Book Review: Random Factor

Book Review: 'Random Factor' by Joel Henry Sherman

2 / 5 Stars

‘Random Factor’ (329 pp) was published by Ballantine / Del Rey in April, 1991; the cover artwork is by Paul Chadwick.

The book is comprised of two alternating narratives. One narrative deals with Casey Rourke, a soldier of fortune / jack of all trades whose assignment as a bodyguard to a diplomat goes awry. Rourke winds up taking on a job as the head manager, or 'Factor', for the Mael Station, a corporate-owned space station located in the distant, economically isolated southern arm of the galaxy.

The other narrative deals with a female alien named Rem Il Leera, a member of the Col race occupying a planetary system close to Mael Station. The Col have the physical form of an oversize amoeba, and infiltrate the bodies of semi-sentient animals residing on the Col home planet. This sort of benign parasitism allows the Col to perform physical activities otherwise unachievable in their native form.

There is ferment in the Col empire, as two strong-willed males are vying for control of the Col’s destiny. One male has entered into a clandestine alliance with a race of aggressive aliens, the Oolanian Unity, to control access to Mael Station. His rival dispatches Rem Il Leera to uncover the details of this conspiracy.

As the intrigue among the Col unfolds, it intrudes on the security of Mael Station and Casey Rourke’s well-being. In the absence of a space fleet to defend the Station from the designs of the Col and the Oolanian Unity, Casey Rourke will have to rely on guile and subterfuge to protect the Station and its populace. In essence, he is the ‘random factor’ that the Oolanian’s strategic plan has neglected to consider……

Author Sherman published two sf novels, and a number of short stories, in the 80s and early 90s. ‘Factor’ was his second novel, and it’s not a very accessible read.

This is due in large part to the author’s rigid adherence to the ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ mantra of fiction writing. 

Too many of the initial chapters of the book contain these types of sentences:

Gark looked up at the arching branches of the gunthath tree and listened to the cries of the beetha roaming its branches. His symbiont sniffed the air, pheromones of aggression starting to rise in its bloodstream.

What exactly is taking place here ? Who or what is Gark.....who or what is the 'beetha', and why is Gark bothering to hunt it......who or what is his 'symbiont'....why is the symbiont getting aggressive.....and what does this have to do with the plot ? 

Devoid of sufficient explication, these passages really don’t give the reader a coherent sense of what is taking place. The result is that the reader is laboriously forced to plow on through the narrative, relying on conversational asides, and irregular snatches of descriptive prose, to disclose who exactly Gark is; why he’s examining the gunthath tree; what his ‘symbiont’ is, etc., etc.

At times ‘Factor’ does overcome its obtuse prose structure, and becomes something of an entertaining read.

However, the buy-in to get to that point is, I suspect, too high to entice most readers to pick up this book.

Enoch by Royo

'Enoch' by Royo
from the July, 1983 issue of Heavy Metal magazine

 

Father Shandor: The Empire of Sin from Warrior No 6

'Father Shandor, Demon Stalker'
'The Empire of Sin'
from Warrior (UK) No. 6, October, 1982

In this installment of the 'Father Shandor' series, our hero is dead, and his body interred in Hell. But his spirit refuses to yield.....

 

 

Book Review: Videodrome

Book Review: 'Videodrome' by Jack Martin

3 / 5 Stars

This New English Library paperback edition of ‘Videodrome’ was published in the UK in July, 1983. ‘Jack Martin’ was a pseudonym for the well-known horror writer Dennis Etchison. 

(The US editions of the novelization paperback, with a cover illustration derived from the film poster, rather than playing up the Debbie Harry angle, are quite expensive, with used copies starting at $18).

The film was released in the US in early February, 1983, and it received considerable critical praise. However, Videodrome's  low-budget presentation was out of place with the expectations of the horror and sf viewership of the time, and it did poorly at the box office.

The novel is set in Toronto in the early 80s. Lead character Max Renn is the owner and producer of an independent TV station called ‘Civic TV’. Renn is essentially a sleaze merchant, constantly looking for cheap softcore porn and 'mondo' films, with which he can fill out the late night blocks of Civic TV’s broadcasting. 

