Book Review: The Ancient Enemy

Book Review: 'The Ancient Enemy' by Donald Thompson

2 / 5 Stars

‘The Ancient Enemy’ ( 220 pp) was published by Fawcett Crest in 1979; the cover artist is uncredited.

It’s no major spoiler to disclose that the subject of this horror novel is………carnivorous insects.

As the novel opens, its protagonist, Dr. Roberto Costaign, is driving up into the mountain country of Nevada, looking forward to a week of vacation.

Author Thompson knows he’s not writing for the Quiet Horror crowd; by page five, Costaign witnesses a disturbing sight: a nude young woman is staggering down the side of the road, her long blonde hair askew, her body covered in blood….!

Costaign takes the young woman into the nearby town of Cherakowa. There, Sheriff Anton Whitney asks Costaign to accompany him back up the mountain road to where the woman probably was working: the brothel known as Eros Ranch.

Arriving at the Ranch, Costaign and Whitney find the Ranch to be……you guessed it…..Eerily Quiet.

A bit of poking around reveals.......... a scene of shocking horror……..!

Has Plague descended on the hapless Eros Ranch ? Sheriff Whitney returns to town and calls the state health department to ask for an epidemiologist.

But the Mayor of Cherakowa asks him to lay off any further intervention………for the town is just starting its Centennial Festival, a major moneymaker. The last thing Cherakowa needs is rumors of plague, a state task force, and blocked roads.

Against his better judgment, Sheriff Whitney agrees to soft-peddle the disaster at the Ranch just long enough for the Festival to close…..a decision that will have fateful consequences. For the epidemiologist – an attractive woman named Pat Symington – isn’t the only person heading to the Ranch. A group of Working Girls and their Vietnam Veteran boyfriends have decided to stop by the Ranch, too………..setting up a confrontation with a group of homicidal bikers bent on revenge against the Sheriff.

And just under the soil surrounding the Ranch, the Ancient Enemy is preparing to come out with the arrival of dusk………there are many of them, and they all are hungry……..

‘The Ancient Enemy’ is a classic late 70’s eco-horror novel, one with thematic resemblances to movies like Willard, Phase IV, Frogs, and Squirm. 

Author Thompson’s prose style is not particularly sophisticated: men Squiggle through bushes, and water Giggles Out through a tiny hole.

But, to be fair, such writing isn’t all that much different from the purple prose Ramsey Campbell used in his stories of the era, stories frequently considered among the 'Year’s Best Horror Stories'.

And ‘The Ancient Enemy’ has a narrative that is fast-moving and action-centered, making it a jolt of adrenaline when compared to the labored, overwritten horror stories of Charles L. Grant, Dennis Etchison, and T. E. D. Klein that were garnering much praise in the late 70s.

Summing up, I can’t recommend ‘The Ancient Enemy’ as a must-read. But if you are fond of those low, low budget ‘creature’ films that air on the SyFy TV, then you may want to pick up a copy.

Shift: Vampire from Scream issue 5

Shift: Vampire
written by Augustine Funnell
art by Emilio Bernado
from Scream (Skywald) No. 5, April 1974

An offbeat little tale that asks the question: what if a vampire had access to a time machine......?

Book Review: Ossian's Ride

Book Review: 'Ossian's Ride' by Fred Hoyle

3 / 5 Stars

‘Ossian’s Ride’ first was published in 1959; this Berkley Medallion paperback (153 pp) was published in January 1961. The cover art is by Richard Powers.

The novel is set in the near future, that is, 1970. Ireland is the most technologically advanced nation in the world, thanks to the efforts of a cryptic entity called the Industrial Corporation of Eire, or ICE.

Founded in 1958, as a humble enterprise to commercialize chemicals extracted from peat, the ICE has overseen the advent of fission power and other advanced technologies within the boundaries of Ireland – but does not share its knowledge and expertise with the rest of a bewildered world. Indeed, County Kerry, where the ICE is located, is closed to all visitors save those scientists from around the globe who elect to come and work for the agency.

The British government has viewed Ireland’s rise to power with mingled envy and alarm. Unfortunately, all efforts by the British to infiltrate the ICE and learn its secrets have been dismal failures, as the ICE is not only adept at counterespionage, but takes a mocking tone as it dismantles one British spy ring after another.

As the novel opens a young mathematician and recent Cambridge graduate named Thomas Sherwood is recruited by British Intelligence to discover the secret within Ireland. The hope is that Sherwood can credibly pose as a scientist with a legitimate interest in working for the ICE. Sherwood is sent to Dublin, there to contact one of the last remnants of the UK’s spy ring. From Dublin, his mission is to enter County Kerry, learn the ICE’s secrets of fission power, and bring them back to London……..

The cover blurbs for ‘Ossian’s Ride’ state that it’s a novel in the tradition of John Buchan’s ‘The 39 Steps’, and this certainly is true. Much of the plot in ‘Ossian’ deals with Sherwood’s travels amidst the bucolic countryside of Ireland, its quaint villages and cities, in the course of evading pursuit or seeking his next contact. While occasional episodes of violence give the narrative sufficient momentum, this is by no means a slam-bang adventure novel with explosions and gadgets.

