Book Review: Star Child

Book Review: 'Star Child' by Fred Mustard Stewart

3 / 5 Stars

‘Star Child’ (239 pp) was published in hardback in 1974; this Bantam Books paperback was released in October 1975. The cover artist is uncredited.

Fred Mustard Stewart (1932 – 2007) wrote a number of novels during the interval from the late 60s to the late 90s. Some of these were sf, albeit more in the spirit of popular fiction than ‘serious’ efforts to explore the genre.

‘Star Child' is set in the Summer, 1974, in the hamlet of Shandy, Connecticut. The heroine, a young woman named Helen Bradford, is a French teacher at Shandy Prep, the exclusive boarding school that serves as the main economic and social anchor for the hamlet. Helen’s husband Jack also is a teacher at Shandy Prep, as are the members of their immediate circle of friends and acquaintances.

One warm night, Helen has an extraordinary dream in which an angelic – looking boy, called Star Child, tells her he is projecting his thoughts to her sleeping mind from his home planet orbiting the star Tau Ceti, 12 light-years from Earth (!). Star Child tells Helen that he is ready to supply the human race with the technical specifications for creating cheap and abundant fusion energy; this revelation will provide the Earth with a solution to the Energy Crisis, and usher in an era of prosperity and peace like none the planet has ever seen.

However, other residents of Shandy – including Jack Bradford – have received dream messages from another entity, this one named Raymond. Unlike Star Child, Raymond is malevolent, and seeks to coerce people into committing murder……as an act of worship to the Godhead of Raymond !

As the Summer unfolds, both Star Child and Raymond struggle to convert the residents of Shandy to their respective causes……and Raymond is winning, for his apostles have begun to carry out a wave of ritualistic killings - !

Only Helen is able to resist the demands of Raymond, despite the horrifying hallucinations he transmits to her sleeping mind in an effort to beat her into submission. But neither Star Child nor Raymond are able to conceal the truth of who they really are from Helen……and when she learns this truth, the fate of the Earth comes to depend on her, and her alone……..

‘Star Child’ is one of Stewart’s novels that is at heart a pot boiler, with some sf and horror elements stirred into the mix. This is evident in the opening chapter, in which a young woman is murdered after participating in ritualistic sex with an acolyte of the Cult of Raymond. 

Later on in the novel, the reader will encounter various sf tropes, including telepathy, Eco-catastrophe, and Mind Control. To his credit, author Stewart comes close, but never crosses the line, into silliness, and this combination of restraint and gimmickry keeps the narrative moving along at a fast clip.

Summing up, if you’re looking for an easily-digestible Beach Read with a good dose of 70s pop culture - including vintage Energy Crisis - inspired alarmism - then ‘Star Child’ will satisfy.

Titus Crow: Illustrations by Stephen E. Fabian

Titus Crow
Illustrations by Stephen E. Fabian
from Ladies and Legends by Stephen E. Fabian, Underwood-Miller, 1993

Artist Stephen E. Fabian originally produced these striking black and white illustrations for The Compleat Titus Crow (1987), a collection of stories by Brian Lumley.

Gestation by Bruce Jones

Gestation
by Bruce Jones
from Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, Marvel / Curtis, No. 3, May 1975

When you land on an alien planet and you start to find that its vegetation is very....very...tasty, then perhaps you should be alarmed......

Artist / writer Bruce Jones was a regular contributor to Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction during its brief print run in the mid-70s. This tale has its own offbeat flavor, as well as some good pencilwork (note - I had to overexpose my scans in order to reduce the discoloring from the foxing of the pages - this is, after all, a 41 year-old magazine). 

'Gestation' is also interesting for its use of cursive font in the external narration, to mimic the entries in a 'diary'. This technique has since become commonplace in comic books, but back then it was innovative. I can't say it's easy to read, however.....

Book Review: Diadem from the Stars

Book Review: 'Diadem from the Stars' by Jo Clayton

1 / 5 Stars

During the 1980s it was not at all unusual to see sci-fi novels by Jo Clayton on the bookshelves. Clayton (1939 - 1998) wrote 35 novels, many of which were part of the DAW Books catalog. Clayton played a major role in DAW Books’ emphasis, starting in the 1980s, on publishing sf and fantasy books - particularly serial novels - by female authors for an increasing female readership.

