The Evil In Pemberely House!

The Evil in Pemberley House is one of the last entries in the Wold Newton mythology which Philip Jose Farmer had a direct hand in producing. The novel based on an outline by Farmer is the work of Win Scott Eckert, a writer who has specialized in Wold Newton yarns for several years now. This is one is a hoot and full of hard-nosed action and some provocative and at times erotic sex. Patricia Wildman is the daughter of Doc Wildman, Farmer's Wold Newton version of Doc Savage. Patricia is a young vital woman and a freshly made widow who is filled with complex sexual hang-ups, many having to do with her father. Patricia's "Daddy Issues" are only part of a longer and at times complex tale of which sets its action in the estate from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It's a scary house full of hidden passages, legendary haunts, and a gang of murderous relatives. 

We first meet Patricia as she is heading to take control of the titles and the estate which has fallen to her through inheritance. I will not even begin to try and to explain the family tree, but the book offers the reader two, one at the front which is spoiler free and another at the end which fills in those blanks. As is the case with much of Farmer's Wold Newton material most people are related to one another, if only tangentially, or related to someone you've heard of or read about. We follow the story from Patricia's perspective, and she is a young woman who is capable and astute thanks to her genetics and her upbringing. Still, she makes more than a few blunders which create some fearsome challenges. 

Like all the Wold Newton books, this one is a celebration of the myriad adventure fictions which have fired civilized imaginations for centuries. One of the problems with reading Wold Newton stuff is that the sheer complexity can get overwhelming and at times works against the momentum of the narrative. In this story for instance there is an embedded short story, which is read by Patricia over time which supplies necessary clues, but which unfortunately takes the reader out of the chase somewhat. But that's also the glory of his kind of stuff. Making the connections, getting that "Aha!" moment as the secrets unfold is pure fun, if at times a wee bit agonizing. 

Featuring a sexy painting by the late Glenn Orbik up front, this is not a book for the faint of heart. If explicit sex scenes offend you, this is not the book for you perhaps. Eckert in a forward says that Farmer was insistent that the sex stayed in the story, that those aspect of the story was as potent as possible. In the spirit of An Feast Unknown which in many ways ignited the Wold Newton universe so many decades ago, this late addition is full of blood, thunder and other vital juices. You have been warned. 

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Tarzan Alive - A Definitive Biography Of Lord Greystoke!

Tarzan is alive. Philip Jose Farmer spent decades developing this enticing notion that the Lord of the Jungle fabricated by Edgar Rice Burroughs over a century ago was not only based in no small part on a real man but a real man who thanks to African magic was still very much alive and would be for centuries to come. To that end Tarzan Alive - A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke from Bison Books is an outstanding read for anyone fascinated by ERB's legendary Ape Man like I am. Farmer was compulsive in his fascination with Tarzan and spent long hours writing up articles to explain this and that detail about his legend. He takes that compulsive power and writes a biography for all of us to enjoy which seeks to not only convince the reader that Tarzan is real but that most of his many adventures in the depths of Africa really happened (to greater and lesser degrees). 

ERB then is reduced to a role he actually creates for himself in the context of the Tarzan tales, a documenter of the events as he learns them. His information according to Farmer was by its very nature incomplete and because ERB sought like Tarzan himself to keep his real identity a secret many adjustments were made to the "facts" to hide things that might reveal just a little too much. As they say on the vintage cop show Dragnet - "Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." So Tarzan is real but that's not his name and neither is it Greystoke. Jane is real but that might not be her name. Opar is real but it's not quite as resplendent as ERB makes it out to be. La is real and she tempts Tarzan mightily but what happens to her is a mystery. Korak is real but he is not who you think he is. 

