I was over at the Odd Shots blog today and was reading Sharon Shinn‘s post, which happened to include vintage covers of western novels by Ernest Haycox, who was a great influence on her. At first blush, it might indeed seem odd that Sharon who is an award winning, best-selling SF author was so strongly inspired by a writer of a seemingly disparate genre. However, it really does not seem that strange to me at all.
As cool as they are, however, Westerns are not my favorite books or movies. Personally it was and to this day remains what Ilona says is called the Sword and Planet sub-genre. When I was younger, I had no idea that this subgenre had a name, I knew that those covers were made of cool. You know the ones with the buff guy, usually bronzed and shirtless holding a sword in one hand and some type of laser pistol in the other. Typically he was either riding or being attacked by some fantastic alien creature. If there was a hot chick on the cover all the better. It was like they combined the best elements of outer space exploration with gunfighters and pirates.
How It Started
It all started for me in the late 70′s with the Flash Gordon cartoon and movie. The Buck Rogers movie and t.v. show came out about then too, but that character has always held less interest for me as it was straight Sci-Fi. All space ships and jet packs. It never captured my interest. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I was able to appreciate more respectable Science fiction titles like Stranger in a Strange Land or Dune.
Flash Gordon, on the other hand, had a sword, Prince Barin had a bow (he was basically Robin Hood on Mongo), and Zartan, King of the Hawk-men, had a mace. Also, though he doesn’t really make it into the movie, Flash’s best friend was a Lion-man prince. I got the collection of the animated series for Christmas. It is cheesy and the kids make fun of me when I watch it, but it’s nearly as cool as I remembered it being nearly 30 years ago.
A few years later, the He-Man toys came out. Before he was Prince Adam, He-Man was simply a primitive hunter who saved the Sorceress from some monster and was given the magic harness and a cool sword. That was the story in the little comic that came with the action figures. When the cartoon came out, they changed the storyline a bit and He-Man’s mom was an astronaut from earth who had crashed on Eternia (sounds familiar). In the cartoon both the heroes and the villains employed magic and advanced technology in a way that was fascinating to me. He-Man used an enchanted sword and his nemesis Skeletor seemed to prefer the arcane arts, while Man-at-Arms and Lock Jaw were all about technology and advanced weaponry. The He-Man cartoons, both the 80′s version and the newer one, offer a nearly perfect blend of magic and technology.
He-Man by Earl Norem
The Thundercats changed it up a little but the main character still had a magic sword and the villain was still an evil Sorcerer. The Thunder Cats were from a technologically advanced race that had fled the destruction of their home planet and crashed on a primitive world. They were always fighting evil mutants and trying to scavenge the planets ancient technology to enhance their damaged space ship in hopes of escaping to the stars. Their villain, Mumra, was basically an ancient Egyptian mummy that somehow magically had come to life. It was an odd mix of space technology and Egyptian myth.
In Thundarr the Barbarian, a natural disaster had reduced mankind to simple savagery, twentieth century technology is mostly lost and replaced by magic and the evil wizards who used it to enslave humans. Instead of aliens, you had a host of mutant weirdos. Thundarr of course had, yep you guessed it, a magic sword and a sorceress princess who fought by his side, as well as a powerful lion like companion, Ukla the Mok (a bit like a Wookie). A lot of people realize that the fabled Sunsword is very similar to a Light saber from Star Wars, but what few know is that comic great Jack Kirby also worked on the show.
Roughly ten years earlier Kirby had created a very similar comic series for DC entitled Kamandi after his groundbreaking cosmic drama the Fourth World had been canceled (though considered brilliant today it was way ahead of its time and did not sell well). Kamandi was the last human on an earth overrun by highly evolved beast-men. He had grown up in a bunker called Command D. His grandfather and others had hidden in it following an atomic war. There is no magic in Kamandi’s world but his best friend is a tiger prince who he saved from the evil ape-men. It is a largely unknown and underrated series but you can buy a collection in hardback from Amazon. Its kind like Thundarr and Fallout but drawn by Kirby.
While I know a bit about the genre in comics and cartoons, what I did not realize until a few years ago was that the whole thing had been started by Tarzan’s author Edgar Rice Burroughs. In 1912 Burroughs published A Princess of Mars staring John Carter a Civil War vet who would come to be known as “The Warlord of Mars.” Before this there was really nothing like that out there. Burroughs Martian series combined Science Fiction with romance and adventure.
