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Golden Blood
Gold. Gold brought the oddly mixed group of adventurers together...gold made them enemies in a battle to the death...gold held the key to the mysterious forces that assailed them. And Jack Williamson, alchemist with words, spins a rare web of spellbinding fantasy-adventure...a gem from the golden age of Weird Tales.
267 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1933
About the author
Jack Williamson
589 books179 followersJohn Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 5, 2018
I'd like to tell you about a terrific book that I have just finished reading. In it, a 2,000-year-old Arabian woman, living her immortal existence in the heart of an extinct volcano after being endowed by a mysterious force of nature, waits patiently for the reincarnation of her dead lover to reappear to her. "Hold on," I can almost hear you saying. "I know that book...that's 'She'!" And if that is indeed your reaction, a gold star for you, my friend, for being familiar with one of the most classic, and indeed seminal, works of fantasy literature of the past 150 years. But no, it is not to H. Rider Haggard's 1886 classic that I refer to here, but rather to a work that came out almost a full half century later: Jack Williamson's "Golden Blood," which first appeared as a six-part serial in the April – September 1933 issues of "Weird Tales" magazine. Editor Farnsworth Wright must have known back when what a hugely popular series this would turn out to be, as he allowed both the April and May issues to feature beautifully faithful illustrations for "Golden Blood" on their front covers. Though little discussed today, the novel was a big hit amongst the famous pulp's readers in 1933, with Part 6 voted an especial fan favorite. This reader, fortunately, was able to acquire the typo-riddled 1964 Lancer paperback reprint, the first edition since the novel's initial appearance over 30 years earlier, which also sported a nicely faithful cover, by Ed Emshwiller. To my great delight, the book, despite its heavy debt to Haggard, reveals itself today as a fantasy/adventure triumph, written by the man who would very shortly thereafter deliver up one of the great space opera series of all time, "The Legion of Space," as well as one of the great horror novels of the 20th century, "Darker Than You Think." Simply put, the book is a blast.
In it, the reader meets a 31-year-old adventurer named Price Durand. When we first encounter him, he is engaged--along with a bunch of seedy, hard-bitten mercenaries and a Bedouin tribe--in a daring attempt to trek into one of the most unexplored and hazardous regions of the world: the Rub’ al Khali Desert, in central Arabia. There, the men hope to find a legendary lost race, which lives atop a mountain in a castle made of solid gold. But Durand's plans are interrupted when he comes to the aid and protection of a fleeing maiden, named Aysa, angering some of the other men, who have, uh, less than chivalrous designs on the young beauty. Retreating deeper into the desert wastes, Durand and Aysa discover the ancient and deserted city of Anz, now a ruin, but harboring a most-welcome oasis. The two spend some idyllic days there, until Aysa is kidnapped by the immortal, golden-skinned priest Malikar, and brought to that above-mentioned volcanic sanctuary, even deeper in the desert. Durand follows, and discovers that the evil priest lives with an immortal female companion there: the equally golden-skinned Vekyra, who regards Price as the reincarnation of the eons-dead Anzian king, Iru. And more trouble arises, when Durand learns that Malikar plans to make the lovely Aysa his immortal consort, by exposing her to the golden mist in the heart of the mountain; a mist that confers virtual immortality by replacing all the body's moisture with metallic gold! (As a plot device, perhaps not quite as convincing as "She"'s flamelike Pillar of Life.) It seems that Price will not only have to contend with two immortals for his lady love, but also with their followers (all of whom sport the image of a snake branded into their foreheads), as well as Vekyra's pet, an immortal gold tiger the size of an elephant, and Malikar's plaything, an enormous, metallic snake with hypnotic eyes. Not to mention all the enemies that Price has made of his ex-companions, and the rigors of Earth's harshest environment. Yes, Durand surely does have his hands full here....
