Book Review: Rule of Night

Book Review: 'Rule of Night' by Trevor Hoyle

5 / 5 Stars

‘Rule of Night’ first was published in paperback in the UK in 1975. This Pomona Books reissue (220 pp) was published in 2003, and features an Afterward by the author.

‘Rule’ takes place in the northern England city of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, ca. 1974. Nowadays Rochdale is notorious for having one of the largest populations of ‘asylum-seekers’ in the U.K., but in the early 70s, it was primarily white and working class, with Pakistani immigrants making up the biggest nonwhite ethnic group.

By the early 70s, the cotton mills that had made Rochdale prosperous in the 19th century had been shut down, and the city was fast decaying into another decrepit factory town.

The protagonist of ‘Rule’ is one Kenny Seddon, sixteen, no longer in school (in the UK you can drop out of school legally at 16), drifting from job to job, and of a sullen and truculent disposition. Along with his younger sister, mother, and father, Kenny lives in an apartment in the 'Ashfield Valley Estate', a public housing complex designed in a dehumanizing, Modernist style reminiscent of the French architect Le Corbusier. 

Kenny is straight out of the 1973 Elton John song ‘Saturday Night’s Alright (for Fighting’):

I'm a juvenile product of the working class
Whose best friend floats in the bottom of a glass

For Kenny and his mates - Andy, Skush, Crabby, and Fester – life is all about slogging through low-wage jobs during the week, and drinking it all away in the pubs on the weekends. Perhaps with a fight against Greasers, or Droogs, thrown in, too. 

Or petty crime. 

Or rolling a Paki.

Kenny is a ‘bovver boy’, a sub-species of skinhead. When out on the town, Kenny wears his hair cut short, jeans hemmed above the ankles, suspenders, and red work boots. This type of style is so utterly different from that of English society at large in 1974, that ‘regular’ people instinctively regard the bovver boy with alarm and apprehension. 

bovver boys 

Kenny and his friends listen to American Soul records, and Slade.

(The Punk Movement is still nearly two years in the future: in 1974, John Lydon is teaching woodwork to kids at Finsbury Park; Joe Strummer is busking on the streets of London; and the JoBoxers are in Secondary School [i.e., roughly equivalent to junior high school in the US]). 

Slade, mid-70s 

A break in the routine for Kenny and his mates is attending Spotland Stadium, home of The Dales, the local football team. If there is an opportunity for a bit of the Aggro, that’s all for the better:

We hate Nottingham Forest
We hate Liverpool too
We hate Man United
But Rochdale we love you !

‘Rule of Night’ relates the adventures of Kenny Seddon over a six-month interval, starting with the drizzle and chill of late Fall, through the snow and darkness of Winter, and the coming of early Spring.

Author Hoyle relates these adventures - many of which are calculated acts of violence -  in a simple, declarative prose style that makes ‘Rule’ a fast, and very engaging, read. Little of the narrative is devoted to deep analysis of Alienated Youth, Social Distortion, or the Plight of the Working Class. Hoyle does provide brief interludes in which the reader is given glimpses into the mind of Kenny Seddon and his dawning awareness that he is destined to be yet another semi-alcoholic member of the Lumpen Proletariat, and nothing more. But these introspective moments are not over-used and support, rather than distract, the narrative.

American readers are going to need to have Google at hand to translate some of the British idioms, slang, and figures of speech; but these of course lend authenticity to the novel and many are amusing as well as informative – for example, juvenile prison inmates from Liverspool use a language (‘Scouse’) that is unintelligible to other Brits…..but one is to be very careful of offending any inmate from Liverpool…..such offence can lead, in turn, to an unpleasant Prison Shower encounter…….. 

‘Rule of Night’ is a notable work of realistic fiction, and joins its American counterparts, such as Richard Price’s The Wanderers, Kem Nunn’s Tapping the Source, Warren Miller’s Cool World, and Hubert Selby Jr.’s Last Exit to Brooklyn, as a classic representative of the genre. 

