Transcribe
Translate
Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946
Page 215
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
FANTASY COMMENTATOR 215 Tips on Tales by Thyril L. Ladd M.P. Shiel's Lord of the Sea (1901): When Richard Hogarth discovered the huge, diamond-studded meteor, he knew that there lay enormous wealth---and power. This was his chance for revenge against his unmerited conviction for murder, his opportunity to revolt against the overlordship that hereditary and wealth gave the few over to the many in England. So, secretly, he caused to be built twelve great fortified "islands", which were then anchored at strategic spots on the world's oceans, where their guns commanded all shipping that might pass. After this he issued a manifesto---claiming the waters by the same right that man before him had claimed lands and made themselves kingdoms; "I am Lord of the Sea," said he, and ot the nations' dismay he demanded, and got, levies and tribute before ships were permitted to sail by his well-placed islands. The remainder of this highly engrossing novel deals with Hogarth's efforts to socialize the world governments and reapportion the land, that all might enjoy what until then had for the most part been possessed by the few; and with the events that grew out of this benevolent dictatorship. The Lord of the Sea is powerfully written, and undoubtedly represents one of Shiel's most successful efforts at casting a fantastic tale. Percy Brebner's Knight of the Silver Star (1907): The townspeople laughed and jeered at a young man who claimed he had glimpsed a strange lost land just beyond the great glacier which overhung their village, but he unheedingly made the hazardous journey up and over the ice-wall. There he found himself in a valley that had been glacier-locked for centuries, where men and women still lived as they had in bygone days. There, too, he was precipitated into adventures within a medieval citadel. This tale's modern rendering of a Gothic atmosphere is most unusual, and is well worth reading. F. Anstey's Brass Bottle (1900): When the young architect bought an old brass bottle at an auction, he little dreamed that on unstoppering it he would release a genie who had been imprisoned there ages ago by King Solomon. But this did indeed happen, and thus was begun a series of fantastic events in which the hero was involved. The story is replete with humor---some of it dated, to be sure, but extremely entertaining nonetheless. The genie is determined to "help" his unwitting benefactor, and does so with a grandiloquence and fervor more suited, perhaps, to the time of King Solomon than to that of a moder young Englishman, who finds much of it extremely embarrassing. Robert W. Chambers' Police!!! (1915): While most collecting fans possess or have read the delicately humorous fantasy episodes in the author's earlier In Search of the Unknown (1904), it does not seem generally known that he wrote a sequel to it. In Police!!! Chambers continues those adventures episodes, peopling the book, indeed, with the same characters previously met with. This reviewer believes this book to be even more interesting than its predecessor, perhaps because of the modern settings for the adventures, each of which delights the reader with a surprise ending worth of Robert W. Chambers at his best. Elizabeth Birkmaier's Poseidon's Paradise (1892): Here one finds an enthralling account of the sinking of Atlantis, with carefully noted sources for the author's concepts of the legendary continent. Woven into this is an extremely fantastic tale of life there, and of fearsome experiments that have been undertaken in order to create immortality. All in all, it is a well-written story, a volume well worth reading.
Saving...
prev
next
FANTASY COMMENTATOR 215 Tips on Tales by Thyril L. Ladd M.P. Shiel's Lord of the Sea (1901): When Richard Hogarth discovered the huge, diamond-studded meteor, he knew that there lay enormous wealth---and power. This was his chance for revenge against his unmerited conviction for murder, his opportunity to revolt against the overlordship that hereditary and wealth gave the few over to the many in England. So, secretly, he caused to be built twelve great fortified "islands", which were then anchored at strategic spots on the world's oceans, where their guns commanded all shipping that might pass. After this he issued a manifesto---claiming the waters by the same right that man before him had claimed lands and made themselves kingdoms; "I am Lord of the Sea," said he, and ot the nations' dismay he demanded, and got, levies and tribute before ships were permitted to sail by his well-placed islands. The remainder of this highly engrossing novel deals with Hogarth's efforts to socialize the world governments and reapportion the land, that all might enjoy what until then had for the most part been possessed by the few; and with the events that grew out of this benevolent dictatorship. The Lord of the Sea is powerfully written, and undoubtedly represents one of Shiel's most successful efforts at casting a fantastic tale. Percy Brebner's Knight of the Silver Star (1907): The townspeople laughed and jeered at a young man who claimed he had glimpsed a strange lost land just beyond the great glacier which overhung their village, but he unheedingly made the hazardous journey up and over the ice-wall. There he found himself in a valley that had been glacier-locked for centuries, where men and women still lived as they had in bygone days. There, too, he was precipitated into adventures within a medieval citadel. This tale's modern rendering of a Gothic atmosphere is most unusual, and is well worth reading. F. Anstey's Brass Bottle (1900): When the young architect bought an old brass bottle at an auction, he little dreamed that on unstoppering it he would release a genie who had been imprisoned there ages ago by King Solomon. But this did indeed happen, and thus was begun a series of fantastic events in which the hero was involved. The story is replete with humor---some of it dated, to be sure, but extremely entertaining nonetheless. The genie is determined to "help" his unwitting benefactor, and does so with a grandiloquence and fervor more suited, perhaps, to the time of King Solomon than to that of a moder young Englishman, who finds much of it extremely embarrassing. Robert W. Chambers' Police!!! (1915): While most collecting fans possess or have read the delicately humorous fantasy episodes in the author's earlier In Search of the Unknown (1904), it does not seem generally known that he wrote a sequel to it. In Police!!! Chambers continues those adventures episodes, peopling the book, indeed, with the same characters previously met with. This reviewer believes this book to be even more interesting than its predecessor, perhaps because of the modern settings for the adventures, each of which delights the reader with a surprise ending worth of Robert W. Chambers at his best. Elizabeth Birkmaier's Poseidon's Paradise (1892): Here one finds an enthralling account of the sinking of Atlantis, with carefully noted sources for the author's concepts of the legendary continent. Woven into this is an extremely fantastic tale of life there, and of fearsome experiments that have been undertaken in order to create immortality. All in all, it is a well-written story, a volume well worth reading.
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
