Book Review: KORAK AT THE EARTH'S CORE

TITLE: Korak at the Earth’s Core (Dead Moon Super-Arc #1)

AUTHOR: Win Scott Eckert

306 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., ISBN 9781945462634 (hardcover, softcover, collector’s hardcover)

MY RATING:  5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: Win Scott Eckert returns to the world of Pellucidar with his latest novel in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe (ERBU) series, Korak at the Earth’s Core. This new installment is every bit as action-packed, immersive, and character oriented as Eckert’s Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, and while it picks up some subplot threads from that novel it is the start of a new storyline. It also begins to address a number of questions the Master, Edgar Rice Burroughs, left unanswered in the original Tarzan and Pellucidar novels, including the mystery of life on Pellucidar’s stationary pendant moon as well as what Philip Jose Farmer called “the Great Korak Time Discrepancy.”

The action takes place about twenty years after Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar. Tarzan’s granddaughter, Suzanne, has been living in Pellucidar since the events of that book, has taken a mate and had a child – and has gone missing in the Land of Awful Shadow underneath the pendant moon. Korak and Meriem, Suzanne’s parents, immediately (but separately) head to the Hollow Earth to search for her. Eckert wonderfully juggles chapters from both characters’ perspectives as their searches take them across the breadth of Pellucidar. They encounter a variety of familiar and new deadly Pellucidarian wildlife and equally dangerous new civilizations, and Eckert details the battles with his usual distinct action style. Quite a few pulse-pounding moments for both characters, as well as for the crew of the airship O-220.

But what I really appreciated about the book is Eckert’s focus on the two main characters, and how they are both similar to and different from their predecessors.

Korak may be the son of Tarzan and have his father’s survival skills and enhanced strength and love of wildlife – but he is NOT his father in terms of temperament and life experience. Eckert draws on Korak’s childhood abandonment issues and his adult experiences as a soldier in World Wars One and Two to create a complex exploration of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that so many of those who experienced childhood neglect and/or wartime service have suffered from. Korak’s PTSD, which has been under control for years, comes roaring back while he is in Pellucidar, and Eckert hints at complexities that I’m sure will be explored deeper in this book’s sequels.

Likewise, in some hands Korak’s wife Meriem could simply be portrayed as “Jane Porter redux.” But she is so much more than that. Both are strong-willed women who are the equals of the men they love, capable of taking charge of situations and surviving harsh environments. Neither woman is so in love with their men that they are blind to or forgiving of their spouses’ foibles; for instance, when they learn of Suzanne’s disappearance, Korak and Meriem are at separate places on the surface world and Korak charges off to Pellucidar without his wife. Meriem eventually forgives, but does not forget, his rash hotheadedness. Meriem’s survival skills are different from Jane’s, thanks to their different upbringings, and come well into play in Meriem’s chapters.

Ultimately, Korak and Meriem and the characters traveling with them (and oh, I could probably write an essay on those supporting characters and how they enhance the narrative; I will simply say it’s a joy to see Suzanne’s mate Lordan again, and to see ERB’s Betty Calwell playing an ongoing major supporting role across the new ERBU books) come together for the novel’s dramatic denouement. The final scenes of the book tie the subplots of the novel together but still leave some questions to be answered – which makes sense as this is the start of a new trilogy, the “Dead Moon Super-Arc.” I am excited to see where Eckert takes Korak, Meriem, Lordan, Akut, Betty, and the rest in the second installment.

The book also comes with a bonus novella written by ERB Inc. Vice President of Publishing Christopher Paul Carey, “Dawn of the Deathslayer.” This novella stars Janson Gridley, another second (or is it third?) generation character introduced in the previous ERBU series (the “Swords of Eternity Super-Arc”) who I’ve been hoping to see more of. Janson explores another previously unexplored part of Pellucidar and meets a new character, Darva the Shadow, and her tribe. The novella does a wonderful job bringing in this new character and giving us insight into where Janson Gridley has been since his experiences in the novel Victory Harben: Fires of Halos. I’m looking forward to seeing both characters turn up in future ERBU novels. Maybe they’ll even get a book of their own at some point.

