Nightcats:The Novels

Nightcats

The Nightcats Novels

The original Black Palm Books editions of the Nightcats series

THIEVES. OUTCASTS. LEGENDS.

The legendary sword-and-sorcery paperbacks of Arjun Dev Malik.

Long before the Nightcats came to the gaming table, they stalked the steaming jungles, ruined temples, crowded bazaars, and moonlit rooftops of Jhelum in one of the strangest sword-and-sorcery paperback series of the 1970s.

Published by the now-defunct Black Palm Books, the Nightcats novels were the work of the mysterious adventure writer Arjun Dev Malik. The books mixed breathless pulp action with a lush, Indian-inspired fantasy world of rajas, jungle kingdoms, sinister priests, thieves' markets, forgotten gods, and treasures better left undisturbed.

Nobody read them for restraint.

The Nightcats broke into temples, robbed kings, cheated sorcerers, insulted priests, fled monsters, seduced dangerous people, and usually escaped with considerably less treasure than they had planned.

The lurid painted covers became nearly as famous as the stories themselves.

The Black Palm Editions

The classic Black Palm paperbacks appeared as inexpensive American mass-market editions beginning in 1971. Original copies are immediately recognizable by their black borders, enormous display lettering, painted sword-and-sorcery covers, and the little Black Palm catalog number printed beside the price.

The earliest editions originally sold for 75¢.

Surviving copies tend to look appropriately battered: cracked spines, softened corners, yellowing pages, creases, fingerprints, bookstore stamps, and the occasional mysterious brown spot best left scientifically unexplained.

A pristine Nightcats paperback somehow looks wrong.

The Original Series

1. Nightcats of the Sea of Blood

Black Palm BP 1001

The sea was red. The treasure was gold. The gods were hungry.

The novel that started it all. When a stolen idol draws the Nightcats into a war between pirate princes and the priests of a drowned god, the thieves find themselves stranded among ruined sea temples, blood-red lagoons, and creatures that have been worshiped much too recently.

2. The Idol Thieves of Raktapura

Black Palm BP 1002

Some treasures were never meant to leave the temple.

A fabulous temple idol is supposed to be an easy night's work. Instead, its theft awakens the ancient guardians of Raktapura and begins a running battle through collapsing shrines, jungle ruins, underground vaults, and the private palace of a very angry raja. Often cited by fans as the purest example of the classic Nightcats formula: get in quietly, steal something priceless, and spend the rest of the book running for your life.

3. The Jackal God of the Black Jungle

Black Palm BP 1003

The city was dead. Its god was not.

Deep in the Black Jungle lies a forgotten city whose people vanished centuries ago. Its god did not. Hired to recover a jeweled funerary mask, the Nightcats discover a lost cult, a royal conspiracy, and something enormous moving through the ruins after sunset.

4. The Bride of the Serpent King

Black Palm BP 1004

Before dawn, a queen would rise—or a kingdom would die.

A royal wedding, a missing bride, a cobra cult, and enough gold to tempt even sensible thieves. The Nightcats infiltrate the temple of the Serpent King expecting a kidnapping. They find a coronation.

5. The Demon Market of Jhelum

Black Palm BP 1005

Everything has a price in Jhelum.

Jhelum's night markets sell almost anything: weapons, spices, secrets, stolen jewels, sacred relics—and, on certain nights, things no respectable merchant will admit exist. When the Nightcats acquire a small black casket meant for somebody else, half the city's thieves, assassins, priests, and sorcerers suddenly want them dead. This volume is particularly remembered for its long opening sequence in the crowded bazaars of Jhelum.

6. The Tiger of the Blood Jungle

Black Palm BP 1006

The jungle keeps what it kills.

A caravan disappears along the jungle road. Then another. The raja blames bandits. The villagers whisper about a tiger large enough to carry away a horse. The Nightcats agree to investigate for the oldest reason in the profession: Someone is paying.

7. The City of a Thousand Gods

Black Palm BP 1007

A thousand gods. One forbidden city. Four thieves.

Beyond the mountains stands a ruined city filled with temples. Every street has an altar. Every doorway bears a face. Every god has been forgotten. Or so the Nightcats are told. A treasure map leads them into a city where stone idols watch from the darkness and an ancient priesthood waits for the return of its gods.

