Book Review: Black Snow Days

Book Review: 'Black Snow Days' by Claudia O'Keefe

1 / 5 Stars

‘Black Snow Days’ (344 pp) was published in 1990, with cover artwork by Kevin Jankauski. It is one of the 12 novels, all first novels for their authors, making up the Third Series of Ace Science Fiction Specials.

‘Black Snow Days’ is one of the worst sf novels I’ve ever read. I struggled mightily to get as far as page 192 before giving up in despair.............

The novel does have an interesting premise: in 2046, snotty young punk Eric Pope is engaged in an illegal landspeeder race through the futuristic metropolis of Deerhorn, North Dakota. Pope crashes his speeder into a grain silo and suffers mortal injuries, blacking out as his rescuers struggle to remove him from the crumpled metal of his cockpit.

When next Eric Pope awakes, it’s 2058, and he is in the underground fallout shelter constructed by his late mother’s biotechnology company. World War Three has come and gone; outside the shelter, Nuclear Winter covers the radiation-drenched landscape. There are constant storms in which gritty snow – the ‘black snow’ of the book’s title – sweeps down to cover the earth with yet more fallout.

Eric discovers that he has been subjected to a protracted, but effective, healing process. His missing limbs have been replaced by newly grown ones, his maimed face repaired by implants and vat-grown tissue. His mother arranged to have his new body augmented with auto- detoxifying and auto- healing modules, and his brain has been enhanced by the addition of vat-grown neurons.

His late mother, it seems, had a mission in mind for her son: Eric Pope is custom-designed to survive on the surface of a post-nuclear earth, unprotected, unshielded. For purposes unknown to him, but probably vital for the survival of the human race.

There’s one problem: Jolie Pope also gave Eric schizophrenia. For his ‘female self’ exists as a mental avatar called Vivian. And however much Vivian interrupts Eric’s thoughts and actions, she can’t be wished away…..

Why is ‘Black Snow’ so bad ?

Well, most of the narrative is submerged under what can only be called gibberish. Gibberish in the sense of a continuous use of inane, empty prose. Combine the gibberish with segments  of dialogue in which crazed shelter dwellers argue among themselves and with Eric Pope; or badlands refugees argue among themselves and with Eric; or the AI that runs Eric’s futuristic supercar (called…..’Car’…..) argues with Eric; or Vivian argues with Eric; or the Car’s AI and Vivian argue with Eric, or Eric simply argues with….himself….. and things become so clotted and tedious that whatever momentum the thin narrative has gained is rapidly overwhelmed and dwindles to an afterthought.

Terry Carr died in 1987, so it’s unclear who (if anyone) provided pre-publication editorial oversight to Claudia O’Keefe, the author of ‘Black Snow’. Underneath the pretentiousness there is a good novel, unfortunately, the editorship necessary to help it emerge was not forthcoming.

‘Black Snow Days’ is a dud, and stands alongside Scholtz and Harcourt’s ‘Palimpsests’ as the most disappointing entries in the Third Series of the Ace Science Fiction Specials.

Heads by Arthur Suydam

'Heads' by Arthur Suydam
(from 'Arthur Suydam's Demon Dreams' issue # 2, May 1984) 

‘Heads’originaly appeared in the Spring 1980 issue of Epic Illustrated. While I don’t have that original issue in my collection, the Pacific Comics reprint of ‘Heads’, in the second issue of 'Demon Dreams', a collection of Suydam reprints, serves quite well. 

This tale has a truly bizarre air of genius that is absent from most mainstream and ‘alternative’ comics these days….

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Fantasy Annual V

Book Review: 'Fantasy Annual V' edited  by Terry Carr

2 / 5 Stars

When DAW’s ‘The Year’s Best Fantasy’ series launched in 1975, and proved successful, the market was established for yearly ‘Best Of’ anthologies for fantasy literature, although the output of so-called ‘adult’ fantasy literature arguably was very limited back in those days.

Pocket Books decided to launch their own anthology series, titled ‘The Year’s Finest Fantasy’ in 1978; starting in 1981, the title was shortened to simply ‘Fantasy Annual’. A total of five volumes were released before the series was discontinued.

“Fantasy Annual V’ (264 pp), the last volume in the series, was released in November, 1982. The cover artist is unknown. The contents all were previously published in 1981, in sf and fantasy magazines and digests.

Editor Terry Carr brought a different attitude to the Pocket Books series, as compared to that of Lin Carter, the editor of 'The Years Best Fantasy' at DAW Books. 

Carr avoided ‘classic’ or ‘traditional’ fantasy tales featuring, for example, barbarians, evil magicians, Dark Lords, enchanted castles, dragons, dwarves, and goblins. Instead, Carr preferred to showcase stories with a supernatural or mild horror content, particularly 'urban' ghost stories.

My capsule reviews of the entrants in ‘Fantasy Annual V’ :

In Parke Godwin’s ‘The Fire When It Comes’, a young couple share their NYC apartment with the ghost of an embittered actress. Insipid and trite, this is the worst story in the anthology.
 
George R. R. Martin's ‘Remembering Melody’ explores what happens when that crazy hippie chick from your misspent youth won’t take 'no' for an answer. An effective horror story.

Thomas M. Disch’s ‘The Grown Up’ is a sardonic look at a man who goes to sleep as a 25 year-old, and awakens with the mind of a 10 year-old boy. 

C. J. Cherryh’s ‘The Haunted Tower’ puts a mayor’s mistress into the Tower of London, there to be educated in the Meaning of Life by a succession of historical ghosts. Plodding and unrewarding.

Roger Zelazny’s “And I Only Am Escaped to Tell Thee’, despite its three- page length, is one of the best of his short stories, and the best entry in this anthology.

In Tony Sarowitz’s ‘Dinosaurs on Broadway’, a young women adjusts poorly to life in NYC; her angst is manifested in hallucinations of dinosaurs. The fantasy elements are muted, if barely present.  This is one of the least impressive tales in the anthology.

J. Michael Reaves’s ‘Werewind’ mixes ghosts, the Santa Ana winds, LA's film studio culture, and tosses in a serial killer to boot. Another of the better entrants in the anthology.

Robert Silverberg’s ‘The Regulars’ is a slight tale about patrons of a homely bar....... that never closes.

James Tiptree, Jr (Alice Sheldon) contributes ‘Lirios: A Tale of the Quintana Roo’, about an apparition appearing on the coast of Mexico. Well-written, if not particularly memorable.

Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s ‘Lincoy’s Journey’ deals with a young girl’s adventures in an Asian afterlife.

In Michael Bishop’s ‘The Quickening’, everyone wakes up to discover they have been teleported to a foreign country; the protagonist struggles to deal with this strange turn of events.

Curiously, although Lisa Tuttle’s ‘A Friend in Need’ is advertised on the back cover of Fantasy Annual V, it doesn’t appear in the book (!?). I am familiar with this short story, as it appeared in ‘The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories Series 8’ (DAW, 1982). It’s an unremarkable ‘urban’ fantasy tale, and its failure to appear here in Fantasy Annual V is no calamity. 

Summing up, ‘Fantasy Annual V’ suffers from two weaknesses. One is that, back in 1981, there simply weren’t enough outlets available to accommodate those quality fantasy short stories being produced, and secondly, inflexibility on the part of editor Carr meant that marginal tales made it into the anthology. 

Unless you are adamant about obtaining every volume in the series, this one can be passed by.

The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi

'The Arctic Marauder' by Jacques Tardi

 

'The Arctic Marauder', released by Fantagraphics in 2011, is the English translation of Jacques Tardi's graphic novel Le Démon Des Glaces ('The Ice Demon' is a loose English translation), first published in France in 1974.

According to Brian J. Robb's overview of the genre, Steampunk: An Illustrated History, "Marauder' is one of the first, and most important, of the proto-Steampunk graphic novels.

'Marauder' is set in 1889, and the story begins with the hero, a young medical student named Jerome Plumier, aboard the steamer L'Anjou en route from Murmansk to Le Havre. The ship sails amongst a group of icebergs; it is unusual for icebergs to be so far from the Arctic.

There is astonishment on board the L' Anjou when one of the bergs is seen to have a ship perched atop its needle-like summit. Plumier joins a lifeboat expedition to the berg and joins the crew is scaling to the top of the ice, where the stranded ship, the Iceland Loafer, presents an additional surprise: the entire crew is frozen stiff at their stations....

Barely have Plumier and his companions taken in this strange and troubling sight, when disaster strikes......and Jerome Plumier finds himself involved in a dangerous adventure to discover the truth behind the mystery of the Iceland Loafer.

'The Arctic Marauder' certainly has Steampunk credentials; I won't reveal any spoilers, but the plot delves deeply into Jules Verne - style territory. The plot remains engaging, and while the revelations coming fast and furious in the latter chapters, they are not overly contrived.

Tardi's distinctive pen-and-ink draftsmanship on scratchboard is the real attraction of 'Marauder'. While his human characters are drawn in a cartoony style not unusual among European artists during the 70s, his depiction of architecture, Victorian-era machinery, and the icy landscapes of the Arctic are unusual and display an eccentric craftsmanship quite unlike anyone else in the contemporary comic art scene.

 

Practically every panel uses intricate arrays of horizontal and vertical shadings, rather than ink wash or watercolor, to lend depth and contrast to the illustrations. I find it hard to believe that Tardi hand-drew all of these striations by meticulously scoring his scratchboard with a needle or scalpel.........

 

...........but I can't figure out any other way, especially in the era before PC-aided drawing, that he could have made them.

There is more shading and cross-hatching in a single page of 'Marauder', than there is in an entire month's worth of comics published by DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse and Dynamite..... Tardi's work, when compared to the artwork in contemporary comic books, might as well be from the 19th century, so different is it in style and execution. 

It's for the artwork, and not so much its archival value, that I recommend getting a copy of 'Marauder'.

Book Review: Hiding in Hip Hop

Book Review: 'Hiding in Hip Hop' by Terrance Dean
celebrating Black History Month 2014

4 / 5 Stars

Here at the PorPor Books Blog, we like to celebrate Black History Month by reading a book - fiction or non-fiction - that illuminates the Black Experience.

For Black History Month 2014, our selection is 'Hiding in Hip Hop', an autobiography by Terrance Dean. The book (305 pp.) was published in 2008 by Atria Books, a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster.

I felt a sharp pain and my body flinched.

In ‘Hiding’, Dean relates his experiences as a ‘down low’ man – the term preferred by bisexual black men who exhibit masculine behavior and dislike being labeled as 'gay'.

Dean attributes his attraction to men as the result of being molested, at the age of 13, by a neighbor in his 20s named ‘Ramone’. As he grew older, Dean dated and had sexual experiences with women, but remained attracted to men. As a college student, his first gay liaison was with a neighbor named ‘Kelvin’…..

I had never experienced such an excruciating pain in my life…..

The bulk of ‘Hiding’ deals with Dean’s experiences as a down low man in the television, feature film, and music industries in LA and New York City during the 1990s. According to Dean, in the black community, the prevailing opinion is that gays are un-natural, and homosexuality is considered a perversion. 

As a consequence, down low men were, and are, scrupulously careful about how, when, where, and with whom they confide their sexual secrets. In 'Hiding', Dean describes his introduction to the underground world of the ‘down low brothers’, where carefully screened parties allow ‘beautiful’ black men to congregate and hook up without fear of being discovered.

I stared at the ceiling praying that it would be over soon.

Much of the entertaining portions of ‘Hiding’ derive from Dean’s accounts of hookups and one-night stands with actors and rappers whose external appearance is studiously straight. It’s hard not to start laughing aloud when Dean relates an encounter with a 'thug' rapper who, even in the throes of passion, nonetheless insists that he’s a ‘real’ man and ‘not gay’ !

Interestingly, Dean states that down low men are not on very good terms with gay black men. According to Dean, too many black gays are intent on 'outing' down low brothers, framing them as hypocrites who cover up their homosexuality even while publicly disparaging or denigrating gays. 

For their part, down low men view gays as overly effeminate, and too fond of becoming emotionally unhinged. 'Twinks', in particular, are strongly disliked by down low men.

Dean is careful not to disclose the names of the down low brothers mentioned in his book, providing just enough of a hint to get the reader speculating, but never confirming, the identity of the guilty party. 

However, I suspect readers with a detailed knowledge of hip hop in the 1990s will be able to figure out 'who’s who' for some of the pseudonyms liberally sprinkled through ‘Hiding’. If you google ‘Hiding in Hip Hop + identities’ or 'Hiding in Hip Hop + guesses', you’ll get some links to websites where people make educated guesses…....and you’ll laugh even harder.

I looked around and saw other guys kissing and fondling one another….Most of them looked like L.A. thugs.
 
‘Hiding’ is not a perfect book; the narrative often jumps back and forth in time, making any effort to apply a chronology difficult. As well, Dean expends considerable page space on lengthy, angst-filled expositions about how hard life is being on the down low, living a lie, forced to hide the truth, etc., etc. These complaints have a superficial quality as it becomes clear that for Dean, being down low allows him to have cake and eat it, too.

All in all, ‘Hiding’ is an interesting, often entertaining read, and well worth picking up.

The Black Widow from Bizarre Adventures 1981

The Black Widow in 'I Got the Yo Yo, You Got the String'
by Ralph Macchio and Paul Gulacy
from Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 25, March, 1981

The March 1981, 25th issue of the Marvel / Curtis black and white comic magazine Bizarre Adventures (previously titled Marvel Preview) featured an all –female cast of 'Lethal Ladies', which included The Black Widow, 'Lady Daemon', and 'The Daughters of the Dragon'.

The Black Widow adventure, titled ‘I Got the Yo, You Got the String’, was written by Ralph Macchio. The plot, which has something to do with a double-double cross, is incoherent, but the comic features some really good artwork by Paul Gulacy, who models the Widow on Victoria Principal, who at that time in 1981 was a superstar due to her recurring role on the drama Dallas.

Gulacy also models some of the supporting characters in 'Yo Yo' on other famous actors…..and if you look carefully, he  pays homage to the op-art effects that Jim Steranko used in his 'Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD' comics from the mid-60s. 

It's all part of Gulacy's approach to illustration that makes it worth showcasing more than 30 years after it first appeared.

Moby Dick by Voss

'Moby Dick' by Al Voss
from the January, 1982 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

Book Review: Rune

Book Review: 'Rune' by Christopher Fowler

4 / 5 Stars

‘Rune’ was first published in 1990; this Ballantine paperback edition (339 pp., cover artist unknown) was released in July, 1992.

Author Christopher Fowler is prolific, publishing novels and short story collections in the crime and horror / fantasy genres. Two of the supporting characters in ‘Rune’, the elderly detectives Arthur Bryant and John May, went on to become lead characters in the ‘Peculiar Crimes Unit’ series of novels, the tenth of which was released in 2012.

‘Rune’ is set in London in the early 90s. It’s Spring, and the city is shrouded in chilly temperatures and continuous rain. As the novel opens an aged executive, possessed by a deep and abiding terror, is running through the city streets. After a series of mishaps with traffic and passersby, he comes to a gruesome end.

The deceased man’s son, Harry Buckingham, is an advertising executive and very much the self-assured Modern British Man. Stunned by the sudden nature of his father’s passing, Harry questions those who witnessed his father’s strange behavior during his last moments. 

It emerges that Harry’s father is one of a number of businessmen who recently have killed themselves under violent, inexplicable circumstances. There is a common link to these suicides: the victims had in their possession scraps of paper marked with an unknown script.

Aided by a punk rock girl named Grace, Harry Buckingham embarks on an investigation of the strange script. It turns out that the script is comprised of runes: a prehistoric form of writing used in pagan religious rituals. To his alarm, Harry learns that with the proper visual cues, exposure to the runes can trigger super-realistic hallucinations in susceptible viewers.

Someone is marrying runes with modern videotape and broadcasting technologies……. and for a nefarious purpose. Will Harry and Grace act in time to discover the agents behind a scheme to brainwash British society into a new state of consumer compliance ? Or will they, too, fall victim to the terrifying power of the runes ?

‘Rune’ is an entertaining combination of the corporate thriller, horror, and cyberpunk genres, leavened with a healthy dose of satiric humor. Author Fowler does a good job of giving his narrative a sense of time, place, and culture for the London of the early 90s. The subplots support, rather than leach momentum from, the main narrative, and the novel features an interesting (but manageable) cast of characters.

‘Rune’ is recommended for those who appreciate a worthy effort at introducing occult horror into a modern sensibility.