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Helma

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This book, "Helma: The Second Book of Tros of Samothrace," is part of a four-volume Avon Books paperback edition (1967) of a long historical novel. "Tros of Samothrace" published in "Adventure" Magazine in 1925-1926, and in one volume in 1934, has two shorter, but still substantial, sequels, which are sometimes listed as additional volumes of "Tros" in paperback reprintings (see below).

The first novel originally appeared over the the course of a year as seven stories in nine parts, and the revised version in hardcover, the basis of the later editions, reached 949 pages. It is understandable, if inconvenient, that mass-market paperback editions have so far always broken it up into several volumes. (As of this writing, Amazon, like many other online sources, sometimes gives the real place-name of "Samothrace" as "Samothrage" -- a typographical error which complicates a search for copies.)

The story of "Tros of Samothrace" opens with Julius Caesar planning his invasion of Britain, and deciding that some pious Greek emissaries from the Mysteries of Samothrace to the Druids of Gaul will make good hostages, and the son of their leader a perfect spy on the Britons and their Druids. He has yet to take the measure of Tros of Samothrace, who, with a scrupulous regard for his sworn word, still turns the situation into a personal war with Caesar, which ranges all the way back to Rome, and, in the sequels, across the Mediterranean to Egypt. Tros plays a part in or witnesses the repulse of Caesar from Britain, the downfall of the Roman Republic, and the emergence of the Principate of Caesar's nephew, soon to be acclaimed as "Augustus," The Revered One -- but the excitement is in what isn't found in the history you should have learned in school.

Early in his adventures among the Britons, Tros encounters some Nordic seafarers -- about half a millennium early, but never mind -- including the beautiful Helma. Tros impresses them not only as a warrior and seafarer, but as a storyteller. (So don't let on that he's giving them recaps of Homer.)

A four-volume paperback edition was published by Avon Books in 1967 (officially August through November), beginning with "Tros: The First Book...," and followed by the present volume, "Helma: The Second Book...," with "Liafail: The Third Book...," and "Helene: The Fourth Book..." containing the second half. (Liafail is the name of the ship he builds, which for some reason is named "Stone of Destiny" in Gaelic -- not the best omen, one would think, and in the wrong Celtic language besides! Helene is another of the women in Tros' life.)

These editions all had lovely covers by Douglas Rosa, which somewhat made up for the nuisance of having to get four slim-to-standard-size (150 to 250 pages) volumes instead of one rather fat one. The same titles were used on a similar set published in Britain a few years later by Universal-Tandem, with new cover art. The volume divisions followed the old story breaks, with two tales in each "Book," except for the three-parter which made up the last volume.

The Avon volumes were followed by editions in 1969 and 1970 of the book's sequels, "Queen Cleopatra" (1929) and "The Purple Pirate" (1935). The cover art for these was not credited by the publisher. (I'm among those who attribute them to Jeff Jones.) They are described as "Tros # 5" and "Tros #6" on the covers and in many listings, although strictly speaking they should be Two and Three in the series. These two don't seem to have had Tandem paperback editions.

(Note that Mundy's similar-sounding "Caesar Dies" involves the Emperor Commodus, and is NOT part of the Tros series.)

"Tros" was repackaged in paperback by Zebra Books (Kensington Publishing), in 1976-1977, in three volumes instead of four. In that version, the story appeared as: "Lud of Lunden," "Avenging Liafail," and "The Praetor's Dungeon," with "The Purple Pirate," and "Queen Cleopatra" released in that order as continuations, and listed as parts four and five (!) of the set, in 1978. These are generally regarded as examples of inept book production (although the Tom Barber wraparound covers were rather nice), with unreliable texts -- one critic calls the Zebra edition "abysmal." They also add to the confusing array of titles for one novel, and the problem of how many books to look for. They are all marred by misprints, and with "Purple Pirate" and "Queen Cleopatra" out of sequence the unwary reader finds that Caesar is dead, and then alive again in the next volume, still waiting to be assassinated....

I have treated "Tros of Samothrace" at greater length, and surveyed in more detail its complex publishing history, and that of the sequels, in a review of the 1995 Buccaneer Books hardcover reprinting of the one-volume text of "Tros." I also cover there a little about the author's complicated life, and the occult interests reflected in "Tros," with a bit about Mundy's influence on fantasy and science fiction from the 1920s to the present.

My advice to the interested is that the Avon (and Tandem) editions are worth reading, although a complete set of all six in really good condition is likely to seem rather high priced for aging mass-market paperbacks. The Zebra editions are at best a fallback. If you are lucky, a library will have the hardcover editions available, at least through inter-library loan.

A full reprinting of the novels in trade paperback, at a reasonable price, is highly desirable; I'm surprised that there hasn't been one so far.