Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman

Kothar #1

by Gardner Francis Fox

From the world beyond—or past—time Kothar comes. From out of the deepest, most violent recesses of mankind's collective memory, Kothar the gigantic barbarian strides, the enchanted sword Frostfire glittering in his mighty hand. Lusty, hot-blooded, masterful, unafraid of things real or unreal, Kothar dominates the misty, bloody world before recorded time.

Yet, though Kothar's world existed in another age—perhaps another dimension—it springs vividly to life. Mapped, charted, chronicled, Kothar's fantastic world suddenly becomes real—the sorcerers, dragons, witches, evil potions, unspeakable monsters. And Kothar, an epic hero for any age, overshadows everything.


Introduction by Donald MacIvers, Ph.D.
'The Sword of the Sorcerer.'
'The Treasure in the Labyrinth.'
'The Woman in the Witch-Wood.'

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, Fiction, Dungeons and Dragons, Pulp

153 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1969

About the author

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic book historians estimate that he wrote more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"

Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book new in 1970 for $0.75 & I've kept it all these years. One reason is that it has a very old address of an old school best friend I lost track of through tragic circumstances. It's pure fun dreck, a Conan knock-off very similar to Carter's Thongor & Jakes' Brak.

The introduction is supposedly by Donald MacIvers who quotes a philospher, Albert Kremnitz, in a confusing discussion of heroism through the ages of man. (I think it's a joke of some sort. I googled both names, but most links refer right back to this book & it's not exactly well known.) It's a set up for Kothar's world, I guess. My eyes crossed somewhere along the way & I lost interest in trying to sort it out. If there was a joke in there, it's lost on me.

Anyway, like Thongor, Kothar exists after the expanding universe has started to collapse & this is the reason that magic works. After that, pure S&S fun begins with our barbarian, his acute senses, savage sensibilities & strength all kicking sorcerer ass. Lots of gore, convenience, & fun. Fox was best known for writing comic books - DC comics, at that. This book reads like it.

This has 3 short stories:
The Wizard's Sword in which Kothar gets his sword.
The Labyrinth & the Treasure which has a minokar in it. Yes, I spelled it right & yes, it is very much like the Minotaur.
I can't remember the name of the third - something about a castle.

I can NOT recommend this book to anyone. It's awful & I should hate it, but I still get a kick out of reading it every decade or two. I have no idea why. Put it down to incipient dementia or a really bad sense of humor, I suppose.

Update: Fox was apparently a really smart guy, a polymath.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardner...

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first of five swords & sorcery books that Fox, who is of course best remembered for his prolific comics work at DC, had published 1969 - '70 featuring the titular protagonist. They're unashamed, proud pastiches of Howard's Conan. This first book is a collection of three stories, an origin tale called The Sword of the Sorcerer, The Treasure in the Labyrinth, and The Woman in the Witch Wood. Kothar wields his mighty blade Frostfire fighting fierce foes, monsters, witches, and all manner of evil, and always meeting a lusty woman with whom he frolics. It's a fun and unpretentious story, certainly not great literature but better written than many similar titles of the time. The book has an odd introduction by a person who seems to be unknown that cites an equally unknown expert on heroic fantasy. I wonder if it's legit or an obscure in-joke.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

The introduction by Donald MacIvers Ph.D. is a strange introduction to a book such as this, name-dropping the obscure Albert Kremnitz (so obscure that all Internet searches point back to this book) and proceeding with such pompous doubletalk that one starts to suspect a subtle joke.

It contrasts with the material of the stories, which are pure frothy sword-and-sorcery action. From them I picked up tidbits of good ideas: the notion that this is some unimaginably distant future, humanity huddled under guttering stars, sunk into barbarism; a sword cursed such that its owner may never accumulate wealth, and he therefore can never settle down or improve his situation; and a perpetual nemesis that harries him psychologically wherever he goes.

The nemesis in particular was striking: the witch Red Lori, who is intent on not just destroying Kothar but ruining him, so she will actually assist him on occasion, to ensure that no one will rob her of personal vengeance. Her phantomlike presence and roundabout methods form some powerful imagery and situations, especially the intimations that this is an intensely love/hate relationship.

Unfortunately, the stories themselves are hampered by their similarity. Each can be broken down into cases where Kothar is inserted into a mystical situation, meets an alluring woman who is not what she seems, fights one or more adversaries in arena-style combat, and then resolves the situation, leaving Kothar little better and little changed for the experience.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a barbarian Kothar is not Conan by any means and the writing is not as good as Robert E. Howard's but these are still good stories. Quick and easy reads. Recommended

[Connor Hassan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

While bearing striking similarities to Conan the Cimmerian, Kothar the Cumberian's (lol) stories in this book were pretty enjoyable tales of classic sword and sorcery.

