Pulp Science Fantasy Library: Empire of the East

Having enjoyed revisiting Hiero's Journey in last week’s installment of Pulp (Science) Fantasy Library, I thought I would continue along a similar path this week with 1979's Empire of the East. Before turning to the book itself, however, a bit of context is helpful.

Empire of the East is not a wholly new novel but an omnibus edition that gathers together three earlier works by Fred Saberhagen, The Broken Lands, The Black Mountains, and Changeling Earth. In preparing the omnibus edition, Saberhagen revised portions of the original texts so that they would read more smoothly as a single, unified narrative rather than three loosely connected installments. The result is a work that functions much more clearly as an epic novel than the original publications did.

Of these three component books, only Changeling Earth appears in Gary Gygax's Appendix N. The absence of the earlier volumes is somewhat curious, since they are integral parts of the same story. One possible explanation is that Gygax regarded Changeling Earth as representative of the trilogy as a whole, but this is only speculation. Regardless, the series as a whole exemplifies the kind of exuberant science fantasy that almost certainly helped inspire many early role-playing campaigns and adventures.

One of the central conceits of Empire of the East is that sufficiently advanced technology might appear indistinguishable from magic. By the 1950s and 1960s, the concept (immortalized as Clarke's Third Law) had already appeared in numerous science fiction stories. Saberhagen, however, approached the notion from a different direction. Rather than presenting magic as misunderstood technology, he imagined a catastrophe in which technology itself had literally been transformed into magic. It is an intriguing inversion of a familiar idea and one that gives the setting much of its distinctive flavor.

In Saberhagen’s imagined past, mankind fought a devastating war using immensely powerful computers capable of manipulating the laws of physics to achieve specific military ends. At the height of that conflict, these systems inadvertently triggered a phenomenon known as the Change. The Change permanently altered the behavior of the physical universe, rendering advanced technology unreliable or entirely inoperable. In its place arose a new set of forces that later generations would understand as magic. Over time, as knowledge of the pre-Change world faded, people came to regard magic not as a transformation of technology but simply as the natural order of things.

Within this transformed world stands the titular Empire of the East, a tyranny that dominates vast territories through a combination of sorcery and alliances with demonic powers. (The Change, it turns out, did more than reshape machines: it also gave rise to supernatural beings, including a powerful demon named Orcus, a name that will sound familiar to fans of Dungeons & Dragons.) Against this empire stands a loose resistance movement known as the Free Folk.

The story begins with Rolf, a young man whose life is shattered when imperial forces destroy his village and carry off his family. Escaping captivity, he joins the Free Folk and soon begins receiving mysterious visions from an unseen entity called Ardneh. These visions guide him on a path that gradually reveals the deeper mysteries of his world. During his adventures, Rolf discovers an “Elephant,” an ancient armored vehicle from before the Change. To the people of his era, it appears to be a kind of legendary mechanical beast, but in truth it is a relic of the lost technological age. In a world where such artifacts are almost unknown, the Elephant becomes both a symbol of hope and a tangible advantage against the Empire.

As Rolf’s role within the resistance grows, the truth about Ardneh gradually comes to light. Ardneh is not a spirit or a wizard but a surviving artificial intelligence created before the Change. Long ago, it intervened to prevent global nuclear destruction. In doing so, however, it inadvertently helped trigger the very transformation that reshaped the world into its current magical form. The Empire, aided by the demon Orcus, seeks to destroy Ardneh and thereby secure its domination forever.

The narrative ultimately builds toward a large-scale confrontation between the Free Folk, guided by Ardneh, and the armies and supernatural forces of the Empire. It should surprise no one that the forces of resistance prevail in the end, though the victory comes only after the underlying truth about the world is revealed and some of the consequences of the Change are reversed.

I confess that I do not have a clear sense of how influential Empire of the East was when it first appeared, whether in its original installments or in its omnibus form. Apart from Gygax’s reference to Changeling Earth in Appendix N, I rarely encountered discussion of it during the years when I was first exploring fantasy literature. More often, the trilogy seems to arise in conversation as background to Saberhagen’s later The First Book of Swords and its sequels. Those novels appear to have achieved greater visibility, perhaps simply because they formed a longer and more widely published series.

