What do you think?
Rate this book
World's End #5
The Barbarian of World's End
Ganelon Silvermane, the genetically designed superhero of the Earth's fabulous final age, has rapidly become the most popular of all Lin Carter's creations. Brought to life prematurely, Ganelon's adventures in a world of crumbling empires, ravaging hordes, and marvelous relics of forgotten scientific empires are always edge-of-the-seat wonder novels - the best creation of the author of the Thongor, Green Star, and Callisto books, to mention but a few!
Now, in this fourth novel of Gondwane, the world's last continent, Ganelon Silvermane has offered himself as hostage to the worst band of barbarians to roam the plains. As a captive of the Horde, Ganelon rises to greater heights of heroism than ever before - and begins to assume the full power of his mighty being!
Now, in this fourth novel of Gondwane, the world's last continent, Ganelon Silvermane has offered himself as hostage to the worst band of barbarians to roam the plains. As a captive of the Horde, Ganelon rises to greater heights of heroism than ever before - and begins to assume the full power of his mighty being!
188 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1977
About the author
Lin Carter
477 books158 followersLinwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H.P. Lowcraft (for an H.P. Lovecraft parody) and Grail Undwin.
Carter had a marked tendency toward self-promotion in his work, frequently citing his own writings in his nonfiction to illustrate points and almost always including at least one of his own pieces in the anthologies he edited. The most extreme instance is his novel Lankar of Callisto, which features Carter himself as the protagonist.
As an author, he was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers. Carter himself was the model for the Mario Gonzalo character. He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose work he anthologized in the Flashing Swords! series. Carter is most closely associated with fellow author L. Sprague de Camp, who served as a mentor and collaborator and was a fellow member of both the Trap Door Spiders and SAGA.
Carter served in Korea, after which he attended Columbia University. He was a copywriter for some years before writing full-time. Carter resided in East Orange, New Jersey, in his later years, and drank and smoked heavily. It may have been his smoking that gave him oral cancer in 1985. Only his status as a Korean War veteran enabled him to receive extensive surgery. However, it failed to cure the cancer and left him disfigured.
In the last year before his death, he had begun to reappear in print with a new book in his Terra Magica series, a long-promised Prince Zarkon pulp hero pastiche, Horror Wears Blue, and a regular column for the magazine Crypt of Cthulhu. Despite these successes, Carter increased his alcohol intake, becoming a borderline alcoholic and further weakening his body. His cancer resurfaced, spreading to his throat and leading to his death in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1988.
Carter had a marked tendency toward self-promotion in his work, frequently citing his own writings in his nonfiction to illustrate points and almost always including at least one of his own pieces in the anthologies he edited. The most extreme instance is his novel Lankar of Callisto, which features Carter himself as the protagonist.
As an author, he was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers. Carter himself was the model for the Mario Gonzalo character. He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose work he anthologized in the Flashing Swords! series. Carter is most closely associated with fellow author L. Sprague de Camp, who served as a mentor and collaborator and was a fellow member of both the Trap Door Spiders and SAGA.
Carter served in Korea, after which he attended Columbia University. He was a copywriter for some years before writing full-time. Carter resided in East Orange, New Jersey, in his later years, and drank and smoked heavily. It may have been his smoking that gave him oral cancer in 1985. Only his status as a Korean War veteran enabled him to receive extensive surgery. However, it failed to cure the cancer and left him disfigured.
In the last year before his death, he had begun to reappear in print with a new book in his Terra Magica series, a long-promised Prince Zarkon pulp hero pastiche, Horror Wears Blue, and a regular column for the magazine Crypt of Cthulhu. Despite these successes, Carter increased his alcohol intake, becoming a borderline alcoholic and further weakening his body. His cancer resurfaced, spreading to his throat and leading to his death in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1988.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 14, 2019
“Ganelon, called Silvermane, was not even remotely akin to True Men. He was a Construct of the Time Gods, an android superman bred to some unknown purpose by an extinct race of mysterious savants.
With the Illusionist of Nerelon as his tutor and ally, Ganelon had begun a career as a wandering warrior, an adventurer, roaming the vastness of Gondwane the Great, Old Earth’s last and mightiest continent, righting wrongs, and battling evil and defending the last remnants of mankind from tyrants and oppressors.
He had fought many battles, overcome many adversaries, and won many honors. He was Hero of Uth, Defender of Kan Zar Kan, a Knight of Valardus, and a Baron of Trancore.
But now he had the honor of being a hostage of the barbarian Ximchak Horde, a prisoner in chains. It was a bitter honor, if such it was. And likely to prove fatal……..”
So begins Linwood Vrooman Carter’s fourth installment of the Gondwane Epic, “The Barbarian of World’s End.” Also known as the “World’s End Saga,” Carter’s 6-volume series reads like a cross between traditional swords & sorcery and the adventure sci-fi of Edgar Rice Burrough’s “Mars” books. I will state that I think that Carter really did stretch his wings here and try to shoot for something original, even if the whole thing comes off as derivative at times. Carter was mostly known as a writer of pastiches, and his real strength resided in editing anthologies and literary criticism and research. Since this is the fourth book in the series, you obviously shouldn’t be starting here. You can catch my reviews of the first three novels here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
THE PLOT THUS FAR: Book Three ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, as Ganelon had agreed to become a prisoner of the Ximchak Horde in order to gain access to his kidnapped comrades, Grrff the Tigerman and Ishgadara the Gynosphinx. The Horde has just conquered a nation called Gompland, and had set up an occupation army when Ganelon entered their ranks. Deciding not to kill him outright, the Ximchaks made him work every distasteful job imaginable, hoping to break his spirit. But Ganelon has other ideas, and his stoicism aids him as he gains a measure of respect from the barbarian Ximchaks. Taking an oath of featly, Ganelon actually joins the Horde and begins a fast rise in the rank and file due to his superhuman strength and stamina. Ganelon eventually fights for leadership of the entire Horde and wins a fierce battle for supremacy. Named as the new Warlord of the Ximchak Horde, he now faces a new set of decisions as he tries to decide how to make the Ximchaks less of a threat to Gondwane while still upholding his honor as leader and protectorate of the barbarian army. No more spoilers for you! Suffice it to say that the action is fierce and heavy and the plot takes a few unexpected turns as it progresses.
“The Barbarian of World’s End” gets the series back on track after a somewhat uneven third volume. The story is more tightly paced and there is a lot more continuity and the whole thing just feels a lot more cohesive by comparison to the previous book. There is still a ton of world building going on, and you can tell that Carter took careful pains to make sure that he could make his alternate history of Old Earth as interesting and diverse as possible. This also leads to bits of obscure humor in the text, if one looks closely. Carter adds a glossary of places and names in the back of each volume in order to keep readers on track with all of the massive geography of the Last Continent. One particular entry in the glossary reads as follows:
“PARVANIA: I don’t know anything at all about Parvania. It’s down here in my notes, but, frankly, I can’t remember where in the first four books of the Epic it’s mentioned. The hell with Parvania, anyway.”
I’ll also again note that the Epic never ventures into outright satire or comedy at any point in the narrative. There are elements of broad, good-natured humor to be found, and the text often comes across as tongue-in-cheek, but it’s not like you might find in Robert Asprin’s “Myth Adventures” series, for example. I also like that fact that Carter rarely sets up outright villains within the broader story. Even the supposed bad guys show all the nuances of being fully independent characters with both good and bad traits. Not to say that he doesn’t create villains. He does. But he also manages to imbue most of his characters with motivations that go beyond mere manichean concepts. The Ximchaks, for example, are indeed a murderous barbarian clan, but they are also creatures of honor, who have families and children to care for as they pillage and burn cities to the ground. They become even more multi-dimensional as Ganelon works to civilize them and make them less of a marauding band of nomads. My previous take on the Ximchaks was that they were sort of like Tolkien’s Orcs in many ways. I was wrong. The Ximchaks turn out to be quite different in many important distinctions.
The entire Gondwane Epic runs a bit over 900 pages when all is said and done. There were five books published in the 1970s by DAW Publishing, who did a great job with the presentation and quality of the printings. My 1977 first printing has cover and inlay art by John Bierly. The first book that Carter wrote in the Epic was titled “The Giant of World’s End,” and it was published by Belmont Books in 1969. That volume actually concludes the series, so you will need to find a copy if you wish to own the entire set. Carter originally envisioned an 10-book Epic, and I have no idea why he didn’t follow through with those plans. The author had some health issues later on in life and it’s possible that situation might have derailed his plans.
I enjoy shining some light on what I consider to be pulp classics from a mostly forgotten age. These books are not too hard to find in used book stores or online at sites like AbeBooks. I heartily recommend them if you enjoy your sword & sorcery broad and fanciful, with a touch of Dying Earth and plenty of massive thews and scantily clad Princesses on hand. Relax and let Lin Carter be your guide to a world 700 million years in the future, when the sun’s dying embers still manage to shine a light on a falling moon and adventure still calls the last living humans and non-humans of Earth’s final continent…...Gondwane!
With the Illusionist of Nerelon as his tutor and ally, Ganelon had begun a career as a wandering warrior, an adventurer, roaming the vastness of Gondwane the Great, Old Earth’s last and mightiest continent, righting wrongs, and battling evil and defending the last remnants of mankind from tyrants and oppressors.
He had fought many battles, overcome many adversaries, and won many honors. He was Hero of Uth, Defender of Kan Zar Kan, a Knight of Valardus, and a Baron of Trancore.
But now he had the honor of being a hostage of the barbarian Ximchak Horde, a prisoner in chains. It was a bitter honor, if such it was. And likely to prove fatal……..”
So begins Linwood Vrooman Carter’s fourth installment of the Gondwane Epic, “The Barbarian of World’s End.” Also known as the “World’s End Saga,” Carter’s 6-volume series reads like a cross between traditional swords & sorcery and the adventure sci-fi of Edgar Rice Burrough’s “Mars” books. I will state that I think that Carter really did stretch his wings here and try to shoot for something original, even if the whole thing comes off as derivative at times. Carter was mostly known as a writer of pastiches, and his real strength resided in editing anthologies and literary criticism and research. Since this is the fourth book in the series, you obviously shouldn’t be starting here. You can catch my reviews of the first three novels here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
THE PLOT THUS FAR: Book Three ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, as Ganelon had agreed to become a prisoner of the Ximchak Horde in order to gain access to his kidnapped comrades, Grrff the Tigerman and Ishgadara the Gynosphinx. The Horde has just conquered a nation called Gompland, and had set up an occupation army when Ganelon entered their ranks. Deciding not to kill him outright, the Ximchaks made him work every distasteful job imaginable, hoping to break his spirit. But Ganelon has other ideas, and his stoicism aids him as he gains a measure of respect from the barbarian Ximchaks. Taking an oath of featly, Ganelon actually joins the Horde and begins a fast rise in the rank and file due to his superhuman strength and stamina. Ganelon eventually fights for leadership of the entire Horde and wins a fierce battle for supremacy. Named as the new Warlord of the Ximchak Horde, he now faces a new set of decisions as he tries to decide how to make the Ximchaks less of a threat to Gondwane while still upholding his honor as leader and protectorate of the barbarian army. No more spoilers for you! Suffice it to say that the action is fierce and heavy and the plot takes a few unexpected turns as it progresses.
“The Barbarian of World’s End” gets the series back on track after a somewhat uneven third volume. The story is more tightly paced and there is a lot more continuity and the whole thing just feels a lot more cohesive by comparison to the previous book. There is still a ton of world building going on, and you can tell that Carter took careful pains to make sure that he could make his alternate history of Old Earth as interesting and diverse as possible. This also leads to bits of obscure humor in the text, if one looks closely. Carter adds a glossary of places and names in the back of each volume in order to keep readers on track with all of the massive geography of the Last Continent. One particular entry in the glossary reads as follows:
“PARVANIA: I don’t know anything at all about Parvania. It’s down here in my notes, but, frankly, I can’t remember where in the first four books of the Epic it’s mentioned. The hell with Parvania, anyway.”
I’ll also again note that the Epic never ventures into outright satire or comedy at any point in the narrative. There are elements of broad, good-natured humor to be found, and the text often comes across as tongue-in-cheek, but it’s not like you might find in Robert Asprin’s “Myth Adventures” series, for example. I also like that fact that Carter rarely sets up outright villains within the broader story. Even the supposed bad guys show all the nuances of being fully independent characters with both good and bad traits. Not to say that he doesn’t create villains. He does. But he also manages to imbue most of his characters with motivations that go beyond mere manichean concepts. The Ximchaks, for example, are indeed a murderous barbarian clan, but they are also creatures of honor, who have families and children to care for as they pillage and burn cities to the ground. They become even more multi-dimensional as Ganelon works to civilize them and make them less of a marauding band of nomads. My previous take on the Ximchaks was that they were sort of like Tolkien’s Orcs in many ways. I was wrong. The Ximchaks turn out to be quite different in many important distinctions.
The entire Gondwane Epic runs a bit over 900 pages when all is said and done. There were five books published in the 1970s by DAW Publishing, who did a great job with the presentation and quality of the printings. My 1977 first printing has cover and inlay art by John Bierly. The first book that Carter wrote in the Epic was titled “The Giant of World’s End,” and it was published by Belmont Books in 1969. That volume actually concludes the series, so you will need to find a copy if you wish to own the entire set. Carter originally envisioned an 10-book Epic, and I have no idea why he didn’t follow through with those plans. The author had some health issues later on in life and it’s possible that situation might have derailed his plans.
I enjoy shining some light on what I consider to be pulp classics from a mostly forgotten age. These books are not too hard to find in used book stores or online at sites like AbeBooks. I heartily recommend them if you enjoy your sword & sorcery broad and fanciful, with a touch of Dying Earth and plenty of massive thews and scantily clad Princesses on hand. Relax and let Lin Carter be your guide to a world 700 million years in the future, when the sun’s dying embers still manage to shine a light on a falling moon and adventure still calls the last living humans and non-humans of Earth’s final continent…...Gondwane!
May 25, 2020
I took a break between reading the first 3 books and this book (the 4th in the series), and it gave me a greater appreciation for the story. This book's plot involves the hero, Ganelon Silvermane, rising from prisoner to chieftain of a barbarian horde that was his former enemy. He leads them through several adventures and teaches them to rise above their savage natures to become decent men and women. In this book, Lin Carter has a tendency, at times, to shift his writing style to a kind of summary of the plot, rather than detailed and descriptive narration and dialogue. This makes the story not as immersive as it could be.
April 28, 2023
Galenon Silvermane gives himself up to the Ximchak Hordes and joins their ranks. In short order his work ethic and physical attributes win his detractors over. Eventually he becomes Warlord of the entire horde and leads them on a long trek across Gondwane. By the end Ganelon has managed to convert the ravening warmongering horde over to a more civilized state and this chapter of his adventure ends. This is another decent chapter in the light hearted swords & sorcery series by Lin Carter. Filled with humor and very imaginative places, people and things it can be hard to not begrudgingly enjoy the series.
October 9, 2019
These are not terribly good books....but I keep reading them for the goofy ideas and setting. Averaging 180 pages, they're not a big investment so hey why not?
July 2, 2010
From the Appendix:
"PARVANIA. I don't know anything about Parvania. It's down here in my notes, but, frankly, I can't remember where in the first four books of the Epic it's mentioned. The hell with Parvania, anyway."
Some may interpret this as a lighthearted gesture, a private communication between an author who isn't taking this too seriously and an attentive reader. Unfortunately, I found it symptomatic of larger issues: an author who has lost interest and is contractually obligated to bash out the remaining novels.
This book has very little to recommend it, but unfortunately can't even fail in any grand, impressive style. Nothing particularly remarkable occurs, and certainly nothing in terms of the baroque setting of the Eon of the Falling Moon, some seven hundred million years from now.
Its first half is consumed with the story of how Ganelon Silvermane rises from being captive of the Ximchak Horde to becoming Warlord, and the second half is how Ganelon manages to lead this Horde out of a troublesome area and bring the region to relative peace.
The ideas of "captive rises to leader of a war band" and "outsider tries to manage the unruly, politically-infighting, basically hostile army" and "army must move or it will break apart" have been done before, but Carter could have wrung a story out of those elements had he the interest level. Unfortunately, he doesn't, and seems unwilling to take reign of the plot threads available. The story picks up once the Horde mounts up and travels through a variety of lands (from the glass-walled Triple City to the kingdom once ruled by a powerful sorcerer, whose ornate land defenses remain, and to the Marvelous Mountains, wholly carved with gigantic friezes by some unknown sculptors), but none were dwelled upon for any length of time.
In all, the series has clearly broken down, both in terms of story and style.
"PARVANIA. I don't know anything about Parvania. It's down here in my notes, but, frankly, I can't remember where in the first four books of the Epic it's mentioned. The hell with Parvania, anyway."
Some may interpret this as a lighthearted gesture, a private communication between an author who isn't taking this too seriously and an attentive reader. Unfortunately, I found it symptomatic of larger issues: an author who has lost interest and is contractually obligated to bash out the remaining novels.
This book has very little to recommend it, but unfortunately can't even fail in any grand, impressive style. Nothing particularly remarkable occurs, and certainly nothing in terms of the baroque setting of the Eon of the Falling Moon, some seven hundred million years from now.
Its first half is consumed with the story of how Ganelon Silvermane rises from being captive of the Ximchak Horde to becoming Warlord, and the second half is how Ganelon manages to lead this Horde out of a troublesome area and bring the region to relative peace.
The ideas of "captive rises to leader of a war band" and "outsider tries to manage the unruly, politically-infighting, basically hostile army" and "army must move or it will break apart" have been done before, but Carter could have wrung a story out of those elements had he the interest level. Unfortunately, he doesn't, and seems unwilling to take reign of the plot threads available. The story picks up once the Horde mounts up and travels through a variety of lands (from the glass-walled Triple City to the kingdom once ruled by a powerful sorcerer, whose ornate land defenses remain, and to the Marvelous Mountains, wholly carved with gigantic friezes by some unknown sculptors), but none were dwelled upon for any length of time.
In all, the series has clearly broken down, both in terms of story and style.
July 20, 2010
Probably the best book in a very weak series.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews