Plot summary
Gondwane is a crazy-quilt of human and non-human societies divided into myriads of states and tribes, all built atop the detritus of seven hundred million years of previous civilizations. Over this span the laws of physics have changed, and science been largely superseded by magic. The present era, "The Eon of the Falling Moon", looks to be this far-future world's last, as the Moon has long been in a slowly decaying orbit that now threatens the planet with imminent destruction.
The gigantic hero Ganelon Silvermane is a Construct made by long-extinct Time Gods, who had foreseen a succession of great world crises and created heroes to deal with them. Each is preserved in the Ardelix Time Vault until awakened by the onset of the crisis it is intended he resolve. Ganelon himself is the one designated to save the world from its own satellite, though how he is to do so is problematic; as he was awoken prematurely by an earthquake, before the crucial knowledge of his precise role could be instilled.
Aided by the magician Zolobion and the warrior maid Arzeela, who loves him unrequitedly (he was built for heroics, not romance) Ganelon sets out from the land of the great Stone Face to seek the means of mankind's salvation. Ultimately, they locate the necessary device, only to discover that it can only be operated at the cost of the user's life. This the hero is willing to do, as his sole reason for being is to save humanity. But Arzeela, unable to bear the thought of his death, takes his place in the device, dying in his stead.
The Moon is destroyed, leaving a silvery ring of debris around the Earth in its place and the world to survive into a new era, "The Eon of the Silver Phoenix". Ganelon, however, is left distraught and bereft of purpose. Mourning his lost companion and unable to understand the feelings that led to her self-sacrifice, he makes it his new goal to discover the nature of love.
Reception
Robert Price formed the opinion that the Gondwane novels were "no good." He writes "They suffer form the same malady that afflicted Amalric (and which ... blaze into fever in The Wizard of Zao and the 'Terra Magica' series); the lame and self-consciously cute attempts at humor ... only succeed in hampering and tripping up novels that are straining at their halters to become straight, robust Carter Sword & Sorcery yarns. Giant and Barbarian almost manage it, but not quite." [3] The "series contain[s] the stuff of vintage Carter fantasy epics, but the books suffer ... from an omnipresent patina of frivolity that continually undermines the reader's suspension of disbelief, and ... from a queer distancing of the narration." He notes that "[o]n the whole, the Gondwane books manifest strangely lax and undisciplined writing ... commit[ting] conceptual and continuity blunders and ... rationalizing the difficulty .. in a contrived manner ... Some gaffes he never seems to notice." [5]
The book was also reviewed by Richard Brisson in Luna Monthly no. 1, June 1969, and by Brian Earl Brown and Wayne Warfield in Phantasy Digest no. 1, 1976. [1]
The Callisto series is a sequence of eight science fiction novels by Lin Carter, of the sword and planet subgenre, first published by Dell Books from 1972-1978. They were written in homage to the Barsoom and Amtor novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
The Wizard of Lemuria is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the first book of his Thongor series set on the fictional ancient lost continent of Lemuria. The author's first published novel, it was initially issued in paperback by Ace Books in 1965. The author afterwards revised and expanded the text, in which form it was reissued as Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria, first published in paperback by Berkley Books in 1969. This retitled and revised edition became the standard edition for later reprintings. The novel was also adapted into comic form, appearing in eight issues of Marvel's Creatures on the Loose.
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Renegade of Callisto is a science fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the eighth and last in his Callisto series. It was first published in paperback by Dell Books in August 1978, and reprinted once, in November of the same year. A tribute to Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Chessmen of Mars, the book introduces the game of Darza, Carter's equivalent of Jetan. An appendix details the rules.
The Wizard of Zao is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the second book of the Chronicles of Kylix series. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in June 1978.
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The Volcano Ogre is a science fiction novel by American writer Lin Carter, the third his "Zarkon, Lord of the Unknown" series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1976, with a paperback edition following from Popular Library in November 1978. It was reissued by Wildside Press in 1999. An ebook edition was issued by Thunderchild Publishing in October 2017.
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The Barbarian of World's End is a fantasy by American writer Lin Carter, set on a decadent far-future Earth in which all the world's landmasses have supposedly drifted back together to form a last supercontinent called Gondwane. The book is chronologically the fourth in Carter's Gondwane Epic. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in May 1977. A trade paperback edition was published by Wildside Press in January 2001 and an ebook edition by Thunderchild Publishing in May 2019. The book includes a map of the portion of Gondwane in which its story is set and "A Glossary of Places Mentioned in the Text" by the author.
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Dragonrouge: Further Adventures in Terra Magica is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the second in his series about the fictional "Flat Earth" of Terra Magica. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in December 1984. A trade paperback edition was published by Wildside Press in 2001, with an ebook edition following from Gateway/Orion in February 2020.
Mandricardo : New Adventures in Terra Magica is a fantasy novel by American writer Lin Carter, the third in his series about the fictional "Flat Earth" of Terra Magica. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in January 1987. A trade paperback edition was published by Wildside Press in 2001, with an ebook edition following from Gateway/Orion in March 2020.
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