Lin Carter’s Gondwane epic is Oz for Adults. It truly brings all the craziness of L. Frank Baum’s enchanted land into a format for more mature readers. (You wouldn’t want children asking what exactly Grrff the Tigerman wanted to do with the Gynosphinx!) The six books of Godwane (I will explain their odd chronology later) form a massive imaginative work that I think Carter does not receive enough credit for. His novels are so often a pastiche of others that when he moves beyond mere imitation, nobody notices. This series may just do that.
It is hard to imagine how prolific Carter was in the 1970s. In 1974 specifically, he wrote in the Conan series, the Green Star series, his Martian series, his Thongor series, the single novel, Time War, edited Kadath, and still had time to pen the first Gondwane novel. 1974 marked his first year after doing the Ballantine Fantasy series. He was a freelance novelist and story writer, making a splash at DAW Books. His mind was full of the Fantasy authors he had helped rediscover and it all came to boil with Gondwane. Take every Fantasy writer, J. R. R. Tolkien, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, L. Frank Baum, Jack Vance and many others, stick them in a blender and hit PUREE…
The series is most often compared to Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth but that is a superficial comparison. Both series take place at the end of the world, when magic is real again. Beyond that, there is as much to say it is based on Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique. Gondwane has the same density of Vance, and the sly humor of Smith, but it more joyous fun than either series. That would be the Baum influence, I think. Whoever the inspiration is, the books are a continuous ride through a bizarre world filled with sorcerers, witches, monsters and heroes. Book follows book with no real break, as you ramble along with Ganelon Silvermane, construct of the mysterious Time Gods, the Illusionist of Nerelon, Xarda of Jemmerdy, Grrff the Tigerman, the giant robotic Bazonga Bird and Erigon of Valardus (and others as the cast changes from time to time.)
Be warned the plot synopsises below are very skeletal. There is so much going on all the time in these books, it is best if I just give the gist of things.
The Warrior of World’s End (1974) begins with Ganelon Silvermane being found by his adoptive parents, raised into manhood before joining the Illusionist of Nerelon at his enchanted palace. They go adventuring in the hull of the Gazonga Bird, a flying metallic robot. Their first adventure takes them to Horx and being arrested as heretics. They are joined by Xarda before going off to the air mines of Karjixia. The Karjxians are tigermen who are enslaved by the air masters who sell them the very air. Ganelon and his friends put an end to the monopoly.
The Enchantress of World’s End (1975) starts of with a trip to Chx where everybody suffers from cultural schizophrenia, being very staid in the day time and murderously sexual in the night. Ganelon gets captured by the Red Queen, who wishes for him to father her child. Sadly, the construct has no libedo (or even sexual equipment?) He is very much modeled on Doc Savage and his golden chastity. He will play bride groom to several marriage but remain unattached. The scattered friends are rejoined at Kan Zar Kan, a flying mechanical city. They befriend the Kan Zar Kanians.
The Immortal of World’s End (1976) begins with the Ximchak invasion encountering the city of Kan Zar Kan. Five thousand barbarians are chopped up in the city’s fans. The Illusionist of Nerelon bows out (along with Xarda who has married the Prince Erigon) to be replaced by the Immortal of Gondwane, Palensus Choy and his fat scientist friend, Ollub Vetch. This book has the team defeat the Ximchaks as they try to invade Valardus (and get sushied), then Mount Naroob where they get crushed under the flying castle of Zaradon, and finally invade neighboring Trancore, where Ganelon surrenders to Wolf Turgo because his friends, Grff the Tigerman and the gynosphinx, Ishgadara, have been captured.
The Barbarian of World’s End (1977) has Ganelon taken to the Ximchak capitol as a prisoner. He is made to suffer by becoming a Ximchak. Once in the ranks, he quickly rises to chief and finally kills Zaar for the kingship. Now the leader of the Horde, Ganelon takes the starving barbarians out of Gompland to new adventures in the north. His plan is to show them a better way than ravaging and pillaging. Ruzara, formerly a Gomp, craves the big man’s affections but does no better than the Red Queen or Xarda. This volume had less of the Oz feel of the previous books, with more of Thongor/Conan vibe.
