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……

Book Review: The 1979 Annual World's Best SF

Book Review: 'The 1979 Annual World's Best SF' edited by Donald A. Wollheim

3 / 5 Stars

‘The 1979 Annual World’s Best SF’ (268 pp) was published by DAW Books (DAW Book No. 337) in May, 1979. The cover artwork is by Jack Gaughan.

All of the stories in this anthology first saw print in 1978, mostly in sf digests and magazines.

In his Introduction, editor Wollheim notes that, for sf, 1978 was a ‘terrific and unprecedented’ year, a year which saw the genre experience the greatest commercial success, and popularity, in its history. He notes the central role of film and TV properties like Star Wars, as well as Battlestar Galactica and Superman, in fueling the boom, but also notes that the genre, away from its more commercialized pop culture manifestations, is entering a period of ‘uncertainty’.

I believe that what Wollheim was trying to say was that the New Wave movement – which gets no mention in his Introduction – was, by 1979, losing steam. However, there was nothing to replace it, and the genre would sputter along, offering up the dregs of the New Wave approach, until something came along to revitalize sf. We now know this was, of course, Cyberpunk; but in ’79, Neuromancer was a good five years in the future.

What then, do we get in the 1979 'World’s Best' ?

‘Come to the Party’ by Frank Herbert and F. M. Busby: variation on the theme of Ignorant Terrans Interefere with an Alien Planet’s Ecocystem and Mayhem Ensues. The forced effort at imparting ironic humor to the story, and the use of cutesy terminology – ‘warpling’, ‘Hoojies’, ‘squishes’ – makes this entry seem like a hangover from an issue of Analog magazine (with an Ed Emshwiller cover) ca. 1960.

‘Creator’ by David Lake: labored allegory in which an omnipotent alien experiments with a virtual reality simulator (somewhat like a very sophisticated version of Microsoft’s ‘Civilization’ PC game), that recapitulates the rise of life on Earth.

‘Dance Band on the Titanic’ by Jack Chalker: underwhelming allegory about a ferryboat upon which people from parallel universes can co-mingle for the duration of the voyage. The alienated first-person narrator regains his lost belief in the worth and goodness of humanity.

‘Casandra’ by C. J. Cherryh: a woman has disturbing visions of her city in flames. Is she insane, or precongnitive ? A competent, if not particularly original, story.

‘In Alien Flesh’ by Gregory Benford: Reginri the farmhand makes a fateful decision to participate in an unusual experiment involving a whale-like alien species.

‘SQ’ by Ursula K. Le Guin: labored satire about a scientist who cons the entire planet into adopting a new psychological test of dubious validity.

‘The Persistence of Vision’ by John Varley: in the late 1990s, in a US wracked by economic and social turmoil, the alienated first-person narrator wanders from one commune to another across the Southwest. Then he comes upon a commune operated by the Kellerites: people who were left blind and deaf by the German Measles outbreak of the mid-60s. The Kellerites communicate via touch, an action they feel is best mediated through orgies (!) The narrator comes to the realization that the Kellerites have founded a new way of living, in which so-called ‘handicaps’ in fact allow for a Transcendence not available to the non-disabled.

‘Perisistence’ won both Hugo and Nebula awards for 1979. While it’s competently written, whether it is a classic work of sf is doubtful. I suspect that it was so well received at the time because its humanistic message, however overbearing, provided an optimistic note that countered the pessimism of the late 70s.

‘We Who Stole the Dream’ by James Tiptree, Jr: Diminutive, but brave, aliens conspire to escape their brutal Terran overseers. With some crisp action sequences and a downbeat tenor, this is the best story in the anthology.

‘Scattershot’ by Greg Bear: a young woman must cope with the unusual side-effect of an alien attack on her starship: it is reassembled as a hodge-podge of similar ships existing in parallel universes. The concept is interesting, but the narrative gets too bogged down in introspective interludes designed to force-feed the reader empathy and insight into the personality of the main character.

‘Carruther’s Last Stand’ by Dan Henderson: variation on the theme of A Crusty Misanthrope Is the Only Person in the World Who can Telepathically Communicate with Distant Aliens. The big revelation that comes at the story’s end is confusingly handled. 

Summing up, ‘The 1979 Annual World’s Best SF’ is yet another middle-of-the-road anthology. At least the dialed-in entries from ‘name’ authors, that tended to seep the vigor out of many of Wolheim’s ‘World’s Best’ anthologies, are reduced here, giving something of a promising note to the this decade's final entry in the series.

