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The main character explores a castle that fell out of the sky. It was discovered that it was supposed to fly through the sky using magic but something happened and it crashed. It fell prior to the start of the story. I cannot remember why he was exploring it. I think there was a part where he found the remains of the mage who was responsible for it flying previously. I do not remember if he died during the crash or if his death caused it to crash. The main character somehow restored to magic of the castle to get it flying again but I am vague on how.

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  • Hi, welcome to SF&F. Does the castle fall during the story, or is it a historical event? Why was he exploring the castle? How did he make it fly? Do you recall the name of the character or the castle? Are any other significant locales visited?
    – DavidW
    Dec 16, 2022 at 4:20
  • It fell prior to the start of the story. I cannot remember why he was exploring it. I think there was apart where he found the remains of the mage who was responsible for it flying previously. I do not remember if he died during the crash or if his death caused it to crash. The main character somehow restored to magic of the castle to get it flying again but I am vague on how.
    – wutendwolf
    Dec 16, 2022 at 4:26
  • If someone posts the correct answer, you can accept by clicking on the checkmark by the voting buttons, as per the tour.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Dec 16, 2022 at 4:47

1 Answer 1

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Lawrence Watt-Evans's With a Single Spell (1987), second book of his Ethshar series.

Front cover of With a Single Spell

A SINGLE SPELL

Tobas had been lucky to find a wizard to take him on as apprentice. But then the wizard died suddenly and unexpectedly after teaching Tobas only a solitary spell, and the youth was too old to find a new master. How could he earn a living when all the magic he could do was light fires?

A DESTINY UNFOLDING

In the Small Kingdoms there were dragons to be slain, princesses and gold to be won, magic castles, witches who knew the secret of immortality, and other treasures. But how could a wizard with a single, simple spell hope to find them and win them?

Tobas does find the formerly flying castle, with the skeleton of its dead Wizard master, who had been the victim of an anti-magic zone during a past war. By accident, he travels through a magic tapestry to the Wizard's actual sanctum, after taking it outside of the anti-magic area. Within, he find the eternally youthful wife of the Wizard, who has been trapped for around a century, with the return tapestry not working.

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  • And if this is correct, it will be a dupe of scifi.stackexchange.com/q/184617/23243
    – FuzzyBoots
    Dec 16, 2022 at 4:54
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    Yes, that was the novel I thought of as well. Though I don't recall that he got the castle flying again. And now that I think of it, the reason it fell is that it was in a magic dead zone. Which presumably would not change.
    – Faheem Mitha
    Dec 16, 2022 at 16:10
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    Thank you so much. That is definitely it. Sorry for the duplicate.
    – wutendwolf
    Dec 16, 2022 at 17:05
  • No worries. It's a good book.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Dec 16, 2022 at 17:30
  • @FaheemMitha I remember a flying boat at the end. And indeed, it's a plot point in later books that there's no way to dispel an antimagic zone, which is huge in a magic-heavy world like this.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Dec 16, 2022 at 17:35

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