King's Quest: The Floating Castle



The first of three rather obscure Tie In Novels based on Sierra's King's Quest games, each focusing on a different member of the Royal Family of Daventry. This particular one stars Prince Alexander, and seems to take place at some point between King's Quest IV and King's Quest V.

The kingdom of Daventry finds itself in unexpected trouble when a strange castle flies in from far-off lands, parks itself in the outskirts of the realm, and starts gathering evil creatures to itself and sending black knights to pillage the countryside. Things then get even worse when the castle's current inhabitant, the evil wizard Telgrin, arrives at Castle Daventry and steals King Graham's soul.

Alexander must then go forth and--with the help of apprentice wizard Cyril and later Princess Lydia, the daughter of the castle's former owner--deal with the various strange denizens of the outskirts of Daventry, infiltrate the evil castle, steal back his father's soul, and maybe even stop the evil wizard himself.

This book provides examples of:

 * And Now You Must Marry Me: Telgrin wants to marry Lydia when she comes of age to cement his ownership of the castle. Lydia is... decidedly less than enthused by this idea.
 * Bald of Evil: Telgrin sports this.
 * Baleful Polymorph: A witch turns Alexander into a frog at one point, with a declaration that he needs to be kissed by a princess to be turned back to normal. It's intended as an odd way of helping him, however.
 * Bishounen: Lydia's first reaction to meeting Alexander is to blurt out that he's "beautiful", to which Alex has a decidedly nonplussed reaction.
 * Evil Sorcerer: Telgrin, again.
 * The Fair Folk: Alexander is lured into a fairy fête while on his way to deal with Telgin (populated with the more traditional sort of fairy, rather than the likes of Edgar's family).
 * Fed to The Beast: Telgrin initially tries getting rid of Alexander and Cyril by throwing them into a dungeon occupied by a giant freakish mutant creature that likes to eat pretty much everything.
 * Hellish Horse: At one point Alexander and Cyril are faced with a kelpie blocking their passage over a river.
 * Inept Mage: Cyril's spells have a disturbing tendency to go horribly right.
 * Magic Mirror: In addition to Castle Daventry's magic mirror, Alexander discovers a set of magic mirrors in the castle that can be used as portals between each other.
 * Off With His Head: How Telgrin dispatched the castle's previous owner.
 * Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Alexander meets one of the Big Eater variety that's helping "guard" the supplies that Telgrin's army has stolen.
 * Ominous Floating Castle: What starts the whole mess to begin with.
 * Rescue Romance: Lydia initially thinks this is what Alexander has in mind, and is disappointed to find out he simply needs her help.
 * Sleep Cute: are seen like this at one point. Dawww.
 * What Is Evil: After Alexander calls him an evil man, Telgrin tries persuading him otherwise with a monologue along these lines. Alex is decidedly not convinced.
 * Your Soul Is Mine: Telgrin has a thing for capturing souls, torturing them, and imprisoning them.