Books: The Reluctant Sorcerer By Simon Hawke (1992)

“In an attempt, discover time, travel, bumbling, Genius, Dr. Marvin Brewster accidentally transports himself to a parallel universe where Magic really works. Period. I land of leprechauns, giants, guitar, playing elves, chess, playing assassins, gossiping, dragons, Virgin-hating unicorns, gorgeous, Brigand queens, walking bushes, and talking chamberpots. Here Brewster’s knowledge of science -and eyeglasses, penknives, and gin- causes him to be mistaken for sorcerer. Only the real sorcerers have a powerful guild. Brewster doesn’t have a unicorn card. Or any bonafide magic. Or a way out of this crazy world where sorcerers put curses on scabs, and the only escape route is now controlled by the grand Director of the guild himself.”

For the most part, this book is very light, sometimes very funny, but it’s never going to be considered in the same breath as more established fantasy writers over the last 90 years. The book is okay, but not a lot really happens here, as there are pages and pages (of a really short novel) of exposition and humorous comments on writing itself (as Hawke sort of becomes part of the story, known as the narrator). While the idea is not that unique, it does have some original aspects, like instead of traveling to past, Brewster travels to a different dimension. And Brewster seems more able to accept his situation than most would, I guess. It makes him more likable and endearing.

Hawke can be a bit flippant (something I remember from his Timewars series), but it’s not intolerable. It’s not Terry Pratchet or Neil Gaiman, but it’s not Piers Anthony, so to each their own,

Born Nicholas Yermakov he began his prolific writing career in the early 80s with Last Communion (1981), Journey from Flesh (1981) Epiphany (1982), Clique (1982), Fall Into Darkness and Jehad (1984), along with two Battlestar Galactica novelizations: Battlestar Galactica #6: The Living Legend (1982) and Battlestar Galactica #7: War of the Gods (1982). He re-launched his career as Simon Hawke (he later changed his legal name to Hawke) in 1984, and all his books have been either part of a series and/or tie-in novels and novelizations. His first major work as Simon Hawke was the twelve volume Timewars series, which recounts the adventures of an organization tasked with protecting history from being changed by time travelers (I read about half of them). He has also written a series of humorous murder mysteries which features a young William Shakespeare and a fictional friend, Symington "Tuck" Smythe. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels. In the late 80s and well into the 90s, he began the multi-volume Wizard of 4^th Street, three Star Trek novels, a bunch of movie novelizations (including the first four Friday the 13^th books), six Dungeon and Dragons novels, and this Reluctant Sorcerer series.