A portal fantasy novel about Sandy MacGregor, a regular guy from Baltimore transported to the magical world of Zarathandra, where his ordinary name holds extraordinary power.
Sandy MacGregor is just a regular government worker eating Chinese food in Baltimore when his soup vanishes and his world starts unraveling. Before he can figure out what’s happening, he falls through an elevator shaft and lands in Zarathandra, a fantasy world ruled by a mysterious Goddess. A bumbling sorcerer named Zhadnoboth summoned him by accident, thinking Sandy was a demon. Turns out Sandy’s name carries magical power in this new world, and the sorcerer wants to use it to rob the treasure hoard of the Zalkrings, fanatical followers of the dark god Kels Zalkri.
Forced into a quest with the conniving sorcerer, a revenge-driven madman named Uskban, and a mute giant called Pognak, Sandy travels across a harsh desert toward the black mountain stronghold of the Zalkrings. Along the way, he bonds with Glupp, a giant beast who adores him, develops a supernatural sixth sense, and slowly transforms from a soft city dweller into something more. The group encounters brutal violence, ancient prophecies, a priestess with a complicated past, and the growing awareness that a Goddess is pulling their strings.
Published by Del Rey/Ballantine in 1989, A Name to Conjure With blends humor, horror, and genuine emotion in a way few fantasy novels manage. Donald Aamodt created memorable characters who are deeply flawed but utterly compelling, and the central idea that a person’s name holds real power gives the story both its title and its most spectacular moment. Aamodt wrote one sequel, A Troubling Along the Border, continuing Sandy’s adventures in Zarathandra.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Some books get lost in time. Not because they’re bad. Because the publishing world moves fast and forgets things. A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt is one of those books.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Sandy MacGregor is having a normal Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. He’s eating at a Chinese restaurant. Wonton soup, barbecued ribs, fried rice. Standard comfort food.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Sandy wakes up on the floor of a sorcerer’s laboratory. His head hurts. His body aches. The last thing he remembers is falling through an elevator shaft that turned out to be a portal between worlds.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
The group is in a desert town. It’s hot, dusty, and full of the kind of people who don’t ask questions because they don’t want questions asked of them. The town exists as a waypoint for traders, smugglers, and anyone else who needs supplies before heading into the deeper desert.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Up to this point, A Name to Conjure With has been weird, funny, and kind of charming. Sandy got pulled into another world, teamed up with a cranky sorcerer and a desert warrior, and they’ve been stumbling from one mess to the next. It felt like a rough adventure. Messy but manageable.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
There’s something about desert stories that just hits different. The constant threat of death by dehydration. The emptiness. The heat. When you strip away everything else, survival comes down to one thing: water.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Last chapter ended with a ridiculous plan. Sandy and Zhadnoboth would walk into a camp full of enemies and pretend to be harmless travelers. Uskban and Pognak would hide in the desert, waiting.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
After the battle at the Naz Mathoni camp, things should calm down. The enemies are defeated. Water is secured. The Key of Arimithos has been found. Time to rest, right?
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
The group crawls out of the ruined tower to find the oasis destroyed. The Shurva wrecked everything. Vegetation is blackened scraps and ash. Only the fortress survived, protected by whatever ancient power lingers in its walls.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Three nights of hard travel. Everyone’s short-tempered. Nobody talks except to argue. Sandy passes the time composing bawdy limericks for Glupp. The grundzar beams at every one, probably because he doesn’t understand any of them. Sandy calls him a bootlicker. Glupp literally licks his boot.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Sandy wakes with sun blasting his eyes and sand in his mouth. He spits it out, crawls to shade, and passes out again.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Just before daybreak, they see Tham Og Zalkri. The house of Zalkri.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
The group is about to raid a mountain full of murderous cultists. And Zhadnoboth, the sorcerer who got them into this whole mess, picks this exact moment to do the best work of his entire career. Then he bails.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
They’re going in. After all the traveling, the desert crossings, the bar fights, and the sorcerer’s enchantments, the group is finally entering Tham Og Zalkri. The Black Mountain. Home of a death cult that worships a dark god.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
The mountain is gone. Like, completely gone. Sandy wakes up and the entire fortress that they just raided has been wiped off the map. Where Tham Og Zalkri stood, there’s nothing. Rubble, dust, and open sky where a mountain used to be.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
This is it. The whole book has been building to this moment. Every chapter, every setback, every small victory, every death. It all comes down to Sandy MacGregor standing in front of a dark god and opening his mouth.
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
After everything Sandy has been through, you’d think meeting the Goddess face to face would be the reward. The big moment where the deity shows up, says “well done,” and sends him home to Baltimore.
We’ve reached the end. Every chapter covered. Every character accounted for. Sandy MacGregor’s journey from Baltimore to Zarathandra and everything that happened in between.