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Zanthar #1
Zanthar of the Many Worlds
ELSEWHERE!
Professor John Zanthar, brilliant electronics specialist, walked around the advanced, compact cyclotron he had designed . . . and vanished.
Some strange, subatomic energy vortex lifted him, twisted him, and seemed to translate him . . . into another world.
Zanthar found himself on the strange planet Letar, where all his knowledge of science availed him not at all against the alien foes and forces he had to battle. For he landed in the middle of an all-out, primitive war - and he had to choose sides immediately and fight back strenuously . . . for his own life and those of his new allies, with the only weapons his naked hands could muster.
Zanthar was a fighting man as well as a scientist. He knew no fear, and he knew he could win out over anything he could see and feel. But then he was followed from Earth by the sinister Fu Cong, and he began to learn what real war was . . .
Professor John Zanthar, brilliant electronics specialist, walked around the advanced, compact cyclotron he had designed . . . and vanished.
Some strange, subatomic energy vortex lifted him, twisted him, and seemed to translate him . . . into another world.
Zanthar found himself on the strange planet Letar, where all his knowledge of science availed him not at all against the alien foes and forces he had to battle. For he landed in the middle of an all-out, primitive war - and he had to choose sides immediately and fight back strenuously . . . for his own life and those of his new allies, with the only weapons his naked hands could muster.
Zanthar was a fighting man as well as a scientist. He knew no fear, and he knew he could win out over anything he could see and feel. But then he was followed from Earth by the sinister Fu Cong, and he began to learn what real war was . . .
- GenresPulpScience Fiction
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Robert Moore Williams
228 books10 followersThe prolific author Robert Moore Williams published more than 150 novels and short stories under his given name as well as a variety of pseudonyms including John S. Browning, H.H. Harmon, Robert Moore, Russell Storm and E.K. Jarvis.
Williams was born in Farmington, Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He had a full-time writing career from 1937 through 1972 and cut his teeth on such publications as Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Astounding, Thrilling Wonder and Startling.
In 1955 Williams cranked out The Chaos Fighters, the first of 30 novels he would write over the next 15 years. These novels include the Jongor and ,Zanthar series. His most unusual book, however, is one that is labeled as fiction, but is actually an autobiography: Love is Forever - We Are for Tonight (Curtis 06101, 1970). In this short, 141-page work Williams presents a description of his childhood and then discusses his experimentation with hallucinogenic gasses, Dianetics and 1950s-era communes.
Williams married Margaret Jelley in 1938 and they had one child. The couple divorced in 1958. According to the Social Security Death Index, Williams died in May of 1977 in Dateland, Arizona.
Williams was born in Farmington, Missouri and earned a journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He had a full-time writing career from 1937 through 1972 and cut his teeth on such publications as Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, Astounding, Thrilling Wonder and Startling.
In 1955 Williams cranked out The Chaos Fighters, the first of 30 novels he would write over the next 15 years. These novels include the Jongor and ,Zanthar series. His most unusual book, however, is one that is labeled as fiction, but is actually an autobiography: Love is Forever - We Are for Tonight (Curtis 06101, 1970). In this short, 141-page work Williams presents a description of his childhood and then discusses his experimentation with hallucinogenic gasses, Dianetics and 1950s-era communes.
Williams married Margaret Jelley in 1938 and they had one child. The couple divorced in 1958. According to the Social Security Death Index, Williams died in May of 1977 in Dateland, Arizona.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 7, 2024
Nice others worlds adventure. good fun read. Recommended
May 17, 2014
I love Sword and Planet fiction. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, Alan Burt Akers (aka Ken Bulmer), and many others. There’s a reason why I’ve spent so much time writing it myself, as with the Talera series. I find it the purest form of adventure fiction. And I take it seriously.
I also demand that the writers whose Sword and Planet offerings I read take it seriously too. I’m afraid that I can’t quite picture Robert Moore Williams, who wrote this book, Zanthar of the Many Worlds, taking the genre seriously.
The book begins with John Zanthar, a brilliant Earth scientist who invents a machine that can open portals to other worlds. Zanthar himself is sucked through it accidentally, and later two of his students are sucked through as well. So is a man named Fu Cong, who becomes the primary villain of the story. So far, so good.
