Richard L. Tierney

Richard L. Tierney
Full Name	Richard Louis Tierney
Birth Date	August 7, 1936
Birthplace	Spencer, Iowa, United States
Death Date	1 February 2022
Deathplace	Mason City, Iowa
Nationality	United States
Genre	Cosmic Horror Fantasy

Richard L. Tierney (7 August 1936-1 February 2022) was an American writer and poet. Tierney, a scholar of H. P. Lovecraft, wrote Cthulhu Mythos novels and was the coauthor (with David C. Smith) of a series of Red Sonja novels, featuring cover art by Boris Vallejo.

He is best known for two series: one featuring Simon of Gitta, a first century Samaritan who uses both sword and sorcery to fight the Roman Empire, the other focused on John Taggart, a time-travelling ally of alien forces. The two series come together in the novel The Drums of Chaos.

Tierney was one of the first to challenge August Derleth's interpretation of Lovecraft's creations in his notable article "The Derleth Mythos", published in Meade and Penny Frierson's fanzine H.P.L. (1973). In an interview for Sword & Sorcery magazine, however, Tierney said that he considers his own Mythos work to be in the Derlethian vein:

“

I don't feel my writing has taken up "the line of Lovecraft's development." Rather, I appear to have taken up and developed Derleth's vision of the Mythos".

„

Selected Bibliography

Fiction Series

John Taggart series

• The Winds of Zarr (1975)
• "Countdown for Kalara" (Jul 1980)
• "The Last Decision" (1988)
• The Drums of Chaos (Pickman's Press, 2008)

Simon of Gitta series

• "The Ring of Set" (Swords Against Darkness #1, 1977)
• "The Scroll of Thoth" (Swords Against Darkness #2, 1977)
• "The Sword of Spartacus" (Swords Against Darkness #3, 1978)
• "The Dragons of Mons Fractus" (Weirdbook #19, Spring 1984)
• "The Fire of Mazda" (Orion's Child, May/June 1984)
• "The Seed of the Star–God" (Crypt of Cthulhu #24, Lammas 1984)
• "The Soul of Kephri" (Space & Time #66, Summer 1984)
• "The Wedding of Sheila-Na-Gog" (with Glenn Rahman; Crypt of Cthulhu #29, Candlemas 1985)
• "The Throne of Achamoth" (with Robert M. Price; Weirdbook #21, Autumn 1985)
• "The Blade of the Slayer" (Pulse-Pounding Adventure Stories #1, 1986)
• "The Curse of the Crocodile" (Crypt of Cthulhu #47, Roodmas, 1987)
• "The Treasure of Horemkhu" (Pulse-Pounding Adventure Stories #2, December 1987)
• "The Worm of Urakhu" (Weirdbook #23/24, 1988)
• "The Pillars of Melkarth" (Space & Time #78, 1990)
• The Gardens of Lucullus (with Glenn Rahman; Sidecar Preservation Society, 2001)
• "Vengeance Quest" (poem, The Cimmerian #7, October 2004)
• The Drums of Chaos (Pickman's Press, 2008)
• Path of the Dragon (with Glenn Rahman; Pickman's Press, forthcoming)

Note: The Drums of Chaos is part of both the John Taggart and the Simon of Gitta series.

Red Sonja (with David C. Smith)

• The Ring of Ikribu (Ace, 1981)
• Demon Night (Ace, 1982)
• When Hell Laughs (Ace, 1982)
• Endithor's Daughter (Ace, 1982)
• Against the Prince of Hell (Ace, 1983)
• Star of Doom (Ace, 1983)

Novels

• For the Witch of the Mists (with David C. Smith; Kensington Publishing, 1978)
• The House of the Toad (Fedogan & Bremer, 1993)
• The Lords of Pain (1997)

Short Fiction

• "Tigers of the Sea" (1975, posthumous collaboration with Robert E. Howard)

Essays

• "Cthulhu in Mesoamerica" (1972)
• "The Derleth Mythos" (1973)
• "When the Stars Are Right" (1973)
• "Cthulhu in Southeast Alaska" (1976)
• "Lovecraft and the Cosmic Quality in Fiction" (1976)
• "The Brotherhood of Cthulhu?" (1985)
• "Hark Hecate!" (1989)
• "Praise for Basil Copper" (2008)

External Link

• Article at Wikipedia
• Bibliography at Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Obituary at Black Gate