Mostly Farmer says the events of the first two novels in what he dubs "The Epic" are mostly true. After that it gets a bit more elusive. Pal-Ul-Don is not exactly what we think it is but there just might be dinosaurs of a sort. Lost kingdoms exhibiting traits of Crusaders and Roman Legions might be real but not on the scale we read about in the novels. The Leopard Men are real but the Ant Men are fiction. On and on it goes as Farmer deals in grand details with the events of Tarzan's life putting the novels and events into an order. The great apes which raised Tarzan are not quite what we thought they were, but neither were they civilized. Poor Jane comes in for some hard use but never does Farmer reject the essential love story which nests at the core of the Tarzan mythology. 

The book proper is followed by Addendums which add even more details to the events. One is an essay by a named Professor H.W. Starr who posits many of the connections which inspired Farmer to begin with though he reaches some slightly different conclusions. The longest Addendum, the second one is a crushingly detailed listing of the expansive genealogy of Tarzan's family including all the elaborate connections which make him a key member of the Wold Newton Family. (Briefly the Wold Newton Family is a conceit on Farmer's part that many of the world's famous historical and fictional figures are part of one elaborate family tree and that certain members were exposed as a group to nurturing radiation from the Wold Newton meteor which grants them superhuman gifts.) The Bison edition which I took great pleasure in reading this time also includes "Tarzan Lives - An Exclusive Interview with the Eighth Duke of Greystoke" and "Extracts from the Memoirs of "Lord Greystoke" which were both key elements of The Man Who Met Tarzan which I looked at last week. With both these volumes one has most of Farmer's key speculations about ERB's legendary creation.

The volume from Bison Books also includes a Foreword by Win Scott Eckert and an Introduction by Mike Resnick. These two essays serve well to put the Farmer focus on Tarzan into a working context for a new reader. Reading this work is rather like visiting the inside of Philip Farmer's hefty imagination, fully informed by robust readings and perfectly willing to take leaps of fancy which allow the whole Wold Newton enterprize to prosper. Philip Jose Farmer never broke from his pose that Tarzan was alive. If he could believe then so can I, and after you read Tarzan Alive - A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke so might you. 

But PJF was not done. His next stop logically enough was Doc Savage. More on that next week. 

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Secrets Of The Nine - The Monster On Hold!

The first three installments of the Secrets of the Nine saga were all written by Philip Jose Farmer in 1968 or thereabouts and were published as A Feast Unknown, Lord of the Trees and The Mad Goblin. These stories detailed how Doc Caliban and his half-brother Lord Grandrith battled the Nine, a secret cabal of impossibly old people who tried to run the world from the shadows. There was a fourth installment titled "The Monster on Hold" or "Down to Earth's Centre" proposed by Farmer at a 1984 convention where he shared some of the notes and early writings. It was alas never finished in his lifetime. But now it has been completed under the title The Monster on Hold by Win Scott Eckert who is an accomplished Wold-Newton theorist and has finished other Farmer fragments such as the The Evil in Pemberly House. 

The novel serves as a sequel of sorts to a canonical Doc Savage story, the last one in fact by Lester Dent entitled Up from Earth's Center. This Doc Savage finale from 1949 has the Man of Bronze confront underworld denizens who might or might not be actual devils. That the story ends without supplying the typical rational explanation for mysterious doings is unusual in the Savage canon and has led to much speculation as why this turned out the be the final outing for the good Doctor. (We know it was because Conde Nast saw that pulps were dying in the face of the new breed of paperback and the technological advance of television but don't mention that to a Wold-Newtonian scholar.)

Weirdly the story also draws upon a non-canonical Doc Savage story titled "Who Goes There?" written by John W. Campbell Jr. The "Thing" from this creepy story is suggested to have come from space and maybe that's true but maybe not, and did they kill them all really. 

Finally, the story owes a tremendous debt to H.P. Lovecraft and his C'Thulhu Mythos, the weird stories about other-dimensional supernatural overlords who are trying their damnedest to creep back into the world of men. There are also hints of Edgar Allan Poe blended in. 

