Although David Smith’s work in the Robert E. Howard Universe is memorable, his best creations to me are his original stories of Attluma.

Attluma is an island continent that evokes the spirit of Atlantis. Smith himself drew a map of the continent that appeared in the first published book in the series. Shown below. This book, simply called Oron, was also my first exposure to the world of Attluma. Five books in this series came out from Zebra between 1980 and 1983.

The Mighty Warriors, edited by Robert M. Price (Ulthar Press, May 13, 2018). Cover by Bruce Timm

They were,

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

Much later, in 2018, a new Oron story appeared in The Mighty Warriors, edited by Robert Price with a cover by Bruce Timm. It was called “The Shadow of Dia-Sust” and took me back pleasantly to the original series.

In 2020, yet another Oron story was published in Savage Scrolls Volume 1. The title is “Born of the Serpent” and I’ve shown the book below, although I don’t actually own this work and haven’t read the story. It’s unfortunately listed as “out of print” on Amazon.

Savage Scrolls, Volume 1, edited by Jason Ray Carney
(Pulp Hero Press, November 21, 2020). Cover artist unknown

Oron is a powerful warrior but somewhat more introspective than most S&S heroes and anti-heroes. He is certainly Conanesque but is no Clonan, and the world of Attluma is fully realized.

Although I liked all these books, my favorite was actually The Sorcerer’s Shadow, which did not feature Oron but another hero named Akram, who is truly an original. (This Beekman cover is also my favorite.) Although I don’t think it much matters, you might want to be aware that the books and stories were not published in their chronological order. (The same was true of the Conan tales of REH.)

See Seth E. Lindberg’s excellent article right here at Black Gate for a timeline of the Attluma tales.

In addition, some non-Oron tales of Attluma were published in Tales of Attluma (Pulp Hero Press, 2020, cover by Tom Barber), Sometime Lofty Towers (Pulp Hero Press 2020, cover by Tomas Aranda) and Engor’s Sword Arm (Forgotten Ages, 1991).

Many of the stories in Tales of Attluma were originally printed in small mags back in the 1980s, though they may have been revised since. Engor’s Sword Arm is a particularly cool little item in my collection. The cover and copious interior illustrations are by Rick McCollum, and I have no idea why he isn’t famous. His work is simply incredible and you can judge for yourself.

This booklet was published by Forgotten Ages Press, 1991, a brainchild of Morgan Holmes. Both Morgan & Rick have long been associated with the REHupa group I was in for years.

David C. Smith has written a lot more than what I’ve covered so far and I’ll have one more post about his work before we finish.

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

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

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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 Two of David C. Smith & Robert E. Howard. See all of his recent posts for Black Gate here.