History Creator / LyndonHardy

Lyndon Hardy is an American fantasy author and physicist.

He is the creator of a loosely-linked fantasy series called ''Literature/MagicByTheNumbers'' set in a world with five magical systems: Thaumaturgy (SympatheticMagic), Alchemy (magic potions), Magic (creation of new {{Ancient Artifact}}s), Sorcery (MindControl), and Wizardry (SummoningRitual). Each of the novels has a different protagonist. The first three were ''Master of the Five Magics'' (1980), ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'' (1984), and ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'' (1988). Modified forms of all three were issued in 2016. Since then he has written two further novels: ''The Archimage's Daughter'' (2017) and ''Magic Times Three'' (2020).

He is the creator of a loosely-linked fantasy series called ''Literature/MagicByTheNumbers'' set in a world with five magical systems: Thaumaturgy (SympatheticMagic), Alchemy (magic potions), Magic (creation of new {{Ancient Artifact}}s), Sorcery (MindControl), and Wizardry (SummoningRitual). Each of the novels has a different protagonist. The first three were ''Master of the Five Magics'' (1980), ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'' (1984), and ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'' (1988). Modified forms of all there were issued in 2016. Since then he has written two further novels: ''The Archimage's Daughter'' (2017) and ''Magic Times Three'' (2020).

He is the creator of a loosely-linked fantasy series called ''Literature/MagicByTheNumbers'' set in a world with five magical systems: Thaumaturgy (SympatheticMagic), Alchemy (magic potions), Magic (creation of new {{Ancient Artifact}}s), Sorcery (MindManipulation), and Wizardry (SummoningRitual). Each of the novels has a different protagonist. The first three were ''Master of the Five Magics'' (1980), ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'' (1984), and ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'' (1988). Modified forms of all there were issued in 2016. Since then he has written two further novels: ''The Archimage's Daughter'' (2017) and ''Magic Times Three'' (2020).

Lyndon Hardy is an American fantasy author.

He wrote a loosely-linked fantasy trilogy set in a world with five magical systems: Thaumaturgy (SympatheticMagic), Alchemy (magic potions), Magic (creation of new {{Ancient Artifact}}s), Sorcery (MindManipulation), and Wizardry (SummoningRitual). Each of the novels has a different protagonist; the titles are: ''Master of the Five Magics'', ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'', and ''Riddle of the Seven Realms''.

!!Lyndon Hardy's works provide examples of:

