January Books Read

I read 13 books last month, including the 7 authors remaining from my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series, and 6 from the miscellaneous shelf.

 

Volume 7 in The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg is called We Are For The Dark.  Each of the ten stories is introduced by the author, and he also has written a 5-page intro to the volume.  The finest tale is the title one, a novella.  One of my very favourite kinds of SF stories has to do with found ancient alien technology, art, and/or music.  Silverberg has written a masterful story about true exploring, which is usually a search within oneself.  But he has done both types here, by combining it with an outward search.  We visit several planets, and learn why humans are going beyond the 100 light year radius decreed when colonization began.  One of his best stories, it is from 1988.  Lion Time in Timbuctoo is from 1990, also a novella.  The African story setting takes place in the same world as the author's 1967 novel The Gate of Worlds.  In that alternate history story, the plague decimated Europe until only about 10% of the population survived.  As a result, there was no European colonialism in the new World or in Africa or Asia.  The Turks rule a huge swathe of Europe, the Aztecs and Incas are still in control on their side of the ocean, and China remains a small player in world affairs (as does England).  This is the second of what Silverberg had planned as three stories set in that world, and it's a good one, more political intrigue that anything else, but very well written and fun to imagine.  Also noteworthy is Enter A Soldier. Later. Enter Another One, from 1989.  It is a novelette built around a discussion between Pizarro and Socrates about right and wrong.  

 

Under A Velvet Cloak, from 2015, is Piers Anthony's 8th and final book in his Incarnations of Immortality series.  This is not a slight series by any means, though Anthony often treats the material very lightly.  The series is needlessly complicated as it backtracks through time, moves into the future, and sees events from the perspectives of many different characters.  Most of the time reading I was not exactly lost, but in so deep that I didn't really care very much, except for wondering when the book would end.  If you like the first book you will probably enjoy reading the others, but beware.  Things get overly complicated.

 

Bulmer's 7th Dray Prescott novel is called Arena of Antares, and is from 1974.  This new adventure sees Dray captured (yet again) and made a fighting slave of an evil queen.  Yawn.  On it goes, with the remainder of the novel set in a gladiatorial arena, with fight after fight, usually uneven, for the delight and satisfaction of the bloodthirsty populace.  I was quite bored soon after the arena scenes takes over the plot.  Luckily for us, Dray and Delia are saved at the last second by their friends in an airship, who rescue them from the arena and take them to safety.

 

Tubb's 4th Dumarest novel is called Kalin, and is from 1969.  So far this is a pretty good series. 

Dumarest has a habit of ending up on dead end worlds, those that are depressing, have no honest work or way to earn money, and are nearly impossible from which to escape.  This time he hits a poisonous mining colony, worked by slaves.  The few free men have to scramble hard to find enough food to eat, and enough warmth to keep them alive over the winter.  The local wildlife is on the dangerous side, too.  He and Kalin, a psychic woman, arrive there after their passenger ship explodes, and they manage to escape in a life pod.  They are picked up by a slaver, but luckily for Dumarest he has enough money to buy his way to freedom, and Kalin's.  Her story becomes more complicated the further one reads, and by the end we are left dazzled by Tubb's plot.  Making their usual beneficial appearance are the religious brothers; making their usual harmful appearance are the Cyclans.  This is one of the better entries so far, in a series that will run for a very long time.

 

Cover of the month for January 2023.  The artist is John Schoenherr.

 

I finished up the 4th volume of The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, reading the first half in December, and finishing it up in January.  There are volumes in the series that I do not have, but they cost hundreds of dollars and I have no interest in getting them.  His early stuff is mostly so much juvenile crap anyway.  So this ends my affair with Jack's fiction, except to read his highly anticipated autobiography in February.  The volume of short stories I finished up is called Spider Island.  The only decent story of his from the January reading is called Released Entropy, from 1939.  The story raises the question of how strongly was Williamson affected by Olaf Stapledon's writing.  A lot, it would seem.  Worlds within worlds, and universes within universes.  Despite the cop out ending, this is a fun story to read.

