Swordsmen in the Sky was published by Ace Books in 1964. Donald Wollheim put together five stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs-influenced Sword and Planet. It’s a small anthology, the original paperback has a Frank Frazetta cover with some heroic swordplay. Each story has a small apposite illustration, a pen and ink drawing, which takes up the top quarter of the opening page. It’s a small thing, but adds to the reader’s pleasure. Reading the book now reminds me of how different SF publishing used to be.

It was a timely anthology, showing just how powerful ERB’s concept of Sword and Planet had become. Even though pulp stories were heavily overshadowed by Campbellian hard science SF stories in 1964.

Swordsmen has never been reprinted, It definitely warrants a reprint. Here’s my review of the five stories.

Swordsmen of Lost Terra - Poul Anderson
A tribe of barbarians are wandering far from their homeland on a planet that may be a strange future Earth. A fictional mix of Gaels and Irish tribes with a dash of Viking, the story opens with Kery, the young son of their warlord Riach, lamenting the loss of their homeland. A foreboding mythic atmosphere envelops the tribe as they travel the rich country of Ryvan. Great warriors, they have a devastating weapon, a single set of Uilleann Warpipes, which can kill. These are either a secret of lost science or imbued with magic, their origin is lost in mystery.

The tribe are attacked by an army of Dark-Landers, strange white-faced men with silver hair and beards. The battle is desperate and Riach plays the pipes, which causes terrible devastation amongst the enemy. Almost simultaneously, the Nightsiders are hit in the flank by the army of Ryvan. The Dark-Landers are slaughtered and defeated. But tragedy has struck and Riach is dead. Worse, only the warlord knows how to play the pipes and he is dead. Young Kery is now warlord but does not know how to wield their secret weapon.

The Ryvans are losing the war. In extremis, the Ryvan general bargains with the barbarians, who agree to become a mercenary army in return for shelter in Ryvan City and after (if there is an after) a reward of land. They reach the city just before the Dark-Landers, who besiege the city.

It’s an unusual story with allusions to both magic and science. The overall tone is barbaric fantasy, yet there are shifts in the story which imply science as a causal factor in a world of which half is in permanent darkness. The main character Kery is well-written, although there are several scenes where he takes a back seat to advance the story.

But what makes this story so good is the descriptive writing. Poul’s ability to set a mood and an atmosphere is superb, and the story of a wandering tribe of warriors reads like a Tolkienian mythos. It’s as if Poul is channelling Leigh Brackett, building one of those all-enveloping, magical stories that compel the reader to keep reading.

The battle scenes are wonderfully told, thrilling and exciting. And the action gives us a second well-drawn character, the young Queen of Ryvan, Sathi. The character dynamics of these two protagonists give the story a sharp urgency.

“Swordsmen of Lost Terra” was a bumpy read in places, the use of science to shore up plot is very Sword and Planet, but its integration into this story could be better. What makes “Swordsmen” work so well is the Homeric saga of the barbarian tribe and the star-crossed hero and heroine. A substantial and exciting novella. (This story was reprinted in Poul Anderson’s Swordsmen from the Stars—DMR)

People of the Crater – Andre Norton
Set in the far-future of the 1970s, one of the most skilled pilots of a recent war is penniless. Rendered jobless by peace, he is offered a job as a pilot on a mysterious Antarctic expedition. In Antarctica, he is flying an exploration mission when his ship is drawn into a vast pale blue sky haze. A mysterious force crashes his airplane.

Waking in terrible pain, he is cut free from the wreckage by sentient lizardmen. Garin the pilot discovers he is in a vast crater the size of a small country, with a temperate climate. The lizardmen carry him to a secret eons-old cavern city which was originally settled by God-like humans from space. Here advanced humans live in harmony with the lizardmen and other creatures.

There’s some good world-building here, with small elfin macaque-like creatures, also sentient, as servants. There are healing-ray machines, wands which project destructive rays, crystal energy devices. Firefly-like clusters of light, which provide constant illumination, appear to be controlled by telepathy. There are some direct nods to ERB. The bad guys have monstrous creatures, which are pretty much scaled down black versions of ERB’s white apes.

Garin is told that it was prophesied that he would come to this hidden land of Tav. Things get even more ERB when he’s told he’s the hero who must rescue the princess from the bad guys.

“Crater” is very similar to a John Carter adventure. Garin travels the hidden land, sees many amazing things and then finds himself in the cavern city of the bad guys. Now it’s a rescue with all the wondrous things that a pulp writer can put in tunnels underground.

The second half of the story rounds out this hidden world. Threats emerge and the strange biology and ecology of Tav, introduced in the first half, are drawn into the action in the second half. Andre Norton’s writing is fluid and character-driven so we get a story that has a less frenetic rhythm than an ERB story. “Crater” is sometimes more of a fairy story or folk fantasy than an adventure story but a good read for all that.