The story begins in 1977 when Doc Caliban and his associates invade the North American stronghold of a member of the Nine. They are confronted with all kinds of threats, both to the body and mind but they prevail. Skipping forward to 1984 Doc Caliban again gathers his allies to descend into a vast cave network in New England (possibly around Miskatonic University) led by a man who is impossibly young and who was first encountered when these caves were penetrated in 1949. Doc and his team again face both threats to body and mind and find a weirdly bizarre world of peculiar creatures. It is a world which evokes Dante's Inferno but it's not that either. Eventually Doc sends his aides back to the surface as he goes even deeper. He's not alone though as the other-dimensional nature of this dim world allows him to connect to an "Other", a version of himself called "Lacewing". It is in fact Doc Wildman from the  Wold-Newton Universe. These two Docs acting as one encounter "Shrassk", a creature who exists between dimensions but seeks entry into our own to dire effect. There are more mysteries still to be solved but I don't want to ruin it all for you. 

 

The Monster on Hold was a rousing read and more than lived up to my expectations. It brought some closure to storylines developed in earlier "Secrets of the Nine" books but certainly left much room for more. This "Creative Mythograhpy" as Farmer called it makes for delightful reading as it mixes the new and old together with just the right blend of spicey storytelling. In addition to the story itself this volume also contains Eckert's seminal essay "The Wild Huntsman" which serves to clarify some of the relationships between characters. There are extensive original materials from Farmer himself as well as an excellent chronology to help a reader make sense of it all. The Monster on Hold can be picked up from Meteor House Press.

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Secrets Of The Nine - The Mad Goblin!

The Mad Goblin is one part of two which are together sequels to A Feast Unknown. The organization of this novel and its ACE Double mate The Lord of the Trees is made somewhat awkward because they are two adventures which dovetail into one grand battle which is shared between the novels. It's all rather complicated and led me this time read the books in a weird way, bouncing back and forth between them to capture the flow of both narratives and how they link. 

 

The Mad Goblin tells of Doc Caliban's battle against the near immortal member of the Nine named Iwaldi. Iwaldi plans to destroy most of the human life on Earth to return it to a time he remembered in his prehistoric past. His plans are opposed by the Nine who send agents to his German castle to stop him. Doc Caliban with his two aides Barney Banks and Pauncho Van Veelar (sons of his longtime associates) bring the battle to Iwaldi but are soon lost and trapped in the labyrinth beneath his castle. There they encounter two humans who claim to be archeologists who have themselves been trapped by Iwaldi's forces. There is a great deal of back and forth and many deadly traps are thwarted (more or less) but eventually Doc and his allies get free of the caverns and the forces of both the Nine and Iwaldi and head to Salisbury Plain and the monument Stonehenge where the Nine are to gather to bury one of their own. This quick-paced yarn ends with a brutal battle on the grounds of Stonehenge wrapped in a dense fog which makes finding all your allies difficult. More I will not say so as not spoil it all. 

Like its ACE Double companion, The Mad Goblin is designed by Farmer to be read at a breakneck pace. The action rarely stops and even when things become murky still there is an underlying motivation to race to the end. The final battle literally wrapped in the "fog of war" which allows it to dovetail effectively when the same battle is the climax of The Lord of the Trees. By the end of this story and its companion the Nine have suffered losses, but so have Doc Caliban and Lord Grandrith. The war against the Nine is not over. 

More on that tomorrow. 

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Secrets Of The Nine - Lord Of The Trees!

The Lord of the Trees is one part of two which are together sequels to A Feast Unknown. The organization of this novel and its ACE Double mate The Mad Goblin is made somewhat awkward because they are two adventures which dovetail into one grand battle which is shared between the novels. It's all rather complicated and led me this time read the books in a weird way, bouncing back and forth between them to capture the flow of both narratives and how they link. (More on The Mad Goblin tomorrow.)

