Kline’s Lord of the Lamia was serialised in Weird Tales in 1935.
It is is based on the legend of the lamia, or rather legends. There were lots of lamia legends. The starting point was the late of a Libyan queen named Lamia. Later legends described a lamia as a demon who has sex with young men, as a serpent-woman and even as a vaguely vampire-like female demon. Kline takes the most interesting ones and adds a few flourishes of his own. In this novel Lamia is indeed a Libyan queen who lived several thousand years ago, and she can transform herself into a cobra. If her mummy can be found she can be revived by means of an incantation ad she will become the slave of the man who awakens her.
The novel begins with a young American archaeologist named Tane renting a house in Cairo from portly middle-aged German archaeologist Dr Schneider. Before Tane takes possession of the house the funeral procession of a Muslim holy man passes by. Although deceased the holy man is able to give unmistakeable signs that he wishes to be interred in what is now Tane’s house. Dr Schneider tells Tane he will just have to accept this.
Tane has strange dreams, which he believes may be because he has been drugged. But they may not be dreams after all. He finds that the coffin of the holy man contains the mummy-case of a beautiful young queen, and the mummy-case contains a mummified cobra which comes to life. Tane thinks he saw the cobra become a beautiful young woman who informed him that she is Lamia and that she is now his slave.
There are several powerful men who would like to have Lamia as a slave. They’re prepared to play rough. One of these men is Hagg Nadeem, the head of the Egyptian secret police. He is a man of deep learning in esoteric subjects and he knows a great deal about Lamia. Whether Hagg Nadeem is really just out to enslave Lamia or whether he’s one of the good guys is one of the questions Tane would like to be able to answer but can’t. Hagg Nadeem is interested in other things besides Lamia. He has another agenda.
This is certainly an action-packed story. Tane is continually being set upon by ruffians. He would surely have been killed several times had it not been for the powerful ally he has in Lamia. She’s not much use in a fight in human form but when she transforms into a cobra she can be very handy indeed.
The big question is the nature of Lamia. Is she a monster? Will having her as his slave prove fatal to Tane? Or is she a kind of benevolent demi-goddess, or even just morally neutral? What exactly is her agenda? Tane really needs answers to those questions, given that he’s fallen hopelessly in love with her.
Tane can give a good account of himself in a brawl but he’s not quite a conventional hero. He never really understands what is going on. He isn’t stupid but he is out of his depth and unlike most conventional heroes he never really manages to take control of the situation. He reacts to the actions, and manipulations, of others. That actually makes him a rather sympathetic character.
We do not of course know if Lamia will turn out to be heroine of villainess but she’s unlikely to be either a totally conventional heroine or a totally conventional villainess. She is however rather fascinating. A lamia makes a change from the usual run of witches and vampires and werewolves.
Egyptology had become fashionable in the late 19th century and became big news in 1922 when Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun so using ancient Egyptian mythology as a basis for a story was a sound commercial move on Kline’s part. And personally I love any story with an Egyptology angle so I’m certainly not complaining.
Kline wasn’t quite in the front rank of pulp writers but he was very competent and he had no problems pacing a story.
Lord of the Lamia is a lightweight but fun story. There’s mystery, there’s action, there’s some horror and there’s an offbeat love story. It all adds up to pretty solid entertainment. Recommended.
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