From the titles of the books in this series, it sounds like the stories take place in a fantasy world. When you’re reading this book, it seems like fantasy at first, but it’s not. It’s actually science fiction. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it science fantasy because it has some elements of both, but there is no “real” magic in the series.

Armindor the Magician and his apprentice, Tigg, live in a world where people go to magicians and sages to be healed of illnesses and injuries but even technological developments like purely clear glass or are beyond them. According to legend, around 3000 years ago, there was an Age of Magic on their world. During the Age of Magic, people had the ability to do all sorts of amazing things, like flying and talking to other people over long distances. They made and possessed all sort of magical objects, like circles of glass that you can look through to make things look bigger than they really are. Then, this Age of Magic came to an end when there was “Fire from the Sky and the Winter of Death.” In other worlds, Armindor and Tigg live in the far distant future of our world after the Earth was devastated during a nuclear holocaust and the following nuclear winter.

Because, for a long time, humanity was simply struggling to survive and rebuild some basic societies, much old knowledge and technological developments were lost. “Magicians” like Armindor and the other members of his Guild are trying to regain that lost knowledge. They have been slowly gathering pieces of old knowledge and old technology, and they somewhat understand how these things work, but at their present stage, they don’t completely understand why they work or how to make these devices themselves. Even simple pieces of technology like magnifying lenses look like magic to them, and they call them “spells.” (One of Arthur C. Clarke’s Three Laws of science fiction is “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”)

When Armindor first meets Tigg, Tigg is an orphan with no known relatives, surviving by picking pockets. Armindor takes him as an apprentice because he wants to pass on his knowledge, and he can tell that Tigg is clever. Armindor once had a daughter who had grown up and married, but both she and her husband died during a plague without having children. Armindor comes to think of Tigg as the grandson he never had. In the second book, Armindor also takes in an orphaned girl from a family of puppeteers, Jilla.

Their main villains are the reen, an intelligent species of rat creatures who use poison darts as weapons and are trying to get hold of ancient technology that they can use to destroy or subjugate humans so they can control the world.

The series is by Tom McGowen, who also wrote The Time of the Forest.

Books in the Series:

The Magician’s Apprentice (1987)

Armindor the Magician catches a young thief, Tigg, and convinces him to become his apprentice, taking him on an adventure in search of magical objects in the Wild Lands.

The Magician’s Company (1988)

Armindor and Tigg warn the sages in the city of Inbal of the danger of the reen and discover that an artifact that they retrieved in the last book reveals many secrets of the past.

The Magician’ Challenge (1989)

The humans and reen face off against each other in Ingarron. Can they find a way to make peace with each other, or is this the beginning of another world war?