Book Review: Into Deepest Space

Book Review: 'Into Deepest Space' by Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey Hoyle

3 / 5 Stars

Fifty (!) years ago, in the summer of 1974, I joined the Science Fiction Book Club. My selections included 'Again, Dangerous Visions', and 'The Ice People', by Rene Barjavel. Another of the books I wound up getting was 'Into Deepest Space', by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle. 

How well does the novel come across when re-read five decades later ?

Well......

'Into Deepest Space' was published by Harper / SFBC in hardcover in September, 1974. A mass-market paperback edition was released in November, 1975 by Signet, with the cover artist uncredited.

'Deepest' is a sequel to the 1969 novel 'Rockets in Ursa Major', but it's not really mandatory to have read 'Rockets' in order to understand the background of 'Deepest.'

As 'Deepest' opens, lead character Dick Warboys, and his alien friends from Ursa Major, Alcyone, Betelgeuse, and Rigel, are enjoying their victory over the malevolent Yela (who, as detailed in 'Rockets', were prevented from destroying the Earth by a stratagem administered by Warboys). However, the Ursa Major crew's celebration quickly is ended by the discovery that a massive cloud of hydrogen is entering the solar system. It appears the cloud is the result of an action by the Yela; should the cloud impinge upon the atmosphere of Earth, it will trigger a catastrophic explosion that will end all life on the planet.

So it's back to dealing with the Yela, and Warboys and his friends board the Ursa Major vessel, and join up with a hastily assembled armada of Terran warships for a rendezvous near Jupiter. The fleet will then speed to a confrontation with the Yela. It seems at this point in the narrative that 'Deepest' is going to unfold as a traditional 'spacewar' novel.

However, barely a quarter into the novel, the plot undergoes a considerable shift, focusing on the travails of the ship carrying Warboys and friends consequent to an encounter with a Yela vessel. There is much exposition on the mechanics of space travel, with drama generated from the need for the Ursa Major crew to come up with solutions to various engineering dilemmas, such as the loss of power, malfunctioning navigational arrays, broken intercoms,  uncooperative airlocks and hatches, and ship-to-ship combat with the Yela. 

Inevitably with this type of sidereal, 'hard' science fiction narrative, things get rather boring, for the realism permeating the book doesn't bring with it much excitement.

Where 'Deepest' redeems itself is in the closing chapters. I won't disclose spoilers, save to say that the Ursa Major ship does indeed travel into Deepest Space......and beyond. The book's ending brings with it a 'cosmic' revelation that strains credulity quite a bit, but at the same time, is in keeping with the Hoyle's intent of giving the novel an educative quality.

The verdict ? 'Into Deepest Space' deserves commendation for being an unashamedly hard sci-fi novel during the apogee of the New Wave movement, and for its efforts to present concepts of astrophysics and space travel to intellectually inclined laymen. Thus, I am assigning it a rating of Three Stars. 

Penthouse June 1974

Penthouse magazine
June 1974

June, 1974, and the single at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart is 'Billy, Don't Be A Hero' by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. Cool ! I remember hearing it on the little yellow AM transistor radio we had, back in that Summer of '74.......... 

Let's dip into the pages of the June issue of Penthouse, the cover of which showcases the delectable ladies vying for the Pet of the Year honor.

The ads in this issue are eclectic. Who remembers Schlitz brand beer ?! It was considered a working man's beer, back in '74. Schlitz, Ballantine, Pabst.......they all were pretty much birds of a feather. Always, much preferable to Budweiser.

Buried in the back of the magazine is a small ad for something called the 'National Vasectomy Club' ?! Strange stuff, back in the mid-70s........

As for the Pet of the Year contestants, in my opinion, all of the ladies are genuine contenders. It's a shame the photos in the magazine are underexposed; trying to correct for display on a modern-day PC monitor can be problematic.

The non-nudie content in the June issue is underwhelming. An interview with heavyweight champ Muhammed Ali focuses on his training camp, his poetry, and the Nation of Islam. Yawn.

Fortunately, one of the portfolios in the June issue, titled 'Georgia Girl', is an outstanding example of the soft focus, David Hamilton-inspired photography in which Penthouse specialized. Lensed by Earl Miller, our Georgia girl - 'Deborah Clearbranch' - looks exceptional when posed against the various backdrops.

Pretty girls, and good times with Schlitz beer, all from fifty years ago........!

At Wonder Book and Video Gaithersburg

At Wonder Book and Video Gaithersburg

Last month, while returning from a weekend trip to Baltimore, I decided to make a detour to the Wonder Book and Video store at 15976 Shady Grove Road in Gaithersburg. I hadn't been there in 15 (?) or so years, so I was overdue for a visit.

This is the smallest Wonder Book and Video store, and not an easy one to find. It's located in the 'Shady Grove Center' plaza on Shady Grove Road. You have to turn off Shady Grove Road into an alley that runs alongside a Sherwin-Williams paint store, and ends up behind Shady Grove Self-Storage (photo below).

Looking up the alley from Wonder Book, towards the plaza entrance at Shady Grove Road

There is a large selection of CDs and vinyl in this store. You can spend a couple of hours (if not longer) poring over the inventory.

The aisles are pretty cramped; if claustrophobia is a problem for you, then preferentially you may want to visit the Hagerstown and Frederick outlets.

There is the usual large selection of paperbacks. On the day I visited, they had just gotten in a sizeable number of Very Good / Like New DAW books, and vintage sci-fi titles, all on display up front.

The older sci-fi paperbacks, back in the shelving, tend to be in Acceptable and Good condition. There also are some hardbound sci-fi and fantasy titles shelved in the back, too. And pinned to the ends of the shelves are vintage magazines and digests.

As is the case for the Hagerstown and Frederick stores, there are sections for westerns, classics, general fiction, and horror.

I came away from my visit with some nice old school DAW books and a Six-Gun Samurai western novel, at prices ranging from $4 to $8 (below).

One caveat about the Gaithersburg Wonder Book and Video: Shady Grove Road, even on a weekday afternoon, is heavily trafficked, and on the weekends, it's a mess. Trying to get into and out of the plaza where the store is located is not going to be for the faint of heart, whether you are coming from the east or the west. Stuff to think about prior to visiting !

Book Review: The Crystal Empire

Book Review: 'The Crystal Empire' by L. Neil Smith

2 / 5 Stars

'The Crystal Empire' first was published in hardback in December, 1986 by Tor Books. This paperback edition (449 pp.) was issued by Tor in February, 1989 and features cover art by Michael Whelan.

cover illustration by David Mattingly for the 1986 hardback edition, courtesy of 'Scifi Art' (tumblr)

'Crystal Empire' arguably is the forerunner of novels and short stories that envisage an alternate Earth where the Aztec empire, with all its devotion to conquest and human sacrifice, reigns supreme, as in Christopher Evans's 1993 novel 'Aztec Century.'

'Crystal Empire' is set in a timeline where the Black Death results in the collapse of Christianity and its replacement by a Muslim-Jewish alliance. By the late 20th century, Europe, and the Near East, are under the control of the Caliphate of Rome, led the enlightened and benevolent Abu Bakr Mohammed VII. East Asia is under the thumb of the Mongol Empire, which seeks to dominate the known world. 

As the novel opens, the low-intensity border wars between the Caliphate and the Mongols have blossomed into full-scale world war, waged with steampunk-level technology. The Caliphate's technological edge is starting to falter in the face of the overwhelming manpower wielded by the Mongols. And more disturbingly, the Mongols are adopting newer technologies in their arsenal - including a primitive submarine.

Desperate to defeat the Mongols and preserve his Caliphate, Abu Bakr decides on a precarious strategy: forming an alliance with the mysterious Crystal Empire of the Sino-Aztecs, whose kingdom, occupying the western coast of the Savage Continent (i.e., North America), is rumored to have advanced technology......and weapons that could turn the tide in the combat against the Mongols.

Abu Bakr dispatches his young, pretty, and brilliant daughter Ayesha on a long and dangerous journey across the Atlantic to the east coast of North America, after which Ayesha and her party travel by 'landship' to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. There, the voyagers encounter the novel's lead character 'Fireclaw', also known as Sedrich Sedrichsohn. 

The descendent of Europeans who migrated to North America in an effort to escape the Black Death, Fireclaw is a formidable warrior, and the de facto ruler of the American Indian tribes who occupy the Great Plains. Driven by curiosity, and a desire to prevent the Mongols from overtaking the Savage Continent, Fireclaw agrees to guide the Caliph's party across the Rockies and into the territory of the Empire. 

The journey to the coast will not be an easy one, and at its end awaits a confrontation with the Sun-God who rules the Crystal Empire. An Empire constructed on great cruelties and strange sciences, an Empire where those whose who enter its boundaries never are granted leave to exit. 

I finished 'The Crystal Empire' thinking it a more laborious and tedious read than it should have been. This was unexpected, given that the back story is imaginative (think Indians on steam-powered motorcycles loosening pneumatically-launched arrows at a wooden ship that travels across the prairie, via canvas sails and 20 feet-high iron wheels). 

However, the book is badly overwritten, with too many passages that labor to 'tell,' rather than 'show,' the perspectives and attitudes of the characters. The exposition, and dialogue, often comes across as stilted and difficult to follow (for example, Smith insists on using the word 'e're' instead of 'ever'). A running subplot, involving Ayesha's night-time visions of other times and places, pads, rather than enhances, the narrative. And the novel's closing chapters have the frenetic quality of the climax of a storyline in a superhero comic book. There is so much mayhem, and colossal death and destruction, taking place that the narrative struggles to keep up.

The verdict ? 'The Crystal Empire', for all its careful world-building and character development, fails to fulfil its promise of an engaging alternate world tale. I'm comfortable giving it a Two-Star Rating. 

Gene Wolfe and Pringles

Gene Wolfe and Pringles

Gene Wolfe is well-known as a science fiction writer, but also he was responsible for developing the process for cooking 'Pringles' brand potato crisps, as he details in this excerpt from an interview, conducted by Lawrence Person, and published in the Fall / Winter, 1988 issue of the sci-fi zine Nova Express:

LP: Along those lines, is it true you invented the machine that makes Pringles potato chips?

GW: I developed it. I did not invent it. That was done by a German gentleman whose name I've forgotten for years. I developed the machine that cooks them. He had invented the basic idea, how to make the potato dough, pressing it between two forms, more or less as in a wrap-around, immersing them in hot cooking oil, and so forth and so on. And we were then called in. I was in the engineering development division, and asked to develop the mass production equipment to make these chips. And we divided the task into the dough making/dough rolling portion, which was done by Len Hooper, and the cooking portion, which was done by me, and then the pickoff and salting portion, which was done by someone else, and then the can filling / can sealing portion which was done by a man who was almost driven insane by the program because he would develop a machine, and he would have it almost ready to go, and they would say, ‘Oh, instead of 300 cans a minute, make it 500 cans a minute.’ And so he would have to throw out a bunch of stuff, and develop the new machine, and when he got that one about ready, they'd say ‘Make it 700 cans a minute.’ And they almost put him in a mental hospital. He took his job very seriously and he just about flipped out.

Something to think about, the next time you pop open a can of Pringles !

Book Review: The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series I

Book Review: 'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series I' edited by Richard Davis

4 / 5 Stars

'The Year's Best Horror Stories: Series I' (174 pp.) was published by DAW Books in July, 1975. The cover art is by Hans Arnold.

The lineage of these initial volumes in the 'Year's Best Horror Stories' series is complicated. They are derived from the Sphere Books (U.K.) title 'The Year's Best Horror Stories, No. 1' published in 1971. DAW issued a U.S. version of the Sphere title in July 1972, as 'The Year's Best Horror Stories: No. 1', and then, three years later, published this July, 1975 edition. 

Despite the different titles and the different covers, regardless if you get the 1971 Sphere edition, the 1972 DAW edition, or the 1975 DAW edition, the contents all are the same.

'The Year's Best Horror Stories' series was very successful for DAW, eventually reaching 22 volumes in 1994, the year the series was discontinued.

All of the contents of 'Series I' were first published during 1969 - 1971 in other anthologies, digests, and magazines. My summaries of the entries:

Double Whammy, by Robert Bloch: a carnival worker gets on the wrong side of a gypsy.

The Sister City, by Brian Lumley: a competent, if not particularly memorable, Cthulhu Mythos story.

When Morning Comes, by Elizabeth Fancett: a politician has a deep, dark secret. The premise of this story is interesting, but the story is too melodramatic and overwritten to be effective.

Prey, by Richard Matheson: some toys, aren't really toys. One of the better entries in the anthology. It first appeared in the April, 1969 issue of Playboy.

Winter, by Kit Reed: two spinsters struggle to survive a long, cold winter. Another of the standout entries in the anthology.

Lucifer, by E. C. Tubb: Frank Weston gets his hands on an alien artifact that can change his life. Maybe for the better. 

I Wonder What He Wanted, by Eddy C. Bertin: written in the form of diary entries, this is a tale of a young woman who rents a house. A house with a checkered past........

Problem Child, by Peter Oldale: what happens when an infant starts to display X-Men style powers ? Another of the better entries in the anthology.

The Scar, by Ramsey Campbell: strange goings-on confront a family in fogbound, rundown Liverpool. One of Campbell's earlier, and better, stories: less preoccupied with atmosphere and diction, and with greater attention to plot.

Warp, by Ralph Noyes: the first-person narrator decides to visit a long-lost friend at the latter's well-guarded private laboratory. We know that nothing good will come of this. An interesting tale, despite being overwritten.

The Hate, by Terri E. Pinckard: domestic life has its complications. There is a 'shock' ending.

A Quiet Game, by Celia Fremlin: single mom Hilda Meredith is having problems with apartment living.

After Nightfall, by David A. Riley: Eliot Wilderman is doing sociological research in the sad little village of Heron. Strangely, everyone in the village takes care to lock and bar their doors at night.......a neat story that was reprinted in 1985 in the UK zine Fantasy Tales:

Death's Door, by Robert McNear: traveling across a strait to the village of Nicolet Island, Wisconsin, Charley Pope is confronted by a strange apparition out on the frozen water. This story seems like a conventional ghost story but has an unexpected twist at the end, making it a great tale to close out the anthology. The story first appeared in the March, 1969 issue of Playboy. It's been included in another horror story anthology, 'Ghosts of the Heartland' (1990), but otherwise seems to be the only fiction piece ever published by author McNear.

Summing up, this venerable entrant in the 'Year's Best Horror Stories' is a solid 4-Star book, and indeed, one of the better volumes in the series. It's hard to find copies in good condition that have affordable asking prices, but if you should come across one such, it's well worth obtaining.

National Lampoon June 1975

National Lampoon

June, 1975

June, 1975. The number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart is 'Sister Golden Hair' by America. Also on the chart, at position number 4, is "Bad Time' by Grand Funk. Two great songs, from 49 years ago !

The latest issue of the National Lampoon is on the stands, with the theme of 'Rainy Day Funbook.' To be honest, this issue isn't very good. Too many of the major articles are reliant on highbrow humor that even in '75, was too mannered to be appealing. I mean, a satirical treatment of the 'boy's magazines' of the early 20th century ? 

The better entries in the June issue are those featuring the magazine staff doing photo layouts; prominent here is co-editor Doug Kenney. It looks like executive editor P. J. O'Rourke joined in for the 'Madcap Modeleers' piece.

The cartoons come off pretty well, although most of them would not be considered acceptable nowadays.

We'll close with an advertisement for tee shirts for Vaughan Bode's 'Cheech Wizard.' Nowadays, Vaughan's son Mark sells Cheech Wizard tees for $48. Shipping is extra. What can I say ? What cost $5.95 in 1975, has increased over 706% ! Inflation, and all that.

And so we remember those long-ago days of 1975, when the National Lampoon cost one dollar, a comic book 25 cents, a vinyl LP $4 to $5 dollars, a 'nickel bag' of pot, $10, and a six-pack of beer, $2.55. Life was a little more affordable, back then............sigh.

Book Review: Swords Against Darkness IV

Book Review: 'Swords Against Darkness IV', edited by Andrew J. Offutt

4 / 5 Stars

'Swords Against Darkness IV' was published by low-budget paperback publisher Zebra Books in September, 1979. The cover art is by Luis Bermejo.

I have to confess that, after reading 'My Father the Pornographer', Chris Offutt's 2017 memoir about his father, every time I encounter a book authored or edited by Andrew J. Offutt my mind's eye surveys things in the context of Offutt's prodigious output of sleaze books, and his petty resentments against other authors and editors in the fantasy and sci-fi genres, and I wonder what role all of that plays in the composition of the book in my hand......

Anyways, like the other volumes in the 'Swords' series, this one contains both previously published and original stories couched in the world of 'heroic fantasy', or as Offutt refers to it, 'hf.' 

In his Forward, Offut states that the previous volumes in the series were grim in outlook, and thus, with volume IV, he was looking to include some tales that were lighter in tone.

My summary of the contents:

Mai-Kulala, by Charles L. Saunders: Imaro the African warrior ventures into the forbidding Ituri forest, there to experience Jungle Love. A competent story from Saunders.

At the Sign of the Brass Breast, by Jeff P. Swycaffer: in medieval Genoa, two thieves operate out of the eponymous bar. This is a comedic tale, and at times, I found it too cutesy.

The Reaping, by Ardath Mayhar: in the depths of a dank and dripping cave lurks an evil mage who can be defeated by no man.........

The Ballad of Borrell, by Gordon Linzner: an aging hero finds his past catching up with him. More reliant on dry humor, although it does have some rather bloody scenes.

Deux Amours d'une Sorciere ('Two Loves of a Witch'), by Tanith Lee: a precious tale of a lovelorn young woman who won't disclose the identity of the man she worships from afar. There is verse.....in French.......and lots of adjectives, and much descriptive prose.

Of PIGS and Men, by Poul Anderson: not a heroic fantasy fiction, indeed, not a fantasy tale at all, but an essay in which Anderson satirically casts Nordics as the victims of racial oppression. That Offutt decided to include this slight piece in the anthology tells me he was a bit uneven in attending to his editorial duties.....

Cryptically Yours, by Brain Lumley: written in the unusual style of an epistolary exchange, this tale is about elderly wizards confronting a conspiracy that seeks to have them all eliminated. Clever, inventive, and one of the best entries in the anthology. It was selected by Lin Carter for the DAW volume 'The Year's Best Fantasy Stories 6.'

The Dark Mother, by Diana L. Paxson: a Shanna the Swordswoman tale, and an effective one, at that. Our heroine must deal with some girls who have Bad Intentions.

Dedication, by Andrew J. Offutt: a 26 year-old would-be contributor to the 'Swords Against Darkness' franchise, named David Madison, killed himself before Offutt could make one of Madison's manuscripts sufficiently coherent to be publishable. Volume IV thus is dedicated to Madison (but doesn't include one of his stories).

Wooden Crate of Violent Death, by Joey Froehlich: a six-page, blank verse poem about some 'oystermen' who recruit a swordsman to do some killing. Editor Offutt claims he subjected this submission to 'eighty million' drafts. For all that, one of the verses in the poem is:

Along the river, the forests wept, their leaves falling like tears of autumn sadness

The Fane of the Grey Rose, by Charles de Lint: a 'Cerin Songweaver' entry. Our hero seeks to save a fair maiden. This story later was expanded into the 1985 novel 'The Harp of the Grey Rose'. It is sugary and insipid (de Lint uses the term 'aelf', a conversant is a 'speaker-friend') but strangely readable. 

After I finished 'Fane', I had to read David J. Schow's 'Bad Guy Hats', to reset the glucose balance of my brain. This is not something one should do lightly.........

Sandmagic, by Orson Scott Card: Cer wants revenge, and he'll go to any lengths to get it. This story's bleak setting, and quasi-splatterpunk violence, make it impactful.

The Edge of the World, by Manly Wade Wellman: a 'Kardios' tale that mixes sly (but never irreverent) humor with the sword-and-sorcery trope. Enjoyable. 

Summing up, there are enough good stories in 'Sword Against Darkness IV' to give it a Four-Star Score. Given that 'good' quality copies of the books in this franchise are fetching very high prices nowadays ($10 and up), if you can find the book for an affordable price, it's worth getting.