October Books Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SF cover of the month for October 2022.  

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

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

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

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

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

Mapman Mike

 

 

August Reading Summary

First, a note about the weather, and cutting grass.  It's been a dry summer, with very occasional rain that doesn't really soak into the ground.  While areas around us received an occasional deluge, we never did.  The last time I cut our grass was June 25th.  It finally got cut again yesterday, August 31st.  It was mostly straggly weeds that I cut, but things do look better today.  Our last rain was Monday, when again giant storms just missed us.  We still got some healthy, badly needed rain, though.  And a rainbow--a double one, actually.

Last Monday evening's double rainbow, as seen from our back deck. 

And it's been almost a week since our driveway cement was laid down.  Tomorrow night the car can finally return to the garage!  The final big project for this year is the large poplar tree in the far backyard, across the creek.  First, the leaves need to come off, and the bank account return to the black.  Hopefully early October, as that tree tends to lose its leaves early.

In reading news, I managed to finish 15 books, very assorted.  As usual, I continued my Avon/Equinox reading project, where I still have 8 authors works to complete.  And I dove into my Delphi Classics Kindle library, where I have now collected over 40 authors' complete works.  Of course I won't live long enough to get through most of those, but I will die trying.

It seems more than a month ago that I read Star of Gypsies by Robert Silverberg, an intriguing SF novel that takes the Roma and their culture into the far future.  Though the premise is worthwhile, the execution falls short, in my opinion.  The story is a very simple one, and it's a good thing, as it gets constantly interrupted by the main character's reminiscences and dream journeys.  Some of the best planet descriptions in SF are to found in these pages, as well as some fun adventures.  But after a while it gets to be a bit much, and we just want the main story to progress.  But it barely creeps along. And at 467 pages, it is a long creep.

Piers Anthony's And Eternity was meant to be his final book in his Incarnations of Immortality series, but he eventually wrote one more (which I will read in October).  It would be impossible to read this book without having read most of the others.  Even having read most of the others, it's still a pretty difficult road to follow as so many threads are tied together at last. Things that happened way back in the first book (this is Book 7) now finally come to fruition.  Though the series is pretty silly overall, it does have many moments that show the author's genius for plot, setting, and character.  Even so, this is a weak book overall, and not a little confusing.  Anthony is one of those writers who does not believe anything an editor tells him, so his books essentially are published as written, or sent to a different publisher.  Must be nice.

Next came Galactic Dreams, a short story collection by Harry Harrison.  However, there were only 4 of the 12 stories I had not read and reviewed already.  "Famous First Words" is a very funny tale about a professor who manages to find words once spoken by famous people that would eventually become prophetic.  "The Pad" is a sexist but very funny story about a rich man attempting to seduce an unwilling young woman.  Think of a Pepe Le Pew cartoon, only much funnier.  And a newly written (for the collection) story about Bill, the Galactic Hero, is also quite hilarious.

Fox 6 by Kenneth Bulmer, continues the saga of Abernathy Fox, a ship's officer in the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars.  Even though this one is just another pot boiler, it's still great fun to read.  I can easily handled on of these per month.  This adventure is enlivened by the appearance of a group of Turkish warriors and a horde of harem girls brought aboard, with their eunuch.  The girls add humour to the proceedings, and end up surprising Mr. Fox with their ability to help out his short handed crew on deck.

Only One Winner is an interesting collection of minor works by Tubb, including the novella of the title.  There is a long speech that Tubb gave at a SF convention in 1970, and though a bit rambling, it brings up some interesting points from one of the greatest pulp masters of the genre.  The three short stories it contains have already been read and reviewed.  Philip Harbottle also contributes a short essay.  The novella itself is standard pulp fare, and not Tubb's best.  4 losers attempt to take over a space liner filled with rich people on a cruise.  One of them is an alcoholic, and one is a female.  They are thieves and murderers of the worst sort, and they all come to their expected end, after causing much mayhem and death.

Wolves of Darkness is the 2nd of 8 or 9 hardcover books containing most of the shorter fiction of Jack Williamson.  Published in suburban Detroit, these are collectors editions, now long out of print.  I managed to get Vols. 2, 3, and 4 at somewhat decent prices, but the remaining volumes, when available, are way out of price range.  This volume is a 549 page collection of stories from 1931 and 1932.  There is a 23 page preface, followed by 509 pages of stories, and then an afterword of 40 pages.  The preface contains images of old pulp magazine covers, and an essay by Harlan Ellison.  The afterward contains some essays by the author about some of the works in this collection, as well as a short modern piece for this edition.  This volume also wins Cover of The Month, depicting an original magazine cover from back in the day, illustrating one of Jack's tales contained herein.  The cover story is very much in the Lovecraft tradition, and rather spooky at times.  Another story, "The Lake of Light", seems also influenced by Lovecraft, namely his Antarctic tale "Mountains of Madness."

Cover of the month, by pulp artist H. W. Wesso, from 1932.

It took Michael Moorcock 7 years to get around to publishing the third Captain Bastable story, called The Steel Tsar.  I enjoyed my stay on Rowe Island, discovering traces of Ballard in the writing setting, and some of the lost characters.  Most of the action and dialogue take place in the island hospital and in the lone remaining hotel.  Eventually, the Japanese arrive and capture the whites.  More adventures ensue, but the writing becomes more philosophical, as the author and his characters ponder the purpose of the multiverse and their place in it.  The Steel Tsar is a ruthless socialist, based on Stalin, and is also named after a giant creation that Harryhausen would have happily animated: a giant, scimitar-wielding robot created by one of the oddest characters to ever appear in a novel.  My edition is amply illustrated, and I enjoyed this third and final Bastable novel as much as the others in the series.  Recommended for the adventure, and the philosophical discussions.  Here is a quote from near the end which I particularly liked: Mrs. Persson is speaking.... "We have only institutions and a crude, fragile kind of democracy standing between us and absolute Chaos.  That is why we must value and protect those institutions.  And be forever re-examining them."  Well said!

Malzberg At Large is a story collection of his from 1979, containing a previously read short novel and 5 stories.  I had also read two of the five stories.  And one of the stories eventually became the first chapter of his brilliant novel, Overlay.  There is also an essay by the author, offering insights into his life that really brings a lot of his writing into much clearer focus.  The short story "Gaheena is From 1971" has been called Malzberg's Rashomon.  A very brief and tragic love story is told from 3 different perspectives, with a coda.  Interesting story telling.  And A Soul Song to the Sad, Silly, Soaring Sixties sums up so much of Malzberg's writing.  Very powerful.  If you have no time or patience to read any of his assassination novels, this story would be a good substitute.

And now we turn to books off the shelf, and from Kindle.  First up was another Anne Hillerman mystery, set in New Mexico's lava fields called El Malpais. Deb and I are very familiar with the area through hiking and exploring, and it is one of many unique and highly memorable landscapes in the state.  Cave Of Bones is perhaps her finest novel to date, getting very close to her father's love of the land, and his ability to transfer that to writing.  Like any modern mystery story, it is perhaps a bit too complex, filled as it is with characters.  But it was a fun read, and it is now off my shelf.

I managed to finish a large art book which I have been perusing for many months.  Towards A Modern Identity is the 3rd book dealing with the Detroit Institute of Arts' American painting collection.  This one has 129 paintings, each one discussed in detail and illustrated in colour.  It has been a multi-year journey reading all three volumes.  This one features many of my favourite artists, including Thomas Dewing, James McNeil Whistler, along with many American impressionists and tonalists.  I have now read all the published catalogues of paintings from the museum.  Others include Flemish and German Paintings from the 17th, Dutch paintings from the 17th Century, and Italian baroque art.  I'm still awaiting publication of early Flemish and early Italian catalogues.

I read 5 books from the Delphi Classics series.  First up was a reread that I first came across in paperback at least 40 years ago, probably more.  I don't know what ever became of my copy, but I have it now on Kindle, along with William Hope Hodgson's Ghost Pirates.  This is one of the better early ghost stories, written in 1909.  It was the 3rd book of a loose trilogy of terror by the author, which also included The Boats of the Glen Carrig, and The House on the Borderland.  All three are remarkable books, and a must read for lovers of early fantasy and horror.  The present novel builds nicely from corner of the eye sightings to a full fledged attack on a ship by ghost pirates.  Good late night reading, if you are all alone in a creaky house (or boat).

Fergus Hume's first novel, and the one he is still most famous for writing, is called Mystery of a Hansom Cab, and was first published in 1886.  Delphi has the 1898 corrected edition by the author, as well as his original intro to the updated version.  Hume was a new Zealander, though he lived mostly in Australia, where this novel takes place (Melbourne).  He had studied many different mystery stories before he wrote this, and it shows.  He has all the necessary ingredients for a good murder mystery, and then some.  With the success of this novel, he eventually went on to write about 130 books.  Highly readable, and though the Victorian morals do dominate the mystery and the story, they are not nearly as hard to take as in works by other authors of the time.  Well worth a read for mystery fans.

Next came a real treat, M. R. James' first collection of ghost stories, called Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, from 1904.  My Delphi edition contains 8 stories, each one chilling and quite scary.  If some of his stories were ever literally transferred to screen, they would prove as violent and hard to watch as something by Stephen King, or directed by Del Toro (he would actually be a perfect director for these stories).  For example, in "Lost Hearts", children are murdered by a madman trying to follow an ancient formula to help him live forever.  Their beating hearts are cut out while they are still alive. Imagine what Del Toro could do with that!  And in "The Ash Tree," your worst nightmare regarding giant spiders will haunt you for many days after.  Ohter storeis are just plain scary, without too much violence.  In "The Mezzotint", an old architecture print without any people in it gradually acquires a frightening entity that is seen to move slowly across the print and into an open window.  This story reminded me of the Doctor Who episode called "Blink."  "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come To You" is yet another example of good, old fashioned pure blood curling horror.  Great stuff!!

Next came Jerome Jerome's sequel to Three Men In A Boat, called Three Men on the Bummel.  The same characters (minus the dog) go on a bicycle tour of parts of Germany.  Published nearly 10 years after the first book, this one is also rich with side splitting humour.  Even though there are many parts where things don't really come off too well, there is enough entertainment in these pages to keep me reading passages to Deb for the entire winter.  His observations on marriage are priceless, and still give me pains in the chest when I think of them.  At one point I simply could not read any further; I was hurting too much from laughing.  The best parts are in the first three chapters, which are among the funniest things ever to be written down.  There are stories about sailing holidays, too, as well as many walking and bicycling tales.  Very rich reading.

With one day to spare before resuming my Avon/Equinox SF books, I turned to the next story by Frank Baum, entitled The Road To Oz.  Dorothy sets out from Kansas one day, as she agrees to show the wandering Shaggy Man the correct road to take.  They meet up with Button-Bright, and with Toto following along, are soon lost in another strange world.  The first half of the book details the usual scary adventures one seems to have in trying to reach Oz safely.  Along the way they meet the lost Poly Chrome, daughter to the Rainbow Man.  They are also helped out by Johnny Do-It at one point, in trying to cross that impenetrable desert.  He builds them a sand sleigh to sail across it!  The second half of the book has the group safely in Oz, and soon meeting up with old friends.  By the end of the book, virtually every character we have met so far in the entire series is present, for it's Ozma's grand birthday party, and everyone is coming to help celebrate.  While there is very little adventure in the 2nd half of the book, there is spectacle.  A good addition to the series.

I'll be back soon with film updates. Stay tuned.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

July Reading Summary

It continues to be warm and extremely dry.  Our area has not had a good rain since June 14th.  Usually August is a very dry month, so I am worried.  The soil is cracked and hard as rock.  We keep a large bowl of water refreshed for the birds and squirrels, and it gets constant use.  I usually set up the bird bath in summer, too, but Avian flu scares have held me back, though I continue to feed the birds.  Rather than have them gather all in one area to feed, I scatter seed in about ten different areas in the front yard.  I have fed birds here for over 30 years now.  Generations of them.  Though I have cut back lately, I hate to stop.

In reading news, besides my 8 books related to Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery authors, I got through 3 other books, all epic in their own way.  Robert Silverberg always leads off the month, and this time around came Tom O'Bedlam, a post-apocalyptic tale that I awarded 4 stars.  Basing his story around an old folk tale/poem, Silverberg has created some of his deepest characters, and reading this book was fun from start to finish.  There are at least 4 main stories at the beginning, and they all gradually come together by the end.  The overall story is mostly tied to Tom, a wandering man who is considered crazy by those who meet him.  Tom has visions, or dreams, even when wide awake, and these involve clear images of alien worlds and suns, and the aliens that inhabit them.  He is predicting that soon a time will come when people will leave their Earthly bodies behind, travel through the stars to other worlds, and live happily ever after.  It was one of many long books that came up this month (thus the lower number of overall books read), and came out in 1985.  Recommended reading, and a fascinating addition to the post nuclear genre of SF.

