High Couch of Silistra (Bantam Books, May 1977) and The Golden Sword
(Baen, November 1984). Covers by Boris Vallejo and Victoria Poyser

Just after I put up my first Harold Lamb post I found out that an author I much admired and who has influenced my work, had died. Janet Morris. I’ll get back to Lamb next post but wanted to take a moment to comment on Ms. Morris. I only wish I’d done this before she died. I knew she was in ill health so I only have myself to blame for not getting up a post about her sooner.

I first read Janet in the Thieves’ World series where her style and characterizations stood out even among other outstanding authors. I followed her then as she took some of the Thieves’ World characters into novels and as she wrote, edited, and produced various heroic fantasy collections. I’ll talk about the Thieves’ World series later but here I want to focus on just some of Janet Morris’s other writing.

[Click the images for larger versions.]

Wind from the Abyss (Bantam Books, April 1981) and The Carnelian Throne
(Bantam, May 1979). Covers by Lou Feck and Bob Larkin Cover

Janet’s first series was marketed — it seemed to me — to capitalize on the success of John Norman’s Gor series, although they were very different in tone and character. This was the Silistra series, which consists of the following four books.

High Couch of Silistra, Bantam 1977, Boris Vallejo cover
The Golden Sword, (1977), my copy Baen Books 1984, Victoria Poyser cover
Wind from the Abyss, 1981, Lou Feck Cover. (I don’t have a copy of this)
The Carnelian Throne, Bantam 1979, Bob Larkin Cover

I’ve read all except Wind from the Abyss and they are solid fantasy reads, although not my favorite works by her.

The title of “favorite” goes to the stories Ms. Morris told using characters she’d created in the Thieves’ World series. First up came a trilogy — Beyond Sanctuary, Beyond the Veil, and Beyond Wizardwall.

The Sacred Band of Stepsons trilogy: Beyond Sanctuary, Beyond the Veil, Beyond Wizardwall
(Science Fiction Book Club, December 1985, May 1986, September 1986). Covers by Doug Beekman

These all feature her excellent character “Tempus,” the avatar of the storm god “Vashanka.” Tempus has a band of warriors who follow him, particularly a character named “Niko.” The characterizations here are just amazing, and there is no stinting on the action and drama. All of these are from Baen Books and the Science Fiction Book Club with covers by Doug Beekman. There’s also a collection of fourteen short stories about Tempus and Niko called Tempus with his right-side companion Niko (cover by Gary Ruddell).

There are numerous other Tempus stories and I’ll probably do a post on them specifically in the future, but this is more of a memoriam to Janet than an essay on her writing. I know many other writers whose lives were touched by Janet Morris. She was a kind and giving individual with immense talent.

Heroika: Dragon Eaters, edited by Janet Morris and Heroika: Skirmishers,
edited by A. L. Butcher (Perseid Press, May 15, 2015 and March 7, 2020)

I only circled the outer edges of that world but was tremendously proud to have a story chosen for her Heroika series, which consists of Heroika Dragon Eaters and Heroika Skirmishers. (My story was in Skirmishers; Perseid Press, 2020, edited and with a cover designed by A. L. Butcher).

Janet Morris was as sincere and talented in every aspect of her life as she was in writing. I’m sad and a little angry at the world today for taking her away.

---

Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for Black Gate was a review of Old Mars edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.