From finding his sword in a tomb with a reanimated lich, to quaffing ale and hating sorcery, I recognized much inspiration from those stories of Conan by Robert E Howard. That being said, its a formula that is enjoyable and works, and something that I take a keen interest in. The tales in this definitely seemed a little darker and grittier than some of the REH stories I've read, and often reminded me of Karl Edward Wagner's Kane series.

Docking 1.5 stars mainly due to the way women are written into this, definitely showing its age on that front, be warned and try to ignore that dialogue.

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Skinny: A collection of the first three Kothar stories; "The Sword of the Sorcerer", "The Treasure in the Labyrinth" and "The Woman in the Witch-Wood".

"The Sword of the Sorcerer" is the origin story, if you will, of Kothar, a Barbarian from the north. On the run from a battle lost, Kothar stumbles upon a crypt haunted by the liche of a powerful sorcerer. From the liche, he gains a sword that as long as he possess it, he may hold no wealth. He gains the animosity of the sorceress Red Lori, who plagues him in future stories to come.

"The Treasure in the Labyrinth" finds Kothar seeking a hidden treasure in a cursed Labyrinth, the home of the Minkotaur (or some such, yes it's a Minotaur, but Fox doesn't call it that).

"The Woman of the Witch-Wood" is a story of a cursed town haunted by magic.

Gardner Fox is known more for his contributions to comics, particularly DC Comics; however, he wrote stories heavily influenced by the works of Robert E Howard, especially Conan and Kull.

In the 60's and 70's there was a resurgence of interest in Sword and Sorcery, mostly centered around Mr Howard's creation Conan the Cimmerian. Don't let the blond hair fool you, Kothar is a thinly disguised Clonan (Clone of Conan).

The Good: Since encountering Conan in the 1982 film, Conan the Barbarian and then moving onto devouring anything about the Barbarian in comic books and pastiche novels, I have been a huge fan.

It wasn't until 10 years ago when I read the original stories (unedited, and without what some have called "post-collaborative efforts") that I realized I was a Robert E Howard fan as well.

Since jumping in head first, I've gained a renewed interest in Conan pastiche (stories featuring the character, but not written by REH) and my favorite guilty-pleasure, "Clonans". Characters that are not Conan, but are obviously, more than heavily, influenced by the Cimmerian.

Chief amongst these Clonans are Thongor by Lin Carter, Brak by John Jakes (yes, that John Jakes) and the characters Kothar and Kyrik by Gardner F Fox.

I enjoy all of them, and I am an unashamed fan of Lin Carter, but I enjoy the S&S stories by Gardner F Fox.

I have a few of the Kothar and Kyrik stories in paperbacks found at used bookstores, which I love to collect; however, I am anxiously excited to now read these collected editions by editor Kurt Brugel.

Mr Brugel, like me, enjoys these stories, not to make fun of (which is easy to do), but because they mean something to fans of Sword & Sorcery, REH and Gardner F Fox.

I don't defend these as literature with the capital "L" and I won't deny the machoism and inherent sexism. Those elements are there; however, these style of tales are a guilty-pleasure that I feel no guilt in enjoying.

Kothar is not set too far apart from Conan. I do like the Curse he must live with, no wealth for possession of the sword Frostfire and even though she is a weak, sexualized card board character, I like that Red Lori always haunts him (or does she?), sometimes she inadvertently helps Kothar.

The Bad: These are unapologetic adventure stories. There are no philosophical debates and Kothar is a Superman, always able to fight his way out of a scrap.

There is a "Dying Earth" sort of preamble to these that promises a future world devolved into a barbarous state of S&S; however, the promise is not delivered upon. Instead, a thinly veiled Hyborian world is used, minus the lavish detail REH provided, and elements from real-world history/mythology are sprinkled in at will. It feels like a world created by a 16 year old for his D&D game.

The Ugly: machoism and sexism. It's there.

Thoughts: If these stories didn't fall into a niche interest of mine, I would rate the collection at 2 stars at most.

Gardner Fox wrote these in a genre that I care much about. Hence, I only recommend these to fans of Sword & Sorcery, and only to those who can be forgiving of a stories faults for the sake of fun.

