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    The Tear of Chronos: Kurval, #5
    The Tear of Chronos: Kurval, #5
    The Tear of Chronos: Kurval, #5
    Ebook83 pages58 minutes

    The Tear of Chronos: Kurval, #5

    By Richard Blakemore and Cora Buhlert

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    About this ebook

    In the year of the forked serpent, Kurval came from beyond the sea, slew King Orkol and became King of Azakoria.

     

    On the day of his coronation, Kurval consults the oracle in the temple of the goddess Ashvarya, where he is supposed to gaze into a magical jewel called the Tear of Chronos, hoping for a vision of the future.

     

    But before Kurval can receive his vision, a young woman named Stella suddenly appears in a flash of light in the inner sanctum. Not only is Stella a deadringer for the goddess, she also wears the Tear of Chronos around her neck.

     

    Can Stella help Kurval retain the throne he's barely won? And is she truly a goddess or just an imposter?

     

    The new sword and sorcery adventure by two-time Hugo finalist Cora Buhlert and her occasional alter ego, 1930s pulp writer Richard Blakemore. This is a novelette of 13500 words or approx. 45 print pages in the Kurval sword and sorcery series, but may be read as a standalone. Includes an introduction and afterword.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPegasus Pulp Publishing
    Release dateFeb 25, 2022
    ISBN9798201430078
    The Tear of Chronos: Kurval, #5

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      Book preview

      The Tear of Chronos - Richard Blakemore

      Introduction

      by Cora Buhlert

      sword

      Nowadays, pulp fiction writer Richard Blakemore (1900 — 1994) is best remembered for creating the Silencer, a masked vigilante in the style of the Shadow or the Spider, during the hero pulp boom of the 1930s.

      Furthermore, Richard Blakemore is also remembered, because he may or may not have been the real life Silencer, who stalked the streets of Depression era New York City, fighting crime, protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty just like his pulp counterpart.

      The mystery surrounding the Silencer has long overshadowed Richard Blakemore’s other works. For like most pulp writers, Blakemore was extremely prolific and wrote dozens of stories in a variety of genres for Jakob Levonsky’s pulp publishing empire. Blakemore’s work spans the full range of the pulps, from crime stories via westerns, war and adventure stories via romance to science fiction and fantasy. Indeed, the sheer amount of stories Richard Blakemore wrote during the 1930s refutes the theory that he was the Silencer, for when would he have found the time?

      Of the many non-Silencer stories Richard Blakemore wrote, the most interesting are his forays into the genre now known as sword and sorcery.

      Richard Blakemore was an acknowledged fan of Weird Tales and particularly admired the works of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and C.L. Moore. And so, when Jakob Levonsky started up his own Weird Tales competitor called Tales of the Bizarre, Blakemore immediately jumped at the chance to write for the magazine and created Thurvok, a warrior hero in the mould of Conan, Kull and Bran Mak Morn.

      Thurvok first appeared in the story The Valley of the Man Vultures in the first issue of Tales of the Bizarre in 1936 and quickly became a regular feature of the magazine. Pegasus Pulp Publishing has recently brought the adventures of Thurvok and his companions back into print.

      However, the Thurvok series is not the only contribution that Richard Blakemore made to the budding sword and sorcery genre. For in the July 1937 issue of Tales of the Bizarre, Richard Blakemore introduced a new character called Kurval in the novelette King’s Justice.

      Kurval is a somewhat older and wiser character than Thurvok and his friends. He is described as a barbarian from beyond the sea who has seized the throne of the kingdom of Azakoria after slaying the previous king.

      Whereas the Thurvok stories are characterised by banter, adventures, swordplay and battles with monsters, the Kurval tales are more serious and mostly deal with Kurval’s struggles to be a good and just king, even as he finds himself faced with subjects who don’t respect him as well as with would-be plotters and assassins. Though Kurval does fight monsters, too, on occasion.

      When asked why he chose to create a new sword and sorcery hero in Kurval and didn’t just go the Conan route and make Thurvok into a king, Richard Blakemore answered, "I had an idea for a story — the story that eventually became ‘King’s Justice’ — that simply didn’t fit into the framework of the Thurvok series. For Thurvok is quite happy being a wandering sellsword, thank you very much, and Meldom, much as I like him, should not be placed in any position of authority. And so I created a new character. Initially, I intended for Kurval to appear only in that one story. But I liked him and so I continued to use him for stories which didn’t fit Thurvok and friends."

      When the reader is introduced to Kurval in King’s Justice, he is already King of Azakoria. However, Blakemore later went back and wrote several prequels which feature Kurval before he became king. The Tear of Chronos is one of these prequels, since it is set literally on the day of Kurval’s coronation. And yes, even on his coronation day, Kurval has to deal with plots against the throne.

      Several characters from other Kurval stories appear in The Tear of Chronos such as Kurval’s friend and fellow mercenary Tsabo, Lord Vangenard, commander of the Blood Guards, and Izgomir, Kurval’s annoying vizier.

      The Tear of Chronos also introduces a remarkable character in Stella, a young woman who helps Kurval to uncover the plot against him and who may or may not be a goddess, sorceress, time traveller or just a clever con artist.

      Richard Blakemore himself has said that Stella was inspired by a singer he once met, a young woman with a striking voice and the uncanny ability to foretell the future — or so she claimed. Little is known about this woman except that she performed under the name Stella d’Anvers and that Blakemore’s encounter with her also inspired the Silencer story The Girl with the Guitar.

      So was the real Stella d’Anvers a time traveller, a psychic or a con artist? Beats me, Richard Blakemore himself said, "All I know is that she was an amazing singer

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