As per usual, I read 8 books from the authors included in the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series. By the end of this year that number should be down to six authors. Usually I finish those books near mid-month, reserving the rest of the month for reading books by any and all authors with books on my miscellaneous shelf, or in my Kindle collection. For now the first half of the month begins with a book by Robert Silverberg, and ends with one by Barry Malzberg. Here we go....
Shadrach In The Furnace is from 1986, and is the last novel Silverberg wrote before his big burnout. He would not have written this one, but his contract with a publisher meant he owed them one more novel. After this he abstained from writing for several years, until out came Lord Valentine's Castle in 1980. Shadrach concerns a black man with a Jewish name. Shadrach Mordeci is an odd name for a non Jewish black American doctor,
but don't worry, Silverberg does explain everything well later on. He
is physician to the current world leader, Genghis II Mao IV. He is hooked
into his elderly patient's vital signs, and keeps tabs on him 24/7.
When not having organ transplant surgery, Genghis II rules the world with an
iron hand. There is an antidote to the disease plaguing the planet, but
Genghis is not sharing it except for his small circle of government
employees. As if that could ever happen (cough cough). Much of the action is set in world headquarters in Ulan Bator (now called Ulaan Baatar), except when the doctor takes a round the world trip for his vacation. Overall, this is a pretty solid read, another in the successful post-apocalyptic genre so common to SF writers.
Being A Green Mother is from 1987, and is Piers Anthony's 5th book in his Incarnations of Immortality series. Had he written these books with a slightly more serious outlook, this could have become one of the greatest book series ever written. As it is he only takes the books half seriously, and there is just too much to do with Satan and his doings, funny and clever as they are. The books' plots become very convoluted after a time, with characters from other volumes popping in and out, and story lines that cross over from one book to the next. The author plays around with Time a lot, too, causing great confusion for readers who do not wish to go back and read long passages from previous volumes. All in all somewhat enjoyable as a series, but somehow missing much as a literary epic. Anthony seems to have lost his writing soul somewhere along the way, in his method of writing so many words per day, perhaps, no matter what.
Speaking of Satan, Harry Harrison's next book in the very funny Rat series is called The Stainless Steel Rat Goes To Hell. Reunited with his lovely but cold-bloodedly efficient wife Angelina, and their twin boys (whom Dad cannot tell apart), we get another rousing adventure, filled with much humour, a somewhat confusing plot (does Satan do this to all writers who try to put him on paper?), and plenty of action and adventure. Not one of the best of the series, but a must for fans. Published in 1996, this one also wins the cover of the month award.
Cover art of the month for April, by Walter Valez.
The Press Gang is Kenneth Bulmer's 2nd book in his Fox series, about a lower class Londoner who joins the Royal Navy, sailing the high seas and fighting the French. The
book is brutal, and not light entertainment. Press gangs were the most evil way Britain had to get badly needed sailors onto ships. There are sea
battles aplenty, related to us as if the author had really been present during
the battles. Pain and suffering becomes completely normal, and death
is sure and often sudden. I would probably not be able to watch a
filmed version of these books; there is more brutality per page than I
can normally handle. But there is excitement, and certainly plenty of
truth, to the tale. Looking forward to more in this series.
E C Tubb wrote in many genres besides SF, and I have yet to begin exploring those other worlds of his. However, in 1955 he wrote Assignment New York, a non SF private eye crime novel. As expected, Mike Lantry smokes too much, drinks too much, eats poorly, gets
clobbered a lot, and shot at quite a bit, too. All in a day's work. Tubb only wrote one such crime mystery, and it's a shame, since he has the style down perfectly and has written a very fine novel. It would also be a great Noir film.
From 1997 comes Jack Williamson's 352 page SF novel The Black Sun, about the final human seed
ship to leave a troubled Earth, blasting off from White Sands, NM for
its journey, hopefully to a habitable planet. Mr. Williamson has some
of the best plots and story lines in the entire genre, and this
particular kind of story is one of my favourite to read. Unfortunately,
one of Jack's worst aspects as a writer pops up here again. In a book
that really doesn't need any, he has three of the worst kind of
stereotypical villains involved in the story, something that came close
to ruining to book for me. Don't the poor colonists have enough to deal
with without taking along Dr Smith from Lost in Space, and two others
like him? Several times I wanted to throw the paperback against the
wall. The word "sneer" seems to appear virtually every time one of
these bad guys appears. At least, unlike Dr. Smith, they all do get
what's coming to them, eventually. I'm pretty certain I could have kept
the story interesting and on the same lines as the author, without
these pulp era bad characters being involved. Even with all its flaws, I still rated the book very highly. The bad guys always get their comeuppance, at least. A wonderful imagination at work here.
Next came three novellas by Michael Moorcock, all about the adventures of Elric. The best of the three is While The Gods Laugh, from 1961. This
is a good adventure story, as Elric falls in with a strange and
beautiful woman. They go in search of a lost magic book, each hoping to
have their main wish granted. Elric wishes to find out if there is one
god above all the others. They gain another ally on their journey.
This is a story very much in the tradition of Conan, and is well told. The other two are also quite good; The Dreaming City and The Singing Citadel, from 1967.
Lastly from my Avon/Equinox authors came Barry Malzberg's The Last Transaction, from 1977. It is about a former president dictating his
memoirs. William Eric Springer, born 1910, became President of the
United States in 1980, at the age of 70. He lost his bid for
re-election in 1984. At the age of 80, a very sick man, he began his
memoirs, which are really a jumbled collection of half memories and half
musings. He has advanced arteriosclerosis, his blood pressure is
through the roof, and his doctor is trying to keep him alive as long as
possible. But Springer is near the end, and becomes very paranoid.
