WIZARD AT LARGE

Bright and breezy third outing for ex-lawyer Ben Holiday, now King of the Magic Kingdom of Landover (most recently The Black Unicorn, 1987). Incompetent court wizard Questor Thews offers to return the doggy court-scribe Abernathy to fully human form. During the spell, however, Abernathy—wearing Ben's magic medallion—vanishes, to be replaced by a bottle containing a Darkling, an evil but powerful imp. Abernathy finds himself on Earth and in the clutches of Michel Ard Rhi, the exiled and unprincipled ex-king of Landover. So Ben, helpless without his medallion, must return to Earth with his bride, the lovely dryad Willow, to discover Abernathy and do battle with Ard Rhi. Meanwhile in Landover, the evil witch Nightshade takes possession of the Darkling and prepares to wreak enormous harm. So Questor Thews must somehow undo the damage, by persuading a tough old dragon to help him, and for once making his magic work properly. Light, snappy, unexceptionable, devoid of intellectual content. As these things go: not too bad.