TOP TEN(ISH) MOMENTS FROM PULPFEST 2025

PulpFest 2025 is officially in the books. Which means so are FarmerCon XX, ERBFest 2025, and DocCon 2025. I had a phenomenal time hanging out with old friends, making new friends, spending too much money, staying up too late, and driving to/from Cranberry PA … but it was all worth it. There were way more than 10 Top Moments of the Con(s), but here are a bunch of them:

BEING MISTAKEN FOR WIN ECKERT’S BROTHER

Win and I have known each other a good few years now. But this is the first time anyone seeing us next to each other has sincerely asked “are you guys brothers?” (In this case, our waitress at Primanti Brothers during our Wednesday night Pre-Con dinner). I, for one, took the question as a compliment. Check out my interviews with Win HERE and HERE to get a sense of why I consider it a compliment.

“Twins” Anthony R. Cardno and Win Scott Eckert

BEING A (SMALL) PART OF THE RETURN OF DOCCON

DocCon (the convention dedicated to all things related to Doc Savage) has a venerable history but has taken a few years off … until Jen DiGiacomo had the idea to revive it as the latest “mini-con” to happen under the PulpFest banner. I was a (very small) part of the planning committee (being perhaps the Least Knowledgeable Doc Savage Fan Ever), my main contribution being a marketing idea (that didn’t happen for this year but may be considered for 2026, so I don’t want to spoil it) and then being the “sub-in” guy at the DocCon tables when the other folks, mainly Ron Hill (who I interviewed HERE), needed to be on panels or introducing the film.

DocCon crew, L to R: Anthony R. Cardno, Anthony Rais, Bill Lampkin, Ron Hill, Scott Cranford

THE EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS INC PANEL

Okay, most of what Cathy Mann Willbanks (ERB Inc’s Vice President of Operations) and Christopher Paul Carey (Vice President of Publishing) announced on this panel had already been announced at San Diego Comic Con … but that didn’t stop me from being excited to hear the details in person. They announced upcoming novels (the next ERB Universe novel from the aforementioned Win Scott Eckert; a new Barsoom novel from Chris L. Adams under the “Wild Adventures” banner; new ERBU novels in the Land That Time Forgot and Monster Men series); a new John Carter and Woola action figure set from Frazetta Girls; and several new animation projects including a Victory Harben ERBU animated series in development! (My Interviews with Christopher Paul Carey HERE and HERE.)

Most of the ERB Inc panel. L to R: Christopher Paul Carey, Henry G. Franke III, Win Scott Eckert, Chris L. Adams, Douglas Klauba. Missing because my phone is a jerk: Cathy Wilbanks. SORRY, Cathy!

THE WICKER MAN

During a conversation with Craig McDonald during which I bought his used copy of the novelization of The Wicker Man, I discovered that not only is there a novelization of the film … the film was also based on a long out-of-print novel called Ritual by David Pinner (and that novel has a sequel, The Wicca Woman)! How out of print is it? So out of print that there’s no English language paperback edition (only a Spanish language version) and the original hardcover is going for over $1,000 on the secondary market. But there IS a reasonably priced e-book version of both of Pinner’s books. Which you know I’ve already ordered. (Interview with Craig McDonald HERE).

L to R: The copy of The Wicker Man novelization I bought from Craig McDonald, the cover to the e-book of Ritual, the cover to the e-book of Wicca Woman.

FLINCH-FEST

To say that I think highly of Jim Beard and John C. Bruening, co-founders of Flinch! Books, is an understatement. (And no, it’s not just because Jim included my essay on Jack Kirby’s short-lived 1970s DC Comics series The Sandman in his book Jack of All Comics! a few months ago. But why pass up a chance at a shameless plug? Also, HERE’s the Interview about the book with Jim.) Flinch! started ten years ago, and their panel at PulpFest talked a little about that history and featured reading from their new and upcoming releases (Jim’s fourth Sgt. Janus book, and John’s upcoming fourth Midnight Guardian book). These two have such an easy, funny, rapport. They are also great dinner companions and conversationalists. I also probably spent way too much time chatting with them at their table and lost them a few sales. (Kidding.)

L to R: Flinch! Books co-founders John C. Bruening and Jim Beard.

CHRISTOPHER LEE

During that conversation with Craig McDonald about The Wicker Man, our friend Kim Turk mentioned having seen some anthologies with Christopher Lee’s name on the cover as Editor, and I went to check out them out. Kim patiently waited for me to notice the real prize she’d already seen … a hardcover copy of Lee’s memoir … signed by the man himself! Reader, you know I bought it immediately.

MARK WHEATLEY AND DOUG KLAUBA

It is incredibly fun to sit in a room and watch two amazing artists, both of whom have drawn Tarzan and other Edgar Rice Burroughs characters, talk about all the great artists who have drawn the Lord of The Jungle over the years, including what they admire about those artists’ work. (Click on their names to find my interviews with Mark Wheatley and Doug Klauba.)

L to R: Mark Wheatley, Douglas Klauba

DOC SAVAGE, THE JLA, AND THE JSA

Did I mention that I spent too much money? I’m not going to post pictures of every book, magazine, and print I bought … but along with the Christopher Lee book, the other Most Pricey purchases including six original Doc Savage pulps (I’ll post 1 or 2 of their covers below) and four Silver Age Justice League issues featuring the annual crossovers with the Justice Society. (I was also eye-ing a Golden Age issue of The Black Knight, but it was way outside my price range.)

FARMERCON DINNER AND LOBBY HANGOUTS/CHATTING AT DEALER AND AUTHOR TABLES

The reason I started attending this convention was to meet in person my fellow Philip Jose Farmer fan friends, who had been so welcoming to me in various online forums, and hanging out with them at dinner(s) and in the lobby after even programming ends is always one of, if not THE, highlight of the weekend. It was no different this time, even though our numbers were slightly smaller than usual thanks to scheduling conflicts and other things. There is such a big overlap between PJF, ERB, and Doc Savage fans at this convention that most of the people I’ve mentioned above, and many I haven’t, were present at all times. And visiting with authors like Glen Held, Brian K. Morris and Charles F. Millhouse and artists like Don Simpson and folks like Henry Franke of the Burroughs Bibliophiles at their tables is always fun as well. (Interviews with Glen, Henry, Brian and Charles at the links; interview with Don coming soon!)

L to R: Anthony R. Cardno, Brian K. Morris, Charles F. Millhouse (The “Middle Initial Squad”)

For those interested, my report on PulpFest 2024 can be found HERE. And my interview with Mike Chomko of the PulpFest committee can be found HERE.

Book Review: VICTORY HARBEN TALES FROM THE VOID

TITLE: Victory Harben: Tales from the Void

EDITOR: Christopher Paul Carey

436 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462665 (paperback, hardcover, hardcover collector’s edition)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

Victory Harben: Tales from the Void brings together under one cover the novellas featuring Victory Harben and her friends that appeared in the back of the novels that made up Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.’s “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” between 2020 and 2022, accompanied by a new novella seeing publication for the first time herein as well as interstitial first-person narration by the titular character that ties everything together.

A short bit of background, for those not familiar: When Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. decided to launch a new series of canonical adventures of ERB’s famous (and not-so-famous) creations, they also decided to expand the canon with new characters tied to the classic ERB canon. Victory Harben is one of those characters: her mother, Gretchen Von Harben, first appeared in Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins; her uncle and grandfather first appeared in Tarzan and the Lost Empire; her father, Nadoc, is a denizen of Pellucidar; and her godfather, Jason Gridley, appeared in Tazan at the Earth’s Core, Back to the Stone Age, A Fighting Man of Mars, and Pirates of Venus, making him one of the first characters to appear in multiple ERB series. In fact, the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” kicks off with Gridley and Victory trying to solve a problem with the Gridley Wave, which allows for communication between Earth, Pellucidar, Mars and elsewhere, and being plunged (separately) into an unpredictable journey through time and space.

