ICED ON ARAN and Other Dream Quests

the fourth "Dreams" cycle book

by BRIAN LUMLEY

illustrated by:
STEPHEN E. FABIAN 

W. PAUL GANLEY: PUBLISHER (1992)

first edition trade hardcover
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES

"Swords & Sorcery" with a Cthulhuvian twist!


This book was published in a trade hardcover first edition, limited to 1300 copies, of which 300 copies were devoted to the numbered, slipcased edition, still in print.)  It follows the first three novels about Hero & Eldin, which are also still in print in the hardcover editions.  This is the first American edition and the first hard cover edition, but the true first edition was a mass-market paperback published in England.

Note that Stephen E. Fabian did about a half-dozen wonderful full-page B&W interior illustrations for this book... most of which are shown in the photographs.... plus small pieces introducing each story.

David Hero is an Edinburgh artist who has odd snatches of memory that seem to come from another world — the world of dreams. But DREAMLAND is real, located in a parallel dimension of the multiverse, created by the dreams of mankind... and by the dreams of others, including Cthulhu. When Hero first met his friend Eldin the Wanderer in Dreamland, and then encountered him again in Edinburgh, there was a crisis... and both ended up in Dreamland together as adventurers, with only vague memories of the waking world.

Dreamland was invented by H P Lovecraft, and most extensively utilized in his short novel, "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," which is as close as HPL could get to a sword-and-sorcery story (his hero, Carter, did carry a sword at one point but it didn't do him much good). When I looked back at HPL's story after reading Lumley's, I was vastly impressed by Lumley's detailed knowledge of the "Dream-Quest!" Lumley's "dreams" novels are swords-and-sorcery stories too, with some nasty horrors encountered on the way. But whereas HPL wrote in the style of the 19th century (which he naturally inbibed as a child from reading the old books in his grandfather's library), Lumley is a modern storyteller.

Let me repeat my comment on these Dreams books... They are not intended to be taken too seriously (which does NOT mean that there are no moments of sheer horror throughout). Elsewhere, Brian Lumley tells us that what he had in mind while writing them was Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in their old "Road" movies. So just enjoy them as they are! (And anyway, how serious was H P Lovecraft when he took Randolph Carter back from Dreamland's moon in a "great leap of cats.") 

In ICED ON ARAN we find several stories about Hero and Eldin, sometimes funny, sometimes exquisitely terrifying.

Two other Hero/Eldin novelettes are not included in this book (The Weird Wines of Naxas Niss and Stealer of Dreams) because they were written later:  they appeared in print for the first time ever in WEIRDBOOK numbers 26 & 27, however — issues which are still in print.  If necessary, please email me for more information on this.




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