Book Review: Quag Keep

Book Review: 'Quag Keep' by Andre Norton

4 / 5 Stars

'Quag Keep' first was published in hardcover in 1978. This DAW Books paperback edition ( No. 353, 192 pp.) was issued in September, 1979, with cover art by Jack Gaughan.

In his 2022 history of TSR and the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, Ben Riggs notes that by the late 1970s D & D was no longer an obscure 'war game', but a rising (and lucrative) pop culture phenomenon. So it wasn't that unusual that Andre Norton and DAW Books would arrange to publish a novel derived from the D & D world. Indeed, in her acknowledgements, Norton thanks 'E. Gary Gygax', creator of the '....war game, DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS'. Interestingly, Norton also thanks DAW editor Donald Wollheim, who apparently was an avid collector of 'military miniatures'.

'Quag Keep' (the 'quag' in the title is a reference to 'quagmire') is framed as an intersection between 'our' world, where young people are playing D & D, and the world of D & D itself, particularly the Greyhawk setting. In the opening chapter Norton introduces us to some D & D players, one of whom, Martin, is entranced by a miniature warrior figurine of unusual fidelity. When Martin grasps the figurine, the action immediately shifts the narrative to a tavern in Greyhawk, where we are introduced to Milo Jagan, the warrior upon whom the figurine is based. In due course Milo, along with six other greyhawk Denizens, is summoned to a meeting with a mysterious wizard known as Hystaspes.

Hystaspes informs our party that they are under a powerful geas, the resolution of which will require a long journey, through dangerous territories, to the inhospitable Sea of Dust. There they must confront the agency that has erected a strange barrier against any type of sorcerous oversight. What lies behind the barrier, and what danger does it present to the world of Greyhawk ? It will take all of the skills, courage, and resourcefulness of Milo and his fellow party members to overcome the challenges in their path, and complete their rendevouz with the mystery awaiting them in the wastes of the Sea of Dust............

'Quag Keep' is a solid fantasy novel and deserving of a Four Star Rating. While the premise of an interaction between D & D Youth and the game world they vicariously inhabit is a bit contrived, for the most part, the book reads as a straightforward D & D adventure (indeed, I would argue that leaving out the references to 'our' world would have strengthened the novel). 

While Norton takes her time in getting the plot underway (nothing of note happens until page 68), once the party ventures a sufficient distance from Greyhawk the action sequences, which are well-written, come with sufficient frequency to avoid the dilatory quality that marks so many of Norton's non-franchise novels. Norton clearly understands that with 'Quag Keep', she is writing a novel based on a 'war game', and combat is to be an integral component of the narrative.

The concluding chapter is the weakest in the book. It fuses 'our' world with that of Greyhawk, but in an inconclusive fashion, indicating that Norton, Gygax, and DAW intended to compose additional, licensed novels featuring this roster of characters. Perhaps because of Norton's increasing ill-health, no additions to the Quag Keep storyline appeared until 2006 when a sequel, 'Return to Quag Keep', representing a collaboration between Norton (posthumously) with Jean Rabe, was issued.

(For another review of 'Quag Keep', readers are directed to this 2020 piece at Tor.com)

Robot Psychosis

'Robot Psychosis' at the Paperback Palette

The posts at the Paperback Palette website are infrequent, but when they do arrive, they are full of content.

Currently up is a retrospective of vintage paperback covers, all of them from books dealing with robots and AI. It's well worth checking out.

Quite a few titles that were unknown to me, but seem like they would be interesting reads.........

The Complete Book of Wargames

The Complete Book of Wargames

by The Editors of Consumer Guide with Jon Freeman

Fireside / Simon and Schuster, 1980

I played wargames in the 1970s, when I was a teenager. At the time I wasn't aware of this book, and looking through it nowadays transports me back 45+ years to an era when there were no computers, no internet, phones were rotary-dial, and when you went to the more higher-end hobby stores and department stores, you would see Avalon Hill games on the shelves. And in the pages of magazines like National Lampoon, you'd see ads from Strategy and Tactics magazine, aimed at the under-40 male demographic.

Being a publication of Consumer Reports, which usually covered things like automobiles, appliances, lawn tractors, hi-fi equipment, and other items, 'The Complete Book of Wargames' has a rather low-budget printing quality. 

In 1980, the year the book was published, the tabletop gaming enterprise was gaining the attention of Wall Street and other entities, mainly through the rising popularity (and notoriety) of Dungeons and Dragons.

'The Complete Book' opens with some chapters that provide an overview of the field, the design and conception of wargames, and how to play a wargame, using as an example a game called Kassala, concocted for this book. These sections work quite well in explaining things to a novice.

The core of the book is 11 chapters that provide reviews of selected wargames, as categorized by the time period covered by the game. 

Things start with ancient-era warfare, proceed through medieval times to the Napoleonic Wars, and then on into the conflicts of the 20th century, including Cold War 'what if' scenarios. An entire chapter is devoted to science fiction and fantasy games.

If you were a wargamer during the Baby Boom era then you're sure to see some favorites mentioned in the pages of 'The Complete Book'. For me, it's seeing Panzerblitz, Sixth Fleet, and Invasion America that brings back memories.  

The book does a pretty good job of covering games from a gamut of publishers, from the major companies Avalon Hill and SPI, down to the smaller, indie publishers like TSR, Metagaming Concepts, and Game Designer's Workshop (among others).

The rating system for each game is pretty well thought-out and useful, avoiding the fanboy attitudes that tended, back in those days, to muddy the waters. The reviews present a 'complexity' score (a '9', for Avalon Hill's Gettysburg, is the highest score given in the book) that reflects when a game has a steep learning curve and perhaps best is left to the most hardcore gamers.

The book's final chapter addresses 'Computers and the Future of Wargaming'. At this stage (i.e., 1980) of computer development, the term 'microcomputers' was used for what we now call PCs, and the field was defined by text adventures like Zork. But the authors of the book were confident that over time, more and more titles would be released on computers (which of course turned out to be quite true).

I note that the Board Game Geek website offers a listing of every game featured in the pages of 'The Complete Book'. 

(Needless to say, copies of these games that are in very good or better condition are going to have high prices, so nostalgia will come with its costs).

Who will want to read 'The Complete Book of Wargames' ? To be honest, it's too outdated to appeal to gamers under 50, who nowadays are preoccupied with card-based games like Magic: The Gathering and video games like Baldur's Gate 3. So, it's only Baby Boomers who remain an audience for the book, and likely as a source of nostalgia rather than as a guide for purchasing of wargames. But then again, who am I to say what is happening in the recreation rooms of the Old Folks Homes...........?! 

Face the Fire

'Face the Fire' by Dan Fogelberg
from the album Phoenix (1979)

Singer / songwriter Dan Fogelberg (1951 - 2007) is best remembered for his somewhat insipid ballads that were high on the top 40 charts in the 1970s and early 1980s, such as 'Leader of the Band', 'Longer', and my favorite Christmastime weeper, 'Same Old Lang Syne'. 

But on his 1979 LP 'Phoenix', on the track 'Face the Fire', Fogelberg showcased his skill as a guitarist with a great, hard rock solo that was rather out of keeping with his persona as a 'mellow' California-style folk / country rock artist.

'Face the Fire' was part and parcel of a 1979 antinuclear movement that arose after the Three Mile Island disaster. Featuring prominent singer-songwriters, such as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Graham Nash, the Musicians United for Safe Energy performed concerts throughout 1979 to advocate for 'No Nukes'. Fogelberg was one of the performers at these concerts. 

Jackson Browne (left) and Dan Fogelberg (right) at the Washington D.C. 'No Nukes' concert, May 6, 1979

Book Review: Of Men and Monsters

Book Review: 'Of Men and Monsters' by William Tenn

1 / 5 Stars

I remember buying this book back in September 1978, convinced by the great Boris Vallejo art that it was an action-based sci-fi novel. In reality, to my disappointment, ‘Of Men and Monsters’ (December 1975, 251 pp.) was an exemplar of deceptive marketing by Ballantine / Del Rey: a novel from 1968, repackaged for the 1970s with a more attention-getting cover. 

‘William Tenn’ was the pseudonym of the UK-born writer Philip Klass (1920 – 2010) who began publishing short stories in sci-fi pulp magazines in the late 40s. Tenn published a story called "The Men in the Walls" in the October 1963 issue of Galaxy magazine and later expanded the story into a novel, titled 'Of Men and Monsters', released in paperback by Ballantine Books in June 1968. 

Additional paperback editions since have been issued by a number of US and UK publishers; according to the ISFDB, most recently in 2011, by Gollancz.  

‘Of Men’ is set on a future Earth that has been invaded by a race of giant aliens, with humanity reduced to scrabbling out a precarious existence as vermin within the walls of the alien domiciles. The aliens, and their intentions, never are clearly described, reflecting an effort on Tenn’s part to present them as omnipotent figures whose nature essentially is incomprehensible to humans. The narrative is centered on the adventures of a boy named Eric, who, in the opening chapters of the novel, embarks on a manhood ceremony that involves leaving his tribe’s territory to filch food from the aliens.

Eric's efforts soon come to naught, as he is among a number of tribesmen captured by the aliens, caged in a research facility, and used to validate formulations of 'pest control' sprays (the 'pests', of course, being humans). This segment of the book is Tenn's rather blunt way of informing those more dull-witted readers (who up to this point may be unaware that the novel is satire) exactly what type of sci-fi novel they are reading.

I won’t disclose any further spoilers, save to say that Eric manages to find both allies and an escape plan, and a strategy by which Humanity may persevere in an otherwise indifferent universe.   

Tenn clearly designed his novel to be a mordant rebuke of the sci-fi stories and novels of the pulp and postwar eras, in which plucky humans relied on ingenuity and courage to overcome their oppression at the hands of technologically and militarily superior aliens. In ‘Of Men and Monsters,’ the struggles of its human protagonists fail to do more than attract incidental notice by the aliens; indeed, humanity’s efforts are so inherently futile that they make a mockery of classic sci-fi tropes. Since it is intended as a rather ponderous exercise in allegory, ‘Of Men’ is dull. Action sequences are comparatively rare, and subordinate to overly plentiful dialogue passages which allow Tenn to sermonize, in an oblique fashion.

The verdict ? ‘Of Men and Monsters’ deserves a One Star Rating, nothing more. In the interests of fairness I will note that Joachim Boaz, over at the 'Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations' blog, gave the novel a 4 of 5 Star Rating. I also note that Rob Chilson’s 1989 novel ‘Men Like Rats’ is a homage to ‘Of Men and Monsters’, but, perhaps because Chilson’s novel is more action-oriented, I found it moderately more entertaining than Tenn’s book......... 

Penthouse magazine September 1970

Penthouse magazine 
September 1970

Time to step back to September, 1970, where the number one single in the U.S.A. is 'War' by Edwin Starr. 

Let's take a look at the latest issue of Penthouse magazine. 

This seems apropos in light of the fact that on September 4 and 5, 2023, the A & E channel will be airing a two-part series, titled 'Secrets of Penthouse', about the magazine and Editor Bob Guccione:

In his Editorial for the September, 1970 issue, Guccione expresses glee at the magazine's success, which had been publishing in North America for one year. Guccione noted that circulation and advertising were up, which boded well for the future. And he was right.

This issue is only 98 pages in length, but of course the magazine was to grow in size with the passage of time. The advertising includes record club memberships, Lee corduroy slacks and jackets ($11 and $12 each, respectively) and the ill-fated Ford Pinto.......

Among the Letters to the Editor is one from a G.I. serving in Vietnam, where large numbers of Americans were continuing to face injury and death while 'Vietnamization' proceeded.

Max Gunther provides an article about government surveillance.......1970s paranoia in the dawning stages !

We have a portfolio featuring Pet of the Month Tina McDowell, a shapely 20 year-old who works as a greeter at the Penthouse Club.

This issue goes Highbrow with a 'Penthouse Symposium' interview with up-and-coming writers, among them D. Keith Mano (1942 - 2016), whose 1973 sci-fi novel 'The Bridge' I reviewed here. 

Let's close with a feature about the 1970 film 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls', by nudie director Russ Meyer. Lots of topless action with this 'sequel' to 'Valley of the Dolls'.

That's how it was, 53 years ago.............

Viisan S21 Model Document Scanner

Viisan S21 Model Document Scanner

For some time I've been looking for a scanner that is affordable and capable of taking scans up to and beyond the A2 dimension (that is, 16.5 x 23.4 inches, 42 x 59.4 cm). 

LP record album covers measure 12 x 12 inches, and trying to scan them on my Plustek OpticBook scanner, at 17.8 x 11.2 inches, has meant having to do multiple consecutive scans and then laboriously piecing them together using Microsoft's Image Composite Editor.

Earlier this summer I purchased a Viisan 3240 model scanner (above, on the left), but although it measures 12 x 17 inches (i.e., A3), the need to accommodate the scanning arm meant it could not do a complete scan of an album in one pass.

I wound up purchasing the Viisan S21 model document scanner, which is not a scanner per se, but rather, a digital camera than can take pictures of objects at A2 and A3 size.

At $313, it's more affordable than the kings of large flatbed scanners, the Epson Expression 12000XL-PH, which retails for $4,200, and the Epson Expression 12000XL-GA Flatbed Scanner, which retails for $3,000.

The S21, which comes with a plastic mat that serves as a platform and calibrates the camera, is very light and draws all its power from the USB port on your PC or laptop. There is a finger-pad USB attachment that can be deployed to take consecutive photos of documents, without having to use the Windows interface.

The S21 doesn't come with a manual, either print or online PDF, which can be a little frustrating, but after I messed around with the device I eventually figured out what the control scheme was. There are options to scan photos, books, and documents in color and black-and-white. The camera allows you to position items for scanning in real time, and taking a scan / photograph takes only a few seconds. The image can be outputted as traditional image files (jpeg, tiff, bmp, png) as well as text and Excel, if needed. 

For me, an album cover scanned as a jpeg created a file around 1.49 MB in size, while a tiff scan was over 16 MB. I'm not sure if I'm missing out all that much on not using tiff, as the LP covers I'm scanning were printed in the 1970s and their resolution can't be more than 300 dpi.

I'm pretty happy with the quality of the scans of LPs. For the more rare scan of an old copy of Life magazine, either the book or document scan settings give about the same result. There is a gutter correction when taking scans of flattened books and magazines, that works reasonably well. But if you're going to regularly be scanning flattened books, overlaying a transparent plastic shield onto the book, to reduce guttering, is recommended.

One thing to be aware of with the S21 is that, drawing its operating power from the USB port, if your laptop or desktop has other devices (such as a printer, USB hub, external hard drive, etc.) attached via USB, you run the risk of not supplying adequate power and having those devices 'powered down' and later unrecognized by Windows. My advice is to have the bare minimum of USB devices connected to your desktop or laptop when you decide to use the S21.

The S21 can be purchased from your usual online retailers, including amazon and eBay.