Here's some more info on Lin Carter and "Zanthodon."
From
http://www.angelfire.com/az/vrooman/phillips_trib.html
Note the similarities of most of his fictional names to
"Zanthodon." Also his blatant imitation of Burroughs, Howard,
and other writers (Zanthodon was his imitation of Pellucidar).
Carter is infamous in scifi circles for imitating the style and ideas
of others....
-Mike
···
------
Lankar
by Tony Phillips
Back in the eighties, when I was a geeky junior high and high
school student who spent most of his time reading, most of the
reading I did was comics like Ka-zar, Warlord, Savage Sword of
Conan, and, above all, Lin Carter novels. In fact, about 90% of
what I read besides the aforementioned comics was Lin Carter.
I'd been noticing Lin's paperback covers, especially those to the
Callisto books in the science fiction book sections as a young
child back in the seventies. And I knew Lin Carter had done a
feature article on these books for an issue of Savage Tales,
which I had back when I was in first grade (my dad bought these
comics for me, even back then, and would read them to me; my
mom absolutely detested the things). I first started reading Lin
Carter when I deemed myself old enough, in the seventh grade.
My first was Hurok of the Stone Age, which I received as a St.
Patrick's Day gift upon request. I bought and read the rest of the
Zanthodon series as it came out after that, and began searching
out all the books in the Callisto series I could find, at used
paperback book stores, after which I started on all of Lin's other
books.
Even back then, I realized that Lin was not what was considered
a great author, and since then, I've graduated to other books,
both fantasy-oriented and otherwise, that have much stronger
characterization, and more substantial plots than anything by Lin
Carter. But in response to some of the more virulent criticism I've
read of Lin and his work, especially by Robert E. Howard circles,
I will say that Lin did know how to write mesmerizing escapist
adventure yarns, which was one thing I felt I needed in the
troubling teenage years when I read most of them. And I will
defend Lin's quality as a writer in at least one aspect: his power
to describe the unreal. Lin Carter was better than any other writer
I know (with the possible exception of Robert E. Howard) to paint
visual images with words. Lin could imbue his fantastic realities
with such vivid detail that he always held me awed, and kept me
panting for more.
Also, even though a great deal of what Lin wrote intentionally
paralleled Burroughs, the worlds Lin created were still unique
unto him; Barsoom might have its gigantic toothy thoats and
emerald-skinned giants, but Thanator had its Yathoon
arthropods mounted on fierce four-legged avians. Lin Carter had
a tremendous outpouring of imagination in the creation of the
monsters, civilizations and races that inhabited his various
worlds ( only the Callistan Chess Game seemed a little too
derivative-maybe he should have tried a game of living
Scrabble). And then there was the Green Star series in which
Carter really seemed to come into his own. Though clearly
Burroughs inspired, Burroughs never invented anything quite like
the world of skyscraper-sized trees infested by sentient races
and scarlet dragons. Lin's Callisto series reached a real high
point when Carter put himself into the story in Lankar of Callisto.
You might think this would have been a disastrous move, but as
Robert M. Price comments, it worked-and surprisingly well. I still
remember reading the part when Jon Dark informs Carter about
the Mind Wizards plans to invade Earth, and the ease in which
this could be accomplished. That part actually gave me a scare,
even though I really knew Lin's statements about the Callisto
stories being actual accounts were purely imaginary, and the
books themselves had already gone out of print, long after an
"invasion" by alien telepaths could have taken place.
Carter's Terra Magica series was less good,[sez you,
Tony--some of us consider the Terra Magica tales to be his most
imaginative work, In those he harked back to the fantastic
literature of the Middle Ages.--Ken] but I still read them, largely
because of Carter's great descriptive power. This series did
have perhaps an overdosage of whimsy, but it didn't bother me
greatly, since I knew this series was supposed to be a more a
parody of fantasy novels than the real thing. As others have noted
though, Lin was much less successful when he tried to infuse
this whimsy into serious novels, most notably the World's End
series. These books had good moments when Carter's
imaginative power seemed at its peak but they soon lost their
flavor because of their overt silliness. If Lin was trying to imitate
the Oz books, then one wonders why he didn't bother writing a
straight Oz pastiche, like he did with Burroughs pastiches. Some
great tastes don't taste great together, as combining Oz with
sword-and-sorcery adventure yarns simply didn't work.
Lin Carter's proposed fantasy epic Khymyriam, or what he wrote
of it, really does, as R. M. Price suggests, contain some of his
most vivid prose, and it's truly a shame Lin never got around to
finishing. Maybe this was because Carter was more of the
"dreamer" type and lacked the patience to embark on seemingly
endless sagas of this scope. Believe me, I can relate to that on a
personal level. But still, if it had only seen completion, Carter
could have given modern Tolkien imitators like Terry Brooks and
David Eddings a run for their money. I sometimes wonder if Lin
Carter's vivid desciptive style couldn't be combined through
some alchemy with the intricate structure and strong
characterizations of authors like Margaret Weiss and Tracy
Hickman. The result would be truly phenomenal!
As far as Carter's Conan works are concerned, I have to agree
that Carter shouldn't have touched them in the first place. Like all
non-Howard works that try to imitate Howard, they fall short.
What's mostly missing from Carter's Conan stories is the sense
of darkness that is present in Howard's originals. These, like
many Robert E. Howard tales, border on being horror stories.
But that's really no reason to disparage Carter. I've read Carter's
Conan tales in later years, and found them to be actually among
his best works. But I've read them as Carter stories, not Conan
pastiches.
I realize, of course, that Lin Carter will never take his place in the
hallowed halls of literature like certain other modern authors
(such as Stephen King, for one) likely will one day. But even if
Carter's stories lack enduring quality as literary works, they more
than make up for it in sheer escapist adventure. I read them back
when I was still struggling through the teen years, and they were
just what I needed. Thanks, Lin Carter!
End