Help Identifying a Book

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#1

This is a tough one, and I understand if my description is too vague, but I’m trying to remember a fantasy book I read in high school. It involved a young man who wasn’t much and this girl he liked was kidnapped. There was also a larger plotline, something about the standard fantasy tropes of saving the world against an unspeakable evil, but the book never got around to it.

The book was a standalone work if I recall correctly, but once you thought it was about to get going, it ended, and I was left wondering what the heck the point of it was. The boy saves the girl, but she was only kidnapped by some local louts, and the major evil was never encountered, instead being referred to as something that our hero would conquer now that he had saved his woman.

It almost seemed like the novelization of a normal fantasy book introduction only, like if Lord of the Rings ended at the Prancing Pony, or if Game of Thrones ended with… Game of Thrones. I wish I could remember more, but I can’t, and I’ve found that books are notoriously hard to locate if you can’t remember the author and/or title (and if the title is too generic, that can be bad, too). Anyone have an inkling, or maybe a resource they could point me to?

#2

#3

Any idea of when the book came out?
was it new when you were in highschool?

and when was that?

We will help if we can…

#4

I was in high school in the late 90s and I don’t think it was ancient. Probably a release date between 1985-1996 or so, most likely.

I don’t remember any part of the title, author, or characters. I’ve found book-finding resources before, but they’ve never yielded much in the way of good results.

#5

Not wonderfully helpful, but you might try speaking to a librarian with a young adult specialty. If you are in a small town, it would be worth contacting a librarian in a larger city. Many of these librarians love to track down obscure works and they have often spent years at university reading and analyzing the works in their specialty. In Canada, on the CBC, there used to be (still is?) a librarian who would answer these kinds of questions or put it out to the listeners to give it a try. She often contacted various other librarians before giving up. It was amazing, however, to hear how many she would get correct on a cold call.

My advice: Contact a qualified librarian willing to help. See if you can tickle their curiosity.

#6

That’s a good idea. There are two libraries within 15-20 minutes. Thanks!