The Purple Pterodactyls

Publication history

The collection was first published in hardcover by Phantasia Press in January, 1980, and in paperback by Ace Books in April of the same year. It has also been translated into German. An e-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. 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 ("Darius" and "The Huns") de Camp reuses the characters of Henri Michod, Virgil Hathaway and Charlie Catfish, who originally appeared in his early stories "The Hardwood Pile" (1940) and "The Reluctant Shaman" (1947), 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.

Contents

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.

Reception

Reviewers generally rated the collection pleasant but minor de Camp.

Kirkus Reviews calls the protagonist "one of Sprague de Camp's more successful heroes, ... a kind of John Putnam Thatcher of the occult." After singling out "Balsamo's Mirror," "Priapus", "A Sending of Serpents," United Imp," and "Tiki" for comment, it notes that the "handful of somewhat more strongly linked stories in the series, set in Adirondack summer-home country, pleasantly conjure up the attractions of that region." But "[t]here's really nothing very much to any of these offerings except amiable pacing and a sense of when to stop, but de Camp makes those virtues go a long way."

Publishers' Weekly notes "Such contemporary fantasy bonbons are pleasant, light amusement that would have been at home in the pages of the lamented Unknown magazine. If they are minor de Camp and the literary equivalent of empty calories, so what? They do what they were made for--especially when they aren't gorged on but rather are enjoyed one by one as the mood strikes."

Brian M. Stableford, comparing the stories to the earlier Tales From Gavagan's Bar by de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, rates the latter "good examples of their kind and ... more successful than de Camp's recent series of stories of a similar stripe collected in The Purple Pterodactyls."

Don D'Amassassa called the book "a collection of ... light short fantasies with a common character, none of which are individually significant, although the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

David Langford, also referring to the stories as "in the Unknown vein," is generally unimpressed. Citing the author's promise that the tales are "occasionally frightening, always amusing and sometimes unforgettable," Langford demurs, calling them "occasionally amusing but not very." He does note that he "liked the one with a sex-cult trying to call up Priapus but, through sheer ineptitude at Latin incantation, getting a highly unamused Diana instead."