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I said no more because I knew he was right. If he should shoot Gooja Singh the troopers would ascribe it to nothing else than fear. A British officer might do it and they would say, "Behold how he scorns to shirk responsibility!" Yet of Ranjoor Singh they would have said, "He fears us, and behold the butchery begins! Who shall be next?" Nevertheless, had I stood in his shoes, I would have shot and buried Gooja Singh to forestall trouble. I would have shot Gooja Singh and the Turk and Tugendheim all three with one volley. And the Turk's forty men would have met a like fate at the first excuse. ... Read more

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This whole business is getting too confused for me," he grumbled, sitting down again. "You want to kill Commodus, as is reasonable. Marcia has ordered me to kill you, which is unreasonable! Yet for the present she protects you. Why? She knows you are Commodus' enemy. She seems anxious to save Commodus. Yet she encourages Pertinax, who doesn't want to be emperor; he only dallies with the thought because Marcia helps Cornificia to persuade him! Isn't that a confusion for you? And now there's Bultius Livius. As I understand it, Marcia caught him spying on her. No woman in her senses would trust Livius; the man has snowbroth in his veins and slow fire in his head. Yet Marcia now heaps favors on him! ... Read more

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THIS 30 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Wine of Life, by Katherine Tingley. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766131882. ... Read more

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"The best adventure writer of the 20th century!" -- SF Site

When Mundy published the short novel The Gray Mahatma (retitled Caves of Terror in book form) in the Nov. 10, 1922 issue of Adventure, it was the first time the supernatural and mystical elements of Eastern religion and philosophy took the forefront in his work. Mundy would return to the white man's quest for esoteric knowledge in many of his later classics such as Om -- The Secret of Abhor Valley and The Nine Unknown. In Caves of Terror, the gray mahatma, a high-level Indian mystic wishing to draw Athelstan King [hero of Mundy's early classic King -- of the Khyber Rifles] into an allegiance to use Indian mystic "super-science" to bring India from under the yoke of British colonialism, has been doomed to death for leaking secrets to the dangerous and cunning, but ever so seductive Yasmini, who wishes to use these same powers to dominate the World. . . .While the breathtaking pace of the story tends to marginalize Mundy's underlying message of Eastern wisdom's insights into many things unexplained by Western science, it is this same pace which likely earned it its "best novel of the year" accolade from the readers of Adventure." -- George Dobbs, SF Site ... Read more

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The Transition from Adventure to Fantasy
Kudos to Wildside Press for reprinting one of the rarest of Talbot Mundy's short novels, virtually unobtainable for many decades in its hardback form as CAVES OF TERROR. The novel is also important for its transition from fairly straightforward adventure to mystical pseudo-Oriental fantasy.Mundy's religion of the moment was usually dictated by his wives or girlfriends, as he bounded from Christian Science to Theosophy to Spiritualism.THE GRAY MAHATMA was written just as he was getting ready to join the California Theosophical commune led by elderly, tubby mystic Katherine Tingley.As near as I can figure out from Brian Taves' relentlessly post-literate recent biography of Mundy, he was very uncertain as to the reception that the editors and readers of the ADVENTURE pulp that was his usual market would provide for this particular short novel, which eschewed the standard exotic authenticity of ADVENTURE tales for something far closer to the fantasies of WEIRD TALES.

This adventure follows pretty closely upon the earlier A SECRET SOCIETY, also recently reprinted by Wildside.Jimgrim and Ramsden are now working for Meldrum Strange, and Strange sends Ramsden to India to make contact with Athelstan King (hero of Mundy's earlier, and probably most often-reprinted novel, KING-- OF THE KHYBER RIFLES). King and Ramsden are supposed to probe the relationship between Yasmini (a beautiful, scheming female who constantly appears and re-appears in Mundy's fiction set in India) and a very popular religious leader known as the Gray Mahatma.

The Mahatma is easily found and leads King and Ramsden on a tour of caves hidden under a temple, where the "secret science" of the Mahatmas (Theosophical supermen of which Madame H. P. Blavatski had written much twaddle in the 1890s) is revealed to them in the questionable form of a series of magic tricks.The Gray Mahatma casually announces that he has been sentenced to death by the Nine Unknown, the leaders of the Mahatma tribe, for accidentally revealing the same "secrets" to Yasmini and her women.

There is very little action apart from a sequence midway along, in which King and Ramsden escape from Yasmini and the Mahatma by diving from a high window into a swiftly flowing river, where they come very close to drowning.

ADVENTURE readers voted this their favorite novel of the year (1922), which suggests that there wasn't much competition.It's very, very far from Mundy's best work, but it is a springboard for almost all his later fiction, which increasingly involved his standard heroes (all created before 1920) in fantastic science-fictional or pseudo-religious turmoil.

It's typical of Mundy that most of the action here takes place beneath "a Tirthanker Temple," with no explanation whatsoever as to what Tirthankers are.That's why ADVENTURE's readers loved him! ... Read more

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A masterpiece of esoteric fiction.The "black light" is an ancient Hindu ritual which invokes the karmic debt of each character so that he can plainly see the misdeeds he has done.But the true ritual is the transformation which occurs in the heart of the main character, Joe Beddington, as he learns to stand up against his domineering mother and social convention and take control of his life. ... Read more

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1925. A poetical introduction to and argument for theosophy. Contents: Nature, the mighty mother; Sacredness of the moment and the day; Death and rebirth; Home and education; World's conscience; "The Sermon on the Mount"; "Greater works than these shall ye do"; "In my father's house are many mansions"; Modernism, the trend of thought towards theosophy; Occultism, the science of right living; Theosophy opens the book of life; Lost chord in human life; Death, the twin sister of life; Why I am a theosophist; Open door to a brighter future for America; "The Mirror of Infinite Beauty." Illustrated. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Historical; Fiction / Action ... Read more