Reading "Golden Blood" today, modern readers will most likely wonder how the "Weird Tales" customers of 1933 were able to wait a full month between each action-packed installment. To be sure, Williamson's book is a nonstop thrill ride, careening from one exciting set piece to the next, offering up wonder upon wonder as things progress. Fans of the Indiana Jones movies--which were of course based on the Saturday matinee movie serials of the '40s and '50s, and which were themselves indebted to the adventure pulps of the '30s--should just love what Williamson does here. The book offers any number of wonderful sequences, such as the exploration of that lost city of Anz; Malikar entombing Price in an underground crypt therein (Durand, tough guy that he is, pauses to smoke a cigarette while he is dying from asphyxiation in that tomb!); Price and his companions, armed with rifles, mortars and a tank, engaging in a desert battle with Malikar's men, who shoot killing rays of cold from their mirror weapons; and the book's rousing finale, in which Price battles the two immortals atop a narrow bridge, spanning a bottomless chasm, while the soporific golden mists threaten to put him under. As in all superior action adventures, there are not only the two primary villains (Malikar and the beautifully seductive Vekyra) for our hero to vanquish, but also a whole gaggle of lesser nasties; to wit, Jacob Garth, Price's duplicitous partner; de Castro, a slimy Macanese; the brutish Montenegrin Pasic, with whom Price has one helluva fight; and that ginormous tiger and snake! It is all remarkably exciting stuff, told with limitless gusto by the author, who manages to invest his fantasy with some pleasing bits of superscience (besides those freezing mirrors, Vekyra & Co. also control a device that can spy from a distance and send intimidating, mirage-like images high into the sky). Readers will marvel when they recall that Williamson was only 25 when he wrote "Golden Blood," and had made his first professional sale, the short story "The Metal Man," only five years before.
OK, I'm not going to lie to you. Williamson was a professional writer from 1928 all the way till 2006, when the author passed away at age 98. His writing, naturally, grew better and more polished as he matured, and his early work, enthusiastic and brimming with verve as it was, nevertheless can seem a bit coarse and unrefined in comparison. Williamson, in this particular novel, can be justly accused of overusing many of his favorite, pet words, such as "tawny," "aureate" and "oblique." And then there's "xanthic," a perfectly cool word (I needed to resort to an UNabridged dictionary to learn that it simply means "yellow"), which Williamson must use well over a dozen times during the course of his story. That's a lot of "xanthic" for one book! Still, the author obviously did his homework here, and regales us with any number of Arabic words and convincing desert descriptions. And like one of his fellow "Weird Tales" contributors, H.P. Lovecraft, here, in this one book, Williamson opts for alternate, oddball spellings of common words (to engender strangeness or exoticism, perhaps?); thus, we get "surprize," "gayety," "fantasm" and "sirup," rather than the conventional spellings. Williamson manages to keep a firm rein on his sweeping story, though, only slipping up one time; when he mentions that the first of the Bedouins to be killed by those freezing rays was named Hamed, whereas earlier, we'd been told that his name was Mustafa. But this is a minor matter, and one that most readers will be far too engrossed to even notice. Williamson, at this stage, was already a master at pulp prose, and at keeping his readers spellbound. Thus, this description of the dead city of Anz:
"…The black walls, of Cyclopean basalt blocks, stood half a mile away. Driven sands of ages had scored in them deep furrows. Here and there they had tumbled into colossal ruin, like a breakwater broken by the yellow sea of sand. Tawny, billowing dunes were piled against them in crested waves, sometimes completely covering them. Shattered ruins rose within the walls, crumbling, half buried, darkly mysterious in the dawn, emerging grim and desolate from night's shadows as if from the mists of centuries immemorial...."
To his great credit, Williamson here takes another homage to "She" and manages to make of it something new and exciting. No wonder the "Weird Tales" readers of the early '30s loved it so much! And perhaps it is no wonder that the novel "Phantom City," in the December '33 issue of "Doc Savage Magazine" (a scant three months after "Golden Blood" wrapped), was also set in the desolate wastes of the Rub’ al Khali! One of only two serials that Williamson ever sold to "Weird Tales," "Golden Blood" is pretty much as exciting as pulp sci-fi/fantasy/adventure gets. Tremendous fun, for one and all. I find myself now wanting to read that other serial, the three-part "Dreadful Sleep," which Williamson placed in the magazine from March to May 1938. Stay tuned....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Jack Williamson....)
