginning.
I found stories one and two reasonably entertaining but this one was not quite as a good as the first two. This story starts with a brief visit to Xanadu in the parallel universe on which Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan was based. Two of our minor Earth characters are stranded there but the rest move on to the universe of Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" where most of the action takes place.
During the course of the story more details about the physics and operation of magic are learned by the main character, Harold Shea, but he still has an incomplete grasp of it and frequently gets his spells wrong. Chalmers, the more analytical of the two, gains more understanding of the logic behind spells and why they work differently or not at all in the various parallel universes.
The plot of this story mostly concerns Shea's wife, Belphebe, who he met in the universe of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. When Chalmer's pulls Shea and Belphebe into the Furioso universe, he inadvertently causes Belphebe to merge with the related character, Belphegor, who inhabits the Furious universe - the one character being the literary antecedent of the other. Belphebe loses her memory of her previous life and of her husband Shea. She wanders off thinking she's Belphegor. Shea has to travel through the world facing various dangers to find Belphebe/Belphegor in the hope they can reverse the process and return her to her true self.
July 24, 2017
A sequel to "The Incompleat Enchanter," this takes us to an alternate universe based on Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso." The depiction of Medieval Islamic society, with its sorcerers and harem girls, is definitely from Ariosto's milieu, but I wonder if it is far off from De Camp and Pratt's opinions, too. It's like the costume dramas of the 1940's. For those who didn't care for the protagonist's male chauvinistic macho (which I didn't), it becomes obvious that this attitude does not serve him well. The exception is for the assumption that a poet must be a wimp, which certainly goes against the medieval stance. (This is also shown not to be correct, in the next story, "Wall of Serpents.")
September 11, 2022
This second book, pubbed in 1950, gives us the same kind of cool magic system as before, with symbolic logic and the law of sympathy, to send us to a couple of imaginary classics including Kubla Khan (Coleridge) and Orlando Furioso (Ariosto), giving us a tale of chivalrous knights and noble kingdoms.
Or at least, this was my impression with a straight read.
I think it's written very well and it's engaging, especially if nobless oblige is what you want. The magic was fun, too. I preferred the first book because I have a soft spot for the Aesir, but this was also interesting. It's light, careful, and quite respectful. Something we don't often see these days.
Or at least, this was my impression with a straight read.
I think it's written very well and it's engaging, especially if nobless oblige is what you want. The magic was fun, too. I preferred the first book because I have a soft spot for the Aesir, but this was also interesting. It's light, careful, and quite respectful. Something we don't often see these days.
September 2, 2019
Took me a lot longer to read then the other stories in the series, as it was pretty boring. Had a few amusing parts, but I cannot recommend this for the average person, unless you are reading the Masterworks of Fantasy series and a completest.
June 17, 2024
1950
Third book of the Harold Shea series.
In this one they find their way into the world of Orlando Furioso.
The same love of myths/legends of the past irreverently crashed into blokes from Cleveland.
Third book of the Harold Shea series.
In this one they find their way into the world of Orlando Furioso.
The same love of myths/legends of the past irreverently crashed into blokes from Cleveland.
September 4, 2024
A novel of a man and his friend who discover a way of using magic to transport themselves into worlds of myth and legend. They travel a medieval land looking for a way to restore Harold's wife from her loss of memory and engage in many battles with persons and wizards alike
February 10, 2012
un gruppo di matematici in giro per il mondo dell'Orlando Furioso mescolati ai personaggi dell'Ariosto rivisitati al limite dell'assurdo.
peccato che il suggerimento da cui l'ho tirato fuori non menzionasse che si tratta del terzo di una serie, per cui - forse complice una traduzione che a pelle mi pare fatta da cani - all'inizio mi ha trovato un po' spiazzato.
capito il meccanismo, il primo suggerimento si è rivelato godibilissimo. leggero e godibilissimo. una boccata d'ossigeno, tra il penultimo Martin e il penultimo King.
il suggerimento era questo:
----- qte -----
[...] la dimostrazione che il manico di scopa infilato su per le terga degli attuali fan del fantasy è una aberrazione recente. Qui, un gruppo di matematici newyorkesi trova un sistema, una matematica della magia, che permette loro di shiftare in mondi che sono basati su opere letterarie... l’Edda scandinava, il Faerie Queene, l’Orlando Furioso... potete immaginare le conseguenze. Anzi no, non potete – leggete il libro, che da noi pubblicò la solita Nord.
Questo è fantasy razionalizzato, lieve, umoristico.
Si ride, e si ride spesso, e il livello della narrazione è maledettamente solido. Incredibile, che l’abbian scritto a quattro mani un ingegnere e uno storico militare.
L’idea qui non è di flettere poderosi muscoli e compensare le carenze dei lettori adolescenti, ma di giocare con l’intelligenza.
