''Madwand'' is a 1981

fantasy novel Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

by American writer Roger Zelazny. It is a sequel to '' Changeling''.

Plot summary

Pol Detson, son of Lord Det, has come home, now a powerful sorcerer of unsurpassed natural ability. But Pol is still an untrained talent, a "madwand". To take control of his powers, to rule in his father's place, he must survive arduous training and a fantastic initiation into the rites of society. During this process, Pol discovers that he is being monitored by a powerful magician. He has recurrent dreams of opening a portal into another world where a dark bestial erotic magic reigns supreme. Eventually he is drawn to a castle occupied by two magicians who are working to make the dream real, and want him to take his father's place in the scheme, so they can all reinvent themselves as gods in the new world. Pol's loyalty to the world that he lives in, which will be destroyed by the dark world, causes him to resist and, with the help of a dragon, he stops the portal being opened. One of his enemies is killed and the other flees by flying away. He leaves behind a garment containing a label that says ''"Made in Hong Kong"''. The story implied that a sequel was necessary to complete the story, but no sequel was ever written.

Reception

Greg Costikyan Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959, in New York City), sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based wa ...

reviewed ''Madwand'' in '' Ares Magazine'' #13 and commented that "A bad Zelazny, to be sure, is considerably better than a lot of good others; but Zelazny will have to do some work to equal his previous books."

Reviews

*Review by Charles Platt (1982) in ''The Patchin Review'', Number Three *Review by Richard E. Geis (1982) in ''

Science Fiction Review Richard E. Geis (July 19, 1927 – February 4, 2013) was an American science fiction fan and writer, and erotica writer, from Portland, Oregon, who won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1982 and 1983; and whose science fiction fanzine ...

'', Spring 1982 *Review by Lawrence I. Charters (1982) in ''Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review'', #3, April 1982 *Review by Algis Budrys (1982) in ''

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...

'', May 1982 *Review by Joe Sanders (1982) in ''

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...

'', November 1982 *Review

rench The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau (Baden (Land), Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is ...

by Eric Sanvoisin (1987) in ''Fiction'', #389

Sources

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References

{{reflist 1981 American novels Novels by Roger Zelazny Phantasia Press books Sequel novels