Book Review: Neq the Sword

Book Review: 'Neq the Sword' by Piers Anthony

4 / 5 Stars

'Neq the Sword' (192 pp.) was published by Corgi Books (UK) in 1975, and features rather gruesome cover art by Patrick Woodroffe. In the 1970s, this sort of graphic illustration could pass muster, but it's doubtful if it would be acceptable nowadays...........

This is the third volume in the 'Battle Circle' trilogy, the other entries being 'Sos the Rope' (1968) and 'Var the Stick' (1972). My review of 'Sos' is here, and 'Var', here.

All three volumes were packaged for the U.S. readership by Avon, in the omnibus 'Battle Circle'.

'Neq the Sword' is set in the same post-apocalyptic America as the first two volumes in the trilogy, in which Neq briefly appears as a minor character. 

As 'Neq' opens, due to the machinations of the enigmatic superman known simply as 'the Master', the nomad society in which Neq lives is in increasing disarray due to a breakdown in the distribution of food, clothing, medicine, and shelter by the technocrats known as the 'Crazies'.

The practice of the Battle Circle, which served to direct aggression into ritualized combat, has been abandoned. The landscape is infested by outlaws and bandits who murder, rape, and rob without fear of retribution. Truck convoys supplying goods to the Crazy hostels scattered around the landscape are being intercepted, and their contents pillaged. 

The Crazies, sworn to pacifism, can do little to prevent the depredations of the outlaws. But Neq, one of the greatest swordsmen in the history of the nomad empire, is willing to help the Crazies revive the supply convoys. He realizes that the nomad society is collapsing, and stern measures are needed to prevent the resumption of the barbarity that defined life in the aftermath of the Blast. 

Accompanied by a young Crazy woman named Miss Smith, Neq sets out on a long-distance drive across northern America, hoping to restore the hostels and quell the activities of the outlaws. His journey will reveal the fate of the former leaders and heroes of the nomad empire, their children, and underscore the need for cooperation between the the advanced society that ruled the world before the Blast, and the devolved remnants of that society.

Like 'Sos' and 'Var', in 'Neq the Sword' author Anthony (the pseudonym of Piers Anthony Jacobs) provides an engrossing action novel within the span of less than 200 pages. More so than the first two novels on the series, the violence in 'Neq' is more explicit and could said to verge into Splatterpunk territory. There also are prominent traces of a softcore porn sensibility in the pages of 'Neq', which perhaps is not so surprising, given that Jacobs wrote sleaze paperbacks ('Pornucopia') in addition to science fiction. 

Where I had to deduct a star for 'Neq' was in its closing chapters, wherein our hero decides to purse the spirit of Kumbaya, and renounces the use of violence. This abnegation has a contrived quality, as if Piers Anthony belatedly had decided to infuse the closing stages of his violent trilogy with a 'make love, not war, sensibility'. Each reader will make his or her own decision as to whether this is a successful maneuver, but for me, I found it facile........

Summing up, while it's not perfect, the 'Battle Circle' trilogy remains a worthy read fifty years after it first was published. The trilogy's tight composition and action-centered discourse made it stand out from the New Wave compositions of the same era, and for this, it deserves accolades.

National Lampoon July 1971

National Lampoon
July 1971

It's July, 1971, and the top single on the Billboard Hot 100 is 'It's Too Late' from Carole King, whose album Tapestry was the biggest-selling record of all time, until displaced later in the decade by the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.

The latest issue of National Lampoon is on the stands and it's a 'pornography' themed issue, loaded with transgressive content.

The nostalgia craze of the 1970s is under way and with it, advertisements for pop culture artifacts from the prewar era, like a compilation of 'Buck Rogers' comics. I remember reading this book, back in the day.

The Letters pages are their usual snide selves.......particularly the 'Helen Keller' joke.

The 'Hot Flashes' section takes aim at High Hefner, and the Pope, quite a combination of insultees.

A parody of the erotic novel My Secret Life takes aim at the hapless David Eisenhower, grandson of Dwight D. Eisenhower. David married Julie Nixon in 1968, an event that earned him the derision of the counterculture (which included the Lampoon staff, of course). It didn't help matters that when Eisenhower's student deferment ended he sidestepped the draft, and the potential to be sent to Vietnam, by enrolling in the Navy reserve, where he served for three years as an officer.  

The extremely popular book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, by David Rubin, is satirized.

A cartoon takes aim at Flying Nuns:

Then we have a full-color portfolio, titled 'Groupies for Everyone', which provides what every red-blooded American male wanted from the National Lampoon: boobies !

A Foto Funnies features editor Doug Kenney.

The cartoon titled 'A True Story: The Two Paths' reworks the theme of the Good Girl and the Bad Girl in a clever and subversive manner:

There is another transgressive cartoon:

Chris Miller's story 'Caked Joy Rag' features a brilliant, if grotesque, illustration by Roy Carruthers:

A questionnaire piece, titled 'Are You A Homo ?', probably would not pass editorial muster in any magazine nowadays.........

The issue closes with 'Nancy Reagan's Guide to Dating Do's and Don'ts', in which a motherly Nancy instructs excitable teens to practice restraint, and Save it for Marriage !

And there it is, snide humor from July of 1971.

Book Review: Science Fiction Terror Tales

Book Review: 'Science Fiction Terror Tales' edited by Groff Conklin

 3 / 5 Stars

Here we go with one of the more than 40 anthologies edited by the indefatigable Groff Conklin (1904 - 1968) between 1946 and 1968.

'Science Fiction Terror Tales' (262 pp.) first was published in hardcover in January, 1955 by Gnome Press. A paperback edition was released by Pocket Books later that year. The edition I have, and which is pictured above, was issued in 1970. The artist who provided the striking cover image is uncredited.

The entries in 'Terror Tales' all first saw print in the 1940s and early 1950s.

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Introduction, by Groff Conklin: Conklin states that with this anthology, he sought to include lesser-known, but high-quality, stories.

Punishment Without Crime, by Ray Bradbury (1950): George Hill, a cuckold, seeks vengeance on his wayward wife. An overwrought, contrived tale from Bradbury.

Arena, by Fredric Brown (1944): a Federation fighter pilot named Bob Carson is obliged to engage in a one-against-one, winner-takes-all combat with an alien. The future of the Earth hangs in the balance. Still a good story after these many decades, and the Star Trek episode which is based on this novelette would have been better, had it adopted Brown's ending.

The Leech, by Robert Sheckley (1952): an alien life form lands on the Earth and it proves to be unfriendly. Sheckley, when he wasn't writing comedic sci-fi, could write very good 'straight' stories, and this is one of them.

Through Channels, by Richard Matheson (1951): Leo Vogel's parents see a very strange display on their television screen. An effective story from Matheson. 

Lost Memory, by Peter Phillips (1952): robots investigate an unusual artifact. This story relies on dark humor and, despite somewhat awkward prose, succeeds as a satirical treatment of human nature.

Memorial, by Theodore Sturgeon (1946): Grenfell, an idealist, seeks to convince the nations of the world to abandon warfare. 

Even by the standards of 1940s sci-fi, Sturgeon's prose is painfully stilted:

"Whew !" said Roway, his irrepressible humor passing close enough to nod to him. "Keep it clean, Grenfell ! Keep your.....your sesquipedalian pollysyballics, for a scientific report."

"Touche !" Grenfell smiled.

Prott, by Margaret St. Clair (1953): an astronaut cultivates friendship with exotic alien life-forms; this turns out to be a bad idea.

Flies, by Isaac Asimov (1953): three men who were college acquaintances attend a reunion. This is a real dud of a story from Asimov: stilted prose (He did not like to witness wild murder-yearnings where others could see only a few words of unimportant quarrel), and an underwhelming denouement.

The Microscopic Giants, by Paul Ernst (1936): strange goings-on in the depths of a copper mine. An imaginative story, and one of the better ones in the anthology.

The Other Inauguration, by Anthony Boucher (1953): a historian accesses a parallel universe and discovers that Absolute Power, Corrupts Absolutely. Boucher intends this story to be a minatory analysis of the American political system, but it's the worst entrant in the anthology, overloaded with obtuse prose, including the use of shorthand (?!).

Nightmare Brother, by Alan E. Nourse (1953): Robert Cos finds himself drafted into an unpleasant experiment. This story is too overwritten, and too slowly paced, to be effective.

Pipeline to Pluto, by Murray Leinster (1945): A young man named Hill is desperate to take the clandestine route to Pluto, where the work is hard and the pay quite generous. While the plot can be a bit confusing to follow, Leinster imparts a hard-boiled sensibility to this story that makes it another of the better ones in the anthology.

Impostor, by Philip K. Dick (1953): Spence Olham is a premiere researcher in what may be Mankind's final, desperate effort to stop alien invaders. But the government seems to think Olham is not quite himself........an effective tale from Dick. I'm sure readers familiar with his later writings will find many of Dick's more prominent themes in those works expressed, in nascent form, in this story. 

They, by Robert A. Heinlein (1941): the un-named protagonist is confined in an asylum, because he is convinced that the rest of the human race are aliens masquerading as people. This story vies with Sturgeon's story for 1940s sci-fi awfulness: badly overwritten, wooden prose, and a denouement that fizzles.

Let Me Live in a House, by Chad Oliver (1954): a team of four Terran colonists endure isolation and psychological stress in their transparent dome on Ganymede. Then, one day, there's a knock at the door............Yet another 'paranoia' themed dud, suffering from too many empty sentences steeped in melodramatic prose.

The verdict ? 'Science Fiction Terror Tales' is too short on quality pieces to rate as a must-have compilation of mid-century sci-fi. Those quality pieces it does possess, impart a Three-Star Rating.

Sherlock Holmes The Strange Case of the Queen's Pupils

'Sherlock Holmes: The Strange Case of the Queen's Pupils'

from National Lampoon, July 1971

The issues released in the early years of National Lampoon could be hit-or-miss, but the July 1971 'Pornography' issue has some genuinely funny, and explicitly sleazy, material in its pages. There is a sharper note to the snideness, that comes through in many of the articles.

Among the more amusing entrants is a black-and-white comic, written by Charles O'Hegarty and Michael Choquette, ably illustrated by comics veteran Frank Springer. 'Sherlock Holmes: The Strange Case of the Queen's Pupils' is laugh-out-loud funny, and an effective satire of the British boys' boarding school motif.

Thorgal: The 'Qa' series

Thorgal: The 'Qa' Series

One of the most memorable episodes in the 29 installments of the 'Thorgal' comic book series (albums de bandes dessinees) was the so-called 'Qa' series. 

It was a four-part series, originally issued by the Belgian publisher Lombard, and consisted of the titles Le Pays Qâ (1986), Les Yeux de Tanatloc (1986), La Cité du Dieu Perdu (1987), and Entre Terre et Lumière (1987).

In 2008 - 2009, Cinebook published an English translation of the four titles, partitioned into two graphic novels: The Land of Qa, and City of the Lost God.

There is a note in The Land of Qa that some of the contents in the original album are deleted in the English translation, so as not to give offence; I suspect this has to do with the depiction of the Aztecs' human sacrifices, mention of which is increasingly politically incorrect nowadays.

Both Grzegorz Rosinski and Jean Van Hamme were in top form with the 'Qa' series. Van Hamme's plot stays coherent for almost all of its length and keeps the story beats to a manageable number. He also throws just about every sci-fi or fantasy trope into this series: ancient astronauts, levitating sailing ships, telepathy, telekinesis, and alien artifacts. 

The series kicks off with Kriss of Valnor, the franchise's central villain, coercing Thorgal, his wife Aaricia, and friend Tjall, into journeying with her to the land of Qa (comprising Mexico and part of South America), and completing a mission that is short on details, but long on danger.

Interspersed with moments of violence and mayhem is some lighter fare, often revolving around the avuncular 'Tree Foot', the elderly guardian for Thorgal's son Jolan.

The artwork is impressive, as always, with Rosinski successfully rendering a variety of peoples and exotic landscapes. The 'Qa' series leaves no doubt that Rosinski was one of the top-tier graphic artists of the 1980s and 1990s.

Who will want a copy of The Land of Qa and City of the Lost God ? If you are a Thorgal fan, then these books are well worth getting. But if you are less well-acquainted with the franchise, but appreciate skilled art and story in a European style, then the books are a good investment. It's possible to get each book for under $20 from your usual online vendors.

Book Review: The City: 2000 A.D.

Book Review: 'The City: 2000 A.D.' 

edited by Ralph Clem, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Joseph Olander

 3 / 5 Stars

'The City: 2000 A.D. Urban Life Through Science Fiction' (304 pp.) was published by Fawcett Crest in July, 1976. The cover art is attributed to Larry Kresek.

This was the first of two sci-fi anthologies co-edited by Ralph Clem and the indefatigable Martin Greenberg, the other being 'No Room for Man' (1979). These anthologies, as well as others published by Olander and Greenberg in the 1970s, were of educative intent, designed to be textbooks for high school and college courses. 

As such, the Clem / Olander / Greenberg productions were among the more accessible sci-fi anthologies of the New Wave era, as they necessarily relied upon short fiction that was devoid of the unconventional, avant-garde mannerisms that marked much of the New Wave's output of that era.

'The City' contains stories first published during the interval from 1911 to 1975. Some of the stories previously appeared in Roger Elwood's 'Future City' anthology from 1973. And some of the entries here in 'The City: 2000 A.D.' are present in 'No Room for Man'.

Each of the entries in 'The City: 2000 A.D.' has an introduction from the editors; these introductions are pedantic, admonitory, and tinged with a progressive, liberal political ideology. It's clear that the editors view the city as a malevolent construct, and the selections in this anthology are designed to reflect this view.

My capsule summaries of the contents:

 New York A.D. 2660 (1911), Hugo Gernsback: an excerpt from Gernsback's novel. It's mainly of interest as one of sci-fi's first treatments of the modern city as a technological wonderland, the apogee of American resourcefulness.

Jesting Pilot (1947), by Henry Kuttner: the Future City is bounded by an impenetrable wall; a malcontent persists in wondering about what lies outside the wall. I've never been much of a fan of Henry Kuttner, and this story, with its stilted prose and inane plotting, reminds me why. It's the worst entrant in the anthology.

Chicago (1973) • short story by Thomas F. Monteleone: the future metropolis is completely automated; a robot questions why. 

Street of Dreams, Feet of Clay (1967), by Robert Sheckley: fed up with the rat race of life in an overcrowded, polluted New York City, Edward Carmody decides to visit the 'smart city' of Bellwether, New Jersey. An underwhelming social satire from Sheckley.

The Vanishing American (1955), by Charles Beaumont: the impersonalized nature of life in the Future City drives Mr. Michell into a profound state of alienation. 

Billennium (1961), by J. G. Ballard: despite the passage of the decades, this tale of the street-level reality of overpopulation remains one of the most powerful treatments of the topic.

Total Environment (1968), by Brian W. Aldiss: 500 young Indian couples are sequestered in an arcology and left to their own devices; it is an experiment designed to see how humans cope with severe overcrowding. Aldiss clearly intended this story to explore the implications of the iconic 'behavioral sink' rodent experiments conducted in the late 1960s at NIH by zoologist John B. Calhoun. In this regard, 'Total Environment' is an exemplar of the sci-fi of the Population Bomb era, and one of Aldiss's better novelettes.

Black Is Beautiful (1970), by Robert Silverberg: this story first appeared in Harry Harrison's 1970 anthology 'The Year 2000'. In Silverberg's story, White Flight has led to Manhattan being covered with a transparent dome, and black people constituting the overwhelming majority of the population. A youngblood named James Shabazz is out to make sure Whitey understands his place in the new social order, you dig, baby ? A cool tale from Silverberg.

In Dark Places (1973), by Joe L. Hensley: gritty, grim tale of racial warfare in a decrepit near-future cityscape. Its offbeat, proto-Cyberpunk sensibility makes it another of the standout stories in the anthology.

East Wind, West Wind (1972), by Frank M. Robinson: in a devastatingly polluted Future City, the protagonist investigates a report of someone operating banned machinery: a gasoline-driven car. An effective Eco-Catastrophe tale from the genre's heyday in the early 70s.

Disposal (1970), by Ron Goulart: when Lon's futuristic garbage disposal breaks, it means disaster for the entire family.

The Undercity (1973), by Dean R. Koontz: in the Future City, liberal reformers have made permissible offenses that, in the past, were felonies. But that doesn't stop enterprising criminals from making a living from breaking the law, often in ingenious ways. 

Gas Mask (1964), by James D. Houston: brilliant little tale about the Traffic Jam from Hell.

Traffic Problem (1970), by William Earls: dark satire of a future New York city where traffic is so bad the World Trade Center is encircled by highways, and Central Park has been converted to a parking lot.

Gantlet (1972), by Richard E. Peck: this story first appeared in 'Orbit 10' (1972) and it's among the few stories in that series, that I read back in the early 70s, that I found engaging enough to stay with me over the ensuing decades.

'Gantlet' is about a commute out of the Future City and into the suburbs. A commute that involves a passenger train with metal shields fitted over the windows, and machine guns and lasers mounted on the engine car. Needless to say, the train will be going through some very tough neighborhoods en route to its destination.........!  There is a proto-cyberpunk atmosphere to this story. 

City's End (1973), by Mack Reynolds: New York City circa 2000 AD is a depopulated wasteland, a refuge to outcasts and criminals. Teenager Bobby tries to survive, aided by his .22 rifle. The opening segments of this story have an impactful, dystopian quality, but, as the story progresses, Reynolds inevitably introduces discourses on political theory; these drain momentum from the narrative.

The Slime Dwellers (1975), by Scott Edelstein: to reduce urban blight, a space-age suburb is constructed in 'Basin City'. But.........what if no one wants to buy a house in Basin City ?!

A Happy Day in 2381 (1970), by Robert Silverberg: in the Future City, Earth's population of 75 billion live in arcologies three kilometers high. Mattern, an inhabitant of one such arcology, hosts a visitor whose remarks leave Mattern wondering about the wisdom of Unchecked Fecundity. Silverberg later would bundle this story into his 1971 fixup The World Inside.

The verdict ? There are enough good stories to give 'The City: 2000 A.D.' a solid 3-Star review. This is an anthology that displays sci-fi's 1970s pessimism to good effect, particularly the entries by Aldiss, Silverberg, Hensley, Houston, Earls, and Peck. If you like stories that fall into the same bin with pop culture classics like The Omega Man, Soylent Green, and Escape from New York, then this is worth picking up.

'Meatballs' advertisement, 1979

Meatballs advertisement
from the August, 1979 issue of National Lampoon

The story goes that Murray considered his role in the movie as something of a commitment he rather would not have made, and he showed up on the third day of filming and did little, if any, rehearsing. But the film was a success and paved the way for his role in 1980's Caddyshack, after which Murray became a box office superstar.