Kilobyte is from 1998, and is another formulaic story by Piers anthony.  Many of Anthony's later books seem like they were written by a robot.  Obviously he goes on auto-pilot much of the time.  This is the real tragedy of being a professional writer; if it is your livelihood, you have to write all the time, even when you can't any more.  Anthony's formula for much of his later writing is on full display.  Start on an adventure.  Hit an obstacle.  Go through a complete thought process of the person afflicted, covering every single angle of problem, while standing there.  Figure out the best way to deal with the current problem.  Move on.  Encounter new obstacle.  Repeat complete thought process.  Figure out way to deal with problem.  Move on.  Encounter new obstacle.  Repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat.  There, we've now covered most of the first chapter.  And on it goes.... 

As usual, Harry Harrison comes along and restores my faith in professional writers!  From 1998 comes Stars and Stripes Forever, a fascinating 345 page novel about a possible different outcome of the American Civil War.  Harrison, one of the best writers of SF and adventure fiction, has outdone himself in this fascinating tale of 1861, with just a few differences to what actually occurred.  Instead of Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, settling a touchy matter between the British and the Americans with diplomacy as happened in actual history, Harrison has him die three weeks earlier than he did, from typhoid fever.  Which means he was not there to calmly settle a dispute between England and America.  With hotter heads now in charge of the British Empire, they declare war on a ravished America, and promptly invade America both from Canada and from the south, in Mississippi.  This is amidst the Civil War, and just after the battle of Shiloh, where over 20,000 Americans killed one another.  The British come out stinking in this historical fantasy, so it may not be read through completely by blue blood British conservatives.  However, the rest of us have a jolly good time reading this wonderful and detailed look at a possible American history.  Part one of a three book series, I imagine the British will get some revenge in book 2!  Highly recommended!!

Treasure is the 5th Fox novel by Kenneth Bulmer.  The irascible Mr Fox is back in another series of adventures.  In the last book he had just lost his temporary command, as well as his hopes to become a captain in the British navy.  He is stuck at 1st lieutenant, and going nowhere else.  He is back on board the Raccoon, with many of his mates still with him. but the new captain has also brought along many of his own men.  When the Raccoon is wrecked in a storm, Fox goes off in pursuit of a secret treasure!  From 1973, the adventure is 139 pages long.  I am truly enjoying these short novels of a poor man with no title trying to make his way up in rank in the early 19thC British navy.  What a premise!  Great stuff!

Next came a collection of short stories by E C Tubb, under the overall title The Wonderful Day, which was a short story written for the collection in 2012.  But the better stories come from the 1950s and 1960s.  The best of the bunch is called "The Tea Party."  From 1953, at only 9 pages long it has become for me the most devastating account of war I have ever read.  A must to read.  Also of note are "An Era Ends," about the end of religion on Earth, and "Decision," about a doctor's decision on who to save, and who to let die.

From 2005 comes Jack Williamson's last novel, The Stonehenge Gate.  It is also one of his very best!  The book seems to summarize his output as a SF writer, and makes a fitting capstone to an incredible career lasting until the age of 96, when this book was published.  Not only does the story recall many of Jack's other tales, going all the way back to the early pulp stories, but we can read here all of the writers who influenced him.  Edgar Rice Burroughs, H Rider Haggard, A Merritt, Olaf Stapledon, and many others can all be found in this final epic of his fabulous creative output, along with Jack himself from early days.  There is even a good dose of Philip Jose Farmer, especially his World of Tiers series.  Highly recommended!

Michael Moorcock's 2nd Oswald Bastable book came next, The Land Leviathan, from 1974.  The author's multiverse ideas are in full swing in this series about a British soldier from the early 1900s that is not only transported to different times, but also to alternate versions of Earth.  In this story, a plague kills much of the white race, and Bastable joins an all Black militia to help them conquer America and bring racial balance and justice to that land.  Many of these books by Moorcock bring to mind the best pulp writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs.  Though this book is short, a lot happens!  A fun series.

Lastly came Barry Malzberg's The Remaking of Sigmund Freud. Written between 1979-1984, and published in 1985, this 275 page novel will make you think about Sigmund Freud in a whole new way.  A most unusual addition to Malzberg's SF oeuvre, in this one we do go to outer space, and even meet aliens.  Aliens that need psycho-analysis.  From the reconstituted man himself.  Malzberg must have had some fun with this one, even though it took him years to complete.  I'm so glad he stuck with it.  It was not a novel I sat and read through in one or two sittings.  I took my time.  Each chapter has its rewards, and the book should not be rushed.  One of his best!  And it wins best cover of the month!

Cover of the month by Barclay Shaw. 

The World's Great Railway Journeys, by Brian Solomon, is a coffee table book that was a gift from Jenn G, who works at a bookstore in Cambridge (Ontario).  The book lived on our coffee table as I undertook each journey in its colourful pages, reading it over a period of about three months.  I would read one journey at a time, and often do more research on the internet afterwards.  Deb and I have only managed two of them; the Santa Fe Chief between Chicago and LA (and back), and the train from Madrid to Barcelona (and back).  I finished the book this month, and passed it on to my father in Sudbury.

A Plague of Angels was a 560 page SF/fantasy novel by Sherry Tepper, loosely related to her much more poorly written The Waters Rising.  While still heavily influenced by Tolkien, this is a fairly successful mix of fantasy and SF.  However, much of the book seems to be written with children in mind, while another good portion is for adults.  So is she trying to accomplish too much in one epic?  Appeal to children and adults, and write fantasy and SF?  I think yes.  I would not recommend the book, nor have any inclination to reread it.  But it is now off my shelf, and on its way for trade.  I recently brought a box of books up to Sudbury to trade at Bay Used Books, and received $36 credit.  I bought Name of the Rose in hardcover for my parents, and gave the remaining credit to my dad. 

The final novel for this month was another epic.  It was called Dawn.  From 1884, it was H Rider Haggard's first novel (he was 27 or 28).  At the center of the novel is Angela, a pure white lily of a girl whom we first meet at her birth, which killed her mother.  Her father rejects her, and she leads a lonely existence.  Jump to nine years old, when her education is taken up by the local vicar.  Next she is 20, and about to fall in love.  So essentially this is a love story, but alas, it is a very cruel one.  No one comes out unscathed.  And while Angela is by far the most trusting character in the novel, her lover turns out to be quite a cad.  I have several reasons for disliking him, despite the fact that I am supposed to cheer for him.  So I think Haggard went way overboard in trying not to make him too goody good for his own good.  He obviously does not deserve Angela, and I was quite surprised and more than a bit disappointed by the ending (a most traditional one).  It was fine to read, however, despite the 76 chapters!  There are a few hints at other-worldly doings, even in this first story by the man whose fantasy adventure writing I have admired for much of my reading life, but his 2nd novel promises to jump right in there.  Can't wait!

Mapman Mike

 

 

June Reading Summary

 Besides the usual 8 books by my remaining Avon/Equinox series writers, I managed to read 4 others, and parts of four others.  I am taking my time reading 4 books over many months, including one on American paintings in the DIA, the Beethoven biography by Swafford, a book of folk tales, and a coffee table book on great train journeys of the world.  Those will be wrapped up eventually, but I am in no hurry.

My monthly reading always begins with Robert Silverberg.  This time it was the epic Lord of Darkness, from 1983.  At 612 pages, it is one of the longest novels by the 24 Avon/Equinox authors I have come across.  Silverberg divides the story into 5 books.  Essentially it is the true story of Andrew Battell, from Leigh in England.  The action takes places in the latter part of the 16th C and the early part of the 17th.  Silverberg is a renowned history writer, where I first encountered him as a youth.  While the historical details of Battell's surrealistic life are scant, Silverberg fills in the narrative skillfully and with great attention to historical detail.  If proof is needed that truth is stranger than fiction, look no farther than the life led by Battell.  Stranded in South America on his first voyage abroad, he is enslaved by the Portuguese and eventually brought to Angola, in Africa.  Here the adventures truly begin, and never stop.  While Silverberg invents details such as a family for Battell, for the most part his story jives with the facts (available on the internet in full).  This is a tale of darkness and suffering, and a harrowing account of  Portuguese rule at the time.  If this were pure fiction, no reader would believe it remotely possible that such events ever happened.  And even if only 1/3 of the things told in this tale did actually happen, and the rest never did, then Battell still would have led the most remarkable life one could ever imagine.  Highly recommended.

For Love of Evil is the 6th book in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series.  Published in 1988, this is one of the best of the series, if not the best so far.  What I do like about the series is how Anthony relates some of the same events from different perspectives.  Book Six concerns the doings of Satan, and while he has been featured in each of the first five books, he finally gets to tell his own story here, and we see his side of things for the first time.  The action starts in the late 12th C, and is quite brutal.  The opening scene of a frightened village girl entering the hut of a sorcerer is one of the best openings to a fantasy novel I have ever read.  At some point I asked myself where this medieval tale, good as it was, was going.  Knowing Anthony's writing as well as I do, I was confident it would all tie in.  And it does, quite beautifully.  We meet many old characters, and a few newer ones.  I seriously don't know how Anthony can keep track of all this without continually rereading the earlier volumes.  He seems to write a book from many different series each year, so how he can keep them all straight in his mind is really something.  A winner!

The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus, Harrison's novel from 1999, is another very fun entry in the beloved series.  What is special about this one is that he is aging, and beginning to think that the insane and dangerous life he leads, with his beautiful and equally deadly wife, Angeline, is getting to be a bit much.  Retirement seems like the thing to do, as soon as he finishes up this adventure.  He does briefly join the circus as a magician, as he tries to find out who is committing a series of bank robberies on various planets.  The whole family gets in on this one, with their twin boys taking up much more of the slack than in previous adventures.  Only one more book in the series remains to be read.  Then I shall have to start them over.

I am hooked on Kenneth Bulmer's late 18th C early 19th C Fox series.  Number 4 is called Siege, and is a complete historical look at the great battle of Aden, Arabs and British against the ground forces and navy of Napoleon.  We get a first hand view of the action and intrigue from the perspective of Mr. Fox, an officer in the British navy.  He and his men happen to become embroiled in the great siege, though Bulmer follows all details of the events very closely to what actually happened.  A great read, as I continue to learn some obscure history from these authors.

Ironhead, a collection of stories by E C Tubb from the 1950s, was first published in 2018 for Kindle.  There are five stories, the best of which is "Iron Head", about a lowly man who looks after cattle.  40 pages later he is the top leader of the joint planets.  An amusing story with a great last line, this could have taken up a series of four or five huge books by lesser writers (I think of the endless prequels and sequels to Dune written by Herbert's kin).  No need, since someone like Tubb can say it all in a novelette!  "Memories Are Important"--What would happen if a person lost all access and connection to every one of his/her memories?  If they only lived in the moment, in the "now".  A fun but scary question, which is answered by Tubb in this engaging what-if story.  It also has a very unique answer to the "escape from the locked room" trope used by so many mystery story writers.  Two of the other three stories are also of high quality and fun to read.

Jack Williamson hits yet another home run with Terraforming Earth, a SF novel from 2001 that is written on a scale obviously influenced by Olaf Stapledon.  This is a truly great SF novel, one that should be read by all fans of the very best of the older stuff.  The action takes place on a moon base, and on Earth, but through many generations and centuries.  Divided into 5 sections, it was originally published that way.  Highly recommended, and easy to read.

Cover of the month, by Stephan Martiniere.

Michael Moorcock's The Warlord of the Air was originally written in 1971, but reworked for this 1993 edition, which contains 3 stories starring Oswald Bastable (a minor character from a story by E Nesbit).  In this story, he carried into the future, an alternate 1973 in which steam power and airships still reign supreme, and the world ha been without war for nearly a century.  However, there is a catch; colonialism is still going strong, and native inhabitants are still being subdued and ruled by Britain and the other colonial powers.  An interesting look at an alternate future, one that Bastable finds quite baffling.  A good story, and I am looking forward the other two.

