Book Review: Here Abide Monsters

Book Review: 'Here Abide Monsters' by Andre Norton

 3 / 5 Stars

'Here Abide Monsters' first was published in 1973 in the UK. This DAW Books edition (205 pp.) was issued in October, 1974, and features cover art by Jack Gaughan. It is DAW Book number UE1686.

The novel is set in July, 1972. In the opening chapter we are introduced to protagonist Nick Shaw, a young man who is motorcycling out to a lakefront cottage for a weekend of relaxation. En route to his destination Nick stops in at Ham Hodge's country store, where Nick meets an attractive girl named Linda Durant, and her Pekinese, Lung. Linda is new to the lake area and Nick volunteers to guide her to her own cabin. However, it turns out Linda's place is accessible by the notorious Cut-Off road..........a road linked with past tales of people who vanish upon transiting it.

And indeed, while driving down the Cut-Off, Nick and Linda pass through a Warp, and find themselves stranded in a strange, alternate world called 'Avalon', where - at first glance - people and creatures from mythology wander bucolic landscapes. 

It turns out someone, or something, in Avalon has a habit of teleporting people from 'our' world, into Avalon, a form of kidnapping that has been going on throughout recorded history. 

Thus, as Nick and Linda explore Avalon, they are astonished to find Chinese soldiers, medieval brigands, and a small group of World War Two-era Britons, loose in the forests and fields. The latter, led by the intense former game warden Sam Stroud, the avuncular vicar Adrian Hadlett, and the obdurate pilot Barry Crocker, are priggish, but willing to allow the two teens to join up with them for purposes of mutual safety.

As Nick and Linda accompany the Brits on their forays, they learn that time flows more slowly in the territories of the alt-world, as the Brits have not aged much at all despite being trapped in the alt-world for 30 years. The Brits do have unwelcome news for Nick and Linda: no one has ever found a portal from Avalon back to the 'real' world.  

As the narrative progresses Nick begins to rely on his own intuition in coming to terms with the situation. The plot culminates in a desperate, last-ditch effort to find the way home, an effort that could well see everyone succumb to the malevolent forces sweeping the land........

'Here Abide Monsters' is not much different from those other novels from Norton that I have read, that are intended for a Young Adult (YA) readership. The novel starts off on an engaging note, with concise world-building and characterization. However, as narrative progresses the mystery surrounding what is happening in Avalon becomes more opaque, with revelations doled out to the patient reader in drips and drabs. The novel's denouement delivers some explanations, but sizeable plot holes remain, giving the book's conclusion a half-baked quality.

'Monsters' also suffers from its status as a YA novel, something common in almost all of Norton's works; there is no genuine suspense, as no one ever is killed (or even seriously injured). While there are some scares and tribulations in the novel, they lack impact due to the reader's knowledge that the characters always will win through. 

Summing up, it may be that I am asking too much from another one of Norton's YA novels, but the bloodless nature of 'Here Abide Monsters' means that it's not going to be a gripping entertainment for the adult reader.

John Carter Warlord of Mars omnibus

John Carter, Warlord of Mars

Marvel omnibus, 2012

'John Carter: Warlord of Mars' omnibus was issued by Marvel in 2012. At 626 pages, it's a mid-sized omnibus, as these things go. It contains all 28 issues of the 'John Carter: Warlord of Mars' comic book Marvel published from June, 1977, to October, 1979, along with the 1979 Annual. There is a brief Afterward which consists of scans of original sketches, and promotional materials.

I purchased this omnibus ten years ago for $37, and copies in good condition nowadays go for $125 on up. So I thought I'd provide an overview of the omnibus so those interested in spending that amount of money for a copy can see what it is they are going to get.

The artwork, primarily done by Marvel stalwart Gene 'The Dean' Colon, holds up well, as do the colors and lettering. Where modern readers are going to find the contents less than impressive is the writing, which was done by Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont, who were fond of over-writing any property they got their hands on in those glory days of the writers at Marvel. 

Most panels are overloaded with speech balloons and text boxes, and the plots - loosely based on the original novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs - have an overheated quality, as the writers try to compress all sorts of events and incidents into the confines of a 17-page monthly comic.

Another area where these comics from the 1970s differ considerably from more modern treatments of the Mars franchise is in the cheesecake index. While Marvel wasn't averse to showcasing the charms of Deja Thoris, 'Warlord of Mars' was a Code book, and thus there was only so much T & A the women of Barsoom could get away with presenting. 

Compared to the modern-day 'Deja Thoris' comics from Dynamite, the female characters in Marvel's series are overdressed, but that's how times and mores have changed (as well, the Marvel series was aimed at comic book geeks - young men in their teens and early twenties, while the Dynamite titles are firmly aimed at middle-aged and older men, with considerable Disposal Income in their hands).

'John Carter: Warlord of Mars' works best when you don't get too caught up in analyzing it, and instead simply enjoy it for a fun comic with lots of beautiful women, menaces and monsters, sci-fi gadgets, and action.

As I said at the beginning, hopefully this overview will give Marvel and Barsoom fans an idea of what to expect with this omnibus.

Strange Seventies Textbooks: Mixed Bag and Montage

Strange Seventies Textbooks

In the early 70s there was a push to reboot the ‘composition’ textbooks intended for introductory English classes in colleges and universities. According to faculty in Ed Schools and English departments, textbooks needed to move away from the staid presentation of short stories, poems, and play and novel excerpts found in traditional composition books, into a ‘multi media’ or 'mixed media' format that was modern, cutting-edge, and resonated with the Younger Generation.

According to an abstruse 2019 doctoral dissertation by Nidhi Rajkumar, two exemplars of the multimedia textbook were ‘Montage: Investigations in Language’, by William Sparke and Clarke McKowen, and ‘Mixed Bag: Artifacts from the Contemporary Culture’ by Helene Hutchinson. Both titles were released in 1970.

‘Mixed Bag’ is a compilation of stories, poems, song lyrics, and essays, with an emphasis on material issued in the 1950s and 1960s. Visual media is represented by advertisements, paintings, photographs, and graphic art, such as cartoons and comics.

The chapters are organized around the ‘heavy’ themes of Family, Violence, Race, Death, Religion and……………TIGERS ?!

Groovy !

'Mixed Mag' is markedly superior to 'Montage', which is.......utterly incoherent. The authors of 'Montage' plainly were carried away by the lure of presenting mixed-media formatting; they Overdosed on it, in fact.

Typesetting and printing 'Montage' must have been a nightmare; in 1970 there was no such thing as desktop publishing, no digital typesetting, no Adobe InDesign, no Photoshop. Each page was its own collage, painstakingly assembled by hand and photographed. All 495 pages.

Reading the content in ‘Mixed Bag’ and to some extent, 'Montage', is to travel back in time more than 50 years, to era of political and cultural ferment. Racial conflict, the Vietnam War, the Generation Gap, and (in an oblique way) the Sexual Revolution. 

The presented material is, by 21st century standards, provocative, even offensive. Indeed, some of the material in 'Mixed Bag' likely would get it banned from contemporary classrooms and lead to the suspension or dismissal of course instructors………..but things were a little different, back in 1970.

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........!