December 2023 Book Reviews

Robert Silverberg got things rolling again, though now I only have two of his SF books remaining!  I have not included his non-fiction books, but might add one in from time to time.  There are some of his early pulp fiction being republished now, too.  First published in 1998, this epic 488 page SF novel has undergone many reprints since.  The Alien Years takes two effective short stories and transforms them into a fairly wonderful novel, all things considered.  I have already voiced my opinion on writers who expand short stories into full length novels, so I was admittedly biased going into this read.  However, I emerged at the end convinced that for this time, Silverberg had scored a big win.  "The Pardoner's Tale" is a short story from 1987 that pits a human computer hacker against the might of alien invaders who have taken over the Earth, erected enormous walls around major cities (LA in this case), and are receiving a lot of help from humans who have accepted the aliens as their masters and work for them.  The second story comes first chronologically in the novel, as well as being written first.  "Against Babylon" from 1986 tells of the invasion day in California, and how tremendous fires are accidentally ignited from the engines as the aliens land their huge ships.  All in all it's quite a splendid book, and should make us think seriously about not attracting attention to ourselves from out there.  Let's face it--if aliens have technology to get here, they are going to be rather superior to us in many other ways.  And maybe their intentions will clash with ours.  Silverberg seals the door nicely in this novel, making resistance more a thought game that a real life killing game.  What if we can't resist?  Human ingenuity did not save us in this book, at least.  Could it ever happen?  You bet it could.

 

Renegade of Kregen is the 13th book in a very long fantasy series written by Kenneth Bulmer.  From 1976 comes the 192 page continuation of the story of Dray Prescott, a man who seems to get little rest and relaxation.  He has previously been stripped of his membership in an elite warrior society, and realizes that he will never get home to Delia unless he somehow regains his status.  He hatches a plan to capture an enemy king and his #1 striker.  Some of Dray's plans work really well.  This is one of those that doesn't.  One of the things about reading a series that is already published is knowing that the hero will never die, at least until the final volume.  So no matter what Dray has to put up with, we know that somehow he will come out of it okay.  But as we learn in this volume, not all of his friends and or family receive the same guarantee.  Someone very close to Dray dies in this book, and it is quite shocking.  And yet again he has to pretend to be loyal to an enemy by infiltrating it and serving the wrong side.  That part seems to go okay.  But with this sudden unexpected death at the end of the book, Dray has entered a new and deeper region of emotion than he is used to.  We can be certain of one thing; someone will pay dearly for his loss.

 

Next, I began another series by E C Tubb.  Galaxy of the Lost is the first book of the Cap Kennedy, Secret Agent of the Space series.  If that sounds somewhat juvenile, the first book really isn't.  From 1973 comes the 125 page first novel.  He seemed to toss these stories off at least one per month.  What a guy!  Cap Kennedy is an agent, or investigator, for F.A.T.E, Free Acting Terran Envoy.  He works with a small team, but has the backing of the major Earth intelligence and defence organizations.  In this first exciting adventure, he is trying to solve the mystery of why space ships are disappearing from space, leaving no trace behind of what happened to them or where they went.  Now this sounds like a typical SF pulp adventure plot.  But wait.  1973 is not the 1950s, and Tubb, despite his writing speed, is not a hack writer.  And besides, this is the post Star Trek years, so stories had to have some substance to them.  And Tubb (writing as Kern) gives us our money's worth (75 cents back in the day, and $3.99 Can. today).  The adventure begins like many another tale, even ones by Tubb.  But it quickly heads off into true SF territory.  An unmanned, very ancient alien device in another dimension is malfunctioning, drawing in ships from our universe, where they end up crashing and being used by scrap robots to feed energy to the machine.  Our hero and his small company of survivors go through quite an ordeal to find out this information.  I'm hoping more will be learned about this ancient alien civilization as more books are read.  Apparently the same aliens left some traces of their technology in our galaxy, but no one can make heads or tails of what remains.  Again, as with so many of Tubb's stories, this would make a terrific SF film, simply by adding at least one major female character (alas, they are all males here).  A good read, and a promising beginning to this new to me series.

 

From 1991 comes another adventure, The Revenge of the Rose, featuring everyone's favourite albino sword and sorcery hero.  This 233 page novel features a traditional story arc, with Elric having to retrieve a casket containing his father's soul.  And so he goes on a quest featuring a dragon, the lords of Chaos and their underlings, a family of clairvoyants, a poet (who lived in the time of Gloriana!), and Rose, Moorcock's answer to Red Sonja.  While the story arc follows a traditional path (including the inevitable battle between Elric and the main bad guy, Gaynor), the story ingredients are anything but traditional.  While in the same general league as Tolkien, Peake, and E R Eddison, Moorcock has always been more a sketch artist than a true old master.  He seldom takes enough time with his characters and situations, choosing instead to move things along almost at the pace of a pulp writer, forgoing details for action.  That is not to say there is no introspection or good conversation in his stories, but these features are not the main reason one reads Moorcock.  Having said this, Revenge of the Rose seems to probe deeper than other Moorcock novels, and along with the lovely plot twists, turns, and revelations, proves again that Moorcock can write literature when he wants to take his time and do so.  Besides being a very good writer, this novel shows off his incredible imagination, as the places Elric and company visit are certainly on another plane of existence.  If the story seems to begin like any other old tale of sword and sorcery, hang on a bit.  You will enjoy this epic tale, guaranteed. 

 

Usually, Malzberg's porno novels (written under various pseudonyms) are less about sex and more about literature.  A Bed of Money has more graphic sex than the other two put together, but still manages to come out strongly as literature.  From 1970, this 141 page novel, only recently re-released, concerns a certain Mr. Foster, another in the long line of losers who devote their life to the racetrack.  Malzberg's racetrack stories are incredibly detailed accounts of the psychology of players, getting so far into their heads that we end up knowing literally everything about the person involved.  I was never the least bit interested in horse racing until I discovered Malzberg.  The author's gift for black humour is also on full display here, as Foster relives many of his past sexual experiences, besides being involved in his current round with Dolores, a woman he picked up at a bar after finally winning big at the track.  She goes back to a hotel room with him, but of course has two male accomplices who soon make it clear that they want his $23,000.00 in winnings for themselves.  The novel has a certain madcap keystone cops element to it, but the rapid deterioration of Foster's mind after he wins is the real story.  Most people, myself included, might profess a dislike or disinterest in racetrack stories.  But Malzberg, if no one else, might convince you otherwise.  At least I am a full convert. 

 

Turning away from these five remaining Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series authors, my first free choice read came again from the Delphi Collection of books on Kindle.  These books include the complete works of various authors, many of them early writers of SF and Fantasy.  They are professionally edited, and usually illustrated with original covers and any interior art that may have been published with the earliest editions.  It was time again for a novel by A. Merritt, the early 20th C. SF and Fantasy writer, who has as large a cult following today as Lovecraft.  I read The Metal Men, published in 1920. The same protagonist who appeared in his The Moon Pool from the year  before is back, this time wandering amidst the Himalayas.  This time he encounters an alien race made from metal, that uses the Sun's energy to grow and develop, that happened to find itself on Earth one day.  They seem to be under the control of a woman who was once human, but has now become a very different sort of being.

 

First published as an 8 part serial in 1920, it didn't come out in paperback until 1946.

Cover art by Glen White.   

 

Also involved is a Saracen horde led by Xerxes and his son, somehow surviving up here for over 2000 years.  Whatever.  Though much of the storytelling is merely wide-eyed description of the fantastic aliens, how they function, and what they do, there are still many fine and memorable moments from this early science based story.  The very earliest and best SF writers clung earnestly to real science to make their case for their stories, and though the science is a wee bit outdated, once can still be amazed at Merritt and how well read he must have been, not only in science but in ancient history! This is a movie in the making, and would be a truly stupendous undertaking.  Now that special effects are finally caught up to 1920s story telling, perhaps someone will take one of Merritt's novels and bring them to the big screen.  Even an animated version of this story would be welcome.  A fun read, though the descriptions at times give one a headache, like hearing about someone's long dream.