Though John Carter is less famous than his jungle lord counterpart, I prefer his stories. Not only are they fun to read, but without them there would be no Flash Gordon or Eric John Stark, a character that Leigh Brackett, author of The Empire Strikes Back, created in the late 40′s. Surely based somewhat on Burroughs Warlord, Stark was a human child raised by the natives of that savage planet Mercury. In Secret of the Sinharat and People of the Talisman, Stark, the mercenary and the outlaw, even travels to Mars to “thwart a red revolution.” Leigh Brackett is considered a giant of the planetary romance aka sword and planet sub-genre. Ilona grew up reading her stories and was undoubtedly influenced by them.
I know we don’t write about alien planets or the bare chested men who conquer them with sword and savage strength, but I like to think we do explore the themes of magic and technology clashing, of people like Kate learning to make the best of it in a new and frightening world.
I cut my teeth on mythology, followed shortly thereafter by Jules Verne. No wonder I feel so much at home in your world.
=A
ditto…and of course, Ray Harryhausen
Indeed, I love his work on the Sinbad movies and of course Clash of the Titans. I don’t know if the new CGI version coming out this year will be as cool as Harryhausen’s stop motion animation was.
But Sam Worthington rocked in Terminator Salvation and will be a great Perseus. I know what you mean though… sometimes CGI is so “clever” it loses the magic of the RHH stuff. Sort of too bright and shiny and a bit soul less.
I started very young with a series called “Cherry Ames, Student Nurse” (much like Nancy Drew)and went on from there but I will always remember my first “sci-fi”…Ray Bradbury, “The Illustrated Man”. sigh…
Oooh, He-Man! I loved the cartoon with his sister too! She-Ra, if I remember correctly. Even as a child I’ve always found very funny that if you take a VERY big prince, you undress and tan him then nobody, even his mother, is able recognize him. Ok, there’s a personality change as well (not so much at usual with “superheroes”) but he’s probably the only male on the planet with a very macho pageboy haircut!!!
I got started in Sci-Fi reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. Then on to the rest of his books. Then on to Anne McCaffrey. I’m not really sure how anyone considers Stranger in a Strange Land “respectable” as it is not what I would consider even in the top ten of the best Sci-Fi books, but it was how I (and lots of my friends) got introduced to Sci-Fi. Back then there was not a lot of Sci-Fi written that girls could relate to, and Heinlein wrote very relatable characters. I think all of us had a secret crush on Lazarus Long.
Books are subjective. Many people, Gordon and me included, consider STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND a classic.
It had a profound impact on both of us.
There are social themes in that book that were revolutionary for its time and are still relevant today. It attracted many readers who were not sci-fi fans, it resonated deeply with the social changes the society was experiencing at the time, and it’s never been out of print.
It’s kind of like trying explain WATCHMEN to someone unfamiliar with comics or only familiar with the last decade of so. They look at it and wonder what the big deal is, but when it came out, there was nothing like it and it blew people away.
I loved this book and did a book report on it high school and have read it many times since. As an English teacher I put it on my list of books for students to read when they are doing individual projects ( I have to get parental permission), I love to see their responses. I had a great project from junior last year, he wrote newspaper articles on events from the book, but with both conservative and liberal slants, placing them in newspapers and magazines of today. It generated three days of class discussion! Heaven for a teacher.
Just as an example that some books work for some people and not the others, I have never been able to get into Anne McCaffrey. I bounce off her writing like dry peas from a hard wall.
I’ve been so very careful to be silent when fandom talks about her, afraid I’d burned at the stake if I admitted I just couldn’t get into her books. What a relief to know I’m not alone
=A
She is kind of like the Tom Clancy of Sci Fi. Awesome plot, characters, etc. but oh my god… the myriad details explained at length! I think I got into McCaffrey because I ran into her shorter books first. Dragonsong, The Ship Who Sang, etc. From there I was able to move happily into Dragonsdawn and The Rowan.
Ha! I liked the Pern books well enough, but always felt there should be . . . more somehow. There was a distance between me and the characters that was frustrating. I liked the Freedom series better, and some of her short stories are pretty cool.
Did you know she wrote, like three I think, romance novels? They’re pretty good.
I like those better. My favorite book of hers though is Restoree. I read somewhere that she wrote it as a spoof, but it works for me. 
Ring of Fear! 70s romance in all its glory!
Yeah, I know. It’s a guilty pleasure.
The hero’s such a memorable character; he comes alive off the page.