Book Review: The Faded Sun: Kesrith

Book Review: 'The Faded Sun: Kesrith' by C. J. Cherry

2 / 5 Stars

‘The Faded Sun: Kesrith’ (252 pp.) is DAW Book No. UE1600 and was published in August 1978. The cover illustration is by Dino D’Achille. It’s the first book in the so-called ‘mri’ trilogy, with the other volumes ‘The Faded Sun: Shon'jir’ (1978) and ‘The Faded Sun: Kutath’ (1979).

Some 20 years ago I started to read ‘Kesrith’, got about half-way through it, and was so bored, I gave up on the book. In the spirit of completion, I recently decided to attempt ‘Kesrith’ again, and this time I persevered all the way to the end…………

Following the publication of ‘Dune’ in 1965, detailed depictions of alien societies, psychologies, and social mores became a major theme in sci-fi. An unwritten rule became commonplace, that exposition on aliens be rendered in stilted, formalistic prose. Nouns associated with alien societies were capitalized, aliens rarely used contractions in their speech, and all manner or esoteric and arcane mannerisms by aliens were used to propel narratives about perplexed Terrans, or outsiders, struggling to comprehend these mysterious entities. The apogee of this stylistic attitude came with Donald Kingsbury’s 1982 novel ‘Courtship Rite’.

Author Carolyn Janice Cherry (b. 1942) took these conventions to heart. Many of her sci-fi novels deal with humans / Terrans who through misadventure find themselves submerged in alien societies. Often, if they are to survive, these Terrans must overcome hostility or indifference from their hosts. 

‘Kesrith’ plainly is modeled on ‘Dune’, and while this is not a bad thing, the fact is that the book is too slowly paced, and too dependent on characterization and world-building, to be effective.

The eponymous planet is a Dune-style desert world, an armpit of the galaxy. Some Fremen-like, Vaguely Arab, Vaguely Muslim tribesmen, known as the mri, eke out a squalid existence as mercenaries to a more sophisticated, but risk-averse race of aliens known as the regul.

 

The war between the regul – waged through their mri intermediaries – and humans has gone badly for the regul, and as ‘Kesrith’ opens, the regul are in the process of abandoning their operations on Kesrith and turning the planet over to the Federation. The mri are less than pleased with the thought of being deserted by their hereditary allies, and the enclave on Kesrith is beset with considerable angst. 

Things don’t improve when a duo of Terrans, the taciturn diplomat George Stavros and his aide-de-camp Sten Duncan, arrive on Kesrith as barely-tolerated guests of the regul. As the narrative progresses, there are fractious interactions between the regul, mri, and humans, interactions that have ominous implications for the frail reality of the truce between regul and humans. Will the mri survive the conflicts roiling Kesrith, or find their race exterminated ? 

From its opening page, ‘Kesrith’ smothers the reader with alien-culture motifs. There is a barrage of invented words, some with apostrophes to lend them a Vaguely Arabic flavor. The dialogue is reliant on an enigmatic diction, leaving the reader with the unenviable job of trying to parse the meanings behind what is being said. Making things worse, it’s not just the mri culture that gets this treatment, but the regul do as well. 

I could tolerate the verbiage if the lead characters have some redeeming qualities, but sadly, in ‘Kesrith’, they don’t. The mir characters Niun and Melein, and the Terran protagonist Sten Duncan, are very dumb, and I found myself indifferent to their fates. Indeed, I found the novel’s most interesting characters to be the bearlike 'dus', indigenous mammals who have something of a Companion Animal relationship with the prickly, peevish mri.

Nothing of consequence happens until Chapter Sixteen (page 172), two-thirds of the way through the book. Thus, the reader must invest quite a bit of his or her time before things even start to get interesting.

I finished 'The Faded Sun: Kesrith' with no burning desire to advance to the next volume in the trilogy. I'd be interested to hear if any PorPor followers believe that ‘The Faded Sun: Shon'jir’ is an improvement. Or is it just more of the same...........?!

Book Review: Protectorate

Book Review: 'Protectorate' by Mick Farren

4 / 5 Stars

‘Protectorate’ (250 pp) was published by Ace Books in January 1985; the cover art is by Dan La Mountain. 

[A sequel, titled ‘Their Master’s War’, was published by Del Rey Books in 1987.]

‘Protectorate’ takes place several hundred years in the future, after Earth has been subjugated – with shocking swiftness – by a race of insectoid aliens known as the Wasps. A global plague, possibly introduced by the Wasps, has depopulated 80 % of the planet; the survivors live in one of the three massive cities left on Earth.

Resistance to the Wasps is futile. Not only do they wield technology considerably more advanced than that of Earth, but the Wasps also have the ability to sense hostility being directed their way by any human in close proximity – leading the Wasps to retaliate by causing the suspect’s skull to spontaneously implode...... !

In the largest of the three cities, a middle-aged man - known simply as the Protector - is the highest-ranking individual on Earth, for he is the planet’s sole interlocutor with the Wasps. The Protector’s every waking moment is preoccupied with placating the Wasps, and thus allowing mankind to continue to exist. To ensure that the city’s population is content with this status quo, the Protector is perfectly willing to allow his paramilitary police force, the so-called ‘Killers’, to brutally quash dissent.

As the novel opens, Jeen Vayim, a poet and storyteller, is down on his luck. His latest gig – appearing at the home of an aristocrat living in one of the opulent mansions of the Upper City – has not gone well. Vayim is obliged to return to the gritty warrens of the Lower City, and a stool at Denhagels Tavern, there to nurse a beer and ponder his dwindling finances.

Someone else is at the Tavern this night…..a charismatic young man surrounded by a cohort of beautiful, fawning women. The young man’s name is Gwyann, and his background is a mystery.

Jeen Vayim is ready to dismiss Gwyann as yet another cult leader hoping to find acolytes among the disadvantaged population of the Lower City. But as Vayim soon discovers, Gwyann is no ordinary back-alley prophet. For he has powers that allow him to defy the Wasps…..powers that are making the Protector, and his Killers, increasingly uneasy……..

‘Protectorate’ is one of the better non-cyberpunk sf novels of the 1980s. Author Mick Farren avoids the type of narrative that typified the ‘alien encounter’ sf of that era, as epitomized by the works of C. J. Cherryh, in which the struggle for human and alien to understand and comprehend each other eventually leads to mutual respect and comity. In ‘Protectorate’ the Wasps remain cryptic and unknowable, heightening the possibility that the actions of their truculent human subjects will trigger a devastating retaliation.

Farren also avoids making ‘Protectorate’ a simplistic novel about heroic earthlings rising up against their alien oppressors; righteousness is absent from the tiers of the city, as the warring factions commit all manner of atrocities in order to gain control of the city and influence with the Wasps.

The verdict ? If you like an offbeat novel about Earth under alien occupation, a novel with regular episodes of violence and mordant humor, then ‘Protectorate’ is worth getting.

Book Review: The Vang: The Battlemaster

Book Review: 'The Vang: The Battlemaster' by Christopher Rowley

5 / 5 Stars

‘The Vang: The Battlemaster’ (313 pp) was published by Del Rey in October, 1990, with cover artwork by Steve Hickman.

This is the third and final volume in the ‘Vang’ trilogy, with ‘Starhammer’ (1986) and ‘The Vang: The Military Form’ (1988) the preceding volumes.

The events in ‘Battlemaster’ take place two thousand years after those related in ‘The Vang: The Military Form’.

On the planet Wexel, the aristocracy lead lives of idleness and comfort in the great cities, while the lumpen proletariat make do with conditions akin to that of slaves. The hinterlands are wracked by perpetual wars of liberation: brutal, nasty affairs in which both rebels and government mercenaries commit atrocities with casual aplomb.

Luisa Chang, colonel in the ITAA Federation, is assigned to the operations center on Wexel, where she hopes to uproot entrenched corruption and malfeasance, make a name for herself, and leave with a deserved promotion. However, Chang soon discovers that the planet’s corrupt ITAA officers, who turn a blind eye to smuggling, and who enjoy profitable relations with Wexel’s corporate class, are none too pleased about a gung-ho officer upsetting their apple cart.

In the remote central highlands of Wexel, Count Karvur, whose personal fortune has been badly depleted by a business deal gone wrong, is stewing in a potent mix of frustration and depression. He has been running through one hapless get-rich-quick scheme after another, without success, and the fleshpots and gambling dens and fern bars of the coastal cities seem permanently denied him. Karvur makes do with raping the malnourished peasant girls who labor on his farm, and having their fathers tortured if they complain about the molestations. But it’s small enjoyment to one who used to cut a grand path through the apex of Wexel society.

As the novel opens, luck suddenly decides to visit Count Karvur. For a drilling operation on the grounds of his property has found something unusual, something buried in a rock strata nearly 80 million years old: an immense labyrinth of alien design, etched through the rock, coiling and twisting its way to an inner chamber. And within that inner chamber is a stasis pod……with a pink wad of protoplasm slowly pulsating within its depths.

The discovery of the alien artifact brings dollar signs to the greedy eyes of Count Karvur. Disclosing his find to only one other person – Caroline Reese, a biologist at Cowdray University – Karvur moves the alien organism to an incubator inside a cattle shed on his farm. Once Caroline Reese is sworn to secrecy, she is given her assignment: analyze the organism, and discover if it is native to Wexel. If it turns out the protoplasm is not of native origin, then Count Karvur has made the discovery of the century.

But the alien blob has plans of its own…..and within the incubator inside the dank cattle shed at Count Karvur’s farm, pink tentacles and flower-like growths are taking shape……….

‘Battlemaster’ has much the same plot as ‘The Military Form’, namely, the Vang get loose on a Terran colony planet, and before anyone really understands what’s happening, the bodies start to pile up- lots of bodies. 

But the Battlemaster is the ultimate strategist, and to it, the subjugation of single planet is by no means the ultimate goal, so the plot takes a different tack from that featured in ‘The Military Form’.

Like the previous volumes in the trilogy, ‘Battlemaster’ is straightforward, cleanly written adventure sf, with a healthy dose of horror added into the mix (Rowley isn’t shy about describing the processes by which the Vang parasites convert unwilling humans into their hosts). At times, the corruption and cowardice of the human actors is as great a hindrance to combating the Vang, as the creatures themselves.

All of the ‘Vang’ novels have been out of print for a while, but used copies can be had for reasonable prices, so if you are a fan of fast-moving, well-told sf adventure, then getting a copy of the three books is well worth the money.

Colorvision by Ron Cobb

'Colorvision' by Ron Cobb

 

The late Ron Cobb (1937 - 2020) was one of the more influential graphic artists of the postwar era. Sadly, for many years 'Colorvision', published in 1981 as a trade paperback by the Australian form Wild and Woolley, was the only compilation of his art. I was fortunate to purchase a copy for a modest price back then. The book's rarity means that at the moment, speculators and bookjackers are offering used copies for sale at amazon for exorbitant prices.

Some good news: a new book dedicated Cobb's work, titled 'The Art of Ron Cobb', by Jacob Johnston, will be released in August 2022 from Titan Books. It's preliminary pricing is $60 (but this is likely to go down once it's available at amazon).

Cobb grew up in Burbank, CA, and in the late 1950s worked as an animator for Disney. He served in Viet Nam in 1963. Upon his return to Hollywood in 1964 he became a freelance artist and designer and did covers for Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. He also did political cartoons for independent press outlets. In 1972 - 1973 Cobb toured Australia and liked the country so much he decided to settle there.

In the early 70s Cobb befriended Dan O'Bannon, then involved with the legendary low-budget SF film Dark Star, and designed the spaceship featured in the film. Cobb also did uncredited work on designing the cantina aliens for Star Wars. In the late 1970s Cobb joined up with O'Bannon as part of the production staff for the 20th Century Fox film Alien, with Cobb providing many the film's spaceship, interior, and set designs. Cobb's contributions to the film tended to be overlooked for the more bizarre and memorable designs of H. R. Giger.

Cobb used his Alien work to win further assignments in big budget SF film production, working on the first Conan film, and later Aliens, Leviathan, The Abyss and Total Recall, among others. He also contributed design and concept art for amusement rides and video games.

'Colorvision' focuses on Cobb's early freelance work, his  concept art for Alien and Conan, and impressive art for a John Milius film ('Half of the Sky') about mountain men, that never made it into production.

I've posted some scans of Cobb's art from the book.

Cobb's official website remains functional, and offers images for SF fans and art appreciators to enjoy. 

'Nightscape', late 50s, ink, oil, and colored pencil

'The Door', late 50s, pen and oil wash

 

concept art for Alien, mid-70s, acrylic (top) and ink and felt tip pen (bottom)

 

'Close Encounter', concept art for 'Half of the Sky', late 70s, acrylic

'Discovery of the South Pass', concept art for 'Half of the Sky', late 70s, acrylic

(this is one of the most brilliant landscape paintings I've ever seen)