Book Review: Beyond Earth

Book Review: 'Beyond Earth' by Ralph Blum with Judy Blum

3 / 5 Stars

The 70s were a boom time for mass-market paperbacks devoted to the paranormal. 

Bantam Books' President Oscar Dystel was particularly fond of the genre, publishing a number of Erich von Danekin's titles, including Chariots of the Gods, which was a monster seller.  

The Bantam titles all shared a distinctive 'shadow' font, as seen below, that sometimes was copied by other publishers.

These books were cool !

I eagerly read them back in the early- to mid-70s, when I was in junior high and high school. They were a major aspect of 70s pop culture, and were part and parcel of a mini-industry of printed material, like Saga, and Official UFO, and Fate, and other magazines and digests that catered to the 'paranormal' readership and were always on display at the magazine racks in the supermarkets and five-and-dime stores.

The genre (arguably) reached its apogee with the release of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind late in 1977. 

'Beyond Earth' was one of the best of the 70s UFO books, and my favorite. How does it hold up when re-read more than 40 years later ?

For 'Beyond Earth', the Blums use the device of a framing narrative that opens and closes the book; this narrative deals with the so-called 'Pascagoula Incident', which took place on the night of October 11, 1973, in that city. 

Two shipyard workers, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, were fishing at a pier on the Pascagloula River when they claimed that a large, intense, glowing blue light traveled across the water, hovered over the riverbank near them, and discharged three silver-garbed humanoid creatures (Hickson considered them 'robots'). 

Hickson claimed that he was paralyzed by the aliens and 'floated' into the blue light - which turned out to be a spacecraft - and subjected to a painless, but thorough, physical examination of some sort. The aliens returned Hickson to the riverbank before entering the spacecraft and departing.

The book's chapters cover, in chronological order, 'ancient' UFO sightings (according to the Blums, Cro-Magnon cave art depicts flying saucers); the 'airships' witnessed in the skies of the U.S. and Europe in the late 19th early 20th centuries; UFO sightings during the First and Second World Wars; and, of course, the postwar period and Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting of nine 'flying saucers' in June, 1947.

Other chapters deal with the U.S. government's investigations of UFOs, including the legendary Project "Blue Book", and The Condon Report. Still other chapters examine sightings in foreign countries (my favorite remains Brazilian farmer Antonio Vilas Boas, who claimed that in October 1957, he was abducted onto a UFO, and 'forced' to impregnate a stunning Alien Chick.....!).

Throughout 'Beyond Earth', Ralph Blum insists that it is critical to not dismiss even the most outlandish UFO stories out of hand, because, well, the people telling the stories seem so sincere.

Blum concludes 'Beyond Earth' by opining that the UFO Phenomenon can be attributed to three causes: extraterrestrial life forms, with advanced technologies, who are visiting the Earth; mass hallucinations; or '...a still greater mystery' unlike anything yet encountered in the human realm.

[Ralph Blum has since become a major New Age devotee, and the author of a series of books on 'Rune Magic'.]

Summing up, Blum's desire to Believe means that he buys wholeheartedly into the UFO religion, and thus 'Beyond Earth' is another UFO book that Preaches to the Converted, but is too badly flawed to be of any use to Skeptics.

But if you are in the mood to recapture some authentic 70s Nostalgia, perhaps to the accompaniment of some Emerson, Lake, and Palmer LP records, some pot, and some incense, then 'Beyond Earth' certainly delivers. And that's why I give it a 3 of 5 Stars rating.

My Best Bookstores

My Best Bookstores

In this post, I'll list the five bookstores that I recommend as the best places to purchase used sf, fantasy, and horror paperbacks published during the interval from 1970 - 1990, as well as - if available - sf-themed graphic novels and art books. 

These all are places I've visited in the past 6 years, and the emphasis is on stores primarily in the Eastern USA, if only because I live in Central Virginia........

Needless to say, every one of these places is going to have a surfeit of paperbacks by Piers Anthony, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Brunner, Andre Norton, etc. But they also have, for the careful searcher, some less prevalent titles.

With each store, I sum up the good and bad.

I also note whether or not if the store buys used books. Needless to say, you probably will not get the return you are expecting if you elect to sell your books for cash, and you usually are better off opting for 'Store Credit' for these exchanges.

