Book Review: Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria edited by D.M. Ritzlin

Book Review: 'Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria'

edited by D. M. Ritzlin

4 / 5 Stars

'Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria' (232 pp.) is a trade paperback published by DMR Books in 2019, and features cover art by Pan-Spec.

 

I was interested in this anthology because it contains five 'Kardios' stories by Manly Wade Wellman. These first were published in the 1970s in the sword and sorcery anthology series 'Swords Against Darkness,' edited by Andrew J. Offutt. With the 'Swords' books being long out of print and fetching very steep prices, 'Heroes' is an affordable way to access the Kardios tales. 

 

Wellman brought something new to the rather well-traveled sword and sorcery genre with his Kardios franchise. Kardios is the lone survivor of the sinking of Atlantis, obliged to wander the prelapsarian world in search of adventure, and receptive audiences for his harp-playing. Provided those he meets are friendly, the last Atlantean always is willing to do a good turn and address one menace of another, be they space monsters, vampires, oversized bugs, or something known only as the 'Flying Fear.'

 

Kardios is an engaging character; he approaches his encounters with humor and self-confidence. He's something of a smarter, and more urbane, Conan.

 

Rounding out the entries in 'Heroes' are three tales authored by Frederick Arnold Kummer, Jr., that first were published in various pulp magazines from 1939-1940. These stories feature Kirk Bradley, a square-jawed, athletic American who through some strange agency finds himself transported back in time to ancient Mu. Kummer is a more capable author than might be expected and the Kirk Bradley stories are reasonably entertaining ventures into the sword and sorcery genre.

 

The final entry in 'Heroes' is a Leigh Brackett piece from the June, 1941 issue of the pulp magazine Science Fiction. It involves modern-day Americans Coh Langham and Simon Krim, whose submarine voyage under the waves of the Pacific takes them back in time and space to Mu. Langham and Krim must defeat the tyrant Xacul if they are to find a way back to their own realm. It's not a particularly good story, with too-frenetic pacing, and probably best serves to indicate how much Brackett matured as a fiction writer en route to her 'Skaith' novels of the 1970s.

 

Sometimes small-press and P.O.D. books can have multiple typographical and grammatical errors, but it's noteworthy that I found only one misspelling in 'Heroes' (page 39, '....was hung was....'). Some attention and care went into the preparation of 'Heroes,' which was true of another DMR Books release I read, this one, Ramsey Campbell's 'Ryre' stories collected in the 2021 volume, 'Far Away and Never.'

 

Summing up, if you are fond of the shorter fiction of Manly Wade Wellman, then 'Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria' is as good a way as any to acquire his sword and sorcery adventures.