[Joe Kilmartin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun - beautifully purple storytelling and a breakneck pace make each of the three short stories brisk and entertaining reads. It's garbage, sure, but it's deliciously good and well written garbage that makes one want to protect it a little. The literary equivalent of a Big Mac with fries and a Coke, but some days that's exactly what you need.

[William Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I read Fox's pre-comic book work, but the man knew how to tell a story. Sure, the writing didn't dazzle you and Kothar was a fairly generic imitation of Conan, yet the author knew how to get to the point and have fun doing it. If you read this book expecting great literature, then you're missing the whole point.

[Richard Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

This book is written in the manner of Robert E. Howard and his stories of Conan the Barbarian. I have all of the Robert E. Howard books and this author has captured the essence of Howard in his writings.

[Lúcio Pimentel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gardner F. Fox foi um importante roteirista de quadrinhos da era de ouro e prata dos quadrinhos, ele criou alguns personagens clássicos como Flash e Gavião Negro, assim como a Sociedade da Justiça (que depois deu origem à Liga da Justiça). Quando passou pelo Batman, introduziu alguns elementos como o batrangue e o cinto de utilidades. Ele também escreveu para a EC Comics que também é citada na introdução do Apêndice N. Ainda nos quadrinhos, ele provavelmente criou o primeiro pastiche de Conan chamado Crom the Barbarian, ainda em 1950, antes de Sprague de Camp e Frank Frazetta resgatarem o personagem da obscuridade.
No final dos anos 1960, ele saiu da DC por discordar da política da empresa de não dar plano de saúde para os funcionários sêniores e passou a se dedicar totalmente a escrever romances, incluindo alguns de fantasia que acabaram influenciando Gary Gygax na criação do RPG.
Em 1969 chega às livrarias Kothar – Barbarian Swordman (Khotar - o espadachim bárbaro numa tradução livre, ou A espada das mil e uma mortes na tradução da Cedibra), um livro com três contos de Sword and Sorcery em que o personagem título é apresentado como um guerreiro loiro musculoso que enfrenta feiticeiras e monstros em um mundo fantástico.
O livro começa com uma introdução psedo-erudita de um suposto Donald Maclvers PHD que cita um filósofo alemão para explicar por que Kothar é um personagem que deve ser levado a sério. Ele cita inclusive que a presença de um mapa tão detalhado torna o personagem ainda mais crível (não existe mapa no livro!). Deve ter sido o próprio autor que escreveu essa abertura, provavelmente para caçoar das introduções pomposas de Sprague de Camp e Lin Carter. O livro é todo nesse tom, ele parece se levar muito sério mas ao mesmo tempo está fazendo troça, em muitas partes do livro ele parece estar fazendo uma paródia do famoso personagem de Robert E. Howard mas em outras soa mais como uma homenagem.

A espada do feiticeiro

No primeiro conto The Sword of the Sorcerer, conhecemos Kothar o Cumberiano (não confundir com um tal Cimeriano), mercenário a serviço da Rainha Elfa (sic), que perde uma batalha e precisa fugir das forças inimigas ajudadas pelos feitiços da bruxa Red Lori. Ele acaba se refugiando em uma antiga catacumba onde se depara com uma criatura saída dos pesadelos, o lich Afgorkon. Ele se revela um aliado de Elfa e dá ao bárbaro a espada mágica Frostfire, que apesar dos grandes poderes carrega uma maldição que impede seu portador de acumular qualquer riqueza. Aqui vale um trecho sobre a arma que ilustra bem o que disse antes sobre o texto estar sempre no limiar da parodia, ele está brincando com os leitores ou essa descrição é realmente épica?

“Frostfire foi forjada na gosma primordial por diabos que convoquei 500 anos atrás. Foi gerada de um metal caído dos céus, mergulhada nas entranhas derretidas do mundo, esfriada na neve de uma montanha são alta que nada além de uma sílfide – um espírito alado do ar – podia carrega-la até lá. Ela pode perfurar qualquer armadura, qualquer elmo. Ela pode ser portada apenas por um homem que não possuir riqueza” (tradução livre)

Ele então realiza algumas missões para derrotar Red Lori que é a força por trás dos exércitos inimigos, e acaba ganhando sua inimizade eterna. A bruxa o amaldiçoa e a partir daí, o bárbaro (e os leitores) fica sempre na dúvida se ela está efetivamente trabalhando para destruí-lo ou se é tudo fruto de sua imaginação.

