September Reading Summary

I gave Tubb and Bulmer a miss this month so that I could fit in a long read by Moorcock.  I won't do that again for some time.  In fact, I only have one more Moorcock book on my shelf.  As with Piers Anthony, I have likely run my full course with the author.

From the year 2000 comes Michael Moorcock's King of the City, a 421 page small print hardcover that purports to be a novel.  With 27 chapters, several of which are very long, it took me 10 1/2 days to get through this mess.  If you only read chapters 1, 25, 26, and 27 you won't be missing a thing, and the story might actually make sense.  I think that Moorcock is attempting to channel Iain Banks, who wrote some of the finest and much more timeless novels of contemporary times.  He fails miserably.  Most of the book is filled with name dropping, which won't mean anything today to many readers, and absolutely nothing to younger readers.  Moorcock's biggest fantasy yet is that he seems to want to be a rock star and musician (the two often do not go together), and so his drugged out avatar Denny Dover gets to play in the greatest rock concert since Hitchhiker's Guide (oh wait, that might have been in the future).  But it's meaningless to him since the girl of his dreams is giving him the frozen shoulder.  The problem with "contemporary" fiction, that is fiction that uses real people and real events, almost immediately dates itself.  Published a year before 911 events, the big deal here is the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.  The big war going on is the Bosnian War, which most people today have completely forgotten or never heard of.  The big genocide event was in Rwanda, again mostly forgotten today.  Events in the story were upended by 911, the two wars against Iraq, the Afghanistan affair, President Trump, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan, and on and on.  Perhaps if I'd read the story 25 years ago I might have felt different about the book.  But I doubt it.  It is poorly written, a sad imitation of James Joyce's Ulyssess in places, and mostly gives us the thoughts of a crude though half intelligent paparazzi (Dennis Dover) and the people he most interacts with.  Though he makes continuous fun of magazines like Hello! and People, the author gives us his own version of the same, and much of it is incoherent.  Sometimes writers write to impress other writers, friends, and a certain type of (clueless?) reviewer.  His audience for this novel must be a very small one.  Not recommended, though there are a few very funny passages that break up the monotony.  And the first chapter and the last three are quite good.  It even has a happy ending, a sort of utopia that came about rather unexpectedly at the very end.

 

James Branch Cabell's sublime novel The Cords of Vanity is from 1909.  I first came into contact with this author as a teenager collecting Lin Carter's Adult Fantasy series.  Carter published several novels by Cabell.  At the time I didn't like them and didn't "get" them.  Rereading them in later years I came to appreciate the incredible talent of this writer, almost forgotten today.  I was so pleased when Delphi Classics came out with his complete works!  This novel follows an idle and selfish young man in his various love affairs, and can seem at times like Oscar Wilde prose.  The wit is similar, as well as the understatement when dealing with emotions.  We begin with Robert (Robbie) Townsend's first love as a boy in his early teens, and follow him through to his disastrous 26th year.  That is the year that Robbie (hopefully) grows up and becomes a man.  The tragedy at the very end comes as a big surprise.  I had to read it twice to make certain I'd read it correctly at first.  I had.  A stunning novel, and worth many readings.

 

Ashes of Empire continues the tale of the invasion of France and the siege of Paris by the Prussians in 1870-71.  Robert Chambers' three novels give a complete chronicle and insider's view of those devastating events.  This novel, from 1897, was the last to be written on the subject.  However, to read them chronologically (I didn't) begin with Lorraine.  Next comes The Red Republic and finally Ashes of Empire.  Though Chambers is remembered more for his spine tingling tales, including The Yellow King series, his knack for historical fiction is quite amazing.  What struck me again and again as I read these 3 novels over a period of about 2 1/2 years was how much of this kind of murderous nonsense still continues today.  The novel is written in such a modern style that it hasn't dated much, and the basic facts of the war in France remain accurate.  By adding fictional characters, in this case two American reporters and twin sisters from Brittany who are in Paris, the emotional depth of what was occurring really strikes home.  The girls arrived in Paris to look after their uncle's pet shop after he died.  While the birds were released just before the siege, the lion (very tame), monkey and tropical bird had to be sent to the zoo in order to be fed.  One feels just as sorry for the lion as one does for the suffering people, as it is badly affected by the sound of canon fire.  I highly recommend the entire series, available very inexpensively as part of the Delphi Classics series for Kindle.  Then you can also read the King in Yellow, another must read.

 

Pearls Are a Nuisance is a novella from 139 written by Raymond Chandler.  It's an amusing and quite short read, as the detective strives to find missing pearls, which he knows are fake.  With very few characters in the story, it isn't too difficult to figure out who done it, but Chandler throws out all the roadblocks and red herrings that he can.  A fun story to read, and though it isn't classic noir, the style is spot on.  Recommended.

 

Uncollected Short Stories by Kate Chopin.  There are 44 of these small treasures, and it will take them 11 at a time.  

"Wiser Than A God" (1889) tells the story of Paula Von Stolz, who wishes to become a concert pianist.  She is highly sought after by George, an agreeable man, who eventually proposes marriage.  Paula realizes that if she accepts, it will likely be the end of her career chances.  What will she do?  Hint:  this is Kate Chopin writing, one of the earliest female writers to stand up for women.

"Emancipation: A Life Fable" is the story of an unnamed creature accidentally freed from its cage and venturing out alone into the big wide world.  The story can be taken as allegory for any number of situations, including and not limited to an animal becoming free to roam, a woman coming from from her closed environment, or a slave being freed and having to face life on his or her own.

"A Point At Issue" (1889) is a sweet tale of a husband and wife who appear to be in love and a perfect emotional and intellectual match for one another.  While their post-marriage relationship appears strange to outsiders (including readers), it works out well for them, until the big change finally comes.  A lovely story.

"Miss Witherwell's Mistake" (1889) is a humourous tale about a 19 year old girl suddenly showing up at her aunt's house, in a small town far from where she grew up.  What is her reason for being there?  The reasons she gives her aunt seem plausible enough, but eventually we learn the truth.  Another sweet story and not without humour.

"With The Violin" (1889) is a truly Victorian tale, as a grandfather tells his young grandchildren a true story of how a handsome young musician and his music saved the life of someone who was at the very end of his rope.

"Mrs. Mobry's Reason" (1893) is a tragic tale of a woman's attempt to keep her son and daughter from marrying.  Readers will assume that the woman is just being too possessive and selfish, but we don't find out the sad truth until the very end.

"The Going Away of Liza" (1892) Liza left her husband suddenly one day.  This is the story of her unexpected return.

"The Maid of St. Philippe" (1892) is a tale of the early settler days.  A French town musts evacuate as the land has been turned over to the English.  One young resourceful woman and her father refuse to leave.  When he dies she has several options from which to choose.  She chooses the one that suits her best, alarming her friends.

"A Shameful Affair" (1893) A 19 year old girl visiting a farm becomes obsessed with a handsome young farmhand.

"A Harbinger" (1891) is a very short tale about an artist who paints a beautiful girl's portrait one summer.  He thinks of her often over the winter and returns the following summer hoping to win her as his wife.

"Doctor Chevalier's Lie" (1893) A doctor in a poor and rough area of a town comes across a victim whom he had personally known.  He writes to the parents regarding the bad news, lying to them about the cause of her tragedy.

 

I chugged through another story by The Old Sleuth.  A Desperate Chance, Or The Wizard Tramp's Revelation is from 1897.  This is an adventure tale rather than the usual mystery story.  It begins in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains as a young man teams up with an old timer to look for gold.  They in turn hook up with a third member.  The young man finds a stash of gold and he is sent back East to attend university.  He has an adventure on the train ride home with some card sharps, and eventually makes it to university.  This story is a bit unusual from the mystery stories I have read by the author previously, and not nearly as interesting.

 

I finished up the month with Meteor Menace, a Doc Savage adventure from 1934.  A long time ago I purchased a ten-pack of these fun pulp SF novels, and read one of them occasionally.  As a young teen I read nearly the entire canon, over 80 novels.  This is one of the better entries in the vast series.  An ancient meteor that crashed into Tibetan mountains has been harnessed for evil purposes by a brilliant professor, and Doc and his gang of 5 assistants have to stop him.  A beautiful girl figures into the plot, and for a time readers are led to believe that Doc is engaged to her.  As if.  He even blushes slightly at one point.  The tale begins in Chile before moving to Tibet for the finale.  Doc's list of scientific gadgets and weapons would make James Bond envious.  An exciting adventure, and Doc really does get his clothes tattered, too!

 

Cover art from 1964 paperback edition by James Avati.
 

 Mapman Mike 

  

April Books Read

Not a lot of volumes were read this past month.  Two of them were quite long and one of them was very intense and required careful and somewhat slow reading.  I also enjoyed 4 nights of astronomy last month, which always cuts into evening reading time.

 

Fires of Scorpio by Kenneth Bulmer, #29 in the Dray Prescott series, is a direct continuation of volume 27, beginning where Dray has just come out of the mountain tunnels.  He becomes reunited with his friend, but is immediately dragged away again by the Star Lords to another location and assignment.   His main purpose now seems to be to interrupt the religion of the Silver Leem.  He arrives at a point where a female child is to be sacrificed to their god.  Of course he saves the girl, and the first part of the story is enlivened by the presence of the child accompanied by Dray.  She has a personality (she is just under 4 years of age) and adds humour to the proceedings.  The latter half of the story is more serious.  Dray is reunited with another warrior friend who is also a chosen one in aiding the Star Lords in whatever it is they are trying to accomplish.  They team up again and the adventures are nonstop until the end of the book.  Though they have managed to disrupt the religion, there is a lot more to do.  And on it goes....  Another solid entry in this remarkable series. 

 

 

From 1974 comes Eater of Worlds, the 126 page on-going adventures of Kennedy and his male cohorts.  This time they are assigned to a case where a prisoner who was being transferred escaped with help.  Many innocent people were killed, and so Cap is trying to find out why this prisoner, with only a year left in his sentence, escaped.  This is one of those rare truly SF stories.  The bad guys think they are about to dig up secret treasure from a lost civilization, and the escapee was the only one with the coordinates to the site.  The location is on a barren planet (we find out later why it is barren), in a sandy desert prone to fierce wind storms.  They discover that the "treasure" lies within a protective shell in the form of a skull (I wonder what that could mean?).  Once they get inside, a very dangerous type of alien life form is released, killing anyone it touches in its form as first a liquid, and then a vapour (after someone panics and shoots it with a blaster).  It begins to spread, and it's now up to Cap and his team to try and stop it.  This is actually a very good story, and would make an excellent SF film.   

 

Collecting Myself: The Uncollected Stories of Barry Malzberg is a 2024 publication and 259 pages long and contains about 35 short stories by Malzberg.  He also contributes a very brief essay at the beginning.  The stories move chronologically from 1970 to 2022.

 

Terminus East is from 1970, and is about the failed colony on the moon.  It is a violent story, and not that appealing.  ** 1/2 stars.

 

Making Titan is from 1970 and details the bizarre 6th attempt by humans to land on Titan, Saturn's largest moon.  Will this one fail like the others, or be the first successful mission?  Remember, this is Malzberg. *** stars.

 

Exploration is from 1971 and is a Malzberg special; no one else writes about how being in space makes you crazy so well as this author.  The captain of a Mars exploratory mission loses it. **** stars.

 

Conquest is a silly tale from 1972 about first contact, which turns out to be a test for the human candidate who will be sent out to greet the aliens.  *** stars.

 

Two Odysseys Into the Center is from 1972.  This one has some pulp fiction humour attached, which ups the rating.  *** stars.

 

Dreaming and Conversions: Two Rules By Which To Love is from 1973.  Another great story of insanity and its self justification.  Of course aliens are involved.  **** stars.

 

Conversations With Lothar is from 1973.  This story and a few others were to become the 1975 novel Conversations, reviewed above.  It works well as a very short story, but the novel is quite incredibly good.  *** stars.

 

Triptych is from 1973 and is as much a satire of pulp SF as it is an homage.  Several possible pulp novels are condensed into a few paragraphs each.  Entertaining to read, and I find myself wishing I could read some of those novels.  *** stars.

 

The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier is from 1974, and is way ahead of its time, as it describes addiction to virtual reality gaming.  Dated, obviously, but at the time well ahead of itself.  ** 1/2 stars.

 

Revelation in Seven Stages is from 1980.  Malzberg comes up with quite possibly the most bizarre and unusual use for ancient Eygptian mummies ever conceived.  Funny and weird.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

There The Lovelies Bleeding is from 1981, and tells of a blossoming romance in the far future, where such liaisons have been much frowned upon until now.  Progress against the repression is slow, but gaining momentum.  *** stars.

 

1984 is a one page story from 1985, on the expected theme.  Not too successful, in my opinion.  ** stars.

 

J. S. Brahms is from 1985 and features Sigmund Freud undertaking a cognitive test.  A pretty funny story no doubt related to Malzberg's novel.  Music afficianados will appreciate the humour more.  *** stars. 

 

The Queen of Saigon is from 1987, a story about the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of a Saigon prostitute.  Fine storytelling of a still touchy topic.  *** stars.

 

Ambition is from 1987.  A SF story in which a communications officer is responsible for the planet of Jubilation's inhabitants rebelling against the Earth invaders.  Offbeat and very short.  *** stars.

 

No Hearts, No Flowers is from 1989.  This is a funny mob-related story, where a casual social reporter thinks he has erred in mentioning a recent mob massacre one day before it happened.  He is summoned to pay a visit to "Bruno" and realizes his time is up.  But Bruno gives him more than he bargained for.  A fun read. *** stars.

 

Safety Zone is from 1990, a somewhat bizarre tale of a barfly and a man she meets one night.  A bit puzzling, but still some fine writing.  *** stars.  

