The Star Kings by Edmond Hamilton (Paperback Library, November 1970). Cover artist unknown

See Part I of The Sword & Planet of Edmond Hamilton here.

Edmond Hamilton’s Kaldar tales seem very much an homage to ERB’s Barsoom stories. An Earthman adventurer named Stuart Merrick is sent to Kaldar by a group of scientists. He finds himself a princess to love and becomes that world’s greatest warrior, and at the end of the first tale is drawn back toEearth by those same scientists. When asked what he found, he says, “My world.”

Two particularly interesting points about the Kaldar stories.

1) They may be the first introduction of the “light-saber.” Merrick uses a light-sword in his adventures, which seem to have all the qualities of the later Star Wars light-sabers.

2) When I first read the Dray Prescot series by Ken Bulmer, I though the setting might have been influenced by the Kaldar tales since they both take place on a planet circling the star Antares. I even thought that Kregen (Prescot’s world) might have got its “K” sound from Kaldar. I can’t rule that influence out but I’ve since come to believe that Bulmer chose Antares for a different reason, its reddish coloration and its name, which is translated as “anti-Ares,” Ares being another name for Mars. Thus his choice was likely an homage to ERB’s John Carter stories.

The Best of Edmond Hamilton (Del Rey, August 1977). Cover by H. R. Van Dongen

Above and below are a few other Edmond Hamilton covers from my collection. Outlaw World has a Frazetta cover but mine is missing a corner. H. R. Van Dongen did the cover of the paperback edition of The Best of Edmond Hamilton; I have the hardcover from the Science Fiction Book Club, with a cover by Don Maitz that I like quite a bit.

Next time: C.L. Moore.

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Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.