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Description Back Cover.
Mars the skull of a planet picked clean by the wind of time. North. Beyond the desert of Meroe, past the ancient cliffs of the dust-locked continents, past the dry warfs of a city thay was old when Earth was new, the caravan crept into the unmapped waste called Umbra. It was into this shadowed land that the lost nation of the People had ridden -- and vanished -- in a time beyond memory. It was here that the outworlder Ryker followed the golden-eyed Valarda and found the Child-of-Stars. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume presents rare and wonder-filled works by Ernest Bramah, George Macdonald, Robert W. Chambers, and Eden Phillpotts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

PULP SUPER HERO
ZARKON had been born a million years from now,in a strange and mysterious future world. He represented the ultimate result of a program of genetic engineering conducted by the rulers of his weird world of tomorrow to protect against the extinction of the human race. Superhuman,rather than human,he was the end result of an experiment in selective breeding conducted over thousands of generations to produse a perfect superman. Aided by his OMEGA CREW of five human sidekicks,ZARKON books are a lot like the DOC SAVAGE books only with better spelling and without DOC SAVAGE'S habit of dumping radioactive waste out of his windows so that he can follow radioactive cars or people from outside his office,and gifting cancer to hundreds of passing innocents. This book is set in August 1970,and while it is the first book in the series it is the twelfth case Zarkon has solved since he arrived in the past. ... Read more

Product Description
The hunt for a beautiful princess and a king's treasure bring Conan to the edge of the world, where he must battle the hell-fed powers of the sorcerer Thoth-Ammon. Reissue. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great adventure in Conan's world
While some people have looked down on this book as being episodic, they cannot say that it is boring.I devoured this book and I reccomend it to anyone looking for escapist entertainment.If you want pure, undiluted Conan, seek out the tales of the great Cimmerian's creator, Robert E. Howard.If, however, you are looking for a great and entertaining pastiche, you cannot go wrong with this book.I love how the language of the book paints very sensual imagages in your mind.The fury of battle, the passionate embrace of an amazon's arms, and the thrill of high adventure are found between the covers of this book. Highly reccomended.

The nadir
I'm a fan of Conan, and unlike some others, I don't object fanatically to L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter's efforts to complete Howard's unfinished stories and outlines, and to expand the Conan stories into a twelve volume series...at least in principle. The De Camp and Carter stories written in posthumous collaboration with Howard are fine, in fact, but you must be wary of the full-length novels in the series that are not at least partially credited to Howard. There are three: Volume 6 (this one), Volume 11 (Conan of Aquilonia), and volume 12 (Conan of the Isles). While volume 12 is a passable read, the other two are dreadful pastiches, the worst volumes in the series.

The story is about Conan donning pirate gear once again to hunt his old nemesis, but it's an episodic story--just a series of events poorly strung together. Conan is not a particularly profound character, and De Camp and Carter simply lack Howard's ability to make him interesting despite his basic shallowness. Without the contributions of Howard's fantastic vision, their efforts wear thin in a full-length book. Conan the Buccaneer doesn't cohere as a novel, and nothing in it stirs the imagination. You won't miss anything by skipping it, particularly since biographical summaries that appear at the start of each story in the series tell you what you need to know to continue. The next couple volumes are possibly the best in the series (Conan the Warrior, Conan the Usurper), in fact, so don't waste time in getting to them by reading this one.

Vintage Conan
Carter and de Camp do a good job of capturing the Robert Howard "feel" of the tale while making it a full length story.There's plenty of action and (as Carter says in the introduction)impossibly beautiful women.Fans of Conan comics will be happy to see the Cimmerian's Kushite comrade-at-arms Juma playing a part in this adventure.

The story takes place on the high seas and sweltering southern jungles, so it makes for a great read during the hot summer months - or maybe a good escape from a snowy winter weekend.The only complaint I have is the man eating tree they have Conan face off against.This is kinda lame, but I was having so much fun with this story that I really didn't mind.This book is worth reading if you can track it down.