The first segment of my reading month concluded with Barry Malzberg's The Cross of Fire, one of his finest novels.  From 1982 we watch as Harold Thwaite of Denmark is undergoing an administered hypnotic procedure, in which he is able to step into the shoes (sandals) of historic religious figures.  The year is 2219.  The problem with Harold is that he has a martyr complex, and when it is time to come out of his trances it becomes more and more difficult.  Eventually he refuses to come out, wishing to remain, be crucified, and to rise again a few days later.  Besides scenes of Jesus with the apostles, and Jesus with Mary Magdalene, and Jesus with Lazarus, we also have Harold as God, disputing and wrestling with Satan.  In addition there are scenes with Moses and Aaron, including the parting of the Red Sea, scenes with the suffering of Job, scenes of his being the Lubavitcher Rabbi (an old testament judge), and various conversations with his wife, Edna, back in real time.  The book is totally fascinating, and of course very sacrilegious.  It is often quite funny, as we get a future man's version of some of the great men of the Bible.  But as the book goes on, and it becomes more and more obvious that Harold is deluding himself into believing everything that happens to him, I begin to get reminded of present day fanatics.  Not so much the religious ones, but more like the ones who deny certain events every happened, such as the Sandy Hook massacre, or Trump's inability to come to terms with his election loss.  to him, the only way he could ever lose is if the other side cheated.  Reality holds no hope for such people, and Harold is similarly doomed.  This is one of Malzberg's finest books, and would pair nicely with a reading of Moorcock's Behold The Man, though they have very little in common.  Recommended.

I read four books off the shelf last month, though really only one came from a real shelf.  The rest came from my Kindle shelf, which is now thousands of books.  Tony Hillerman's Landscape is a work of non-fiction, pairing each of Tony's Navajo mystery novels with photographs of where the action takes place.  The book was begun during Tony's later years, but he died long before it was completed.  His daughter Anne took up the torch.  She writes a long intro, as well as gives a description of each of the novels, showing the original cover.  Tony provides his thoughts on each volume.  The photos are stunning, and the book is a must for fans of Hillerman.  Since his death, Anne is now writing similar mysteries, but focusing more on a female Navajo officer, one who played smaller roles in her father's books.

Next, I had the great pleasure of reading Lord Dunsany's 2nd book of tales featuring Jorkens, called Jorkens Remembers Africa, from 1934.  These 21 tales are among the most imaginative and humorous tales of fiction and fantasy ever written, and are often ignored by Dunsany fans.  I never had access to them before, but I now have all of Dunsany's writing on Kindle, thanks to Delphi publishing.  While all the stories are fun, particularly notable are the following: The Lost Romance; The Escape From The Valley; Ozymandias (the best!!!); In The Garden of Memories.  A real treasure chest of short tales of the imagination of a genius.

 

The cover to my Kindle version of stories, lasting 300 pages.  

The unicorn story is one of the best! 

Next came the first novel by Anna Katherine Green, a mystery writer who inspired Doyle and many others, including Agatha Christie.  The Leavenworth Case is from 1878, and while not a truly great detective novel, it was one of the earliest published by a woman.  Though American and set in New York and upstate, it is a thoroughly Victorian novel.  As soon as the reader realizes that neither of two beautiful women, cousins, could possibly have been the murderer, the rest is academic.  Even though all evidence points to one of the women especially, it just was not fitting nor acceptable for a woman to commit such a crime.  Besides the original murder that gets the whole case going, there is only one other murder, something for which I was grateful.  Too many contemporary novels of this type never know when to stop with the killings.  I liked the police inspector, who will feature in other novels by Green.  In an odd twist, he has rheumatism quite badly.  Well worth a read for mystery fans who want to find the source of such things.

Near the end of a month, if I only have a day or two remaining before I need to restart my Avon/Equinox, I turn to L Frank Baum.  I read his 4th Oz book, from 1908.  Called Dorothy and The Wizard In Oz, it begins with an earthquake, and Dorothy, Zeb (a young boy), her kitten, and an old horse, falling into a crack and ending up in a strange country of plant people.  This is yet another amazing adventure, brought into being by the author because of all the children who kept writing to him for more more more.  Luckily for all of us, he complied. The book is great fun!

Cover and interior art by John R Neill. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

May Reading Summary

I easily made it through my usual 8 books by remaining authors in the Avon/Equinox project.  The only author I am really tired of is Piers Anthony.  I am going to finish reading the actual books of his I have in my possession, and not purchase any ones I don't have.  I hit some amazing stories this time around by the other writers, so here we go.

First came the next volume of the collected stories of Robert Silverberg, called The Palace At Midnight 1980-82.  Volume 5 of the collected stories contains 23 stories and an intro by the author.  Each individual story also has a short intro by the author.  Seven of the stories turned into top notch ones, with several others being excellent as well.  The best of the them was Homefaring, a novella; The Changeling, Jennifer's Lover, Thesme and Gayhrog (from a short story collection tied to the Majipoor series), The Pope of the Chimps, Gianni, and The Man Who Floated in Time.  Details of these and other stories and books mentioned here can be found at my Avon Equinox blog site.

So things got off to a roaring start.  Then came a novel by Piers Anthony.  The book likely sold well, due to a brilliant cover (which wins this month's Cover of the Month), and the name attached to the story.  It was called Mercycle, and must be avoided by readers at all cost.  If you want proof that just about anything will be published once an author's name is out there, look no further.  First written in 1971, the book was rejected by numerous publishers.  For once, Anthony agreed with them; it was his worst novel.  So he dusted it off, rewrote it, added 25,000 more words, and ended up with--a total mess that should not have been published.  Published in 1991, it is a crime against science fiction and fantasy.

Cover of the Month, by Barclay Shaw.  This colourful and intriguing cover hides a very bad novel. 

Mercifully, along cames Harry Harrison to the rescue.  King and Champion, from 1996, is the third and final book of the author's totally brilliant historical fantasy trilogy, The Hammer and the Cross.  By now it has gone beyond being a totally fantastic series of Vikings versus the English.  The action shifts to the Mediterranean Sea, and the action is almost nonstop.  We learn the real truths behind not only the Grail (which is not a cauldron after all), but what happened to Jesus once he was taken down from the cross (hint: he did not resurrect, because he never died).  This book is the best of the three, and the other two were fantastic to read!  Each book is very long, exceeding 500 pages, but they literally fly past.  Great story!!

Kenneth Bulmer's continuing seafaring adventure series was next.  While very short, these novels are great examples of the best king of pulp style writing.  Fox 3: Prize Money is among the best of Bulmer's writing.  He is not shy to show his great sense of humour, and the way Mr. Fox ends up at the end of the story is quite hilarious.  His prize money (loot from captured galleons) isn't quite what he expected.  He also manages to mostly save the British navy in each book, and not get any credit for it (he is not high born).  A fun series, but devastating at the same time.

Next came Iron Head, a collection of five stories by E C Tubb, another great writer of pulp SF.  The title story is the best of the bunch, detailing what it might be like to be the only non-telepath in a society of telepaths.  Would there be advantages to such a situation, or only condemnation and third class citizenship?  Mr. Tubb will be pleased to tell you all about it.

Jack Williamson was 91 when The Silicon Dagger was published. From 1999 comes this 334 page misnamed adventure thriller.  Any SF element does not become apparent until almost page 190.  Up till then it is a political thriller, with rednecks from Kentucky trying to take over the USA.  A better title would have been The Silicon Shell (as in domed city). The author has a lot to say about the information age and internet (which he calls infonet in the story), as well as freedom, overreach of government, racism, armed militias, and lots of other things that seem to be more current each and every day.  I liked the book up until the SF element makes a rude entrance.  Williamson was not around to see the thing on live TV as we did, when Trump and his supporters tried to take over the White House, claiming that they had not lost the election.  As ugly as that scene was, Williamson's is much uglier when one digs underneath just a little bit.  Try to imagine nearly every county in the US (thousands of them) suddenly deciding they wanted "freedom."  To call this book politically incorrect doesn't  go far enough; it is dangerously politically naive, despite several good points the book brings out.  Read it for yourself and decide.

Next to Harrison's volume, the best book of the month (and best book of many months) was Michael Moorcock's highly imaginative and very effective look at moments in history, called Breakfast In The Ruins, from 1971.  Forget the interludes between two gay men.  Forget the ridiculous "What Would You Do?" segments after each chapter.  Just read the main text, a group of very loosely related historical tales featuring the same character in each story, at a different age.  This is high octane writing at its finest, and the segments would make such a great series of short films.  My favourite one is longer than most of them, and involves Karl as a child getting unwittingly involved with Russians escaping the secret police in Russia, coming to 1905 London to start new lives, and still having to deal with them.  The story is devastating not just for what happens, but for the setting itself, and the people who are trapped by their poor paying jobs, working all hours of the day and into the night.  Each of the tales is a window into worlds that people don't often shine lights into.  They are parts of true history best forgotten, according to many.  But Moorcock gives us scenes of horror from many different countries and times, each one sacrificing a different version of Karl.  The stories don't really even have to be read in any particular order, if the linking story is ignored.  This book must be read.

Lastly came a novel by Malzberg, who hits the 3rd home run of the month (after Harrison and Moorcock), with his unforgettable Lady of a Thousand Sorrows, from 1977.  It is a fictional account of the inner life of Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, and is so brilliant and devastating that Istill can't believe that someone wrote this, and that I stumbled across it.  To a certain generation, the Kennedy assassination was the most traumatic event of our childhood, showing us for the first time that the world could change overnight, and not for the better.  Malzberg gets into  the head of a very private person.  She either would have died laughing if Jackie had read this story, or tried everything in her power to sue for damages.  This a story of stories, told by a master of being able to get inside the minds of warped people.

I began my project of reading the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series, and then expanded to reading the complete works of those 24 authors represented in the series, six years ago June 1st.  Since then I have read 684 books by those authors (all male, unfortunately).  In this year (#6), I read 102 books, mostly by the remaining 8 authors.  However, in addition I also read 46 books unrelated to my main reading project since last June.  These I call my off the shelf reads, as I try to clear a backlog of novels and non-fiction that have been accumulating on my shelves, awaiting their turn.  This month I managed to read 6 of those, though only one was truly off the shelf.

That one was called A Book of Five Rings, a translation of the famous strategy guide by Musashi.  He had a unique way of killing opponents that seems to have worked well for him, but his ability to communicate his methods to readers is woefully inadequate.  His aversion to schools of martial arts means that we can only try to guess at what he says most of the time.  Still, a lot of his words have been incorporated into these arts for a very long time, likely because they are common knowledge and logical in the first place.  As a person who has studied judo, karate, and iado, I can vouch for the benefit of schools and teachers.  Trying to learn these things from a book just doesn't work very well.  However, a person must also carve out some individuality within these teachings, as must a good piano student from their teacher.  Not a very helpful book, though it does contain several nuggets worth considering.

Next, I greedily read five books from different authors in my Kindle editions of Delphi Classics.  First came Basil, by Wilkie Collins, his first non-historical novel, published in 1852, with some corrections and a new introduction from 1862.  Ah, there is nothing quite like the fever pitch that can be reached in a true Victorian novel, and Basil does the job magnificently.  Consider poor Basil.  Younger son in an old and well established English family, he falls hopelessly in love at first sight with a beautiful young woman (a girl, actually) on an omnibus, a draper's daughter.  He marries her, but promises her father that the marriage will not be physically fulfilled for one year, when the girl will turn 18.  Everything must be kept top secret from his family, of course, as papa is completely intolerant of having anything to do with mere trades people.  The plot thickens as the emotionless, mysterious draper's business aid is seen to have almost total control over the young woman (Margaret).  The story becomes thick and involved, and of course the dreaded "brain fever" strikes our poor hero when he realizes he has been betrayed.  This being only Collins' second novel, by mid-19th C standards it's a pretty good story.  But the hero, Basil, is such a milquetoast that this reader wants to grab and shake him violently at several key moments in the plot, shouting "Do something, you incompetent fool!"

Next came the best book about late 19th C sea travel ever written, saddled with the most unfortunate title of Nigger of the Narcissus.  Joseph Conrad's 1898 novel also uses the "n...." word copiously in the story, thus dooming it from school reading lists, and probably many libraries, today.  While the story centres around Jimmy, a black East Indian sailor, it is mostly about shipboard life on a sea journey from Bombay to London.  Hell, thy name is shipboard life in 1898.  Things don't go too badly until the feared passing of the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa.  This is still a very bad area in which to sail a ship.  The good ship Narcissus encounters a storm of storms, and its fate is narrated with such vivid and detailed descriptions that it will seem as if you, the reader, are on board the boat.  I have never read this Conrad novel before, no doubt put off by the title (which was changed for American publication at the time).  It turned into one of the best novels I have ever read, with drama, humour, insight, a fight against Nature to the death, and more demonstration of sea and ship knowledge than I have ever encountered.  Very highly recommended.  Readers will never think of the ocean in quite the same way after this book.

 After that came another tremendous highlight of my reading career, F Marion Crawford's first novel, Mr. Isasacs, from 1882.  Paul Griggs, an American, is in northern India, working for a newspaper (The Howler!).  He meets the most extraordinary man he has ever met, a Mr. Isaacs, who turns out to be Persian (Iranian), and a learned and very charismatic man.  They become fast friends, and when Mr. Isaac falls madly in love with an English girl, Griggs is there to help him out.  The story takes place after a disastrous encounter in Afghanistan with the British army, and the plot involves rescuing the Emir of Afghanistan from British custody.  However, the plot aside, what make this book so wonderful are the lengthy and varied philosophical discussions the two main characters have, at all hours of the day and night.  It is like an Indian version of My Dinner With Andre, only the discussions here are much more interesting, stretching from females, men, humanity, mysticism, through to the soul.  I found the book fascinating, despite the tiger hunt.

Next was Edgar Wallace's first great mystery novel, the one that nearly bankrupted him when he turned it into a contest to see if anyone could guess the solution to the word puzzle.  A Case For Angel, Esquire is from 1908, and is almost a direct rebuke of the Holmes and Watson stories.  Here we have a most competent and highly intelligent and well informed Scotland Yard detective on the trail of a group of bandits (they are almost comical, and remind me of the Beagle Boys from the Scrooge comics) trying to steal the inheritance of a young lady.  Wallace might be the most prolific author England ever produced, so I look forward to many more hours of fun and pleasure with his upcoming stories.  The lead character, detective Angel Esquire (his odd name is explained near the beginning) also featured in two short stories, which were included with the novel at this point.  "The Yellow Box" is an amusing tale, simply told and easily solved by the detective, reminds me of the first story in the successful African detective series by McCall Smith.  Much longer and more serious is "The Silver Charm," from 1910, which also has amusing aspects, telling a bit about the hero's time in west Africa, which leads to the solution to a mystery.  Several hundred short stories and novels await me.

Lastly came the 3rd Oz book by Frank L Baum, written at the request of children who sent him letters asking for more about Oz.  Ozma of Oz features Dorothy and all her original Oz friends, in addition to some new ones.  The wind up man Tiktok is introduced to readers, and Bill (Billian) the hen.  Dorothy's adventures take place mostly in another kingdom across the desert from Oz, but once her friends arrive to help free 11 captives of the Nome King, things seem as if they are back in a part of Oz.  The writing is truly delightful and fun for an adult to read, and the colour and black and white illustrations, beautifully rendered in my Kindle edition, add zest and energy to the story.

The original cover of the 3rd Oz book.

One of many colour illustrations from the novel, reproduced in my Kindle version from Delphi Classics.  Dorothy and Ozma bargain with the Nome King. 

And so begins a new year of reading within the Avon/Equinox authors, and a continuation in the pruning of my miscellaneous book shelf.  As promised near the end of the last blog entry, I am about to reveal a new reading project, that I will hopefully undertake in the near future.  Since the Avon/Equinox project was an entirely male author reading project, I am going to try and make some amends by embarking on an all female SF author reading project.  I will begin with the Hugo and Nebula winners, and possibly branch out from there.  I will likely bypass the fantasy winners (such as J K Rowling), and try to stick to SF authors.  More later as I develop a reading program.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

March Reading Part 1

 I managed to get through my 8 remaining Avon/Equinox authors' books close to the middle of the month, thus having time for no less than seven others not on any list.  This included three books off my miscellaneous shelf.  The count on that shelf is now 13 books remaining, with one new one to be added to it soon.  Jenn will be bringing me the latest novel by Emily St John Mandel, author of Station Eleven.  It's a uncorrected proof of the book, which doesn't come out till April 19th.  My goal is to have that shelf cleared by the end of 2022, or sooner.  I'm switching almost all my newer purchases over to Kindle now.  There is no more room in the house for books, but lots of room on the Cloud.

Robert Silverberg had a long period of burnout beginning in 1976 from writing so much science fiction.  He had already committed to writing two more novels for his publisher, and The Stochastic Man was the first of these.  The plot is tied up with politics, and trying to make a certain man into a presidential candidate.  Lew Nichols is hired as part of the team, first getting a Mr. Quinn elected as NYC major, and then leaping forward from there to make him a president.  Nichol's job is to study trends and try to make educated guesses as to what moves would benefit Quinn in the long run.  It's a pretty good novel, especially when written by a man who had a hard time facing up to the task of completing it.  The story intensifies when Nichol's meets Carvajal, a strange older man who has seen into the future, and advises Nichols on several things that will certainly happen.  Nichols writes him off as a scary quack at first, but when the predictions come true, Nichols investigates further.  An intriguing story, well told.

Executive is book 4 of Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant series.  All of Anthony's heroes from all of his books share the same morals and characteristics, and despite this one being Hispanic, they are all quite bland and very predictable in virtually any situation.  Anthony writes this book as if it were a textbook on how to run a country, rather than a story with a plot.  Much of it is quite dry, though mildly interesting at times, such as when he isn't having sex with women, or thinking and talking about having sex with women.  But those times are rare.  I won't even go into how he manages to get a 15 year old girl to sleep with a 55 year old man, and she loves it.  It's just the author, up to his old tricks.  So far the series has been a disappointment, despite its potential to be something better.  Anthony's writing seems to slip with each passing year.  I am more often annoyed when reading him now than anything else.

It is always a breath of fresh air to read a novel by Harry Harrison after one by Piers Anthony.  In March I read One King's Way, Harrison's 2nd epic novel (470 small print pages) about Vikings and their invasion of England.  It is a truly great book, as the hero undertakes a massive circular northern journey of mythological proportions after engaging an enemy Viking ship in combat, and running aground in the marshes of coastal Germany.  The story does not seem much like historical fantasy, but it is, especially as far as religion goes.  Historical detail is accurate and fascinating, and the plot continues to evolve along with some of the main characters.  The story is brutal in many places, with little in the way of humour to break things up.  But everything feels right, and the two books read so far in this trilogy have been a wonderful and unique experience.  As much as the story is focussed on adventures and battles, it is also a fascinating read because of all the inventing that goes on; there are new and better crossbows, new and better battleships, new and bettor armour, and even vast improvements in water and wind mills.  Highly recommended for lovers of Viking sagas and early historical fiction.

I began yet another non SF series by Kenneth Bulmer, called simply Fox.  Book 1 is called Powder Monkey, and tells of the exploits and growth of a poor young boy in London, making his way in the navy by starting out as a powder monkey, essentially a boy that runs powder and shot up to the cannons during a sea battle.  When there are no battles he does just about anything, and (I mean almost anything) asked of him.  The first part of the book shows him growing up in London, and then sent to his uncle's place in the marshes to help out there.  This is a really fascinating part of the novel, but it gets even better once he signs up for navy and gets aboard a ship.  A surprisingly fine novel, and I am looking forward to #2 later this month.  By the time book 1 ends, Fox has been through adventures on land, where he saves his femal friend from being raped, and saves a British naval officer from death by Indian, and helps free his captured crew, and is engaged in a full fledged sea battle against a massive French warship.  He is about to leave the Henrietta, and to enter the service of Captain Cuthbert, the man who he saved on land earlier.  We hope things are looking up for the young man, as he has been through more in his short life than most people who live to ninety.

