As I am down to five remaining authors in my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Project, I have more time each month to read beyond it. My secondary main reading project comes from the almost unbelievable Delphi Classics series on Kindle, as I attack the complete works of so many great authors. The rest comes from more laissez faire choices, including impulse reading.
All months now begin with something by Robert Silverberg, and will continue to do so until his works are complete. I estimate about nine more months to spend with this great SF author. The Positronic Man was a collaboration with Asimov, based on one his his earlier stories. Silverberg has attempted to make a novel out of it, with limited success. Short stories usually have one main idea that gets developed, whereas a
novel can have several, depending on its length and the skill of its
writer. As a novel, this story of a robot that wants to become human is
very single minded, never once deviating from its set course. In fact,
it often becomes monotonous. Stretching it to novella length might work
well, but extending it to a medium sized novel seems to be pushing
things too far. Within the Avon/Equinox series I have read much better and more
profound stories about robots seeking humanity. Top honours would have
to go to John Sladek for his robot novels: 2 "Roderick" novels, and
his "Tik-Tok", both wicked and funny; and Jack Williamson's brilliant pair of robot novels "The
Humanoids", and "The Humanoid Touch". All of these put Silverberg's novel
into perspective very quickly.
Avenger of Antares is the 10th novel in the everlasting Dray Prescott series by Bulmer. Our hero continues to search for the secret to the Havilfar flying machines. They seem to sell ones to other countries that are prone to crashing, but the ones they keep for themselves fly much more consistently. Under an assumed name he lives in their major city trying to find out more information. But his plans (as ever) go awry when the teenage daughter of a good friend is kidnapped. His friend is badly wounded in the attempt, so Prescott sets out to get her back. She is no helpless child, though, and when she is finally rescued she manages to fight back quite efficiently, aiding Prescott in her escape. This
is a good addition to the series, which, unlike that of Tubb's Dumerest
saga, are novels directly linked to one another. There is endless material
here for an ongoing TV series.
E C Tubb's own endless series features SF hero Dumarest, and I read #10, Jondelle. This story is also mainly about a kidnapped child who needs rescuing, but this time it's a boy about 6 or 7 years of age. Our hero makes a pledge to the boy's dying mother that he will get the boy back. There is a lot of death and mayhem in this tale, but overall it is a
very good entry in the series. At the very end Dumarest gets yet
another clue to the location of Earth. Will he ever find it? No, since
Tubb never saw fit to allow him to. That is the real tragedy of this
whole series. Tubb died in 2010, and in 2008 the last volume of the
series was published. So don't expect Dumarest to finally end his
quest. Sadly, it will never end.
Moorcock's Elric is back in a novel called The Sleeping Sorceress. Three linked stories are put together as a novel, with Elric aiding a woman sorceress against a common enemy wizard. The first two stories are OK, but nowhere near the level of writing one might encounter in Fritz Leiber's word and sorcery writings. In addition, Leiber's works are filled with wit and humour, whereas Elric is a rather dour old soul. But the final story, "Three Heroes With a Single Aim," (also previously called "The Vanishing Tower") is right up with the very best of the genre.
Lastly came another soft core porn novel, Machine, by Barry Malzberg (under an assumed name, but newly released under his real name) written in the late 60s. Another small time loser loses big, as his newly opened pinball business is shut down by the local police, and his machines destroyed. Mixed in with the main story is his relationship with two women, one a college coed and the other his ex wife. Funny, tragic, and mostly very readable. His thoughts often turning to pinball game comparisons as he makes love are quite priceless. Perhaps a little more "erotic" than his other similar novels, there is still a large helping of literary merit to the book.
Turning to "other" books, Kate Chopin's first novel did not find a publisher. She published it herself. Written in 1890, At Fault has its clumsy moments, but overall is well worth reading. Part of the adventure in reading Chopin's works (I've read most of her short fiction) is trying to decipher and sound out her patois. The way the French Creoles talk, and the way the Louisiana Blacks talk, is rendered as closely as is humanly possible by the author, and most of it is laugh aloud fun to read. The story concerns a widowed plantation owner, who takes up the work her husband used to do. She is a morally strong woman, and will not marry the man who comes to love her because he has been divorced (she is Catholic). Instead, she talks him into going back to St. Louis and remarrying the girl, and to bring her back to the plantation. Well, that doesn't work out so well. Various subplots interweave with the main story, most ending tragically. But never fear, there are happy endings for some of the folk we have come to know. A highly readable tale, if you are not put off by the local dialogue rendering.
Next up was a mammoth novel by Wilkie Collins, his 3rd. From 1854 (he and Dickens were very close friends) comes Hide and Seek, an engrossing tale of lost identity, a woman abandoned by her family (at least by her nutcase aunt), and a kind man who adopts a girl child with an unknown past, though he wants to keep her past secret to prevent anyone finding her and taking her away. Rescued from a life of hardship and beatings in a circus, Valentine Blyth is determined to save her and take her home. She has the face of a Raphael Madonna, and Blyth adopts her and brings him home to live, to learn how to draw, and keep his invalid wife company. Due to a circus accident at a young age, the girl is deaf and dumb. Collins researched this handicap carefully, and besides the young girl's affliction we also have his wife permanently kept in bed because of a painful spine malady. Quite unusual main characters for a story from the 1850s! The first of two books within the novel is called "Hiding," and deals with the girl's history and what little is known of her. The second book is called "Seeking," and deals with how the truth was discovered about her background, and what happened as a result. Collins is a master storyteller, with no wasted characters or scenes; everything fits and is required to advance the plot along a fairly seamless line. The characters of Zack, Mat, and Blyth are very well drawn, the women less so. Still, this is an engrossing novel, and hard to put down once begun. Recommended.
