Prehistoric Adventures

by D.M. Ritzlin (Editor ), Robert E. Howard (Contributor ), Arthur Petticolas (Contributor )

Travel back to the Earth’s primal days when men were as savage as the beasts they hunted! Presented here for the first time in book form is the cult classic novella “Dinosaur Destroyer,” in which Daarmajd, the Strong, leads a life of primitive warfare and conquest that makes for as bloody a tale as any you’ll ever read. Also included are Robert E. Howard’s first published story, “Spear and Fang,” and three more exciting tales of life at the dawn of mankind!

Stories included:
“Dinosaur Destroyer” by Arthur Petticolas
“Spear and Fang” by Robert E. Howard
“With Weapons of Stone” by C.M. Eddy, Jr.
“Arhl-a of the Caves” by C.M. Eddy, Jr.
“Stories of the Stone Age” by H.G. Wells

Genres: Fantasy

206 pages, Paperback

Published July 11, 2021

About the author

D.M. Ritzlin founded DMR Books in 2015 with the aim of revitalizing sword-and-sorcery literature. DMR’s publications include reprints of classic material by authors such as Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, as well as brand-new collections and anthologies by some of the finest fantasy writers active today.

A collection of his own stories, Necromancy in Nilztiria, was released in October 2020.
Nilztiria is a world of adventure and strangeness, peopled by lusty heroes and callous villains. The thirteen sword-and-sorcery stories presented in Necromancy in Nilztiria place the emphasis on sorcery and mix in a touch of gallows humor.

For more information on all of his projects, visit dmrbooks.com.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barbaric splendor at the dawn of mankind!

In the early days of mankind, man was more prey than predator. DMR has collected five stories by four authors illustrating man's early adventures in this dangerous world.

The stories collected are:

- Dinosaur Destroyer by Arthur Petticolas
- Spear and Fang by Robert E Howard
- With Weapons of Stone by C.M. Eddy Jr.
- Arhl-a of the Caves by C.M. Eddy Jr.
- A Story of the Stone Age by H.G. Wells

I'm sure Robert E. Howard and H.G. Wells need no introduction, both are exceedingly popular authors even long after their deaths. Although I was unfamiliar with Arthur Petticolas and C.M. Eddy Jr.

The first story, and I dare say the longest, is Dinosaur Destroyer by Arthur Petticolas. An astonishing account of racial memory told in first person perspective. Episodic, with some rousing scenes of red-fisted action.

Daarmajd the Strong, our protagonist for most of the story, reminded me of Jehan from Children of the Dragon by Frank S. Robinson and of Wulfgar from Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan. I highly recommend both of these books.

The second, third and fourth stories didn't leave much of a lasting impression with me. Each are quite short, and they follow a similar formula of a damsel in distress; although, Arhl-a of the Caves adds a little spice to this recipe.

The final tale by H.G. Wells is longer than the previous three. It explores mans budding curiosity of the world around him. Interestingly enough it also features the point of view of several animals that come in contact with our protagonist and his mate.

This anthology would seem to be a slight departure from DMR's usual offerings. Even though the stories lack sorcery of any kind there is still plenty of action. Like with most other DMR anthologies, these are stories that have never or rarely seen print since their initial printings.

If you enjoy these stories you might also check out Aton by Irving A. Greenfield, Before Adam by Jack London, and Battle in the Dawn: the complete Hok the Mighty by Manly Wade Wellman.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit upfront: books such as this will always gain an extra star from me for their existence alone. There is in importance in looking backwards; although, I admit writers (and readers) should not always look back, we must move forward and demand that our new authors give us more; however, to ignore the simple pleasures of a rollicking good tale, we get lost in pretentiousness.

DMR puts out two types of books: books by often nearly forgotten authors, and new books by current authors that emulate the former. This volume is of the first category. Prehistoric adventure tales are a niche within a niche genre. We remember the big names of the genre: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle and to a lesser extent, Manly Wade Wellman; but there are more. Prehistoric Adventures gives us stories by four authors, two of which are easily recognizable names with often overlooked and and therefore not often reprinted tales in the genre: H.G. Wells and Robert E. Howard. Prehistoric Adventures also presents stories by two lesser known authors: Arthur Petticolas and C.M. Eddy Jr.

"Stories of the Stone Age", by H.G. Wells is actually the last story of the book, and it's second longest. H.G. Wells needs no introduction to even the most casual fan. He is a classic and is well known. It was also my favorite story in the book. It read like a prehistoric adventure of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. To my delight, I have read much H.G. Wells, but to the best of my knowledge I either never encountered this delight, or it was so long ago it is new to me. 4 Stars from this Stone Age Critic.

"Spear and Fang" by Robert E. Howard appears as the second tale in the book. It is a short tale by REH. I am a consummate fan of all things REH; however, this tale is not often reprinted for one reason, it is not one of his best. In fact, it is the first story published by a young REH. His first actual sale and to Weird Tales no less. Weird Tales being the pulp magazine that saw the birth of famous Howard creations Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane and more. It is of historical importance. This is only one of two volumes in my large REH library that contains the story. I give it 3 Stone Age Clubs on the 5 scale, admitting that one Club is added with my rose colored glasses.

"Dinosaur Destroyer" by Arthur Petticolas is the first story in the book. It is also the longest, more of a novella, it takes up half the pages. I cannot find much printed about Arthur Petticolas. It feels like this was his only published work, or at least the rest are so obscure nothing pops up with my Google-Fu search. It is a fun tale, written in the "past-lives" theme of Robert E. Howard's James Allison stories ("The Valley of the Worm", "The Garden of Fear" for examples). It comes the closest of all the tales of hewing to the cousin genre that sucked me into reading this book, Swords and Sorcery. It's a shame that more isn't known or seemingly in existence by Petticolas. It is a fast paced adventure; however, despite the title, I remember no dinosaurs in the story. It is completely new to this semi-jaded antiquarian reader. I grant it 3 White Axes out of 5.

The remaining two stories, "With Weapons of Stone" and "Arhl-a of the Caves" are by C.M. Eddy Jr.. Eddy is not completely unknown to me. I have done much reading about H.P. Lovecraft, and Eddy is one of the few fellow authors that met Lovecraft in person; however, C.M. Eddy is primarily known for his ghost and detective tales, of which I am sure I have encountered a few before (although none ring a bell in my memory). I have not encountered either of these two tales before. A bit of Google-Fu reveals that these two stories were an unusual departure for him. I must admit, neither lit me on-fire, and the plot of both are vague in my memory banks; however, I am glad DMR recorded them here for posterity. I give each tale 2 Hazy Caves out of 5.

While this book is not one I can recommend to everyone, if like myself, you enjoy digging up old bones from the dinosaur graveyard, then this book is for you.

[Jim Kuenzli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other than the Howard story, I don’t recall any of the other stories. Kudos to DMR for dusting these off. Pretty much standard fare for pulp caveman type stories. Nothing great. Howard’s story was written when he was teen, so not his usual greatness. The H.G. Wells story was the best of the bunch.

[James T · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection is an interesting curiosity. It’s centered around the titular theme, a collection of ahistorical prehistoric tales.

The star of the show is “Dinosaur Destroyer.” This novella needed more dinosaurs destroying but its overall is quite an interesting footnote in pulp history. It’s going for a bit of a Burroughs feel. There’s the absurd explanation for how the author gets the first person narrative. It’s charming, and the world established is phenomenally imaginative. It’s a history that never wars. I think my major issues with it is every chapter has a “and this is how I got this part of the narrative.” Instead of just the prologue to the novel. So it’s weirdly paced. It’s a really cool idea, and honestly could have been stretched out into a whole series of pulp novellas. As is it’s interesting but a rough execution. Not a lost classic but definitely an interesting footnote.

There’s Robert E. Howards first published story. It’s Howard, but also a 19 year old REH. So it’s rough. The next two are by C.M Eddy Jr. Another footnote in pulp history. He was a friend of Lovecraft’s who wrote for Weird Tales as well. I dislike using this term, as its been used to denigrate a lot of worth while classic adventure fiction, but these are “male wish fulfillment stories.” They’re nothing special but the pseudo-historical setting it fun.

Finally, there is the H.G Wells story. Again, very cool setting, the actual story is ok.

If your a sucker for that classic caveman setting you can’t go wrong. I do think Dinosaur Destroyer is worth reading for people in our orbit, it’s not great, but it interesting and something special, even if it is deeply flawed.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an anthology of mostly Stone Age adventure stories. All of these stories were written long ago, mostly finding home in niche lit magazines of their time.

Half of this anthology is the somewhat unfortunately named Dinosaur Destroyer by Arthur Petticolas. This work has an interesting narrative vehicle which would most likely make most “show-don’t-tell” advocates seek deep, dark caves to hide in (as would most all these works, come to think of it, a strong exhibitation that this writing rule is bunk): the story consists mostly in the story telling of a modern American football playing elite whom is channeling a memory from a past life which took place during prehistory, in which he was a warrior leader of a fairly violent people. There is a nice juxtaposition and verisimilitude between the past and present-both men seek many of the same things but in grossly different ways; I.e. status, love, the bounties of the world. However where one seems to lead a rather tame yet elite modern life style the other leads a life of supreme danger and aggression.

Now it should be noted that cancel culture skalds will like not this work. There are obviously extremely racist under and over tones. I argue however that this story, ironically enough was written in a different day and time and it is the height of hubris and crudeness to apply our 21st century mindset as an expectation thereof. Likely this work was considered extremely progressive for its time. Feminists will also likely hate this and the other works, though I rather think the same clarifier remains. The women in these tales are extremely strong, heroic heroines in there own light even if the patriarchy rules the day. As with all the world, I once more find it extremely amusing that the tales are really more a product of the time they were written (the early 20th century mostly) than the subgenre, prehistoric, tribal, Stone Age adventure fiction. All together it creates a very interesting tonal dialogue.

Now I want to note that I think some of the prose is extremely striking. For example:

“My grief was to deep for weeping. But in my heart and brain burned a sullen fire that only the blood of the brown men of the mountains could quench. And my first-born who stood besides me as we placed the last stone upon the pile did not weep either, but clutched hard the axe in the girdle about his body and in his eyes burned the baleful light of vengeance.”

In any event while there are certainly plenty of critiscms one might offer Petticolas’s story I found it very engaging in multiple respects and would recommend it.

The next block of the book consisted of three stories with a very similar tone and premise with some slight differences. Surprisingly there seemed little of man vs nature but plenty of man vs man, usually for a woman. While I did think most of these were simply not quite as strong as the first long story in this anthology, all were entertaining enough in a vital, raw manner.

The final work, another longer one at just under 60 pages, was a story by the master H.G. Wells. This story was several decades older than most in the work though I found it for the most part a qualitatively better story. Everything just seemed so much more lively, more animated-less route. There was certainly a sardonic wit at play, yet a strong narrative that seemed a bit akin to Tarzan in some ways.

In conclusion, this anthology won’t be for everyone. I read it to help gain tone and texture for a tribal section I am writing for my current WIP otherwise I probably wouldn’t have bothered with it. That written, I am glad I did and I think as long as one can divorce oneself from the current cultural mores and let ones self climb deep down into the caverns of these stories, I think they are more than enjoyable enough.