Who Fears The Devil? by Manly Wade Wellman

“Call Me from the Valley” (first published as “Dumb Supper”) That volume brought together all the Silver John stories that had appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: This new collection builds upon the original Who Fears the Devil? that Arkham House published in 1963. “Call me a truth seeker,” he tells one curious inquirer, “somebody who wonders himself about riddles and life.” When then asked if he’s a “conjure man,” he answers: “Not me… I’ve met up with that sort in my time, helped put two-three of them out of mischief. (One of the few problems I have with the stories is that the “silver against supernatural” concept turns up a few times too many.) John not only sings the ballads, he’s a collector, and in some of the stories (“The Little Black Train,” “Vandy, Vandy”) his search for old ballads brings him into the action. John’s songs help combat evil, as do the silver strings on his guitar. In the stories readers will occasionally encounter cars, trucks, air travel, and mention of John’s Korean War service, but most of the time they will find it easy to imagine that this is an Appalachia frozen in the nineteenth century, when stories and songs at the hearthside were thinly veiled truths about wizards, witch-folk, and strange beasts.

Or semi-contemporary the setting is really a fantasy land based on Wellman’s love of Appalachian folklore and the spirit of its musical tradition. He’s part Weird Tales, a touch of Unknown, plus Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash.Īlso called “Silver John” in promotional material because he strings his guitar with silver, but always simply referred to as “John” within the stories, Wellman’s hero is a variant on the bard of the Middle Ages who wanders the contemporary Appalachians. He’s a contemporary fantasy hero who uses folk songs instead of swords, and faces wonders from the mountain legendry of Appalachia. Who Fears the Devil?, the complete tales of Manly Wade Wellman’s “John the Balladeer” character, is one of the Planet Stories volumes I’ve most anticipated there’s no other fantasy character quite like John, and no one else but Wellman could have created him.

Paizo Publication’s Planet Stories has brought forth another collection of the kind of grand and weird fantasy that the chain bookstores want to keep hidden from you. Manly Wade Wellman (Paizo Publishing, 2010)

Who Fears The Devil? by Manly Wade Wellman