Christopher Stasheff
Matt didn't know the scrap of parchment was a trap. So he read the runes - and found himself on a world where reciting poetry verses worked magic. His first effort got him locked in a dungeon by the evil sorcerer Malingo. Trying for light, he brought forth a fire-breathing, drunken dragon, who told him Princess Alisande, rightful ruler of Merovence, was also held in the dungeon.
Naturally, he had to free her, himself, and the dragon, using
...A WORLD OF TROUBLES - TIMES TWO!
Matt Mantrell - Her Majesty's Wizard - conjured himself from magical Merovence to Jersey City for a long-delayed visit to his parents. Back in his hometown vicious, drug-dealing gangs had reduced Matt's old neighborhood to a wasteland, driven his father out of business, and forced his parents to the brink of destitution and homelessness. The only answer was for Matt to transport them - permanently - to Merovence.
...NO GOVERNMENT, NO PROBLEM... FOR THE INVADERS.
During his last fight for peace and democracy on a forgotten planet, the interplanetary liberator Gar Pike somehow managed to get himself a new traveling companion: Alea, a young with a certain amount of psychic ability - and a heavy dose of attitude to boot.
Now the ship feels like it's shrinking, and Alea's always around, asking questions, sticking her nose in, and tensions are rising.
...Matt Mandrell, unsuspecting graduate student, never imagined his research would lead him to a strange scrap of parchment that would change his life forever...
Crossing the void of time and space, Matt is whisked away to an enchanted world where speaking in rhymes works the most dazzling magic. There he wins not only fame and power as the Lord High Wizard, but the heart of the beautiful Queen Alisande. His dreams are shattered, though, when
...WHEN YOUR FATHER'S A HIGH-TECH WARLOCK, THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO GROW UP - THE HARD WAY.
Even the son of a warlock gets restless sometimes. And when Magnus sets off to see the world, his father, Rod Gallowglass, and the robot horse, Fess, can't resist trailing behind. Someone's got to protect young Magnus from spellbinding witches, enchanted maidens, and jealous husbands. But despite his dad's best intentions, when Magnus
...THE REBEL SLAVES NEED A LEADER. EVEN IF HE'S A WIZARD. EVEN IF HE'S DEAD...
The revolutionary DeCade died generations ago, leading the last great revolt of the planet Melange's churls against their despotic feudal masters. His staff and bones were broken and lost; only his songs remain.
The churl Dulain joined the Resistance in his youth - an exile Resistance, devoted to readying the churls for their next great attempt
...In this short story, Manninglore is a Wizard who is feared and loathed by the people of the valley he lives above. But when extinction threatens humanity, he comes down and shows them that he, too, is nothing more then they are - human.
LIBERTY IS TREASON
Interstellar liberator Magnus Gallowglass, the renegade psychic wizard, travels the stars fighting injustice and oppression. But this time the Rogue Wizard may have encountered a tyrant even he can't overthrow: a stern Protector whose oppressive regime makes Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth look like a Sunday-school picnic. For hundreds of years, this lost colony planet has preserved order by dictating every
...THERE'S NO JUSTICE, AND LITTLE FREEDOM, IN A WORLD WHERE MIGHT MAKES RIGHT...
The medieval planet of Maltroit seems to be repeating Earth's bloody history in the worst possible manner: endless feudal warfare, at the expense of peasants just trying to survive. It's up to the Rogue Wizard to give the downtrodden a crash course in revolution, and set in motion a plan for the common soldiers to take back power and end the bloodshed.
...THE FATE OF A KINGDOM RESTS ON FOUR CHILDREN
The Kingdom of Gramarye is spiraling into chaos, and the High Warlock is nowhere to be found. With their parents suddenly and suspiciously vanished, the four Gallowglass siblings - Magnus, Cordelia, Geoffrey, and Gregory - are all that stand between peaceful order and violent anarchy. But how can mere children, even with an elfin babysitter, stand against dragons and giants, witches and sorcerers?
