December 2023 Book Reviews

Robert Silverberg got things rolling again, though now I only have two of his SF books remaining!  I have not included his non-fiction books, but might add one in from time to time.  There are some of his early pulp fiction being republished now, too.  First published in 1998, this epic 488 page SF novel has undergone many reprints since.  The Alien Years takes two effective short stories and transforms them into a fairly wonderful novel, all things considered.  I have already voiced my opinion on writers who expand short stories into full length novels, so I was admittedly biased going into this read.  However, I emerged at the end convinced that for this time, Silverberg had scored a big win.  "The Pardoner's Tale" is a short story from 1987 that pits a human computer hacker against the might of alien invaders who have taken over the Earth, erected enormous walls around major cities (LA in this case), and are receiving a lot of help from humans who have accepted the aliens as their masters and work for them.  The second story comes first chronologically in the novel, as well as being written first.  "Against Babylon" from 1986 tells of the invasion day in California, and how tremendous fires are accidentally ignited from the engines as the aliens land their huge ships.  All in all it's quite a splendid book, and should make us think seriously about not attracting attention to ourselves from out there.  Let's face it--if aliens have technology to get here, they are going to be rather superior to us in many other ways.  And maybe their intentions will clash with ours.  Silverberg seals the door nicely in this novel, making resistance more a thought game that a real life killing game.  What if we can't resist?  Human ingenuity did not save us in this book, at least.  Could it ever happen?  You bet it could.

 

Renegade of Kregen is the 13th book in a very long fantasy series written by Kenneth Bulmer.  From 1976 comes the 192 page continuation of the story of Dray Prescott, a man who seems to get little rest and relaxation.  He has previously been stripped of his membership in an elite warrior society, and realizes that he will never get home to Delia unless he somehow regains his status.  He hatches a plan to capture an enemy king and his #1 striker.  Some of Dray's plans work really well.  This is one of those that doesn't.  One of the things about reading a series that is already published is knowing that the hero will never die, at least until the final volume.  So no matter what Dray has to put up with, we know that somehow he will come out of it okay.  But as we learn in this volume, not all of his friends and or family receive the same guarantee.  Someone very close to Dray dies in this book, and it is quite shocking.  And yet again he has to pretend to be loyal to an enemy by infiltrating it and serving the wrong side.  That part seems to go okay.  But with this sudden unexpected death at the end of the book, Dray has entered a new and deeper region of emotion than he is used to.  We can be certain of one thing; someone will pay dearly for his loss.

 

Next, I began another series by E C Tubb.  Galaxy of the Lost is the first book of the Cap Kennedy, Secret Agent of the Space series.  If that sounds somewhat juvenile, the first book really isn't.  From 1973 comes the 125 page first novel.  He seemed to toss these stories off at least one per month.  What a guy!  Cap Kennedy is an agent, or investigator, for F.A.T.E, Free Acting Terran Envoy.  He works with a small team, but has the backing of the major Earth intelligence and defence organizations.  In this first exciting adventure, he is trying to solve the mystery of why space ships are disappearing from space, leaving no trace behind of what happened to them or where they went.  Now this sounds like a typical SF pulp adventure plot.  But wait.  1973 is not the 1950s, and Tubb, despite his writing speed, is not a hack writer.  And besides, this is the post Star Trek years, so stories had to have some substance to them.  And Tubb (writing as Kern) gives us our money's worth (75 cents back in the day, and $3.99 Can. today).  The adventure begins like many another tale, even ones by Tubb.  But it quickly heads off into true SF territory.  An unmanned, very ancient alien device in another dimension is malfunctioning, drawing in ships from our universe, where they end up crashing and being used by scrap robots to feed energy to the machine.  Our hero and his small company of survivors go through quite an ordeal to find out this information.  I'm hoping more will be learned about this ancient alien civilization as more books are read.  Apparently the same aliens left some traces of their technology in our galaxy, but no one can make heads or tails of what remains.  Again, as with so many of Tubb's stories, this would make a terrific SF film, simply by adding at least one major female character (alas, they are all males here).  A good read, and a promising beginning to this new to me series.

 

From 1991 comes another adventure, The Revenge of the Rose, featuring everyone's favourite albino sword and sorcery hero.  This 233 page novel features a traditional story arc, with Elric having to retrieve a casket containing his father's soul.  And so he goes on a quest featuring a dragon, the lords of Chaos and their underlings, a family of clairvoyants, a poet (who lived in the time of Gloriana!), and Rose, Moorcock's answer to Red Sonja.  While the story arc follows a traditional path (including the inevitable battle between Elric and the main bad guy, Gaynor), the story ingredients are anything but traditional.  While in the same general league as Tolkien, Peake, and E R Eddison, Moorcock has always been more a sketch artist than a true old master.  He seldom takes enough time with his characters and situations, choosing instead to move things along almost at the pace of a pulp writer, forgoing details for action.  That is not to say there is no introspection or good conversation in his stories, but these features are not the main reason one reads Moorcock.  Having said this, Revenge of the Rose seems to probe deeper than other Moorcock novels, and along with the lovely plot twists, turns, and revelations, proves again that Moorcock can write literature when he wants to take his time and do so.  Besides being a very good writer, this novel shows off his incredible imagination, as the places Elric and company visit are certainly on another plane of existence.  If the story seems to begin like any other old tale of sword and sorcery, hang on a bit.  You will enjoy this epic tale, guaranteed. 

 

Usually, Malzberg's porno novels (written under various pseudonyms) are less about sex and more about literature.  A Bed of Money has more graphic sex than the other two put together, but still manages to come out strongly as literature.  From 1970, this 141 page novel, only recently re-released, concerns a certain Mr. Foster, another in the long line of losers who devote their life to the racetrack.  Malzberg's racetrack stories are incredibly detailed accounts of the psychology of players, getting so far into their heads that we end up knowing literally everything about the person involved.  I was never the least bit interested in horse racing until I discovered Malzberg.  The author's gift for black humour is also on full display here, as Foster relives many of his past sexual experiences, besides being involved in his current round with Dolores, a woman he picked up at a bar after finally winning big at the track.  She goes back to a hotel room with him, but of course has two male accomplices who soon make it clear that they want his $23,000.00 in winnings for themselves.  The novel has a certain madcap keystone cops element to it, but the rapid deterioration of Foster's mind after he wins is the real story.  Most people, myself included, might profess a dislike or disinterest in racetrack stories.  But Malzberg, if no one else, might convince you otherwise.  At least I am a full convert. 

 

Turning away from these five remaining Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series authors, my first free choice read came again from the Delphi Collection of books on Kindle.  These books include the complete works of various authors, many of them early writers of SF and Fantasy.  They are professionally edited, and usually illustrated with original covers and any interior art that may have been published with the earliest editions.  It was time again for a novel by A. Merritt, the early 20th C. SF and Fantasy writer, who has as large a cult following today as Lovecraft.  I read The Metal Men, published in 1920. The same protagonist who appeared in his The Moon Pool from the year  before is back, this time wandering amidst the Himalayas.  This time he encounters an alien race made from metal, that uses the Sun's energy to grow and develop, that happened to find itself on Earth one day.  They seem to be under the control of a woman who was once human, but has now become a very different sort of being.

 

First published as an 8 part serial in 1920, it didn't come out in paperback until 1946.

Cover art by Glen White.   

 

Also involved is a Saracen horde led by Xerxes and his son, somehow surviving up here for over 2000 years.  Whatever.  Though much of the storytelling is merely wide-eyed description of the fantastic aliens, how they function, and what they do, there are still many fine and memorable moments from this early science based story.  The very earliest and best SF writers clung earnestly to real science to make their case for their stories, and though the science is a wee bit outdated, once can still be amazed at Merritt and how well read he must have been, not only in science but in ancient history! This is a movie in the making, and would be a truly stupendous undertaking.  Now that special effects are finally caught up to 1920s story telling, perhaps someone will take one of Merritt's novels and bring them to the big screen.  Even an animated version of this story would be welcome.  A fun read, though the descriptions at times give one a headache, like hearing about someone's long dream.

