Book Review: Assassin's Dawn

Book Review: 'Assassin's Dawn' Trilogy

Slow Fall to Dawn

Dance of the Hag

A Quiet of Stone

by Stephen Leigh

5 / 5 Stars

'Assassin's Dawn' (610 pp.) was published by DAW Books in May 2013. It's an omnibus of the novels in the so-called 'Hoorka' trilogy, all originally issued by Bantam Books: 'Slow Fall to Dawn' (1981), 'Dance of the Hag' (1983), and 'A Quiet of Stone' (1984). With those original paperbacks long out of print, this omnibus edition is a good way to acquire the trilogy for an affordable price.

The omnibus edition features an Introduction written by author Leigh, in which he remarks that he used the historical hashashin cult of assassins, who operated in the Middle East from 1090 to 1256 AD, as an inspiration for his novels.

The trilogy is set on the planet Neweden, which, despite its salutary name, has been an impoverished galactic backwater for some time. The isolation has given rise to a number of strange religious cults and beliefs, some centered on the worship of Dame Hag, who governs death, and She of the Five Hands, who governs fate. A fatalistic attitude towards life and death pervades the collective psyche of Neweden's people, rendering them comfortable with the entropy that has stricken the planet

Guilds, rather than political parties, rule Neweden, with inter-guild disputes settled by formal feuds rather than warfare. Key to the settling of feuds is the guild of assassins, known as the Hoorka, who are led by the middle-aged master assassin Gyll Hermond. The rules governing assassination contracts are formalized and scrupulously followed, and thus allow a slim chance for the pursued to survive.........if he or she can evade death until sunrise.

As the creator of the Hoorka, Gyll Hermond is not content to see the guild leverage its influence among the perpetually disputatious guilds of Neweden. He has wider ambitions, ones that can be fulfilled by the spaceport at the capital city of Sterka. After centuries of isolation, the resurgent Galactic Alliance has opened a trade and diplomacy mission at the port, and the mission's Regent, Madame D'Embry, may prove sympathetic to allowing the Hoorka to accept commissions on member planets. To Hermond, the prospect of opening satellite offices throughout the Alliance is a means of freeing the Hoorka from any dependency on the ever-shifting political landscape of Neweden. 

But unyolking the Hoorka from their dependency will not be easy:

Vingi, the corpulent and odious ruler of Neweden, intends to control the assassin's guild for his own purposes.......howevermuch those purposes may bring social and economic chaos to the streets of Sterka.........

Kaethe, the representative of the powerful FitzEvard intergalactic trading company, offers an alternative route to expansion, one free from Alliance strictures.......but FitzEvard has no scruples about working at cross-purposes with its unwitting partners....... 

And some among the Hoorka, including Hermond's possible successors Aldhelm and Valdisa, are skeptical of his plans to expand operations to the worlds of the Alliance. A divide among its members could bring an abrupt end to all of Hermond's ambitions.......

The Hoorka Trilogy nestles comfortably into the sub-genre of sci-fi, popular in the late 70s and early 80s, that offered highly detailed and complex portraits of 'alien' societies (examples are  'The Gameplayers of Zan' by M. A. Foster, 'Courtship Rite' by Donald Kingsbury, 'The Snow Queen' by Joan Vinge, and 'Door into Ocean' by Joan Slonczewski).

The opening chapters of 'Slow Fall to Dawn' can require patience, as the prose is saturated with metaphors, similes, and densely descriptive passages. But if the reader perseveres, the plot begins to gain momentum, and by the novel's end I found 'Slow Fall' to have sufficient action to make the sequels worth pursuing. 

These have a more expansive approach to plotting, with crisp sequences set off-world in which the Hoorka take on assignments that take them well outside the familiar surroundings of Neweden. The introduction of a new character, the dwarf Helgin, brings a note of dark humor to the narrative, as his cynical, world-weary observations about interplanetary politics serve as a foil to the ambitions of Gyll Hermond.

