Worlds Beyond Worlds: The Short Fiction of John R. Fultz

by John R. Fultz

“...an author with an exceptional talent for characterization and world building.” —The Library Journal

“Fultz has rapidly matured into a major fantasist.” —Laird Barron, Author of Black Mountain“His world-building is in a class by itself.”  —RT Book Reviews“This is fantasy of the Dunsany, Smith and Vance school, where breathless wonders spill off the page in spendthrift profusion.”  —John Hocking, Author of Conan and the Emerald Lotus



Worlds Beyond Worlds collects 11 fantasy tales published during 2010 to 2020, most of them set in various imaginary worlds of wonder. From dark fantasy to sword-and-sorcery, heroic fantasy to weird history, here is a magic bagful of mystic trips and fantastic adventures. Avenging warriors defy the grip of death, wizards wander between the worlds, and savage hordes storm the gates of elder cities. Weird sorcery twists the fabric of reality, strange creatures run wild, and swords ring like thunder in the storm of battle. Eleven unforgettable excursions into the boundless realms of weird fantasy. 

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Weird Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2021

About the author

John R. Fultz lives in the Bay Area, California, but is originally from Kentucky. His fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Black Gate, and Space & Time, as well as the comic book anthologies Zombie Tales and Cthulhu Tales. His graphic novel of epic fantasy, Primordia, was published by Archaia Comics. John’s literary heroes include Tanith Lee, Thomas Ligotti, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, William Gibson, Robert Silverberg, and Darrell Schweitzer (not to mention Howard, Poe, and Shakespeare). When not writing stories, novels, or comics, John teaches English Literature at the middle/high school level and plays a mean guitar. In a previous life he made his living as a wandering storyteller on the lost continent of Atlantis.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of weird and dark fantasy with some sword & sorcery crossover. Without exception all the tales are expertly crafted, dark yet sweeping and heroic. A bit of Clark Ashton Smith here, a bit of Tanith Lee there, and tons of originality. Like those authors Fulz deftly blurs the lines between realities, sleekly dipping in and out of the real and the fantastic while seamlessly blending genres. The stories are inventive, replete with rich world building, each with its own captivating mythos and a diverse and compelling cast of often cursed, conflicted or villainous heroes. I took my time with this, soaking it in, but I want more. Much more.

[S.E. Lindberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volume I: Transcending the Illusions of Modernity and Reason.: The first thing you must understand is that the One True World is not a figment of your imagination, and it does not lie in some faraway dimension. To help you understand the relationship between the True World and the False, you must envision the True World lying beneath the False, as a man can lay hidden beneath a blanket, or a woman’s true face can be hidden by an exquisite mask. (Fultz, “The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria” )

YOU WANT SOME OF THIS? The Brian LeBlanc cover of Worlds Beyond Worlds: The Short Fiction of John R. Fultz shows the revenant Chivaine displaying the trophy head of his enemy. As a reader, do you want to follow him? Challenge him? The tile and cover set up expectations well, so you can expect planetary landscapes, witches, twisted creatures, and villainous heroes. Worlds Beyond Worlds is exactly what it says, a collection that takes the reader/protagonists into other worlds which are beyond even stranger ones. You are invited to explore the beautiful darkness.

The mere fact Fultz can publish eleven tales across ten markets in just a few years is a testament to his skill. BTW, John R. Fultz is equally skilled in the novel form as he is in short stories; looking for a dose of weird adventure? Then consider The Shaper Trilogy or Tall Eagle series (listed below). He has a knack for blending genres/settings which reflects his desire to take the reader to new places, really weird new places full of disturbing surroundings and high-stakes adventure. Heck, there is even a Sword & Sorcery tale that harmonizes dragon killing with the ambiance of Kung Fu (dedicated to David Carradine's iconic role in the TV show). Anyway, if you crave unique fiction that conveys a wild experience, and are excited to immerse yourself in the cover's world, then the answer is: YES, YOU DO WANT THIS.

Learn more about John R. Fultz by perusing the author's website and by reading the 2017 interview where I cornered him on the topic "Beauty in Weird Fiction". You'll learn about the author's muses and illustration skills (which inform his visual style).

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. “Chivaine” originally appeared in Weirdbook #31 (2015).
2. “Yael of the Strings” originally appeared in Shattered Shields (2014).
3. “Ten Thousand Drops of Holy Blood” originally appeared in Skelos #3 (2017).
4. “Strange Days in Old Yandrissa” originally appeared in Orbit Short Fiction (2013).
5. “The Gnomes of Carrick County” originally appeared in Space & Time #116 (2010).
6. “The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria” originally appeared in Way of the Wizard (2010).
7. “Daughter of the Elk Goddess” originally appeared in Hyperborea (August 2014).
8. “The Penitence of the Blade” originally appeared in The Audient Void #2 (2016).
9. “Where the White Lotus Grows” originally appeared in Monk Punk (2011).
10. “Oorg” originally appeared in The Audient Void #5 (2018).
11. “Tears of the Elohim” originally appeared in Forbidden Futures #3 (2018).

WILD CHARACTERS: The protagonists are as varied as the milieus. "Chivaine" opens with an undead knight. "Yael" offers a reluctant bard turned hero on a battlefield with mega-insects; later stories feature the perspectives of a sentient sword (“Ten Thousand Drops of Holy Blood”), and a bibliophile ("Thirteen Texts"), and even a moon-born elder god ("Oorg")! And there is more. You will travel the Land of the Scorpions, Valley of Sacred Bones, Eiglophian Mountains, doomed city of Yandrissa, and through the underworld of the New World. Here is a taste:

"In the Land of Scorpions the warlock Vallicus kept a fortress of volcanic stone. Its ramparts rose above a realm of poisoned waters and crumbling ruins. Vallicus, like his citadel, was a relic of the elder ages. He had ruled a decadent kingdom in the time before the Hundred Gods tamed the world. How he longed for those ancient days of blood and slaughter. I was born into flames, falling out of the void. A womb of stone hurtling ever downward, until the thunder of impact fractured my shell. I lay among the glittering shards, formless and thoughtless, until Vallicus came for me. Weaving spells against the heat and flame, he carried me from the steaming crater. A silvery seed he would nurture and grow with sorcery. A nameless mineral to which he gave a form, a name, and a purpose." (“Ten Thousand Drops of Holy Blood”)

"There came a day when the rusted moon cracked open like an egg, and the giant Oorg fell screaming to earth. A pale and fetal meteor, his body slammed into the green ocean. Tidal waves and tsunamis swept the shattered continents, drowning empires and flooding the world. The world had flooded before, but there had never been a burden like Oorg for the earth to endure. He rose up from the steaming mud of the drained seabed, gleaming like a mountain white as snow. The light of his eyes was the glow of double suns, scouring the air with heat, scorching the low-hanging clouds to ash. The world roiled with cataclysms about his gargantuan feet, and he roared like an uncaged beast.

On the other side of the world Oorg explored the nature of his surroundings, howling at the red sky with his great maw, possessing no language to express whatever mundane or alien thoughts might be swimming in his vast brain. He knew hunger, and confusion, and cold. Inside the moon’s womb he had been warm and oblivious, dreaming of unguessed realities. Here he was titanic, pain-struck, and alone. He howled his pain like a hungry wolf and stomped across the ruined lands, his great arms tearing up islands and hurling them at nothing. " ("Oorg")

STYLE: Fultz's approach is reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith's weirdness blended with Robert E. Howard's action. Expect bloody, weird bloody melee:

The men of Sharoc marched toward the overwhelming ranks of Ghothians. Diving griffons harried the rows of colossal arachnids. Knights drove their lances into the bulbous monsters. The spider-beasts squirted silvery ropes of webbing into the sky, bringing knights and griffons tumbling to earth. The Ghothian pikemen closed about the fallen ones, stabbing them to death in seconds.

The marching armies grew closer and closer. They would meet in the valley’s exact center. The spider-banners of Ghoth rippled in the autumn wind, and the yellow banners of Lion and Hawk streamed forth to meet them. At a certain distance the archers on either side took to ground. Volleys flew into the sky, each a black rain of barbed death. The footmen paused, sank to their knees, and raised their shields for shelter. When the arrows had fallen, the footmen rose and marched again. Another volley shot into the sky, and the footmen paused again and raised their shields. A soldier next to Yael took an arrow in the eye and died instantly.

Again and again the arrows fell, until the two armies came together in a rush of shouting, charging pikemen. Then all sense of ranks and order was lost, and the slaughter truly began. The wicked pikes of the Ghothians impaled their foes, ripped sideways to spill guts from bellies. Others hooked men into immobile positions of lasting pain. In such cases the Ghothians pulled forth their scimitars and took the heads of wounded men.

Yael might have dropped his pike and ran from the fray like a coward, but the press of men behind him made this impossible. So he marched into the forest of barbed and glittering blades aimed at his gut and face. The Ghothian pikes were grotesquely made, barbed and hooked to inflict maximum carnage. The screams grew louder. Dying men wailed and clutched at their spilled intestines on the ground as others trampled them into the mud.
…
Time had slowed so that each moment was an eternity. The roar of battle was like the roar of the ocean in Yael’s ears. Droplets of red blood spilled through the air like tiny jewels, splattered across the muddy ground. Dead boys lay all about him, their skulls and hearts and bellies split open, spilling the red secrets of existence into the black dirt. The whiteness of an ancient bone poked through the mud, a remnant of some historic battle. How many bones, how many skulls, filled the earth beneath this valley? The soil was rich with decayed humanity. (“Yael of the Strings” )

NOVELS by John R. Fultz/b>

The Shaper Trilogy
Seven Sorcerers
Seven Princes
Seven Kings


Tall Eagle Series
The Son of Tall Eagle
The Testament of Tall Eagle

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

April brings us a belated Easter treat from DMR Books. This month's release is a collection of short fiction by John R Fultz titled Worlds Beyond Worlds. And once again Brian LeBlanc has wowed everyone with his cover art. Very striking. Bravo.

Eleven glimpses into worlds beyond worlds...here are a few that I particularly enjoyed.

Chivaine

"Death...life. both are curtains, easily swept aside. Or kept in place to obscure the truth of where we all dwell."
"And where is that?"
"Eternity"

A fabled warrior is recalled from beyond the veil to quell an unstoppable threat. From an improbable union springs the hope for the future. If only justice worked like this in reality.

Yael of the Strings

Heroes are not born they are forged with hard decisions from hard choices. Standing because you have nowhere to run. Sometimes if you live, you are rewarded. Surviving is the hard part.

Spiders. Nothing terrifies me more. Any size, any shape. Spiders large enough to carry a pagoda and a passenger? Yeah, no thanks. Bring on the naphtha!

Ten Thousand Drops of Holy Blood

Oh, boy! This was my favorite! First person perspective, but not from the source I would have expected. A bloody and completely unstoppable tide to victory and subjugation. Ten thousand drops of holy blood will wear down any steely resolve. Coupled with the ending I did not expect. Fantastic.

The Gnomes of Carrick County

An unexpected setting. Old vows that run deep. Promises kept.

The Thirteen Texts of Arthuria

Having lost everything that matters to him, our protagonist finds himself drawn into an avenue of escape. Is all this real, or is there another answer to what is occurring?

The Penitence of the Blade

Not your childhood tale of knights and dragons. Hiding from his past with narcotics seems like his only recourse. That is until he witnesses the cost, and decides to learn the truth and do something about it.

Where the White Lotus Grows

Two unlikely survivors of a village raid are met with a benevolent stranger. Together they journey to safety, but safety is only temporary.

Worlds Beyond Worlds is the fourth of a projected twelve releases from DMR Books this year. An audacious proposal I look forward to seeing become a reality. DMR continues to provide quality fiction old and new. Check them out on the web @ dmrbooks.com!

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful anthology of weird fantasy, sword and sorcery, and cosmic horror, one of the best from DMR Books. Fultz has a distinct voice, so it is somewhat difficult to offer touchstones of comparison as his fiction is very unique. A more recent comparison might be the work of Schuyler Hernstrom and Dave Ritzlin. To risk a generalization--all three of these authors are published by DMR Books--this trio shares an occassionally similar eclecticism and aesthetic of tensions: they take a potentially campy and puerile genre and, without watering down its excesses in imagery, they treat it artfully and often with high seriousness (Dare I say I attempt to do this as well?) (Imagine an airbrushed 1970s van painted by visionaries with their chakras wide open). This unique combination comes through most clearly in Fultz' gorgeous tale, "The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria," which uses the gushing, neon tropes of sword and sorcery to explore the monochromatic, gray scale problem of a real world marriage destroyed by infidelity. My favorite of the anthology was "Chivaine," a structurally symmetrical narrative about the return and retreat of a hero. One notable tale that struck me as artistically ambitious was "The Gnomes of Carrick County." This combined Celtic and American Frontier myth in a very unique way, and it somehow managed to deploy the colonialist and pulp trope of "indigenous hostiles" with humanity and compassion. Fultz is a true bard.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another win from DMR. I did not love every story in this collection. I was actually suspicious as I am with any author compared to Clark Ashton Smith. Too often, that equates to overly-purple prose with lots of Oogie boogie sorcery.

The prose on some stories here is purple, and there is sorcery by the bucket full, but not in the way the typically annoys me.

My favorite story was “The Gnomes of Carrick County”. It was here that I heard Fultz voice. Pioneer S&S. Based on the strength of this story, I will seek out his Testament of Tall Eagle.

There is not a bad story in the collection. Recommended for readers seeking new voices in Swords and Sorcery.

[J.N. Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had read a few of these before and was a huge fan of Chivaine, but wow. Bold warriors, spider armies, foul sorcery, demons, a kung fu monk, and a kaiju….there’s so much here for the fan of high adventure. Thank you John Fultz for giving us this masterpiece of sword and sorcery. Each story was brilliant. If forced by the blade's edge to choose only a couple, I would have to say my favorites were "Yael of the Strings" and "Where the White Lotus Grows."

[Jim Kuenzli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another really good book of short stories put out by DMR. Fultz seems to be a master of very dark fantasy. Eleven stories are included in this book with no weaknesses. "The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria" is one of the best short stories I've read over the last few years. "The Gnomes of Carrick County" was a really nice twist. Nice read.

[The Reading Ruru (Kerry) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection

An eclectic mix of tales of sword and sorcery, many of which have the feel of older classic writers.
Some I really enjoyed and would easily give 4-5 stars for, others didn't do it for me. Overall I'd give this book 7.5 out of 10.

[Joel Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author was quite a discovery for me. His prose is action-packed and vivid, like a mix between Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E Howard. I'm looking forward to checking out some of his other work.

[Gregory Mele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim collection shows that "Weird Fiction" is alive in a new generation, and that John R. Fultz is absolutely one of its chief proponents.

On the cover blurb, John Hocking -- considered by many to have written the best Conan pastiche, and himself a tireless author of sword & sorcery in the Weird Tales vein, compares Fultz to Dunsany, Smith and Vance. The comparison is apt, not least since one of the stories even contains a tale set in Smith's Hyperborea, but as a fellow GenXer, I think it is fair to say that Fultz, much like Schuyler Henstrom (another modern S&S bard published by DMR books) is inspired as much by the incomparable Tanith Lee and Thomas Ligotti, who themselves reinvigorated the genres of dark fantasy and horror throughout the 1980s, and which any voracious reader of my generation would come upon time and again. Like Ligotti, Fultz finds the monsters without being only a pale threat compared to the terror and horror that can dwell in our own hearts; like Lee he can craft a secondary world in a matter of pages that leaves the reader hoping for a return visit.

Every story in this collection pops and does something different; it is impressive when the "weak" link in an anthology is merely "good". Conversely, the great stories: "Chivaine,"(which feels as if they could dwell in the same world as Lee's "The Sombrous Tower"), "Ten Thousand Drops of Holy Blood", and the deeply ambitious "The Gnomes of Carrick County" are standouts that should, if there is justice, be anthologized again and again.

"Daughter of the Elk Goddess" shows how good pastiche works -- Fultz does not try to write like Clark Ashton Smith (good luck with that) but instead infuses himself with the gallows humor and often tragic ends of his tales to create a fantastic story of ice-devoured Hyperborea. Conversely, "The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria", which ends a bit abruptly and flat, nevertheless shows the underutilized potential of the genre, wherein a Ligotti-esque dreamscape becomes a parallel story to the isolation and sorrow of a marriage destroyed by infidelity.

This is perhaps the best book DMR has put out, and it shows how an author can be *inspired* by past masters while having a unique perspective and voice of their own. Highly recommended.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

KU trial, sampling some stories. So far, not to my taste, dammit. I'll come back and try a few more . . .

Nope. Clearly not to my taste. Abandoned early on. Your mileage may vary!

[James T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read everything DMR puts out. Of their contemporary authors this is one of the absolute bests. Stop whatever you’re doing and pick this up. The story “Chivaine” alone makes this collection worthwhile. Everyone wishes they could be Dunsany, yet so few people can pull it off. John R Fultz really captured both prose that sounds more like poetry, and a brilliant brevity in his writing. Chivaine is genuinely one of the pinnacles of Heroic Fantasy, and not just of modern authors. It’s sublimely written, and the story is mythopoetic, spiritual and inspiring. It’s really a masterpiece of the highest order.

I wouldn’t exactly call this collection Sword and Sorcery, though some of the stories go in that direction. I think Fultz’s stuff here is just fantasy without any adjectives. It’s the genre before it became microgenres.

I don’t think any of the other stories hit quite the same height as “Chivaine” but they still range from good to great. It’s a really standout collection. If I had any complaint it might be that the mundane elements in two stories, the Gnomes of Carrick County and the Thirteen Texts of Arthyria might hamper the tone a bit, but really that’s probably nitpicking.

It’s a phenomenal collection. I could not recommend it highly enough.

Also the cover art is just superb.

[Michael Incrocci · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can sum up what I loved about this book by talking about one particular story, told from the perspective of a sentient sword. We see a sword much like Elric’s Stormbringer being forged and used in many a bloody battle. Many of the stories are told from interesting perspectives like this one, and find ways of upending what we think is going to happen. It doesn’t hurt that Fultz’s prose is quite good; he has a way with imagery and metaphor that really drew me in to these stories. Give this a read if you like your fantasy on the weird side.

[KDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag of short fantasy - mythical quest, dark, sword and sorcery are all covered here. The writing is quite sparse in style and isn't as rich or atmospheric as it could be, but is more than made up for in imagination and storytelling. Sometimes the journey is better than the destination, but I still enjoyed everything here except maybe the first story.

Stand outs include:

- The Gnomes of Carrig County
- The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria
- The Penitence of the Blade

A fun couple of nights read overall.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely impressive when a modern writer can retain their own voice but also evoke the styles of the old pulps extremely faithfully. I will be reading more from this author in the future.

[Jen B · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐ rounded up