The Crystal Palace
 Illustration of the titular Crystal Palace Illustration by Timone Baraldo | |
| Author | Miguel Carvalho |
|---|---|
| Original title | El palacio de cristal |
| Country |  Auratia |
| Language | Auratian |
| Genre | Fantasy Quest Allegory |
| Publisher | Priomundo |
Publication date | 1939 |
Published in English | 1945 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 327 pp |
The Crystal Palace (Auratian: El palacio de cristal), also published as The Wizard (El mago), is an epic, high fantasy, allegorical novel written by Auratian soldier and university professor Miguel Carvalho. The Crystal Palace is one the best selling books in Kylaris and Auratia's most recognized literary work, with over 140 million copies sold worldwide.
Set in the fantastical world of Kaia, the novel follows the adventures of Sam Sasam, a meek middle-aged man from the idyllic human community of Ellado, a stand-in for Carvalho's native town of Silada Nueve, whose heart secretly yearns for adventure. Sam is picked up by a band of warioor monks, who enlist Sam to carry their supplies. Sam learns that the monks—who are members of the Iridu species, tall, spindly humanoids characterized by baldness and a seemingly dour temparment—are on a quest to rescue the fabled Wizard from the clutches of Soron, a dragon demon, and liberate the elfin court of the titular Crystal Palace. Along the way, Sam proves himself to be an exper scout, the position Carvalho held in Auratia's resistance, and encounters species and lands he has never before seen.
The novel is widely believed to be an allegory of Carvalho's time in the Great War, though the author himself has never confirmed this. The novel touches upon themes of friendship, loyalty, loss, death, apperance versus reality, and the overall brutality of war. The Crystal Palace is widely studied for its subversion of the traditional hero's journey.