Assisted by a video technician named Harlan, Renn covertly uses a satellite dish to steal video feeds from around the world, taping the pirated programs for release on Civic TV.

One day Harlan captures a brief segment of what appears to be a torture scene, originating from a broadcast titled ‘Videodrome’, from Malaysia. The video’s creepy ‘feeling’ is exactly what Max is looking for in terms of newer, more disturbing material to fill the late night programming slots, and he instructs Harlan to try and capture more of the strange video. 

Appearing on a local talk show, Max encounters Nicki Brand, a pop psychologist who hosts a call-in radio show. Max Renn and Nicky become romantically involved, and Max discovers she is turned on by the torture video. When Harlan discovers the Videodrome broadcast is actually originating from Pittsburg, Nicky’s obsession with the video leads her to travel to the city to discover more about the company producing the broadcast. 

 

Max’s interest in the Videodrome broadcasts becomes more than simply mercenary in nature when he discovers that they are triggering vivid hallucinations
 
By now alarmed by the effect the Videodrome hallucinations are having on his waking hours, Max Renn probes deeper for answers to the nature and purpose of the broadcasts. What he discovers sends his life spiralling out of control. For Videodrome is not just an outlet for particularly disturbing snuff films. Videodrome’s ambitions are set on a societal transformation much more all-encompassing….and dangerous. 

Thirty years after its release, the Videodrome film holds up well, as does this novelization, which contains segments / scenes that failed to make the filmed script. These additional scenes help fill out some of the narrative, and give Videodrome a greater standing as a work of proto-cyberpunk.

Videodrome, which came out just a year in advance of 'Neuromancer', contains a number of cyberpunk tropes, such as the advent of a ‘virtual’ reality, and the use of a helmet-type device to allow the end-user access to his or her own perception of said VR. 

But both the film and, to some extent, the novel, avoid using the more stylized, noir-ish elements of early cyberpunk (e.g., Blade Runner) and rely instead on a grubby, lurid, low-budget aesthetic that seems truer to the genre, back when it was in its formative stages.

If you haven’t seen Videodrome, or your last viewing was a long time ago, it’s definitely worth checking out. Given the overstimulated, frantic nature of so many contemporary sf films, the low-budget, gritty packaging of Videodrome, and its satirical but unsettling approach to the passive nature of tv viewing, will seem fresh and novel.

Jim 'Dragon' Kelly 1946 - 2013

Jim 'Dragon' Kelly 1946 - 2013

Some sad news, as Blaxploitation film star, and karate legend, Jim 'Dragon' Kelly dies of cancer at age 67.

Below I've posted scans of a 1996 issue of David Walker's Bad Azz MoFo 'zine, featuring an interview with Jim Kelly. Along with a little 'Black Belt Jones' cartoon action.......

'YMCA' from the film 'Can't Stop the Music'

Released in June, 1980, Can't Stop the Music did poorly at the box office and quickly fell into feature-film oblivion. But nowadays it has emerged as a superlative example of unique late 70s / early 80s cheese.

The film was the brainchild of Hollywood producer Alan Carr, who made a substantial amount of money mining American pop culture's 'nostalgia craze' with the 1978 hit Grease.

In 1979, Carr decided to capitalize on the popularity of the 'disco craze' , by producing another musical, this one a campy sendup of 30s musicals. Carr's project would feature the Village People, one of the most high-profile and commercially successful disco groups of the decade of the 70s.

In May of 1979, when filming on Can't began, this seemed like a wise commercial move. Carr had no way of knowing that by the end of the year, the disco craze would be dying away, to more or less vanish by the Fall of 1980.

(Although, for reasons that are hard to fathom, the film was a big hit in Australia.)

Carr chose middle-aged actress Nancy Walker as the director. Walker had essentially no experience with filming a major studio production, which badly hampered the production. To make things worse, when on location in New York City, the production was confronted by angry gays, who thought it was part of the Al Pacino movie Cruising, that also was filming in the city at that time.

According to the 'cowboy' in the Village People, Randy Jones (author of the book 'Macho Man: The Disco Era and Gay America's Coming Out'), the making of Can't Stop was one giant [gay] party, that saw huge sums of money spent on everything and anything but.....making the actual film.