So this book was largely a “re-read” for me, of novellas I’d already encountered in other ERB books – but this time presented in the main character’s chronological order. It was fun revisiting these stories and seeing how they fit together. It’s a credit to the authors (Christopher Paul Carey, Mike Wolfer, Geary Gravel, and Ann Tonsor Zeddies) that each novella is eminently readable on its own – other than the question of “where will Victory (or Jason) go next?” there are no cliffhangers. Each novella has a solid beginning, middle, and end with all major plot points resolved.

As I have reviewed most of the novellas when I reviewed the novels with which they originally appeared (HERE, HERE, and HERE), I will concentrate the rest of this review on the new novella included herein, “Victory Harben and the Lord of the Veiled Eye,” written by Christopher Paul Carey (who also created Victory Harben and most of her supporting cast). The novella takes place after Victory has found a way to “force” her interstellar jumps (rather than waiting helplessly for them to happen), so perhaps a bit more than halfway into her timeline and introduces us to another new Burroughsian interplanetary society: one lead by a ruthless leader (the titular Lord of the Veiled Eye), a conqueror of planets and decimator of societies. Victory quickly finds herself, as usual, in a situation in which she does not have all the facts but must act on her instincts to discern good guys from bad guys and how to help. In addition to an intriguing new villain I suspect we have not heard the last of, Carey also introduces another strong woman (in the ERB tradition) with Axia of Ptarxes, a world coming under control of the Lord. The novella alternates thrilling action sequences with thoughtful ruminations on the nature of despots and the way they absorb and/or destroy native cultures.

If you’re not familiar with the extended Edgar Rice Burrough Universe and would like to get a good sense of its depth and breadth, Victory Harben: Tales from the Void is a great starter, as between Victory and Jason and another character, you get to experience more than one part of that universe: Pellucidar (the hollow Earth), Caspak (the land that time forgot), Va-Nah (the world inside the moon), the moons of Barsoom (Mars), and more. And you get to see the distinctive styles of several (but not all) of the authors currently expanding the ERBU.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Victory Harben: Tales from the Void is currently up for pre-order on the Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. website.

Book Review: VICTORY HARBEN: FIRES OF HALOS

TITLE: Victory Harben: Fires of Halos

AUTHOR: Christopher Paul Carey

404 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., ISBN 9781945462498 (hardcover, paperback, collector’s edition hardcover)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

SHORT REVIEW: Victory Harben: Fires of Halos, written by Christopher Paul Carey, is classic Edgar Rice Burroughs interplanetary adventure from start to finish, a worthy continuation of the first true interconnected universe in fiction. Victory Harben is a new character in that universe, every bit as smart, sassy, resilient and strong as Burroughs’ own Jane Porter, Dejah Thoris and Duare, all of whom were easily a match for the men in whose books they appeared. The novel is non-stop action that takes our heroine from a setting most Burroughs fans are intimately familiar with, Pellucidar, to one fans may be less familiar with, the Omos star system of one of Burroughs’ final books, the short novel Beyond the Farthest Star. Carey’s facility with creating alien worlds, societies, and wildlife is wondrous and perfectly Burroughsian, as Victory navigates her way through as many near-death encounters as her forebears Carter and Carson. The interplanetary roller-coaster leads to a well-earned finale that wraps up the major threads of the novel nicely while leaving plenty of room for future Victory Harben novels. Burroughs fans both life-long and intermittent will not be disappointed.

LONGER REVIEW: Victory Harben: Fires of Halos is a landmark book in the history of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. for several reasons. First, it brings to a conclusion the first set of new officially canonical Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe books released since the Master of Adventure died in 1950 and the last of his original works was released (barring a Tarzan novel later completed by Joe Lansdale). Yes, there have been plenty of novels and comic books released in the decades since featuring Burroughs’ most well-known characters, many of them published in recent years by ERB Inc directly, but it is only in the past few years that the company has started declaring certain novels as official additions to the Canon, based on how closely those books hew not just to the timeline of Burroughs’ original works but also the style, pacing and intent. Tarzan novels by Fritz Lieber and Philip Jose Farmer released in the 1970s have been officially canonized, along with Pellucidar novels by John Eric Holmes – and of course the four novels that comprise the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc,” of which Fires of Halos is the final installment.

