Skip to main content

story identification - Living rocks, sailing, goblin caves, a hero lost in time or space


I read a book when I was younger, that started off with a man directing a play. When it was over, he went to a party with his cast and came out of his drunken stupor in the lap of some woman, drunk and missing his wife, so he goes back home to be with her. As the story progresses you find out this man was somehow sucked into this world from Earth, likely in a previous book. I remember the book specifically describing him having cotton mouth. Weird thing to recall. But there it is. I also think his wife is pregnant.


I don't recall much. I remember he has a friend that sort of resembles a monkey. He has an older friend who guides him, I think some sort of mage. He lives in a city that's somewhat/somehow important in this world. His quest in this book is somehow supposed to save this city or the world. He has to sail to wherever he's off to.


In one scene he's in a port city and two ruffians in a bar challenge him. He fights them but gets beat up bad. They congratulate him for standing up for himself and his little monkey-like friend, and buy him drinks.


At some point he meets some living rock creatures and befriends them. I don't recall how it happens exactly, but when those creatures are broken the new shard has an ego all its own while the original part stays as the original ego. I think when you meet them there's just one. Then he gets broken and then has a "brother".



At some point there's a goblin cave... thing. Like a mountain range with a ton of goblins in it. I remember picturing in my head as being a ton of cave mouths densely packed. I don't remember if this was their destination, but I think they had to go into it.


There was magic in this world but I don't think it was overly prominent. I remember the cover sort of making me think of clockwork or Leonardo-type machinations. I don't mean to say it had machines on it. It just made me think of that period and that sort of innovation.


Any help would be appreciated!



Answer



Possibly Moon Dream by Brad Strickland. I'll admit that I never read it myself, but I remember the monkey-like character, Nul, from when my brother read it (specifically, I remember the second book, ''Nul's Quest''). The opening scene involves Jeremy Moon, ad-copy-writer, in a bizarre nightmare involving a stage (albeit as a musical performer) and a recurring motif of baby shoes. Unfortunately, that's as much as I could glean from the free preview on Google Books, but it does match some aspects of what you're looking for.


Cover image


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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.

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...

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?

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. ...