O tesouro no labirinto
O livro continua com The Treasure in the Layrinth, onde o bárbaro é contratado para recuperar uma riqueza incalculável no centro de um labirinto criado por um necromante repleto de monstros e armadilhas. É praticamente uma aventura de RPG romanceada, a própria descrição do local se parece com as que seriam usadas pelo mestre de jogo para descrever essas situações. Veja um exemplo:

“O corredor se transforma em um túnel menor. Isso leva, depois de 20 pés, a uma bifurcação no caminho. Khotar escolhe o túnel da direito e avança rápido, ansioso por alguma atividade. Uma sala maior abre para sua visão” (tradução livre)

Como era de se esperar, no caminho ele resgata uma bela donzela de uma criatura aracnídea que por sua vez o ajuda em sua demanda. Mas o tesouro talvez não seja o que seu contratante esperava.

A mulher na Mata das Bruxas

No último conto, The woman in the witch-wood, Khotar encontra uma encantadora mulher (consegue ver um padrão aqui?) que conta uma história triste e Khotar não pode ignorar seus apelos. Ela era Alaine, antiga nobre local, que teve suas terras tomadas por um poderoso feiticeiro e uma maldição a prende nos arredores de uma torre em ruinas. Ele precisa enganar mortos vivos para entrar na fortaleza de um mago supremo e acabar com seu reinado de terror.
O vilão dessa vez é o Barão Gorfroi que com a fortuna do castelo contrata “feiticeiros e bruxos de abismos interestelares e intergalácticos” para ensinar magias e encantos e justamente esses patronos difíceis de agradar que podem selar seu destino.

Por fim, é um livro divertido, escrito às vezes de forma pretenciosa, com uma série de termos arcaicos, mas que ao mesmo tempo não se leva a sério.

Como ler Khotar
O livros da série Khotar chegaram a sair em português pela editora Cedibra nos anos 1970 na coleção Super Fantasia e são extremamente difíceis de ser encontrados. Para quem sabe inglês, eles estão todos disponíveis em formato digital.

Influência ao D&D
No Apêndice são citadas diretamente suas duas séries de fantasia (Khotar e Kyrik), além de recomendar de forma geral os outros livros do autor. Gardner chegou a escrever diversos contos na Dragon Magazine (começando no longínquo número 2) então era uma figura carimbada que estava próximo da TSR no seu início.
O conceito de item amaldiçoado pode ter puxado alguma coisa da espada Frostfire, e além disso um verdadeiro bestiário é citado ao longo do livro que pode ter inspirado algumas entradas do Monster Manual, como goblin e hobgob, esqueleto, bogarth, súcubo, gibbering ghoul (talvez gerando o gibbering mouther e o ghoul), minokar, múmia e lamia.
Tirando as especulações de lado, uma coisa definitivamente veio daqui que é o conceito do morto-vivo lich, um conjurador extremante poderoso que consegue se manter “vivo” através da força de sua magia. Lich é uma palavra arcaica para corpo em inglês, e o autor a usa aqui como sinônimo de morto-vivo. Essa criatura há muito saiu dos manuais de RPG para virar um arquétipo geral de fantasia. A animação Hora de aventura, por exemplo, tem como um dos vilões “o lich”, o mesmo acontece na franquia de vídeo games Warcraft, aliais, se você procurar na Amazon pelo termo vai encontrar inúmeros livros e quadrinhos, muitos com lich no próprio título. Isso é uma medida de como o D&D influenciou a cultura pop: lich aparece em um livro obscuro, é transformado em monstro por Gygax e então transborda para outras mídias como se fosse um arquétipo clássico de morto-vivo que sempre existiu.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I figure this book is exactly what people who would never read Robert E. Howard's Conan books probably imagine them to be: lurid, exploitational, lowest-common-denominator swords & sorcery drek.

It's so bad it's good, but with the caveat that it lurks at the very bottom of the "so bad it's good" spectrum. If it were any worse it would tear through the supporting cheesecloth that suspends it and just be bad. I don't think I'm going to risk the rest of the series.

(I read this because it's the literary source for Dungeons & Dragons' lich monster. I've also watched the "Horror in the Heights" episode of Kolchak: the Night Stalker. Sometimes I suspect I don't value my own time.)

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 3 out of 5]

review tomorrow
It was not tomorrow it was a year later almost :)
Kothar is not conan, it doesn't try to mimmick or subsittute. Is another hero, or anti-hero who likes to party with the girls.

The first novel really brought things together with Kothat, the demon queen and his cursed sword that makes him powerful BUT it has a setback - he cannot amass wealth. We never understand why or what would happened but that's the 70's for you.

After reading everything now, before I make this review I would say to you - don't come here UNLESS you already read dozens others and want to try something different.

[Jamie Huston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bold, bombastic dumb fun. An old fashioned popcorn blockbuster. This is such an obvious Conan rip off--Conan is a CIMMERIAN and Kothar is a CUMBRIAN, not at all a lazy example of copy/paste.

Fox leans way too heavily on repeating cliche after cliche--did you know that Kothar is YOUNG and has HUGE MUSCLES? If you read the first five pages, you were told that about ten times! LOL

But I have to admit--this is fast paced and action packed--the monsters and villains are genuinely threatening, interesting creations. An invincible, over-the-top womanizer, it's James Bond for the D&D set!

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first and best of the Kothar series by Fox. The main character is less interesting than the early Kyrik books but is still fun.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kothar is an updated Conan. He’s a Cumberian rather than a Cimmerian, but still from a hard northern land. The world is so far into the future that the universe is now contracting rather than expanding.

Ages ago, as the legends say, the race of Man knew those stars and all their planets, named and visited them, and left on those planetary surfaces vast cities, great monuments to mankind’s own greatness. Once, uncounted millennia before, an empire of Man was spread throughout the universe. This empire died more than a billion years ago, after which man himself sank into a state of barbarism.

In this first book, which is basically three only vaguely connected stories, that history doesn’t overtly matter. But one of the things left behind, or perhaps discovered after the fall, is sorcery, always or almost always malignant. At the beginning of the book Kothar is given a sword, the best sword in the land. It’s only magic is a curse: whoever wields it will not be able to keep riches. In the hands of one such as Kothar, the wielder will acquire great riches, but it will always be taken from him.

A barbarian like Kothar with a sword like Frostfire is rarely challenged by mere mortals, and most of the challenges he meets in these stories are monsters and evil sorcery. Giant worms, and huge spiders, undead, and demons.

Every ruler is either a sorceror, or allied with one.

There are horrors in this world; one of the first things he does is rescue a sorceror who has been flayed of all his skin but still lives.

He’s more naive in the beginning than he is at the end. At first, unless he can transform his challenge into a swordfight he’s lost. By the end he recognizes that subterfuge has its uses.

…he could see that they were sorcerers and wizards in long black cloaks and pointed caps, with surfaces emblazoned with secret formulae for wickedness and all manner of corrupt spells. They ran lightly on the sea, chanting their cantraips as they came.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lol, just the most basic Conan-lite generic fantasy you can get your hands on. Still, it's short and enjoyable for what it is, and this series came to mind after my failed attempts/strong negative reactions to Glen Cook and Steven Erikson's writing. They're not really comparable--different eras and developmental points of the genre and all, but for some reason as I read those books, my mind kept wandering back to this and I had to use it to "cleanse the palette".

You can tell this tale comes from a comic book author and could easily be transferred to the pages of Heavy Metal magazine (although that didn't exist yet and I wouldn't be surprised if it took a cue or two from Kothar). Everyone is beautiful, barely clothed, and hot for each other while the castle is being raided or the magic orb being retrieved from an evil wizard. But if you can deal with the very thin plot and dialogue, the adventure is still decent and has moments of interest to keep it lively. But no doubt this is like the Hostess Twinkie of fantasy books.

[Dan Piponi · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I wanted to give it one star but it's such a fast and easy read that it doesn't really cause a lot of suffering and in places it's actually fun.

Fox really isn't the best writer. He seems to think a shibboleth is a slithery wormy thing rather than a word whose function is to reveal that its user doesn't know how to use it. And I don't think a lamia is what Fox thinks it is.

The structure of his paragraphs is confusing. He often uses the pattern:

"Something said by person A", said person A. "But this is text said by person B".

where other writers would write :

"Something said by person A", said person A. "Remainder of text said by person A".

It doesn't help that the ebook has many problems. I don't know if the extraneous commas are Fox's or OCR issues.

Kothar himself is an empty-headed barbarian who likes cheese.

But there's also some inventiveness. This is probably where the D&D lich came from.

I'll probably go back for more at some point.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gardner Fox is the creator of the modern Flash, Batman's Utility Belt and a little-known thing called the Justice League. While creating a solid chunk of pop culture and holding down a job as a lawyer, he also had time to pen quite a few novels.

I'm not going to say that it's high-brow. The same publisher published his L.U.S.T. novels and there was a cigarette ad embedded in each one, but it seems as though he was trying for schlock on just couldn't not make something amazing.

