No… According to the Annotated Dragonlance Chronicles Tracy Hickman put the difference as being :
“Fizban is a crazed wizard owned by TSR under copyright, while Zifnab is a completely different crazed wizard owned by Margaret and I. Incidentally, neither Fizban or Zifnab have any relationship to Zanfib – a crazed wizard from our Starshield series.”
So yeah, he’s the same character but they couldn’t use Fizban in their other books as they didn’t know the copyright.
Way to class the joint up there, John.
This forum functions as such a great time capsule. :)
Hey, it was only in the last year that I learned about the Eddings’ horrific child abuse.
Nowadays I too would probably break out the sandpaper in lieu of reading another Eddings book. You were ahead of the curve!
He and his wife are dead, so you can buy/read his books without them benefiting, if you can stomach it.
Now go read about Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Oh, I heard about that before I ever got around to Avalon, at least.