Jongor Fights Back (Popular Library, 1970). Cover by Frank Frazetta

Robert Moore Williams (1907 – 1977) wrote a lot of books, over 100. I’ve read two of them and that means there’s a 100 or so more books out there I won’t need to read before I die, including the ones he wrote under pseudonyms such as John Browning, H. H. Harmon, E. K. Jarvis, and Russell Storm. He also wrote an autobiography called Love is Forever – We Are for Tonight.

As a writer myself, I hesitate to be too critical of other writers. I know how difficult it is to finish a novel. But I don’t know how else to say it other than that — in my opinion — Moore was not a good one. The first book I found by him was Jongor Fights Back, a Tarzanesque effort featuring Jongor in a lost land. It was readable, but just barely. The cover, by Frank Frazetta, was a million times better.

[Click the images for Tarzan-sized versions.]

I found out this was the third book in the series, which included Jongor of the Lost World and The Return of Jongor. I decided not to spend any money getting them.

But then I saw Moore had written a Sword & Planet series. I had to have it and bought all four, shown below. All were from Lancer and as Lancers tend to do, they are falling apart.

The series in order is:

Zanthar of the Many Worlds 1967, Jeff Jones cover
Zanthar at Moon’s Madness, 1968, excellent Jeff Jones cover
Zanthar at the Edge of Never, 1968, Emshwiller cover
Zathar at Trip’s End, 1969, excellent Jeff Jones cover

I read the first one and put the other three away. Those of you who have been following this series know I love Sword & Planet fiction. It’s why I read a lot of it and why I write it. It can be the purest form of adventure fiction, and I take it seriously.

I also demand that the S&P writers I read take it seriously too. I’m afraid I can’t quite picture Robert Moore Williams taking the genre seriously.

I only read the first book, because it was just terrible. The book begins with John Zanthar, a brilliant Earth scientist who invents a machine that opens portals to other worlds.

Zanthar is sucked through it accidentally, and later two of his students are as well. So is a man named Fu Cong, who becomes the primary villain. So far, so OK.

Then the weaknesses arise. Most good S&P writers show that transportation to an alien world causes the hero some dislocation and discomfort. Not Zanthar. In the first few pages he acquires allies who decide he’s a god, and defeats the leader of a horde of attackers riding “miniature dinosaurs.” These appear to be T Rexes a bit bigger than the “Velociraptors” of Jurassic Park.

Zanthar of the Many Worlds (Lancer Books, 1967). Cover by Jeff Jones

Zanthar kills one dinosaur with a single blow from a “copper hammer” he’d been carrying in his lab when the transportation occurred. He also has no problem communicating with his new friends, who are conveniently riding telepathic beasts. And one of his new allies is a beautiful woman capable of healing any wound by laying hands on it and concentrating. Later she proves capable of raising the dead. (I’m not sure I’ve ever had a day that easy in the real world.)

I’m also a lover of good poetical prose, and the best S&P fiction has this. The prose in Zanthar of the Many Worlds is completely leaden, and in many cases just downright silly. Here’s a bit from early in the book:

And then: ‘The love-life?’ Zanthar questioned. He did not understand the term. In fact, he was not at all certain that he understood a tenth of the words she used. ‘I do not understand.’

The repetition was just wretched.

Love is Forever – We Are for Tonight (Curtis Books, 1970). Cover uncredited

Later, there’s an actual bit of dialogue imagined by Zanthar between atoms. I’m not making this up. Here it is:

Zanthar had the impression that he could hear the atoms talking each to the other, saying, ‘Brother, where are you?’
‘Comrade, what has happened?’
‘Sister, why are we in darkness?’
‘Cousin molecule, where has mother gone?’
‘And where is father?’
‘Is — is this the night that never ends?’ an atomic voice wailed.
‘Is — is this the end of the universe of atoms?’ another whispered.”

That was it for me. I scanned the rest of the book but can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone.

I haven’t even tried the sequels. I can’t imagine they are better. I imagine these were published to take advantage of the paperback boom in the 1960s. The publication dates suggest they weren’t written exceedingly fast but Williams might have been writing a lot of other stuff at the time. They show very little evidence of careful construction. I read a quote once from Truman Capote about Jack Kerouac that I think applies to Robert Moore Williams: “That’s not writing, that’s typing.”

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Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for Black Gate was Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction, Part IV: Lin Carter’s Callisto.