Despite the passing of Fletcher Pratt, Harold Shea lives on. The fantasy humor writer Christopher Stasheff tries to fill in, though the proceedure of story creation differs. The collection The Enchanter Reborn contains, rather than collaborations, individually written stories: two by Stasheff, one by L. Sprague de Camp, one by Holly Lisle, and one by… Continue reading The Enchanter Reborn. Too Many Cooks?
Category: Authors
The Complete Compleat Enchanter. Part Two, the Romantic.
Last week I posted about the the first two tales of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt’s Harold Shea stories. This week it is time to complete the Complete Compleat Enchanter. The Castle of Iron sees Shea in the world of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (after a brief stop in Coleridge’s Xanadu.) Shea is now… Continue reading The Complete Compleat Enchanter. Part Two, the Romantic.
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.
Kandar. Good Nyborg.
The tastefully named Kenneth Bulmer produced a slim volume of sword-and-sorcery titled Kandar, published in the auspicious year of 1969, my natal year. What to say about this? Let me try a few different approaches. This is streamlined S&S. The paperback weighs in at 127 pages, yet the narrative covers a lot of ground. Bulmer… Continue reading Kandar. Good Nyborg.
Cahena, Manly Wade Wellman’s Heroic Historical Fiction
Christmas gifts can extend the season substantially. I received a Christmas present of the DMR edition of Manly Wade Wellman’s novel Cahena: A Dream of the Past. I read it this week, thus drawing my holiday out longer. Well, Merry Christmas to me; what a fine gift. Manly Wade Wellman was one of the last… Continue reading Cahena, Manly Wade Wellman’s Heroic Historical Fiction
Bard IV. A Bloody Culmination.
I have been belatedly reading through Keith Taylor’s Bard series. I was going to write “working my way through” but that phrase suggests effort, labor. The Bard books are effortless. Reading them is a joy, not a chore. Book Four, Ravens Gathering, is, as the title suggests, a story of a convergence, a gathering. Characters,… Continue reading Bard IV. A Bloody Culmination.
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.
On Stranger Tides: Tim Powers’ Swashbuckling Adventure
It has been years, decades, since I first read On Stranger Tides. I suppose I have been busy reading other things. It’s a pity those other things couldn’t all have been as fun as this. It’s long for a work of (perhaps) sword and sorcery, 322 pages in my paperback edition. But despite the length… Continue reading On Stranger Tides: Tim Powers’ Swashbuckling Adventure
Jack Vance’s Maske: Thaery. Plus Beer Tasting Notes.
I can conceive of no reason not to accompany a review of Maske: Thaery, by the sui generis literary genius Jack Vance, with a review of a few brews. And I might as well do it while watching a football game. If that seems an unexpected, odd, and yet ultimately compelling combination, welcome to the… Continue reading Jack Vance’s Maske: Thaery. Plus Beer Tasting Notes.