For anyone fond of realistic fiction, or wanting to understand working-class life in the UK of the 70s, getting a copy of 'Rule of Night' is essential.

May is British hooligans month

That's right ! For May, the PorPor Books Blog will be taking a brief vacation from covering the sf and fantasy genres. Instead, we'll be focusing on books - fiction and nonfiction- and comics devoted to that era in the 70s and 80s in UK history when hooligans were a pop culture phenomenon. 

Rioting Tottenham Hotspur fans tear down a section of iron railings in a bid to reach the Chelsea supporters before a Division One game at London’s Stamford Bridge ground, November 18, 1978

From the early 70s, with skinheads and droogs, moving on to the Bovver Boys, and then the arrival of the 80s and the 'Terrace Casuals' and the rise of the Firms, the mayhem and depravity will be in full force.

So.....get your boiled peas, your Chelsea jersey, your batteries, your cycle chain, and join the lads for the punch-up !

A great way to get in the mood for a bit of 'aggro' is to read the notorious 'Kids Rule OK' story in the September 18th, 1976 issue of the British comic book Action.

Action was an attempt by publisher IPC to produce a weekly comic book that was free of Comics Code-type restrictions on content. By featuring healthy doses of gore and violence, Action became an instant hit upon the release of the first issue in February 1976, but ultimately expired in October, after an intense lobbying campaign by the media, and a watchdog organization called the 'National Viewers' and Listeners' Association' who saw Action as contributing to a nationwide epidemic of juvenile delinquency and violence.

The 'Kids Rule OK' episodes were set in a near-future UK in which all adults have been eliminated by a plague, leaving the youngsters to their own devices. These resourceful youth weren't overly reliant on firearms to deal out the ultra-violence; as this panel shows, they were quite willing and able to not only use American implements, but American figures of speech as well !

The entire run of 'Kids Rule OK' comics is available here. Enjoy !

Crisalida

Crisalida
by Maroto
from the April, 1983 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

The cheesecake element obviously rules here, but still, an entertaining little strip for all that........

Cody Starbuck 1974

Cody Starbuck
by Howard Chaykin
Star*Reach Comics, Issue No. 1,1974

April, 1974. If your car radio, or your portable radio, or your clock radio, or the radio in your stereo was on, or if you were watching Soul Train, then you were hearing the song 'MFSB' (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother) by the band TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia). 

TSOP was comprised of the musicians in the Gamble and Huff studio in Philadelphia; the backing vocalists were the members of The Three Degrees.

Also in April of '74, the very first issue of a black and white comic book devoted to sf and fantasy is released. 'Star*Reach' was independently published by Mike Friedrich; eighteen issues were released from 1974 - 1979. 

It was a path-breaking endeavor on the part of Friedrich; he sought work from up-and-coming talent, offering them a forum to publish material without editorial constraints. The Star*Reach books thus occupied a sort of middle ground between the territory of the underground comix, and the mainstream publishers like DC and Marvel.

Since in the mid-70s there was no mechanism by which independent comic books could be included in the existing newsstand-based, 'rack jobber' distribution networks, Friedrich sold the books through the growing network of small 'direct sales' comic shops, who acquired their inventory from specialized distributors like Phil Seuling's Sea Gate Distributors.

This first issue of Star*Reach featured the debut of Howard Chaykin's 'Cody Starbuck' character, who would appear on a sporadic basis in later issues of Star*Reach, and then, in the 1980s, in Heavy Metal magazine.

Despite the underwhelming quality of the reproductions of Chaykin's artwork printed in black and white and graytone on mid-70s comic book paper stock, 'Starbuck' retains its imaginative visual qualities, including the unconventional arrangement and placing of panels, and the use of varied background textures and inking techniques to give the artwork a cutting-edge sensibility simply not present in mainstream comics until the advent of Jim Starlin.

Chaykin is also inventive in having a lead character who is hardly the square-jawed, morally upstanding hero of traditional sf comics. Instead, Cody Starbuck is a space pirate, cynical, self-serving, and not inclined to turn the other cheek when confronted. 