 

The story picks up some months (undetermined) after the events of A Feast Unknown and Lord Grandrith and his half-brother and ally Doc Caliban are waging their war against the Nine, an ancient cabal which effects humankind in secret and offers to its agents the secret of near immortality. Lord Grandrith is planning to infiltrate the caves in Africa which have long served as a base for the Nine, but his plan is interrupted by many attempts on his life. He is captured by an agent of the Nine named Murtaugh and dropped into a sheer chasm where he encounters an old ally, a beautiful woman named Clara, and a new one named "Dick". Dick it turns out is one of the apelike creatures that raised Lord Grandrith so many years ago but Dick was plucked from the wild as child and raised in civilization (rather the opposite of what happened to our hero). John Cloamby (Lord Grandrith's real name) doesn't know who he can trust but he does escape and he takes his two new companions with him to complete his mission. There is treachery and I won't say much more in order not to spoil the story but eventually Lord Grandrith ends up in England on the Salisbury Plain  at the site of Stonehenge where he hopes to end the threat of the Nine once and for all. 

The story is told at a breakneck pace, as if Farmer wanted the reader to complete the book in one sitting. There are no chapter breaks but there are shifts in location which do serve to key the book to its companion The Mad Goblin. Lord Grandrith is of course supposed to be a version of Tarzan of the Apes, but Farmer pushes the idea that Tarzan as we've come to know him is much to civilized and human to have been raised by another species. His version of the feral man is much more savage and less sensitive to the moral qualms of polite society. This book does not have the extensive sex scenes which its predecessor had but a reader can easily see where Farmer might add some if he so chose. A Feast Unknown was for adults only, this book is for all Tarzan fans - young and old. 

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Secrets Of The Nine - A Feast Unknown!

It's a bit hard to describe A Feast Unknown to those readers who might be already inclined to read it. Those readers would be fans of either Tarzan of the Apes or Doc Savage or both. But this novel is not really about them while at the same time it is. (I told you this was complicated.) Philip Jose Farmer had a vivid imagination fueled by his adoration for pulp adventures and the heroes who dominated them. He has written about Tazan many times and put forth the theory that Tarzan was in fact a real live person. (As he says about his theory, he's serious but not "deadly serious".) Likewise for Doc Savage, though neither man is exactly like their "biographers' have described them. The fictional characters are based on these real men so to speak. This is all part of Farmer's elaborate Wold-Newton Family Theory which creates an immense family tree with all sorts of familiar literary names included. But the universe of A Feast Unknown actually precedes all of that.

 

In the universe of A Feast Unknown written and set in 1968 or thereabouts we meet John  Cloamby, Lord Grandrith who despite looking to be in his twenties is actually nearly ninety years old. He has taken an elixir provided by "The Nine" an impossibly ancient cult which guards its secrets with deadly force and uses its influence and wealth to secretly affect world affairs. In this story which is presented as merely one volume in the chronicles of Lord Grandrith we meet him when he comes under attack from Kenyan military forces. Grandrith will spend much of this adventure naked and discovers to his dismay that killing causes him to become sexual aroused. This proves to be a side effect of the elixir which as made him nearly immortal. Another person who has taken the drug is Doc Caliban who as this narrative beings believes that Grandrith has killed his cousin Trish Wilde. Caliban (also suffering the sexual problem) spends much of the novel trying to kill Grandrith. At some point they are both summoned to the lair of the Nine to find out they are candidates to join the Nine, but only one can it is determined the one who kills the other will get the nod. And that's it, but not really. 

Before reading A Feast Unkown you must realize it was originally published by Essex House, famous for its pornographic productions. And on some level A Feast Unknown is pornography with much space devoted to describing sexual acts between men and women and other alternatives as well. It's blunt and all of it functions within the boundaries of the plot, which at its heart is a rousing pulp adventure. Farmer writes in a style which encourages momentum, and it's actually difficult to stop reading A Feast Unknown once you commit to it. I guarantee you will see Tarzan of the Apes and Doc Savage in a new light after you've finished. But that was Farmer's point really I think. 

