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Author: Charles Gramlich

James Sallis, December 1944 – January 27, 2026

James Sallis, December 1944 – January 27, 2026

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I am gut punched to hear that author James Sallis (December 1944 – January 27, 2026) has died. James was the closest thing to a writing mentor I had. He was a friend, and certainly one of the most talented writers I’ve ever known.

He lived in New Orleans when I moved there and I met him at a book signing. Though he was already pretty famous in literary circles, he was incredibly down to earth, and he invited me to his house for several literary parties he and his wife, Karyn, threw. Though at that time I’d only published a few short stories, he spoke to me as a peer.

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The Sword & Sorcery of Robert Holdstock: The Berserker Series

The Sword & Sorcery of Robert Holdstock: The Berserker Series

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Robert Holdstock’s Berserker Series, published under the name Chris Carlsen. Sphere Books, 1977-1979. Covers by Melvyn Grant

A series that I wanted but had a difficult time getting was the Berserker series by Chris Carlsen. There are three books, all from Sphere Books, published in 1977, 1977, & 1979 respectively. I finally got the last one and just finished reading it. The series is:

1. Shadow of the Wolf (August 1977)
2. The Bull Chief (October 1977)
3. The Horned Warrior (1979)

ISFDB lists Melvyn Grant as the cover artist on #1 and 3, and I’m pretty sure book 2 is by him as well. These books are pot boiling, action pulp style Sword & Sorcery novels, and it was quite a surprise when I found out Chris Carlsen was really Robert Holdstock (1948 – 2009).

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The Conan novels of John Maddox Roberts

The Conan novels of John Maddox Roberts

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The Conan novels of John Maddox Roberts (Tor Books, 1985-1995). Covers by Boris, Ken Kelly, and Julie Bell

The name John Maddox Roberts (1947 – ) first came to my attention as a writer of Conan sword & sorcery pastiches from Tor. He wrote eight, and when I talk to other REH fans Roberts’ name is almost always listed near the top of the Conan pastiche writers.

Of the pastiches that were published by Tor between 1982 and 2004, I’d have to agree, although I like the earlier pastiches by Andy Offutt and Karl Edward Wagner better.

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The Problem of the Invincible Warrior: Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer by James Silke

The Problem of the Invincible Warrior: Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer by James Silke

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Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer, Volumes 1-4, by James Silke (Tor Books, 1988-1990). Covers by Frank Frazetta

James Silke (1931 – ) is something of a renaissance man in the arts. He’s a visual artist and prose writer, a set and costume designer, photographer, and comic book guy. Most people who I meet recognize him as a comic artist/writer, although I’ve never read any of his graphic stuff.

I’ve seen a few of the movies he’s worked on, including King Solomon’s Mines and The Barbarians. My only experience with Silke’s writing is the four Sword & Sorcery books in the Frank Frazetta Death Dealer series.

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The Lost History of a Strange Planet Earth: Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? and the Pseudoscience Bestsellers of the 1970s

The Lost History of a Strange Planet Earth: Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? and the Pseudoscience Bestsellers of the 1970s

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Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken (Bantam Books, 1971)

In my last post, I mentioned Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? to introduce a Ken Bulmer (as Manning Norvil) heroic fantasy trilogy. When I first read Chariots, as an imaginative young lad of 13 or so, I believed he was on to something, and I went looking for more “exposes” of hidden history.

Boy did I find them. The book’s success, which appeared in German in 1968 and in English in 1971, spawned a TV movie In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973), which was hosted by Rod Serling. And almost immediately other and related books and films began to appear.

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The Sword & Sorcery of Manning Norvil, aka Kenneth Bulmer

The Sword & Sorcery of Manning Norvil, aka Kenneth Bulmer

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The Odan the Half-God trilogy by Manning Norvil, aka Kenneth Bulmer: Dream Chariots, Whetted Bronze, and Crown of the Sword God (DAW Books, October 1977, March 1978, and June 1980), Covers: Richard Clifton-Dey, Michael Whelan, Richard Hescox

The infamous Chariots of the Gods was written by Erich von Däniken (1935), who died last week. Von Däniken was a Swiss author, and Chariots of the Gods was published in German in 1968. It was issued in English from Bantam in 1971, and I read it shortly thereafter, though I don’t remember where I got the copy. I would have been 13 or 14.

Von Däniken claimed early humans were visited by alien astronauts who provided them with the technology and knowledge to construct pyramids and landing fields and other megalithic structures. I believed it for several years, until further research indicated that he just made it up. Later, I found out von Däniken had a long history of theft and fraud and found myself quite angry at him for fooling me.

Fast forward to 1977, the year I graduated high school and Star Wars became a thing. Ken Bulmer, a British author who I’d never heard of at that time, used the ancient astronaut theory as a jumping off point for a trilogy of wonderful tales about Odan the Half-God, the son of a mortal woman and a space god. Odan becomes a sword and sorcery hero.

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A Sword & Sorcery Classic: Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead

A Sword & Sorcery Classic: Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead

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Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (Bantam Books, April 4, 1977)

Michael Crichton (1942 – 2008) apparently always wanted to be a writer but earned an MD from Harvard Medical school in the meantime. He wrote while in school, publishing several novels under the name John Lange (he borrowed the name from anthropologist Andrew Lang). I only have one of these books — Zero Cool — but haven’t read it. Crichton’s writing was going well enough by the time he got his MD that he never practiced medicine, choosing to write and direct movies instead. He directed Westworld and Coma.

The first book I read by Crichton was The Andromeda Strain, found in my high school library. It was a compelling read about an alien disease sweeping Earth, but the ending was disappointingly anti-climactic. Our library also had his The Terminal Man, and I read that, though I don’t remember much about it. Later, of course, I read many of his big thrillers, Congo, Sphere, and Jurassic Park, and I enjoyed them enough to buy everything he’d written under his own name.

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The Sword & Planet of Adrian Cole

The Sword & Planet of Adrian Cole

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The Dream Lords trilogy by Adrian Cole (Zebra Books, February 1975 – December 1976). Covers: Thomas Barber, Jack Gaughan, and Thomas Barber

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.

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The Sword & Planet of Roland Green: Blade by “Jeffrey Lord”

The Sword & Planet of Roland Green: Blade by “Jeffrey Lord”

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Jeffrey Lord’s Blade paperbacks, published by Macfadden-Bartell (1971) and Pinnacle Books (June 1973 – March 1976). Covers by Tony Destefano, Tran Mawicke, and others

Jeffrey Lord was a house name used for a series of 37 fantasy/SF novels published between 1969 and 1984. They were billed as an “adult” fantasy series, meaning that they had sex in them. However the sex was pretty mild by today’s standards. The hero is Richard Blade, an agent who works for the British Intelligence service MI6. He’s a combination of James Bond and Conan, although he doesn’t have much of the anti-hero aspects of those characters. He’s pretty much of a white hat guy.

Despite the character and general setting being British, the books were published by Pinnacle Books, an American Publisher, and all written by American authors. The three authors involved were Manning Lee Stokes (1911- 1976), Roland J. Green (1944 – 2021), and Ray Nelson (1931 – 1922). Stokes wrote the first 8 and then Green (apparently) wrote the rest except for #30: Dimension of Horror, by Ray Nelson.

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The Sword & Planet of Dave Van Arnam: Star Barbarian and Lord of Blood

The Sword & Planet of Dave Van Arnam: Star Barbarian and Lord of Blood

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Star Barbarian (Lancer Books, 1969). Cover by Jeff Jones

I picked up a couple of books by Dave Van Arnam called Star Barbarian and Lord of Blood that have connections to the Sword & Planet genre.

They’re set in a future time after Earth has colonized many planets. Some of those planets have fallen back into barbarism, and that is the case with the planet Morkath. So, the heroes are earthmen on an alien planet, although not modern day individuals transported to that planet.

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