Steven Saylor writes fiction that takes place in ancient Rome, and is a master at it.  For a while, a long time ago, we carried on an e-mail discussion about Sword and Sandal movies.  It took me awhile to get around to read his books, but when I finally did I was hooked!  Roman Blood is the first book of his Rosa Sub Rosa novels, featuring the detective Gordianus The Finder, published in 1991.  More of Saylor's books get high reviews, and for good reason.  Along with fictional characters, Saylor uses real historical figures.  In this book, for instance, the young Cicero is the lawyer who defends the accused murderer.  He hires the (fictional) Gordianus to gather information for him.  Sulla the Dictator is ruling (an actual person), and there are several other real characters in the story.  But Saylor goes even further, taking an actual case of murder that Cicero accepted, and uses parts of his actual summation in the story.  The interweaving of fact and fiction is seamless.  The best parts of Saylor's books are his ability to bring day to day life in Rome to life in a way that even a good movie cannot.  This happens to be a very hot summer, with a merciless sun beating down upon the city every afternoon.  The flies, are there, the rats, the filth, the low life, a spectacular tenement fire, and or course the crime.  The injustices heaped upon slaves and the poor are also in the forefront, in case anyone wants to glamorize life in the Rome of around 70 B.C.E.  My only complaint about the book is the large number of violent and bloody episodes it contains, including several assaults on Gordianus.  Would someone who came so near death by misfortune so many times within just a few days still be happy to carry on his work for 15 more volumes in the series?  Not if he had half a brain.  Anyway, the series does not have to be read in any order, and all that I have read so far are very good reading.

Cover painting by Antonio Basoli. 

 

William Morris created some of the best fantasy novels ever written (see my Ballantine blog), and was a huge influence on Tolkien and other writers who took up fantasy.  His earliest fantasy tale was published in 1889, called The House of the Wolfings.  Morris translated many of the northern sagas, and here he has written one of his own.  Told mostly in prose, there still is a good deal of rhyming couplets to keep authenticity.  The first part could easily be drawn from an earlier time in Middle Earth, when the men of the Mark were divided into clans though allied against trouble makers from outside their range.  Morris includes a magic hauberk, as well as women, men, and a boy who can "see" what might befall.  Once we realize that these Goths are about to fight the Romans, we are somewhat brought back to our own Earth.  The river that Tolkien eventually called the Anduin is here called the Mirkwood, since it runs in and out of dark woodlands, mostly bordering them.  The various clan houses are arrayed along this river north to south.  While the story focuses on the Wolfings, several other clans also feature prominently in the tale.  The story tells the story of the preparation for battle, continues with the several major battles that occur, and follows up with the aftermath.  All in all it is a rousing tale, filled with myth-making heroes and great deeds, including the bravery and strength of the enemy Roman legions.  Originally meant to be the first book of a trilogy, Morris did write one more, but not the third.  Looking forward to reading it!

 

Next to last came the second collection of detective stories by Arthur Morrison, the 1895 The Chronicles of Martin Hewitt.  There are six stories featuring the great detective, who mostly works alone, or in concert with the police, and are related to us by his friend and confident.  In "The Ivy Cottage Mystery," Hewitt solves a murder and a jewel theft, using much the same method as Holmes.  Indeed, this is one of the stories that might have led people to believe that it was Doyle writing under a different name, as was the case when the original series was printed.  In the next story Hewitt gets into 19th C. diving gear to solve "The Nicobar Bullion Case."  When a ship sinks off the coast of Cornwall carrying gold bullion, a crime of opportunity presents itself to one of the salvage workers.  Try to picture Sherlock Homes in diving gear and going underwater to look for clues.  Unfortunately, the whole plot is too far fetched to be believable, but it makes a nice change from the streets of London.  "The Holford Will Case" is involved with hypnotism upon an innocent though weak willed woman by the conniving nephew of her deceased step father.  She has been left the bulk of the estate in her father's will, but the nephew attempts to steal and destroy the will, which would leave everything to him.  Fortunately for one and all, Hewitt saves the day again.  "The Case of the Missing Hand" adds a touch of gruesomeness to the collection.  A cruel and conniving man is found hanged in the woods with his right hand missing.  Two brothers are arrested for murder, until Hewitt proves otherwise, and is able to explain what really took place.  Next up is "The Case of Laker, Absconded," a straight forward case of robbery.  That is, until Hewitt gets involved, proving that the man thought of as the guilty one is quite innocent.  Lastly comes "The Cost of the Lost Foreigner", about anarchists attempting to set off a series of bombs in London.  One of the gang backs out at the last minute, and they don't take kindly to his change of heart.  One never knew that bread could be so dangerous.

The last book completed in December was E Nesbit's first childrens' book.  Called The Story of the Treasure Seekers, from 1899, it is almost as much fun to read as the slightly earlier masterpiece by Kenneth Grahame, The Golden Age.  Writing as if a 12 year child had written the story, it is mostly a charming tale of five children trying to raise money to help restore the Bastable fortune.  Oswald Bastable tries to keep it a secret that he is the one writing the book, but of course his slips and oversights quickly give away the secret.  The children first try digging for buried treasure in their garden.  No luck.  One of them, an 8 year old, is a poet, and they try to sell his poetry to a major London newspaper.  Very minor results.  They kidnap Albert-next-door and hold him for three thousand pounds ransom.  A ransom note is sent to his family.  Alas, it just doesn't work out for them.  They try to sell mail order sherry.  Another flop.  But the best chapter of them all tells of the newspaper and its contents that the children create, in hopes of selling 100 copies at a shilling apiece.  Some very rich writing here, indeed.  All in all the short book is great fun to read, especially for an adult.  A 1996 British film of the book can be seen on Youtube--it will be reviewed soon in the next blog entry.  Unfortunately, girls are not rated very highly by Oswald as persons in this story.  He is a complete misogynist.  And there is a single use of the "n" word, which hopefully is expunged from modern editions (not used by the children, but by an adult)  Michael Moorcock used the name of Oswald Bastable as the storyteller for three of his connected alternate history novels, in an effort to help capture that time in the late Victorian period when men ruled in the house and beyond.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

September Reading Summary

 It's that time again, when I look back and see what I've been doing with some of my time.  In this case, reading books.  There were three clear nights used for astronomy, thus cutting into my night reading time last month, and of course the passing of Deb's mom.  Even so, I managed to get through all Avon/Equinox books (eight of them), and four others.  One of those was an epic novel which took some time to get through.  Seven books in total were read on Kindle.

Robert Silverberg started out the month with a collection of short tales, volume six in a nine volume oversize paperback edition, all with great covers.  The stories are from 1983-87.  Silverberg introduces each story, and provides a forward as well.  There were fourteen stories, including three novellas, lasting over 400 pages.  The stories "Multiples," Symbiont," and "Sailing to Byzantium" are singled out for recommendations to readers.  "Multiples" is a fascinating story about the near future, when people with multiple personalities are the envy of people who only have one.  A young woman tries to fake her way into the "club" of multiples, only to be found out.  But perhaps there is a way for her to become more than a single person after all.  Intriguing story telling.  "Symbiont" is Silverberg's throwback to the days of monsters in pulp fiction, and this is a great little story about future war and its hideous weapons and after effects.  Highly recommended for pulp fans!  On to "Byzantium."  Nearly every SF writer in the 80s wrote a version of this kind of story--are we real or just a computer construct?  When The Matrix film came out in 1999, everyone freaked out about the concept.  But it had already been done many times by some fine writers.  When a man is brought to the 50th C from 1984 New York, he finds the inhabitants a queer lot.  They resurrect 5 cities at a time, people them with semi-intelligent AI human types, and use the cities as tourist attractions.  But when a man from the 20th C eventually meets up with another captive like himself, but from the 25th C, he learns that he isn't really who or what he thinks he is.  A great story, with an interesting love interest.

Next came a one-off novel co-authored by Piers Anthony and Philip Jose Farmer, entitled The Caterpillar's Question.  I had been anticipating reading this for some time. Though a good enough story, it suffers from a confusing and disjointed plot line.  One book doesn't really do justice to the theme, and might have been a series if the authors had so decided.  All in all, it's rather a restless story that some might find appealing.  However, it does win Cover of the Month.

Cover of the Month for September, by Romas Kulkalis. 

