I managed to get through my 8 remaining Avon/Equinox authors' books close to the middle of the month, thus having time for no less than seven others not on any list. This included three books off my miscellaneous shelf. The count on that shelf is now 13 books remaining, with one new one to be added to it soon. Jenn will be bringing me the latest novel by Emily St John Mandel, author of Station Eleven. It's a uncorrected proof of the book, which doesn't come out till April 19th. My goal is to have that shelf cleared by the end of 2022, or sooner. I'm switching almost all my newer purchases over to Kindle now. There is no more room in the house for books, but lots of room on the Cloud.
Robert Silverberg had a long period of burnout beginning in 1976 from writing so much science fiction. He had already committed to writing two more novels for his publisher, and The Stochastic Man was the first of these. The plot is tied up with politics, and trying to make a certain man into a presidential candidate. Lew Nichols is hired as part of the team, first getting a Mr. Quinn elected as NYC major, and then leaping forward from there to make him a president. Nichol's job is to study trends and try to make educated guesses as to what moves would benefit Quinn in the long run. It's a pretty good novel, especially when written by a man who had a hard time facing up to the task of completing it. The story intensifies when Nichol's meets Carvajal, a strange older man who has seen into the future, and advises Nichols on several things that will certainly happen. Nichols writes him off as a scary quack at first, but when the predictions come true, Nichols investigates further. An intriguing story, well told.
Executive is book 4 of Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series. All of Anthony's heroes from all of his books share the same morals and characteristics, and despite this one being Hispanic, they are all quite bland and very predictable in virtually any situation. Anthony writes this book as if it were a textbook on how to run a country, rather than a story with a plot. Much of it is quite dry, though mildly interesting at times, such as when he isn't having sex with women, or thinking and talking about having sex with women. But those times are rare. I won't even go into how he manages to get a 15 year old girl to sleep with a 55 year old man, and she loves it. It's just the author, up to his old tricks. So far the series has been a disappointment, despite its potential to be something better. Anthony's writing seems to slip with each passing year. I am more often annoyed when reading him now than anything else.
It is always a breath of fresh air to read a novel by Harry Harrison after one by Piers Anthony. In March I read One King's Way, Harrison's 2nd epic novel (470 small print pages) about Vikings and their invasion of England. It is a truly great book, as the hero undertakes a massive circular northern journey of mythological proportions after engaging an enemy Viking ship in combat, and running aground in the marshes of coastal Germany. The story does not seem much like historical fantasy, but it is, especially as far as religion goes. Historical detail is accurate and fascinating, and the plot continues to evolve along with some of the main characters. The story is brutal in many places, with little in the way of humour to break things up. But everything feels right, and the two books read so far in this trilogy have been a wonderful and unique experience. As much as the story is focussed on adventures and battles, it is also a fascinating read because of all the inventing that goes on; there are new and better crossbows, new and better battleships, new and bettor armour, and even vast improvements in water and wind mills. Highly recommended for lovers of Viking sagas and early historical fiction.
I began yet another non SF series by Kenneth Bulmer, called simply Fox. Book 1 is called Powder Monkey, and tells of the exploits and growth of a poor young boy in London, making his way in the navy by starting out as a powder monkey, essentially a boy that runs powder and shot up to the cannons during a sea battle. When there are no battles he does just about anything, and (I mean almost anything) asked of him. The first part of the book shows him growing up in London, and then sent to his uncle's place in the marshes to help out there. This is a really fascinating part of the novel, but it gets even better once he signs up for navy and gets aboard a ship. A surprisingly fine novel, and I am looking forward to #2 later this month. By the time book 1 ends, Fox has been through adventures on land, where he saves his femal friend from being raped, and saves a British naval officer from death by Indian, and helps free his captured crew, and is engaged in a full fledged sea battle against a massive French warship. He is about to leave the Henrietta, and to enter the service of Captain Cuthbert, the man who he saved on land earlier. We hope things are looking up for the young man, as he has been through more in his short life than most people who live to ninety.
The Ming Vase is the title of a collection of 6 short stories by E C Tubb. Five stories were new to me. My favourite was called Star Haven, a novella about first contact, and a group of scientists returning to the site of a human colony to find it completely abandoned. Where did the 500 colonists go? As much a mystery story as a SF one, this is a brilliant bit of writing, and should have become a major motion picture. Highly recommended. Also quite good was a story called Trojan Horse. A man is sent to recover a container of pills stolen from an experimental chemical factory. The thief was the director's daughter, who lives in a maximum security apartment building. How to get inside? A decent story, along the lines of a private eye story.
Jack Williamson's Demon Moon was conceived and mostly written while he was on an extended trip to China. While the whole thing reads as fantasy, the underlying structure is pure SF, and a very good mixing of the two genres. Every thousand years, a cataclysm of planet shattering severity comes upon the land. This had happened twice before, and is about to happen again, though previous occurrences are remembered as mostly myth. It involves the approach of a dwarf star, a star that has some kind of intelligent entity living on it that seeks gold and other rare minerals for its survival. The mad priests of the planet call this thing Zath, and worship it and expect its return. By feeding it gold, they hope to be saved while everyone else perishes. Though the story contains some flaws, I was easily able to overlook them. The ending is nicely done, once all is explained. The concept is brilliant, and no doubt at least a hundred other similar stories could be written, based on the author's main idea of who these people are and where they are. All in all, a recommended read, and certainly worthy of 84 year old Jack Williamson's well known talents.
The 3rd novel of Michael Moorcock's Elric series was read. It is called The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and it continues the hero's long journey of discovery, begun at the end of book one. The third story is one of pure adventure, as three men and a ship's crew seek a lost city in the jungle of a land that is only known through some very old, mistrusted myths. Savage jungle creatures, a ruined city, a crystal-eyed giant statue, and a man living there who cannot die, are all ingredients of this almost familiar tale. Needless to say, there are very few survivors of the expedition, and some surprising deaths. Perhaps not the best jungle/lost city story I have read, it does have all the basic ingredients (though no women). A good addition to the tale of Elric's year of wandering.
The 8th and final book of my first phase of March reading was Barry Malzberg's Scop. Scop is the main character, a man obsessed with the murderous past of our civilization. He refers to the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963 as the beginning of the end, also calling it at one point "original sin." Scop, like all of Malzberg's main characters, is completely insane and on a mission. His mission is to somehow change history, so that flowers will grow in large fields, instead of the sadistic games that are played there to the death in his own time, the year 2040. Scop is short for Scopolamine, a drug that has psychoactive properties, and was used early on ass a truth serum. We know that Scop is in an institution, and that he somehow manages to get a transporter used to go back and witness historical events. He fixates on the 1960s assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, King, and Malcolm X, and believes that by stopping them from happening "the present may live again," meaning that we will live in less violent times. His madness, though recognized by the administrators, is not treated seriously when he claims that he will go back in time and change history. Of course he is as ineffective there as he is elsewhere. He makes one last futile attempt to save humankind at the end of the story. The book is readable, and a highly original and unique look at the 60s assassinations, as seen by a madman.
Scop also receives my coveted Book Cover of the Month Award. I am partial to orange.
I continue to enjoy my SF TV literature course, and have recently watched episodes on utopias/dystopias, the beginning of the pulp SF era, and evolution and deep time, among others. It is truly a really fun presentation, and many of the authors talked about are ones with whom I am very familiar, including long discussions on Olaf Stapledon and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
In movie news, we finally finished up Deb's March film festival. The 1989 documentary Forbidden City, USA is about the all-Chinese nightclub and musical revue in San Francisco, open from 1938 through the early 1960s. It interviews singers, dancers, and the owner, along with still photos and short film clips of several of the acts. A fascinating film, and it runs less than an hour. It contains an astoundingly racist song about Chinese girls, sung by three white female singers. This viewer was left boggle eyed and eared afterwards.
The Eternal Return is a French film from 1943, an updated version of Tristan and Isolde. If you did not know this, you would still get the feeling of an adult fairy tale in progress. It's a bit on the rigid side, but still compelling and fascinating to watch. Cocteau did the screenplay. There are several extras we haven't watched yet regarding the film. Starring a malicious dwarf, a violent drunk, and Jean Marais.
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