Today's blog is named after Tim Buckley's Song To The Siren because last time, I discussed Gardner Fox's Sword-and-Sorcery novels about the Cumberian hero Kothar. Today, I'm looking at the Kyrik books of the mid-70s. As I said last time, I usually take a S&S pulp novel on holiday with me and they're relatively easy to find on ebay or on the shelves of Leakey's second-hand bookshop in Inverness.
The Kothar books are set in the extremely distant future, like Lin Carter's whimsical World's End series. The only comic I can recall in that vein is the infamously brutal Ironjaw title from the short-lived 70s Marvel copyists, Atlas.
By contrast, Kyrik Of The Victories exists in pre-history, like REH's Conan or Carter's antediluvian Thongor. As Howard did, Fox adapts real historical names, here and in the Kothar books, with references to Vandars, Gotts and Romanoy.
I first read the initial Kyrik adventure during the decline of my great adolescent passion for S&S around 1980 /81 in East Kilbride library, when the town was the nexus of my wizards-and-warriors reading habit. In Fox's preface, he makes esoteric reference to the Piri Reis maps, the terrace of Baalbek (aka Heliopolis), the lands of Masma and Aluminor ( about which I can find no further information) and the formation of a planetary ring by the destruction of a second moon, precipitating the first ice age. These arcane allusions smack of his Hawkman and JLA scripts and lend a scholarly gravitas to his pulpy sagas. However, Kyrik's exploits are derivative schlock, even if they were listed as a prime influence in the creation of Dungeons and Dragons.
No pterodactyls were harmed in the making of this book...
They are aided in this quest by the Romanoy girl Myrnis and Kyrik's patron, the demon-goddess Illis.
Kyrik dispatches a snake-god Isthinissis and a Lovecraftian slime-god Absothoth. In a last-reel twist reminiscent of a Roger Moore Bond movie, the slime creature attacks a final time. Illis intervenes and her human form is killed. Kyrik instructs Aryalla and the outlaw chief Almorak to rule Tantagol as his co-regents while he goes "adventuring" with Myrnis.
Beyond his sexual relationship with Illis, Kyrik displays no warlock skills. The book is often very, er, spicy in many passages although it's not as crass and risible as the genre-blending softcore Richard Blade series. Kyrik's lust for life and sensuality makes him a more distinctive character than Kothar.
No rhinoceroses were harmed in the making of this book...
I read most of Kyrik and the Lost Queen last Thursday near the beach Hopeman ( with its fossils of Permian reptiles) on what may have been the hottest day of the year. Adorla Mathandis the queen of Alkinoor is swapped with her double, Myrnis in a plot by a councillor and a high priest. Kyrik sets out to restore the queen to her throne and reunite with her gypsy lookalike.
Kyrik and the queen survive Lalathor, the crustacean monster, Olyxus the pirate chief and the Maze of Marassa, destroying the "bloated blackness" of this book's demon-go with the aid of Illis's crystal ball and the jewel of the all-father god Avlar. Adorla Mathandis has an enthusiastic sexual awakening largely ( and thankfully) off-screen, as it were, and in the epilogue, Illis disguises Myrnis to protect her from the jealous queen.
Kyrik's negatory catchphrase "Na, na" becomes quite irritating and again, he shows no real warlock abilities. The plot is quite like REH's A Witch Shall be Born but doesn't have its epistolary style. Also, Kyrik's only defining feature, a moustache, seems to have gone missing since the last book.
Like the Kothar novels, these books are quite devoid of humour, slow-moving and the cities and monsters are as two-dimensional as the role-playing games they inspired. Kyrik's characterisation is less perfunctory than Kothar's and his passionate relationship with Myrnis seems quite genuine (although the expression of it is a bit sleazy). But he is a largely boorish and unappealing hero compared to Conan. Of course, Fox's writing is not as racist as that of REH but he has none of the latter's talents for exotic atmosphere and dread. I didn't find any of these books as entertaining as the pacy -if equally derivative- pulps of Lin Carter and I wouldn't buy any more unless I came upon them in Leakey's for a couple of quid. When you think of trashy fantasy fiction, you're picturing Kyrik or Kothar.
Coming soon: at last, Dan Dare from Big Finish; Star Trek; the second box set of Fourth Doctor Adventures
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