The Lion Men of Mongo

Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon #1

by Con Steffanson, Ron Goulart (AKA), Alex Raymond (Creator )

THE LION MEN OF MONGO is the first of a series inspired by the world famous comic strip FLASH GORDON, read daily and Sunday by millions of fans throughout the world.

After crash landing on the planet Mongo, Flash, Dale, and the eminent scientist, Dr. Zarkov, fight against the evil forces of Emperor Ming, who seeks to perpetuate his rule by ruthless and savage methods.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Pulp, Audiobook, Young Adult, Aliens

160 pages, Mass Market

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first full-length Flash Gordon prose novel, Flash Gordon in the Caverns of Mongo, appeared in 1936, and this was the second, which appeared in 1974. Flash was the iconic comic-strip character created by Alex Raymond; he starred in numerous serial films, comic books, and in countless newspaper strips. He and his spiritual sibling, Buck Rogers, did more to introduce people to the science fiction field early in the last century than anything else... at least up until Captain Kirk and Luke Skywalker took up the reins. This book, based on Raymond's original storyline, was written by the amazingly prolific Ron Goulart under the house pseudonym Con Stefansson. It updates the original set-up a bit (we have an interplanetary survey ship, to start with), but is true to the spirit of the source, and serves as a good origin/introduction. It's surprisingly well written, and is a very fun book... yesterday's tomorrow was better than what we got.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad Prose version of this classic newspaper and comic character. I don't think it quite captures the feel of the character but was a fun read. Recommended

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The grand ol’ era of Flash Gordon comic strips was, alas, before my time. Same goes for the Saturday matinee serials. But he remains such an iconic character that I’ve long wanted to learn more about him and all the supporting characters, as well as the creator, Alex Raymond. So this year, I plan to sample some of his story through novels, comics, and movie serials, much as I did last year with Tarzan.

This novel seemed like a good place to start, being the first of a dozen or so books “inspired” by the original comic strip. Indeed, while Alex Raymond’s name is credited on the cover, this was actually adapted by “Con Steffanson” a pseudonym used by Ron Goulart, a noted American popular cultural historian and prolific novelist in his own right.

This first novel sets it all up nicely. Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov are on a survey mission over the planet Mongo when they are forced to crash land. All three are separated from one another from the beginning and have separate adventures on their way to meeting up near the end of the book. We get a good introduction to what life is like on Mongo, both in terms of the strange creatures as well as the current political situation. We get to meet Ming in all his merciless glory as he attempts to bring the rest of Mongo under his diabolical control. Flash has a nice set of mini adventures with Tun, a member of the Lion Men. Zarkov meets and works with a group of scientists and, unfortunately, Dale spends most of her time as Ming’s captive and potential concubine. We are also introduced to other soon-to-be major players such as Ming’s daughter Aura and Prince Barin, although the latter is mostly by reputation until an actual cameo appearance at the very end.

I enjoyed reading this one. It’s an easy-going style as I expected, with short chapters usually ending with a cliffhanger. The POV jumps around a lot among the three major characters with an occasional viewpoint from others, such as Ming. It’s a good ol’ fashioned sword and sandal adventure story, just what I was hoping for as an introduction to the Flash Gordon universe.

[SunnyGirlSue · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Sen började hon skrika. En stor flygödla dök mot henne..."

Found the Swedish Edition of this at a thrift store. Really liked the old-timey cover, feels like a work of art.
This space adventure about Flash, Dale and Zarkov gave me the same feeling I had as a little girl, watching a Sunday matinee with the whole family 😍🤩
Entertaining and exciting.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

FLASH GORDON: THE LION MEN OF MONGO is exactly the sort of asinine, old-school sci-fi pulp as the title suggests. However, if you're in the right mood, that's not totally a bad thing. Wikipedia calls this the first Flash Gordon novel for adults, but to me it felt like something to read to your seven-year-old son at bedtime.
On a side note, I've seen cardboard cut-outs with more personality than Flash Gordon displays throughout this novel.

