Oblivion Hand:: A Tale of the Voidal

Voidal Trilogy #1

by Adrian Cole

Sword & sorcery at its best and first of the Voidal trilogy, assembled from the author's short stories.

Genres: Fantasy

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

Adrian Cole was born in Plymouth, Devonshire in 1949. He is currently the Director of College Resources in a large secondary school in Bideford, where he now lives with his wife, Judy, son Sam, and daughter Katia. He remains best known for his Dream Lords trilogy as well as his young adult novels, Moorstones and The Sleep of Giants.

Reviews

[Lizz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

And when I originally read this, I REALLY didn’t write them. Make of that what you will… Meeting the Voidal was special for me, like my introduction to Jack Vance’s, Cugel the Clever. Unlike Cugel, the Voidal isn’t witty, dramatic or funny. (There is no comedy here, just great storytelling, amazing characters and creative settings). The Voidal, is an appellation, since he doesn’t even know his own name, let alone the circumstances, which led him to become the weapon, the Fatecaster of the Dark Gods. He is a man forced to reawaken, without memory, while his right hand dispatches a marked person, and drift away again until recalled. His right hand is not his to control, but is the source of his power. He wears night web, darkest black, skin smooth and white as ivory, calm and collected, tall and strong. Are you making any connections to another famous fantasy character? Vampire Hunter D. I’m not sure if the Voidal was a direct influence, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

The other main character is the fast-thinking, ambitious barterer, highly memorable gossip, quite batrachian familiar, Elfloq. Though he’s a wrinkled little frog man with wings, I always imagine him as Puck from Berserk. Elfloq’s brains and determination pull the story together and cement him as one of the great characters in fantasy history. Elfloq and the Voidal travel the astral and real worlds searching for the truth behind the Voidal’s curse and face some very cool gods, demigods, creatures and creations.

I can’t really sell this the way I wish. This trilogy is in my favourite stories of all time, alongside The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel’s Saga. I know a few of you who read my thoughts here, would really enjoy these. Please let me know what you think, if you already have read.

[Fletcher Vredenburgh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, crazy stories of the universe/dimension hopping Voidal and the introduction of his familiar, Elfloq. Like Jack Vance or Clark Ashton Smith but with fireworks instead of poetry - and that's not a bad thing.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 1970s was a golden age for sword and sorcery fiction in the small press. Young writers such as Charles Saunders, David C. Smith, Lew Cabos, David Madison, Charles de Lint, Richard L. Tierney breathed new exciting life into the genre in crude, saddlestapled magazines such as Space & Time, Fantasy Crossroads, Dark Fantasy, and Fantasy Tales to name a few. One of these young Turks was Adrian Cole. Cole hails from Devon in Britain, Solomon Kane country. He represents the fantastic edge of sword and sorcery fiction. Oblivion Hand (Wildside Press) is a collection of stories culled from those magazines 30 or more years ago. All feature the Voidal. The Voidal is a sort of destroying angel used by the Dark Gods to work their will and vengeance. Stripped of memory, in each story, he attempts to gain knowledge of who or what he is and regain his memory. To describe the stories, think of H. P. Lovecraft writing sword and sorcery, returning to the Dreamlands but written in his later, darker style. There is some Michael Moorcock influence present with the idea of the “omniverse” and the Voidal being sent to different dimensions. Cole uses words to create names in the manner of Tolkien. Names such as Tallyman, Nighteye, Windwrack appear. Cole combines simple Anglo-Saxon words to create new ones. He has a very unique style and good command of language. Fans of Clark Ashton Smith take note though I would not call Adrian Cole’s writing style Smithish. Generally with collections anymore, I like to space the stories out one a week or even one a month to prevent repetition. I ended up reading one per day. Years ago, I had read “Astral Stray” in the anthology Heroic Fantasy which I mentioned yesterday. The story failed to make much impression with me twenty-five years ago. Turns out “Astral Stray” is a sort of bridging story on how the imp Elfloq came to serve the Voidal. Reading the stories sequentially was the way to go. Reading these early stories by Cole gave me a greater appreciation for his greatest work, the Omaran series. This is Cole’s big four volume fantasy series that includes A Place Among the Fallen, Throne of Fools, The King of Light and Shadows, and The Gods in Anger. I once described the series as reading as if Tolkien had written for Weird Tales. I consider it to be one of the most important fantasy series of the 1980s. I have a fever and the only prescription is more sword and sorcery. Oblivion Hand helps feed that hunger.

[Shawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

*re-written to actually get my ideas out and not be a dismissive jerk (well, as much of one)*
I couldn't get through it, and the reason why is because it has the nebulous attribute of being resistant to me reading it. Some things read very smooth and others simply don't for me. Voidal is definitely in the vein of Elric of Melnibone, though not quite a hero, and not quite of much of anything to be honest. He is a tool being manipulated to enact the wills of the dark gods with a hand that detaches and instantly does whatever needs to be done to complete the task. Lather, rinse, repeat. At the point I was done with it, the author was trying to introduce some sidekicks, but they would be changed on a whim as well so they too could fit the scenario. Maybe if I stuck around more of the gods plan for Voidal would have been revealed, but nothing leading up to that gave me any sense of tension or drama.

There is a smattering of trippy ideas here alongside the usual fare of scheming wizards and promiscuous bards, but it's so stiff and stale in a genre full of fantastical ideas.

[Robert Defrank · Rating 5 out of 5]

A magnificent combination of heroic questing in a fantastic Lovecraftian multiverse. The central conceit is a man known only as the Voidal: a wanderer stripped of his memories and cursed to respond whenever he is invoked, and to bring on a horrific fate to all concerned.

The format is a collection of adventures, often with the Voidal acting as a guest-star, responding to someone in trouble and bringing on doom, but the author avoids the danger of a formulaic plot: the Voidal soon evidences a personality of his own as he grows and changes, determined to have his memories and life restored and to have freedom from being a pawn of the gods, and very often he faces and overcomes temptation, doing right and helping innocents gets out of a tight situation rather than condemning them to save his own interests.

Extra points for the companions the Voidal soon collects in his wanderings, including a musician with the goal of saving his love, who has been imprisoned in an instrument, and a sardonic imp who attaches himself to the Voidal as his familiar and indispensable dogsbody, regardless of how the Voidal feels about the arrangement.

If you're looking for a blend of Lovecraftian and heroic fantasy, you can't go wrong with this!

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads like a response to the oeuvre of Michael Moorcock, with much of those excesses trimmed away. In particular, Elric of Melnibone's elaborate self-misery is replaced with the Voidal's flat affect and low-key resignation.

The effect of this is that the Voidal by definition is the least interesting thing going on in these stories, and the reader really feels it with the introduction of Elfloq, his 'familiar' and emotional foil. Oddly the story that drew me into the series--"Astral Stray"--is not really representative of the rest.

Unlike Elric's constant misery, the curse afflicting the Voidal is deliberate and plotted, with the Dark Gods arranging additional burdens and sorrows such that any step forward for the Voidal is actually a step back, and everything is achieved at emotional cost.

I kind of wish that Cole luxuriated in the elaborate Omniversal setting, which only seems to gel in the later stories of this fix-up collection.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great example of the "weird fiction" genre. Although this is a series of short stories strung together into a single narrative, there is a pleasing level of continuity to it.

[Alexandre Jorge · Rating 3 out of 5]

very repetitive and the writing is not for me.