I got through 13 books last month, including ten from my Avon/Equinox project, which took me to #600 in that long term project. Though I knew it would take me awhile, I didn't realize how much more would still be left to go after more than 5 years. However, I will finish up Ballard in August, and James Blish will last three more months beyond that. Still lots of Silverberg left, and Jack Williamson, Kenneth Bulmer, Harry Harrison, Michael Moorcock, and E. C. Tubb. I won't read all of Piers Anthony's oeuvre, by choice. But since I only read one book per month by each author, I will soon be able to read outside of the project even more frequently. This month I managed three such books, which will likely be the norm after Ballard and Blish are done. I still have novels by Iain Banks I haven't yet read, and a shelf full of others.
I began the month with Silverberg's The Second Trip, a flawed novel about replacing one man's criminal mind with another improved one, in the same body. In this case, the criminal is not quite erased, and comes back to give the new tenant a hard time. Like The Prisoner TV series, which saw the prisoner unable to escape his prison because of a big balloon, this one has to have a means of keeping the new person from seeking help from his doctors. So of course the criminal can control bodily functions, and can cause a heart attack, etc. if he goes for help. The story drags, is quite predictable, and I was happy to move to on to the next selection.
Bearing An Hourglass, by Piers Anthony, is the 2nd book in his Incarnations of Immortality series. This promised to be quite a good series, but is spoiled in the main by Anthony's desire to be funny. Sometimes it works, but mostly it doesn't. There is no mistaking Anthony's brilliance as an idea man, and his painstaking research that ensures his science and metaphysics are up to date show his desire to write as well as he can. This book deals with the character of Time (Death was the star of the first book), and Anthony does a good job of fleshing him out. While everyone else lives with time running forward, Time himself lives his life in reverse, causing several paradox to occur, sometimes at the same time. There are so many fascinating aspects to the story, and it ties in to the first book quite brilliantly, too. I just wish Anthony would stop trying to appeal to juveniles and adults in the same story, and get back to his classic adult writing.
It's always so refreshing to read a book by Harrison, especially after one by Anthony. Harrison can write SF comedy like nobody else (Anthony's young teenage daughter adored the Stainless Steel Rat series), and the serious stuff can knock your socks off. The Jupiter Plague was a rewrite and extension of a previous version as Plague of Space. Either version is great stuff, as a disease from space kills virtually everyone within hours of contacting it. The race for a cure is Harrison at his adventurous best. There are no bad guys in the story, but plenty of people who are not very smart, and make very bad decisions. Sound familiar? This disease makes Covid 19 seem like "a little flu."
Having completed all of Kenneth Bulmer's single novels and one of his series, I now turn to the rest of his series, many written under different names. His largest series by far is the Dray Prescott Series, some 53 books. The books are divided into smaller series, and I am currently reading the first five-book series, called The Delian Cycle. And the first book is called Transit To Scorpio. It's an hommage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, much like Moorcock's Mars series. I have read virtually all of Burroughs, and have all his books in paperback and on Kindle (which is where I found the Delian Cycle at a bargain price). But I haven't read any in a very long while. So I have Moorcock, and now Bulmer, to thank for reminding me of many boyhood days spent reading stuff like this. Silly stuff, of course, but silly can be fun.
Stardeath, by E. C. Tubb, keeps up the pulp SF tradition nicely, as Captain Varl returns (though it would appear to be his first time in each book he appears (the stories make it sound as if they are not connected). Some really bad aliens are attacking Earth ships, and need to be stopped. Varl has a ship build to his specifications, and heads out with a hand-picked crew to put a stop to it. I really liked the netherworld where the 2nd half of the book takes place. It is never explained, which I also liked. After all, who can explain the unexplainable?
Jack Williamson's Brother To Demons, Brother to Gods is another outstanding story by the master. It very much resembles a comic book story, and would make a wonderful graphic novel series. Two orphaned children, growing up on poor and strained Red Rock Reservation in a far future Colorado, cling to their belief that a superman will come someday to lift them to new heights. Told in five novelettes, each story concludes with the children acquiring power, increasing with each obstacle at which they arrive. It is a story of genetics and planting the seed for a more powerful being, one that can overcome the aristocratic gods that now rule the galaxy. The children are wonderfully portrayed throughout the novel. I didn't give the story a perfect rating because I had a problem with the ending. Even so, considering it as a comic book, the ending is likely the correct one. Excellent reading.
Speaking of comic books, next up was another Eternal Champion 3-book series by Moorcock. The Eternal Champion introduces John Draker (John Carter tribute), and the book ties in to the Corum series and others. Draker awakens in a different world, a hero expected to help humans defeat the evil (so we are told) Eldren. He pledges to help exterminate the enemy, and then proceeds to do so. When only a few Eldren remain, including the woman he loves, he realizes he has made a mistake in killing them. Oops. Sorry. And so he joins forces with the Eldren to wipe out all the humans instead, including the woman he once loved. In Moorcock's books of this type, very few people remain alive when all is said and done, and enough killing has gone on to turn the oceans red with blood. There might even be a not so subtle message in his books about this. Not that anyone important will ever hear it. A good beginning to the series.
Next came another 15 or so shorter tales by J G. Ballard. In one more month I will finish reading his works. The best stories this time around were: My Dream of Flying To Wake Island, a meditation on downed aircraft, Pacific islands, and a failed astronaut; Say Goodbye To The Wind, another lovely poem-like story about strange events in Vermillion Sands, the desolate desert community where many of Ballard's finest stories occur; Low Flying Aircraft, one of the best near future stories ever written; The Dead Time, a gruesome precursor to his novel about wartime Shanghai; The Intensive Care Unit, a story that comes so close to the truth at present that I think it would have shocked the author; and A Host of Furious Fancies, a retelling, in Freudian terms, of the Cinderella story.
The Day of the Burning is a classic Barry Malzberg story, a variation on a theme he has written about many times. Aliens are going to burn up the planet unless Mercer, a New York social worker, can close a difficult case in 12 hours. Watching someone go mad might not seem the best material for comedy, but with Malzberg there is nothing funnier. And he proves it again and again as his main characters go off the deep end in various ways, taking us on a one-way journey of horror and humour, into the darkest regions of ourselves. No one writes better material about social workers (of which Malzberg was one once) and the people they serve. A brilliant story.
Anywhen is a small collection of short stories by James Blish. Out of seven stories in the book, I awarded highest ratings to four of them! One I was unable to rate, as I didn't "get it." (I still don't). The Writing of the Rat brilliantly depicts humanity's struggle encountering superior aliens; And Some Were Savages is another excellent story, this one about 2nd contact (1st contact left the aliens with a human plague; the 2nd trip is to try and fix that little problem); A Dusk of Idols tells of a doctor landing on a disease-ridden planet, trying to save the people there. His adventures recall Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith; How Beautiful With Banners reminded me of the writing of Hal Clement; this is a beautiful story with a sad but very funny ending.
And now for the best SF cover this past month. And the winner is....
Turning to other books on my miscellaneous shelf, I read two from the shelf and one from Kindle. From the shelf came The Casebook of Solar Pons, #4 in the series by August Derleth. Taking up where Conan Doyle left off, the short adventures mimic the original tales closely, with tongue in cheek references to Sherlock here and there. I have enjoyed all the Pons books, and will check into whether I have read all the stories now.
Next was a little gem of a hardcover I picked up in a local antique store a few years ago. The book disappeared behind other books, but was recently rediscovered. There Were Two Pirates, by James Branch Cabell, reunited me with one of my favourite authors from the Ballantine Fantasy series, edited by Lin Carter. I have Carter to thank for introducing me to one of the greatest fantasy writers who ever lived, and the most recent discovery is no exception. Half pirate adventure and half youthful remembrance, this is a very funny and very classy story, told with real charm and sophistication. I will soon own the complete works of Cabell, and can't wait to embark on the many tales awaiting me.
Lastly came Chesterton's first series of stories featuring little Father Brown, and his best friend, retired French master criminal Flambeau. There are twelve stories in volume one, collectively called The Innocence of Father Brown. They are all fun to read, though some of the mysteries work better than others. The finest story in the volume is called The Sign of the Broken Sword, a tale of an English war hero is which the truth is revealed about his character and exploits. It is a truly great story of deduction, and the cult of heroism. Sadly, the wonderful stories and characters of Chesterton have little to do with the BBC TV series, other than the titles. There is no Flambeau, no corrupt French chief of Police Valentin, and instead we have two rival women characters that add virtually nothing to the stories. Give the TV series a miss, and grab hold of the original tales.
Next up on my (long) list is a Silverberg tale from 1971, called Son of Man. Before we leave the world of books, I wish to say a few words about the Delphi complete works collection of e-books. This is a vast and stunning undertaking, and has been going on for several years now. I have already purchased the following, at less than $4 each: the Complete Works of.... Chesterton, William Morris, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, Lord Dunsany, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machan, L. Frank Baum, and Jules Verne. Coming soon is Clark Ashton Smith (!!!) and Cabell (!!!). These editions are filled with artwork, photos, excellent editing, and virtually everything the author wrote, including criticism and non-fiction essays, etc. In edition, there are articles from critics of the author, many of them famous writers themselves. Delphi have hundreds of editions out, with more coming every year. I will go back and pick up a few more soon, including H. Rider Haggard. Many volumes contain hundreds of hours reading on their own.
Turning to movies, this weekend is devoted to Deb's film festival. She has chosen a massive Russian 1960s version of War and Peace. Sounds like fun. My two most recent picks were Taipei Story, from 1985 and directed by a favourite of ours, Edward Yang. We have now seen three of his films. Part of Scorsese's World Cinema Project, we saw a fully restored version. The movie is very good, and offers up some wonderful scenes of Taipei, as well as several generations of people that inhabit it. Well worth seeing, as are all films in this wonderful restored series..
From the leaving July 31st list I chose Godard's Pierrot Le Fou, an amazing film I have never seen before. Belmondo is superb as the man who is jerked around by a beautiful woman (Anna Karina) whom he loves. It is a romantic road movie, a crime story, and a very funny comment on modern times, including cinema. Godard must have had fun with this one. A good catch, and none too soon.
No art from the DIA today. Next time for sure, along with a brief climate recap of our July.
Mapman Mike
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