The concluding chapters of 'A Quiet of Stone' offer a tense battle of wits and combat skills, and thus, the end of the trilogy avoids advancing too pat an ending. 

Summing up, readers who are willing to sit down with a densely written, character-driven set of novels likely will enjoy 'Assassin's Dawn'. This trilogy stands well alongside other well-received (by me, at least) 1980s trilogies, such as Harry Harrison's 'Eden' series, and Melissa Scott's 'Silence Leigh' series. 

Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy

Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu

The Art of Paul Gulacy

Vanguard, 2005

Paul Gulacy (b. 1953) is an accomplished comic book and graphic artist who came to prominence in 1970s with his work in Marvel's popular title Master of Kung Fu. This book cover's Gulacy's work from the that era, as well as the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. 

While his meticulous style meant that his output was comparatively limited compared to other artists of the era, when his art did appear in print, it was memorable then and remains so today.

'Spies, Vixens, and Masters of King Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy' (128 pp.), featuring editing and commentary by Michael Kronenberg and J. David Spurlock, was issued in hardback and trade paperback editions in 2005 by Vanguard. 

Some of the reviewers at amazon have complained that the trade paperback edition has an easily loosened binding and this is true of the copy in my possession.......even when using a dedicated PlusTek book scanner, I had to take care in spreading the book for these scans.

The majority of the art presented in 'Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu' is in black and white, with a color insert showcasing selected comic books contents and covers.

The book is arranged in roughly chronological order, with the opening chapters devoted to Gulacy's work on Marvel's comic Master of Kung Fu, followed by coverage of his art for the Warren's Eerie magazine, Marvel's Bizarre Adventures, and the indie comic The Grackle.

Reproducing these pieces on glassy finish, large size paper lets the reader see how well-composed these comics truly are.

Additional chapters cover Gulacy's work through the 1990s and into the 200s for DC titles like Batman. There also is coverage of the art he produced for the 1992 Dark Horse James Bond series Serpent's Tooth; according to the text commentary in 'Spies, Vixens, and Masters of King Fu', the series was instrumental in bringing about the renaissance in the James Bond franchise in the early 1990s, when the franchise was adrift following the failure of 1989's License to Kill. 

The book's closing chapters profile more recent material Gulacy has produced for a variety of publishers and collectors.

Summing up, while its binding is suffering a bit from the 16-year aging process, 'Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu' offers a very nice showcase of Gulacy's art and undoubtedly will send fans of comic book and graphic art out searching for overlooked treasures. 

Here is where things can get rather frustrating, since not all of Gulacy's work in the 1980s and 1990s is still in print, and prospects for the reissue of titles (like Serpent's Tooth) do not look promising.......never mind the exorbitant prices the Bookjackers are requesting for used copies of these older comics and graphic novels. 

However, I'm certainly going to keep an eye out for the appearance of Gulacy's Old School publications on the shelves of used bookstores.............

English Roses

The Pretenders
'English Roses'
from Pretenders II

August 1981

The Pretenders dropped their second album, titled simply Pretenders II, on August 15, 1981. Three of the tracks on the album had previously been released on an EP in March, somewhat diluting the impact of the album as a whole. 

But the track 'English Roses' was a little underappreciated gem from side two. It showcases how talented a guitar player James Honeyman Scott was, and makes one wonder what could have happened if he had not overdosed in June of 1982.

Sci Fi Fo Fum from Texas Monthly

Sci Fi Fo Fum

by Mike Shea

from Texas Monthly, July 1998

An interesting article on the science fiction and fantasy culture in Texas in the late 1990s. 

It has some observations on the role of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop (founded in 1973 by, among others, Howard Waldrop, Lisa Tuttle, and Tom Reamy) as a vehicle for promoting Texas-based sci-fi writers. In the article Bruce Sterling, a member of the Workshop during the 70s, calls Turkey City the 'cradle of cyberpunk'. 

Along with an in-depth look at the early days of Sterling's career, the article profiles British transplant Michael Moorcock.

The article sometimes has its tone of mocking affection (The science-fiction world circa 1998 is somewhat of a social and artistic ghetto......), but that's how journalists treated the sci-fi genre and its devotees back then............

Book Review: Salt

Book Review: 'Salt' by Gabrielle Lord

3 / 5 Stars

Getting hold of indigenously published Australian science fiction story collections and novels remains difficult, being more than a little expensive due to the nature of trans-oceanic delivery.

So I was happy to obtain an affordable copy of 'Salt' (281 pp), published as a mass-market paperback in 1991 by McPhee Gribble, Australia. The cover art is by Kerri Gibbs.

Gabrielle Lord (b. 1946) is an Australian writer, primarily of crime fiction. As best as I can tell, 'Salt' is her only science fiction novel.

The novel is set in 2074, on an Earth devastated by eco-disaster. Things are particularly bad in Australia, where daytime temperatures reach 134 degrees Fahrenheit, and massive dust storms sweep across salt-encrusted deserts en route to the walled city of Sydney. A civil war some twenty-five years previously has left the nation in a state of barely-controlled anarchy, and the majority of the populace eke out lives of want and privation.

David 'Sando' Sanderson is a helicopter pilot for Sydney's Western Security, the paramilitary force tasked with maintaining law and order inside the city, and deterring attacks from the raiders emerging from the surrounding wastelands. As the novel opens, Sanderson is leading an aerial search for the crashed helicopter of Frank Hilliard, a hero of the civil war and a symbol of steadfastness in the face of society's looming collapse.

Sanderson suspects that the helicopter crash may not have been an accident: it seems that Hilliard was aware of malfeasance among the upper management of Western Security. As Sanderson makes inquiries, these bring unwanted attention, and Sanderson decides to flee the city for a precarious existence in the wastelands. He is accompanied by his girlfriend Hedda, Hilliard's daughter.

Once in the wastelands, Sanderson and Hedda discover a world ruled by a band of raiders, whose leader has no qualms about using all manner of violence to achieve his aims. Further complicating things is a prison where a mysterious laboratory, operating in secrecy, is conducting amoral experiments into human genetics. Will Sanderson and Hedda survive their encounters with raiders and ruthless scientists ? Or will their bones join those already fast-drying in the merciless heat of the Australian desert ?

'Salt' is something of a middling success as a science fiction novel. Any novel set in a post-apocalyptic Australia inevitably is going to be compared to the mythos of Mad Max, and 'Salt', in its favor, does this without coming across as imitative. The opening chapters are effective in presenting a world of entropy and decay, with civilization losing its battle against eco-catastrophe. 

However, past these opening chapters I found myself wading through too many segments devoted to documenting various bouts of introspection and self-examination among the lead characters; indeed, a near-death hallucination on the part of one character goes on for nearly five pages. These segments tend to impede, rather than propel, the narrative (the pivotal flight to the desert by Sanderson and Hedda doesn't take place till page 124).

The narrative regains momentum in the second half of the novel, but I found the science fiction components to be a bit contrived and lacking in depth, as their main purpose is to frame the author's exploration of the emotional and ethical turmoil afflicting a scientist who is compelled to do Bad Things for the Greater Good of Mankind. The novel's denouement features some well-composed action sequences, but I found the final two chapters to be disappointing, as they close major plot threads in a perfunctory manner. 

[ One good thing about 'Salt' is that it does not promote the adoration of Aborigines, a favorite pastime of the Australian intelligentsia. Indeed, there are no Aborigines in the novel at all. ]

Summing up, if you are willing to tolerate plentiful passages of 'telling, not showing' as regards the inner musings of the characters, 'Salt' eventually will deliver some Australian-flavored, post-apocalyptic entertainment that makes it deserving of a three-star rating.

Heavy Metal: The Movie

Heavy Metal: The Movie

August 7, 1981

The film Heavy Metal, featuring animated shorts based on comics originally published in the magazine, was released on August 7, 1981. 

