My Lord Barbarian is a slim planetary romance by Andrew Offutt. It begins with an intriguing premise and a reasonable pretext to include spaceships and sci-fi technology in a story of sword-swinging barbarians. (Again I’m reminded why Gary Gygax enshrined Offutt in Appendix N.) The pulp action picks up rather quickly after the introductory chapter… Continue reading Andrew Offutt’s “My Lord Barbarian.”
Category: Appendix N
The Ship of Ishtar
Look, The Ship of Ishtar is an unusual book. There’s no question of that. It dispenses with traditional tropes. A. Merritt does not tread familiar fantasy paths. He picks his own unexpected tangent and proceeds pellmell along it. The pocket universe he creates and its rules appear initially quite strange and arbitrary. But in context… Continue reading The Ship of Ishtar
Re-reading Dwellers in the Mirage. Blended Whisky.
A. Merritt‘s Dwellers in the Mirage is a farrago of elements, blending almost perfectly in a heroic fantasy adventure. I wonder, though, if some of the elements are intended to be taken seriously, or if some were included simply because Merritt was having fun, seeing what he could get away with. I mean we’ve got… Continue reading Re-reading Dwellers in the Mirage. Blended Whisky.
The Polychromatic Prose of A. Merritt’s The Metal Monster
So, what is The Metal Monster? Imagine a concoction of one part She, one part The Moon Pool (natch), one part Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, one part D&D Modrons, and one part Big Hero Six. Blend and strain through A. Merritt’s glorious, vividly colorful, and painstakingly descriptive prose. It ought to make for a masterpiece. Maybe… Continue reading The Polychromatic Prose of A. Merritt’s The Metal Monster
“The Blue Star” Shines
I’ve written before about Fletcher Pratt, incidentally referencing The Blue Star. But it has been years since I’ve read it. It is one of those books pilloried by the scolds and Mrs. Grundy’s who appear like a locust infestation from time to time in the speculative fiction field. Perhaps they have a point and I… Continue reading “The Blue Star” Shines
The Complete Compleat Enchanter. Part One, of the Making of a Hero.
I re-read books. Yes, I keep going back to the well, or, rather, wells. But if the water is so good — uisce beatha, if you will — what’s wrong with that? I have the Baen edition of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt’s The Complete Compleat Enchanter, which I haven’t read in years.… Continue reading The Complete Compleat Enchanter. Part One, of the Making of a Hero.
The Watchers Out of Time. H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth.
H.P. Lovecraft receives top billing for The Watchers Out of Time. But the stories in this collection appear to have been actually written by Lovecraft’s acolyte, August Derleth. He seems to have used notes of Lovecraft’s as the springboard for the fifteen (fourteen and a half, rather, since Derleth died before completing the titular tale)… Continue reading The Watchers Out of Time. H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth.
Golden Blood. A Jack Williamson Adventure Textbook
Was the 1930s the last great period of adventure fiction in the modern era? There’s Indiana Jones, Tales of the Golden Monkey, Robert E. Howard’s oriental and boxing tales, to mention a few examples. And then there is Jack Williamson’s Golden Blood. What captured my attention was the tank on the cover. And then… Continue reading Golden Blood. A Jack Williamson Adventure Textbook
The Borgia Blade. All Killer, No Filler.
Gardner F. Fox‘s The Borgia Blade is a distillate of Rafael Sabatini, served with a squeeze of romance novel in a man-sized pewter tankard. Fox streamlines the historical adventure novel, keeping only the good stuff. And yet at the same time one gets the impression that he’s putting all his research on the page. That is… Continue reading The Borgia Blade. All Killer, No Filler.