Book Review: Tomorrow

Book Review: 'Tomorrow' by Philip Wylie

3 / 5 Stars

Philip Wylie (1902 –1971) wrote a number of apocalyptic sf novels, with ‘When Words Collide’ (1933) perhaps his best known work. ‘Tomorrow’ (1954) and ‘Triumph’ (1963) were nuclear war novels, very much the spiritual predecessors to Streiber and Kunetka’s 'Warday' (1984). Wylie's posthumous novel, ‘The End of the Dream’ (1972) was an eco-disaster novel.

Wylie had considerable experience as a reporter and writer on the atomic bomb and its implications for national defense and world peace. During the mid-1940s Wylie was an advisor on matters of nuclear weapons to senator Brien MacMahon, who chaired United States Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy. MacMahon introduced the bill for the Atomic Energy Act of 1945, which in turn created the Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947. Wylie also served on the Dade County, Florida civil defense council. 

illustration by Alexander Leydenfrost for 'If A-Bombs Blast US City', from the February, 1951 issue of Pageant magazine

Wylie’s attitudes toward nuclear war centered on the necessity of civil defense, and the need for the United States to maintain a massive retaliatory capacity in order to deter the Soviet Union from launching World War Three. 

 image taken from

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php

‘Tomorrow’  was first published in hardback in 1954; this Popular Library paperback, 288 pp, was released in February 1956. 

A Readers Digest Condensed Books version, published in 1954, featured excellent illustrations by Ed Vebell; these can be viewed at the 'Today's Inspiration' blog.

illustration taken from 

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2013/09/ed-vebell-condensed.html

'Tomorrow' is essentially a polemic.....about Civil Defense.

The book takes place in the Midwest, in the twin cities of Green Prairie and River City. The narrative follows a cast of characters drawn from families living in the outlying middle-class neighborhoods of Green Prairie.

The Connors include Henry and Beth, sons Ted and Chuck, and daughter Nora. Next door live the Baileys, husband Beau, wife Netta, and daughter Lenore. 

front cover of 'Atomic War !' No.1, November 1952, Ace Comics (US)

The Connors are devoted to Green Prairie’s Civil Defense Corps, dutifully reporting to exercises and drills, even as their relatives scoff at such nonsense. While her parents are indifferent to CD, Lenore Bailey serves as a radiation monitor, doffing a yellow overcoat and wielding a Geiger counter for her share of the local drills.

 image taken from

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php

Wylie spends the first three-fourths of the novel laying out the personalities and foibles of his cast, and this is a major weakness of ‘Tomorrow’, as most of its length is essentially occupied with suburban melodrama.

Later chapters give increasing hints of the apocalypse to come, and, if the reader sticks with ‘Tomorrow’ long enough, X-Day does arrive, and with it a nuclear attack on the twin cities. At this point the novel kicks into gear, and Wylie does a very good job of conveying the gruesome aftermath of a fission bomb detonation.

panel from 'Atomic War !' No. 1, November 1952, Ace Comics (US)

Needless to say, those characters who scoffed at CD get their just desserts, even as Wylie overlooks some aspects of a nuke detonation - such as the scope and effects of fallout - that would in large part nullify many CD efforts.
 

 image taken from

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php

As a 'what if' novel, 'Tomorrow' exhausts too much of its content on tedious expositions in which author Wylie excoriates those of his fellow citizens who are too lazy and stupid to recognize that Civil Defense was a vital part of their duties as Americans. 

The nadir of this approach to storytelling comes near the book's midpoint, when Wylie has a newspaper editor deliver a 14-page screed that, among other things, touches on the evils of McCarthyism, the futility of negotiating with Commies, and idiocy of entertaining the 'it can't happen here' mindset of the petite bourgeoisie.

