[2] Among the best authors published by the Angoisse horror imprint of Editions Fleuve Noir in the 1950s was André Ruellan, a physician who used the pseudonym of Kurt Steiner to pen 22 novels, mastering all the classic themes and creating some new ones as well.
Perhaps because of Ruellan's medical background, the strength of his novels lay in their detailed, almost clinical, atmosphere of heavy, oppressive, bludgeoning horror, which anticipated the stronger, gorier, books of the next decades.
In the first novel, Ortog is sent by its ruler, Karella, to find a cure for the slow death that is killing Earth and its inhabitants after a devastating interplanetary war.
In the sequel, Ortog, and his friend Zoltan, embark on an Orpheus-like quest through the dimensions of Death to find Kalla’s soul and bring her back to Earth.
Les Enfants de l'Histoire [The Children Of History] (1969) is a thinly-disguised allegory of the political events of May 1968 recast in future guise.