John Eric Holmes

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John Eric Holmes (February 16, 1930 – March 20, 2010)^[2] was an American professor of neurology^[3] and writer of non-fiction, fantasy and science fiction. His writings appeared under his full name and under variants such as Eric Holmes and J. Eric Holmes and the pen name Sidney Leland.^[4]

Life

Holmes was the son of

Holmes was a long-time science fiction

He later wrote on Dungeons & Dragons, from the perspectives of both a Dungeon Master and an authority on the psychology of gaming, serving as editor of the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set RPG rule book, and writing a series of fantasies set in a D&D-influenced world, including four short stories and one novel. These stories, along with a previously unpublished story, were collected in 2017 into the book Tales of Peril: the Complete Boinger & Zereth Stories of John Eric Holmes, edited by Allan T. Grohe, Jr and published by Black Blade Publishing.

Holmes made an offer to

Taking his writing more "mainstream," he wrote with David F. Lindsley the textbook Basic Human Neurophysiology (1984), and on his own pastiche speculative fiction novels set in the inner world of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar, the fictional future of Philip Francis Nowlan's Buck Rogers, and the fictional past of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.

Holmes's two Pellucidar novels were Mahars of Pellucidar,^[3] authorized by the Burroughs estate, and Red Axe of Pellucidar, reportedly blocked by the same authority. Ready for publication in 1980, it initially only saw print thirteen years later in a private printing.^[6] Both novels were ultimately officially re-released by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. in 2022 in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audio CD as part of its Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe series.^{[citation needed]} A planned third novel in the series, Swordsmen of Pellucidar, remained unfinished.^[6]

His other pastiches also met with mixed success. While Mordred, his Buck Rogers novel, saw print, his Conan novel, while contracted and paid for by Tor Books, was ultimately rejected. Another novel, Danton Doring, a collaboration with Burroughs' son John Coleman Burroughs, whom he helped treat for Parkinson's disease, was never completed.^[6]

Holmes was a regular guest at Burroughs fan conventions such as the Edgar Rice Burroughs Chain of Friendship (ECOF). He received its Lifetime Achievement Award for his Burroughs pastiches at ECOF '93 in Willows, California.^[6] He was slated to appear as Guest of Honor at 2004's ECOF Convention in Sacramento, California, but suffered a stroke and was unable to attend. He was a special guest at the June 2005 ECOF in Portland, Oregon.

Bibliography

Fiction

Boinger the Halfling and Zereth the Elf

The stories published in Alarums & Excursions (A&E), included illustrations by Chris Holmes:

• “Warrior-for-Hire” in A&E #11, p. 2 (May 1976)
• “Were-shark” in A&E #13, pp. 3–4 (July 1976)
• “The Adventure of the Giant Chameleon” in A&E #14, pp. 4–7 (Aug. 1976)
• “The Adventure of the Lost City: Part One” in A&E #17, pp. 8–13 (Dec. 1976)
• “The Sorcerer’s Tower: Adventure of the Lost City: Part Two” in A&E #19, pp. 8–12 (Feb. 1977)
• “Trollshead” in The Dragon, #31, pp. 3, 40–44 (Nov. 1979)
• “The Sorcerer’s Jewel” in Dragon, #46, pp. 6–9, 60–65 (Feb. 1981)
• “In the Bag” in Dragon, #58, p. 36–38, 43–46 (Feb. 1982)
• The Maze of Peril (
  ISBN 0-917053-05-2
  ) (Nov. 1986)
• Tales of Peril: the Complete Boinger and Zereth Stories of John Eric Holmes (
  ISBN 978-0-9842870-7-9) (June 2017) (includes the previously unpublished story "Witch Doctor", written with Chris Holmes)^[9]

• ISBN 0-441-51590-8
  ) (1976)
• Red Axe of Pellucidar (1993 – privately printed)
• Swordsmen of Pellucidar (unfinished)