Category: Books

‘Clonan’ Books

  • November 16, 2017

I’ve always been a Conan The Barbarian fan. Back in my youth I read most (all?) of the original stories by Howard and loved the unique stories and evocative setting.

In recent years I’ve been reading a lot of 1960s/70s pulp novels, and in doing so have discovered and appreciated several notable Conan clone series. Here’s my impressions on a few of these.

Brak The Barbarian

This series of five books, written by John Jakes between 1968 and 1980 are perhaps the most directly Conanesque of this lot, with a very similar protagonist, setting and adventures. Brak himself, a barbarian from the north, is on a series-spanning quest to a fantastic ‘golden’ city in the south and he has many adventures on his way, usually involving crazed sorcerers, evil – occasionally Lovecraftian – monsters and the occasional (though less often than Conan) beautiful maiden. While I’ve only yet read half the series (but own them all) I enjoy them quite a lot.

Thongor

During the 60s and 70s Lin Carter wrote seven books featuring his barbarian warrior Thongor. His adventures occur in a fantastic ruined world of lost wizardry, ancient ‘dragon kings’ and many exotic but distinct civilizations. These books are unsophisticated but fast-paced and rich in imagination, and on the whole contain less barbarian violence and womanizing than most on this list. Good, quick reads, these also inspired a (good!) marvel comics series also penned by Carter.

Kothar

Gardner Fox was a writer for DC Comics in the early years who turned his efforts to novels in the 1960s. This spawned two notable fantasy series, the first of which were the five Kothar books. Kothar himself could be Conans younger, blonder brother who decided he wanted to have the same adventures as his more famous sibling. Interesting differences (a magic cursed sword, an immortal sorceress) combined with a pacing obviously learned from a career in comics result in very readable books. Probably my favourites in this list.

Kyrik

This is Fox’s second series, written (for a different publisher, hence the original hero) in the mid 1970s. Mostly identical to the previous (another hero having wild adventures in a ruined world) this one features the usual – and expected – assortment of magic and monsters and near-naked women to save. While perhaps not quite as readable as Kothar, this is still a recommended series.

Richard Blade

This remarkable series of 37 (!) books was written over 15 years (starting in 1969) by three writers under the pen name Jeffrey Lord. After reading one book that I bought in Australia last year I was so impressed/insane that I purchased thirty-five more for the low, low price of $100!

The premise of this mad series is that MI6 sends super-agent Richard Blade (a fitter, handsomer, stronger and smarter James Bond) through a dimensional transporter into exotic new worlds where he performs reconnaissance for queen and country. Since the transporter can’t send clothes, he’s naked when he arrives and since many of the worlds are stereotypical fantasy realms, there’s more than a hint of Conan inspiration here. I’ve only read two, but those books alone had enough lunacy for a dozen other books, and I look forward to reading more.

Raven

‘Richard Kirk’ was the pseudonym of famed fantasy author Robert Holdstock who in the 1980s created an eventual five-book fantasy series about a female warrior named Raven. The books are slightly infamous for the Royo cover art (in the USA) and (nuder) Achilleos art in the UK – all I am sure crafted carefully to attract teenage male readers…

The books themselves are much more sophisticated than the covers suggest and the heroine in particular is more reflective and has a richer backstory than any other mentioned on this page. The setting is satisfyingly exotic and once again features barbaric civilization in a world scattered with evidence of a lost civilization. The quality of the books is not consistent, but overall these were worth the read.

  • Posted in Books
  • Robert

Hexenmeister you say?

  • July 24, 2017

In response to B’s comment on this post, I decided it was about time to kick the gamebook collection into the next stage. What’s next when you own all the books in English? You start buying foreign versions!

From the left, those are two French and one German copies of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The middle (French) one is a reissue from 2003; both others are original imprints.

Le Sorcier de la Montagne de Feu is an interesting version. The paper is thin and glossy, reminding me of a bible, but aside from the translated text the book seems more or less the same.

However when you turn the book over and flip it around it contains a few dozen dense pages of puzzles! From what I can tell they are fantasy themed versions of classic logic and word puzzles and solutions are even included at the end. My copy seems to be a special edition for younger readers (is the text different?); there was also a normal (sans puzzle) version released in France as well.

Der Hexenmeister vom Flammenden Berg is a beautiful book. Trade sized, with rigid card covers and the almost Tolkien-inspired cover my copy is in astonishingly pristine condition considering its 35 years old!

Interestingly the text seems to omit about half of the art! I can only speculate why, but perhaps it was due to it being a children’s book and some images were considered a bit too grisly? Compare entry 275 with the French edition above:

The book seems lacking with so much art missing. I can only hope they reinstated it for later versions!

I also purchased these three:

Two French and one Spanish. The left two are reissues, the right an original. All are in fantastic condition (as new actually). Because of my Japanese copy of Demons I had to get a French one; the other two were bought because they were exotic 🙂

Needless to say finding foreign versions isn’t easy (I bought these online) but I find them very interesting and may try and get a few more languages. (I also got a French Lone Wolf.)

That’s an photo of my FF collection right now. In a week or so it will expand even more due to the brand new books that just came out! 

And yes, they’re still good reads. Every time I do a post like this it always takes much longer than expected since I get sidetracked reading through the books. Maybe I should review a few here on the blog?

Japanese Gamebooks

  • June 15, 2017

At the Mandarake rare bookstore in Nakano mall, I happened to notice the attendant (a stunning Italian lass cosplaying as Sailor Moon) packaging some sort of Japanese RPG rules book for sale. I asked if they had any others – daring to think I may finally, after six trips to Japan, find a gamebook – and she directed me to the glass case outside. There I saw this:

And this:

And this:

And more, including some AD&D books and quite a few Japan-specific titles. Almost all in fantastic condition but also sporting fantastic price tags. As a rule of thumb, estimate ¥100 at about $1.

I would have needed over $1000 to buy all the Fighting Fantasy titles alone…

Now it’s hard to leave me speechless these days, but this sight did. I’ve been looking over and over again every time we’ve visited Japan for gamebooks and never ever seen a single one before. My mind was blown; I was overcome. But it was early days in the trip, which means I wasn’t yet at the point I was spending without reason. So I only bought one item – the cheapest one – this:

FF Gamebook 19, Demons Of The Deep. I bought it when it was first released in 1986 but at the time wouldn’t have known (or cared!) that it was also released in Japan.

Here’s an interior shot:

You can see there’s little trace of western influence here, with vertical text and using Japanese numbers! The presentation is beautiful though, with very sharp printing and perfect reproduction of the art.

The book comes with a separate adventure sheet with rules on the back:

And includes a nice section at the end detailing the other available gamebooks:

It’s noticeable smaller (and thinner) than the western editions too. Here it is compared to my UK and US imprints:

I’m enormously happy to finally own a non-English FF book, and something about it being as exotic as in Japanese makes it quite special.

And yet I do regret not buying more. I wasn’t going to spend over $300 for Sky Lord, but why didn’t I buy at least Out Of The Pit? Silly me!

Now I move toward the next challenge: a non-English Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Given it was published in over 20 languages that shouldn’t be too difficult. Should it?