A new series of Hercules tales in 1997 could only mean Tor Books was willing to gamble on the popularity of another Hercules. Kevin Sorbo had been starring in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys since 1995. Disney had their own Hercules in 1997. The public domain character of mythology was not owned by any one company. So Hercules fever gave us a new set of three novels. (Not to be confused with the novelizations from the TV show. These were written by Timothy Boggs and others.)
Now I am going to admit, back in 1995, I watched the pilot for Sorbo’s show and quickly decided it wasn’t for me. The modern ethos and camp set-up were not what I wanted. I like Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and the Evil Dead movies but this Herc wasn’t my Herc. I have to admit I was expecting something closer to a Ray Harryhausen film. Greek warriors acting as ancients would have long ago. The Sensitive-New-Age-Guy thing was counter to what I expected.
So I began Betancourt’s trilogy with a little trepidation. Was this going to be good Sword & Sorcery or more modern-style silliness? Glad to report (only twenty six years late) that the Betancourt is my kind of Hercules.
John writes of the origin of the series:
You can actually blame Greg Cox for my Hercules series — he was working as an editor for Tor at the time, was a huge Xena fan (he even wrote a book about the series), and decided the time was right for Tor to cash in on the Hercules/Xena phenomenon. Since I was the only
person he knew who’d spent a lot of time in Greece, he asked me if I’d like to write the series. I warned him from the beginning that I hated both the Hercules and Xena TV shows with a passion, and he agreed that I could do what I wanted, so — we had a deal. I got a 3-book contract and proceeded to write the series.
Greg wanted a strong woman in the series, and Xena (obviously) wasn’t an option, so I used Atalanta instead. There’s no reason she couldn’t have been friends with Hercules. I had them join the Argonauts, which seemed a perfect vehicle (so to speak) for their adventures.
The Wrath of Poseidon (1997) begins as Herc, Jason, Atalanta and a band of heroes sets off for Colchis and the Golden Fleece in the ship, Argo. The Argonauts stop for water in a small village called Teros. The locals seem very skittish and suspicious. The small town is crammed with refugees from distant Troy. Hercules and only his female companion, Atalanta, talk with the villagers and discover that the people have fled the city because of a sea monster. Being heroes, they agree to go and kill the monster.
At the same time, we follow two thieves, Hylas and Nalos, who are working for the bandit chief, Koremos, a centaur. They spy in Teros and tell their master of the heroes and their quest to kill the monster. First, they cut the Argo free and set it adrift while the heroes sleep off a big drunk. Unfortunately for them, Jason wakes up and the Argonauts row back to the dock. Hylas and Nalos tell a good story so the captain doesn’t suspect them.
Hercules, Atalanta and few others go to Troy to fight the sea monster. They come upon it as they arrive and manage to frighten it off, something no one has done before. Hercules also gleans that the monster’s strength is linked to the sea. They meet King Laomedon and his sickly daughter, Almacea. Hercules does not like the way the king treats his beautiful white horses so he insists they will be the price for ridding Troy of its ills. Hercules also learns that the troubles Troy has had, the sea monster and a mysterious plague, are the result of the king not paying his debts to Apollo and Poseidon.
The book splits chapters between Hercules and Jason after this. The two thieves decide to throw in with the Argonauts and stop a plan to steal the ship. Hercules and friends slay the sea monster then have to deal with the plague. This they do by consulting an oracle who tells him that the source of the disease is a giant worm in the catacombs. The beast has impenetrable skin. The heroes go there and Hercules kills it by cutting his way out of its stomach.
All tasks complete, the heroes find Laomedon doesn’t want to pay. Hercules is angry but allows Jason to deal with the problem, being a prince. Jason goads the Trojan king into a duel. Laomedon unwisely chooses Atalanta to fight for Jason. No one but an old steward will fight for Laomedon. He has to fight himself. He loses to the woman warrior, then tries to stab her in the back. Hercules kills the king with a spear. Later, Laomedon’s brother, Cleon, comes out of exile to be a much better king. He parts on good terms with the Argonauts.
All that remains to be read, is the epilogue in which we learn the centaur, Koremos has survived the battle of the ship. He swears to go to Colchis by land and set a trap.
I enjoyed this first outing. Betancourt has a nice blend of mythology (which can be too oppressive in some works) and Sword & Sorcery adventure. The characters of Hercules, Jason and Atalanta (the main heroes) are PG-13, which I think was intentional. Hercules never looks at Atalanta with dirty thoughts. He doesn’t bed any women, and he could have any one in the city of Troy. He doesn’t even try to sleep with the princess who has a crush on him. This isn’t Game of Thrones territory. His portrayal of the female warrior, Atalanta, is better than most S&S in terms of making her a well-rounded and believable hero. I suspect she is in love with Hercules too but won’t admit it.
The Vengeance of Hera (1997), the second novel begins with the Argo at sea in a storm. Hercules has to save his captain, Jason, from drowning before the ship runs aground near the island of Thorna. The Argonauts find the locals terrorized by a cyclops named Gryx the Terrible. The head man, Uram, asks them not to stop the choosing of six boys and six girls to feed the monster. The heroes can’t stand by and a great battle with the giant takes place in his cave. (Betancourt avoids the tired tale of blinding the monster. Hercules breaks his jaw then strangles him to death.)
This is just the warm-up, because as Uram warned the giant kept the myserae away from the island. With Gryx dead it isn’t long before they show up. (The author does a great job of making us wait for the terror that lies unknown but lurking.) The myserae turn out to be pterodactyl-like killers. They descend on the island and start killing anyone outside. The heroes have to fight them off to get back to their ship. Nalos, one of the two boys from the first novel, dies. (This surprised me. Most of the heroes never wear the “red uniform” to put it in Star Trek terms.)
The rest of the book follows the crew as they try to find where the myserae live, and how to destroy them. This leads them to another island, Sattis, where everything seems peaceful under King Muros. The king is suspicious, spying on his guests. Eventually Muros tries to kill the Argonauts and to take the ship. This begins a war between the two kings that sees the palace burnt and the people of Sattis fled.
Behind all this is another man and a goddess or two. The chamberlain, Vargas, is a worshiper of Hera. Remember that title? The Vengeance of Hera? Turns out the myserae are her creatures, hidden away after the defeat of the titans. Vargas, armed with a magic amulet, controls the myserae, and ultimately, Muros. The book ends in a showdown between chamberlain and flying demons and the heroes of the quest.
The origin of this second novel is more complicated:
I had a full time job as the science fiction editor at Byron Preiss Visual Publications at the time, so my writing time was limited. The second book had an impossibly soon deadline after the first one. I ended up borrowing heavily from a sword & sorcery novella called “The Brothers Lammiat at the Fortress of Lord Mur” (a horrible title, I realize now), which I had published in Amazing Stories magazine in 1988. It’s about a pair of brother pirates who are on a quest, part of my Zelloque series. and it’s the second of three stories about the Lammiats.
Incidentally, the first Lammiat story was rewritten from the opening chapter of a Conan novel that Catherine de Camp has asked me to write as an audition to be a Conan author. So you can say that Robert E. Howard is a direct influence on my Hercules novels. I really enjoyed writing the Lammiat stories and put them together to form a novel called The Pirates of Zelloque, which Avon bought but never published. My agent finally took the rights back. So it felt like a nice salvage to have a chunk of it as my second Hercules novel.
(John assures me there is no lost Betancourt Conan novel out there, in case you were thinking what I was thinking…)
The third book, The Gates of Hades (2001) has a different look than the previous two. Betancourt explains why:
As a result of the first two volumes’ poor sales, the third book was delayed for a year or two and finally appeared with all mentions of Hercules scrubbed from the book’s cover. They even cropped him out of the cover art. To me, it looks like a historical fantasy about the Greek underworld, with a big picture of Cerberus guarding the gates. I suspect readers were either puzzled or put off by it, since it also didn’t sell, either. But at least Tor gave the series a second chance.
The third book is a rambling affair, beginning with two monster encounters that are fun but don’t add much to the plot. The first is a whale-like creature and the second is a roc from Sinbad’s bestiary. (This works fine for me, as the Sinbad tales borrowed from the tales of Odyessus.) The roc damages the ship, making it necessary to land. We know ahead that the black centaur, Koremos has set a trap. Hercules and Atalanta fall for the ploy when a runner tells them that an old friend’s son is dying in Arbora. They leave and the bandits attack the ship. Jason is killed by the centaur, something that is impossible since the Oracle has told Jason he will go to Colchis.
When Herc and Atalanta return, Hercules becomes so angry he sets off for the underworld to get his captain back. Atalanta and Hylas come along, trying to keep up with the demi-god. Hercules is guided by a vision he received from the goddess Athena. She warns him to beware the cold that burns. They first must cross into the land of Lyrcos, where the corrupt officer, Xeor, tries to rob them. They slip out and rush for the mountains. Xeor and his men pursue. The trio end up in a frozen castle where two people have been trapped by an ice monster. These are Princess Isdal and her escort, Gannar. Together, along with Xeor and a few survivors, they destroy the strange creature that rises up from the ground, freezing its victims to death.
Free to go to Hades, the trio enter a cave that leads to the underworld. Atalanta and Hylas see wonders and terrors. Hercules deals with Cerberus quickly, as he has subdued the beast before. Betancourt has a little fun, with two heads trying to bite him while the third is friendly and licks him. Confronting his uncle, Hades, Hercules demands Jason back. The Lord of the Underworld agrees if Hercules can complete four tasks. The book becomes very traditional myth material here as Herc accomplishes: one, capturing North Wind and making him blow the stink of Hell away, two, blocking the River Styx for a day and night, by pulling out the plug. The third task is to find someone willing to trade places with Jason. Hercules visits all his friends in a dream but no one is willing to go to Hell. Hercules solves this by saying he will go.
Hades is getting fed-up with his nephew and it takes Zeus showing up to end the contest. Hades agrees to return Jason and the rest of the dead Argonauts if Hercules will leave. Herc flies immediately back, leaving his two friends behind. Jason and ten others are resurrected. Here is where I feel Bentancourt wrote too quickly. The boy Hylas lost his brother to the myserae in the last book but he doesn’t plead for the Nalos’s return. He doesn’t even mention him again.
Betancourt tells of the third book’s creation:
I had to write the third book immediately after the second, another impossible deadline, and I wish I’d had a little more time to polish
it. It was a lot of fun to play with Greek theatrical conventions, though, particularly the deus ex machina. The ending may seem silly,
but I contend it’s perfectly valid historically. I don’t want to spoil it by saying too much for anyone who wants to read the book.
The book concludes with everyone happy after attacking and killing Koremos and his bandits. The series ends and we never get to Colchis or the Golden Fleece. Atalanta tells Herc of her love for him in the third book but that romance also would never see its proper ending. It would have been nice to have at least one more book to complete the quest.
Conclusion
The total lack of fan reaction to John Gregory Betancourt’s Hercules doesn’t surprise me. I think they slipped through the cracks between Hercules/Xena and those who were fans of Fantasy and mythology but not the TV show. John agrees:
Alas, the first two Hercules books didn’t sell well. Not at all. I guess with “real” Hercules and Xena novels available, the TV show’s audience wasn’t interested in historical fantasy novels being marketed as knockoffs. And because of the TV shows, I strongly suspect a lot of people who liked historical fantasy thought my books were media tie-ins — the Science Fiction Encyclopedia listed them as such until a few years ago, when I noticed and complained that they weren’t. The editors were quick to update the series entry. Too little, too late, though.
John says: “I’ve always been happy with my Hercules novels, and the few people I’ve found who read them claim to have enjoyed them.” I can’t recommend them enough if you are an old school Sword & Sorcery fan like myself. They are to my mind the right way to write a heroic fantasy series set in an established world of myth. The mythology is there but not to the point where the author is just rewriting Bullfinch or Edith Hamilton. (I think Evangeline Walton’s Mabinogeon and Keith Taylor’s Bard series have a similar style of blending the old with the new.) Betancourt has his own publishing company now. Maybe he will reissue these three with a fourth someday…
John adds:
Alas, probably not. Since a Tor editor came up with the idea, Tor made these work-for-hire books, and Tor still owns them. I gave them permission a decade or so ago to issue ebooks based on them (ebooks weren’t covered in the original contract), but as far as I know, they never released them. So they will probably be buried in used bookstores for all time…
