This week's menu includes the remainder of the 1979 anthology Thieve's World (one story, "Shadowspawn" by Andrew Offut, got covered separately a while back, "Sentences of Death" and "The Face of Chaos" I posted on last week), and R.E.H.'s "Hour of the Dragon". And I guess I'll start with Conan.
"Hour of the Dragon" is the only novel-length Conan Howard ever wrote (albeit a short one by today's blockbuster standards), but in the end its basically a fairly typical Conan tale set during his reign as king of Aquilonia; in fact, the plot is almost identical to the story "The Scarlet Citadel", which basically tells the same tale in 1/5 the space. Nevertheless "Hour" is a good, hairy-chested read, but I ultimately found myself wanting to fast-forward through the clandestine meetings of the nefarious usurpers and the large military battles (albeit Howard does a good job describing them). No, "Hour"s best moments are small ones, such as the resurrection of evil wizard Xatltotun and the latter's confrontation with a helpless (not for long!) Conan, and Conan's later encounter with the wolf-familiared witch Zelata, who I'd like to have seen more of. "Hour" is a fun read but it doesn't rank with my favorite Conan stories.
"Ulan Dhor" by Jack Vance. The is the most science-fictional of the Dying Earth stories (although Guyal of Sfere remains to be re-read), with its flying cars, portable force field/tents, and a Cthulhu-ish gloop monster making its appearance at the close. Its also one of the most sword-and-sorcery-ish for that very reason. It's a bit of a footnote compared to the first few stories, but still retains its charm.
"Guyal of Sfere" by Jack Vance. I think this is my least favorite in the Dying Earth, but it is fun and decidedly weird. And it leaves the book on a hopeful and adventuresome note.
"Introduction" by Robert Asprin. A capable little tale that imaginatively lays out the backstory of Sanctuary, the shared-world setting of the Thieve's World books and helps set the tone.
"Sentences of Death" by John Brunner. The first formal story in the series. It was probably my favorite story in the book Thieve's World when I first read it in 1983, and so far it looks like it may hold onto its position; nice gritty skullduggery involving a sheet of paper with cursed sentences, a tough young street girl (the still-excellently realized character Jarveena) hell-bent on vengeance, and Enas Yorl, the mysterious magician cursed to be an involuntary (and frequent) shape-changer.
"The Face of Chaos" Lynn Abbey. It seems this was one of Abbey's first published stories. It's a somewhat minor tale of body-switching trickery, but the character of Illyra, one of the Romany-like fortune-telling peoples of Sanctuary, is one of my favorites from the series, and there is an interesting, unresolved supernatural element, involving the mysterious Blue Star wizards and the power of fate itself.
"The Circle Curse" by Fritz Leiber. Kind of an odd, amusing vignette which introduces Fafhrd and the Mouser's patron wizards, Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face. Not much happening here, plot-wise, but Ningauble and Sheelba are two of the strangest and most memorable characters to appear in Leiber's stories.
"The Jewels in the Forest" by Fritz Leiber. One of the earliest-written Fafherd/Mouser tales; this involving the hunt for a treasure in a strange and enchanted ruin. There's enough of these scenarios in the Fahrd/Mouser canon that its a wonder the two didn't stop seeking such things. Nonetheless, a fun and mystifying tale.
"The Howling Tower" by Fritz Leiber. An eerie and effective tale involving a haunted tower and a battle with wolves on the astral plane.
"The Sunken Land" by Fritz Leiber. Something of a fave, even though the meat of the story is only a moderately-interesting journey aboard a megalomaniacal captain's raiding ship - it's the denouement in the (usually) sunken city of Simorgya that makes this one memorable.
"The Seven Black Priests" by Fritz Leiber. F/M play ten little indians with a gang of pissed-off priests after stealing the eye out of their idol. Mainly fun for the banter as our heroes get the better of their pursuers one-by-one ("I think they're unreasonably angry" says Faf; "Priests always are." shrugs the Mouser). Fun stuff.
"Tsais" by Jack Vance. The third tale in Vance's The Dying Earth. All of these stories could be called fairy tales, for all intents and purposes, albeit of a decidedly ungentle and hallucinogenic sort, set on an Earth so far flung into the future that it might as well be an alien planet. "Tsais" tells of the title character, a homonculoid young woman (she was not born but grown by a wizard), who exists with a fatal flaw - she cannot perceive beauty. The things normal people find beautiful, she finds hideous. She is sent to Earth from her home world (another planet or dimension) in order to see if she can develop the capacity to appreciate beauty or love. She becomes involved in a tricky cat-and-mouse game between the lonely wizard who rescues her from bandits, and the evil sorceress who long ago cursed him. This is my favorite Dying Earth story so far.
"Liane the Wayfarer" by Jack Vance. Another fractured fairy tale, this time of Liane, a rat bastard who gets the tables turned on him by a witch. Plenty of ambiguity and tantalizing, unanswered questions here.
"The Stealer of Souls" by Michael Moorcock. This was the last of the orignal Elric novellas. This is much closer to Howard territory insofar as its largely straight adventure, with Elric and a band of surviving Melniboneans assaulting the fortress of a rich merchant; plenty of exciting swordplay and wild sorcery. This is pulpier than the earlier Elrics but still a blast of a read.
Darkness Weaves by Karl Edward Wagner. This was the final Kane novel but actually the first one I read, so a good place to start. Kane hooks up with Efrel, the insanely evil sorceress who's putting together a rebellion against the island empire of Thovnosten, with some decidedly inhuman allies. Darkness is said to have been influenced by E.H. Visiak's legendary Medusa, and, as one who's read Visiak's opus, I can safely say he takes those influences and surpasses them. This is one wild ride of court intrigue, betrayal upon betrayal, dark sorcery, kinky and sadistic sex, extreme violence, brutal battles, and horrible sea monsters (the oraycha should be enough to give a shudder to even the hardiest sea monster fan); R.E. Howard meeting Clark Ashton Smith and William Hope Hodgson at the crossroads of Hyboria and Zothique. Yowzah!
"Hour of the Dragon" is the only novel-length Conan Howard ever wrote (albeit a short one by today's blockbuster standards), but in the end its basically a fairly typical Conan tale set during his reign as king of Aquilonia; in fact, the plot is almost identical to the story "The Scarlet Citadel", which basically tells the same tale in 1/5 the space. Nevertheless "Hour" is a good, hairy-chested read, but I ultimately found myself wanting to fast-forward through the clandestine meetings of the nefarious usurpers and the large military battles (albeit Howard does a good job describing them). No, "Hour"s best moments are small ones, such as the resurrection of evil wizard Xatltotun and the latter's confrontation with a helpless (not for long!) Conan, and Conan's later encounter with the wolf-familiared witch Zelata, who I'd like to have seen more of. "Hour" is a fun read but it doesn't rank with my favorite Conan stories.
