Thanks, you just reminded me of this series. I need to go find a set of e-books…
Jonathan Carroll and Charles de Lint often use this trope.
I came to the thread to recommend this series. There are now 4 books in the series. However, it is quite British in its style and humour.
One of the worst pieces of crap I ever read, it makes jokes about raping a child to death, etc. Har.
The Secret History of Moscow, by Ekaterina Sedia, about a girl in modern Moscow who finds her way to an underground place populated by figures from russian myth and folklore, in search of her sister who has turned into a jackdaw.
Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card, where an american linguist visiting Ukraine wakes a woman he finds in the forest with a kiss, sleeping beauty style, and finds himself transported to 10th century and must fight Baba Yaga with the princess he just woke.
It’s better than it sounds.
How about an ordinary mortal who learns that she isn’t an ordinary mortal? If that’s ok, I highly recommend Daniel O’Malley’s The Rook.
“Myfanwy Thomas awakes in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, her only hope of survival is to trust the instructions left in her pocket by her former self. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats. But there is a mole inside the organization and this person wants her dead.”
Gaiman’s American Gods has a mortal coming into contact with magic, and is one of my favorite books of all times.
Zelazny’s Amber series moves back and forth between magical alternate universes and “the real” world, and features “The Pattern”, which is gate-like. (The protagonist in Amber isn’t exactly an ordinary mortal, however, as it turns out…)
The Beginning Place, by Ursula Le Guin.
Steel Magic, and Quag Keep, by Andre Norton.
Norton had a whole series of books on this theme:
*Steel Magic
Octagon Magic
Fur Magic
Dragon Magic
Lavender-Green Magic
Red Hart Magic
Dragon Mage: A Sequel to Dragon Magic. *
I loved Steel Magic, but have not read the rest.
In Quag Keep, people find themselves in a D&D game. I was not that impressed with this one, but it was popular enough to spawn a sequel, Return to Quag Keep.
Thinking about it, the Apprentice Adept trilogy also fits the description but it is set in the far future on another planet so the base setting is Sci Fi which is not very “ordinary”.
I just mentioned this series in another thread, but Barbara Hambly’s Darwath Trilogy (Time of the Dark, The Walls of Air, and The Armies of Daylight) is about 2 Californians who who travel to another world, but are then unable to travel back because it is too dangerous. One is a tattooist and a motorcyle mechanic, the other is a historian. Rudy (the biker) discovers that he has a talent for magic (which is pretty low-key in this series), and Gil (the scholar) joins the Guard as a warrior, as the remains of humanity bands together in a desperate battle against strange and vicious creatures. It’s pretty gritty and has a very realistic feel considering that it’s filled with ghost like creatures and wizards.
I just remembered another one I recently read. Off to be the Wizard, by Scott Meyer (of webcomic fame), about a computer nerd who discovers a file that allows him to control reality as if it were a simulation. He then flees to 12 century England to escape bank fraud and discovers other time traveling programmers who have found the same file and set themselves up as wizards. Staves and pointy hats and everything.
D’oh, yes, that’s what I meant.
He’s writing a new installment, his first fiction in years.
Just thought of another one, the Harold Shea novels by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. They don’t exactly accidentally stumble into other worlds (they’re deliberately trying to reach alternate realities) but don’t always wind up where they think they’re going.
I love “The Rook” (and I’m re-reading it currently) but it’s straight-up urban fantasy, imo. I was actually going to start a thread on the trope you mention - books with amnesiacs as protagonists. I’ve liked such books since reading the first of the Amber series by Zelazny.
Several works there - which title are you describing?
There is the Dragon Knight series (book 1 “Dragon and the George”) by Gordon R. Dickson
There is Magic Kingdom of Landover series by Terry Brooks
There is the Wizardry series by Rich Cook (where programmer folks use tiny spells like a programming language
Brian
I just remembered a really good one that I don’t think has been mentioned yet: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly.
Has Brigadoon (a musical) been mentioned?
Light on Shattered Water