McKays Books, Manassas, Virginia
8345 Sudley Rd., Manassas, VA 20109

McKay's Books is located in the Manaport Plaza Shopping Center, a nondescript shopping center in the 'Little San Salvador' section of Manassass.

[Take care where and how you park - 90% of the other drivers in this part of Manassas not only don't speak fluent English, but they also don't have Car Insurance......]

The good: a very large selection, among the largest of all the stores reviewed here, including a healthy selection of older paperbacks. There also are separate aisles for fantasy and horror, with large selections as well. Paperback books are usually in the $3 - $5 range. 

There is a large selection of graphic novels and art books, but these are priced rather high. 

McKays will buy books from you.

The bad: the books have a large, very very sticky price sticker on their front cover. If you succeed in peeling it off, the residue left on the cover of the book will adhere to anything it comes into contact with - if you lay another book atop it, there will be consequences......

Wonder Book and Video, Frederick, Maryland
1306 West Patrick St., Frederick, MD 21703

Wonder Book and Video is a three-store chain in Maryland; there are stores in Hagerstown, Frederick, and Gaithersburg. The latter is tucked away in the obscure back parking area of a shopping plaza, and is hard to find - I recommend that if you go, you print out a map beforehand, and be careful about over-relying on your GPS. 

I frequently go to the Wonder Books in Frederick, which is located right off of Route 40 in a nondescript shopping plaza. There is plenty of parking.

The Frederick store has a lengthy section of shelving devoted to sf paperbacks (fantasy titles are lumped in with the sf), and this is one of the best places to find gems from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Prices for these paperbacks are in the $3 - $5 range but expect some of the rarer titles to be $6 or higher.

The opposite side of the sf paperbacks aisle has a large selection of hardcover sf and fantasy books, as well as a decent selection of sf and fantasy art books.

Wonder Book and Video also has a large section devoted to horror paperbacks, again, with a lot of 70s and 80s titles represented. The stores also carry a lot of overstock graphic novels.

At the Frederick store, particularly rare or otherwise valuable paperbacks, priced in the $10 and up range, are kept apart from the others and stored in a locked glass-fronted bookcase within view of the front counter. You'll need to ask the staff to open the case for you.

Wonder Book and Video will buy used books.

Wonder Book and Video has an online store, and its shipping charges are reasonable, making it a viable alternate if you can't travel to the retail stores.

Utah Book and Magazine, Salt Lake City, Utah

327 S. Main St. Salt Lake City, UT 84111

This bookstore is so unique that I did an entire post devoted to it. Whether or not you will witness something amusing, Utah Book and Magazine has a great selection of older sf, fantasy, and horror paperbacks amid its cramped and crowded shelves. There is also a healthy supply of sf-related memorabilia, as Jordan H at Yelp! observed:

Being a science fiction nerd, I was particularly impressed with the store's selection of Star Trek novels. They have a MASSIVE bookshelf filled with more Star Trek works than I have ever seen in my life. I ended up picking up a set of blueprints of the interior of the Starship Enterprise for $15 as well as a Star Trek: Next Generation board game for $10. There's also a much smaller, but equally enjoyable, Star Wars section where I was able to find The Empire Strikes Back score on vinyl for $5 as well as the first Star Wars Expanded Universe novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye for $3. MAJOR SCORE!

The good: prices are very cheap...... $1 to $4 per book. 

There is an entire section of the store set aside to vintage nudie and softcore books, magazines, and memorabilia.

The bad: a lot of the books are only in 'acceptable' to 'good' condition. Expect 'very good' and 'like new' conditions to be rare.

Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore
2864 Chicago Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Uncle Hugo's shares a building with Uncle Edgar's, a mystery bookstore. Chicago Ave S. is a main drag in Minneapolis, so you may have to find parking a block or two away from the store.

Uncle Hugo's has a large selection of used sf paperbacks in its cramped interior; I found myself having to step with extreme, ankle-twisting care around the shelving, as books are stacked on the floor.....and on the top of the shelves, where you will need steady nerves to select and remove that one book you are interested in, from the two-foot-high stack.

Uncle Hugo's also has a large section for new sf books, including hardbacks and small press.

The bad: when I went on a warm afternoon in early October, the store was stifling - dress to sweat, if the weather calls for higher temps.

