Neither Beg Nor Yield - Jason M. Waltz, ed. (Part 5)

This is the fifth and final batch of reviews of stories from NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD, the new sword and sorcery anthology from Rogue Blades Entertainment and editor Jason M. Waltz. The previous installments of this series can be found here, here, here, and here.

In most anthologies, collections, pulps, or any bunch of stories that I read, there’s usually at least one that I bounce off of, which is not to say that they’re bad stories, just ones that don’t appeal to me personally. This has finally happened in this anthology with “The Last Vandals on Earth” by Steven Erikson. This tale of a small group of Vandals being pursued by and battling enemies in Africa is written in an elaborate, highly distinctive style that just doesn’t resonate with me. I suspect some of you would really like it, so don’t go by me. But I didn’t care for it.

“The Barbarian’s Lawyer” by Lawrence A. Weinstein is just the opposite. It introduces two excellent characters, the barbarian called Blazgorn and Cynric Magsen, the lawyer who defends him before the High Arbiter when Blazgorn is accused of stealing treasures from the mansion of one of the city’s most powerful nobles. Doing humor in a sword and sorcery tale is a tricky proposition, but Weinstein manages quite well, prompting a number of smiles and one out-loud laugh from me while I was reading the story. But at the same time, he also gives us some very effective action. This is a wonderful story, and I’d love to see more of these two characters.

Last year, the first novel in Howard Andrew Jones’ Hanuvar series, LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND, was one of the best books I read. I have the second book, THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD, but haven’t read it yet. I was very glad to see Jones and Hanuvar in this volume, as well. For those who haven’t yet made his acquaintance, Hanuvar is sort of an alternate world version of Hannibal (although that’s really too simplistic a description). His goal is to locate the survivors from his conquered country, Volanus, who have been scattered all over a world ruled by the Dervan Empire (think Rome) and get them to a safe sanctuary. In “Reflection From a Tarnished Mirror”, he runs up against an unusual threat to his quest, and as usual, Jones spins a well-written, compelling yarn. I’m not sure where in Hanuvar’s saga this story takes place, exactly, but it’s a strong reminder that I need to get around to reading that second book.

Finally, we have “Maiden Flight” by Adrian Cole. This is the first adventure of Ulric Wulfsen, a Viking raider who has a strange and dangerous encounter on a corpse-littered battlefield that leads to an epic confrontation and a poignant, very effective ending. I’ve been aware of Adrian Cole’s fiction for decades but have never read anything by him as far as I recall. This is a very good story and a near-perfect way to wrap up the anthology.

Looking back, I have some definite favorites among the stories in this volume. The top rank, for me, consists of the tales by Steve Dilks, Chuck Dixon, Keith J. Taylor, David C. Smith, Eadwine Brown, Jeff Stewart, Lawrence A. Weinstein, and Howard Andrew Jones. Four out of those eight authors are ones I’d never read before, and that’s one of the great appeals of a book like this, introducing the reader to new authors, or at least, authors they’ve never read before. I’ll definitely be looking for more work by several of these gentlemen.

In the meantime, if you’re a fan of sword and sorcery, I give my highest recommendation to NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD. Even though it’s relatively early, I have no doubt that it’ll be on my Top Ten list at the end of the year.

The Savage Sword of Conan #1

There’s a lot of nostalgia involved with me reading a new issue of THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN. I remember quite well buying issues of the original magazine of that title back in the Seventies at Lester’s Pharmacy, walking across the highway to my house, and reading great stories by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Alfredo Alcala, as well as articles about Robert E. Howard and his work by Fred Blosser, who I’m privileged to call a friend all these years later. I read SSOC for many years after that.

So when I heard that Titan Comics was bringing back THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN, I knew I’d have to give it a try. This time, however, I read the digital version, something I never would have dreamed possible fifty years ago when I read the original magazine. It looks excellent as an e-book, too.

There are several variant covers for this first issue of the revived magazine. The one that came up when I opened it is the primary one, I think. It was painted by Joe Jusko, and it’s superb. I really like it.

After a foreword by Roy Thomas (and I’m always glad to read anything Roy has to say), the Conan story, which takes up most of the book, is “The Dragon Horde”, written by John Arcudi with art by Max Von Fafner. Arcudi’s name is familiar to me, although I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by him. Von Fafner is brand-new to me. But I enjoyed both of their contributions here. Arcudi’s script, which finds Conan serving as a mercenary general in the army of a Hyrkanian prince trying to overthrow his brother, is violent and fast-paced with a few effective twists and turns. Von Fafner’s art, while it doesn’t appeal to me as much as Rob de la Torre’s in Titan’s color Conan comic, is suitably gritty and his storytelling is solid for the most part. I did have to look at a few panels a second time to make sure what was happening. Overall, “The Dragon Horde” is an entertaining yarn and definitely reminiscent of the original SSOC.

“Sacrifice in the Sand” is a short prose story about Conan by Jim Zub, the scripter of the above-mentioned color comic. It’s good for what it is, but the length keeps it from developing any more than the most basic plot. It’s certainly well-written and entertaining enough that I’d be interested in reading more Conan prose stories by Zub.

The highlight of the issue is “Master of the Hunt”, part 1 of a serialized Solomon Kane story written and drawn by Patrick Zircher. This tale of a monster breaking through the barrier between worlds and terrorizing a remote area of Wales is a terrific yarn. Zircher captures Solomon Kane very well both visually and in his lean, fast-paced script. I’m really looking forward to the next part of this story.

So I’m very pleased to see that THE SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN is back, and I think everyone involved in this issue did themselves proud.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Thrilling Adventures, May 1937

Okay, did our stalwart hero have that six-gun with him in the diving suit, or was it waiting for him when he climbed back aboard the boat? We don't know, but either way, this is a fine cover by Rudolph Belarski. This issue of THRILLING ADVENTURES features stories by some good authors including Tom Curry, Oscar Schisgall, Carl Jacobi, and William Merriam Rouse. In a field where ADVENTURE, ARGOSY, SHORT STORIES, and BLUE BOOK were the top of the line, THRILLING ADVENTURES occupied a lower rank, but it always had vivid, action-packed covers and dependably entertaining writers.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Thrilling Western, July 1952

This is a pulp I own and read recently. That’s my copy in the scan. The cover is credited on the Fictionmag Index to Sam Cherry, and after looking at the faces, I do believe it’s Cherry’s work, but it’s also kind of an atypical cover for him.

It's also a little unusual that the lead novella in this issue, featured on the cover, is a story by an author who had never appeared in the pulps before. In fact, “Blood on the Lode” is one of only two stories credited to James D. Pinkham in the FMI. A novelette by him appeared in MAX BRAND’S WESTERN MAGAZINE in 1953. I wondered briefly if the name was a pseudonym for a better-known Western writer, but I decided that probably wasn’t the case. Pinkham’s style is distinct enough that I don’t recall encountering it under any other name.

And it’s a maddeningly frustrating style, too. The story is one that hasn’t been done to death in Western pulp fiction and is reasonably accurate historically, too. In 1853, a pair of California Rangers are sent to a mining boomtown to clean up the lawlessness there. The heroes, Luke Corbin and the Alamo Kid, are Texans who rode with the Rangers there while Texas was a republic, and they’ve followed their old commander, Captain Harry Love, to California. So far, so good. Corbin and the Kid are fine protagonists. In their new job, they’re up against a crooked judge and a gambler/saloon owner who’s the mastermind of a gang of claim jumpers. Or is he? His beautiful, redheaded partner in the saloon is known as the Flame and has some secrets of her own. This is good stuff, and it’s done well in stretches with some great action scenes.

But then everything lurches to a halt as Pinkham spends several columns of dense prose summing up his character’s activities. Corbin wanders around talking endlessly to various characters, and Pinkham doesn’t even give us interesting dialogue, just dry recaps of what’s being discussed. Then we’re off again on another well-done ambush or shootout, but the previous scene has robbed the story almost completely of any momentum. He keeps up this pattern all the way through the story.

Despite those flaws, there’s enough to like in “Blood on the Lode” that I wish Pinkham had written more. He could have been a promising author.

I’ve never cared for Ben Frank’s work, although the readers must have because his Doc Swap series of humorous stories ran for a long time in TEXAS RANGERS. His story in this issue of THRILLING WESTERN is a stand-alone, “The Lucky Horseshoe Case”, in which a couple of cowpokes try to become private detectives. I told myself to give it a fair chance, but it’s just awful and I only made it through a couple of pages.

