Anyone remember Jeff Lord's Richard Blade novels?
Dan Tropea
about Richard
Blade who went from world to world in a time
dimension device? I read a few of them 15
plus years ago and thought they stunk.
Well today i was at a used bookstore and they
wanted 4 dollars a piece for them. With all the
good fantasy out there why bother reading this
crud?
Or am i the only one who remembered these books and hated them. If i
recall Lord wrote the
female characters almost brutality and just as
sex objects.
Also what happened to Lord anyways? Is this
his only series he wrote. Of course the real
question is how did this series last for over 30 boooks.
Robert A. Woodward
tro...@webtv.net (Dan Tropea) wrote:
> Does anyone remember back in the 70s a series of books by Jeffrey Lord
> about Richard
> Blade who went from world to world in a time
> dimension device? I read a few of them 15
> plus years ago and thought they stunk.
>
Vaguely
<snip>
>
> Also what happened to Lord anyways? Is this
> his only series he wrote. Of course the real
> question is how did this series last for over 30 boooks.
Appears to be a house pseudonym. Clute and Nichols _The Encyclopedia of
SF_ claims that Lyle Kenyon Engel, Roland Green, and Ray Nelson used it.
Engel created it, Green wrote most of them, and Nelson wrote one (at least
that what _tEoSF_ claims).
Andrew Plotkin
> Does anyone remember back in the 70s a series of books by Jeffrey Lord
> about Richard
> Blade who went from world to world in a time
> dimension device? I read a few of them 15
> plus years ago and thought they stunk.
But lots of explicit sex.
> Well today i was at a used bookstore and they
> wanted 4 dollars a piece for them. With all the
> good fantasy out there why bother reading this
> crud?
There is no reason (unless you're in need of erotica of quantity rather
than quality.) Why are you asking? :-)
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
Anne M. Marble
<8173-375...@newsd-232.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...
>Does anyone remember back in the 70s a series of books by Jeffrey
Lord
>about Richard
>Blade who went from world to world in a time
>dimension device? I read a few of them 15
>plus years ago and thought they stunk.
You have good taste! I read the first one. If the sidekick said "Ar!"
one more time, I was going to scream. And that was the *least* cliched
part of the book. Still, they do have a campy charm. Too bad they had
to go for that "dimension device" thing. Yawn. It's as if they didn't
have the guts to do admit they were doing a continuing fantasy series
and had to pretend it was science fiction. It might have improved over
time if it had been set in a well-developed fantasy world instead of
putting him in a new world each time. Some of the titles show how far
they had to stretch after a while. (Man-eating plants, robots, etc.)
>Well today i was at a used bookstore and they
>wanted 4 dollars a piece for them. With all the
>good fantasy out there why bother reading this
>crud?
Nostalgia? I was in a used bookstore once, and a guy struck up a
conversation with me next to the SF books. He bashfully admitted to
having read the Blade books when he was younger -- because at that
time, he couldn't get his hands on Playboy yet. Since then, he had
graduated to much better books. (As a matter of fact, I was grateful
for his recommendation of a fantasy novel by Rick Cook about a
programmer...)
There's something about fantasy, SF, and horror that often makes some
readers feel nostaligic about bad books we read when we were young. I
feel a special "glow" every time I see certain 1970s and 1980s horror
novels for sale in used bookstores and yard sales. (For example,
"Lupe" and "Hex." And any cover combining children and skeletons...)
Still, four bucks does seem excessive for a Blade book. Most used
bookstores have them at half cover price. Is it possible the cover
artist on the ones you saw were collectible?
>Or am i the only one who remembered these books and hated them. If i
>recall Lord wrote the
>female characters almost brutality and just as
>sex objects.
Well, at least that beats John Norman. Whoops, that doesn't sound
right. ;-> I mean it beats John Norman's writing. If I remember
correctly, *some* of Blade's sexual exploits were relatively normal.
That is, those involving the good girl could be normal. But those
involving the villainess. (The Madonna/Whore syndrome?)
Nancy Lebovitz
Dan Tropea <tro...@webtv.net> wrote:
>Does anyone remember back in the 70s a series of books by Jeffrey Lord
>about Richard
>Blade who went from world to world in a time
>dimension device? I read a few of them 15
>plus years ago and thought they stunk.
>
>wanted 4 dollars a piece for them. With all the
>good fantasy out there why bother reading this
>crud?
>
willing to spend $4 for them. I hope this restores your
faith in the human race.
--
Nancy Lebovitz na...@netaxs.com
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