Kerin, the younger brother of Jorian from the author's Reluctant King trilogy (The Goblin Tower, 1968; The Clocks of Iraz, 1971, and The Unbeheaded King, 1983) is sent to a country reminiscent of China to study clock mechanisms. In this humorous story he rescues and marries a princess and battles sorcerers and demons.

The Whims of Destiny Jorian, the one-time unbeheaded king, was now safely retired from a long career of getting into trouble. But his younger brother Kerin lacked such wisdom. The outraged father of Adeliza had caught him in compromising circumstances with the maiden. So Kerin had to be sent at once on a mission by sea to the Far East. But Kerin's talent for trouble was not to be denied. First came Belinka, a sprite sent by Adeliza to bring him back safe for her. The ship captain believed Kerin was seducing his mistress. Though innocent this time, Kerin left hastily in a rowboat. That got him to a hermit-wizard's island - and a voyage on a pirate ship, where the kidnapped princess Nogiri was held captive. Kerin was unable to save her - until he gained the help of the hermit-wizard, who then betrayed him by seizing the girl and fleeing with her to be used as a human sacrifice. From then on, events became hectic as Kerin managed to save Nogiri again, helped by a wizard who was the enemy of the first one. Belinka was much distressed by what happened then between Kerin and Nogiri - with cause - as they set out again, this time to the Emperor of the Farthest East. There Kerin discovered more magic, and the Emperor learned that no man should be absentminded when using a powerful spell. But it was later that Kerin discovered the limitations of roller skates.

Herodotus was the first writer in the West to conceive the value of creating a record of the recent past. He found a way to co-ordinate the often conflicting data of history, ethnology, and culture. The Historical Method of Herodotus explores the intellectual habits and the literary principles of this pioneer writer of prose. Donald Lateiner argues, against the perception that Herodotus' work seems amorphous and ill organized, that the Histories contain their own definition of historical significance. He examines patterns of presentation and literary structure in narratives, speeches, and direct communications to the reader, in short, the conventions and rhetoric of history as Herodotus created it. This rhetoric includes the use of recurring themes, the relation of speech to reported actions, indications of doubt, stylistic idiosyncrasies, frequent reference to nonverbal behaviours, and strategies of opening and ending. Lateiner shows how Herodotus sometimes suppresses information on principle and sometimes compels the reader to choose among contending versions of events. His inventories of Herodotus' methods allow the reader to focus on typical practice, not misleading exception. In his analysis of the structuring concepts of the Histories, Lateiner scrutinizes Herodotean time and chronology. He considers the historian's admiration for ethnic freedom and autonomy, the rule of law, and the positive values of conflict. Despite these apparent biases, he argues, the text's intellectual and moral preferences present a generally cool and detached account from which an authorial personality rarely emerges. The Historical Method of Herodotus illuminates the idiosyncrasies and ambitious nature of a major text in classics and the Western tradition and touches on aspects of historiography, ancient history, rhetoric, and the history of ideas.