Book Review: Greyhawk Adventures

Book Review: 'Greyhawk Adventures: Saga of Old City' by Gary Gygax 3 / 5 Stars

‘Saga of Old City’ (352 pp.) was published in October, 1985, and features cover artwork by Clyde Caldwell. It's the first volume in the ‘Gord of Greyhawk’ D & D series; the succeeding volume was ‘Artifact of Evil’ (1986). These novels focus on the adventures of Gord of Greyhawk, a thief and soldier of fortune.

Somewhat confusingly, following the publication of these novels Gygax switched publishers, so while TSR issued further volumes in the late 80s in the ‘Greyhawk’ series, many authored by Rose Estes, Gord was not a central character in these novels.

Instead, Gygax continued the ‘Gord the Rogue’ adventures under the Ace Books imprint: ‘City of Hawks’ (1987), ‘Night Arrant’ (1987), ‘Sea of Death’ (1987) , ‘Come Endless Darkness’ (1988) and ‘Dance of Demons’ (1988). If the mixed reviews posted at amazon.com are any guide, the ‘Gord the Rogue’ series eventually began to run out of steam creatively (not surprising in light of Gygax’s frenetic publishing schedule).

In ‘Saga of Old City’ we are introduced to Gord when he is a malnourished child, eking out a precarious living as an orphan in the slum quarter. The squalor and misery of his circumstances are communicated with dark humor.

Gord winds up in the employ of the Lord of the Beggar Guild, and becomes an accomplished thief, and street warfare strategist, by his teenaged years. When war breaks out between the Thieves Guild and the Beggar Guild, Gord is able to turn the situation to his advantage. Gord emerges as the victor of sorts, and embarks on a life of adventure and intrigue in the lands surrounding Greyhawk. His boon companions eventually include a druid named Curly and a barbarian named Chert; together, the trio will investigate a mysterious burial ground high in the mountains, where demons are rumored to guard a treasure of fabulous proportions…...

‘Saga’ is a fast-moving book, and I was, on the whole, pleasantly surprised by Gygax’s writing. The narrative is direct and unencumbered by elaborate literary stylings; Gygax understands that his D & D audience wants sword and sorcery action, and not the angst-riddled psychodrama of, for example, a ‘Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever’ novel.

Gord regularly finds himself in one tense situation after another, and he has a habit of fighting his way out of trouble rather than resorting to negotiations. The storyline switches locales with frequency, and new dangers are introduced on a continuous basis: bandits, monsters, and vengeful magistrates are all in pursuit of Gord at one time or another.

The book contains a number of pleasing gray-scale illustrations by well-known ‘chain mail bikini-wearing pinup girl’ artist Clyde Caldwell.

Gygax stuffs more action into 30 pages of text than most contemporary fantasy authors do in 100 pages. Needless to say, readers looking for in-depth characterization and atmosphere in their fantasy novels will probably be unfulfilled by ‘Saga’. However, those seeking an alternative to the labored, meticulous narratives that constitute much of the epic fantasy novels currently on store shelves will be pleased with ‘Saga’.

Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

'Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress' (novel, 1941) and 'Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge' (XBox game, 2003)

Back in 1970, or perhaps 1971 a neighborly woman named Esther Fuller, who was active in the Boy Scouts in my hometown, dropped off a box filled with old books at our house. The books were from the 1900s on up to 1940s. Since I was only 10 or 11 years old at the time, and my brothers and sisters even younger, we didn’t realize that these books were actually valuable as heirlooms and treated them rather carelessly. But we did read them, and one of the most interesting was ‘Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress’ (Grosset and Dunlap, 1941) by Oskar Lebeck and Gaylord DuBois.

DuBois (1899 – 1993) was a prolific writer of children’s books and comics, many in partnership with Lebeck; his granddaughter maintains a blog devoted to his life and works. Online information on Lebeck is more scarce; as best I can tell, he was an editor of children’s books and comics at Dell publishing during the 30s, 40s, and perhaps the 50s.

“Stratosphere Jim’ first appeared as a comic serialized in Crackajack Funnies, issue 19, January, 1940. The series was quite popular and ran until issue 43 (January, 1942), when Crackajack ceased publication. Capitalizing on the comic's success, Lebeck and DuBois teamed up to publish a novelization of ‘Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress’.