Back then I didn't go to see it, mainly because a couple months previously I had bought my very first car, a 1974 Ford Gran Torino Brougham, and it was a Piece of Shit Car that was sucking up every dollar I had to my name.

I recently paid $4 to rent Heavy Metal on amazon and settled down to watch it. And I watched it with the attitude of someone seeing it for the first time in 1981, 40 (!) years ago, to be fair to the animation technology, and the pre-Woke era sensibility, of the film. 

Below are my remarks on Heavy Metal: The Movie.

[Because Amazon Prime won't let you take screenshots from any video being viewed on your PC screen, I took photos of the film as I watched it on my TV.]

The opening sequence, 'Soft Landing', is a Heavy Metal classic and will be familiar to all readers of the early years of the magazine. 

The next sequence, 'Grimaldi', introduces the film's framing motif, centered on a glowing green orb called the 'Loc Nar' that serves as a transition device linking each episode.

We then segue to 'Harry Canyon', which certainly resonated with 1981 audiences in its depiction of a future New York City as a hellhole of crime and decay.........I was surprised to hear a mellow little tune by Donald Fagen, titled 'True Companion', as part of the soundtrack for this segment. Fagen is a science fiction fan, which is reflected in the song's lyrics. 'True Companion' was his initial effort at a post Steely-Dan solo career.

What can I say, you learn something new every time you sit down with Heavy Metal......!

Next up we have 'Den', which stays true to the visual stylings of Richard Corben.....before you laugh at the mental picture of early 80s stoners rapt with the on-screen depictions of nude, D-Cupped women, remember............. this was before the internet, which made porn ubiquitous.

Then we have Wrightson's 'Captain Sternn', one of the best strips to appear in the early years of the magazine. The onscreen version brings out the quirky humor of the comic.

This is followed by 'B-17', about a bomber crew threatened by supernatural phenomena. This part of the film features Don Felder's song 'Heavy Metal (Takin' A Ride)' in the soundtrack.

Next up is 'So Beautiful and So Dangerous', based on Angus McKie's sci-fi comic. The emphasis is on more R-rated content, this time between a well-endowed secretary with a uniquely 80s hairstyle, and an amorous robot..........

The film's last and longest segment (at 30 minutes) is 'Taarna', the heroine who appears on the movie poster. 

The initial minutes of this segment feature plenty of blood and gore before moving to an extended sequence designed to unveil our heroine in all her nubile glory.

Even as a non-Woke person, I have to agree that the film goes overboard with the T & A objectification during 'Taarna', but it's also true that anyone who went to see Heavy Metal knew ahead of time that they were going to be treated to T & A. So there. 

At the completion of my viewing of Heavy Metal I decided that the film has its merits. In some circles, it has become a touchstone of Pop culture. 

I do recommend that it be viewed while stoned, as it is tailor-made to appeal to those with an altered perception of reality.

Will those who are not Baby Boomers find Heavy Metal worthwhile ? It's difficult to say. 

In this modern era of computer generated imagery, the animation used in a 1981 film is going to seem crude and underwhelming, and the film's themes to be trite and decidedly un-Woke. Be that as it may, the more adventurous sci-fi and fantasy fans under 40 may want to see the film, if only to get a sense of where things were 40 years ago, and where they might be going. 

Book Review: Lambda I

Book Review: 'Lambda I and Other Stories' edited by John Carnell

3 / 5 Stars

'Lambda I and Other Stories' (175 pp.) was published by Berkley Books in February, 1964. The cover illustration likely is by Richard Powers.

The seven stories in this anthology first saw print in the UK magazine New Worlds during the interval from 1961 - 1963. In his Introduction, editor Carnell (best known as the editor of the New Writings in SF series) remarks that this anthology is an opportunity to acquaint the American readership with new material coming out of the UK. Accordingly, the stories represent the status of sci-fi writing just prior to the advent of the New Wave. 

By my experience with these Carnell anthologies, despite their advancing age, there usually are in each volume a couple of stories that remain effective examples of the genre. 

