The Zanthodon MEGAPACK ™: The Complete 5-Book Series Read online

  Table of Contents

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  The MEGAPACK™ Ebook Series

  JOURNEY TO THE UNDERGROUND WORLD

  PART I: THE LOST LAND

  PART II: THE UNDERGROUND WORLD

  PART III: MEN OF THE STONE AGE

  PART IV: APEMEN OF KOR

  PART V: THARN OF THANDAR

  PART VI: WAR IN THE STONE AGE

  APPENDIX

  ZANTHODON

  PART I: THE LOST PRINCESS

  PART II: THE PEAKS OF PERIL

  PART III: THE HOLLOW MOUNTAINS

  PART IV: THE FLIGHT FROM THE CAVERNS

  PART V: VICTORY IN ZANTHODON

  AFTERWORD

  DARYA OF THE BRONZE AGE

  PART I: PRINCESS IN PERIL

  PART II: PIRATES OF ZANTHODON

  PART III: CONQUERORS OF EL-CAZAR

  PART IV: THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED

  PART V: BLADES OF THE BROTHERHOOD

  PART VI: BATTLE BENEATH THE WORLD

  HUROK OF THE STONE AGE

  PART I: DRAGONMEN OF ZAR

  PART II: THE SCARLET CITY

  PART III: ACROSS THE PLAINS

  PART IV: THE DIVINE ZARYS

  PART V: THE THUNDER WEAPON

  PART VI: GODS OF ZAR

  WHAT HAPPENED AFTER

  ERIC OF ZANTHODON

  PART I: THE FUGITIVES

  PART II: THE BLACK AMAZON

  PART III: PERILS OF KOR

  PART IV: CROSSING THE ABYSS

  PART V: SOLDIERS FROM YESTERDAY

  PART VI: ERIC OF ZANTHODON

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  The Zanthodon MEGAPACK™ is copyright © 2014 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  * * * *

  The MEGAPACK™ ebook series name is a trademark of Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  * * * *

  Journey to the Underground World is copyright © 1979 by Lin Carter.

  Zanthodon is copyright © 1980 by Lin Carter.

  Hurok of the Stone Age is copyright © 1981 by Lin Carter.

  Darya of the Bronze Age is copyright © 1982 by Lin Carter.

  Eric of Zanthodon is copyright © 1983 by Lin Carter.

  * * * *

  Published by Wildside Press LLC. by arrangement with Lin Carter Properties. For more information, contact: www.wildsidepress.com

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  This volume is a bit of a departure for us—it presents the complete 5-book Zanthodon series by Lin Carter. Lin, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in person only once (at a New York science fiction convention called Empiricon, circa 1986), was one of my favorite fantasy writers as a teenager. (I am particularly fond of his “Callisto” series and was instrumental in the first two volumes being reprinted by iBooks some years later). He wrote many different series over the years, the most famous being the Thongor sword-and-sorcery books and short stories. But the Zanthodon series of adventure fantasies is a lot of fun, too, and if you like the “lost world” adventure novel (a la Edgar Rice Burroughs) I’m sure you’ll get a big kick out of Lin’s take on the genre.

  Enjoy!

  —John Betancourt

  Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

  www.wildsidepress.com

  ABOUT THE SERIES

  Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK™ ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

  The MEGAPACK™ ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

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  CHAPTER 1

  EAST OF SUEZ

  It was the glint of steel in the folds of the red burnoose that caught my eye—the bright flash of sunlight on a naked dagger!

  It was just half an hour before noon, in the native quarter of Port Said. I can be precise about the time because I recall that even as I glimpsed the glitter of bare steel, the ululating cry of the selâm was echoing from where the mueddin stood on the gallery of the little mosque behind me. And it was a Friday, for that wailing cry, that humble salute to Allah, is chanted forth upon that day and in that hour all across the East, and thus it has been for generations beyond the numbering.…

  The midday sun was roasting and the air was dry as dust and reeked of amazing stenches: goat urine and unwashed men and cooking sausages and raw onions and heady musk and sweet sandalwood and the fresh dung of camels. A medley of odors that, to me, will always say—Egypt.