Book Review: O-Zone

Book Review: 'O-Zone' by Paul Theroux

1 / 5 Stars

'O-Zone' first was published in hardback in 1986. This Ballantine Books paperback (536 pp) was published in October 1987.

'O-Zone' is set in the early 21st century, after severe ecological and economic collapses have converted most of the U.S. into thinly populated rural settlements where technology has stayed at a 20th century level. The exception is New York City, where the wealthy elite - referred to as Owners - live within luxury skyscrapers clustered on Manhattan Island. Outside Manhattan, what used to be the greater New York metropolitan district is a polluted wasteland occupied by impoverished Skells, Roaches, and Trolls. 

As the novel opens, a group of Owners, including the brothers Hooper and Hardy Allbright; the latter's autistic, genius son Fisher; and assorted wives and friends, embrace a once-in-a-lifetime adventure: a foray into the wasteland known as O-Zone. 

O-Zone used to be the state of Missouri, before a vaguely defined catastrophe involving underground nuclear waste led to the mass evacuation of the state, and its conversion to a prohibited zone that can only be entered by those holding special permits.

For Owners like the Allbrights and their acquaintances, O-Zone is a mythic place where cannibalistic mutants (referred to as 'aliens') and rabid wildlife skulk in the dense forests and roam the ruined towns and cities. Even though the Allbrights travel in a heavily armed VTOL plane, bringing with them laser perimeters, environmental hazard suits, and the latest in modern small arms, the camping trip brings with it the allure of danger.

But events transpiring in O-Zone soon leave the Allbrights with a changed sense of the world and their place in it. Hooper Allbright finds himself obsessed with the alien girl he glimpsed sprinting through the forests of O-Zone. Hardy Allbright sees O-Zone as the ideal location for a terraforming scheme that will be the capstone of his career. And Fisher Allbright will discover what it's like to be uprooted from a life of privilege.......

'O-Zone' has an interesting premise, but that can't save it from being one of the most boring reads I've had in the past several years. I routinely had to struggle to finish this book.

At 536 pages, it's badly overwritten, a failing I've noticed in those few other fiction works by author Paul Theroux I've attempted to read. Practically every paragraph is overloaded with empty sentences; hardly any expository sentence goes unaccompanied by several additional sentences that laboriously disclose to the reader what a particular character is thinking or feeling (for Theroux, it's always 'Tell', and never 'Show').

Things are salvaged a bit in the final 150 pages, as some of the characters embark on a modern-day Homeric Journey across the hazardous landscapes of the Central and Eastern U.S. But in my opinion, it's too little a reward for having to plow through the preceding 386 pages.

[An argument could be made that 'O-Zone' is in fact not a sci-fi novel, but rather, a ponderous satire of the state of American society in the mid-80s. As wealthy, Jewish, New York City dwellers, the Allbrights and their friends have the same parochial mindset as did their 20th century counterparts, whose perception of the world outside the boundaries of Manhattan was mocked in a classic 1976 New Yorker cover, 'View of the World from 9th Avenue', by Saul Steinberg.]

The verdict ? For all its cover blurbs and approbations from 'serious' writers and critics intrigued to see a 'literary' author like Theroux dabble in the ghetto of sci-fi, 'O-Zone' is a dud. There are plenty of 80s sci-fi novels that are more rewarding reads.

One on One publicity still

One on One
Publicity Still
1977

One on One was a feature film released in 1977. Robbie Benson starred as a freshman basketball player who discovers that the game at the college level is more challenging than he expected.

In this publicity still associated with the film, number 44 is Darrell 'Dash' Crofts, and number 14 is Jim Seals (Seals and Crofts composed and sang the song 'My Fair Share' for the film's soundtrack).

Number 52 is composer and actor Paul Williams, perhaps best known for playing Little Enos in the movie Smokey and the Bandit.

Number 10 is Robbie Benson. 

I don't know who number 41 is.......he is familiar, but I can't place him.