The Pirate of World’s End (1978) is episodic like the rest of the series, beginning with Ganelon finding a new girl friend, Dalassa, a princess escaping a religious cult. She flees homeward, getting everyone captured. Ganelon and Grff fight the talking stone heads, pulling them out of the ground and rolling them into the river. After this, pirates invade. (Now I would point out that when Carter winds down a series he often brings in pirates. The sixth and final Thongor novel has the Pirates of Tarakus and the Cimmerian has Conan of the Isles for his final adventure.) The group is taken hostage by Zarcas the Zirian. They acquire a robot named Zork Aargh, so now they have a tinman and a tiger. When the natives of the Ookaboolaponga Islands attack the Bucket o’ Blood, Zarcas’s ship, Zork takes them out lie TikTok, the Army of Oz. The book meanders island to island, adventure to adventure ending with the heroes happily at home among the pirate brotherhood, ready for more adventures.
And the DAW five volume series ends there. No big soul-shaking finale. But what of Giant of World’s End? That book was published in 1969. Isn’t it the first of the series? Yes and no. It might be better described as a dry-run.
Giant of World’s End (1969) was published by Belmont Books. (For more on Belmont/Tower Books go here.) This novel features many items that Carter re-used in the later books. These include a wizardly patron, Zelobion the Magician, the Crystal Mountains, the Red Lady and her dwarves, stone faces, a talking ship, Prairie pirates and a flying city. The tone of the book is far more Sword & Sorcery in the style of Jack Vance and perhaps a little more sarcastic, with characters like Zul-and-Rashemba Mythos. (Remember Carter gave the members of S. A. G. A.: The Sword & Sorcerers’ Guild of America, corny names like his own Purple Druid of the Gibbering Horde of the Slime Pits of Zugthakya) The book was dedicated to Lin’s friend, John Jakes who wrote a similar book, Mention My Name in Atlantis in 1972 for DAW.
Conclusion
Robert M. Price, usually a champion of all things Carter, felt the Gondwane novels were “no good”. I disagree. I found them quite readable fun. The earlier ones were jammed with ideas and fantastical characters and information.The later ones calm down and get on with telling stories in a very L. Frank Baum or Edgar Rice Burroughs manner. There are no great Fantasy innovations here but I would recommend these books to someone who wants an entertaining distraction. Not everything has to be Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings serious. (This may sound odd coming from me, not a fan of humourous fantasy in general.) The Gondwane novels can be refreshing for a reader who has grown a little jaded after all the epics. I call it Oz For Adults in that each book is a treat, filled with silliness and fun, for an older crowd. There are some clever bits, some standard tropes, and you will want to read the next one just as soon as you have finished the first.
Good analysis
I read some or all of the World’s End books in the late 70s or early 80s except for Giant which I know I didn’t read.
I don’t remember much except for two scenes: Ganelon and two or three companions, one of which was mechanical or partly mechanical holding off a vast number of attackers with the dead piling up around them.
And Ganelon strolling down a city street where god-maker(s) who trying hawk to him their wares. My young self thought it was cool that you could buy a figurine and have your own personal god.
I do remember the series was quite gonzo and I want to reread it sometime but not sure I’ll get around to it.
It’s been a long time since I read those, but I loved them. I hung out with Lin Carter for an afternoon and he was great fun. I miss those days.
i keep asking if anyone has any audio or even video interviews with Carter. He strikes me a fascinating dude.
I scored a complete set of these at a used bookstore a while back and I adore them. Glad to see that there are other fans out there.
OK, someone assure me that this is not going to start off dull like The Green Star and then throw in some crap like the apparently 14 year old Dejah Thoris type character. I loved the Thongor novels and a few other Lin Carters but that Green Star just stopped me in my tracks.