A Good Conan In The Pack.
Say what you will against a pastiche, but I like Conan novels.Howards will always be the best, but it is great to see his characters continue on.

de Camp and Carter have kept this Conan story nicely in the lifeline(actually tying it in to fill a gap in his history).While some parts ofthe story lost my interest, there were quite a few great scenes in thenovel that made me forget that I wasn't actually reading a Howardnovel.

If you are interested in reading past Howard's Conan stories, thisis a good one in the pack.

If ya Like Conan, you will CRAVE this book
I would recommend this book to almost anyone. After reading it I think menwould enjoy it a little more than most women. I think the authors werewriting it for a target audience of men. Now don't get me wrong if you area women that enjoys adventure, gore, and lots of sex, then this book it foryou. The story might be a little to hard to follow for a young reader, ages13 and above I think is about right.

The story starts out with Conantrying to find some treasure and he gets tangled up in the kidnapping andrescuing ofa princess., and the plot of the usurping of a kingdom. Conanof course has to save the day, but not before going through many smalladventures first. Before the end of the story Conan has fought a huge stonetoad, a evil sorcerer, a living tree, and many amazon women warriors. Conanmust save the kingdom from the evil sorcerer and then the world from thesorcerer's god.This is making a long story short, but I don't want to gointo too much detail or it will ruin the story for you.

Now this bookhas many good aspects about it. I think the main great thing about thisbook it the authors wonderful use of descriptive phrases and words. The waythey describe stuff makes you able to completely visualize the entire Conanworld. Out of all the books I have ever read, I think this is the mostdescriptive out of all of them. Another great quality of the book is howthe adventure never stops it is always on-going. This book is one of themost fast paced action books I have ever read. Just as you think theremight be rest in the action something big and new and more exciting comesalong. This book is not without its flaws though. MY only real complaint ishow the authors have this pre-obsession with women's breasts. Now don't getme wrong it is not like a porno book or anything, it is just that most ofthe time when they describe a women her breasts are usually the keydescriptive phase. The book would have been fine without so muchdescription of the women and their beautiful bodies. It is not a horriblynoticeable thing but you will start to get tired of it after a while.

So all in all I think this book was FANTASIC. It was definitely one of thebetter books I have read in along time. If you up for fast paced highaction and adventure then this is definitely your book! ... Read more

Product Description
Out-of-Print Science Fiction, 2 Novels in 1! July 1972 Belmont/Tower Books Paperback, No. 505-50244-075. Doomsman by Harlan Ellison: "High in the Rockies, the school stood grey and silent. It had been built to withstand the winds of time. Its walls were molybdenum steel, reinforced with cross-grained layers of duroplast and concrete blocks. This was America State's little known, deeply feared School for Assassins. Men trained there lived by a philosophy hard as diamond, cold as ice. Their lifework was Death." The Thief of Thoth by Lin Carter: "Quicksilver was the most famous and deadly of all the Licensed Legal Criminals and Confidential Agents in the Near Stars. He lived in a castle of organic pink quartz on the planetoid Carvel in that asteroid belt known as the Chain of Astarte. The castle clung to a sheer crag of dark green coral which rose from a sea of heavy opal smoke. Its master had grown rich on the proceeds of interplanetary crime." Doomsman: 68 pages; The Thief of Thoth: 82 pages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Popular, not scholarly look at the history of fantasy fiction
This is acompanion-piece to the "Ballantine Adult Fantasy" series edited by Lin Carter and published from 1969-1974, the first specific paperback series devoted to fantasy literature in America, and a groundbreaking attempt both to breathe new life into several long-forgotten writers (Ernest Bramah, James Branch Cabell, etc) and to give some notice to up-and-comers in the then sparse and not terribly popular field, such as Katherine Kurtz and Joy Chant.Carter's brief survey here is a must-read for anyone interested in the obscure byways of Anglo-American fantasy from the 19th through the mid-20th centuries and would make a great volume to start with in your exploration of the series, whether you're a collector or just reading the books in any editions you can find.

Carter's scholarship lets him down at times and his personal biases are perhaps a bit too obvious, and there's no question that the book is more than a little self-serving as it points the way to much of Carter's own work -- but his enthusiasm and vast knowledge of the field ultimately win out. This may well be the origin of my interest in Cabell, Lord Dunsany, Arthur Machen, and Clark Ashton Smith, and it remains a resource that I return to time and again. Out of print I believe, but easy enough to find for under $10 on this site and others. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Jr High in 1980
Hope the background does not bore you, but it helps explain my view of the book. I read this book back in 1980, when I was in the 8th Grade.As the cover and numerous pages were ripped by a classmate with a grudge, I ended up buying the book, and re-read it numerous times over the next tenyears.I have lost track, but it could be in a secret place.Some day Imight find this treasure. The book flowed along the lines of the H. G.Wells story, with a technological setting of the 70's.The author's styleof describing events reminds me of Kipling, with rambling descriptions thatwould lead my imagination so I could BE the main character in the book.Unfortunately, the story does not end, but virutally leaves you hangingon a cliff, with a promise of a sequel.Many times I checked bookstoresand other locations for the sequel, with no luck.If there is a book thatends the story of Eric Carstairs out there somewhere, I would change myrating of the book up to four stars, for a target audience of early to lateteens.I would enjoy reading this book again at the age of 35. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Pleasant Poetic
This is a charming wee collection of Cthulhu Mythos poetry by one of those who were, in his lifetime, utterly obsess'd with ye writings of H. P. Lovecraft.(The other manifestation of that madness is his enjoyable collection of Mythos short stories and poetry, THE XOTHIC LEGEND CYCLE, edited for Chaosium by Robert M. Price and available here at Amazon.)From the inside flap:

"Lin Carter...has, in less than ten years, made his name a respected and internationally familiar one to readers and collectors of weird fantasy around the world.Today he is considered an authority on the history of imaginative literature, and his pioneering book-length studies of the genre are modern classics of fantasy scholarship.His first venture in this area was TOLKIEN: A LOOK BEHIND 'THE LORD OF THE RINGS,' which has sold steadily through four large printings and elicited the admiration of W. H. Auden, among others.This was followed by an even more impressive work of scholarly research, and one of deeper interest to Arkham House patrons, LOVECRAFT: A LOOK BEHIND THE CTHULHU MYTHOS, the first booklength study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, which Fritz Leiber hailed as 'the best single book or article I have ever read dealing with Howard Phillips Lovecraft, his life, his works, the Cthulu Mythos, and the many writers who contributed to it."

Of course, Carter's scholarship in the Lovecraft study has proved, now, to be extremely slipshod and full of errors, however fun that book is to read (and I do read it, again and again, just for the pleasure of reading the history of the Mythos and its creators).

DREAMS FROM R'LYEH opens (following an introduction by L. Sprague de Camp), with the sonnet cycle from which the book takes its title, a sequence of 31 Cthulhu Mythos sonnets.It is something that some of us find irresistible, to write our own Mythos sonnets in the tradition of HPL's "Fungi from Yuggoth" (mine was called "Songs of Sesqua Valley" and may be found in my book, SESQUA VALLEY & OTHER HAUNTS).As de Camp writes in his charming (and cranky) introduction:

"...What are poems for?Lin writes me: 'No one, least of all myself, is going to take these verses seriously.They were written in a sense of fun, the shivery relish of Lovecraftian ghoulishness and Klark-Ashtonian hyperbole.'He refersto the stories and poems of the late Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), the noted writer of eldritch-horror neo-Gothic fantasies and creator of the 'Cthulhu mythos; and Lovecraft's Californian colleague and pen pal, Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961), author of tales laid in the magic-haunted continents of Hyperborea, Atlantis, and Zothique.(In his correspondence with Smith, Lovecraft spelled his friend's name Klarkash-Ton, thus converting a pair of prosaically Anglo-Saxon nomina into something from the slimy depths of R'lyeh.)"

This is an important point that is too often overlooked or ignored by serious modern day Lovecraft scholars -- the Mythos was created in an atmosphere of fun, of play; and although Lovecraft was almost always serious in his writing of weird fiction, he too frolicked in that squamous play-pen, especially with such revision tales as "The Horror in the Museum" and "The Last Test."The Mythos was created with a sense of amusement, and nowhere is that sense more amply & delightfully express'd than in Carter's title page to his sonnet sequence:

DREAMS FROM R'LYEH:A SONNET CYCLE

By Wilbur Nathaniel Hoag [1921-1944]
Edited for Publication by Lin Carter

"Eternal is the Pow'r of Evil, and Infinite in its contagion!The Great Cthulhu yet hath sway o'er the minds and spirits of Men, yea, even tho' He lieth chained and ensorcelled, bound in the fetters of The Elder Sign, His malignant and loathly Mind spreadeth the dark seeds of Madness and Corruption into the dreams and Nightmares of sleeping men..."
--THE NECRONOMICON of Abdul Alhazred, III, 17; the Translation of Dr. John Dee, circa A. D. 1585.

"...Death is no deterrent to the mighty dead.Even in decay their vast intellects can fill our sleeping minds with nightmare visions of the Pit and ultimate insanities beyond the reach of reason."
--NECROLATRY (The Worship of the Dead), Igor Gorstadt; Leipzig, 1702.

"Alhazred's image of the Sleeping God leads one almost to the interpretation of Cthulhu as one of the dream-gods such as Hypnos; he is set forth as a god who infects the minds of those sleep with dark and terrifying dreams, nightmares, visions -- spreading the germs of his own evil through the world through the medium of his own dreams."
--CTHULHU IN 'THE NECRONOMICON,' Labin Shrewsbury, Ph.D., LL.D, etc.; from an unpublished, fragmentary manuscript written circa 1938-39.

Here we see that Lin Carter has indeed found that sense of play that was an initial part of the creation of the Mythos as it began in Lovecraft's lifetime.The quotation from Shrewsbury indicates, however, that Carter is perhaps as equally infested with the Derlethian impulse as he is with a genuine Lovecraftian one.Too, the influence of Clark Ashton Smith is quite potent in the actual sonnet cycle, delightfully so.Here is my favourite sonnet from the book:

XXXI: THE MILLION FAVORED ONES

From black Mnar, from Yuggoth on the Rim,
From those liquescent pits where shoggoths bloat,
Across the cosmic gulfs of spheres remote
--We Come! We Come! At the command of Him
Who is our Lord and Father.Bleak Kadath
And frozen Leng have know our awful tread;
Lost Yhe in the Pacific quailed in dread
Before our coming, and our Father's wrath...

And some of us were human once, and some
Have never even heard the name of Earth,
Abominations of a monstrous birth
Out of the womb of nightmare...When we come,
The nations kneel in fear before our step...
We are the Children of Nyarlathotep.

This sonnet cycle takes up about two thirds of the volume, and the remainder are poems of the fantastic such as "Merlin, Enchanted," "To Clark Ashton Smith," "Lines Written to a Painting by Hannes Bok" and others.It is a charming volume of playful poems; yet in their sense of play we find a very serious appreciation -- indeed, a love -- for the genius of H. P. Lovecraft and the gift of Literature that he has bequeathed unto us all.This love of the genre in all of its components is gorgeously describ'd in ye following verse:

"LINES WRITTEN TO A PAINTING BY HANNES BOK

Here where pale minarets and pylons cling
Ablaze with sunset to the scarlet peak,
Night draws across the skies her gemmy wing.

Now glides the galleon, her satin sails,
Engoldening the sea, home her to rest:
Starlit, one spire the goblin moon impales.

Bright as a peacock-plume these colors gleam.
O rare the hand that made this vision live,
Kindled these fires, wove this jewelled dream!"

