I read The Wizard of Lemuria in its "revised and expanded" second edition, in which author Lin Carter added back passages originally cut from his first published novel. He mentions in his foreword that although it was his first book published, it was his seventh novel written, and I dread to contemplate the six rejected ones! Although "expanded," it is still a short book I was able to read in three or four sittings. The copy I have is falling apart at the spine, and I thought I should read it while the pages were still in their proper sequence.

This sword-and-sorcery yarn is an undemanding read with no original ideas detectable in it whatsoever. Protagonist Thongor is a Conan clone: a black-maned Northlander who "in the years of his wanderings and wars as a vagabond, hired assassin, thief, and now mercenary, ... had learned every trick of swordplay with every type of weapon" (13). He is evidently destined for a throne as well. He mistrusts wizards, but finds himself allied to one for the central quest of the story, which involves a threat to the entire universe typical of superhero comic book conflict escalation. The setting is the ancient continent of Lemuria, with a prefaced map in Carter's own hand that is nevertheless entirely unhelpful in illustrating the geography relevant to the adventures in the text.

Every chapter has an epigram from an imagined Lemurian text, and most of these are in verse. There is also some poetry integrated into the text, as Thongor is fond of "roar[ing] out the harsh staves of his Valkarthan war song" (75) as he does battle. These ditties are surprisingly tolerable.

The pacing and structure of the book owe more to Edgar Rice Burroughs than to Robert E. Howard. It is episodic with cliffhangers often featuring capture and/or unconsciousness as transitional devices. Thongor acquires a companion named Karm Karvus (cf. Tars Tarkas of Barsoom). Malevolent priesthoods supply multiple villains, and Carter terms these "druids." At the end of the book, Thongor pledges himself to the political cause of the princess Sumia, who is herself smitten with him and not ambitious for worldly power.

The Jeff Jones cover art for this 1969 edition is better than the book's contents, though it does not actually depict a scene from the novel with any accuracy. There are another five Thongor books, but on the evidence of this one I will not be seeking them out.

The revised version of 'The Wizard Of Lemuria' is little improvement over the 1965 version if indeed it is an improvement at all. Some of the 'new' passages appear to be simply restorations of material cut the the earlier incarnation. The result is a more leaden and over-written version of what was a fairly flawed effort in the first place. ( )

Carter’s Thongor of Valkarth, a True Floater:

Lin Carter’s Thongor is a clonan, a “clone” of REH’s 1930’s barbarian “Conan.” Thongor has all the expected traits: a broadsword, hails from northern cold climates, disdains civilization, and wears a loincloth. In addition to Thongor, other notable clonans emerging ~1970 include John Jakes‘s Brak the Barbarian and Gardner F. Fox’s Kothar of the Magic Sword.

Lemuria, and Weird Fiction History Let us highlight the titular location: Lemuria is akin to Atlantis, being a lost continent mired in myth and history. It is not entirely fictional. In fact, many scientists in the 1800’s including Ernst Haeckel (famous Darwin supporter) claimed the Lemuria was a sunken continent off of Africa/India and hypothesized it was the origin of man’s evolution (rather than Africa). In short, Carter chose a land that was rich in history, but did not capitalize on this much. There are a few call outs to Hyperborea (ancient northern Europe essentially, another mystical land with “real” history ….Hyperborea being the key one that inspired weird fiction originals: Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith). H.P. Lovecraft was a pen pal with Howard and Smith, and championed his own flavor of horror which influenced REH’s adventures—Lin Carter had several Lovecraft call-outs as well. However, Carter fails to tap the potential of Lemuria’s rich history.

Editions, Covers, and Expectations: This reviews the 1969 second edition (Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria), which expands the original 1965 (The Wizard of Lemuria) with an author’s foreword in which he reveals that the 2nd edition has a few thousand extra words—this is interesting since the novel is near novella length and still seems short. Paying tribute to a master (REH) is an honorable gesture; and this is admittedly Lin Carter’s first published work, so we do not expect his best. What should we expect? Let’s start with the covers. The original 1965 cover by Gray Morrow was more representative, featuring a dragon-like pterodactyl eating a spaceship. The 1969 edition has an arguably more attractive cover by Jeff Jones, which looks more Frazetta-like and promises more serious, dark fantasy than it does cheezy, sci-fi. Thongor is arguably a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, so either approach could work; upon reading, it is obvious we have been duped.

Floaters and ADHD Style: Moments of decent storytelling are interrupted by ambiguous self-parody: an air ship is quickly introduced and is unfortunately called a "floater", which brings to mind a type of low-density, egested waste. Since our uncivilized barbarian chances upon said floater, a unique prototype among all Lemuria, it is outright amazing that he can master the controls and fly away. But he does, and this nonsense is ever present and consistent. Our naked, loin-clothed hero is called “Thong”-or... I assume he is wearing a thong (he is characterized as being naked), but half way through, we suddenly learn Thongor is actually wearing “high boots” to protect himself from vile serpents. Wild disconnects are characteristic of the book.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a real disorder aptly named; it also suits the style of this book. One could easily argue Lin Carter had ADHD, and got a thrill of introducing, then instantly discarding, random goals/enemies. To wit: random wizard needs randomly found warrior and his randomly high-jacked floater to... guess what? …save the world in two weeks. Without this random confluence of events, the wizard would have not prepared to save it. WTH? Fortunate coincidence on every page attempts to mop up plot holes too big too fix; unlikely encounters bring shallow danger and instant reprieves. The faux drama is so over-the-top that each encounter deflates the previous. Hopelessly lost characters and magical weapons somehow always resurface…like low-density/high-fat poop (a.k.a. floaters).

Cinematic Clonans: Carter’s Thongor reads like poor fan fiction more than it does a unique tribute to the Sword & Sorcery genre. There are parallels between the written Conan-Clonan development and the cinematic evolution. Those of us who lived through the 1980’s were generally (a) impressed with the cinematic adaption of Conan The Barbarian (1982, with Arnold Schwarzenegger), and less impressed with the movie-clonans that followed that were shallow rip-offs. The worst of the worst of these was Deathstalker There is a stunningly hilarious and through review of the Deathstalker series on cinemassacre.com from 2010. It dissects the absurdity of the series, even going as far as to quantify the ratio of fight scenes to women's breasts shown per movie. These movies are terrible, like most clones. What is sad is that many of these had great covers by artist Boris Vallejo, which promised to deliver serious Sword & Sorcery. Great marketing I suppose, but reminiscent of this Thongor book disappointing delivery wrapped in a great oil painting. ( )

What can one make of 'Thongor'?

It's no 'Conan'.
An hommage to Robert E. Howard's barbarian sagas perhaps? or maybe a parody?
I wasn't quite sure at first?

To begin with he hero's name sounds like a joke! 'Yes' he is wearing little more than a loincloth and his name is 'Thongor. There are also other examples of apparent puns which initially made me groan: early on Thongor battles a creature called a 'Dwark' (Dork?); and commands an air-boat referred to un-inspiringly as a 'floater'. I read on expecting lot's of lampooning of the whole Sword and Sorcery genre with a tongue-in-cheek attitude to the book; but, after a few more chapters the plot seemed to tighten up gradually drawing me into what emerged as a quest to forge a magical sword from various elemental sources from a pit of fire hidden in a sacred temple to a hilltop where lightening bolts fill the air. After the sword is lost and Thongor presumed killed, the two miraculously find each other, by divine providence presumably? Their goal: to prevent a dragon race from re-merging through the fabric of space-time and overthrow the dominance of man.

Some of the situations and coincidences used to carry the story forward do stretch the imagination a little too far, but if you are reading this type of novel you are almost prepared for that, so it is a little easier to overlook; but, this having been said it's not the best of it's class by any means.

A reasonable if not predictable tale of sword and sorcery. Worth reading only if you have a bit of spare time on your hands and nothing better to do. I happen to have all the books in my library already and so inevitably may end up reading the whole collection at some point, but I'm not going to make a point of it until it happens. ( )

Book 1 in the Thongor series. Followed by Thongor Of Lemuria.

The original version of the first Thongor book (and first published novel) by Lin Carter. A combination of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E Howard devices.

Despite having been extensively revised after Carter sought L Sprague de Camp's comments on the first draft, a lot of LVC's signature creaky plots holes and devices appear here for the first time.

A revised version 'Thongor And The Wizard Of Lemuria' appeared in 1970.

Although this is the first Carter novel published it was his seventh written. One of his unpublished efforts was "Space Family Robinson" which shared its concept with the TV series "Lost In Space". ( )