Pulp Science Fantasy Library: Hiero's Journey

Today, I'm being doubly cheeky. First and most obviously, I've decided to dub today's post an entry in the previously non-existent Pulp Science Fantasy Library series. In the past, I've occasionally run posts under the Pulp Science Fiction Library title, so this isn't wholly without precedent. In the case of Hiero's Journey, though, I think it's a reasonable modification, since it's definitely not a fantasy book in the usual Tolkien/Howard sense most people understand the term, but neither is it a "proper" science fiction tale of the sort that could have appeared in Gernsback's Amazing Stories.

Second, this is another book I have discussed before, albeit briefly. Like last week's post, this too was part of the Pulp Fantasy Gallery series, an early series that I more or less abandoned after a while (though I have revived a version of it from time to time, many to discuss the different pieces of artwork that have graced the covers of famous fantasy books). In any case, I like Hiero's Journey enough that I thought it would be productive to do a full post on it and its relationship to the history of RPGs.

Though first published in 1973, I didn't read Sterling Lanier's post-apocalyptic tale until almost a decade later, when I chanced upon it in a bookstore at the local mall. Though Gary Gygax listed the book in Appendix N, I am almost certain the first time I ever saw a reference to it was in the foreword to Gamma World, which is why I picked it up. I instantly fell in love with it. If I had to pick a single book that captures my own sense of what Gamma World was meant to be, I'd probably choose Hiero's Journey. Certainly, it's the book that, even now, I still find myself subconsciously influenced by whenever I try to imagine what the game is and should be.

Lanier himself is an interesting fellow. As a writer, he produced only a small number of works, of which Hiero’s Journey is probably the best known (and that's being kind). For a time, he worked as an editor at Chilton Books, where he was involved in bringing Frank Herbert's Dune to publication after having read it in serialized form in Analog magazine. Herbert had had great difficulty in selling his novel elsewhere, but Lanier believed it would sell well. When it didn't, he lost his job at Chilton, which led to his taking up writing more seriously.

Hiero’s Journey is set in North America thousands of years after a catastrophic nuclear war referred to simply as “the Death.” The devastation of that ancient conflict reduced the technological civilization of the past to scattered ruins and reshaped the natural world in unexpected ways. Mutated animals roam the wilderness, some hostile, others capable of domestication, while human societies have reorganized themselves into small states and tribal cultures amid the remnants of the old world.

The novel’s protagonist, Per Hiero Desteen, is a priest-scholar belonging to a monastic order known simply as the Abbey, located within the Republic of Metz, a polity occupying part of what was once Canada. The Abbey preserves fragments of ancient learning and trains individuals with psychic abilities, including telepathy, which have become an important if poorly understood feature of the post-Death world.

At the outset of the novel, Hiero is dispatched on a secret mission by the leaders of the Abbey. Rumors suggest that somewhere to the south lies a cache of ancient knowledge about relics called "computers" that might aid the Republic of Metz in its ongoing struggle against a shadowy group known as the Dark Brotherhood. These enemies, whose influence extends across large portions of the former United States, employ both advanced relic technology of their own and psychic powers in pursuit of domination over the scattered civilizations that survived the Death.

Hiero’s titular journey takes him across a landscape that is at once recognizably North American and yet profoundly altered by millennia of mutation, ecological change, and cultural transformation. Along the way he encounters both allies and enemies, from human societies struggling to survive in the wilderness to intelligent animals capable of communication and monstrous creatures born from the lingering consequences of ancient radiation and experimentation.

One of the most distinctive aspects of the novel in my opinion is the way it blends several types of science fiction. On the one hand, the novel clearly belongs to the lineage of post-nuclear adventure stories that became common during the Cold War, exploring the long shadow cast by nuclear catastrophe. On the other hand, Lanier freely incorporates elements, such as psychic powers, telepathic animals, and quasi-medieval social structures, that give the setting a distinctly fantasy character. The resulting world feels less like a conventional science fiction future and more like a kind of Lost World romance set amid the ruins of modern civilization. That's probably why I so enjoyed the novel when I first read it.

It's also probably why Gary Gygax saw fit to include it in Appendix N to the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. Though set in post-apocalyptic North America, so much of the story's elements feel as if they could be part of an eccentric Dungeons & Dragons campaign, with psychic powers substituting for spells and ancient technology standing in for magic items. Of course, these qualities are also why the novel almost perfectly encapsulates what Gamma World is about, at least for me. The first time I read this book, I felt as if I finally understood Gamma World in a way I hadn't before. It might be an exaggeration to say this is the "key" to the game, but there's no question in my mind that it's helpful in getting into the mood for playing or refereeing it.