The Moon That Vanished – Leigh Brackett
David Heath is a druggie wreck of a man, trying to kill his nightmares in the Venusian equivalent of an Opium Den. Venus is a swampy, hot jungle of a planet, with strange occult oceans. This is Leigh Brackett at her most atmospheric, claustrophobic, exotic. A world of green-skinned native peoples, tiny domesticated swamp dragons and a legend that tells of great power that can be seized by the suicidally brave.

Heath, an adventurer, had sailed the Upper Seas of Venus, trying to find the Island of the Moonfire where occult powers can be claimed by Venusians and humans at the risk of madness and death. Heath is accompanied by his great love, a beautiful blonde earth girl, Ethne. They find the Moonfire. Even at the edge of the vast field of power, Heath is almost killed by its energies, his body racked by madness and pain. But Ethne enters the strange island, never to be seen again.

The tale starts with Heath broken by tragedy, grief and longing. Plagued by nightmares, trying to kill himself with the golden vapour of Venusian opium. Heath is a marvellous character. Brackett really brings his desperation to life, describing a sweat-soaked ruin of a man with absolute relish. Heath holds the secret of the Moonfire and is immobilised by his pain. His dialogue is sheer nihilism and savage insult. This is not your average Sword and Planet hero, but his story compels the reader to discover the secret of his tragedy.

Heath is accosted in the opium den by a couple, Broca and Alor. Broca is a temple warrior, Alor a temple maiden, both of them escaped slaves from the Temple of the Children of the Moon, who worship the Moonfire. They beg Heath to take them to the Moonfire, where they hope to become Gods. Heath curses them, passes out.

Heath wakes on his small ship. He’s been kidnapped by Broca and Alor. Now he has no choice. He intends to find Ethne or die trying. He discovers The Children of the Moon are in pursuit, intent on killing the three of them.

All this happens in the first few pages of “The Missing Moon.” The voyage to the Moonfire is a tale of pain, suffering and savagery. If there’s a sub-genre called Hard-Boiled Sword and Planet, this story belongs there. Brackett creates a hell-hole Venus that’s as important a character as her humans.

It’s a helluva story, with a powerful ending.

A Vision of Venus – Otis Adelbert Kline
We start in the mind of Dr. Morgan, an Earth scientist, who has a machine that enables him to share the mind and experiences of a Venusian from the safety of his laboratory on Earth. The Venusian, Lotan, is unaware that he is sharing his life experiences in real time. Lotan is a plant hunter, holding a commission from his king to find spores of Kadkor, a mushroom-like plant that’s a staple crop of Venusians.

Flying over the oceans of Venus, Lotan’s small craft develops engine problems. He knows that if he ditches in the ocean the giant sea monsters of Venus will devour him and his ship. Searching the horizon, he sees a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. He lands his flyer and is in the process of repairing it when he hears a woman scream…

This is Gernsback era SF. There are some nice touches, with a variety of gadget-machines extrapolated from 1920s technologies. It’s a simple enough adventure, boy rescues girl (almost) and then we get to explore a wondrous alien Venus. Mr. Kline was capable of writing with a light touch when he was in the mood and that’s very much what he does in “Vision.” The story skips along, light and quick, to a satisfying denouement.

Kaldar, World of Antares – Edmond Hamilton
A healthy, intelligent, but broke young man, Stuart Merrick, is made a crazy offer by a group of astrophysicists. In return for wealth they want to reduce him to his component atoms and fire his energy-body to the star Antares! There he will be reconstituted into human form. If the risks were not grave enough, they cannot guarantee where he will end up. On a barren moon without oxygen, on a planet roasting in atomic heat from its sun. It sounds like madness.

But Merrick is game as only a pulp hero can be! Only hours later he materialises in a strange alien city under the red sun Antares. Now we have a fast–moving story. Merrick has inadvertently won a race to be the new king or “Chan” of the city of Corla. A beautiful young woman leads him into a room where a softly buzzing ray machine is focussed on him. Now he can understand Corlian! The woman is named Narna and she is the daughter of the recently deceased king.

We discover there are two advanced civilisations on Kaldor. Corla is one and a race of hideous spider-men is the other. It transpires that the spider-men have the better weapons technology. Hmmm…

Then, without further ado, the spider-men attack! The adventure is on!

There’s not much to say about this story because it’s near perfect. Merrick shows himself to be a superb pulp hero. The alien humans are extravagantly imagined and the technology is exciting and deadly. The story even throws in some deftly realised secondary characters. It’s all fast-paced action and adventure, with colourful, descriptive scenes, set variously in Corla and the Spider-men’s domain. It’s Sword and Planet done to perfection.

Editors say that it’s important to anthologise stories in the right order to successfully engage their readers. Donald Wollheim does it perfectly here, ending Swordsmen in the Sky with a thrilling story that is pure adventure.

I liked the variety in Swordsmen, the light and shade of the differing tales. From the bloody heroics of Poul Anderson to the almost light-hearted adventuring of Otis Adelbert Kline. And the Leigh Brackett story is something else entirely. It’s raw and exotic, even by her standards.

I do recommend this anthology. One to read and collect, if you are able to obtain a copy.