In it, the reader meets a 31-year-old adventurer named Price Durand. When we first encounter him, he is engaged--along with a bunch of seedy, hard-bitten mercenaries and a Bedouin tribe--in a daring attempt to trek into one of the most unexplored and hazardous regions of the world: the Rub’ al Khali Desert, in central Arabia. There, the men hope to find a legendary lost race, which lives atop a mountain in a castle made of solid gold. But Durand's plans are interrupted when he comes to the aid and protection of a fleeing maiden, named Aysa, angering some of the other men, who have, uh, less than chivalrous designs on the young beauty. Retreating deeper into the desert wastes, Durand and Aysa discover the ancient and deserted city of Anz, now a ruin, but harboring a most-welcome oasis. The two spend some idyllic days there, until Aysa is kidnapped by the immortal, golden-skinned priest Malikar, and brought to that above-mentioned volcanic sanctuary, even deeper in the desert. Durand follows, and discovers that the evil priest lives with an immortal female companion there: the equally golden-skinned Vekyra, who regards Price as the reincarnation of the eons-dead Anzian king, Iru. And more trouble arises, when Durand learns that Malikar plans to make the lovely Aysa his immortal consort, by exposing her to the golden mist in the heart of the mountain; a mist that confers virtual immortality by replacing all the body's moisture with metallic gold! (As a plot device, perhaps not quite as convincing as "She"'s flamelike Pillar of Life.) It seems that Price will not only have to contend with two immortals for his lady love, but also with their followers (all of whom sport the image of a snake branded into their foreheads), as well as Vekyra's pet, an immortal gold tiger the size of an elephant, and Malikar's plaything, an enormous, metallic snake with hypnotic eyes. Not to mention all the enemies that Price has made of his ex-companions, and the rigors of Earth's harshest environment. Yes, Durand surely does have his hands full here....
Reading "Golden Blood" today, modern readers will most likely wonder how the "Weird Tales" customers of 1933 were able to wait a full month between each action-packed installment. To be sure, Williamson's book is a nonstop thrill ride, careening from one exciting set piece to the next, offering up wonder upon wonder as things progress. Fans of the Indiana Jones movies--which were of course based on the Saturday matinee movie serials of the '40s and '50s, and which were themselves indebted to the adventure pulps of the '30s--should just love what Williamson does here. The book offers any number of wonderful sequences, such as the exploration of that lost city of Anz; Malikar entombing Price in an underground crypt therein (Durand, tough guy that he is, pauses to smoke a cigarette while he is dying from asphyxiation in that tomb!); Price and his companions, armed with rifles, mortars and a tank, engaging in a desert battle with Malikar's men, who shoot killing rays of cold from their mirror weapons; and the book's rousing finale, in which Price battles the two immortals atop a narrow bridge, spanning a bottomless chasm, while the soporific golden mists threaten to put him under. As in all superior action adventures, there are not only the two primary villains (Malikar and the beautifully seductive Vekyra) for our hero to vanquish, but also a whole gaggle of lesser nasties; to wit, Jacob Garth, Price's duplicitous partner; de Castro, a slimy Macanese; the brutish Montenegrin Pasic, with whom Price has one helluva fight; and that ginormous tiger and snake! It is all remarkably exciting stuff, told with limitless gusto by the author, who manages to invest his fantasy with some pleasing bits of superscience (besides those freezing mirrors, Vekyra & Co. also control a device that can spy from a distance and send intimidating, mirage-like images high into the sky). Readers will marvel when they recall that Williamson was only 25 when he wrote "Golden Blood," and had made his first professional sale, the short story "The Metal Man," only five years before.