 

One Ten Three is from 1991, and is one of the funniest stories I have ever read.  A race horse talks to a betting man and tells him he will win the next race.  The man bets $80.  Did the horse win?  In a way.  A truly wonderful story, and laugh out loud at times.  **** stars.

 

Dumbarton Oaks is from 1992, a story in which the devil is given tasks by the big boss.  A bit weird.  ** stars.

 

Gotterdammerung is from 1992, and is the story of a wizard who is visited by interested parties in finding the magic ring that was lost in the river.  The wizard is outsmarted, though the ring still remains lost. *** stars. 

 

Is This The Presidential Palace? is from 1992, a typical Malzberg story about an alien with an agenda meeting a human.  Quite amusing.  ** 1/2 stars.

 

It Comes From Nothing is from 1994 and is a spin on the end of King Lear.  Not a very nice spin, either.  In fact, kind of a cruel spin.  * star.

 

Sinfonia Expansiva is from 94, and is a somewhat sex-obsessed story that doesn't really work very well. ** stars.

 

Of Dust and Fire and The Night is from 1994, and is the author's take on the star of Bethlehem and three wise men.  It never hurts to throw the legend of the phoenix bird in, either.  A bit silly, but fun. ** 1/2 stars. 

 

Close-up Photos Reveal JFK Skull On Moon is from 1994.  A bizarre story where JFK ends up on the lunar surface, Elvis is now in France after having plastic surgery to alter his face and singing in small clubs.  He is being pursued by a 102 year old female fan who just birth to twins, who turn out to be JFK and Elvis reborn.  Marilyn Monroe reveals her unsuccessful pursuit of Elvis.  *** stars.

 

Getting There is from 2002 and is another powerful Vietnam anti-war story.  **** stars.

 

The Third Part is a view of Revelations as seen from the perspective of a southern redneck.  Most odd. *** stars.

 

Crossing the Border is from 2003 and deals with a man who has a sex change.  *** stars.

 

These The Inheritors is from 2006, and tells of the revenge of the insect world on humans, with a Jewish slant. ** stars.

 

The Passion of Azazel is from 2008.  A man who recently attended therapy and made a revealing discovery about himself make a golem in the form of a goat.  Inspired by a quote from Leviticus. ***1/2 stars.

 

Why We Talk To Ourselves is from 2011, and is a meditation on the 9/11 destruction of the Twin Towers in NYC. ** stars.

 

Richard Nixon Saved From Drowning is from 2014, as we hear words and thoughts from the not so great former president.  ** stars.

 

The Terminal Villa is from 2014, and was inspired by a quote from Dick Cheney, who had dramas while recovering from heart surgery.  Meant as a tribute to J G Ballard.  ** stars.

 

The Phantom Gentleman is from 2022, and has some musing of Malzberg on his upcoming "final Journey."  ** 1/2 stars.

 

January 2018 is from 2018, and isn't much of a story to end this pretty decent collection.  ** stars. 

 

Cover by Jeff Jordan.

Mother London is from 1988, a mostly disappointing novel by Moorcock that is 496 pages long.  It purports to give glimpses of London from the 1940s through 1988, mostly through the eyes of three people who survived by were greatly affected by the Blitz.  We get a pretty strong sense of what it was like to live under the threat of German bombs during WW II, especially the dreaded V2 rockets.  David, Joseph, and Mary meet in an institution some 15 years after the war.  Mary has been in a coma since she was 15, awakening at 30.  The three become very good friends, often interacting during the story.  The problem with the book is the storytelling itself, as well as Moorcock's complete inability to depict a troubled mind.  Both Mary and Joseph seem to have some type of psychic ability, and the novel is filled with italicized inner dialogues, sometimes of others near them and sometimes of their own thoughts.  I eventually learned to just skip over these sections, as they offered up nothing for the reader.  It's a silly attempt to be avante garde, or modern, and these passages often show just how clueless the author is about inner voices.

 

The storytelling is often divided into chapters that take place in a certain year, anywhere between 1941 and 1988.  The problem is that the chronology is completely messed up, with a 1970s chapter followed by a 1940s one, and then one from the 60s.  It destroys any kind of continuity the story badly needs to build up a sound picture of the main characters and their friends and acquaintences.  At one point we attend the funeral of a friend of David's before we even know who the person is.  Although I could go back and reread the novel and try to do it chronologically, the story itself and the characters are simply not interesting enough.  Much of the book is quite dull, and it was a struggle to get through it all.

 

With a title like Mother London, we get a rather superficial glance at the great city, possibly the greatest city of the world.  I had high expectations, but alas they were not fulfilled.  I found the parts dealing with the bombing and its aftermath the most interesting part of the book, but much of the rest held little to no interest for me.  I think much of that has to do with the way Moorcock (and his editor) chose to tell the story.  It's confusing enough trying to keep track of three main characters, but to have the time jumps interfere and confuse readers further, I found a lot of this book to be a waste of time.

 

Cover by Greg Ragland.

 

 

Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker from 1937 gives the reader everything.  Literally.  The full history of not just the Universe is here, but of everything else, including god (to humans) the creator.  Stapledon simply calls him Star Maker.  Stapledon creates not a novel in any sense, but a blow by blow description (highlights only) of life in the galaxy, in all of its myriad forms.  He imagines any kind of life that is even remotely plausible, bringing it into our minds as a done deal.  He explains the many pitfalls that doomed civilization after civilization on world after world, and how gradually the galaxy somehow (he explains how, don't worry) banded minds together and began a vast collective.  The author leads us by the hand as he gradually increases the scale of discovery until we have galaxy minds contacting other galaxy minds, and as the galaxies' lives come to their inevitable end, finally reach a state of total understanding.  

 

Stapledon goes on to then to describe the creator, the Star Maker, from his (he uses the masculine but by now we know what he means) own creation from pure matter, on to his juvenile creations, to his later masterpieces as he reaches his prime.  His final definition of the Star Maker did not please a lot of people, C. S. Lewis for one.  To this reader it is a totally brilliant concept, so far beyond and removed from the simplistic version of god held by most religious doctrines as to make it seem more than a possible answer.  Of course the author is limited to what was known about astrophysics in 1937 (stellar evolution is all wrong here, for one thing), but I think he can be forgiven this.  Considering this is fiction, his facts are pretty secure.

 

Stapledon influenced virtually every serious SF and fantasy writer, from E. R. Eddison, Jack Williamson, James Blish, Frank Herbert, Iain M. Banks, and on and on.  From this volume comes every story ever told, every story that will ever be told, and stories by the trillions that will never get told, due to a shortage of time remaining for our universe to exist.  The book, like his earlier Last and First Men, is all-encompassing.  Like it or not, Stapledon has given us a comprehensive and plausible history of everything that ever was or ever will be.  Rich reading.  A masterpiece.

 

Cover by Bip Pares.  I read the Kindle edition by Delphi Classics. 