Next came Volume 2 of Harry Harrison's Stars and Stripes series, called Stars and Stripes In Peril.  Though devious Brits are up to no good, and looking for revenge against Americans after their defeat in Vol 1.  Harrison has concocted one of his best series here, and I zoomed through Vol 2 as easily as Vol 1.  There is very little variation in the quality of Harrison's writing--let's just say that he has the knack and loves to use it.  High adventure and fun to read!

Kenneth Bulmer has written a winning series about the British navy in the time of the Napoleonic wars.  Set mostly in the Mediterranean Sea, the series of 14 books called Fox are must reads for Bulmer fans, as these might be his best books, and fairly consistent in quality.  #7 was called Court Martial, as Fox gets his reward from the British navy for risking his life, saving his crew, and picking up after the mess left by his captain.  Hilarious in one way, but quite believable.  Bulmer's sense of humour is at its best in these books, too.  I love books about the sea that have a great authenticity about them, and these books rank highly.

Next came another group of stories by E C Tubb.  Though I still have a massive SF series of his to read (Dumarest saga), I am reading his other stuff first, and mostly enjoying his short story writing.  Mirror of the Night is a collection of ten of his weird stories, many published in the 50s and 60s in Weird Tales magazine.  At least three of the tales are worth reading.  They include "The Ancient Alchemist," "The Artist's Model," and "Sell Me A Dream."  In this last tale, a man hunts through junk shops to find something worthwhile.  He eventually does find something of considerable interest.  Like a story by Dunsany.  The first two are traditional ghost stories, but well told.

I have read all of the novels of Jack Williamson, and what a fantastic adventure it was!  I am now reading his shorter fiction from the early 30s, but I found People Machines in my collection, a group of 9 stories written between 1939-1969.  The author discusses writing technique (he taught SF writing at a New Mexico university) and how it is applied to short story writing, with each story illustrating one or more of the techniques discussed beforehand.  The best story is called Jamboree, and is from 1969.  Have you ever been to Girl Guide or Scout camp?  Me neither, and this story reminds me how glad I am never to have gone.  Both humourous and horrifying at the same time, this is a very good story.  Other good stories abound.  I will only mention one more,"Starbright," from 1939.  A man acquires a small piece of a meteor in his brain, and it gives him almost magical powers.  The first part, dealing with the man's family and financial problems, is quite priceless.  A fun story.

Next I read An Alien Heat, Michael Moorcock's first book in his "Dancers At The End of Time" series.  The action takes place a million years in the future, amidst the most decadent society ever imagined on paper.  Jherek Carnelian is the main character.  We first meet him at a lakeside picnic with his mother.  Here we discover that Jherek was "born," something that appears to be a rare event in this time.  Next we attend a grand party, where the full picture of the decadence of the age is fully illuminated.  We follow the adventures of Jherek that lead from the events of the party, until he is hung for murder in 1896.  In between, quite a bit happens.  The book, while mostly refreshing, is quite tedious in places, especially as it deals with Jherek's naivete when he returns to the 19th C to look for a woman, who was sent back to her time.  It becomes very tiring, and we are often reminded of the Eloi in the film version of "The Time Machine."  Jherek has no skills whatsoever in dealing with events in the 19th C, and becomes even less than a child in the hands of people from that era.  He is incapable of dealing effectively with any situation that arises.  For even a child would learn minute by minute, and begin to deal more effectively with events than Jherek ever does.  So at times one wishes to throw the book against the wall.  Be warned.

Barry Malzberg again teams up with Bill Pronzini in Acts of Mercy, a murder mystery from 1977.  Who is murdering the opponents of the current President?  Is it the First Lady?  Is it the President himself?  Is it a secret service agent?  A friend? Foe?  Read and find out.  A good yarn, and easy to read.

I am running low on books by Harry Harrison and Jack Williamson, and will soon have only six authors remaining.  I can also the see the end of the Silverberg books approaching.

