Chimaera’s Copper.

New York: TOR Fantasy, A Tom Doherty Associates Book, 1990. First Edition. With bookplate signed by the Author. Octavo, orange boards (hardcover), 311 pp. Near Fine, with a hint of foxing, in Fine dust jacket with original jacket wrap. From dust jacket: A Roundear there Shall Surely Be / Born to be Strong, Raised to be Free / Fighting Dragons in his Youth / Leading Armies, Nothing Loth / Ridding his Country of a Sore / Joining Two, then Uniting Four / Until from Seven there be One / Only then will his Task be Done. Thus goes the Prophecy that has, much to his surprise, made Kelvin Knight Hackleberry the greatest hero of several alternative worlds. Already Kelvin has triumphed over deadly golden dragnos and maneating silver serpents; now, however, he’s about to discover that being a hero means meeting old enemies -- who sometimes refuse to stay defeated. Zoanna, deposed witch-queen of Zud, and Rowforth, sadistic former king of Hud, have returned and joined forces to seek revenge on Kelvin and his allies. With the help of Zoanna’s dark sorcery, Rowforth has seized the throne of his double, good King Rufurt of Kelvinia, and launched a bloody, senseless war on all the neighboring kingdoms. Even worse, the evil tyrants have imprisoned Heln, Kelvin’s pregnant wife, and placed a monstrous curse upon her unborn child. Only Kelvin, the Roundear of Prophecy, can possibly save his land and his loved ones from the double threat of Rowforth and Zoanna -- but where is Kelvin? Alas, Kelvin, along with his brother Kian and their Earthborn father, are trapped in an unknown frame of reality where strange amphibian warriors offer human sacrifices to the legendary chimaera: a malevolent three-headed creature with the body of a giant crab, the tail of a scorpion, and an insatiable appetite for mortal flesh. Kevlin’s not dead yet, but only because the chimaera likes to play with his/her/its food... Chimaera’s Copper is another exciting and engaging tale of Kelvin, an unlikely hero in the wildest of all possible multiverses.