Two Quick Shots: Thundar and Tigers of the Sea

Thundar: Man of Two Worlds was meant as the first in a series, judging by the textual evidence. It is the work of John Bloodstone (that is, Stuart J. Byrne, who labored in the speculative fiction mines in the latter half of the Twentieth Century). Thundar is Edgar Rice Burroughs filtered through Lin Carter. The debt to ERB is evident from the beginning: a narrator revealing how he’d come into possession of the manuscript that provides the bulk of the novel. The debt only deepens with the Tarzan and Caspak elements later on. Lin Carter’s fingerprints show in the gleeful mixture of subgenres: lost world/lost race; time travel; super-science blending with heroic fiction. It isn’t quite as bonkers as the Worlds End books, but doesn’t pull any punches either. All that aside, it was a lot of fun. Quick, fast-paced, and inventive. Unfortunately it leaves many of the mysteries and questions to be answered in the follow-up volume(s) which never appeared.

Tigers of the Sea collects Robert E. Howard’s Cormac Mac Art stories, two of which are finished by Richard Tierney. The introduction is a good primer on REH’s heroes and where Cormac Mac Art fits within the pantheon. The stories in question fall into the historical adventure category (with the exception of the final one, in which our heroes unquestionably tangle with the supernatural.) Yet the introduction suggests an intriguing path linking all of Howard’s sword-swingers, from Kull to El Borak. The change of writers is evident in the first story finished by Tierney, but it still reads tolerably well. Overall, the collection is a fine read if you, like me, enjoy historical action/adventure.

For some action/adventure of the non-historical variety, pick up a copy of my novel Thick As Thieves.

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