Sorcery in Shad: Tales of the Primal Land

Tales of the Primal Land #3

by Brian Lumley

Classic Lovecraftian horror from one of the masters of the form, British Fantasy Award-winner Brian Lumley. Sorcery in ShadPity the poor lamia! Mighty Orbiquita, she who damned to death countless men for merely looking at her, she who slew with impunity any who dared breach the walls of her fabled castle . . . Orbiquita has fallen in love—and with a barbarian Hrossak!Tarra Khash, he is, who saved a lamia's life and made her long to be human again. Tarra Khash, who with the help of the last survivors of an alien race, overthrew a god and saved an entire city thereby. Tarra Khash, who has adventured far and wide through the Primal Land, searching for treasure, for wine, women, and song. Tarra Khash, who has fallen into the clutches of the slave Cush Gemal, who was once an ordinary man but who has become the foulest of sorcerers, Black Yoppaloth. Like all sorcerers, Black Yoppaloth craves immortality, and believes he stands on the brink of achieving it. Then his evil power will be unrivaled and he will control all of the Primal Land. Only Tarra Khash stands in his way. Tarra Khash—and, though he does not know it, his friends and she who was once the lamia Orbiquita; the alien Amyr Arn; a slumbering, ponderous yet powerful moon god; and the magician Teh Atht, who must choose between immortality and saving the Primal Land! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Cthulhu Mythos, Sword and Sorcery, Weird Fiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Brian Lumley was born near Newcastle. In 22 years as a Military Policeman he served in many of the Cold War hotspots, including Berlin, as well as Cyprus in partition days. He reached the rank of Sergeant-Major before retiring to Devon to write full-time, and his work was first published in 1970. The vampire series, 'Necroscope', has been translated into ten languages and sold over a million copies worldwide.

He was awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010.

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is tricky ... On the one hand, this is pretty much the same as the previous two books in the series. In this case, rather than a collection of short stories, we have an actual novel bringing together characters from the previous two books: Teh Atht the sorcerer, and Tarra Khash, the Hrossak barbarian. (Well, "bringing together" is not entirely accurate -- they're mostly on their own, separate adventures that eventually begin to overlap and intertwine. And just taken at that level, it's a perfectly cromulent story -- Tarra gets involved with slave-takers from Shad, who serve a tyrant who needs sacrifices to invoke a Dark Power with Devastating Consequences; and simultaneously, the mage Teh Atht gets wind of things, and begins more or less aiding Tarra in his quest.

Where it gets tricky, and the reason I spent a lot of time waffling between 2 & 3 stars, is that the natives of Shad are, in fact, black, and the portrayal they're given is ... not great. Like, bad pulp fiction stereotypes of African "savages" filtered through 1970s sensibilities (a common nickname for them in the book is "frizzies"), this despite the fact that the book ostensibly takes place on a priordial supercontinent that LONG predated Africa. And the whole thing did leave somewhat of a sour taste in my mouth.

[Gregory Mele · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definite let down. This final volume of the Primal Lands pulls together all of the chracters from the first two volumes....only not until the ladt twenty pages. It meanders and rambles in the middle and tthe attempt at mimicing the writing of 3os pulps goes off the rails here when the narrator (not the charactes, but the narrator) refers to a group of black tribesmen repeatedly as "frizzies". The narrative voice is different, and filled with this casual racism that may or may mot reflect the author's views but while tolerable in writers of the 20s and 30s is off-putying in the 1990s. But leaving this aside, the book just feels slapped together.

[Carla Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final book in the Primal Lands series is a full novel rather than a collection of short tales. It carries on after the events of Tarra Khash and follows Tarra's further exploits. Featuring previous characters and blending in new ones this does well to give Tarra and co a fulfilling ending to their adventures.
Whilst I prefer the tales of Hero and Eldin and Tarra is no one compares to Harry he definitely worth following as a character.

[Sasha Brokov · Rating 3 out of 5]

No reviews of this book!? Well, what can I say. It's OK, solid three stars. Just a light sword and sorcery yarn that's well told. Halfway through I learned this is actually book three in a series, so I probably missed out on a lot but, honestly from what I got out of this, that's not much of a loss.

[Joan Perr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible racist boring garbage. just...unsurpassingly dumb, even for a sword n sorcery novel. I stopped reading around page 180 I couldn't stand it. the author calls black people "frizzies" and the eviw scawy black villain is ACTUALLY an Aryan white dude turned black by dark black magiycksz. liked the first 2 books but skip this.

[JM · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was my favorite in the Primal Lands series. The sorcerer from the first volume's short story cycle and the barbarian from the second volume's short story cycle follow parallel paths in trying to foil the evil wizard Black Yoppaloth of Shad's designs to set free the Great Old Ones, and instead of a short story collections this is more a single novel where every single character Tarra Khash the barbarian met and befriended in the previous volume ends up coming together to help defeat the black sorcerer. It was loads of fun and if this sets the tone for the next volume, that supposedly works as a finale to this series, the Hero of Dreams series and the Titus Crow series, where all the heroes come together to face the Great Old One's led by Cthulhu, I can't wait to read it.

[DOLLY · Rating 4 out of 5]

An arsenal of attack drones in different sizes, powered by gamers.

[Justin Greer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic Mythos tale. Not quite as good in the middle section as the other Primal Land books, but the conclusion more than makes up for it. Loved how everything came together.

[Myles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and satisfying conclusion to Lumley's dark fantasy Cthulhu Mythos trilogy called The Primal Lands. The savage Primal Lands are no match for Tarra Khash, a Hrossak!