King Kobold

Warlock #2

by Christopher Stasheff

Here's Gramarye, a gentle planet where, in the Thirty-first Century, people choose the life-style of medieval England; except they're prejudiced against and persecute their witches and warlocks (espers, naturally). Rod Gallowglass (dubbed High Warlock in spite of himself) is stationed there as an agent of the intergalactic DDT - Decentralized Democratic Tribunal - to protect the precious esper colony from its primitive fellow Gramaryans, and to insure a gradual integration. This already whacky society is stirred up with a batch of paranoid esper Neanderthals led by the strange King Kobold, brought in by alien futurians to destroy those espers so vital to DDT's future. When this unhealthy mess starts brewing, our warlock-cum-everyman is the one to watch. For a mixture of fun, swords, sorcery and science, King Kobold may be the year's best potboiler.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

The late Christopher Stasheff was an American science fiction and fantasy author. When teaching proved too real, he gave it up in favor of writing full-time. Stasheff was noted for his blending of science fiction and fantasy, as seen in his Warlock series. He spent his early childhood in Mount Vernon, New York, but spent the rest of his formative years in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Stasheff taught at the University of Eastern New Mexico in Portales, before retiring to Champaign, Illinois, in 2009. He had a wife and four children.

Reviews

[M.o.]

What a convoluted mess! Leprechauns, elfin faeries, witches, Neanderthals, faux-English knights, vespers, time travelers, a genetically engineered soulless chimpanzee pscionisist powered by a briefcase nuke, a mechanical rocket powered horse and not one but two versions of our protagonist, Rod Gallowglass. Somehow still not fun at all, just stupid.

[Angela Randall]

We also own as part of an omnibus: Warlock: To the Magic Born

[Steve Lawrenson]

Not as good as the first in the series but not awful.

[Vader]

5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish