Skip to main content

story identification - Childrens fantasy, blind monk leading boy who can control the elements


This is a book I read as a child, so sometime in the 1980's . It was actually a two part book series, both normal novel length. It was a swords and sorcery style setting.


Details are sketchy, but I'll give you what I can remember.


It centred around a boy on a quest against some demon-like villain wizard type character. At some stage a girl was kidnapped and they were off to rescue her ( fairly generic stuff) . I think the girl also had magic powers, healing I think.


This boy could control the weather or elements. He encounters a monk type character who ends up travelling with him and becomes a teacher of sorts. This monk is actually blind, but can still sense his surroundings, DareDevil style. ( I cannot remember if this was a magical ability or just something the monk had developed over time. ). I seem to remember this character had black, reptilian style eyes. There may have been more people travelling with them I don't recall.


I recall the encounter with the main enemy took place on the top of a mountain, this mountain had the top taken off so was perfectly flat. ( I hope I'm not getting muddled with a different book with this detail)


The baddie know the boy could only control the elements if he was exposed to them, so ended up sealing the room he was fighting in so the boy had no contact with the outside. He won through by using a dagger or sword to make a crack in the floor through the protection, giving him enough of a connection with the outside to use his powers. I /think/ he died during this battle, and the girl they were rescuing brought him back to life. ( Or maybe she dies, and was brought back to life somehow)



Answer




It's "Blade of the Poisoner" by Douglas Hill and the sequel, "Master of Fiends".


The group of super-powered individuals are called "Talents", the "Blind monk guy" is called "Scythe", his Talent is being able to see everything even though his eyes are just featureless black marbles. He's an expert swordsman who usually goes around disguised as a blind beggar/monk. There's a woman called "Archer" who has telekinesis; she can control her arrows so they always strike true.


There's a girl who can control people's minds - she uses part of her ability to lock away the protagonist's fear of what has been done to him by the bad guy in the first book.


And then there's Jarrel, the boy who can control elementals. He's the protagonist, and he hasn't come into his power yet. But the Demon-controlling "Master of Fiends" sends his minion "The Poisoner" to eliminate him, because elementals are the only thing that a demon is weak against. The Poisoner signs Jarrel's chest with his magic blade; the Letter he carved there will get bigger over the course of a month until it consumes Jarrel entirely. This is the quest of the first book, to defeat the Poisoner and destroy the blade so Jarrel will survive.


The Talents are given this quest by the Wizard Cryl, who knows that Jarrel's Elemental talent can defeat the Master of Fiends if he has a chance to grow into it.


Comments

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...

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.

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?