This is my retro review of Dark Crusade, which was published in the Karl Edward Wagner Phantasmagoria Special.
DARK CRUSADE by Karl Edward Wagner
In Dark Crusade we see Karl Edward Wagner’s immortal antihero Kane at his finest – and most evil: honourable by his own idiosyncratic standards, yet capable of carrying out the worst deeds imaginable, heroic yet villainous, courageous yet cruel, indifferent to the suffering of others yet able to reach out and help the most vulnerable on a whim. He is without doubt the most enigmatic character in heroic fantasy.
The novel starts when Orted, the defeated leader of an outlaw band, is on the run after a bungled raid on the city of Ingoldi. Badly wounded, he is fleeing through the labyrinthine alleys of the city when he is offered refuge by a priest of the obscure and unsavoury god Sataki. Though suspicious, Orted is too desperate to quibble. When he follows the priest into his temple, though, he is clubbed senseless and awakens to find himself spread-eagled on a stone altar, about to be sacrificed. Which is when things take an unexpected twist. Perhaps because he is stronger than most of those previously offered by the cult’s priests, instead of being drained of life by Sataki, Orted is filled with some of the god’s spirit. Which is how the outlaw becomes Sataki’s Prophet, a man without a shadow.
The following day, led by Orted, the priests go out into the city to recruit followers at a local market, where most of the crowd are seduced by the demon’s spirit inside Orted and become consumed with hatred for those who refuse their new god. And so begins the Dark Crusade, in which religious fanatics slaughter their enemies, sacking city after city and massacring anyone who fails to follow Sataki.
That is, until this ragtag army meets its first defeat when it comes up against one of the finest armies in the region, whose heavy cavalry turn its advance into a panic-filled rout.
Which is where, ever the opportunist, Kane comes in.
The Immortal Swordsman uses the Prophet’s defeat to offer his skills to him as a general to train the mob into the semblance of a real army, at the same time using Orted’s plundered wealth to hire mercenary cavalrymen who will be loyal to him, not the cult. Kane cynically intends to use what the Prophet has created to carve out an empire before assassinating Orted and taking everything for himself.
Or so he hopes.
As a foil to Kane, we have the general Jarvo, who begins the story as the arrogant leader of the cavalry that defeats Orted’s mob. Already hideously scarred by Kane after he tried to have the swordsman removed as a rival to power when they were members of the same army, he is unexpectedly defeated when he again attacks the Prophet’s army, unaware of the changes Kane has made in the meantime - or the mercenary cavalry Kane has recruited. But Jarvo proves difficult to kill and miraculously, if painfully, begins to recover from the injuries he sustains at the battle. Afterwards he helps to forge a new alliance amongst neighbouring kingdoms to oppose the Crusade.
This is an involved story, with intricately woven power struggles in a barbaric world. Kane treads the chasm between hero and villain superbly well. Though he is thoroughly amoral there is, bizarrely, something almost heroically noble about him. Orted’s possession by the demon Sataki is credibly described, still a man beneath the alterations wrought upon him. And his crusade, though filled with fanatical violence, is credibly disparate, filled with the kinds of greed and opportunism that are all too easily recognisable.
Though set within a fantasy world, this is a book that has whispers of the real world in it – and lessons about the ongoing dangers of religious zealots. It is also incredibly well written and a great read.
Phantasmagoria - Karl Edward Wagner Special
Here is a short video of me leafing through the latest proof copy of The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts which will be published later this month in hardcover.
Pre-order copies are available for £25 plus postage and packing. After publication the price will rise to £30.00 plus p&p.
Since we brought out The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts in 2017 Jim has been constantly busy, including interior artwork for Elak: King of Atlantis and After Nightfall & Other Weird Tales, covers for Phantasmagoria magazine, and a host of other projects, with new techniques and fresh designs.
The Ever More Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts will be a fitting sequel to the first volume, published in hardcover and packed with black and white and full-colour illustrations.
Very
pleased to have woken up this morning to find my latest
"Lovecraftian" story, The Psychic Investigator, which stands at just
over 12,000 words, has been accepted for inclusion in the Halloween
issue of Lovecraftiana magazine.
Payment is £25 per story regardless of
length, plus a contributor's copy. The book will be published as a
paperback and ebook. If a hardcover version is published we will pay an
additional £25. Contributors can also buy extra copies of the book
through us at cost price.
Please send your submissions as attachments (doc or docx) headed "Submission - Swords & Sorceries 4" to:
paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk
You can send in more than one submission, but we will not accept more than one story per writer.
Although we prefer original stories we are prepared to consider reprints. Please inform us where and when it was previously published.
You can send in simultaneous submissions, but please let us know at once if your story is accepted elsewhere.
There is no limit on the size of submissions.
All
rejections and acceptances will be sent out by email at the end of the
first week in June. Please don't enquire about your submission before
then.
And good luck!
In the past we have received a number of stories that may be fantasy but are not swords and sorcery. If you are unsure what the swords and sorcery genre is, why not get a better idea by checking out volumes 1 - 3:
The contents of Volume One are:
THE MIRROR OF TORJAN SUL - Steve Lines
THE HORROR FROM THE STARS - Steve Dilks
TROLLS ARE DIFFERENT - Susan Murrie Macdonald
CHAIN OF COMMAND - Geoff Hart
DISRUPTION OF DESTINY - Gerri Leen
THE CITY OF SILENCE - Eric Ian Steele
RED - Chadwick Ginther
THE RECONSTRUCTED GOD - Adrian Cole
The cover and all the interior artwork is by Jim Pitts.
The Essence of Dust by Mike Chinn
Highjacking the Lord of Light by Tais Teng
Out in the Wildlands by Martin Owton
Zale and Zedril by Susan Murrie Macdonald
The Amulet and the Shadow by Steve Dilks
Antediluvia: Seasons of the World by Andrew Darlington
A Thousand Words for Death by Pedro Iniguez
Stone Snake by Dev Agarwal
Seven Thrones by Phil Emery
The Eater of Gods by Adrian Cole
Illustrations by Jim Pitts.
Ever since getting this August Derleth anthology in 1966 with its fabulous front cover I have wanted to write a story about a Gorgon's head, but have never thought up an appropriate plot in which to use it - not till I recently completed a tale I have titled An Oddity.
One ambition
achieved, though it did take 56 years!
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The review will also be published in the next issue of Phantasmagoria magazine.
Well, that's a new ten thousand word fantasy story finished.
Still undecided on the title. It's a choice between The Beautiful Homunculus or Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus.
Ossani the Healer is a rarity for me - a character who has appeared in more than one of my stories. He was previously in The Storyteller of Koss which will be published in Summer of Sci-Fi and Fantasy later this year.
I have five short story collections in print, one published by Shadow Publishing, two originally published by Hazardous Press, (which no longer exists) and now reprinted by Parallel Universe Publications, and two published by PUP straight away. All of the stories in these collections were first published in magazines or anthologies, sometimes several times over.
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| Hazardous Press |
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| Parallel Universe Publications |
An excellent article on one of the best superhero movies of recent years - and definitely one that's underrated.
Why Dredd is an Underrated Superhero Movie for Adults
BLACK DUST AND OTHER STORIES
By Steve Dilks
Carnelian Press 2021
223 pages
Black Dust and Other Stories is a new collection from talented fantasy writer Steve Dilks. Four of the seven stories have previously been published in Weirdbook, Startling Stories, Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 2, and Savage Scrolls.
They range from dystopian science fiction lightly reminiscent of Mad Max to out and out swords and sorcery, all centred on hard-headed and resourceful heroes who have to undergo some of the most violent and horrific of menaces during the course of their varied adventures.
Steve Dilks is a master at creating such heroes, resolute, cunning, not always particularly good men though they do have codes of a sort which they endeavour to stick to come what may. The worlds depicted are dangerous and often downright ugly, especially those set in the future, where resources, either on Earth or on other planets, are hard to come by and where dangers come fast and furious.
The first three stories – Black Dust, The Idols of Xan, and The Vaults of Ban-Erach – involve Matt Randall, on an alien planet run by Earth, though Randall himself is an oddity, part alien, though outwardly human. Which gives him a small advantage in dealing with the natives of the planet, who distrust and hate humans, who have oppressed them. It’s a hostile world with a savage climate, into which few humans venture beyond the protected domes of their cities.
The Gift of the Eons is a strange tale of a primitive human who encounters what may be science or maybe sorcery – to his limited intellect both are the same. And both are equally frightening. Luckily for him, his instinctive response of instant violence pays out.
Riders of the Fire is set in a future poisoned Earth, devastated by radiation and filled with violent gangs. Worse, though, are those who helped mastermind the way things have gone wrong for the devasted population of our world, which has shrunk to a fraction of its past numbers. Though this has been horrific for most people, who have suffered during the nightmarish descent into near barbarism, the old elites still intend to pull the strings for their own selfish advantage. Unfortunately for them our hero, Cal, isn’t prepared to forgive and forget.
The Amulet and the Shadow is a fantasy tale which I was more than delighted to include in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 2. It has everything such a tale should have: a resourceful and determined barbarian hero, magic of the blackest sort, battling armies, cruel villains and dark intrigues.
Tale of the Uncrowned Kings is another swords and sorcery adventure whose main protagonists are an exiled northern barbarian. Erich Von Tormath, and his friend the thief and murderer and all-round good guy when the chips are down, Zaran. It’s a saga of piracy, intrigue and a necromantic sorcerer. And a great tale with which the end this volume.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with a taste for heroic fantasy (and science-fantasy!), well written, colourfully inventive, and fast moving.
This review was first published in Phantasmagoria # 20
