Forgotten
Ages #21
By
Morgan Holmes
Son
of Bad Sword & Sorcery
Just when you thought it
was safe to go back to the used book store. I have dug up another
batch of cretinous swill meant for slack jawed teenagers.
Kenneth
Bulmer: Bulmer
was a real stalwart for Donald Wollheim when he edited Ace and
then DAW books. Bulmer has written in a number of different genres
under various pseudonyms to rival John Jakes. He has written Roman
gladiator books as Andrew Quiller and sailing ship pastiches of
C.S. Forester as Adam Hardy. I finally tracked down his SWORDS OF
THE BARBARIANS that appeared under his real name. The cover has
one of Ken Barr’s worst paintings, mostly shades of green with a
blue caveman carrying a young woman under each arm with
pterodactyls flying in the background. This book is almost
unreadable. This features Torr Vorkun. One of the all-time worst
s&s novels ever! Bulmer has done better.
C.M. Gilbert/THE OZINE
CONQUEST (Leisure, 1981). I have no idea who Gilbert is but I
am glad he never wrote another novel. This is actually a schlock
sword and science novel that Belmont/Tower/Leisure seemed addicted
to in the early 80’s. The hero of this one, Chael, has an
amputated arm. I notice it was a chic thing to have sword and
sorcery characters with deformities and disabilities in the early
80’s as if it would add depth of character.
Mike
Sirota/BERBORA
(Manor Books): Once again we have an offering by the most
published bad writer of sword and sorcery. Actually this book that
features Tyron is better than his Zebra paperbacks like THE GOLDEN
HAWK OF ZANDRAYA, it is more in a straight sword and sorcery vein.
The problem is the story just does not grab the reader. You
don’t live what is going on but simply working your way through
the book which defeats the whole purpose of what sword and sorcery
is about.
Wallace
Moore/BALZAN OF
THE CAT PEOPLE (Pyramid, 1975): This series is billed as
“The Tarzan of Outer Space”. Balzan is an orphaned earthling
raised by a race of sentient cat people. There are two books in
this series. They are so bad that they are actually fun! The first
paperback has Balzan’s cat people dressed in uniforms from
Planet of the Apes. High weirdness from the era that gave us
polyester leisure suits and disco music.
David
Jarrett/WITHERWING (Warner, 1979): Somehow Warner got Frank
Frazetta to do the cover which is the only redeeming thing of this
book. Hard to believe that Warner published both Karl Edward
Wagner and Jarrett. This novel has another deformed hero,
Witherwing, who has a bird wing instead on an arm. The enemy in
this novel is a horde of homeless people who eat all the grass.
Proof that the sword & sorcery boom wouldn’t have happened
without Frank Frazetta.
Sharon
Sosna/IN THIS
AGE OF STONE (Manor Books, 1978): Recently I have been
collecting Manor books because they are actually quite rare. This
is a time travel novel in which a downed American pilot is sent
back in time by Nazis to the Cro-Magnon era. Lots of mistakes in
this one, Sosna refers to Capt. Cory of the U.S. Air Force not
researching that the Air Force did not exist during W.W. II.
Another non-sword & sorcery novel marketed as s&s.
Raymond Kaminski/THE
AMAZONS OF SOMELON (Leisure, 1981). Is Kaminski a pseudonym of
the Unabomber? Actually a post-apocalyptic new barbarism novel
with the hero a blond amazon called Sheryl. This is actually a
pornographic novel with long descriptive passages of a witch
giving fellatio and castrating Sheryl’s captured boyfriend and
another scene of Sheryl getting it on with mutant reptilemen.
Pretty disgusting.
Sigfriour
Skaldaspillir/A WITCH’S WELCOME (Zebra, 1979): Obviously a
pseudonym, this is a “sequel” to H. Rider Haggard’s ERIC
BRIGHTEYES. The thing is Eric is a self-contained novel in which
he dies at the end. Not one of Zebra’s brighter ideas to start a
pastiche series based on a one shot character. Our own David C.
Smith was first approached to write this one which he declined.
Duncan
McGeary/STARAXE
(Tower, 1980): Another of those pesky sword and schlock
science novels from Belmont/Tower/Leisure. This has a healer,
Kenlahar, the only one to handle the Star Axe (like Excalibur) to
defeat the hordes of Qreq. McGeary doesn’t even give a
description of these Qreq and the reader has no idea what the hell
they are!
Barry
Sadler/MORITURI
(Tor, 1982): I liked some of Barry Sadler’s Casca novels
quite a bit but he really faltered on this one. This is a
gladiator novel set in Rome. It pretty much has every cliché of
the slave gladiator who wins his way to freedom. This novel went
way too long and the character isn’t near as interesting as
Casca.
Hugh C.
