Book Review: The Kar-Chee Reign and Rogue Dragon

Book Review: 'The Kar-Chee Reign' and 'Rogue Dragon' by Avram Davidson

2 / 5 Stars

‘The Kar-Chee Reign’ first saw print in 1966 as part of Ace Double G-574, with LeGuin’s ‘Rocannon’s World’. The sequel ‘Rogue Dragon' appeared the same year. This 1979 Ace paperback (377 pp. ) provides both novels in one volume, albeit a volume designed to be marketed – somewhat deceptively - to the fantasy book-buying public. The cover illustration is by Olivia (De Berardinis).

'The Kar-Chee Reign' is set on Earth in the far future; most of the planet’s population has since emigrated to other star systems, and memories of the home world have long since faded. What little humanity remains on the depleted planet exists at a medieval level of technology. A race of insect-like aliens, the Kar-Chee, have settled on the Earth to mine the few minerals and metals still within its crust; their advanced digging technologies regularly subject the planet’s surface to destructive geologic upheavals. To the Kar-Chee, humans are little more than annoying vermin, to be hunted and kept in order by another race of aliens, the ‘dragons’ of the book’s title.

Liam is an intelligent young man living with his tribe on an island chain near the present-day British Isles. When a Kar-Chee attack forces him to flee his settlement, he begins to question the passive fatalism that has marked human interactions with the Kar-Chee since time immemorial. Together with other young men from his adopted home, Liam embarks on a fateful mission to penetrate the vast mining operation of the Kar-Chee, his goal to discover what he can about the alien invaders. And maybe to find a weapon that can bring down the dragons and set humanity free….

‘Rogue Dragon’ is set generations after the events of ‘Reign’. Earth has been rediscovered by the colony worlds and converted into one giant ‘fantasy island’, where aristocrats from around the Federation come to join Hunt Clubs formed to stalk the Kar-Chee dragons amid the vast forests lying outside the few larger civilized areas. Shouldering high-tech blunderbusses, and accompanied by banner-waving teams of local recruits, parties of wealthy gentlemen can have a bit of excitement and drama on the Hunt, in between necessary bouts of idleness and repose.

Jon-Joras, a young aide-de-camp, is sent to Earth to make arrangements for a hunting trip by his lord and master, Federation legate Por-Paulo. When an introductory  dragon hunt goes awry, Jon-Joras abruptly finds himself lost in the wilds and embarking on a series of encounters with various groups of crude, and often violent, locals. 

Jon-Joras gradually comes to realize that the native Earth dwellers are less than pleased to see their territory reduced to a playground for wealthy off-worlders. There are conspiracies at work among these disgruntled peasants, and a mystery centered on the off-limits region of The Bosky Forest, where, it is rumored, the most lethal of the dragons yet live….

‘Reign’ is the better of the two novels. It's a serviceable SF adventure, if not particularly original in concept. ‘Rogue’, on the other hand, suffers from too-slow pacing and contrived plotting. 

Both novels feature Davidson’s uniquely wordy prose style. This style is tolerable when presented in the form of Davidson's short stories, but in the context of novels, it tires rather quickly. Readers will encounter plenty of  sentences with labored syntax, and words such as ‘epithalamion’ (a wedding poem or toast), ‘eructation’ (burping), ‘fructifying’ (to make fruitful or productive), ‘mulcted’ (to obtain by trickery), and ‘pumbled’ (which may not be a ‘real’ word to start with).

Despite what the book’s cover may imply, neither ‘Reign’ and ‘Rogue’ are fantasy novels per se, and as examples of mid-60s SF, they are unremarkable. Avram Davidson fans might find these novels rewarding, but others likely will not.

'Death Rattle' No. 1, vol. 3 

The first issue of volume three (1995) features a dramatic cover by Mark Schultz. The interior contents include 'The Day I Lost My Head', by Tim Eldred, 'Cut-Up', by Brian Biggs, and 'The Kiss' by Mark A. Nelson. 

The best story in the book is 'The Probability Chamber', about crooks on the lam who wind up in the laboratory of an astrophysicist, with a script by Schultz and outstanding black and white art by Roger Petersen.

Reconstruction by Doug Webb

'Reconstruction' by Doug Webb

(keep clicking on the image to enlarge it.
other works available here)

'Heavy Metal' magazine, June 1980

The June 1980 issue of ‘Heavy Metal’ features a cover illustration by H. R. Giger, titled ‘The Necronomicon’. The back cover, ‘In New York We Call ‘em the Jets’, is by Dameron.

