I have at last managed to fill in a lacuna in my Appendix N reading. Jack of Shadows is, in someways, Roger Zelazny condensed to the quintessence. A synecdoche of a sort. If you’ve read much Zelazny, you’ll recognize themes: resurrection, from Lord of Light; the corrupting nature of absolute power, from Amber; the ambiguously… Continue reading Jack of Shadows. A Dark Gem of a Novel.
Category: Authors
The Swords Trilogy. Psychedelic Sword and Sorcery
It seems impossible to write about a book without invoking the reviewers personal connection with the book and the author. Age, circumstance, and location can have an effect on how a book hits any given reader. I won’t be able to perform the impossible, you may be surprised to learn. I’ve made no secret that… Continue reading The Swords Trilogy. Psychedelic Sword and Sorcery
The Green Knight, Roland, and More Delving into Roots
Stories cannot help but build on prior stories. Conventions story tellers are not even aware they are employing all derive from some earlier source. Even the wild and wooly field of speculative fiction, despite its reasonable claim to novelty, owes debts that can be traced back to Homer, if not earlier. J.R.R. Tolkien, in addition… Continue reading The Green Knight, Roland, and More Delving into Roots
Swords Against Tomorrow: A Wickedly Sharp Collection of Yesterday
I can’t say I get the title. The rather generic — but perfectly acceptable — introduction by Robert Hoskins does not clarify. But what is important is not the title but the contents. And what contents! The great Poul Anderson leads off with a story I’ve never encountered before, Demon Journey. Apparently it was originally… Continue reading Swords Against Tomorrow: A Wickedly Sharp Collection of Yesterday
The Exotic Enchanter. A Hero’s Homecoming — Eventually.
Here we are with part 4 of my look at the Harold Shea stories. The last part, as far as I am aware. The Exotic Enchanter returns L. Sprague de Camp and Christopher Stasheff to the series as well as adding three additional authors, two of whom co-write a story. The ongoing pursuit of Florimel… Continue reading The Exotic Enchanter. A Hero’s Homecoming — Eventually.
The Enchanter Reborn. Too Many Cooks?
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?
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.