Lanier did write a sequel, The Unforsaken Hiero, which came out in 1983, shortly after I read the original. As follow-ups go, it's fine but nowhere near as good as its predecessor. Lanier was working on a third novel in the series but it was never released during his lifetime. Supposedly, it was finished by another author and published in 2024, but I've never read it and have doubts that it's any good. I had bad experiences with the sequel to A Canticle for Leibowitz being released under similar circumstances, so I'm quite wary of these posthumous collaborations. If anyone knows otherwise, I'd love to hear about it.

Pulp Fantasy Gallery: Hiero's Journey

Since this will likely be the last Pulp Fantasy Gallery post for a while, I thought I'd change things up a bit and go for something a little different this week. Sterling Lanier's 1973 novel, Hiero's Journey, is a work of post-apocalyptic science fantasy of which I am very fond. It also enjoys the unique distinction of being mentioned by name in both Gary Gygax's Appendix N and Tom Wham and Timothy Jones's foreword to the first edition of Gamma World. 

While I'll have a lot more to say about Gamma World over the course of the next week or so, right now I want to focus only on the cover illustrations to Hiero's Journey. Here's the original one, from a hardcover published by Chilton with artwork by Jack Freas. The cover would be re-used for a 1975 hardcover from Sidgwick & Jackson.

The following year, Bantam released a paperback edition as part of its "Frederik Pohl Selection" series. The cover artist is unknown.

1976 saw the arrival of yet another paperback, this time from Panther, with art by Gino D'Achille. This is the first cover that clearly depicts something from the novel. Note, too, the cover blurb invoking The Lord of the Rings, which, by this time, had become the gold standard for the broader "fantasy" genre.

Del Rey/Ballantine's 1983 edition is the one I owned as a kid. The cover is especially memorable to me, thanks to the artwork of Darrell K. Sweet. This cover would be re-used several times over the course of the next decade.

Thanks to the Science Fiction Book Club, the novel gets a new cover by Kevin Johnson in 1984.

A new Panther edition appeared in 1985, with yet another cover by Gino D'Achille, making him the only artist to illustrate the novel twice. Interestingly, his second cover looks to be a variation on the scene depicted on the 1976 edition.

The Inspirations of Gamma World

Based on the comments to the second part of my recent post on My Top 10 Non-D&D RPGs, my opinion that Gamma World should be viewed more as an example of the "dying earth" fantasy genre than as an example of straight-up post-apocalyptic science fiction was well received. This got me to thinking a bit more about Gamma World and its inspirations. While I suspect I'll dig more deeply into this in future posts, for the moment I wanted to present what editors Tom Wham and Timothy Jones had to say on this matter.

In their May 21, 1978 foreword to the first edition of the game, they write:

Drawing inspiration from such works as The Long Afternoon of Earth by Brian Aldiss, Starman's Son by Andre Norton, Hiero's Journey by Sterling Lanier, and Ralph Bakshi's animated feature film Wizards, the referee of a GAMMA WORLD campaign fleshes out the game, adding any details he or she deems necessary, and thereby creating a unique world in which day-to-day survival is in doubt. The rules are flexible enough to allow for a variety of approaches to the game – anything from strictly "hard" science-fiction attention to physical probabilities to a free-flowing Bakshian combination of science-fiction and fantasy.

What's apparent from this section of the foreword is that, as written, Gamma World was intended to be a fairly open-ended set of rules without a specific feel beyond whatever the referee introduced into his own campaign. In this respect, it's not unlike Dungeons & Dragons (and indeed most other early RPGs). The explicit inspirations mentioned above are eclectic, though none of them strike me as particularly "hard science fiction." The fact that every edition of the game that I ever owned (1st through 3rd) called itself a science fantasy game is telling.

Still, I think this is a topic worthy of further discussion. I believe there is more going here than is popularly imagined. If nothing else, it'll be yet more grist for my delving into the literary origins of roleplaying games.

Pulp Fantasy Library: The Unforsaken Hiero

I'm a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, particularly of the fantasy (or science fantasy) kind, which probably explains why Gamma World remains one of my favorite RPGs of all time. There's something incredibly powerful about the idea of adventuring amidst the ruins of a more advanced but now collapsed civilization. That power is, I've argued, foundational to the appeal of most fantasy, whose stories generally take place in a fallen era. Everything from Greek mythology to Middle-earth's Third Age to the time before the rise of the Sons of Aryas is a reflection of this near-universal desire to do great deeds amidst the wreck of the past. 

One of the first books of this genre I remember reading was Sterling Lanier's Hiero's Journey, first published in 1973. I simply adored it and, once I found a copy of my own, I re-read it on a regular basis. Consequently, when its sequel, The Unforsaken Hiero, unexpectedly appeared on a bookstore shelf in mid-1983, I immediately seized a copy and tore into its pages. I could not wait to learn about the further adventures of warrior-priest Hiero Desteen and his companions, Klootz, a "morse," (mutant moose) and Gorm, a mutant bear. I had every expectation that this novel would be every bit as good as its predecessor.

