Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Williams was a competant hack, adept at turning out copy the editor wanted. If I wanted to be snarky, I'd say "I read SF. Williams wrote SciFi." What he did wasn't at all to my taste, but it fit a number of other's palettes.
Pratt is also the author of what may be the best one volume history of the US Civil War.
Which? I like the Incompleat Enchanter series.
I'm also fond of _Land of Unreason_. The protagonist is stationed in Scotland during WWII, comes home from a night of drinking deciding he doesn't need more alcohol, and drinks the milk left out in the saucer for the brownies and replaces it with the scotch he didn't want to drink. He goes to bed, and awakens to discover he is being kidnapped to faery land by a bunch of drunken elves... 
Yep. Editor George Scithers took S&S seriously, and people like De Camp were contributors.
George was an officer in the US Army Signal Corps for much of the period Amra was published, and managed the logistical issues of publishing Amra from places like Korea. (He retired as a Lt. Colonel in the '70s.) He also described amusing encounters with Army security, as they attempted to understand his fan activities, and things like his membership in "The Cult of the Nameless", a long running Amateur Press Association I was also involved in back when.
______
Dennis |
It sounds like you've had some really great times with some of the greats.
I really enjoyed the arcane knowledge that appeared in Amra, especially from De Camp. I realize now that these professional writers contributed to Amra because of their love for sword-and-sorcery and for the (as I see it) growing Fantasy trend during that period of time.
There were a lot of sword-and-sorcery novels being published, and I read most of them.
I would love to see a return to form of this sub-genre, but perhaps I remember it so fondly due to being the right age (a teenager) when I discovered it. "Devoured" is a better word.
It was, as you surmise,
The Incompleat Enchanter and other collaborations between Pratt and De Camp that just didn't ring right with me. I should probably go and pick up an ebook now and see how it strikes me.
By the way, Dennis, thanks for the interesting personal information you've provided in your recent posts to this Thread - I find your remembrances fascinating.
Have you thought of writing them down? This is a book I would gladly pay to read.
Don