Turning to books off the shelf and sitting around on my Kindle, I read one actual physical book and three from Kindle.  The 7 Wonders is by Steven Saylor.  I use to e-mail Steven a long time ago, before I realized how major an author he was (tons of books published).  He had a website about sword and sandal movies, such as Hercules, as we had some fun discussions.  Then I began getting notifications from him regarding books of his being published, about a character in ancient Rome called Gordianus.  Gordianus is a detective, possibly the fictional world's first big solver of mysteries and murders.  His books are set in ancient Rome, and he deals with actual events happening as his stories develop.  We both have read many of his books.  The present book tells of a journey Gordianus made when he was 17-19, with a trusted scholar, to see the 7 ancient wonders of the world.  The book is extremely well researched and great fun to read.  First published as a serious of short stories, he has grouped them chronologically and added material to sew them together.  In addition to visiting all 7 ancient wonders, we also spend a lot of time in Alexandria, so the lighthouse and library are included.  This book caused me to dig out a Thames and Hudson book I bought many year ago in London, UK, called 70 Wonders of the Ancient World.  I read the section pertaining to the 7 Wonders, and am now carrying on reading the rest of the book, one wonder at a time.  Great fun (and educational, too)!

Turning to Delphi Classics complete works of authors (which continue to come out with new titles every month), I read three.  First up was an epic 3 volume novel by George MacDonald.  His second novel is called David Elginbrod, from 1863.  It is supposed to be one his less overtly Christian works.  Oh boy, but there is still a lot of Christianity in it, especially the further one reads.  The author is against most churches and preachers, the less imaginative the worse things get for him.  He ties in Nature to God most strongly, and seems to get at a truer Christianity that most Christians and churches ever do.  I first came across MacDonald from the Ballantine Fantasy series, where he contributed three books, including Phantastes (his first novel, and absolutely fabulous), Lilith, and a book of shorter novellas which Lin Carter named Evenor, agains which is totally worth seeking and reading.  I have also read a children's fantasy novel by him called At The Back of the North Wind.  So I already have some experience with the author.

 

The first volume of  David Elginbrod has a setting in rural Aberdeenshire, and remains there for the entire time.  This part in itself makes the novel worth seeking out, with its limited, barren setting, and very small number of characters.  The reading can be a bit of a tough go, however, since he writes dialogue in local dialect.  The author provides a vast glossary at the back from Scots to English, but I dinna pay no attention to it.  At first it is pretty slow going, and some sentences passed right over my head.  But after a while I began to get the gist, and could score 50% understanding much of the time.  Luckily, the rest of the book is in a more normal English.  Volume Two moves us on to a rural area close to London, and eventually we get to London itself.  Later, the novel becomes part ghost story and part mesmerism, as one of the leading ladies succumbs to the evil power of a man from the continent.  All in all this is a truly amazing story, even though it takes a long time to get through it (around 650 pages, with about 200 of those having some very tricky dialect).  The settings and characters are written so strongly that they will likely never be forgotten by readers.

 

Next came a short novel by Arthur Machen.  The Terror (1917) is written on a similar theme to Hitchcock's film The Birds, but on a much wider scale.  Not only birds rebel against humans in Machen's horror story, but bees, horses, sheep, cows, and especially moths and rats!  What I found truly remarkable about the story (which could make the scariest film ever made) were the reasons people came up with to explain what was happening.  They capture what true paranoia actually is, as people would believe the strangest ideas of something that is truly unexplainable and beyond experience.  Quite a harrowing read.

 

I finished up with an early novel by Richard Marsh, from 1893.  Part farce, part Looney tunes cartoon, and part horror story, The Devil's Diamond is a novel unique in my experience.  A priceless diamond with supernatural powers must be given away, and not sold.  While in possession of this diamond, the worst of bad luck will happen to its owner.  With many laugh out loud scenes, as well as some that will make the hair on your head stand up, the only other author I know who can do this sort of thing as well is Eric Frank Russell.  If you are looking for something fun to read, and well off the beaten track, look no further than this story about a rich business man who thinks (at first) that been given the diamond by his deceased brother is the best thing to have ever happened to him.  Like when the hunter Elmer Fudd first spots wabbit twacks.

 

In viewing news, which will be discussed in more detail in my next post, we have finally turned our attention to Prime Video's The Rings of Power.  We watched episode one last night, and by the end of the weekend we will have seen five.  If the first episode is any indication, we have a major winner on our hands....

 

Mapman Mike