The Richard Blade Series

As you might have guessed, I've read a few and also have a few on audiobook from the now-defunct Americana Audio.

While they are guilty of all the 70's style excesses, especially in the sex department, the Blade series is a lot of fun and a real nice break from the more standard PMP formulas...and the science, well...leave your disbelief at the door...cause plausible this ain't!

Here's a list of the titles and the true identities of "Jeffrey Lord" in each case...author wise the bulk of the series was handled by a small number of writers...primarily Stokes and Green...

Blade by Jeffrey Lord

1. The Bronze Axe (1969) (Manning Lee Stokes)
2. The Jade Warrior (1969) (Manning Lee Stokes)
3. Jewel of Tharn (1969) (Manning Lee Stokes)
4. Slave of Sarma (1970) (Manning Lee Stokes)
5. Liberator of Jedd (1971) Manning Lee Stokes)
6. Monster of the Maze (1973) (Manning Lee Stokes)
7. Pearl of Patmos (1973) (Manning Lee Stokes)
8. Undying World (1973) (Manning Lee Stokes)
9. Kingdom of Royth (1974) (Roland Green)
10. Ice Dragon (1974) (Roland Green)
11. Dimension of Dreams (1974) (Roland Green)
12. King of Zunga (1975) (Roland Green)
13. The Golden Steed (1975) (Roland Green)
14. The Temples of Ayocan (1975) (Roland Green)
15. The Towers of Melnon (1975) (Roland Green)
16. The Crystal Seas (1975) (Roland Green)
17. The Mountains of Brega (1976) (Roland Green)
18. Warlords Of Gaikon (1976) (Roland Green)
19. Looters of Tharn (1976) (Roland Green)
20. Guardians Of The Coral Throne (1976) (Roland Green)
21. Champion of the Gods (1976) (Roland Green)
22. The Forests of Gleor (1976) (Roland Green)
23. Empire of Blood (1977) (Roland Green)
24. The Dragons of Englor (1977) (Roland Green)
25. The Torian Pearls (1977) (Roland Green)
26. City of the Living Dead (1978) (Roland Green)
27. Master of the Hashomi (1978) (Roland Green)
28. Wizard of Rentoro (1978) (Roland Green)
29. Treasure of the Stars (1978) (Roland Green)
30. Dimension of Horror (1979) (Ray Faraday Nelson)
31. Gladiators of Hapanu (1979) (Roland Green)
32. Pirates Of Gohar (1979) (Roland Green)
33. Killer Plants Of Binnark (1980) (Roland Green)
34. The Ruins of Kaldac (1981) (Roland Green)
35. The Lords of the Crimson River (1981) (Roland Green)
36. Return to Kaldak (1983) (Roland Green)
37. Warriors of Latan (1984) (Roland Green)

The premise allows for a lot of different scenarios and all in all the adventures of Richard Blade in the wild worlds of Dimension X can be a lot of fun!

One note...there a vocal few who compare this series to the utter dreck that makes up the vile and loathsome Gor series by John Norman...that's a crock of crocodile crap...there is absolutely no comparison...

If Richard Blade ever ended up on "Professor" Norman's inane "Counter-Earth" he would have freed the slaves, killed the "Masters" and beat his "hero" Tarl Cabot(?) into a bloody and unrecognizable pulp!

So I read Blade #2, The Jade Warrior, last week. Not as bad as I thought, and I didn't realize that Blade starts off on Earth and goes off on his adventures piecemeal each book (or at least I'm guessing that's how it works for the rest, as that's apparently what happened in the first two).

Here's the cover page...



Rather enjoyable book overall. Something of a James Bond meets John Carter of Mars. He's going on "missions" and meets people, lays women, kills and befriends men, etc., but it's all done with the knowledge that he's not sticking around in the end, and that seems to give him a somewhat objective perspective on things. In this book he finds himself in essentially a war between Mongol and Chinese analogues, and first joins and fights on one side, then the other, essentially working with whichever side will keep him alive the longest (although his motives are not entirely so mercenary).

I am more than willing to find some more of these books and give them a read-through if and when I get the chance.

Thanks to a very kind benefactor, I just acquired 21 intermittent volumes of the Blade series. Going to start having to crank through these this summer. In describing them to one friend of mine, I used the sentence, "Think Stargate SG-1 meets Conan the Barbarian meets James Bond".

Here's a page showing all of the Blade books:

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/jeffrey-lord/

Good stuff...

I believe I started reading these books in 1975. As a 14 year old, I have to admit that the hormone overload kept me interested. I think I read about 24 of these over a 2-3 year period. A classmate of mine was getting them through some book club and was reselling them to me at about 75% of the cover price. I give credit to the series for getting me started on reading. Although I really enjoyed the books when reading them in the mid seventies, I just can't imagine that I would find them quite as appealing after now having actually read some of the better literary works out there. Not to mention that I have published many technical papers in my field. But who knows. Maybe I should get one and read it again.

What I remember the most is how much these books sent my imagination running wild. And being that these were my first set of books that I read, I remember quite a bit about the plots.