...CAN THE WIZARD OF RHYME SOLVE A ROYAL CRIME?
There's little love lost between the kindly monarchs of Merovence and the scheming sovereigns of Bretanglia. But when the brutish Prince Gaheris - heir apparent to the Bretanglian throne - is murdered during a brawl in a Merovence tavern, any pretense of civility between the two kingdoms flies out the window faster than the mysterious brigand who committed the dastardly deed.
...12) The Witch Doctor
Saul didn't have so many friends that he would give one up without a fight. So when Matt disappeared, Saul started a search that led through Matt's kitchen window — straight into a world of magic and desperate danger!
Saul discovered that in this world, his love of verse made him a wizard. But his newfound magic earned him a dreadful foe: Queen Suettay, a false monarch without peer for wickedness and corruption. A fearsome sorceress
...HOW DO YOU STOP AND ENDLESS CYCLE OF VIOLENCE?
When Gar Pike - the Rogue Wizard - and his traveling companion Alea land their ship on a planet harboring a lost colony to do some minor repairs to the ship's computer, they decided to take some time for shore leave, and explore. It's not long before they meet one of the indigenous life forms of the planet: Fairies.
As Gar and Alea explore more of the world and meet more
...14) A Wizard in Mind
LIBERO PIROGIA!
Magnus D'Armand, the renegade son of Rod Gallowglass, Warlock of Gramarye, has set out to prove himself twice the hero and liberator his father ever was. However, Magnus has inherited not only his father's awesome psychic gifts, but his uncanny knack for getting into trouble as well.
Bored and in search of excitement, Magnus D'Armand has asked his sentient starship to find him a world in need of revolution.
...THOU SHALT NOT SUFFER A WITCH - OR WARLOCK - TO LIVE!
Beyond science and sorcery, time and space, the enemies of peace once again come to the planet Gramarye. Their mission: to tempt the clergy with visions of power, and lead them to war against the throne and establish a theocracy. Only warlock Rod Gallowglass can stop it - or burn at the stake for trying...
LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD
Gregory Gallowglass is the eligible bachelor on the planet of Gramarye. The youngest son of the High Warlock Rod Gallowglass and the witch Gwendolyn, his powers of intellect and magic are without equal.
But he's best known for his heart—one as pure as it is impervious to love. To the femme fatale assassin Finister, it's the ultimate challenge: first to conquer, then drive a knife through.
...When old Count Rory, patriarch of d'Armand Automatons, begins to lose his grip on reality and retreat into a fantasy world, it threatens his company, his noble house, and his family. Is he just a senile but harmless old man, or a danger to himself and others? And what, if anything, can be done about it?
18) Mind Out of Time
But there's no such thing as a time machine...
Inventor Dr. Angus McAran, born brilliant but deformed, had as little use for other people as they had for him. Until the day he met the Neanderthal - and Angus discovered that he had a destiny, one that he wasn't sure he wanted... or could avoid. This novella is the origin story of Doc Angus and his time traveling organization, GRIPE, from Christopher Stasheff's Warlock of
...A CAT-NAPPED PRINCESS
The feline magician Balkis has returned to Maracanda to reclaim her royal title. But a vengeful foe sprouts a diabolical scheme to spirit away the Princess of the Eastern Gate and send her tumbling forever through unknown worlds. Now an unprecedented search is begun, led by Balkis's mentor, Royal Wizard Matthew Mantrell.
But the hardship of finding his apprentice cannot compare to Balkis's
AT LAST, THE UNTOLD ADVENTURES OF THE WARLOCK'S FAITHFUL CYBERNETIC STEED!
Fess, Rod Gallowglass's faithful cybernetic stallion, has had a long life and many grand adventures. But what about the masters he served before Rod Gallowglass? What about the young, spoiled joyrider? Or the revolutionary hero? Or the crew of a pirate ship? Over the hundreds of years its been operating, the epileptic robot has served masters selfless