Rae/HARKFAST
(Popular Library, 1976): This was of interest to me as
Harkfast is a Pict whose village is wiped out by reivers from
Ireland. Actually this novel isn’t that bad but not real
memorable either. Obviously meant to be a series, reader response
probably mirrored mine.
Neil Barrett,
Jr./KELWIN (Lancer, 1970): This is the early entry. Barrett
has gone on to do science fiction here and there and had a series
for DAW Books. One can see why Barrett never came back to straight
s&s as his talent just doesn’t lie in that genre. This is
another post-apocalypse return to barbarism novel that has yet to
be done well.
Brian Daley/The
DOOMFARERS OF CORAMONDE (Del Rey, 1977): This is actually more
of a Tolkien pastiche with G.I. Joe thrown in with modern weapons.
Daley can’t write battle scenes to save his life. The effect is
really spoiled when Gil MacDonald is transported from Vietnam with
his squad and they enthusiastically mow down enemy knights with
their M-16’s. Too much stupid dialogue in this novel.
STARFOLLOWERS OF CORAMONDE did not show any improvement.
“Jeffrey Lord”/The
Richard Blade series (MacFadden and Pinnacle Books): There is
something like 35 books in this series and you can generally find
stacks of them at any used book store. An excellent torture would
be forcing a prisoner to read these books. They were some
brilliant corporate effort to get the sword & sorcery and
James Bond market and failing miserably. THE LIBERATOR OF JEDD has
a naked Richard Blade battling Baboon men. So Pinnacle was also
trying for the Planet of the Apes fans also. The question is,
wouldn’t we all like to know who wrote as “Jeffrey Lord”.
There would probably be some embarrassed science fiction writers
if exposed. I bet Andy Offutt wrote some of these.
Graham
Diamond/SAMARKAND (Playboy Press, 1980): Diamond is like John
Morresey who also wrote for Playboy, not bad but not real
memorable either. Diamond has lot’s of dialogue and little
action which is the kiss of death when writing s&s. He also
tries to make a fantasy world with a mish-mash of Central Asia
locales and history. Therefore you have references to Allah and
Hunnish hordes. I have read a lot about the history of Turkestan
and the anachronisms ruined it for me. Also fantasy readers seem
addicted to pseudo-medieval European worlds. An interesting
attempt but doomed.
John Rufus Sharpe
III/HOGAR, LORD OF THE ASYR (Signet, 1987): This novel is
unusual in that is came out in the late 80’s. Someone at the
editorial department was asleep when this turkey slipped by. It is
not often I find a novel unreadable but this is one of that
handful. It reads like Sharpe read a stack of Marvel CONAN THE
BARBARIAN comics and then wrote a novel based solely on that
knowledge of sword and sorcery. Signet at the same time published
RAVEN OF DESTINY by Peter Tremayne which is excellent which has me
perplexed how they could have such varying quality in their
fantasy line at the time. But then again, Signet’s record with
sword and sorcery is pretty bad giving credence that every blind
squirrel finds a nut once in a while in regards to Tremayne.
Not
So Bad Sword & Sorcery
Lest we not forget, there
are some good books out there in the genre which show sword &
sorcery fiction is no worse than any other genre fiction.
Gene
Lancour: Lancour
is a pseudonym for a Gene Fisher. There were at least three maybe
four novels which came out from Doubleday in hardback in the mid
and late 70’s. Lancour has a character Dirshan who is a
barbarian from a southern desert mountains. He belongs to a
religious order serving a goddess which is rather militant at
times. This series is excellent and I can’t figure out why it
was never picked up for paperback release. The first novel is THE
LERIOS MECCA, the 2nd THE WAR MACHINES OF KALINTH, and the 3rd
called SWORD FOR THE EMPIRE. Lancour has a spare, gritty style
reminiscent of Karl Edward Wagner with good dialogue. Best bet to
find these are at library sales. Definitely at the top of the list
of worthy reprints.
Keith Taylor:
Taylor
first appeared in FANTASTIC STORIES under the pseudonym Dennis
More with his Bard tales. He rewrote the first stories about
Felimid MacFal the Bard as BARD and then had 3 more novels
published by Ace in the 80’s. Taylor then wrote 3 novels about
the Danans in which he takes ancient Irish mythology and totally
reworked it. Like the Bard series, the Danan novels are very well
done and enjoyable. Taylor also has had some short stories
generally with a Celtic background, WEIRD TALES published some of
his stories. Hopefully his shorter fiction will be collected
someday. Taylor has a sword and planet novel published only in
Australia (his homeland) called the LANCES OF NENGUSDAL in which a
circus midget gets transported to a world in which everyone is his
size. This was obviously the beginning of a series which never got
of the ground. Last but not least, Andrew Offutt had the good
sense to recruit Taylor to co-write 2 of the Cormac Mac Art
pastiches which are also my favorites in that series.
