Browsed by
Author: Charles Gramlich

Heroic Historicals: Robert E. Howard, Harold Lamb, Poul Anderson and James Clavell

Heroic Historicals: Robert E. Howard, Harold Lamb, Poul Anderson and James Clavell

Comments 10 comments
Robert E. Howard’s The Sowers of the Thunder (Ace Books, July 1979 and Zebra Books, March 1975) . Covers by Esteban Maroto and Jeff Jones

I define Heroic Fantasy (HF) as a type of fiction in which a heroic (bigger than life) figure uses a combination of physical strength and edged weapons (swords, axes, spears) to face bigger than life foes. The hero may be either male or female, but the focus is primarily on personal conflict between the hero and various villains.

I divide Heroic Fantasy into four categories: Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, High Fantasy, and Heroic Historical. I’ve already discussed/defined S&S and S&P earlier here at Black Gate, so today I’m looking at Heroic Historical.

…

Read More Read More

Killing Dragons to Fund Your Hobby: Becoming a Book Collector in Skyrim

Killing Dragons to Fund Your Hobby: Becoming a Book Collector in Skyrim

Comments 4 comments
Exploring the frozen north for rare first editions in Skyrim

There are many fantasy role playing games (RPGs) available but I’ve hardly played any. Dungeons & Dragons is the best known. I had a couple High School friends who read fantasy and probably would have played D&D with me. If we’d known it existed. It came out in 1974, when I was the perfect age of 16, but I didn’t hear about it until my mid-twenties, when I was in graduate school and had no time for socializing. In college, friends and I played marathon Risk games so we probably would have played D&D if we’d known of it. I would have loved being a Dungeon Master. I know quite a few people now who play and I’ve been invited, but I’m just too busy. I can also be obsessive when I get caught up in something; if I started I might never quit.

However, I have an XBOX Series X and a fantasy RPG called Skyrim. I play some most weeks and during summer might go on a marathon session. I don’t have to wait for other folks to be ready and don’t have to travel farther than my living room. Skyrim is part of the Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda. There are earlier Elder Scroll games and I’ve played those, but mostly I play Skyrim.

…

Read More Read More

James Sallis, December 1944 – January 27, 2026

James Sallis, December 1944 – January 27, 2026

Comments 4 comments

I am gut punched to hear that author James Sallis (December 1944 – January 27, 2026) has died. James was the closest thing to a writing mentor I had. He was a friend, and certainly one of the most talented writers I’ve ever known.

He lived in New Orleans when I moved there and I met him at a book signing. Though he was already pretty famous in literary circles, he was incredibly down to earth, and he invited me to his house for several literary parties he and his wife, Karyn, threw. Though at that time I’d only published a few short stories, he spoke to me as a peer.

…

Read More Read More

The Sword & Sorcery of Robert Holdstock: The Berserker Series

The Sword & Sorcery of Robert Holdstock: The Berserker Series

Comments 4 comments
Robert Holdstock’s Berserker Series, published under the name Chris Carlsen. Sphere Books, 1977-1979. Covers by Melvyn Grant

A series that I wanted but had a difficult time getting was the Berserker series by Chris Carlsen. There are three books, all from Sphere Books, published in 1977, 1977, & 1979 respectively. I finally got the last one and just finished reading it. The series is:

1. Shadow of the Wolf (August 1977)
2. The Bull Chief (October 1977)
3. The Horned Warrior (1979)

ISFDB lists Melvyn Grant as the cover artist on #1 and 3, and I’m pretty sure book 2 is by him as well. These books are pot boiling, action pulp style Sword & Sorcery novels, and it was quite a surprise when I found out Chris Carlsen was really Robert Holdstock (1948 – 2009).

…

Read More Read More

The Conan novels of John Maddox Roberts

The Conan novels of John Maddox Roberts

Comments 20 comments
The Conan novels of John Maddox Roberts (Tor Books, 1985-1995). Covers by Boris, Ken Kelly, and Julie Bell

The name John Maddox Roberts (1947 – ) first came to my attention as a writer of Conan sword & sorcery pastiches from Tor. He wrote eight, and when I talk to other REH fans Roberts’ name is almost always listed near the top of the Conan pastiche writers.

Of the pastiches that were published by Tor between 1982 and 2004, I’d have to agree, although I like the earlier pastiches by Andy Offutt and Karl Edward Wagner better.

…

Read More Read More

The Problem of the Invincible Warrior: Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer by James Silke

The Problem of the Invincible Warrior: Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer by James Silke

Comments 12 comments
Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer, Volumes 1-4, by James Silke (Tor Books, 1988-1990). Covers by Frank Frazetta

James Silke (1931 – ) is something of a renaissance man in the arts. He’s a visual artist and prose writer, a set and costume designer, photographer, and comic book guy. Most people who I meet recognize him as a comic artist/writer, although I’ve never read any of his graphic stuff.