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Lambda I (novelette), by Colin Kapp: in the near future, instantaneous teleportation through the physical obstacle of the Earth has replaced most forms of travel. But what the teleportation companies don't like to talk about are the problems that sometimes arise.......the initial pages of this novelette show promise, but the narrative too quickly becomes burdened by melodramatic prose and contrived plot developments. 

Basis for Negotiation (novelette), by Brian W. Aldiss: it's July 1st, 1970, and the Third World War is about to start between the Communist Bloc and the U.S. Vacillating British politicians resolve to keep their country neutral, a fact that enrages Sir Simon Challington, an academic, and a staunch supporter of a united West. 

There is much argumentation among the lead characters, a vehicle through which the author pontificates upon geopolitics; the sci-fi content takes its time emerging, but when it does, it concludes the story on an unexpected note. All in all, a slow-moving, but competent, tale from Aldiss.

Quest, by Lee Harding: Mr. Johnston is alienated by the unrelenting steel and concrete of the Future City, and resolves to find the final redoubt of untrammeled Nature...... this story is perhaps a bit too earnest and allegorical to be effective.

All Laced Up, by George Whitley: Peter and Sally, a young British couple, decide to install a decorative piece into their home; it turns out the piece has very unusual properties. A humorous tale that well stands the passage of 60 years.

Routine Exercise, by Philip E. High: when Captain Harvey's nuclear missile submarine surfaces, he discovers that the ocean his vessel is traversing is not the North Atlantic........an action-centered story with well-written naval combat sequences. 

Flux, by Michael Moorcock: a near-future European Union is danger of collapsing due to squabbling among its party states, a calamity with implications for the welfare of the entire planet. Ace troubleshooter Max File is recruited to travel a decade forward in time, and learn if a proposed solution does, indeed, work. A reasonably effective homage to H. G Wells and The Time Machine by Moorcock.    

The Last Salamander, by John Rackham (pseudonym of John Phillifent): in a coal-fired UK power plant, the workers make a startling discovery. An imaginative story from author Phillifent and the best entry in the anthology.

Summing up, like any anthology, 'Lambda I' has its underwhelming selections, but the stories by Whitley, High, Moorcock, and Rackham qualify this book for a solid three-star rating. 

Wild Things by John Workman

Wild Things

by John Workman

Metro Comics, 1986

West Virginia-born John Workman began his career illustrating and lettering comics in 1972, and from 1977 - 1984 he worked as the Art Director for Heavy Metal magazine.

In 1986 the short-lived indie publisher Metro Comics compiled Workman's black and white 'adult' comics, done for a variety of magazines (including Heavy Metal ), into two issues of 'Wild Things'.

I can't say that these issues are worth a special search, but if you see them available for an affordable price, then picking them up is a good idea.

Below I've posted 300 dpi scans of 'Martelaine', which appeared in 'Wild Things' issue two. It originally appeared in Heavy Metal in August 1981.

What can I say ? Forty years after it first appeared, it's still a great comic, one that melds the visual styling of a traditional romance comic with a note of pathos. And, just maybe, a carefully crafted hint of creepiness. All within the span of three pages !

The Bros of 1984 and 1994

 The 'Bros' of 1984 and 1994

'He told me that he wanted a magazine that teenage boys would whack off to.'

Recently, I've been looking through my collection of 1984 and 1994 magazines, of which Warren published 29 issues from June, 1978 to February, 1983 (after a complaint from the George Orwell estate, James Warren changed the name to 1994 with issue 11). 

Under the guidance of Warren editor in chief Bill Dubay, 1984 and 1994 didn't just try and exploit the objectification of women........they reveled in it !

How 1984 came about is unclear. According to 'Warren: Ends and Beginnings', an interview between Jon B. Cooke and James Warren that was published in The Warren Companion (2001), Warren claimed that the genesis of the magazine was Pow, an aborted effort to publish a comic magazine with content more 'adult' than that of Vampirella, Eerie, and Creepy.

In response to claims that 1984 was issued to capitalize on the success of Heavy Metal magazine, Warren responded:

Heavy Metal was structured on a totally different financial level. It was slick, it cost more, it had to have newsstand reps going around to make sure it was placed properly. We didn't have that kind of set-up.....But I knew that they had taken a page out of Warren Publishing's book and moved with it. And moved very well.

.....1984 was not produced because of Heavy Metal. It was produced because it was our genre. 

In contrast to Warren's memories of starting the magazine, in his deposition in January 2018, as part of Ben Dubay's plagiarism lawsuit against Stephen King, former Warren staffer Jim Stenstrum claimed that James Warren was at best a reluctant backer of 1984: 

Q: Thank you. In 1977, did Bill Dubay approach you and Gerry Boudreaux about adapting some stories?

A (Stenstrum): For, yes, "1984 Magazine." It wasn't called "1984." It didn't have a title then. He said there's a science fiction magazine that he wanted to put together and he finally – we had been talking about that for a long time. We had all -- Bill and I had been talking about putting together a science fiction magazine over at Warren for a long time. We had horror, we had war, but we didn't have science fiction and Jim Warren apparently was reticent. He didn't want to do it. He didn't think that was going to be a seller but Bill did manage to finally talk him into it. 

*********

BY MR. COX: Did Bill Dubay ever talk to you about his knowledge of science fiction?

A (Stenstrum): Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean "1984" was a science fiction magazine and we had discussions – in fact, early on when we were putting together "1984," he had wanted to enlist some high profile authors to do stories or at least use adaptations of their works. Kurt Vonnegut, Harlan Ellison, John Varley and a number of other names were -- but he quickly realized that it was going to be too expensive to even adapt these stories and he determined – Bill determined at that time that he would just use his regular guys.

When in 1981 Bill Dubay told Stenstrum he could take over as editor of 1984 and have complete editorial freedom, Stenstrum claimed that in actuality Dubay had no intention of relinquishing control:

A (Stenstrum): After I had -- in 1981, Bill was bumped up to assistant publisher or co-publisher and I was given the job as editor, he had promised me that I would have full reign, full -- complete freedom to do with the books what I wanted and he -- and so I moved there and I lived -- that is when I lived in his guesthouse. Is that the second time? I guess, for a second time, yeah. No, no, I was actually in the house during -- anyway, that's not important.

In any case, he had brought me in as editor and I quickly realized that Bill had no intention of releasing any sort of control. He asked me what I wanted to do. The first thing I wanted to do was to change the awful "1984 Magazine" which was so sleazy. It was so disgusting. And I -- Bill hit the roof.

He didn't like the -- he wanted -- in fact, he wanted more sleaze in there. He told me that he wanted a magazine that teenage boys would whack off to. And I was so absolutely disgusted by that.

He tried in every way he could to get me to put more sleaze and more porn into my comics, but I refused to do it.

Whether or not Stenstrum's opinions of Dubay and 1984 were valid, the fact is that the readers of the magazine liked its content, as judging by their Letters to the Editor. 

Of course, some of these letters well may have been facetious in character.........which confirms that while the word 'Bro' didn't exist in the late 70s and early 80s, its philosophy was well emplaced among the readers of 1984:

It's my conclusion that, with the passage of time, 1984 and 1994 represent an authentically 'Bro' ideology. They were publications aimed at a readership of white males under 30, publications that could revel in being offensive and politically incorrect. Those days are long gone, and it's unimaginable that any comic-based publication nowadays could even try and approach such a philosophy without being universally condemned. 

In today's era, in which a (since discarded) Marvel superhero team featured a character named 'Trailblazer, an overweight teen who gets her powers from a magic backpack.....', the content of 1984 would be immediately be cancelled on its first appearance.

So I'm going to hang on to my issues of 1984 and 1994 in all of their misogynistic, racist, un-woke glory. Because those magazines were the first and last stand of Bro culture in the comic book world. Their like shall never come again.