 

Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock contains four linked novellas from 1963-64 (updated slightly more recently) on the further--and final--adventures of Elric.  While none of the stories really stand out, they are fun to read.  Elric is certainly a unique sword and sorcery type of hero, so different from Conan, the heroes of Edgar Rice Burroughs, or even from Fafhrd and Mouser by Fritz Leiber.  All of Elric's adventures are tied up with sorcery, and especially with his soul stealing sword.  If this is your thing, then Moorock and Elric are for you.

 

Malzberg and Pronzini teamed up for their final novel in 1979.  Night Screams is a bit frustrating to read as a murder mystery.  The reason is that the story is written so that virtually anyone could be the murderer.  The writers wouldn't even have to make up their own minds until the last chapter.  So it's a cheat if you want to try guessing who did it.  And it you are correct, then it is likely that you guessed, or drew the name from a hat.  The story uses psychics as the victims of gruesome murders, with the setting a snowed-in village in New England.  As usual, there are too many victims for one novel.  The authors have collaborated on a few books of short stories, which will be reviewed here someday soon. 

 

Turning now to the six books from the shelf, five of them were taken from my Delphi Classics collection on Kindle.  Only one book actually came off a (dusty) shelf.  Black Cloud Rising came from an honest to goodness bookstore in Detroit (Source).  I went in and asked if they had anything on the American Civil War from a Black perspective.  I was shown this book by D. W. Falade from 2022.  A work of fiction, it has many truths to tell.  We follow a Black sergeant and a Black regiment of soldiers as they go about their day to day marching and fighting in the South during the Civil War.  There were no surprises to this reader regarding the rampant racism in the North and South (but especially the South), and to the higher standard that the Black regiment was held.  Though led by whites, the leaders (the colonel, anyway) are willing to learn about their men as they go.  There are no major battles, but there are opportunities for the regiment to show their stuff, and as they did in real life, they accounted themselves very well.  One does not have to have an interest in the Civil War to read this wonderful story about growing up Black, becoming a freed slave, and enlisting in the Union army.  Highly recommended.

 

Next came a truly delightful and slightly mad story by H G Wells called The Wonderful Visit."  From 1895, an angel accidentally crash lands on Earth, is shot and wounded by the vicar (a nature lover and collector who thought it might be a rare flamingo), then brought home to rest and recuperate.  This is not an angel of God, but one of art, like a muse.  This one is a violinist.  The story stabs at the heart of Christian society, however, and almost every page sends out a zinger or two.  I had not expected much from this story, but it turned out to be a real gem.  Chapter Two, where the author discusses English gentlemen scientific nature "collectors," has never been bettered.  Definitely worth a read.  Apparently Joseph Conrad loved the book.  Marcel Carne made a filmed version in 1974, which I have yet to track down.

 

Vera is from 1892, an early play by Oscar Wilde.  Loosely based on a real Vera, it tells of the Nihilists in Russia who wish to overthrow the Czar.  Political intrigue, hard socialism, and the defeat of monarchy is at the heart of this adventure tale, in four acts.  It was performed for a week in New York around the time it was written, before closing suddenly.  I doubt if it ever sees the light of day much anymore.  It certainly isn't a terrible play, though I doubt that Americans would have cared for the plot.

The Voyage Out was written between 1912-15, and was Virginia Woolf's first novel.  A lot of this novel is sticking with me.  It's one of those books where nothing much happens, but everything happens if one is aware.  A little bit autobiographical, a woman of 24 years ships out with her father, who owns a shipping company.  They are off to Brazil.  Also on board is her uncle, who is a scholar, and her aunt, who takes the girl under her wing.  The young Rachel Vinrace has been raised by maiden aunts in Richmond, and is pretty much clueless about life, men, and about love.  The novel traces her slow awakening, and of her first love.  The novel is slow to grip the reader, and it didn't really happen to me until we'd been in Brazil for some time.  There are a lot of minor characters, and we even get a brief trip up the Amazon.  But most of the action takes place in a small town not far from the river, in the villa where Rachel lives with her aunt and uncle, and in the hotel where the other British travelers stay.  Born in 1882, Woolf is about the same age as Rachel, and was obviously a thoughtful and observant woman.  Her first few drafts were heavily revised on the advice of friends, who found her original story too harsh an attack on society.  It's easy to read between the lines to see what she often meant, however.  It is an amazing first novel, and well worth reading.  It is a long one, at just over 500 pages. 

Next came a volume of poetry by W B Yeats.  The Wandering of Oisin and Other Poems was published in 1889.  The title poem is an epic ballad from Irish mythology, and is quite good.  Having read the Mabinogian, this one recalls similar doings.  It is about a normal man who falls in love with an eternal spirit, and they dwell in happiness for many a hundred years.  Eventually, however, he wants to return home, somehow expecting everything to be as it was.  Though warned that he would never be able to return, he heads for home.  It is the only early poem that Yeats liked in years afterward, and I must say that the rest were not very memorable at all.

Lastly came Sherwood Anderson's first novel, Windy McPherson's Son, published in 1916.  Divided into four books, the first deals with Sam's youth, growing up in a small town in Iowa.  He sells newspapers, and his enthusiasm and flair for selling and getting ahead impresses the locals.  He is guided by an artist, and a former school teacher.  His father is the town drunk, and his mother is the local washerwoman.  In book two he heads for Chicago to earn his fortune in sales, and indeed he prospers beyond anyone's wildest expectations.  He becomes a ruthless businessman, working tirelessly to make more and more money.  In book three he chucks it all and heads on the road, becoming a (rich) wandering vagabond.  He is in search of meaning to his life.  He and his wife had planned to raise children as their main goal, but their attempts result in three failures, all nearly killing his wife.  And so he goes in search of the big something.  Book four is very short, and brings him to the end of his journey, and at least a partial answer to his still burning questions about life, the universe, and everything.  The book will not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those lost souls who still haven't found what they seek (luckily, this reader has), the book will be a welcome journey into oneself.  Surprisingly good writing, though the novel is not critically acclaimed.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

December 2022 Books Read

It was a foggy and mild New Year's Day here at the Homestead, and the ships along the Detroit River sounded mournful as they passed by.  If one is looking towards hopeful new things for 2023, today's weather will not be very inspiring.  Even so, this is typical weather for us at this time.  We have seen more foggy New Year's Eves than any other type.  Last weekend was the coldest and windiest it ever gets here, whereas this weekend it's been raining since Friday, not to mention quite dark.

We had an enjoyable party for two last night, with wood fire, lasagna, some music, and talk of Olaf Stapledon's writing.  That led us on a search for a recent film of his novel Last and First Men, on a streaming channel with a 7-day free preview.  So watch for that review soon!  And we ordered the blu ray disc of Aniara from Amazon.

In reading news, I begin as usual with the seven remaining authors of the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery series.  Incidentally, that blog site of mine remains very popular with readers.  Lately, someone from Hong Kong has been delving into my Michael Moorcock page, though most hits seem to come from the USA.  However, recent large numbers of hits also came from Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland.  Reliable author Robert Silverberg got things started for me with his 1990 Letters From Atlantis.  Written in epistle format, it tells of two time travelers visiting Atlantis, sharing the mind and bodies of two natives of that ancient time.  The book is also a prequel of sorts to Silverberg's Star of Gypsies from 1986.  Though the present book can be read unaccompanied, it makes a decent series with the original.  Incidentally, the method of taking over an earlier mind goes back to Olaf Stapledon in his first two novels.  It is a direct ripoff of the earlier author, who continues to influence SF writing to this day.  Letters is not a particularly good book, and teenagers would likely have trouble getting through it (a lot of the short novel is description of buildings, rituals, daily life, etc. in Atlantis.

Next came Alien Plot, a 1992 collection of 17 short stories by Piers Anthony.  None of the stories are great, but a few are worth reading.  My favourite was called Soft Like A Woman, from 1988, about a woman crew member of a secret military mission who single handedly saves the day.  Also fun to read was a half page story called To The Death, about a martial arts expert challenging an ascetic to a duel.  This was the first of 3 stories that had to be 50 words or less, and this one is very good.  Revise and Invent is a very funny tale about a writer trying to follow various editors' advice to get his story published.

Kenneth Bulmer's Fox series continues to entertain me, being one of the best sea faring adventure series ever conceived.  Bulmer's sense of humour and deadly irony are ever present , as well as enough action to satisfy any pulp novel reader.  In Fox #9: Cut and Thrust we again spend a long time on shore between missions.  When he is recalled to active duty, he is given command of a gunboat, and ends up saving a disastrous mission against the French navy.  Most of Bulmer's writing is very consistent and top notch, and this book is a great example of that.

Book 3 of E C Tubb's endless series about Dumarest, a planet-hopping adventurer, is called Toyman, and is a good entry in the series.  Like Bulmer, Tubb is usually a very reliable writer.  We now have the goods on the series, with Dumarest's character (such as it is) mostly predictable in most situations.  Even his situations are now mostly predictable (he will have to fight a lot; he will never stay in one place; he keeps searching for Earth, his home planet).  In this adventure, which takes place entirely on the planet of Toy, Dumarest has travelled there to use their famous main library computer to find out anything he can about Earth.  People always mock the name of Earth, saying it is a quite ridiculous name, while in turn living on a planet called "Toy."  Go figure.  There are a few neat plot twists near the end, and a final symbolic kick in the teeth for Dumarest, as he finally gets his wish to ask the library for information about Earth.  The fight scenes are some of Tubb's best, and the finale in the maze is also quite well done.  Overall a worthy pulp fiction read.

Next came the first half of a large hardcover compilation of early stories by Jack Williamson.   Spider Island: Vol 4 of the Collected Stories contains 12 stories, 9 essays, and many images.  I read the first half in December, and will finish the volume in January.  The stories, all from the mid 30s, range from the ridiculous to the barely readable, suitable for a 14 year old in the 1930s, perhaps, but not many others.  Considering what Olaf Stapledon was writing in the 30s.....  The main problem here is the one dimensional character, both good and bad.  The Blue Spot is probably the most readable of the lot, as it at least has two strong female characters (always called "girls" in SF from this time).  There are also two stories that aren't too bad from a type where the final explanation has to have no supernatural cause, but during the story it might seem that such was the case.  One of them, The Mark of the Monster, is very much in the Lovecraft tradition, and does provide some chills.

Next came the first half of an Elric volume by Michael Moorcock.  Two sets of four novellas are collected under two umbrella titles.  I read The Stealer of Souls, which actually contained two excellent Elric stories read previously.  The Dreaming City and When the Gods Laugh are both from 1961, and are featured in the Elric collection Elric: Song of the Black Sword (see above).  Next came two novellas new to me, both from 1962.  Stealer of Souls is a decent story in which Elric seeks help from his homeless kinsmen in taking down an evil wizard.  At first he is hired by merchants to kill the most successful merchant in the city, but plans evolve.  Lots of magic, some grim fighting, and some humour.  In Kings In Darkness Elric and his friend rescue a girl and agree to lead her safely home, after her family and guards were attacked and killed (though most of the mercenary guards ran away).  On the way they take a detour through a creepy forest, and have dealings with the murderous king who dwells there.  A pretty dark adventure.  Elric ends up marrying the young woman they rescue.

There was one other good Elric story as well, from 1962.  The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams has a barbarian hoard bearing down on the city where Elric lives with his wife.  Well now, did those barbarians ever pick the wrong city to molest.  With cats, dragons, magic, and bloodshed, this is a worthy addition to the Elric chronicles.

Last in the Avon/Equinox authors read last month was a brilliant early novel by Barry Malzberg called In My Parents' Bedroom.  From 1971, this 125 page non SF novel was the author's way of telling some of his personal story to readers when he turned 30.  And while the tale is autobiographical, it is also so much more.  Rather than tell a straight forward story of what it was like growing up with his parents and sister in the 1950s and early 1960s, he takes us on a guided tour of the former apartment where they all lived.  The apartment is now a National Historic Site, and the Westerfield family has become the picture postcard of a bygone era.  All of the family's rooms are preserved as they were, as well as many of their personal belongings.  Though Michael, as a family member, is not supposed to visit the home, he takes his girlfriend on the half day tour.  There are no surviving photos of him, so he is not recognized.

The tour begins in the main living room, then proceeds to the kitchen, bathroom, and three bedrooms upstairs.  By the time we finally get to the gift shop and restaurant (a totally hilarious experience), we have come to know the small tour group and guide as well as we now know the Westerfield family and how they lived.  There are many priceless moments along the way, though most people who don't get Malzberg's dark humour and cast iron irony will be left thinking that the book is shallow, with too much sex.  I am so happy that Malzberg is being republished today.  Virtually all of his literary works are again in print and available on Kindle.  I came upon this author just in time for my reading project.  This particular novel had not been available again until very recently.  It is a small masterpiece of storytelling, and besides showing the banality of life "back then", we read it today and ask ourselves, has anything really changed much?

 

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With the 7 Avon/Equinox authors' works read before the middle of December, I had time to read 7 more books taken off the shelf and from my Kindle collection of complete works of certain authors.  I begin with the 2nd novel of Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy, called The Wandering Fire.  Still an early work from 1986, there are nevertheless hints of what was to come forth from this incredible writer.  This 2nd novel could also have been called "Everything But The Kitchen Sink," as the author throws the entire Arthurian mythology into the soup mix.  At first I found it quite funny and more than a little off putting, but once the magic settles down for a little while the premise becomes acceptable and fun.  Not a great fantasy novel by any leap of the imagination, but miles ahead of most people writing fantasy garbage today, who seem to have learned nothing from their predecessors.  The final act of reaching the enchanted island and trying to defeat the evil wizard is worthy of the best of Fritz Leiber or Michael Moorcock.  I am looking forward to the concluding book in the series, and then moving on through the rest of Kay's books.

Cover of the month goes to Ted Nasmith's wraparound painting for The Fionavar Tapestry. 

 

Next came some poetry and a novel by Vita Sackville-West.  She was born at Knole House, Kent, a calendar house.  It had 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances, and 7 courtyards.  She grew up there, but the house went to her younger brother on the death of her parents, something which she was quite bitter about (eldest son gets the goods).  Two early poetry collections yielded a few gems.  Constantinople is a collection of 8 poems from 1915, of which "Muezzin" is noteworthy.  From 1917 came a larger collection called Poems From East and West.  Two of these stand out: "To Knole," a poem about growing up at her ancestral home; and "A Creed," a poem which immediately sets her apart from most of mankind at that time.

 

Then I read her first novel, Heritage, from 1919.  Told in three parts, as many books were then, it follows the life and love of a young man from the city and a girl from Kent farm country.  Not a great novel in any sense of the term, it is still readable and enjoyable in its small scale tale of love lost, and then won.  There are memorable moments, and no doubt it would make a good PBS TV series.

 

Next came George Bernard Shaw's earliest play, but preceded by two even earlier fragments of plays.  The longer of these fragments is from 1878 (he was 22), called Passion Play, and is a very funny look inside the house of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph during his early years.  Totally sacrilegious in its vocabulary and unstinting take-down of the great myth of Jesus (and especially Mary), it's a shame this was never completed.  Of course it would have never been performed anywhere anyway, and he likely realized that at a certain point and just stopped writing.  Well worth seeking out.  Next came a short play fragment from 1889 called The Cassonne.  There isn't much distinctive about this later work, of which only a few pages were written.  Then comes his first completed play, called Widows' Houses, from 1892.  It is a social commentary play, and tackles the tricky subject of housing the poor, and making money from the suffering of others.  Parts of it are very well done, but the final outcome is rather unsatisfactory, as there is no easy answer to the problem.  Still, it likely got people talking.

