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War of the Gods on Earth #1
The Iron Lords
Paperback
223 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
29 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
About the author
Andrew J. Offutt
209 books72 followersAndrew Jefferson Offutt was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He wrote as Andrew J. Offutt, A.J. Offutt, and Andy Offut. His normal byline, andrew j. offutt, had his name in all lower-case letters. His son is the author Chris Offutt.
Offutt began publishing in 1954 with the story And Gone Tomorrow in If. Despite this early sale, he didn't consider his professional life to have begun until he sold the story Blacksword to Galaxy in 1959. His first novel was Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards in 1970.
Offutt published numerous novels and short stories, including many in the Thieves World series edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey, which featured his best known character, the thief Hanse, also known as Shadowspawn (and, later, Chance). His Iron Lords series likewise was popular. He also wrote two series of books based on characters by Robert E. Howard, one on Howard's best known character, Conan, and one on a lesser known character, Cormac mac Art.
As an editor Offutt produced a series of five anthologies entitled Swords Against Darkness, which included the first professional sale by Charles de Lint.
Offutt also wrote a large number of pornographic works under twelve different pseudonyms, not all of them identified. Those known include John Cleve, J.X. Williams, and Jeff Douglas. His main works in this area are the science fiction Spaceways series, most of whose volumes were written in collaboration, and the historical Crusader series.
Offutt began publishing in 1954 with the story And Gone Tomorrow in If. Despite this early sale, he didn't consider his professional life to have begun until he sold the story Blacksword to Galaxy in 1959. His first novel was Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards in 1970.
Offutt published numerous novels and short stories, including many in the Thieves World series edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey, which featured his best known character, the thief Hanse, also known as Shadowspawn (and, later, Chance). His Iron Lords series likewise was popular. He also wrote two series of books based on characters by Robert E. Howard, one on Howard's best known character, Conan, and one on a lesser known character, Cormac mac Art.
As an editor Offutt produced a series of five anthologies entitled Swords Against Darkness, which included the first professional sale by Charles de Lint.
Offutt also wrote a large number of pornographic works under twelve different pseudonyms, not all of them identified. Those known include John Cleve, J.X. Williams, and Jeff Douglas. His main works in this area are the science fiction Spaceways series, most of whose volumes were written in collaboration, and the historical Crusader series.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 27, 2020
This is the first volume of offutt's War of the Gods on Earth series. The story takes a bit to kick into gear, but it's interesting once the action starts. The characters are pretty well-drawn, though not as likable as one might wish, and the world he created for them to people is quite fascinating. It's an entertaining fantasy, though I wouldn't number it among offutt's best.
August 9, 2016
I formed my opinion on Offutt's writing based on King Dragon and Ardor on Aros, which were both terrible. After hearing that he had passed away, I decided it was necessary to give him a proper chance. It was well worth the experiment. The premise hooked me to the point where I'll be chasing the rest of the trilogy.
The "Gods on Earth"----exert individual influence over smallish, relatively nearby regions and compete or war with one another for reasons that are not immediately revealed. Jarik, an orphaned survivor of a raided and destroyed village, becomes a pawn in this conflict and . The tumult behind the "gods of earth" is the intriguing hook: what are these creatures really? (And, of course, there is Jarik's personality disorder, his sharing a body with the brusque healer Oak.)
The book suffers from being the obvious first part of the story, and that once you've waded through Jarik's formative childhood and other motivating prelude, it was just to set it all up for the next in the series. In general I've found this structure to be unnecessarily pedantic, in that the reader can usually piece together these events from later hints.
Offutt writes in a style that appears to emulate or at least suggest bardic poetry, as though in translation. I'm not convinced that this was entirely successful. Its application was occasionally uneven, especially in fight scenes.
The "Gods on Earth"----exert individual influence over smallish, relatively nearby regions and compete or war with one another for reasons that are not immediately revealed. Jarik, an orphaned survivor of a raided and destroyed village, becomes a pawn in this conflict and . The tumult behind the "gods of earth" is the intriguing hook: what are these creatures really? (And, of course, there is Jarik's personality disorder, his sharing a body with the brusque healer Oak.)
The book suffers from being the obvious first part of the story, and that once you've waded through Jarik's formative childhood and other motivating prelude, it was just to set it all up for the next in the series. In general I've found this structure to be unnecessarily pedantic, in that the reader can usually piece together these events from later hints.
Offutt writes in a style that appears to emulate or at least suggest bardic poetry, as though in translation. I'm not convinced that this was entirely successful. Its application was occasionally uneven, especially in fight scenes.