‘Ossian’ is written with the clean, careful prose style that marks the sf authored by Fred Hoyle. I found it an easy read. But its major weakness is the ending; while I won’t disclose any spoilers, I will say that I found it unconvincing, as well as imparting a contrived character to many of the plot developments preceding it.

Summing up, if you’re looking for a well-crafted short sf novel, then ‘Ossian’s Ride’ is worth picking up. But be mindful that its Big Revelation is purely in keeping with the attitudes of sf from the late 50s.

Cheap Trick: Dream Police

Cheap Trick: 'Dream Police'
released September 21, 1979

I remember when this album was released in September of 1979......it had a very cool cover (note Rick Neilsen is toting a chain saw, with a dismembered female mannequin lying nearby). 

The interior gatefold and back cover also were pretty elaborate.

I didn't know it at the time, but the band made a music video to promote the album........this was two years before MTV even existed, so it was rather unusual for 1979.

Although the title track and the followup single 'Voices' are the best known cuts, there are a couple of other tracks worth listening too on the album. These are garage rock songs, genuine 70s stuff. 

The signature song in the album probably is the 9 minute 'Gonna Raise Hell'......an overambitious song, and arguably an outstanding example of 70s Excess (there is an segment where Robin Zander tries to screech and wail like Robert Plant........!) but also a song possessed of a kind of crazed energy and exuberance that is very rare in today's over-produced guitar rock........

Book Review: Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu

Book Review: 'Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu' by L. Neil Smith

0 / 5 Stars

'Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu' (182 pp) was published by Ballantine Books in July, 1983. The cover artwork is by William Schmidt.

Lester Neil Smith (b. 1946) wrote three Lando Calrissian adventures for Ballantine; 'Mindharp' is the first of the trilogy, the other two being 'Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon' (1983) and 'Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka' (1983).

[According to PorPor Blog reader Edo Bosnar, 'Mindharp' is set prior to the film Star Wars IV: A New Hope, as Lando is in possession of the MiIlenium Falcon and using it to travel around various star systems in search of gambling venues, and easy money.]

When Lando hears rumors of The Treasure of Rafa - a priceless artifact located (logically enough) in the Rafa system, he decides to investigate. Unfortunately for our hero, he falls afoul of two reprobates on Rafa IV: Duttes Mir and Rokur Gepta. They make Lando an offer he can't refuse......... travel to Rafa V and retrieve the artifact: the Mindharp of Sharu.

The Mindharp is a musical instrument left behind by the Sharu, a humanoid race of considerable technological advancement, who mysteriously vanished thousands of years ago. If Lando can find it and bring it back to Duttes Mir and Rokur Gepta, he will be a wealthy man - or so they tell him.

He'll also be released from prison.

Lando has no choice but to agree to find the Mindharp. Accompanied by an eccentric old man named Moh, and a droid with the cutesy name of Vuffi Ra, Lando makes for Raffa V. 

But finding the Harp won't be easy: lurking at Raffa V are hostile tribesmen, crystal trees that leech away one's mind, and the knowledge that Duttes Mir and Rokur Gepta are the kind of men who rarely keep their bargains...........

While I always have reduced expectations when reading a Franchise novel, 'Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu' was a chore to finish. I kept plugging away, chapter after chapter, hoping that at some point the story would get better. But it never did.

L. Neil Smith wrote a number of sf novels during the 80s, which I have not read. Whether those novels are well-written or not is unclear. But with 'Mindharp', he was simply writing to pay the bills. His prose style throughout 'Mindharp' displays a deliberately campy style that gives the entire endeavor a hokey, facetious attitude.

Here's a sample of the book's dialogue:

Lando slammed a palm on the armrest of his chair: "Well, I'll be double-dyed, hornswoggled, and trussed up like a holiday fowl ! We were set up, Vuffi Ra ! Gepta must have had his convict spies watching the port for months - possibly years - to find a sucker with the right qualifications: gambler, spaceship-captain, with an unenameled droid and a weak mind. That's why neither a creepy old Tund magician nor that ugly neckless governor of his could play this hand themselves: they don't fit the Toka legend !"

The entire book is filled with this stuff.........it's painful to read. 

Even die-hard Star Wars fans are urged to pass on this dud !

Battle for the Planet of the Apes Part IV

Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Part IV of VII
by Doug Moench (script) and Sonny Trinidad, Yong Montano, and Dino Castrillo (art) 
Planet of the Apes (Marvel / Curtis) No. 25, October 1976

Part One is here. 
Part Two is here.
Part Three is here.
Part Five is here.
Part Six is here.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes Part III

Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Parts III and IV of VII
by Doug Moench (script) and Sonny Trinidad, Yong Montano, and Dino Castrillo (art) 
Planet of the Apes (Marvel / Curtis) No. 25, October 1976

The entirety of this issue of the magazine was devoted to continuing the 'Battle' adaption....a team of three artists was recruited to handle the art chores.

Both Yong Montano and Dino Castrillo were Filipino artists, who did a variety of work for Marvel in the mid-70s.

I have posted Part III below.

Part One is here. 
Part Two is here.
Part Four is here.
Part Five is here.
Part Six is here.