Mandrake the Magician by Howard Ashman
| Mandrake the Magician by Howard Ashman | |
 Cover artist: unknown | |
| Country/language: |  USA / English
|
|---|---|
| Format: | 17.5 × 10.5 cm |
| Pages: | 156 pgs, b/w |
| Publishing date: | 1979 |
| Editor: | unknown |
| Publishing company: | Ace Books |
| Preceded by: | none |
| Followed by: | none |
Mandrake the Magician is a novel version of the 100 minutes TV movie relesed in 1979. The novel is based on the screenplay by Rick Husky and adapted into novel form by Howard Ashman.
Differences from dailies and Sunday stories
The cast of characters and their role in the story is somewhat different from what was written by Lee Falk.
Background lore
The introduction tells us that eight hundred years ago there existed an organization known as the Wizards, who used their ancient secret magical knowledge to fight evil forces. But when the hordes of Genghis Khan swept across the lands, the Wizards were defeated, and their lore were all but destroyed. The few wizards who managed to escape wandered around alone, each in possession of parts of the wizards' secret manuscripts and magical books. After many years of isolation, the few surviving Wizards met in a remote valley in Tibet, and their secrets and mythical knowledge were preserved in what is known as the College of Magic.
A plane crashes in a desolate mountain region in Tibet. On board are an eight-year-old motherless boy and his father, but only the boy survives. The boy is brought to Theron, the last of the wizards. Theron soon realizes that this is the chosen one who will carry on the wizards' knowledge and secrets. Theron erases the boy's bad memories with magic and gives him the name Mandrake the Magician.
Characters and roles
Mandrake, Narda and Lothar work for a powerful, diversified, and little understood segments of the federal bureaucracy, a segment affectionately known from within as "The Agency". And their show-biz notoreity provided a perfect cover for Agency activities.
Mandrake's magical abilities, which are channeled through a golden amulet engraved with symbols, are twofold: some is illusion and some is true magic. Mandrake and Narda's relationship is only collegial and Mandrake's interest in women does not include Narda.