Two battered paperbacks. Two legendary fantasy artists. One bold adventurer (me) torn between them. Join Rediscovered Realms as we size up The Dragon and the George with Boris Vallejo’s heroic brushwork against Oron with Clyde Caldwell’s sword-and-sorcery grit - then help me choose which one to dive into next!
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This Week’s Rediscovered Realms Theme Song:
From the high crags of the Dawnspire Mountains, a noble wyrm rises — wings slicing the morning sky, scales glinting like hammered gold. His quest is one of courage and devotion: to cross perilous lands, outfly the storms, and pierce the darkness seeking out those who have taken his beloved. Each note of this soaring instrumental beats like the dragon’s mighty heart — full of hope, tender in love, and unstoppable in its resolve.
| Genre: Fantasy Cinematic Adventure | Instrumental (No Lyrics) |
“Scales of Gold”
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The Contenders
If you’ve been around Rediscovered Realms for a while, you know I’m a sucker for old-school fantasy paperbacks - the kind with wild painted covers, dramatic titles, and blurbs that promise more peril than a dungeon crawl without a healer.
This week, two obscure treasures from the 1970s have landed on my desk:
1. The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson A twist on the knight-and-dragon trope - this time the hero is the dragon! Wrapped in a bold, heroic Boris Vallejo cover, it practically dares you to open it and smell the musty paper.
Fun Facts:
This novel, published in 1976, kicked off Dickson’s Dragon Knight series and was loosely adapted into the animated film The Flight of Dragons (1982) by Rankin/Bass.
It earned the 1977 British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Award for Best Novel - a solid testament to its appeal in its era.
2. Oron by David C. Smith Pure sword-and-sorcery mayhem, with a painted cover and multiple interior illustrations by Clyde Caldwell. Think broadswords, brooding warriors, and enough peril to fill a dozen tavern tales.
Fun Facts:
Oron, published in 1978, was David C. Smith’s first manuscript - and its strong reception helped land him more work including co-authoring multiple Red Sonja novels!
Oron is part of Smith’s larger Tales of Attluma cycle - a mythic ancient island-continent setting that includes novels like Mosutha’s Magic and The Ghost Army, plus short stories later collected by Pulp Hero Press.
Both are calling to me from the book pile . . . but I only have time for one right now.
Your Quest
Bold Adventurer, the choice is yours: will I take flight with Boris Vallejo’s Knight, or wade into the blood-and-thunder realms of Clyde Caldwell’s Warrior?
Cast your vote in the comments below. Whichever book wins, I’ll read it and return to tell the tale in a future edition of Rediscovered Realms.
Choose wisely . . . my fate is in your hands.
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The dragon one sounds like an Isekai anime and I would totally watch it. Wonder if I can find the book?
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but these were the books I gravitated to as a young dude. Still reading them as an old dude!