Monday, March 29, 2021

Pulp Fantasy Library: Straggler from Atlantis

While the Pulp Fantasy Library series encompasses more books and authors than those listed in Gary Gygax's Appendix N, I nevertheless regularly consult the list when preparing to write another entry. Today's post connects to not one but two names included in that famed appendix: Manly Wade Wellman and Andrew J. Offutt. 

I've written about Wellman many times previously, mostly in reference to his Appalachian Silver John stories, which are worthy of great praise, if only because their protagonist is a bard-like character I don't dislike (I have an intense dislike for the bard class, for reasons I might one day articulate here). Offutt, on the other hand, on the other hand, receives far less attention, mostly because, outside of his work on Thieves' World, I'm not all that familiar with his fiction. His work as an editor is much more celebrated and it's in this context that his name appears in Appendix N. 

Offutt's Swords Against Darkness series, consisting of five books published between 1977 and 1979, was an anthology of original "heroic fantasy in the tradition of Robert E. Howard" by established and up-and-coming writers. Gygax specifically singled out the third volume in the series for special mention in Appendix N, though I'm not entirely sure why (I doubt it was because of Poul Anderson's contribution). Despite this, I think all five volumes are worthwhile reads, containing some memorable pieces of short fantasy fiction, such as Wellman's "Straggler from Atlantis."

The story, the first of six published between 1977 and 1986, introduces us to Kardios, the last survivor of Atlantis. 

Of Atlantis. He, too, was of Atlantis – wait; of Atlantis no more. For Atlantis was lost Atlantis now, sunk to ocean's deep bottom, with Queen Theona and all her people. How he had survived he could not imagine, nor where, nor on what unknown shore.

Kardios awakens on a beach and soon finds himself face to face with an immense creature, a giant who identifies himself as Yod. The unexpected appearance of the giant – or Nephol, as we learn – frightens Kardios, who then makes a feeble attempt to attack him, only to faint away once more. Awakening a second time, he finds himself in the company of several more giants, who ask him about his identity and his past. He explains that he is a harper, who came from "back in the hills" to the Atlantean capital, seeking employment at Queen Theona's palace, hoping "she might want me for her palace guard, or to make music for her, or perhaps both." 

In coming to the capital, Kardios inadvertently brings about the sinking of Atlantis. Precisely how he does this isn't, in itself, a key point in the story and, as I have discovered in looking into the story, it's a point of some contention among Wellman's fans, some of whom feel that it's ridiculous on its face. I'm unsure of my own feelings on the matter. I suspect that Wellman intended this bit of Kardios' background to be tragic, to leave his protagonist haunted by his role in bringing about the end of his own civilization. If so, Wellman is not wholly successful in his intention. I'll leave to others, when they read the story, to decide for themselves. Fortunately, the success of "Straggler from Atlantis" doesn't depend on whether one finds Kardios' backstory compelling (and, in fact, there's a brief suggestion that this "strange story" might be untrue).

Regardless, the Nephol believe that Kardios is in their debt for having "helped [him] back to life." They have a task for him.

Moons ago, there had been a great bolt from heaven, and the Nephol were sure the gods spoke to them. Some of them saw the bolt strike, not far from where they lived in caves. These reported that it seemed to burst into a great shattered spray of blazing embers, which flew in all directions. But from its very midst, a living, moving thing came away safe.

This living, moving thing, whom the Nephol call Fith, is a strange, amorphous creature that feasts upon the Nephol, flowing over their bodies and dissolving them down to their bones. Fith now dwells in a deep place near its home, periodically coming out to look for food. So long as the Nephol leave it livestock on a regular basis, Fith leaves them alone. However, the giants are growing tired of this arrangement and ask Kardios to enter monster's cave – a space too small for the giants to enter – to face the alien beast and, with luck, defeat it. 

Kardios is naturally skeptical that he can do anything that the Nephol cannot do. They disagree, pointing out that the Atlantean is faster than they are and perhaps faster than Fith. Combined with his small size, Kardios might possess the necessary traits to eliminate the threat. To aid him, the Nephol offer Kardios a variety of weapons; he chooses a strange icy-blue blade that the giants tell him "came out of the fire when Fith's chariot smashed and flamed up on the ground." So armed, he enters the subterranean place where the blobby beast dwells.

Though published in 1977, "Straggler from Atlantis" feels like a pulp fantasy from decades earlier. The story is light on details, focusing instead on Kardios and the quest he accepts from the giants, as well as the alien being he must fight. The world Kardios inhabits is similarly sketchy. Wellman provides few specifics beyond the story Kardios tells of the final days of Atlantis and even these are brief. There's a vaguely "ancient world" feel to the tale, akin to Greek mythology, though the giants' name for themselves suggests Biblical influence as well. As the kick-off for a series of short stories, it does the job well enough that I might seek out its sequels, which is is often the best praise I can offer a pulp fantasy yarn.

16 comments:

  1. This was included in the recently published "Appendix N" book by Peter Bebergal.

    I loved it; it felt fresh and classic at the same time.

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    1. The first five Kardios stories were collected in "Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria" along with stories by Leigh Brackett and Frederick Arnold Kummer, Jr.

      https://dmrbooks.com/heroes-of-atlantis-lemuria

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  2. Don't think I've ever read a Wellman story I didn't enjoy, although he's arguably at his best with the Silver John stuff. Really grossly underappreciated these days, and a lot of his work is ridiculously hard to find in print at this point.

    Offutt, on the other hand, was never very memorable to me. Most folks would probably know him best for either his Thieves' World work or the Conan & Cormac mac Art pastiches he did, which is ironic. He actually produced hundreds of books over his career under various pseudonyms - the vast majority of which were erotica in a variety of styles. His smut output was really quite staggering. Despite having over 400 of the fool things published during his lifetime, there were another thirty manuscripts in queue waiting when he died. His son Chris (who's also an author, albeit on a more modest scale) did an interesting biographical article about Andrew back in 2015 entitled "My Dad, the Pornographer." Worth a read, perhaps more so than any of the senior Offutt's actual "adult" work:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/magazine/my-dad-the-pornographer.html?_r=1

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    1. I vaguely recall Chris Offutt's article getting some attention in pulp fantasy circles when it was released.

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    2. I would imagine it drew some notice. Andrew had spent his entire life compartmentalizing his writing work for mostly different audiences, although I do wonder if the lengthy (by the standards of people who don't write ~500 books, anyway) Spaceways series (under his John Cleve pen name) didn't give the game away some. I remember reading a few of those titles (Assignment - Hellhole and Iceworld Connection) way back when and finding them off-putting but not excessively so.

      He seems to have been rather troubled, to put it mildly. Lot of unresolved guilt about some unhealthy fetishes he apparently never actually acted on, and never sought counselling for any of it. Not atypical for someone of his generation, mental health issues (particularly sex-related ones) were even more stigmatized when he was young than they are now and once you settle into sublimating things the pattern is unlikely to change later in life without outside intervention.

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    3. Amending my previous comment, I'll add the John Thunstone stories to Silver John on my list of "Wellman at his best" work. Even more maddeningly hard to find in print, but really quite striking reads.

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    4. That article was definitely worth a read. Fascinating!

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  3. Thanks for sharing this story. I like Wellman's Silver John stories a lot too. A Kindle e-book form of the collection mentioned by a previous commenter is available on Amazon for only $3.99 so I went ahead and grabbed it.
    Looking forward to them!

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  4. I really enjoyed Andrew J. Offutt's Cormac Mac Art books as a kid. Then again I ate up the Sprague De Camp Conan books at the time so I wasn't all that picky.

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    1. I assure you you're not the only person who went through a stretch of "any Conan must be good Conan" reading. I think it took me till Robert Jordan started writing them to finally start being selective about things. :)

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  5. Wellman's collection WORSE THINGS WAITING, originally published by Carcosa, is available in trade paperback.

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  6. Thinking further about your dislike of bards as a class, have you looked at either D&D 4E's Warlord class, or the very similar Commander from 13th Age and its spinoff hack King of Dungeons? They all fill kind of the same role that I think bards do by inspiring other party members to greater feats. They do it through orders and clever tactical ploys (at least by flavor) rather than songs and actual magic, and don't have the historical baggage the word "bard" does. Really like the class in its various incarnations, far more than I've ever liked bards.

    King of Dungeons drops bards as a class, but they add the scholar class that's effectively a bard with its 13th Age mechanics reflavored so that rather than (say) singing you're giving impropmptu speeches, lectures or diatribes to buff your allies and debuff enemies. It's somewhat of an odd take, but I found it worked for me to such a degree that I reversed the hack and played a "scholar" (in name) in 13th Age last time I got to actually play (so, 2019 - sigh).

    I'm not sure any game really needs both a commander and a bard equivalent at once, though.

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    1. My knowledge of either 4e or 13th Age is minimal, I'm afraid.

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    2. Ah well. If you get the itch to explore any of them, King of Dungeons is much more succinct than either of the other two while adding some neat touches of its own - notably the idea of a professional adventurers' guild that your PCs' party will be navigating during play, building a rep and facing rivalries and politicking. Worth a look, especially at the low $10 price for the pdf on DTRPG (you can also get as POD for $20-30 if you prefer).

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  7. I first encountered this story in Appendix N (as alluded to above), and I quite liked it. My impression of it was that it read like an odd fusion of folklore Americana and Spelljammer, Kardios coming off almost a Tom Sawyer-ish sort, and with a bit of the Silmarillion sprinkled in for flavour (Kardios dancing about and stabbing at Fith reminded me of nothing so much as Fingolfin dueling Morgoth). It was the first I've actually read of Wellman, and certainly inclined me to go hunting for more.

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  8. I'd like to second Unknown's and Dick McGee's recommendations regarding Manly Wade Wellman's fiction. The anthology that contains those Kardios stories is just one of the nifty books you can find at DMRbooks.com and you can find most of the John Thunestone tales (horror/occult mystery) in the book Lonely Vigils (Shadowridge Press) at Amazon.com. I came late to my appreciation of M. Wade Wellman, but he's really quite good.

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