Mazes of Scorpio
is from 1982 and is #27 in the Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burt Akers. It was too good to be true when,
in the last volume, the evil wizard was finally killed off. And for a
painful few moments it looked as if Bulmer was going to cheat readers
and revive him. Well, thank goodness he didn't. However, we have now
met his wife, a dark witch, and their offspring, a little something or
other; we're not yet exactly sure what he is, other than a
hermaphrodite. And also very evil. Mazes is an adventure novel
much in the tradition of Fritz Leiber, still the reigning King of sword
and sorcery writers. Though Bulmer doesn't do too badly, as readers of
this series (and this blog) will have found out long before now. Dray
and best friend Seg go chasing after an escaped female prisoner in a
flier, and they end up in Pandahem, where it appears they and their
readers will spend a lot of time in the upcoming books. The adventure really begins when they
crash (a common occurrence in these novels) and find themselves in a
very nasty jungle. They make their way to a small riverside town, and
join up for an expedition to find treasure. Their adventures are
non-stop, as the small group are attacked by nearly everything under the
sun and from under a rock. A lot of time is spent in an underground
maze that would challenge Lara Croft to her utter limits of resources
and luck. At last, separated from Seg and the rest of the party, Dray
finds himself alone, underground against all comers. Lots of action,
and a finally a bit of help from the gods that have being using Dray for their
own purposes throughout the series. And so on it goes....
Cover art by Richard Hescox.
From
1975 comes Eloise, a 150 page novel by E. C. Tubb detailing the adventures of Earl Dumarest in
his fruitless and endless search for Earth. He was born there, left as a
young boy, and can't seem to find his way back. Not only that, but no
one has ever heard of Earth. How frustrating for him. Once in a while
he picks up a clue, but not in this story, which is #12 in the series. He and a musician friend
(note the instrument depicted on the DAW cover) crash land on a barren
and very snowy and cold planet. They make their way to a city, and are
rescued as they are on their last approach. We actually have a truly SF
story presented to us. The city is some kind of forgotten experiment,
a planned Utopia that has continued to exist longer than its mysterious
and long-forgotten creators. Run by a central computer with a sort of
semi-humanized army of robots to control the human population, this
reminds me of several stories from the Magnus Robot Fighter
comic books. No, that is not Marilyn Monroe of the cover of the DAW
edition; that's Eloise, a dancer who was trapped in the city after
coming to entertain the people there. No one is allowed to leave once
they arrive. Of course, Dumarest will be the exception to that rule.
So
many male heroes seem to turn out to be the same guy. Tarzan, John
Carter of Mars, Dray Prescott, Earl Dumarest, Doc Savage, Hercules,
Odysseus, Elric; no wonder Michael Moorcock was able to come up with the
idea of the Eternal Hero for his many novels featuring supercharged
(but human) action heroes. Interchange any he-man hero for Dumarest, or put
him in any of another hero's predicaments, and Voila, the problem gets
(eventually, with much strain and muscle and clever and fast thinking)
solved. It's almost miraculous.
Anyway,
Eloise falls for Dumarest and tries her darndest to hang on to him.
But alas, he is caught up in his struggle to find Earth, though we are
never told why. He has a billion other planets to explore. A good
entry in the series. However, as Dumarest muses at the end, he regrets
not getting a chance to ask the city's central computer about Earth. It
was so old that it might have known something. But he gained nothing
towards his goal in this story. And neither do we.
Cover art by George Barr.
William Morris has written some of the best fantasy novels ever created. Many of them have already been read, and I've reviewed them on my Ballantine Fantasy blog (see left column for link). One of his earliest novels predates his true fantasy writing, but with The Roots of the Mountains from 1889 we get as close to fantasy as regular fiction can ever get without crossing the border into it. This is an epic tale (534 pages), and Morris's influence on Tolkien can be seen everywhere. While this novel does not approach the author's masterpiece The Well At The World's End, it lays all the necessary groundwork. The hero of the tale, one Face of God, declines the adventure of a journey to foreign places to gain his manhood, choosing instead to remain at home. This in itself is anathema to a good fantasy yarn, but don't go away just yet. As things turn out, staying home was the correct choice in this case. The lead character can be compared to Aragorn. The Bride, a female lead, can be compared with Eowyn, and her eventual mate can be compared with Faramir. The evil Dusky Men are similar to orcs. The prose is filled with poetry and song, something Tolkien also included in his epic writing. The Dale sounds a lot like Hobbiton. And instead of having different groups of men such as shepherds, woodsmen, hunters, etc. as Morris does, Tolkien bright in different races from mythology such as Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits. The climax of the book is the great battle to recover the Silver Dale from the evil dusky men, and free the slaves they have captured and abused. But the real core of the book is in the details which the author takes painstaking care to bring to the reader. The strength of the family, the community, and the wider world of the allies; the rituals that musts be enacted at certain times of year; the continuity of life and love; and the importance of friendship and helping those less fortunate are all important qualities stressed by Morris. He creates a small Utopia, then presents it to us as gravely threatened, and continues on to demonstrate how the threat can be banished with good leadership and a bond between strong allies. This is a long read, and not all of it marches along smartly. Readers need to slow down and breathe deeply of the fine, clear air within these pages. Their reward will be a very unique book, well written, and the harbinger of even greater things to come.
The Adventures of Martin Hewitt is from 1896, and contains six more stories of the great detective. Fans of Sherlock Holmes should love these stories. This is the third volume, all written for monthly publications by Arthur Morrison before being collected into volumes and republished. "The Affair of Mrs. Seaton's Child" is one of those cases that Hewitt was not able to solve before it was resolved, and the missing child was safely returned home. However, he followed up afterwards and was able to solve the mystery of who took the child, how, and why. An engaging story, though with a somewhat far-fetched premise underlying it. "The Case of Mr. Gerald's Elopement" sees Hewitt involved with a missing husband, whom the wife accuses of having eloped with a former maid. Hewitt solves a very peculiar case that eventually sees the husband not only located and without having eloped, but put into custody for making and selling alcohol illegally. A tale with twists that keep up the reader's interest. "The Case of the Dead Skipper" is a story that fits more neatly into the Homes canon, as Hewitt and a police inspector solve the mystery of the captain's death and apparent robbery. Nothing too unusual in this one, though well told. "The Case of the Flitterbat Lancers" is a creatively titled story about a piece of badly written music that doubles as a cipher. And "The Case of the Late Mr. Rewse" takes Hewitt to Ireland to solve a well planned murder--or was it? Finally comes "The Case of the Ward Lane Tabernacle," and though humourous overall, it does have a tragic ending. The case concerns a sacred relic left to a widow by her uncle, and she believes that a certain green grocer is after it. As usual, Hewitt confounds his client when he comes up with the solution, and this leads to a continued friendship between them. The character of the widow is a very colourful one. All of Morrison's Martin Hewitt tales are highly recommended.
Turning now to E. Nesbit, it's time for The Wouldbegoods, the 1901 sequel to 1899's The Story of the Treasure Seekers. The book is quite long, though each of the chapters are just about the perfect length for a bedtime story if read to children by an adult. Each chapter is more or less a separate story or adventure, though the book is continuous and events do tie in from story to story. In my opinion there are just a few too many stories, with the children acting pretty much the same in each story. Once again the tales are told by Oswald, the elder Bastable child. Though cleverly written as if by a maturing child, even this gets somewhat tedious after a time, with the "author" praising himself at every turn. And though the criticism of girls is humourous (by a young boy), it could definitely be taken wrong, even by modern readers. In other words, by 2025 standards the sexism is quite outrageous. However, if reading the story to modern children, it would make a good opening for discussions on the topic of what girls can and cannot do. Overall I did enjoy the book; however, I just found it a bit too much of a good thing.
Another classic children's book came next, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. From a much later date of 1930, we once again see a group of siblings heading off into adventure. There are two boys and two girls, with the the eldest being a boy again. They are spending the summer in the Lake District and they have a sailboat. They end up spending several nights camping on an island in the lake. They meet the rival Amazons, but soon become friends. So there are actually four girls in the story, and two boys. The best characters are Titty (Titania?) (such an unfortunate shortened name for present day readers--I never could have read this aloud to my fourth and fifth grade class back in the day), who is perhaps the second youngest, and Roger, the youngest. Though there is considerable humour throughout the novel, there are also some wonderful insights into a child's thought process. When Titty is left alone on the island overnight and has her big adventure, followed up later with a treasure hunt, we feel we have met a character with some depth. The others, especially John, Susan and Peggy, are cardboard characters with little depth and not much to say. I have never read the book before, but have seen several very good TV adaptations from England, so the story was familiar to me. I think I enjoyed it a bit more than the E. Nesbit novel, above, though both show incredible imagination and insights into the golden days of childhood. Highly recommended, and I look forward to the sequels.
Lastly came some short work by Edgar Allan Poe. An unfinished plat from 1835 is called "Politian." Essentially one act was written, from a story based on a real murder case in Kentucky. Poe transposed the setting and time to 16th C Rome, and is written in pseudo Shakespearean prose. Just as the story begins to get interesting, it ends suddenly. He gave up on novels and plays based on advice from friends, and continued to write short fiction for the remainder of his life.
"Metzengerstein" is a fantasy horror tale that involves two feuding families. It was Poe's first published fiction and is from 1832. It involves a tapestry with a horse in it, and the decadent lifestyle of a very young man. The story makes little sense, but it does show that early on Poe was obsessed with certain themes, such as violent death and ironic justice being meted out to those in need of it.
"The Duc de L'Omelette" is the first of Poe's somewhat silly series of tales, and not a very good one.
"A Tale of Jersusalem" Tells of an incident at the walls of that city in the times of Roman invasion.
"Loss of Breath" tells of a man who, while raging at his wife, has his breath stolen. Though he continues to live, he becomes more or less a silent zombie, unable to communicate with other living people. By chance he meets the man who stole his breath in an undertaker's place, and manages to get it returned. Another so called humourous tale that does have its moments.
"Bon-Bon" is from 1932, and is just what it claims. Bon-Bon is the finest chef in Rouen, and also a self-taught philosopher. His encounter with the devil goes quite well, he thinks. Or did it? More dark humour from Poe.
"MS. Found In A Bottle" is from 1933, and is one of Poe's more famous tales. A sailor and his ship are carried to the far south after being caught in a fierce gale. Only he and one another man survive the ordeal. However, there is worse to come. A ghost ship crewed by elderly sailors smashes the original ship to pieces, and the lone survivor, the writer of the manuscript, ends up on board. A decent story with a most unhappy ending.
"The Assignation" is an extremely well-written tale that reminded me sometimes of the writing of E.R. Eddison,and even Michael Moorcock, in his European fiction. The story is set in Venice and concerns two lovers who will never be together in this world, so they plan to meet in the next one. A very memorable tale.
"Berenice" tells of a man driven mad who extracts the teeth from his dying wife. Don't ask. The story, even in its revised edition, takes too long to get going and the reader must wade through a lot of prose before getting to its core.
"Morella" is classic Poe. A woman dies, leaving a daughter behind with the man who is her father. An eerie tale, though somewhat confusing. The daughter ends up actually being the mother, reincarnated, though by the time it happens it is hardly a surprise to the reader.
See you next month. And keep reading!
Mapman Mike
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