There is a type of hybrid fantastic fiction that has the attitude of sword & sorcery but has a science fictional setting. It owes to Edgar Rice Burroughs but also has some Robert E. Howard in it. Gardner F. Fox’s “Sword of the Seven Suns” might be the first example I can think of. The story generally contains barbarians on other worlds and pseudo-science in place of sorcery. Poul Anderson refined this type of story with “Swordsman of Lost Terra,” “Witch of the Demon Seas,” and “The Virgin of Valkarion.” Alfred Coppell was another practitioner. It is a very Planet Stories sort of yarn.

It is no surpise that silent generation readers who came of age reading Planet Stories went on to continue this sort of story. Lin Carter’s Tower at the Edge of Time, Andrew J. Offutt’s “The Forgotten Gods of Earth,” and Dave Van Arnam’s Star Barbarian.

Dave Van Arnam (1935-2002) was active in fandom producing a number of fanzines for amateur press associations in the 1960s. He also co-wrote The Reader’s Guide to Barsoom and Amtor with Richard Lupoff in 1963. He co-wrote two novels with Ted White. He dedicated Wizard of Storms (1970) to Lin Carter, “friend past words.”

Star Barbarian was from Lancer Books (of course) from 1969 with a cover of early Jeff Jones in his imitation Frazetta phase. The background is the expansion of mankind to the stars. There is civilizational collapse in some of the out of the way places with a return to barbarism.

Jamnar is the hero of the novel. His barbarian tribe is wiped out through treachery. He survives and leads a coalition of tribes agains the evil priests of the dark god Shaphath.

Lord of Blood followed a year later in 1970 from Lancer Books. This novel has a cover by Jim Steranko with model Steve Holland filling in as Jamnar.

Jamnar had been given the title of Valzar after a hero from five hundred years earlier. The previous novel ended with Jamnar thrown down a sea-side cliff. He has more adventures dealing with a decadent cruel slave owning society.

The novels have lots of long, multi-syllable words for names, cities, and animals so beloved by sword & planet authors. Van Arnam unsurprisingly, reads kind of like Lin Carter. Lord of Blood was reprinted in the mid-1970s.

Van Arnam also had two sword & sorcery novels featuring Tassoran in Players of Hell (Belmont Books, 1968) and a sequel Wizard of Storms (Belmont, 1970). These two novels are not really barbaric but appear more influenced by Fritz Leiber.

Lord of Blood used to be common in used bookstores 35-40 years ago as there was two printings. A little searching should turn copies up.