Steven Saylor writes fiction that takes place in ancient Rome, and is a master at it.  For a while, a long time ago, we carried on an e-mail discussion about Sword and Sandal movies.  It took me awhile to get around to read his books, but when I finally did I was hooked!  Roman Blood is the first book of his Rosa Sub Rosa novels, featuring the detective Gordianus The Finder, published in 1991.  More of Saylor's books get high reviews, and for good reason.  Along with fictional characters, Saylor uses real historical figures.  In this book, for instance, the young Cicero is the lawyer who defends the accused murderer.  He hires the (fictional) Gordianus to gather information for him.  Sulla the Dictator is ruling (an actual person), and there are several other real characters in the story.  But Saylor goes even further, taking an actual case of murder that Cicero accepted, and uses parts of his actual summation in the story.  The interweaving of fact and fiction is seamless.  The best parts of Saylor's books are his ability to bring day to day life in Rome to life in a way that even a good movie cannot.  This happens to be a very hot summer, with a merciless sun beating down upon the city every afternoon.  The flies, are there, the rats, the filth, the low life, a spectacular tenement fire, and or course the crime.  The injustices heaped upon slaves and the poor are also in the forefront, in case anyone wants to glamorize life in the Rome of around 70 B.C.E.  My only complaint about the book is the large number of violent and bloody episodes it contains, including several assaults on Gordianus.  Would someone who came so near death by misfortune so many times within just a few days still be happy to carry on his work for 15 more volumes in the series?  Not if he had half a brain.  Anyway, the series does not have to be read in any order, and all that I have read so far are very good reading.

Cover painting by Antonio Basoli. 

 

William Morris created some of the best fantasy novels ever written (see my Ballantine blog), and was a huge influence on Tolkien and other writers who took up fantasy.  His earliest fantasy tale was published in 1889, called The House of the Wolfings.  Morris translated many of the northern sagas, and here he has written one of his own.  Told mostly in prose, there still is a good deal of rhyming couplets to keep authenticity.  The first part could easily be drawn from an earlier time in Middle Earth, when the men of the Mark were divided into clans though allied against trouble makers from outside their range.  Morris includes a magic hauberk, as well as women, men, and a boy who can "see" what might befall.  Once we realize that these Goths are about to fight the Romans, we are somewhat brought back to our own Earth.  The river that Tolkien eventually called the Anduin is here called the Mirkwood, since it runs in and out of dark woodlands, mostly bordering them.  The various clan houses are arrayed along this river north to south.  While the story focuses on the Wolfings, several other clans also feature prominently in the tale.  The story tells the story of the preparation for battle, continues with the several major battles that occur, and follows up with the aftermath.  All in all it is a rousing tale, filled with myth-making heroes and great deeds, including the bravery and strength of the enemy Roman legions.  Originally meant to be the first book of a trilogy, Morris did write one more, but not the third.  Looking forward to reading it!

 

Next to last came the second collection of detective stories by Arthur Morrison, the 1895 The Chronicles of Martin Hewitt.  There are six stories featuring the great detective, who mostly works alone, or in concert with the police, and are related to us by his friend and confident.  In "The Ivy Cottage Mystery," Hewitt solves a murder and a jewel theft, using much the same method as Holmes.  Indeed, this is one of the stories that might have led people to believe that it was Doyle writing under a different name, as was the case when the original series was printed.  In the next story Hewitt gets into 19th C. diving gear to solve "The Nicobar Bullion Case."  When a ship sinks off the coast of Cornwall carrying gold bullion, a crime of opportunity presents itself to one of the salvage workers.  Try to picture Sherlock Homes in diving gear and going underwater to look for clues.  Unfortunately, the whole plot is too far fetched to be believable, but it makes a nice change from the streets of London.  "The Holford Will Case" is involved with hypnotism upon an innocent though weak willed woman by the conniving nephew of her deceased step father.  She has been left the bulk of the estate in her father's will, but the nephew attempts to steal and destroy the will, which would leave everything to him.  Fortunately for one and all, Hewitt saves the day again.  "The Case of the Missing Hand" adds a touch of gruesomeness to the collection.  A cruel and conniving man is found hanged in the woods with his right hand missing.  Two brothers are arrested for murder, until Hewitt proves otherwise, and is able to explain what really took place.  Next up is "The Case of Laker, Absconded," a straight forward case of robbery.  That is, until Hewitt gets involved, proving that the man thought of as the guilty one is quite innocent.  Lastly comes "The Cost of the Lost Foreigner", about anarchists attempting to set off a series of bombs in London.  One of the gang backs out at the last minute, and they don't take kindly to his change of heart.  One never knew that bread could be so dangerous.

The last book completed in December was E Nesbit's first childrens' book.  Called The Story of the Treasure Seekers, from 1899, it is almost as much fun to read as the slightly earlier masterpiece by Kenneth Grahame, The Golden Age.  Writing as if a 12 year child had written the story, it is mostly a charming tale of five children trying to raise money to help restore the Bastable fortune.  Oswald Bastable tries to keep it a secret that he is the one writing the book, but of course his slips and oversights quickly give away the secret.  The children first try digging for buried treasure in their garden.  No luck.  One of them, an 8 year old, is a poet, and they try to sell his poetry to a major London newspaper.  Very minor results.  They kidnap Albert-next-door and hold him for three thousand pounds ransom.  A ransom note is sent to his family.  Alas, it just doesn't work out for them.  They try to sell mail order sherry.  Another flop.  But the best chapter of them all tells of the newspaper and its contents that the children create, in hopes of selling 100 copies at a shilling apiece.  Some very rich writing here, indeed.  All in all the short book is great fun to read, especially for an adult.  A 1996 British film of the book can be seen on Youtube--it will be reviewed soon in the next blog entry.  Unfortunately, girls are not rated very highly by Oswald as persons in this story.  He is a complete misogynist.  And there is a single use of the "n" word, which hopefully is expunged from modern editions (not used by the children, but by an adult)  Michael Moorcock used the name of Oswald Bastable as the storyteller for three of his connected alternate history novels, in an effort to help capture that time in the late Victorian period when men ruled in the house and beyond.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

October Books Read

With five clear nights in October used for observing with my telescope, I basically lost 5 days/nights of reading.  My daytime reading is used to write up observing notes and prepare for the upcoming night.  My nighttime reading is...well, spent at the telescope eyepiece.  I still managed to read 10 1/2 books, so all is not lost, and a few were quite long.

The month began with a Robert Silverberg book.  I am now reading novels and stories he wrote in and around his gigantic Majipoor series, but not related to those books.  So his writing has matured and really developed.  Even so, his short time travel novel Project Pendulum might not appeal to all readers of such stories.  His concept involves wending twins forward and backward in time simultaneously, in a sort of Powers of Ten manner.  One brother goes forward 5 minutes in time, while the other goes back 5 minutes.  The next jump is 50 minutes, then 500 minutes, etc.  The final jump takes them 950 million years from their starting time!  At the end of the book, they begin their trip homeward.  It's a very strange idea, and though the book, like the time jumps, begins slowly, it gradually gathers momentum and interest the further the brothers travel in time.  I enjoyed the book, and it would make a fantastic basis for a TV series.

Next came a dreary fantasy novel by Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey called If I Pay Thee Not In Gold.  This is the type of book I try to avoid at all costs.  Based on an idea by Anthony, it was penned by Mercedes Lackey.  Then Anthony went over it with a fine tooth comb, adding ten thousand words.  The first two hundred pages take place in a city ruled by women, who make slaves of the men.  Women can conjure magic, but men can't.  That part is never really explained very well.  The Queen is a bitch and tries to kill the young girl, Xylina, who shows much prowess in magic.  She tries to kill her over and over again, but somehow always fails.  This is too bad, since the story could have ended much sooner.  From 1993, this 398 page waste of time is one of the most boring books I have ever read.

Harry Harrison finishes his USA versus England trilogy with Stars and Stripes Triumphant.  It's a delicious series to read (and the third book is no exception), except by the English.  But Harrison, who lives in Dublin, is writing here for the Irish and the Scottish reader, as well as other countries colonized by England back in the good old days.  It really is a fun series, and looking at England's standing in the world at the present moment, it resembles the situation where England ends up at the end of the series.

Bulmer's Fox #8: Battle Smoke keeps up the humour and adventure in his epic sea going series,with Lieutenant Fox spending time back in Limehouse, London, with his family.  But he is itching to get back to sea, and after some local exploits, off he goes, finally aboard a class 1 battle ship, under Captain Staunton again.  this means that Fox is virtually in charge of everything aboard the ship, a de facto captain in all but name.  The climax is another great sea battle, this time between four English ships and seven French and Spanish ones.  With an incapacitated admiral aboard, Fox takes command of the fleet and leads the charge!  Great stuff for sea loving adventure fans.

I finally began E C Tubb's mammoth series featuring the adventures of Dumarest.  The Dumarest Sagas contains about 36 novels, and I am now underway.  The first book, published in 1967 as one half of an Ace Double, is called The Winds of Gath.  The lead character is a space wanderer and adventure seeker, and through mischance he ends up on a planet from which it is virtually impossible to leave.  He undergoes some hardships, but gets a big break when he defeats a strongman in an entertainment battle.  He earns a ticket off the planet.  But many more adventures await him on Gath, in itself a totally fascinating planet.  I like how the story stayed focussed on the one planet, and seems to cover nearly every aspect of its (limited) possibilities.  Very well written, and a very promising start to the series.

I am reading three huge volumes of stories by Jack Williamson.  Wizard's Isle contains 16 stories by the author, published between 1933 and 1937.  I read half of this vast volume last month, and will read the rest of it in November.  Lots of fun stories about mad scientists, and good people who just won't listen to reason.  The Wand of Doom has a nice bayou atmosphere to it, and The Plutonian Terror is a good horror story with a neat surprise ending.  Using an original pulp magazine cover as its cover for the this hardbound volume, I have awarded the prestigious Cover of the Month to this book.

SF cover of the month for October 2022.  

Next came Michael Moorcock's 2nd book in his Dancers At The End Of Time series.  Called The Hollow Lands, it is from 1974, and takes up where volume one left off.  Jherek Carnelian is still in search of his time lost lover, Mrs. Underwood.  He is able to return to her time in London, and finds his way to her house.  Before that are some truly bizarre adventures involving a robot nanny and a homicidal alien, he meets up with H G Wells in London and is soon off on more hilarious adventures.  The entire London adventure reminds me somewhat of a Carry On movie.  Overall the book is quite readable.  If you don't like something you are reading, it will soon change to something else, so carry on....

Lastly came a long volume of 37 short stories by Barry Malzberg.  There is a wide range of tales here, some SF and some not, some almost beyond classifying.  A Galaxy Called Rome is the novelette version of his novel Galaxies (see above).  It is a brilliant concept, about a story that a writer might or might not actually write, but if he did write it this is what he would do, and what he would include.  Very well done.  Agony Column is a very funny, but very devastating, story that contains nothing but various letters written by a Mr. Martin Miller, and the various replies he gets, mostly form letters.  A real gem!  Corridors is about Ruthven, an older, tired SF writer from the pulp days.  He has finally had some financial success, but it came too late to help with the bitterness he feels about his life and his writing.  This is a very moving tale about the "golden" days of SF pulp writing, and its effect on one writer.  Recommended.  A valuable collection for fans of this highly underrated writer.

Next came a book off the dwindling book shelf, and two Kindle books from my nearly endless Delphi collection.  With The Tale Teller, Anne Hillerman comes closest so far to equaling her father's writing.  This is her best book of the series, in which Joe Leaphorn returns to action, after she nearly killed him off in her first book.  Intertwined with the mystery story is more Navajo lore, including things about the Long Walk they were forced to undertake when the US government forced them off their sacred lands.  Tony and Anne Hillerman are both recognized by the Navajo as true friends, and in a book like this it is easy to see why.  Highly recommended, and the empty landscapes of Arizona and New Mexico resonate strongly in this novel.

Next came a short novel by one of my favourite Ballantine Adult Fantasy authors, George Meredith.  His first novel was The Shaving of Shagput, an Orientalist fantasy that I read and reviewed on my Ballantine blog page.  His second novel is called Farina, written in 1857, a year after Shagput.  It is in every sense a minor effort, though still fun to read.  It is a medieval fantasy that takes place in Germany, and concerns the beautiful daughter of a merchant who is the centre of attention of most young men in the vicinity.  It has humour, an easy-going story, and some supernatural events.  It is a bit of a let down after Shagput, but then that book is unique in the literature to begin with.  I look forward to his third novel, and didn't mind reading this one.

A. Merritt is one of the great fantasy writers from the late teens and early twenties, influenced by H Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, who in turn went on to influence a whole generation of writers, including H P Lovecraft.  His first novel was The Moon Pool, from 1919.  I had never read this one before, and while I found the fantasy element imaginative and somewhat engrossing, his writing style is quite poor.  Expanded from two novellas, the book often bogs down in descriptive detail.  When there is action, the book is fun to read.  When the descriptions go on for page after page, not so much fun.  The climax is exciting, and the ending is well thought out.  There is considerable humour, too, as Larry O'Keefe, an Irish American and the adventure hero of the story, woos Lakla, handmaiden of the Silent Ones.  The story begins at the ruins of Nan Madol, off the island of Pohnpei, in Micronesia.  It is narrated by Dr. Goodwin, who sets out to investigate the disappearance of a good friend and his family.  I really liked the gradual development of the story and the action,which eventually leads to a massive underground kingdom.

Mapman Mike