Victory Harben: Fires of Halos, written by Christopher Paul Carey, is classic Burroughs interplanetary adventure from start to finish. It opens with the author, at work in the ERB offices in Tarzana, California, receiving a message sent across space and time by Victory Harben, ready to relate her latest adventure for his transcription and fictionalization (to cover up details the world isn’t ready to know or believe yet) – just the way Burroughs received such messages from John Carter and Carson Napier among others. Told in first person narration by Victory Harben after that brief introduction, the novel is non-stop action that takes our heroine from a setting most Burroughs fans are intimately familiar with, Pellucidar, to one fans may be less familiar with, the Omos star system of one of Burroughs’ final books, the short novel Beyond the Farthest Star. There are stops in locales familiar (Barsoom!) and new (Kjarna! Zandar! Both of which I hope we’ll see more of in future novels). Carey’s facility with creating alien worlds, societies, and wildlife is wondrous and perfectly Burroughsian, as Victory navigates her way through as many near-death encounters with wild animals and angry aliens as her forebears Carter and Carson. The interplanetary roller-coaster leads to a well-earned finale that wraps up the major threads of the novel nicely while leaving plenty of room for future Victory Harben novels.

The second reason Victory Harben: Fires of Halos is a landmark novel in the publisher’s history is that it is the first new canonical novel to headline a character not created by Burroughs himself. Part of ERB Inc’s current efforts to revitalize the ERB Universe includes expanding it to include new characters with connections to the classic Burroughs creations. In her previous novella and comic book appearances, we’ve seen Victory study under Tarzan, Jason Gridley, David Innes and Abner Perry as well as encounter Caspak (The Land That Time Forgot) and Carson of Venus. And of course her mother, uncle, and grandfather are all characters who first appeared in supporting roles in various Tarzan novels. The three previous novels in the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc” featured Carson of Venus, Tarzan, and John Carter, but here Victory gets the spotlight. And make no mistake: she is a character in the classic Burroughs mold – as smart, sassy, resilient and strong as Burroughs’ own Jane Porter, Dejah Thoris and Duare, all of whom were easily a match for the men in whose books they appeared. Victory Harben as a character is a terrific addition to the ERB Universe, a character I am sure we’ll see taking the lead in many more novels.

The book is rounded out with “Rescue on Zandar,” a novella by Mike Wolfer that further expands the ERB Universe by giving us the back story of Tii-Laa, a native of Zandar who first appeared in the recent ERB comic mini-series Beyond the Farthest Star: Warriors of Zandar alongside Victory Harben. In the novella, we get a Tii-Laa who is only just starting to realize how different she is from the rest of her race. Her confusion about being different and not fitting in, her defiance of constrictive societal norms, and her self-acceptance infuse the story with a modern feel without detracting from the classic Burroughs pulp-adventure pace. (And again, the pace is rapid-fire, with several interesting new creatures to survive encounters with.)

I have tried to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible while still hopefully getting across the sheer fun, excitement, and yes, importance, of the book. Burroughs fans both life-long and intermittent will not be disappointed in Victory Harben: Fires of Halos.

I received an advance reading pdf of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Victory Harben: Fires of Halos is due out in November, and can be pre-ordered in hardcover, collector’s edition hardcover, or trade paperback editions directly from the Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc website.)

SERIES SATURDAY: Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas

This is a blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics. It’s been on hiatus for a while, but returns this week with the first of two posts about new content from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas,

Publisher: American Mythology, 2022 (in conjunction with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.)

