After Robert E. Howard’s iconic Conan the Barbarian, my favorite mystical warrior is Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane. Wagner burst on the scene in the 1970s and appealed to the audience that had read all the Conan books and were looking for something similar in that genre.
Sword and Sorcery became a publishing category. Fritz Leiber energized the genre with his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Michael Moorcock unleaded Elric, the albino with the hungry sword, John Jakes had some success with his Brak the Barbarian books that were pastiches of Conan. But Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane extended the limits of Sword and Sorcery.
Kane is both a warrior and a sorcerer. Kane doesn’t have Conan’s distain for magic, he embraces it. In a series of three novels and about 20 short stories published between 1970 and 1985, Wagner established Kane as a character in Conan’s class.
Sadly, Karl Edward Wagner died in his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on October 14, 1994, essentially due to the effects of his longterm alcoholism. But, Wagner created a bold character who can still be enjoyed today. Are you a fan of Sword and Sorcery? GRADE: A
THE KANE SERIES:
Novels:
- Bloodstone (1975): In the treasure captured during a savage raid, Kane discovers a powerful relic.
- Dark Crusade (1976): Kane encounters an ancient cult of evil, and its power-hungry leader.
- Darkness Weaves (1978) (editorially altered abridgement published in 1970 as “Darkness Weaves With Many Shades”): The mad sorceress Efrel seeks war and revenge upon her erstwhile husband, king Netisten Maril, and enlists Kane as her general in command of an army of mercenaries and monsters.
Story collections:
- Death Angel’s Shadow (1973)
- “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul”: Kane encounters a shapeshifting enemy who knows him (sequel to Dark Crusade).
- “Cold Light”: A knight forms a band of crusaders and mercenaries, in a quest to find and kill Kane.
- “Mirage”: Kane meets another immortal and discovers that death isn’t the answer to his problems.
- Night Winds (1978)
- “Undertow”: A mistress of Kane seeks to escape from him with the aid of a young barbarian.
- “Two Suns Setting”: In a stony desert, Kane encounters the last of an elder race.
- “The Dark Muse”: Kane’s poet friend takes inspiration from a journey into chaos.
- “Raven’s Eyrie”: A previous victim of Kane plans to send his soul to hell.
- “Lynortis Reprise”: The survivors of a bloody siege meet a betrayer.
- “Sing a Last Song of Valdese”: A mutilated wizard takes his revenge.
- The Book of Kane (1985)
- “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul”
- “Sing a Last Song of Valdese”
- “Raven’s Eyrie”
- “Misericorde”: Kane enters the keep of the cruel Vareishei clan.
- “The Other One”: The gods are sometimes merciful, while Kane is less so.
Other tales:
Kane also appears in “Lacunae”, collected in Why Not You and I? (1987), and in “At First Just Ghostly”, “Deep in the Depths of the Acme Warehouse”, and “The Gothic Touch” (which features Michael Moorcock‘s Elric of Melniboné), collected in Exorcisms and Ecstasies (1997). This volume also includes the fragment “In the Wake of the Night” and an early version of “Lynortis Reprise”.
Sorry, I’m not a fan of Sword&Sorcery at all!
But I met Wagner once …
He too was at the Eastercon/Seacon in Brighton 1984 – that was fantastic!
I took my little camping van there, slept in the car for two nights and when some fans and celebrities left the hotel I got a cheap room for the rest of my stay.
Partied every evening with my friends from the Forbidden Planet London and met many authors which I got to sign my SF list – a computer printout of more than 100 pages. Everybody was amazed and happy to sign.
One reason for people liking me might have been that I had lots of German beer which I offered on room parties while others offered a joint …
I usually took the legal limit to Britain – 50 liters of beer, 150 cans.
On one of those room parties I also met Wollheim’s daughter and her husband who were managing DAW and suddenly appeared ***drum roll*** this guy who looked almost exactly like me!
Hair and beard were really similar, he just was a bit shorter – I was 6 feet 2 inches.
Now you can guess his name???
Actually it also happened that people would address me and think it was him.
PS:
From his name he obviously was of German descent and wiki says his mother’s name was Huber, also a German name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Edward_Wagner
From wiki: Wagner was a frequent visitor to London to attend fantasy and horror conventions.
Wiki also has a nice picture of me, sorry him.
So now you also know how I look – ok, the hair’s a bit shorter and thinner right now, but the beard is still the same.
An interesting story, Karl…I mean, Wolf.
The only people I have been confused with were David Selby (during his Quentin Collins/Dark Shadows days) and that sonofabitch Newt Gingrinch (during the beginning of the fall of American democracy). I took David Selby as a compliment — Newt Gingrich, not so much.
As for Karl Edward Wagner…a major talent too soon gone.
Jerry, I totally agree with your assessment of Karl Edward Wagner’s talent. Major, indeed. And too brief a Life…
Wolf, I am constantly amazed at the people you’ve met! And now I find out you’re a Karl Edward Wagner clone!
I was just a casual fan of S & S but read at least some of the work of the major practitioners, including Wagner. I was, however, a big fan of Wagner’s work in the horror field, both as a writer and editor. The series of Years Best Horror Stories he did for DAW in the 80s and 90s were an annual treat.
Michael, those DAW YEAR’S BEST HORROR volumes that Karl Edward Wagner edited go for Big Bucks now. He did a masterful job partly I think because he loved the genre and knew a lot about it.
Wolf’s story was a delight!
Patti, I’m always amazed and delighted by the stories the commentators on this blog reveal to us!
No, not a Sword & Sorcery fan, though I’ve read a few.
Love Wolf’s story. 150 ans of beer! Nice job.
Jeff, Wolf has lived a colorful life!
Yes, I was lucky to start working in computers when this was an exotic topic and then I was one of the few who could discuss and write English very well – in the USA sometimes people thought I was British because of my British English. To have studied mathematics also helped with topics like Relational Databases.
And then after the first three stressful years (120 nights in hotels on business trips …) I decided to not become a project manager, just a lowly consultant and my company needed me so much that they agreed for me to work only three weeks a month as a freelancer – was enough money for the family.
Again, fond memories!
There are indeed people to not-resemble ahead of KEW, Wolf. Along with his impressive talent and amazing productivity as writer, editor, publisher and more (particularly given his tendency toward depression and overindulgence in self-medication…him being an MD who gave up practice might’ve been not the healthiest thing for him, in the long run), he also wrote me a nice letter, alas not too long before his death, about my first published story (the second time I’ve mentioned “Bedtime” on this blog in a few weeks, I think).
Now, George, Fritz Leiber was a great model for Wagner, as much as Howard was…Leiber definitely expanded the boundaries of s&s (and Leiber also came up with the term “sword and sorcery” fiction). Inasmuch as my early reading in s&s ran to Leiber, Wagner, Jack Vance, C. L. Moore, Janet Fox, Joanna Russ, Avram Davidson, Glen Cook’s earlier work in that mode, et al., I’m not sure how I wouldn’t be a happy reader of s&s, even if I’ve never been the biggest fan of Howard, and please keep Lin Carter’s various attempts at s&s at a safe distance. No on justly judges any form of art on anything but its best examples.
Todd, I plan on rereading and reviewing a number of Fritz Leiber stories and novels in the months ahead. I agree with you on the excellence of C.L. Moore’s JIREL OF JORY!
No one justly judges, that was meant to read.
And not Moore alone!
Read some S&S at a younger age, esp. Robert Howard, Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber. Still love Leiber and Vance. Howard not so much. Never read any of KEW’s S&S but liked his work in the horror field.
How can someone resemble both David Selby and Newt Gingrich? They don’t even look alike.
Thank you all for the compliments!
Yes, on my trips to England (often just a long weekend to London for shopping) I met a lot of friendly and interesting people, authors, booksellers, publishers – and other “big customers” who like me had a place where special editions or signed books for us were put.
I was a really friendly atmosphere. From your reports it’s similar at cons in the USA – but for me the country was just too far away and too big for a short visit or a quick shopping spree.
Re Leiber and Vance:
Again I have to admit that I found their SF wonderful, filled with new ideas, but S&S?
PS:
It’s horribly hot again all over Europe, you can’t go out during the day so I’m sitting at my laptop all day while my wife is enjoying her ebook reader.
Try reading their sword and sorcery fiction, Wolf. The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, and the Cugel stories alone might revise your notions of what makes s&s.
I forgot to recommend the S&S stories of Matthew Hughes. Much in the mode of Cugel.
Steve, I agree with you on the S&S stories of Matthew Hughes. His new short story collection, MIXED BAG, arrived today. I’ll start reading it tomorrow!