The novel “The Flying Sorcerers” by David Gerrold and Larry Niven was published for the first time in 1970 under the title “The Misspelled Magishun” serialized in the magazine “If” and as a book in 1971.

Life in the village of Lant has been going on normally when one day a strange looking magician arrives on a flying egg. Shoogar, the magician of the village, challenges him to a duel, but the newcomer doesn’t seem very interested in him but only to perform strange rituals here and there. His language is unknown but thanks to a spell never seen before he can more or less communicate with the natives and his name seems to be something like Purple.