King Kull by Robert E. Howard & Lin Carter
There’s a reason why I never lend out books anymore, even to my closest friends; namely, the fact that when I used to loan them out, I never got them back in the same good condition, or, even worse, never got them back at all. Cases in point: three paperbacks from one of my old favorite writers, Texas-born Robert E. Howard. Back in the mid-‘60s, Lancer Books released all of Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories in a now-classic series of 12 paperbacks, as well as a beautiful paperback of another legendary Howard character, King Kull. I owned all 13 of those wonderful volumes, and made the big mistake of lending the first two Conan books out (both featuring gorgeous cover artwork by Frank Frazetta), as well as the Kull (featuring ... Read More
The Warrior of World’s End by Lin Carter
Lin Carter wrote derivative pulpy adventure stories in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and others. I think of these as second-rate but I pick them up when I find them cheap at Audible — they’re short fast-moving stories with imaginative scenery and lots of action. In a Lin Carter novel you’re sure to find a sword-wielding man with sweaty “thews,” a scantily-clad girl who needs to be saved, and lots of scary monsters. Usually this takes place in some fascinatingly impossible setting such as on the boughs of gigantic trees, under a volcano, in a lost city, or on an uncharted planet.
In The Warrior of World’s End, a down-and-out godmaker and his wife are traveling through a desert when they find a large young... Read More
Under the Green Star by Lin Carter
Under the Green Star is Lin Carter’s homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs and it’s a quick, fun, exciting adventure with some terrific scenery. Our hero (who’s telling the story in first person) was crippled by polio when he was a child and, as an adult, he’s confined to a wheelchair. He’s wealthy, though, so he has managed to get hold of an ancient scroll that describes the lost Tibetan science of eckankar — soul travel. After years of studying, he manages to free his soul from his crippled body so that he can explore the Earth... and beyond!
It’s not long before he finds himself on a green star which supports a beautiful land where people live in the trees and ride dragonflies. When he gets too close to the crystal-encased tomb of one of their ancient heroes,... Read More
When the Green Star Calls by Lin Carter
Wildside Press has recently been producing Lin Carter’s books in audio format and, since I read the first of his GREEN STAR series on my Kindle last year, I picked up the second book, When the Green Star Calls, on audio. These novels are short planetary SF adventures similar to the tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In the first volume, Under the Green Star, we met our narrator who has been crippled since childhood. After discovering the ancient Tibetan eckankar, a method of freeing the soul from the body so that it can travel unhindered, he found an exotic planet with a green star, entered the body of one of the planet’s ancient heroes, and fell in love with a princess. While defending her, he died and was abruptly brought back t... Read More
By the Light of the Green Star by Lin Carter
By the Light of the Green Star continues the adventures of the crippled man from Earth who has taught his spirit to travel to an unknown planet where he inhabits healthy bodies and has exciting adventures. The previous volume, When the Green Star Calls, ended on a cliffhanger. Our hero is still in the body of the savage youth and he’s still trying to rescue the princess who he loves but who will not know him if he even manages to find her.
The story continues to be told in the first person, but our hero, who is now stranded with some unscrupulous companions on the dangerous forest floor, also narrates the events occurring simultaneously to the princess who is now a prisoner in a city in the air. Our narrator justifies his omniscience by saying he heard her side of the story later, but it doesn’t really work — it’s rather clumsi... Read More
As the Green Star Rises by Lin Carter
I picked up As the Green Star Rises, fourth in the five-book GREEN STAR series by Lin Carter, only because it was cheap at Audible. The last book, By the Light of the Green Star, was mildly entertaining but I didn’t feel compelled to go on. (At this point, probably nobody is reading further in this review, but for the sake of a sense of closure, I’ll go on just a bit. After all, it is possible that readers looking for a mindless audio adventure series might be enjoying GREEN STAR.)
In As the Green Star Rises, our hero (gosh, I forgot his name), who has been blinded and separated from his friends and the princess he loves, is pulled out of the sea by pirates and turned into a galley slave. He makes new friends and enemies and pines for his lost princess. A string of various advent... Read More
In the Green Star’s Glow by Lin Carter
Finally, our hero Karn, the crippled Earthman whose soul has been implanted in the body of a boy on a planet under a green star, comes to the end of his grand adventure. He has been through a series of harrowing events while trying to save the princess he has fallen in love with. In this last installment, he gets a short rest and then everything comes to a head. Old enemies resurface, new monsters appear and, perhaps most challenging of all, he’s captured by a band of man-hating teenage girls. Meanwhile, Karn’s allies are dealing with a race of hive-minded warrior ants and — would you believe it? — another evil scientist (actually, he was my favorite part of the book). It can’t possibly be a spoiler to say that everything eventually turns out okay in the end.