The highlight of the film was the music video sequence for the hit Village People song, 'YMCA'. 

Even today, the glimpses of Valerie Perrine siting topless, in a whirlpool, with the naked Village People playfully splashing water at her is......... more than surreal.

Be prepared to witness footage of the Village People, and the patrons of a 'health club', exercising in short-shorts, tube socks, cropped tee shirts, terrycloth short-sets, and doubleknit polyester track suits......the height of workout fashion in 1979 !

And now, here it is in all its cheesy glory......'YMCA' from the film Can't Stop the Music...... !

'The Bus' by Paul Kirchner

book Review: Jitterbug

Book Review: 'Jitterbug' by Mike McQuay

 5 / 5 Stars

‘Jitterbug’ was published by Bantam Books in August, 1984; the cover artwork (which resembles something designed for a romance novel, rather than sf)  is by Enric.

I remember picking this book up in 1984, and thinking it was a decent read at the time. Nearly thirty years later, it’s still entertaining, and, in the light of events post-9/11, its vision of an Arab-dominated future doesn’t seem so outlandish.

The book is set in the year 2155, and the Arabs – and the Saudis, in particular – rule the world.

Their ascent to power has been engineered by the profligate use of a biological weapon called the ‘Jitterbug virus’. A highly transmissible, lethal herpesvirus, Jitterbug is stored in enormous domes centered in all the world’s major cities, and at any time, Faisel Al Sa’ud, ruler of the world, can order its release. This form of biological blackmail stifles any attempts by the infidel countries of the world to defy Islamic rule. 

Vast tracts of the Earth’s continents are thinly peopled by the infected, outcasts, malcontents, and all who refuse to seek refuge - under Muslim control -  behind the massive walls of the remaining cities.

As the novel opens, a young scavenger named Olson, idling by an East Texas highway, witnesses an act of casual brutality committed by Junex Catanine, a member of the corporate elite who manage the affairs of the ‘Light of the World’ (LOW) corporation – the Arab-owned business conglomerate that dominates the world economy.

Through luck, and some degree of backwoods courage, Olson finds himself taking Catanine’s place in the hierarchy of the LOW offices in New Orleans. Overnight, Olson has gone from a penniless wanderer to a contender for power. But his rise to the top won’t be easy:

Rennie Du’Camp, an ambitious manager with a decided note of psychopathology to his personality, has no intention of letting Olson elbow him out of the struggle to wield ultimate power in the LOW offices.

Milander, a Jitterbug sufferer with a warped, Messianic attitude towards the suffering multitudes of the Infected, is assembling them into a vast army for a march on New Orleans. For he believes that the world can be Redeemed only through the extinction of mankind.

Abdullah Al Sa’ud, Faisel’s brother, has been forcibly uprooted from his Bedouin tribe in Arabia and sent to New Orleans to discover why LOW office’s accounts have been losing enormous sums of money. If he can’t uncover who or what is behind the embezzlement, he has orders to open the Dome in the city, and condemn all its inhabitants to death.

And to top it all off, it won’t stop raining, and the prospect of a disastrous flood looms large for New Orleans….

At 422 pages, ‘Jitterbug’ is a lengthy novel, and could have benefited from being 50 pages shorter. That said, author McQuay does a good job of keeping his chapters brief, and the narratives associated with several sub-plots are in constant motion. There are a number of well-written action scenes that arrive at just the right moments to keep the novel’s momentum going.

Also noteworthy in ‘Jitterbug’ is the inclusion of lots of sarcastic humor, much of it derived from a keen awareness of the Arab / Muslim’s mindset and world view.

Back when this book was written in 1984, only a tiny number of Westerners, much less Americans, had any real idea of what the concepts of ‘Arab’ and ‘Muslim’ actually meant. Thus, ‘Jitterbug’ offered an imaginative take on what few (including myself) suspected would eventually be a massive change in the World Order.

Nowadays, with jihadis and Wahabbis rampant in the Muslim world, and the populations of Western Europe confronting the rise of Eurabia, ‘Jitterbug’ has a prescient quality that marks successful science fiction.

'Armies' by Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Picaret, and Jean-Claude Gal

The inaugural issue of the French magazine Metal Hurlant (‘Screaming Metal’) in January, 1975, contained a brilliantly illustrated, black and white comic titled ‘Armées du conquérant’ (‘Conquering Armies’), drawn by Jean-Claude Gal (1942 – 1994) and written by Jean Pierre Dionnet. Further installments of ‘Armies’ appeared in ensuing issues of Metal Hurlant.

When Leonard Mogel, the owner and publisher of The National Lampoon, decided to acquire the US license to produce an American version of Metal Hurlant, titled Heavy Metal, the April, 1977 inaugural issue featured ‘Conquering Armies’. Additional installments appeared throughout 1977 and 1978.

 

Later in 1978, Heavy Metal’s book-publishing arm released an oversize trade paperback compilation of all the episodes, titled Heavy Metal Presents: Conquering Armies.

In January, 1981, Dionnet and Gal succeeded ‘Armies’ with another collaborative effort, this one titled ‘La vengeance d’Arn’ (‘The Vengeance of Arn’), for Metal Hurlant. Set in more or less the same mythical / historical environment as ‘Armies’, the ‘Arn’ series appeared intermittently in Metal Hurlant until 1988. Gal's artwork took on an even more 'epic' sensibility.

[Unfortunately, only one of the ‘Arn’ stories was ever republished in Heavy Metal in the 80s.]

Now (April 2013), Humanoids, the modern-day business incarnation of Les Humanoïdes Associés, the co-op of French artists who created Metal Hurlant, has released all the ‘Armies’ and ‘Arn’ stories in a 184-page hardbound book, titled simply ‘Armies’, that, at 12 ½ x 9 ½ inches, reproduces the size of the original artwork.

This edition of ‘Armies’ is colored (by Dan Brown); fans of the original series may not embrace this decision, but in his Preface, Dionnet remarks that Gal had originally attempted to color his artwork, but abandoned the approach due to the fact that the color reproduction technology of the mid-70s ended up obscuring his ink lines.

At $35 US, ‘Armies’ is expensive compared to most graphic novels, but the book is of very high quality, with a finely printed hardbound cover, and paper stock that reproduces Gal’s delicate pen-and-ink artwork with great fidelity.

So, if you’re not at all familiar with ‘Conquering Armies’ and ‘Arn’, what do you get ?

‘Armies’ relies less on violent action and battle scenes, choosing instead to imbue the wanderings of the eponymous force across deserts and seaside landscapes with a sere, existential atmosphere. The purpose of the Army is unclear, its efforts ultimately futile, as the conquered cities and redoubts soon are swallowed up by the desert sands or the encroaching jungles, and its officers and troops led astray by greed and careless malevolence. 

‘Arn’ was a much more character-driven series, and in that regard closer in spirit to the American sword-and-sorcery heroes from the 1970s, such as Conan, Kull, and Mike Grell’s ‘Warlord’ series for DC. But ‘Arn’ is also very ‘European’ in nature, adopting a tone of moral ambiguity and anomie that usually was absent in the American approaches to the genre.

In his preface, Dionnet states that his artist partner worked very slowly, and looking at Gal’s draftsmanship, it’s understandable why this was so. Some of the panels in ‘Armies’ look like they took days of intricate penmanship to complete. Gal takes care to shade, stipple, and striate the bricks making up the exteriors and interiors of his Mayan temples; the folds of cloth making up the robes of his Tuareg – inspired desert tribesmen; the intagliated metal fashioning of the helmets and breastplates of his army troops; the wind-etched surfaces of the massive pinnacles of rocks that occupy his landscapes;  and the spider webs from the 'wizard' episode posted below

Some of the full-page illustrations the Gal composed for ‘Armies’ are equivalent to studio paintings in their craftsmanship, and you may find yourself spending ten or fifteen minutes of careful study to fully grasp the entirety of what you are seeing.

In short, whether you’re a fan of the early years of Metal Hurlant / Heavy Metal, a fan of exceptional graphic art and storytelling, or just someone who likes a well-told adventure tale, ‘Armies’ is well worth the price.

Below is one of the stories (unfortunately, Dionnet and Gal never gave names to their episodes) from 'Armies', showing the coloration of the artwork to good effect. And Dionnet's script provides a memorable ending..........