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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 26, 2015 12:20:35 GMT -5
One of my favorites as a kid. Reminded me of The Black Arrow and Robin Hood. Still have the paperback I read in 1968 or so, complete with great Roy Krenkel illustrations, IIRC. I have the later Frazetta cover. I know the copy you're talking about though. The 75 cent Ace edition. I love Krenkel and his illos. But I think that the cover for that one is one of the weakest he did in that time period. I like the book a lot and have read it more than probably only a half dozen other Burroughs novels. I just don't think it's particularly special which is why I call it second tier...which maybe isn't completely fair. But it's way up at the top of that tier. That's the one. I think I even remember buying that in the Newberry's up the street from my house. I was forever looking for anything remotely Conan-esque then. I'll look for the Frazetta cover : curious to see it. I haven't read much more Burroughs than that, so nothing to compare it to, but if you've read others of his in that ballpark, I'd love recommendations. Just remembered that I've seen the whole text on-line. Maybe the copyright lapsed...
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 26, 2015 12:54:07 GMT -5
I have the later Frazetta cover. I know the copy you're talking about though. The 75 cent Ace edition. I love Krenkel and his illos. But I think that the cover for that one is one of the weakest he did in that time period. I like the book a lot and have read it more than probably only a half dozen other Burroughs novels. I just don't think it's particularly special which is why I call it second tier...which maybe isn't completely fair. But it's way up at the top of that tier. That's the one. I think I even remember buying that in the Newberry's up the street from my house. I was forever looking for anything remotely Conan-esque then. I'll look for the Frazetta cover : curious to see it. I haven't read much more Burroughs than that, so nothing to compare it to, but if you've read others of his in that ballpark, I'd love recommendations. Just remembered that I've seen the whole text on-line. Maybe the copyright lapsed... Most of Burroughs' early work is public domain. And readily available as e-books. If you like The Outlaw of Torn, I'd suggest The Mucker or The Mad King. Both are somewhat atypical Burroughs. The Mucker is my favorite book of his. The Mad King is his riff on The Prisoner of Zenda.
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Post by Rob Allen on Feb 26, 2015 16:31:51 GMT -5
Thanks to the library in the lunchroom at work, I've discovered the Mageverse series by Angela Knight. It's a bizarre mashup of Arthurian legend with vampires and werewolves and plenty of sex. The Knights of the Round Table are all vampires, their wives and girlfriends are all immortal witches (no female vampires or warlocks here). There are more than a dozen books in the series and they get 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, so she's doing something right, but I just can't take it at all seriously. If you're in the mood for a weird erotic novel, try one of these.
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Post by berkley on Feb 26, 2015 23:26:35 GMT -5
Haven't read Outlaw of Torn, but I liked both The Mad King and The Mucker a lot when I read them as a teenager.
Finished Émile Zola's The Kill (in the translation I read; the actual title, La Curée, is apparently not easily translatable), the second of his Rougon-Macquart series, a couple days ago. This one's about the decadent, money-chasing, consumerist French society of the Second Empire (roughly the 1850s-60s, under Napoléon III). Really damning portrait of a society consumed by greed - which makes it especially relevant today. The shady dealings of the big financiers will sound suspiciously familiar to modern ears.
Just started The Earthly Paradise by William Morris. Long narrative poem that apparently contains many shorter tales within the larger framing story. It's divided into a prologue and then monthly sections with a couple stories per month so I'll read this one in sections, month by month (it runs from March to February, for some reason). The stories seem to be mostly taken from Greek and Norse myth and legend.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2015 18:53:55 GMT -5
Recently read 3 books by Peter Saxon, two in the Guardians series, about a group fighting supernatural evil, and a stand-alone horror novel. I'd read a couple of the Guardians back in the day (late '60s), and was curious to see if they held up. But turns out things aren't that simple, eh? The 'Peter Saxon' name was a house name used by several writers. The main guy, W. Howard Baker, pitched the Guardians series to his publisher as a package of 6 books; he then wrote one himself and farmed the other 5 out to 4 other writers. Doesn't really promise quality, does it?
The Killing Bone is the one Baker wrote, and in the US it was published as #1 in the series (tho I've read that the second book does a better job of setting up the characters). It's dry, it's slow, not a lot happens, and you don't get much of a feel for the characters; only 2 of the 5 are featured much at all for most of the book, and there's no hint of why they're the Guardians. They're fighting evil because they're fighting evil, eh? Not impressed.
But I remembered liking The Haunting of Alan Mais, so I persevered. And yeah, this one is better. A third Guardian joins the spotlight, there's more of a mystery, the stakes feel higher and more personal, and there're some cool manifestation scenes. (There's one scene that I clearly remembered, despite having first read it mumbly-mumble years ago.) This one was written by Wilfred McNeilly. One site I found calls him the least of the Peter Saxons. I respectfully disagree.
McNeilly also wrote The Torturer, and this one is a blast. It's pure Hammer Horror in print. A movie director, his writer, his wife and a handful of others are scouting locations in Spain when they find an old castle. The sadistic Conde DelMorte, who terrorized the area centuries before, comes back and starts torturing and killing them. They stop him. The end. Insights into the human condition, deep characterizations, complex plot twists - nope. This was pure horror pulp, and a lot of fun.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2015 21:47:34 GMT -5
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2015 23:44:47 GMT -5
I want to read those Guardians books one of these days myself. Apparently Peter Saxon was a house pseudonym so not everything appearing under that name was written by the same person.
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 3, 2015 13:01:17 GMT -5
Most of you have heard of Andrew Offutt, right? He wrote some Conan novels, and some were adapted by Marvel. Well, Marvel never touched most of the books Andrew Offutt wrote. His son Chris has written a book about his father's career, and was interviewed on Fresh Air yesterday: www.npr.org/2015/03/02/390160777/chris-offutt-reveals-a-family-secret-in-my-father-the-pornographerThat's right, Chris' book is titled, "My Father, the Pornographer". Andrew Offutt wrote something like 370 porn novels. He shut down his insurance agency to write porn fulltime. Given that choice, I know which one I'd rather focus on. But the market for prose porn is not what it was then. Andrew was in the right field at the right time, and he took a professional attitude toward his work, although he kept it secret from his children and his neighbors in rural Kentucky. I know there's nothing wrong with writing whatever will sell, but somehow I'll never be able to look at Offutt's fantasy and sf books the same way again. The interview is interesting to read and I look forward to Chris' book.
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Post by berkley on Mar 3, 2015 16:09:37 GMT -5
I have a few of Offutt's paperbacks lying around here, including one called "Ardor on Ardos" that looks like a combination of ERB planet-story with his other professional interest. Haven't read it yet, though.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 3, 2015 16:38:43 GMT -5
Yes, Offut was a big time porn writer. To increase his output, I've read he had a binder full of already-written-scenes classified by subject, just like the spare parts of a car!
Berk, Offut did mix genres. He wrote straight porn, but also noir porn, SF porn, fantasy porn... all that would sell. I wouldn't be surprised if Ardor on Ardos was exactly what it sounds like!
So many potential titles come to mind...
Onan the barbarian Babel 69 Swordsmen of Mars Cathouse Dune...
He must have had a lot of fun!
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Post by badwolf on Mar 4, 2015 11:17:13 GMT -5
I have a few of Offutt's paperbacks lying around here, including one called "Ardor on Ardos" that looks like a combination of ERB planet-story with his other professional interest. Haven't read it yet, though. I just acquired that one myself. Not sure if I'll be into it, but the Frazetta cover attracted me. I'm somewhat familiar with his work from the 80s Thieves' World shared world anthologies. His contribution was a thief called Shadowspawn. Love the Jeff Jones covers on those Saxon books above!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2015 17:26:12 GMT -5
Cause I like them too, more Guardians covers
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Post by Deleted on Mar 4, 2015 17:33:36 GMT -5
and two more
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Post by berkley on Mar 5, 2015 0:57:34 GMT -5
I agree, those Jeff Jones covers are so good I'm a little afraid that the novels inside won't quite live up to them.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2015 9:57:14 GMT -5
I agree, those Jeff Jones covers are so good I'm a little afraid that the novels inside won't quite live up to them. No worries, they don't. I enjoy them for what they are (well, I enjoyed Alan Mais), but they're still pulpy hackwork that (so far, anyway) doesn't live up to their potential.
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