* AchievementsInIgnorance: In ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'', the protagonists fly suspended beneath a balloon made out of lead. Astron, a demon to whom the human world's physics is new and fascinating, had simply improvised a substitute when the conveyance's original balloon was punctured by arrows, unaware that a "lead balloon" was considered preposterous by humans.
* AnachronismStew: ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'' has an in-universe example (involving ''another world's'' history) -- the sorcerer Farnel is said to have lost out in competitions against other illusion-crafters, because his simulations of famous historical events succumbed to AnachronismStew. Apparently this trope isn't just universal, it's multiversal.
* ApocalypseHow: The antagonist in ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'' is aiming for Class X-5: Multi-universal Destruction.
* BishonenLine: In ''Master of the Five Magics'', the Demons have a hierarchy of power. The least powerful are near human, but they grow larger and more bizarrely monstrous as they become more potent. The Archdemon, however, has the form of a lightly built human male.
* BornLucky: In the world of the aleators from ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'', luck is a literal commodity which powerful individuals have managed to hoard for themselves. It's also a finite natural resource, so the hoarding of vast quantities of luck by such people means that everyone else in that world is BornUnlucky by default, and must exercise extreme caution just to make it though a day alive.
* CastFromHitPoints: Sorcery spells consume some portion of the caster's life-force, permanently shortening their life-span. The bigger or more comprehensive the effect, the more life-force it consumes. Young sorcerers tend to waste their power on extravagant, flashy effects while older, more experienced sorcerers hoard their magic to preserve the time they have left.
* DealWithTheDevil: Wizardry averts this due to the Law of Dichotomy. You can't ''deal'' with a demon, you have to overpower it by force of will or become its slave. There is no middle ground.
* FreakyFridayFlip: Happens to the male heroes of ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'', as a side effect of a time/space-warping magical weapon. Unusual in that it's done neither for social commentary nor comedy; rather, it gives the djinn hero a chance to experience life as a human, and vice versa.
* GottaCatchThemAll: The protagonist of ''Master of the Five Magics'' learns the use of his world's five known types of magic over the course of the novel, and needs to use all five in combination to win in the end.
* HypnoticEyes: Sorcery requires eye contact with the subject.
* MagicAIsMagicA: Though the rules themselves can change, each magical system is itself internally consistent.
* TheMagicGoesAway: Subverted in ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'', in which it seems that the five known forms of magic are ceasing to operate. It turns out that they aren't vanishing; rather, a "metamagician" from another world is shifting the rules under which they operate, forcing magic-users to rediscover how to invoke their powers.
* {{Magitek}}: Palodad, an ancient demon, has constructed a huge mechanical computer from the millions of demons, great or tiny, that have fallen under his control. Arrayed in cages and linked by shackles and rods, they stick out their tongues, stand on one leg, flip upside-down, or otherwise change their poses to indicate 1s or 0s; glowing imps pasted to metal plates serve as "screens" for input and output.
* MindManipulation: Sorcery, the fourth magic, involves mind manipulation in its many forms and applications.
* MutuallyExclusiveMagic:
** In ''Master of the Five Magics'', no one in the world believes that anyone can learn more than one type of magic, but Alodar not only learns the basics of all five, he manages to combine them.
** In ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'' one can be a magician or a metamagician but not both.
* NoodleImplements: Both the ingredients required for alchemical formulas ''and'' the bizarre objects and actions that comprise the rituals of True Magic are like this. Even when a ritual is shown in full, just ''how'' such a weird sequence of events can contribute to creating a magical item is a mystery to the reader.
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Inverted in ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'', in which Jemidon is the one person who ''can't'' handle an enchanted sword or pull it out of the ground. [[spoiler:This is a clue Jemidon is a metamagician: someone who can't personally use magic, but can enhance magical abilities in others and manipulate the rules governing magical effects.]]
* PickyPeopleEater: The skyskirr from ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'' subsist on bone marrow, which they can somehow drain from living creatures' limbs without necessarily killing them.
* PortalCrossroadWorld: The demon's realm connects to every fire lit in the other realms.
* RandomNumberGod: In-universe example. Alchemical formulae only work when "the random factors align," so alchemists often try hundreds of times to make a single working formula. [[spoiler: Alodar's cunning allowed him to weed out a lot of these random factors and produce his heat-resistance cream reliably.]]
* SealedEvilInADuel: Seemingly the only way to defeat the antagonist in ''Riddle of the Seven Realms''.
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: One of the characters in ''Riddle of the Seven Realms''. She ends up [[spoiler:in a relationship with Astron, a demon (albeit a nice one), because he's the only one who she believes can love her for herself]].
* SupernaturalGoldEyes: In ''Master of the Five Magics'', the "sorcerer's eye" is a mysterious magical item in the form of a crystal sphere, in which a single closed eye is seen to float unsupported. When in use, the eye within the sphere opens, revealing its golden iris.
* SympatheticMagic: Thaumaturgy, the first magic.
* TakenForGranite: In ''Master of the Five Magics'', a minor antagonist steals a heat-resistant ointment from the hero's mentor, slathers himself with an extra-thick coating, then taunts the hero for not having enough as they both venture into the heart of a volcano. He's HoistByHisOwnPetard when the extra-thick coating fails to burn off properly as its protective power is expended... and then solidifies, trapping him in an unbreakable, suffocating shell.
* TheWallsAreClosingIn: In ''Secret of the Sixth Magic'', debtors in the city of Pluton are condemned to death if no one will pay off their creditors to buy them as slaves. This being a fantasy world, the method of execution is magic-powered: they're sealed inside an unbreakable cube, which then magically gets smaller... and smaller... and smaller.
* UnequalRites: In the first book, the five crafts are treated differently. Thaumaturgy is a profession, alchemy is an industry, magic is controlled by TheOrder, sorcerers are feared but valued independent agents, and wizards are carnival tricksters... but old-school wizards were on a level with kings, if not above them.
* UnstoppableRage: Sorcery can be used to incite this.
* VoidBetweenTheWorlds: The answer to the titular riddle of the third book is that lighting a fire in the demon's realm would open a portal to the void, [[spoiler:which would then consume all the realms]].
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: In ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'', it is revealed that demons adopt various hobbies to avoid succumbing to this trope.
* YankTheDogsChain: Happens repeatedly to the protagonist of ''Master of the Five Magics'': each time he risks it all to learn of a new kind of magic, a rival swoops in and gloms all the profits, leaving him with nothing but a clue to the next style of magic-use.
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* {{Magitek}}: Palodad, an ancient demon, has constructed a huge mechanical computer from the millions of demons, great or tiny, that have fallen under his control. Arrayed in cages and linked by shackles and rods, they stick out their tongues, stand on one leg, flip upside-down, or otherwise change their poses to indicate 1s or 0s.