I’ve seen a few of the movies he’s worked on, including King Solomon’s Mines and The Barbarians. My only experience with Silke’s writing is the four Sword & Sorcery books in the Frank Frazetta Death Dealer series.

…

Read More Read More

The Lost History of a Strange Planet Earth: Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? and the Pseudoscience Bestsellers of the 1970s

The Lost History of a Strange Planet Earth: Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? and the Pseudoscience Bestsellers of the 1970s

Comments 32 comments


Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken (Bantam Books, 1971)

In my last post, I mentioned Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? to introduce a Ken Bulmer (as Manning Norvil) heroic fantasy trilogy. When I first read Chariots, as an imaginative young lad of 13 or so, I believed he was on to something, and I went looking for more “exposes” of hidden history.

Boy did I find them. The book’s success, which appeared in German in 1968 and in English in 1971, spawned a TV movie In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973), which was hosted by Rod Serling. And almost immediately other and related books and films began to appear.

…

Read More Read More

The Sword & Sorcery of Manning Norvil, aka Kenneth Bulmer

The Sword & Sorcery of Manning Norvil, aka Kenneth Bulmer

Comments 10 comments
The Odan the Half-God trilogy by Manning Norvil, aka Kenneth Bulmer: Dream Chariots, Whetted Bronze, and Crown of the Sword God (DAW Books, October 1977, March 1978, and June 1980), Covers: Richard Clifton-Dey, Michael Whelan, Richard Hescox

The infamous Chariots of the Gods was written by Erich von Däniken (1935), who died last week. Von Däniken was a Swiss author, and Chariots of the Gods was published in German in 1968. It was issued in English from Bantam in 1971, and I read it shortly thereafter, though I don’t remember where I got the copy. I would have been 13 or 14.

Von Däniken claimed early humans were visited by alien astronauts who provided them with the technology and knowledge to construct pyramids and landing fields and other megalithic structures. I believed it for several years, until further research indicated that he just made it up. Later, I found out von Däniken had a long history of theft and fraud and found myself quite angry at him for fooling me.

Fast forward to 1977, the year I graduated high school and Star Wars became a thing. Ken Bulmer, a British author who I’d never heard of at that time, used the ancient astronaut theory as a jumping off point for a trilogy of wonderful tales about Odan the Half-God, the son of a mortal woman and a space god. Odan becomes a sword and sorcery hero.

…

Read More Read More

A Sword & Sorcery Classic: Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead

A Sword & Sorcery Classic: Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead

Comments 12 comments


Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (Bantam Books, April 4, 1977)

Michael Crichton (1942 – 2008) apparently always wanted to be a writer but earned an MD from Harvard Medical school in the meantime. He wrote while in school, publishing several novels under the name John Lange (he borrowed the name from anthropologist Andrew Lang). I only have one of these books — Zero Cool — but haven’t read it. Crichton’s writing was going well enough by the time he got his MD that he never practiced medicine, choosing to write and direct movies instead. He directed Westworld and Coma.

The first book I read by Crichton was The Andromeda Strain, found in my high school library. It was a compelling read about an alien disease sweeping Earth, but the ending was disappointingly anti-climactic. Our library also had his The Terminal Man, and I read that, though I don’t remember much about it. Later, of course, I read many of his big thrillers, Congo, Sphere, and Jurassic Park, and I enjoyed them enough to buy everything he’d written under his own name.

…

Read More Read More

The Sword & Planet of Adrian Cole

The Sword & Planet of Adrian Cole

Comments 10 comments
The Dream Lords trilogy by Adrian Cole (Zebra Books, February 1975 – December 1976). Covers: Thomas Barber, Jack Gaughan, and Thomas Barber

I discovered Adrian Cole (1949 – ) in the late 1970s through his Dream Lords trilogy.

1. Plague of Nightmares (1975)
2. Lord of Nightmares (1975)
3. Bane of Nightmares (1976)

All were from Zebra books, with covers by Tom Barber, Jack Gaughan (maybe), and Tom Barber respectively. Volume 2 was also published with a Tom Barber cover but I don’t have it. I’ve shown it below and wish I owned it because it’s cooler than my version. However, the Barber cover does wrongly list Lord of Nightmares as Volume 3.

I absolutely loved the Dream Lords trilogy. Not only did it have great ideas and a powerful story, but the writing was beautiful and poetic, which I don’t find nearly enough.

…

Read More Read More