The Pusadian Tales, Part 1

cover art by Robert Gibson Jones

Read/Watch 'em In Order #104

Last year, I reviewed an L. Sprague de Camp novel titled The Tritonian Ring: a story set in a mythical, magic-drenched Bronze Age on the continent of Pusad--what we would call Atlantis. It was a fun novel, but is only one part of the Pusadian Cycle. There were eight short stories, most of them written in the 1950s and one in 1973, set a few generations after the events of the novel. These enormously entertaining stories--or at least the five or six I can get access to--will be the subject of our next Read/Watch 'em In Order series.

"The Eye of Tandyla" appeared in the May 1951 issue of Fantastic Adventures. In this tale, we meet Derezong Taash, a sorcerer who works for King Vuar the Capricious, who rules the kingdom of Lorsk.

All the names are like that, by the way. de Camp's stories remind me of Clark Ashton Smith's Weird Fiction, set in a misty past before recorded history began, with names that twist the tongue, obscure word choices (why say the king is bald when you can say he's "glabrous"?) that make sentences sound cool and a dry and often laugh-out-loud sense of humor. This last is present in only some of Smith's stories, but it is there.

But when I posted a question about this on a Facebook group about L. Sprague de Camp, a guy who knew him was kind enough to answer. de Camp liked Smith's work and, in fact, wrote an essay about him. He did not, though, ever cite him as an influence.

I still see a similarity here, but I guess its more of a coincidence than a direct influence. But wherever the seeds for the Pusadian tales sprang from, they are wonderful stories.

Derezong Taash likes his job. He has a set of beautiful concubines, access to rare books and... well, no real job security. He has to worry about political infighting, which in this context means an assassin's knife or poison in his cup.

And he has to worry about King Vuar, who really is capricious. When the king's #1 concubine wants a particular jewel, reputed to have significant magical powers, Vuar sends his minister of commerce to buy it from the temple at which its kept. When the minister fails, Vuar beheads him. So when Darazong is ordered to simply steal the jewel, he realizes its a job at which he dare not fail.

Darazong and his perpetually grouchy apprentice Zhamel Seh set out to get the jewel, which leads them into a series of dangerous and rather annoying adventures. They come up with a plan that lets them steal the jewel, then realize they were allowed to steal it because it is somehow going to be used against King Vuar.

So they come up with a plan to put it back where they found it, though this means they would go home empty-handed. Knowing Vuar might violently object to this, they come up with yet another plan to steal a near-identical jewel and then just lie to the king about what it it. This, in turn, leads to a situation involving the summoning of a powerful demon and a wild sword fight. Darazong, pudgy and an indifferent swordsman, is out of his element here, but still manages to pull off a clever ploy and--perhaps--save the day.

The story is fast-paced, full of great characters and carried along by clever prose and dialogue. The next story will introduce a regular protagonists to the Pusadian tales, so we don't get to meet Darazong again. That's too bad. He might not have been the most competent sorcerer on Pusad, but I kinda liked him nonetheless.

You can read the story online HERE.