 

Gitanjali is a set of 103 verses by Rabindraneth Tagore.  Written in Bengali in 1910, Tagore did his own translation into English in 1912.  He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 largely due to these amazing verses.  Ideally a person would read one of these a day for 103 days, and meditate on them.  Many are similar, though, and can be read carefully over a few days, as I did.  They can and should picked up at whim and opened to any verse.  Most of them deal with a human being trying to see and communicate with his god.  The verses made a nice follow up to Star Maker, placing human endeavour fairly high on the scale of evolution.  It's always nice to know that a few humans have made a significant spiritual journey during the short time allotted to us.

Prior to this came the short poem "My Golden Bengali," written in 1906 shortly after Bengal had been divided into two different religious states.

 

Mapman Mike

 

January 2025 Reading Summary

 

With Allies of Antares (1981) now behind me I am halfway through the Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burke Akers.  Yikes!  At about 150 pages per book, I have read nearly 4000 pages so far.  That's much more than Tolkien wrote of Middle Earth (how I wish there were more!).  In the last book Dray's Vallians had finally defeated the hated enemy that had invaded and spoiled their country.  That war was all thanks to a nasty empress.  Now that she and her evil wizard are both dead, a true king is being raised in her stead, with the full support of Vallia and her allies.  But a rogue band of enemy soldiers will not bow to the new king and are set on destruction of all Vallians, and wish to usurp the throne with their own ninny king.

The book opens with the comical equivalent of Tolkien's long chapter "The Council of Elrond," as a massive peace conference is underway.  The opening paragraph of the novel is a classic one, and sets the tone for the impossibility of the task at hand.  Dray tries to keep out of it, as he gets too easily frustrated.  He is a warrior and not so much a diplomat.  The novel details the roundabout and dangerous way that events take before things are finally settled.  There are several exciting chapters filled with action, including the assassination attempt on the new King in the public baths, and of course the climactic battle scene.  All along Dray has been passing himself off as one of the enemy, so the book is filled with surprised friends of his who did not know he was Emperor of Vallia.  A lot of politics gets settled here, as well as battle outcomes.

Dray has become a very engaging hero, somewhat like his Mr. Fox from his sea adventure books (see below).  His relationships with his sons and daughters have mostly been clarified.  Some of the disguises he had to use in earlier volumes made them think he was a coward and an enemy, but that has mostly been cleared up.  With one exception.  He still has a rogue daughter out there somewhere who is out to kill him due to more misunderstandings.  So the adventures will continue for another 26 books.  See you then!

 

Who needs an author's name on a book cover.
 

 From 1974 comes The Gholan Gate, the 7th book in the Cap Kennedy series by E. C. Tubb.  It's 124 pages can be read at one sitting.  Throughout the special agent series we have heard of the Zheltyana, an extinct civilization that spread throughout the galaxy perhaps a million years ago.  One of Cap's team, the old professor, has made a special study of any traces left behind from these people.  At last we discover one of those artifacts.  The Gholan Gate is likely one of these leftovers from a vastly superior race.  The gate, once entered, can make a person's wishes and beliefs come true.  If someone, for instance, fantasized about living in Camelot, then that fantasy would be recreated by the mind's link to the powers of the gate.  No one knows what the purpose of the gate originally was, but now it is being used by a sinister religious cult to recruit assassins.  Potential victims are led to the gate, and allowed to experience it several times.  They are told that if they commit their assassination they will be allowed to remain permanently within the world of the gate.  It's up to Cap and his team of three assistants (the old professor, a strongman, and a chameleon-like person) to put a stop to things.  Of course that means destroying the gate and the cult, something that the professor is against.  A good entry in the series, but with a very abrupt ending (it's all about word count in pulp fiction). 

This is very little of Phoenix, and certainly no inferno in Malzberg's next book in a series about a lone vigilante taking on the drug empire.  The denouement takes place outside of Mexico City.   The 12th book in the Burt Wulf series is from 1975 and is 165 pages long.  Called Phoenix Inferno I admit to be getting quite sick of Wulf, and I'm sure Malzberg was, too.  The series was supposed to be ten books, but that got pushed to fourteen.  Two more to go.  We don't get as much about Wulf in this book as in many of the other ones, though his sad story does get retold in some detail, with a few new nuggets added.  A lot of the book gets into the heads of the men Wulf is after, notably Carlin, who has control of the heroin scene in the southwest US.  Carlin's fear gets the better of him when he learns that Wulf is again on the prowl, and he sends men out to hunt him down.  But he knows that will never stop Wulf, and he panics.  He murders his girlfriend and one of two bodyguards he keeps at his house, then heads for Mexico City, thinking he will be well looked after there by his supplier friends.  Malzberg is quite the expert at describing people going insane, and the way they rationalize their outrageous actions.  This is another good entry in the series, especially the part where Wulf buddies up with one of the failed assassins sent out to get him.  His sympathy for the two bodyguards of the Mexico City boss also pays off, and provides an unusual moment in the story.

 

The Skraling Tree is from 2003, another Michael Moorcock fantasy featuring Elric, The Albino.  I am reminded of so many Dr. Who series that feature the Master.  After a few appearances he became nothing but a TV trope.  He would appear with new allies, a new evil plot (to take over the universe, or some such idea), and was completely invincible until the final 4 or 5 minutes of the final episode of the series.  After being defeated soundly (for the upteenth time) he would somehow escape, ready to go again in a new series.  Yawn.  And so we have Elric, Oona, and Count Bek out to save the universe yet again (or rather, all of them) from the same old bad guys we have seen in several past Elric stories.  These bad guys have been defeated so many times, but they do have stamina, since they keep reappearing like the Master, ready with a new and surefire scheme.  Yawn.  This time Moorcock tries to set his story in North America, sort of.  He does a lousy job of it.  Mixing in Indian mythology with Norse, and several layers of his own invention, the book is a sketch of a book, and nothing more.  The author doesn't bother to give us any real feel for where we are or what our heroes are doing, or are supposed to do.  We follow along as if on a journey where we not only do not know where we are or where we are going, but why we are going.  This gets old very quickly.  He tells his story from three different perspectives, adding to the confusion and overall senselessness of his tale.  Moorcock can be a very good writer, and often is.  But he can certainly turn out poor and boring work, too.  The story will appeal to people who really don't want any idea of what is happening or why.  My favourite part of the story is when an old dinosaur is located and killed; we get a sense of Moorcock's ability to really hit home with strong feelings and sympathy.  And my favourite character in the book, by far, is Bes the mastodon.  Her appearances are always welcome additions, since most of the other characters are made of pure cardboard.  Not a recommended Elric story. 