There were two conjoined sequels to A Feast Unknown -- Lord of the Trees and The Mad Goblin. These were issued as an ACE Double paperback originally and while they pick up the action of A Feast Unknown are not pornographic in any way, though this is definitely the same universe. There was a fourth novel titled The Monster on Hold, projected by Farmer which remained a fragment at his death but which has now been finished by Win Scott Eckert. I'll be taking a gander all three of these novels as this week rolls along. 

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Doc Savage And The Frozen Hell!

What is Frozen Hell? John W. Campbell is a name well known to science fiction fans as the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine (later known as Analog). He is the editor who mentored such sci-fi luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, A.E. van Vogt, and Lester Del Rey among many others. He is the guy who in many respects with his tastes and editorial decisions gave us the "Golden Age" of science fiction in the late 30's and early 40's. But Campbell was also a writer of no small reputation and some of his best stories were published under the pseudonym of "Don A.Stuart". More on Frozen Hell after you read this vintage and heavily revised Dojo article from many Moons ago. 

Hannes Bok

I was fishing around in my dangerously overly stuffed garage and stumbled across a box full of vintage Science Fiction Book Club collections. I used to get reams of neat stuff from this venerable source, at one time a ready window to the classics of sci-fi. A lot the books have gone away over time, but I've always kept my "Best of..." collections as a way to maintain access to some of more famous old stories. A few months ago, after finally seeing the most recent "Thing" movie (see here for more), I had the urge to read "Who Goes There?", John W. Campbell's classic story which triggered off some of my favorite sci-fi movie classics, but alas I couldn't find it.

But find it at last I did, and last evening sitting nestled comfortably in my dangerously over-stuffed garage (which I heat and keep a comfortable chair in for just these matters) I read Campbell's classic creepy story for the first time in decades. Needless to say the walk back into the house in the cold darkness was maybe, perhaps a tiny bit more uncomfortable than normal. Great little tale of creeping paranoia this one is.

The tale of an isolated party of Antarctic professional explorers isolated with a dangerous and deadly and recently re-quickened shape-shifting alien from twenty-five million years before and no counting how many miles is a classic scenario, rarely to be matched. If you would like to read it, it turns out it is available online at this very nifty location. Why I didn't stumble across this resource earlier this summer is anyone's guess. But by all means check it out.

From Doc Savage Fantasy Covers

One of the most intriguing things about the story which I've come across in more recent years is the notion that it is a stealth Doc Savage adventure, Doc being in reality the main character "McReady" (played by Kurt Russell in the John Carpenter movie). I was always rather skeptical, but after reading this tale again, notably published by Conde Nast, the company which holds and still guards the Doc Savage copyright, in Astounding Science Fiction in 1938 it makes me wonder.

McReady is very directly described as a giant man of bronze with bronze hair and eyes and his role in the story is perfectly consistent with what a young and somewhat less experienced Doc might've done in that situation. According to the Wold Newton chronology this tale would've happened prior to Doc forming the Fab Five and officially beginning his good works. I'm sure it a mere coincidence, but it's an above average tantalizing one. If it were a Doc story, it might bear the title "The Three-Eyed Goblin" or "The Twenty-Five Million Year Menace".

Richard Powers

And for those who like comics best, here's a link to an adaptation of the story which appeared in Starstream in the late 70's by  Arnold Drake and Jack Abel. Enjoy!

The story has of course been adapted to film. Not once, not twice, but three times. The 1951 flicker The Thing from Another World from director Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby starring Kenneth Tobey and future Gunsmoke lawman James Arness is a classic of "Red Scare" propaganda and is one of the most efficient and compelling movies of its time. I never tire of watching it and have done dozens of times over the decades. John Carpenter's 1982 adaptation The Thing with the aforementioned Kurt Russell as McCready is likely the one most folks think of, and it does a great job of capturing the paranoia of Campbell's original story. Likewise, The Thing from 2011 which gives us some more information about the uncanny aliens who can look like anyone or anything.