June 27, 2015
A middling book with frequent repetition in its prose style that stays with me after a long period of reading.
In ways of storytelling, the narrator is reminiscent of Poul Anderson but with more dialogue and less of the fireside reported speech. Different and well executed though I do prefer Anderson, who provided the endorsement on the book's cover. The action is swift, like fighting actually is; none of this metal clanging and sparks flying to interrupt the cleaving of flesh by knife, sword or battle axe. It is bloody but not a gore filled sausage-fest.
The concept of Gods on earth representing Arthur C. Clarke's third law was well done, in my humble estimation, as was the trick of naming the good guys frightful names. Or are they the good guys? This is only the first book of three.
This is a spinner rack book, as they used to be sold in 80's drug stores. Worth your time and keeping an eye out for the next installment. It is not a great achievement in fantasy but, as I work my way through a large list of books I intend to read based upon synopsis, I have read worse.
I first came across the author's work in Robert Lynn Asprin's Thieves' World omnibus, Sanctuary. His story contributions to that anthology series (made at roughly the same time as this book was published) were forgettable. This story is not, but it is one among a pantheon of others and I reference myself back to Anderson.
In ways of storytelling, the narrator is reminiscent of Poul Anderson but with more dialogue and less of the fireside reported speech. Different and well executed though I do prefer Anderson, who provided the endorsement on the book's cover. The action is swift, like fighting actually is; none of this metal clanging and sparks flying to interrupt the cleaving of flesh by knife, sword or battle axe. It is bloody but not a gore filled sausage-fest.
The concept of Gods on earth representing Arthur C. Clarke's third law was well done, in my humble estimation, as was the trick of naming the good guys frightful names. Or are they the good guys? This is only the first book of three.
This is a spinner rack book, as they used to be sold in 80's drug stores. Worth your time and keeping an eye out for the next installment. It is not a great achievement in fantasy but, as I work my way through a large list of books I intend to read based upon synopsis, I have read worse.
I first came across the author's work in Robert Lynn Asprin's Thieves' World omnibus, Sanctuary. His story contributions to that anthology series (made at roughly the same time as this book was published) were forgettable. This story is not, but it is one among a pantheon of others and I reference myself back to Anderson.
Read
September 28, 2016DNF at 22%. This book tries so hard to be an epic fantasy and fails spectacularly. Instead, it feels pretentious and boring. I think the basic premise is great and had it been written differently I probably would have loved it.
January 29, 2016
Not a bad fantasy story, good start to the trilogy. The plot is sometimes predictable but overall a good one. Recommended
January 21, 2022
I wanted to like this book much better than I actually did—Andrew Offutt spent a lot of time making the story of Jarik’s journey from boy to man a lot more convoluted than need be. He also took a page from Sir Thomas Mallory and really gave in depth descriptions of armor and weapons to the smallest minutia leaving absolutely nothing the imagination. It quickly went from informative to nearly boring and I like that kind of thing. The characters were little more than two dimensional figures and this is largely due to the way Offutt has formatted the story—there are hints throughout the novel that this is not a story happening as the characters experienced life, but that this novel is actually the work of historical research covering a particular subject (Jarik and his life). The middle of chapter 11 has the greatest evidence of this point of view. Offutt should have gotten a better editor, it was too easy to put the book down for weeks at a time and jump to something else.
Despite it’s shortcomings, I do respect it on this level—Offutt knows how to present the point of view of someone encountering objects and circumstances beyond their comprehension. Jarik is constantly getting an education throughout the book and a lot of it he has to come by without even having the vocabulary to describe what he initially sees. Fortunately it seems that by the end of this first book he is no longer quite the county bumpkin, so the next two won’t be such a slog to read.
Despite it’s shortcomings, I do respect it on this level—Offutt knows how to present the point of view of someone encountering objects and circumstances beyond their comprehension. Jarik is constantly getting an education throughout the book and a lot of it he has to come by without even having the vocabulary to describe what he initially sees. Fortunately it seems that by the end of this first book he is no longer quite the county bumpkin, so the next two won’t be such a slog to read.
May 8, 2020
The story elements themselves were interesting. However, the author's peculiar style was a bit annoying to me, as were the many repeated words and phrases. Seems like it could have used a bit more editing to polish it.
Still worth a read though.
Still worth a read though.
December 31, 2007
read 04.07.86
May 2, 2013
This is a great story that is well written. The plot keeps moving but there isn't extra fluff.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews