Books Read April/May 2026 and Annual Summary

Because of travel I have combined the last two months.  We were away for the last week of April and the first week of May.  As a result I only read one Tubb and one Bulmer instead of one each month.  I also managed to get through a lengthy Moorcock novel.  The rest is free reading, including four from my Delphi Classics series on Kindle.

 

But the end of May is also the time I look back on another year of reading. It is now ten years since I began the Avon/Equinox SF project (see separate blog).  I am now down to mostly two authors, E C Tubb and Kenneth Bulmer.  I am stepping back even from these two authors somewhat, and will read one book a month by one or the other, instead of both in the same month.  This frees up my time for the Delphi Classics series, as well as for my ever growing list of unrelated fiction.

 

Here is the summary for June to December 2025 January through May 2026.  In total I read 98 books.  22 of those were by authors from the Avon/Equinox SF series, while 71 one of them were novels by various and sundry authors, many from the Delphi Classics series.  My ten year total for Avon/Equinox authors is now at an astounding 898 books!  In the same period I have read 361 books by other authors.   That makes 1259 books over ten years, all reviewed.  I'm a busy guy when not looking at maps.

 

Scorpio Invasion is from 1992 and is 238 pages long.  It is #40 in the Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer, and we find Dray face to face with the Star Lords once again, after defying them in the previous book.  All is well, however, and he even manages to talk them into following his advice for his next step in serving them.  The Shanks ("Fishheads") are a savage and evil bunch attempting to take over the entire planet and enslave everyone.  Dray has fought them before, but this time he volunteers to go into a city that they have captured and are terrorizing.  He enlists the help of some renegades and like-minded slaves in hopes of timing his attack from within the city with the upcoming one from without.  Bulmer's attention to detail is an awesome feat; I don't know how he kept track of events from earlier books, but he even footnotes where readers can go back and check if they so wish.  Also, his sense of humour seldom lets up, leaving behind all of the much more serious fantasy adventure novels in this aspect.  The novel ends at a cliffhanger moment, so we will have to wait awhile to find out what happens next.  Will Dray Prescott be able to save his friends from slavery, or will he be captured and enslaved himself?  This fun and fascinating series continues to interest me, even forty books on.  *** stars.

 

Incident on Ath is from 1978 and is 188 pages long, #18 in the on-going saga of Earl Dumarest written by E C Tubb.  Any book in this series would make a fantastic SF movie, though the same could be said for virtually any book by Tubb.  But Star Wars marches on.  This time we begin on planet Juba, a place that Dumarest is trying to now leave.  He is being searched for the Cyclan, that race of Cybers--part human, mostly machine) for knowledge he has tucked away in his brain.  This knowledge will advance their cause greatly in their scheme to rule the galaxy, so our hero is always on the run.  Where is he going?  This is the one weak link in this series.  He wants to return to earth, where he was born, but no one has heard of it and thinks it's a myth.  His reasons for returning are never given--when he left as a boy it was a world devastated by war and environmental disasters.  So why not go back and see the old homestead.  Anyway, he hears of the planet Ath, which sounds like the planet he is looking for.  As things turn out, Ath likely had all the answers he needed, but, like the old TV series The Fugitive, Tubb can never give him what he wants.  The computer with the knowledge gets blown up in a man's failed scheme to take over the planet, which has something very much like Herbert's spice.  And so we move on to the next volume.  Tubb weaves an amazing story around these events, with a lot of science mixed in for good measure.  He even includes the arts, with a disillusioned painter and a very beautiful and talented ballerina.  This is one of the better entries in the series.  *** stars.

 

The Whispering Swarm is from 2014, the first book of The Sanctuary of the White Friars series by Michael Moorcock.  The book is 470 pages and is divided into 3 shorter books.  I read one of the shorter books each past month, the first one 190 pages long.  90% of this first book is Moorcock's autobiography, and he throws in a little bit of mysterious goings on in London for seasoning.  I wish he had just stuck to autobiography or to fiction; the two do not mesh very well.  In fact, Moorcock comes out looking like a total idiot, one of the stupidest heroes of any book I have ever read.  Even though he continually wanders into a fantasy London area, he attributes it to LSD.  Really?  Is anybody that dumb?  While he goes on and on about how great his imagination is, the best he can come up with for explaining the strange goings on behind the big gate he sometimes has access to is to say it was LSD.  Very good, Michael.  Very believable.  He becomes one of those characters you want to shake very badly, or see him get run over by a bus.  The fantasy part shows promise, whenever he decides to get more serious about it.  The autobiography is interesting since Moorcock has met so many influential writers.  Right now I have very mixed feelings about the book, as it took 190 pages to convince himself that something strange is actually happening to him.  Great deduction.  More to follow next month.

Reviewed February 2nd/26 

 

The 2nd book of The Whispering Swarm continues pretty much in the same tradition as the first, except that Michael now is beginning to believe something strange is going on.  Ya think?  Was there ever such as moron in fiction who lived to tell the tale?  Michael divides his time between telling us more of his autobiography, how much his loves his wife and daughters, how much he loves the girl from behind the gates he's shagging, and how his tinnitus stops when he goes there.  Yet he still makes no real connection.  In most horror novels such a dimwitted hero would likely die and no one would miss him.  I am coming around to wishinf for that idea in this case.

Reviewed March 1st/26 

 

In the 3rd book of The Whispering Swarm Moorcock continues to use the kitchen sink approach to writing.  He uses autobiography a lot (changed somewhat, of course), fantasy, SF and, in this book, increases the use of historical fiction.  British history is filled with opportunities to write fictional accounts of what might have happened, and is a major genre of fiction writing today.  Moorcock taps into this with his Cromwell versus King Charles I.  He joins a party of loyalists who attempt to rescue the King from prison the night before he is to be executed.  Moorcock and readers know that Charles was beheaded, but with Moorcock and his use of multi universes one never knows where this angle might be going.  Be reassured that history does follow its course, but the reason that the rescue does not come off is that Charles refuses to be rescued.  There follows a climactic scene on the frozen Thames at night during a winter thunder snowstorm.  While the third book in this volume is the best of the three, it still can't really save a sinking ship.  Planned as a series of four volumes, at least one more has been written.  I may or may not get around to it.  If I can pick up the next volume cheaply I will, but that is still no guarantee it will get read and reviewed.  I wish Moorcock had simply written an autobiography.  For now, Moorcock reading and reviews will be rested for a time.

** 1/2 stars

 

My used hardcover edition was read over a period of three months. 

 

Turning now to Delphi Classics I began with another round of stories featuring martin Hewitt, private detective. Just as smart as Holmes, and much more personable, Hewitt and his sidekick Brett tackle a mastermind criminal this time.  Arthur Morrison's The Red Triangle is a series of six stories from 1903.  Mastermind Maes is behind all of the crimes investigated, and though the stories can be read as separate tales, there are ingeniously woven together to form a novel.  Similar to Moriarty and Holmes, Maes is thwarted in all of his misdeeds by Hewitt, and though they do have a final encounter in the sixth and final story, it ends very differently in this telling for the detective.  All of the stories are well written and worth reading, and the linking device used to make us keep reading is a good one.  All of Morrison's Martin Hewitt tales are recommended highly to fans of Sherlock Holmes, and they can stand up against most of Doyle's tales.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

An early edition. 

 

Next came another book by E. Nesbit concerning the Bastable Children.  The New Treasure Seekers is from 1904 and contains several shorter stories loosely linked.  In the first story one of the boys tries to stowaway to Rome, hiding in a clothing basket dressed in a clown suit.  It becomes a true childhood misadventure.  In the next story the children try to concoct a superior Christmas pudding.  This story is pretty funny and more than plausible.  Don't forget to wash the raisins and currents before using them.

The third story is about a distant cousin who visits and is slightly older than the Bastable children. Archibald is also a cad of the first order, but proves no match for his more sensible and decent younger cousins (and their female servant).  In "Over The Water To China" the children get into a situation when they go searching for their lost dog.  It takes them across the Thames from Greenwich and into a very poor area as they follow a lead on their missing dog.  Three of them, led by Alice, end up in a street fight with five thuggish and unpleasant boys tormenting an elderly Chinese man.  After a day long adventure it turns out that the dog wasn't missing after all.

In "The Young Antiquaries" they venture to Red House to meet again with the famous writer who lives there, and this time meet Mrs. Red House, who turns into a very good sport and super fine person.  In the next story their Red House adventure continues, leading to an undiscovered extra room in the cellar and the treasures found there in. 

The next story is one of revenge, but the result is far from sweet.  In the next story the children try to do their writer uncle, who is in Rome, a favour by convincing his London editor that the chapter returned for a rewrite is worth printing as it is.  Good intentions always seem to go off the rails with these children, and this episode is no different.

The final three stories take place at the seaside, after the children are sent there to recuperate following a measles outbreak.  Along with Mr and Mrs Redhouse, a new adult friend is made, the sister of the woman they are lodging with.  It ends by the narrator (Oswald, of course) informing us that there will be no further Bastable stories.  And he was correct.

*** stars. 

 

P D Wodehouse wrote a number of books about upper grade public school boys, usually involving cricket as a central theme.  The Head of Kay's is from 1905 and follows the day to day adventures of several boys at boarding school.  The funny thing about these books, and probably why they were popular with boys at the time, is that there is no mention of actual school work or in-class scenes.  The story revolves around life before and after classes and on weekends.  Girls play no part in the stories, either.  Sport, mischief and getting along with others is a recurring theme, though Wodehouse is such a fine storyteller that a reader can sail through the book effortlessly and not be minded about themes or ideals very much.  Kay's is one of the school houses, identified by the teacher put in charge of it, and old Kay himself is a character to be reckoned with.  His house has a bad reputation and so he pilfers a senior from a different house to try and bring some order to his realm.  *** stars.

 

I brought two books to London with me, one to read at the hotel at night and the second to read on the long plane ride home.  Roddy Doyle's The Deportees and Other Stories was published in paperback in 2007 and contains 8 stories.  All of the stories are concerned with the immigrant experience in Ireland, and while each story has something important to say on the topic, a few say it better than anything I have ever come across.  "Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner" is about a black man coming to dine in a typical working class Irish household, and the father's reaction to the event.  The story is priceless and very well told.  The title story is a sort of followup to the author's best known novel, The Commitments.  This time the band is built using only immigrant talent.  The story is very funny and worth reading just as a lark, never mind the deeper meaning it may have.  It is worth the price of the book.  "New Boy" is a terrific tale of a young black schoolboy enduring his first day in a new school in a new country.  A virtuoso telling of a traumatic experience.  "57% Iris is a funny story about what it means to be Irish, and how such a concept can be broken into a mathematical statement of fact.  Funny and very original.  "The Pram" is a first rate horror tale about a haunted pram and the Polish woman who must push it every day with the baby she looks after for an Irish family.  This is one of the grimmest tales of immigrant experience I have ever read.  All in all this is a rich collection containing several unforgettable tales.  Highly recommended.

***1/2 stars.

 

A terrific story collection! 

 

Outside Looking In is a truly remarkable story by T. C. Boyle from 2019.  It is a fictional look at the history of LSD and its use among early researchers.  The story begins in a Swiss lab during WW II, then jumps to the early 1960s at Harvard.  This is a not very thinly disguised history of Timothy Leary's LSD experiments.  The story centers around Fritz, a grad student studying Psychology, and his wife Joanie and their young son Corey.  Fritz comes under the influence of the very charismatic Tim(othy) and he and his wife begin using LSD for research purposes.  Timothy Leary remains one of the most fascinating characters of the 20th C, polarizing people's views as to his research methods and his use of drugs to gain enlightenment.  While the novel focuses on the early years of experimentation, including several seasons at Millbank and the Mexico summers, the book really dives deep into the milieu of early 60s drug experimentation, with Boyle's focus on one family as a way to show outsiders what was really going on.  Fitz's inability to free himself from the group experience (his wife eventually pulls out with their son), and the fact that his life is going absolutely nowhere, is the tragic outcome of a science experiment that ditched the science and went with the drug experience instead.  Fritz essentially fell into a black hole and was unable to extricate himself.  The final words of the novel are shocking, though we knew all along what was happening and what wasn't.  The search for Truth evaporated into an alcoholic and drug induced haze of existence; it became a never ending party, fundraising event and nothing more.  This is a story that I didn't want to end, but the ending was perfect, as we watch the (sinking) ship sail on.  And on.  **** stars.

 

Timothy Leary and friends get exposed. 

 

A good read to follow up with was Paddy Chayefsky's 1978 novel Altered States.  I have seen the film many times and have always wanted to read the novel.  The author did a lot of research before he began writing it, but he still takes us where no man has ever gone before.  This is a fascinating SF novel about one man's search for Truth, and finding it.  There is a good deal of science talk and the main characters are all doctors of some sort, including medical.  This should not turn off a general reader as the story is as fascinating as it gets.  In the previous novel reviewed above we saw Leary and others fail in their search for Truth through the use of LSD.  In the end they just became addicted to the high.  It would be like just watching the trippy light show scene from 2001 over and over again, rather than the entire film.  The hero in Altered States is just as crazy as Leary, but a bit more serious about achieving his goal.  What a fascinating line of thought to realize that within us might be locked away the entire history of evolution.  Is there a way to tap into it?  Edward Jessop tries an isolation tank, then drugs, then a combination of both before hitting on the bullseye.  Though the film version is terrific, the novel is much better, with clearer goals and outcomes than the film.  The book is pretty short, highly readable and very highly recommended.  **** stars.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

The Starless Sea is a book that I was greatly looking forward to reading.  Erin Morgenstern had written a fantasy masterpiece in her previous work The Night Circus.  I was excited to finally see her second novel arrive at the top of my reading list.  Published in 2019, I can honestly say that the book was a great disappointment.  It is a muddled mess with cardboard characters (less than dolls), no line of direction, and an ending so confusing that I doubt many readers (if they even read that far) came away with anything.  It's the kind of novel that some people might encounter and think they are reading something very profound.  While the ideas behind the book are original and very intriguing, their handling leaves so much to be desired.

 

For starters, the book is way too long. It needs a brutal edit.  That would hopefully knock off about 150 unnecessary pages. The author needs to focus on what it is she is doing, saying and trying to achieve.  None of the characters appear to know, usually a bad sign in a novel.  The lead character is a gay male gamer who gets caught up in a whirlwind of fairy tale activity, most of it below ground.  He is constantly off balance, wondering what is happening to him.  None of the characters grow or change in any way during the novel.  The author seems lost herself in a world of fairy tales, with the Alice stories uppermost in her mind as she writes.  While her fantasy world creations are every bit as enchanting as those found in the Alice stories, Morgenstern's wit and writing skills fall far below those of Lewis Carroll.  I cannot recall a single funny line in the current book, nor any attempt to link what is happening underground to anything above.  Humourless fantasy books become very tiring after a while, and this one really tuckered me.

 

As to the writing itself, there are some passages better suited to poetry; good poetry.  Most of the time, however, the writing is less than stellar.  I will give two examples; if you require more I can  easily provide them.  These examples are from Book V "The Owl King."

 

"A sword and a crown surrounded by a swarm of paper bees.  A ship without a sea.  A library.  A city.  A fire.  A chasm filled with bones and dreams.  A figure in a fur coat on a beach.  A shape like a cloud or a small blue car. A cherry tree with book-page blossoms." 

 

Seriously?  What the hell is that suppose to contribute to a 500 page novel?  Necessary?  Illuminating?  She is supposedly writing for adults.  I feel offended.  Another paragraph:

 

Zachary Ezra Rawlins looks down at words he has been longing to read, near delirious to have finally found another sentence that starts with the son of the fortune-teller in a familiar serifed typeface on a piece of paper removed from a book before being turned into a paper star and then gifted to him by a small owl and then he stops.

 

Quite the run on sentence, is it not?  Did this book even have an editor?  If you want more examples, message me or better yet read the book and keep count.  I stopped counting after a while.  Now we come to the ending, such as it is (spoiler alert).  Zachary Ezra Rawlins (as he is always called in the book by the author) dies.  But his boyfriend (luckily) found a beating heart in a box.  When they finally meet up, after searching for each other a long time, he places the heart (surgical technique not specified) in Zach and brings him back to life.  Afterwards, I believe they live happily ever after.  How's that for a terrific ending, after 499 pages of wandering around aimlessly and trying to figure out what is happening?  You may be wondering about that starless sea we hear so much about.  It's really far underground, and it consists of honey.  Yup.  Honey.  It rises up at the end, too.

 

Was there anything I liked about the book?  I liked the possibility of books being important in more than obvious ways.  I liked the idea of a fairy tale for adults.  I like some of the author's descriptions, and even her original fairy tale stories were quite good.  So it wasn't all a bad dream.  But it was a disappointing one.  ** stars.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

I finished up with "Killer's Choice", #5 in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series and published in 1957.  These are hard boiled police procedures along the lines of Dragnet, but the writing is amazingly good.  In 1957 detective work was an all boys club, and the 87th is no exception.  Usually more than one crime is dealt with in a book, and this one has two murder investigations going on at the same time.  A detective new to the squad arrives from a somewhat softer precinct, and he makes a  mistake that almost gets his partner killed.  Luckily he learn fast.  A brutal thief kills a cop during a robbery, and a woman is murdered at her liquor store workplace.  Both are interesting cases, but the woman's murder is better written in every way.  Two things stand out about the investigation into her murder.  Firstly, every person who knew her and was interviewed by the detectives give vastly a different version of who she really was.  Her ex, her mother, her employer etc all paint almost totally different pictures of her character.  This is not something readers encounter very often in detective stories, and it adds an intriguing dimension.  The second stand out feature is the woman's young daughter.  Monica is 5 and in kindergarten and lives with her mom (now deceased but she is never told in the story) and grandmother.  She is a charmer from the first time we meet her and proves to be a reliable witness after taking a phone call and telling the detectives about it.  All about it.  She has a flawless memory.  We really feel for this girl, who will have to live her life without her mother.  A very good entry in the series.  ***1/2 stars.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

See you next month.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Storm Update

Even though the most severe warnings are now down for our area, it is still very cold (4 F) and very windy.  There has been a constant roar of wind through the trees, heard easily from inside.  Our power has remained on (so far), and the water pipes haven't frozen (yet).  The boiler has been up to the task of keeping the house at 67 F.  Our generator is standing by, as is the wood pellet stove (if the furnace conks out), and a stack of firewood is ready for action if the power goes out and the generator won't start.  I've been doing three bird feedings per day, the only time I am outside.  It takes two to three minutes, and by the time I am inside again I am nearly frozen.  The river was ice free on Thursday, but is now thick with the stuff.  Shipping on the Great Lakes has come to a halt until the gales die down a bit.  Lake Huron was recording 25' waves yesterday.

 

We were spared the predicted snow amounts.  We got 1"-2" of snow, instead of the predicted 6"-10".  Squalls with whiteout conditions still hit us from time to time.  The main highway to Toronto has been shut down since yesterday, and likely will stay closed until the wind subsides, sometime Sunday.  Our roads seem mostly clear, but drifting is a continuous problem.  There is way more traffic today, people zipping past like there is nothing wrong.  Good luck with that.  Hope you don't have a breakdown or an accident.  Most people here do not have winter tires, either.  Believe it.

 

We recently watched the first three episodes of an older British TV series called The Edwardians.  The first one was about Rolls and Royce, and how they got started in the business.  That episode was in colour; the remainder are in b & w.  It was quite good, and also tells the story of why unions were required to break the power of virtual slave-driving business owners.  There are no unions here, the workers have a 70 hour work week (usually extended with many extra hours), and the boss (Royce) is a workaholic jerk.  However, he did get things done.  The second episode was even better, about a British MP named Horatio Bottomley, who also started the publication "John Bull," influential in its own peculiar way at the time.  The third episode was about E. Nesbit, the author, known today mostly for her children's stories.  However, the story focused not on her writing, but on her personal life, which was rather grim, to say the least.  But there was nothing about her being a leader in children's realistic fiction, and in creating the modern children's fantasy novel, where children of the day acquired a magical possession, or traveled to magical worlds.  This episode should have been much more focused on her writing to be successful.  

 

In other watching news, we viewed the 3rd and final film Criterion has on streaming file directed by Claire Denis.  Called White Material, it is from 2009.  It comes with two short features, one a discussion of the movie with the director, and the other a tiny documentary about Denis attending a disastrous (because of technical difficulties) local celebrity opening of the film in Yaounde, Cameroon.  The film follows a family of five (mostly the white woman who heads it) as they try to salvage their coffee crop amidst an armed rebellion and insurrection.  What could go wrong?  Well nothing, if she had taken her husband's and French official's advice to get the hell out, now.  But she stays, and the expected happens, like a slow motion train wreck.  While the story telling is a bit off- putting at times, jumping in time and from character to character, overall it is an effective film and well worth seeing.  Written by a black woman and using a largely black crew and actors (her camera man was white), the film makes several points about learning things the hard way, ignoring risks until it is too late, and even bringing up children.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

My leaving choice for the week was The Hidden, a SF/cop movie from 1987.  An evil escaped alien that looks like a giant slug gets inside people and makes them do bad things, like kill people, drive fast, and steal things.  A good alien in the body of a dead FBI agent's body tries to kill it.  He partners with a cop and they end up chasing the alien all around the city, as it takes over different bodies, including a female pole dancer, a police lieutenant, and a presidential candidate.  Lots of dark humour, hundreds of ineffectual bullets, a fast pace, and some grossness add up to a fun film for adventure fans.  Hal Clement wrote a two-novel series with a very similar theme, called Needle (1949), and Through The Eye of a Needle (1978).

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st/22 

 

More news as it happens. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

November Books Read

Before my usual end of the month book summary, let me begin by saying that there is great joy at this momentous time at Lone Mtn. Homestead.  What, you may ask, has caused such feelings among the inhabitants?  Our wood pellet stove is back in action, and things couldn't be toastier.  It would appear that a seized exhaust fan motor was causing our problem, and a few squirts of oil later we were back in business.  Today is quite cold, and the wind is howling.  However, inside it's Pina Colada time, and Hawaiian shirt day!  Woo hoo!  Bring on your worst, Monsieur Bonhomme.  We laugh at your pitiful attempts to chill our blood.  At least as long as the exhaust fan keeps working.

In reading news, I got through the usual 8 books related to the Avon/Equinox SF authors, and managed to read 5 unrelated books.  So a lucky 13 for this past month.  First up came Robert Silverberg's At Winter's End, truly one of his very best efforts.  Expanded into an epic novel in 1988, this 404 page novel has been waiting a long time for me.  Appearing first as a novella in Asimov's Science Fiction pulp magazine, this is truly an epic journey.  Ever since reading Olaf Stapeldon's First and Last Men, I have thought often of someone trying to write a tiny piece of that story of humankind that Stapledon simply did not have time for.  In his far reaching history of humans Stapledon blew many people's minds, and it would appear that Silverberg, among many others including myself, was one of them.  At first it would seem that his leap of imagination into the far future of a very different Earth was so far fetched as to almost be completely off the rails.  But putting things into a Stapledon perspective, what we have here is simply a tale of Earth 700,000 years after a meteor bombardment ended all life and froze the planet solid.  A really brilliant story, which I awarded a full four stars.  Another book in this series awaits me, I am happy to say.

Cover of the month by Michael Whelan.  It shows the first emergence of people living underground for 700,000 years, after the ice age finally begins to end. The detail here is commendable, and shows that the artist carefully read at least this far into the novel.

Many of Piers Anthony's early short stories are quite good, though as time goes on they become more and more unreadable.  Anthonology is a collection of short stories from the years 1963-1985.  Though none of the stories are truly classic, several are quite good.  "The Life of the Stripe," about an army promotion stripe, is one of the best, as is "Quinquepedalian," a dinosaur tale that seems heavily influenced by the movie Gorgo. There are enough good stories in the first half, but by the second half of this group I did not like a single one.

It is with great sadness that I now report on the final novel by Harry Harrison, one of the top writers of highly entertaining SF and fantasy.  His Stainless Steel Rat series alone would make him well loved and famous, but nearly everything he wrote is first class writing.  It became such a pleasure, after reading something by Piers Anthony, to next come across a book by Harrison, which would always revive my spirits immensely.  Harrison's final book is the 11th in the much loved series, and is called The Stainless Steel Rat Returns.  Slippery Jim deGriz and his charming (and deadly) wife Angelina come out of retirement for one last heroic mission, and I will be ever thankful that they did.  The plot means nothing, as it is always a fight against evil.  But the characters are everything, and the humour.  Not the best in the series, it is still top quality and great fun to read.

I began a new Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer (alias Alan Burt Akers), the Havilfar Cycle I.  The first book is called Manhounds of Antares, and it revived my interest in this massive pulp fantasy series.  Bulmer is back on his game.  Things continue to look up for this series, which I had nearly given up on.  I had left it alone for a year before deciding to come back.  I'm glad I did.  The book seems under control, and the story takes its time to develop.  The first few chapters resume the story from where it left off, and after a few hair raising adventures--all minor stuff for Dray--he is happily married to his beloved Delia. They spend a happy year together, and twins are born to the couple, a boy and a girl.  But soon afterwards, Dray is called away by the Overlords to fulfill a mission.  Let the adventure begin!

E. C Tubb's 2nd book of his Dumarest saga is called Derai, which is the name of a woman that our hero has to guard on her return journey to her home planet.  Not nearly as good as the first book in the series, it nonetheless checks a lot of the boxes required for a successful pulp SF novel.  But this novel seems more like a sketch than a finished story.  It could really have used a rewrite, or perhaps two of them.  I hope that Tubb gets back on track for book 3.  I have six of the series books from Kindle, but I won't go much beyond those unless the writing quality remains consistently high.

Next I read the 2nd half of the massive hardcover book by Jack Williamson, Book 3 of The Collected Stories.  The best of the remaining stories had to be "Galactic Circle," a novella from 1935 that once again shows the influence of Olaf Stapledon (see the Silverberg story, above).  A large group of people make a very unique voyage to the edge of the universe and beyond. The science given behind such a journey is more than a little hazy, but at least the author attempts to explain how it works.  It is part adventure story and part romance, and there are a few more major characters than usual in this kind of tale.  This one was fun to read.  The remaining stories are pretty much formula 1930s pulp magazine stuff, which if you've read hundreds of them already, the rest are pretty much the same.

Michael Moorcock's The End of All Songs is the 3rd and concluding (for now) story in a trilogy featuring life millions of years in the future (influenced again by guess who?), and starring Jherek Carnelian and his beloved Amelia Underwood.  The first two books I found a bit taxing to read, as Jherek's innocence of how things work in earlier times is quite exasperating.  However, in the third book (also the longest of the three), he hits a home run, making all my suffering during the first two books more than worthwhile.  I awarded this novel the coveted 4+ stars, the highest rating I give.  I don't recommend only reading this book--just be assured as you read the first two that it is all going to be worth your time.  The philosophy, poetry, and earnest discussions that permeate this volume create a work that holds fascination beyond its mere words, and beyond what this reviewer could ever convey here.  A must read.

Last (and never least) comes a work by Barry Malzberg and Bill Pronzini called Prose Bowl.  Imagine if there were no major sporting events as we know them (I am writing this during World Cup 2022 frenzy), but instead, amidst tens of thousands of live fans, and millions of viewers back home, two pulp writers battled it out midfield, writing a novel in competition in real time.  At the coin toss, the winner gets first pick of two themes that have been selected at random, while the loser takes the 2nd choice.  And they're off!  With a half time show and intense press interest, the Prose Bowl is the culminating competition for the two writers who remain after all the preliminary rounds.  By making it into a competition sport, the authors elevate pulp writing into a mass cultural event.  It is a brilliant concept, very funny, and an easy read.  Recommended to anyone who has read a lot of pulp fiction.

Turning now to books off the shelf, and from my vast Kindle collection, I began with the very first novel by Guy Gavriel Kay.  So far I have read his most recent novel, A Brightness Long Ago, from 2018, one of the best fantasy novels ever written.  And now I have read his first one, called The Summer Tree, from 1984.  It is the first in a trilogy (of course) called the Fionavar Tapestry.  The book shows heavy influences from Tolkien.  There are orc-like critters, a Mount Doom stand in, critters like Elves, and there be Dwarves.  There is a Sauron look alike, etc, etc. But no Hobbits.  Instead, we have five humans from our own time, transported (like the children in the C. S. Lewis Narnia series) to this other world.  Though Tolkien is often scolded for not having more strong women in his books, in my opinion he more than made up for this shortcoming with his creation of Eowyn.  I believe that she is possibly the best female fantasy character ever created by a male writer.  As for the two girls from C. S. Lewis' Narnia series, the less said the better.  Kay includes more women, and gives some of them incredible power.  But more doesn't necessarily mean better.  To me, none of the female characters met so far come near the greatness of Eowyn, or, for that matter, the lead females in E R Eddison's Zimiamvian trilogy.  So while the book is very derivative of Tolkien, so is most of the rest of fantasy writing, especially from the late 70s onward.  Having said this, there are glimpses of Kay's originality in virtually every page, and his incredible way of handling complex characters.  I am looking forward to reading book 2 next month.

Switching now to my collection of Delphi Classics on Kindle, I began with William Morris' 1888 A Dream of John Ball.  Morris has a unique way of looking back to the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, and in a supposed dream he travels back in time and meets John Ball, the doomed leader of the revolt.  In addition to hearing Ball give speeches to his loyal followers, we attend a preliminary skirmish, and then spend a good deal of time hearing the writer tell Ball of future times, and how he influenced people hundreds of years later.  Though the book obviously has a limited readership today, I found it quite fascinating, with a commendable look back at an event in medieval history of which I knew next to nothing.

Arthur Morrison is a writer I collected because of his short detective stories written for Strand Magazine, after the death of Sherlock Holmes at Reichenback Falls.  Many critics and readers assumed that the stories of one Martin Hewlitt, private detective, were in fact written by Conan Doyle.  I read his first collection, from 1894, entitled Martin Hewlitt, Investigator.  Containing seven stories, all of above average quality, it can quickly be ascertained by astute readers that this is not Doyle writing them.  Though the cases themselves often reflect ones similar to many of Holmes' cases, the character of Hewlitt is pretty straight forward compared to that of Holmes.  Though the mysteries written by Doyle are intriguing to be sure, it is the character of Holmes, and his relationship with Watson, that readers most enjoy.  Hewlitt has no Watson per se, and seems to have a higher opinion of the police that Doyle's characters.  None of the stories stand high above another here, but they are all satisfying and fun to read.

Next came a collection of 7 short stories by E Nesbit, known mostly for her wonderful children's stories.  Something Wrong was published in 1893, and contains some pretty hard hitting tales of violence and abominable behaviour.  Though all of the stories are excellent and extremely well written, one of them really stands out for me.  "Tim" is the name of a dog that performs tricks for a brutal master who takes a show on the road featuring Tim, a cat, a rat, and a few mice.  Told from Tim's perspective, this is likely the most heart breaking story I have ever read.  It made me immediately want to go out and adopt a dog and call him Tim, and pour all the love into him that I could. And perhaps a cat, a rat, and a few mice, too.

Next came an early work by P D Wodehouse.  The Pot Hunters is from 1902, and was the author's first published novel.  It's a light-hearted and pretty funny tale of adventure and misdeeds at St Austin's, a boys boarding school in England.  Written no doubt for such an audience, it would undoubtedly be enjoyed by high school aged boys from the time.  Though mostly built around indoor and outdoor sporting events, there is enough good story remaining to entertain even those not partial so sports.  There are a few passages that presage the great wit that was to descend upon the world during the author's mature period of writing.  Certainly not required reading for Wodehouse fans, it's still fun to see where it all began.

Lastly came Edgar Allen Poe's only completed novel, The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym From Nantucket, from 1838.  It is mostly a harrowing sea faring adventure, with murder, mutiny, starvation, cannibalism, and other fun adventures uppermost in the plot.  Part fantasy and part true life adventure, the hero, near the end of the story and after too many near death experiences, goes on a search for the south pole with a captain and crew that eventually rescued him from shipwreck.  I've come to the conclusion that in seafaring fiction, there is never a normal voyage.  Only the worst voyage ever experienced makes it to the pages.  The main fantasy elements emerge in the final third of the book, when, at 84 degrees south latitude, warm seas, islands with plants and animals, and tens of thousands of hostile natives are encountered, that we leave the realm of the possible.  What is most bewildering is that the person writing the memoirs (Mr. Pym) dies suddenly after writing 25 chapters, with about three remaining to write.  So we never hear the end of the tale.  This is a quite hilarious ending, and must have enraged many readers at the time, as it no doubt still does.  The book influenced Jules Verne, among others, though it was not a well liked book in its day.  For Poe fans only.

Mapman Mike