James Silke, best known in S&S circles as the author of the Death Dealer series, recently passed away. He was 93 and lived a full and varied life as a photographer, writer, art director and more.
I'd been slowly working my way through the Death Dealer series and am posting here links to my prior reviews. These unfortunately are not great books, certainly not as good as their fantastic Frank Frazetta cover art ... but they do possess a ridiculous charm of their own, a bit of a "WTF did I just read?" unpredictability that makes them ... notable.
Sword-and-sorcery’s endgame: James Silke’s Prisoner of the Horned Helmet
“This goes to 11:” A Review of Death Dealer Book 2: Lords of Destruction
Death Dealer 3: Semi-enjoyable (?) train-wreck
I'm sure I will get around to book IV.
God speed James Silke!
1 comment:
Sad news - R.I.P. Mr. Silke. I really appreciated his "silky-art" and consider myself even more fortunate now to have a couple of his signed lithographs that were purchased many years ago. Considering all the names bandied about these days, I'd have to say that he was an underrated -- or even forgotten -- fantasy artist. I'm afraid I don't know much about his photography, but he certainly was multi-talented. And yes, the Death Dealer books are what you might say an "acquired taste" and can maybe be almost considered outre for S&S fiction.
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