Stitch in Snow is very good – about an “older” couple who fall in love during a weekend fling. The heroine’s a famous author.
:ahem: sorry for the topic drift
Thundercats, He-Man, and She-Ra shaped my childhood, and instilled a love for magic and science. Liono (sp?) was my boyfriend, I wanted to ride a tiger, and have jet packs. Mumra scared the living hell out me, just his music sent shivers up my spine. I purchased all of these DVDs for my niece and nephew, and they’ve worn them out. Some themes, are timeless.
I also grew up with Greek & roman mythology. I loved it and still do. So does my daughter which thrills me to no end.
I did my time with the Thunder cats,
he man, Hercules, and Zena the Princess Warrior. She rocked!!
I went a little into Si Fi- early Piers Anthony & Terry Brooks but then I found Harlequins and I was a goner. lol
I had totally forgotten about Burrough’s Martian series! I’ll have to see if the local library has any and re-read them.
I started out in Sci-Fi with Andre Norton’s Witch World series and kind of wandered from there.
They’re doing a live action of John Carter of Mars. Taylor Kitsch has the title role and Willem Defoe is in it.
Having an absolute and unwavering adoration for John Carter of Mars I can honestly say Taylor Kitsch is not who I picture when I think of him. But if they do Tars Tarkas well…that’s Willem Defoe…then all will be well in my John Carter of Mars Universe.
As a teen if I wasn’t reading WWII non-fiction I was nose deep in Ray Bradbury’s short stories. I can still remember two of them very vividly after *cough* four decades. (The Scythe and The Small Assassin). That’s powerful prose.
OMG, thank you for the tea! It smells like heaven.
My pleasure. Gotta have those tea nirvana moments at least once per day or what’s the point of it all?
I have a deep love for early E.E.Doc Smith space opera. The Gray Lensman directly influenced Star Wars and everything after it. The technology is incorrect, the gender roles ridiculous and they smoke cigs and drink brandy like crazy- but the story is a damn good time.
I think my first sci fi book was in the second grade. My teacher read us My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannant. It was a series and I devoured the rest. A friend found me a first edition {1956? I’d have to look} for my 18th Birthday. It holds a place of honor on my bookshelves even today. I read everything after that.
So if we are talking about Westerns and Space I just have to say FIREFLY! Even tho it isn’t a book. And honestly, FARSCAPE also!
We are big fans of Firefly, after watching Serenity, we went out and bought the first and only season on dvd. It is terribly sad to me that a show like that can be canceled while other shows that kind of suck seem to go on and on, yeah I’m looking at you One Tree Hill.
OOOooo Firefly! And oooo Mal…the ultimate cowboy in space. Now that I think about it, that was about the time I gave up watching TV and there hasn’t been much to draw me back in…well, um, except True Blood
Have you tried Castle? Nathan Fillion has a lead role on that show and is still pretty Mal-ish. He gave Firefly a pretty good send up in their Halloween episode.
I loved that Fillion wore his Mal outfit for Halloween. What is he? Space cowboy.
You’re darn tootin’ he is.
I’m still crushed that Firefly got cancelled and replaced by “The Littlest Groom”.
I hates reality TV…
I only slightly forgave Fox for that when they began airing Glee. We’re scarily close to shows like “Climbing for Dollars” a la Running Man.
Thank the heavens for good authors, ’cause there’s certainly a lack of good writers in TV these days.
OMG, loved Farscape. It was one of the best Sci-fi shows out there. That is, until they let the actors start writing episodes. Talk about Epic Fail.
“Flash’s best friend was a Lion-man prince”
I think i know this story. something about a lion-man with lots of followers, …
Ahh can’t remember were i read about it
Maybe it was that Beauty and the Beast show with Ron Perelman and Linda Hamilton.
LOL! The lobby in the dorm was standing room only when that show came on.
=A
I grew up with the Disney read-along books. Play the record and turn the page at the chime. What a great invention! But as far as reading on my own, I cut my teeth on The Black Stallion series, then moved on to the Narnia books. Then back to animals with White Fang and Alfred Payson Terhune’s “Lad: A Dog.”
I accidentally picked up Ruffian’s life story around age 7 or 8 – just a few years after that crappy match race – I’ll never forget the moment I realized she wasn’t going to make it. As someone who grew up on a working Arabian horse farm I’ve always felt very connected with horses and I was devestated that she died.
