N26: "Battle in the Dawn" by Manley Wade Wellman

Short Story Review!

N26: "Battle in the Dawn" by Manley Wade Wellman

In “Appendix N” Gary Gygax recommended Manley Wade Wellman without naming any specific work. I happen to own the Paizo published Battle in the Dawn: The Complete Hok the Mighty collection of short stories. In the introduction David Drake pointed out the the first Hok story “Battle in the Dawn” included a 40 page stand alone story and thus I decided to read that tale for today’s review.

The Good

*Hok the caveman made for an interesting protagonist.

*The story included lots of combat with the cavemen fighting their mongrel/cannibal enemies.

The Bad

*Feminist-minded readers might dislike the way Hok goes and captures a woman and claims her as his property.

D&D Connections & Inspirations

*The story includes many D&D-esque elements: spears, javelins, barbarians, attacking/defending caves, and tracking creatures through the forest.

*Wellman called the mongrel/cannibals Gnorrls and mentioned a little knoll on the first page, which made me wonder if the combination of those words helped inspire the Gnolls of D&D (which behave very much like Gnorrls).

Overall

I give this short story a 8/10 rating since I enjoyed reading it so much that I read through the story in one sitting.