 

The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies is a 1933 collection of stories by Clark Ashton Smith, a writer who is much better than Lovecraft at certain types of tales, and far surpasses Robert E Howard.  Lin Carter published most of his stories in his own made up thematic collections throughout the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, and Smith was one of the best discoveries I made at that time.  So I am now reading the stories in the order they were published.  The first three stories are among the best fantasy tales ever put to paper, equal to the very best Jorkens stories by Lord Dunsany.  "The Voyage of King Euvoren" shows the influence of the Arabian Nights tales on a young Smith, especially the Sinbad tales.  "The Maze of the Enchanter" turns the typical Conan story on its head, and the ending is so brilliant that I won't even discuss it.  Let's jsut say that Roberet E. Hoard wold not have approved, though he might have laughed a lot.  One of the finest tales of sorcery ever written.  Likewise "The Double Shadow,"a story that pits a sorcerer and his apprentice against the oldest and most feared magic ever imagined.  A horror tale like no other.  Of the remaining three stories, only "The Willow Landscape" is worth mentioning.  This is a much more gentle tale of magic and sorcery.

 

Stargazer is a 2021 Navajo mystery novel from Anne Hillerman, and it takes place in parts of New Mexico with which we are very familiar.  It involves astronomy, too, so I enjoyed it even more.  My one complaint about the main character, a female Navajo police officer, is that she is essentially given the characteristics of a child, rather than an adult.  She drinks too much pop, eats burgers, doesn't eat any fruit or veg, and only takes pepperoni on her pizza.  Her day to day thoughts are usually so mundane as to be almost scary, mostly concerned with her aging mother and somewhat wild younger sister.  However, there are times in this book when looking up at the night sky seems to ground her a bit, and lift her thoughts to the more spiritual aspects of living.

 

Olaf Stapledon's second novel was written two years after his first, and has a direct connection to it.  Called Last Men In London, it is from 1932 and perfectly complements his first one, called Last and First Men.  Stapledon's works are worth seeking out for those of us looking for spiritual gratification in our reading.  His books read much like what a documentary film is to viewers, and do not necessarily follow any traditions of what a novel, especially a SF one, should be.  In this book, a future human from 2 billion years in the future returns to explore the mind of a man from London in the years before, during, and after the First World War.  I eventually had to stop bookmarking pages, as I would have ended up bookmarking virtually every page.  As much philosophy, ethics, and spiritual guidance as it is fiction, it is a must read book (though one reading will not be satisfactory).  One does not rush through a Stapledon book, and I highly recommend keeping a notebook handy.  One of the highlights, among many, is the section or chapter that has to do with the birth of a child, and following it through its early years.  Priceless and unforgettable.

 

Lastly read was Jules Verne's 3rd novel (his 2nd was not yet available for my Delphi Collection), one of his most famous and entertaining ones.  I first read Journey To The Center of the Earth (1864) as a young high school student, perhaps age 15.  The title is a bit of a misnomer, as the professor, his nephew, and Hans never make it to the center, but the adventure is great fun anyway.  There is a lot of humour in the story.  The professor is a madman, and reminded me a lot of Beethoven (I also read a long chapter of his biography by Swafford this month).  The book heavily influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose Pellucidar series takes place beneath the Earth.  Even as a boy, I liked how the book was slow to start, gradually building up to the trip to Iceland, then across the barrens to the mountain they would climb, and then descend within.  Once underground, things happen more quickly, and the ending is one of the great ones from adventure writing at its best.

 

I'll be back soon with a film update, and any other news that's fit to print.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

February Reading

It turned into an amazing month for reading, as I got through no less than 14 books.  That's an average of two per day!  Some excellent reading in there, too, including the first two Oz books, with original illustrations.

The new month always gets started with something by Silverberg.  I have collected all 10 volumes of Silverberg's shorter fiction, and read Vol 4 last month (which is really Vol 5, as the first volume was not numbered).  It contains 14 stories from 1972-73, lasting for 411 pages.  I had read only one of them previously.  The best them is listed here: The Dybbuk of Mazel Tov IV, where a Jewish colony on another planet has to deal with the reappearance of one of their recently dead in the body of an intelligent native.  A wonderful story; Ship Sister-Star Sister is a very good story about the first starship to leave Earth for the great unknown.  It carries a female telepath, while her twin sister, also a telepath, remains on Earth.  This becomes the main way of communicating from space.  Very well done; This Is The Road is the first of two novellas in this volume, and seems to be a perfect example of what a good novella should be.  A group of four people are travelling west along a road to escape pillage and worse from invading barbarians (does this sound contemporary enough--Russia invade Ukraine as I write this).  They come up against a wall built to block the road, and must decide what to do.  An excellent story, well contained within itself; and In The House Of Double Minds, an intriguing right brain/left brain story.  This book also wins best cover on the month.

Best cover for February, art by Thomas Moronski.  He does all the covers for this series, and they are all amazing.

Next up was a very well done stand alone novel by Piers Anthony, lasting over 520 pages.  Called Tatham Mound, it is a story about a Florida Indian tribe in the mid 1550s.  Well written and well researched, the fictional story is based upon people who were actually uncovered in the excavation of a rare burial mound find in northern Florida.  This is like something Silverberg might write, or Harry Harrison.  The 20-page concluding essay by the author is also well worth reading.

Stainless Steel Visions is a collection of 13 short stories by Harry Harrison, as well as a short essay by the author on what makes a short story good, and what doesn't.  I had read many of the stories in other collections, but I will list three of the new ones that I really liked.  Toy Shop is from 1962, and is 8 pages long.  A fun tale about trying to get one's important invention noticed.  Commando Raid is from 1970, and is 14 pages long.  Were there lessons learned from the Vietnam War?  Harry Harrison learned them, but apparently not everyone who should have did. The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat is from 1993.  It is 20 pages long.  A prison break is nothing unusual for slippery Jim deGriz.  But this time he springs the entire geriatric population.  The Stainless Steel Rat (and Angelina) are still in top form, despite the aging years.

I began another new series by Kenneth Bulmer, writing under the name of Bruno Krauss.  It's a series about German u boats in early WWII, before American got involved.  Their mission is to sink British ships.  It must have surprised a lot of people when they out that a British writer penned the series.  The first book is called Steel Shark.  The missions are harrowing, both for the crew of the submarine, and for the British sailors above, and we get good looks at both sides of the coin.  I have always believed that submarines attempting to sink civilian ships is a very cowardly undertaking, and the book didn't change my mind about that.  Is it a coincidence that Das Boot, the incredible movie about the same subject, came out in 1981, three years after Bulmer's series was underway?  I think not.  Though the movie is based on a 1973 novel, Bulmer's books were quite popular, especially in Germany.  I will likely read one or two more eventually, but not the entire series (8 books).

Next was a pretty terrible SF pulp novel by Tubb, from 1953.  This man could crank out incredible stories one after another, but not this time.  Maybe he had the flu when he wrote it.  The Wall is a mysterious barricade blocking access to the heart of the galaxy, where the answer to eternal youth lies.  It's an interesting enough premise, but it handled very routinely, and the book never really gets things into gear.  At least at 130 pages, it was short.

Even Jack Williamson turned out a clunker for me this month.  Beachhead is from 1992, written when Jack was 82.  It's about the first human trip to Mars.  It is actually worse than the previous pulp novel by Tubb, which I awarded two stars.  This one got one and a half.  Avoid.

After a disappointing start last month to Michael Moorcock's Elric series, the next book I read was much improved.  Written in 1989, many years after the first novel, Moorcock returned to the series to fill in some gaps of events during Elric's years of travel.  Since I am trying to read them in chronological order (not the order in which they were written), the next book was The Fortress of the Pearl.  It seems to be a compendium of styles, from Lovecraft, Dunsany, E R Eddison, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, Frank Baum, and Fritz Leiber, not to mention Homer, who started it all.  They actually blend well!  My oversize version is 164 pages, but the original paperback version is 248 pages.  A really great read!

The last novel related to my Avon/Equinox authors was called Chorale, written by Barry Malzberg.  It is a weirdly structured time travel novel, where the people of the near future have to keep going back in time to make certain that important events actually happen.  While the book gets bogged down in its own philosophy (did the past really happen, or did we create it from the future), there are enough moments of brilliance to make this a compelling read.  A man is chosen to go back in time and reenact key events in the life of Beethoven, the great composer.  Quite a challenge, since the man neither speaks German, is a musician (in fact he doesn't care about music at all), and is more than slightly demented.  There are several hilarious events and moments, all dark and conspiratorial, but we do end up learning a good deal of Beethoven, and the almost hideous times in which he lived (especially regarding public health and personal grooming habits).  Definitely worth checking out, even for non musicians.

After reading my required 8 books in my ongoing project (see separate website for the Avon/Equinox series), I turned my attention to unrelated books from my "miscellaneous" shelf.  I managed to read six, including two by female writers.  First came Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, an incredible and memorable tale of a young woman meeting an older woman and falling in love with her.  They end up going on a road trip together across the US.  Written in 1952, this is probably the best book I read all month (a tie with one other--see further down).  Exceptionally well written, and we also got to watch the 2013 film, called Carol, based on the book.

The Dragon Scroll, by Irina K Parker is part of a very long series of murder/mystery books taking place in 11 C Japan.  I read several many years ago.  Though this one was written later, it is the first of the books chronologically, and I have had it on my shelf for many years.  The parts about Japanese society, customs, and life styles are well researched and form the main interest for reading these books, much in the same way that Pat McIntosh writes her mysteries in medieval Glasgow. The book was okay, but as per most modern mystery stories, there are simply too many murders for one book.  Find something else to keep a reader's interest, instead of continually murdering someone else.

I dipped into my vast library of Delphi Classics on Kindle for the next four books.  First of these was called Toppleton's Client, by J K Bangs, his second novel.  Written in 1893, it is a very funny tale about a one man trying to help a spirit regain his body, which was stolen by another spirit 30 years earlier.  Extremely well written, and the premise is given sufficient time and breadth to develop before we really get into the nitty gritty of things.  The ending was actually a surprise, but perfect for the story.  Not only are Americans lampooned, but the British who receive them are raked over the coals as well.  Courts and lawyers are not spared either, but it's never nasty, only fun.

Next came a serious work, A Man From The North, by Arnold Bennett.  Partly autobiographical, it's about a man coming to London from a smaller city, and hoping to become a writer.  He takes a room, gets a clerk's job, and occasionally sends in an article or short story to a publisher.  They are always rejected.  The story follows him for years, and was a surprisingly good read.  The author allows us good access to the man's inner thoughts, and his constricted lifestyle, with occasional episodes of hope, keep us reading on page after page.  He has no real friends, seems unable to meet women, and has no sense of true ambition to work at being a writer.  However, he has a strong sense that he is far above his fellow men, despite his lack of success with women and with writing books.  If he didn't have his strong ego he would undoubtedly fall apart quickly.  The book could also be called Ambitious Hopes Meet Reality.  Highly recommended.

I finished off the short month by reading the first two Oz books.  I have read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz before, but only in a text version.  This time I had access to all of the original art that accompanied the story.  There is so much to love about this book, and it certainly remains as relevant today--to kids and adults--as when it was first written in 1900.  There is wonderful satire, brilliantly imaginative locations, characters, and adventures, and a total sense that somehow this is all real, somewhere.  A must read, for everyone.

  

Dorothy, with her green spectacles, meets the Wizard of Oz.

Echoing the adventures of Homer's Ulysses, our four heroes become bogged down in a field of poppies that make two of them very sleepy.

Never having read The Marvelous Land of Oz, the 2nd book in the series, I pressed on.  Though not as good in many ways as the first book, the 1904 sequel has its own rough charm.  The humour is back, and a different artist takes over.  The Scarecrow is chased off his Emerald City Throne by a band of girls with knitting needles, and sets off westward to find the Tin Man and get his help.  The girls chip off all the precious stones from the walls of the Emerald City, force the men to do all the home labour, and the women relax and make fudge.  After an unsuccessful attempt to get his throne back, the Scarecrow and friends set out to get Glinda's help.  New characters in book two are Jack Pumpkinhead, H M Wogglebug, T. E., a bad witch, a sawhorse, and a flying thing made from palm leaves and two sofas, and a boy who turns out to be a girl.  All the greatest fun one could ever have, so read it soon.

Two illustrations from The Marvelous Land of Oz, Book 2 in the series. 

Mapman Mike