The Face in the Frost - Reviewing Appendix N
Continuing our series of reading books that have inspired Dungeons & Dragons - with a handy list found in the back of the Dungeon Master’s Guide (1979) - our book for this month was The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs.
This is a short fantasy novel that follows the exploits of two wizards, Prospero and Roger Bacon, as they try and stop a great source of wintery evil. Though, interestingly, and this isn’t something I knew before reading the book, Gygax had not read this book prior to creating the game (along with David Arneson) Dungeons & Dragons. With that said, in Gygax’s review of it in Dragon #22 (Feb. 1979) he speaks quite highly of it and says that “THE FACE IN THE FROST could have been a prime mover of the underlying spirit of D&D.”
So it looks like Appendix N is full of books that didn’t necessarily help create the idea of Dungeons & Dragons but are good books to read to influence your own games. The same way it did for Gary Gygax. Speaking of books to read to influence your games, if you wish to join us next month for our little Appendix N book club, we will be checking out the author Lord Dunsany, though we are not given any specific books. This means I’ll just have to pick one and I’m going to go with his best-known work, The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1924), which many critics have stated is on par with the Lord of the Rings series.
The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs
I have not read any of John Bellair before this book, and I don’t think I had even heard of him or his many books. I had no real idea what I was getting into when I picked up the book, whether it was high fantasy, swashbuckling adventures, or a knock-knock joke book.
The book turned out to be a pretty fun, but often dark, fantasy story about wizards saving the world from an evil wizard hoping to cast the world into a permanent winter. While the book didn’t directly influence the creation of Dungeons & Dragons, there were several things in the book that immediately came to mind in games that I’ve run and content that I’ve consumed for role-playing games. The first thing is just the tone of the novel, how at my table, we can flit from moments of humor to those of grave dark matters, and then flit back. There is less of a defined ‘mood’ to the novel and it seems to go in and out of horror, humor, and a sense of wonder. Other elements include Lovecraftian-esque monsters, like when a giant moth is killed, it turns into a swarm of biting insects, or traveling the planes, to new and exciting environments, and stopping the world from a great evil.
Review
Just to go ahead and get it out of the way, here is my rating.
4.5/5
I liked the book. It isn’t without its flaws, I left the book kind of thinking “is that it?”, but all-in-all, I really enjoyed the journey that Prospero goes on, I enjoyed the magic of the world, and I wanted a lot more world-building, but overall, it is an enjoyable book. I think that John Bellairs has a nice way of writing that doesn’t come across as pretentious (which is easy to do when writing about wizards and trying to give them all your really big words to use to make them appear smarter to the reader), but I found the pacing a little odd. It’s a short fantasy book so I expect things to be a little rushed, but it seems like there could be several areas trimmed or outright removed (specifically talking about an illusionary village that doesn’t really… add anything that wasn’t already there) and give the author a bit more breathing room to work with his characters or to dive a bit more into the story.
If you want to read a book about wizards, fantasy, adventure, stopping evil, have a few chuckles, feel a bit of fear and wonder, then this is a great book to pick up. Especially if you are normally wary of older books and how they can come across as difficult to read. This book is easy to read, easy to digest, and won’t have you flipping through a dictionary. It’s entertaining and a fun little romp.
The Face in the Frost
This story begins with our main character, Prospero, at his home in the Southern Kingdoms being quite unease as dark forces seem to be targeting him. In this world, there are the Southern Kingdoms (made up of a lot of random and disparate kingdoms) and the Nothern Kingdoms (made up of highly organized kingdoms under a main ruler). Roger Bacon, Prospero’s wizard friend, appears unexpectedly and the two begin discussing oddities that they’ve noticed, as well as talking about Prospero feeling targeted and Roger looking for a mysterious book in England.
The next day, they two realize that Prospero’s house is being besieged by some sort of agents from another wizard, so they decided to escape from the house by shrinking themselves down and sailing on a toy ship that Prospero has through a secret drainage tunnel from his house to a lake ten miles away. Once they escape the tunnel, avoiding a troll that wanted to eat them and some guards at the lake fishing, they head off to a library to get records and more information on Roger’s mysterious book. While Prospero is researching in the tiny, cramped library, Roger stands guard outside. Prospero discovers the seal of an old wizarding rival, Melichus, and realizes that his rival is involved with the recent dark tidings and a strange book that is… Lovecraftian in nature.
At this point, a stranger enters the Library carrying Roger’s wizarding staff and claims that Roger has been captured by some soldiers and will soon have his head cut off (a fact that is cemented by the wizarding staff twisting and turning into a blackened limb after the event takes place). Prospero flees the library and spends the night in a nearby town where Melichus’ old laboratory, now burned down and destroyed, was. Prospero survives the night, discovering in the morning that a terrible monster must’ve been hunting after him but his preparations saved him. Melichus is supposed to be dead, at least as far as Prospero knows, since the villagers destroyed the laboratory and apparently buried the evil spellcaster in the nearby woods. Prospero heads for the woods but discovers that it isn’t Melichus in the grave, but an old servant of Melichus was killed, allowing Melichus to escape.
