The Sapphire Goddess - The Fantasies of Nictzin Dyalhis Paperback – June 14, 2018

I was very excited to see this book in print, finally, after I first heard of the writer in Echoes of Valor III edited by Karl Edward Wagner, and after Wildside Press announced they were thinking of putting a book of Dyalhis stories out at some point. That was ten years ago, and after I red The Sapphire Siren (I think that was the retitled story in Echoes...), I knew I had to have these. I have not been disappointed, as this collection has all of Dyalhis' fantasy and science fantasy/science fiction stories. Now, someone please put out a printed chapbook of the four adventure stories so we can have the rest of them.

oThe man with the unprouncable name, Nictzin Dyalhis wasn't especially prolific. All the work he did for "Weird Tales" is collected here. Is he worth reading? Yes and no. Some of the stories remain compelling and enjoyable. This is especially true of "The Sea Witch" which is sexy, compelling, and enchanting. "The Sapphire Goddess" is best described as fantasy before Tolkien. Joe Average, forty-eight, at the end of his rope, bankrupt, and contemplating suicide, is greeted by an emissary from another world who informs him that he is their lost and misplaced king. He is required to go on a quest to retrieve the sapphire goddess sculpture. This one is just crying out to be expanded to epic length. It would make a great novel. As it is, it is too perfunctory to be savored. Our hero and his two companions need to go on an epic quest and cross hundreds of miles. Instead of a trek worthy of Tolkien they simply use magic to cross the distances! This is also quite sexy in parts but the sexiness is toned down we really don't get to consider the loveliness of the demoness or our hero's long-lost wife, which is a shame. If this had been a novel it would have been epic! Worthy of the Lord of the Rings with some sexy female presences thrown in."Heart of Atlantan" Dyhalis's final story, may be his finest. It is clear that he has come a long way in the years since the first story in this collection "When the Green Star Waned" was published back in 1925. It is an early space opera which introduced the term blaster into SF jargon. So, who should read this? If you are a fan of Weird Tales magazine you will most assuredly want to read the stories that its readers ranked the best of the year when they were published. If you want to see how thoroughly and permanently, J.R.R. Tolkien altered fantasy then you should pick this up. Most others will find it old fashioned or quaint. I am glad that I read these stories. The imagery of the prose stays with the reader long after you have finished the them.

Super well edited. The book is amazing. Like Conan the Barbarian. Epic!

While the best of this can be found in Echoes of Valor III, edited by Karl Edward Wagner, the other stories in this volume are also worth a read. The contents can be found in the extract, - which you should read- so I wont go through that.I am still not convinced that Dyalhis was not a pen name, or of whom: but at this point it matters very little if at all.The best three stories here are Red Witch , Sapphire Goddess, and Sea-Witch. Next is "He refused to stay dead" which is a nice little weird tale. Then there is some standard 30's sci-fi, two of which are connected (Green Star and Oath).Well done to DMR books for publishing this collection - Dyalhis was someone I had always wanted to read more of, and at least I can say I have done that, even if the lesser stories here are not as good as the best of Karl Edward Wagner put together..

This author obviously did not receive the name Nictzin Dyalhis at birth, but it became his legal name in later years. When he married a woman named Mary Sheddy, she quickly legally became Netulyani Dyahlis! As a WEIRD TALES author he was hardly prolific, submitting only 9 stories between 1925 and 1940. Apart from two connected space operas, all his fantasy stories basically have the same plot: two or more individuals are simultaneously reincarnated, and various menaces and helpers show up who are either immortal or of supernatural nature, all acting to either right or perpetuate an ancient wrong. Each of these stories somehow involves the most beautiful woman who has ever lived, natural bait to secure a cover from Margaret Brundage, the official WEIRD TALES painter of exotic nudes (two of her Dyalhis paintings are on the front and back covers of this trade paperback).Dyalhis was a pretty bad writer, but he did show some improvement over his 15-year writing career. Articles about him often mention that he was the first to introduce the word "blaster" for a science-fictional ray gun (although he spells it "blastor"), in "When the Green Star Waned." But I have seen only one other person notice (in a review on these very pages) that in the sequel to "Green Star," "The Oath of Hul Jok," he very clearly depicts what is either e-mail or text messaging, emphasizing the profoundly irritating sound (which he renders as "Kah-Plang!") heard whenever a new e-mail or text message arrives on the recipient's "tablet," displayed in a red-colored font.Thanks to DMR Publishers for collecting these tales in a single volume for the first time. Only the individual readers will be able to decide whether this was at all worth doing, or not. Although I groaned many times whilst reading this volume, I did live through the experience.