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. Korak at the Earth’s Core publishes in late March and can be pre-ordered on the publisher’s 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.)

Book Review: TARZAN AND THE FOREST OF STONE

TITLE: Tarzan and the Forest of Stone

Author: Jeffrey J. Mariotte

178 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., (collectors edition hardcover, standard hardcover, trade paperback)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): Part of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe series.
After Tarzan departs Southern California following a visit with a dear friend, bandits mysteriously dressed as cowboys straight out of the Old West waylay his train and make off with a precious Native American artifact—taking the daughter of relic’s owner hostage in the process. Now Tarzan must set off on foot from the wrecked and twisted ruins of the train in pursuit of the criminals, making his way across the American Southwest, a land as different from his beloved jungle homeland as can be imagined. But even as Tarzan closes in on his prey, a ruthless killer follows close at his heels, intent on bringing an end to the legendary Lord of the Jungle once and for all.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Jeffrey J. Mariotte’s new novella Tarzan and the Forest of Stone puts the famous Lord of the Jungle into a decidedly different environment – the Arizona desert near the Petrified Forest – testing his vaunted brains and brawn in a tale that is part western, part gangster novel, and all classic Burroughs.

Mariotte clearly understand what makes Tarzan such a compelling character. He utilizes the “ape-man’s” respect for all life (human and animal), discomfort with the trappings of “civilization,” and willingness to accept the seemingly impossible as reality to propel the action as much as Tarzan’s physical prowess and analytical skills. Which is not to say there aren’t action sequences: there are, and they are as exciting and dynamic as a Burroughs fan would expect. But they are perfectly counter-pointed by chapters of Tarzan tracking his prey and reveling in the natural world around him – including his interactions with a puma and a wild stallion.

Of course, Tarzan isn’t the only character in the book. Mariotte adds another strong female character to the canon in Alexandra Concannon, who is no damsel in distress or love-sick unrequited love interest. She’s a smart and capable woman who faces each new crisis with an “I’ll find a way out of this” attitude. Mariotte also gives considerable depth to the main villain of the piece, about whom I will say no more because I think he’s a character that needs to be met and experienced without preconceptions. There are several interesting/intriguing secondary characters to round things out, including Alexandra’s grandfather, a mysterious Native American, and of course the “old friend” living north of Hollywood who Tarzan visits at the start of the novella.

Mariotte obviously loves the western/weird western genre and blends it well with the classic Burroughs structure, and the story he sets out to tell works very well at novella length. The pace is fast without glossing over any part of the characters’ journeys, detailed enough to keep the setting firmly in mind without slowing the book down. My only complaint, and it’s a minor one, is that one question about the bad guy’s motivations seems to me to go unanswered: who hired him. His patron’s identity is hinted at, but if the clues are supposed to lead to a particular known character, I didn’t pick up on it.

Tarzan and the Valley of Stone will be available in hardcover, paperback, and collectors edition hardcover sometime in June.

I received an uncorrected proof 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.

Review of TARZAN: BATTLE FOR PELLUCIDAR

TITLE: Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar (Swords of Eternity Super-Arc #2, Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe)

AUTHOR: Win Scott Eckert

312 pages, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., ISBN 978194562269 (paperback, hardcover, limited hardcover, ebook)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): Tarzan of the Apes, Jason Gridley, and the crew of the airship O-220 return to Pellucidar, the world at the Earth’s core, on a wartime mission to stop the Nazis from obtaining a powerful superweapon. But when the Lord of the Jungle’s murderous adversaries partner with the Mahars—Pellucidar’s routed reptilian overlords—and his adventurous granddaughter Suzanne goes missing on a reconnaissance mission, can Tarzan prevent the conquest and enslavement of all humanity in both the inner and outer worlds? 

Bonus Novelette: “Victory Harben: Clash on Caspak” by Mike Wolfer: Hurled through time and space from her homeworld of Pellucidar, Victory Harben plummets into peril when she finds herself on the island continent of Caspak, the Land That Time Forgot. Using skills learned from her friend Tarzan and the Stone Age land of her birth, Victory fights for her very survival against savage beasts and uncanny Wieroos, the winged humanoid terrors of Caspak. But that is only the beginning of her trials, as a strange visitor arrives with an omen of Victory’s role in the machinations of the Swords of Eternity super-arc!

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS:

Note: I reviewed this book via an electronic Advance Review Copy. The book will be published in October by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 24 Tarzan novels (25 if we include Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins, which would now be considered a “middle grade” novel, I think, or 26 if we include Tarzan: The Lost Adventure, which Joe Lansdale completed from a manuscript started by Burroughs), and six Pellucidar novels. Burroughs virtually created the idea of fictional universes, linking his various series in ever-inventive ways to create a consistent whole. (See for instance the novel Tarzan at the Earth’s Core, in which the Jungle Lord visits the Hollow Earth for the first time.) Over the years since Burroughs’ passing, the Burroughs Estate has “authorized” quite a lot of novels featuring Tarzan, John Carter, Carson Napier, and other Burroughs creations. But only recently has the estate, through Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc., decided to issue new works tied intimately enough to the detailed chronology and characterizations of the original books to be considered “canonical” (as compared to merely “authorized.”)

So how does one approach reading a new canonical novel that once again ties two of Burroughs’ most well-known series together, especially if that book is also the second title in a new “super-arc” connecting even more of Burroughs’ original creations? Must one read all of the Tarzan and Pellucidar novels before opening the cover of Win Scott Eckert’s Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar?

I am happy to report the answer to that question is “no.” I have read only a small handful of the original Tarzan novels and none of the Pellucidar series. Tarzan at the Earth’s Core is not one of the handful of Tarzan novels I have read. Despite these holes in my Burroughsian reading history, I loved this book and was fully engaged with the characters and plot throughout.

Win Scott Eckert has not only crafted a novel that is true to the character of Tarzan as detailed by Burroughs in the original novels (versus what we see in most movie/television versions), he’s given us a novel that is an excellent jumping-on point for readers who are new to Tarzan, to Pellucidar, or to both. There was not a moment in this book where I felt like I was missing out on vital information by not having read the originals. And even though this is the second book in the new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe “Swords of Eternity super-arc,” one does not have to have read the preceding release (Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds, written by Matt Betts) to jump into this one. Like Burroughs himself, the new ERBU writers are working hard to make every book accessible on its own. Eckert does this by having characters reminisce about previous exploits in just enough detail to fill new readers in without derailing the momentum of the current story, supplemented by footnotes letting the reader know where to go to read the original stories.

Eckert gives us the Tarzan I remember from the few novels I’ve read and from the DC and Marvel comics of the late 70s: imposing, multi-lingual, a strategist when called for and a brute force when appropriate, a man who loves his family and will do anything to protect them, a man who can fit with “polite society” but who always has “the beast” simmering under the surface. Here, he is the focal point around whom everything else orbits, the most compelling character in a cast of compelling characters. The best Tarzan writers understand how to use the Jungle Lord’s personal dichotomies to propel a story, and Eckert proves here that he is among the best.

Eckert also does a wonderful job incorporating the setting of Pellucidar into the novel almost as another character. I’m intrigued by the way time does/doesn’t move in the “hollow Earth,” and how the landscape and stationary sun and moon influence the way characters think and react. I really cannot wait to go back and read the Burroughs originals as well as the soon-to-be-rereleased (by ERB, Inc.) authorized sequels by John Eric Holmes, and all credit for that goes to Win Eckert. (Okay, perhaps a little bit of credit should also go to Mike Grell, whose hidden world of Skartaris in DC Comics’ The Warlord was my first and most beloved exposure to the “hollow Earth” concept and which was clearly inspired by Pellucidar.)

Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar is also as fast-paced as one would expect from a Burroughs novel. There’s a bit of slow set-up in the first few chapters as Eckert moves all of his chess pieces into place, but after that the action is pretty much non-stop. As with Burroughs, Eckert expresses characterization as much through action as through internal monologue. I read the second half of the book in one sitting. Burroughs wrote several books in which Tarzan and Korak fight in World War One, so it’s a natural extension of the brand that a still fighting-fit Lord John Clayton and his family members would be tapped to help protect England from the Nazi menace of the Second World War. Especially when the Nazis are on the verge of discovering Pellucidar and the mind-controlling abilities of the native Mahars.

Much has been made of the “Swords of Eternity” super-arc introducing a new lead character, Victory Harben, into the ERBU. In Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, we get to see Victory at a much younger age and see the experience that transforms her life and brings her under the care of Tarzan and Jane in England. But Victory isn’t the only “next generation” character being added to Burroughs’ family trees. In Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, Eckert introduces us to Suzanne Clayton (Tarzan’s grand-daughter, the second child of Tarzan’s son Korak and daughter-in-law Meriem) and to Janson Gridley (son of Jason Gridley and Pellucidarian native Jana). Suzanne follows closely in her father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, plunging into adventure without so much as a backwards glance, equally at home in the jungle as in a city. Janson doesn’t see much action but I loved the almost-sibling interplay between him and Victory (who is Jason Gridley’s god-daughter). I hope that as the new ERBU progresses, we’ll see more of both of these younger characters alongside Victory and Korak and Meriem’s son Jackie Clayton. While it has been well-established by Burroughs himself that Tarzan and his immediate family are very long-lived and essentially immortal (something the Jungle Lord ruminates about a lot in this book, which takes place during World War II), injecting new characters into the ERBU also follows Burroughs’ own tradition.

The main novel is followed by a bonus novelette, “Clash on Caspak,” which connects the current super-arc to yet another of Burroughs’ original on-going series: “The Land That Time Forgot.” I’ve never read the Caspak books, although I remember the movies based on them. Mike Wolfer does a great job relaying what makes Caspak similar to and yet unique from Pellucidar through Victory Harben’s eyes. The novelette advances Victory’s storyline that started in Christopher Paul Carey’s novelette “Dark Heart of the Sun,” giving us more hints about why Victory is being bounced through time and space and what role her mysterious tattoo might play. As I may have mentioned, I find Victory an intriguing character and can’t wait for her to star in her own novel (titled Fires of Halos and due out sometime in 2021, I believe).

Series Saturday: The Blood-Thirsty Agent

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

In Cynthia Ward’s action-packed novella series “The Blood-Thirsty Agent,” Lucy Harker is a dhampir – a child born of the sexual union between a vampire and a mortal. In this case, Lucy’s mother is the famous Mina Harker, and her natural father is Dracula, Lord of the Vampires. The time is the early 1900s and the action ranges from cabin suites on the Titanic to the trenches of World War One to the Hollow Earth, allowing the author to work in winks at, and pastiches of, some of her (and my) favorite adventure characters of the time period.

The Adventure of the Incognita Countess introduces us to Lucy, her family, and her unique role as an agent of Her Majesty’s Secret Service under the direction of the man called “M.” As a dhampir, it is Lucy’s job to protect the Empire from vampires and other supernatural creatures. But her assignment on the Titanic is of a more mundane nature: bodyguard for an American carrying secret plans back to the President. Things take a more pulp/supernatural turn when Lucy encounters the beautiful Clarimal Stein, who has a secret of her own: she is the vampire Mircalla Karnstein. They also run afoul of a German “science hero” up to no-good.

Incognita Countess sets the tone for the series and gives us a good sense of the alternate history these characters live in: a world where Titanic is powered by secret heat-ray technology Britain has reverse-engineered from the Martian invasion of several years before and where the Germans are intent on stealing that technology. There’s a pulp-weird-science, almost steampunk vibe to a world that otherwise is recognizable as our own, and the stories are as fast-paced as a classic Doc Savage or Shadow tale. The novella length suits each adventure perfectly, but especially in this first book – after all, Titanic was only on the seas for so long before that iceberg hit; the impending doom of the ship (which the reader is aware of but the characters are not) lends an immediacy to Lucy’s triple missions (protect the American; find out what the Germans are up to; kill the vampire).

