Carl Sherrell (May 10, 1929 – February 7, 1990) was an American artist, illustrator and author of

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit * Pulp (band), an English rock band Engineering * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

, and horror. He is most famous for the

sword and sorcery Sword and sorcery (S&S), or heroic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of Romance (love), romance, Magic (fantasy), magic, and the supernatural are also ...

trilogy started with ''Raum''.

Life and work

Sherrell was a

commercial art Commercial art is the art of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. Commercial art uses a variety of platforms (magazines, websites, apps, television, etc.) for viewers with the intent of promo ...

ist for most of his life, occasionally working as a pulp illustrator for publications such as ''

Fantasy Newsletter ''Fantasy Newsletter'', later renamed ''Fantasy Review'', was a major fantasy fanzine founded by Paul C. Allen and later issued by Robert A. Collins. Frequent contributors included Fritz Leiber and Gene Wolfe. Publication history The first issu ...

'' or even esoterical non-fiction works such as

Frater Albertus Frater Albertus Spagyricus (Albert Richard Riedel) born May 5,(1911–1984); founder of the Paracelsus Research Society in Salt Lake City, which later evolved into the Paracelsus College. Based on the Paracelsian concept of three essentials, B ...

's ''From "One" to "Ten"''. Starting in 1979, Sherrell began a career as a novelist in which he would try several genres. His first and most successful attempt was ''Raum'', a sword and sorcery fantasy starring an

eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

anti-hero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero or two words anti hero) or anti-heroine is a character in a narrative (in literature, film, TV, etc.) who may lack some conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism and morality. Al ...

, the demon Raum, who after being summoned by a wizard into an

alternate history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

medieval

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causes considerable mayhem before encountering

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

Morgan le Fay Morgan le Fay (; Welsh language, Welsh and Cornish language, Cornish: Morgen; with ''le Fay'' being garbled French language, French ''la Fée'', thus meaning 'Morgan the Fairy'), alternatively known as Morgan , Morgain /e Morgant Mor ...

and other characters of

Arthurian Legend The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. The 12th-century writer Geoffr ...

who will eventually teach him about life here and inspire him human values. Despite his first novel's

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...

ending, Sherrell would abandon the character and the genre to try a more

high fantasy High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Pres ...

-oriented style in ''Arcane'', starring a fool in a world governed by the rules of

tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

. It would be followed by the

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes Space warfare in science fiction, space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, i ...

''The Space Prodigal'' (1981). The sequel to ''Raum'', ''Skraelings'', would appear in 1987. In it, Raum chases a

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

prince who has stolen his great love, Lady Vivienne, from

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

and up to North America (''skrælingjar'' is how

Norse Greenlanders Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a Medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nors ...

called Native Americans). The horror novel ''The Curse'' (1989) would be his last to be published in the English language due to his untimely death in 1990. However, his manuscript of a third book in the Raum series was translated to Spanish and published in Spain in 1995. The first two novels were also translated to German and French.

Bibliography

Novels

Raum trilogy

*''Raum'' ( Avon, 1977) *''Skraelings'' (

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, 1987; second entry in the ''Raum'' trilogy) * ''The Dark Tournament'' (appeared in Spanish as ''El torneo sombrío'', Ed. Anaya, unpublished in English, 1995)

Standalone

*''Arcane'' (

Jove Jupiter ( or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus "sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( nom. and gen. ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mytholog ...

, 1978) *''The Space Prodigal'' (

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, 1981) *''The Curse'' (Pageant Books, 1989)

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sherrell, Carl 1929 births 1990 deaths American fantasy writers American horror writers American science fiction writers Pulp fiction writers