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Cormac Mac Art #6
The Undying Wizard
Cormac Mac Art, the son of an Irish king, forced to live the life of an outlaw after he is unjustly accused of a crime, is finally vindicated and then pursued by an evil wizard who has waited centuries to seek revenge.
218 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
110 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 13, 2022
I finally got around to reading this paperback that's been sitting in a stack of books for maybe 20 years or more. It's sword-and-sorcery adventure by Andrew J. Offutt, published in 1976, and based on a character created by Robert E. Howard, best known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian. The character in this book is Cormac MacArt, a wild Irish Viking-type pirate of the late 5th Century, the time when the Western Roman Empire had collapsed. This is the 6th in a series about Cormac and in this one the wild Celtic raider leads a crew, including a gorgeous red-haired Irish warrior-princess, to an island that has an ancient and gigantic castle. Cormac believes it was built by his ancestor, King Kull, a mighty warrior who was from Atlantis ( another REH character) and that the castle also contains a treasure (of course). All standard sword-and-sorcery stuff, including "the undying wizard" of the title living on the island-- a villain who had been Kull's mortal enemy and would make himself Cormac's enemy as well. I give it a solid 3 stars, especially as this book took me back in time to the 70s when I passed many enjoyable hours reading the Conan paperbacks and other fantasy tales. Those were the days....
May 1, 2020
The Undying Wizard was the second novel that andrew j. offutt wrote about Cormac Mac Art, a character created by Robert E. Howard. His Cormac is quite different than Howard's, quite a bit more fleshed out and complex, but the feel is similar. Son of an Irish king, he returned to his home and was vindicated after many trials and perilous adventures, and has to take on Thulsa Doom, the titular undying evil wizard of this volume. His exhaustive research of Irish history and mythology is apparent. (One thing that always delighted offutt was that the producers of the first Conan film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger contacted him for permission to use the name of his sorcerer in this book as the name of the villain in their film.) The original publisher, Zebra, used Jeff Jones covers of their editions of the Cormac books to give them a uniform look with their titles by Howard and I was in the minority that disliked them; they look muddy to me.
March 23, 2023
It seemed disjointed at first, but then when the band got back together, it all made sense. Thulsa Doom is REH's Darth Vader, and this tale used this villain to full horrific effect.
December 9, 2019
Cormac mac Art returns to the strange island he found in the last book with some Irish friends to retrieve the treasure he left there. There he finds that a band of Britons have preceded him, along with Wulfhere Skullsplitter as their captive. After freeing Wulfhere they find strange things happening on the island. The wizard Thulsa Doom from the Kull story has risen after 18000 years and he wants Cormac dead because he recognizes him as the reincarnation of his great enemy Kull of Atlantis.
Thulsa Doom attacks Cormac and his band in many ways. He uses illusions, he changes shape, he disappears, he raises the dead, and he even controls the weather to stop Cormac from leaving. And he can't be killed. Cormac does manage to kill him, several times, but he gets better. Cormac also kills a bunch of Picts, some dead guys, some Irish, some Danes, plus he does the sexy time with an undead sorcerer. Nice entertainment.
Thulsa Doom attacks Cormac and his band in many ways. He uses illusions, he changes shape, he disappears, he raises the dead, and he even controls the weather to stop Cormac from leaving. And he can't be killed. Cormac does manage to kill him, several times, but he gets better. Cormac also kills a bunch of Picts, some dead guys, some Irish, some Danes, plus he does the sexy time with an undead sorcerer. Nice entertainment.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews