Cycle of Nemesis
Reviewed date: 2025 Sep 13
Rating: 1
190 pages
Spectres at the Gannet estate sale
Bert and his friend George Pomfret are attending a grand estate sale at Gannets. Pomfret, representing a private club of wealthy art collectors, wants to buy a Bernini Aphrodite; Bert has his eye on an antique globe. As Bert wanders around Gannets he experiences disturbing apparitions: a mysterious man wearing his own face appears, disappears, reappears dressed in ancient period costume, then disappears again. Is he going mad? Later, the auction is interrupted when an antique cabinet is opened for the watching bidders—and the decapitated body of a young woman rolls out.
A girl's body, naked, decapitated and smothered in blood, sprawled laxly before us.
When Bert returns to Gannets the next day he still sees strange things, but this time he's not the only witness. He strikes up a conversation with a young woman named Phoebe Desmond, and they both witness a red-haired woman running down a hallway being pursued by a demon from hell.
Toward us over the dark planks ran a naked girl, her long reddish-blonde hair streaming out behind her, her arms imploring succor, her mouth open and red and gaping. Following her in a crouching loathsome waddle and yet covering the ground with ferocious speed ran a—I did not have the words to describe it. Furred, fanged, ferocious, feral. With deep crimson pits for eyes and with thick and heavy iron boots strapped to its feet, each boot—there were four of them—tipped with a long, sharp, ugly and obscene spike, the thing squattered over the floor after the girl."
Both the girl and the iron-booted monster vanish into thin air.
I wish to point out that we've scarcely begun the story and author Kenneth Bulmer has already introduced us to two naked women whom he refers to as girls, one of whom is fleeing from a literal monster and the other who has been gruesomely murdered. This seems borderline prurient at best. It's certainly unnecessary. Fortunately this is about as bad as it gets.
The globe
Bert wins the auction for the antique globe. A late-comer who just missed the auction approaches Bert and offers—nay, demands—to buy the globe from him. Bert is intrigued and eventually agrees to sell, but only if the man explains why he desires the globe.
Khamushkei the Undying
The mysterious late-comer introduces himself as Hall Brennan, and explains that he's an archaeologist on the trail of an ancient mystery. Millennia ago—so the ancient writings say—the great god Khamushkei the Undying destroyed the face of the earth. His children Mummusu and Shoshusu imprisoned him in a Time Vault, sealed with curses and spells. The final spell was incomplete, so Khamushkei was not imprisoned for all eternity, but only for about seven thousand years. Coincidentally, it's been just about seven thousand years, so Khamushkei is due to break free any day now. Brennan believes the globe contains clues to the location of the Time Vault, and he hopes to locate the vault and prevent Khamushkei the Undying from escaping.
Everyone seems quite interested, so they all agree to help Brennan. The globe does indeed contain clues: a "compilation of ritual curses", and a location in the desert southwest of Baghdad. The party consists of:
- Hall Brennan
- Bert
- George Pomfret
- Charlie, George's robot butler
- Phoebe Desmond
- Paul Benenson, an odious rich friend of Pomfret
- Lottie, Benenson's red-headed secretary
Bert and Phoebe immediately recognize Lottie as the red-haired woman they saw running from the iron-booted demon monster. Lottie seems to be clueless, so there's some weird time travel shenanigans, but the upshot is: things are not looking good for Lottie.
Showdown and sacrifice
Khamushkei the Undying may be locked in his Time Vault, but the seals are weakening and he is certainly capable of sending minions to do his bidding. Our heroes battle mythical creatures such as lamassu, utukku, and griffins. Khamushkei the Undying tries to throw them off track by sending them back in time, to ancient Sumeria. At one point Khamushkei even accidentally transports them back inside his Time Vault where they get a good look at how things are organized.
In the final showdown, Khamushkei the Undying figures that the way to stop Hall Brennan and the others is to steal the globe before they can open it, which is why he transports them and all his monsters to Gannets. That's where all the apparitions came from. It's a close thing, and yes, it is Lottie being pursued by the iron-booted demon monster. Our heroes use the compilation of curses from the globe to lock Khamushkei back in his Time Vault, but to make the curses effective requires a sacrifice. It's Phoebe who selflessly makes the ultimate sacrifice, and it's her decapitated body that we saw in the opening chapter.
Interesting. Bulmer killed off the plucky heroine and let the bombshell secretary survive.
The world is safe from Khamushkei the Undying for another seven thousand years.