similar to Her Majesty's Wizard, but different.

[Morticaar]

The book I'm looking for is *like* Her Majesty's Wizard, in that the protagonist is transported to another world where magic is real, but I know for a fact that it isn't the same book (I've read Her Majesty's Wizard, and it's not the same book).

Key details I can remember:

The method of transport to this other world was by crawling / falling through a fire escape window while the protagonist is in the apartment of a friend of his, who is absent. He arrives in or near a big field-like area about to be run down by an armored person on horseback.

The way magic is performed is via rhymes and rhyming. The protagonist seems to stumble upon this fact accidentally at first, and over time becomes better at getting his rhymes and phrases to create the effects he desires.

Sorry if this isn't a lot to go on, I never finished the book, and the last time I had it in my hands was over a decade ago. I've been looking for this book for a while now, so any help anyone can offer would be appreciated.

 

[Pyan]

Hi, Morticaar, and welcome to the Chrons!

This sounds like a book called Spellsinger, by Alan Dean Foster, the first in a series of eight.

 

[Morticaar]

Thanks, but it's not Spellsinger. The protagonist in that gets transported via a calling or summoning spell into the alternate world. As little as I can remember about the book, I can't say for certain if there were *no* talking animals, but I know that the protagonist doesn't get accosted by a talking otter in the beginning of the story.

 

[Hythloday]

Is it the Apprentice Adept series?

 

[deathbycanon]

Is it the Apprentice Adept series?

I'm not sure if this was the book the original poster was looking for but it is the one I was looking for! Thank you so much for posting it as a sugestion.

 

[thetruecipher]

OT a bit:

Another almost lost gem with some strange magic is ian Watson's Queenmagic, Kingmagic...