Nevertheless, I think Empire of the East stands as an appealing example of a once-common strain of science fantasy featuring a magical world that is, in fact, the distant future of our own Earth. During my youth, such settings were remarkably popular, blending the wonder of fantasy with the speculative imagination of science fiction. Saberhagen’s trilogy embraces that hybrid approach wholeheartedly. By transforming the relics of advanced technology into the foundations of a magical world, he created a setting that feels at once ancient and futuristic, which, being a fan of "secret sci-fi," continues to hold great appeal for me.

Imagine Magazine: Issue #14

As you can see from the cover, issue #14 of Imagine (May 1984) is an interesting one. The cover illustration is by Bryan Talbot, creator of the comic, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright. Though the comic is highly regarded, both now and then, it wasn't well known, even in the UK, at the time this issue appeared. In his editorial, Paul Cockburn comments on this fact but notes that "After this month, I hope we will all hear more of him again." As it turns out, it'd still be three more years before Talbot returned to the comic and completed its story. 

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright form the core of this issue, with a special section devoted to the comic. Talbot is the author of an article entitled "Firefrost" that presents an overview of the comic's setting and central conflict. He follows it up with a two-page comic that serves as a briefing for a Traveller scenario – "The Fire Opal of Set" – in the world of the comic (and co-written by Talbot and James Brunton). The adventure also includes conversion rules so that it can be used with the Star Frontiers game. 

Ed Dovey presents a very interesting article entitled "Campaign Diaries" that, literally, borrows an idea from Tony Bath's Setting Up a Wargames Campaign by recommending that referees keep a log for tracking of the passage of time in a setting. Dovey uses the examples of birth, deaths, marriages, public events, and weather, but his advice could just as easily be applied to other matters. Speaking as a referee running a multi-year, eight-player Empire of the Petal Throne campaign filled with all sorts of significant events, I welcomed the reminders this article (and Bath's guide) offered. Meanwhile, Roger Musson's "Stirge Corner" discusses the utility of NPCs in establishing the details and tone of a campaign. Again, a useful article, even for an experienced referee.

This month's fiction piece is quite noteworthy from a historical point of view. "Featherquest: The Tale of a Dreamer" is the very first piece of published fiction by Neil Gaiman. He would have been twenty-four at the time. "Illuminations" once again provides current game news. Here's the most significant item in the article in my opinion:

The article goes on to mention two other licenses that TSR has acquired: Indiana Jones and Dynasty. While the Indiana Jones game certainly did come out – and was not as dire as memory would suggest – I cannot recall a game based on Dynasty's ever appearing. There was SPI's Dallas RPG and I have a vague recollection of TSR's having produced an All My Children boardgame but not Dynasty. Perhaps the deal fell through? 

"The Imagination Machine" keeps readers abreast of the latest from the world of micro-computers, including a review of a game called City by Terminal Software, which sounds like a precursor to Sim City. There are new installments of both "Rubic of Moggedon" and "The Sword of Alabron" comics, in addition to a letters page and a review of fanzines. "Insane Swords" follows up on Chris Felton's article in issue #12 about making magic items. This article considers what happens when the process of crafting goes wrong and produce a cursed item. Brian Creese continues to look at play-by-mail games in "Chain Mail." 

"The Adventures of Nic Novice" by Jim Bambra and Paul Ruiz seemingly comes to an end with this issue's discussion of experience. I can't say that I'll miss it. There are seven game reviews in this issue, five of them being "TSR" wargames, which is to say, TSR re-issues of classic SPI wargames. The others are Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective and Horror on the Hill for D&D. Colin Greenland reviews three movies I've never heard of, the most notable being Invincible Barbarian, which he calls "third-rate nonsense." He also reviews Fred Saberhagen's novel, Empire of the East. 