I won't disclose any spoilers, but I thought 'Tomorrow' hit a false note in its concluding chapter.....I was hoping to see some evidence of the sort of black (some would say sick) humor that marks the  'Fallout 3' franchise, but it simply doesn't make an appearance.

 illustration by Alexander Leydenfrost for 'If A-Bombs Blast US City', from the February, 1951 issue of Pageant magazine

In summary,  if you're willing to overlook the fact that much of 'Tomorrow' is overbearing, it succeeds to some extent as a work of sf about World War Three and nuclear devastation. 

Book Review: The Holmes - Dracula File

Book Review: 'The Holmes - Dracula File' by Fred Saberhagen

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Holmes-Dracula File’ (249 pp) was published in 1978 by Ace Books, with cover art by Robert Adragna.

London, late May, 1897. The city is preparing for June 22, and the celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

A middle-aged man awakens with amnesia. He discovers he is bound with steel cuffs to a mattress atop a wheeled cart. He is lying in a tenement room, somewhere close to the harbor. Still stupefied from the blow to the head that led to his abduction, he can only lie helplessly while he is wheeled into an adjoining laboratory. A team of gowned and masked researchers press a cage of insects onto his naked chest……..

At 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have a client. Sarah Tarlton, a young American woman, is distraught over the disappearance of her fiancé, the scientist John Scott, in Sumatra. Scott had embarked on an expedition into the unexplored depths of the jungle to study tropical diseases. After five months without contact, Tarlton fears that Scott has fallen victim to misfortune.

To Sarah Tarlton’s consternation, equipment from Scott’s Sumatran expedition recently has arrived at a warehouse in London, and been picked up by a man who eyewitnesses state bears a strong resemblance to John Scott; as well, the signature on the receipt is that of John Scott.

Is John Scott alive and well in London ? If so, why has he not contacted his fiancé ?

As Holmes and Watson embark on their investigation into the fate of John Scott, they will discover a conspiracy that threatens the fate of the entire city….. a conspiracy with a disturbing link to the supernatural..........

‘The Holmes-Dracula File’ is quintessential proto-Steampunk, and the thematic and spiritual predecessor to novels such as Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula and K. W. Jeter’s Morlock Night. Saberhagen’s borrowing of prominent fictional personalities as main and supporting characters, and use of a plot that is referential to well-known Victorian-era fiction, were innovative back in 1978. Nowadays these approaches to crafting a narrative are a given for many Steampunk sf and fantasy novels.

Were it written in 2013, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ would have been 400 or more pages in length, burdened with over-written prose and the management of several simultaneous sub-plots. 

Because that’s what a lot of contemporary Steampunk fiction is like, as epitomized by Felix Palma’s The Map of Time, a mass market paperback that is not only 720 pages long……..but the first volume of a trilogy.

But as a novel written in ’78, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ benefits from having short chapters, the presence of just two plot threads, prose that avoids being overly descriptive, and an absence of too many internal monologues and overwrought explorations of the emotional angst and personal traumas of its lead characters. 

That said, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ isn’t perfect. Without disclosing spoilers, I’ll admit that Saberhagen’s rationale for the appearance of Dracula in the aftermath of the events of Stoker’s novel is more than a little contrived, and the major revelation that confronts Holmes in the novel’s closing pages also seems contrived. As well, Saberhagen chooses to depict the Count less as a monster, and more as a thoughtful aristocrat; this approach may seem a violation of the essence of the Stoker version of the character, and may be disappointing to some readers.

I also should emphasize that this is not a ‘Holmes Vs Dracula’ adventure, such as Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count (1978) from Loren Estleman, or the DC / Wildstorm comic series / graphic novel Victorian Undead: Sherlock Homes Vs Dracula (2011). Rather, ‘Holmes-Dracula’ is a mystery novel, in which Holmes and Dracula are the main characters.

‘The Holmes-Dracula File’ remains one of the better proto-Steampunk novels and markedly superior to much of the Steampunk stuff being churned out nowadays. Used copies can be had for affordable prices (i.e., under $5.00).

Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy

'Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy' by Wayne Douglas Barlowe

 

'Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy' is a followup to the author's highly successful 'Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials' (1979). Published by Harper Prism in 1996, 'Fantasy' is 144 pages long, although 34 of these, consisting of sketches from Barlowe's forthcoming (back in 1996) book 'Barlowe's Inferno', are tacked onto the end as padding.

 

As with 'Extraterrestrials', this book adheres to a double-page format, with the fantasy character depicted on one page, while the facing page provides explanatory text, and an ancillary illustration or two.

There are 50 fantasy characters presented, some from older myths and legends (like, for example, the gryphon or griffin).

Other entries are derived from modern horror and fantasy novels.

 

 

Not all entries are necessarily monsters of one sort or another......

As with 'Extraterrestrials', there are going to be some omissions and inclusions among the 50 profiles that will strike some readers as awkward, but overall, 'Fantasy' provides a good overview of the genre. 

There are certainly some images that will lead you to seek out a particular novel or series with which you are unfamiliar, and for those characters with whom you may previously have been familiar, seeing them depicted in Barlowe's meticulous artwork is a nice surprise.

With used copies in good condition available for under $5, getting 'Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy' is a worthwhile investment.

Tom Laughlin dies at age 82

Tom Laughlin dies at age 82

Actor Tom Laughlin died on Thursday, December 12 at age 82. He had been suffering from pneumonia.

Laughlin is best known as the feature film character 'Billy Jack', a cultural icon and 70s superstar. 

If you were over the age of five during the 70s, then you knew who Bill Jack was, and how, despite renouncing violence, he was obliged to take off his shoes and use kung fu to kick the asses of racist rednecks who were hassling Indian children. Or hippy kids attending a Montessori school. Or anyone from the counterculture, for that matter.

There's no denying the fact that the Billy Jack films could be ponderous, self-indulgent, and frequently boring - at least, that is, if you weren't stoned. But they had a quirky originality that is utterly lacking in so many of today's studio and indie films.

Although he was never the topic of a comicbook episode per se, for issue 11 (April, 1975) of Marvel / Curtis's The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Billy Jack was the cover star and the subject of two overwrought articles. In tribute to Billy Jack, I've posted the less overwrought (?) article, 'Death is A Loner', by Scott Edelman.

Book Review: Nature's End

Book Review: 'Nature's End' by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka

4 / 5 Stars

'Nature's End' was first published in hardback in 1986; this Warner Books mass market paperback edition (418 pp) was released in May, 1987, with a cover illustration by Michael Haynes.

It's November, 2025, and the planet Earth is in the grip of an Eco-catastrophe.

In the US, where small contingents of the wealthy still live in luxury, cities like New York are crammed with impoverished illegal immigrants living in decaying tenements with no running water or sewerage, and the streets look like something out of the Soylent Green movie set.

The state of New Jersey is essentially one enormous toxic waste dump, where tumor-riddled, giant rats haunt warehouses stuffed with steel drums leaking carcinogens.

The Midwest is a desert, scoured by dust storms of apocalyptic intensity. What few human settlements exist struggle to grow crops in the depleted soil.

Even the rich and famous rely on a steady diet of mood-altering drugs, virtual reality entertainment, and 'rejuvenation' treatments to make it through each day.

As bad as life in the US is, of course, the teeming billions in the Third World have it much, much worse. In countries like India, only the distribution of the 'winged bean' prevents mass starvation.

Gupta Singh, a Sikh physician and mystic living in a Calcutta slum, is the leader of the World Depopulationist Mainfesto. 

Using a clever mix of Eastern philosphy and updated, Ghandi-ish humanism, Singh is trying to convince the world's population to commit voluntary suicide - !

The Manifesto calls for everyone on the planet to ingest a red pill. One third of the pills will contain a lethal poison; the other two-thirds, a harmless placebo. With a third of the Earth's population dead, maybe then, and only then, can the planet recover from the 'disease' of mankind.

In an ultramodern New York city apartment building, John Sinclair and his family monitor the march of the Depopulationist movement with growing alarm. What once had seemed like a hopelessly crackpot scheme is growing more feasible with each passing day. Depopulationists have infiltrated the US political system, and a majority vote for the Manifesto seems likely early in 2026.

As a 'convictor', a sort of global uber-prosecutor, Sinclair has the power to discredit the Depopulationist movement and its leader. But Gupta Singh has no intention of having his mission derailed by a wealthy American, an American who represents the culture most responsible for despoiling the earth's ecosystem.

As he embarks on his investigation of Gupta Singh, John Sinclair is going to learn very quickly just how much power is wielded by this seemingly fragile holy man from Calcutta.

But if John Sinclair fails, it could mean the end of humanity.....for Gupta Singh's ambitions run far beyond a simple thinning of the human herd............

I remember walking into the Cracker Barrell convenience store on Nicholson Drive in Baton Rouge on a damp, muggy day in May, 1987, and picking up a copy of 'Nature's End' from the paperback book shelf.

At the time, I found it a very worthwhile read, and today, more than 25 years later, it remains one of the best Eco-catastrophe novels in sf. 

As with their best-selling nuclear war thriller Warday (1984), for 'Nature', Streiber and Kunetka adopt the epistolary narrative pioneered, with great success, by Michael Crichton. 

Short chapters, consisting of first-person narratives from each of the main characters, are interspersed with real and imagined newspaper clippings, scientific abstracts, and interviews with various personages. There is also a nod to late 80s cyberpunk influences, with the inclusion of an AI ('Delta Doctor') that mediates the conviction process.

This construction means the book flows along at a fast pace, with lots of action and drama, despite its length.

'Nature' is not without its flaws; the last few chapters tend to wallow in a sentimental bathos, and the climactic confrontation between Sinclair and his adversary comes off as a bit contrived. As well, Streiber and Kunetka glibly toss all sorts of mid-80s 'alternative' science into their background, such as the 'morphogenetic fields' of Rupert Sheldrake, and the 'Gaia' pantheism of James Lovelock. 

But, if you haven't yet read 'Nature's End', and you're a fan of Eco-catastrophe sf, you'll want a copy in hand.

Colin Wilson dies at age 82

Colin Wilson dies at age 82

 from The Telegraph (UK) December 13, 2013

Colin Wilson died December 5. Born on June 26,1931, he briefly was lionized in the mid-50s when The Outsider, his analysis of alienation among famous characters in world fiction, won the effusive praise of the literary establishment. 

But following the rapturous reception of The Outsider, instead of proceeding to devote his career to 'literary' works, Wilson published a continuous stream of crime, science fiction, and horror novels, a stance that quickly lost him the regard of the highbrow set. 

Wilson was utterly indifferent to the disapproval of the intellectual elite, and luckily for fans of genre fiction, he produced tales of monsters, sex killers, and weird psychologies, for the rest of his writing life.

I regularly read Wilson's fiction and nonfiction during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. 

Nonfiction books like The Occult: A History (1971), A Criminal History of Mankind (1984), and The Encyclopedia of Modern Murder (1983) always were consistently interesting, even if some of Wilson's philosophies - which later he came to label New Existentialism -  were more than a little contrived.

His sf, mystery, and horror novels also were often entertaining and represented some of the better examples of genre fiction. The Mind Parasites (1967) and The Space Vampires (1976) were offbeat and imaginative, and today stand well alongside other novels considered to be classics of the New Wave movement in sf.

Wilson's Spider World series, which ultimately came to comprise four unabridged volumes, also was a good example of an sf series that, while occasionally a bit tedious, nonetheless came off as a better read than many of the bloated, multi-volume series now occupying the shelves of bookstores.

Wilson's output had slowed in his later years, and a stroke he suffered in September 2012 left him unable to write. But he has left behind a sizeable catalogue of works, many of which are well worth seeking out.