Book Review: Falling Toward Forever

Book Review: 'Falling Toward Forever' by Gordon Eklund

2 / 5 Stars

'Falling Toward Forever' (190 pp) was published by Laser Books / Harlequin in 1975. The cover art is by Kelly Freas.

Calvin Waller is a mercenary fighting on the side of an un-named insurgent group in an un-named African country. As the novel opens the insurgent army is about to mount an attack on a government outpost. As one of the most experienced and capable soldiers in the insurgency, Waller is tasked with securing the arms depot in the center of the government compound.

The attack is launched, and amid the carnage Waller fights his way to his objective. But then things go drastically wrong: accompanied by a pair of battle participants, Waller finds himself teleported instantly to a strange landscape. There, another conflict is underway, and Waller soon finds himself a key figure in yet another 'war for liberation'.

The bigger question - who, or what, has subjected Waller and his companions to the teleportation - always looms in the background. And when Calvin Waller finally meets the architect of his strange journeys through time and space, a settling of accounts is by no means assured.........

I picked up 'Falling Toward Forever' hoping it was one of those Laser Books titles that turns out to be an overlooked gem of sci-fi from the mid-70s. 

Unfortunately, 'Falling' is a dud.

In its favor, the plot is a straightforward adventure tale, highly reliant on dialogue. The hero, Calvin Waller, has the cynical, ironic humor that calls to mind the protagonists of Jason dinAlt and Slippery Jim diGriz in Harry Harrison's novels.

But I found the closing chapters, and their explanation for the strange phenomenon afflicting Calvin Waller, to be unconvincing. 

By 1975, Eklund had published a number of novels and short stories, including All Times Possible (1974), which also addresses the subject of time travel and alternate histories. So the failure of 'Falling Toward Forever' to impress has little to do with any lack of experience on the part of the author. Rather, it stems more from a perfunctory stance on Eklund's part: this one was written just to pay the bills, and not much more. 

For Eklund completists only.

The Tower King episodes 1 - 3

The Tower King
episodes 1 - 3
Alan Hebden (writer)
Jose Ortiz (artist)
Eagle (UK) 1982

This is another hard-to-find gem of British comics.

'The Tower King' was serialized in 24, three-page chapters in the UK Boy's Paper Eagle in 1982. Featuring a post-apocalyptic storyline crafted by veteran 2000 AD writer Alan Hebden (Meltdown Man, Harry20 on the Rock), and outstanding artwork by Jose Ortiz, 'The Tower King' was essentially unknown to American comics readers. Which is unfortunate, because is as good as (if not superior to) many US comics of the same era.

In 2014 the UK specialty publisher Hibernia Comics issued an 80-page compilation of the entire run of 'The Tower King', but only a small number of copies were produced, making it a genuine rarity.

Posted below are the first three episodes of 'The Tower King'. 

episodes 4 - 6 are here.
episodes 7 - 9 are here.
episodes 10 - 14 are here.
episodes 15 - 19 are here.

episodes 19 - 24 are here.

In the Box in the Back of the Store

In the Box in the Back of the Store

Last weekend I traveled to a comic book shop in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It's only about 70 minutes away from where I live, but once you reach the main drag (i.e., Route 3) leading into town, driving in Fredericksburg on a Saturday afternoon is an exercise in self-flagellation. It's all about stopping at intersections every 100 yards  .........with a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer right in front of you going at 10 miles an hour, and gassing you with its exhaust fumes.

The area's population has grown so exponentially that the existing road network can't handle it. And it's only going to get worse, as new subdivisions sprout up as far west as Chancellorsville and the WIlderness, giving the people who choose to live there a 2 1/2 hour one-way commute north to the metro DC area (if there hasn't been an accident on Northbound I-95, that is).

Anyways........... in the back of the store, on a table loaded with old cardboard boxes containing old books, I found some treasures that made the hassle of driving worthwhile. These all were used books, now rare and hard to find, printed in the 70s and 80s from publishers like Catalan and NBM. They had that peculiar smell that signals that they came from a smoker's home...........

Celtia (1975), printed in Ireland by De Danann Press of Dublin, is the first book to showcase (albeit only in black and white) the art of Jim Fitzpatrick.

Lakota (1996), published by Treasure Chest Books, Tucson, Arizona, is from Brazilian artist Sergio Macedo. If you read Heavy Metal magazine at all during the 1970s, then you'll recognize Macedo as the creator of the fantastic comics 'Psychorock' and 'Telefield'.

Tex Arcana (1987) from Catalan Communications compiles a set of strips that first appeared in Heavy Metal in the early 80s. I can't say I found the tongue-in-cheek 'Gothic Western' storyline of Tex Arcana to be all that captivating but there's no denying the meticulous artistic skill employed by John Findley.

Richard Corben: Flights into Fantasy is a real obscurity. It was issued in 1981 by publisher Thumb Tack Books. Copiously illustrated in black and white and color, it's an overview of the comics, album covers, book covers, magazine covers, and other works Corben did up to the early 80s.

The Great Walls of Samaris (1987), from NBM, is an English translation of a 1983 bande dessinee from the Belgian writer Benoit Peeters and artist francois Schuiten. 'Great Walls' is the first volume in the 'The Obscure Cities' series. It also will be familiar to readers of early 80s issues of Heavy Metal. 

Then, there is Views (1975), by Roger Dean. Dean created the publishing imprint 'Dragon's Dream' in order to make real his idea for a well-produced book that would showcase his artistic endeavors. Views of course went on to become a staple of the well-read 70's stoner's library, sitting on the shelf alongside such titles as Eschatus by Bruce Pennington, Beauty and the Beast by Chris Achilleos, and Visions by Walter Hopps.

So there you have it............you never know what you might find when you look through those battered cardboard boxes in the back of the store................

Book Review: Tales to Astonish

Book Review: 'Tales to Astonish' by Ronin Ro

4 / 5 Stars

'Tales to Astonish' (298 pp) was published in hardback by Bloomsbury in 2004. 

Author Ronin Ro (I have a faint suspicion that the name is a pseudonym) has written a number of nonfiction works, many of them on rap music and rap musicians. In 2000 he  published a novel, titled 'Street Sweeper', which has a tie-in CD (?!) of rap songs by various artists, including Ludacris and Ja Rule.  

'Tales' is a biography of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the two men who, of course, were responsible for bringing in the Marvel Age of Comics with their collaborative effort on the inaugural issue of Fantastic Four in 1961, and the string of innovative titles that followed. 

Ro covers the lives of each man, from their birth in modest circumstances in New York City, up to 2004 (Jack Kirby died in 1994, ten years after the book was published, while Stan Lee of course passed away in late 2018).

I found the book to be a very engaging read, one that not only showcases Kirby and Lee, but also the other artists they interacted with, and businessmen that they worked for. Ro documents he triumphs and conflicts that characterized the collaboration between the two men in an objective manner, leaving it for the reader to decide whether Kirby's multiple grievances against Lee and Marvel were as justifiable as they have been made out to be.

The book is rich with 'insider' anecdotes that illuminate what went on 'behind the scenes' in the offices of Marvel and DC. 

Where 'Tales' fails to achieve a five-star rating is in its lack of detailed sourcing; there are no endnotes or footnotes. The book's brief bibliography states that Ronin Ro interviewed a large number of Kirby and Lee's associates; however, there are no details given on when and where the interviews were conducted (nor who conducted them), nor whether the interviews were in-person, or generated from email exchanges. 

The book also suffers from a dearth of illustrations. While it's highly likely that Ro faced difficulties in securing permissions from Marvel and DC to reproduce comic book covers and interior art, it's disappointing that he couldn't access even a small number of personal / open source photographs of the major characters. 

