Forgotten Stories
of
Fantastic Sword-fighters:
Otis Adelbert Kline’s
Robert Grandon of Venus
(Part 1 of 3)

by Andy Beau

Otis Adelbert Kline (1891-1946) was writing tales for the early issues of Weird Tales, and was also on its editorial staff. He was so influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs’s early John Carter of Mars stories that he decided to write a pastiche series himself, except having it take place on Venus. Burroughs, in turn, then wrote his Venus series, Carson Napier of Venus, as a “pastiche on a pastiche,” so to speak. Again, Kline came back with his own Mars series, which was another pastiche of Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars. It was almost like “dueling pastiches” by the time the dust settled (and the ink dried). Of such are genres developed! Kline also wrote tales of Tarzan-like jungle adventurers living on the Indian sub-continent.

Kline later found he could make more money by being an agent for various writers, instead of only continuing with his own writing. At one time he was even the agent for Conan’s chronicler, Robert E. Howard, as well as for other writers. Kline encouraged Howard to write as many different types of stories for as many different magazines as he could in order to earn more money to pay for the health care of his (Howard’s) increasingly ailing mother. Right after Howard’s death, Kline was still Howard’s agent when the draft of Howard’s own planetary romance novel, Almuric, was discovered in Kline’s office. He presented it to Weird Tales, where it was subsequently published as a serial in three issues in 1939. Since it was originally an incomplete draft, some people have felt that Kline himself had completed it.

Planet of Peril, the first book in the three-book series, was originally published as a serial in the early pulp magazine Argosy (see bottom), beginning in 1929. These books appear to have last been reprinted in the early 1960s by Ace Publishing (paperback, right) and Avalon Books (hardcover, below). The story concerns a man, Robert Grandon, who, at the age of twenty-four, was bored with his life. He had soldiered around a bit, then went to work in the family business. He missed the excitement and adventure that he wanted in life. He got his chance when a scientist chose him for an experiment; he was to change bodies with an inhabitant of the planet Venus! This Venusian was an enslaved prince of a small country at war with the most powerful country on Venus, which was ruled by the previous ruler’s daughter, Princess Vernia. Grandon’s mind and the prince’s exchange bodies, with Grandon’s mind occupying the princes’s body on Venus and the prince’s mind occupying Grandon’s body back on Earth.

Grandon, now the prince of a Venusian country, escapes the slave pits the prince was forced to work in. In the midst of his escape at night, he is pursued by some of the weird savage Venusian creatures:

Suddenly, out of the darkness behind him, came a peal of horrible, demoniac laughter. As he wheeled, two glowing phosphorescent orbs were slowly advancing as if something were creeping or slinking toward him. Then without warning, the hideous noise was repeated at his left. He turned to face another pair of menacing eyes, then leaped for the trunk of the nearest tree-fern and climbed it barely in time to escape the snapping jaws that yawned beneath him.... Then he saw, not two, but a dozen pairs of eyes glancing toward him, while peal after peal of the nerve-racking laughter smote his ears.... When morning came...he could see them below…twelve of the most fearsome creatures he’d ever seen. They looked like hyenas but were twice as large, their bodies covered with thick scales, black and mottled with orange spots. Each beast had three horns, one projecting from each temple, and one sprouting out between the eyes.

He escapes his bizarre predators and later organizes a revolt against the Princess’s dominating country. In the ensuing battle, Grandon and the Princess each become separated from the rest of the fighting. Grandon encounters Vernia being threatened by a large reptilian creature (see the accompanying Ace book cover picture) and fights to rescue her. He then tries to paddle them both across a river in the inside of the top of one of the large toadstools that flourish in parts of the planet. However, the current is too strong and they are soon carried away downriver.

In their ensuing discussions while they helplessly sail down the river, Vernia discovers that her male cousin has schemed to have her killed during the recent battle and then take her place as ruler. They finally beach their fungal craft in a land a great distance away from their own countries. Grandon decides to dive in a nearby lake for some of the strange-looking eatable vegetation growing at the bottom. When he resurfaces, he discovers that Vernia has been captured by a grampite, a flying volcano-dwelling eight-foot monstrosity with a gorilla-like head, pointed ears, a leech-like mouth enclosing razor-sharp teeth, body-length arms with attached membranous wings that are also attached at the heels of the human-like legs, which are themselves “armed with strong, up-curling claws.” He then devises a plan to save the Princess from the feastings of the grampites and also to destroy most of them and their volcanic dwellings.

Grandon and Vernia finally end up in an unknown part of Venus that is composed of thousand-foot high, hundred-foot wide trees with leaves from fifteen to twenty feet in length. When Grandon leaves Vernia to explore the surrounding area, he is captured by other monstrous Venusian denizens, the sabits, a sort of giant ant-like creatures the size of small Shetland ponies with six horny legs, nine-inch wide eyes in a more than two-foot wide head having two long, jointed antennae, jaws possessing scythe-like mandibles and two pincers large enough to grasp two people. The body is enclosed in a white armor-like outer layer that is impervious to swords and other weapons. The most astounding thing about them is that they are nearly as intelligent as humans, and in fact dominate and enslave the local human population in the region. They live like terrestrial ants, composed of soldiers, workers and a huge breeding queen. There are different colonies of these monster Venusian “ants,” which are constantly at war with each other. Soon afterwards, Vernia is also captured by the sabits.

While a slave of the sabits, Grandon discovers an unknown series of caves containing the remnants of an ancient human civilization that used to master the sabits themselves. By using their secret, he leads a revolt against the sabit masters. During the ensuing battle, in what appears to be his last stand, Grandon, clad in the armor of the ancients, fights with a new unarmored ally against an overwhelming swarm of sabit soldiers:

...both men were fighting with their backs against the thick surface root, Grandon swinging his heavy axe while his new-found ally used the spiked club.... Closer and closer pressed the sabits, snapping their mighty forceps which were easily capable of cutting the unarmored (ally) in two at one nip. The newcomer knew this, yet he laughed as he fought, and at times taunted the furious attackers.... [Grandon cleaved] the head of an antagonist and [leaped] back to avoid the snap of another. He tried to wrench the axe free, but it stuck, and the next moment powerful forceps encircled him. With a final tug at the handle of his weapon, he was jerked from the side of his companion and mauled about by a dozen sabits who alternately shook him, crunched him with their mandibles, and tried to pull him to pieces....

Grandon is finally successful in his revolt against the sabits, and again rescues the Princess, this time from her sabit slave captors. As often happens in a traditional planetary romance, the hero (Grandon) and the Princess (Vernia) gradually fall in love over the course of their many adventures together. Vernia now sees the error of her country’s domination over Grandon’s country and offers to free his country. Grandon, in turn, volunteers his army and the conquered sabits to overthrow Vernia’s evil cousin. At the end, there is a grand battle for Vernia’s rightful throne, where the various allies of Grandon whom he’s joined with over his preceding adventures join him against the vastly superior fighting forces of the tyrannical usurper.

When Planet Of Peril was first published in Argosy in 1929, it was one of the first tales in the newly developing planetary romance genre. Next to Burroughs, Kline is considered the best in this genre for that time period. Some even consider his Venus series better than Burroughs’.

I will review the other two books in the series, Prince of Peril and Port Of Peril at a future date. This book can be found on ABEbooks.com and other used book web sites for a few dollars.