# Ordinary mortal stumbles into magical world **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2014, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786 "2014-07-10T19:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/21 "2014-07-10T22:48:43Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I’d like some more books like Neverwhere by Gaiman, please. > > Ones where a ordinary mortal walks thru some sort of gate into a Fantasy world. **Stardust** by Neil Gaiman has a literal gate. Also a good movie, depending on your tolerance for campy gay pirates. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/22 "2014-07-10T22:57:21Z")
Hmm, all good, and there’s another where it’s a small English village, just that the villagers are magical beings, such as Mother Earth, Luna, etc? Drinking Midnight Wine. ---
**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:** [July 10, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/23 "2014-07-10T23:31:25Z")
Alan Dean Foster’s [Spellsinger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spellsinger) series has its charms. ---
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/24 "2014-07-11T00:14:30Z")
Tad Williams [War of the Flowers](http://www.amazon.com/War-Flowers-Tad-Williams/dp/075640181X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405037607&sr=1-1&keywords=war+of+the+flowers) was quite good. And the [Incompleat Enchante](http://www.amazon.com/Incompleat-Enchanter-Sprague-Fletcher-Pratt/dp/0722129300/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405037559&sr=1-1&keywords=incompleat+enchanter)r is a classic. [Her Majesty’s Wizard](http://www.amazon.com/Her-Majestys-Wizard-Christopher-Stasheff/dp/0345274563) has its charms. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/25 "2014-07-11T00:19:33Z")
Yeah, that’s one of the ones I was thinking of when I mentioned the protagonist developing magical talent. EDIT: That in reply to **hogarth** ’s mention of _Spellsinger_. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/26 "2014-07-11T00:36:28Z")
Andre Norton’s _Witchworld_ is based on that premise. The later Witchworld novels not so much (as they tend to focus on the (native) children of the guy who walked through), but the original is all about that. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/27 "2014-07-11T01:17:15Z")
An online novel about a human somehow transported to a world of sentient bobcats. [http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~howellg/stories/stories.html](http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~howellg/stories/stories.html) ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/28 "2014-07-11T01:33:07Z")
If you don’t mind an inversion of the trope, Simon Hawke’s _The Wizard of 4th Street_ series has magic come crashing back into our mundane world. A bit dated, may be hard to come by, and may not be as good as I remember (tastes change and evolve over time). YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/29 "2014-07-11T02:43:58Z")
Or another twist on the premise: Mary Gently’s _Orcs_ focuses mostly on orcs who are and have always been denizens of a magical world… but who come into possession of a cache of US Marines equipment and weapons, under a dragon’s curse of “You will become what you steal”, resulting in an army of orcish jarheads. An actual US Marine ends up being drawn into the world later in the book, and the orcs are eager to learn from him, but it turns out he’s a REMF. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/30 "2014-07-11T04:48:15Z")
I read it when I was a kid but Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions has this premise. Guy fighting in WWII ends up in a Magical World. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/31 "2014-07-11T05:03:06Z")
Smoky Barnable in “Little, Big” definitely fills the bill here. And if you haven’t read “[Little, Big](http://www.amazon.com/Little-Big-John-Crowley-ebook/dp/B005DB7O0U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405054514&sr=8-2&keywords=Little%2C+Big)” yet … oh, are you in for a treat! ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/32 "2014-07-11T05:25:35Z")
Terry Brooks - **Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!** He didn’t quite stumble into the magical land. He’s a high priced Chicago lawyer unhappy with his life, so he buys a kingdom from a Christmas catalog for a million dollars. He didn’t think it would be legit, but turns out it was. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/33 "2014-07-11T12:34:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I’d like some more books like Neverwhere by Gaiman, please. > > Ones where a ordinary mortal walks thru some sort of gate into a Fantasy world. If you liked _Neverwhere_, you _might_ like _Un Lun Dun_ by China Miéville. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/34 "2014-07-11T13:15:01Z")
[Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Kalvan_of_Otherwhen) by H. Beam Piper, maybe. That’s medieval, not really magical though [The Practice Effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_Effect) by David Brin is kind of an odd example. The other that immediately comes to mind for me is [the Coramonde books](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1007334.The_Doomfarers_of_Coramonde) which have already been mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/35 "2014-07-11T13:27:35Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Hmm, all good, and there’s another where it’s a small English village, just that the villagers are magical beings, such as Mother Earth, Luna, etc? Drinking Midnight Wine. I just read “Midnight Riot” by Ben Aaronovitch. It’s a sort of Harry Potterish story about a cop who discovers basic magic and minor deities hanging about London, and has to solve a murder mystery in the midst of it. It wasn’t \*quite \*my cuppa, and I’m not sure exactly why, but not bad at all. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/36 "2014-07-11T13:49:46Z")
If you can still find them: Craig Shaw Gardner’s **Cineverse** series. A guy discovers that his Captain Crusader decoder ring can magically transport him to the Cineverse, a world of living movie characters that abides by cinematic rules. Volumes in order are: [**Slaves of the Volcano God**](http://amzn.com/0441769772), [**Bride of the Slime Monster**](http://amzn.com/0441079504), and [**Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies**](http://amzn.com/0441718337) ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/37 "2014-07-11T14:28:08Z")
Also: John DeChancie’s _Castle_ series (unrelated to the TV show). I followed it for a while, but started having a hard time getting the books and lost track of the series. Basically, a guy (and eventually other characters, too) is rummaging around in the back of his closet, and as he digs deeper, gets lost and winds up in a fantasy world. Over time, each character develops unique, magically-endowed skills from being in that fantasy world (the main character becomes an excellent swordsman). Artist James Gurney did a lot of the artwork for DeChancie’s books, [and is responsible for one of my favorite pieces of sci-fi art.](http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID26054/images/Starrigger.jpg) His Dinotopia work rocks, too. Basically, I just dig this guy’s work. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/38 "2014-07-11T14:37:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Tolkien had one of these: _Farmer Giles of Ham_. I think you mean _Smith of Wootton Major_, where a boy receives a special charm that allows him to enter the land of Faerie. _Farmer Giles of Ham_ does contain some “fantasy” aspects like giants and dragons and talking dogs and enchanted swords, but they are presented as recognized (though rare) features of the world of ordinary mortals, rather than being part of a different magical world that becomes accessible to one mortal in particular. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/39 "2014-07-11T14:51:24Z")
[War for the Oaks](http://www.amazon.com/War-Oaks-Novel-Emma-Bull/dp/0765300346) is quite good. [Fool on the Hill](http://www.amazon.com/Fool-Hill-Novel-Matt-Ruff/dp/0802135358) also. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786/40 "2014-07-11T15:25:08Z")
Well, there’s Keith Laumer’s [Lafayette O’Leary books.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Laumer#Lafayette_O.27Leary). A guy in a dead-end life develops the ability to change dimensions and do magic based, possibly, on the power of positive thinking. Is it magic or science fiction? Not quite clear. The first couple of books are funny (at least when I first read them 35 years ago). The last in the series is a horrible muddle. And maybe [Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8694389-deathless). A normal Russian girl becomes the intended of Koschei the Deathless. In this case, the magic comes knocking on her door. A beautifully written, somewhat depressing novel in which WWII Russia is a reflection of a battle between the avatars of life and death (ah, I’m not going to be able to do this one justice.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ordinary-mortal-stumbles-into-magical-world/692786.md?page=3)