The Scarlet Skull by C.E. Owston
Manor Books
1979
246 pages

The Scarlet Skull was recommended to me by my friend David Malaski.

I had never seen this book nor had I heard of it until it was recommended to me. Most Manor Books seem to be scarce and hard to find. The lack of information online about titles like this one continue to make them obscure.

The cover looks like a horror novel which seems an odd choice. It certainly catches your eye, but gives the wrong impression. The blurb on the front cover and the synopsis on the back continue to mislead the consumer. Perhaps if the book had been marketed differently it would be better known today.

Read if for yourself:

From the cover, "The scarlet of bloody battle fills the land of the winds"

Back synopsis, "Black magic and battle in the land of the winds. Go to the long-ago battle-filled, colorful world of Zephyria, Land of the Winds. They have been invaded by the black magic prince, Norkias of Atlantis. For his magic, Norkias needs the head of the heroic Thumasian leader, Vika, but he has his many strong men from the red blood planet to help him, plus several beautiful and exotic women. There are night-appearing ghouls and knights in shining armor to thrill you too!"

This synopsis is correct in a general sense. It reads like the publisher, having not read the actual book, took some poetic license with what the story was really about and ran with it.

The story opens with Norkias of the Nine consorting with demons. Norkias is hell-bent on conquering the world and ushering in a new age of darkness. After consolidating his power on Atlantis he then turns to the barbaric Aetherians, enlisting the tribes with the promises of plunder and power. Utilizing The Book of Xioran, Norkias must have seven skulls from the seven war-leaders of the resisting army to cast the Red Death which will sweep the land free of resistance. Vika of the Scarlet Skull is the only survivor and the only thing keeping Norkias from completing the spell. Fleeing for his life, Vika must rally what resistance remains and summon The Blood Comrades, Warriors of the Skull to combat Norkias' magic.

All of this has been seen and done before. Nothing new under the sun and all that. Although, for a forgotten book, The Scarlet Skull packs a fun adventure within its 246 pages. After the characters are introduced and the stage set, several characters embark on separate quests to locate members of The Blood Comrades that are unaccounted for. One in particular ventures to Mars via astral projection. A nice homage to John Carter and other Sword & Planet books of the past. While this might seem out of place, I thought it was an unexpected and a nice change of pace for this type of work.

My copy came from Main Street Books in Lafayette, Indiana via Alibris. The pages are tanned a golden brown. The cover is brittle and continued to shed pieces of itself as I read it. Scotch tape is now holding some of it together. A fine reading copy.

I reached out to Mr. Owston recently asking if he had any future plans for a reprint. Sadly he informed that it wasn't viable at this time, and he had no current plans to reprint the work. So the only option currently available is used copies. Now everyone has their own go to and favored sources for finding books, all of them have their merits. My go to is bookfinder.com. It searches the web and lists available books by price. Some sources you may be aware of, others might surprise you. Hopefully this tip helps you find some affordable treasures you've been searching for.