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| Ghouls, guitars, and gals... good stuff. |
My latest essay/review is up on the blog of Tales from the Magician's Skull. Check out The Far-Flung Literary Webs of Manly Wade Wellman.
I have been a fan of Wellman for some time, but only casually, and only through his Kardios S&S stories and a handful of other tales. I had not read any of his Silver John stories.
That was a mistake I'm glad I rectified with the collection Who Fears the Devil?
These stories are set in mid-20th century America but have a sword-and-sorcery heartbeat and soul to them. A wandering outsider/bard, armed with a silver-stringed guitar instead of a sword, running afoul of monsters and magic and ne'er do well-ers in the deep woods of Appalachia. All told with a master story teller's skilled hand.
If you haven't yet read of John, aka., John the Balladeer, aka. Silver John, you're in for a treat.
Manly Wade Wellman is one of the absolute gems of my foray into "Appendix N" territory. There's something really magical and human in there that other writers of the "Appendix N" literature don't touch, as much as I love them all. I wound up buying the Chained Coffin setting for DCC from Goodman Games because of this, and buying a bunch of the audiobooks of his work on Audible. Highly recommend.
ReplyDeleteGreat observation about how simultaneously magical and personal Wellman's writing is, Daniel. I think there is something of Ray Bradbury there. Wellman of course started writing after Bradbury.
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