Summing up, if you're a fan of Marvel comics, Jack Kirby, or Stan Lee, then 'Tales to Astonish' may be worth picking up (used copies can be had online for modest prices). Just be aware that the lack of detailed sourcing means it has limited value as a reference work.

You Need Friends

You Need Friends
by Larry Watson (story) and Massimo Belardinelli (art)
2000 AD, prog 646 (September 30 1989)

Thin Lizzy: Lizzy Killers

Thin Lizzy: Lizzy Killers
album cover illustration by Jim Fitzpatrick, 1980

Star Trek / X Men

Star Trek / X Men
Marvel Comics, December 1996

Crossovers were a big thing for the comics of the 1990s, but I confess I was unaware of this one until I read about it in the pages of American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1990s.

The book was intended as a launch vehicle for a line of 'Paramount' comics from Marvel that relied heavily on the Star Trek franchise (the line was discontinued in 1998).

Star Trek / X Men was written by Scott Lobdell and illustrated by four different artists, five inkers, another five 'ink assists' personnel, four colorists, and one letterer. 

Even with all this talent, the reality is that almost half of this comic's 64 pages are taken up with advertisements and pinups.

I won't give away any spoilers, save to say that the 'Star Trek' backstory is provided by the 1966 episode 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'. The X-Men backstory has something to do with one of those oberblown, overwritten storylines involving the Shi'ar Empire. For this storyline, there a rift in spacetime that allows two different universes to intrude on one another, and - of course - the rift brings with it a Threat to All Existence.

However weighty the major premise, Lobdell's script doesn't try to take itself too seriously (fortunately). There are plenty of little in-jokes and allusions that will be readily acknowledged by fans of the TV show. The artwork is of good quality, although it's very 'Nineties' in its derivation from the illustrative styles of the stalwarts of that decade such as Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee.

Summing up, Star Trek / X Men does what it was intended to do, which is to garner fanboy enthusiasm for the planned Paramount Comics imprint. But looking through the second half of the book and seeing all the planned titles (Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, Star Trek: Unlimited, Star Trek: Early Voyages, and the one-shot Star Trek: Mirror Mirror, is to realize that shortly before it went bankrupt, Marvel Comics had no inkling of how oversaturated the comic book market was, and how profoundly that market had been altered since the heady days of the early 90s.

Book Review: The Furies

Book Review: 'The Furies' by Keith Roberts

5 / 5 Stars

'The Furies' was serialized in the UK digest Science Fantasy in 1965, then published in novel form in the UK in 1966 by Hart-Davis. This US edition (192 pp) was released by Berkley Books in January 1966; the striking cover art, among the best on any sci-fi paperback of the 1960s, is by Paul Lehr.

The novel is set in the UK in the late 60s. First-person narrator Bill Sampson earns a comfortable living as a comic book artist. Accompanied by his Great Dane 'Sek', Sampson is a familiar figure in his small Wiltshire town of Brockledean.

As the novel opens it's a fine day in late June, and Sampson is having a beer at the Basketmaker's Arms, the local pub. There a fellow patron shows him a provocative newspaper story about an unusual incident in Dorset: a farmer had a near-fatal encounter with a wasp a yard in length, with a foot-long stinger.

It soon transpires that this is no solitary event; reports of the giant wasps begin to trickle in from other parts of the UK, all with the same ominous implication: the wasps - or, as they come to be called, the Furies - attack humans and larger animals on sight.

As Bill Sampson is about to discover, his world has been invaded.......by entities unlike any Mankind ever has faced before........

'The Furies' is worthy of five stars. Although it's the first novel Keith Roberts ever published it's also his best, and one of the best sf novels of the 1960s.

Perhaps because it was his first novel, Roberts writes with a clear, declarative style that is much like a documentary in its approach to narrating the trials and tribulations of Bill Sampson and his fellow survivors of the insect invasion. The more oblique prose style that Roberts would come to employ in his later novels such as Pavane, The Chalk Giants, The Grain Kings, and Kiteworld is absent in the pages of The Furies; the plot unfolds at a quick pace, while effectively communicating the atmosphere of a UK in the aftermath of an apocalypse unlike those usually rendered in the genre. 

