Here it is, dear Reader! The long awaited final volume of Karl May’s “In the Realm of the Silver Lion”.

In this continuation of the Silver Lion narrative, we find Kara Ben Nemsi and Halef recovering from their infection with typhus in the valley of their friends, the Jamikun. Once again our heroes are confronted by members of the “Shadows,” but as before, their keen wit and bravery are able to overcome every challenge. Upon inspection of some ancient ruins, Kara discovers a secret with wide-ranging implications, and a former adversary is turned into an invaluable friend. The story culminates in a celebratory horse race that has friends and foes pitting the best horses of the country against each other. Will our heroes emerge victorious, and will they be able to bring the “Shadows” to justice?

Now available in Softcover …

This book is the seventh part of the Oriental Odyssey series. Kara ben Nemsi and Hajji Halef Omar face Turkish justice in Ostromja. After exposing the corrupt officials and the fake holy man known as the Mübarek, they leave town after being warned of an ambush plot by two brothers known as the Alajy. Kara ben Nemsi disguises himself as a Sherif and foils their plan but is later trapped with his companions in the bandits’ stronghold. During their subsequent escape the old Mübarek is wounded and one of the robbers is killed. But Kara ben Nemsi is far from safe, he falls prey to the law of blood vengeance. Now guided by one of the Schut’s men, the little troop is lured into another trap. Their lucky encounter with Anka, a servant girl, forewarns them of a plot against all their lives. Later, whilst crossing a storm swollen river, Kara ben Nemsi rescues a woman and learns more about the Schut’s stronghold.

A Turkish trader befriends the narrator and invites him into his Cairo home where he uncovers a fake ghost, who turns out to be the leader of a powerful Muslim organization. The Turk then induces his guest to accompany him to the Sudan. Circumstances however force the narrator to travel ahead alone up the Nile River on a sailing ship. The ship’s crew turns out to be accomplices of a Muslim leader, who are slave traders. An Egyptian naval officer arrests the ship’s crew and invites the narrator to continue his travel upriver with him. Arriving in Asyut he is hosted at a Pasha’s residence, tames an Arab stallion, and visits a mummy cave. A Fakir lures him into a well from where he extricates himself. Joined by the Turk, the two continue to travel up the Nile. In the Sudan, the narrator discovers that his Turkish “friend” is actually allied with the slavers. The Egyptian naval officer asks for the narrator’s help and he intercepts a caravan of enslaved Bedouin women, returning them to their home and their tribe, the Bani Fassara.

In this continuation of the Silver Lion narrative, Kara Ben Nemsi and Halef set out to revisit ancient monuments that had been the sites of several of their previous adventures. On their way to the ruins of Babylon, they encounter two men wearing rings identifying them as members of the “Shadows,” an arcane cult involved in smuggling in the region. Using a ruse, our heroes are able to ascertain that these criminals are planning to ambush the caravan of a Persian chamberlain. During their quest to prevent the crime, Kara and Halef encounter some old foes, make new friends, and are locked up in a prison inside the Tower of Babel. Kara Ben Nemsi is able to escape, but will he be able to rescue his friend and secure the smugglers’ hidden treasures?

This book is the sixth part of the Oriental Odyssey series. Kara ben Nemsi and Hajji Halef Omar continue their pursuit of a murderous band that is in league with the Schut. Along the way Kara ben Nemsi rescues Schimin the blacksmith and his wife. Traveling further, our hero uncovers a smuggler’s cache and falls prey to the beggar Saban. Believing that Kara ben Nemsi has been killed, the beggar and his cohort divide their ill-gotten gain. Halef arrives just in time to rescue his beloved Sihdi but one thief escapes upon Rih and a mad ride to regain this valuable horse ensues. Later Kara ben Nemsi and Hajji Halef Omar find themselves in a pigeon loft, from where they spy on the ones they pursue. As their ride continues, they expose a vampire and finally face the Turkish law in Ostromja.

The first half of In the Realm of the Silver Lion I describes Old Shatterhand’s adventures meant to follow the events described in Winnetou III. After his best friend’s death, our hero is so deeply depressed and unkempt that initially he isn’t even recognized as Old Shatterhand by The Two Snuffles, two Men of the West he meets along his way to the Apache tribe. Together they meet the mysterious Persian nobleman Jafar and repeatedly rescue him from the clutches of hostile Comanche Indians. The adventure continues several years later in Persia where Old Shatterhand’s Oriental alter ego Kara Ben Nemsi undertakes multiple journeys with his friend Hajji Halef Omar. Together they slay the Lion of Blood Vengeance, cross paths with an arcane cult called ‘The Shadows’, and reconnect with an old friend of theirs, the Polish expatriat Dozorca, who tells them the heart-wrenching story of how he lost his family. Kara Ben Nemsi gives him new hope, but will he and Halef be able to help him find his loved ones again?

The narrator, here for the first time called Old Shatterhand, is on his second trip through the Wild West, where he happens to meet the old frontiersman, Sans-Ear. Together, they foil an attack by a group of Sioux Ogallalla, joined by the rogue Morgan, scattering the losers. Their pursuit of Morgan takes them through the Texan Llano Estacado, where, themselves being in dire straits, they find Bob, a Negro servant of a jeweler known to Old Shatterhand. Shortly thereafter, they catch up with one of the jeweler’s sons, Bernard Marshal, who is traveling with several other men, some who turn out to be stakemen. After eliminating this renewed threat, and pursuing the ever elusive Morgan, they meet Winnetou, who now joins them in a skirmish with Comanche, then rides along on their way to San Francisco, the Sacramento gold fields and beyond. Eventually, the frontiersmen, Bernard Marshal and the Bob catch up with the Morgan criminals, who find their deserved end.

The narratives Der Scout (The Scout), together with Deadly Dust are, in some sense, forerunners of the later Winnetou novels. This volume presents the translation named, The Scout. Karl May saw his narrative Der Scout published in the magazine ‘Deutscher Hausschatz’ (German Home Treasures) in 1888/89. Between 1881 and 1889, Karl May had successfully produced his Oriental Odyssey, following which he proceeded to accomplish the same for the Wild West of his imagination. In so doing, he incorporated some aspects of The Scout in Volume II of his Winnetou Series.

May’s Scout, a first-person narrative, plays before a historical background, shortly after the American Civil War and the battle for power between the forces of Juarez and Maximilian, supported by the French, in Mexico, in the years 1865/66. He, furthermore, uses the opportunity to insert and express his beliefs about the then recently founded Ku-Klux-Klan.

The Scout certainly holds a special position in May’s Wild West stories in that the first-person narrator is still a novice to the trials and tribulations encountered. Although the young man is capable, he is still encumbered by the trappings of civilization, and has difficulties dealing with his new environment. Still a greenhorn, aptly described here, he is familiarized with the rules of the West by the story’s other protagonist, his mentor, the Scout, going by the frontiersman’s name of Old Death.

In this narrative, the storyteller is still far removed from the later, always competent and experienced frontiersman, but is described as a fallible human being with a long way to go to become the Old Shatterhand of the Winnetou Series and other Wild West novels of May’s. However, he also meets and defeats Winnetou in this story and is befriended by the Apache chief, who, in this early epic, is vengeful and is yet to become the noble human being of May’s later writings.

The Scout is thought to be one of Karl Mays best travel stories, into which the author wove, as it appears, some of his early personal experiences from his incarceration, which find expression in the poem ‘The Night Most Terrible,’ and remarks of Old Death about his misdeeds.

So, if you have read the Winnetou Series, go back in time to meet the, not-yet-so-named, ‘Old Shatterhand’ when he was still a greenhorn. Enjoy!

The Inca’s Legacy takes the reader from the city of Buenos Aires on Argentina’s east coast and a more than exotic bull fight, through the Gran Chaco, a wilderness only second to Central Africa at Karl May’s time, to the Cordilleras in the west. In the course of their journey, the heroes deal with friendly and hostile Indian tribes, are pursued and pursue some crooks, until the ‘bad guys’ find their deserved end in the high Cordilleras at and by the Inca’s Legacy.