Savage Heroes
Savage Heroes is an anthology of sword and sorcery stories edited by Michel Parry under the pseudonym of Eric Pendragon. It was first published in paperback by Star Books in February 1977. The first U.S. edition was issued in hardcover and trade paperback by Taplinger in March 1980. The editor's pseudonym was dropped for the Taplinger edition.[1]
 Cover of first edition | |
| Editor | Eric Pendragon |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Les Edwards |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Star Books |
Publication date | 1977 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 190 |
| ISBN | 978-0-352-39672-3 |
Summary
The book collects nine novelettes and short stories by various early authors of sword and sorcery, together with an introduction by the editor.
Contents
- "Introduction" (Eric Pendragon)
- "Jirel Meets Magic" (Jirel of Joiry) (from Weird Tales, July 1935) (C. L. Moore)
- "The Spawn of Dagon" (Elak of Atlantis) (from Weird Tales, July 1938) (Henry Kuttner)
- "Necromancy in Naat" (Zothique) (from Weird Tales, July 1936) (Clark Ashton Smith)
- "The Thief of Forthe" (Rald the Thief) (from Weird Tales, July 1937) (Clifford Ball)
- "The Song at the Hub of the Garden" (first publication) (Ramsey Campbell)
- "Alma Mater" (first publication) (Daphne Castell)
- "In the Lair of Yslsl" (Kane) (from Midnight Sun, 1974) (Karl Edward Wagner)
- "The Barrow Troll" (from Whispers no. 8, December 1975) (David Drake)
- "The Temple of Abomination" (Cormac Mac Art) (from Tigers of the Sea, 1974) (Robert E. Howard and Richard Tierney)
Reception
Jared Trueheart, reviewing the volume on legendsofmen.com, calls it "better" than Swords Against Darkness, itself "a great anthology," but with "both great and horrible stories. Taken into account together, they tell the story of how to get the genre right and how to get it wrong." In the former category he places the pieces by Kuttner ("little more than entertainment using a S&S template but it is done so well ... you won't care"), Smith ("excellent ... draws you in immediately and never lets go"), Ball ("Overall, ... a great story well told that fits the S&S genre well"), Wagner ("all-around excellent and the highlight of the anthology"), Drake ("enjoyable" with "a nice plot twist"), and Howard and Tierney ("enjoyable but not among the ranks of Howard's best," though "Once the action gets going the story is classic Howard. Tierney does a great job of completing it"). He rates poorly the pieces by Moore ("bad," "boring" and "highly overrated"), Campbell ("sacrifices clarity ... to create a stark atmosphere ... mired in ambiguity to the point where it is non-sensical"), and Castell ("poorly told ... The ending is predictable and leaves you unsatisfied because nothing has happened").[2]
The anthology was also reviewed by Philip Stephensen-Payne in Paperback Parlour v. 1, no. 3, June 1977, W. Paul Ganley in Eerie Country no. 3, 1980, and Theodore Sturgeon in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine v.1, no. 1, April 1981 .[1]
Notes
- Savage Heroes title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Trueheart, Jared. "Savage Heroes: Nine Tales of Swords Against Sorcery" (review) on legendsofmen.com, May 25, 2020.