The Face in the Frost
Third Ace Books paperback edition (1981) with cover illustration by Carl Lundgren
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| Author | John Bellairs |
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| Illustrator | Marilyn Fitschen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Macmillan Publishers |
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Publication date
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1969 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | ix, 174 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 21238446 |
The Face in the Frost is a short 1969 fantasy novel by author John Bellairs. Unlike most of his later works, this book is meant for adult readers. It centers on two accomplished wizards, Prospero ("and not the one you're thinking of") and Roger Bacon, tracking down the source of a great magical evil. The subject matter prompted Ursula K. Le Guin to say of the novel, "The Face in the Frost takes us into pure nightmare before we know it—and out the other side."
This novel was listed in the "recommended reading" list in the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide by Gary Gygax. Prospero's practice of studying his book of spells the night before he might need them may have helped inspire the game's requirement for magic users to do the same (see also Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories).
The story opens with a description of Prospero's cluttered house. Prospero is at home on a late summer day when he feels particularly uneasy. He tries out a spell which rattles the kitchenware, but apparently nothing else.
In the evening he receives an unexpected visit from his friend Roger Bacon, and the two discuss unusual phenomena that have transpired lately, especially those concerning a mysterious book for which Roger has been searching England. The following morning the two wizards find Prospero’s house besieged by agents of some other wizard who seems to have ill designs for them.
They escape the house by shrinking themselves down and sailing out on a model ship via an underground stream accessible through Prospero’s basement.The ship they travel on is based on an actual ship some centuries in the future (Prospero can look intothe future through a magic mirror.).They also have an encounter with a troll on their way through the stream. Once they regain their normal size they visit a library of records where Prospero discovers, as Roger stands guard outside, that a seal appearing in the mysterious aforementioned book belongs to Melichus, an old rival of his. Unfortunately, at that point a person comes into the library and claims to have killed Roger.
Prospero flees the library and, after encountering sorcerous traps, spends the night in a nearby town, where he luckily escapes an attack from some sort of evil creature sent by Melichus. The following day he travels to the cursed grove where Melichus is supposed to be buried, only to discover that the one buried there is not Melichus, but only one of his former servants.The grove was burned down years before in an attempt to kill Melichus, and though regrown,has never been right since. He presumes, therefore, that Melichus is still alive.
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