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"Maybe it's true," he muttered, "and maybe it's all lies; there's no knowing. Maybe India's going to run blood, as these fakirs seem to think, and maybe it isn't. There'll be more blood shed than mine in that case! `Hookum hai'--`It is orders,' heh ? Well--there's more than one sort of `Hookum hai!' I've got my orders too!" ... Read more

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Ian Myles Slater on: Part Two of Four (or Three, or Five, or Six)
This book, "Helma: The Second Book of Tros of Samothrace," is part of a four-volume Avon Books paperback edition (1967) of a long historical novel. "Tros of Samothrace" published in "Adventure" Magazine in 1925-1926, and in one volume in 1934, has two shorter, but still substantial, sequels, which are sometimes listed as additional volumes of "Tros" in paperback reprintings (see below).

The first novel originally appeared over the the course of a year as seven stories in nine parts, and the revised version in hardcover, the basis of the later editions, reached 949 pages. It is understandable, if inconvenient, that mass-market paperback editions have so far always broken it up into several volumes. (As of this writing, Amazon, like many other online sources, sometimes gives the real place-name of "Samothrace" as "Samothrage" -- a typographical error which complicates a search for copies.)

The story of "Tros of Samothrace" opens with Julius Caesar planning his invasion of Britain, and deciding that some pious Greek emissaries from the Mysteries of Samothrace to the Druids of Gaul will make good hostages, and the son of their leader a perfect spy on the Britons and their Druids. He has yet to take the measure of Tros of Samothrace, who, with a scrupulous regard for his sworn word, still turns the situation into a personal war with Caesar, which ranges all the way back to Rome, and, in the sequels, across the Mediterranean to Egypt. Tros plays a part in or witnesses the repulse of Caesar from Britain, the downfall of the Roman Republic, and the emergence of the Principate of Caesar's nephew, soon to be acclaimed as "Augustus," The Revered One -- but the excitement is in what isn't found in the history you should have learned in school.

Early in his adventures among the Britons, Tros encounters some Nordic seafarers -- about half a millennium early, but never mind -- including the beautiful Helma. Tros impresses them not only as a warrior and seafarer, but as a storyteller. (So don't let on that he's giving them recaps of Homer.)

A four-volume paperback edition was published by Avon Books in 1967 (officially August through November), beginning with "Tros: The First Book...," and followed by the present volume, "Helma: The Second Book...," with "Liafail: The Third Book...," and "Helene: The Fourth Book..." containing the second half. (Liafail is the name of the ship he builds, which for some reason is named "Stone of Destiny" in Gaelic -- not the best omen, one would think, and in the wrong Celtic language besides! Helene is another of the women in Tros' life.)

These editions all had lovely covers by Douglas Rosa, which somewhat made up for the nuisance of having to get four slim-to-standard-size (150 to 250 pages) volumes instead of one rather fat one. The same titles were used on a similar set published in Britain a few years later by Universal-Tandem, with new cover art. The volume divisions followed the old story breaks, with two tales in each "Book," except for the three-parter which made up the last volume.

The Avon volumes were followed by editions in 1969 and 1970 of the book's sequels, "Queen Cleopatra" (1929) and "The Purple Pirate" (1935). The cover art for these was not credited by the publisher. (I'm among those who attribute them to Jeff Jones.) They are described as "Tros # 5" and "Tros #6" on the covers and in many listings, although strictly speaking they should be Two and Three in the series. These two don't seem to have had Tandem paperback editions.

(Note that Mundy's similar-sounding "Caesar Dies" involves the Emperor Commodus, and is NOT part of the Tros series.)

"Tros" was repackaged in paperback by Zebra Books (Kensington Publishing), in 1976-1977, in three volumes instead of four. In that version, the story appeared as: "Lud of Lunden," "Avenging Liafail," and "The Praetor's Dungeon," with "The Purple Pirate," and "Queen Cleopatra" released in that order as continuations, and listed as parts four and five (!) of the set, in 1978. These are generally regarded as examples of inept book production (although the Tom Barber wraparound covers were rather nice), with unreliable texts -- one critic calls the Zebra edition "abysmal." They also add to the confusing array of titles for one novel, and the problem of how many books to look for. They are all marred by misprints, and with "Purple Pirate" and "Queen Cleopatra" out of sequence the unwary reader finds that Caesar is dead, and then alive again in the next volume, still waiting to be assassinated....

I have treated "Tros of Samothrace" at greater length, and surveyed in more detail its complex publishing history, and that of the sequels, in a review of the 1995 Buccaneer Books hardcover reprinting of the one-volume text of "Tros." I also cover there a little about the author's complicated life, and the occult interests reflected in "Tros," with a bit about Mundy's influence on fantasy and science fiction from the 1920s to the present.

My advice to the interested is that the Avon (and Tandem) editions are worth reading, although acomplete set of all six in really good condition is likely to seem rather high priced for aging mass-market paperbacks. The Zebra editions are at best a fallback. If you are lucky, a library will have the hardcover editions available, at least through inter-library loan.

A full reprinting of the novels in trade paperback, at a reasonable price, is highly desirable; I'm surprised that there hasn't been one so far. ... Read more

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THIS 28 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Wine of Life, by Katherine Tingley. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766131882. ... Read more

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THIS 46 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Wine of Life, by Katherine Tingley. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766131882. ... Read more

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Caesar Dies. please visit www.valdebooks.com for a full list of titles ... Read more

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Originally published in 1920.This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more