Another aspect of The Furies that makes it such an effective novel is its refusal to offer succor in the form of the cliches of the genre that were still in place during the mid-60s. 

Without disclosing any spoilers, I will say that The Furies resolutely avoids contrivance: there is no entomological genius who discovers a hitherto unknown vulnerability that, overnight, is exploited to bring about the defeat of the wasps. There is no miraculous intervention in the form of a microbe that is sprayed across the countryside to kill the invaders. There is no salvation in the form of a visit from omnipotent aliens who kindly implement the safe and effective extermination of a planet-wide bug infestation. In The Furies, there are only the hapless survivors, and their struggle to live for another day.

Summing up, The Furies retains its status as a sci-fi classic more than 50 years since its publication. While copies of the paperback in good condition can be quite pricey, if you see this on the store shelves, it's very much worth picking up. 

The Book of Alien

The Book of Alien
by Paul Scanlon and Michael Gross
Heavy Metal Books 
May 1, 1979

Forty years ago, 20th Century Fox was kicking off a major marketing campaign for the movie Alien, which was going to premiere on May 25, 1979. 

By today's standards the campaign was rather modest, but remember, Fox was just beginning to learn the lessons of the success of Star Wars two years previously.

As well, Alien was rated R, which meant that Fox couldn't tap the children's market with its lucrative franchises for toys, thermoses, lunch boxes, bedsheets, clothing, dishware, etc. Kenner did release an 18" Alien toy, but it prompted an outcry from angry parents. 

Ahhhh, those were the days.............

Which brings me to 'The Book of Alien'. I purchased the original book back in '79, but lost it over the ensuing years. During that time the book went out of print and used copies in good condition became quite exorbitant.

And so, for this post, I'm relying on a copy that was published in the UK by Star Books. These copies can be purchased for a modest price at your usual online vendors. 

In May, 2012 Titan Books reissued the book, and these copies also are quite affordable.

'The Book of Alien' (112 pp) contains a wealth of behind-the-scenes photographs and artwork, with remarks about the process of making the film from Ridley Scott, Dan O'Bannon, Ron Cobb, Roger Christian, and H. R. Giger, among others.

There are sure to be at least some tidbits and anecdotes within the pages of 'The Book of Alien' that are new to you, and illustrate some of the complexities and challenges that had to be overcome back in the days when computer-generated special effects really didn't exist. Indeed, it's a testament to the skill of the producers that forty years later, the film retains its effectiveness as a sci-fi horror feature.

'The Book of Alien' will be worth its while to Baby Boomers and sci-fi fans who remember the excitement associated with the film back in those long-ago days...........but even if you weren't around back then, it's a good way to see how far things have come since 1979. But the craftsmanship used in the making of Alien has its lessons even for film-makers of today, in my humble opinion.

Tying in with the film's 40th anniversary, Titan will be releasing a deluxe hardcover volume titled 'The Making of Alien' that goes above and beyond 'The Book of Alien'. 'The Making of Alien' is scheduled for a July 23 release, and is priced (tentatively) at $37.

Gimme an Inch Girl

Gimme an Inch Girl
by Ian Matthews
May 1979

'Gimme an Inch Girl', from the 1978 album Stealin' Home, was the followup single to Matthew's top 40 hit 'Shake It'.

Originally written and recorded by Robert Palmer in 1975 as 'Give Me An Inch' on Palmer's album Pressure Drop, Matthews's version of the song peaked at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in late April, 1979. 

A Commenter at YouTube remarked that the song sounds like something from the 'Alan Parsons Project', and I have to agree. Featuring lots of moody reverb, and a well-crafted guitar solo, this song is a polar opposite from the bouncy pop of 'Shake It'.