I wish I could say that that was the case. However, compared to Hiero's Journey, The Unforsaken Hiero is, if not exactly a failure, far from an unqualified success. It's probably not helped by the fact that it was set up as the middle book of a trilogy that never happened. I don't know the details of what happened or why Lanier didn't write another book about Hiero, only that he did not and that, as a result, The Unforsaken Hiero feels both uneven and unfinished, as if the author had simply run out of steam before he could provide a satisfying – or even adequate – conclusion to his narrative. 

The novel chronicles Hiero's trek southward from his native Metz Republic in Kanda toward the Kingdom of D'alwah on the coast of the Lantik Ocean. D'alwah is the home of Luchare, Hiero's new bride, whom he had rescued in the previous novel and whose father is its ruler. Likewise, D'alwah is a more sophisticated society, a little closer to the world that existed before "the Death," the ancient holocaust that had toppled the previous civilization. More important still, the kingdom is nearer to the strongholds of the Brotherhood of the Unclean, a group of humans who seek to reclaim the knowledge of the time before the Death in order to gain power over the more primitive societies that grew up in its wake. Hiero's goal is not only to learn more about the Unclean but to seek out allies against them, a role for which D'alwah is particularly well suited, especially now that he is the son-in-law of its king.

The pacing and the dialog seem somehow off, though pinpointing precisely how is hard to say. Part of it, I think, is that Lanier seems simultaneously quite keen to show off more aspects of his setting – which is mostly welcome – while at the same time only sketching it in the most vague ways. For example, the Kingdom of D'alwah, despite being an important part of both the story and the overall setting, isn't well described beyond being a feudal-ish kingdom that's retained some bits of more advanced technology. The same could be said of many of the book's newer characters, such as King Danyale himself, who's mostly a cipher. I'd have liked to have learned more about D'alwah and its people, if only to contrast them with Hiero's own people, the Metz.

Nevertheless, Lanier excels at depicting the weird and dangerous wilderness of the post-Death world. It's filled with all manner of strange creatures and, while reading this, it's hard not to imagine what it would be like to run a Gamma World campaign set in a world like this. Indeed, one of the things that always bugged me about Gamma World was how unorganized it seemed to be, without any large states or organizations beyond the Cryptic Alliances. Were I ever to referee a GW campaign, I'd surely steal a few ideas from Lanier about both the larger world and what it's like in the wilds beyond the settlements of mankind. So, while The Unforsaken Hiero is nowhere near as good as its remarkable predecessor, it's not wholly without merit. I found my passion for post-apocalyptic science fantasy reignited by re-reading it and suspect it's a topic to which I'll return again in the near future.

Post-Apocalyptic Maps

I've always been something of a map fetishist, maps of the post-apocalyptic Earth all the moreso. I've long been fond of the map above, which appears in my edition of Sterling Lanier's Hiero's Journey, which is both a fun book and an avowed influence on Gamma World. I think it sets just the right tone through its difference in geography and nomenclature from the modern world. You know, looking at it, that you're not in Kansas anymore.

Does anyone else know of any great post-apocalyptic maps they'd like to share? There are the Gamma World ones, of course, but I'm thinking primarily of ones from literary settings. I don't recall ever seeing a map of the Horseclans world, for example, but there may very well be one floating around somewhere on the Net. If you know of any especially well-done or evocative post-apocalyptic maps, please mention them in the comments below.

Pulp Fantasy Gallery: Hiero's Journey

Hiero's Journey by Sterling Lanier was published in 1973 and is unique for having been an influence not just on Dungeons & Dragons but also on Gamma World. The novel chronicles the adventures of the eponymous Hiero Desteen, telepathic priest and "killman" of a futuristic descendant of the Catholic Church, as he searches for lost technology to use against the Dark Brotherhood, would-be conquerors of the postapocalyptic world they all inhabit. The connection to Gamma World is obvious to anyone who ever played the game, but I suspect the D&D connection is less clear and perhaps understandably so. Nonetheless, I continue to hold to the opinion that pulp fantasy frequently possesses strong postapocalyptic overtones, with the action taking place in the aftermath of the collapse of some mythical Golden Age. Exploring and looting "dungeons" certainly makes more sense in this context, as does the lawlessness of the implied D&D setting. It's yet another reason why I find high/epic fantasy a poor fit for the game.

I was very fond of Hiero's Journey as a kid. What's not to like about a psychic warrior-priest with a mutant moose and bear as companions? There was sequel to the book -- The Unforsaken Hiero -- which ended on a cliffhanger, as I recall. There was never a third book in the series, which may be just as well. Third books (or movies) are frequently the weakest offerings in a series and I'm glad my fondness for these characters isn't sullied by knowing the conclusion didn't live up to my expectations.