Story: Christopher Paul Carey

Writer/Editor: Mike Wolfer

Pencils and Inks: Miriana Puglia

Colors: Periya Pillai

Letters: Natalie Jane

In Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas, Gretchen von Harben (all grown up her from last appearance as a twelve-year-old girl in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins) narrates to an unseen audience her first visit to Pellucidar, the hidden world at the Earth’s core. Accompanying adventurer Jason Gridley on the airship Favonia as a college student, Gretchen is knocked loose when the Favonia is attacked by a flock of pterosaurs. She parachutes to a remote, uncharted island with only a pistol and limited ammo. There she encounters beings fans of the Pellucidar books will recognize (human Gilaks and ape-like Sagoths) as well as entirely new races that this series adds to the official Burroughs canon (Kratalaks and Azlaks). Gretchen faces a lot of peril over the course of four issues, and in the tradition of the strong female Burroughs characters who have preceded her (Jane Porter-Clayton, Dejah Thoris, Duare, and more), she more than rises to the occasion. This may be Gretchen’s first recorded adventure as an adult, but I certainly hope it’s not the last. She’s an engaging and dynamic character who deserves to be featured (along with the supporting cast that’s been built around her) in many more stories.

Christopher Paul Carey crafted the general story of Gretchen’s first adventure in Pellucidar, originally intending it to be a novel. Writer Mike Wolfer did a wonderful job converting the story to comic book form, pacing the story perfectly across four issues. Fewer issues would have rushed the story too much, and I think five or six issues would have padded the story out too much. Reading the series as it was issued in monthly (or as close to monthly as the publisher could get given various supply chain issues plaguing small independent publishers these days), I was very satisfied with where each issue left off – cliffhangers, of course, as befits a story that could easily have been told as a classic 1940s movie serial – and never felt like the drama of the end of a chapter was unearned. Carey is a Burroughsian scholar of the highest level, and Wolfer matches him well in creating a story that Burroughs would be proud of. For instance, I have no idea how much of the dialogue was in Carey’s original plot, how much the writers crafted together, and how much is purely Wolfer – but regardless, each character’s voice is distinctive and clear while still being perfectly Burroughsian in style.

Complimenting the writing, Miriana Puglia’s artwork is wonderful. Her clean lines and fluid body language convey action and emotion with equal clarity. Fight scenes have a flow and symmetry that makes them easy to follow, and upon multiple reads tiny details stand out. And when it’s time to go creepy (as one almost inevitably must when adventuring in Pellucidar), Puglia absolutely rises to the occasion. There’s one particular page in issue 4, for example, which made me a bit nauseous (trust me, this is a compliment.). Colorist Periya Pillai keeps the action well-lit with a mix of bold and quiet colors as appropriate to the scene; even moments in dark caves or underwater are easy to follow because Pillai’s colors don’t go so dark that they subsume Puglia’s art.

In recent years, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. has made a concerted effort to expand the official canon of the ERB Universe with new novels and comics series like this one, that bear the “Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe” banner across the top of the cover as well as an “Official ERB Universe Canon” stamp and hew as closely to Burroughs’ original interconnectedness universe as possible. In the novels of the current “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, readers have been introduced to an intrepid young woman traversing time and space named Victory Harben. Yes, there’s a direct connection between the Gretchen von Harben of Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas and the Victory Harben who has been appearing in those novels: it’s not a spoiler to reveal here that Victory is Gretchen’s daughter and is the person to whom Gretchen is narrating this story. Along with appearing in the novels/novellas already released, Victory will take center stage in her own novel later this year – but before that, she’s also been the star of another American Mythology / ERB Universe comic book mini-series: Beyond the Farthest Star: Warriors of Zandar, which will be the subject of next week’s Series Saturday post.