Taken as a whole, this inaugural episode of the Cody Starbuck franchise reflects an approach to visuals and plotting that belonged more in the camp of 70s Western European sf comics,  an approach that prefigured the works soon to be showcased in the French magazine Metal Hurlant. 

Summing up.....when I compare the sixteen pages of 'Cody Starbuck', which now are 41 years old (!) I find them more interesting and rewarding than much of what makes up contemporary sf comics: Manhattan Project, Saga, and Black Magic, among others. There is a visual flair, and a sense of fun, about 'Starbuck' that is entirely absent from these modern-day productions..........

Book Review: The Karma Corps

Book Review: 'The Karma Corps' by Neil Barrett, Jr.

2 / 5 Stars

‘The Karma Corps’ (239 pp) is DAW Book No. 604, and was published in November, 1984. The striking cover illustration was done by Les Edwards.

‘Karma’ was the 10th sf novel published by Neil Barrett, Jr. (1929 – 2014). It’s set on a nameless planet where, two centuries ago, a colony ship crash-landed. Despite reverting to a medieval level of technology, the survivors have created a small civilization, with its own stone-walled Citadel.

Lars Haggart is the Captain of the eponymous Corps; like the 221 soldiers under his command, Lars has no real knowledge of his past, for he is the reincarnation of a deceased member of the colony. What makes Lars and his soldiers special is their ability to instantaneously teleport across small distances, a skill shared by the some of the Demons, a race of werebeasts who also inhabit the planet.

As the novel opens, the Churchers, the theocracy which governs society, are in desperate straits in their perpetual struggle to hold back the demon hordes, who – for reasons unknown- are seeking to expunge the Terrans from the planet.

Using elaborate fortifications and field tactics to counter the teleportation abilities of the the demon armies has bought the Church some time, but that time is running out. The Church hierarchy is looking to Lars and his Corps to use their unique powers to bring about a decisive victory against the enemy.

But as Lars is to discover, the demons seem to have an uncanny ability to know in advance where he and his soldiers are going to teleport. And far from being the ultimate weapon, the Corps may in fact be a liability. Lars discovers that he will have to act on his own to discover the truth about the reincarnation process, and the strange territories that are home to the disembodied souls from which the Corps is drawn. But asking those types of questions can trigger the wrath of the Churchers….and a further fragmentation of a society teetering on the brink of extinction………

‘Corps’ certainly has an interesting, offbeat premise, but I found the book to be a disappointment. Barrett’s narrative is plainly designed to keep the reader turning the pages in order to learn the Ultimate Revelation behind the existence of the demons, the Corps, and the causes of the war between the two races; this narrative tactic of guiding the reader to the ‘solution’ behind the ‘planetary mystery’ is one he employed in his 1974 sf novel Stress Pattern.

Unfortunately, too much of the narrative in ‘Corps’ revolves around the political and personal squabbles and rivalries between Lars (who is not particularly bright) and the Churchers. These conflicts are framed as confrontations between emerging humanism and self-awareness on the part of the Corps, versus the orthodoxy and blind obedience fomented by the Churchers. Practically every page is taken up with extended conversations documenting these conflicts, while the main plot thread – the threat to existence posed by the demons - makes sporadic appearances.

When the Final Revelation came in the latter chapters, I found it underwhelming and rather perfunctory, as if the author had run out of energy and was simply looking to wrap things up a conveniently as possible.

Summing up, I have to label ‘The Karma Corps’ a dud. Reader are urged to instead seek out Neil Barrett, Jr’s next novel after ‘Corps’, Through Darkest America (1987), which is much superior.

Lone Sloane: Delirius episode one

Lone Sloane: Delirius
episode 1

This 1973 graphic novel from UK publisher Dragon's Dream compiles, in English, Druillet's Lone Sloane: Delirius comic, which first appeared in serial form in the French magazine Pilote from 1970 - 1971. 

[Copies of the Dragon's Dream edition are rare, and those copies that come up for sale nowadays have steep asking prices.]

The plot, as always, is not really very coherent, but the artwork more than makes up for it.