8. The Jewel of the Monkey Kings

Black Palm BP 1008

The greatest jewel in Jhelum had the worst possible owners.

The legendary Jewel of the Monkey Kings is said to be worth enough to buy a kingdom. Naturally, the Nightcats decide to steal it. Unfortunately, the ruined palace containing the jewel is occupied by creatures with strong opinions regarding private property. A fast, funny, particularly shameless entry in the series.

9. The Cobra Throne

Black Palm BP 1009

Three heirs wanted the throne. The Nightcats wanted the treasury.

The Nightcats become unwilling participants in a royal succession crisis when three rival heirs seek the ancient Cobra Throne. The throne itself may be symbolic. The cobras are not. Politics, poison, assassination, hidden passages, double-crosses, and a treasury full of gold make this one of the most overtly political books in the original series.

10. The Temple of Screaming Idols

Black Palm BP 1010

When the idols begin to scream, run.

A map purchased from a dying thief leads to an abandoned mountain temple where the stone faces carved into its walls appear to scream whenever anyone approaches the inner sanctuary. The Nightcats dismiss the phenomenon as priestly trickery. For once, they would have been better off believing the superstition.

The Author, Arjun Dev Malik

Little reliable information survives about Arjun Dev Malik, the author credited with the original books.

Black Palm advertising described him variously as a traveler, soldier, archaeologist, journalist, and "student of the mysteries of the East." None of these claims has ever been verified, and later paperback historians generally assume that at least some of Malik's biography was invented by the publisher.

Whether Malik himself was a pseudonym remains a favorite subject of Nightcats fandom.

His prose was fast, colorful, funny, occasionally lurid, and utterly uninterested in slowing down when another sword fight could happen instead.

The Cover Art

For many readers, the paintings were the books.

Black Palm packaged the series in the aggressive visual language of 1960s and 1970s sword-and-sorcery paperbacks: muscular thieves, exotic dancers, curved swords, jungle ruins, sinister idols, monsters erupting from darkness, blazing torches, and improbable quantities of red, black, and gold.

The best covers rarely depict a calm moment. Figures lunge diagonally across the frame. Temples collapse. Cloth and hair whip in the wind. Monsters emerge from the background while the Nightcats seem to be escaping directly through the front of the book.

The physical books themselves have become part of the aesthetic. Decades of wear have given surviving copies faded inks, battered corners, cracked covers, and the unmistakable patina of cheap paperbacks that were actually read.

The World of the Books

The series takes place primarily in and around Jhelum, a fabulous land of rajas, priests, thieves, bazaars, courtesans, mercenaries, temples, shrines, and competing gods.

The books never provide a systematic atlas or history. Places appear as the stories require them: jungle kingdoms, ruined cities, coastal temples, mountain strongholds, caravan roads, forgotten tombs, and villages sitting inconveniently close to ancient supernatural horrors.

That looseness became part of the charm.

Jhelum feels less like a meticulously mapped world than a place glimpsed through torchlight while somebody is chasing you.

The Nightcats

The Nightcats themselves are not noble champions or chosen heroes.

They are professional thieves.

They survive through stealth, audacity, swordsmanship, quick thinking, good friends, bad judgment, and a remarkable ability to become involved in affairs that should concern kings, armies, or priests instead.

They bow when etiquette requires it, drink when the opportunity presents itself, leave offerings when prudence demands it, and never steal from a shrine unless the treasure looks especially interesting.

Most adventures begin with the Nightcats pursuing wealth.

Most end with them alive, laughing, and considerably less wealthy than expected.

Reputation and Legacy

The Nightcats books were never respectable fantasy.

That helped.

The novels developed a cult following among readers who preferred their sword-and-sorcery quick, colorful, funny, exotic, and packed with incident. Collectors still argue over which books are best, which cover artist produced which painting, whether Malik was one person or several, and whether certain notorious later editions were actually authorized.

The books eventually vanished from stores.

The Nightcats did not.

In the jungles of Jhelum a million gods whisper in the leaves.

Kings rule by sorcery. Temples hide treasures older than memory.

But there are those who fear neither kings nor gods.

They are the Nightcats.

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