The Clocks
More substantial is the Novarian series (from 1968), of which the core is the "Reluctant King" trilogy, beginning with "The Goblin Tower", de Camp's most accomplished effort in the genre, continuing in "The Clocks of Iraz", and concluding with "The Unbeheaded King". The trilogy features the adventurer Jorian, ex-king of Xylar. Jorian's world is an alternate reality to which our own serves as an afterlife. Other novels in the sequence include "The Fallible Fiend", a satire told from the point of view of a demon, and "The Honorable Barbarian", a follow-up to the trilogy featuring Jorian's brother as the hero.