FenrisUlf Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Say, does anyone out there know of any good books covering the 20's-30's in Central Asia and nearby lands? (I.e., Afghanistan, India, Persia, China, and of course Russia.) I've gotten very curious about the area, following reading Peter Hopkirk's books on the 'Great Game' between the Russians and British -- as well as more bizarre tomes covering things like Shangri-La, hidden kingdoms of Tibetan cannibal sorcerers, Yezidi devil-worshippers, etc. (And let me recommend every book in the Lost Cities series by David Hatcher Childress for a pulp campaign!) I was thinking of using a Turkish master villain with his Varangian-descended Viking colony in the local mountains (there *was* at least one Viking expedition into Central Asia that never returned to Scandinavia, save for one lone survivor) seeking to reclaim the Ottoman Empire, but I need to know more about what was going on so I have a better idea of what he could be interfering with/aiding to cause trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted September 28, 2005 Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Re: Pulp Central Asia? Most of what I've got is mentioned in PH itself, but I can add: Ronald Farquerson's Confessions of a China Hand, published in 1950 -- I don't own it, but it sounds like it would have useful info Policing Shanghai 1927-1937, by Frederick Wakeman, Jr. -- pretty focused on one aspect of one city, but still ought to be pretty useful. Any books by or about Roy Chapman Andrews's exploits in the region during the period. If you come across any good references, please post 'em here so I can put 'em on my "to get eventually" list. What are the Childress books about/like? How many are there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted September 28, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2005 Re: Pulp Central Asia? If you come across any good references' date=' please post 'em here so I can put 'em on my "to get eventually" list. What are the Childress books about/like? How many are there?[/quote'] It's hard to capture the divine madness that is David Hatcher Childress's ouevre in just a few words, but here goes my effort. David Hatcher Childress, self-described 'maverick archaeologist', covers just about every lost city, kingdom, empire, and continent in his Lost Cities series, which covers (among other places) Lost Cities of Central Asia and India; Lost Cities of Lemuria and the Pacific; and similar volumes covering South America, North and Central America, Africa & Arabia, and Europe and Atlantis. There are probably seven books in that series, unless he published more since last I checked. The books contain the usual theories about vimana-flying atomic bomb-hurling lost supertechnological antediluvian civilizations, usually all of them at once, and presented in a totally gee-whiz-who-needs-skepticism fashion that I find incredibly entertaining. This man covers everything: he hits diamond-mining, dinosaur-riding Babylonians in Central Africa, the lost city of Aryan Akakor in the Amazon and their Nazi allies, Cahokia-destroying Mongols in America, and oodles more. He also has this tendency to run into incredibly well-informed highly spiritual natives at the most convenient times, all of whom share his theories about the four Lost Empires of the Atlantean Age --militaristic technological Atlantis in the Atlantic; pacific Lemurian mentalists in the Pacific; proto-Egyptian Osiris in the [dry] Mediterranean; and the Rama Empire in Northern India. He also includes a lot of little details that make it sound like he actually visited some of these countries, like the pain in the neck customs can be, the trouble of dealing with foreigners who think all Americans are rich (and want to rob you), the difficulty of trying to sleep in a tropical storm -- on the ground, and the joy of never before seen diseases. Most everything he ever wrote is available through Adventure Unlimited Press. They do tons of weird cr*p that would go well in a pulp campaign; Childress did a book on Extraterrestrial Archaeology that is simply the bomb for pulp SF campaigns. Sorry I couldn't provide anything more. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: Pulp Central Asia? "Himmler's Crusade" by Christopher Hale. Subtitled "The true story of the 1938 nazi expedition into Tibet". A "pulp Hero" adventure just waiting to happen if you ask me ! I can see teams of gallant adventurers dashing off to Tibet in 1938 to foil those cursed Nazi occultists attempts to make contact with Shamballa and Agharti ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: Pulp Central Asia? To "Fenrisulf" I agree about Childress. Although his "Lost Continents and the Hollow Earth" is mostly a rehash of other sources it is a LOT more easily accessible than the source books that it draws from ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted October 1, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: Pulp Central Asia? Not to mention the only current publication of the Shaver Mystery. Now there's a bit of truly illuminated weirdness! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: Pulp Central Asia? Much of Childress' book is rehashed from either Shaver's "I Remember Lemuria" (In fact I think that Shaver is reprinted almost in its entirety !) and Walter Kafton-Minkel's "Subterranean Worlds". This is not necessarily a bad thing as both books are otherwise difficult to obtain. While not particularlyn useful if you HAVE Shaver and Kafton-Minkle Shaver's book makes the information more widely available for gamers like us who are interested in that sort of thing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted October 1, 2005 Report Share Posted October 1, 2005 Re: Pulp Central Asia? Oops ! I ment CHILDRESS' book iin the last sentence. Hell it's 9:36 A M over here and I SHOULD be more awake that that ! Maybe it's the Derros using their mental cannon on me again. Now where did I put my aluminium foil hat ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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