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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sailing the seas of another world,
When a young American of the 1940s falls through a momentary crack between worlds while at sea, he finds himself a passenger on a strange ship in a world of sorcery & warring kingdoms. At first unsure of his situation, he soon sizes up the beautiful princess, the scheming minister, and the not-quite-human being who possesses unusual powers ...Here's one of the more obscure treasures reprinted in the classic Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. While it's not a masterpiece of the genre, it has a certain sprightly energy & inventiveness, and deserves better than to be forgotten. There's a bright, almost breezy quality to the storytelling -- but the moments of unleashed magic have some real weight to them. Hannes Bok was primarily known as a science-fiction & fantasy artist. His brief forays into writing were inspired by the works of A. Merritt, who was his foremost literary idol. That inspiration is obvious in these pages ... but at the same time, he avoids the ornate (some would say purple) prose of Merritt, which nobody but Merritt could make work anyway, and achieves a simpler, more modest prose style. And it's a success. As always, series editor Lin Carter provides a short but informative introduction, one more personal than usual, as he knew & clearly loved Bok. The feeling of loss at his early death comes through in Carter's heartfelt remembrance. I'm not sure if this novel will ever see print again soon, so don't hesitate to pick up a used copy if you should stumble upon it. You may be pleasantly surprized!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the sorcerer's ship,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
Fantastic reading, I love this book. I had read it years ago and am so thrilled to read this classic book again.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Deep Seas and Crackling Blue Skies,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Sorcerers Ship (Mass Market Paperback)
I rather think that I would have liked Hannes Bok if I had known him. It is true that I am an astronomy man rather than an astrology buff. But it can be refreshing to listen to somebody who is passionate about certain things-- even if they aren't always what you are passionate about yourself. Bok also waxed enthusiastically about the art of Maxfield Parrish (under whom he had studied), the music of Max Steiner, and the fantasy writing of Abraham Merritt.After Merritt's death in 1943, Bok completed two of Merritt's unfinished stories, "The Fox Woman" and "The Black Wheel". And he wrote three solo novels in the vein of Merritt: _Starstone World_ (_Science Fiction Quarterly_, 1942), _The Sorcerer's Ship_ (_Unknown_, 1942), and _The Blue Flamingo_ (_Startling Stories_, 1948). The last two novels have been reprinted in book form, the third under the title of _Beyond the Golden Stair_ (1970). I have been unable to find evidence that Bok's first novel was ever a book reprint, but I would be delighted if some alert reader could provide contrary information. According to Lin Carter's introduction to _The Sorcerer's Ship_ (1969), Bok at one time copied Merritt's _The Ship of Ishtar_ (_Argosy_, 1924) in longhand. It surely does not require a great stretch of the imagination to see that _The Sorcerer's Ship_ was influenced by Merritt's novel. Both novels involve a hero who passes from our world to a parallel world and finds himself on a kind of magical ship fraught with dangers. Both novels also feature a heroine of high degree. But Bok's princess is not as strong as Merritt's warrior, and-- let us face it-- she is not the brightest wand in the magical carpetbag. She continually believes that the villain, whom an eight-year-old child could spot as a scoundrel at fifty paces, can do no wrong until it is too late to do any good. And she consistently reprimands her good counselor for his "improper behavior"-- again, until it is too late. But there are magicians and demigods in reserve... and a good thing, too. There follow a number of spectacular magical feats until one last bloody spectacle puts things back to a semblance of normality. There is a final touch found in many myths. The heroes who saved the day don't fit in their world any more. They are feared and shunned and misunderstood. Most of A. Merritt's novels were characterized by a kind of purple prose that many modern readers dislike.* Bok's later novel, _Beyond the Golden Stair_, had a similar (though not identical) prose style. But the style of _The Sorcerer's Ship_ is a bit more plain, straightforward, and action oriented. I do not mean to say that Bok stints in getting us to visualize a scene, from the crackle of dry seaweed beneath the hero's head (2), to the blue sky that "seemed to flicker here and there" against the quivering sun (3), to the lightning that was a "brilliant ball of fire" blossoming "like a moon" (69), to the fury of a storm at sea, to a brasslike city in the early morning sun. But _Ship_ is essentially an action story, a tale presented to us with quick cuts of the camera rather than with long, slow shots. Bok's style is just right for this novel. * I confess to a certain fondness for this style. It had its faults, but it was much superior to the style of most of the American scientific romancers in the early twentieth century.
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