Alien Legion: The Ditch

Alien Legion: The Ditch
by Chuck Dixon (writer) and Larry Stroman (art)
Alien Legion No. 5, June 1988
Epic / Marvel

Alien Legion was launched by Marvel's Epic Comics imprint in 1984, with The Alien Legion issues 1 - 20 released in 1984 - 1987. Eighteen issues of a second series, somewhat confusingly titled simply Alien Legion, was released during 1987 - 1990.

One of the more entertaining characters in the Legion - which creator Carl Potts envisioned as 'the Foreign Legion in space' - was Jugger Grimrod, a genuine 'grunt' perpetually in danger of being booted out for insubordination.

In this standalone tale from issue 5 of the second series, Grimrod finds himself alone and abandoned on a hostile planet.......the consequence of yet another screwup by the High Command. But, aided by plentiful amounts of mud and blood, Grimrod finds a way to overcome all obstacles and complete the mission. It's fast-moving adventure, with lots of sarcastic humor, and good artwork by Larry Stroman.

Book Review: Light A Last Candle

Book Review: 'Light A Last Candle' by Vincent King

2 / 5 Stars

'Light A Last Candle' (217 pp) was published by Ballantine Books in July 1969. The cover art is by Robert Foster.

UK author King (1935 - 2000) wrote four sci-fi novels during the interval from 1969 - 1976. For a review of his 1971 novel 'Candy Man', readers are directed here.

'Light A Last Candle' is set in a future North America under the heel of an Alien occupation. The first-person protagonist, known only as Ice Lover, is one of the few remaining Free Men on the planet; that is, he is not a 'Mod', a genetically engineered mutant designed to serve the needs of the Aliens. 

As 'Light' opens, Ice Lover is living a lonely existence amidst the snowdrifts and forests of the Great North (i.e., Canada). A battle with an Alien survey team leads him to seek refuge among the farms and villages of the Alien-controlled sector of what used to be the U.S. There he learns of a resistance movement led by a mysterious figure named Craghead. 

After some deliberation, Ice Lover sets out to find the secret installation where Craghead, so it is said, is preparing a force to overthrow the Aliens. And although Craghead's force is composed entirely of Mods, Ice Lover is confident he can conceal his status as a Free Man long enough to deal a blow to Alien rule. But as Ice Lover is about to find out, who and what constitutes an 'Alien' is not always as clear as it seems........

'Light A Last Candle' starts out on a promising note, with crisp actions sequences and a plot that seems straightforward: the liberation of a captive Earth from its alien despots. However, although author King's use of a decidedly colloquial prose style for Ice Lover can get awkward (it's an Englishman's interpretation of American slang, circa 1969) it's King's constant use of ellipses and hyphens that gives the narrative a very abrupt and choppy diction:

"I came down east of that.....maybe I saw some smoke...." The Mod didn't trust me. He wasn't sure - suspicious again. You couldn't blame him. "Sorry about the 'bacco - it's been frozen a long time...." I waited, lit my fag again. Then I tried once more. "But what about those guys....those Riders ? Bandits are they ? Or mad.....? Or what....? Hey ....! Could they be Free Men  ? Are there any of them left ?"

The Mod was very still. Then he spat in the fire.

"They must be mad," I said. "I mean, taking on the Aliens.....life ain't that bad - is it ? I mean.....we're living....."

This devotion to ellipses and hyphens is present all throughout the entirety of 'Light A last Candle', making the book a labored read.

Another rationale for my two-star Score is the book's closing chapters, where the author piles on plot twists and revelations with such frequency, and disregard for their consistency with the main plot, that 'Light A Last Candle' can't help but finish on an unconvincing note. 

The verdict ? I can't recommend 'Light A Last Candle' to anyone save devoted late 60s sci-fi fans.

Book Review: The Vang: The Military Form

Book Review: 'The Vang: The Military Form' by Christopher Rowley

4 / 5 Stars

‘The Vang: The Military Form’ (Ballantine / Del Rey, 1988, 369 pp., cover art by Steve Hickman) is the second novel in the so-called ‘Vang’ trilogy; the initial volume is ‘Starhammer’ (1986), and the third volume ‘The Vang: Battlemaster’ (1990). 


[It's not obligatory to have read 'Starhammer' prior to reading 'The Military Form', as the latter stands more or less on its own as a trilogy entry.]

The ‘Vang’ trilogy received a new lease on life starting in 2001 with the phenomenal success of the ‘Halo’ series of video games, which feature a race of parasitic alien monsters, The Flood, who are modeled on the Vang:

‘The Military Form’ is set some 1,000 years after the events of the opening novel, ‘Starhammer’. Terra has succeeded in using the Starhammer to overthrow the tyranny of the blue-skinned, alien laowon, and humanity has expanded into much of the galaxy. Certain areas of space remain off-limits to exploration, however; not because of laowon edicts emplaced for economic reasons, but because they were scenes of combat millennia ago, between the race of un-named froglike aliens who created the Starhammer, and the virulent bioweapon – the Vang – that extinguished their civilization.

Much of the action in ‘The Military Form’ takes place on the planet Saskatch, which has a climate reminiscent of eastern Canada. The arboreal habitat of Sakatch is the galaxy’s sole source of the potent hallucinogen TA45, and the clandestine trade in this narcotic drives the planetary economy. With the exception of a small contingent of police officers and judges, every legal and corporate entity on Saskatch has been corrupted to a greater or lesser degree by the enormous sums of money to be gained by trading in TA45.

As the novel opens, an asteroid mining ship, the Seed of Hope, is on an expedition to the asteroid belt in the Saskatch system. Violating Federation proscriptions against venturing into the area, the Seed comes upon a strange, silvery object of alien design. Consumed by greed, the Seed’s crew endeavors to blast a hole in the object….but what they don’t know is that the alien artifact is a survival capsule. 

And lodged within its interior, having endured thousands of years in suspended animation, is the quiescent stage of the Vang’s Military Form.............

As with ‘Starhammer’, ‘The Military Form’ takes its time getting underway, and patience is required to navigate the book’s first 100 or so pages, as author Rowley sets up his cast of characters with some deliberation. 

Once the Military Form arrives on the unsuspecting planet and its major metropolis, Beliveau City, the action content gradually dominates the narrative and the plot gains momentum, with some genuinely entertaining battle sequences shaping the book’s last 50 pages. 

The Military Form are truly nasty monsters, ones that make the alien bioweapons in Ridley Scott’s 2012 ‘Alien’ prequel Prometheus look..... benevolent. I won’t disclose any spoilers, but I will say that author Rowley relates the gruesome actions of the Vang (which frequently involve inserting unpleasant things into their hapless victims’ lower GI tracts) with just the right note of deadpan humor. 

As an adventure / action novel, ‘The Military Form’ satisfies, and I recommend it to anyone interested in sf that features aliens that abhor the 'Kumbaya' spirit of interstellar relations……

Questar magazine October 1980

Questar magazine

October, 1980

Questar was a short-lived science fiction magazine that ran for 13 issues, from Spring 1978 to October 1981. It began life as a semiprofessional zine, then briefly flourished in 1980, when it received national distribution. One problem the magazine experienced was its irregular publishing schedule, which meant it was months behind other genre magazines (like Starlog) in covering prominent films. This is apparent in the October, 1980 issue, where films like The Empire Strikes Back are being reviewed some three months after release. This was a disadvantage in terms of maintaining circulation. 

 

According to the entry for the magazine at the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction website, in 1981, Undercapitalized and undersold, Questar sank: lamented by a few, unnoticed by many. 

Over the years I've collected six or seven issues, and the October, 1980 issue is one of the best. It features a striking Frazetta painting on the cover. The advertising, while rather limited, directs readers to vinyl LPs of soundtracks to lower-budget horror films:

There's an ad for the Roger Corman film Battle Beyond the Stars, a reasonably engaging Star Wars ripoff. And Marvel promotes its new magazine Epic Illustrated.
 

Looking through the movie reviews in the back pages reveals some strange and long-forgotten enterprises. Such as Cheech and Chong's Next Movie, a 1980 followup to Up in Smoke. During the course of Next Movie our stoner duo wind up inside a UFO, hence the sci-fi connection. Stretching things a bit, Questar lumps the disco musical Xanadu in with Cheech and Chong, something of an awkward juxtaposition.

Also reviewed are two low-low-budget sci-fi films. One, Scared to Death, was an Alien copy. You can watch the film here. Showing that no scrap of pop culture ever is lost to perpetuity, in 2022 a novelization of the film was published under the auspices of the 'Encyclopocalypse Movie Tie-In' series.

 

Alien on Earth, aka Alien Contamination, was a drive-in obscurity from 1980. Another Alien ripoff, this time from an Italian film studio, Alien Contamination since has earned a place in the demented hearts of trash film fans. It can be viewed here.

The book review pages deal with some novels and short story collections from Pohl, Wolfe, Niven, and Vance. I wouldn't consider any of the profiled works to be gems of early 80s sci-fi.

One thing about the October issue is it has outstanding illustrations, such as this one for the short story 'Youth in Asia' ('euthanasia'.....get it ?). 

The main feature in this October issue is a tribute to the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. It leads off with a powerful illustration whose artist is, sadly, un-named. The article provide capsule reminiscences of the cast and crew, looking back at their work from twelve years previously.

 

This October issue of Questar is sufficiently interesting that if you see it on the shelves of a secondhand bookshop, or an antiques store, it's worth paying a little extra for it, in order to have your own copy. Eighties nostalgia, for sure......