Then the weaknesses with the work start to arise. One would expect that transportation to an alien world would cause a person a bit of dislocation and discomfort. Not Zanthar. In the first few pages of the story he acquires some allies who decide he’s a god, and defeats the leader of a horde of attackers who are riding “miniature dinosaurs.” These appear to be T Rexes a bit bigger than the “Velociraptors” of Jurassic Park. Zanthar kills one of these dinosaurs with one blow from a “copper hammer” he’d been carrying in his lab when the transportation occurred. He also has no problem communicating with his new friends, who are conveniently riding telepathic beasts. And one of his new allies is a beautiful woman capable of healing any wound merely by laying hands on it and concentrating. Later she proves capable of raising the dead. (I’m not sure I’ve ever had a day that easy in the real world.)
I’m also a lover of good poetical prose, and the best Sword and Planet fiction has this. The prose in Zanthar of the Many Worlds is almost completely leaden, and in many cases just downright silly. Here’s a bit of prose from early in the book: “And then: ‘The love-life?’ Zanthar questioned. He did not understand the term. In fact, he was not at all certain that he understood a tenth of the words she used. ‘I do not understand.’” The repetition was just wretched.
Later, there’s an actual bit of dialogue imagined by Zanthar between atoms. I’m not making this up. Here it is:
“Zanthar had the impression that he could hear the atoms talking each to the other, saying, ‘Brother, where are you?’
‘Comrade, what has happened?’
‘Sister, why are we in darkness?’
‘Cousin molecule, where has mother gone?’
‘And where is father?’
‘Is—is this the night that never ends?’ an atomic voice wailed.
‘Is—is this the end of the universe of atoms?’ another whispered.”
That was it for me. I stopped reading and just quickly scanned the rest of the book. I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone. And, do be aware that there are three sequels in this series, Zanthar at the Edge of Never, Zanthar at Moon’s Madness, and Zanthar at Trip’s End. All were published by Lancer books and were probably contracted for to capitalize on the Conan boom of the sixties. They were published between 1967 and 1969 and I’m guessing they were written exceedingly fast. I know Moore wrote a lot of books. He died in 1977. I have a few others of his at the house, most notably the Jongar series. They’ve all moved way down my list of books to read after this Zanthar fiasco. I read a quote once about a different writer that rather sums up my feelings about this book. “That’s not writing. That’s typing.”
I also demand that the writers whose Sword and Planet offerings I read take it seriously too. I’m afraid that I can’t quite picture Robert Moore Williams, who wrote this book, Zanthar of the Many Worlds, taking the genre seriously.
The book begins with John Zanthar, a brilliant Earth scientist who invents a machine that can open portals to other worlds. Zanthar himself is sucked through it accidentally, and later two of his students are sucked through as well. So is a man named Fu Cong, who becomes the primary villain of the story. So far, so good.
Then the weaknesses with the work start to arise. One would expect that transportation to an alien world would cause a person a bit of dislocation and discomfort. Not Zanthar. In the first few pages of the story he acquires some allies who decide he’s a god, and defeats the leader of a horde of attackers who are riding “miniature dinosaurs.” These appear to be T Rexes a bit bigger than the “Velociraptors” of Jurassic Park. Zanthar kills one of these dinosaurs with one blow from a “copper hammer” he’d been carrying in his lab when the transportation occurred. He also has no problem communicating with his new friends, who are conveniently riding telepathic beasts. And one of his new allies is a beautiful woman capable of healing any wound merely by laying hands on it and concentrating. Later she proves capable of raising the dead. (I’m not sure I’ve ever had a day that easy in the real world.)
I’m also a lover of good poetical prose, and the best Sword and Planet fiction has this. The prose in Zanthar of the Many Worlds is almost completely leaden, and in many cases just downright silly. Here’s a bit of prose from early in the book: “And then: ‘The love-life?’ Zanthar questioned. He did not understand the term. In fact, he was not at all certain that he understood a tenth of the words she used. ‘I do not understand.’” The repetition was just wretched.
Later, there’s an actual bit of dialogue imagined by Zanthar between atoms. I’m not making this up. Here it is:
“Zanthar had the impression that he could hear the atoms talking each to the other, saying, ‘Brother, where are you?’
‘Comrade, what has happened?’
‘Sister, why are we in darkness?’
‘Cousin molecule, where has mother gone?’
‘And where is father?’
