# help me find this 90s science fantasy series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2016, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047 "2016-01-03T07:41:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/1 "2016-01-03T07:41:02Z")
Ok bare with me on this one since I don’t remember all the details. It was a series with a least five books, each book was told from the point of view of a different character with overlapping stories. Started out as a fairly generic low magic fantasy world then some high tech was introduced from nowhere in the third book or so. First book possibly involved a shipwrecked magicians apprentice character from what I remember. It wasn’t high fantasy, it was very pulpy and didn’t take itself too seriously. Fair bit of sex thrown in. The books all had a bit of a picaresque feel in that they were mostly a series of misadventures of characters caught up in events beyond their control. Second or third book focused on a very arabic influenced culture, caliphs and viziers etc I don’t think it was a popular series so it might be out of print, but I’m 90 percent sure I didn’t just imagine it. Have looked through various lists of fantasy / science fantasy series and can’t find it. Anyone have a clue? ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/2 "2016-01-03T07:53:17Z")
a few more bits of information. The protagonists were all pretty much anti-heroes or morally ambiguous and each book was told only from one characters POV. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/3 "2016-01-03T08:27:34Z")
Sounds like you’ve mixed up a couple of the Tracy Hickman/Margeret Weiss series into one series, thre. The shipwrecked apprentice and Arabic culture bits definitely sound like [The Rose Of The Prophet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_of_the_Prophet)series, but that’s just 3 books. The bit about low magic and then high tech could be either the [Darksword](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darksword) ‘trilogy’ or the [Death Gate Cycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Gate_Cycle)(a heptalogy) ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/4 "2016-01-03T08:42:08Z")
Found it after looking through many lists of picaresque fantasy series. It was the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series by Hugh Cook. > **[Chronicles of an Age of Darkness Series by Hugh Cook](https://www.goodreads.com/series/43157-chronicles-of-an-age-of-darkness)** > > The Wizards and the Warriors (Chronicles Of An Age Of Darkness: Volume 1), The Wordsmiths and the Warguild, The Women And The Warlords (Chronicles of an... Now to try and track them down, yes all out of print. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/5 "2016-01-03T08:43:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Sounds like you’ve mixed up a couple of the Tracy Hickman/Margeret Weiss series into one series, thre. The shipwrecked apprentice and Arabic culture bits definitely sound like [The Rose Of The Prophet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_of_the_Prophet)series, but that’s just 3 books. The bit about low magic and then high tech could be either the [Darksword](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darksword) ‘trilogy’ or the [Death Gate Cycle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Gate_Cycle)(a heptalogy) That was what I thought originally, too, except he mentioned lots of sex, something largely absent from W&H. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/6 "2016-01-03T09:04:08Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Found it after looking through many lists of picaresque fantasy series. It was the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series by Hugh Cook. I really liked the series at first, with all its titles having Ws in them, with a sense of humour that reminded me of Jack Vance. But then it got a bit heavy and convoluted and I lost interest. And so did he, by the looks of things. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/7 "2016-01-03T09:22:14Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I really liked the series at first, with all its titles having Ws in them, with a sense of humour that reminded me of Jack Vance. But then it got a bit heavy and convoluted and I lost interest. And so did he, by the looks of things. He finished 10 books which is pretty good going, and he died at a fairly young age of cancer. Anyway I’m going to try and track them down. Theres no ebooks available so second hand from Amazon it is. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/8 "2016-01-03T10:08:10Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > That was what I thought originally, too, except he mentioned lots of sex, something largely absent from W&H. True, missed that bit. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/9 "2016-01-03T16:31:47Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Found it after looking through many lists of picaresque fantasy series. It was the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series by Hugh Cook. > > [Chronicles of an Age of Darkness Series by Hugh Cook](https://www.goodreads.com/series/43157-chronicles-of-an-age-of-darkness) > > Now to try and track them down, yes all out of print. You should be able to get a copy of The Walrus and the Warwolf; Paizo Publishing reissued it a few years ago. [http://paizo.com/products/btpy88wa?The-Walrus-the-Warwolf](http://paizo.com/products/btpy88wa?The-Walrus-the-Warwolf) ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/10 "2016-01-04T02:27:54Z")
Yep thanks also frustratingly they don’t seem to sell an ebook version either. Its not that obscure, apparently the first few books in the series sold 450,000 copies , AFAIK thats a lot for fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-this-90s-science-fantasy-series/742047/11 "2016-01-04T21:25:09Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Found it after looking through many lists of picaresque fantasy series. It was the Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series by Hugh Cook. > > [Chronicles of an Age of Darkness Series by Hugh Cook](https://www.goodreads.com/series/43157-chronicles-of-an-age-of-darkness) > > Now to try and track them down, yes all out of print. [Beavis voice] Huh huh huh. Hugh. Cook. Huh huh.[/Beavis voice]