Jakes, John

Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author.

(1932-2023) US author initially best known for sf and fantasy, under his own name and various pseudonyms including Alan Henry, Jacob Johns, Alan Payne, Jay Scotland and Alan Wilder, before launching hisBicentennial series of novels, which traces the fictional history of a US family over the past 200 years. It achieved extraordinary bestsellerdom, undoubtedly justifying, at least financially, his decision to retire from the genre. Most of his shorter work, beginning with "The Dreaming Trees" inFantastic Adventures for November 1950, was written by the 1960s – a good selection appearing asThe Best of John Jakes (coll1977) edited by Martin HGreenberg and Joseph DOlander – and he published his last sf novel in 1973. He generally displayed competence, but his early work lacked bite and his later novels, though sharper, were published in some obscurity. He was in any case from the first actively involved in other genres, and published at least twenty books, including several historicals as by Jay Scotland, beforeWhen the Star Kings Die (1967), the first volume in theDragonard/II Galaxy series ofSpace Operas, marked his full-scale entry into the sf field. The three novels in the sequence – the others areThe Planet Wizard (1969) andTonight We Steal the Stars (1969 dos) – follow the adventures of the Dragonard clan as they guard II Galaxy and its corporate "star kings" against various perils.

His second series, theBrak the BarbarianSword-and-Sorcery epic, includesBrak the Barbarian (coll of linked stories1968),Brak the Barbarian versus the Sorceress (November-December 1963Fantastic as "Witch of the Four Winds"; exp1969; vtBrak the Barbarian – The Sorceress1970; vtThe Sorceress1976),Brak the Barbarian versus the Mark of the Demons (1969; vtBrak the Barbarian – The Mark of the Demons1970; vtThe Mark of the Demons1976),Brak: When the Idols Walked (August-September 1964Fantastic as "When the Idols Walked"; exp1978) andThe Fortunes of Brak (coll1980). The deep debt of these stories to Robert EHoward's rather more energeticConan tales was acknowledged in the publication ofMention My Name in Atlantis [for subtitle see Checklist] (1972), an amusing pastiche of the subgenre, which also takes aim at theLost World tale.

Out of the several sf novels Jakes published 1969-1973, four stand out.Six-Gun Planet (1970), aWestern featuring appearances byBilly the Kid, depicts a deliberately archaic colony planet called Missouri complete withRobot gunfighters, just as in the later filmWestworld (1973).Black in Time (1970) presents vignettes from Black history dramatized through aTime-Travel plot device.Time Gate (1972) is a lightAlternate History tale effectively couched for itsYoung Adult audience.On Wheels (1973), set about a century hence, tautly depicts a mobile American subculture whose members live, breed and die on wheels, whether in large trailers or on their own vehicles, never leaving the Interstates, never legally dropping below 40mph (65kph). Their god is the Texaco Firebird, which they see only at the moment of death. AsSatire the story is simple but gripping, like most of Jakes's best work. It is one of the relatively few twentieth-century sf tales to treat the triumph of the automobile in America (seeDystopia;Transportation) as nightmarish. [JC]

see also:Colonization of Other Worlds;Sociology.

John William Jakes

born Chicago, Illinois: 31 March 1932

died Sarasota, Florida: 11 March 2023

works (selected)

series

Dragonard/II Galaxy

• When the Star Kings Die (New York: Ace Books,1967) [Dragonard/II Galaxy: pb/JackGaughan]
• The Planet Wizard (New York: Ace Books,1969) [Dragonard/II Galaxy: pb/JeffJones]
• Tonight We Steal the Stars (New York: Ace Books,1969) [Dragonard/II Galaxy: pb/credited to Jack Gaughan but actually KellyFreas]

