I discovered Adrian Cole (1949 – ) in the late 1970s through his Dream Lords trilogy.

1. Plague of Nightmares (1975)
2. Lord of Nightmares (1975)
3. Bane of Nightmares (1976)

All were from Zebra books, with covers by Tom Barber, Jack Gaughan (maybe), and Tom Barber respectively. Volume 2 was also published with a Tom Barber cover but I don’t have it. I’ve shown it below and wish I owned it because it’s cooler than my version. However, the Barber cover does wrongly list Lord of Nightmares as Volume 3.

I absolutely loved the Dream Lords trilogy. Not only did it have great ideas and a powerful story, but the writing was beautiful and poetic, which I don’t find nearly enough.

[Click the images to dream of bigger versions.]

The Dream Lords, Volume 2: Lord of Nightmares by Adrian Cole (Zebra Books, 1977). Cover by Thomas Barber

And then, it seemed to me, Mister Cole disappeared. I didn’t see anything else by him for many, many years. Fast forward to the present, and I’m Facebook friends with Adrian and was able to pick his brain on a few questions concerning his writing.

First, Adrian Cole was only 19 when he wrote the original draft of Dream Lords. He fiddled and polished them over the next few years before they were published by Zebra. Although the books were sometimes touted as “in the tradition of Robert E. Howard,” Adrian had not read REH at the time he wrote these books. His influences were ERB, Frank Herbert’s Dune, The Lord of the Rings, and Dennis Wheatley’s supernatural tales.

I’m not very familiar with Wheatley but I can see the other influences. He mentioned that his first exposure to ERB was in a British weekly comic called The Sun, which serialized A Princess of Mars under the title The Martian. The Dream Lords books fit the genre of Sword & Planet, although there are strong elements of Sword & Sorcery as well.

The Dream Lords (Cirsova Publishing, January 15, 2025). Cover by Anton Oxenuk

Unlike what I believed, Adrian didn’t stop writing after The Dream Lords trilogy was published. He sold short stories and a “handful of books, (all SF)” to Robert Hale, a British publisher. Being over in the US, I didn’t see any of these books, but now that I know they exist I’ll be searching them out. He did take a 10-year break that started in the late 1990s due to work pressures, but has returned to writing with a zest after retirement.

I was excited to learn that The Dream Lords trilogy was rereleased in 2025 by Cirsova Publishing, with a detailed history of the three books. (Available on Amazon.) That should be of great interest.

Adrian has been publishing numerous short stories and books, including two books in the War on Rome series, which I haven’t yet bought or read.

Blood on the Blade edited by Jim Beard and John C. Bruening
(Flinch Books, November 30, 2021). Cover by Mark Wheatley

He was also in a very fine anthology from Flinch Books called Blood on the Blade. I’ve shown the cover above by Mark Wheatley. I gave this a five star review on Goodreads.

As a fan of Adrian Cole, it’s been a thrill for me to share TOCs (Table of Contents) with him recently in a couple of sword & sorcery anthologies.

A Book of Blades, from the Rogues in the House Podcast (July 7, 2022)

We both had stories in Swords & Sorceries, Volume 5 from Parallel Universe Publications (2022), edited by David A. Riley, and in Swords & Heroes, edited by Lyndon Perry, from Tule Fog Press (2023).

These, along with Blood on the Blade and A Book of Blades from the Rogues in the House podcast folks, have been part of a sword & sorcery short fiction revival recently. I reviewed the latter extensively on Goodreads here, but here are briefer thoughts on the first two.

Swords & Sorceries, Volume 5 (Parallel Universe, November 15, 2022). Cover by Jim Pitts

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy, Cover and interior art by Jim Pitts. Introduction by David Riley. The TOC consists of:

1. THE ROTTED LAND by Charles Gramlich — Part of my Krieg series. Krieg mixes certain elements of REH’s Kull and Karl Wagner’s Kane.
2. SKULLS FOR SILVER by Harry Elliott — Great title, something of the “Northern thing.”
3. FOR THE LIGHT by Gustavo Bondoni — Great ending from a Facebook friend and prolific author, the only Argentinian author I know.
4. PEOPLE OF THE LAKE by Lorenzo D. Lopez — Full of action and gory battles.
5. FREE DIVING FOR LEVIATHAN EGGS by Tais Teng — Beautifully written, reminds me of Clark Ashton Smith.
6. THE BLACK WELL by Darin Hlavaz — Mixing some REH and Lovecraft themes
7. DEGG AND THE UNDEAD by Susan Murrie Macdonald — Surprise ending, very fine.
8. THE MISTRESS OF THE MARSH by David Dubrow — Made me think of REH’s “Beyond the Black River.”
9. SILVER AND GOLD by Earl W. Parrish — Great character driven tale.
10. BRIDGE OF SORROWS by Dev Agarwal — Action tale with Dev’s characters Simeon and Irene.
11. PRISONERS OF DEVIL DOG CITY by Adrian Cole — Poetically written fantasy.

Swords & Heroes, edited by Lyndon Perry (April 23, 2023)

Swords & Heroes, not sure who did the cover but I like it a lot. Introduction by Jason M. Waltz, Preface by Lyndon Perry, author of Sword of Otrim. The TOC consists of:

1. KEEPER OF SOULS by Charles Gramlich — A kind of buddy tale with a sorcerous twist.
2. THE PATH ONE DOESN’T CHOOSE by Gustavo Bondoni — Another fine tale.
3. LORD OF THE BLOOD by Michael T. Burk — Neat twist and strong ending.
4. THE PRICE OF RESCUE by Teel James Glenn — A name quite a few will recognize.
5. THE VAULT OF BEZALEL by Tom Doolan, an action writer — Doolan and I have shared a TOC before.
6. ON NEUTRAL GROUND by Nancy Hansen” — Reminded me of Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword.
7. THE SWORDSMAN AND THE SEA WITCH by Tim Hanlon — A very fine tale.
8. THE NECROMANCER AND THE LONG-DEAD KING by Frank Sawielijew — Well written and intriguing.
9. LADY IN STONE by Cliff Hamrick — I wanna see more from Hamrick.
10. O SAPPHIRE, O KAMBRIA by J. Thomas Howard — Unique setting.
11. WELGAR THE CURSED by David A. Riley — A prolific author and editor in S&S.
12. RIDE THE FIRE STEED by Adrian Cole — Exciting and action filled piece to end the anthology.

Adrian Cole is the biggest name in these two anthologies and any fan of S&P or S&S should give his work a look. And maybe check out the other folks in these books too, including that guy named Charles Gramlich.

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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.