 Critic John Boardman placed it last in the series on the grounds that the handgun represents a technological advance over weaponry seen in the other stories.De Camp himself had no fixed position in mind for the story.In common with the other Pusadian tales, "The Stronger Spell" takes place in a prehistoric era during which a magic-based Atlantian civilization supposedly throve in what was then a single continent consisting of Eurasia joined with Africa, and in the islands to the west.