The “Man’s Business” referred to in Gile A. Lutz’s story of the same name is a gunfight between two ranchers over a waterhole. However, things don’t turn out as you might expect. This is a pretty minor story, but Lutz was a solid pro and makes it readable and entertaining.

“There’s Trouble in Hardpan” is the third Swap and Whopper story by Syl McDowell that I’ve read recently. This is another humorous series that I never liked, but for some unfathomable reason, I’ve started enjoying them. Tastes change, I guess. This novelette finds the two drifting protagonists running across an orchard in the middle of the desert and clashing with a cantankerous veterinarian. As always, it’s lightweight stuff, but it moves right along and is mildly amusing.

Steuart Emery wrote a lot of excellent cavalry stories for various Western pulps, most of them appearing in TEXAS RANGERS. But there’s one in this issue of THRILLING WESTERN called “Phantom Sabers”, and it’s the usual top-notch job from Emery. It features a clash between a bookish young lieutenant and an overbearing captain and winds up with a very clever twist when a patrol is surrounded and on the verge of being wiped out by Apaches. As far as I know, Emery never wrote any Western novels, which is a shame.

This issue wraps up with “Chalk Butte Conflict”, a novelette by Ben T. Young in which a Texas cowboy wins a Wyoming ranch in a poker game. He’s too fiddle-footed to settle down, so when he arrives in Wyoming, he plans to sell the spread as quickly as he can and move on. The foreman who works for the local cattle baron rubs him the wrong way, though, and the cattle baron has a beautiful daughter (what cattle baron doesn’t?), so our protagonist decides to stick around for a spell and trouble inevitably erupts. I don’t recall if I’ve ever read anything else by Young, who wrote around a hundred stories, mostly Westerns, during the Forties and early Fifties, but this is a very good story, told in an appealing breezy style, with a likable protagonist and plenty of action. It ends this issue on a high note.

So this issue of THRILLING WESTERN is a mixed bag with no truly outstanding stories but a couple of very good ones, several that are entertaining, and only one clear miss, as far as I’m concerned. It’s about as middle-of-the-road as you can find for a Western pulp, but I enjoyed reading it.

Where Is Bianca? - Ellery Queen (Talmage Powell)

I wouldn’t be surprised if every one of you reading this knows that cousins Frederic Danny and Manfred B. Lee created the pseudonym and the character Ellery Queen. And most, if not all, of you are also aware that during the Sixties, Dannay and Lee contracted with several ghostwriters to turn out a number of novels published under the Ellery Queen name, mostly stand-alones but including a couple of series, one of them six books published by Popular Library featuring one-eyed New York City police detective Captain Tim Corrigan.

I owned all six of those paperbacks at one time or another, but I know you won’t be surprised to hear that I never got around to reading any of them. However, on a whim, I recently picked up the e-book edition of the first novel in the series, WHERE IS BIANCA?, and figured it was time I finally read a Tim Corrigan novel.

The eyepatch-wearing Corrigan lost his left eye while serving in the Korean War, then worked with the OSS, and then became a cop despite the patch not being regulation. His old army buddy Chuck Baer is a private detective in New York, and rather than being at odds with each other, as many fictional cops and private eyes are, they frequently work so closely together on cases that Baer almost might as well be a cop himself.

In WHERE IS BIANCA?, the body of a young woman is found in the sewers and is in such bad shape that identifying her is a challenge. Baer has been hired to locate wealthy Bianca Lessard, who owns a number of theaters around the country, including several in New York. She had a fight with her husband and walked out of their swanky apartment. When she never came back, her worried husband hired Baer to locate her. The corpse in the sewer is wearing a distinctive ring that belonged to Bianca Lessard, but then Corrigan and Baer turn up two more missing women who might be the victim, and that starts them on a hunt through a circle of Broadway actors, producers, and playwrights, all of whom seem to have shady pasts and/or secrets they want to keep hidden. It’s a classic setup for a murder mystery in which the identity of the victim is just as much a puzzle as that of the killer.

