Reflections in the Mountain of Mirrors
I still remember the excitement in elementary school when the Scholastic Bookmobile (pronounced “moe-BEEL”) would roll into town. There was something magical about this itinerant book fair caravan that promised fantasy and fun to our youthful imaginations.
(In trying to find a picture, I came across a cool article about the history of these fascinating literature-filled vehicles, check it out here: https://ebookfriendly.com/retro-photos-libraries-wheels/ — I think the ones that came to my town were like #31, #42 or #47)
Scholastic would (smartly) send out their newspaper-style catalog in advance so us kids could salivate and circle the books we wanted to get. I would wind up circling around 15. Then Mom would give me a few dollars, and I learned at an early age the corporate art of cutting all “non-essentials” (after begging failed) to get my list down to 2 or so. But that was fine. THE BOOKMOBILE WAS COMING and little ol’ me could CHOOSE whichever books I wanted! That was a big deal. What a sense of agency.
Reflecting back, fantasy was always my thing. There was just something about the artwork and universal heroic stories of discovery and adventure that drew me like a moth to a flame. An earlier chance school library check-out of The Lion, the Witch, And The Wardrobe set me on that path for then & forever — I quickly developed radar vision for any book covers that smacked of the fantastical.
So, when it was my class’s turn, I entered the bookmobile after a gleeful trudge up its steep steps. Seeing the cover to Mountain of Mirrors, I about lost my sh*t. I mean, how cool is that picture of a bad-a$$ tree-trunk-wielding, blue-skinned frost giant standing near as tall as the dead-eyed white dragon unfurling its wings behind him?
That picture, I quickly learned, was the talent of Larry Elmore. I would see Larry’s work over and over again in the coming years in fantasy books, magazines and RPGs, but none quite affected me as profoundly as this cover — except, that is, for 3 other legendary covers from a *little-known* series by the name of “DragonLance”™.
(By the way, for anyone interested in getting a hold of Larry’s amazing poster prints, checkout his site: https://larryelmore.com — I have several framed and can’t speak highly enough of the vibrant colors and quality. Oh, and did I mention he signs each of them before shipping them out?)
Most of the particulars of the story have long faded into the recesses of childhood, but I will never forget being able to make choices that could more often than not lead to dead ends or just . . . dead (without the ends). That’s when you figured out how to Vulcan pinch several different choice pages at a time while contorting the book to the next directed page (A literally life-or-death technique first developed by early readers of the Choose Your Own Adventure™ series).
“Whoops, I died. Which finger was the page I made that choice from? Let me check the ring finger…” [Book slips out of hand and onto floor.]
Could I have used bookmarks — yeah, sure, but think of the glory of being successful using nothing but your fingers.
Another innately cool thing about these books was the use of interior adornments and illustrations. The drop caps at the start of the story lent an elegant fairytale/renaissance feel, and there was always a repeated picture decoration scattered throughout. In MoM, it was a sword laying on a rock above its belted scabbard. Even being young, little touches like this bubbled up into my awareness and appreciation.
Children’s books are expected to have illustrations, but the older the reader, the less the pictures (boo). It was such a pleasant experience to have so many illustrations in these Endless Quest™ books. I’m sure they took a leaf out of the Choose Your Own Adventure™ series who already did this. Black and white ink or pencil illustrations. Classic.
Jim Holloway did the interior artwork for MoM, and a marvelous job it was. I loved the way he captured the dynamic action appropriate to the passages. My favorites were on page #103 showing a furious dragon, pg. 26 illustrating a HUGE ogre about to smite you, and pg. 70 featuring you melting the obnoxious (but still cool-looking) ice-gate face.
(Yet another cool thing I appreciated about the Endless Quest™ series was the little details, like fancy borders that would frame the pictures. Swords, gems, or just geometric fancy adornments were some frequently used elements.)
I found out Jim was a self-taught artist that did a ton of fantasy artwork in the 80s for D&D™, Dragon Magazine™ and other roleplaying games like Battle Tech™. He did the interior art for 3 other Endless Quest™ books too: Dungeon of Dread, Revolt of the Dwarves, and Raid on Nightmare Castle. Sadly, Jim passed away in 2020.
A list of his credits can be found here
An active Facebook group about Jim’s work is here
An insightful 13 question Q&A with Jim is here
As for the story itself, this was the brainchild of Rose Estes. She worked at TSR back in their heyday and saw the potential for a fantasy-style version of the super-successful Choose Your Own Adventure™ books that could teach kids and adults how to play Dungeons & Dragons™.
No brainer, right? Wrong. The powers-that-be denied her project. Thankfully for us, she couldn’t get it out of her head, and so wrote them on her own time at nights . . . on legal pads. Eventually, other leadership saw the potential, and greenlit the project. The rest is history, and countless childhoods were saved.
Rose wrote the first six Endless Quest™ books, among others — every one of the first four was on the bestseller list for 6 months!
Some of Rose’s other famous works include: Greyhawk Adventures™, and Find Your Fate™ — Indiana Jones and the Lost Treasure of Sheba (Another of my bookmobile purchases which I will feature here in a future article). This excellent interview was done with Mrs. Estes a few years back that I highly recommend reading. Talk about inspiring! When she wrote these, she didn’t even have a background in writing or fiction!
From this book forward, anything stamped with “TSR” would always make my heart race with avarice and excitement. I hadn’t played Dungeons & Dragons™ by the time I picked up Mountain of Mirrors, but it became the regular featured #1 item on my Christmas wishlist for the next several years running (Thank you Sears!)
As I finish this article, I stare at my original copy of Mountain of Mirrors and notice 4 lessons take form, reflecting silently back at me:
- How fortunate I was to find this book in my childhood and how it inspired me to keep reading throughout my life.
- How cool it is to learn about the people behind the finished product and how impressive their individual stories are.
- Fantasy and Fun don’t have to fade away into adulthood.
- Don’t mess with frost giants or white dragonlings, if you can help it.
(A personal 5th lesson provided the reminder to say: Thank you, Mom, for encouraging me to read . . . and for giving up those dollars when the bookmobile came into town.)
(No, in case you noticed my fine signature, I never did wind up becoming a doctor.)
(And what’s with that hand-crafted bookmark of a “stoner” elf, you ask? — I wasn’t a stoner but can’t recall his origin story. I know my friends & I revisited these books in high school, so maybe they can dispel the mystery.)
Cool Trivia: Mountain of Mirrors was actually converted into an adventure for the computer game Neverwinter Nights.
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Originally published at https://jqgraziano.substack.com.