We now leave the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery authors and move on to the Delphi Classics series.  I keep adding authors to my collection, and this month I read a collection of early short stories by H. C. McNeile, or "Sapper" as he was often called.  We'll get to Bulldog Drummond eventually, so hang in there.  The Lieutenant and Others is from 1915 and contains a dozen stories.  Written during WWI, the first story sets the mood, offering readers a glimpse into the degradation and inhuman pastime of trench warfare.  Called "The Lieutenant: A Fortnight In France May 10-24 1915," it tells of a young man with privileges due to a rich father becoming an officer in the Great War and heading over to the trenches near Ypres.  His short-lived experiences are harrowing enough to change his entire outlook on life, and on the 14th day he is wounded and sent back home.  This is one of those stories that makes one really wonder why there are still wars.  Haven't we had enough yet?  A truly solid and very good piece of writing.  Next came a much shorter tale along the same lines, as a man visits Ypres before and after the bombardment.  Called "The End of Wipers," today it might be called The End of Kiev, or The End of Palestine, or even The End of Khartoum.  Etc.    Very effective in a very short story.  Third came "The Black Sheep," about a lowlife man who enlists, but still remains a lowlife.  His end, however, is not different from any number of fine upstanding young men who also enlisted.

"James and The Land Mine" details how a soldier who doesn't care much for what is going on around him sets off a land mine charge ahead of schedule.  "The Sixth Drunk" describes an Irish soldier whose highlight of the week is his ration of rum, and how a dying colonel got that soldier's character so wrong.  "The Mine" is the story of Davy Jones, a Welsh miner tasked with building an underground cavern beneath a German trench, in order to set explosives.  A lot of the stories, such as this one and the one before, are not only poignant but quite humourous.  "Driver Robert Brown" is one of the best war stories I've ever read, about an average guy who enlists, wins no medals, but whose humanity strikes at the heart of what it means to be compassionate.  A truly wonderful tale.  "The Coward" is the type of story that most writers would foul up, as they would simply revile the character.  But McNeile gets deep, and instead of pouring scorn on the man who deserts his company as they head once again into the trenches, he gets into his head to see what exactly is going on there.  While no one can really like a coward, it helps to understand exactly where he is coming from.  This story manages to do that, in a few short pages.

"Ebeneezer The Goat" is the humourous account concerning Driver Robert Brown, whose demise occurred in the previous story.  Brown was a man who was kind to animals, and he inherited a goat.  Somehow the goat always intersected violently with the major, drawing the ire of the officer.  Brown tries to hide the goat in an underground unused mine, but this leads to the Belgians believing that the Germans are tunnelling beneath.  And so forth.  Whereas the story of Ebeneezer is humourous, "The Pepnotised Milk" is truly hilarious.  A bottle of special milk is sent to the men in the trenches, courtesy of an aunt of one of the men.  Very, very amusing.  "Will You Take Over His Horse, Sir?" is another hard hitting tale of the death of a young officer.  McNeile manages to almost casually tell stories that are truly heart-rending.  In this one the author speaks mostly to a cavalry horse that outlives his master.  Truly devastating.  "The Aftermath" is the final story, and it details what happens after a battle has been wone and the clean up crew takes over.  For one thing, there are a lot of human and horse bodies and less complete remains to be buried.  Told quietly but with effect.  All in all this is a first rate collection of stories of the Great War, told in small doses that are much more effective than describing big battles.  Not a bad story in the lot, and quite a few are among the best I've ever read.  Highly recommended.

George Meredith is an author I first came across in reading and reviewing the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series (see separate blog).  He is one of the wittiest writers I have ever come across, certainly on a par with Oscar Wilde and Shaw, though his style is very different.  Readers of his 1861 novel Evan Harrington have to read a lot between the lines, and fill in some blank spaces between events.  This is a very long novel which took me 8 1/2 days to read.  I likely read it too quickly, as I am certain that a reread would showcase even more of the author's genius in dissecting the hypocrisy, contradictions and two-faced lives of the born aristocrat.  Evan is the son of a tailor, and when his father dies he must assume debts and pay them off.  His father was a wannabe gentleman, and Evan's three older sisters are trying to raise him as a gentleman.  The eldest sister, Louisa, is really the star of the show here, and Meredith throughout the narrative describes her as a military General leading her forces into battle, building allies and fighting off enemies as she tries to insert her brother into an aristocratic family (who really are not any such thing) by marrying him to the daughter.  Skirmishes, battles, setbacks and more setbacks are encountered by Louisa, yet each time she seems to emerge able to handle the new challenges ahead.  There is really no other character quite like her in literature, and though vile, untrustworthy, and scheming, she does it all for the good of her family, especially Evan.  This is a true wonder of a novel, and why it has not been adapted as a mini-series is a gross oversight that I hope someday will be rectified.  Perhaps it's still too scathing for believers in an English class system to swallow.  Highly recommended.

**** stars.

A. Merritt's Seven Footprints To Satan is from 1927, a crime thriller that has elements of fantasy.  Arch criminal "Satan" kidnaps Kirkham and forces him to undertake a museum robbery.  Satan is a mastermind on the level of Moriarty and Fu Manchu, and his isolated mansion is a warren of secret doors, elevators, and passageways.  Through drugs he controls the minds of many henchmen, but he has also attracted many intelligent and faithful followers.   His main claim to fame is his stairway with seven steps leading up to his throne, each with a footprint on it.  One takes one's chances by choosing any four footprints to step upon.  Step on the correct ones and Satan promises happiness and riches beyond belief.  Step on the wrong ones and one might expect to do a single service for the master, or owe him a year's service, or a lifetime of service, or instant death.  What his followers don't realize is that the footprints are rigged, so that Satan chooses the outcome he desires for each person.  It's up to Kirkham and his few allies to outwit Satan and prove to his followers that he has cheated them all along.

Satan's other claim to fame is the vast number of world treasures he has stolen, keeping them in his mansion for his own pleasure.  This is a cut away from the usual master criminal.  In Kirkham's words, "It came to me that he loved beauty even more than he did power; that he considered power only as a means toward beauty.  And that, evil though he was, he knew beauty better than any one alive."  Merritt has written a pretty decent crime novel, and it was made into a film in 1929.  I will be on the lookout for it.  The novel is certainly great fun to read, certainly one of the author's better efforts.

One of many editions of this still popular novel. 

 

Kwei Quartey is a practicing M.D. who has written several mystery novels set in Ghana, mostly Accra.  His first novel is from 2009 and is called Wife of The Gods.  Not having too many scoops into central African daily life and customs, I found this book as refreshing as the Navajo mysteries of Tony Hillerman.  Like all good Hillerman mysteries, the reader walks away from the finished book with a lot more than just a solved mystery.  While Quartey does not have the skills in this first book to really draw characters well, he does have a gift for story telling, and for holding our (mostly white) hands as he leads us through the good and the bad of African life.  Wife is set mostly in a very small town several hours away from Accra, where Detective Inspector Darko Dawson lives with his wife and six year old son.  So we learn much about village life in modern day Africa, and not so much about Accra (yet).  The mystery revolves around the murder of a young female medical student in a forest, volunteering at a local Aids clinic.  We meet many characters who are suspects, as well as ones who are helpful in tracking down the real killer.  We come across superstitious belief in witches, purveyors of traditional medicines, two bully local policemen, as well as a distrust of people from the city.  The book is crammed with local colour, and was an eye opening read for me.  Darko is a flawed character, too often flying off the handle and beating arrested suspects.  But he has good friends around him, including a retired detective that inspired Darko to become one himself.  More than one murder mystery gets solved in this book, too.  Fun to read and recommended for those mystery readers who need to be somewhere besides London, New York, or LA.