Traveling north, knowing that he needs to get to an old cottage in the Northern Kingdoms that he and Melichus stayed for several months when they were just starting out as wizards and created a special artifact between the two of them that links their power together, Prospero arrives in the town of Five Dials. Turns out, though, that this town is just an illusion created by… someone…? probably Melichus, but Prospero is able to escape.
Prospero continues his travels and finally reaches the real Five Dials, a lone inn between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms where he finds Roger is still alive! They reunite, share what adventures they have had, and decide to continue to head into the Northern Kingdoms to find this artifact of Prospero’s and Melichus’ and hopefully put an end to the strange winter starting to come over the lands as well as stop Melichus from using the book that Roger has been on the hunt for. The two travel into the Northern Kingdom, meet a farmer who gives them a special key that has been passed down through generations meant for a man with the initial “P” from a mysterious stranger. Once the two wizards reach their destination, they find that their way is blocked, but a monk herbalist is able to let them in through a back entrance using the monk’s special plants to carry them up a cliff.
Once in the village, they find Melichus studying his book, but they remain unnoticed. They head for the location of the artifact and Prospero attempts to take the item, even though the item can only be removed when it is being held by Prospero and Melichus together. Due to that, Prospero and the artifact are teleported to a different world where Melichus follows. Prospero meets another wizard who takes the magical item and defeats Melichus using a special spellbook called The Kabbalah and Prospero is able to escape through a portal and back to his home. Unfortunately for Prospero, is house is still under attack by the agents of Melichus and so he protects his house, uses the key he was given to unlock a small box he was never able to open that’s built into his house, finds a small squirrel telling him to USE THE SPELL, FOOL. Prospero remembers a scrap of parchment that had a useless that never works, he uses that spell and causes all of Melichus’ agents to disappear.
The novel ends with a Christmas Day celebration with Prospero, Roger Bacon, the monk herbalist, the nearby king, and many others.
The Good
This is an enjoyable book, it’s fun to read, and has an interesting story with exciting action within it. I really like the main conceit of the adventure… and I kind of want to steal it for an adventure arc or campaign at my table. The idea of a book taking over the mind of a foolish wizard who got in over their head and is controlling the wizard is just really good idea.
Also, I kind of just want to take Prospero and Roger Bacon and just add them into my game world. I like both of them, they are a fun duo with a lot of depth that you could easily add them into your adventures for fun NPCs that your party can go to for magic items, spell scrolls, and more. Prospero isn’t like your normal wizard like Gandalf, but cracks jokes, runs away from danger, and feels like a real person instead of the idea of a person.
The Bad
I like this book, but there are some choices in it that just didn’t resonate with me. The biggest thing, to me, is that the ending doesn’t really make sense and it just happens. In fact, Prospero really doesn’t have much of a hand in defeating his old rival, he shows up in a different plane, stumbles across another wizard, and then that wizard deals with Melichus. It’s kind of a let down considering the rest of the book was about Prospero solving his problems in different ways that were clever and fun. This just felt like a big let down compared to what the rest of the book had prepped me for. In other situations, Prospero either deals with the problem using his magic and knowledge, or he runs away from the problem and tries again later. No where else does he just let someone else deal with defeating the problem by themselves. It was just an unsatisfactory ending.
Another (small) thing is that there are just elements added in that didn’t need to be there as they didn’t really add anything to the story. There is an illusionary village that… doesn’t do anything as far as I can tell. It doesn’t get Prospero new knowledge, it doesn’t get a new magic item to help defeat Melichus, and it doesn’t take anything away from Prospero to make his journey harder. It just happens, nothing changes in the story, and that’s it.
The last complaint I have is that I just don’t care for ‘prophecy’ plot points in my books. In the book, Prospero is given a key from a farmer who says that some old man generations back in his family entrusted them with a key to give to a stranger with the initial “P”. This key unlocks a small box built into Prospero’s house that is thousands of miles away. This key was handed off to the farmer’s father’s father… before Prospero was even born. And it just so happens that Prospero stumbled across this farmer, this farmer just decided to give Prospero the key (when the farmer has even said lots of people with P names have passed through, but he feels like Prospero needs it), and that Prospero even ends the book at his home and in a position to remember the key and that there is a box in his house that he hasn’t been able to unlock. That’s a lot of presence of mind when Melichus’ agents are trying to kill you. And then when he does unlock the box, it’s just a note telling him to USE THE SPELL, FOOL - a spell that is mentioned in a single paragraph at the very start of the book, a spell that Prospero has no idea what it does. It’s just… a lot of coincidence and, yeah - I get it. It’s ‘fate’ and ‘prophecy’ but I don’t have to like it.
Takeaways
The main thing I am definitely going to take away from this book is the magic is used in very clever ways that just spawn story ideas. The two have to shrink themselves down to fit down a drainage tunnel on a toy boat, that’s amazing and immediately wants me to create an adventure just about that event. Or another event where Prospero is attempting to remove the haunt from an old forest where Melichus’ servants body has been buried, that entire area is fit for taking and slotting into a random exploration event that will provide some horror for your table. The magic in this book, while not very well mechanically explained, is used in very cool ways.
Other Media
If you liked this book and want something similar, I have a few recommendations! But also, if you have recommendations for me and others, leave them in the comments below! I want to add books to my reading list!
Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (1994) by Nancy Farmer
Stardust (1999) by Neil Gaiman
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