Forgotten Books: TROS by Talbot Mundy

I bought this book back in the 70s while in the grip of Robert E Howard Mania, but never got around to reading it. Talbot Mundy, you see, was one of Howard’s favorite writers, and one of the mainstays of the magazine he most admired - Adventure.

I wanted to see where Howard got his inspiration, and how he developed that powerful, rhythmic style that kept me (and so many others) coming back for more. But somehow the book remained uncracked.

So why read it now? Two reasons. One, my tastes have changed. I’m now much more interested in historical adventure than in sword and sorcery.  And two, I read a collection called In A Righteous Cause, the first published volume of Black Dog Books’ Talbot Mundy Library.

In a Righteous Cause showed me what Howard discovered so long ago, that Mundy is a master storyteller with an infectious style.  I’ll have a full review of that book tomorrow, but today I want to talk about Tros.

This work has a complicated publishing history. It appeared first in Adventure in 1925-6 in nine long installments. The saga was published in hardcover in 1934, and came to a whopping 949 pages. Avon made it more manageable in 1967, cutting the book into four volumes, of which Tros is the first. Zebra took it on in the 70s, in the wake of the Howard boom, but generally botched it, and their editions (issued under different titles) are best avoided. The best deal going today (unless you choose to read the free version online) is probably the one-volume trade paperback published by Black Mask press in 2008.

As I've so far read only this first Avon volume, I know only one quarter of the story. Here’s the quick version: The action takes place somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 BC. Julius Caesar (the villain of the piece) has conquered Gaul and set his sights on the land of the Britons. Having recently captured Tros and his father (a Prince of Samothrace and master of the Inner Secrets of the druids), Caesar attempts to force them to aid in the invasion. Tros and his pop, of course, have different ideas, and instead help the Britons foil Caesar’s plans.

The story is rich and colorful, and includes a fascinating visit to the city of Lunden, where the great hall of a blue-painted guy named Caswallon (the nearest thing they have to a king) occupies the future site of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Here’s our first look at Caesar:

He was hardly thirty-five, but he looked very bald and very old, because the barber was not through with him and he had not yet bound on the wreath he usually wore. His cheeks looked hollow, as if the molars were missing, and the wrinkles at the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, as if he were not perfectly at ease.

Nevertheless, he was alert and handsome from self-consciousness of power and intelligence. He sat bolt upright like a solder; his smile was suave, and his eyes were as bold and calculating as a Forum money-lender’s. Handsome, very handsome in cold and studied way, he seemed to know exactly how he looked - dishonest, intellectual, extravagant, a liar, capable of any cruelty and almost any generosity at other men’s expense; above all, mischievous and vicious, pouched below the eyes and lecherously lipped, but handsome - not a doubt of it.

Tros himself is of Conan-like proportions, if not bigger, and displays considerably more intellect. He resists the advances of wily women, avoids strong drink, and does not believe in killing. All this puts a cramp in his fun, to be sure, but makes him a more complex and layered character. Tros is also an initiate in the mysteries of the druids, which I assume play a greater part in the rest of the story.

Bottom line: I’m hooked, and will be pushing on to complete the saga. There are also two sequels, of sorts. Queen Cleopatra (1929) features Tros as a secondary character and in The Purple Pirate (1935) he serves as admiral of Cleopatra’s fleet. I have a lot of good reading ahead of me.

The full-length epic Tros of Samothrace is available as a free ebook from Project Gutenberg of Australia. Click HERE to open. 

Today: More Forgotten Books at pattinase
Tomorrow: In a Righteous Cause