This novel is a riff on the Conan novels. The character is a clear rip-off and there's no apologies given for it. There's a lovely forward given by a professor (who never existed), who cites a German philosopher (who never existed) who gives a diatribe on why science fiction/fantasy is the pinnacle of culture. From there we plunge headlong into a well-written, well-spoken romp that is far more engaging than the material that it clearly is attempting to rip off.

[Mike Nusbaum · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun read. Fox is a pretty good writer and his prose shines at times. My main problem with this book is that it's a blatant copy of Conan. Fox even uses those words you typically find only in Robert Howard's writings (thews, panther movements, sleeping and being able to awake fully alert instantly, etc.). I can see how this influenced Gary Gygax and others who worked on D&D though as it has far more magic than Conan. There are other items in the writing as you go along that stand out as having an impact on the direction of D&D.

As far as Appendix N books go this book seems very influential if not exactly original in concept. It's not Vance, Lovecraft or Wellman but it's better than some other Appendix N books and quite more relevant to the topic than some of the others.

[Mikel Pfeiffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was not as good as the later book I read in the series. I thought reading the first book might give me more background on Kothar. The book is three short stories, each 30-45 pages, so it was never to boring but the writing isn't as good as later series books or even many other S&S novels I've read. I did discover the story behind Kothar's sword and have a bit of fun along his journeys that usually involve a wizard, a woman who is not as she appears and a monster or two.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first Kothar book lacks both the savage beauty of R.E. Howard’s works and the complete weirdness of Lin Carter’s. Despite that, it’s fun and moves along at a good clip. For those approaching it from Appendix N, there’s a whole lot to take in. However, the book is pretty unrelentingly sexist; there’s even a line where Kothar thinks to himself that a woman should smile more!

[Ashe Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I'm declaring this a DNF for now. The ebook is riddled with typos and various formatting errors that cause grammatical errors. The first story was kind of meh, with flairs of interesting bits. Someone had described this as "He-Man with sex" so I was curious. Maybe I'll try again down the line but it's been months and I haven't touched it again.

[Hellblau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fox is a comic book writer, but obviously this kind of pulp fantasy is fairly closely adjacent to comic books so that makes him a pretty natural fit. He's not a very good prose writer but he's easy to read, he has good pacing, and he does tend to have good ideas as far as characters and setting, derivative as they are. Many ideas of his were used by Gary Gygax for Dungeons and Dragons. The quality of the writing not being very good does make it dull to read a lot of the time, which I guess would be fine were it for young readers but the content can be risque at times so nix that. He doesn't seem to know how to write a setting from scratch though and the story seems to begin in a kind of remarkably empty void of a world that is only slowly populated with people and places as the book progresses.

So 2.5 stars basically. Which I'm going to round up to 3 because of it's solidly interesting ideas and influence.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

bit cheesy but fast paced and very traditional

[Mary Ann Betts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun Read

Enjoyable tales of sword and sorcery. Imaginative, well written stories that I would recommend for anyone who likes this genre.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty cool

I quite enjoyed these stories. They were fun and worth the read they killed a few hours . they need to be edited a bit better but I liked them.

[Zastis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Rocky Mountain Bog Monster · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're not talking literary quality here, but that was a solid 4-star fun romp.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

First half - loved it.

Second half - dragged on.

[KHLOARIS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrowing motifs, plot points & even key descriptive phrases from Robert E. Howard’s Conan of Cimmeria, we get Kothar of Cumbria. He's a blonde nordic clone of Conan, but the author makes him into more of a misogynist womanizer.

This first book the Kothar series is really 3 unrelated Kothar stories: "The Sword of the Sorcerer", "The Treasure in the Labyrinth" & "The Woman in the Witch-Wood". In the first story, Kothar encounters a mummified lich. This re-animated corpse of a wizard gifts Kothar a golden sword encrusted with ancient runes, Frostfire. The blade’s magic has a flipside, whoever wields it will not be able to keep their riches. Welcome to the ‘70s. With his new magic sword will Kothar overpower the seductive magic of Red Lorrie?

Supposedly, Kothar exists a billion years in the future. Its a world that has reverted to barbarism, but we’re told little else. What’s really missing from these Kothar stories is the occult weirdness that could be felt creeping around every corner in Conan, but if you squint your eyes its hard to tell the difference. Gardner Fox was a prolific author of 1940s-50s era comicbooks. He created many familiar characters like Flash, Hawkman, Batgirl, Red Tornado and Justice League of America.