Sun 2 Feb 2025
SF Diary Review: WORLDS OF FANTASY #1, 1968.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Magazines , Science Fiction & Fantasy[6] Comments
WORLDS OF FANTASY #1, 1968. Editor: Lester del Rey, Cover art by Jack Gaughan. Overall rating: ***½.
JOHN JAKES “Mirror of Wizardry.” Brak the Barbarian. Novelette. Brak the Barbarian is of course based on Conan, but that doesn’t make his adventures any less enjoyable. This time Brak’s escape through the mountains is hindered by a wizard hunting the girl he has befriended. (4)
BILL WARREN “Death in a Lonely Place.” A vampire who preys on prostitutes shows that he has a heart. (4)
ROBERT SILVERBERG “As Is.” Novelette. A computer salesman buys a car with a mysteriously sealed trunk. Easy to read, but not believable, with a miserable ending. (3)
MACK REYNOLDS “What the Vintners Buy.” Trust Reynolds to put a lecture on hallucinations into a fantasy. (2)
LIN CARTER & L. SPRAGUE de CAMP “Conan and the Cenotaph.” Novelette. According to [Webster], a cenotaph is a monument for someone whose body is buried elsewhere. The one Conan is lured to is magnetic, and the home of a slime-monster. (4)
PARIS FLAMMONDE “After Armageddon.” Suppose the last man in the world had happened to have found the Fountain of Youth. (3)
ROBERT HOSKINS “The Man Who Liked.” Before the bombs fell, Death was a happy person. (1)
ROBERT E. HOWARD “Delenda Est…” Hannibal’s ghost comes to life to help a barbarian’s attack on Rome. Obsessed with historical background. (2)
ROBERT LORY “However.” Novelette. Hamper the However’s trip from Balik to Overnon by way of [grath (?)] is hampered by his lack of magical powers, However, if people believe that one has these powers, what difference can it make? (3)
February 3rd, 2025 at 8:15 am
WORLDS OF FANTASY could have been a contender, but for a number of reasons published only four issues. As part of the GALAXY stable it moved with the other titles from Galaxy Publishing Company to Universal Publishing and Distribution Company (later UPD) in 1970 with the second (and first regularly scheduled; the first issue was a trial balloon). Del Rey was editor for the first issue, while Frederik Pohl was managing editor; Del Rey remained editor for issue #2, and his future wife, the great Judi-Lynn Benjamin moved from associate editor to managing editor; Pohl vanished from the masthead and Ejler Jakobsson came on as associate editor. Jacobsson became editor for the last two issues, while Benjamin remained managing editor. I never considered Jakobsson a good editor — he always seemed more interested in gimmicks and trying to follow current social trends (other opinions may vary) — and I suspect the quality of the last two issues were due far more to Benjamin than to him.
I was a great Brak the Barbarian fan, finding the character as readable as Howard’s Conan, and sometimes more so. “The Mirror of Wizardry” was reprinted in a fanzine in 1977 and in one of Jakes’s Brak collections in 1980. Robert E. Howard’s story was a trunk manuscript that has been reprinted in several Howard collections beginning in 1978– not surprising since everything that Howard ever wrote or tried to write (with the possible exception of laundry lists0 eventually made it into print. The Carter/de Camp Conan story was the fifth pastiche the pair published (including one novel); purists can argue the story’s worth but this and other efforts by de Camp helped propel the character (and Howard) into the vaunted positions they hold today. This story was included in 1969’s CONAN OF CIMMERIA.
Silverberg’s story was clever enough to have been reprinted in at least five anthologies, though never (to my knowledge) in one of his own collections). bill Warren was best known as a science fiction film historian; this was evidently his first published short story, never reprinted ; he would publish only one other. During the 60s, Mack Reynolds was perhaps best known for his many stories in ASTOUNDING (where he was that magazine’s favorite writer), but he published all over the place and in several genres. This was the only publication of “What the Vintners Buy” — sort of; a revised version of the story appeared in ANALOG’s September 1980 issue. The “Flammonde” (a pen name for Desmond Costello) and the Lory stories were never reprinted. Hoskins did reprint his story in a 1973 anthology he edited.
Also included in this issue was a very brief article on J.R.R. Tolkien by editor del Rey.
All in all, a highly readable issue.
Among the authors featured in the final three issues of WORLDS OF FANTASY were Gordon R. Dickson, Andre Norton, James Gunn, James Tiptree. Jr., Frederik Pohl, Lester del Rey (as “Erik van Lhin”), Sonya Dorman, Naomi Mitchison, Connie Willis, Robert Bloch, Michael Bishop, Robert F. Young, Ross Rocklynne, Ursula Le Guin (with an abridgement of her Earthsea novel THE TOMBS OF ATUAN), and Clifford D. Simak (with his novel REALITY DOLL). As I said, if this magazine had been allowed to continue, it could have been a contender.
February 3rd, 2025 at 7:38 pm
There’s a book that could be written on this short run of a magazine, and Jerry, you’re the man who could do it. You’ve already told us a ton more about who was running the magazine than I knew back then, or even now, all these years later. You’re right. Based on the authors who ended up with stories in it, it was a magazine that existed well before its time. I can’t picture the covers of the later issues, but I sure remembered the one for this first issue, as soon as I saw it again!
February 3rd, 2025 at 9:58 pm
I bought this issue as a young teenager after first being bitten by the “Conan bug”. I remember the Brak story being similar to the Cimmerian, but different enough to be absorbed in Jakes’ fantasy world. Suffice to say, I ended up with the entire run of Brak paperbacks as I came upon them. Then there was de Camp’s and Carter’s Conan story to boot. Not one of the best, but still a treat! I surmise that the Robert Lory (who passed away in 2020} mentioned is the same one who wrote the series of pulp Dracula novels. This magazine was a real find, pushed all the right buttons for me at the time, and amazingly I still have it today. Thanks for bringing back a good memory.
February 3rd, 2025 at 10:16 pm
Posting these old reviews is a lot of fun for me, almost as much as bringing back good memories for other people, too.
And yes, the Robert Lory in this issue is the same Robert Lory who wrote the Dracula books. I don’t know much about him. Most of his SF and Fantasy work was done in the 70s.
February 3rd, 2025 at 10:20 pm
Goodreads has a somewhat lengthy biographical blurb about Lory here:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/41001.Robert_Lory
February 4th, 2025 at 9:52 am
Like Jerry, I remember WORLDS OF FANTASY. Love that cover! Digest magazines came and went in that era, both SF and mystery.