ITHANALIN’S RESTORATION

Another of Watt-Evans's fantasies set in the sprawling land of Ethshar (Night of Madness, 2000). While casting a spell, the wizard Ithanalin responds absent-mindedly to a tax collector's raps on his door, trips over a hobgoblin-like spriggan under a rug, and loses control of the spell: his life-essence leaves his body and becomes distributed among the spriggan, the rug, and various items of furniture in the room. Worse, the furniture now possesses the wizard's animation, and when the tax collector opens the door, the rug and most of the furniture promptly gallop out into the city streets! When the wizard's apprentice, Kilisha, returns, she finds the wizard huddled, alive but inanimate and mindless, and the room devoid of its rug, bench, chair, table, couch and coat rack. Fortunately, the mirror, which has acquired most of the wizard's memory, can describe what happened. The spriggan, who's acquired another part of the wizard's essence and cannot be captured, just wants to have fun. Somehow Kilisha must round up furniture that seemingly has its own agenda and definitely doesn't want to be recaptured, amuse the spriggan, and work a spell to restore Ithanalin to his true self. During the process, of course, Kilisha will learn how to control her spells, set priorities, and plan ahead—in short, transform herself from an apprentice into a full-fledged wizard.

Strives for comedy without ever reaching it: still, good-humored fluff that should please the fans.