 The 'Jim' of the title is one Jim Baxter, gifted engineer and pilot, who creates a stylish ‘stratoplane’ that is remarkably advanced for its time, with a rocket-assisted engine and helicopter-style props embedded in the wings. But with tensions rising between the USA and a foreign power overseas, Jim realizes that a more formidable weapon may be required should conflict break out. So, with the assistance of his friend Harry Wells, Jim sets up a secret aircraft plant in the Rocky Mountains and constructs an enormous four-engine bomber, the ‘Fortress’ of the title.

Before long Jim and his crew are taking the Fortress across the Atlantic and into Europe, where forces of the malevolent nation of Caucasia – a stand-in, of course, for Nazi Germany- are wreaking havoc on their neighbors. The action picks up as Jim and the Flying Fortress engage in battle with elements of the Caucasian air force, navy, and army. And when a massive enemy invasion fleet is spotted heading for the Caribbean, and possibly the Panama Canal, the only force available to deter it is Jim and his flying marvel. Can Stratosphere Jim act in time to eliminate the threat to American freedom ?

At 215 pages the book is a quick read, and it is profusely illustrated with b & w line drawings by Alden McWilliams. The action at times leads to a high body count, which would undoubtedly cause consternation among contemporary Young Adult editors; perhaps more so, the ‘GO USA !’ attitude that permeates the book, which, while very much in keeping with the atmosphere of the immediate prewar era, will today be regarded as very politically incorrect.

But the thing I remembered most about the book upon reading it back in the early 70s was the funky nature of the aircraft: Dieselpunk / Art Deco / Futurist monoplanes with bulky engine cowlings, and nonretractable wheels encased in enormous fairings. The stratoplane features a cockpit nestled against the vertical stabilizer, much like Jimmy Doolittle’s 1932 ‘GeeBee Model R’ race plane. The Flying Fortress has an interior packed with enormous cannons, a hanger for the stratoplane, a dining room, lounge, and galley (!) and helicopter rotors that permit it to hover in mid-air.

The years went by and ‘Stratosphere Jim’ was lost to time and more or less forgotten. Until 2000, when I learned that Microsoft was releasing a PC game called ‘Crimson Skies’, which had in turn been developed from a 1998 board game by FASA. 

Crimson Skies was set in a alternate USA where, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the country has split into independently governed regional blocs. Prop-driven aircraft have emerged as the major technology for commerce and transportation and the skies are filled with zeppelins and cargo planes. Unfortunately, air piracy is also ever-present, and the game centers on the adventures of one Nathan Zachary as he combats the pirates.

Along with a 30’s pulp-friendly atmosphere, the game avidly incorporates Art Deco and Dieselpunk elements into its design, and features a great selection of aircraft that would be right at home in ‘Stratosphere Jim’. Sadly, the PC game was horribly buggy and I didn’t buy it, but when in October 2003 Microsoft produced a version of the game for the Xbox console titled ‘Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge’ I picked it up. 

This is a decent game; the graphics are well done, the airplane controls are reasonably user-friendly, there are a variety of mission types, and the storyline is engaging. The game’s difficulty and save system can be frustrating during the later missions (the final mission is ridiculously difficult and requires using the cheat codes to complete). But ‘Crimson Skies’ comes pretty close to providing the player with an experience akin to that of 'Stratosphere Jim and His Flying Fortress'.

'Heavy Metal' magazine September 1979

For the September 1979 issue of Heavy Metal Jim Cherry provided the front cover, ‘Love Hurts’, while the back cover is an untitled painting by Val Mayerik.

This issue has several illustrated short prose pieces; ‘The Grail War’ by Richard Monaco, ‘A World Between’ by Norman Spinrad, and ‘Elric’ by Moorcock. There is a humorous Buck Rogers strip by Jim Lawrence and Grey Morrow and some b & w comics from Chantal Montellier and ‘Alias’ (Moebius). But the best comic in the issue is ‘The Doll’, by J. K. Potter, which I’ve posted below.

‘The Doll’ is one of the trippiest pieces to appear in the magazine. I have no idea how long it took Potter to assemble and photograph the composite images, as well as applying the various ‘warp’ effects to the photographs; this was done back in 1979, when Photoshop didn’t really exist. But the overall effect is creepy and memorable.

Killraven: 'Amazing Adventures' No. 21

Killraven: 'Amazing Adventures' No. 21 (November 1973)

Amazing Adventures 21 (November 1973) features Killraven in “The Mutant Slayers”, written by Don McGregor and illustrated by Herb Trimpe:

Killraven and his crew are still battling the Warlord, a human lackey of the Martians. At one point in the comic, Killraven comes upon the ruins of Yankee Stadium (ca. 2018) and provokes an attack by humans and animals mutated by the release of toxins from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons deployed in a failed effort to stop the Martian invasion of the Earth (back in 2000).

These are some genuinely bizarre, tongue-in-cheek creatures; my favorite is the amalgam of man and crab (!) The scene depicting the mutilation of Killraven’s prickly comrade Hawk- by crab-man drool- is a demented gem.

No other comic of the era could match ‘Killraven’ for its lunatic imagination and energy….and even today, only Britain’s 2000AD / Judge Dredd books really succeed in approaching these qualities half as well…

Book Review: Dangerous Visions #1

Book Review: 'Dangerous Visions # 1', edited by Harlan Ellison 1/5 Stars

Dangerous Visions (Doubleday, 1967) was the first major, and much-ballyhooed, anthology to showcase what would soon become known as ‘New Wave’ SF. With the passage of time is has become abundantly clear that the majority of the stories featured in the book were underwhelming.

The main impact of Dangerous Visions was in its message to the SF publishing industry: it was a financially and critically successful anthology of all-original tales. This was in contrast to the traditional industry approach to collections, in which previously published stories from the SF magazines were recycled in hardbound and paperbound anthologies. In a very real sense Visions paved the way for the prominent role original anthologies now occupy in SF publishing, and, I would argue, the entire professional career of Martin H. Greenberg.

‘Dangerous Visions #1’ (Berkley, 1969, 220 pp.) was the first of a three-volume paperback reprinting of the original anthology. The cover illustration is uncredited, but appears to be by Don Ivan Punchatz. The interior illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon, that appeared in the hardcover edition of Dangerous Visions, are faithfully reproduced here.

There are lengthy self-serving and back-patting introductions by Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison, and then Ellison issues a gushing introduction to each individual story. And then each story has a brief afterward by the author.

The lineup:

‘Evensong’ by Lester del Rey: a seemingly omnipotent being gets a harsh comeuppance. One of the better stories in the anthology, and one of the better stories del Rey ever wrote, probably because it’s very short, and didn’t give him too much text in which to commit his usual sin of bad writing.

‘Flies’ by Robert Silverberg: a crewman is rescued from a badly damaged craft and revived by gifted aliens, who, in order to learn more about the Human Condition, send him back to Earth. Not one of Silverberg’s best.

‘The Day After the Day the Martians Came’ by Frederik Pohl: the discovery of sentient life on Mars serves to illuminate race relations on Earth.

‘Riders of the Purple Wage’ by Philip Jose Farmer: a hopelessly self-indulgent and artsy attempt to rewrite ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ as a SF novelette. No other story in the anthology- and indeed from the SF literature of the entire 60’s – has aged as badly.

‘The Malley System’ by Miriam Allen DeFord: criminals in a near-future prison get too much of a good thing.

‘A Toy for Juliette’ by Robert Bloch: for amusement, a far-future murderess disposes of victims kidnapped, and brought forward in time, from past eras; but her latest plaything comes from Victorian England’s Whitechapel district… this tale has aged reasonably well, and serves as an example of a good short story by Bloch (who tended to falter in his efforts at producing successful novels).

‘The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World’, by Harlan Ellison: Ellison takes Bloch’s plot and continues it, albeit with groovy prose stylings mixed with rather graphic descriptions of violence. Another story that, while considered shocking and provocative at the time of its appearance, has aged reasonably well and deserves its status as a pioneering entry in Splatterpunk.

‘The Night That All Time Broke Out’ by Brian Aldiss: an accidental release of ‘time gas’ turns a northern English suburb into chaos. Yet another effort by Aldiss to emulate J. G. Ballard, but too diffuse and clumsy to be impressive.