Half Price Books
10201 University Ave, Clive, IA 50325

When I lived in Iowa, I routinely drove from my home in Ames to this Half Price Books location in the Westridge Shopping Center in Clive, a suburb of Des Moines. I also went to the Half Price store in Marion / Cedar Rapids. 

According to a recent article in the Dallas Morning News, Half Price Books has 126 stores in 16 states. 

The sf paperback sections in the Half Price stores I went to in Clive and Cedar Rapids were small compared to those of the other stores I review here, and were primarily comprised of newer titles. Nonetheless, with a bit of searching, you may find some books from the 70s and 80s. Book prices were in the $2 - $4 range. 

Separate from the paperback shelving, there is considerable shelf space for sf hardbacks.

Separate from the sf aisles, each of these stores had a free-standing spinner rack filled with older, higher-priced paperbacks in plastic pouches. These are priced in the $5 and up range and contain a variety of older titles in different genres. You can find some real gems here, for example, like Bantam's Doc Savage novels from the 60s and 70s..

These outlets do have some space devoted to graphic novels and art books; prices for these are rather high. 

Half Price will buy your used books.

So there you have it. Good luck with your scores.......!

9 A.M. by Dick Matena

9 A.M.
by Dick Matena
from Heavy Metal magazine, February 1980

Book Review: Star Child

Book Review: 'Star Child' by Fred Mustard Stewart

3 / 5 Stars

‘Star Child’ (239 pp) was published in hardback in 1974; this Bantam Books paperback was released in October 1975. The cover artist is uncredited.

Fred Mustard Stewart (1932 – 2007) wrote a number of novels during the interval from the late 60s to the late 90s. Some of these were sf, albeit more in the spirit of popular fiction than ‘serious’ efforts to explore the genre.

‘Star Child' is set in the Summer, 1974, in the hamlet of Shandy, Connecticut. The heroine, a young woman named Helen Bradford, is a French teacher at Shandy Prep, the exclusive boarding school that serves as the main economic and social anchor for the hamlet. Helen’s husband Jack also is a teacher at Shandy Prep, as are the members of their immediate circle of friends and acquaintances.

One warm night, Helen has an extraordinary dream in which an angelic – looking boy, called Star Child, tells her he is projecting his thoughts to her sleeping mind from his home planet orbiting the star Tau Ceti, 12 light-years from Earth (!). Star Child tells Helen that he is ready to supply the human race with the technical specifications for creating cheap and abundant fusion energy; this revelation will provide the Earth with a solution to the Energy Crisis, and usher in an era of prosperity and peace like none the planet has ever seen.

However, other residents of Shandy – including Jack Bradford – have received dream messages from another entity, this one named Raymond. Unlike Star Child, Raymond is malevolent, and seeks to coerce people into committing murder……as an act of worship to the Godhead of Raymond !

As the Summer unfolds, both Star Child and Raymond struggle to convert the residents of Shandy to their respective causes……and Raymond is winning, for his apostles have begun to carry out a wave of ritualistic killings - !

Only Helen is able to resist the demands of Raymond, despite the horrifying hallucinations he transmits to her sleeping mind in an effort to beat her into submission. But neither Star Child nor Raymond are able to conceal the truth of who they really are from Helen……and when she learns this truth, the fate of the Earth comes to depend on her, and her alone……..

‘Star Child’ is one of Stewart’s novels that is at heart a pot boiler, with some sf and horror elements stirred into the mix. This is evident in the opening chapter, in which a young woman is murdered after participating in ritualistic sex with an acolyte of the Cult of Raymond. 

Later on in the novel, the reader will encounter various sf tropes, including telepathy, Eco-catastrophe, and Mind Control. To his credit, author Stewart comes close, but never crosses the line, into silliness, and this combination of restraint and gimmickry keeps the narrative moving along at a fast clip.

Summing up, if you’re looking for an easily-digestible Beach Read with a good dose of 70s pop culture - including vintage Energy Crisis - inspired alarmism - then ‘Star Child’ will satisfy.

Titus Crow: Illustrations by Stephen E. Fabian

Titus Crow
Illustrations by Stephen E. Fabian
from Ladies and Legends by Stephen E. Fabian, Underwood-Miller, 1993

Artist Stephen E. Fabian originally produced these striking black and white illustrations for The Compleat Titus Crow (1987), a collection of stories by Brian Lumley.