[Mark Abukoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of pure Flash Gordon fun.... Quick, read, short chapters that usually end in cliff-hangers.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this a compassionate 3 stars. I was surprised to see so many gave it that or more. It's a stretch at 3. But that's fine.

I have a soft spot in my heart for pulp, so even when I know it's not gonna be great--and it isn't--I enjoy it some and score it as generously as I can. Yes, I enjoyed this some. Yes, I learned some things. Yes, I'm glad I read it.

It is, however, a pretty bad book.

The world-building is terrible. Nothing makes sense, really. It's almost as if the characters in the world are aware that they're imaginary people living in a literary world. The characters (as you expect in pulp) are absolutely stock, without depth. And the plot is dreadful. Stuff happens; then other stuff happens. The main characters don't achieve very much, TBH.

There is a small amount of action and a little dialogue that is sorta fun. Much less than I hoped. Most of it involved killing large creatures, which is fun, except I felt bad for them...

Anyway, this book is good mostly for connecting nostalgically with a time before your own or to familiarize yourself with something you've heard of but didn't know much about. Or, if you (like me) wanted to educate yourself on some of the oldest sources for space opera. (There are also those "It's so bad it's good!" people, but I don't get that. That ain't me.)

It's pretty thin. Not a lot to be learned here. But it's a quick read that might satisfy some curiosity, and for some folks that makes it worth looking at.

[Leila Anani · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first of Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon novels. Flash, Dale & Zarkov are on an exploratory mission to Mongo when they crash and get split up. Dale gets found by Emperor Ming's guards and is taken to be his concubine. Flash rescues a lion man, fights some mermen and salamaders and meets Princess Aura before getting caught and put in Ming's gladiatorial arena. Zarkov falls in with some scientists builds a weapon and joins Prince Barin's troops in Arboria to lead resistance against Ming's tyranny.

What can I say, very short chapters and a lightening pace make this perfect pulp fiction. Fans of Flash the movie will love it although it doesn't have the humour of the movie. Also lion men of mongo is a bit of a misnomer since we only really focus on one Lion Man and don't get much on his people other than they have tails, are vaguely leonine, great fighters and oppose Ming.

[John Desmarais · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little book, and an easy read, but it just wasn't "Flash Gordon" to me. Common issue, it was written in an attempt to update and modernize (for the time period of he novel) the character and the concept. Unfortunately, what most writers who try to do this fail to understand is that Raymond's work stands up just fine on its own and doesn't need updating and modernizing. Sigh. One of these days, someone will get the bright idea of simply continuing Raymond's story rather than trying to "improve" upon it.

[John McDonnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a good 'feel good read. I'm taken back to a quieter time of reading the serial comic in the newspaper with much anticipation. The novels pick up the flavour of the stories and do them the justice they deserve. I look forward to reading the other 5 I've just picked.

[Scott Meister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just what you want out of it. A fun pulp science adventure

[Eric Troup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is pulpy sci-fantasy at its best! If you're looking for emotional depth, complex interpersonal relationships, layers upon layers of intrigue ... well, then this probably isn't the book for you. But if you're up for a white-knuckle ride where the action never stops, this is definitely your read! This is a whirlwind in literary form! And for being so short, this book shows us a _lot of Mongo—Lion Men, Arborians, robots, airships, royalty, ape-men ... I could go on, but why spoil things? You're in for a treat!

[Balthazarinblue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun and chaotic but it definitely lacked the movie's campy charm. Princess Aura is such a watered down version of her movie-self, and the reworked origin story of Flash/Dale/Zarkov is simply not as entertaining. Wiki says that while these are credited to Alex Raymond they're actually ghostwritten and yeah, you can tell.

The audiobook narrator was great though: he went all in on the accents. The voice acting made up for the lacklustre story. I just wish Prince Vultan had featured in this book so he could have given us his Brian Blessed impression.

