I have just posted an excerpt from a chapter of my latest work in progress. It is unedited, but I have managed to confuse myself with this scene.
Basically, my wizard Julian is completing a set of magical challenges in a puzzle-type arena for the queen of the fairies (it's a long story). He comes across two guards blocking his way. One always tells the truth, the other always lies. He needs to figure out which.
The problem is, he doesn't really want to play ball with them and goes way off track. The question is, does his deviated logic seem correct to you?
Any advice would be welcome as a double-check for my own sanity. Thanks in advance.
Thanks everyone. I will do a re-work on this section and see how it turns out. I had a feeling it wasn't ringing quite true but couldn't quite work out why. Thanks for your help.
I think everyone knows the answer to the original puzzle, so why doesn't the wizard start with the usual answer (of asking both goblin's which door the other goblin will say is safe, both will say the wrong door). He could get quite confused himself.This would meet with the readers expectations, and then this can be exasperated with the different method used because only the wizard knows they are in fact both lying. It would be quite a surprise if the solution was to zap them both to smithereens to reveal the secret passage.
If i were the goblin and knew death was on the other side of the door, I wouldn't go through. I would stay and see if the wizard was bluffing or not with his threat. Not likely perhaps, just that instant death is less certain. Perhaps they could vanish in a puff of dust instead thus hinting something is not right.
As for the angry wizard, tiresome little people are trying to kill him. Smite them all down in anger, that's what I say. String 'em up. String the... Ahem...
I didn't see anything wrong with the logic, although it was quite misleading as you didn't tell us which goblin spoke first so there was no way of the reader figuring out the puzzle before the hero.
I think your goblins can be fairies if that's what your hero in your fantasy world happens to believe.
My only issue with it was how angry your hero appears to be. May I refer you to the excellent adventures of the tenth doctor and point out he always needed a companion to calm him. When Donna Noble has a time scarab placed on her back in Turn Left the consequences of her not being there prove to be the death of the passionate but angry doctor. Equally, the young Han Solo who used a blaster to move anything in his path was calmed by the arrival of Luke and Obi Wan and forced to use his mind to think. Your hero needs some sort of calming influence because if he triumphs in his current state, the reader won't love him for it.