Skip to main content

story identification - Fantasy trilogy about a young man who travels into a fantasy world (doorway in a closet?) to save parents, who are royalty there



I may be able to get my answer to this the next time I'm home, but it's nagging me currently. It was a trilogy in paperback, released by 1998 because I remember seeing them up on my brother's shelf after I took over his room, which was prior to my graduation from high school. The front cover shows a young man in greyish camouflage fatigues, I think with two swords across his back. I only got partway into the first book before I set it down for reasons I don't remember, but the main character is a young man whose parents disappear. He finds a note, I think from his father, explaining that they are actually royalty from a fantasy realm and where the portal to said land is (I think) in the back of a closet in the house. Said young man starts to understand why it is that his parents had him doing so many anachronistic activities such as swordwork and archery. He arms himself (I remember him picking up swords, a bow and arrows, and woodland outfits, which he notes are in the closet in both camouflage and "Robin Hood green". He may have also picked up some guns). After he goes to the other world, he at one point freezes and notes that the key to avoiding motion when hiding in the woods isn't to hold your breath, but to rather breathe slowly and calmly. That part made an impression on me as a teenager for some reason.


I don't remember much of what happened after he traveled into the other world. I have this vague memory of him meeting someone at a ruined building, but that's pretty much it.



Answer



One of the "similar questions" was a dupe of Need help identifying the fantasy book about a portal to a fantasy land in the basement of a house, which is indeed the trilogy I was looking for, the "The Varayan Memoir" series by Rick Shelley. It has the boy finding his parents missing, the correct cover, and the portal in the house (in the basement). And indeed, he is heir to royalty (grandson of the King).


Closing this one as a duplicate.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more