Sometime Lofty Towers (Brackenbury Books, December 2025). Cover by Saša Đurđević

I’ve just finished reading what may be David C. Smith’s best work — Sometime Lofty Towers.

My first contact with Smith was from the Robert E. Howard related pastiche work he did earlier in his career. He wrote an excellent Black Vulmea story, The Witch of the Indies (Zebra, 1977, cover by Stephen Fabian), and a Bran Mak Morn tale, Witch of the Mists with Richard Tierney (Zebra, 1978, cover by Doug Beekman), and he and Tierney (1936 –2022) collaborated on six novels about Red Sonja. The Sonja tales are not REH pastiches, of course, but are based on a comic book character created to interact with Conan in the Marvel series.

These books are from Ace, all with Boris Vallejo covers.

1. The Ring of Ikribu, December 1981
2. Demon Night, March 1982
3. When Hell Laughs, June 1982
4. Endithor’s Daughter, October 1982
5. Against the Prince of Hell, February 1983
6. Star of Doom, May 1983

Having enjoyed Smith’s work in these books, I looked for more and found his original sword & sorcery series featuring the character Oron, set in an ancient world of Smith’s creation called Attluma. Attluma is an island continent that evokes the spirit of Atlantis. Five books in this series came out from Zebra between 1980 and 1983.

These were,

1. Oron (June 1978, cover by Clyde Caldwell)
2. The Sorcerer’s Shadow (September 1978, cover Doug Beekman)
3. Mosutha’s Magic (1982, cover Tom Kidd)
4. The Valley of Ogrum (1982, cover artist unknown)
5. The Ghost Army (1983, cover by Neal McPheeters)

In 2018 and 2020, new Oron stories appeared in The Mighty Warriors (cover by Bruce Timm) and Savage Scrolls Volume 1. And there’s the wonderful “Engor’s Sword Arm,” with illustrations by the excellent Rick McCollum. These took me back pleasantly to the original series. See S. E. Lindberg’s excellent article right here at Black Gate for a timeline of Attluma tales.

Now we come to Sometimes Lofty Towers. The main character is Hanlin, a warrior who is starting to age but still has plenty of fire. He finds out that an old enemy he thought dead might still be alive, and this leads him into a new war between the “Westlings” and “Flat-faces.” The westlings are an indigenous people comparable to Native Americans or the “Picts.” There’s some suggestion they might be Neanderthals while the Flat-faces are Cro-Magnons. Hanlin had fought the westlings in a previous war but had eventually gone to live with them for a time.

Sometime Lofty Towers (Pulp Hero Press, January 29, 2021). Cover by Tomas Aranda

Now, he has to choose his final loyalty. I won’t tell you how it ends but the end is powerful.

The whole book is a masterpiece. It’s relatively short but punches well above its weight. At first, the prose seems simple and workman-like, but you soon realize its hidden depths. The characters are spot on — heroes and villains alike — and it has some of the best fighting scenes I’ve ever read. The language works so well in the fight scenes that I was absolutely held in thrall. This is truly a magnificent work of sword & sorcery.

Although I’ve had the Pulp Hero Press version for years, a brand new reprint is just out from New Edge Sword & Sorcery, in paperback and ebook (at top). I’m including the link here. The cover artist for the new edition is Saša Đurđević.

The other installments in this series include:

David C. Smith & Robert E. Howard, Part One
David C. Smith & Robert E. Howard, Part Two: Red Sonja
David C. Smith, Part Three: Oron and the Tales of Attluma
David C. Smith, Part Four: The Fall of the First World and Four Horror Novels
David C. Smith, Part 5: Sometime Lofty Towers

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Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for us was Part Four of his review of the heroic fantasy of David C. Smith. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.