It was a good month for devouring books. There hasn't been a single clear observing night in the entire month so far, which means more evenings at home, and thus more reading (and writing--more on that later). I led off with the remaining eight authors of my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery project, and completed the cycle in a record 15 days. That left me with 16 days for free reading, and I managed to get through six more books, including a non-fiction art catalogue. I will discuss those six in a future blog.
Robert Silverberg's Born With The Dead is from 1974, and is 94 pages long, making it a short novel or long novella; take your choice. Sometime in the near future it is possible for rich people to return to a sort of afterlife after their death. When a man's wife dies in her 30s, she becomes one of the living dead. Even though she now has a new type of life with a new group of friends, her husband can't let go and tries to meet with her, which is never allowed. At first unsuccessful, he at last gets to talk with her, though it doesn't go as he had planned. A second attempt brings the story towards its conclusion. The story has its creepy aspects, as the dead people live lives quite different from the rest of us. The man's wife continues her research work, but also takes up game hunting, something she never did before. And her research and travels, along with those of the rest of her dead companions, seem to focus on ancient history, ruins, and aspects of peoples lives of long ago (which sounds pretty good to me). A good story, and certainly long enough for the idea it explores. Recommended, and would make a good SF film.
Piers Anthony's 3rd entry in his Bio of a Space Tyrant series is called Politician, from 1985. Hope Hubris runs for office this time. Though the book can be considered SF, it really isn't. It's a parody of American politics during the Nixon administration, though for readers of today it comes much closer to the doings in the era of Trump. Many things that occur towards the end of Politician are frighteningly close to what happened during the Biden/Trump election in 2019 and afterwards in early 2020, and still continue to this day. The book is also a pretty good way to get younger readers to learn something about American politics.
For
the most part, I actually liked this book. Readers of any recent
reviews of mine regarding Anthony's later writing may be surprised by
this. If I'd read this novel ten years ago, or even five, I would have
laughed at some of the things that Hubris had to face after he won the
election. Now I just nod my head knowingly. I wonder what Anthony
thinks of Trump's attempt at a coup; I think I have a pretty good idea.
Should you feel the need to learn something about American politics in a
fairly entertaining way, then this is your big chance. If you are
merely looking for a good SF story, you might want to look elsewhere.
The Stainless Steel Rat Sings The Blues is from 1994, and continues Harry Harrison's most successful comedy SF series. As is usual for the author, there are some serious themes mixed in
here, as well as some great send ups of pop music, for example being
able to form a band and be ready in one week for a road show. Male
chauvinists, male dictators, males with swollen egos and with inflated
images of themselves also can taken down a peg or three. All in all, a
fun book to read, and the pages turn quickly.
Kenneth Bulmer, like many pulp writers, used many different names in his career. He wrote a two-book pirate adventure under the name Richard Silver. The first one is called By Pirate's Blood. This first one is from 1975 and is 146 pages. Solidly
within the pulp tradition, and thus catering mainly to male readers,
the story is an easy read and packed with action and adventure.
Sebastien Shark is an English buccaneer, not a pirate, if you please.
Set in the 1670s in the Indies, the Spanish are the bad guys here, as
are real pirates. Real pirates will attack any ship, even other
those of other pirates, but buccaneers are English, and will only go after Spanish
ships. If you like rousing action on the high seas, here is a first
rate example of what is available. Bulmer pulls no punches, and the
story has violence galore, as well as sex and murder. With a loyal
bunch of cutthroats at his back, Shark is able to escape capture by the
Spanish, who long to torture him before killing him. Bulmer is in top
form here, and the book is recommended once the reader knows what is in
store.
E C Tubb's entire ouevre is out there on Kindle, for good or bad. Planetoid Disposals Ltd was written under the pen name (which I love!) Volsted Gridban. It concerns a company formed to keep space lanes clear of asteroids and other debris. This is typical SF pulp fiction, much of it silly nonsense, but it
must have had wide appeal in the early 1950s. There is only one female
in the story, and though she is a good space pilot, her job is to mostly
stay home and let the men take care of things. Then, and only then,
can she marry Steve. This is pretty basic SF writing.
Jack Williamson's Mazeway is a sequel to his superior LifeBurst, hampered by a weak central character, and an evil alien presence that no one seems to notice. It's still a good read, especially having read the first book. In this one we get a good look at life on Earth after the devastation caused by the previous evil alien's baby. Life isn't pretty, let me tell you. There are some wonderful alien landscapes in this one, mostly underground, where a bizarre competitive game is played out by teams of intelligent beings. Groups of three are dropped off at a given position, and must make their way to another area some distance away. The planet where these games are played is riddled with tunnels and tubes, from the original race (now long gone) who mined the planet nearly to its core. The underground playground is a dangerous place, however, and not all teams make it out alive. The edition I read has the distinction of winning this month's best cover art.
Next up was Michael Moorcock's 1982 The Brothel In Rosenstrasse, a superb bit of fiction mostly taking place in his imagined ideal European city of culture (resembling an early version of Prague), and loosely tied in to his Von Bek series of novels. The book begins slowly, and I could see readers giving up on it after 50 pages or so. But it just gets better and better as it moves along, until finally it's hard to put it down. Essentially
the story is about a man (a Von Bek) dying in his bed, looked after by
an older man, a servant. Von Bek is writing his memoirs, and his
thoughts go between the present and the past, often in the same
paragraph. Von Bek was a rake (at least in his own mind; we never know
for certain if he has imagined some things from his past life or really
lived them all. He takes a young lover, a girl of 16, whose parents
have gone to Italy and left her with a relative. They end up in
Mirenburg, in a hotel at first, but then move to rooms in the brothel.
The second chapter deals with events and happenings at the brothel, and
the people who frequent it. At this point the book becomes fascinating
for its unsentimental look at the lives of the women who work there, and
the clients who visit. There is a good deal of sex, some of it extreme
and some of it violent.
The
third chapter deals with a war, and the siege of Mirenburg. This
mirrors the siege of Paris, a true event in 1870, and how people survived during
the bombardment, but is even more harsh and terminal than the original siege. The finest preserved city
in Europe is totally destroyed by the invaders. Von Bek and his young little
Alexandra plan to leave the city via the underground sewer system, but
when he is stood up his life seems to come to
an end, just as the city itself is destroyed.
I
loved the book, except for the slow exposition, and was soon immersed in
European fin de siecle decadence at its finest and most intimate. Moorcock has
created much truth with this fictional account of a man who loves young
girls, especially his Alex. It is not a book related to much of his
other writing. The only fantasy element is the city itself, and the
fact that Von Bek's memories might also be largely fantasy. In a book filled
with quotable moments, I have chosen only two.
"Man's greatest monuments, his architecture, never outlast his acts of aggression." P. 181.
"Greed
is not evil. What is evil is the manipulation of others in order to
satisfy it; the quest for power. That is the crime." P. 187.
I highly recommend the book, but it is for serious adult readers.
Lastly in my required monthly reading came the next novel by Barry Malzberg. Called Conversations, it is from 1975, and continues his short narratives about a very controlling future world. It concerns young people growing up inside a vast building, kept from the savage outside world, and forced to submit to the will of a group of elders. The building is 40 floors in height, and each floor holds 1500 rooms, so the population is sizable. Dal is twelve, and lives on the 20th floor. He comes under the dangerous influence of Lothar, 14, who is secretly holding on to magazines from the before time, with advertisements showing happy, smiling people, including families. The children of today are separated early from their parents, and live in small enclaves, and are taught to look out for one another. When his friends see Dal coming under the bad influence of Lothar, he is reported. The book is easy to read and has moments that will linger long in the reader's mind.
Tomorrow I will write about the six other books I read in November. We are currently under a winter storm advisory,and are expecting some decent amounts of snow an a blast of cold air tonight. We enjoyed a music-filled New Year's Eve, but it was too warm to have an indoor fire. Deb is currently off to visit her mom in Kingsville, and should be home well ahead of the oncoming storm.
In movie news, there are two films to report, both my choices. Both were leaving Criterion Dec. 31st. The first was directed by John Huston, called The Treasure of Sierra Madre. There are movies, and there are movies. This is one of the latter. One of the best adventure films of all time, Humphrey Bogart plays a man down on his luck who joins with two others to go in search of gold in the Mexican desert mountains. Walter Huston plays the old coot who has more know how than either of the other two put together, and leads them to a high degree of success, despite all the hardships, including some famous Mexican banditos ("I don't need to show no stinking badge!").
Two of them end up okay by the end, but Bogart's mental deterioration, caused by his gold lust, becomes complete and terminal. A classic which we haven't seen in many years.
Over the holidays we had the great misfortune to watch the 270 version of Einstein on the Beach on blue ray. This is possibly the world's leading example of over indulgent, pretentious crap. Because of Robert Wilson's "vision" and execution, Glass' music has to loop ad infinitum to get through a scene. Filled with contorted faces, repetitive body movements, meaningless snatches of poetry repeated ad nauseam, anyone who can sit through this in one go should be locked away in an asylum. A lot of people continue to be taken in by this gloss. The full version stinks to high heaven. Now, there is a CD (music only) of musical highlights, which sounds more like what I might listen to again. But if anyone wants a blue ray copy, let me know--it's available. P.S. This is not an opera by any definition. It is a vastly overextended piece of bad performance art, that should have been left in the dung heap in 1976. Instead, it keeps magically reappearing from time to time. I remember when this version was presented several times in Ann Arbor, before it set out on its world tour. I did not go near it then, and I should have stayed away now.
Mapman Mike
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