Swordships of Scorpio
Swordships of Scorpio is a science ction novel written by
Kenneth Bulmer under the pseudonym of Alan Burt Ak-
ers, and is volume four in his extensive Dray Prescot se-
ries of sword and planet novels, set on the ctional world
of Kregen, a planet of the Antares star system in the
constellation of Scorpio. It was rst published by DAW
Books in 1973.
The Dray Prescot series is made of several cycles of nov-
els, each cycle essentially forming a series within the se-
ries. In addition to being the fourth volume in the series as
a whole, Swordships of Scorpio is also the fourth volume
in the Delian Cycle and, like the second and third volume,
is set on the ctional continent of Turismond but also in-
troduces the island of Pandahem for the rst time.[1]
The 52 completed novels of the Dray Prescot series were
written by Bulmer between 1972 and 1997, when a stroke
stopped his writing, also the later Dray Prescot books, af-
ter 1988, were originally only published in German. The
series is in the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter
of Mars series.[2]
1 Plot summary
The stories follows on directly from Warrior of Scorpio
with Dray Prescot being abandoned through treachery in
the hostile territories of Turismond. He travels on foot
and manages to rescue a young local girl from the hands of
a savage tribe. He successfully crosses the Owlarh Wate
and eventually reaches the Klackadrin, a natural barrier
between the hostile territories and the coastal lands. The
Klackadrin is a barrier of poisonous gases and Prescot is
taken prisoner by the Phokaym, a lizard-like race, when
he tries to cross. He is prepared to be sacriced in a pit
of lizard predators. At this stage the story stops with the
explanation that the tapes Dray Prescot recorded in Africa
nish here.
The story resumes, now with new tapes sent from South
America. Prescot has reached the east coast of Turis-
mond and is recovering in the city of Pa Mejab, a colony
of the Tomboram, a nation of the island of Pandahem, a
erce rival of Vallia. Prescot is initially quite weak from
his journey through the Klackadrin but recovers and joins
a trade caravan as a guard. The caravan is warned by
an injured man, Inch of Ng'groga, of an impending at-
tack. Like Seg Segutorio in Warrior of Scorpio, Inch of
Ng'groga would become one of Prescots lifelong friends. When Prescot receives news from Inch that Menaham has
Like Segutorio, Inch hailed from the continent of Loh,
1
from the southeastern part of it in his case. Prescot and
the other guards fought o the attack on the caravan suc-
cessfully, reached the trading outpost of Pa Weinob and
eventually returned to Pa Mejab.
During his time in Pa Mejab, Prescot rst learns of the
politics and divides of Pandahem and their nation states.
Prescot learns that Pa Mejab is a colonial town of the
Kingdom of Tomboram, located in the north east of Pan-
dahem and in bitter feud with Menaham, another Pan-
dahemian nation. He also makes the acquaintance of
Tilda and her son Pando, who work at the inn he is stay-
ing at. When the regular convoy of trade ships arrive at
the port, Prescot decides to leave on board one of these
ships. He eventually learns that young Pando is the heir
to the Kov of Bormark, brother of the King of Tombo-
ram, and that Pandos late father was disinheritated when
he married below his status, but that Pandos grandfather,
on his death bed, reinstated his son. Prescot talks Tilda
into claiming Pandos inheritance and she, in turn, talks
Precot into helping them to claim it.
Prescot, Inch, Tilda, and Pando set out on a merchant
ship to Pandahem. After a stop-over in the very north
of Loh, the ship is caught in a storm and then attackt by
pirate swordships. The merchant ship strands on a beach
on an island and Prescot, his companions, and most of
the crew escape after a short ght. They eventually man-
age to nd passage on another merchant ship and reach
Pomdermam, the capital of Tomboram. Prescot thereby
visits the island of Pandahem for the rst time.
Prescot, with the help of Inch, takes the current Kov of
Bormark captive and forces him to confess to the at-
tempted murder of Tilda and Pando he organised in front
of King Nemo. Pando is accepted as the new kov by
the king, but the later takes oence to the way he was
treated by Prescot in the process and has him kidnapped
and sent to the galleys as a galley slave. Prescot becomes
a rower on one of the Kings swordships, which is eventu-
ally captured through a trick by the female pirate Virid-
ian. The slaves are oered to join the pirates and ac-
cept. Prescot rises through the ranks, nding himself be-
ing placed in charge of the ships artillery. He challenges
Viridian on occasion and almost supplants her as leader
but holds back as he does not wish to lead the pitates. He
is however eventually placed in command of one of the
ships. When the pirates liberate the slaves of a swordship
of Menaham, Prescot is reunited with Inch who was sent
to the galleys for the same reasons as Dray Prescot.
2 5 EXTERNAL LINKS

almost overrun Tomobram and that Pando and Tilda are

in hiding, he decides to mobilise the pirates against Mena-
ham. The pirate eet defeats an armada of Menaham and
then sails to Pomdermam to save the city just in time be-
fore it falls. Prescot rescues Pando, but then, once more in
the moment of triumph, is taken away by the Star Lords.

2 Publishing
The book was rst published in English in December
1973. It was rst published in German in 1976 as Die
Armada von Scorpio.[3] In 2005 the book was published
as an E-book by Mushroom Books.[4]

3 Book covers
The cover of the original US edition was illustrated by
Tim Kirk and the second one by Josh Kirby, while the
British and rst German edition was illustrated by Chris
Achilleos and the second German edition was illustrated
by Boris Vallejo.[5]

4 References
[1] Swordships of Scorpio The Dray Prescot site, accessed: 8
October 2014

[2] Ken Bulmer obituary The Guardian, published: 22 De-

cember 2005, accessed: 8 October 2014

[3] Die Armada von Scorpio (German) phantastik-couch.de,

accessed: 8 October 2014

[4] Swordships of Scorpio Mushroom-E-books, accessed: 8

October 2014

[5] Cover art The covers of the various editions of the Dray
Prescot series, accessed: 8 October 2014

5 External links
The Dray Prescot site
Cover art The covers of the British, German, Italian
and US editions
 3

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1 Text
Swordships of Scorpio Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swordships_of_Scorpio?oldid=757367985 Contributors: BPK2, Ser Aman-
tio di Nicolao, WereSpielChequers, Calistemon, John of Reading, Kaltenmeyer, Suelru, Bender the Bot and Anonymous: 2

6.2 Images

6.3 Content license

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