[Jon Allanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great deal of fun. Plenty of nostalgia for me. A good example of fun pulp. I can see the roots of so much media that I enjoy today in this and books like it. Now to revisit the movie. And the comics. Etc.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing I've learned about myself in the past few years: I LOVE campy sci-fi. So here we are, a book that I'm not surprised I enjoyed. Most people probably wouldn't like it, and I'm not recommending it to anyone, but for me, it was a blast to listen to.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is total pulpy, cheesy goodness. Quite a lot happens in the slim 159 pages as words are not wasted. Don't go in expecting a literary masterpiece but it was a fun, quick read and wholly enjoyable for what it is.

[Craig Russo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Super dated. Still, it was pretty good. The narrator, Johnny Heller, was great.

[B]

So much pulp so little time

[KatieSuzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was probably 4 stars because I listened to a recording of my boyfriend reading it with my parents on a road trip and it was so funny.

[Ørjan Hoyd H. Vøllestad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book.

[Keller Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did not want to put this down. Read the book in one sitting. Loads of fun and adventure.

[Joan Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cultish and fun. No thinking involved. It's a comic book in words.

[Clark Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't resist a good old classic.

[Joel Hacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun, fast paced, little novelization of the original Flash Gordon comic strips.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because I read the 80s novelisation by Arthur Byron Cover and loved it to death, and also because I was curious as to how this version would hold up in comparison. I wasn't disapointed. It was a fun read and had some truly wonderful moments, the little copper robot being just one of them. These novels were based on a cartoon strip that appeared in newspapers way back in the 30s, drawn by Alex Raymond, whose name is credited on the cover. The actual author's name only appears inside however, a 'Con Steffanson'.

It's not high-brow literature by any stretch but rather a fun, fast-paced adventure in a futuristic place as imagined a long time ago(I'm referring the 30s strips the novel is based on rather than the 1974 publication date of the actual novel). It really does hold up well though, a good part of the reason for that being that Flash Gordon was always going to be a pulp-style sci-fi adventure and so fits in quite well with other pulp-style sci-fi no matter when they were written, pulp is still pulp after all whether it was written 100 years ago or 1 year ago.

I loved it, for what it was. It's a good deal less cheeky than the 80s novelisation(Dale, a swinger? Are you sure? OMG!) but I was expecting that anyway, not because it was published in the 70s of course, but because it's based on that 30s cartoon strip I was talking about, so if they're going to base it on that and stick to it as best they can then I suppose there's going to be that air of innocence about it.

OK. I liked it more than I thought I would. It was very enjoyable and had some very cute moments, and whats more, there are 6 in the series that I know of so I'm looking forward to reading the rest.

Very good.

[Michael P.]

Credit Ron Goulart, here writing under the name Con Steffenson, with being the best at writing this sort of pointless novelization. His style is entirely readable and he occasionally turns a nice and unexpected phrase. The problem is the source material. While Goulart is not shy about improving Alex Raymond's 40 year old story, there is only so much anybody can do with the plot points and character cliches that addicted Raymond. The result is that while Goulart can improve the story he cannot fix the things that matter most. He was able to change enough to keep some things fresh, but he could not make the plot unpredictable. I gave up after eight chapters.

[Tony Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please don't misinterpret my 3-star rating as me not liking or only somewhat enjoying Flash Gordon: The Lion Men of Mongo, because to be honest, I had a really good time with this one. No, I rated it 3 stars because I realize that it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and to be perfectly frank, it's not all that well written. But being well written and being fun are two very different things.

If you're tired of naval-gazing heroes with gray morality and thirst for a simpler time when the good guys did the right thing because that's what good guys do, give this fun little space pulp a try.

[Pedro Ayala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una alegría leerme un libro tan fresco y tan plano, los personaje son tan típicos que dan un poco de grima, sobre todo el profesor zarkov, que es listísimo y no posee ni un atisbo de modestia.

Aún así es un comienzo fascinante seguiré con la saga.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seemed strangely familiar...I think I may have read it when I was a kid, before I kept track of what I'd read.