08/05/2026
The Gardens of Lucullus by Richard L. Tierney and Glenn Rahman. Rates pretty high on the obscure meter, and it’s not just another small-press HPL, or REH style pastiche.
It was published by the Sidecar Preservation Society in 2001, the copy I’m holding is the first edition, and first printing. A true trade paperback original, coming in @ 273 pages. (ISBN 0-9711520-0-4, sticker $15.95) This TPBO has an introduction by Robert M. Price, and bears a cover photomontage by John Tynes. I’ve heard that Sidecar was associated with the people behind Fedogan & Bremer, we’ve a few people in group with the knowledge, maybe will give us the skinny. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a numbered or limited edition. Bur Sidecar isn’t known for big print runs.
Further, the novel was written around 1981 but remained unpublished for approximately twenty years. That history gives the Sidecar edition additional significance: it is the book’s original appearance, not a modern reprint.
What it’s about:
The hero is Simon of Gitta, Tierney’s sword-and-sorcery reinvention of the historical and biblical Simon Magus, and frankly one of the most refreshing S&S characters in decades. Tierney transforms Simon into an escaped gladiator, wandering sorcerer, Gnostic rebel, and enemy of Rome. He fights with both a curved Sica and the occult.
It’s set in Rome, AD 48, during the reign of Claudius, the story begins with Simon being returned to the city in chains after helping northern tribes resist Roman rule. Claudius releases him, but there is a condition: Simon must investigate a dangerous goddess cult operating inside Rome.
This cult is associated outwardly with Cybele, the Magna Mater, or Great Mother; but behind its classical religious appearance lies something much older and more monstrous. The novel effectively treats an ancient mystery religion as the public mask of a Lovecraftian cult attempting to restore a prehistoric entity to power.
Simon joins forces with Rufus Hibernicus, a massive Irish gladiator. Rufus supplies much of the brute force and earthy humor, while Simon is the leaner, more calculating swordsman and magician. I’d compare this relationship favorably to Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
The full ride includes: a Roman historical adventure, solid sword & sorcery, for entertainment we Have some gladiatorial action, and espionage and political intrigue. We also get Gnostic religion, mystery cults, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, and in the Leiber tradition it has a fair amount of gallows humor amidst the sword-play.
The title refers to the real Gardens of Lucullus, the luxurious Roman estate created by Lucius Licinius Lucullus on the Pincian Hill. Tierney and Rahman turn that historical location into part of the book’s decadent and sinister Roman setting. Its importance is that this was Simon of Gitta’s first full novel-length adventure. Most of Tierney’s earlier Simon material appeared as short fiction in magazines and anthologies such as Swords Against Darkness, Weirdbook, Crypt of Cthulhu, and Space & Time. The shorter stories were eventually collected in The Scroll of Thoth (Chaosium), and later Sorcery Against Caesar (Edit Pickman).
Chronologically, The Gardens of Lucullus takes place late in Simon’s career, around AD 48. It follows the events of the subsequently published The Path of the Dragon and precedes “The Pillars of Melkarth.” A related novel, Glenn Rahman’s Heir of Darkness, was published in 1989 despite being conceived after Gardens; it shares the same fictional background but does not feature Simon himself.
The contemporary Weird Tales description neatly identified it as a “Gnostic sword-and-sorcery novel with Cthulhu Mythos elements.” Later reviewers have praised its researched Roman atmosphere, combination of horror and adventure, and the Simon–Rufus partnership.
As a collectible, the 2001 Sidecar edition is scarce and frequently unavailable, but demand is specialized/niche.