The ghostwriter behind the EQ byline on this novel is Talmage Powell, a well-regarded hardboiled mystery author under his own name. Years ago I read and enjoyed some of his novels featuring Florida private eye Ed Rivers. I’ve always found him to be a dependable author, but I thought WHERE IS BIANCA? was a bit of a disappointment. The plot is solid, but the characterization is pretty flat. We don’t really get to know much about anybody except Tim Corrigan, and to be honest, he’s just not that likable or interesting. The book is lacking in humor, and Powell tells the story in bland, “Just the facts, ma’am” prose that falls flat as well. It’s certainly not terrible—it read quickly and I was never tempted to not finish it—but I was expecting more.

The next two books in the series were ghosted by Richard Deming, who I generally consider a better writer than Powell although they’re certainly similar, so I’ll give them a try as well. If nothing else, the books are short and punchy and often that’s just what I want.

One more note: I don’t know who did the cover artwork on the Popular Library edition from 1966, which you can see at the top of this post, but when I looked at it I immediately thought of Nick Fury and Countess Valentina Allega de Fontaine. I don’t have any way of knowing if Jim Steranko ever saw the Tim Corrigan paperbacks, but that cover sure reminds me of Nick and Val hanging around Fury’s apartment in NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, the classic story “Who Is Scorpio?” that appeared in 1968, two years after WHERE IS BIANCA? I’d like to think that paperback influenced one of my all-time favorite comic book stories, but who knows?

Neither Beg Nor Yield - Jason M. Waltz, ed. (Part 4)

We’ve reached the fourth post in this series of reviews of the stories in NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD, the great new anthology of sword and sorcery stories from Rogue Blades Entertainment. The previous posts can be found here, here, and here.

Eadwine Brown is a new author to me, and his story “Vengeance, With Wind and Tide” features a new character he’s introducing, a female pirate named Azirah. She and her crew set out to find an island with a mysterious tower located on it, that tower being the stronghold of the sorcerer who is responsible for the deaths of another crew of pirates. Azirah wants vengeance on this sorcerer, as well as whatever treasure she and her followers can find. This is just a superb story, written in a style reminiscent of Robert E. Howard, with plenty of action, a strong protagonist, and a vividly realized setting. As I was reading, I thought, “You know, Brown could have sold this to WEIRD TALES in the Thirties.” That’s pretty high praise.

“Isekai Sengokumonogatari” is by one of the big names in the genre, Glen Cook. Like C.L. Werner’s story earlier in the book, this one is set in an alternate version of feudal Japan, complete with spider demons. Also like Werner’s story, I was predisposed not to be too fond of it, but Cook won me over just like Werner did and I enjoyed this tale of a young warrior who picked the losing side in a war. Hired to accompany a mysterious and somewhat sinister old man and three noble orphans on a journey to deliver the children to relatives, our hero Shinzutoro encounters considerable trouble and learns some things about himself and others, prevailing over all the dangers to his charges. It’s a fine story, as you’d expect from an old pro like Cook.

Jeff Stewart is another writer new to me, and his story “Bona Na Croin” is the first to feature Fergus Mac Ronan, a mercenary and adventurer in medieval Ireland. A violent encounter results in Fergus becoming a soldier for one of the local kings, and that plunges him into a war that culminates with the summoning of an ancient evil entity. This story has a bit of a GAME OF THRONES feeling to it with its betrayals, unexpected murders, and fiery sorcery. And it’s an absolutely terrific yarn. Fergus is a fine protagonist, the action scenes are very well done, and Stewart does a top-notch job capturing the grittiness of the setting. I really liked this one.

According to editor Jason Waltz, Steve Goble has been writing stories about the warrior Calthus for a long time, but both author and character are new to me. In “Virgins For Khuul”, Goble quickly gives us Calthus’s back-story: a mighty warrior once known as the Slaughter Lord, killed in battle many years ago, resurrected by wizards to meet a new threat, now a wanderer. When he comes across a plan by evil priests to sacrifice three hundred virgins to the vicious god Khuul, he teams up with an old enemy to put a stop to it. This leads to some apocalyptic action in Khuul’s stronghold inside a mountain. Colorful, fast-moving, and packed with action, “Virgins For Khuul” ends on an offbeat note that’s very intriguing, and I’m left feeling like I ought to hunt up Goble’s earlier stories about the character.

This is another strong group of stories and I’m looking forward to wrapping up my reading of NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD in the near future.  

Now Available: Kingfisher #3: Tourist Trap - James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn

The search for one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, a swindler who is rumored to have stashed away close to a billion dollars in ill-gotten gains, leads brother and sister private investigators Callista and Joseph Kingfisher to a fabulous, luxurious resort in Mexico. But deep in the jungles of the Yucatan, they discover another secret hidden away, a secret that may mean death for both Kingfishers!

TOURIST TRAP is another lightning-paced, colorful adventure from bestselling authors James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn featuring plenty of thrills, humor, and excitement, with suspense and plot twists that will leave readers breathless.

Working on these books with Livia has been great fun, and I think this is my favorite so far. It's available on Amazon in e-book and print editions and as an e-book on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and Smashwords.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: New Detective Magazine, February 1951

Despite the name of this pulp, the February 1951 issue of NEW DETECTIVE MAGAZINE is almost all reprint. There are two new things about it: the logo (which must not have been popular, because three issues later they went back to the original logo) and a novella by "Daniel Winters", actually a house-name and the author of this one is unknown. The reprints are by Norbert Davis (a Doan and Carstairs story), Leigh Brackett, Joel Townsley Rogers, C. William Harrison, H.H. Matteson, and John D. Fitzgerald, all from various 1940s issues of DETECTIVE FICTION WEEKLY and FLYNN'S DETECTIVE FICTION. Most issues of NEW DETECTIVE from this era included a reprint or two, but this one is top-heavy with them. On the other hand, if you haven't read a story, it's new to you and doesn't matter if it's a reprint, does it? And I'll bet these were all pretty good stories. I don't own a copy, but if you want to check it out, the whole issue is available on the Internet Archive. By the way, I don't know who did the cover on this issue, but the guy in the background looks a little like Humphrey Bogart, and the blonde definitely reminds me of Marlene Dietrich.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Western Supernovel Magazine, May 1933

I came across the listing for this pulp in the Fictionmags Index and was surprised to find a Western pulp I'd never even heard of. The explanation for that may be that this is the only issue of WESTERN SUPERNOVEL MAGAZINE. The next issue, the title was changed to COMPLETE WESTERN BOOK MAGAZINE, which I had heard of. This lone issue under the original title sports a cover by Joseph Cragin, an artist I'm not familiar with, and features a novella by Dane Coolidge, who is supposed to be a pretty good Western writer. I haven't read any of his work yet, and I need to get around to that. Also in this issue are a couple of reprints by Stephen Payne and Clee Woods, both of which appeared originally in the pulp WESTERN RANGERS a few years earlier, and another original novella by Edgar L. Cooper. COMPLETE WESTERN BOOK MAGAZINE probably is a better title, but I kind of like WESTERN SUPERNOVEL MAGAZINE.

Bêlit: Shipwrecked - V. Castro

BÊLIT: SHIPWRECKED is the latest entry in the series of Robert E. Howard pastiches published as e-books by Titan Books. Not surprisingly, it’s a prequel to Howard’s story “Queen on the Black Coast” and takes place before Conan meets the pirate Bêlit and becomes part of her crew sailing on the ship Tigress. In SHIPWRECKED, Bêlit is already a fierce, well-known pirate, but not even she can turn aside a terrible storm that damages her ship and casts it, her, and her crew ashore on what appears at first to be a rather idyllic island.

But of course, dangers lurk in the jungles and behind the waterfalls of this scenic location, and not everyone will get off the island alive.

I’d never heard of the author of this story, who’s credited as V. Castro, but according to the note at the end, she’s written several well-regarded horror novels. SHIPWRECKED has some strong horror overtones as well. The writing is good all the way through this story, and Bêlit is a strong protagonist, but for some reason this tale never really connected with me. Bêlit is a little too unsympathetic for my taste. I kept reminding myself that she’s a pirate; she’s not necessarily supposed to be sympathetic. But it didn’t quite work, and neither did the somewhat graphic sex, which seemed out of place in a Howard pastiche. Howard’s stories sometimes had plenty of sex implied in them, but when you were writing for the pulp market, most such things had to be implied and there was a limit to what you could put on the page. I realize this isn’t the pulp era anymore, but my approach to pastiches is that they should be written as if you writing for the same markets as the original author. Does that make sense?

But as always, that’s just me. Despite my complaints, I found SHIPWRECKED to be entertaining for the most part and I’m glad Titan is doing this series even though some of the stories don’t quite hit the mark for me.