‘Diadem from the Stars’ (March 1977; DAW Book No. 235) is the inaugural novel of the so-called ‘Diadem’ series, which ultimately spanned nine books over the course of 1977 – 1986. The cover artwork is by Michael Whelan.

As the novel opens, the eponymous Diadem is stolen from the ‘planet of the spider-people' by Stavver, the galaxy’s greatest thief. The Diadem is not just a valuable jewel, but a sentient artifact with the ability to confer psi powers upon the individual lucky enough – or unfortunate enough – to wear it.

When the vengeful pursuit by the spider people damages his ship, Stavver is forced to crash-land on the backwater planet Jaydugar. Stavver survives the landing, but loses the Diadem.

The narrative then shifts to the adventures of Aleytys, a teenage girl, and the daughter of a long-vanished spacewoman. Aleytys has been raised since infancy by the tribesman of Jaydugar, from whom she stands out, not just for her physical size and red hair, but also for her self-confidence and defiance of authority, traits uncommon to the women of the native peoples of Jaydugar.

Aleytys also has psi powers that, as the novel opens, she is just becoming aware of – powers that include telepathy and the ability to rapidly heal herself, other humans, and even animals. When threatened, Aleytys is able to wield even stronger powers – powers dangerous to her assailants – and this has generated increasing unease among the tribe that has taken her in.

Circumstances soon force Aleytys to make her own way across Jaydugar to a remote locale where a chance to go off-planet may await. But a young girl traveling by herself, across the harsh and unforgiving landscape of a backward planet, is easy prey for any number of unpleasant people……..

I found ‘Diadem’ to be a dull and unrewarding read, even when making allowances for its status as a First Novel. Much of its failings are due to the author’s desire – clearly inspired by Dune - to over-elaborate on the sociology and anthropology of Jaydugar and its tribes (which are modeled on the Arabs of North Africa). This subjects the reader to a constant stream of invented words and phrases, and detailed expositions on cultural issues, which are a chore to wade through.

It also doesn’t help matters that author Clayton periodically engages in stream-of-consciousness passages associated with the heroine’s moments of Psychic Awareness; while such passages were part and parcel of New Wave era sf writing, they act here to burden, rather than enlighten, the narrative.

When it first was published, ‘Diadem from the Stars’, as well as the succeeding volumes in the series, were praised for breaking new ground with their depictions of independent heroines, as opposed to portraying women as the inevitable girlfriends or concubines common to sf literature at the time. While this may have been true of ‘Diadem’, when all is said and done, it doesn’t deliver much of a story………..perhaps the other volumes are better written and more rewarding, but this one is hard to recommend.

Bizarre Adventures No. 31

Bizarre Adventures No. 31
Marvel / Curtis, April 1982

For the March, 1982 issue of Bizarre Adventures, editors Jim Shooter and Dennis O'Neil decided to use one of the oldest and cheesiest tricks in magazine publishing to try and drum up newsstand sales: 

........exploitation ! ......... disguised as a Meaningful and Profound examination of a Social Issue of Deep Concern.

So it was that the cover of issue 31 features a Joe Jusko painting of an alluring blonde 'flashing' an array of firearms, while the cover blurb promises a 'hard look at violence'.

In his editorial page, O'Neil uses the sort of sententious wording that gives the more naive reader the impression that, by examining violence, Bizarre Adventures actually seeks to reduce it.....

I suspect that, with issue 31, the Marvel editorial staff was seeking to attract the readership of more 'adult' magazines like Heavy Metal. But with this issue of Bizarre Adventures, they failed, because the content is quite lame.

Most of the stories are contrived efforts at copying the satirical style of underground comix ('Dr. Deth with Kip and Muffy', and 'Recondo Rabbit', by Larry Hama; 'Bucky Bizarre' by Skeates and Smallwood). 

Others are pretentious ('The Philistine' by Frank Miller; 'Violence Wears Many Faces' by John Byrne). Some suffer from a makeshift approach and poor artwork ('The Hangman' by Gruenwald and Sienkiewicz).

Probably the best comic in the issue is 'Let There Be Life', written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Marvel veteran Herb Trimpe. 

DeFalco's plot is another simpleminded riff on seeing Irony in the Madness of War, but Trimpe's artwork - here uncompromised by graytones, or muddy color separations - really stands out. I've posted it below.