When I finally stopped reading animal novels, I moved on to “‘Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King and I was hooked. I read everything he wrote well into my college years and I still re-read “The Stand” (the full version, not the edited-down version that was first put out although that was the version I read first, when it was originally published) every year or so.
I tried reading “Dracula” at about 11. I couldn’t stand the epistolary writing style. It wasn’t what I considered storytelling! I think I was out of high school before I could appreciate that book.
I think my first committed move into fantasy was when I discovered Anne McCafferey’s books. Then I devoured Mercedes Lackey and “Dune.”
Ah, memories…
You still into horses? Come play on the forum board with BluMtn and me and some others who are horse types. Blu is into Fjords and driving and I’m German Warmbloods and dressage.
Oooh – will find you on the forum (as soon as I find out how to use the forum). Is there a thread on this? I started Western as a kid, moved to hunt seat in college (competed on the eq team) and then onto dressage. Last horse was a Dutch warmblood – I’m between horses. Want an Spanish Norman next.
I still love horses but I don’t ride any longer. The last time I rode competitively I took reserve champion at the Canadian Nationals in Native Costume. Arabians get to play dress-up.
My mare died at the age of 30 a few years ago. She lived out her life on my parents’ farm and is (illegally – shhhhh) buried on their land.
I don’t make enough money to keep a horse on my own, living where I do. Maybe someday!
I will look you up on the forum, though. I still enjoy horse-talk.
Dune grabbed me early on, I think it at least 5 times. I had to learn the “language” LOL … I loved Thunder Cats !!! My kids saw one of the old shows and they keep giving me that “are you kidding me, this is so bad” look… oh well.. we did not have computer animation then.
They are all into Japanese Anime, which i have to admit I enjoy. We went to a Anime Con, FUN !
Some of the best animated films i have seen ( and enjoyed with my girls) recently have been anime. Howl’s moving castle and spirited away are excellent and my kids love them.
During the winter break Kid 2 would stay up until the rest of us had turned in and watch all the Miyazaki movies that we have. I think the only one she doesn’t like is my favorite Princess Mononoke, it is too sad for her. We went to the movies last year to see Panyo and it was really good.
It s the mixture of darkness-light-fantasy that I like. It ‘s far better for them than another chipmunk sequel.
I read The Shining by Stephen King when I was about 13 and I was hooked. Horror, good and bad, had me in it’s tentacles until I discovered The Lord of the Rings, which I loved. Then I went on a fantasy binge.
It wasn’t until I was in my 20′s that I discovered a love for sci-fi, though I had always enjoyed sci-fi movies and t.v…still do. A dark sci-fi series that stands out that I enjoyed (more like loved, loved) was The Gap series by Stephen Donaldson.
I read “The Shining” on the way to a horse show when I was about 11. I finished it on the way home and promptly turned to the first page and immediately re-read the whole book. Now that’s the sign of a good book!
Have you read the Mordant’s Need duology by Stephen Donaldson? “Mirror of Her Dreams” and “A Man Rides Through” – I loved those books. Still do!
I loved those books! They didn’t feel like Donaldson’s other work, they were “nicer” for lack of a better word. I also like his Thomas Covenant books, which seem to be the only ones I ever see in the bookstore.
Oh my… He-Man and Thundercats… that brings back memories! Snarf!
For me everything was mainly book oriented. LotR led to Anne McCaffrey led to Lois Bujold and so on. On a separate path I was completely into romance novels… and then I found one called Amaryllis by Jayne Caste (Krentz, Quick). Romance on another planet! OMG! It was like romance and sci-fi combined! That led to Vampire Romances and eventually Urban Fantasy and Kate.
And of course no one of my generation could escape the influence of the ultimate sword and blaster experience of that time — Star Wars.
I don’t think I truly became a rabid fan of sci-fi/fantasy until I became totally adicted to online games, namely Star Wars Galaxies (my husband’s fault). I was a closet sci-fi geek before then. After I became an adict there was no hiding it. Since I shed the pressure of attempting to appear normal I’ve read and explored all sorts of genres and blithely recommended them to family and coworkers alike.
I started with Burroughs and then moved onto Andre Norton. Star Man’s Son – still have it. (I am resolutely NOT turning around to look at my bookcases for other titles and authors – must work – must!)
OK – one more digression I can’t resist. SM Stirling recently wrote two books that I’ll call “homages” to Burroughs and the other Mars and Venus Sci-Fi books. They’re fun too.
