A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt: A Fantasy Retelling Series
Book: A Name to Conjure With by Donald Aamodt (1989)
Why This Book Deserves a Retelling
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.
Published in 1989, it tells the story of Sandy MacGregor. Sandy is a regular guy from Baltimore. He’s not special. He’s not chosen by prophecy. He’s just a dude who likes Chinese food and has a weird habit of losing things. Objects vanish around him for no reason. Soup disappears from his bowl. A chisel goes missing from a bare basement floor.
Then one day, Sandy himself disappears. Right out of our world.
What the Book Is About
A bumbling sorcerer named Zhadnoboth pulls Sandy through a portal into Zarathandra, a fantasy world full of magic, gods, and danger. Zhadnoboth was trying to summon a demon. He got Sandy instead.
Here’s the twist. Sandy has what they call a “name of power.” When he speaks his full name, things break. Walls crack. Energy explodes outward. It’s raw, uncontrolled, and terrifying. Zhadnoboth realizes he accidentally summoned something far more dangerous than any demon.
So the sorcerer does what any self-interested wizard would do. He slaps an enchanted silver chain around Sandy’s neck and forces him into a quest.
The mission? Rob the treasure hoard of the Zalkrings. These are the fanatical followers of Kels Zalkri, a dark god who invaded Zarathandra a thousand years ago. The Zalkrings are cruel, wealthy, and extremely well-organized. Think of a death cult with unlimited funding.
The Companions
Sandy doesn’t get to choose his travel buddies. The group is thrown together by circumstance and desperation.
Zhadnoboth is the sorcerer. He’s greedy, petty, and not nearly as talented as he thinks he is. His spells work, mostly, but they’re always a little off. He’s the kind of wizard who makes you nervous because you’re never sure if his magic will do what he says it will.
Uskban is small, intense, and absolutely consumed by rage. The Zalkrings murdered his entire family. His sisters were tortured and killed during their ceremonies. Uskban survived and has spent his life wanting revenge. He’s terrifying in a quiet way. The kind of person who smiles before he hurts you.
Pognak is a giant. Literally huge. And mute. The Zalkrings cut out his tongue after destroying his life. He lost his wife, his son, and his unborn child. Pognak doesn’t talk about his pain. He can’t. But you feel it in everything he does.
These are not your standard fantasy party members. They’re broken people held together by hatred, greed, and one very confused American.
Why It Works
The book balances humor and darkness in a way that feels natural. Sandy’s reactions to the fantasy world are genuinely funny. He’s sarcastic, practical, and deeply out of his depth. He approaches magic and monsters the way any normal person would. With confusion and swearing.
But the dark parts are really dark. Aamodt doesn’t shy away from showing what the Zalkrings have done. The backstories of Uskban and Pognak are brutal. This isn’t grimdark for shock value. It’s dark because the story needs you to understand why these people are willing to risk everything.
And then there’s the Goddess. She rules Zarathandra and has been planning for a thousand years. She’s the one who arranged for Sandy to be pulled from Earth. She needed a weapon that Kels Zalkri couldn’t predict. Someone from a connected world. Someone with a name that could destroy a god.
The ending is exactly what you’d hope for. Sandy speaks the full name of Kels Zalkri and obliterates him. It’s satisfying in a way that a lot of fantasy novels miss.
What This Series Will Cover
I’m going to retell A Name to Conjure With chapter by chapter in a series of posts. Each post will cover a few chapters at a time. I’ll walk through what happens, talk about what works, and point out things you might miss on a first read.
This is a portal fantasy. That means someone from our world gets transported to a fantasy world. It’s a subgenre that was popular in the 80s and 90s and has been making a comeback. If you like stories where a normal person has to figure out a magical world with no guidebook, this is your book.
If you’ve read it before, welcome back. If you haven’t, you’re about to meet one of the most underrated fantasy novels of the late 80s.
Let’s get into it.