Richard Blade (series)
Richard Blade is an adult fantasy pulp novel series produced by American publisher Pinnacle Books between 1969 and 1984. The 37 books in the series were written by Roland J. Green, Ray Nelson, and Manning Lee Stokes under the pseudonym "Jeffrey Lord".[1]
The novels were also released as audio books, and as trilogy sets- each set having edited versions of 3 novels on 6 cassettes (running 9 hours, or approximately 3 hours per novel), and later on cds (1 per book, 3 per trilogy set), under the name "Richard Blade Journeys". These were released as Americana Audiobooks by Americana Publishing in English.
Plot
The novels were a series of adventures featuring the titular character (MI6A's special agent Richard Blade), who was teleported into a random alternate dimension at the beginning of each novel and forced to rely on his wits and strength. Along the way, he would have several explicitly described sexual encounters with beautiful women (both in England and in the alternate dimensions), and would usually return from his adventure with some item, or bit of knowledge useful to Britain (the ostensible reason for his being sent in the first place). Richard Blade was distinctly British, and all of the stories are set in England (at least at the beginning and end, with Blade’s being teleported to some other dimension for the bulk of each tale). The series was translated into several languages, including Russian, Swedish, French, German, and Greek.
Books in the series[1][2]
- The Bronze Axe (1969) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 978-0-523-00201-9
- The Jade Warrior (1969) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 0-523-00202-5
- Jewel of Tharn (1969) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 978-0-523-00203-3
- Slave of Sarma (1970) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 978-0-523-00204-0
- Liberator of Jedd (1971) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 978-0-523-00205-7
- Monster of the Maze (1973) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 978-0-523-00206-4
- Pearl of Patmos (1973) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 978-0-523-00207-1
- Undying World (1973) (Manning Lee Stokes) ISBN 978-0-523-00208-8
- Kingdom of Royth (1974) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00295-5
- Ice Dragon (1974) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00768-X
- Dimension of Dreams (1974) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00474-5
- King of Zunga (1975) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00523-7
- The Golden Steed (1975) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00559-8
- The Temples of Ayocan (1975) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00623-3
- The Towers of Melnon (1975) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00688-8
- The Crystal Seas (1975) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00780-9
- The Mountains of Brega (1976) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40790-4
- Warlords Of Gaikon (1976) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00822-8
- Looters of Tharn (1976) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00855-4
- Guardians Of The Coral Throne (1976) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00881-3
- Champion of the Gods (1976) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00949-6
- The Forests of Gleor (1976) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-00993-3
- Empire of Blood (1977) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 978-0-523-40018-1
- The Dragons of Englor (1977) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 978-0-523-40042-6
- The Torian Pearls (1977) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 978-0-523-40111-9
- City of the Living Dead (1978) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40193-0
- Master of the Hashomi (1978) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40205-8
- Wizard of Rentoro (1978) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40206-6
- Treasure of the Stars (1978) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40207-4
- Dimension of Horror (1979) (Ray Faraday Nelson) ISBN 0-523-40208-2
- Gladiators of Hapanu (1979) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40648-7
- Pirates Of Gohar (1979) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40679-7
- Killer Plants Of Binnark (1980) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-40852-8
- The Ruins of Kaldac (1981) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-41208-8
- The Lords of the Crimson River (1981) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-41209-6
- Return to Kaldak (1983) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-41210-X
- Warriors of Latan (1984) (Roland J. Green) ISBN 0-523-41211-8
Russian editions
In the early 1990s the Russian publishers could secure the rights to only the first six books in the series, and approached the translator - Mikhail Akhmanov - to write the further adventures of Richard Blade.[3] Together with then young sci-fi author Nick Perumov and others, Akhmanov wrote over sixteen sequels[4] to the adventures of Richard Blade, and then, after writing Russian sequels to the saga of Conan, went on to create numerous original characters and plots. Like the Conan sequels, the Russian Richard Blade sequels are not available in English. Today Akhmanov is the author of over fifty fantasy and science fiction novels.