story identification - Looking for a time travel fantasy/scifi novel from the late 80s/Early 90s

Ok, I remember borrowing this book from a friend back in 1993. I seem to recall the name being The Inept Adept, but I can't find anything related to this name except a piece from the 2000s that doesn't fit the description.

The book was the first in a series about a socially awkward/oblivious scientist from the present that develops a method of time travel using buckyballs. He travels to the middle ages (fantasy style), and falls in with a small group led by a woman. He keeps giving them small inventions from the future (he makes soap, so the female leader doesn't have to smell how bad her men smell; he grinds glasses for one of the men who can't see well) and as a result they consider him a wizard.

The only thing I can remember about the villain is that as the novel progresses, he hints that he can “hear” the book's narrator. I remember it being a cool concept.

Any thoughts?

Answer

In Simon Hawke's Reluctant Sorcerer trilogy, fullerene (as in Buckminsterfullerene aka buckyballs) is a highly necessary component of Brewster's travelling machine.

Consists of three books:
The Reluctant Sorcerer (1992)
The Inadequate Adept (1993) -- this is the one whose title you almost remembered.
The Ambivalent Magician (1997)

The Reluctant Sorcerer

Bumbling genius Dr. Martin Brewster accidentally transports himself to a parallel universe where odd creatures abound and magic really works. When the locals mistake Brewster for a sorcerer, he must devise an escape or incur the wrath of the real magicians.

The Inadequate Adept

The second entry in The Reluctant Sorcerer series by the author of the bestselling Wizard series. Marvin Brewster is the Reluctant Sorcerer, trapped in a parallel universe populated with gossiping dragons, walking bushes, capitalist leprechauns, and an evil wizard, who has captured his only means of escape--his time machine.

The Ambivalent Magician

Trapped in a paralled universe, Dr. Marvin Brewster marshals his renegade nation of brigands, dragons, trolls, vampire elves, and the runesword Dwarfkabob to challenge evil wizard Warrick. Aware that he's the dastardly villain of a nonstop rollicking adventure romp, Warrick plays the role of destiny and changes the path of the ambivalent magician--while it's being written.

Comments

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...

Blog

Search This Blog