The Purple Pterodactyls
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| The Purple Pterodactyls | |
 Dust-jacket for The Purple Pterodactyls |
|
| Author | L. Sprague deCamp |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Vaclav Vaca |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy short stories |
| Publisher | Phantasia Press |
| Publication date | 1980 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 228 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0932096026 |
The Purple Pterodactyls is a 1980 collection of short stories by science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardcover by Phantasia Press and in paperback by Ace Books. The pieces were originally published between 1975 and 1979 in the magazines The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantastic, Escape!, and Fantasy Crossroads.
The book collects the author's fifteen tales of ensorcelled financier W. Wilson Newbury, an ordinary man continually encountering extraordinary situations. His French wife Denise also appears in most of the tales.
In two of the stories ("The Huns" and "Darius") de Camp reuses the characters of Virgil Hathaway and Henri Michod, who originally appeared in his early stories "The Reluctant Shaman" (1947) and "The Hardwood Pile" (1940), set in the fictional town of Gahato in upstate New York. Two other stories ("Balsamo's Mirror" and "Far Babylon") feature characters recognizable as real-life authors H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, though neither is actually named.
[edit] Contents
- "Balsamo's Mirror"
- "The Lamp"
- "Algy"
- "The Menhir"
- "Darius"
- "United Imp"
- "Tiki"
- "Far Babylon"
- "The Yellow Man"
- "A Sending of Serpents"
- "The Huns"
- "The Purple Pterodactyls"
- "Dead Man's Chest"
- "The Figurine"
- "Priapus"
[edit] Continuation and tie-in
A sixteenth story of Newbury, "The Ensorcelled ATM", authored by Michael F. Flynn, appeared in Harry Turtledove's 2005 tribute anthology honoring L. Sprague de Camp, The Enchanter Completed. It ties Newbury's adventures in with the classic "Gavagan's Bar" fantasies written by de Camp in collaboration with Fletcher Pratt.
[edit] References
- Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd., 507.
- Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller, 82-83.
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