Married twice, with one child, they all died before he did. Written
four years before Ronald Reagan became president, this has some uncanny
resemblances to that man and his presidency. Malzberg has given us a
novel as strange as any he has ever conceived and written. Besides the
personal failures of his relationships with his two wives and son (he
doesn't seem to have any friends whatsoever), he had one major
controversy to deal with as president. So much of the time here has him
reflecting on the people he was close to, and to that one major event
with which he had to deal as president. A very engaging novel, I gave it a high rating.
Six miscellaneous books were read, one of them being very long and one of them very short. The first book was the long one. Joan Vinge's Catspaw has been sitting on my shelf a very long time. It is a very well written cyber punk SF novel, well planned and well executed. It reads like a good pulp novel, and especially at the beginning I felt as if I was reading a late SF novel by Kenneth Bulmer. This epic would have been three Bulmer novels in his day. The story begins with a very familiar SF trope, an innocent person being kidnapped by a special military force, as he is needed for a certain task and is thought to be the best person for the job. So many Bulmer and Tubb novels use this sort of thing that I felt right at home already. It turned into an excellent read, despite the fact that all the lead female characters are good people, and only some of the males are the bad guys. But there are good male characters, too. Another trope I find annoying from so many modern writers is that the main character has to be beaten to within an inch of his life before he can truly said to be finished with his adventure. I've never seen this happen to a female main character, only male ones. Anyway, the book is heartily recommended, and the (many) pages do fly past.
Next came three novels from incredible Delphi Classics Kindle collection, a resource I am coming to love more and more. I passed on this series to my friend in Paris, a publisher, and he freaked out about it. He publishes translations of older classics, including high fantasy (like Worm Ouroboros). Anyway, I became with an early novel by Robert Chambers, made famous more by his ghost stories, especially "The King In Yellow," which was read and mentioned here several months ago. This time I read In The Quarter, a very well written fin de siecle novel of a young American artist living and studying in Paris. I had been introduced to this theme by the author in some of the short stories in the King In Yellow collection. Written in 1894, it still seems like a modern novel in so many ways. It is an excellent peek into Paris through the eyes of someone who knows part of that city very well, and the people who inhabit it. There is a long break from Paris when the man inherits money and travels to Bavaria, spending time in the mountains hunting, fishing, and enjoying the close companionship of different friends from those of Paris. Like a Puccini opera, there is a tragic ending, quite unexpected and severe. Drat.
I returned to the work of G K Chesterton, reading and thoroughly enjoying his first novel (1904) The Napoleon of Notting Hill. The author's ideas were stolen by Neil Gaiman for his fun by somewhat clumsy Neverwhere. And John Cleese certainly got his silly walk idea from this novel. It is a rich and wonderfully fanciful tale of London 80 years hence (thus, 1984--did someone else get an idea or two from Chesterton also?), when each separate part of the city divides into small dukedoms, all ruled over by a randomly chosen "king," Auberon Quinn. His silly ideas actually inspire one man, Adam Wayne of Notting Hill, to take them seriously, with results that will eventually change the entire city by the end of the story. Each page of this novel is an eye-opening wonder, and I am so thankful I got to read it! My version had the original illustrations, too, an added bonus. I read so many parts of it aloud to my wife as I went along that she certainly heard a good slice of the volume, which is some 300 pages long. Highly recommended!
Next came my highly anticipated reading of Kate Chopin's 2nd story collection, A Night In Acadie. Published in 1897, there are 21 stories that must be read. There is no less likely place I will ever visit than the backwoods bayous of central and northern Louisiana, and yet I feel when I read these stories that I was born there, and understand nearly everything about the people who live there. While each story is unique and brutal in its honesty, Chopin shines such a filtered light onto the characters we encounter that it seems as if their strengths and foibles are universal, and we feel ourselves projected into their time, with their problems and (sometimes) solutions. My very favourite stories were: After The Winter, Regret, A Matter of Prejudice, Caline, A Dresden lady In Dixie (the very very very best!), The Lilies, At Cheniere Caminada, Tante Catrinette (incredible!), and Ozeme's Holiday. Each of these stories is a masterpiece, and most of the others, too. I still have her two novels to read, and about 40 uncollected short stories. Then I will likely begin reading her stuff over again.
Iain Banks' 2nd novel was next. Walking on Glass is from 1985, and is not his best work. It consists of three novellas that eventually become loosely strung together. Divided into six sections, each section (except the final one) has a chapter from each novella. The first novella is a twisted love story about an art student and a slightly older, previously married woman. This one is a pretty good read, and, like the Chambers novel discussed above, has a tragic ending. The 2nd novella concerns a very paranoid schizophrenic man. He usually goes outside wearing a hard hat, but the one time he is unable to wear it....yup, he gets a pretty hard knock on the noggin'. Some of this story reminded me strongly of some of Barry Malzberg's writing. The third novella is a fantasy/SF one, about two people stuck in a bizarre castle having to play games to learn anything about their mysterious plight. Think Kafka and Gormenghast and you will get some idea of what this castle is like. To be honest, trying to turn these stories into a unified novel is a mistake; I would have enjoyed them a bit more if they were published in one volume as completely separate stories (which they virtually are). Still readable and enjoyable.
The last book read this month was also the shortest one (I lost two days and nights of reading to astronomy outings in April). The Woggle-Bug Book by L Frank Baum is not considered part of the Oz canon, but the character of Woggle-Bug is so endearing that it is worth reading after the 2nd Oz book, where he is introduced as a main character. My Delphi edition came with all the original b & w drawings, and was a delight to read. The bizarre adventures all have to do with a certain pattern on a dress he sees in a shop window, and falls in love with. The various permutations this material goes through during the story is quite hilarious. Anything by Baum can be recommended to readers.
Back with more later....
Mapman Mike
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