OK, I'm not going to lie to you. Williamson was a professional writer from 1928 all the way till 2006, when the author passed away at age 98. His writing, naturally, grew better and more polished as he matured, and his early work, enthusiastic and brimming with verve as it was, nevertheless can seem a bit coarse and unrefined in comparison. Williamson, in this particular novel, can be justly accused of overusing many of his favorite, pet words, such as "tawny," "aureate" and "oblique." And then there's "xanthic," a perfectly cool word (I needed to resort to an UNabridged dictionary to learn that it simply means "yellow"), which Williamson must use well over a dozen times during the course of his story. That's a lot of "xanthic" for one book! Still, the author obviously did his homework here, and regales us with any number of Arabic words and convincing desert descriptions. And like one of his fellow "Weird Tales" contributors, H.P. Lovecraft, here, in this one book, Williamson opts for alternate, oddball spellings of common words (to engender strangeness or exoticism, perhaps?); thus, we get "surprize," "gayety," "fantasm" and "sirup," rather than the conventional spellings. Williamson manages to keep a firm rein on his sweeping story, though, only slipping up one time; when he mentions that the first of the Bedouins to be killed by those freezing rays was named Hamed, whereas earlier, we'd been told that his name was Mustafa. But this is a minor matter, and one that most readers will be far too engrossed to even notice. Williamson, at this stage, was already a master at pulp prose, and at keeping his readers spellbound. Thus, this description of the dead city of Anz:
"…The black walls, of Cyclopean basalt blocks, stood half a mile away. Driven sands of ages had scored in them deep furrows. Here and there they had tumbled into colossal ruin, like a breakwater broken by the yellow sea of sand. Tawny, billowing dunes were piled against them in crested waves, sometimes completely covering them. Shattered ruins rose within the walls, crumbling, half buried, darkly mysterious in the dawn, emerging grim and desolate from night's shadows as if from the mists of centuries immemorial...."
To his great credit, Williamson here takes another homage to "She" and manages to make of it something new and exciting. No wonder the "Weird Tales" readers of the early '30s loved it so much! And perhaps it is no wonder that the novel "Phantom City," in the December '33 issue of "Doc Savage Magazine" (a scant three months after "Golden Blood" wrapped), was also set in the desolate wastes of the Rub’ al Khali! One of only two serials that Williamson ever sold to "Weird Tales," "Golden Blood" is pretty much as exciting as pulp sci-fi/fantasy/adventure gets. Tremendous fun, for one and all. I find myself now wanting to read that other serial, the three-part "Dreadful Sleep," which Williamson placed in the magazine from March to May 1938. Stay tuned....
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of Jack Williamson....)
June 13, 2011
This is very much in the tradition of Rider Haggard's 'She'. Adventurers find a lost city with hidden treasures and immortal overlords. There's a lot of apparent magic explained away as advanced, ancient science, a romantic drama underpinned by reincarnation and lots of running around brawling and battling in a variety of dramatic settings.
This book is greatly beloved in some genre circles but I found it rather padded and lacking in surface detail compared to Haggard, and not up to the standards of an adventure writer like John Buchan, plying his trade across the pond at around the same time this story was first serialised in Weird Tales.
It's definitely a beguiling dose of escapism to while away the time, but Williamson's habit of dilating on his character's not especially complex thoughts makes the narrative a drag at times as does the occasional irruption of recapitulation that could have been excised. Also the hero is just plain dumb at times, engaging in Darwin Award-worthy acts like pausing to light a cigarette when trapped in a tomb with a limited air supply.
This book is greatly beloved in some genre circles but I found it rather padded and lacking in surface detail compared to Haggard, and not up to the standards of an adventure writer like John Buchan, plying his trade across the pond at around the same time this story was first serialised in Weird Tales.
It's definitely a beguiling dose of escapism to while away the time, but Williamson's habit of dilating on his character's not especially complex thoughts makes the narrative a drag at times as does the occasional irruption of recapitulation that could have been excised. Also the hero is just plain dumb at times, engaging in Darwin Award-worthy acts like pausing to light a cigarette when trapped in a tomb with a limited air supply.
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April 14, 2016GOLDEN BLOOD
By Jack Williamson
This is a science fiction classic that I first read when I was in my twenties (well over forty years ago!). I enjoyed it then and it stuck in my mind. It is now available in digital form so I revisited it.
I didn’t enjoy it quite as much this time – maybe because I have changed over the years. But it is well worth reading. There is an expedition across a desert to find a fabled land where golden beings dwell. There are four of these ‘gods’ – a man, a woman, a gigantic golden snake and a huge golden tiger. It sounds like fantasy but there is a scientific explanation for everything. The hero, Price Durand, faces the wielders of an ancient technology and he must also contend against dangerous members of his own expedition. There is lots of action and it also features a love story.
By Jack Williamson
This is a science fiction classic that I first read when I was in my twenties (well over forty years ago!). I enjoyed it then and it stuck in my mind. It is now available in digital form so I revisited it.
I didn’t enjoy it quite as much this time – maybe because I have changed over the years. But it is well worth reading. There is an expedition across a desert to find a fabled land where golden beings dwell. There are four of these ‘gods’ – a man, a woman, a gigantic golden snake and a huge golden tiger. It sounds like fantasy but there is a scientific explanation for everything. The hero, Price Durand, faces the wielders of an ancient technology and he must also contend against dangerous members of his own expedition. There is lots of action and it also features a love story.
April 26, 2018
It drifts towards Abraham Merritt from a solidly H Rider Haggard beginning, incorporating the best ideas from both: a brutally efficient and fast-moving narration, and weird not-really-science. The tone shifts towards Merritt as the story moves into the golden citadel of the immortals and the four major characters start to replay ancient events along ancient rivalries and betrayals.
My only issue is that the long desert travel evoked MST3K 'saaaaandstorm' flashbacks.
My only issue is that the long desert travel evoked MST3K 'saaaaandstorm' flashbacks.
November 26, 2010
High pulp adventure that first appeared in Weird Tales Magazine back in the early 30's. A lost city, a golden race of immortals and a lust-filled adventurer all make for a fun and fast read. For pulp fans.
August 9, 2009
A Lost race, lost city adventure. It came highly recommended to me and it was pretty good but not as good as the recommendation suggested.
August 31, 2018
A pretty decent lost race novel.
Deep in a sun-baked desert lies a hidden city ruled by an immortal golden couple and their monstrous pets. There's a treasure to be had there, and romance for our hero, of course. It all follows the "lost city" cliches closely, but holds a few novel (albeit unbelievable) ideas.
It started strong, and I really enjoyed Williamson's writing style, but the story kind of petered out about three quarters of the way through. Some elements from the story's start, like the super-science of the lost city, get dropped in favor of sightless travels in tunnels, a jealous priestess, and weird gold mist.
Deep in a sun-baked desert lies a hidden city ruled by an immortal golden couple and their monstrous pets. There's a treasure to be had there, and romance for our hero, of course. It all follows the "lost city" cliches closely, but holds a few novel (albeit unbelievable) ideas.
It started strong, and I really enjoyed Williamson's writing style, but the story kind of petered out about three quarters of the way through. Some elements from the story's start, like the super-science of the lost city, get dropped in favor of sightless travels in tunnels, a jealous priestess, and weird gold mist.
June 1, 2019
I loved this book. Need to re-read it's been so long since I read it. But I remember it's outstanding.
April 15, 2017
This is a fun pulp adventure in the tradition of Haggard, Hyne, Howard, and people who have names that don't start with an "H" such as Merritt and Mundy. It's a good old-fashioned read with nothing that particularly stands out in my memory other than I thought he over-used the word "tawny." It would make a good movie.
February 24, 2017
Pulp adventure. Lost city, giant animals, vast treasure.
December 18, 2020
A desert expedition in search of the lost city of Anz turns deadly when Price Durand and company encounter some Arabs with some advanced technology.
Having enlisted the help of some local mercenaries, Durand, along with Jacob Garth, is looking or gold. In truth, it is Garth who wants the gold. Durand has only come along for the adventure.
But things take a turn for the worse when they all encounter what seems to be supernatural forces, which scare off the locals. Those forces also make this book have the appearance of a fantasy story, but when the source is revealed, it becomes evident that "magic" is not at all involved.
Oh, to be sure there is a slight mystical element involved, as the primary antagonists have the ability to charm a giant snake and tiger, and the snake seems to have the ability to hypnotize humans, especially when projected via a giant hologram.
To be fair, there are certainly elements of both Science Fiction and Fantasy in Golden Blood, as hints of past lives and reincarnation also are present.
I thoroughly enjoyed this latest installment in my quest to read all of the Science Fiction Grand Masters. Originally published in 1933, this has added to my realization that have been missing a great deal of fun, having not read any of this author's work before.
I am also finding his older work to be much more difficult to acquire than Heinlein's older work.
Williamson's descriptive style of writing is quite enjoyable, as well, one of my favorite spots being when he described the sound of sand blowing across the desert as "sibilant." It certainly made sense, and I could instantly hear the "ssssssss" of blowing sand, in my head.
They don't write 'em like that any more, folks.
Having enlisted the help of some local mercenaries, Durand, along with Jacob Garth, is looking or gold. In truth, it is Garth who wants the gold. Durand has only come along for the adventure.
But things take a turn for the worse when they all encounter what seems to be supernatural forces, which scare off the locals. Those forces also make this book have the appearance of a fantasy story, but when the source is revealed, it becomes evident that "magic" is not at all involved.
Oh, to be sure there is a slight mystical element involved, as the primary antagonists have the ability to charm a giant snake and tiger, and the snake seems to have the ability to hypnotize humans, especially when projected via a giant hologram.
To be fair, there are certainly elements of both Science Fiction and Fantasy in Golden Blood, as hints of past lives and reincarnation also are present.
I thoroughly enjoyed this latest installment in my quest to read all of the Science Fiction Grand Masters. Originally published in 1933, this has added to my realization that have been missing a great deal of fun, having not read any of this author's work before.
I am also finding his older work to be much more difficult to acquire than Heinlein's older work.
Williamson's descriptive style of writing is quite enjoyable, as well, one of my favorite spots being when he described the sound of sand blowing across the desert as "sibilant." It certainly made sense, and I could instantly hear the "ssssssss" of blowing sand, in my head.
They don't write 'em like that any more, folks.
July 13, 2020
Jack Williamson is the second person selected as a Grand Master in the science fiction field and it is a richly deserved reward for a lifetime of writing that included many classics of the field. Jack published his first story in 1928 and he never slowed down until his death in 2006. Early on he was much influenced by Abraham Merritt and this novel of a "lost world" is very much in the A. Merritt vein.
I would give this novel a 4.5 as the only drawback is the dated science and that is not that serious a drawback for a novel written in 1933. I found this to be a fun adventure story of a mythical lost city in the Arabian desert. It may have been influenced by A. Merritt, but it would have made Mr. Merritt proud to have that accolade, I think.
I would give this novel a 4.5 as the only drawback is the dated science and that is not that serious a drawback for a novel written in 1933. I found this to be a fun adventure story of a mythical lost city in the Arabian desert. It may have been influenced by A. Merritt, but it would have made Mr. Merritt proud to have that accolade, I think.
January 30, 2024
Very early Williamson—the copyright date in the front is 1933. It lacks the chilling impact of THE HUMANOIDS, but it’s a solid adventure in the style of ERB and H. R. Haggard’s SHE, with which it shares many plot points.
May 27, 2024
A great adventure story that is not just hero vs villain but hero vs multiple villains who are all against each other. So the hero plays up to one villain in order to defeat another. It's nonstop action and it's very imaginative with actual golden blood being featured here.
November 16, 2011
I'll always have affection for Grand Master Williamson, but this clumsy knockoff of A. Merritt's lost civilization epics has basically nothing going for it. He serves up a blend of fantasy and science fiction (something about gold mist that makes you immortal) with the usual Merritt plot points - untold riches, evil beautiful superwoman, good handsome Ordinary Joe who may be the reincarnation of a long-dead warrior-king - but none of the depth or descriptive panache. Sample line: "Kismet!" shouted Malikar, leering triumphantly.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews