Barlow's Guide to Extraterrestrials

'Barlow's Guide to Extraterrestrials', by Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Ian Summers

I picked up a copy of 'Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials' (1979; Workman Publishing Company, 146 pp) as a present to myself for Christmas 1979. It's a neat little paperback book that provides color illustrations of various aliens, taken from well-known SF works from the 30s to the 70s.

Along with some page scans (carefully) taken from my old and yellowing copy of the book, I've scanned a preview of the book that appeared in the December 1979 issue of Heavy Metal magazine.

The book's format gives each alien a two-page treatment. One page is a description of the physical characteristics, biology, and culture of the depicted alien, and may also provide illustrations of particular anatomical features of interest. The other page is a portrait of the alien as interpreted from the original literary source.

Along with the gallery of aliens (or ETs, as you may prefer), the book includes a folding three-page chart that allows for a comparison of the sizes of the various creatures:

The last 30-odd pages in the book are a gallery of sketches and preliminary drawings made by Barlowe in the course of preparing his final portraits.
 

Barlowe's artwork is meticulous, finely crafted, and well worth multiple viewings. Don't be surprised if the illustration of a particularly interesting alien creature leads you to search out the original novel it appeared in.

And, needless to say, it's always fun to see the ET from one of your favorite SF novels depicted in this book, particularly if the original image of it in your mind is a bit hazy and unformed.

One of the best examples is Barlowe's illustration of 'The Thing', from John W. Campbell's novelette 'Who Goes There ?' It certainly is more otherworldly than the creature portrayed by James Arness in the 1951 film, and it stands up to the creepy crawlies depicted in the John Carpenter film from 1982 and the Dark Horse comics from the 90s.

Copies of the paperback edition are readily available from amazon.com for very reasonable prices, so SF fans may want to get a copy of this entertaining book for their collections.

Book Review: Tales of Terror from Outer Space

Book Review: 'Tales of Terror from Outer Space', edited by R. Chetwynd-Hayes

3 / 5 Stars

‘Tales of Terror from Outer Space’ (190 pp) was published by Fontana Books (UK) in 1975. The cover artist is uncredited.

Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes (1919 – 2001) was the British equivalent of Roger Elwood in the US; like Elwood, Chetwynd-Hayes edited a large number of anthologies on sf, horror, and other topics during the 1970s and 1980s. Critics considered the majority of these anthologies to be mediocre.

The entries in 'Tales of Terror from Outer Space' all were previously published in sf magazines and digests during the interval from 1953 – 1975.

My capsule summaries of the contents:

I, Mars, by Ray Bradbury: a man stranded on Mars finds himself ‘haunted’ by telephone calls from someone he knows very well……too well, it seems……….like all of Bradbury’s ‘Martian’ stories this one dwells on psychological tension rather than external threats. It’s not particularly rewarding.

Eight O’Clock in the Morning, by Ray Nelson: a man is convinced that aliens, using a mind-control ray to deceive everyone in the world, have taken over the planet. He takes action. This story first was published in ‘Fantasy and Science Fiction’ in November 1963, and was the basis for the 1985 John Carpenter film They Live.

Heresies of the Huge God, by Brian W. Aldiss: an alien creature 4,500 miles long, with eight legs, decides to lie atop the globe; the ensuing geographical disasters give rise to violent religious conflicts. This story is really more of a dark satire about religious dogmatism than a horror story per se; there is much dry humor.

The Head-Hunters, by Ralph Williams: an old school inspiration for the film Predator.

The Animators, by Sydney J. Bounds: a Terran expedition on Mars confronts a disturbing event. One of the better stories in the anthology.

The Night of the Seventh Finger, by Robert Presslie: walking home late at night, teenager Sue Bradley passes the old house that is rumored to be haunted…..

No More for Mary, by Charles Birkin: on holiday at an Italian villa, Toby Lewis spots something unusual in the garden.

Invasion of Privacy, by Bob Shaw: a boy named Sammy insists that he saw his recently deceased grandmother alive and well in an decrepit old house….although the sf element in this entry from veteran sf author Shaw is a bit contrived, this remains a good story.

The Ruum, by Arthur Porges: in the remote Canadian wilderness, a prospector comes upon a disturbing alien artifact. One of the better stories in the anthology.

The First Days of May, by Claude Veillot: first published in 1961, this story by French author Veillot was translated by Damon Knight. It’s a ‘buglike aliens take over Earth’ story that really works. It’s not a satire or an allegory, but a genuinely creepy tale, and one of the better sf horror stories I’ve ever read.

Specialist, by Robert Sheckley: a starship crewed by aliens needs a new member….and an Earthman can fit the bill. More of a humor story than a horror story.

No Morning After, by Arthur C. Clark: William Cross receives a telepathic message from the alien Thaar. This story relies more on sardonic humor, than horror.

Shipwreck, by R. Chetwynd-Hayes: when Sarcan the alien crash-lands on Earth, he’ll use whatever means are necessary to get back to his home planet………

The verdict ? Anthologies of sf-themed horror stories are quite rare, so it’s difficult to find other volumes to compare this one to. However, there are enough good stories in ‘Tales of Terror from Outer Space’ to make this anthology worth picking up if you see it on the shelves of a used bookstore.

Book Review: Brothers of Earth

Book Review: 'Brothers of Earth' by C. J. Cherryh

2 / 5 Stars

‘Brothers of Earth’ (245 pp.) is DAW Book No. 212; it was published in October 1976, with cover art by Alan Atkinson.

‘Brothers’ adheres quite closely to the premise regularly employed in author Cherryh’s science fiction: through circumstance, or his own volition, an Earthman finds himself immersed in an alien world and an alien culture. 

Success of his mission, or perhaps his very survival, depends on his willingness to adapt to the alien culture and gain the respect of its people. The alien culture is usually depicted as being fair and equitable in its own right, if not in some ways superior to that of Terran culture. 

And, more often than not, our hero finds himself bereft of laser, disintegrator ray, railgun, mini-nuke launcher, phase plasma rifle in the 40-watt range, and other ordnance, leaving him with no choice but to undergo various humiliations and abuses, with no way to respond save to grin and bear it, and hope his persecutors will eventually relent.

In the case of ‘Brothers’, the hero is spaceman Kurt Morgan, the lone survivor of a battle between the fleets of the Federation and the rebellious Hanan faction. Morgan  crash-lands on a nameless Earth-type world, whose inhabitants are a race of humans akin to the Polynesians of Terra.

In due course, Kurt Morgan and Kta, his native minder, find themselves caught up in various religious and political conflicts among the native peoples, and forced into choosing sides in a violent civil war. It’s up to Kurt to demonstrate that his loyalties stand with Kta and his kin, even if so doing ruins the last, best chance Morgan has of regaining contact with the Federation, and eventual rescue…..

I found ‘Brothers’ to be a competent, if not particularly original, Cherryh novel. With the exception of the book’s middle section, where the narrative takes on some degree of momentum, most of the text is devoted to lengthy explorations of the emotional interactions between Morgan and his friend Kta. 

While I can’t claim to be an aficionado of so-called ‘slash’ fiction, it’s clear that in many ways ‘Brothers’ is a more chaste incarnation of the Kirk/Spock pieces regularly produced in the 70s by a subset of Star Trek’s female fans.

The novel is centered on the relationship between Morgan and Kta, and rarely strays from this path; I’m not disclosing a major spoiler to say that early on a female love interest is deployed, but then quickly removed. Other female characters are introduced in the course of the narrative, but these characters serve as vehicles by which Morgan and Kta can further cement their dedication to one another.

Cherryh fans will want to have a copy of ‘Brothers’ on their bookshelf, but I suspect all other PorPor fans will want to read it only if they have nothing more pressing on their calendar.

Book Review: Science Fiction Terror Tales

Book Review: 'Science Fiction Terror Tales' edited by Groff Conklin

 3 / 5 Stars

Here we go with one of the more than 40 anthologies edited by the indefatigable Groff Conklin (1904 - 1968) between 1946 and 1968.

'Science Fiction Terror Tales' (262 pp.) first was published in hardcover in January, 1955 by Gnome Press. A paperback edition was released by Pocket Books later that year. The edition I have, and which is pictured above, was issued in 1970. The artist who provided the striking cover image is uncredited.

The entries in 'Terror Tales' all first saw print in the 1940s and early 1950s.

My capsule summaries of the contents:

Introduction, by Groff Conklin: Conklin states that with this anthology, he sought to include lesser-known, but high-quality, stories.

Punishment Without Crime, by Ray Bradbury (1950): George Hill, a cuckold, seeks vengeance on his wayward wife. An overwrought, contrived tale from Bradbury.

Arena, by Fredric Brown (1944): a Federation fighter pilot named Bob Carson is obliged to engage in a one-against-one, winner-takes-all combat with an alien. The future of the Earth hangs in the balance. Still a good story after these many decades, and the Star Trek episode which is based on this novelette would have been better, had it adopted Brown's ending.

The Leech, by Robert Sheckley (1952): an alien life form lands on the Earth and it proves to be unfriendly. Sheckley, when he wasn't writing comedic sci-fi, could write very good 'straight' stories, and this is one of them.

Through Channels, by Richard Matheson (1951): Leo Vogel's parents see a very strange display on their television screen. An effective story from Matheson. 

Lost Memory, by Peter Phillips (1952): robots investigate an unusual artifact. This story relies on dark humor and, despite somewhat awkward prose, succeeds as a satirical treatment of human nature.

Memorial, by Theodore Sturgeon (1946): Grenfell, an idealist, seeks to convince the nations of the world to abandon warfare. 

Even by the standards of 1940s sci-fi, Sturgeon's prose is painfully stilted:

"Whew !" said Roway, his irrepressible humor passing close enough to nod to him. "Keep it clean, Grenfell ! Keep your.....your sesquipedalian pollysyballics, for a scientific report."

"Touche !" Grenfell smiled.

Prott, by Margaret St. Clair (1953): an astronaut cultivates friendship with exotic alien life-forms; this turns out to be a bad idea.

Flies, by Isaac Asimov (1953): three men who were college acquaintances attend a reunion. This is a real dud of a story from Asimov: stilted prose (He did not like to witness wild murder-yearnings where others could see only a few words of unimportant quarrel), and an underwhelming denouement.

The Microscopic Giants, by Paul Ernst (1936): strange goings-on in the depths of a copper mine. An imaginative story, and one of the better ones in the anthology.

The Other Inauguration, by Anthony Boucher (1953): a historian accesses a parallel universe and discovers that Absolute Power, Corrupts Absolutely. Boucher intends this story to be a minatory analysis of the American political system, but it's the worst entrant in the anthology, overloaded with obtuse prose, including the use of shorthand (?!).

Nightmare Brother, by Alan E. Nourse (1953): Robert Cos finds himself drafted into an unpleasant experiment. This story is too overwritten, and too slowly paced, to be effective.

Pipeline to Pluto, by Murray Leinster (1945): A young man named Hill is desperate to take the clandestine route to Pluto, where the work is hard and the pay quite generous. While the plot can be a bit confusing to follow, Leinster imparts a hard-boiled sensibility to this story that makes it another of the better ones in the anthology.

Impostor, by Philip K. Dick (1953): Spence Olham is a premiere researcher in what may be Mankind's final, desperate effort to stop alien invaders. But the government seems to think Olham is not quite himself........an effective tale from Dick. I'm sure readers familiar with his later writings will find many of Dick's more prominent themes in those works expressed, in nascent form, in this story. 

They, by Robert A. Heinlein (1941): the un-named protagonist is confined in an asylum, because he is convinced that the rest of the human race are aliens masquerading as people. This story vies with Sturgeon's story for 1940s sci-fi awfulness: badly overwritten, wooden prose, and a denouement that fizzles.

Let Me Live in a House, by Chad Oliver (1954): a team of four Terran colonists endure isolation and psychological stress in their transparent dome on Ganymede. Then, one day, there's a knock at the door............Yet another 'paranoia' themed dud, suffering from too many empty sentences steeped in melodramatic prose.

The verdict ? 'Science Fiction Terror Tales' is too short on quality pieces to rate as a must-have compilation of mid-century sci-fi. Those quality pieces it does possess, impart a Three-Star Rating.

Questar' magazine October 1980

'Questar' magazine October 1980

Although it bore a cover date of October 1980, this issue of 'Questar' was on the stands in late Summer 1980. The striking cover is by the late Frank Frazetta, who was the topic of a portfolio in the interior of the magazine.

The film reviews in this issue make for a strange sort of nostalgia.'The Empire Strikes Back' was of course the main film event of the Summer and gets a deservedly laudatory review. But there is also coverage of a Cheech and Chong SF movie (??!!) that must have sunk without a trace. 

And somehow the disco-themed movie 'Xanadu', featuring Olivia Newton-John and Michael Beck (who appeared in 'The Warriors') gets a review, however tenuous its relevance to a fantasy - SF theme.

Along with the bigger-budgeted studio releases, the magazine previews two low-budget horror films that are obviously hoping to cash in on the buzz of the previous year's 'Alien' movie.

One, 'Scared of the Dark', was supposed to star musician Rick Springfield ?!

The other, 'Alien on Earth' (aka 'Contamination'), was an Italian-made 'spaghetti Alien' film. It was labeled as a 'video nasty' in the UK.

Finally, there's a blurb about the animated film 'The Return of the King', produced by Rankin Bass. In the medieval days before CGI was even a dream, the only way a concept like that presented in the Tolkein novels could be envisioned as a feature film, was through animation.

The best feature in this issue of 'Questar' was a retrospective of 'Night of the Living Dead', featuring a great painting (artist unknown) of the zombie little girl, Karen Cooper (played by  Kyra Schon).

Book Review: The Machine in Shaft Ten

Book Review: 'The Machine in Shaft Ten' by M. John Harrison

 

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Machine in Shaft Ten’ (174 pp) was published in the UK by Panther Books, and features cover artwork by Chris Foss. The stories it compiles were first published in the late 60s and early 70s in New Worlds and other sf magazines.

‘Machine’ is an eclectic collection that represents some of the worst, and some of the best, New Wave sf. 

Of the twelve stories in ‘Machine’, four - The Bait Principle, The Orgasm Band, Visions of Monad, and The Bringer with the Window – are all ‘experimental’ fictions in which a series of loosely-connected vignettes are presented to the reader, charging him or her with fashioning their own narrative from the presented material. This sort of short story was prevalent in the New Wave era, and has aged badly.

The remaining stories in ‘Machine’ are, however, among the best Harrison has written and display the imagination and creativity that the New Wave movement brought to sf.

All of these, to one degree or another, are preoccupied with entropy, and while it’s true that the New Wave movement as a whole certainly was preoccupied with entropy, Harrison was one of the few authors who didn’t simply try to emulate J. G. Ballard, but instead injected his own interpretation of the idea into his fiction.

The stories in ‘Machine’ present entropy in striking visual terms: it’s always November; there are fields of corroded metal spars, abandoned buildings with walls encrusted with mold, fogs and mists concealing great heaps of disintegrating machinery, alienated characters seeking shelter in bombed-out ruins created by a war since forgotten, etc. 

Poking through these entropic visions are sharp, nasty acts of violence and cruelty.

The lead story, ‘The Machine in Shaft Ten’, deals with the discovery of a possible alien artifact churning away deep within the earth’s core. This discovery spawns a new religious cult with ambivalent implications for the fate of humankind.

‘The Lamia and Lord Chromis’ is a Viriconium story, and today, more than 40 years later, still one of the most offbeat and imaginative fantasy stories ever written. The plot is not particularly original, but the atmosphere and themes, which borrow somewhat from Jack Vance, brought a new sensibility to the genre.

‘Running Down’, about a man afflicted with entropy, was also very creative for its time, and while overly long, and tending to belabor rock climbing (Harrison’s favorite past-time), it too remains relevant as an example of sf that extends the genre.

‘Events Witnessed from a City’ is another Viriconium tale, and while it adopts the episodic nature of the ‘experimental’ pieces, it's more coherent, and delivers a uniquely downbeat ending.

In ‘London Melancholy’, a race of winged humans cautiously explore a London destroyed by a war with a race of unusual aliens. Fusing entropy with the sf trope of alien invaders, it’s one of the better New Wave stories ever written.

‘Ring of Pain’ also is set in the fog-wreathed ruins of an English city, but here, it’s a personal sort of violence visited on the survivors who crawl through the dripping ruins.

‘The Causeway’ takes place on an unnamed planet where the narrator endeavors to discover the origins and purpose of a mysterious, enormous bridge that stretches for what may be hundreds of miles across the sea. Downbeat, melancholy, and with a twist ending.

‘Coming from Behind’ is another alien invasion tale. A deserter named Prefontaine makes his way through a bleak landscape of abandoned buildings and deserted roadways, hiding from his pursuers. He discovers that his moral obligations may outweigh his interests in self-preservation. 

In summary, ‘Machine’ is well worth getting, even though almost half its contents are New Wave affectations that haven’t endured well. The remaining ‘traditional’ stories more than make up for the less-impressive entries.

Book Review: Crystal Express

Book Review: 'Crystal Express' by Bruce Sterling

5 / 5 Stars

'Crystal Express' (278 pp.) was issued by Ace Books in December 1990. The cover illustration (fractals were very 'in' as a design theme in the early 1990s) is by Ian Entwistle.

This book is an anthology of short stories Sterling published over the interval from 1982 to 1987, in magazines and books such as Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Interzone, and Universe.

The initial five entries in 'Crystal' are stories set in Sterling's  far-future Shaper / Mechanist universe, in which mankind - split into two adversarial factions - tries to find a place in a galaxy dominated by alien races and their advanced technologies. 'Swarm' (1982), the inaugural story in the Shaper franchise, features an imaginative treatment of an alien hive society, while 'Spider Rose' (1982) pits the eponymous protagonist, who possesses a unique alien artifact, against malevolent Shapers. 

The 1983 novelette 'Cicada Queen' deals with political intrigues between the factions, with a project to terraform Mars hanging in the balance. The terraforming project is the topic of the 1984 story 'Sunken Gardens'. 'Twenty Evocations' (1984) uses a series of vignettes to recount the life and times of a Shaper named Nikolai Leng.

I find the Shaper stories to be interesting, if over-written, science fiction pieces. There are simply too many concepts, wordsmithings, and story beats competing for limited text space. 

That said, these stories are as good as, if not better than, contemporaneous material from more recognized writers like John Varley. The early 1980s were a relentlessly staid period when it came to 'hard' science fiction, with editors and publishers focusing on churning out duds from bankable authors like Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frederik Pohl, and Asimov. So Sterling's contributions to the field certainly injected a degree of innovation into the scene.

Moving on through 'Crystal', there are three stories, although not labeled as such, that represent what now is regarded as cyberpunk. 

'Green Days in Brunei' (1985) is a very readable novelette, set in a near-future southeast Asia, where engineer and hacker Turner Choi is charged with reviving the national economy of an impoverished Brunei. 'Spook' (1983) is about a political operative sent to destroy an anti-globalist rebellion. It has a cynical edge to it that places the story in the harder-edged realm of cyberpunk, and thus can be said to lie in William Gibson territory. 

'The Beautiful and the Sublime' (1986) resides firmly in Sterling's more genial approach to plotting and characters. There are no casualties, but much drawing-room machinations by social butterflies who like manipulating the wealthy.

The collection closes with stories set in past eras. These tend to have a subdued, ruminative quality. 'Telliamed' (1984) is about an 18th century French 'natural philosopher' who triggers the final conflict between the Age of Myth and Legend, and the Age of Enlightenment. 'The Little Magic Shop' (1987) comes across as a Roald Dahl-ish story in its treatment of an age-defying entrepreneur named James Abernathy.

'Flowers of Edo' (1987) relates the adventures of two Japanese men coping with the disruption to their society caused by the arrival of new technologies and ideas from the West. 'Dinner in Audoghast' (1985) sees a group of dissipated merchants and traders, residing in what at that time was the prosperous city of Aoudaghost in 11th century Mauritania, confronting a prophecy of doom and desolation.

In his zine Cheap Truth, Sterling had this to say about science fiction in the early 1980s: "American sf lies in a reptilian torpor". It was a depressing, but accurate statement.

When comparing the short stories in 'Crystal Express' with those published by the more well-publicized mainstream science fiction authors in the 1980s, it's clear that Sterling and the cyberpunks were updating and improving the genre, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in larger ways. The contents of 'Crystal Express' can be seen as examples of the storytelling the cyberpunks used to revitalize science fiction. 

'Crystal Express' is deserving of a Five Star Rating. 

Book Review: 'Eye of Cat' by Roger Zelazny

 

2 / 5 Stars

After moving to New Mexico in the mid-70s, Roger Zelazny (not unsurprisingly) became interested in the culture of the Southwestern US, particularly its Indian / Navajo culture, and its portrayal in the detective novels of Tony Hillerman.

‘Eye of Cat’ takes the Navajo –centered themes of Hillerman’s work, as well as a healthy chunk of Carlos Castaneda’s ‘Don Juan [Matus]’ symbolism, and awkwardly grafts them onto a science fiction novel.

Unfortunately ‘Eye of Cat’ is woefully overloaded with Zelazny’s New Wave affectations, which, by 1982, even he should have realized were fast becoming obsolete.

The plot is straightforward: Navajo tracker Billy Blackhorse Singer has earned a comfortable living, and world-wide renown, for his ability to track and capture exotic (often dangerous) alien creatures on a variety of planets.

When the government recruits him to help defend a diplomat from an alien, shapeshifting assassin, Singer realizes that the only way he can succeed is to fight fire with fire and enlist his own shapeshifter, the ‘Cat’ of the book’s title.

Cat’s price, however, is steep: ever since Billy first captured Cat and placed him in a zoo, Cat has nurtured a deep and abiding hatred for his captor. And once the alien assassin is dealt with, Cat wants the freedom to track down and kill Bill Singer without penalty. 

Lost in an existential funk, Singer agrees.

In due course Cat is freed, and the hunt begins; Singer takes advantage of the presence of ‘trip boxes’, or teleportation pods, to instantaneously travel around the globe and lose his hunter. But Cat has a number of abilities besides the gift of shapeshifting: he can read minds. 

Billy Singer soon discovers that losing his pursuer will be far more difficult than he had imagined….

At its core, ‘Eye’ could have been a well-crafted suspense story with SF elements, and at times the action is genuinely engrossing and holds the reader’s interest.

Unfortunately, Zelazny couldn’t resist encrusting his tale with all manner of New Wave contrivances reeking of a novel written in 1972.

The reader is forced to plod through segments of unpunctuated, Joycean stream-of-consciousness text, as well as blank verse poems using doggerel ‘Indian’ –sounding phrasing (‘My belt is a black arrowsnake’). 

Information about a subset of characters with various psychic abilities is relayed in the form of additional blank verse poems. Sundry gods and spirits of Navajo mythology materialize now and then to interject vague, rather stilted aphorisms and premonitions into the narrative.

The latter sections of the novel devolve into the over-written, phantasmagorical segments that Zelazny regularly inserted into his Amber novels, draining the impetus from the central narrative.

As a character, Bill Singer presents too readily as the stereotyped Indian; for example, his dialogue is devoid of contractions, as if Indians somehow have some sort of genetic defect that makes them unable to use phrases such as ‘ I’ll’ or ‘there’s’.

I won't reveal any spoilers regarding the book's ending save to say that Zelazny does a good job of keeping the reader guessing as to which antagonist will survive the contest.

I suspect that only die-hard Zelazny fans will  be willing to put up with the awkward, self-indulgent construction of 'Eye of Cat'.

Book Review: Empire's Horizon

Book Review: 'Empire's Horizon' by John Brizzolara

2 / 5 Stars

‘Empire’s Horizon’ (320 pp) is DAW Book No. 791, and was published in September, 1989. The cover artwork is by Michael Whelan.

The novel is set on the planet Darkath, the most remote colony world in the Federation. As planets go, Darkath is barely a step up from Arrakis (‘Empire’s Horizon’ shows the influence of ‘Dune’). The unstable planetary geology means that there are minor earthquakes every few hours; daytime temperatures reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit; the arid climate means that stunted bushes are the only greenery; sand gets into everything; a glass of clean water is exorbitantly expensive; and the close proximity of Darkath's sun, Alaikhaj, means that exposing unprotected skin to its rays brings painful, blistering sunburns.

As ‘Empire’s Horizon’ opens, Martin Cain, a reporter, arrives aboard the once-yearly transport ship to the capital of Darkath, a rundown, squalid collection of encampments clustered around the planet’s sole spaceport. Cain has come to Darkath in the hopes of shaking off a deep depression by immersing himself in exotic, even threatening, surroundings.

He soon discovers that the relationship between the Darkani (the natives of Darkath – a desert-adapted subspecies of Homo sapiens ) – and the Colonial Administration is quite strained. A coalition of the main ethnic groups on Darkath, led by the charismatic priestess Hara, is planning an armed rebellion against the Federation authorities. The Military Governor of Darkath, a distressed, middle-aged officer named Manuel Jimenez, can ill afford to battle an uprising, as Darkath’s remoteness means that any Federation reinforcements will be a year in arriving.

Against his will, Martin Cain finds himself caught up in the coming conflict between the natives and the Federation administration. But other factors are at play in the heat-blasted deserts and titanic rock formations outside the boundaries of the city……rumors of a temple constructed from a kilometer-tall needle of rock, within which is a mystical artifact of great power; rumors about the hulks of long-abandoned spaceships buried under the sand, ships that may have been those carrying the first settlers to Darkath centuries ago; and rumors about the presence of what may be a fleet of spaceships of unknown origin, stationed off the dark side of Darkath’s moon.

For Martin Cain, uncovering the truth behind these rumors will not be easy…..but if a brutal war of liberation is to be avoided, he will have no other choice……

I had mixed feelings upon finishing ‘Empire’s Horizon’. It belongs to the sub-category of sf in which an open-minded Terran finds himself immersed in a strange and exotic alien culture, and through various circumstances, becomes the unwilling but vital mediator of conflict between Terran and Alien. This type of plot is not unusual, having been heavily mined by C. J. Cherryh, among others.

The problem with ‘Empire’s Horizon’ is that the first half of the book is quite static, as the narrative is preoccupied with world-building, including introducing the large cast of characters, and setting into motion myriad plots and sub-plots. For example, I found the lengthy sections of the narrative that are devoted to examining the existential angst that has driven Martin Cain to Darkath to be quite boring.

The requisite passages of world-building also take a toll, as the reader is introduced into the North-African-influenced culture of the Darkani; this is accomplished through laborious expositions on the ethnic rivalries, social mores, and (vaguely Islamic) religious beliefs of the native population.

The second half of the novel is more interesting, as the rebellion gets underway and the various plot threads begin to coalesce. But here the novel continues to suffer from a lack of focus; an overwrought sub-plot, involving the advent of a ‘Cosmic Awareness’ linked to Darkani religious beliefs, distracts from the main narrative, which is at heart an adventure story modeled on the 19th century colonial conflicts between Europeans and North Africans.

The verdict ? Despite being written in 1989, ‘Empire’s Horizon’ has very much the deliberate, overwritten character of those sf novels of the 1970s and early 1980s devoted to dramatizing the sociology, psychological, and political aspects of an alien culture (think, for example, of M. A. Foster’s ‘ler’ novels). If that sub-genre of sf appeals to you, then you may find ‘Empire’s Horizon’ worthwhile. Otherwise, however, this novel can be passed by.

Book Review: Earth Has Been Found

Book Review: 'Earth Has Been Found' by D. F. Jones

3 / 5 Stars

At first glance ‘Earth Has Been Found’ (Dell paperback, 1979, 267 pp., cover artist uncredited) seems like a schlocky effort to cash in on the popularity of the movie ‘Alien’, which was released in the same year. But ‘Earth’ is actually a pretty decent sci fi thriller in its own right.

The beginning of the novel reads like a UFO mystery, focusing on the mysterious disappearance, and reappearance in space and time, of military and civilian aircraft.

The first of these events takes place in April 1974, when a US Air Force F4 Phantom flying above California vanishes from the radar. The jet reappears in August, but this time near the Pacific island of Guam; the pilot is disoriented and winds up crashing and burning on the Guam airbase.

Then in March 1976 a Soviet transport plane disappears mid-air during a flight from Moscow to Irkutsk; it reappears in January 1977 over the Arctic Ocean. The pilots survive to land the aircraft but they are bewildered to learn that what to them was a momentary blackout has translated into the loss of nine months of time in the real world.

Air Force officer Frank Arcasso is asked to head a covert US government team, code-named ‘Icarus’, to investigate these disturbing phenomena.

When in September 1982 a Boeing 747 full of tourists from the upstate New York town of Abdera disappears en route from Paris to New York, all the Icarus team can do is wait in suspense. When the 747 re-materializes in the air over Des Moines in December, it is clear that an event of unprecedented magnitude has taken place. The travelers aboard the plane are confused but healthy. Have they been abducted by aliens ? Has the plane entered and departed a Time Warp of some sort ?

The truth, one could say, is in the very early stages of gestation...

I won’t spoil the read by divulging anything more about the plot, but suffice it to say that author D. F. Jones had written several novels prior to ‘Earth’ and he knew how to put together a readable thriller.

His writing is clear and straightforward in the ‘Michael Crichton’ model and the alien parasites, while not as impressive as those from the ‘Aliens’ franchise, are still formidable adversaries, with a biology based on that of Terran insects.

‘Earth Has Been Found’ is a good ‘alien infection’ novel, and it’s worth keeping an eye out for it on the used book shelves.

Loner from Wildcat

Loner

Eagle / Wildcat, 1988 - 1990

The British boy's paper Wildcat was introduced in October, 1988, by UK publisher Fleetway. 

Wildcat was a sci-fi paper and featured four individual comics, all centered on the premise of the starship 'Wildcat' and its search of the galaxy for a new home for mankind. The captain of the Wildcat was a man named Turbo Jones, and its crew included the feminist Kitten Magee ('ex-leader of World Campaign Against Male Domination'), an alien named.....Joe Alien.........and Loner, a 'former mercenary'. 

Wildcat only lasted for 12 issues, until March 1989, when it was merged with the fellow Fleetway boy's paper Eagle. The four comics featuring Turbo Jones, Joe Alien, Kitten Magee, and Loner rotated through issues of Eagle until April 1990.

According to the Down the Tubes website, the artists for the 'Wildcat' strips consisted of  David Pugh, José Ortiz, Ron Smith and Vanyo working on all or most issues, with additional contributions from Massimo Belardinelli, Joan Boix, Ian Kennedy, Horacio Lalia, Carlos Pino, Jesus Redondo and Mike White.

'Loner' (and the other three Wildcat titles) didn't stray too far from the formatting that worked so well for Fleetway's premiere science fiction comic, 2000 AD. The black-and-white strips, usually about six pages in length per installment, emphasized action, and in the case of Loner, a remarkably inventive population of bug-eyed monsters (!). 

The casting of Loner as a black man with a Jimi Hendrix-style afro and headband is worth noting, as to my eye he seems very much a cousin to the character 'Sabre', created by the U.S. team of Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy in 1978 and later released in 1982 as an Eclipse comic book.

Below are two installments of Loner from Eagle from early 1989. Some great artwork here, well deserving of being reprinted for a modern audience.

Newton and the Quasi-Apple

Book Review: 'Newton and the Quasi-Apple' by Stanley Schmidt

2 / 5 Stars

‘Newton and the Quasi-Apple’ was first published in 1975 as a Doubleday / SF Book Club hardbound book; this Popular Library paperback (188 pp.) was released in June, 1977. The cover artwork is by Carlos Ochagavia.

Chet and Tina Barlin are Federation anthropologists who covertly observe and explore alien cultures, while taking measures to avoid violating The Prime Directive.

Their subject is the planet Ymrek, a world populated by the Kengmorl humanoids, who are at a medieval / early Renaissance level of culture. The city of Yldac, in the country of Yngmor, shows particular promise of birthing a civilization that ultimately may discover the industrial age, atomic power, and spaceflight.

However, when Chet and Tina witness an attack on Yldac by a barbarian race known as the Ketaxil, it looks like any burgeoning civilization in Yngmor is going to be snuffed out before it can have a chance to develop. With the reluctant permission of a Federation official, the Barlins lead a field team to Yldac.

Their goal: pose as a troupe of magicians, and, with the aid of novel ‘quasimaterials’ and aircars, give the Kengmorl an edge in their fight against the Ketaxil.

Once on Ymrek, however, the Barlins discover a complicating factor. A young monk named Terek – the Ymrek equivalent of Isaac Newton and Galilieo Galilei – has independently discovered the laws of physics governing falling bodies. His discoveries are met with some hostility by the clergy ruling Yngmor, but Terek, firm in his beliefs, refuses to recant.

When the Federation team arrives in the city and use quasimaterials in their magic show – little plastic disks that levitate – Terek surmises that these are no ordinary travelling magicians. However, the senior cleric is only too happy to argue that the quasimaterials invalidate Terek’s theories.

It’s up to the Barlins to find a way to see that Terek follows the path opened by his discoveries…without angering the high cleric. But the Ketaxil are learning about new technologies, too, and time may be running out for any rescue of the civilization of the Kengmorl…….

‘Newton’ is a middling-quality sf adventure. The concept of a Federation covertly intervening in alien affairs certainly isn’t novel in the genre, and reincarnating the Galilieo – Church controversy in an alien setting doesn’t show much originality, either.

That said, author Schmidt writes reasonably well, avoiding New Wave temptations in terms of his prose style. However, too many passages are literary filler material, devoted to internal monologues on the part of the Barlins as they agonize over whether they are Doing the Right Thing. Deleting these passages would have made the novel a good 20 pages shorter and the narrative more focused.

‘Newton and the Quasi-Apple’ isn’t worth searching out, but if serendipity leads you to find it on a shelf, it may be worth picking up.

Book Review: 'The Hunters' by Burt Wetanson and Thomas Hoobler
3/5 Stars

‘The Hunters’ was first published in 1978; this Playboy paperback edition (223 pp.) was issued in 1979. The cover painting, evoking the box-office hit ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, is by V. Segrelles.

In the small town of Bear Paw, Montana, a strange couple appear in town one day and give a 'Saucer Cult' presentation to skeptical townspeople: a journey to the stars, true enlightenment, and spiritual fulfillment, are theirs for the taking. Many townspeople are deeply moved by the presentation and the next morning, they gather in the town square in preparation for the Journey. An unusual silver bus arrives, and the couple welcome the earthlings aboard. The bus moves smoothly and silently out into the countryside, ultimately arriving at the ruins of a ghost town from the 19^th century. The passengers debark, climb to the top of a nearby hill, and witness an enormous flying saucer.

The people from Bear Paw are amazed and awed by this display of technology and when the vessel lands, they prepare to board, singing hosanahs to the Star People. But it suddenly becomes unpleasantly clear that the aliens aboard the saucer are not benevolent. In fact, they are looking forward to sport….of the hunting kind. And the townspeople of Bear Paw are their quarry.

‘The Hunters’ is a pulp SF novel that was plainly written to cash in on the marketing excitement of ‘Close Encounters’ and the attendant UFO craze of the late 70s, as well as SF thrillers like ‘Alien’. The movie ‘Predator’ was still 9 years in the future, and it’s unclear if ‘Hunters’ influenced Jim and John Thomas, the screenwriters of Predator. Unlike the alien featured in Predator, in ‘Hunters’ the aliens are more humanoid in appearance and possess unique personalities; they also lack the impressive firepower and cloaking technology of the Predator. But they nonetheless remain formidable adversaries.

The townspeople are the usual motley collection of stereotyped individuals. We have some Commune-derived hippies; a quarreling married couple; an Indian couple fond of giving portentous, ‘Black Elk Speaks’ – style speeches to the unworthy Palefaces; a family of crazed Christian fundamentalists; the town drunk; and BadAzz Mofo Sam Tolliver, who can’t pass up a chance to mess with Whitey whenever there’s a lull in the action.

Authors Wetanson and Hoobler have a tendency to write lame passages of dialogue, much of it dealing with homespun philosophy and psychodrama, for the townspeople to engage in at inopportune times. I often found myself exasperated by the witless nature of some of the characters. But the encounters between human prey and alien hunter come with enough frequency and bloodshed to move the story along at a good clip despite these literary drawbacks. In its last 20 pages the narrative is genuinely engrossing, and the authors refrain from tipping their hands in terms of indicating who will ultimately triumph.

Readers interested in an entertaining, if not particularly original, SF adventure may want to give this book a try.

Book Review: Mojave Wells

Book Review: 'Mojave Wells' by L. Dean James

3 / 5 Stars

'Mojave Wells' (280 pp) was published by Avon Books in June 1994. The cover art is by Dorian Vallejo.

As the novel opens, archaeology graduate student John Caldwell agrees to accompany his mentor, Professor Hanover, on a field trip to the 'Devil's Playground' area of the Mojave desert. The Professor believes unusual scorings in the terrain are indications of possible extraterrestrial activity in the distant past. 

Caldwell digs into the sand and unearths a strange artifact: a small, rectangular box, made of an exotic black material. Even as he examines the box, Caldwell finds himself passing out..... for over four hours ! When he revives, John angrily denounces the Professor for exposing him to a potentially lethal dose of radiation.

But as it turns out, the exposure to the mysterious black box has not given John Caldwell a lethal dose of radiation. Rather, it has engineered a change in his physical being: transmuting Caldwell into an alien, a member of the race known as the Ral. 

As Caldwell struggles to understand his transformation, the residents of the small desert town known as Mojave Wells are going to find themselves caught up in a conspiracy to identify and eliminate what may be the beachhead for an alien invasion of the planet Earth. For the Ral are a race of conquerors, armed with technologically advanced weaponry and an brutal indifference to the fate of those they conquer. 

Unless John Caldwell can find allies among the disbelieving residents of Mojave Wells, he will be the unwilling gateway for a Ral invasion........

The first half of 'Mojave Wells' is the best part of the book. It reads very much like an episode of The X Files, and it's not hard to believe that author Jones was inspired to some degree by that TV show (which began airing in 1993). The plot revolves around a small team of everyday citizens who find themselves the target of a government operation, and must rely on their wits and shared expertise to avoid becoming casualties of a clandestine war. The narrative offers quick pacing, interesting characters, and a steady stream of disquieting revelations and double-crosses.

It's in the final third of the book that 'Mojave Wells' unwisely jettisons the X Files homage and starts to devolve into an overly belabored treatment of alien sociology and psychology (there is much exposition on the marriage customs of the Ral, as well as excursions into the otherworldly realm of Ral 'dreaming', in which individuals can share the same phantasmagorical experience). This shift in the book's emphasis saps momentum from the narrative, and leads to a denouement that drags on too long: Star Gates are opened, then closed, then opened again, as one crisis after another is introduced and dutifully resolved. 

The verdict ? I can't recommend 'Mojave Wells' as a book to search out. But if you are a fan of X Files - style narratives and you happen see 'Mojave' on the shelf, you may want to pick it up.

Book Review: 'Ancient, My Enemy' by Gordon R. Dickson

 

2 / 5 Stars

‘Ancient, My Enemy’ was first published in hardback by Doubleday in 1974. This DAW paperback (No. 190, 206 pp.) was released in April 1976 and features a cover illustration by Eddie Jones. DAW released another paperback printing in July of 1980, this time with a striking, orange-tinted cover by Greg Theakston.

All of the stories in ‘Ancient’ were first printed in the 50s and 60s in various sf magazines and digests.

My brief summaries of the contents:

Ancient, My Enemy: on a desert planet, Terran prospectors confront hostile natives. The story struggles a bit in trying to say something profound about humanitys' inherent prediliction towards violence.

The Odd Ones: two aliens look on and philosophize, as a Terran couple struggle to survive their first year on a colony planet.

The Monkey Wrench: a variant on the sf cliché of the powerful, all-knowing computer reduced to imbecility when asked to solve a paradox.

Tiger Green: the crew of a spaceship must solve the riddle of an alien ecology before they all succumb to a fatal madness.

The Friendly Man: a man who travels 50,000 years into the future finds his reception to be a bit too comfortable.

Love Me True: a crewman is lost without the cuddly alien he illegally brought back from a starship voyage.

Our First Death: on a bleak planet, members of a colony confront their internal divisions.

In the Bone: bereft of weapons, a lone earthman must find a way to defeat a seemingly invincible alien. The best story in the collection.

The Bleak and Barren Land: labored tale of a Federation agent mediating conflict between the natives of a planet and Terran colonists.

On the whole, ‘Ancient’ is very unremarkable, serving as an example of the type of short fiction that dominated sf publishing in the years prior to the New Wave movement.

Dickson’s writing is not particularly accomplished, suffering from the adverb-centered syntax that regularly plagued the prose of the pulp era. You will find characters who regularly roar with laughter, smile mockingly, laugh barkingly, say things croakingly, say things flatly, say things thickly, etc., etc.

The setting and plotting of these stories are bland and derivative, sticking to tried and true sf tropes.

To be fair to Dickson, the magazine and digest editors of the 50s and 60s tended to want a particularly style of material in their story submissions, and for writers who earned their living selling to these outlets, taking the salable route was more financially prudent that attempting to upset the publishing apple cart with highly novel or imaginative submissions.

I can only really recommend ‘Ancient, My Enemy’ to hard-core Dickson fans.

The Second Earth

The Second Earth
by Patrick Woodroffe
Paper Tiger, 1987

'The Second Earth: The Pentateuch Re-Told' (144 pp) was issued by UK publisher Paper Tiger in 1987. Like all books from Paper Tiger, this is a well-made trade paperback with good quality paper stock and good quality reproductions of the artwork.

Patrick Woodroffe (1940 - 2014) was a well-known UK artist whose paintings and mixed-media works are familiar to anyone who read sci-fi and fantasy novels during the 70s.

In 1979 Woodroffe and his friend and colleague, the UK musician David Greenslade, collaborated on a multimedia project called The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony. Greenslade contributed a double album of instrumental music, and Woodroffe, a hardbound book of illustrations. You can listen to the music here.

'The Second Earth' provides an expanded showcase of Woodroffe's artwork for The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony.

The story's premise is one of sci-fi, mixed with mysticism. In 2378 a kilometer-long alien spaceship, labeled the Hermes, is discovered in orbit around Saturn. A UN expedition to the spacecraft discovers it is unmanned. A treasure trove of documents, written in alien script, are found inside the ship; their translation forms the basis of the narrative.

'The Second Earth' relates the mythology and creation tales of the humanoid culture that gave rise to the Hermes. The accompanying artwork is chosen to illustrate various aspects of these creation tales, which are similar in tone to those of ancient cultures here on Earth.

Without disclosing any spoilers, I'll state that as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that the travails of the civilization piloting the Hermes have profound implications for the fate of Mankind and the planet upon which we reside.

'The Second Earth' is something of a disappointment. While Woodroffe's efforts to move beyond being an artist into also being a writer are in some sense to be congratulated, the truth is that his prose is less than inspiring. The main narrative of 'The Second Earth' is obtuse and not very readable. 

The Appendix, which details the alien race's cuneiform language, is designed to mimic a scholarly monograph; this is a chore to wade through. 

Since no editorial assistance is acknowledged in the book's opening pages, it seems that Woodroffe did not enlist such assistance when writing 'The Second Earth'. If this was indeed the case, it's unfortunate, because editorial oversight likely would have made the book much more coherent and engaging.  

The artwork presented in the book certainly is excellent, although having to be cropped or shrunk in order to accommodate the text means that readers over a certain age will likely need glasses in order to make out some of the smaller illustrations, as well as the more intricate details of the larger reproductions.

The verdict ? 'The Second Earth' represents Woodroffe's ambitions to synthesize art, literature, and music into an imaginative new direction; that said, sometimes the transition from artist to writer is not so easily done. 'The Second Earth' succeeds in some degree as a showcase for Woodroffe's artistic talents, but his prose is not up to the task. Given that books like Mythopoeikon and Hallelujah Anyway, which are dedicated solely to Woodroffe's art, are readily available for affordable prices, I really can only recommend 'The Second Earth' to Woodroffe completists.