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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

October Reading Summary

 I did not lose any reading nights to astronomy last month, nor does it seem likely I will lose any in November.  What's good for the reading program isn't so great for the observing program.  Last night it cleared up later, but it was far too windy to consider standing in an open field near a giant windmill.  Besides, it was Samhain, and the indoor party began around 5:30 pm and went to close on midnight.  At this point the old timers retired, awakening to a frosty, sunny, bright November morning.

The month began with Silverberg's The World Inside, a collection of connected stories first published together here.  Published in 1983, the volume contains six stories from the early seventies, on the theme of living inside a vast building tower, 3 km high.  There are hundreds and hundreds of these high rise buildings, but our stories consist of only one of those buildings, and a narrow number of floors of it and characters in it.  Urban Monad 116 has over 800,000 inhabitants.  Though all the stories are first rate, the last one, where one of the building inhabitants finally goes walkabout outside, is the best of the bunch.  Recommended and enjoyable, and would have made an even longer series if the author had wished.

Anthony's third novel in his Incarnations Of Immortality series is called With A Tangled Skein, and concerns the affairs of Fate and her three manifestations.  Though well written for the most part, with an engaging heroine, the novel is mostly light entertainment, with little to no edge.  Anthony is writing for purely commercial purposes at this point (1980s), and it shows.  The series started out okay, but has gone downhill quickly.

Once again my program was rescued by Harry Harrison, helped this time by Marvin Minsky (!!).  The Turing Option, despite being written in 1992, is still among the last words in AI research, or, as it is called in the book MI (Machine Intelligence).  The story is part spy/adventure and part SF, and its fast moving pace does not detract from the seriousness of the issues at hand, namely what kind of MI we will soon all be dealing with in our daily lives (and in many cases already are).  Harrison is such a good writer that nearly everything turns to gold in his hands.  It's pretty amazing that a book written 30 years ago can still be on top of things.  Highly recommended.

In Swordships of Scorpio, Kenneth Bulmer's 4th novel in his nearly endless Dray Prescott series, he seems to regain some of his love for writing good stories.  I found the first three books quite dull and uninspiring, despite being packed with action and adventure.  I have committed to reading only the first five books of the series, which make up a cycle of stories.  The 4th one gave me some hope that I might be willing to carry on a bit further.  We'll see.

Saturn Patrol by E C Tubb is another good, old fashioned pulp SF adventure, about a mercenary soldier who starts out at the bottom and eventually runs a fleet of ships.  It is quite short, very fast moving, yet takes time for details that other pulp writers simply would never linger over.  Tubb can be a very good writer when he chooses, and though this novel is pretty good, it doesn't come close to his best material.

I've lost count as to how many home runs Jack Williamson has hit lately, but he just slugged another one out of the ball park.  Firechild is one of the most cynical and depressing stories I have ever read.  Why?  Because it tells the truth about us, our governments, and our goals.  Ever wonder what might happen if a lone alien landed on Earth?  Wonder no more.  Ever wonder what might happen if Jesus returned today?  Wonder no more.  By comparison to what happens to a newly created life form in this story, his getting crucified would seem like a happy birthday party!  Essential reading, though not easy to do so.

The Warhound and the World's Pain is Michael Moorcock's telling of the finding of the Holy Grail.  The story is set in grim times, in Germany during the 30 Years War.  After having just about enough of killing and looting, Elrich Von Beck seeks some peace and quiet.  He finds it temporarily, in an empty castle.  Eventually the owner returns, bringing Von Beck's peace and solitude to an end.  He soon embarks on a quest for the Grail.  This is a simple and straightforward tale, but gripping and fascinating all the same.  Elements of myth are stripped down to their bare essentials, as is often the case in Moorcock's stories.  A very good read, if you can get through the first few pages of war.  Medieval Europe was not a pretty place to raise a family.

The Gamesman by Barry Malzberg is a very weird story, set in the same world as his previous novel, though they can barely said to be connected.  A lone man decides to play the Game.  If he wins, he is promised great rewards.  However, it is common knowledge that no one ever wins.  So why try it?  His first big challenge is to have successful sex with a woman (his choice of challenge).  He gets ten tries, and the story begins on his sixth or seventh failed attempt.  No one writes about sex like Malzberg, or about humiliation.  Of course, like Captain Kirk in his Starfleet exam, there is a way to win at the Game.  Cheat.  Which, of course, ruins the entire concept of the Game.  This is a Kafkaesque drama, without much of Malzberg's dark humour.  It is dark, however.

Next came a short story volume by James Blish.  After these stories I only have one novel of his to reread, and then I will be finished with another writer in the Avon/Equinox series.  Works of Art is the second large hardcover volume dedicated to the author by NESFA.  Like the other volume, it contains a wonderful essay, this time by G. Feeley.  Then come 19 stories, consisting of novellas, novelettes, and short stories.  The Bridge, from 1952, is the first of what later would become Cities In Flight, his magnum opus.  Earthman Come Home is another novella that became part of his great SF series.  The Box, The Oath, and FYI are stories too good to be believed, as well as a number of other ones that I have read recently in other collections in my library.  The cover to the Blish volume wins this month's award for best cover art.

Best cover art for October reading, by John Berkey. 

Moving from the Avon/Equinox books now, I was able to get through 2 1/2 unrelated works.  I will start with Guy Gavriel Kay's absolutely incredible novel, A Brightness Long Ago.  Set in a fantasy version of Renaissance Italy, the writing seems to be a successful cross between Umberto Eco and E R Eddison in his Mistress books.  I will be reading more by this fabulous author.  The book had been on my shelf for two years before it made its way to the front of the line, and was a gift from Jenn G.  I will be forcing it upon Deb very soon.

I have been collecting Delphi complete works of various authors on my Kindle Fire tablet, which I have come to enjoy reading with more and more.  Being able to adjust the screen brightness for time of day, as well as the font size (bigger at night), and have a very light green background instead of white for the stories, and to be able to find anything in the volume in seconds (I learned how to use the bookmark feature, finally), has made me a huge fan.  Not to mention that I now carry around with me about ten thousand books I must read, some of them quite long.

Recent Delphi author acquisitions include F. Marion Crawford, and today I've added Ernest Bramah, both encountered in my journey through the Ballantine adult fantasy series (see separate webpage, still a popular one with readers).  And so the next two books I am reading come from the Delphi collection.  I recently finished a book of short stories by Lord Dunsany, called The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens.  Dunsany has invented a wonderful character in Jorkens, and has come up with a brilliant framing scheme in which to tell his fantastic tales.  Jorkens is a member of the Billiards Club for men.  A small group of them mostly sit around the fire at the club and tell each other stories.  Jorkens' tales are by far the best, but are they true?  Jorkens will begin one his unusual tales whenever someone offers to buy him a large whisky, providing they don't try to disprove or ridicule him.  Some of the stories are off the scale in brilliance, and all of them are entertaining and magical.  Dunsany writes fantasy like no one else ever could, and this first group of 13 tales is a must read for fans of that genre.  Luckily, he wrote several more volumes featuring Jorkens.  Favourite stories in this volume (though I loved them all) are How Jembu Played For Cambridge, A Large Diamond, A Daughter of Ramses, Mrs. Jorkens, and The Witch of The Willows (one of the best stories ever written).

So I read 11 books in October, 9 related to my reading project.  Several were quite long, too.  I am also halfway though the first book of Kate Chopin's short stories about Creole life in Louisiana in the late 1900s.  I am enjoying these immensely, too, as they take me to a world nearly as alien as those of some of the SF stories I read.  They are also part of the Delphi series of complete works.  More on these next month, when I finish them.

Only one movie to report on today.  On Saturday evening we watched The Raven, from 1935, again starring Karloff and Lugosi.  This time the roles are reversed, as Karloff turns out to be the good guy, and Lugosi the mad villain.  The movie has more to do with Poe than the earlier one we watched last week, called The Black Cat.  Grim fun for all ages.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Mapman Mike