Mechanismo by Harry Harrison

'Mechanismo' by Harry Harrison

 

 

In the late 70s Harry Harrison authored several trade paperback, sf art books : 'Great Balls of Fire' (1977), 'Mechanismo' (1978) and 'Planet Story' (1979). This was something of an adventure in sf publishing, for at that time, art books with sf or fantasy themes were comparatively rare, and the chain stores (Waldenbooks, Coles, and B. Dalton) that dominated the retail sphere in those days were only just beginning to realize that additional shelf space and inventory should be devoted to the genre.

Mechanismo (120 pp) is printed on quality stock, and at 10 ¼ x 10 ¼ “, couldn’t entirely fit onto the platen of my scanner. So the images I’m posting here are cropped to some extent.

 

Angus McKie

Harrison’s contribution are 6 short essays on ‘Star Ships’, ‘Mechanical Man’, Weapons and Space Gear’, ‘Space Cities’, ‘Fantastic Machines’, and ‘Movies’. Additional text, apparently supplied by the publisher, provides commentary – some of it fictional – for the illustrations. Most (all ?) of the artwork in Mechanismo was previously published, usually as cover art for sf paperbacks published in the UK.

 Colin Hay

 Jennifer Eachus

 Richard Clifton-Dey

Overall, Harrison’s essays are entertaining rather than pedantic, and written with a note of humor. There are some tidbits dropped that may move readers to seek out 70s sf novels and story collections (for example, I’d never been aware of Harrison’s matter transmission anthology, 'One Step from Earth' (1970), prior to reading about it in Mechanismo).

 Robin Hiddon

Jim Burns

Angus McKie

The quality of pieces (which are reproduced in black and white and color) from the 19 participating artists varies; some are well done, while others are mediocre. The works by Jim Burns, a rising star in the sf illustration field, are among the most eye-catching. There are a large number of contributions from Angus McKie, the leading sf illustrator in the late 70s and a frequent contributor to Heavy Metal magazine. Ralph McQuarrie provides some paintings from Star Wars, and there are a couple of H. R. Giger submissions, too.

 Angus McKie (cover of the March, 1979 issue of Heavy Metal)

‘Mechanismo’ may not draw much enthusiasm from contemporary sf fans, who are used to the revolutionary changes in sf and fantasy illustration wrought by the use of computers and illustration software. But those with a nostalgic bent may want to pick up Mechanismo and take in the flavor of Old School sf illustration.

Angus McKie

  Ralph McQuarrie

Ranxerox Part II

'Ranxerox' Part II 
by Tambourini and Liberatore
from the August 1983 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

This second installment of the series starts off with our hero prostrate on the sidewalk......then segues to a gruesome act of violence against a child (!), a gruesome neck-breaking, and finally, some unique, early 80s Bondage fashion....!

Book Review: The Vang: The Military Form

Book Review: 'The Vang: The Military Form' by Christopher Rowley

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Vang: The Military Form’ (Ballantine / Del Rey, 1988, 369 pp., cover art by Steve Hickman) is the second novel in the so-called ‘Vang’ trilogy; the initial volume is ‘Starhammer’ (1986), and the third volume ‘The Vang: Battlemaster’ (1990). 


[It's not obligatory to have read 'Starhammer' prior to reading 'The Military Form', as the latter stands more or less on its own as a trilogy entry.]

The ‘Vang’ trilogy received a new lease on life starting in 2001 with the phenomenal success of the ‘Halo’ series of video games, which feature a race of parasitic alien monsters, The Flood, who are modeled on the Vang:

‘The Military Form’ is set some 1,000 years after the events of the opening novel, ‘Starhammer’. Terra has succeeded in using the Starhammer to overthrow the tyranny of the blue-skinned, alien laowon, and humanity has expanded into much of the galaxy. Certain areas of space remain off-limits to exploration, however; not because of laowon edicts emplaced for economic reasons, but because they were scenes of combat millennia ago, between the race of un-named froglike aliens who created the Starhammer, and the virulent bioweapon – the Vang – that extinguished their civilization.

Much of the action in ‘The Military Form’ takes place on the planet Saskatch, which has a climate reminiscent of eastern Canada. The arboreal habitat of Sakatch is the galaxy’s sole source of the potent hallucinogen TA45, and the clandestine trade in this narcotic drives the planetary economy. With the exception of a small contingent of police officers and judges, every legal and corporate entity on Saskatch has been corrupted to a greater or lesser degree by the enormous sums of money to be gained by trading in TA45.

As the novel opens, an asteroid mining ship, the Seed of Hope, is on an expedition to the asteroid belt in the Saskatch system. Violating Federation proscriptions against venturing into the area, the Seed comes upon a strange, silvery object of alien design. Consumed by greed, the Seed’s crew endeavors to blast a hole in the object….but what they don’t know is that the alien artifact is a survival capsule. 

And lodged within its interior, having endured thousands of years in suspended animation, is the quiescent stage of the Vang’s Military Form.............

As with ‘Starhammer’, ‘The Military Form’ takes its time getting underway, and patience is required to navigate the book’s first 100 or so pages, as author Rowley sets up his cast of characters with some deliberation. 

Once the Military Form arrives on the unsuspecting planet and its major metropolis, Beliveau City, the action content gradually dominates the narrative and the plot gains momentum, with some genuinely entertaining battle sequences shaping the book’s last 50 pages. 

The Military Form are truly nasty monsters, ones that make the alien bioweapons in Ridley Scott’s 2012 ‘Alien’ prequel Prometheus look..... benevolent. I won’t disclose any spoilers, but I will say that author Rowley relates the gruesome actions of the Vang (which frequently involve inserting unpleasant things into their hapless victims’ lower GI tracts) with just the right note of deadpan humor. 

As an adventure / action novel, ‘The Military Form’ satisfies, and I recommend it to anyone interested in sf that features aliens that abhor the 'Kumbaya' spirit of interstellar relations……