The verdict ? The stories by del Rey, Bloch, and Ellison live up to the objectives sought by Ellison, in his role as editor of an anthology that featured pieces designed to transcend traditional sci-fi. That's reason enough to recommend his volume as having a place on the bookshelf of the New Wave aficionado.  

Where the Summer Ends by Karl Edward Wagner

'Where the Summer Ends' by Karl Edward Wagner

When the Dog Days of Summer are in effect, and the atmosphere is sweltering and steamy and every vacant lot or untended piece of turf gets swamped with vegetation, I readily think of the story ‘Where the Summer Ends’ (1981) by Karl Edward Wagner.

While Wagner is best known for his novels about Kane, the red-haired sword and sorcery adventurer, in my opinion, Wagner’s real strength as a writer was his short stories. And the best of these short stories is ‘Summer’, which appeared in the 1981 anthology 'Dark Forces' edited by Kirby McAuley.

The story is also printed in the anthology of southern ghost and supernatural stories ‘Nightmares in Dixie’ (1987), edited by McSherry, Waugh and Greenberg; and in ‘The American Fantasy Tradition’, edited by Brian M. Thomsen.

“Where the Summer Ends’ is set in Knoxville, Tennessee in the summer of 1977. Mercer, the protagonist of the story, is an older college student who is rehabbing a house in a seedy, decaying neighborhood. He furnishes his house with items salvaged from the abandoned homes littering the area, or with better-quality purchases from Grady, an elderly, cantankerous ‘antiques’ dealer who lives nearby. Grady has a fine mantelpiece that Mercer covets; with the strategic application of the right amount of liquor, maybe Grady will sell it for a price Mercer can afford.

The summer is hot and sticky and there are thunderstorms nearly every night. The entire ghetto has been overrun with kudzu, the fast-growing shrub originally imported from Japan. It overgrows the deserted homes and parking lots and playgrounds and it’s even encroaching on Grady’s house.

Mercer’s cat has gone missing.

Winos and vagrants from the neighborhood are turning up dead; old Morny’s corpse, mutilated and missing most of the skin, was discovered within a stand of kudzu.

And Mercer, when he stands very still on the sidewalk on a sweltering afternoon, hears rustling and skittering noises coming from under the thick clumps of kudzu…

'Spacehawk' by Basil Wolverton
from 'Death Rattle' No. 14 January 1988

'Death Rattle' was a horror comic published by Kitchen Sink Press in the 80s. It featured b & w stories, many by veterans of the underground comix of the 60s and 70s, as well as an occasional reprint of earlier material. The gruesome cover for this issue is by Dean Armstrong.

In this issue, the reprint was a Basil Wolverton 'Spacehawk' adventure from 'Target' comics ca. 1940; I've excerpted it in full here.

What with the commotion over Fletcher Hanks, a contemporary of Wolverton's, it needs be remembered that when it came to quirky genius, Wolverton was just as gifted as Hanks, and this Spacehawk story is a good illustration of that fact.

(click on each thumbnail to expand to a full-page image)

Book Review: Year of the Quiet Sun

Book Review: 'The Year of the Quiet Sun' by Wilson Tucker3 / 5 Stars

This edition of ‘The Year of the Quiet Sun’ (1970) is an Ace paperback (252 pp.); the cover artists are Leo and Diane Dillon.

It’s 1978, and the US is still at war in Southeast Asia, having in fact traded local nukes with the Red Chinese. Women wear bathing suits with transparent tops, the Arabs and Israelis have fought yet another war, and archeologist Brian Chaney has released a controversial best-seller that argues that the Book of Revelation was a work of fiction.

When an attractive young woman named Kathryn van Hise accosts him on a Florida beach, Chaney is uncooperative, thinking her to be yet another reporter. However, van Hise is a federal employee and she offers him an unusual assignment: join the Bureau of Standards..... and travel forward in time !

Chaney finds himself stationed at a secret government installation outside Chicago, where a major project is underway to construct a time travel vehicle called the TDV. Chaney is one of three men who will be sent forward to the year 2000, to reconnoiter and determine if the US will be a better place after the social tumult of the 60s subsides…..or not, as the case may be.