Until I was about 13 I just read Fantasy, not a single Sc-Fi book. That is pretty amazing considering the fact that my father has a Sci-Fi library containing about 1500 books. Once I borrowed my first book from his nightstand (Piers Anthony) the damage was done. I read every book about Xanth over and over again. It was absolutely stunning worldbuilding (I so want a tree that grows bread and lemonade and trousers and houses made of cheese!!)
Then I read McCaffrey, Asimov, John Wyndham , A. Burgess (I read Clockwork orange in English which was crazy because I had such a hard time trying to understand the slang and newly invented words, that I couldn’t make sense of it. I should have let it rest. But NO, some years later, having gained some language skills, I needed to read it again. I still think this book caused some severe damage to my brain, but it truly is an amazing piece of work…insane work) , Bradbury, Huxley, Atwood and so on. Those kind of helped me to grow up. Of course I knew, that not everyone had such an easy and sheltered life as I was and am fortunate to lead. I think it was important for me to read about hardships, that never made an appearance in my lovely life. Quite disturbing to see how similar some of those fictional worlds were to mine and to imagine how easily things could be changed into something I would fear.
And then I discoverd this great author. He wrote about a very flat word with all kinds of different species and many complex political and social problems that somehow seemed to resemble some of my worlds’. But no matter how difficult the problem, in his books, it always turns out well. Good for me, the desperate optimist. I think I own nearly every book Pratchett published. He is my hero.
I read The Blue Adept in 7th grade – I’ll never forget it, there was a picture of a lady in red showing a bit of cleavage on the cover and I was terribly nervous that one of my teachers would take the book away from me. I still read it during class, though.
haha. I nearly did the same thing. I always read in school. Back then I was easily embarassed and blushed at the covers.I thought of them as very …revealing. So I wrapped the books in colourful paper when I wanted to read them in public. Now I stand up for my reading choice and don’t care what people think ^^
I’d forgotten this, but I started out reading SF “buddy adventure” books by Lester Del Rey and the like and Andre Norton’s Beast Master (Never any of her other books though, isn’t that strange?). It was basically just me, unguided in the library, looking for “fun” SF “adventure” books. Then one day I accidentally read Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm and promptly abandoned SF (I was young and impressionable.)
I’m just now cautiously getting back into SF/F via urban fantasy. Still can’t do hopeless apocalypses though (not young, but still impressionable) so I proceed carefully with the help of the internet.
I can see I missed a lot in the “fun adventure” category.
I can proudly say that my poison when I was little was Brian Jacques’s Redwall series. I ate/drank those books up like soup. They were the type of books that made you want to get up and go have adventures outside battling giant owls and greedy lizards. Afterwards, I got more into old fairytales like Beauty and the Beast. Man, back in the day I would swoon over a peck on the cheek or an awkward head touch. Today,its about the smex.
“growing up” bit me and I went through some moon induced hormone transformation.
(no regeneration included)
haha
Don’t read Brian Jacques’s books when you are on Weight Watchers. The food… the food! Crazy woodland gluttons!
Good stuff – the comments are a total trip down memory lane! I’ll try not to repeat the themes from above too much!
I started my love affair with the strange with Lewis Carroll (absolutely LOVE Looking Glass, was never into Wonderland as a kid.) I wasn’t a Narnia instant fan; but they grew on me…but as a pre-teen, I found the very first book by Mercedes Lackey, and man, I could have sworn she knew me! LOL.
TV – Branched out through Thundercats/She-Ra into Voltron – the one with the Lions; which was planet centric; not the space one. Which somehow led to RoboTech; although I think that verges more traditional sci-fi…
Hmm… I posted a comment yesterday, but it’s not here? So I’ll post again.
As a kid (and teen, and adult) I watched a lot of the “action/adventure” cartoons. One of my favorites that you didn’t list was Pirates of Darkwater. But I am glad to see you include Thundarr the Barbarian. After I read your series last fall, I described it as “An adult, sexy version of Thundarr the Barbarian.” Of course, my friends then asked “Who is Thundarr the Barbarian?”
Wow… Pirates of Darkwater. The weirdest thing. I totally recognize the name, I googled it and I remember all the characters, I get a little thrill when I think of it so I know I liked it… cannot remember a single episode or any plot. My mind seems to have developed a black hole.
I remember getting hooked on sci-fi/fantasy with Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. My mom took the book away from me so that I would go to bed on a school night! The tv movie of that book just didn’t do it justice. At the time my goal in life was to tesseract.