Review of CARSON OF VENUS THE EDGE OF ALL WORLDS

TITLE: Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds (ERB Universe #1, Swords of Eternity Super-Arc #1)

AUTHOR: Matt Betts

278 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462238 (hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Stranded on an alien world for nearly two decades, Earthman Carson Napier finds his own past haunting him in strange and terrifying ways when he’s confronted by a sinister madman bent on ruling Amtor. To stop his opponent and his insidious weapon, Carson must gather an alliance of friends and former enemies alike in an epic struggle for control of the planet. A stand-alone novel, this book also launches ERB, Inc.’s new canonical line of stories and the “Swords of Eternity” four-book super-arc. The book also includes a new Pellucidar-related short story by Christopher Paul Carey.

MY RATING: Five out of five stars

MY THOUGHTS: If I didn't know better, I would think I had just read a long-lost Edgar Rice Burroughs manuscript discovered somewhere in the depths of the offices of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. in Tarzana, CA. Matt Betts does a truly wonderful job of matching the tone and pacing of Burroughs' five original Carson of Venus books, and that includes a pitch-perfect prologue in which Betts, visiting the Burroughs offices to pitch a different project, meets Carson Napier himself – or at least Carson’s astral projection, reaching someone on Earth for the first time since the death of Burroughs himself back in 1950. Burroughs often inserted himself in his pulp adventures as the man asked by the characters in question (Tarzan, John Carter, Carson, etc.) to turn their true-life adventures into novels for the masses.

In typical Carson Napier fashion, once the action starts it doesn't stop: Carson and his team (the love of his life, Duare, and his best friends Ero Shan and Nalte) manage to turn a simple scouting mission into a combination of search-and-rescue, espionage, and a bit of social influencing as they come across other characters, despite orders from their jong ("king") to simply scout and return with information. It's not that Carson and his friends intentionally disobey orders -- it's that they just keep stumbling on things that take them further from home and closer to the source of their (and their kingdom's) latest problem. The action ranges across locations on Amtor (the native name for Venus) both familiar to long-time readers and newly-revealed in this adventure. The action scenes contain all the derring-do one expects of a Burroughs novel and all of the near-fatal-misses one expects of a Carson book. Unlike a number of Burroughs’ more well-known characters, Carson is not a capital-H Hero or a superhuman. He’s a man who made a mistake in his calculations (aimed his rocket-ship for Mars but ended up on Venus instead, inspiring some readers to call him “Wrong-Way Carson”) and just keeps finding himself in one dangerous situation after another with no choice but to survive or die.

I've always felt that as much as Burroughs interconnected his series in his original novels (Tarzan has traveled to Pellucidar; Jason Gridley's "Gridley Wave" allows communication between Barsoom, surface Earth, and Pellucidar), Carson always seemed the odd man out: he communicated his adventures to Burroughs via astral projection, but otherwise seemed to have little or no connection to the others Burroughs wrote about. Betts reveals a previously-unknown friendship between Carson and Gridley from before Carson left Earth, and (this is not really a spoiler) an appearance by Gridley in this novel not only deepens the connective tissue but also sets up the "Swords of Eternity Super-Arc" of which this is the first book. For those concerned: this IS a Carson of Venus novel first and foremost. The nods at the Super-Arc help propel this story rather than sidetrack or derail the action (the way most tie-ins to DC or Marvel Comics "Events" often derail the action of the ongoing series they appear in), and the story Betts starts in chapter one concludes in this book. No cliffhangers, no "to be continued in the pages of...". Betts follows Burroughs in telling a complete-in-one adventure yarn that still feels like a part of something larger.

But Betts isn't simply a Burroughs imitator. The author's sly sense of humor and ability to craft exciting action sequences carries through and enhances the story in ways mere imitation would not, especially in the creation of three new characters that I hope we'll see more of in any future Carson of Venus novels. I sincerely hope ERB Inc. will continue to tap Betts to write further Carson novels. He's clearly able to bring a modern sensibility to standard Burroughs fare, integrating it cleanly without denigrating or over-writing the original Master.

