Thongor at the End of Time

Hello to all you Terrific And Spectacular people! 

Well, I've been working on some upcoming projects (not quite ready to talk about them yet!), but I did take a little time to read another book.  As you probably surmised from the title above, the book is called Thongor at the End of Time and I'd like to tell you about it!

It was written by Lin Carter, published in 1968 by Warner Books, and is apparently the 5th book in the Thongor series.  You may recall that some time ago I told you about book 3, Thongor:  Against the Gods.  Of course, you may not recall, so I've put in a link for your enjoyment!

In the following There Abound Spoilers!

So...the story starts off with Thongor's death...hey!  I told ya there were spoilers!

But then it backs up two weeks to show the arrival of this guy called Mardanax, sometimes called the Black Druid, sometimes the Black Wizard.  Apparently, he is a surviving villain from the previous book, Thongor in the City of Magicians (which I have NOT read).

This guy Mardanax has come to exact his revenge on Thongor for winning in the last book.  He just walks right into Thongor's capital  city of Patanga (Thongor has been a king since the end of the first book--which I have NOT read--I think) and seeks out a minor nobleman named Dalendus Vool, who is secretly in cahoots with the wizards of the City of Magicians.

During some sort of religious ceremony in a public Temple, Thongor is struck down.  Mardanax then uses his magic to put Thongor's wife, the Queen, Sumia, into a trance and uses her authority to take control of the city and the kingdom.  Dalendus Vool is pronounced the Prince Regent, to rule until young Prince Thar comes of age.

Several of Thongor's allies, presumably first introduced in previous books, were arrested on trumped up charges.  The rest convened in a private meeting to discuss the suspicious situations.  This meeting was inconclusive, so Charn Thovis takes it upon himself to break into the Palace and see Sumia, to find out if this is all the product of her grief, or if something more sinister is afoot.

There, he finds Sumia in a trance and proceeds to rescue the Prince.  There's a daring chase across rooftops until they finally steal an Airboat.  However, whilst running from pursuing air patrols, they are attacked by a pterodactyl-like creature called a lizard-hawk.  They end up in the gulf far below, where they are eventually rescued by a passing pirate ship.

Charn Thovis saves the pirate Captain, Barim Redbeard, from a murderous crewman and from then on, he and the young Prince are endeared to the whole of the pirate crew.  Unfortunately, upon their docking in the pirate City of Tarakus, they are subject to the local pirate's laws and must be auctioned off as slaves.  

Redbeard vows to buy them at the auction so they can be part of his crew, but the Pirate King's wizard identifies young Thar as the Prince of Patanga and the Pirate King takes the boy as his own slave.  Charn Thovis and his pirate companions rescue the Prince and race for their boat in the docks...

During all of this, Thongor manifests in the spirit realm...which is not at all as he expected.  On a set of adventures of his own, he comes to the conclusion that he is not completely dead, but neither is he alive.  He learns the Three Truths and makes his way to Gorm, the Chief God of Lemuria.  He learns the century-spanning legacy of his Empire and is basically sent back to live the rest of his life.

Thongor is not completely dead because of a talisman one of his companions gave to him in the previous book.  It is some ward against the magic of the wizards from the City of Magicians.  Since he's still wearing it, Mardanax's magic did not have its full affect upon him.

With the young Prince stolen from them, Mardanax hatches a plan for Dalendus Vool to marry Sumia and directly become the new King of Patanga.  Charn Thovis, Prince Thar are picked up by a pair of Thongor's friends in an Air Boat, and they leave their pirate friends and rush to stop the wedding.

In the very Temple where Thongor died, the wedding is underway. The Air Boat crashes into the dome, heroes emerge, fight ensues.  Dalendus Vool is killed, Sumia's trance is broken, but Mardanax gets the upper hand on the heroes with his magic.  Then, Thongor emerges from his sarcophagus and battles Mardanax.

I don't want to just straight up spoil the ending, but I will say that there is another book after this one.

I liked the book, it was full of cheesy goodness.  The beginning was a little daunting, they name-drop a LOT of names from previous books, and they're ALL weird names.  It was a little confusing to keep straight, but after a couple of chapters, it was clear who we were actually following, and we could forget the rest!

I have only read two of these Thongor books, but I will keep an eye out for the rest!  Have you read this one, or one of the others?  If so, leave a comment telling us about it!  And I'll meet you back here next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Balzan of the Cat People 1: The Blood Stones

Howdy-do to all you Travelling Astro Sword-wielders! 

Well, I'm proud to report that my Mother is doing better.  She's had two operations now, and seems to be recovering quite well.  There was a lot of post-op healthcare that monopolized my time, but following one more appointment with her doctor, I expect things to get back to normal, which means that I should be able to devote more time to writing.  At least, that's the plan.

But all is not lost!  I did read another book this weekend, and I'd like to tell you about it.

This one was call "Balzan of the Cat People #1:  The Blood Stones".  This is book one of a three-book series written under the name of Wallace Moore.  According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, this is apparently a pen name for Gerry Conway, a comic book writer and editor of legendary reknown who has worked for both Marvel and DC.

This is a sword-and-planet story, which means it is high-action, high-cheese adventure about a human having barbaric adventures on some alien planet.  In the case of Balzan, sometime in the future, he and his parents were en route to Mars to begin a colony but some mysterious disaster happened.  The ship inexplicably accelerated, perhaps through a wormhole, into a different solar system and crashed upon an alien world.  His parents died in the accident, but Balzan survived, as an infant encased in some sort of suspended animation cube.  He was found by a humanoid cat-person who took him home and raised him.

The cover claims that Balzan is the Tarzan of outer space, so instead of being raised by apes, he's raised by cat people.  I am not very familiar with Tarzan stories, but this was the only real connection that I could see.  Otherwise, Balzan seemed closer to heroes like John Carter, or Thongor, or the hero from Goddess of Ganymede.

But I'm OK with that, in fact, that's pretty much why I got the books in the first place!  So let's go!

There Are Spoilers ahead!

The story begins and Balzan is grown...about twenty-ish I guess.  he is hunting for some wild animal that has been terrorizing his cat-people village.  He is armed with a knife and a "therb", which is a whip that delivers a potent poison through the barb on the tip.

He finds it and kills it, and then hears the sounds of fighting coming from the village itself.  He rushes back and finds the village is under attack by some lizard men.  He finds his adoptive father, dying, who tells him that the lizard people took many prisoners--including his daughter, Balzan's adoptive sister.

So Balzan goes after them, and finds out they were working for this warlord-guy named Lord Sha, who took the prisoners away in a sky ship to the city-state of Kharn.

So Balzan goes to Kharn.  He notices how everyone their seems stoned, and gets into trouble with the local authorities.  Running from the guards, he falls in with a group of thieves who like to stick it to the man.  They join forces, and Balzan finds out that the Red Lord and his Queen Myrane host these gladiatorial-style games here in the city, and his pacifist tribesmen are going to get thrown to the wild animals for the enjoyment of the people!

So Balzan and his thiefy friends get captured by the guards so they can be taken into the palace.  They are sentenced to be gladiators.  Balzan deduces that his fellows are being drugged, via their food, and realizes that the entire city is also being drugged!

Lord Sha made Balzan's sister, Kitta, one of his personal slaves; but really lusts for Queen Myrane.  Queen Myrane lusts for Balzan, who turns her down flat.  It's plenty convoluted, but there's TONS of action through out the story.  

Balzan eventually learns that the games weed out the weak, leaving strong specimens whose blood feeds the Blood Stones (remember them?  They're, like, THE title of the book!).  The Blood Stones, once powered, perpetuate the lifespan of the bad guy...but I won't spoil that for you, in case you want to read it for yourself.  But if you're wondering if Balzan lives, I only want to remind you that there are two more books!

I don't understand the front cover.  He is NEVER dressed like that throughout the entire story.  I think they told the artist he's the "Tarzan of outer space" and they came up with this guy that looks kinda like Zandor from The Herculoids.  In the background you can plainly see Cat People, you know, the sort of people that raised him, and they're wearing a LOT more clothes than he is!  Oh well...

My Theoretically Assessed Speculation:

I liked it!  Is it High Literature?  NO! ...That's probably why I liked it!  it's plenty cheesy, and some of the plot points didn't get a lot of build up...but the action moved right along, and the plot kept a sort of internal logic.  I guess it's the sort of thing you expect from this type of stuff...and that's exactly what I wanted!  It was cheesy escapist adventure, and that's what I look for in my sword-n-planet stuff, so I liked it!

I found my copy on eBay, and I've seen it available through Amazon.  You might be able to find it in a second-hand book shop.

Have you ever read this book?  If so, what did you think of it?  Feel free to leave a comment below!  Otherwise, I'll see ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell