Skip to main content

story identification - Teen novel about a boy challenging Death, including a bowling match


I'm trying to track down a novel I read in my junior high days, which would put it at mid-to-late 80s. I don't remember the overall plot of the novel, but I remember the protagonist ended up matching wits against Death in various games - including a bowling match, of all things. The kid was being helped by a group of weird characters & creatures, and the rules of the world he was in were all screwy. It definitely had a fantasy genre bent to it - wasn't sci/fi or drama. It also wasn't a "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" book, which I absolutely loved at the time - it was a regular novel with a linear plot.



I was a big fan of AD&D at the time, so I'm thinking it might have been set in the Planescape "universe", which would have explained all the weird characters & rules of reality. I've had no luck finding it based on that, however. I've also had no luck searching for "bowling" + "death"... all I get are a bunch of weird news reports about people dying while bowling.


Does the "bowling with death" thing ring a bell for anyone?



Answer



I'm pretty sure you are taking about Craig Shaw Gardner's books about the apprentice wizard 'Wuntvor' and his exploits.


The cover from the last book shows the scene that you are remembering: Bowling with Death



First, the Exploits of Ebenezum
[Warning: The above is a TVTropes link; you can lose hours following it.]

Then, the Wanderings of Wuntvor

[Warning: The above is a TVTropes link; you can lose hours following it.]



Wuntvor was helped by a number of unusual characters, including



  • Hendrek -- a Mercenary with an enchanted Club ('Headbasher', a weapon no man could own, but only rent... Smilin' Brax the salesdemon showed up regularly attempting to collect) that 'drinks the memories of men.' Known for saying 'Doom!' a lot.

  • The 'Dealer of Death' -- a very talented (if not very bright) assassin

  • Hubert -- the dragon who wants to break into Vaudeville

  • Snarks -- a demon who was kicked from the Netherhells because he could only speak the truth (as I recall, his mother was scared by a politician or possibly a group of lawyers while carrying him)

  • Cuthbert -- our Hero's magical sword (from A Night in the Netherhells on); a great magic sword, but VERY squeamish and reluctant to be used. And it talks; mostly trying to convince the hero to please put it back in the sheath unused.

  • Tap -- A Brownie who was always trying to help with magic that involved shoes.


  • Ebenezum -- our Hero's Master; a phenomenal wizard, currently cursed to be allergic to magic. Known for often saying 'Indeed!' in response to nearly anything.


Death himself was out to get Wuntvor, having identified him as the 'Eternal Apprentice'; basically a Trope from such stories. You first encounter him in the first book, as I recall.. Repeated exposure to our Hero (and the hero's habit of somehow surviving) is what drives Death to realize what the hero must be, and become obsessed with destroying him.


Also, there is Guxx Unfuffadoo, the rhyming demon lord responsible for Ebenezum's malady in the first place, the main recurrent villain thru the books.


One possible clincher...
Do you remember him casting a spell that involved whistling four bars "The Happy Woodcutter's Song", making various gestures and resulted in cascades of Fish falling upon everyone? It (and variations on it, for example, the first time in book 1, it produced Butterflies) appear in many of the books.


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