I wou'd have been proud to have penn'd so beautiful a poem. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"Outworlder," by Lin Carter - An enjoyable surprise
Here's one of Lin Carter's stand-alone novels that I missed until recently -- but better late than never! While it's framed as a science-fiction novel, perhaps because that's what the publisher wanted, it's an old-fashioned fantasy quest. And it's a very good one, too, not quite what I'd expected from him at all. The reluctant protagonist Morgan isn't a battle-hungry barbarian like many of Carter's fantasy heroes: he's more contemplative & even ordinary, certainly willing to do what's right, ready to follow his apparent destiny, but feeling decidedly unheroic about the whole thing.

It occurs to me that this is close to what Carter's never-written fantasy epic "Khymyrium" might have been like. It's got plenty of invention, as well as some of the author's favorite fantasy tropes, but it also has a certain reflective undercurrent that makes it all the more attractive. If I have any complaints, it's that this one should have been longer than his usual books. Many of the ideas are wonderful & exciting, but cry out for expansion: the last of the legendary beasts, the fortress of the witch Yaklah, and others as well. But just as we're ready for more, we move onto the next scene. Hence four stars instead of five.

The ending is ironic & different. Rather than the apocalyptic showdown you'd find in so many other fantasy stories, this one is deceptively restrained, and the price that's paid for victory isn't what the hero or the reader would expect. But it's a satisfying ending all the same. Even if you're not normally a fan of Carter's fantasy work, check this one out -- it's worth the search. I only wish he'd done more work like it ... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Why you want this book
Andre Norton, "Fur Magic" (short novel)
Gordon Dickson, "Warrior" (novelette)
Tanith Lee, "The Truce"
Alan Burt Akers, "Wizard of Scorpio"
Tanith Lee, "The Martian El Dorado of Parker Wintley"
Marion Zimmer Bradley, "The Day of the Butterflies"
Brian Stableford, "Captain Fagan Died Alone" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not bad
Okay, this is a hard one to review. You can't help but like some of this. I won't spoil it by telling you who the guy is in the end (in fact, there is no way to figure it out, its just crazy). But there are a lot of light jokes and some fun fantasy moments. Just don't expect anything to be serious, you can tell the author didn't take his job seriously either. Lin Carter wasn't the best author, but he wrote a few decent ones and a few good ones (check out the world's end series for his good stuff). This one I found readable, if silly. Think: "Another Fine Myth" but not that good. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

More top flight Lin Carter!
I am sure that when most people read these astounding adventures of Prince Zarkon, that they see the ghost of Robeson's Doc Savage moving through the pages. (Though to me Zarkon seems a more original, believable characterthan Doc Savage.) But when I read Volcano Ogre (note to Amazon.com - Ibelieve the word in the title is "Ogre" not "Orge"!) Ithink back to those great Scooby Doo cartoons I used to watch as a kid.Scooby and the gang were always battling some villan who was masqueradingas a mysterious monster. Volcano Ogre has the same feel, though of courseLin Carter's novel has a lot more depth than a 1 hour cartoon. Doc Menlo islike the brainy Valerie, only more so; and Scorchy can be likened toShaggy. Of course, no cartoon character compares to the towering literaryfigure which is Prince Zarkon. I guess you've got to read this book - and Ihighly recommend it - to appreciate what Lin Carter has crafted here. ... Read more

Product Description
Ganelon Silvermane, the genetically designed superhero of the Earth's fabulous final age, has rapidly become the most popular of all Lin Carter’s creations. Brought to life prematurely, Ganelon’s adventures in a world of crumbling empires, ravaging hordes, and marvelous relics of forgotten scientific empires are always edge-of-the-seat wonder novels—the best creation of the author of the Thongor, Green Star, and Callisto books, to mention but a few!

Now, in this third novel of Gondwane, Ganelon Silvermane encounters a city of illusion, the problem of scientific immortals, and the disastrous collision of a massive horde of the world's ultimate barbarians! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Fun
What a blast, er, I mean quake to read these tributes to the thrilling adventures of the Pulp Era heroes, especially Doc Savage.The Zarkon collection should be recollected and reissued as a new set. ... Read more