‘Is—is this the night that never ends?’ an atomic voice wailed.
‘Is—is this the end of the universe of atoms?’ another whispered.”
That was it for me. I stopped reading and just quickly scanned the rest of the book. I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone. And, do be aware that there are three sequels in this series, Zanthar at the Edge of Never, Zanthar at Moon’s Madness, and Zanthar at Trip’s End. All were published by Lancer books and were probably contracted for to capitalize on the Conan boom of the sixties. They were published between 1967 and 1969 and I’m guessing they were written exceedingly fast. I know Moore wrote a lot of books. He died in 1977. I have a few others of his at the house, most notably the Jongar series. They’ve all moved way down my list of books to read after this Zanthar fiasco. I read a quote once about a different writer that rather sums up my feelings about this book. “That’s not writing. That’s typing.”
April 9, 2017
So, I bought all four books in this series based on the cover art by Jeff Jones, who also did covers for certain Robert E. Howard collections. The first Zanthar adventure, Zanthar of the Many Worlds proves to be a lamentably dated new-age-y adventure pastiche which attempts to combine Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft and Sax Rohmer elements (which should have been good!) without displaying any of the skill or entertainment value of those authors.
Also, despite being the main character, Professor Zanthar is only in about half of this book. The rest of it is composed of highly irritating intervals about Zanthar's young lab assistants Red Cornish and Laurel Ponder (yes, those are really their names). Red and Laurel try to find out what whisked Zanthar off to the many worlds (there was in fact only one) when they get abducted by the main villain, Fu Cong. Fu Cong has a flying saucer and a bunch of minions and he promptly takes these two hapless youngsters off to his fortress in Tibet only to find himself continuously lectured by Ms. Ponder.
This is where we get to one of my biggest gripes with this book: author Robert Moore Williams was 60 when he wrote it and he'd been a professional writer since during The Great Depression. So why, in 1967, did he set a book in 1981 only to have everything be virtually identical to the world in 1967? The parts on Earth (in "the west" anyhow) are populated with hippies and acid heads and terms like "love-in" or "drop-out" are still commonplace? Being delightfully dated is one thing, but to arbitrarily decide that the future will be identical to the present (especially in a sci-fi/fantasy novel) is beyond lazy!
Also, Fu Cong was clearly inspired by Rohmer's Fu Manchu, he's a mad scientist with a lot of thugs and Asian. However, whereas Fu Manchu always spoke clearly and remained cool and in control in every situation, Fu Cong has a ridiculous exaggerated accent (which seems to be French) and he is easily derailed when Laurel Ponder explains to him that in "the west" they have monogamy, toilets, and no vermin or disease. Who the hell lectures a supervillain and doesn't get tortured afterwards?
Oh and race riots are referenced and "war between the colored and white nations"
Meanwhile Zanthar's off planet adventures are just a little too easy as he learns two new languages in a couple hours and befriends all the good aliens much too easily (John Carter and Flash Gordon at least had to fight some guys and crash a rocket or two first). Oh, and the humanoids think he's a god right from the get go and the aliens are far too willing to come to his aid (double dues ex machina). It's like nobody on this planet has anything better to do.
So, the verdict is, unless you're looking to laugh at supremely dated awful sci-fi, this book is not for you. For all I know it improves vastly in the sequels, but somehow I doubt it.
This is in fact a bigger disappointment to me than the Gor series, because at least that was infamous to start with and I had some warning, plus that first book almost tried to be a sword and planet book instead of a full-time porno. Zanthar doesn't have the excuse of being porn, it's just a sad drab smear on a genre I otherwise enjoy.
Also, despite being the main character, Professor Zanthar is only in about half of this book. The rest of it is composed of highly irritating intervals about Zanthar's young lab assistants Red Cornish and Laurel Ponder (yes, those are really their names). Red and Laurel try to find out what whisked Zanthar off to the many worlds (there was in fact only one) when they get abducted by the main villain, Fu Cong. Fu Cong has a flying saucer and a bunch of minions and he promptly takes these two hapless youngsters off to his fortress in Tibet only to find himself continuously lectured by Ms. Ponder.
