REHupa

The 1970s was a golden age for sword and sorcery fiction in the small press. Young writers such as Charles Saunders, David C. Smith, Lew Cabos, David Madison, Charles de Lint, Richard L. Tierney breathed new exciting life into the genre in crude, saddlestapled magazines such as Space & Time, Fantasy Crossroads, Dark Fantasy, and Fantasy Tales to name a few. One of these young Turks was Adrian Cole. Cole hails from Devon in Britain, Solomon Kane country. He represents the fantastic edge of sword and sorcery fiction. Oblivion Hand (Wildside Press) is a collection of stories culled from those magazines 30 or more years ago. All feature the Voidal. The Voidal is a sort of destroying angel used by the Dark Gods to work their will and vengeance. Stripped of memory, in each story, he attempts to gain knowledge of who or what he is and regain his memory. To describe the stories, think of H. P. Lovecraft writing sword and sorcery, returning to the Dreamlands but written in his later, darker style. There is some Michael Moorcock influence present with the idea of the “omniverse” and the Voidal being sent to different dimensions. Cole uses words to create names in the manner of Tolkien. Names such as Tallyman, Nighteye, Windwrack appear. Cole combines simple Anglo-Saxon words to create new ones. He has a very unique style and good command of language. Fans of Clark Ashton Smith take note though I would not call Adrian Cole’s writing style Smithish. Generally with collections anymore, I like to space the stories out one a week or even one a month to prevent repetition. I ended up reading one per day. Years ago, I had read “Astral Stray” in the anthology Heroic Fantasy which I mentioned yesterday. The story failed to make much impression with me twenty-five years ago. Turns out “Astral Stray” is a sort of bridging story on how the imp Elfloq came to serve the Voidal. Reading the stories sequentially was the way to go. Reading these early stories by Cole gave me a greater appreciation for his greatest work, the Omaran series. This is Cole’s big four volume fantasy series that includes A Place Among the Fallen, Throne of Fools, The King of Light and Shadows, and The Gods in Anger. I once described the series as reading as if Tolkien had written for Weird Tales. I consider it to be one of the most important fantasy series of the 1980s.

I have a fever and the only prescription is more sword and sorcery. Oblivion Hand helps feed that hunger.