Avenger of Antares

Avenger of Antares

First edition cover
Author	Kenneth Bulmer
Cover artist	Jack Gaughan
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Dray Prescot series
Genre	Sword and planet
Published	1975
Publisher	DAW Books
Media type	Print (Paperback)
ISBN
Preceded by	Bladesman of Antares
Followed by	Armada of Antares

Avenger of Antares is a science fiction novel written by Kenneth Bulmer under the pseudonym of Alan Burt Akers, and is volume ten in his extensive Dray Prescot series of sword and planet novels, set on the fictional world of Kregen, a planet of the Antares star system in the constellation of Scorpio. It was first published by DAW Books in 1975.

The Dray Prescot series is made of several cycles of novels, each cycle essentially forming a series within the series. In addition to being the tenth volume in the series as a whole, Avenger of Antares is also the fifth of six volumes in the Havilfar Cycle. It is set on the fictional continent of Havilfar.

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, after 1988, were originally only published in German. The series is in the spirit of Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series.

The book continues on directly from Bladesman of Antares with Prescot sailing towards Vallia on a Vallian galleon. The ship is attacked by a raider of the Shanks, a mysterious fish-like race. The galleon wins the fight but is then attacked and sunk by an air ship from Hamal. Shipwrecked, Prescot and his surviving companions decide to attack the Hamalian air base to steal an air ship. The Vallians return home while Prescot sets of for Hamal again to continue his spying.

Back in Ruathytu, Prescot contacts his old friends Rees and Chido again. He decides to drop his disguise as a simpleton and average swordsman and defeats a local noble, Vad Garnath, and a master sword fighter from Zenicce in a duel and wins heavily on the betting. To protect him against Garnath's revenge another friend introduces Prescot into the Temple of Lem, an evil religion he despises. He agrees to follow along in order to learn more about it. On his return to Rees and Chido he learns that the former's oldest son has been murdered and his daughter Saffi kidnapped by the orders of Garnath and with the help of the Strom Rosil, a Kataki, a race predominantly engaged in the slave trade.