Much of the first 110 pages of the book are plodding, and mainly consist of conversations wherein author Tucker demonstrates his ability to have his male and female characters engage in flirty repartee. However, after this protracted meandering our main characters actually do travel forward in time, the plot picks up momentum, and the final sections of the book are an engaging read.

The time travel portions of the novel are convincing because Tucker takes a conservative approach, and avoids introducing paradoxes or other baroque consequences of violating the laws of causality. The mechanics of arriving in a period twenty years from the present, recording information, and then returning to the past are well-conceived, and help keep the narrative grounded in a plausible ‘what if’ scenario based on the social conditions existing in the late 60’s.

I won’t spoil things by revealing the novel’s major plot hinge, save to say that while it may seem dated to contemporary readers, it does succeed in imparting a thoughtful note to the story’s closing pages.

Killraven: 'Amazing Adventures' No. 20 (September 1973)


This issue introduces a story arc involving The Warlord, a former scientist in the employ of the Martians, who was mutilated by Killraven. Re-equipped with a steel arm, the Warlord is anxious to have revenge on Killraven. Marv Wolfman and Herb Trimpe take over the writing and artistic duties, respectively, and they stay true to the wacky, over-the-top spirit of the book. In the sequence I've excerpted here, Killraven and his homeboy M'Shulla trade wisecracks as they take down a Martian Tripod by the use of underwater-assisted unbalancing (?!).

I've also posted a page showing the Warlord in conversation with one of the Martians. Marvel's depiction of what are supposed to be fear-inducing creatures is underwhelming, as their design of the Martians resembles squat, brown versions of Cousin Itt from the 'Addams Family' cartoons and TV show.

Book Review: 'The Blue World' by Jack Vance

5 / 5 Stars

‘The Blue World’ was originally published in 1966; this Ballantine Del Rey paperback edition (190 pp.) was published in 1977, with a cover illustration by Vincent DiFate.

On an unnamed planet where the surface is entirely covered by a shallow sea, the descendants of a crashed earth spaceship have set up a civilization centered on living atop ‘floats’, enormous lily pads hundreds of yards in circumference. Food is garnered from the rich marine ecosystem; the weather is balmy; and life much like that imagined to take place on a tropical paradise.

Complicating this potentially idyllic setting are the ‘kragen’, squid-like creatures that regularly encroach on the sponge farms that constitute a major food source for the humans. In an effort to deter the pilfering of the lesser kragen, the humans have entered into an uneasy alliance with the biggest kragen of all: ‘King Kragen’ is several hundred feet long, and armed with sharp mandibles and formidable tentacles. The price for having King Kragen defend their sponge pens from interlopers is steep, as a significant portion of the crop is allocated to meet his ever-increasing appetite.

Sklar Hast, a brawny but thoughtful young man, brings conflict to Tranque float, where he lives as a member of a signaler caste, by questioning the need to cater to King Kragen. His attitudes spark resentment from the priestly caste of Intercessors, who bear the responsibility of summoning King Kragen to eliminate the lesser kragen when the latter are discovered plundering the sponge pens.

Before long, Sklar Hast’s rebelliousness leads to a violent confrontation, and his exile from the float community. But Hast is undeterred; he seeks to not only establish a new colony, but one devoted to the destruction of King Kragen. Can he and his band of followers devise a method to kill a monster squid when human technology is limited to what substances can be derived from aquatic plants and animals ? Can he deter the resentful Intercessors long enough to give his new colony a chance at survival ? Or will Sklar Hast and his revolutionary movement fall before the wrath of King Kragen ?

The Blue World’ is a fast-moving and well-written SF adventure. As is usual with Vance, the narrative is mainly a platform upon which he can indulge in his goal of crafting ornate passages of dialogue, and adjective-rich descriptions of life within a unique marine environment.

But he takes care to see that the plot holds the reader’s interest, using memorable adversaries, typified by the arrogant Intercesor Barquan Blasdel, as capable foils to Sklar Hast and his band of renegades. The strategies whereby Hast and his followers contrive to deal with the kragens, and later King Kragen himself, have a genuine scientific background and impart mounting suspense to the novel’s last 50 pages. Readers interested in a well-told story that avoids the more indolent pacing of Vance’s other SF novels will find ‘The Blue World’ to be a pleasing read.