Thongor at the End of Time (Thongor, #5) in Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"

Dec 18, 2013 Derek rated it it was ok

Shelves: sword-and-sorcery, sword-and-planet, atlantis-lemuria-mu

It reads as a straightforward adventure, except for the strange bag grafted to its side that is Thongor's spiritual journey through the afterlife, which is a real shift from the rest of the series.

As a ramp-up, the story barely sketches the escape of Mardanax the Black Druid from the destruction of the city of Zaar. He traverses a hostile continent, through enemies and vicious creatures without his instruments of power all the way to the city of his enemies, in order to enact an intricate plan o ...more

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Jan 07, 2024 J.W. Wright rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction, historical-adventure, owned

The diabolical black magician Mardanax, the sole survivor of the demonic and wicked city of Zaar, has had his revenge at last. Thongor, Grand Sark of Lemuria, is dead. Meanwhile, the Grand Sarkaja, Sumia, the grieving wife of Thongor, is placed under a dark spell and doomed to wed Mardanax’s chosen puppet ruler, who will undo all of Thongor’s policies, and place the capital city of Patanga in total darkness. While Thongor’s spirit wanders the Shadow Realm, a resistance is secretly and slowly bei The diabolical black magician Mardanax, the sole survivor of the demonic and wicked city of Zaar, has had his revenge at last. Thongor, Grand Sark of Lemuria, is dead. Meanwhile, the Grand Sarkaja, Sumia, the grieving wife of Thongor, is placed under a dark spell and doomed to wed Mardanax’s chosen puppet ruler, who will undo all of Thongor’s policies, and place the capital city of Patanga in total darkness. While Thongor’s spirit wanders the Shadow Realm, a resistance is secretly and slowly being forged against the dastardly usurper and murderer of the king…..

On reading the synopsis of this installment in Lin Carter’s Thongor Series, and also having really enjoyed finishing the previous volume in the saga, I was expecting this to be an enjoyable episode. With Thongor now wandering the Shadowlands, and, inevitably ending up at the end of time, I was expecting a dark, trippy, weird adventure in the vein of Clark Ashton Smith and Michael Moorcock. Sadly, the reality was this was actually the weakest book in the series. Thongor’s journey through prehistory to the end of time is interesting, and the and adventure of the protagonists among the pirates of Tarakus had its moments, but, as usual from what I’ve read of the Thongor Series by Carter, his ideas are exciting, but they are more often than not poorly executed and lacking. The ending was also completely rushed and lackluster.
I’ll continue reading the series with Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus and the stories that are collected in Young Thongor and The Sword of Thongor, but I’m really not holding out a lot of hope here for the remainder of this series. And I certainly don’t plan on purchasing the latest, recently released novel, “Thongor Versus the Underground World” by Robert M. Price. Supposedly it is taken from the notes of Lin Carter, and has a really surprising ending, but $18 is far too steep an asking price for a 100-page book. In fact, I doubt the Thongor Series will any longer take up space on my bookshelf after I finish it, as its re-readablity quality is very low.
I give Thongor at the End of Time by Lin Carter a 2.5 out of 5. ...more

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