Richard Kirk:
“Kirk”
is a pseudonym for various writers who wrote a series about Raven.
This is an English series and I have heard Robert Holdstock wrote
one or two of these. I have a hunch Kenneth Bulmer wrote the first
novel, SWORDSMISTRESS OF CHAOS. The first one is pretty clichéd,
the 2nd and 3rd are really good, the 4th and 5th taper off but are
still better than the 1st novel. Anyone know for sure who wrote
these? Ace published these in the mid-80’s in the U.S.
Roger
Zelazny: Zelazny
is best known for his science fiction but his Dilvish the Damned
stories are very well done and out of the ordinary. Dilvish is
sent to hell by a sorcerer for a few hundred years and when he
escapes he is quite mad. There is a collection called DILVISH, THE
DAMNED (Del Rey) and a novel called THE CHANGING LAND.
Adam
Corby: I think
Corby might be a pseudonym. He had an unfinished series about
Ara-Karn published with TIMESCAPE in the early 80’s. TIMESCAPE
seemed addicted to Lord Dunsany/Jack Vance type writing and the
Corby series is probably the best thing they put out. The first
novel, THE FORMER KING has Ara-Karn show up in a boat for the dead
on the shores of northern barbarians. He soon becomes leader of
his adopted clan, overthrows a would be warlord and leads the
barbarians to wholesale rapine and destruction of the southern
empire’s cities. The 2nd novel, THE DIVINE QUEEN, is written in
a more baroque style and centers on the empires desperate attempt
to stop Ara-Karn including plenty of treachery. Alas we don’t
know what happened with Ara-Karn because Pocket Books fired the
editor and dropped the Timescape line in 1983. A shame.
Peter
Tremayne: Tremayne
is a pseudonym for Celtic expert Peter Berresford Ellis (Get his
book, THE DRUIDS, which is excellent). Along with Taylor, Ellis
writing as Tremayne are the two best writers of Celtic myth. He
has had two novels published here. RAVEN OF DESTINY is about the
Celtic invasion of Greece in 279 B.C (Signet, 1986), and BLOODMIST
which is based on a recently found lost Irish legend (Tor, 1988).
For a Ph.D. Tremayne get as blood and thunder as the best of them.
His detailed knowledge of Celtic culture really adds more depth.
He had a series in England about Lan-Kern in which an American
scientist finds himself in an alternate future. The 3rd book, THE
BUCCANEERS OF LAN-KERN is the best one. Tremayne also has some
other fantasies published in England but not in the U.S. Donald
Grant has a short story collection called MY LADY OF HY-BRASIL
which is still available.
C.E.
Owston/ THE
SCARLET SKULL (Manor Books, 1979). With a title like that, a
one shot author, and published by Manor Books, I thought this
would be terrible. This novel is actually a lot of fun. It is set
in Atlantis and the nearby Eurasian continent. This novel while a
little crude in style wouldn’t have been out of place in WEIRD
TALES in the late 1930’s. This book also has a terrible cover, a
photograph of a skull in a chunk of ice. Owston was probably livid
when he saw what Manor did to his novel. This is a tough one to
find.
Gerald Earl Bailey:
Steve
Tompkins will disagree with me on Bailey. Bailey has two novels
about Thorgrim in a pseudo-Viking world. The thing I liked about
SWORD OF THE NURLINGAS and the sequel, SWORD OF POYANA is they are
restrained. Thorgrim doesn’t kill a monster or defeat a nomad
horde every chapter. A shame Bailey didn’t continue writing
fantasy.
Brian Lumley:
Lumley
runs the gamut in quality. I just read his KHAI OF ANCIENT KHEM
which is out and out Howardian sword & sorcery. Set in Egypt
in an era before recorded history this is a nice novel of revenge.
Berkley published this one along with Bailey, Norvell Page’s
Prestor John novels and the famous Berkley Howard series. Not a
bad record. Lumley could be the king of sword & sorcery if he
really wanted to.
Chris
Carlsen/The
Berserker series: Carlsen is actually a pseudonym of Robert
Holdstock before he wrote MYTHAGO WOOD. This is a reincarnation
series in which the character is cursed by Odin to be born again
and again to tragedy and violence. The strange thing is the series
goes backwards in time! Not completely successful in my view.
Holdstock was not completely comfortable with writing blood and
thunder fantasy. This series only appeared in England.
Manning
Norvil: This
is another pseudonym for Kenneth Bulmer and much better than his
Dray Prescott series. Odan the Half God lives in a civilization
where the Mediterranean sea is now. Three novels, DREAM CHARIOTS,
WHETTED BRONZE, and CROWN OF THE SWORD GOD, all from DAW. I’m a
sucker for antediluvian worlds and Bulmer could cut the mustard
once in a while. Bulmer is probably the most wide ranging writer
in terms of quality. He could write drivel like KANDAR and SWORDS
OF THE BARBARIANS and turn around and do a competent trilogy.
Glen Cook:
Steve
Trout has been beating the drum for Cook for a while. His Dread
Empire series is reminiscent of David C. Smith’s Fall of the
First World Books with all the political intrigue. The Black
Company books have their cult following. They have a stripped down
prose style which reminds me of Dashiell Hammett with a military
element not unlike Tom Clancy. Cook also has some one shots like
TOWER OF DARKNESS and an homage to Michael Moorcock, THE
SWORDBEARER. Robert Weinberg once referred to Cook as “the
cutting edge of sword & sorcery” in his book catalogue on
time.
So give these writers a
try. There is some good entertainment here.
What has happened to Ace
Books? They were the big player in the science fiction and fantasy
field when I was growing up. Ace was even pretty active till about
4 years ago. I see very few Ace Books at the stores anymore. Has
editor Susan Allison run the line into the ground?
Mailing
Comments
Ron/Death Metal:
Welcome aboard. You have made a good
start. I don’t mourn the passing of the Marvel Conan comics.
Time to give it a rest for awhile.
Dave/Bocere:
You really hit the nail on the head with
“recombinant-genre” fiction. I have touched on this a little
with bad sword & sorcery in that a lot of writers try to throw
in some Howard, Tolkien, science fiction, etc to what I describe
is a ice cream sundae with ketchup on it. Lin Carter was probably
the worst offender of being self conscious of creating something
in the tradition of someone else instead of creating his own
tradition. One thing to ponder. What would a Conan movie have been
like if Sam Peckinpah had made it?
Charles/Razored Zen:
You really went to town collecting
all the Howard characters together in you book of heroes. I just
read NIGHTRUNNERS by Joe Lansdale. Not a novel for the weak
stomached.
Jim/Velitrium:
Your zine really wetted our
interest to see THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. From your interview, it
sounds like a pretty respectful movie. I have a feeling the
critics like Siskel, Ebert, Lyons, Medved etc. are going to like
this movie. How it does at the box office is another thing.
Tracey/Sentinel:
I think there is a certain
morality found in most of Howard’s fiction. His characters have
a certain ruthlessness to them but a code of honor. I was never in
4-H or FFA. I went to a private school where we wore blazers and
ties. I do view horse meat as an excellent export agricultural
product to France and Japan and also an additive to dog food.
Don’t ever get a cut around horse manure, it is full of
Chlostridia bacteria which will give you lock jaw and cause death
in about 24-48 hours.
Tim/Aquila
Nidus: Hey, we had a pirate
thing going the last REHUPA mailing? I always thought adventures
on a clipper ship or whaling ship in the 1800’s would be a good
setting for adventure stories.
J.D./Axe:
Sounds like CONAN THE SAVAGE
improved for the last issue. I imagine someone will meet the price
from C.P.I. and get the rights to do a comic Conan. I don’t
recall IRON JAW but it doesn’t surprise me. Gold Key had a comic
about Dagarr the barbarian. I think Charles Saunders will be busy
enough with his current novel before thinking about WAZIRI.
Indy/Cold Steel:
60 in a row! Just remember
Charles Gramlich and I are waiting to beat that record. Does Steve
Trout have the record?
Steve/Expecting:
I just cannot get into
Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Woods books. The constant changing
point of view is what does them in for me. Holdstock appears to
have a problem with strong characters and is more interested in
vague archetypes. I just never had the interest in the ancient
Teutons that I have with the Celts. They just aren’t that
interesting until they get into North Africa like the Vandals. I
am surprised no one has written a novel about King Gaiseric the
Vandal who lead his people from the Rhine to North Africa. Now
there is an epic. Rick/Ossuary of Acheron: Actually I am aware
that THE WARLORD lasted quite a while but D.C tried to Howardize
him in the mid-70’s for brief time before going back to a more
Burroughsian feel. C.L. Moore and Howard did correspond and he
sent her the manuscript of “Sword Woman” to read. He was
inspired to write about Dark Agnes from Moore’s Jirel of Joiry
stories. I think though Moore was influenced by Howard to tackle
sword & sorcery to begin with. The Jirel stories do have a
similar feel to Solomon Kane. Remember that Clark Ashton Smith
just about quit writing when Howard and Lovecraft died. I think
more of his stories would have had a modern setting if Howard
hadn’t set the pattern with “The Shadow Kingdom” which
predates Zothique, Xiccarph, Averoigne, and Hyperborea. I have had
many dreams about various dogs I have had over the years. Maybe
they are reaching out to me from the other side. They are quite
sad actually.
END
| 
REHupa Home Page