Opening the June issue is something of a shock, due to the presence of a color advertisement (for the soon-to-be-forgotten movie ‘Hollywood Knights’ starring up-and-coming actors named Tony Danza and Fran Drescher) occupying the first two pages of the magazine – a sign that the mainstream world is starting to recognize that Heavy Metal magazine, bizarre as it is, may indeed have some marketing potential.

This issue features a Galley of selected Giger artwork, as well as the final installment of Jeronaton’s ‘Champakou’, along with an interview with the artist. Also among the contents are ‘Shipwreck’ by Caza, part two of ‘The Alchemist Supreme’ by Godard and Ribera; Berni Wrightson’s excellent ‘Captain Stern’, and ‘Localized Objective’ by Schuiten.

One of the more amusing strips is ‘Earth Vs the….’ by Bil Maher, which I’ve posted here, along with an advertisement for the Heavy Metal tee shirt by Arthur Suydam.

Blood Music

Book Review: 'Blood Music' by Greg Bear

3 / 5 Stars

Vergil Ulam is a brilliant, if socially maladjusted, scientist working at the Genetron corporation in La Jolla, California. Vergil has been doing unauthorized experiments with lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell: taking introns –lengthy stretches of ‘junk’ DNA present in every cell- and using the introns to encode information that can be processed and acted upon when injected into the lymphocytes.

When the Genetron management discovers that Vergil’s experiments are not only unauthorized, but a clear violation of NIH research regulations, they order him to stop his work and to destroy his so-called ‘noocytes’. But Vergil has no intention of stopping his work. He surreptitiously injects himself with his engineered cells and departs Genetron for unemployment benefits and a haphazard plan for the future.

But not long into his new and jobless lifestyle, Vergil notices something interesting. He has lost weight. His allergies have cleared up. His eyesight improves to the point where he no longer needs to wear contact lenses. He’s feeling fitter and healthier than he has ever felt before. He even has a girlfriend and an active romantic life. Could the noocytes in his bloodstream have somehow acted on their own to improve the health of their host ? It seems bizarre, and Vergil wonders if it’s all in his imagination..............

Greg Bear first published ‘Blood Music’ as a short story in Analog in 1983; the next year it won both Hugo and Nebula awards for best novelette. Bear expanded the story to a novel, published by Arbor House in a hardbound version in 1985; this Ace paperback (246 pp., cover art by Don Brautigam) was issued in 1986.

In my opinion ‘Blood Music’ worked better as a novelette. The new material Bear added to lengthen his narrative tends to give the second half of the book a meandering quality, as various sets of characters struggle to cope with the implications of the noocytes and the threat they present to the established order. But the novel does succeed in making the difficult transition from a narrative that starts with the small-scale events of a lab experiment gone awry, to a narrative dealing with genuinely ‘cosmic’ events, without straining scientific credibility by invoking mystical or supernatural causes.

‘Blood Music’ remains one of the more imaginative SF stories and novels to emerge from the 80s.

'Suburban Scenes: December' by Caza
from the May 1980 issue of Heavy Metal

Book Review: Snowman

Book Review: 'Snowman' by Norman Bogner

4 / 5 Stars

I remember reading ‘Snowman’ (Dell, February 1978, 221 pp.) when it was first published, and thinking that it was one of the better horror / adventure novels of the mid- to late- 70s. On a par with, if indeed not superior to, more widely promoted books such as ‘The Shining’, ‘The Stand’, ‘The Fury’, and ‘Jaws’.

On a 1966 expedition to Mount Everest, world-renowned climber Dan Bradford, and his Sherpa friend and guide, Pemba, narrowly survived an encounter with the lethal creature known as the Abominable Snowman. But no one believed his tale of a monster that roamed the slopes at the top of the world.

Now it's the late seventies, and in northern California's Sierra Ski Resort, a gruesome murder has taken place. Cathy Parker, the Resort's publicist, must move quickly to stifle news of the killing and avert a public relations disaster that could imperil the financial well-being of the Resort. Parker realizes that the entity behind the murder is not your ordinary serial killer....... and enlists the one man who really knows what kind of creature lurks in the snows of the high range.

Bradford, physically and emotionally scarred by the carnage he had witnessed in the Himalayas, is given the chance he has waited for: to mount an expedition into the Snowman’s lair and destroy the monster. But the hunt won’t be all one-sided: with the risk of avalanche ever-present, Bradford and his team will have to forego firearms and use unconventional weapons. And the Snowman is as smart as he is ferocious…..

‘Snowman’ isn’t a perfect novel; Bogner’s prose gets a bit too adventurous with the thesaurus (using the noun ‘cwm’ or the verb ‘bedizened’ !?). But more than 30 years after its publication ‘Snowman’ holds up as an entertaining read, and fully merits promotion as one of the better horror novels of the late 70s. The Snowman deals death in memorably grisly fashion, and the narrative moves along at requisite speed. The ultimate winner of the Man Vs Snowman contest is never a sure thing, and the novel’s final 30 pages are genuinely suspenseful. 

‘Snowman’ is long out of print, and those copies that are offered for sale have very steep asking prices. But if you come across a copy with a reasonable price tag, it's well worth picking up.

'Heavy Metal' magazine May 1980

'Heavy Metal' magazine May 1980

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The May 1980 issue of Heavy metal magazine featured ‘The Fourteen Year Itch’ by Michael Karnack on its front cover.

The contents included the final installment of Jeronaton’s ‘Champakou’; ‘The Alchemist Supreme’ by Godard and Ribera; ‘Suburban Scenes: December’ by Caza; ‘First Love’ by Perry and Bisette; and ‘Only the Plitch’ by Bilal, among others.

One of the better comics in this issue was another werewolf tale by Corben, ‘The Spirit of the Beast’, which I’ve excerpted here. 

Book Review: Ten Years to Doomsday

Book Review: 'Ten Years to Doomsday' by Chester Anderson and Michael Kurland

2 / 5 Stars

‘Ten Years to Doomsday’ was first published in 1964; this Jove paperback (158 pp) was released in 1977. The cover illustration is well done, but unfortunately the artist is uncredited.

When a Federation ship encounters an alien vessel in deep space, it is fired upon, and forced to destroy the alien ship in self-defense. It turns out that the alien ship is a scout for a vast fleet piloted by a race known as the Migrants, who are devoted to the destruction of everything in their path. The main Migrant fleet is only a decade away from encroaching upon Federation space, and the planet most likely to be the first in the sweep of forthcoming destruction is Lyff- a world where civilization molders at the medieval level.

Three Terran agents are sent to Lyff with daunting instructions: act covertly to provoke Lyffan civilization to advance to a point where it can offer a defense against the oncoming horde. And do it in just ten years.

At first the task assigned to John Harlen, Pindar Smith, and Ansgar Sorenstein seems hopeless: from bow-and-arrows to missiles in just a decade ? But it turns out that the people of Lyff have a remarkable ability to accept and improve upon new technologies, as well as an overarching religion that approves of advancement in all aspects of life. It may be a close call, but when the Migrant fleet enters the space around Lyff, there just might be a fleet in place to greet it…..

‘Ten Years’ is a humorous space opera, something of a parody of (or perhaps an homage to) the writings of Jack Vance. The Lyffans sport names like ‘Tchornyo Gar-Spolnyen Hiirlte’, and descriptions of Lyffan vestments use plenty of Vance-ian adjectives such as ‘vert’, ‘cadmium orange’, and ‘amethyst’.

Back in the mid-60s when it first appeared the story probably got a good reception, since this sort of light-hearted approach to SF was in vogue at the time. It’s a quick read, but there’s nothing in its pages that I can see modern-day readers getting excited over.

The Science in Science Fiction

'The Science in Science Fiction' by Peter Nicholls

Australian author Peter Nicholls wrote several very good books on SF during the late 70s – early 80s: The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (with John Clute) in 1979; The Science in Science Fiction in 1983; and The World of Fantastic Films in 1984. All are worth picking up even though they are dated.

The Science in Science Fiction is a large trade paperback with a suitably eye-catching cover illustration by Chris Foss. The book is organized into 12 chapters covering various topics dealt with in SF: ‘Journey into Space’, ‘Aliens’, ‘The Limits of the Possible’, ‘Powers of the Mind’, etc. The book is liberally illustrated with monochrome and full color diagrams, film and television stills, photographs, and illustrations taken from book and magazine covers. The text is written for the layman, rather providing more hardcore exposition; nonetheless more technically trained readers will find information of worth within the pages.

Not surprisingly some of the material is dated, but for many topics – the speed of light, gravity, time travel, etc., which have not seen any major revelations since 1983- the text remains relevant. Nicholls often refers to SF novels and short stories in his discussions of various phenomena, so you may get some leads in terms of looking for good SF of the era.

If you are wandering the aisles of a used bookshop and see a copy of Science it may be worth picking up, if only to see how science and SF were looking at things in the context of the publication date (for example, there is attention paid to Ronald Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ scheme; Uri Geller and his spoon-bending antics; the film Alien; and other science pop culture artifacts of the early 80s).

I've posted some scans of some pages below (while I could not scan the full page for fear of breaking the book's spine, the scans do give a sense of the book's interior).