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With the publication of this two-volume set, the Saga of S'ldak the space-born sorcerer king has finally been presented in its complete form, over three decades after its humble beginnings. The life of the doomed interstellar mystic, as chronicled by Seamus McMahon, not only spanned centuries and the length of the universe, it also spanned a number of publications and book editions. In the following text, I will attempt to give the print history of S'ldak stories in the United States.
The first S'ldak tale, "Bane of the Enchanted Empire", appeared in Family Publications' Outer Worlds magazine in September 1958, introducing the strange-looking hero, dark skinned with light hair, as well as his ongoing battle against the imperial forces of the Enchanted Empire.  The tale is also the first appearance of the hero's magical amulet, central to the blurring of technology and magic in all of the S'ldak stories. There are allusions to tragedy in the protagonist's past, along with dark hints that he has already had a glimpse of his tragic future. Noticeably missing in this original version was the strange scar marking S'ldak's forehead.
This story was soon followed by "The Fourth Moon" in the next issue of Outer Worlds, November 1958. Another S'ldak tale would not appear again in the magazine until May 1959, in which the novella-length "The Gods of Infinity" appeared. It was closely followed in the next two issues by the short stories "For Whom the Gods Wish to Kill" and "The Reluctant Demigod." The next tale to see print, "The Contracting Star", was an anomaly in that it was the only S'ldak story published by Family to appear in a magazine other than Outer Worlds, debuting in a special summer edition of Fantastic Dimensions of the Unknown. It was also distinct in that it was the first tale in the series to not take place after the story which preceded it into print, prompting some to believe it was written between "The Fourth Moon" and "The Gods of Infinity". 1959 also saw the first appearance of McMahon's weirdest hero in book form. Family published a revised and extended version of "Bane of the Enchanted Empire" under the title The Enchanted Empire as half of a twofer book shared with Alexander Fish's The Time Keepers. As this novella length rewrite of the first S'ldak tale has become the official version, the original “Bane” version is the only portion of the series never to be reprinted in its original form. With the folding of Family's science fiction department later that same year and McMahon's subsequent withdrawal from writing fiction to work in film, the character made no appearance for almost half a decade. Neither did McMahon, at least not in the world of publishing. In 1964, after the appearance of a number of well-received McMahon short stories in various periodicals, Jackdaw Books brought out The Dark King's Court, a new S'ladak tale and the author's first full-length novel. An immediate prequel to the original series of short stories, it was his most ambitious work in his early career. In 1968, the year Overman, McMahon's most controversial work, was published, one S'ldak tale, "Cold Death of the Universe", appeared in Another Universe Magazine, published by Anorak Press. The company also collected all of the early tales into two books, S'ldak and the Enchanted Empire and S'ldak on the Fourth Moon. A number of these stories appeared in science fiction and fantasy paperback compilations during this era, as well. Though the late sixties and early seventies were a prolific time for the writer, S'ldak didn't appear again until 1973 in A Covenant with Fate, also from Anorak. By far the darkest work in an already dark series, this book begins where the late 50s stories leave off, following the main character's rise to rule the empire he once fought and his subsequent debasement by the power he had always in the past denied, ending in his tragic death. A number of writers have noted the influence of both MacBeth and the Nixon administration upon this book, a parable about corruption and tyranny. And thus ended the saga of S'ldak. Almost. In the late seventies, Halloway Publishing contracted with McMahon, who had by then purchased the rights to the early tales from Family, to publish all the S'ldak tales in a series of paperback books. Perhaps discussing the details renewed the author's interest in his creation, as he soon presented Halloway with the "first" book in the series, a newly-written short novel titled Gift From a Blind God. It actually begins with the birth of the hero, leading up to the events The Dark King's Court. Until now, the Halloway series had been the official version of the saga. It appeared as follows:
In 1985, while sorting through a folder of manuscripts, McMahon came upon a typewritten S'ldak story, "Deadly Eclipse". He didn't remember the story, and after asking around, realized that the tale had never been published. Its writing style and references to other stories in the series dates it as being from 1959. It soon saw print in a collection edited by Frederick Fendrake. Then in 1990, the author of this essay discovered another piece of what was thought to be a completed puzzle. In the third issue of the Family Publications comic book Space Battle, dated November 1953, a text story appeared called "The Magic Empire", featuring a hero named Soldack. Seamus McMahon was assistant editor of comic books at Family during that time. Though not officially part of the canon, the text was obviously a precursor and makes its first book appearance in this edition. Finally, while compiling this omnibus collection, the editor noticed a scene in McMahon's manuscript for Gift From a Blind God that wasn't in the Halloway edition. Studying all of the texts and working with McMahon and his literary agent, the editor realized that unauthorized cuts had been made in the Halloway books. These have been reinstated into the texts. So now, complete and unabridged, the tale of S'ldak is presented.
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