The book also comes with a bonus short story written by Christopher Paul Carey, which fills us in on just how Jason Gridley came to appear in front of his old friend Carson on Venus. This is the true start of the "Swords of Eternity Super-Arc," and it's a tightly-told tale that takes place in Pellucidar, is narrated by Jason Gridley, and introduces new ERB character Victory Harben. It’s not a spoiler to mention that while Victory is a new character, her personal history comes from material Burroughs actually wrote; her family can be traced back to several different Tarzan novels. We get to see just enough of her that I can confidently say she is absolutely a Burroughs heroine: as smart, tenacious, and strong as Jane Porter-Clayton, Dejah Thoris, and Duare. I'm excited to see where the Super-Arc takes her between here and the fourth book in the “Swords of Eternity” Super-Arc, Victory Harben: The Fires of Halos, which will also be written by Carey. She is sure to  join the pantheon of Burroughs characters people want to know more about.

Oh, and speaking of Victory: to steal a movie phrase, be sure to stick around for the “after-credits scene.” If you’re the type of reader who skips the acknowledgements, etc., at the end of a book, you might miss out on an interesting little teaser.

**NOTE: This review was written after reading an Advance Review Copy provided by the publishers in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.**

CHRISTOPHER PAUL CAREY, Author - Interview

This week, I’m happy to be rambling on with fellow Wold-Newton afficianado Christopher Paul Carey.

Christopher Paul Carey

Christopher Paul Carey is the coauthor with Philip José Farmer of Gods of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa. He is an editor with Paizo Publishing and the award-winning Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and the editor of three collections of Philip José Farmer’s work: Up from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories, Venus on the Half-Shell and Others, and The Other in the Mirror. His short fiction may be found in such anthologies as The Worlds of Philip José Farmer, Tales of the Shadowmen, and The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files. Visit him online at www.cpcarey.com.

ANTHONY: I know you’ve told this story elsewhere, but let’s start out with the basics: How did you get involved with Philip José Farmer and come to collaborate on THE SONG OF KWASIN, the conclusion of Farmer’s Opar/Khorkasa Trilogy?

CHRIS: Back in 2005, I was serving as editor of Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer, a quarterly digest dedicated to printing rare and previously unpublished material by Farmer, as well as articles on his life and work. Michael Croteau—Farmerphile’s publisher and Phil’s webmaster—and author and Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert were in Peoria searching through Phil’s archives looking for material to print in the magazine when the outline and partial manuscript to the third Khokarsa novel turned up. I was contacted because I was editing the magazine, and I pitched the idea of completing the novel to Phil. I’d known Phil since 1998, and we’d corresponded before that. He was familiar with my writing about his work, and he told me he was confident I’d do a good job with the story. I think that, because of my writings on his work as well as our similar backgrounds in Haggard, Burroughs, and other adventure writers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he felt I’d be faithful to his vision. We also shared a love of anthropology, which figures heavily into the world building for the Khokarsa series.

ANTHONY: What was working with one of your heroes like? And how heavily was he involved in the process?

CHRIS:  Wondrously terrifying! Phil gave me some specific input on how he wanted the third book and the trilogy to wrap up, but largely left how I would handle things up to me. That said, I followed his original outline as closely as I possibly could and kept him up to date on everything I was doing as the book progressed. He approved the expanded chapter-by-chapter outline that I wrote based on his own outline, and I mailed chapters of the novel as I wrote them to Phil so he and his wife Bette were apprised of what I was doing.

ANTHONY:  I asked Win Eckert this question too, in relationship to THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE: How hard was it merging your own distinct voice with Phil’s, especially considering you were wrapping up a trilogy?

CHRIS: I’ve been immersed in Phil’s writings for many, many years, so I think a lot of his phraseology has rubbed off on me, and some of that probably comes through in The Song of Kwasin. Phil had a unique style, brilliant really, in that it’s very simple and clear and yet conveys sophisticated nuances. I’m not sure anyone can completely replicate another writer’s style. One can come close, but style is always translated by the particular spirit of the writer.

I did, however, very consciously write the novel imagining that I was in 1976, when the last installment of the series was published. So I tried to limit myself to the modes of mid-1970s heroic fiction precisely because I didn’t want the reader to sense a hiccough between the second and third books. But it’s not up to me to say whether I succeeded.

