SOLVED. Post-apocalyptic Fantasy from 1970s or 1980s -- Cover Looked like Sword & Sorcery -- Wolf in Title? [s]

[Anne]

In the 1970s or 1980s, a post-apocalyptic SF novel was published with a cover that made it look more like a sword and sorcery novel. It was one of those stories that took place centuries after the end of civilization as we know it. There was a guy on the cover who could have been a close relative of Conan the Barbarian, so it was being marketed to fantasy fans rather than SF fans.

I think the novel might have been initially published in Europe (perhaps Germany or Holland?) and translated into English. There might have been some variation of "Wolf" in the title or Wulf. I haven't seen it in print since, or if I did, I didn't recognize it because it didn't have that cover.

It wasn't by Terry Brooks. :) And I'm pretty sure it wasn't "Wolf and Iron" because

Thanks!

[Andy Phillips]

There are quite a few books like this but the Conan reference immediately makes me think of Kelwin. It was published in 1970, but I think originally in English. No mention of a wolf.

[Bonnie]

Probably not it, but this one popped into my brain.

The Beast Master by Andre Norton

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Note that there are different covers. Here's one from 1959:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Anne]

Andy Phillips wrote: "There are quite a few books like this but the Conan reference immediately makes me think of Kelwin. It was published in 1970, but I think originally in English. No mention of a wolf."

That’s not it, but it does have a Steranko cover I’ve never seen before!

I might try finding this book by searching for fantasy novel covers online. If that irks, I’ll update the post.

[Anne]

Bonnie wrote: "Probably not it, but this one popped into my brain.

The Beast Master by Andre Norton

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Note that there are different covers. Here's one..."

Bonnie wrote: "Probably not it, but this one popped into my brain.

The Beast Master by Andre Norton

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Note that there are different covers. Here's one..."

That’s not the one, but it led me to finding an interesting post on Tor.com:

https://www.tor.com/2018/02/05/still-...

[Trilobyte]

Possibly one of Piers Anthony's Battle circle trilogy novels. This one Var the Stick perhaps? I can't recall any wolf connection but the blurb says he's a mutant, half man, half animal.

Other than that, the sidekick in Strontium Dog, the 2000AD graphic novel/comic series Strontium dog was called Wulf

[Anne]

Trilobyte wrote: "Possibly one of Piers Anthony's Battle circle trilogy novels. This one Var the Stick perhaps? I can't recall any wolf connection but the blurb says he's a mutant, half man, half animal..."

Trilobyte wrote: "Possibly one of Piers Anthony's Battle circle trilogy novels. This one Var the Stick perhaps? I can't recall any wolf connection but the blurb says he's a mutant, half man, half animal..."

Trilobyte wrote: "Possibly one of Piers Anthony's Battle circle trilogy novels. This one Var the Stick perhaps? I can't recall any wolf connection but the blurb says he's a mutant, half man, half animal..."

It’s amazing how different the UK and US covers can be!

I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a Piers Anthony book. The US cover looks even less like the cover I remember. The Corgi cover gives the hero a more strong-jawed look, so that brings it sort of closer.

I tried looking at cover art from that period. And finding out a lot. I did not know that Sanjulián did the cover for The Name of the Rose paperback!

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...

[Ky]

How about Wolfling by Gordon R. Dickson? If you google this book, there are quite a few editions with a scantily-clad buff man wielding a sword.

[Anne]

Ky wrote: "How about Wolfling by Gordon R. Dickson? If you google this book, there are quite a few editions with a scantily-clad buff man wielding a sword."

Thanks for the reply! If it's that one, it isn't one of the covers I can see on Goodreads. The one I would have seen during that time period seemed a little too... desert-filled.

I also looked up a David Gemmell post-apocalyptic novel, but it seems it was published too late to be the one I am thinking of. (Also, the American edition didn't include "wolf" in the title.)

[Bonnie]

Did some more searching and found these:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Anne]

Thanks for the help. Those don't look like it. :( If it was by Robert E. Howard, I would have picked it up. :) I'd probably have remembered the Michael Moorcock book as well. (The Stine book doesn't fit, either, but it looks fun.)

I'm pretty sure this author wasn't well known in the U.S. at the time the book was published, so that leaves out Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock. (This book was probably published with a "Conan-esque" cover to lure fans of Robert E. Howard.) The author may have been published in only in translation in the U.S.

Also, I haven't seen this book for years -- even though I often go to used bookstores. So sadly, it probably had a short shelf life -- maybe it didn't sell well. (People looking for a fantasy novel might have realized it was post-apocalyptic/far future and put it back on the shelf.)

I've tried searching for fantasy novels with Wolf in the title, but there are so many of them. And the search might not work if it was Wulf instead of Wolf, or if "Wolf" was just part of the word (Wolftime ... Wolfwinter... WolfSomething.) :|

But I hope to find this one because this group has been the best one at unearthing lost books! ;)

[Bonnie]

Well, none of these have wolf in the title, but are post apocalyptic with strong male leads, published in your time frame.

The Breaking of Northwall

Total War

Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000

Die Jagter

The Coming of the Horseclans

[Bonnie]

Then there's this one which is written by Gene Wolfe

The Shadow of the Torturer

[Anne]

Thanks!

From my impression of this book, I think this book might have been closest in spirit to The Coming of the Horseclans because Horseclans was a post-apocalyptic series set in the future with swords and armor -- and some elements that verged on fantasy, such as psionic abilities.

I tried searching for paperbacks from various decades on Amazon with "Wolf" in the title. I also tried "Time" in the title in case that was in the title. Nothing yet.

Maybe in the coming weeks, I'll just scour a used bookstore and see if I can find this title.

[Kris]

Anne, can you tell us something about the plot? Is the MC an anti-hero?

[Anne]

I wish I could tell you more. At first, I picked it up because it looked like a sword and sorcery novel. But then, when I read the back cover copy, I realized it was set in the future, and it wasn’t what I wanted. So I put it back at the time ... but I’m sure I eventually did buy it... However, I don’t know that I read much of it.

It was thicker than a lot of the other SF and fantasy novels at that time. There were more midlist authors published in mass market then, and it wasn’t uncommon for books to be just 200 pages. If this was longer, it was probably expected to perform better than the average genre novel.

[Anne]

Found it!!! I scrolled through tons of Pinterest boards on fantasy art, and then realized Keith Parkinson or Clyde Caldwell might be the cover artist.

Wolfking by Bridget Wood
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

It combines a post-apocalyptic future plus fantasy through time travel. And it’s available via Kindle Unlimited...

And the cover is available as a print from the official Keith Parkinson site.

https://www.keithparkinson.com/produc...

[Rainbowheart]

Glad you found it!

Wolfking for the trackable link.