The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics

The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics
by Mike Benton

'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' (150 pp) was published in 1992 by Taylor Publishing Company (Dallas, TX). It's one of a series of volumes from 'The Taylor History of Comics' featuring overviews of different genres of comic books.

This is a hardbound, well-made book, although many of the scans used as illustrations suffer from some degree of cropping and low-res, presumably a consequence of the state of scanner technology ca. 1992.

'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' straddles the uncertain middle ground between a comprehensive (and expensive) reference text, and an affordable overview of the topic aimed at readers who are fans of the genre, collectors, or aficionados of pop culture in general. In my opinion, it does a reasonably good job, although with a print date of 1992, it is inevitably obsolete to some degree.

The book's chapters cover the field of dedicated science fiction comics from the 30s up to the early 90s.

Author Benton's remarks are a straightforward narrative of the comics and the creators, although he does slip in some anecdotes and cultural / sociological observations every now and then.

Benton relates how the genre waxed and waned in the years between 1930 - 1960. The 'planetary romance' style of pulp sf was predominant in the 40s and early 50s.

Basil Wolverton's classic 'Spacehawk' series was one of the more notable titles during this time (reprints were made available in the 1990s by Dark Horse Comics).

Benton devotes quite a bit of attention to the EC science fiction comics of the 1950s....these have been over-praised, in my opinion, particularly the issues that adapted Ray Bradbury stories. But all of the EC titles had outstanding artists.

The postwar era saw many titles devoted to spaceman heroes, a nod to the advent of television shows like Captain Video and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

Benton also devotes coverage to the DC sf comics of the late 50s and early 60s. These were well-done, and featured some of the more offbeat approaches introduced to the genre, such as 'The Atomic Knights' serial that ran in Strange Adventures.

The 60s and 70s saw the rise of sf comics that were based on popular television shows like 'Lost in Space', 'Land of the Giants' and 'The Outer Limits', while adaptations of blockbuster movies like Star Wars and Star Trek: The Motion Picture had a huge impact on the genre.

The book's final chapter looks at the state of the genre in the late 80s and early 90s, when the Great Comic Book Boom meant that older properties, like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, were rebooted and given a more modern aspect. 

Whether this was wise or not is open to question; for example, DC's 1988 reboot of Flash Gordon featured some truly shameless cheese being handed to the fanboys, as witnessed by this cover to issue 2, with its lineup of chicks in g-strings and Fetish Boots opening fire on our hero - !

'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' features (as its appendix) a Checklist of sf comics up to ca. 1991. 

There are going to be some titles listed in this Checklist, like Kammandi: The Last Boy On Earth ! that are familiar to sf fans, while more than a few are - I suspect - going to be complete unknowns (Gold Key published a sci-fi comic called Mighty Samson ?!).....

Summing up, 'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' - despite being dated - is about as useful an overview of the topic that one can find. With copies for sale for very reasonable prices, it's worth picking up if you're a fan of the genre - there are sure to be some comics listed in its pages that you've never heard of, but are worth seeking out.

Yukon Jack

Yukon Jack
back cover advertisement, Epic Illustrated magazine, August 1983

As a major storm dumps snow and cold temperatures on the Northeast, and the media work themselves into a frenzy with Winter Storm Watch coverage, it's time to take heart....... from a most Manly of Advertisements, from way back in 1983......

I have clinched and closed with the naked North

I have learned to defy and defend; Shoulder to

shoulder we have fought it out - yet the wild

must win in the end

[......why Hueblein, Inc., the Yukon Jack importer at that time, thought that Epic Illustrated was the type of magazine whose readership identified with macho, fur-wearing, whiskey-drinkin' mountain men, and thus an ideal publication from which to purchase a full-page back cover ad, is not entirely clear...........?! ]

The advertisement's verse excerpt is from 'The Heart of the Sourdough' by British-Canadian poet Robert William Service (1874 -1958).

Few poems are as Manly as this one............I've pasted it below in its entirety:

The Heart of the Sourdough

There where the mighty mountains
Bare their fangs unto the moon;
There where the sullen sun-dogs glare
In the snow-bright, bitter noon,
And the glacier-glutted streams sweep down
At the clarion call of June.

