Magic Kingdom of Landover

A series of fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks.

Magic Kingdom for Sale-- SOLD! (1986)

After the death of his wife, Chicago attorney Ben Holiday purchases a magical kingdom from a Christmas catalog for one million dollars. When he gets there, he finds it is in shambles. The court wizard can't make his magic work, the royal scribe is a talking dog, and the King's living castle is dying. Worse yet, Ben's vassals refuse to acknowledge him as King, and a dragon is raiding the countryside. Ben has his work cut out for him, and he has to do it without the aid of The Paladin, the king's legendary champion!

The Black Unicorn (1987)

The evil wizard Meeks returns to Landover and magically steals Ben's identity, and giving Ben the appearance of a peasant. Ben wanders Landover in search of a way to break the spell, while also looking for the missing Willow.

Wizard at Large (1988)

Questor Thews tries to transform Abernathy back into a man, but his spell goes awry, transporting Abernathy (and Ben's medallion of kingship) to Earth. Ben and Willow travel to Earth to rescue Abernathy. Meanwhile, an evil Genie in a Bottle is causing trouble in Landover—especially when the witch Nightshade gets her hands on it.

The Tangle Box (1994)

Ben, Nightshade, and Strabo are all trapped, with no memories of themselves, inside the magical Tangle Box by an evil spirit who plots to hand control of Landover to the demons.

Witches Brew (1995)

Ben must find his daughter, who has been kidnapped by Nightshade, as well as defend his right to the Kingship of Landover in a series of duels against a challenger's magical champions. Meanwhile, Questor and Abernathy are trapped on Earth, and must find a way to return to Landover.

A Princess Of Landover (2009)

After running afoul of the rules one too many times at her Earth boarding school, a teenage Mistaya comes home to Landover, only to run away when she believes her father is going to send her back and generally control her life without her input. This leads her in roundabout fashion to the ominous Royal Library of Libiris, a meeting with a cute pageboy who is more than what he seems, and a plot by an Evil Sorcerer to yet again allow the demons of Abaddon into Landover.

Tropes used in Magic Kingdom of Landover include:

• Ambition Is Evil: Kallendbor, Crabbit, and Laphroig all exemplify this trope. Averted in Ben Holiday, whose ambition ultimately proves to be a virtue.
• Another Dimension
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Lord Kallendbor, who plots for the entire series to dethrone Ben, and in book 5 allies with Nightshade to do so
• Baleful Polymorph: What happened to Abernathy in Backstory, courtesy of a Magic Misfire from Questor (to protect him from Michel Ard Rhi). End result is a scribe who is a soft-coated Wheaten Terrier, luckily still retaining human hands and the ability to speak. Nightshade gets trapped in her crow form at the end of Witches Brew.
• The Big Bad: Meeks in the first two books; Nightshade begins taking on this role in the later ones, although the Gorse and Crabbit edge her out or temporarily replace her.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Meeks and The Iron Mark in the first book, Crabbit and Laphroig in the sixth.
• Big Damn Heroes: Strabo, so many times. He's strongarmed into breaking Ben's friends out of Abaddon in the first book by Ben's use of Io Dust and frees Ben, Abernathy and Willow from Michel Ard Rhi in the third when Questor defeats him in a Wizard Duel. After a whole lot of Character Development, he saves Ben from The Wurm on his own initiative in Witches Brew. Because nothing quite says Big Damn Heroes like forty feet of flying lizard to the rescue. Mistaya also tricks him into rescuing her at the last minute in Princess.
• The Bluebeard: Laphroig.
• Butt Monkey: The G'home Gnomes in general, but Poggwydd and his friend Shoopdiesel take the cake in Princess. Also, Cordstick.
• Call to Adventure: in the form of an advertisement in a catalog of bizarre items geared toward the rich.
  • Jumped At the Call: Ben assumes the ad is a hoax, but is depressed and bored enough with his life that he answers it anyway.
• Cats Are Contrary: Edgewood Dirk. Lampshaded by Brooks when he quotes the scene with the cat from The Last Unicorn as the epigraph to book 2. And while Dirk does assist Ben, Willow, and Mistaya, he is neutral, not good, and certainly never very polite or good-natured. Some of this is due to his fairy nature, of course, but...
• The Chosen One: After several dozen failed kings, Ben is the only one who can summon the Paladin
• Combat by Champion: In Witches Brew, the fictitious King Rydall of Marnhull challenges Ben and the Paladin to defeat 7 of his champions in order to determine whether Marnhull's armies will take over Landover. In reality, Rydall is an agent of Nightshade, and his champions are monsters created by her and Ben's daughter Mistaya, who believes she is helping her father. Only five of the champions ever appear: they include a giant who gains strength from touching the soil, a demonic entity that mimics the Paladin, an immense mechanical man, the Wurm, and the brainwashed Ardsheal.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In the first book, Ben, through use of Io Dust, forces Nightshade to transform into a raven and fly into the Fairy Mists...from which she had been exiled. Best not to think what the fairies did to her for violating that, but it's no surprise she swears Revenge on Ben and he comes to regret this moment several times. (Even if it was in retaliation for her sending his friends to Hell Abaddon.)
  • Book three has one too, in the form of Questor's last bequest to Michel Ard Rhi: giving him back his conscience.
• Cuffs Off, Rub Wrists: Mistaya, after being freed from magic halo binders.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The black unicorn. Crabbit also plays with this during his initial meeting with Mistaya, to the point the reader isn't at first sure he's really bad. Of course, the fact Meeks wanted him out of the way and so convinced the old king to assign him the position of Royal Librarian should tell you something.
  • Dark Is Evil: The demons, Nightshade, The Gorse, The Darkling, pick your poison.
• Deadpan Snarker: Both Abernathy and Strabo. Even Crabbit gets in a few good ones.