The Ming Vase is the title of a collection of 6 short stories by E C Tubb.  Five stories were new to me.  My favourite was called Star Haven, a novella about first contact, and a group of scientists returning to the site of a human colony to find it completely abandoned.  Where did the 500 colonists go?  As much a mystery story as a SF one, this is a brilliant bit of writing, and should have become a major motion picture.  Highly recommended.  Also quite good was a story called Trojan Horse.  A man is sent to recover a container of pills stolen from an experimental chemical factory.  The thief was the director's daughter, who lives in a maximum security apartment building.  How to get inside?  A decent story, along the lines of a private eye story.

Jack Williamson's Demon Moon was conceived and mostly written while he was on an extended trip to China.  While the whole thing reads as fantasy, the underlying structure is pure SF, and a very good mixing of the two genres.  Every thousand years, a cataclysm of planet shattering severity comes upon the land.  This had happened twice before, and is about to happen again, though previous occurrences are remembered as mostly myth.  It involves the approach of a dwarf star, a star that has some kind of intelligent entity living on it that seeks gold and other rare minerals for its survival.  The mad priests of the planet call this thing Zath, and worship it and expect its return.  By feeding it gold, they hope to be saved while everyone else perishes.  Though the story contains some flaws, I was easily able to overlook them.  The ending is nicely done, once all is explained.  The concept is brilliant, and no doubt at least a hundred other similar stories could be written, based on the author's main idea of who these people are and where they are.  All in all,  a recommended read, and certainly worthy of 84 year old Jack Williamson's well known talents.

The 3rd novel of Michael Moorcock's Elric series was read.  It is called The Sailor on the Seas of Fate, and it continues the hero's long journey of discovery, begun at the end of book one. The third story is one of pure adventure, as three men and a ship's crew seek a lost city in the jungle of a land that is only known through some very old, mistrusted myths.  Savage jungle creatures, a ruined city, a crystal-eyed giant statue, and a man living there who cannot die, are all ingredients of this almost familiar tale.  Needless to say, there are very few survivors of the expedition, and some surprising deaths.  Perhaps not the best jungle/lost city story I have read, it does have all the basic ingredients (though no women).  A good addition to the tale of Elric's year of wandering.

The 8th and final book of my first phase of March reading was Barry Malzberg's Scop.  Scop is the main character, a man obsessed with the murderous past of our civilization.  He refers to the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963 as the beginning of the end, also calling it at one point "original sin."  Scop, like all of Malzberg's main characters, is completely insane and on a mission.  His mission is to somehow change history, so that flowers will grow in large fields, instead of the sadistic games that are played there to the death in his own time, the year 2040.  Scop is short for Scopolamine, a drug that has psychoactive properties, and was used early on ass a truth serum.  We know that Scop is in an institution, and that he somehow manages to get a transporter used to go back and witness historical events.  He fixates on the 1960s assassinations of the Kennedy brothers, King, and Malcolm X, and believes that by stopping them from happening "the present may live again," meaning that we will live in less violent times.  His madness, though recognized by the administrators, is not treated seriously when he claims that he will go back in time and change history.  Of course he is as ineffective there as he is elsewhere.  He makes one last futile attempt to save humankind at the end of the story.  The book is readable, and a highly original and unique look at the 60s assassinations, as seen by a madman.

Scop also receives my coveted Book Cover of the Month Award.  I am partial to orange.

March 2022 cover of the month.  Art by Stephen Fabian.  

I continue to enjoy my SF TV literature course, and have recently watched episodes on utopias/dystopias, the beginning of the pulp SF era, and evolution and deep time, among others.  It is truly a really fun presentation, and many of the authors talked about are ones with whom I am very familiar, including long discussions on Olaf Stapledon and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In movie news, we finally finished up Deb's March film festival.  The 1989 documentary Forbidden City, USA is about the all-Chinese nightclub and musical revue in San Francisco, open from 1938 through the early 1960s.  It interviews singers, dancers, and the owner, along with still photos and short film clips of several of the acts.  A fascinating film, and it runs less than an hour.  It contains an astoundingly racist song about Chinese girls, sung by three white female singers.  This viewer was left boggle eyed and eared afterwards.

A fascinating documentary.  The Criterion run is now over.

The Eternal Return is a French film from 1943, an updated version of Tristan and Isolde.  If you did not know this, you would still get the feeling of an adult fairy tale in progress.  It's a bit on the rigid side, but still compelling and fascinating to watch.  Cocteau did the screenplay.  There are several extras we haven't watched yet regarding the film.  Starring a malicious dwarf, a violent drunk, and Jean Marais.

Showing in a pristine print on Criterion. 

 

Le Silence de la Mer is from 1949, an intense drama about the occupation of a small French village by the Germans in 1941.  A German officer moves in with two French peasants, an older man and his niece.  They do not speak to him, but each night when her returns from his duties he stands in front of the fire place and talks to them.  We hear the old man's thoughts, but nothing out loud from him or the niece when the German is present.  Gradually we get to know the officer, and it turns out he is a decent guy, duped by the Nazi's into thinking they are only there to help France and Europe.  When he discovers the truth about the invasion, and what plans the Nazis have for France, he undergoes a vast change in thinking.  So, too, do his unwilling hosts.  A beautiful and powerful film, with no violence or war action.

 

The 1949 film is showing on Criterion.

 

The three main characters from the film, based on a famous French novel.  A quietly powerful film. 

 

The last of Deb's choices was a young adult picture called Alan and Naomi, from 1992.  Set about the same time as the French film, this one features a young Jewish girl, about 12 years old, who saw her father get murdered by the Nazis.  Her mother and her escape Paris to Brooklyn, where her trauma remains in a severe state.  Across the hall is a young boy her age who is asked to spend time with her, in hopes of bringing her out of her trance.  While the plot is predictable and holds few surprises, the film is well done, and the two kids are excellent in their roles. 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

For my main movie choice this week we are watching the final two episodes of The Vampires, from 1916.  A film by Truffaut is coming up next.  Part 2 of March Reading will appear here very soon.

Mapman Mike