Brak the Barbarian

• Brak the Barbarian (New York: Avon Books,1968) [fixup:Brak the Barbarian: pb/FrankFrazetta]
• Brak the Barbarian versus the Sorceress (New York: Paperback Library,1969) [first version appeared November/December 1963Fantastic as "Witch of the Four Winds":Brak the Barbarian: pb/FrankFrazetta]
  • Brak the Barbarian – The Sorceress (London: Tandem Books,1970) [vt of the above:Brak the Barbarian: pb/ChrisAchilleos]
  • The Sorceress (London: Tandem Books,1976) [vt of the above:Brak the Barbarian: pb/]
• Brak the Barbarian versus the Mark of the Demons (New York: Paperback Library,1969) [Brak the Barbarian: pb/Michael Leonard]
  • Brak the Barbarian – The Mark of the Demons (London: Tandem Books,1970) [vt of the above:Brak the Barbarian: pb/Chris Achilleos]
  • The Mark of the Demons (London: Tandem Books,1976) [vt of the above:Brak the Barbarian: pb/ChrisAchilleos]
• When the Idols Walked (New York: Pocket Books/Kangaroo,1978) [first version appeared August/September 1964Fantastic:Brak the Barbarian: pb/Charles Moll]
  • Brak: When the Idols Walked (New York: Tower Books,1981) [vt of the above:Brak the Barbarian: pb/Uldis Klavins]
  • Witch of the Four Winds/When the Idols Walked (New York: Open Road Integrated Media,2012) [omni of the above plusBrak the Barbarian versus the Sorceress asWitch of the Four Winds: ebook:Brak the Barbarian: na/]
• The Fortunes of Brak (New York: Dell Books,1980) [coll:Brak the Barbarian: pb/DouglasBeekman]

Gavin Black

• Master of the Dark Gate (New York: Lancer Books,1970) [Gavin Black: pb/JimSteranko]
• Witch of the Dark Gate (New York: Lancer Books,1972) [Gavin Black: pb/FrankFrazetta]

individual titles

• The Asylum World (New York: Paperback Library,1969) [pb/]
• The Hybrid (New York: Paperback Library,1969) [pb/JeffJones]
• Secrets of Stardeep (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press,1969) [hb/James Heugh]
• The Last Magicians (New York: New American Library/Signet Books,1969) [pb/Sandy Kossin]
• Six-Gun Planet (New York: Paperback Library,1970) [pb/RichardPowers]
• Black in Time (New York: Paperback Library,1970) [pb/Harry Steele Savage]
• Mask of Chaos (New York: Ace Books,1970) [dos: pb/JackGaughan]
• Monte Cristo #99 (New York: Curtis Books,1970) [pb/]
• Mention My Name in Atlantis – Being, at Last, the True Account of the Calamitous Destruction of the Great Island Kingdom, Together with a Narrative of its Wondrous Intercourses with a Superior Race of Other-Worldlings, as Transcribed from the Manuscript of a Survivor, Hoptor the Vintner, for the Enlightenment of a Dubious Posterity (New York: DAW Books,1972) [pb/H J Bruck]
• Time Gate (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Westminster Press,1972) [hb/]
  • Secrets of Stardeep, and Time Gate (New York: New American Library/Signet Books,1982) [omni of the above plusSecrets of Stardeep: pb/DonBrautigam]
• On Wheels (New York: Warner Paperback Library,1973) [pb/Don IvanPunchatz]
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (New York: Award Books,1974) [tie to the filmConquest of the Planet of the Apes:Planet of the Apes: pb/]
• Excalibur! (New York: Dell Books,1980) with Gil Kane [pb/]

collections and stories

• The Best of John Jakes (New York: DAW Books,1977) edited by Martin HGreenberg and Joseph DOlander [coll: pb/JackGaughan]
• Old Spacemen Never Die (Medford, Oregon: Armchair Fiction,2015) [dos: first appeared October 1951Amazing Stories: pb/EdEmshwiller]
• Shango (place not given: Project Gutenberg,2019) [story: ebook: first appeared February 1956If: na/]
• The Android Kill (place not given: Project Gutenberg,2020) [story: ebook: first appeared January 1952Planet Stories: na/]
• The Most Horrible Story (place not given: Project Gutenberg,2021) [story: ebook: first appeared January 1952Imagination: na/]

links

• John Jakes
• Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Project Gutenberg
• Picture Gallery

previous versions of this entry

• Internet Archive