January 2025 Reading Update

January was a very cold month, perfect for plenty of reading.  I got through 12 books, one of them a graphic novel.  Besides my two regulars (Tubb and Bulmer) I read 4 from my Delphi Classics collection and 6 others.

From 1988 comes the 255 page conclusion to Kenneth Bulmer's Witch War Saga, Warlord of Antares, with the sudden though somewhat expected death of Cistra the evil witch woman.  She has lusted after Dray Prescott for several volumes now, and finally, just as she has him within her grasp, she is undone by a jealous wizard who wanted her for himself.  One of the many things I like about this series is the unexpected turns.  Though many things are predictable, just as many are not.  We have seen people get killed who we wish had still been alive, and we have seen battles lost that we wish had been won.  Another thing I like about the book is the comaraderie between Dray and his best friends.  Though they take seriously events that need to be taken seriously, they are also keen to show light-heartedness as much as bravery.  Delia, Dray's wife is once again in the background for this story.  This is the first volume where Drak, son of Dray, is Emperor, after Dray's (and Delia's) abdication.  And so a new series of adventures will begin with the next volume, as Dray attempts to unite a vast continent of small kingdoms again the dreaded Shanks.  A good entry in this remarkable series. 

Cover art by Ken Kelly. 

 

Cap and his team are up against an old and very evil enemy, one they thought they had eliminated in a past volume, in this pot boiler by E. C. Tubb.  In The Genetic Engineer Cap has to infiltrate the top secret and very hidden laboratory run by this evil scientist, and of course it must be blown to smithereens once discovered.  There really isn't too much to say about this one.  The mad scientist is designing and making clones with the help of kidnapped scientists.  He will program them to fight to the death, and they will feel no pain so will continue to fight until unable to do so.  His great plan to sell his soldiers to the highest bidder is undone by a female captured scientist, who programs the clones to run away in fear instead of stand and fight.  So for once a woman helps save the day!  Not the greatest of the stories, but not a terrible one, either.

 

Turning to four of the Delphi Classics for this month I began with William Hope Hodgson's The Dream of X.  The Night Land by Hodgson is a masterpiece of fantasy horror writing that I first encountered in the the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series many years ago.  I reread it fairly recently and still loved the book.  However, it is 200,000 words and quite a commitment to sit down and read.  If you have ever wanted to wander about inside of a hellish painting by Bosch or Bruegel, then this is the book for you.  In 1912 the author published a 20,000 word version, which is the above named story.  Reduced by 90%, this is exactly what the reader gets: 90% less of everything.  This is a very disappointing novella and not recommended.  The full version is just that; a full version.  Imagine any great novel or film cut by 90%.  Read the full version of The Night Land.  Please.

 

The Girl From Malta, an 1889 crime novel by Fergus Hume, also left me quite disappointed.  For one thing (spoiler alert), after all is said and done and we have tried for nearly 300 pages to figure out who the murderer is, it turns out there was no murder.  What a chicken poop ending!  Obviously Hume himself could not decide who killed the victim.  It was either one of two sisters (likely the older one with a violent temper), or their male cousin.  Obviously too scared to have one of the women as the murderer, the author sets up the male cousin.  But in the end it was a suicide!  Right.  The guy stabbed himself in the heart with a letter opener.  Happens every day.  Yawn.  Moving on....

 

Daisy Miller is a novella by Henry James from 1878.  At times it is quite a brilliant story, though at the end the author cops out (spoiler not provided here).  A young American girl is spending a year in Europe with her mother and 9 year old brother.  The young boy provides much entertainment for the reader, and also provides a genetic excuse for the young woman.  Daisy (likely 15 or 16 in the book) is very immature, very beautiful and talks a lot.  She is allowed to go out with men unsupervised by her mother, and this eventually leads to her being ostracized by "society."  Our hero cannot make Daisy understand her predicament, and she is incapable of doing anything except flirting with him and especially a handsome Italian musician, with whom she spends most of her time in Rome.  Though she likes the hero very much, she is unable to relate to him.  They fall out when he attempts to advise her of her worsening social flaws.  Rather than try to put a fitting conclusion to the story, James takes the easy way out.  It's a shame, as much better endings could be devised.  Highly recommended.

 

M. R. James' final published collection of horror stories is from 1925 and is called A Warning To The Curious and Other Ghost Stories. This was the final published volume of all new stories by James, though his collected short stories (to follow) include four never before published.  Of the six stories included here "The Haunted Dollhouse" is certainly worth mentioning.  The tiny inhabitants of an old dollhouse enact a gruesome ritual late each night.  Very creepy.  The five other stories are all good and worth reading, though not particularly scary.

 

The Con Man is from 1957, and is Ed McBain's fourth 87th Precinct novel.  Carella, a detective from the precinct, was badly wounded in the first book.  The author wanted to kill him off, but the editor would not allow it (!).  So Carella is back in book 4, trying to catch a serial killer.  He gets some unasked for assistance from his deaf and dumb wife.  This is the best of the series so far, with a lot of tension building towards the end.  The detectives from the precinct rotate in each story, which is a pretty cool idea.  Hard boiled and top notch big city crime writing.

 

Akira is a comic from 1988 by Katsuhiro Otomo.  It is the second (of three) outstanding comic/graphic novel to recently enter these hallowed walls of bloghood.  It is thirty years after an atomic bomb devastates Tokyo, and the outskirts of Tokyo are coming back to life, sort of.  This is essentially a Japanese version of the much earlier Mad Max film, though it gets even more cynical and outrageous.  Tokyo was bombed because of an out-of-control ESP experiment that went awry.  Of course a secret group is trying to revive it.  Original art was in black and white, but it was coloured for release as a 36-comic (six volume) graphic novel once its popularity had hit the roof.  The author was given a huge amount of control over the animated film version, too.  If you enjoy reading about 15 year old sex-crazed male juvenile delinquents on super fast motor bikes, then you are sure to love this series.  Watch as they out ride and out fight Japan's military and top secret agents, just like in real life.  The plot thickens as we learn that a top secret project has been working with mutants who are psychic deadly weapons.  After the first six issues we have not learned what "Akira" is, but it sounds like really bad news.  The art and colouring are totally fantastic, and the story shows promise.  But it's hard to accept young boys being so adept at nearly everything.  How they afford their bikes, repairs, gasoline and how they get so much time away from their reform school is kept a mystery.  Let's hope they can save the world, though.

 

I read Vol. 1, which contains the first six comics.  There are 6 volumes (36 comics).

 

Paul Aster's 1985 novel City of Glass eventually became three books, now known as the New York Trilogy.  Paul Quinn writes cheap detective novels.  A few years ago his wife and son died and he is becoming a stranger to the world and to himself.  When a strange phone call for Paul Aster reaches him and asks for private eye help, Quinn decides to become Paul Aster and accepts the case.  A dangerous man will soon be released for prison, and his son, damaged at an early age from his father's social experiment on him, is terrified that his father will find him again and seek revenge for getting him sent to jail for 13 years.  Quinn/Aster follows the father, William Stillman, and keeps watch on him.  As the case goes on Quinn becomes completely engaged, to the point of eventually losing himself and seeming to disappear eventually into thin air.  At the beginning of the book we see Quinn observing street people and rough sleepers and wondering how a man could ever reach such a low point.  By the end of the novel he has become such a man himself, one of the worst cases.  This is a strange yet engaging story, with many sharp turns and bumpy rides.  I am looking forward (next month) to continuing the trilogy.  Recommended.

 

The Night Circus is from 2011 and written by Erin Morgenstern. Deb recommended it, though she liked her second book even more.  So I finally got around to the first one.  This is not so much a novel as an experience, one that is unlike any other that I have had.  First off, it is about a circus, and the circus only opens at night.  Now that we have that cleared up, what kind of circus is it?  Well, imagine if a circus was controlled by someone (or perhaps two someones) who had strong psychic energies.  Imagine that some of the acts are a bit enhanced, to the point where attendees are not only totally amazed at what they see, but are unsure if what they see is real or something else entirely.  Imagine a circus that arrives at night in secret, and is fully set up and ready to go the very first night after arrival.  After entering, attendees wander at will, visiting smaller and larger tents to see any of the acts available of their choosing.  No sitting in one spot and watching a performance.  There are dozens of different places to visit, and they are all amazing.  There is an overarching story about two dueling wizards using a student each to see who "wins."  Filled with interesting characters both in and out of the circus, the novel holds things together really well and our interest never flags.  That is a pretty amazing achievement in a book nearly 400 pages long.  Though the story bounces back in forth in chronology it is easy to follow thanks to dates supplied with each chapter.  Also, the chapters are mostly very short, from 1 minute to 4 minutes in length to perhaps 10 at the outset.  This far exceeds Piranesi, another quite special novel read earlier.  Now I am very curious to see just what the author can do in her second book.  Very highly recommended, especially to fantasy fans looking for something completely different.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life (republished as Arrival after the success of the film) is a collection of short stories and novellas first published in 2002, though most stories were written considerably earlier.

 

"Tower of Babylon" is from 1990, and is a wonderful fantasy no doubt influenced by Bruegel's paintings of the same name.  Imagine a storyteller in ancient Babylonian times relating the tale of not only the building of this miles high edifice, but of its reaching its goal, namely heaven.  This is the story of an Elamite miner who was called from afar to break through the ceiling to reach heaven once the tower was finished.  They climb for days and days to reach the summit, passing the sun, which shines upward after a time instead of down.  There is no science in this ancient tale, at least none we would recognize.  A deliriously magical tale!  **** stars.

 

"Understand" is from 1991 and is a story that begins well.  A man who had remained underwater for too long is revived and given injections of a new drug.  They give him nightmares for a while, but then his intelligence increases by a vast amount.  His doctors try a third injection, and once again he receives what might be called a Krell brain boost.  The CIA wants him for their own purposes, and he he is forced to go on the lam.  He can hack into computers and manages to find a 4th dose, which elevates his intelligence further.  this part of the book is a cross between a Jason Bourne adventure and Odd John, a novel by Olaf Stapledon.  there is even some Cyril Kornbluth thrown in for good measure.  However, the story stakes a nosedive when our hero discovers a 2nd man (of course it's a man) who is 15 days ahead of him with the drugs.  So what would the two most intelligent men do when they finally meet.  Yup.  You guessed it.  Fight to the death, mind against mind.  Sigh.  It's one man who seeks truth and beauty versus the other one who wants to use his knowledge to help humanity.  We all know where that one would soon lead.  A very disappointing ending.  ** stars. 

 

"Division By Zero" is from 1991 and is a story about arithmetic.  And empathy.  Apparently the statement that 1 equals 2 cannot be disproved by math as we know it.  The possibility is there.  And does empathy always bring closer together two people who have shared similar situations, or can it bring them more apart?  Read and weep.  An effective short story. *** stars.

 

"Story of Your Life" is from 1998 and is the one that the Arrival film is based upon.  The film is a great one, one of the better SF films to be sure.  As usual, however, the novella is even better.  It's a much more matter-of-fact telling of first contact than the film.  There is no vast structure, but rather a two way mirror that allows communication to proceed between Earth and the aliens.  What sets this story apart from the many other first rate first contact stories I have read (see my Avon/Equinox blog) is the second story that is interwoven with the main story.  The female linguist who is tasked with learning the alien language tells a story that happens in the future, and tells it in flashback, if you please.  This is a beautifully handled counterpoint to the first contact one, as we soon realize that she can know, with certainty, what will happen to her in the future.  How can she do this?  It turns out that the alien language(s) is completely different from ours.  Their spoken language cannot be properly sounded by humans, so she focuses more on their written language.  It is a language that has no bearing on the spoken one, however, and is based upon knowing all about a thing before being spoken.  In other words, she learns how to know things, once she has mastered it, before they are finished happening, such as her future life.  Her future life, as it turns out, contains much sadness and much joy.  She does have free will, and can reject her future life with one simple remedy.  What will she choose?  The story contains some really great physics and math discussions, not too difficult to follow, and is a highly recommended read.  **** stars.

 

"Seventy-two Letters" is from 2000.  It is a tiresome story/novella about nomenclature and Kabbalah.  In an altered future world scientists have animated golems to do single menial tasks.  A breakthrough came when naming them increased their capabilities.  I couldn't wait for this story to end.  * star.

 

"The Evolution of Human Science" is from  2000 and is a three page story.  It was first published in Nature.  Humans no longer do original research; thanks to genetic engineering this task is carried out by meta-humans.  Problems arise when humans can no longer understand the research, so a special branch of research is set up to study ways to interpret results from meta-human research.  Prescient if nothing else.  *** stars.

 

"Hell Is The Absence of God" is from 2001.  Chang usually takes an alternate Earth existence and builds his story assuming we have lived in it always.  In this novelette angels from heaven make occasional appearances in different locations, usually unexpectedly.  Their appearance causes a few people to benefit, but more often many others are killed or injured as a result of blinding light, chasms suddenly appearing, hurricane force winds or accidents caused by being the way of the angel.  When people die people on scene can watch their souls float up to heaven, or disappear into the earth on their way to hell.  This is pretty much a very original story, whose conclusion is that one should not depend upon God to give them salvation; anything that happens to a person is either by their own design or total randomness.  God neither punishes nor rewards.  An interesting parable of a story.  I'd be curious to get a religious person's perspective after they read it.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" is from 2002.  The story discuss and dissects Lookism, where a person or persons look at someone.  Often it is the most beautiful faces that gather the most looks, while plain ones attract very little attention by comparison.  Truly unattractive people might gather a few curious looks, while deformed faces might gather even more than beautiful faces.  The story tells of an implant that takes away the differences, making everyone look average.  A university campus is considering making having this implant a pre-requisite to attending its campus, and the subject is to be put to a vote.  The story is enthralling, taking the form of a documentary film with student interviews dominating the pages.  Recommended reading,  *** 1/2 stars.

 

I read the Kindle version. 

 

Finally came another entertaining tale by the Old Sleuth.  Cad Meth, The Female Detective Strategist, or Dudie Dunne and His Lady Pal is from 1895.  Old Sleuth wrote over a hundred detective stories that were published cheaply in newspaper-like format, and so far the several I have read have been quite good, in a quaint and humourous way.  The dialogue portions of these stories are usually quite fun to read.  This one features a very intelligent and beautiful female detective working alongside Dudie Dunne.  She saves his neck at one point, after he fell for a villainess' wily story about helping her poor brother.  It is refreshing to see a story from 1895 feature a heroine like Cad Metti.  She does return later in another adventure, though I don't think I have that one.

 

See you in a month.

 

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