Avalon First Ed WALL OF SERPENTS de Camp, Pratt HC, DJ! - eBay (item 310104129152 end time Dec-01-08 21:29:01 PST)
This vintage 1960 first edition hard cover book Wall of Serpents by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt is a fantasy classic published by Avalon Books. It's pristine, never read, in original dust jacket. Art by Ed Emshwiller.
From the jacket flaps:It all started when Dr. Chalmers proposed the theory that the worlds of legend and fantasy really existed in other space-time continua, and that these could be reached through the use of symbolic logic. Harold Shea experimented--and found himself smack in the midst of Norse mythology at the time when Ragnarok approached. When he returned, Chalmers and Walter Bayard wanted to play too, and the three of them went for a jaunt into the midst of Spencer's Faerie Queen, where Shea met, wooed and won Belphebe.
For in these other-worlds, magic worked--and Shea and his friends found that spells and magic formulae could be worked out mathematically. One could not take any devices into these worlds which were not already there; people from our continuum were in real danger from all the dangers of legend-universes. Shea's only advantage lay in his swordsmanship--fencing was unknown in these continua, and a good épée man could operate with any pointed sword better than the hacking, slashing, and chopping swordsmen of legend. And knowing that magic, though an art, was at least as scientific in its basis as medicine, Shea could be a sorcerer or enchanter in any of these worlds.
But he couldn't avoid the consequences of sudden appearances and disappearances in his own world, and now Shea and Belphebe were in trouble with the law. They'd banished one inquisitive policeman, Pete Brodsky, to Coleridge's Xanadu, where Walter Bayard now was, and they had to get him back to avoid arrest for kidnaping a policeman. And this was beyond Shea's talents.
There was just one thing to do--to find a powerful sorcerer in one of these other-worlds who could help restore Walter Bayard and Pete Brodsky to Ohio before the machinery of the law built up momentum against the Sheas. But which? They couldn't go back to the worlds they had already visited--Harold Shea had worn out his welcome in those.
Where then? The Iliad or the Odyssey? No, only Circe was adept enough for Shea's needs, and he didn't want to fool with Circe. But there was still the Kalevala, the Finnish epic, which had such mighty and friendly enchanters in it as Vainamoinen.
The trouble with magic was that everything worked out literally, and the slightest lack of precision would result in something quite different from what you expected. But at least they landed in the world of the Kalevala. Only it wasn't Vainamoinen they encountered, but Lemminkainen, the reckless wizard and arrant rake. Lemminkainen, who would good-naturedly steal Belphebe or kill off Shea without a second thought--and likely as not both.
Here is a rollicking novel of mathematics and magic as only two great masters of the fantastic and science fiction can bring it to you.
For in these other-worlds, magic worked--and Shea and his friends found that spells and magic formulae could be worked out mathematically. One could not take any devices into these worlds which were not already there; people from our continuum were in real danger from all the dangers of legend-universes. Shea's only advantage lay in his swordsmanship--fencing was unknown in these continua, and a good épée man could operate with any pointed sword better than the hacking, slashing, and chopping swordsmen of legend. And knowing that magic, though an art, was at least as scientific in its basis as medicine, Shea could be a sorcerer or enchanter in any of these worlds.
But he couldn't avoid the consequences of sudden appearances and disappearances in his own world, and now Shea and Belphebe were in trouble with the law. They'd banished one inquisitive policeman, Pete Brodsky, to Coleridge's Xanadu, where Walter Bayard now was, and they had to get him back to avoid arrest for kidnaping a policeman. And this was beyond Shea's talents.
There was just one thing to do--to find a powerful sorcerer in one of these other-worlds who could help restore Walter Bayard and Pete Brodsky to Ohio before the machinery of the law built up momentum against the Sheas. But which? They couldn't go back to the worlds they had already visited--Harold Shea had worn out his welcome in those.
Where then? The Iliad or the Odyssey? No, only Circe was adept enough for Shea's needs, and he didn't want to fool with Circe. But there was still the Kalevala, the Finnish epic, which had such mighty and friendly enchanters in it as Vainamoinen.
The trouble with magic was that everything worked out literally, and the slightest lack of precision would result in something quite different from what you expected. But at least they landed in the world of the Kalevala. Only it wasn't Vainamoinen they encountered, but Lemminkainen, the reckless wizard and arrant rake. Lemminkainen, who would good-naturedly steal Belphebe or kill off Shea without a second thought--and likely as not both.
Here is a rollicking novel of mathematics and magic as only two great masters of the fantastic and science fiction can bring it to you.
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