Browsed by
Author: Charles Gramlich

Two Classic Fantasy Anthologies: Barbarians and Barbarians II, edited by Robert Adams

Two Classic Fantasy Anthologies: Barbarians and Barbarians II, edited by Robert Adams

Comments 1 comment

Barbarians, edited by Robert Adams and Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh, and
Barbarians II, edited by Pamela Crippen Adams, Robert Adams, and Martin H. Greenberg
(Signet New American Library, January 1986 and February 1988). Covers by Ken Kelly

Besides editing the Friends of the Horseclans books (discussed here last week), Robert Adams also edited — along with others — two thick anthologies from Signet entitled Barbarians (1985) and Barbarians II (1988). Covers by Ken Kelly. I bought these when they came out because they each have a Robert E. Howard story, and I was an REH completist at the time. I liked both of these collections, although the concept of “Barbarian” is stretched very broadly.

For example, in the initial volume you have a mostly SF story by Fred Saberhagen and a Witch World fantasy tale by Andre Norton. Both are good stories but have little to do with any concept I might have of barbarians. There’s a Fritz Leiber Fafhrd and Mouser story that fits the concept, and the truly excellent “Swordsman of Lost Terra” by Poul Anderson, which also has a lot of Sword & Planet elements.

…

Read More Read More

Robert Adams was a Master of Narrative Drive

Robert Adams was a Master of Narrative Drive

Comments 11 comments

The first ten novels in the Horseclans series by Robert Adams (Signet/
New American Library editions, 1979-1983). Cover art by Ken Kelly

Franklin Robert Adams (1933 – 1990) only used his middle and last name on his books. He wrote twenty-six of them, in three different series, and edited nearly a dozen more.

His first and most famous series is called Horseclans. It’s set on a post-apocalyptic Earth, after a nuclear war, and begins on America’s great plains with tribal groups organized along Native American lines. Later, it moves toward a more feudal society with city states and knights in armor. There’s a fairly elaborate back story about how the modern societies were built from the remnants of American survivors and some of the invaders.

The first book was called The Coming of the Horseclans and published in 1975. The last one published was #18, The Clan of the Cats, and it appeared in 1988, two years before Adams’ death. The series may be post-apocalyptic, but it’s long after Earth’s recovery has begun so it really feels more like standard Sword & Sorcery. There is some magic with undying heroes, telepathy, and “Witch” men. It’s definitely not Sword & Planet but most folks who like S&P like these pretty well.

…

Read More Read More

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction, Part III: From Zelazny to Infinity

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction, Part III: From Zelazny to Infinity

Comments 2 comments


Pawn to Infinity, edited by Fred Saberhagen with Joan Saberhagen (Ace Books,
June 1982), and Unicorn Variations by Roger Zelazny (Timescape Books,
February 1984). Cover artists: unknown, and Gerry Daly

Pawn to Infinity: Ace Books, 1982, cover artist unknown, though this is a very cool cover. Although not Sword & Planet specifically, this is definitely the greatest collection of fantasy and SF stories to involve chess or a chess like game ever published.

There are many great stories in here, and at least two masterpieces: “The Immortal Game” by Poul Anderson, and “Unicorn Variation” by Roger Zelazny. There are other fine stories by Fritz Leiber, Fred Saberhagen (who also edited the collection) and George R. R. Martin. There’s a great old Ambrose Bierce story in it called “Moxon’s Master.”

…

Read More Read More

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction, Part II: Dray Prescot and Gor

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction, Part II: Dray Prescot and Gor

Comments 20 comments


Dray Prescot 20: A Sword for Kregen (DAW, August 1979) and Players of Gor
(DAW Books, March 1984). Covers by Richard Hescox and Ken Kelly

My second exposure to Sword & Planet chess came in one of my favorite Sword & Planet books, which I’ve mentioned in this series already a couple of times. This was A Sword for Kregen, by Alan Burt Akers (aka Ken Bulmer). In this book, Dray Prescot, our earthman hero, becomes a living Jikaida piece in a battle to the death.

Jikaida is war game similar to chess, although considerably more complicated. There are several different variations played across the world of Kregen. It’s usually played on a board of much more than 100 squares of either black and white or blue and yellow. There are typically 36 pieces to a side, arranged in three ranks. I never tried to play Jikaida, though the rules are available. Here’s a link to an online description of the game.

John Norman also introduced an S&P version of chess in his Gor series. He called it Kaissa, which is clearly a nod to the Goddess of chess — Caissa — who first appeared in a 1527 poem by Hieronymus Vida telling the story of a chess game between the Gods Apollo and Mercury.

…

Read More Read More

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction: The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Chess in Sword & Planet Fiction: The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Comments 23 comments


The Chessmen of Mars (Ace Books, December 1962). Cover by Roy Krenkel, Jr.

Chess in Sword & Planet fiction: I learned the basic rules of chess in grade school and liked that it was a game that didn’t require luck. I didn’t do well at “luck!” The first adult I played was my brother-in-law, who rather gleefully mopped the floor with me. Out of resentment, I began to study and in our next game, probably when I was about 16, I mopped the floor with him.

I played quite a bit in college and actually joined a chess club in graduate school and began to study the game seriously. I got close to “expert” level, still well below Master level, before realizing I had to quit serious chess if I were going to be able to do my graduate work. Both were very time consuming and chess wasn’t going to pay the bills so it had to go bye bye.

I bring the game up here because I remember with distinct pleasure discovering Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Chessmen of Mars. Wow! A whole book in which a chess-like game plays a major role, and where living chess pieces must fight for the control of squares during the game. I know this isn’t the first time someone used the concept of living chess pieces but it was my first exposure to it. It sent my imagination soaring.

…

Read More Read More

Tarzan and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part II

Tarzan and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part II

Comments 8 comments


Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (Playboy
Paperbacks, August 1981 and July 1981). Covers: uncredited, Ken Barr

Read the first half of this article, The World of Tiers and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part I.

Continuing our examination of Farmer’s pastiches, Farmer soon gave up the Grandrith and Caliban names and went full on with the characters in two fictional biographies called Tarzan Alive (1972) and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973), both from Playboy’s Science Fiction line.

The cover for Tarzan Alive is very cool but is uncredited. Ken Barr seems to have done the Doc Savage cover and it’s also very cool. I liked both of these books pretty well. The Tarzan book rambles a bit. The Doc Savage is better than many of the original Doc Savage novels. It references quite a few. These books are true to the characters and have none of the bizarre sexual exploits described in A Feast Unknown.

These books also suggest that Tarzan, Doc Savage, and such other fictional characters as Sherlock Holmes are all related to each other and are the product of inherited mutations caused by a meteor that struck England in 1795 called either the Wold Cottage or the Wold Newton Meteor.

…

Read More Read More

The World of Tiers and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part I

The World of Tiers and Beyond: Philip Jose Farmer, Part I

Comments 11 comments

The World of Tiers, Volumes 1 and 2 (Science Fiction Book Club, November 1981). Covers by Boris Vallejo

Philip Jose Farmer (1918 – 2009). Farmer was a versatile writer. I discovered him from his Sword & Planet work with his World of Tiers series, but went on to read a lot of other books by him, including some pastiches he wrote in ERB’s universe. I’ll be discussing him here in two posts.

My introduction to Farmer came through the Science Fiction Book Club. They offered the first five books in The World of Tiers in a two-volume set, and I still have mine (shown here, with covers by Boris Vallejo.) I read them straight through and looked for more. There weren’t any. Not at the time. Years later, another book (More than Fire) was published, but I haven’t read it. I did read a connected book called Red Orc’s Rage.

…

Read More Read More

Janet Morris, May 25, 1946 – August 10, 2024

Janet Morris, May 25, 1946 – August 10, 2024

Comments 6 comments

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.

…

Read More Read More

A Red Desert World, Full of Mystery: Old Mars, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

A Red Desert World, Full of Mystery: Old Mars, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

Comments 15 comments


Old Mars (Bantam Books, October 8, 2013). Cover by Stephen Youll

This isn’t a Sword & Planet collection per se but is likely to prove interesting to readers of S&P.

It’s a big book, 548 pages of reading in 15 longish stories and an introduction by Martin. All the tales evoke the kind of Mars that readers of Burroughs, Bradbury, and Brackett will recognize — a red desert world full of mystery.

…

Read More Read More

Conan Well Captured: Conan: City of the Dead by John C. Hocking

Conan Well Captured: Conan: City of the Dead by John C. Hocking

Comments 9 comments


Conan: City of the Dead (Titan Books, June 18, 2024). Cover by Jeffrey Alan Love

John C. Hocking’s (1960 -) Conan and the Emerald Lotus came along in 1995, near the end of the Tor Conan pastiche series of books. I’d read a lot of pastiches early but by ’95 was burned out on them and stopped picking up the new ones. So I never read Hocking’s entry. Until now.

In 2024, Titan Books published Conan City of the Dead, by Hocking. It contained Conan and the Emerald Lotus, and a second pastiche called Conan and the Living Plague. Hocking had written Living Plague under contract with Conan Properties, but when the ownership changed hands, the book fell into a limbo that lasted some 25 years.

The wait must have been agonizing for Hocking, but the result was a very nice hardcover printing of both his books together, with some neat interior illustrations by Richard Pace. The cover art is uncredited.

…

Read More Read More