----- unqte -----
[fonte] (una recensione migliore di quanto potessi fare io)
errata corrige: la recensione menzionava "il castello d'acciaio" come titolo in italiano, che di fatto raduna tutti i libri della serie.
peccato che il suggerimento da cui l'ho tirato fuori non menzionasse che si tratta del terzo di una serie, per cui - forse complice una traduzione che a pelle mi pare fatta da cani - all'inizio mi ha trovato un po' spiazzato.
capito il meccanismo, il primo suggerimento si è rivelato godibilissimo. leggero e godibilissimo. una boccata d'ossigeno, tra il penultimo Martin e il penultimo King.
il suggerimento era questo:
----- qte -----
[...] la dimostrazione che il manico di scopa infilato su per le terga degli attuali fan del fantasy è una aberrazione recente. Qui, un gruppo di matematici newyorkesi trova un sistema, una matematica della magia, che permette loro di shiftare in mondi che sono basati su opere letterarie... l’Edda scandinava, il Faerie Queene, l’Orlando Furioso... potete immaginare le conseguenze. Anzi no, non potete – leggete il libro, che da noi pubblicò la solita Nord.
Questo è fantasy razionalizzato, lieve, umoristico.
Si ride, e si ride spesso, e il livello della narrazione è maledettamente solido. Incredibile, che l’abbian scritto a quattro mani un ingegnere e uno storico militare.
L’idea qui non è di flettere poderosi muscoli e compensare le carenze dei lettori adolescenti, ma di giocare con l’intelligenza.
----- unqte -----
[fonte] (una recensione migliore di quanto potessi fare io)
errata corrige: la recensione menzionava "il castello d'acciaio" come titolo in italiano, che di fatto raduna tutti i libri della serie.
September 20, 2017
"Maybe the guy's a sadist. According to all the correlations, abnormal sex patterns should be common in this Moslem society where they keep all respectable women locked up. Besides his personality reminds me of that sadist we used as a case study—you know the one I mean—that real-estate fellow the SPCA got after."
Implying bestiality is a bit much. At any rate, it's outside of the spirit of Orlando Furioso. Also one of the psychologist heroes is called the Rubber Czech and he's Jar-Jar Binks-level stupid. And there's all that annoying, phoney not-quite-middle-english that people once used to signal Ye Olden Times.
Quite disappointed. Was really hoping someone in the twentieth century cared about Orlando Furioso, but apparently not. I doubt the authors read more than a synopsis of it (though there probably wasn't a good translation at the time).
It's a shame because I liked the premise: scientists/psychologists who travel to alternate realities based on works of literature. And there is one pretty good slam at the beginning: they want to learn more about the universe based on Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, but can't enter it for plot reasons, and opt instead for Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, whose universe operates on a similar logic because Spenser lifted all the best bits from it.
Quit less than half way in. Might return to it someday but I don't know.
Implying bestiality is a bit much. At any rate, it's outside of the spirit of Orlando Furioso. Also one of the psychologist heroes is called the Rubber Czech and he's Jar-Jar Binks-level stupid. And there's all that annoying, phoney not-quite-middle-english that people once used to signal Ye Olden Times.
Quite disappointed. Was really hoping someone in the twentieth century cared about Orlando Furioso, but apparently not. I doubt the authors read more than a synopsis of it (though there probably wasn't a good translation at the time).
It's a shame because I liked the premise: scientists/psychologists who travel to alternate realities based on works of literature. And there is one pretty good slam at the beginning: they want to learn more about the universe based on Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, but can't enter it for plot reasons, and opt instead for Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, whose universe operates on a similar logic because Spenser lifted all the best bits from it.
Quit less than half way in. Might return to it someday but I don't know.
June 19, 2011
The third of le Camp's fantasies of Harold Shea, psychologist and fledgling magician. In this one, Harold ends up in a world of Saracens and knights, attempting to rescue his amnesiac wife, Belphebe.
I found this book flat instead of the amusing take on mythology that I found the others in the series. The writing is dated, there's a little swordplay and some misguided magic, but aside from a late cameo by Merlin (in a top hat, no less), I was impatient for the book to be over.
I found this book flat instead of the amusing take on mythology that I found the others in the series. The writing is dated, there's a little swordplay and some misguided magic, but aside from a late cameo by Merlin (in a top hat, no less), I was impatient for the book to be over.
November 18, 2019
Pretty disjointed, the structure and pacing are all over the place, and the setting makes no sense. A strange cross between Arthurian knights and the medieval Islamic world. Elements appear and disappear as and when the author feels like bringing them up, whether or not they're consistent with anything else - and once in a while the bizarre Muslim theme is remembered. Events whirl by leaving me unable to make sense of the plot or characters. Some charm but ultimately a rubbish mess.
June 4, 2015
Stupendo libro, assoluta poesia. L'ho adorato per la sua particolarità, per come giustifica l'esistenza della magia, l'esistenza dei mondi fantastici stessi, per l'assoluta logica e indiscussa varietà della storia. Meraviglioso, non esagero nel dire che sia uno dei fantasy che in assoluto mi è piaciuto di più.
tbr-someday-maybe
August 1, 2014Set in the world of The Matter of France (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_o...)
Read
August 14, 2015I know they're classics, and I generally like de Camp's fiction, but I just can't get into it. Moving on.
February 20, 2016
Very funny fantasy series. Great read. Very recommended
April 25, 2017
Sequel to The Incomplete Enchanter is ok. Again I probably would have enjoyed it more if I was more familiar with the source material in this case Orlando Furioso
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews