Monday, June 22, 2020

Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer: Tooth and Claw by James Silke

(pb; 1989: third novel in James Silke’s Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer quadrilogy)

From the back cover

“Across deserts wrested from the savage Kitzaak Empire, into the deadly, steaming jungles of the Daangall, to the mysterious plateau of the Bayaabar, the land beyond dreams, goes Gath of Baal, the Death Dealer, in search of the legendary noon, beautiful Queen of the Cats. Yet among his companions, who serves the dreaded dark lord? Who plans treachery? Gazul, the bounty hunter, strangely linked to Gath’s past? Bilbaar, the young tracker, able to talk with animals? Fleka, the slave girl, sensuously serving whichever man is the strongest? Who will leave the Dangaal alive?

“In the jungles, the only law is the law of tooth and claw.”


Review

Caveat: possible (light) spoilers in this review.

In the three years after the events of Lords of Destruction, Gath─who knows his identity, but little about his past─has wandered the scope of wild lands, engaging in various and briefly mentioned adventures. Now, he is given a chance to discover something about his past when Gazul, a shifty bounty hunter, makes him an appealing offer to not only recover some of his memory, but fight Chyak (feline master of Noon, Queen of the Cats). The cost: Gath must help Gazul capture Noon, an elusive, animalistic being. Along for the ride is Bilbarr, Gazul’s earnest and brutalized servant boy, and Fleka, whose carnal charms are not as random as the back-cover blurb suggests.

While this vividly penned, Conan-esque series continues to be a pre-P.C., nightmare-for-feminists pulpy read, Gath’s character─still a harsh Barbarian─has become more socialized, matured since the events of the first two books. This is especially clear in Gath’s dealing with Bilbaar and Fleka, as well as his immediate post-Chyak-battle feelings about the saber-tiger he has defeated. Not only that, the writing in this third book feels tighter, more character-focused than previous Death Dealer entries.

Consistent with the other books, there is plenty of sensory-rich, icky action, death, betrayal, hypermasculinity and hypersexualized femininity (which is relatively subdued, compared to Prisoner of the Horn and Lords of Destruction). In short: if you don’t mind the above qualities and want a rough-and-tumble slaughterama fantasy adventure, this is a great work, whether you’ve read the first two books or not. Worth owning, this.

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