Warlocks and Warriors,
Edited by Douglas Hill. Mayflower Books, 1971, 159 pages.
I own and have read just about every anthology of heroic
fantasy published in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. But I didn’t have this one up until
July of 2016, and I wouldn’t have gotten it then if not for a webpage list put
out by the writer G. W. Thomas called “A Reader’s Guide to Sword & SorceryAnthologies.” Thanks to him for the
heads up.
I guess I missed this book until now for two primary
reasons. One, it was published only in England as near as I can tell. Second,
there is another book entitled Warlocks
and Warriors, which was published in 1970 by Berkley in the US. That probably
helped me overlook this one. In addition, the cover is remarkably ugly
compared to the cover of the other collection, which I've pasted below.
The 1970s Warlocks and Warriors was edited by L. Sprague De
Camp, who did quite a few anthologies around this time while he was also busy
editing and rewriting Robert E. Howard’s Conan tales. It’s certainly a good
collection, and quite varied, with stories by Ray Capella, Lin Carter, Robert
E. Howard, Henry Kuttner, Fritz Leiber, C. L. Moore, Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton
Smith, H. G. Wells, and Roger Zelazny. I’ve already reviewed this book on Goodreads,
however so I won’t say more about it here.
The 1971 Warlocks and
Warriors was edited by Douglas Hill, whose name I was not familiar with until after I posted this on Goodreads, whereupon a short biography of Hill appeared on my page. That was rather cool, and revealed to me that he also wrote stuff under the name Martin Hillman, who is included in this anthology. After a short and
to the point introduction by Hill, the following stories appeared:
“The Sleeping Sorceress” by Michael Moorcock.
“The Curse of the Monolith” by Lin Carter and L. Sprague De
Camp.
The Ogyr of the Snows” by Martin Hillman.
“The Wages Lost by Winning,” by John Brunner.
“The Wreck of the Kissing Bitch” by Keith Roberts.
“The Unholy Grail,” by Fritz Leiber.
I’d read “The Sleeping Sorceress” before. This is an early
Elric story by Moorcock and is quite good. I’d also read “The Curse of the Monolith,”
which is a Conan pastiche by Carter and De Camp. Not quite Howard’s Conan but
it was an OK tale. I also had previously read “The Unholy Grail” by Leiber.
This tale recounts the earliest adventure of the Gray Mouser, of Fafhrd and the
Gray Mouser fame. Not my favorite of the series, probably because I like the
Fafhrd character better than the Mouser character.
What were new to me were the tales by Hillman, Brunner, and
Roberts, and all three were quite good. Brunner, I know, of course. I’ve read a
lot of his SF. This is a story of the “Traveller in Black,” definitely fantasy
though not sword and sorcery. The “Traveller” is a kind of mixed angel/devil
character, who has the power to grant people’s desires. I’d not previously read
these tales. It was beautifully written but meandered a bit initially until it
got to the main plot.
Martin Hillman’s “The Ogyr of the Snows” is definitely sword
and sorcery, and a well written piece. The hero is Conanesque but it’s to be
noted in this tale that he wins the day mostly by wit. According to the
introduction, this tale was extracted from a “novel in progress” by Hillman,
and I would certainly be interested in reading it. I've found since this post went up originally that Hillman was actually the editor, Douglas Hill, and he has written quite a few books. I'm trying to track down now which of these might feature the character of "Ogyr."
The greatest treasure in this collection to my way of
thinking, though, is “The Wreck of the Kissing Bitch” by Keith Roberts. This is
a tale set in the world created by Michael Moorcock for his Ice Schooner book. The world was already beautifully conceived
and Roberts does a fine job of playing in the same universe. This was my
favorite tale in the collection, concluding with a tense and exciting chase
scene of sailed ships across the great ice seas. It sure made me want to go
write some heroic fantasy.