This is where we get to one of my biggest gripes with this book: author Robert Moore Williams was 60 when he wrote it and he'd been a professional writer since during The Great Depression. So why, in 1967, did he set a book in 1981 only to have everything be virtually identical to the world in 1967? The parts on Earth (in "the west" anyhow) are populated with hippies and acid heads and terms like "love-in" or "drop-out" are still commonplace? Being delightfully dated is one thing, but to arbitrarily decide that the future will be identical to the present (especially in a sci-fi/fantasy novel) is beyond lazy!
Also, Fu Cong was clearly inspired by Rohmer's Fu Manchu, he's a mad scientist with a lot of thugs and Asian. However, whereas Fu Manchu always spoke clearly and remained cool and in control in every situation, Fu Cong has a ridiculous exaggerated accent (which seems to be French) and he is easily derailed when Laurel Ponder explains to him that in "the west" they have monogamy, toilets, and no vermin or disease. Who the hell lectures a supervillain and doesn't get tortured afterwards?
Oh and race riots are referenced and "war between the colored and white nations"
Meanwhile Zanthar's off planet adventures are just a little too easy as he learns two new languages in a couple hours and befriends all the good aliens much too easily (John Carter and Flash Gordon at least had to fight some guys and crash a rocket or two first). Oh, and the humanoids think he's a god right from the get go and the aliens are far too willing to come to his aid (double dues ex machina). It's like nobody on this planet has anything better to do.
So, the verdict is, unless you're looking to laugh at supremely dated awful sci-fi, this book is not for you. For all I know it improves vastly in the sequels, but somehow I doubt it.
This is in fact a bigger disappointment to me than the Gor series, because at least that was infamous to start with and I had some warning, plus that first book almost tried to be a sword and planet book instead of a full-time porno. Zanthar doesn't have the excuse of being porn, it's just a sad drab smear on a genre I otherwise enjoy.
May 8, 2014
The bad news is that if you want to read an exciting mashup of Doc Savage / Buckaroo Banzai, John Carter of Barsoom, and the yellow peril tales of Fu Manchu, with just a soupçon of Lovecraftian horror, then this book isn't it.
The good news is that if you looking to write an exciting mashup of Doc Savage / Buckaroo Banzai, John Carter of Barsoom, and the yellow peril tales of Fu Manchu, with just a soupçon of Lovecraftian horror, then the field is still wide open. And you have a template here of how not to do it. (Open call: someone, anyone, please take these ideas and do them right. And then take my money.)
Williams introduces this entertaining and crowd-pleasing concept, but immediately forgets to do something with it. Characters are held captive and go nowhere and do nothing. Worse, they're taken offstage and shown cool and interesting stuff and then brought back and tell about what they saw. The dark pit of prehuman evil things locked away from the surface, waiting their chance to return and defeat humanity? It was awful. You should have seen it. But you'll just have to listen to me tell you about it.
And, adding insult to injury, the characters are forced to talk to one another for long stretches, discussing things like the number of tents they need or arguing about stupid things.
The good news is that if you looking to write an exciting mashup of Doc Savage / Buckaroo Banzai, John Carter of Barsoom, and the yellow peril tales of Fu Manchu, with just a soupçon of Lovecraftian horror, then the field is still wide open. And you have a template here of how not to do it. (Open call: someone, anyone, please take these ideas and do them right. And then take my money.)
Williams introduces this entertaining and crowd-pleasing concept, but immediately forgets to do something with it. Characters are held captive and go nowhere and do nothing. Worse, they're taken offstage and shown cool and interesting stuff and then brought back and tell about what they saw. The dark pit of prehuman evil things locked away from the surface, waiting their chance to return and defeat humanity? It was awful. You should have seen it. But you'll just have to listen to me tell you about it.
And, adding insult to injury, the characters are forced to talk to one another for long stretches, discussing things like the number of tents they need or arguing about stupid things.
September 2, 2007
This is the best book ever written in the history of mankind.
May 1, 2024
I first read this book about 55 years ago and then would have given it 5 stars, but tastes and knowledge change over the years. A lab accident and Prof John Zanthar is almost instantly transported to a distant world. It is somewhat backwards and has strange peoples and beasts on it. Zanthar makes friends with the good people and enemies with the bad people. His two lab assistants follow him, as does the evil Fu Cong (a Fu Manchu parody) who plans to take over the world and later the universe. Fu Cong kills an evil king and takes over but is defeated by the good guys and escapes back to Earth, as does Zanthar and his assistants, and he now has a way of travelling to other worlds.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews