STEVE CARROLL WRITES

Prolific British author Kenneth Bulmer wrote over 160 novels and numerous short stories (mostly within the science fiction genre), both under his own name and a variety of pseudonyms. He may be best known for the  Dray Prescott  series of sword and planet books published as Alan Burt Akers. I didn’t know when I started this book that it is actually the second in a three-book series detailing the adventures of Odan, a Conan-like demigod in a revisionist version of Bronze-age Mesopotamia.  The mid-70s saw huge interest in the concept of extraterrestrial alien visitation in ancient history that directly influenced human culture. This theory was popularized by books, of which the first and most famous was Erich von Daniken’s  Chariots of the Gods . Clearly this inspired Bulmer as he embraces this concept as the source of the origin of the gods who visit earth in Whetted Bronze . And to be honest, it was a strong enough hook to cause me to buy this book off the racks as a teen, though I had

Gardner F. Fox was a highly prolific writer who worked in multiple genres and formats, from short stories, to novels, to comic books. In fact, it is estimated that he wrote over 4,000 comics stories, 1,500 for DC Comics alone. So, it was with some excitement that I waded into the first of four books in a series of sword and sorcery novels featuring the mighty Kyrik, a barbarian swordsman in the mold of Conan, but with blond hair (or tawny as we’re often reminded) and green eyes.  What I unfortunately discovered was a poorly constructed pastiche of Conan that lacked depth, characterization, or compelling plot. From the moment when Kyrik is released from a thousand years of bondage, having been imprisoned in a small statue of himself, all he seems to care about is drinking, fighting, and bedding down with every woman he sees. Furthermore, he’s just not that smart. We are reminded at every turn that everything about the swordsman is “huge, giant, or mighty.”  The plot meanders, involving

Long before the term Grimdark became a specific sub-genre of sword and sorcery, there was Karl Edward Wagner and his novels and short stories featuring his anti-hero, Kane, a hulking, amoral, mystic swordsman. Cursed with immortality, the red-haired and bearded brute is a wholly unique blend of Conan, Elric, and Barry Sadler’s Casca as filtered through H.P. Lovecraft. His immortality has enabled Kane to gain knowledge beyond most mortals which he puts to use in areas of warfare and arcane sorceries.  At their core, the Kane books and stories belie the fact that Wagner was  fundamentally a writer of horror stories. There is pitch black darkness and sense of foreboding nihilism that builds a palpable dread as the plot of Dark Crusade gets underway. It takes a while for things to get established as the reader is forced to wade through some needless history and politics involving the kingdom of Shapeli before focusing on a cult whose leader has become possessed by a dark god and is leadin