Sojan the Swordsman/Under the Warrior Star (Planet Stories Double Features)
Even fans of Moorcock (Elric: The Stealer of Souls) and Lansdale (Flaming Zeppelins) will find these pulp SF novellas unimpressive. Moorcock's "Sojan the Swordsman" is a set of linked episodes, first published in the 1950s and expanded here, in which Sojan, a peripatetic soldier on another planet who is the reincarnation of a WWII Allied commander, survives a desert crossing, pirates, rebels, and sea demons in a series of bland action sequences. Lansdale's "Under the Warrior Star," a modern homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, recounts the adventures of Braxton Booker, who is transported to another universe where he fights giants and a spiderlike creature alongside primitive humanoids. The best of the pulps had suspense and depth that these scant tales notably lack, and the authors' considerable talent is never really displayed. (Feb.)(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC.  All rights reserved.