Strabo: "Marnhull"? Hmph. Sounds like a nut.

• Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Iron Mark is the Large and In Charge Black Knight who leads the demons in the first book. He has a claim on Landover's throne, and challenges all would-be kings to defeat him in single combat. In the fourth book we are told that there is a new Mark, although we only meet him briefly. The Gorse, as an evil, exiled fairy of tremendous power may also count.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: Mistaya, as of Princess.
• Determinator: Ben Holiday
• Deus Ex Machina: Quite often, the mudpuppy Haltwhistle.
• Disproportionate Retribution: So, Nightshade. While you and Ben were both scared, lost in the Labyrinth, suffering from amnesia, and trapped in the personas of the Lady and the Knight respectively, you fell for one another and had a brief, fully consensual relationship. Which you initiated. And because of this you vow to destroy everything he holds dear, despite his choosing not to pursue the relationship after you were freed? Jeez, you uh, may want to see a therapist or something.
  • Reading her remarks to Willow after being released from the Tangle Box, it's precisely because he chose to not continue a relationship with her. There she had him, and, possibly for the first time in who knows how many centuries, she was happy. Plus, as per Strabo's remarks, the one thing that can weaken her magic is feeling the softer, gentler emotions. Her one true fear.
• The Dragon: Rydall/ Kallendbor to Nightshade in Witches Brew.
• Duel to the Death: Between the Iron Mark and the Paladin in order to resolve the issue of Landover's kingship. As it is instigated entirely at the Mark's insistence, it doesn't count as Trial by Combat.
• Eldritch Abomination: In many ways, the fairies seem like this—although it's never stated that trying to understand them would break mortal minds, they are beyond mortal understanding, as well as incredibly ancient and mysterious. They certainly have no love for mortals. However, while none (save the Gorse) are actively harmful to humans, some actually do seem to care what happens to them, or perhaps just to the multiverse in general, and thus choose to step in and interfere to set things right—which suggests that if the fairies are Eldritch Abominations, they aren't evil ones.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "The Frog" for Laphroig of Rhyndweir.
• Enemy Mine: The premise of The Tangle Box, is that an amnesiac Nightshade, Strabo, and Ben are forced to work together. Following their recovery of their memories and the escape from the box, Nightshade hates Ben all the more. Strabo, on the other hand, loses a lot of the enmity he'd formerly born the King, and is far more civil to him in his subsequent appearances.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys: The kobolds Bunion and Parsnip. Parsnip is the castle chef, Bunion is the court runner, and also doubles as Ben's personal bodyguard.
  • Subverted with the Throg Monkeys of Princess, which are mean-tempered, unnerving, voyeuristic, and seemingly lazy and which turn out to be helping Crabbit free the demons of Abaddon.
• Eviler Than Thou: Crabbit and Laphroig have no difficulty putting aside their differences to help each other get what they want, particularly when one of their goals (getting Ben off the throne) coincide, but each is also determined to be the true power in the end and are quite ready to double-cross, betray, and backstab each other. This at least partly factors into their defeat.
• Evil Library of Ominousness: Libiris. Granted, it's not entirely its fault, what with the Tarnish, its lovely caretaker, and the demons trying to come in through its walls, but its initial design is not conducive to making would-be readers want to spend many hours within. But then its designer was Meeks...
• Evil Mentor: Nightshade to Mistaya.
• Evil Sorcerer: Meeks, Crabbit in A Princess Of Landover.
• Fairy Companion: Edgewood Dirk
• Fate Worse Than Death: Poor Libiris. Being robbed of the collection whose protection is its sole reason for existence, tarnished, run by an Evil Sorcerer, used as an entrance for demons to make their way into Landover...and unable to tell anyone of this because there is no one who can hear its cries for help, or will help even if they can.
• Fisher King: Something of this comes through in the connection between Sterling Silver and the kings of Landover—since after being left abandoned, without a proper ruler on the throne, she ends up suffering from the Tarnish, an effect which not only turns her into "Castle Dracula" as Ben puts it, but spreads out into the countryside, killing the Bonnie Blues and generally poisoning the land. It fades and she is restored to her former glory when all the threats to Landover are ended or neutralized and Ben has proven his worthiness for the throne.
• Five-Man Band: Ben's court and closest companions form one.
  • The Hero: Ben himself, Reasonable Authority Figure par excellence.
  • The Lancer: Questor Thews, despite his Inept Mage status is usually the one who can be counted on to take command when Ben isn't there, and is easily his closest advisor. Has some aspects of The Smart Guy as well.
  • The Big Guy: Bunion. Court Runner, Ben's bodyguard, and just happens to be extremely strong, and very, very durable. All this despite his small stature.
  • The Smart Guy: Abernathy, the Court Scribe. He's extremely bright, as well as calm, pragmatic, and by Landoverian standards, relatively cynical. Knows a lot about the country's history and places, and provides a more realistic counterpoint to Ben's idealism and Questor's enthusiasm. Has some characteristics of The Lancer as well.
  • The Chick: Willow. Love Freak, The Heart, Granola Girl, it would be hard for her to get more chickish. Luckily, she's also a downright likeable character in her own right.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: Implied in Strabo's tales of how maidens and dragons have an association going back for centuries, wherein it was the dragons who saved them (not the heroes) and received their gratitude—or did they eat them? "I can never remember."
• "Friend or Idol?" Decision: In The Black Unicorn, Abernathy is faced with one of these—whether to destroy the books of magic in order to save Ben and Landover from Meeks and free all the unicorns, or preserve them so that Questor can use them to change him back. He chooses his friends and kingdom.
  • Happens again in Witches' Brew, when a misfire of magic caused Abernathy to be turned human when he was sent to Earth. In order to get back to Landover and save both Ben and Mistaya (and because Status Quo Is God), he had to allow Questor to turn him back into a dog again. May have been revisited in order to help Abernathy come to terms with his dogness and receive Character Development.
• Friendly Enemy: Strabo to Ben, although as the series' progresses there's less and less "enemy" to it.
• From a Certain Point of View: A less harsh version of this trope, one meant to preserve a friendship, applies to Thom's stories about his background to Mistaya.
• Genie in a Bottle: The Darkling in Wizard At Large.
• Genre Savvy: Ben grew up knowing about fantasy lands, and often is able to draw comparisons, though Landover manages to subvert many of his expectations as well.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Mistaya
• Heel Face Turn: Horris Kew. And Redemption Earns Life.
  • He was never fully a Heel, and he never fully becomes a Face, but Strabo the dragon as well. He progresses from incredibly antagonistic to Ben in Books 1, 2, and 3, before becoming a rather wary almost-ally after Book 4.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Questor Thews attempts one at the end of book 5. Luckily Mistaya saves him.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Ben's fear ever since learning that the king is the Paladin.
• High Turnover Rate: Landover had several dozen kings in the twenty years between the old King's death and Ben's arrival.
• Hurting Hero: Ben at first, who is grieving the untimely death of his wife. Much of the first book is him learning to let go and love Willow.
• Idiosyncratic Chapter Naming: Most of the books give one-word names to the chapters, or at most a short phrase. Some of these are nice bits of prophetic Foreshadowing, some viewable as such through Fridge Brilliance hindsight, others are obscure. Wizard At Large takes this to an art form, with such seemingly innocuous titles as "Sneeze" and "Bottle", hilarious ones like "Itch" and "Dragon at the Bar", and critically important ones like "Stopper". One of the best overall in the series, however, would be the last chapter of The Black Unicorn: "Legend".
• Implacable Man: The Ardsheals are magically created Implacable Men who shrug off most weapons with ease, and don't stop coming until they're dead. The Paladin also has aspects of this. So when the two of them go head to head, the results are pretty destructive.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Questor, most of the time.
• Inept Mage: Questor Thews, though he gets better. While his initial transformation (and inability to reverse it) of Abernathy is the one most often brought up, his mistake in book 3 takes the cake: by accidentally breathing in the magic spell dust, he sneezes...which somehow turns a transformation spell into a transposition spell, switching Abernathy for the Darkling's bottle.
• It Got Worse: The very first book sets up a situation where each thing Ben learns about the supposedly wonderful fantasy of ruling a magical kindgom is worse than the last. His only loyal followers are an Inept Mage, a Talking Animal scribe, and two monkeys; the castle and land are dying thanks to there being no true king for so long; none of the people will follow him; a dragon is laying waste to the countryside, which he must put a stop to if he wants the lords' allegiance, which he in turn needs if he wants the River Master's; the Paladin has seemingly deserted the kingdom; Nightshade is plotting to take over; oh, and the Iron Mark has sworn the king to a Duel to the Death. However, each subsequent book seems to like piling on the complications in the same way.
  • In The Black Unicorn, the Bad Dreams everyone suffers ends up allowing Meeks back into Landover, who switches places with Ben, seemingly steals the medallion, and exiles him with no one believing who he is or recognizing him except Nightshade and Strabo; meanwhile Meeks has the books of magic and is manipulating Willow into bringing the black unicorn to him so he can enslave it once again.
  • In Wizard At Large, Questor accidentally sends Abernathy to Earth, to the collection of the one man who hates and likes torturing him more than any other; Ben and Willow go to rescue him, since he has the medallion with him, only to be stuck on Earth too long so that Willow starts dying from not being able to go through her change, arrested by the cops at Ard Rhi's behest, and put on trial; while back in Landover the Darkling which was switched with Abernathy ends up in a host of unscrupulous hands causing all sorts of trouble before finally reaching Nightshade.
  • And in The Tangle Box, Horris Kew accidentally unleashing the Gorse not only gets Ben, Nightshade, and Strabo imprisoned and amnesiac together, it lets the Gorse mislead and manipulate the people through the mind's eye crystals, then prepare to unleash the demons of Abaddon. Only Witches' Brew seems to avoid this, since the whole plot with Rydall and Mistaya's kidnapping pretty much happens all at once, with Questor and Abernathy's later disappearance just seeming to be a minor side issue until their Big Damn Heroes moment.
• I Was Just Passing Through: Strabo, to Ben in Witches Brew.
• Jail Bait Wait / Lolicon: While it was all one-sided, at least at first, there is something mildly disturbing about Elizabeth's feelings for Abernathy, particularly since they began when she was quite young and he was still a dog, even if she did wait until they met again (and she was of legal age) to pursue it...
• The Juggernaut: The Killer Robot (Talos) in Witches Brew. The chapter is titled Juggernaut for crying out loud. It's capable of ripping through castle walls, and its iron hide gives it Nigh Invulnerability to boot. The battle between it and the Ardsheal is pretty epic.
• Knight in Shining Armour: Subverted to Hell and gone by The Paladin, who looks the part, but has a personality that's equal parts Implacable Man, Shell Shocked Senior and Psycho for Hire, as is brought home brutally by Ben's Knight persona in The Tangle Box.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In The Tangle Box. Justified, as magic was involved.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The fates of Crabbit, Pinch, and especially Laphroig.
• The Legions of Hell: The demons of Abaddon.
• Lie to the Beholder: Meeks's spell upon Ben in The Black Unicorn, which makes him look like a peasant to everyone except himself (and Edgewood Dirk).
• Lotus Eater Machine: The mind's-eye crystals. They show people what they most want to see. Those who bought one gradually became addicted and spent hours gazing into them.
• Magical Land
• Mathematician's Answer: It is possible to compel Nightshade to answer you truthfully. Good luck compelling her to do so helpfully.
• Meaningful Name: Willow. She's Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a sylph who transforms into a willow tree.
• Mexican Standoff: The climax of A Princess of Landover: Crabbit's magic, Pinch's crossbow, Laphroig's dagger, and Mistaya's magic. It is only broken when a) the villains temporarily decide Mistaya is the greater threat and b) Haltwhistle intervenes for his usual Deus Ex Machina.
• Mind Control: Io Dust
• Misery Builds Character: Seems to be the view of Crabbit. And judging by Mistaya's Character Development while at Libiris, he may be right.
• The Mole: Questor at first, albeit under duress. He eventually turns on Meeks and joins Ben for good.
• The Multiverse: Landover is at the center.
• Naked on Arrival: Willow's introduction
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Nightshade. The woman is named after a poisonous berry.
• Not So Harmless: Crabbit.
• Number Two: Cordstick to Laphroig—and he's Genre Savvy, to the point of getting promises of his future Minister of State position in writing, witnessed by other lords, and with backup copies in case something happens to him. Also, Pinch to Crabbit.
• Our Demons Are Different: Evil fairy beings, exiled from the Mists and sent to dwell in Abaddon, a realm of fire, chaos and despair. They're not happy about this, they want back into the Mists, and unfortunately, Landover is the only route they know of.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Strabo is a huge, black scaled, Affably Evil Chaotic Neutral Deadpan Snarker, with a love of fine singing and eating other people's cows. He's very bright, very dangerous, and very lonely. He more or less straddles the line between the classic monster dragon, and the friendly, misunderstood dragons prevalent in modern literature. As the series progresses he becomes less and less antagonistic towards Ben, eventually becoming a flying Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Our Elves Are Better: Some of this comes through in the River Master's contempt for Ben, though it seems more directly related to the long line of failed kings than to humans in general. Mostly. Eventually, he gets better, in large part thanks to Mistaya.
• Our Gnomes Are Weirder: The G'Home Gnomes. They're short, filthy, hairy and greedy humanoids with a taste for cats and dogs. They also turn out to be some of Ben's most loyal subjects.
• The Pawn: Villains in this series are very fond of this trope. Every king who has purchased Landover since Meeks and Michel Ard Rhi began their scheme has been a pawn of the wizard's; after Ben proves beyond manipulation and actually succeeds in becoming a true and successful king, Meeks then returns to regain the books of magic, which requires him to make pawns of both Willow and Questor. Horris Kew is very much a pawn of the Gorse's (until the end, that is), and Nightshade's revenge scheme makes pawns of both Mistaya and Kallendbor.
• The Power of Love: Willow's view of life practically runs on this.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: In effect for Mistaya in book six, especially early on during her running-away phase.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Invoked by Meeks in book 2, since he needs the unwitting assistance of the heroes to get back to Landover and prevent the escape of the unicorns. Ben's dream is a pure fabrication, a vision of impending doom for his best friend Miles Bennett designed to make him go racing back to Earth and thus give Meeks the opportunity to cross back to Landover with him. Questor's dream is straightforward and accurate (save for leaving out the rather dangerous Threshold Guardians at the fortress), as it is meant to simply recover the books of magic. Willow's dream, however, is a twisting of the truth, meant to frighten her into capturing the "evil" black unicorn and bring it to Meeks. Thanks to the fairies, however, Willow's dreams become genuinely psychic, gradually changing to reflect reality and persuade her to help rather than lure the black unicorn.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Nightshade's eyes turn red when she is at her angriest. The bad news? They're normally red.
• Red Right Hand: Meeks is missing one arm.
• Retcon: The existence of Libiris and Crabbit, why he was not around in the previous books (Meeks wanting him out of the way, his fear of Meeks), why Questor and Abernathy never mentioned him until now.
• Reverse Psychology / Reverse Psychology Backfire: In A Princess of Landover, Dirk convinces Mistaya to go and hide in Libiris because, after she refused to go when Ben sent her he would never think to look for her there. Later, however, when Questor and Abernathy try to think like Mistaya (in other words, a teenage girl), they figure out exactly where she went by using this same reasoning.
• Running Gag: The G'home Gnomes, constantly protesting their innocence when it comes to thievery and eating pets, and insisting they are a poor helpless race of woobies persecuted by the rest of Landover, unfairly targeted when they are quite innocent of all charges. The act fools no one.
• Sand Worm: The Wurm that Nightshade sends after Ben in Witches Brew. To quote Strabo it's "an ordinary worm turned predator by magic. Expose it to water, and it grows to the size you see now." Whether The Paladin could have killed it is really up in the air. Strabo, on the other hand, makes quick work of it.
• Science Destroys Magic: Not believing in magic and believing in science kills off magic in The Verse, the "real" world has nearly no magic as a result.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Gorse, as well as the demons of Abaddon. After the events of Witches' Brew, Nightshade becomes this...but as of the most recent book, it looks like she's been unsealed.... Also, The Darkling from Wizard At Large is Sealed Evil In A Bottle. It's more or less an evil genie.
• Second Love: Willow to Ben.
• Secret Identity: Thom had to assume one, to avoid being eliminated by his power-hungry brother.
• Sequel Hook: Nightshade vanishing from the Zoo at the end of A Princess of Landover.
• Shapeshifter Showdown / Wizard Duel: The battle between Strabo and Questor in book three has shades of both of these tropes, despite there being no actual shapeshifting going on and Strabo having no magic beyond his innate nature. Mostly it comes across as a Homage or Affectionate Parody of such a duel, particularly with the comedic turns it takes (a Looney Tunes Portable Hole? A six-foot bee stinger?) and the Inept Mage's magic misfires, but especially in the hilarious way that it ends—where instead of giving the dragon a virus...he gives him an itch.
• Shapeshifting: Willow, into... well, you know. Nightshade regularly turns into a crow
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Ben's Knight persona in The Tangle Box.
• Slap Slap Kiss: The Knight and The Lady in The Tangle Box.
• Speak of the Devil: Variation. Early in Princess Strabo tells Mistaya that if she ever uses his image again without his permission, he will appear to read her the riot act. She then does so during her Shotgun Wedding...thus summoning the real Strabo to free her and take out the villains, once the situation is explained.
• Spoiled Brat: Some of Mistaya's characterization partakes of this. Luckily, she gets better.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Laphroig's view of women.
• Super-Powered Evil Side/ Evil Me Scares Me: How Ben views the Paladin, even if it isn't one hundred percent accurate.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Once some of her Backstory is revealed (her long-ago human lover betrayed and left her), and especially after the Mind Rape inflicted upon her by the Tangle Box, you have to feel at least a little sorry for Nightshade.
  • More "fairies are bastards". Early on in the series, rumor had it that it had been a human lover who had broken her heart, but in Witches Brew Nightshade confided to Mistaya that she had fallen in love with a true fairy. After revealing the truth of her half-human heritage to him she was instantly rejected, then exiled from the Mists on threat of death.
• Taken for Granite: Laphroig's fate. And good riddance.
• Take Our Word for It: The traps Crabbit set for Ben are never revealed, but Questor insists they were quite deadly and Ben and Mistaya were better off not knowing.
• Talking Animal: Abernathy and Biggar.
• Talking Your Way Out: Mistaya attempts this with Crabbit, and it almost works.
• Teens Are Monsters: Played for Laughs with Mistaya.
• This Is Reality:

Crabbit: You do live in a fairy-tale world, don't you, Princess? All you see is what you want to see. If you don't want to think about something or face up to something, it simply doesn't exist for you. Goodness. But this is the real world, not some make-believe story in which you are the heroine. So perhaps you ought to rethink your situation before you start making threats.

• Took a Level In Badass: Questor Thews in Wizard At Large.
• Translator Microbes: Ben's medallion
• Villain with Good Publicity: What Meeks was in Landover for a very long time (the old king didn't even suspect his true evil), and what Michel Ard Rhi set himself up as on Earth, complete with the ability to gain power and influence with the government, the police force, and the courts. Luckily good publicity doesn't matter when a dragon appears over the skies of Seattle. Laphroig is one too, more's the pity; even once Ben uncovers circumstantial evidence that he murdered his brothers and wives, he can't pin anything on him until he does something for which he can have his title stripped and be put on trial.
• Wicked Witch: Nightshade.
• Xanatos Gambit: Meeks' plan to send dreams to Ben, Willow, and Questor, so as to obtain the books of magic, the golden bridle needed to capture the black unicorn, and entrance into Landover, and his subsequent identity exchange/peasant disguise for Ben.
  • The Gorse's plan to get rid of Ben, Nightshade, and Strabo, then distracting everyone with mind's eye crystals while it prepared to release the demons of Abaddon also counts, as does Nightshade's complex Revenge scheme involving Mistaya and Kallendbor. Whether the monsters kill Ben or he defeats them and is killed by a poison-brooch wearing Mistaya her revenge is completed.