by Gary Romeo
Conqueror Fantastic is an anthology built around the idea of using a real-life “conqueror” in a “what if?” type of fantasy story. Edited by Pamela Sargent and published by Daw Books, the book came out in April 2004. So almost 20 years late, I’m just getting around to reviewing it.
This anthology contains 13 stories. I will review them all but the only one I will review in depth is “Observable Things” by Paul Di Filippo since it features Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane character in the story. The introduction by Pamela Sargent sets the stage.
“For this anthology, I began by asking writers for stories featuring historical figures such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caeser, Genghis Khan, Napolean, Hitler, Stalin, or any other conqueror from any culture who happened to interest the writer. I was also looking for historical fantasy rather than alternative history, although the line between the two can often be hard to draw (as it can be with such other related forms of fantasy as magical realism, science fiction, and dark fantasy). The conqueror could the central character of the story, a supporting or minor character in the tale, or even offstage, as long as the story hinged on his or her presence in some way.”
“To the Gods Their Due” by Michelle West features Alexander the Great. I know only a little about Alexander. I saw the Director’s Cut of the Oliver Stone movie and read Mary Renault more than a decade ago. And I liked how in Smallville, Micheal Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor was obsessed with his namesake. This story was told in the first-person using Alexander’s voice. As far as I know it was historically accurate. The story was mainly about Alexander’s relationship with Hephaestion. Who was the Patrocles to his Achilles. (Watch the movie Troy with Brad Pitt.)
The next story, “Intensified Transmogrification” by Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini is about Lyndon Baines Johnson. LBJ has declared martial law due to anti-Vietnam War protests. The narrator of the story feels something drastic needs to be done. It seems a teeny bit similar to Nicholson Baker’s 2004 novel, Checkpoint. There must have been something in the air that year.
“The Lion Hunt” by Janeen Webb is also about Alexander the Great. Alexander dies in a lion hunt leaving his father Phillip to mourn the loss.
“Observable Things” by Paul Di Filippo was the selling point of the book for me. We get a brand-new Solomon Kane adventure, and it takes place in the good o’ USofA. Of course, it was still called the “new world” back then, and full of soon to be exterminated and displaced natives. The “conqueror” in this story is either the English settlers or King Phillip, AKA Metacomet. King Philip’s War was a real-life armed conflict in 1675–1676. This story has King Phillip using Lovecraftian sorcery to battle the New England residents.
Solomon Kane is recruited to help the New Englanders in their fight since Kane is known to have battled supernatural forces and prevailed. The minute Kane steps off the boat he is attacked and expertly slays his foe:
“A child of Dagon. Your suspicions of Indian complicity with ancient demiurges were not misplaced, my friends. Let us adjourn to some quarters affording more safety than the open air, and we can begin to plot our campaign against these abominations.”
The story is narrated by the real-life Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather. He is reminisicing about his early days and the effect that meeting Solomon Kane had on him. The story is told in that old English style (modified for our modern ear, but true to the spirit of what we know from Mather’s own writings). Mather narrates: “Certainly I would have no hesitation at this late date in abandoning all Credence in the Supernatural, were it not for one certain Man and the Events he brought in his train. That Man was named Solomon Kane, and I met him when I was thirteen years old, and all of Christian New England seemed doomed to Merciless Extinction at the hands of the Salvages and their Dreaded Conqueror, King Phillip.”
I like this story and encourage you to read it. There are a lot of “easter eggs” and Kane is handled well. His dialogue might be too flowery at times but remember we are reading Cotton Mather’s remembrance of the events. This story alone was worth the purchase of the book.
I am going to briefly cover the rest of the stories. “The Empress Jingu Fishes” by Kij Johnson is a poetic short work about the real-life empress. The author ends the story with a historical note on Japan’s female emperors.
Adolf Hitler is the star of “Twilight of Idols” by Stephen Dedman. Film director, Fritz Lang, is also featured. Hitler bathes in dragon blood and becomes invulnerable. He can still be killed by poison gas though. The events of WW2 proceed historically but not the Hitler suicide. At the end of this story, an “unknown” prisoner is forced into chemical gas experiments.
“Spirit Brother” by Pamela Sargent is about Genghis Khan. It deals with the Khan and his boyhood friend Jamukha, who later became his enemy. This story features Jamukha’s spirit.
In the introduction to “Good Deeds” by Jack Dann, Pamela Sargent states “Robert F. Kennedy, in my opinion, was one of the most fascinating and promising political figures on the American scene and one of the greatest losses of potential the U. S. endured when he was assassinated in 1968, less than two weeks after the tragic death of Martin Luther King Jr.” This story is highly readable, I applaud Ms. Sargent for not rejecting it since it makes RFK out to be a really screwed-up asshole. Maybe he was, I dunno. In any event, I enjoyed the story.
“Walking Gods” by George Alec Effinger is about Saladin and has the feel of a sword & sorcery story although I doubt many would label it as such. Fans of Robert E. Howard’s “crusader” stories should enjoy this one. I certainly did.
“An Appeal to Adolf” by Ian Watson is about closeted homosexuals on a Nazi boat. Airplanes haven’t been invented and big boats are the main weapons of war. In the finale it is revealed that Adolf Hitler is a closeted homosexual as well. This story seems one big mess to me.
“Martyrs of the Upshot Knothole” by James Morrow is a finely told story about John Wayne’s argumentative friendship with a very liberal bit player in several of his movies. In real (and reel) life John Wayne and several cast and crew members were exposed to radiation during the filming of The Conqueror. Susan Hayward and Pedro Armendariz were among the first to die early. Wayne said he beat cancer in 1964 but it returned, and he passed away in 1979. John Wayne is used to good effect in this fictional story and treated in a dignified manner. This is a very good story.
“Nappy” by George Zebrowski is probably the most science-fictional story in the collection. It is about an historian and a virtual reality Napoleon Bonaparte. The story never grabbed me.
The last story in the book is “Del Norte” by Michaela Roessner. It is about the real-life Joan Grau, a soldier who served under conqueror, Hernando Cortes, and his relationship with a native princess.
All in all, I liked quite a few of the stories. Several were just mediocre, but the Solomon Kane story is one of those odd uses of REH’s characters that appears every now and then that I’m compelled to purchase.
spraguedecampfan 