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Linwood Vrooman Carter better known as Lin Carter was an American fantasy and science fiction author critic, poet, and editor. While he for the most part wrote as Lin Carter, he wrote some of his works as Grail Undwin and H.P. Lowcraft. He became well-known in the 1970s as an editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series that for many readers was an excellent introduction to the fantasy genre classics. Growing up, Lin Carter was fascinated by kids’ fantasy novels such as Oz by Baum, though he would later graduate to pulp science and fantasy fiction. He went to a cartoonist’s school and later served as a clerical typist during the Korean War between 1951 and 1953. After coming back to the United States he attended Columbia University but never graduated, as he quit for lack of money to go work as a copywriter. He soon got into fiction writing and over the course of about two decades wrote a few titles of his own, while also editing Ballantine Adult Fantasy series from the likes of Lord Dunsay, and James Branch Cabel. He would later become an editor at Dell and DAW, where he also edited science fiction and fantasy. As an editor, he wrote several brilliant analyses and essays about what fantasy is and how to become a brilliant fantasy writer.
As an author, he was one of the biggest organizers of science fiction fandom groups in New Jersey. Some of the more important groups he founded are the “Trap Door Spiders” all male group and the “Sorcerer’s and Swordsmen Guild of America” (SAGA). Lin Carter also worked on Robert E. Howard’s Conan series alongside his mentor and friend L. Sprague de Camp. He would later write his first novel Thongor Wizard of Lemuria” as homage to one of his greatest inspirational novels “Conan the Barbarian”. While Thongor the hero of the Thongor series is not a unique hero, his stories come with their own charm and excellence that can only be attributed to Lin’s mastery. He also did write the “Green Star” and “The Callisto series finding his inspiration from the “Mars and Venus” tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs. For the most part, his many novels inspired by classic fantasy and fiction authors were pastiches that were meant to reawaken interests in the greats of the genre. Lin never did set out to write the great American novel, though he was an intelligent and prolific author of the fantasy and science fiction genre. Toward the end of his life, his emphysema worsened, which set in motion a range of bad decisions including drug use that eventually led to the author losing most of his wealth and his house. Carter died of advanced throat cancer in 1988.
Lin Carter launched his fantasy and science fiction career with “Masters of the Metropolis” that he wrote in collaboration with Randall Garrett for the 1957 edition of “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction”. Alongside L Sprague de Camp he expanded and adapted many of the Conan novels with the first title “Conan” that Howard Robert had left unfinished and unpublished finally hitting the shelves in 1977. Writing on his own, Carter was best known as an author that was best at the creation of heroic fantasy in the pastiche format, for which he was among the best of revivifiers, anthologists, and critics. He wrote his first novel the 1965 published “The Wizard of Lemuria” that is a long take on the adventures of Thongor a Conan the Barbarian like hero that culminated in the 1970 published “Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus”. Similar to his other series, the Thongor novels are a brilliant walk through fantasy protocols that are to be found in the classics that he so loved. The Thongor novels and his other succeeding novels similar to those of Edgar Rice Burroughs may be classified as Planetary Romances set in a florid world, even if they lack a particular science fiction tone. Nonetheless, his Callisto sequence that debuted with “Jandar of Callisto” is set on a satellite of Jupiter making it an unequivocal deference to Burroughs.
“Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria” is the Thongor series debut that introduces Thongor of Valkarth. The man is in a fight with his captain which results in him being thrown into the dungeon underneath the castle. He is now to be executed by the Captain’s favorite execution method – execution by administration of Vampire flowers. Northerner to the very end, he is not one to waste time thinking of things he cannot change and accepts his fate. But then comes along an old colleague and friend who helps him escape from his prison and certain death. He takes off on the kingdom’s brand new and revolutionary flying machine that he believes will take him beyond the reach of his nemesis. However, his time in the dungeon has dulled his senses and he crashes his odd machine into the trackless jungle. What he had believed was the end of the road for him becomes a turning point as he is found and rescued by Sharajsha the Wizard of Lemuria. The wizard had been looking for someone to help him fight off the evil Dragon Kings and he believes Thongor fits the bill. The Dragon Kings are on a quest to take back the planet from the current rulers, having lost it when they grew too complacent. Sharajsha will do anything to stop them.
“Thongor and the Dragon City” is the second novel of the series and one of its most exciting. Thongor gets into trouble when his craft is struck by lightning in the worst of places – over a dangerous sea with a hungry sea monster. The monster is now on the trail of the craft hoping for it to fall out of the sky so that it can devour its passengers. All Thongor can do is struggle to keep the ship steady and make it across the black seas below him. Working feverishly, they manage to navigate the worst scare of their lives and crash-land the craft in a forest where they hope to find relief. But all Thongor finds is a ravenous tiger that he manages to run off and an ape-man. Meanwhile, his companions grow impatient and set out to find him, only to walk into a carnivorous plant trap which traps them for hours until they are rescued by kindly forest ape men. Thongor eventually makes his way into a hidden and long forgotten city under the rule of an evil scientist who holds him prisoner. It is an interesting narrative full of cliffhangers, narrow escapes and bizarre science from the first page to the last.
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In the latest entry, with a release date of July 14th, Gabriel has to track down the missing wife of a British billionaire.
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