The Warlock in Spite of Himself
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Book One in the Warlock of Gramarye series by Christopher Stasheff, published in 1969.
From the Publisher:
"The novel that launched the epic Warlock series."
"In an interstellar romp that proves science and sorcery can mix, only hard-headed realist Rod Gallowglass can save the people of Gramarye from their doom by becoming — The Warlock in Spite of Himself — if only he believed in magic."
[edit] Characters
Rod Gallowglass(Rodney d'Armand)- Rod Gallowglass is the main protagonist in the series. Born to a family of aristocrats Rod left hishome planet for adventure as a SCENT agent seeking out lost colonies with the help of the family robot.
Fess(FCC #651919)- Fess is Rod's faithful robot companion throughout the book. Fess is essentially a robotic brain capable of being transferred from computer to computer(as such he can be used as the sole computer of Rod's ship). Fess spends the majority of the series in a robotic horse suit disguise. Fess's most interesting quality is his form of epilepsy. This epilepsy is due to a weak capacitor which will become strained causing it to release all its stored enegery in a single wave causing his "seizure". Fess is the approximate of two-thousand years old when Rod was born1.
Big Tom- Big Tom is a anarchist agent from SPITE send from the future to aid in the plan to lapse Gramarye into anarchy. Big Tom is befriended by Rod eventualy siding with Rod over his own agents and fought along side the Queen's army in the final battle, enevitably being killed by Durer.
[edit] Trivia
-Gallowglass is the old Irish word for a foreign soldier or mercenary
-Fess's name is derived from trying to pronounce FCC as a single word (the exact person who tryed this is unknown)
-Fess is one of only five FCC robots still in circulation
- 1-Fess is said on numerous occaisons to be over two-thousand years old though the series take place around the year 3000 A.D., meaning Fess would have to have been created circa 1000 A.D.