Gestation by Bruce Jones

Gestation
by Bruce Jones
from Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction, Marvel / Curtis, No. 3, May 1975

When you land on an alien planet and you start to find that its vegetation is very....very...tasty, then perhaps you should be alarmed......

Artist / writer Bruce Jones was a regular contributor to Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction during its brief print run in the mid-70s. This tale has its own offbeat flavor, as well as some good pencilwork (note - I had to overexpose my scans in order to reduce the discoloring from the foxing of the pages - this is, after all, a 41 year-old magazine). 

'Gestation' is also interesting for its use of cursive font in the external narration, to mimic the entries in a 'diary'. This technique has since become commonplace in comic books, but back then it was innovative. I can't say it's easy to read, however.....

Book Review: Diadem from the Stars

Book Review: 'Diadem from the Stars' by Jo Clayton

1 / 5 Stars

During the 1980s it was not at all unusual to see sci-fi novels by Jo Clayton on the bookshelves. Clayton (1939 - 1998) wrote 35 novels, many of which were part of the DAW Books catalog. Clayton played a major role in DAW Books’ emphasis, starting in the 1980s, on publishing sf and fantasy books - particularly serial novels - by female authors for an increasing female readership.

‘Diadem from the Stars’ (March 1977; DAW Book No. 235) is the inaugural novel of the so-called ‘Diadem’ series, which ultimately spanned nine books over the course of 1977 – 1986. The cover artwork is by Michael Whelan.

As the novel opens, the eponymous Diadem is stolen from the ‘planet of the spider-people' by Stavver, the galaxy’s greatest thief. The Diadem is not just a valuable jewel, but a sentient artifact with the ability to confer psi powers upon the individual lucky enough – or unfortunate enough – to wear it.

When the vengeful pursuit by the spider people damages his ship, Stavver is forced to crash-land on the backwater planet Jaydugar. Stavver survives the landing, but loses the Diadem.

The narrative then shifts to the adventures of Aleytys, a teenage girl, and the daughter of a long-vanished spacewoman. Aleytys has been raised since infancy by the tribesman of Jaydugar, from whom she stands out, not just for her physical size and red hair, but also for her self-confidence and defiance of authority, traits uncommon to the women of the native peoples of Jaydugar.

Aleytys also has psi powers that, as the novel opens, she is just becoming aware of – powers that include telepathy and the ability to rapidly heal herself, other humans, and even animals. When threatened, Aleytys is able to wield even stronger powers – powers dangerous to her assailants – and this has generated increasing unease among the tribe that has taken her in.

Circumstances soon force Aleytys to make her own way across Jaydugar to a remote locale where a chance to go off-planet may await. But a young girl traveling by herself, across the harsh and unforgiving landscape of a backward planet, is easy prey for any number of unpleasant people……..

I found ‘Diadem’ to be a dull and unrewarding read, even when making allowances for its status as a First Novel. Much of its failings are due to the author’s desire – clearly inspired by Dune - to over-elaborate on the sociology and anthropology of Jaydugar and its tribes (which are modeled on the Arabs of North Africa). This subjects the reader to a constant stream of invented words and phrases, and detailed expositions on cultural issues, which are a chore to wade through.

It also doesn’t help matters that author Clayton periodically engages in stream-of-consciousness passages associated with the heroine’s moments of Psychic Awareness; while such passages were part and parcel of New Wave era sf writing, they act here to burden, rather than enlighten, the narrative.

When it first was published, ‘Diadem from the Stars’, as well as the succeeding volumes in the series, were praised for breaking new ground with their depictions of independent heroines, as opposed to portraying women as the inevitable girlfriends or concubines common to sf literature at the time. While this may have been true of ‘Diadem’, when all is said and done, it doesn’t deliver much of a story………..perhaps the other volumes are better written and more rewarding, but this one is hard to recommend.

Bizarre Adventures No. 31

Bizarre Adventures No. 31
Marvel / Curtis, April 1982

For the March, 1982 issue of Bizarre Adventures, editors Jim Shooter and Dennis O'Neil decided to use one of the oldest and cheesiest tricks in magazine publishing to try and drum up newsstand sales: 

........exploitation ! ......... disguised as a Meaningful and Profound examination of a Social Issue of Deep Concern.

So it was that the cover of issue 31 features a Joe Jusko painting of an alluring blonde 'flashing' an array of firearms, while the cover blurb promises a 'hard look at violence'.

In his editorial page, O'Neil uses the sort of sententious wording that gives the more naive reader the impression that, by examining violence, Bizarre Adventures actually seeks to reduce it.....

I suspect that, with issue 31, the Marvel editorial staff was seeking to attract the readership of more 'adult' magazines like Heavy Metal. But with this issue of Bizarre Adventures, they failed, because the content is quite lame.

Most of the stories are contrived efforts at copying the satirical style of underground comix ('Dr. Deth with Kip and Muffy', and 'Recondo Rabbit', by Larry Hama; 'Bucky Bizarre' by Skeates and Smallwood). 

Others are pretentious ('The Philistine' by Frank Miller; 'Violence Wears Many Faces' by John Byrne). Some suffer from a makeshift approach and poor artwork ('The Hangman' by Gruenwald and Sienkiewicz).

Probably the best comic in the issue is 'Let There Be Life', written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Marvel veteran Herb Trimpe. 

DeFalco's plot is another simpleminded riff on seeing Irony in the Madness of War, but Trimpe's artwork - here uncompromised by graytones, or muddy color separations - really stands out. I've posted it below.

The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics

The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics
by Mike Benton

'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' (150 pp) was published in 1992 by Taylor Publishing Company (Dallas, TX). It's one of a series of volumes from 'The Taylor History of Comics' featuring overviews of different genres of comic books.

This is a hardbound, well-made book, although many of the scans used as illustrations suffer from some degree of cropping and low-res, presumably a consequence of the state of scanner technology ca. 1992.

'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' straddles the uncertain middle ground between a comprehensive (and expensive) reference text, and an affordable overview of the topic aimed at readers who are fans of the genre, collectors, or aficionados of pop culture in general. In my opinion, it does a reasonably good job, although with a print date of 1992, it is inevitably obsolete to some degree.

The book's chapters cover the field of dedicated science fiction comics from the 30s up to the early 90s.

Author Benton's remarks are a straightforward narrative of the comics and the creators, although he does slip in some anecdotes and cultural / sociological observations every now and then.

Benton relates how the genre waxed and waned in the years between 1930 - 1960. The 'planetary romance' style of pulp sf was predominant in the 40s and early 50s.

Basil Wolverton's classic 'Spacehawk' series was one of the more notable titles during this time (reprints were made available in the 1990s by Dark Horse Comics).

Benton devotes quite a bit of attention to the EC science fiction comics of the 1950s....these have been over-praised, in my opinion, particularly the issues that adapted Ray Bradbury stories. But all of the EC titles had outstanding artists.

The postwar era saw many titles devoted to spaceman heroes, a nod to the advent of television shows like Captain Video and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

Benton also devotes coverage to the DC sf comics of the late 50s and early 60s. These were well-done, and featured some of the more offbeat approaches introduced to the genre, such as 'The Atomic Knights' serial that ran in Strange Adventures.

The 60s and 70s saw the rise of sf comics that were based on popular television shows like 'Lost in Space', 'Land of the Giants' and 'The Outer Limits', while adaptations of blockbuster movies like Star Wars and Star Trek: The Motion Picture had a huge impact on the genre.

The book's final chapter looks at the state of the genre in the late 80s and early 90s, when the Great Comic Book Boom meant that older properties, like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, were rebooted and given a more modern aspect. 

Whether this was wise or not is open to question; for example, DC's 1988 reboot of Flash Gordon featured some truly shameless cheese being handed to the fanboys, as witnessed by this cover to issue 2, with its lineup of chicks in g-strings and Fetish Boots opening fire on our hero - !

'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' features (as its appendix) a Checklist of sf comics up to ca. 1991. 

There are going to be some titles listed in this Checklist, like Kammandi: The Last Boy On Earth ! that are familiar to sf fans, while more than a few are - I suspect - going to be complete unknowns (Gold Key published a sci-fi comic called Mighty Samson ?!).....

Summing up, 'The Illustrated History of Science Fiction Comics' - despite being dated - is about as useful an overview of the topic that one can find. With copies for sale for very reasonable prices, it's worth picking up if you're a fan of the genre - there are sure to be some comics listed in its pages that you've never heard of, but are worth seeking out.