Customer Reviews

King of the Dead: A Weird Romance

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The fantasy pulp-fiction works of Frank Aubrey (a.k.a, Frank Atkins, Fenton Ash), unlike E.R. Burroughs' or A. Merritt's, were never deemed suitable to be repackaged in mass-market paperback form. Hence, he is all but forgotten by the reading public, with only a few die-hard aficionados of retro sci-fi/fantasy retaining any awareness of his existence. This is a pity, for in terms of quality his literary output equals those of his colleagues whose titles can be found in Ballatine, Avon, or Ace Paperback catalogues. "The King of the Dead: A Weird Romance", one of a handful of Aubrey titles still available, is a good example of the excellence of his work. While it has the typical narrative devices, plot elements, and (by contemporary politically correct standards) dubious ideological stances of the Lost Race genre, "The King of the Dead", instead of being a turgid pulp adventure story tricked out with archaeological trappings, as is so often the case with Lost Race yarns, reads more like a mystical fairy tale, told with a precise and engaging prose style which shows a depth of perception for description and characterization. The same is true of "The Queen of Atlantis: A Romance of the Caribbean", which is also recommended here.