This concludes issue #14 of Imagine, which I quite enjoyed, though that may have something to do with my fondness for Luther Arkwright. It's intriguing to look at these issues as a microcosm of what must have been happening at TSR UK at the time – simultaneously trying to follow the dictates of the parent company back in the USA while also trying to forge its own path. I'm keeping this in mind as I read future issues in the weeks to come.

Pulp Fantasy Library: The First Book of Swords

Published in 1983, Fred Saberhagen's The First Book of Swords is, as its name suggests, the first book in a series -- a trilogy, as it turns out -- that is itself a sequel to an earlier series of books, one of which was included in Gygax's Appendix N. Like its predecessor series, The First Book of Swords skirts the line between fantasy and science fiction, though, without the benefit of knowing the novel's deep background, it would like appear to be a (mostly) pure fantasy. That background includes a destructive nuclear war that nearly wipes out the human race in the ancient past and that paves the way for the return of magic and the gods (or so it seems). It should be noted, though, that Saberhagen's approach to magic is very scientific, by which I mean that it's predictable and operates according to intelligible rules. This is a function of its origins in the setting of The First Book of Swords, but it also has consequences for the unfolding of the story he's telling.

That story involves the forging of twelve magical swords by the god Vulcan. As part of some plan whose ultimate end is not revealed, Vulcan intends to place these twelve swords in the hands of human beings. This novel deals with only four of the swords, named Townsaver, Dragonslicer, Coinspinner, and Sightblinder, the first of which is given to a smith named Jord who, along with several other smiths, is chosen by Vulcan to be his assistants in the crafting of these mighty weapons. Of course, Vulcan needs the humans primarily for their blood, which he uses in quenching the blades. Jord is the sole survivor but even he pays a price for his aid to the god. He loses an arm but is gifted with Townsaver, which Jord says is "for me, and for my son after me."

It is Jord's son, Mark, who is the true protagonist of The First Book of Swords. He comes into his own at the age of twelve, when he wields Vulcan's gift to his father, Townsaver, in defense of his home. Unfortunately for him, his actions result in the death of an innocent man, the cousin to a powerful nobleman and Mark is forced to flee for his life with the sword. Thus begin his adventures, where he, in typical fantasy novel fashion, sees many places and meets many people, some of whom stay with him, as he unravels the mystery of not only Townsaver and the other swords, but also of himself and his destiny.

The First Book of Swords isn't great literature by any means, but it has a lot of interesting ideas in it, particularly the relationship of the gods to mortals and the effect that these swords have on events in the human world. The characters themselves are less interesting, being very archetypal, especially to those of us who've read more fantasy stories than they care to count. Likewise, Saberhagen's style is strangely spare, lacking in bombast or romance. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to each reader to decide.

I've always found it intriguing that Gary Gygax frequently include Fred Saberhagen amongst his favorite fantasy authors. In retrospect, it makes more sense than I'd realized. Saberhagen's magic, as I already noted, is very scientific in character, almost technological, which is very much in keeping with the way magic functions in D&D. Likewise, the twelve swords of this series are potent but idiosyncratic artifacts, as much banes and boons to those who wield them. I wonder, too, if they might have served as the inspirations for the "final word" broadswords introduced in Unearthed Arcana, since this novel came out only a few years before the release of UA and I'd be amazed if Gary hadn't read it.

Pulp Fantasy Gallery: Changeling Earth

Gary Gygax specifically cites Fred Saberhagen's 1973 novel Changeling Earth as an influence on AD&D. I find that somewhat odd, given that the novel is in fact the third part of a trilogy (called "The Empire of the East"). It's been years since I read any volume of the series, so I can't quite recall if there's something notable about Changeling Earth that sets it apart from its predecessors in the series or that makes it an obvious inspiration for AD&D. In any case, the "Empire of the East" trilogy is a fun read, a post-apocalyptic swords-and-sorcery romp that mixes magic and technology in a delightful way. If you can find copies of the books, they're well worth reading, not least of which because Saberhagen's prose is in many ways the antithesis of the interminably overwrought verbiage that is so common in fantasy these days.