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of interpretations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in which the vampire and his victim, Mina Murray Harker, fall in love. (See Francis Ford Coppola’s film version, in which Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula’s lost love, or the novel Dracula the Undead by Bram’s nephew Dacre Stoker as just two examples.) Ward, to her credit, goes in a different direction: Dracula forced himself upon Mina and she only found out she was pregnant after the vampire had been defeated. There is no love lost by any of the characters for Lucy’s natural father; it’s pretty clear our lead character is the product of supernatural rape and that she’s never encountered her natural father. I find this choice far more interesting, and Lucy’s feelings about her conception far more compelling, than yet another story in which Dracula and Mina are in love and have children.

Lucy is an outsider to society, pretending to be many things she is not in order to survive and serve the realm: she pretends to be the child of Mina and her first husband, Jonathan Harker; she pretends to be a normal mortal when in fact she has tremendous power thanks to her dual heritage; she pretends to be an upstanding heterosexual woman when she isn’t. And she struggles with having to hide so much of who she is under a veneer of late Victorian societal norms.

In each book, Lucy finds herself questioning something she’s been taught as not just true but TRUE: in Incognita Countess, it is the truism that vampires are emotionless creatures capable of pretending to have feelings but in fact having no humanity at all. In The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum, it is the “fact” that being anything other than heterosexual is a sin. And in the upcoming The Adventure of the Naked Guide, it is the concept that England’s colonial expansions are a force for good in the world while Germany’s encroachment on the sovereignty of other nations is an abomination. In each novel, it is encounters with other characters that force Lucy to reevaluate her world-view, starting with the seemingly emotional vampire Clarimal Stein. And in challenging Lucy’s worldview, Ward challenges the reader’s as well. Like the authors she’s influenced by (Burroughs, Stoker, Doyle, Verne, among others), Ward couches social commentary – social criticism – in the folds of pulp adventure tales.

I also find it interesting that all three of Lucy’s adventures occur in places removed from “normal” society, and spaces to which access is tightly controlled in one way or another: the guest-rooms and deeper sections of Titanic; the trenches and other side of the enemy line in World War One western Europe; and finally the world at the center of the Earth which Edgar Rice Burroughs named “Pellucidar.” Ward never shows us Lucy in everyday society – the closest she comes is interacting with humans aboard Titanic, but even there she’s dealing with a heightened and claustrophobic version of everyday society. The settings are not “normal” because our heroine is not “normal.”

As mentioned, Ward also works in tributes to her influences. We do eventually get to see Mina Harker. Lucy’s stepfather, the “M” who heads the Secret Service, is quickly revealed as Mycroft Holmes so of course there are mentions of her step-uncle and his partner-in-business. There’s technology derived from the Martian invasion chronicled by H.G. Wells. On Titanic, Lucy spends several scenes talking to Lord Greyborough, who is rumored to have been raised by apes. And of course, there’s the upcoming third book’s trip to Burroughs’ Pellucidar, with mentions of several characters from that series. There may have been more subtle nods that I missed, but the big ones are plainly obvious and totally enjoyable. None steal the focus from Lucy herself, but in playing off of them we get to see more of Lucy’s personality and internal struggles.

I hear that the fourth Blood-Thirsty Agent novella, due out later this year or early the next, will be the last. If so, I’ll be sad to see the series end just as I feel I’m really getting to know Lucy and Clarimal. All good things do come to an end, but I hope that we’ll get to see more of Lucy’s upbringing and meet more of her stepsiblings before the end.

In the mean-time, I highly recommend The Blood-Thirsty Agent series to fans of alternate history, steampunk, pulp adventure, vampires in love, and LGBTQ representation in genre fiction. Published by indie Aqueduct Press, the novellas can be purchased in print or ebook form:

·         The Adventure of the Incognita Countess

·         The Adventure of the Dux Bellorum

·         The Adventure of the Naked Guide [forthcoming]