Nowadays the concept of fantasy or sci-fi authors writing stories in a shared setting is nothing out of the ordinary. The Thieves’ World and Wild Cards series come to mind, or, for a more recent example, the Eldritch Earth stories that appeared in Cirsova. But before any of those there was Shanadu.

Shanadu was published in 1953, giving it the distinction of being the first shared world anthology in the fantasy genre. The ‘50s weren’t exactly an exciting time for fantasy fiction, and the four men involved in the creation of Shanadu, with the enthusiasm typical of youth, decided to do something about it. As editor Robert E. Briney states in the preface, “This book comes out with only one claim and purpose. The five authors who worked on Shanadu had the greatest time of their lives in the writing; and all five hope that the readers get half the pleasure out of the book that we had writing it.” (There were actually only four writers; Briney must have counted himself twice because his story appeared under a pen name.) As far as influences on Shanadu, Briney specifically mentions A. Merritt’s The Ship of Ishtar, James Branch Cabell’s Way of Ecben, and the works of Robert E. Howard.

The first of the three stories is “Quest of the Veil” by Eugene DeWeese, and it’s also the shortest. It’s here we learn the first bits of Shanaduan lore:

The parchment told of Shanadu in its earliest days, when the city, still young in Evarin’s day, was no more than a collection of brick houses on the banks of the Alephis. It told of Shanasi, leader of the first colonists, and of the strange signs he found at the location he had chosen for the new city, and of the expeditions he had sent into the mountains of the north. And it told of the object of these expeditions, the strange and wonderful cloth called simply the Veil. The men Shanasi had sent had never returned, and, said the parchment, the Veil still lay somewhere in the mountains to the north, hidden and guarded “where the Arrow of Shanasi points the way.”

Evarin, upon finding the parchment mentioned in the above quotation, vacates his position as an armorer’s apprentice to go in search of the mythical Veil. The action in this tale is slower than the two that follow, having an almost Dunsany-esque dreamlike quality to it.

“The Fire-Born” by Paul W. Ganley (writing under the pseudonym Toby Duane) takes place long after “Quest of the Veil”—exactly how long isn’t made clear. The protagonist of the tale is a 20th century man named Hank Weston who suddenly appears in the world of Shanadu. He soon finds himself mixed up in a struggle for power between the priests of the Seven Great Gods and those who venerate the demon Muual. Weston will play a key role in this conflict, due to having identical features to the high priest of the Seven, and the uncanny powers he gained upon entering this world. The magic of the Veil from the previous story proves to be crucial as well. “The Fire-Born” could certainly be compared to the works of A. Merritt, but to me they’re even more reminiscent of Henry Kuttner’s Merritt-inspired novellas, such as The Dark World and Lands of the Earthquake.

The final tale of Shanadu is “The Black Tower” by Brian McNaughton and “Andrew Duane” (actually editor Robert E. Briney). It takes up the bulk of the anthology, being significantly longer than the other two stories combined. In the time of this tale, a cruel regime of Muual-worshippers rules over Shanadu, tyrannizing and demanding tribute from the surrounding lands. The warrior Rimon, a native of one of these lands, has had enough of this unjust rule and rebels. What follows is a blood-and-thunder adventure very much in the Robert E. Howard mold.

What’s especially interesting about Shanadu is that of the four young men involved (all of whom were between the ages of 18-20 at the time), three of them would go on to have success in the weird fiction field. Gene DeWeese wrote over 40 books, including a number of Star Trek and Ravenloft novels. W. Paul Ganley founded the highly-regarded fanzine Weirdbook and kept it going for nearly 30 years. Brian McNaughton was arguably the most successful of all, as he won a World Fantasy Award for his collection The Throne of Bones, a classic of horrific fantasy (and a personal favorite of mine!).

Shanadu was published in limited quantities. While it’s not terribly expensive as far as collectibles go, there’s a better, more affordable option: all three of the stories will be reprinted in the upcoming Renegade Swords III, coming in March from DMR Books.