Gods of Opar

ANTHONY:  Subterranean Press has published an omnibus edition, GODS OF OPAR, that includes THE SONG OF KWASIN. The limited edition of the book has some extra special features, correct? Can you tell me about them?

CHRIS: The signed limited edition sold out in preorders before publication, so I hope what I’m about to say won’t be too frustrating to someone who reads this now and wants a copy! In any case, the limited edition includes an entire signature of background material about the Khokarsa series written by Philip José Farmer. These include Phil’s original typed outline to the third novel, a detailed article on the Khokarsan language, a Khokarsan glossary, the Khokarsan calendar, and an article called “The Plants of Khokarsa.” None of these items have ever been published before, and they go a long way to sampling the meticulous world building Phil worked out for the series.

ANTHONY: There’s another Khorkasa tale coming out, written completely by you. Where can readers find it?

CHRIS: Exiles of Kho is a signed limited edition being published by Meteor House. The story is set several hundred years before the main trilogy and tells the story of the heroine-priestess Lupoeth as she explores the southern inland sea in the hinterlands beyond the empire of Khokarsa.

ANTHONY: Okay, let’s back up a bit. You are a huge “Farmerphile.” What was your first exposure to Phil’s work?

CHRIS: The first books of his that I read were The Maker of Universes, Tarzan Alive, and, fittingly, Hadon of Ancient Opar. I was twelve at the time, and I never viewed literature the same way again.

ANTHONY:  How heavily has Phil’s work influenced your own writing? And who else do you consider your biggest influences / heroes?

CHRIS:  Well, I’ve now written a novel, two novellas, and a short story, all set in his world of Khokarsa, if that answers your question!

As far as other influences and writers whose work I admire, there’s Frank Herbert, Hermann Hesse, H. Rider Haggard—hey, that’s a lot of the letter H! Another one: David Herter, who I think is one of the most brilliant voices out there today, and who heavily influence my short story “Caesar’s Children,” which I one day hope to expand into a novel.

ANTHONY: What is your own writing process like? Are you an “outliner” or a “pantser” when working on your own projects?

CHRIS:  I’m an outliner. Then I invariably diverge from the outline as needed and become a “pantser.” I also usually immerse myself in months of research before I start writing. For instance, the story I just mentioned, “Caesar’s Children,” was the result of about a year of surveying nineteenth-century utopian fiction. And that’s just a short story. It’s easy to get lost in the research because that’s the fun part of the process for me.

ANTHONY: You’ve written short stories and novels … does your process change at all from form to form?

CHRIS: It’s generally the same for me, except occasionally I can crank out a short story with the outline only in my head.

ANTHONY: You’re also a leading “Wold-Newton” scholar. What is it about Farmer’s Wold Newton concept that continues to fascinate new readers?

CHRIS: The Wold Newton family is a genealogy of literary characters proposed by Farmer in his biography Tarzan Alive, in which he attributed the extraordinary heroic and sometimes villainous characteristics of the family members to a 1795 meteor strike at Wold Newton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. I think the concept still resonates forty years after Farmer created it because the heroes, heroines, and villains from literature compose a sort of modern-day mythology. We want to believe in these characters, and seeing them as part of a family tree makes them more real to us. There’s also the ingenious way Farmer executed the genealogy—not merely as a series of dry literary crossovers, but rather through his intimate understanding and genuine love for the characters, and often with great humor.

ANTHONY: What projects are you working on now?

CHRIS: Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on Exiles of Kho. Then it’s back to my historical dark fantasy novel set in 1888, which I’ve spent the past few years researching.

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who has never read it to convince them that they should?

CHRIS: I can’t answer that—too many! But one I’ve returned to many times in recent years is David Herter’s Vernean fantasy Evening’s Empire. A composer dealing with the ghosts of his past and slipping into irreality as he’s working on an opera of Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea—what could be more tantalizing than that?

ANTHONY: Thanks, Chris!