And brings us to Frozen Hell. Rather excitingly I learned that an early draft of the story turned up after laying hidden in Campbell's archives for decades. It's a bit longer by forty pages or so. It has been published by Wildside Press under the title of Frozen Hell. Campbell had tried to sell the story under the titles Frozen Hell and Pandora in this more elaborate form. But when it came time to publish it the story was severely shortened to enhance the horror aspects of the yarn. In whatever form I bet "Who Goes There?" is a danged good yarn, one that strikes closer to who we think we are than we like.

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After King Kong Fell!

King Kong from 1933 is a pivotal movie in pop culture in so many ways. It created for the world a new mythic monster, a creature who was not human but was still able to evoke a sense of tragedy when it fell from the top of the Empire State Building, the symbol of modern mankind's power over nature. It showcased movie-making techniques which quickened the imaginations of creators like Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen and countless others who either saw it when it was first released or during one of its many re-releases. It's been filmed again and again and very recently too, but despite all the improvements in tricking the eyes of moviegoers it has never been equaled in its ability to prick the heart. It's a great movie made by people who knew how to make a movie. But did the events captured so eloquently on screen in King Kong actually happen?

Philip Jose Farmer says yes to that question in his short story "After King Kong Fell". It's a tender tale of a grandfather named Tim Howler tells his impressionable granddaughter the true story of King Kong after the pair watch it on television together. It turns out he was thirteen and the events dramatized on film actually happened the year before the film was made and released and he was in NYC with is parents visiting his Uncle and his favorite Aunt. He was in the theater when Kong broke free and began is rampage through NYC and ultimately climbed to the top of the Empire State Building. His fall brought special tragedy to young Howler, and an unsettling understanding of human nature. 

I'd heard of the story long before I got to read it despite the fact it's been collected many many times over the years since its first publication in Roger Elwood's Omega anthology in 1973. I likely read it the first time in Tales of the Wold Newton Universe from Titan books. The story falls into the Wold Newton fold because after King's tragic descent two mysterious characters are seen by our narrator. One is a mysterious man with flashing eyes and profound nose with a companion named Margot. The other is a bronze giant of a man who dashes to the site of Kong's crushed body riding atop the running boards of a car filled with his five associates. These details give the story a bit of spice but don't in any way detract from its considerable emotional power. 

I read the story most recently in The Big Book of Adventure Stories edited by Otto Penzler. This is a fantastic anthology brimming with stunning classic tales including the full novel Tarzan the Terrible. Here's a handy link to see all the many other collections this story has appeared in. 

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Lord Tyger!

As evidenced by the past week I've been entranced with all things Tarzan, the fabulous creation of the late Edgar Rice Burroughs. And now I'm in search of my next novel to read. Having just finished a delightful Sherlock Holmes pastiche, I'm thinking it might be time at long last to read Philip Jose Farmer's "deconstruction" of the Tarzan myth, a book titled Lord Tyger.

I picked up a paperback of this ages and ages ago, but never got around to reading it. I bought it again as part of the wonderful Titan Wold Newton books many months ago, and finally the time seems more than ripe to plumb its depths.

Knowing that Farmer adores Tarzan, and having recently read his "biography" of "Lord Greystoke" and his doppleganger creation Lord Grandith in "The Secrets of the Nine" stories as well as the Time' Last Gift singular hero Gribardson, it will be interesting to say the least to sample yet another Farmer "Tarzan".

I'll have more to say when the quest is completed.

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Landing The Kilgore Trout!

Venus on the Half-Shell arrived the other day, the final volume in the Titan Books Wold Newton collection, for now. These have trickled out over the last several years and each one has been a treat, most of which I've only heard of and never read. This is the exception.

It's not your typical Wold Newton saga, but an exceedingly fun conceit by Philip Farmer. He fell in love with the work of Kurt Vonnegut (so did I once upon a time, but I've somewhat gotten over it) and wanted to write a story in the voice of Vonnegut's character "Kilgore Trout", specifically a novel referenced in a Vonnegut novel titled "Venus on the Half-Shell". It took Farmer a while to get permission from the bewildered Vonnegut, but eventually he did and the story appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I didn't see the story there though.

I stumbled across it completely naively on the book rack at my local college bookstore. The cover was sufficiently racy to get my attention despite having no knowledge of an author named "Kilgore Trout". I bought it and enjoyed it sort of. I like the idea of the story better than the novel itself, but it's all a piece, and I only learned it later. A bravura piece of performance art by Farmer, which he tried to get rolling with a number of his friends. They'd each select a character from a favorite work and then (with the author's permission) write a story in that voice. Some got produced and a list of them is in this latest Titan volume.

It's been many moons indeed since a brash college kid first swallowed Farmer's joke hook line and sinker. I'm curious what the disgruntled old codger I've turned into over the decades will make of this story.

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The Wild Hunt!

In the rich and vivid anthology titled Tales of the Wold Newton Universe, Win Scott Eckert's story "The Wild Huntsman" tells of a most mysterious exceedingly old man who shows up from across dimensions to see to it that time follows its pre-determined course, or perhaps not. This one goes to the core of the Wold Newton concept.

It's an exceedingly well written tale which re-introduces John Gribardson, Philip Jose Farmer's hero of Time's Last Gift, who is really it turns out supposed to be a certain rather famous Lord of the Jungle. The Huntsman himself might be someone else all together, perhaps even an All-Father figure.

The next story, also a sequel of sorts to Farmer's The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, continues the Wild Hunt saga in a manner of speaking in "The Adventure of the Fallen Stone" written by Eckert for the Moonstone anthology The Sherlock Holmes Crossover Casebook. In this one an aged Holmes and Watson must once again confront their arch-nemesis Von Bork, or maybe not. The aged man who once upon a time might have been Woden himself appears in what becomes a seemingly never ending quest for true immortality.  It's a fun story with a neat twist. 

In Moonstone's The Avenger Chronicles a story by Eckert titled "Death and the Countess" begins a curious trilogy of Avenger stories in which the machinations of this same ancient villain plays a part in the murderous plans of a lethal femme fatale called The Countess, though he is only named and  remains behind the scenes in this first installment.

In The Avenger - The Justice Files, Inc. the villain calling himself Walden now makes an appearance Eckert's "Happy Death Men"  and his previous plots become connected. In a wild yarn about murderous neo-zombies that pits Richard Benson, The Avenger and Ellen Patrick, The Domino Lady together against a revived and strangely altered Countess and the ancient enemy, there's a hint that Benson himself might be connected in ways perhaps even he doesn't understand to his persistent foe.

That idea is picked up again in "According to Plan of a One-Eyed Trickster" by Eckert in the third Avenger anthology The Avenger - Roaring Heart of the Crucible. The secret of the Countess is revealed and as it turns out calls back to a vintage Farmer story about Raffles in the Tales of the Wold Newton Universe anthology where all this started. We learn more about Waldman and perhaps about Richard Benson himself as he and the Domino Lady team up again.

The next installment in this lugubrious saga is scheduled for the upcoming Win Scott Eckert and Matthew Baugh novel A Girl and Her Cat from Moonstone featuring Honey West. I'll have to get hold of that volume and check it out.

I hesitate to say to much so as not to spoil, but I hope I've keened interest in thes Wold Newton stories. The ongoing complexity of a good Wold Newton story when it plays mostly fair can be fascinating and fun as you look for clues which point to other pop culture characters. But it's the story of the Wild Huntsman which it turns out might the spine which threads the elaborate saga together, and as you can see finding all the elements of that saga can be a rather wild hunt all its own.

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