 

The Moth Presents All These Wonders is the first of three hardcover collections of true stories told by various people, many of them professional writers, actors, comedians, or celebrities in other fields.  The Moth is a type of club where people meet to tell their stories to one another in many different locations across the world.  From 2017, this collection contains 45 stories told by the people that they happened to.  Each of the 45 stories is worth hearing/reading, but there will be some that really strike to certain people's hearts.  I had a number of favourites including the first story, "The Moon and The Stars Talk."  A teenage girl has her mind opened up by conversations she has with Mark, a millionaire whom her mother worked for.  In "The Girl From Beckenham," a school dropout turned hairdresser gets to leave her own mark upon the world in a very unique manner.  "God, Death, and Francis Crick" again pairs a young person with a venerable older and wise person.  "Fog of Disbelief"tells the story of a nuclear plant engineer at Fukishima, and what happened to him on that fateful day.  "Walking With RJ" tells of a mother and son relationship after he has a terrible and debilitating accident.  "Go The %&# To Sleep" tells how a dad became a professional writer after putting down his inner monologue when his young daughter takes hours to fall asleep at night.  The stories vary between almost unfathomable tragedy to hilarious comedy.  "Stumbling In The Dark" is told by John Turturro, and the relationship he has with his mother and his brother, the latter of whom lives inside an asylum.  It recounts his experience during the great blackout of 2003, which affected us here at the Homestead as well.  "On Approach To Pluto" tells the story of what a female mission specialist felt when the Pluto mission encountered severe problems just before its arrival.  The final story is "California Gothic," a very funny tale of life as a 12 year old in LA during the early 1970s.

I will be ordering the other two volumes soon.  In the meantime, the Moth website is filled with podcasts and a library of stories to hear.  I cannot recommend this book, and the website, highly enough.  It is a life changing experience to hear these stories. 

 

The Three Mulamulgars is a children's story from 1919 by Walter de la Mare.  Recommended by my friend Thierry in Paris who publishes fantasy novels at his French press Callidor, it's taken me a while to get to it, but I finally got around to reading it.  First off, let me say that this must have been a real challenge to translate into French!  There are so many nonsense words in the vocabulary that reading it in English is challenging enough.  The story of three monkey brothers leaving their homeland to follow in their father's footsteps is an epic tale of hardship in the tradition of The Hobbit and Wizard of Oz.  The journey undertaken by large-sized Thumb, skinny bones Thimble, and youngest and smallest Nod will certainly appeal to lovers of Bilbo and Dorothy.  It seems unlikely that this tale would have been as good without Baum's tales.  And it seems unlikely that Tolkien's novel would have been as good without de la Mare's classic.  Having said this, of course all three novels mentioned above are among the most original children's fantasy novels ever written.  That de la Mare's can stand up there with the best of them will be evident to anyone having read the book.  There are unforgettable adventures along the way, including meeting characters such as Andy Battle, Ghiba, and the Water Midden.  The usually warm jungle is suddenly hit with a winter that no one has ever seen, greatly complicating the expedition.  The way the author blends real geography with fantasy geography is quite a marvel, especially through the sailor Andy Battle and his songs and stories.  All in all this is one of literature's great adventure novels, suitable for young and old, and worth reading more than once.  It was a great choice for Callidor, too.

 

Cover of the Callidor Press (French) version of the novel.  Art by 

Anouk Faure.  Check out their website!   

 

Mapman Mike

 

December Reading Summary

 It was a good month for reading, with 14 books read.  My usual times are 1:30 to 2:45 every day, and 10:30 pm till 11:45 pm at night.  On Sundays I manage an extra hour of reading, since that is a non-piano day for me.  In addition I often get time to read while taking Deb to her medical appointments.  It was a fairly cold month, so a good month to be indoors.  Let us begin.

 

I read #25 of the Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer.  Legions of Antares is from 1981, this 153 page continuation of the epic story of life and death on the planet Kregen contains a few surprises.  The bad queen of Hamil has caused much destruction in surrounding countries.  Her cruelty has been the bane of many a good man.  The evil wizard who has been using her for his own greedy purposes has also been a major thorn in the side of good guy Dray Prescott.  Low and behold, they both get their comeuppance in this volume!  It's almost as if Bulmer were wrapping up the series, with perhaps one additional title forthcoming.  Alas, there are still several books remaining.

Dray is by now so used to danger and fighting that he is nonchalant about the telling of it, though after fighting a Cthulhu-like creature underground, he does express himself rather well in words as to how difficult it was.  To this reader the entire capture of the main city of Hamil by the good guys is a bit anti-cimactic, as if it was a done deal from the start.  The action scenes and bloody battles are minimized, but the politics and planning are brought forward.  I would have preferred a bit more sense of climax, with at least one battle given more description.  There is also a final battle between wizards, but that too seems to be hurried and written without much passion.

It is still a good entry in the series, but the defeat of the main foes of the last 24 books just seems rushed to this reader.  As the series could really have ended here (perhaps it was originally supposed to), I am curious to see what comes next.

 

The evil queen of Hamil finally gets her just desserts.

Original cover art by Ken Kelly.

 

For once, the cover of a Tubb western has something to do with the story.  Even the title, The First Shot, fits.   The story is from 1957 and is 117 pages long.  A man returns from the Civil War, having fought for the losing south.  This is a familiar opening in most of Tubb's westerns.  He had been a p.o.w. for two years, and was quite sick when the war ended.  He heads home to his father's Texas ranch to find turmoil and misery, mostly due to the now valueless southern currency. He encounters neighbouring ranchers who accuse him of rustling cows, and they beat him badly.  With help from a few friends he sets out to set things right.  This is a good story, and well represents what most people think a "western" novel should be.  Once again Tubb treats the Indians with respect, and makes one of the bad guys a crooked government Indian agent.  There is a high stakes poker game, and a climactic shoot out at the very end.  A good story that would make a fine film.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Originally contracted for ten books, Malzberg's vigilante hero series made it to 14.  Detroit Massacre does take place in Detroit, though there is no massacre.  From 1975, the novel is 152 pages long.  Detroit was still humming in 1975, but one would never know it from this novel.  Hudson's was still downtown, and the Ren Cen complex was being built.  Obviously the author had never been there, as the city is so sketchily represented as to be laughable.  The absence of a massacre in Detroit (there are two murders, and a man dies in an explosion) left me scratching my head.  Who wrote the titles for these books?  Malzberg, as noted frequently in this blog, can get inside the head of a crazy person better than almost any other writer.  Burt Wulf is going mad, and is beginning to crack at the seams.  So is a Detroit police lieutenant, who totally goes off the deep end.  Heroin is being smuggled into Canada hidden inside new Cadillacs, but the perfect system gets disrupted when an assembly line worker spots a bag of heroin sitting in a half assembled car.  From there things go downhill rapidly.  Meanwhile back in New York Wulf is being held in solitary until the system can figure out what to do with him.  With help from his cop friend Williams he manages to escape and make his way to Detroit.  Wulf's method of cleaning up the distribution of heroin is to blow up the vast Cadillac assembly plant.  Go figure.  Not the best in the series, but still readable.  Three more books to go.

It has taken me almost a year, but I have finally completed the four Colonel Pyat books by Michael Moorcock.  I hope I am able to reread this complex but highly entertaining series of books all over again.  The Vengeance of Rome is from 2013, and is 638 pages long.  The 4th and final volume of the Colonel Pyat series is a truly remarkable achievement.  Moorcock has been able to take a complex and virtually untreatable subject--the history of the western world from the early 1900s to present day London, and make it read like a novel.  Which it is.  While the main characters are fictional, the events enwrapping theses characters are not.  Think of Woody Allen's Zelig film, where he was able to take his character and insert him into old newsreels to make it look like he was really there at the time.  Moorcock goes much deeper, though, taking 2000 pages to firmly insert Pyat into 20th Century history.  And by all indications, the century, especially the first half, was nothing but a series of unspeakable horrors, culminating in Hitler's rise to power and subsequent events.

The character of Pyat is difficult to describe.  He uses cocaine when available (though claims he is not addicted), is against Jews (in the end denies his own mother and his Jewishness), is an engineer who designs futuristic ideas, often dealing with flight, makes love to women and men (though he much prefers women, especially younger ones), and travels the world, getting into serious difficulty no matter where he happens to be.  Pyat is a marvel of a man, and I dare say he is "everyman," one who seems to embody not the worst nor the best of the male sex, but fits just about in the centre.  However, his lows are very low, but his highs are also remarkable.

The story continues where volume 3 left off.  Pyat is soon in Italy, and we are immersed in the world of Mussolini.  After his Rome adventures the setting moves to Germany in 1930, remaining there until just before WW II.  Pyat's one personal encounter with Hitler must go down as the most shocking scene in the entire series, and there have already been several doozies.  Pyat spends time in German prison camps before managing to finally get to England, his destination since volume 1.  Mrs. Cornelius continues to provide him with literature's weirdest sidekick.  The book's final scene, where Pyat denies he is Jewish (as he has already had to do hundreds of times in the story), seems to be a perfect ending to one of the greatest series of books ever written.  Really, it could not have ended any other way.  The books are definitely worth a reread, in perhaps five years or so.  Until then, Pyat's adventures in 20th C. history will never be forgotten.  Very highly recommended series, ending with perhaps the best book of the four.

The four previous novels continue my exploration of SF authors who were represented in the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series (see my entire blog, link in upper left).  After finishing up the Moorcock, which I split into two months of reading, I moved on to the next author in the incomparable Delphi Classics series.  Paul Kelver is the first serious novel of Jerome Jerome, and is from 1902.  It's a 400+ pager, but is quite fun to read.  It is semi-autobiographical.  The first part of the book (the book is divided into 2 books, each with 10 fairly long chapters) is seen from the perspective of a 7 year old boy, as his parents go through a crisis.  The scenes all take place in various parts of London.  Jerome cannot help but write with a wit that often leaves a reader laughing out loud, and this part of the book strongly reminded me of Kenneth Grahame's incomparable series of short stories called The Golden Age.  One quite tender scene has the young boy unwittingly come across Charles Dickens, sitting on a park bench, and their interaction is quite stirring and memorable.  A sort of hearty snideness pervades the novel, and often the humour becomes the main event.  One of the funniest and at the same time most uncomfortable scenes is when Paul gets drunk for the first time on sweet champagne.  He ends up proposing to a somewhat large young woman from his rooming house, and spends many pages afterwards trying to undo the damage.  However, before he can is dragged by his fiancee to meet "the family," a scene so unforgettable and so claustrophobic that it is a true wonder how Jerome manages to make us laugh all the way through it.  One of the most vivid scenes of any novel I have read.  Essentially, Paul wants to write serious drama, but is dragged by the collar, so to speak, into the world of comic writing.  His coming of age takes a rather long time to arrive, but along the way we get to share Paul's highs and lows, all of them entertaining and great fun to read about.  Filled with a large cast of wonderful secondary characters, this is a lengthy novel I am most happy to have rediscovered.

George MacDonald's The Portent is a ghost story first published in 1864.  Or rather a love story in which the two people have some type of deep psychic connection.  The opening scene and the conclusion are in Scotland, but the main part of the book takes place in a great house in the English countryside.  Working as a tutor to three children, Duncan Campbell encounters as pale young woman also living there.  However, she is kept closely watched by the Lord and Lady of the house, mostly for selfish reasons.  The girl gradually takes to Duncan and attends his classes, as she can neither read nor write.  The Lord and Lady seem to like things that way.  Hmmmm.  Suspicions are aroused.  The two become lovers and meet clandestinely in an old unused part of the house.  That is, until they are caught, and Duncan knocked unconscious and left in the woods.  The lovers become separated for about 8 years before Duncan finally makes an attempt to rescue her from her captors.  An easy read, the book has very short chapters and a short length.  Not great MacDonald, and not a great ghost story, it is still easily readable.

The Green Round is a supernatural story by Arthur Machen from 1933.  It was his fourth and final novel.  The tale is told in a somewhat confusing way, mirroring the problems that occur to a few different characters, but mostly to the main character.  Told both in his own words and by a therapist who treated him, it is a fascinating if often told story.  What makes this one so unusual is that the ghostly trickster causing the problem follows its victim home from his holiday beach location, where he had been causing problems already.  Once back in London, the entity begins to cause all sorts of nasty events to occur.  For the most part, the victim assumes he is imagining the presence and the events.  But the therapist checks his story and finds that witnesses confirm that events did happen.  Then what is causing them?  Why do some people see a dwarf accompanying the victim, and others do not?  Why does the victim eventually begin to see this dwarf?  As in any well told tale, there is no definite answer or conclusion to the mystery.  Is the victim's mind conjuring this demon and the events, or is some ghostly presence responsible.  There is a lot of discussion about dreams, along with the basic story.  Intelligent and quirky, this makes for an interesting read.

The Mystery of Philip Bennison's Death is a murder mystery from 1894 written by Richard Marsh.  Two older men, who have been best friends for many years, have a discussion about the Art of Murder one night.  Next morning one of them, Bennison, is dead.  It appears to be heart failure.  But this is a murder mystery, so we know better.  So does the surviving friend, Otway.  Despite the inquest proving no foul play, we and Otway are soon on the track of how Bennison died and why.  There is a butler who may have stayed out all night.  Did he do it?  Mystery readers know for certain that the butler did not do it.  Did Otway do it?  He walks in his sleep, and did dream of being in the room that night where the murder took place.  Was it the gambling nephew who always needed money from his uncle, who was none too fond of him?  Or perhaps it was his loving stepson, or even his more loving stepdaughter.  This is a good story that seems to have disappeared off the radar of this well known and still fairly popular author.  

Tony Hillerman's 1978 Navajo mystery novel Listening Woman contains most of the traits for which Hillerman has become justly well known.  Read many years ago, it was time for a reread.  This paperback has been on our shelf a very long time, even after we gave away the rest of Hillerman's works to my dad (who also got seriously hooked on them).  It is one of Hillerman's best novels.  Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Police is all alone on this case, and before the end he has gone through enough physical hardships to last for several more novels.  Poor Joe!  The basic plot involves a radical band of Indians.  They have robbed a bank in Santa Fe, and now their new plot involves kidnapping 11 children (Scouts) and three adults, in retaliation for a similar number of Indians that were massacred by soldiers in the 1800s.  But the best part of the story isn't the story itself, but rather what we learn about Navajo religion and sacred rites.  One can learn much about the Navajo from reading Hillerman, as well as people from Zuni, the Hopi, and even the Utes.  The contrast between other tribes and the Navajo is quite startling at times.  A very fine read!

 

No cover art credit is given.
 

Harp of Burma is from 1966.  Written by Michio Takeyama, my translation is by H. Hibbett.  The story concerns a group of Japanese soldiers operating in Burma (now Myanmar) in 1945.  The story begins just before Japans surrenders, and continues until the men are sent back to Japan sometime afterwards.  The captain is a music graduate, and teaches his men how to sing.  They bond together strongly as a result.  One of the men, Mizushima, constructs a Burmese harp and learns to accompany the singing men.  Burma at the time was a very peaceful and strongly Buddhist nation that Japan wanted to conquer.  Once the men are placed in a temporary POW camp after Japan surrenders, they begin to reflect on their previous actions and those of their now defeated countrymen.  They begin to realize the errors of Japan's previous way of thinking and acting, and they wish to return and help rebuild their country.  But Mizushima had undergone a series of separate adventures from his troop, and decides to remain in Burma after the war and try to help bury the thousands of dead soldiers lying in forests and jungles.  This is a very moving account of a part of the war that is mostly unknown to people.  It also has a strong anti-war sentiment.  Highly recommended.  I have watched the film, but a very long time ago.  I will put it back in the queue for a near future viewing.

A scene from the book, by Motoichiro Takebe. 

 

Meanwhile back at the mystery book shelf...  The Man Who Went In Smoke is the second Martin Beck novel, written by Swedish husband and wife team Sjowall and Wahloo and published in 1969.  No matter where one reads about mystery novels, these ten books always come up as among the best ever written.  Martin Beck is no super detective, and sometimes doesn't have a clue what to do.  Though he has above average intelligence, he is often stymied in his investigations.  He usually works with a partner, but in this one he is alone a lot.  In this case, the disappearance of a successful magazine writer in Budapest doesn't interest him at all.  But off he goes, abandoning his wife and kids on holiday to accept the case.  While most of the story takes place during a hot and sunny summer spell in Budapest, the final denouement takes place back in a cold and rainy Sweden.  One of the interesting things I am noting as I begin this series is how much detail the writer includes, along with advancing the plot.  Rooms are described in detail, as are characters, some of whom have habits (such as drinking a lot of coffee each day) that help delineate the man.  And this seems, so far, to be a series that male readers might enjoy more than female ones.  The only lead female character in this book is a nymphomaniac.  The policeman's wives are using at home waiting for them to come home from work.  Though the books are slightly odd and different from most mystery stories, they don't yet come close to those written by Stanley Bennett Hough, who also wrote SF until the name Rex Gordon.  Still, I enjoy the European locations, as it doesn't take long to tire of New York or LA in mystery writing.  A fun read.

 

The Mugger is Ed McBain's 2nd 88th Precinct novel, from 1956.  Set in a fictional big city which is remarkably similar to New York, the title pretty much gives the plot of this one away.  However, when it appears that the mugger, who uses violence in his attacks on females, has killed a young woman at last, things heat up in the precinct.  In book one, a beat policeman got shot off-duty by a gang in a case of mistaken identity.  He makers an important appearance in this novel, actually solving the murder part of the mystery on his own.  this earns him a promotion, and if he appears in future novels, he will be detective 3rd class.  We get to see other detectives on this case, as the first detective from the previous book is on his honeymoon.  All in all a pretty decent read, though all the police detectives are men.  A female officer is used to try and snare the mugger.  The books were inspired, according to the author, by the Dragnet TV series, and often read much like one of those episodes.  This novel had a lot more humour in it, despite the seriousness of the cases.

 

Oscar The Detective, or Dudie Dunne, The Exquisite Detective wins this month's award for best book title.  Written by The Old Sleuth, it is from 1895.  Detective Oscar Dunne was born with very feminine good looks and mannerisms, which he often uses to advantage to catch the bad guys.   For beneath his effeminate exterior, he is a real tiger.  Hee hee hee, as Oscar would say.  His type of man was called a dudie or a chappie in the day, so there you go.  Ever read a story about such a detective before?  Me neither.  But it seems to work, as the bad guys fall one by one, and an innocent woman is saved from a life surrounded by criminals.  The story is mostly about a gang of thieves who robbed a noble household in Rome, Italy before escaping with the goods to New York.  It's great fun watching Dudie Dunne work his magic.  A most unique mystery novel.

 

Lastly, I finished a book I have been reading off and on for the past few months.  Tales From the Road is a collection of 33 short stories by various authors, all having something to do with a road trip.  Excerpts from Steinback, Kerouac, Hunter Thompson, and short stories by Ballard, Moorcock and many more kept my interest up throughout.  Quite a few of the stories are SF.  I will mention a few of my favourites.  A chapter from Thompson's The Rum Diaries really grabbed me, and I am now interested in reading more of his novel.  The chapter included here first appeared as Chapter 7 of the book with the same name.  It details a drunken adventure he had in Puerto Rico with some friends, an episode that reminded me of the song Sloop John B.  Michael Giorgio's "The Two Ton Turtle of Tattler's Terrace" is a fun little piece about a man's brief visit to a small mountain town following a stop to remove a turtle from the road.  Roxane Gay's "The Myth of Fingerprints" is a superior piece of writing that details the days before a woman's nervous breakdown.  It manages to be comical and dramatic in its 14 pages.  Brian Hodge wrote Miles To Go Before I Weep, about how a travelling salesman meets his lady, and the adventures that occur both before and after their unlikely meeting.  This one packs a few surprises, and somehow manages a happy ending.  "The Blood Like Milk" is a SF like no other, taking place in a pollution-filled future when gangs of roving and half-crazy drivers seek out moments of sunshine, to experience its effect on themselves and local fauna.  It is possibly the best story I have read that deals with ancient Mexican gods.  Coincidentally, the same Mexican god that messed up our third and final Mexican vacation, does its work on the hero of this story.  Quite unforgettable.  "That'll Be The Day" is a fantasy that gives an interesting look at Buddy Holly's final gig, before he died in a plane crash.  All in all a truly good collection of stories.  The Moorcock and Ballard stories are also both good, and I have read them and commented elsewhere.  They are "The Mountain" (Moorcock) and "The Mountain Dances" (Ballard).

 

See you in a month!

Mapman Mike