You Can't Stop Me is from 1963 and is 158 pages. It was written by "Don Elliot," one
of Silverberg's many false names. This one takes the prize for the most
outrageous novel I have ever read. It's about a serial killer (58
victims no less) who strangles the women either during sex with them or
just before. This is a story about a real sicko, and I find it hard to
believe that Silverberg needs cash so badly that he would allow this one
to be republished. He even writes a short intro to the volume,
excusing himself because "times were different then." Umm. Not so
different, really. Silverberg wrote more sleaze novels than all his other
fiction and non-fiction combined. And I used to wonder, when reading
his SF, why women never played major roles in a majority of his
stories. I truly think the man had a problem with women, and anyone
brave enough to read this book would likely agree. One for the trash
heap. There is nothing I can think of about the story that redeems it. If
I needed an excuse to stop reading Silverberg, this is it. Avoid this one.
From 1984 comes Kenneth Bulmer's 154 page novel Delia of Vallia, #28 in the Dray Prescott series.
It makes a terrific change to finally find out what Dray Prescott's
counterpart gets up to while he is off on his adventures. The Empress
is a Sister of the Rose, a secret organization of females trained as
warriors but out to do good. They work with hospitals, orphans, women
in perilous situations that need assistance, as well as helping out in
putting down rebellions in Vallia. When some of the sisters are being
recruited by a rival women's group to help bring down Vallia, Delia is
sent to the hot spot to find out what is going on. The plot mostly
concerns women, though there are some memorable male characters as
well. Delia goes through nearly as many hardships as her galavanting
husband, and by the end of this tale readers have even more respect for
this true Empress of a woman. Bulmer pulls no punches in showing how
Delia is humiliated before she strikes back. Highly enjoyable and a
much needed change of pace for the series. My Kindle edition included a
very short story by Bulmer taking place in the same world, but not
directly related to this series. Called "Lallia The Slave Girl" it
recounts the revenge one such female gets on her brutal master. The
story has become a legend and oft told on Scorpio.
E. C. Tubb's Hills of Blood,
an aptly named western from 1965, is 145 pages long. The basic story
involves a group of Confederate prisoners of war being asked to help man
an understaffed western fort, thus aiding the Union troops. There is
considerable resentment, but the captain of the imprisoned men tells
them it's better than starving and freezing to death in prison. There
is a secret gold mine involved in the plot, and a few rebel soldiers not
too anxious to fight Indians for the Union. As per usual, Tubb
sympathizes with the Indians and their great loss of land and
lifestyle. He has also had a very upstanding Confederate soldier or
former soldier in a lead role more than once in his westerns. Just
reading this series of novels one can learn a lot about Plains Indians
from that time. All of his western novels are recommended reading. I
had expected something quite different when I began reading them. This
is the final one. Recommended.
In the final volume of the violent Lone Wolf vigilante series, we finally
witness the complete collapse of Wulf's sanity, and his final demise at
the hands of his one-time partner and friend Williams. Philadelphia Blowup is
from 1975 and is a brief but intense 120 pages. Malzberg has created a
memorable character in Wulf, one that is beyond human in his actions and
abilities. His one goal is to eliminate the upper echelon of drug
dealers, but once he has eliminated them his task has barely begun.
This is what finally drives him to madness; the fact that despite all he
has done, he has barely started in making a dent on American drug use.
During the series Malzberg gets to deal alot with bigshot people who
are about to die, despite the fact they believe themselves
invulnerable. There is a sameness to the boldest of the kingpin men,
which quickly evaporates when they realize that Wulf will now kill
them. Malzberg also gets to use one of his strongest points as a
writer, that of a madman justifying his actions any way he can. Inner
voices are a specialty with Malzberg, and he gets plenty of opportunity
in these novels. The story ends with two afterwords from Malzberg,
dated 2022, where he continues to sound off about the real reasons for
the Vietnam war, as well as what really happens during the "war on
drugs." He is an interesting writer with plenty of ideas and strong
opinions, and even in this offbeat series he manages to delve deeper
than many hard fiction writers into today's problems and their root
causes. It is a difficult series to recommend because of all the
violence, and the fact that it is all aimed at a male audience. There
are too many killings and too much of the same kind of storyline, though
the final five books do deviate considerably from the first nine. At
least the author brought things to a definite conclusion, unlike many
other long running series.
Moving on to my unrestricted reading choices, I began with the second crime novel by Ghanian author Kwei Quartey. Children of the Street is a sometimes shocking and heartbreaking story of life in Accra, the capital and largest city in Ghana. A serial killer is murdering teenage street kids, using ritualistic methods that are cruel and outrageous. Detective Darko Dawson tackles the crime series, and we get more than a glimpse of life on the streets in a poverty stricken zone of the city. The problem is almost unbelievable for a western observer, but the long list of acknowledgements at the end of the novel indicates how much research went into the story. The author is also a practicing M.D. Like in the novels of Tony Hillerman, set on lands populated by the Navajo Nation, we learn a lot about Ghana and its people in these stories. The first book was set in the smaller places in the north of the country, but here we are hit full face by modern Accra and the problems it faces. Quartey writes in a simple fashion, not using large words or complicated sentences or overly constructed plots. The writing and story is simple and straightforward, suitable no doubt for high school age children, though the material is considerably dark. Highly recommended.
I read the Kindle edition.
I keep hoping I will come across a novel by Vita Sackville-West that I actually enjoy reading. Challenge, written in 1920, is not it. Sackville's writing seems to me vague, wispy, and without grounding. The novel was banned in the UK until 1974 or 1976, though I cannot see nor think of a single reason why. It is a pretty fluffy concoction, set in the Greek Isles at the time they sought independence, but Greece was coming for them. There is nothing in the story except petty politics and a perverse kind of selfish love. Julian and Eve are cousins, both very young (22 and 19). though they fight and argue constantly, they are in love. She wants love unconditionally, and admits that even if he had a dog she would be too jealous of it to live peaceably with Julian. His interest in helping some of the islands revolt against their Greek masters is, to her, too much to compete against. So she aids the Greeks in reconquering the islands, and sees Julian exiled. She then realizes that she has destroyed him by taking away his fight for freedom, so she goes out and drowns herself. At the last minute she has second thoughts, but alas, it is too late. She is likely one of the most unlikable female characters I have ever encountered in a novel, with almost no redeeming qualities. I say almost, for she does love, but her kind of absolute love is a perversion of the word, in my opinion. She is not even above luring on a priest who takes to her, driving him mad with desire for her. When he is rejected, he kills himself (or trips over his garment, we never know for certain which). Not recommended. But stay tuned; her next novel is Orlando, so maybe there is some hope yet. For a much better novel showing a female writer pushing boundaries (sand having them come back to bite her) read Kate Chopin's The Awakening, from 1899.
Mrs. Warren's Profession, from 1893, is another early play by G. B Shaw, one that was banned from performance for several years after publication. The play is prefaced in my Kindle edition (Delphi Classics) by a long tirade against censorship by the author, and indeed is more interesting to read than the play itself. Not put on the stage until 1902, it tells the story of a woman who runs a house of prostitution, using the earnings to ensure her daughter receives the best education available to her. The play was savagely attacked as "unnatural." Shaw's lengthy response is, as one can imagine if one knows of Shaw's critical skills, right on the mark. The play itself is in 4 acts, each taking about 20' to read. Apparently even mention of such a woman was enough to cause apoplexy in the theatre critics of the time. the opening performance audience loved the play, especially the women. However, the next performance was for the critics,and thus history is made. If anything, Shaw's a bit overboard on his "modern" woman, casting her a person not seeking love, adventure, beauty, or truth. Instead, she wants to work in an office and use her skills of higher calculation (she is a university graduate in high standing), and never wants a vacation. While it is admirable that she wants to leave her background and dubious friendships behind, I'm not too impressed with her life goals. She sounds remarkably like an AI version of a calculator. The play has amusing moments, but is mostly a scathing social commentary and assessment of the options for employment open to women of the time. It is easy reading, and overall brings up many valid points about the English labour market of the time as it pertains to females. Recommended.
Lost Worlds is a vast collection of 24 stories from 1944 by Clark Ashton Smith. Smith's stories, for me, put most of Lovecraft's work to shame. Smith is a writer, whereas Lovecraft was not. Smith can set an eerie atmosphere with very few words, capturing an entire setting easily and craftily. Smith is best at hinting at horrors, rather than trying to always describe them outright, and telling us how horrifying they are. He lets readers decide what is horrifying and what isn't. The first story is classic Smith. "Empire of the Necromancers" is set in Zothique, the last continent to survive near the end of the Sun's life. Earth is mostly dust and gloom, but two evil wizards decide to use their evil skills to repopulate a province that was decimated by plague. They conjure up the dead people that once lived there, and turn them into zombie slaves. Smith set many of his best stories in Zothique (see the Ballantine Fantasy volume edited by Lin Carter), and this one is characteristic of them. If you are looking for a unique atmosphere for tales of wizardry, look no further.
Next comes "The Isle of the Torturer," a much less successful story no doubt written to bring to life some lurid cover for Weird Tales. A King sees his kingdom vanquished by a plague called the Silver Death. His chief wizard gives him a ring that saves the king alone. So far so good. He sets sail for a friendly island and is shipwrecked instead on the title isle. From here on the story degenerates quickly into nothing but horrible tortures. One neat twist is the cruel girl who pretends to be trying to help him, but is only keeping him and his hopes alive so that he might live to be tortured for one more day. His original wizard told him to never take off his ring, for the Silver Death will emerge. At last it is time to take off the ring, but how? He is tied up and on a torture wheel. Read and find out how the king gets his revenge.
"Necromancy in Nat" sees Prince Yadar's intended bride kidnapped while he is on a hunting trip. He goes on a worldwide search for her. He ends up shipwrecked on Nat, an island of wizards and their zombie slaves. This story is a bit more coherent than the one above, and begins as as normal kind of adventure, but quickly jumps into Sinbad the Sailor territory. The ending is very unexpected yet perfect. One of the author's better tales.
"Xeethra" is one of the best. A shepherd boy wanders into a strange and lush valley with his drought starved and thirsty sheep, one that he has never before seen. He discovers a cave entrance and following the dark passage emerges in a strange land filled with springs, healthy trees, and promising lands. He plucks a fruit from a tree and eats it and his life is transformed. The fruit brings back ancestral memories of when he was King of a great city on the seashore, and he sets out to find his city. People he meets think he is quite mad, but after a long and harrowing search he comes to the ruins of a once-great city. This adventure story is very well written and full of surprises, and as atmospheric as any by the author. It is like reading the very best Dunsany adventure.
"The Holiness of Azerdarac" is a tale from medieval Averoigne, oen of several such tales written by Smith. A young priest is sent to investigate a bishop suspected of foul magical deeds. Brother Ambrosa discovers more than he wishes to, and sets out on his return journey to his own city to report on his findings. But he never makes it home. Instead, he has adventures where he journeys back 700 years, encounters a seductive sorceress, than is sent back into a future time, and then back again to the sorceress who tried to send him back to his own time. It's not as confusing as it sounds, and is actually well written. Many of these tales would make an excellent series of short films!
"The Beast of Averoigne" takes place in the year 1369, describing events near an abbey as a bright comet slowly passes through the heavens. This is another very effective tale, and again would make for a great short film, or even a feature if handled well.
"The Letter From Mohau Los", or "Flight Into Super-Time" is a very poor time travel tale, characteristic of many badly written SF stories from the late 30s and 40s. Stick to H. G. Wells on this theme. Most of the story is description, with very little in the way of plot. So many loopholes....
"The Light From Beyond" is a novelette about an artist (he likes to illustrate stories by Poe), who, while in seclusion in an isolated mountain cabin, has an other-worldly experience that changes him forever. Inter-dimensional travel to an alien world will do that to a person. He eats a somewhat forbidden fruit there and undergoes what might be regarded as an LSD trip. Interesting story, especially the lead up to solving the mystery before he travels.
"The Hunters From Beyond" is about a writer of macabre tales and his cousin, a sculptor of devilish creatures. Very few, if any, of Smith's stories have a happy ending. The burden this time falls on the innocent artist's model, who is kidnapped by demons. She isn't at all the same when she returns. As usual, the story has an interesting exposition.
"The Treader of the Dust" is a short tale about a man deeply into studying the dark arts. He ends up conjuring an entity that rapidly ages everything around it, including his butler and himself.
"The Last Incantation" is another brief story, this one about a sorcerer in Poseidonis, the last standing isle of Atlantis. Smith wrote a number of tales about the lost continent.
"A Voyage To Stanomoe" describes how two powerful wizards of Poseidonas, after failing to find a solution to the island's destruction, flee in their spacecraft to Venus. A very weird tale with a remarkable ending. Smith's imagination is beyond categorizing.
"The Death of Malygris" is classic Smith, a tale of an evil and all-powerful wizard in Poseidonis who takes taxes from traders. the king has finally had enough, and summons 12 wizards to aid his main wizard in doing away with Malygris. It turns out that Malygris has been dead a long time already, and is just sitting in his chair atop his tower. Or is he dead? Two expeditions set out to find the truth. A wonderful tale of black sorcery!
"The Tale of Zatampa Zeiros" is one of the best short stories of wizardry ever written, and it is likely that it greatly influenced a young Fritz Leiber. Two fearless thieves set out to loot a cursed and forbidden ruined city. Unfortunately, their luck has run out on this mission. Great writing, showing a humourous side to Smith.!
"The Doors To Saturn" is a bizarre tale of a wizard who becomes interested in dark magic and a god that might be worth visiting. He is being pursued by an inquisition priest. After creating a method of visiting the god, who happens to dwell on Saturn, he disappears in a most unusual way. But he is followed by the priest, who wants him arrested for worshipping a dark god. The two eventually become entangled with a low grade civilization on Saturn, before escaping certain death and moving on to a somewhat higher life form. More humour can be found here than chills, but again proving Smith's nearly limitless imagination.
"The Seven Geases" is yet another humourous look at human interactions with gods. A royal hunter disturbs a wizard, ruining it with his intrusion. As a punishment the hunter is sent into the netherworld to serve an evil god. When that god has no need of him, he is sent on to a 2nd god, and so on until the 7th god is reached, releasing him from his fate. along the way the hunter, weaponless, encounters all manner of nasty beasts that wish to devour him, but his protected by a primitive bird from the original wizard, to ensure he makes it safely to the intended god. The sudden ending of the story satirizes the writer's problem of having to stop writing when a certain amount of words have been reached, as laid out by pulp editors.
"The Coming of The White Worm" tells of a giant iceberg and its evil being that flow south, freezing everything and everyone in its path. One wizard will someday possess the key to destroying the awful beast. Will he be able to do it? With Smith, one never knows. Again, this is one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read. It would make a good folk tale explaining the ice age.
"The Maze of Maal Dweb" is one of Smith's best tales, as a barbarian matches wits with a wizard who has kidnapped his intended bride. In Smith's writing, barbarians do not have much of a chance. Atmospheric but also humourous.
"The Flower Woman" is a sequel to the above story, where the wizard Maal Dweb heads off seeking new adventures. The story has a very abrupt ending, but is a pretty good one up to that point. Dweb pits his resources against seven other wizards who are trying to elevate themselves to a dangerous lever of wizardry, and must be stopped before that happens.
"The Demon of the Flowers" tells of an evil power that inhabits a flower, and gives them dominance over humans. When a female human is to be sacrificed to feed the evil power, the king tries to finally put a stop to things. This is as Smith story, so his success is somewhat tempered by failure.
"The Plutonian Drug" is a silly story with an ending that is far too predictable, and makes the main protagonist look like a complete idiot. A man takes a drug that allows him to see so far into his past and into his future. But his future goes dark as he enters a lane way shortcut at night. Hmm. Wonder what might happen. When the drug wears off he wonders that exact thing, as he takes the shortcut through the lane way.
"The Planet of the Dead" is a trans-dimensional love story, cloaked in sadness and lost memories. A good tale as an antique collector and amateur astronomer leaves Earth for another existence in another place and another time. He spends a brief month there before returning.
"The Gorgon" is the real thing. The head of the Gorgon is well and living in London, and still turning direct onlookers into stone. A man grieving his dead wife travels the world, stopping in London where he is accosted on the street and promised a mirrored look at the real thing. He accepts, and his adventure begins. Unusual, even for Smith.
Original hardcover publication. I read the Kindle edition.
Mapman Mike