There where the livid tundras keep
Their tryst with the tranquil snows;
There where the silences are spawned,
And the light of hell-fire flows
Into the bowl of the midnight sky,
Violet, amber and rose.

There where the rapids churn and roar,
And the ice-floes bellowing run;
Where the tortured, twisted rivers of blood
Rush to the setting sun —
I've packed my kit and I'm going, boys,
Ere another day is done.
* * * * *


I knew it would call, or soon or late,
As it calls the whirring wings;
It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure,
It's the lure of the timeless things;
And to-night, oh, God of the trails untrod,
How it whines in my heart-strings!

I'm sick to death of your well-groomed gods,
Your make believe and your show;
I long for a whiff of bacon and beans,
A snug shakedown in the snow;
A trail to break, and a life at stake,
And another bout with the foe.

With the raw-ribbed Wild that abhors all life,
The Wild that would crush and rend,
I have clinched and closed with the naked North,
I have learned to defy and defend;
Shoulder to shoulder we have fought it out —
Yet the Wild must win in the end.

I have flouted the Wild; I have followed its lure,
Fearless, familiar, alone;
By all that the battle means and makes
I claim that land for mine own;
Yet the Wild must win, and a day will come
When I shall be overthrown.

Then when as wolf-dogs fight we've fought,
The lean wolf-land and I;
Fought and bled till the snows are red
Under the reeling sky;
Even as lean wolf-dog goes down
Will I go down and die.

Book Review: The Reincarnation of Peter Proud

Book Review: 'The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'
by Max Ehrlich

4 / 5 Stars

'The Reincarnation of Peter Proud' first was published in September, 1974; this Bantam paperback (278 pp) was issued in March, 1975, to coincide with the release of the motion picture of the same title.

I remember reading this paperback way back in 1975, but I could only remember the vaguest outline of the book when I decided to re-read now, forty (!) years later.....

The novel is set in 1974, in Los Angeles, where Peter Proud, 27, is a professor of anthropology at UCLA and a rising star in his field. 

Life seems to be working out very well for Peter Proud....except for the recent advent of the Dreams. There is a set of 11 of them, and they continuously repeat, night after night. Dreams of unusual vividness and clarity, dreams in which he is the inhabitant of the body of another man, in a time and place different from Los Angeles in 1974. Some of the Dreams are benign, while one is a genuine nightmare.......... a 'Lake Dream' nightmare in which the man whose body he is occupying, is murdered.

The Dreams, and the Lake Dream in particular, have come to dominate Peter Proud's sleeping hours, leaving him stressed and unable to rest. In an effort to address the Dreams, Proud finds himself seeking an explanation from a clairvoyant. From her, he learns that the soul occupying his body has been reincarnated time and again over thousands of years. And its most recent reincarnation is the young man who is murdered in the Lake Dream.

Peter Proud realizes that the only way he can exorcise the Dreams is to identify the young man who is the participant in them, and learn the circumstances of the murder. Using the few scant visual clues he can glean from the Dreams, Proud travels to New England, there to discover that reincarnation is not just an esoteric concept spawned by Eastern mysticism, but a real and genuine manifestation of the supernatural........

'Reincarnation' really doesn't fit into one genre; it's part psychological thriller, part detective story, with some occult and supernatural elements worked into the mix. As with Max Ehrlich's other novels, it's a very readable book that never gets too contrived, and delivers an offbeat, but satisfactory, ending.

I never saw the 1975 feature film based on the novel; most reviewers at amazon give it a good rating.

Summing up, 'The Reincarnation of Peter Proud' is one of the better 70s novels dealing with supernatural topics, and worth picking up.

Heavy Metal magazine Winter 1986

'Heavy Metal' magazine Winter 1986

January, 1986, and on MTV, the video for Sting's single 'The Russians' is in heavy rotation.

Heavy Metal magazine, having decreased from monthly to quarterly circulation, unveils its 'new and improved' Winter 1986 issue. Darryl Hanna is the cover subject, depicted on the poster for the upcoming film The Clan of the Cave Bear.

While most of this issue's content is not very memorable, it does feature the longest story ever printed by Jean-Michel Nicollet (using the pseudonym 'Sesar'). 

As with his July, 1985 Heavy Metal contribution 'Metropolis', Nicollet again turns to classic old films for inspiration........ this time it's King Kong that inspires a story titled 'The Great Kong', posted below.