Magus Rex, by Jack Lovejoy, is a science fantasy novel published in 1983. In the year 1,000,000 A.D., the newly-graduated Master Wizard Valorious is in love with the beautiful Zenobia. Too bad her father is the greatest wizard who ever lived, Magus Rex. To keep the two separate, Magus Rex takes Zenobia back in time to the ancient world, daring Valorious to follow.
So what's the problem? The distant future is replete with the psychic energy needed to make a trip through time, but returning from the past is another matter...
Magus Rex provides examples of the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Near the end, Zenobia makes it clear that the only thing she needed to get herself out of captivity was a distraction.
- Affably Evil: Magus Rex (a self-bestowed title, not his name) is very clearly a tyrant, often a petty one, who creates tiny, populated worldlets for no purpose other than personal amusement - and as he considers decadence the highest state of civilization his amusements can be nasty indeed. At the same time he will not fight an inferior opponent - which in a fight would include everyone, will not even show disrespect to anybody not actually insulting him, and in fact is legendary for his "equitability".
- Ancient Rome: The first place Valorious follows Magus Rex, and the place with the most action.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Magus Rex is willing and able to transform Valorious into a toucan if he doesn't stay away from Zenobia. He actually gets serious later on.
- Dark Age Europe: A brief stopover for Valorious.
- Engagement Challenge: Magus Rex laughs in his face when Valorious proposes this. The vacation through time is a form of it, though Magus Rex didn't expect the boy to actually try it.
- Gentleman Wizard: Magus Rex is a connoisseur of decadence and high culture.
- Gladiator Games: Valorious is lured into the Roman games, and uses his wizardry to put animals under mental control. This performance earns him enough money to go about finding Zenobia in earnest.
- Manipulative Bastard: Dangerous though his demesne is to enter without an invitation, Magus Rex will neither attack Valorious nor permit anything which should truly threaten a trained mage to do so. Nor will he simply bar the path and prevent Valorious from seeking an audience with him. What he will do is predict Valorious's behavior to such a degree that: 1) Valorious could be put in an extremely uncomfortable position which will make continuing this romance very difficult, but 2) This will only happen should Valorious react as if he were rescuing Zenobia (implying she needs rescuing either from her father or because he can't protect his beloved daughter, thus mildly insulting said father), 3) Anything which happens to Valorious will be a direct and easily predictable consequence of his own actions, 4) He will have been clearly warned about the entire situation even before giving him the chance to defeat himself, and 5) He'll still be slow enough on the uptake to realize what he's doing the instant it's too late. (With Zenobia's additional warning, he's still almost too slow, and sincerely admits afterwards he can't complain of unfairness.)
- Parental Marriage Veto: Though Valorious and Zenobia have been in love since they were young, her father is having none of it, and will travel through time with her to ensure it doesn't come about.