In the Green Star’s Glow is a fast read and, if you’ve enjoyed the GREEN STA... Read More
Journey to the Underground World by Lin Carter
I believe I’ve come to the point in my life where I need never pick up another lost world pulp fantasy novel. Seriously, they’re all running together in my mind.
In Journey to the Underground World, Lin Carter is (as usual) channeling Edgar Rice Burroughs. In Carter’s version of an underground world, an adventurer named Eric Carstairs meets up with a paleontologist named Dr. Potter who thinks he knows how to find a legendary land under the earth. They fly a helicopter down a volcano and discover Zanthodon, a world where dinosaurs, wooly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers threaten the Neanderthals and Cro-magnons who also live there. There are creatures to fight, “savages” to outwit, and (of course) a beautiful maiden with a “lithe young body,” “perfect breasts,” “smooth thighs” and “... Read More
Other books by Lin Carter
Thongor — (1965-1970) Publisher: The ancient dragon kings have deemed that the hour is right to regain their dominance over Earth and only Thongor and his companions, aided by the science and magic of the wizard Sharajsha, stand between mankind and the night of doom.
The Great Imperium — (1966-1971)
The Thief of Thoth — (1968-1969) Publisher: Thief: what mysterious power emanated from the bejeweled crown of stars that rulers of three planets frantically sought its possession?
The Chronicles of Kylix — (1971-1984) A blend of science fiction and fantasy.
Callisto — (1972-1978) Publisher: When his helicopter crashes in the Cambodian jungle, pilot Jon Dark finds a lost city and the gateway to another world. He arrives on Callisto, a savage, hostile world terrorized by insect men and the Sky Pirates of Zanadar.
Mars — (1973-1984) Publisher: A rose-red city, half as old as time. Once it had been king city of a mighty empire and the center of the ancient faith; Gateway to the Gods, the old epics name it. Now it was dead, empty, deserted, only a dim ghost of its vanished splendor. Such was Ilionis. Lost city of Mars. A somber ruin, cold and lonely. But Ilionis was not forgotten. The old city held a valuable treasure. A treasure that brought Earthmen Ivo Tengren and scientist Keresny on a strange and difficult journey to the city’s gates. A journey that was now ended. Ilionis had been found. The treasure was close by. And now an even stranger journey was about to begin.
Terra Magica — (1982-1988) Publisher: Come with us out of this dull, workaday world to Terra Magica, tha land beyond World’s Edge, where knights ride out on wonder quests, where beautiful princesses wait for rescue from sea serpents, where sky-high giants seek human morsels for their cookpots, and where a king may seek a champion to set aside his realm’s enchantment … Here be wizards of good and wizards of evil; here be mighty giants and witches of utter meanness. Here be high fantasy from the golden pen of the Grand Master himself, Lin Carter!
Stand-alone novels:
Tower at the Edge of Time — (1968) Publisher: MAN OF THE SWORD. Thane, the restless outworld warrior, was a man of blood and steel, a man of strange powers strangely acquired. His body was god-like: bronzed, lithe and powerful; his pale eyes warned that he could explode into limitless fury at any moment. Thane was a warrior, but he was also a seeker, for only he could find the secret of the Time Treasure. No one else in the universe could cross the Abyss of the Ages and go where no man had ever been before, where none should ever go again.
The Black Star — (1973) Publisher: The creator of Jandar and Thongor opens up an awesome new world of adventure with Diodric the Warrior.
Found Wanting — (1985) Publisher: He knew his name, Kyon. He wore the garb of a gardener — but that was all he knew. The city of Urbs was a maze of wonders and terrors. Kyon had to do something, to go somewhere, but no one would tell him. And it was important!
Lost World of Time — (1969) Publisher: Destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy, the warrior Sargon strode through the gates of Chalsadon-the last refuge of a once-proud empire. Only Sargon, a Barbarian and an Outsider, could stem the slaughter. Only he could wield the deadly golden maul, covered with the dust of centuries. Only he was fated to test the necromancy of Shadrazar, the beautiful Black Lord of Chaos. But Sargon was mortal…
(1930-1988)