I always get very excited when the Delphi reading roster approaches Joseph Conrad again. Lord Jim, published in novel form in 1900 (it was originally serialized), is one of the most legendary books in literature. For all its length, it tells a very simple tale. Jim is the focus, and over time and many pages we learn pretty much there is to know about Jim. His downfall came during a steamship journey carrying pilgrims towards Mecca. Jim was the first mate. Their ship struck something during the night, and was in imminent danger of sinking. There were not enough lifeboats to rescue all the passengers, nor likely even time to get the boats afloat. The captain and two crew left the ship by launching one boat. A fourth man died of a heart attack helping launch the boat. Much went through Jim's mind in the few seconds he had to decide. He ended up jumping into the lifeboat. Well, it turns out the ship did not sink, and the pilgrims were rescued by a French boat that towed them to shore. The captain ran off before the hearing, the two surviving crew members were hospitalized with shock (and alcoholism), while Jim stood his ground to face the music. The rest of the novel is his search for inner peace, knowing and accepting what he had done. With the help of Captain Marlow, he eventually finds a tiny corner of the south east jungle that he can rebuild his character. However, he is ultimately undone by a Gollum/Wormtongue character. The book is rich in character development and observation, but the storytelling is somewhat awkward. Marlow tells the entire tale. Not once do we get inside Jim's thoughts through his character. Only his words and actions are reported by Marlow, often from second hand sources. The tale is not told in a straight forward chronological order, but more or less how things pop into Marlow's mind. This can be confusing and disconcerting at times, and almost requires a second reading. Still, a truly amazing novel about a man's lost honour and his search to recover at least a portion of it.
Next came Malzberg's choice for best novel of the 1970s. Stanley Elkin's The Franchiser has to be read to be believed. From 1976, its 300+ pages spoof an America caught up in the energy shortage and at a time when franchises were making virtually every city appear the same if looked at from a certain angle. Ben Flesh owns franchises of about 13 different kinds of stores, including Radio Shack, Mr. Softie Ice Cream, a photo booth, a dry cleaners, etc. He longs for the day when he will be able to drive into any American city and not know where he is, since every place looks the same. It is a wonderful send up of an America just beginning to spin out of control. Left a strange type of inheritance by his dying godfather, he must rely on the old man's 19 off-spring (all identical twins and triplets) to be able to borrow money from the estate at the prime interest rate. He is on the road for much of the book, and we glimpse his version of America in hilarious scene after scene, all played quite straight by our man Ben Flesh. His god cousins eventually begin to die tragically but uproariously of strange diseases related to their inferior genes, and poor Ben himself has an onset of MS, which he faces as well as can be expected. This is the 2nd novel this month to treat disease and handicap in the forefront of the plot. I have never read a novel like this before, and can highly recommend it to anyone looking for a nostalgic look back to what America was like 50 years ago. Or wasn't like. A truly great, highly creative and unusual novel.
Finally came a guilty pleasure. Since beginning my SF reading and review project I have read a lot of pulp SF, mystery, etc, written by the 24 Avon/Equinox authors. I have a ton of respect for these highly underpaid professional writers who cranked out story after story to pay the rent and feed the family. One of the superhuman heroes of my early teenage years was a character named Doc Savage. Lester Dent wrote under the house name of Kenneth Robeson, churning out novel after novel of the adventures of Doc and his five sidekicks. Unlike Conan, these were no barbarians. They were intellectuals as well as muscle men. Doc trained (hilariously) every muscle of his body two hours each day (though he never seemed to have the time during any of his adventure novels). Doc could hypnotize, talk any language (even ancient Mayan!), and do just about anything else that circumstances demanded. I read about eighty of these before finally giving up. Philip Jose Farmer continued to develop the character in his own novels (and Tarzan, too!), and wrote a truly amazing biography of Doc (reviewed in my Avon/Equinox blog) which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. In fact, it got me interested in rereading some of the original tales again. I bought a kindle version of 10 novels, and finally got around to reading the first one. Man of Bronze, from 1933, is where it all began. Doc's father is killed for mysterious reasons by a secret cult, and Doc is soon thrown into his first adventure to make it to print form. We learn all about Doc and his aides, about their headquarters, and some of their gadgets used to fight crime. After 50+ years, I think I am enjoying the book more than I did as a youth, but for different reasons. I read the adventures in earnest as a boy, wanting to be like Doc someday. Now I read and find myself chuckling at every other paragraph, as Doc undertakes feats no other human being could possible undertake. Great fun!
See you next month!
Mapman Mike
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