The Sorcerer's Ship

by Hannes Bok, Lin Carter (Introduction)

An alternate universe tale in which a man from New York finds himself in an alien fantasy world and explores it aboard the titular vessel, which belongs to an odd but benevolent magician. He experiences various adventures, including battles, palace intrigue, encounters with monsters, and a dead city, gaining along the way the love of a princess. The sorcerer serves as Bok's deus ex machina to set everything right at the end.

Originally published in Unknown Worlds, December, 1942.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1942

About the author

Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Woodard, was an American artist and illustrator, as well as an amateur astrologer and writer of fantasy fiction and poetry. He painted nearly 150 covers for various science fiction, fantasy, and detective fiction magazines, as well as contributing hundreds of black and white interior illustrations. Bok's work graced the pages of calendars and early fanzines, as well as dust jackets from specialty book publishers like Arkham House, Llewellyn, Shasta, and Fantasy Press. His paintings achieved a luminous quality through the use of an arduous glazing process, which was learned from his mentor, Maxfield Parrish. Bok was the first artist to win a Hugo Award.

Today, Bok is best known for his cover art which appeared on various pulp and science fiction magazines, such as Weird Tales, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Other Worlds, Super Science Stories, Imagination, Fantasy Fiction, Planet Stories, If, Castle of Frankenstein, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Reviews

[Craig]

This is a nice fantasy novel that originally appeared in John W. Campbell's Unknown Worlds magazine in 1942. Bok was very much more known for his fantastic art than for his prose (and I wonder why they didn't choose to use one of his paintings as the cover of his novel), but he was also a fine writer. His writing is filled with rich, colorful descriptions. The style is rather old-fashioned, and feels like more of a blend of William Hope Hodgson and A. Merritt than his contemporary Campbellian Golden Age authors. The plot and pacing are little weak, but I found it to be an entertaining and interesting read.

[Derek]

Given the picture Carter paints in his warm and intensely personal memorial to the author, it's a pity that the story itself isn't stronger.

I had read an excerpt in the later Realms of Wizardry collection where Carter nails the essence of this book in the horrific cataclysm of the super-being Orcher keeping his promise to crush the invasion and obliterate the Koph threat. Bok wildly succeeds in its imagery and the almost nihilistic glee of the decimation ravaging the Koph invaders and the Nanich locals. The aftermath appears to break the national character of both, alienating the protagonists and forcing their departure.

Up to this point, Bok doesn't lean into the A. Merritt influences. The start echoes The Ship of Ishtar but feels confined without the explicitly outré elements. There's factionalism within the ship crew and a sense of larger intrigue but it's all a waiting game and doesn't get interesting until external forces get involved. In hindsight, everything is racing towards the specific imagery and events of the endgame.

[Kerry]

The Sorcerer's Ship, by artist Hannes Bok, was first published in the magazine Unknown Worlds in 1942. Lin Carter revived the story as #9 in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series in 1969, with cover art by Ray Cruz.

The writing is good, the story is simple, and and the book is quick and easy to read. A young man from New York finds himself stranded on a raft in a fantasy world. He is picked up by the ship of a beautiful princess, whose otherwise peaceful realm is at war with an evil empire. They have several adventures in their travels, meeting the aquaman Yanuk, who is a sorcerer, as well as the godlike Orcher. Our protagonist fights valiantly against the invaders and wins the heart of the princess.

The Sorcerer's Ship reads somewhat like a fairy tale, and perhaps it is more of a story for older children, or at most young adults. Nevertheless, it's good for what it is, and I'm glad Lin Carter saved this book from oblivion.

[Arlo Mercia]

A really charming tale and short enough to read in a day. The intrigue on the ship is interesting and the characters appealing. I thought the greatest element of fantasy in the book was probably the ruler's attitude to democracy - but it all holds together well.

[Marcin]

Pretty good story, but the ending disappointed me. Story shouldn't end up at this point. However, Hannes Bok's writing style makes this book worthly to read.

[Tom Jones]

A fun well written book. The author was an artist foremost and this comes across in his descriptive text.

[Julia]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13480555

[Carl Barlow]

From the sound of Lin Carter's introduction, Hannes Bok was an all-round great guy whom Carter was pleased to have counted a friend. Bok's fiction, however, leaves quite a lot to be desired, and I can't help suspecting a certain degree of nepotism in Carter's selection of TSS for his Ballantine Adult Fantasy label.

Adult Fantasy? No. TSS is barely juvenile. A New York office worker wakes to find himself bobbing about on a world almost all ocean. He is rescued by a ship. He gets involved in shallow politics and an even shallower love interest (a princess who actually stamps her foot). He is doubted. He is revered. Suddenly, he is in command and proficient with sword, bow, and spear. He, his princess, a magical fish man, and a minor deity save an island from invasion by another island (but a bad one, of course). The end.

This might, on the surface, actually sound interesting. Truth is, it could have been. Bok has an artist's eye for colourful description. There are one or two moments that actually came close to evoking a sense of wonder, even interest in proceedings... but they are few and very far between. Characters are cut from the kind of cardboard cereal packets are constructed from. Prose is simple, even childish, and devoid of any style. The plot is much the same.

I like Bok's paintings. I don't like his fiction.

[Otis Campbell]

Now, truth be told, the plot is simpler than a dirt road, and the characters don't have much more depth than a pie pan. Bok isn't quite the wordsmith that Jonathan Swift or Henry Fielding was. But what it lacks in fancy writing, it makes up for in pure, colorful imagination. It feels like a dream you'd have after eating too much spicy sausage before bed. It's a fun, quick little cruise through an alien ocean. This whole crazy story kicks off with a regular old city boy named Gene Trevelli. Now, Gene is just a soft-handed desk-jockey from New York City who decides to go for a little afternoon dip near Coney Island. But Lord have mercy, he steps right into a transdimensional sinkhole in the salt water and falls ass-over-tea-kettle straight through the ocean floor! Next thing you know, he wakes up soaking wet and sputtering, clinging onto a makeshift wooden raft in the middle of a completely different world. Before the sharks can get a whiff of him and turn him into fish bait, he gets hauled out of the drink by a big old wooden sailing ship that looks like a cross between a Viking war galley and one of them fancy, pointy-nosed Venetian boats. And you ain't gonna believe who’s running the show on that deck: none other than a beautiful, wide-eyed princess named Siwara. She’s the head honcho of a nice, peaceful little country called Nanich. But poor Siwara is having a rougher go of it than a three-legged cat in a dog pound. Her homeland is fixing to get overrun by a bunch of greedy, power-hungry warmongers from a nasty neighboring territory called Koph. To make matters a whole lot worse, the ship’s captain—a sneaky, low-down snake named Froar—is secretly playing footsie with the enemy and trying to sabotage the whole dang crew behind her back. Now, Gene doesn't have a clue what’s going on or what language these folks are even barking, but he takes one look at that pretty princess and gets a massive crush on her. So, he rolls up his sleeves, spits on his hands, and gets right to work dealing with all the backstabbing, cloak-and-dagger court trickery happening right there on the floorboards. Eventually, the buggy really goes off the road and down the ravine when they pull up to a mysterious, uncharted island. That’s where they pick up the absolute weirdest hitchhiker you ever did see: a feller named Yanuk. This guy is an immortal, fish-faced, psychic creature with serious voodoo powers. Yanuk answers directly to a giant, all-powerful superbeing named Orcher, who basically acts like the biggest, loudest get-out-of-jail-free card you ever did see. When the enemy fleet completely surrounds our crew and things look darker than a pocket full of coal, this big old god-thing just drops magical gems and cosmic firepower out of the sky to save their hides at the buzzer.

[Joe Santoro]

This was an interesting one... the intro by Lin Carter really paints the picture of the author.. he seemed very well loved (at least by the writer) and is described as just the type of quirk personality one wants to picture a fantast writer as. Bok was mainly an artist (though the cover is not his art for some reason), but did write a couple novels and finish a few fragments written by A. Merritt (who he was a big fan of).

This book very much resembles the A Merritt books I've read.. a regular person gets sucked into a fantasy world and has to be the hero and get the girl.

This particular world has two countries, poor but Democratic Nanich and rich powerful Koph. Our hero (a clerk from New York named Gene) of course stumbles about the Democratic country, and falls in love with its Princess and tries to save her.

Much like Ship of Ishtar, it starts on a ship.. there's a quest, and a big battle.. it goes pretty much exactly as you would expect. It's quite fairy tale-like, in fact.

It was pretty interesting how competent the Princess was.. that's definitely not typical of the time.. she is arguably her own hero with Gene sort of just coming along for the ride. There are some great visuals that maybe me think of a Miyazaki movie.

[Shane]

This was an interesting and original story. Seeing as it was written in the 40's there was really not a lot for Bok to copy from, so maybe what I mean when I say "original" is that I haven't seen the idea copied by modern authors.

Most of the book takes place on a ship in a fantasy world. The main character is from "Earth", but adapts quickly to the situation. It's nothing mind-blowing (until the end), but it's a fun, "retro" adventure and not extremely long. So if you're looking for some old-school fantasy I'd say give it a try.

[Jintia]

This has the potential to be good. However, it needs a lot of work. The characters are stiff as a board and we learn very little about them. No one has any personality except for that they do what the plot requires of them. The protagonist, Gene, is more of a bystander than someone who affects the plot. Speaking of the plot, it's weak. While Bok's writing serves well to flesh out the scenery, that scenery is not very interesting. His descriptions raise this book from bad to exceedingly mediocre.

[Kathei]

Introduction by Lin Carter
Cover Painting by Ray Cruz

[Jordan]

I quite enjoyed this short book. The way the world and its colors are described evoke Bok's work as a painter. The ending was unexpected and made me love it all the more.

[Andrew]

Perhaps a better form of The Ship of Ishtar

[Seth Tomko]

My full video review of The Sorcerer's Ship can be found here: https://youtu.be/pEPru7fP6oI

[Eunice]

DNF 37%

[Gingaeru]

First, I would like to point out that the title is misleading. There's a ship (most of the story takes place on board it), but it doesn't belong to any sorcerer (a sorcerer is introduced at a certain point, but owns no ship). Though nice to look at, the cover illustration has nothing at all to do with this book.

I enjoyed the author's writing style, though he made a better artist than a writer. The story mainly consists of a naive princess's voyage to an opposing country (there are only two continents). Gene (a New York office worker) is incidentally pulled into this world after a swimming misadventure and is rescued by her passing ship. An influential adviser to the princess is on board the vessel, intent on seeing the opposing nation take over. There's a great deal of cloak-and-dagger conflict between this man, Froar, and those loyal to Princess Siwara. Servants switch sides and then back again at the drop of a hat. There's a refreshing detour on an uncharted island that I found interesting. And the climax is pretty darned unique.

The characters make some frustratingly poor decisions. The rushed romance between Gene and Siwara made me uncomfortable. Gene (an office worker who's never been in a fight) fights competently in a battle against warriors trained from infancy, which just doesn't work for me.
...

7/10