We’re very excited to be able to make Randall Garrett’s collection Murder and Magic, the novel Too Many Magicians, and the collection Lord Darcy Investigates available as ebooks! The JABerwocky editions are currently available to readers in the United States and Canada; the SF Gateway editions will soon be available to those in the UK. Joshua has fond memories of discovering the Lord Darcy series in a Science Fiction Book Club omnibus edition when he was in high school.
The Lord Darcy stories are a mixture of rule-based magic systems and fair play whodunnits that have heavily influence many of the cross-genre novels published today. Simon R. Green explains why from an author’s perspective:
A few words on Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy Stories.
In Lord Darcy, Randall Garrett created one of the great mystery sleuths, not least because the crimes, murders and treacheries that Lord Darcy Investigated took place in a world where magic worked. In Lord Darcy’s world, magic followed rules as strict as any science, and both the cases and their detection involved much thought on that nature of magic, as well as highly detailed characters and motivations.
And most important of all, Randall Garrett always played fair.
In his one Lord Darcy novel, Too Many Magicians, and his many short stories, Garrett wrote well-plotted, wonderfully styled stories that were maddeningly intricate, well reasoned and great fun. His magical alternate history world was as utterly real as his characters, and his mysteries were of the first calibre. Death took Randall Garrett from us far too soon, but we still have work. Fine stories, and magic words.
Simon R. Green isn’t the only author to take note of Randall Garrett’s seminal work.
- Marion Zimmer Bradley: “He has combined the best of the fantasy and detective genres — and made them work as science fiction.”
- Andre Norton: “I cannot count the number of times I have read TOO MANY MAGICIANS — each time with the same pleasure.”
- Robert Silverberg: “Randall Garrett’s most satisfying and enduring literary accomplishment is the Lord Darcy series.”
The National Review also waxed rhapsodic:
Garrett’s writing style is as elegant and charming as his setting, and his mastery of atmosphere is admirable … Garrett’s series is in fact one of the best of the genre-benders, which have proliferated so madly since these tales were first published. The stories deftly combine elements of mystery, espionage, suspense, Tolkienesque fantasy, science fiction, the techno-thriller, CSI-style forensic mystery, and swashbuckling historical romance.
In 1999, Randall Garrett received the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, Special Achievement, for his Lord Darcy stories. The Special Achievement has only been awarded to two other authors since 1995. Pick up a copy today and step into a world of magical mystery.