I don’t remember the author or title of this book. A gym bag I had in high school (years and years ago) was stolen and the book was inside. I would love to figure out what the book was so I could finish reading it.
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: Prior to 1987
Plot: I remember that the main character was a thief who decides to break into a tower belonging to a wizard. He gets caught in a mirror trap set by the wizard and when the wizard returns he puts a little creature inside the guy that wraps around his liver. Everytime the guy does something the wizard doesn’t want him to, the little creature tightens up on his liver causing him agony. The wizard then sends him off on some quest.
Just one of those nagging memories from youth. Any suggestions on what book this is would be greatly appreciated.
Sounds like one of Jack Vance’s “Dying Earth” books – one of the two about the character Cugel. It’s been a few years since I’ve read them, but I suspect it’s the first Cugel book, The Eyes of the Overworld, and not Cugel’s Saga. The two books do start off in roughly the same way (Cugel gets in trouble, is sent to the other end of the continent on some kind of quest), though, so it could be either.
Perhaps Vengeance of the Dancing Gods (copyright 1985) by Jack Chalker? The situation you described is very similar to, but not exactly like, a scene in that book. A talented thief is one of the primary characters, and there is a wizard with a mirror trap. This book is actually part of a series, so the event you described may have occurred in an earlier or later book.