Book Review: The Black Roads

Book Review: 'The Black Roads' by Joe L. Hensley

1 / 5 Stars

‘The Black Roads’ (190 pp) was published by Laser Books in 1976; the cover artwork is by Kelly Freas.

[Laser Books was an imprint of the romance novel publisher Harlequin Books. Laser released three novels a month, for a total of 57 novels, during 1975 – 1977 before discontinuing the imprint. The books all were 190 pages in length, edited for content, and required to have a simple vocabulary, a male protagonist, and plots that concluded on a positive, optimistic note.]

I usually don’t read entries in the Laser Books imprint, but I was motivated to get this particular volume due to the favorable impression I got from Hensley’s short story ‘In Dark Places’ in the 1973 sf anthology Future City, edited by Roger Elwood.

‘The Black Roads’ is set in a near-future US that has fragmented due to decades of global famine, economic crises, small-scale nuclear wars, and epidemics. The major power in the land is the Roadmen, an authoritarian polity who maintain the superhighway system that crisscrosses the continental US. Within the fences and barbed wire that segregate the highways from the rest of the landscape, there is some degree of safety and material abundance, provided one observes the laws and regulations of the Roadmen.

As the novel opens, Sam Church – a former Roadman – has escaped from prison and is on the run, accompanied by a fellow prisoner named Doc. Church was jailed for reading forbidden books, and hopes to travel across the country to the location of Central Control, a redoubt where sanctuary can be gained.

The territories through which Sam Church and Doc must travel are filled with dangers, not just from the surveillance helicopters and checkpoints of the Roadmen. Tribes of savages and marauders, including cannibals, fight over the dwindling resources still left in the ruined cities and towns of the US. If Sam and Doc are to survive their journey, they must travel on the highways systems – even if so doing risks capture by the Roadmen…..

‘The Black Roads’ was a disappointment. While some of the Laser Books included worthwhile early-career novels from writers (like K. W. Jeter, Gordon Eklund, and George Zebrowski) that would go on to become well-known sf authors, this particular entry is a dud.

The book reads like an unedited first draft……it’s filled with stilted prose, awkward syntax, and passages of dialogue that are wincingly bad. Although the book’s plot is essentially one long Chase Sequence, there is little in the way of suspense or momentum. Various sci-fi tropes are worked in – including a telepathic Mutant Queen – but they seem contrived and perfunctory.

The final pages of ‘The Black Roads’ exhibit some degree of worthiness, as the lead characters stumble across some revelations about the world ruled by the Roadmen. But I finished the book thinking that it was a mediocre derivative of the classic Harlan Ellison short story ‘Along the Scenic Route’. 

My verdict ? You’re better off reading Ellison's short story, and staying away from ‘The Black Roads’.

The Witch Queen of Acheron

The Witch Queen of Acheron
by Don Krarr, Gary Kwapisz, and Art Nichols
Marvel Graphic Novel No. 19, 1985

'The Witch Queen of Acheron' is Marvel Graphic novel No. 19. The story is by Don Kraar, with pencils by Gary Kwapisz, inks by Art Nichols, colors by Julia Ferriter, and letters by Janice Chiang.

As the story opens, our Hero is in familiar surroundings: enjoying the Company of Wenches and Wine in a tavern in Belverus, capital city of Nemedia. However, this episode of hedonism is not destined to last, for Conan is soon imprisoned and threatened with torture and death.

It seems that Prince Tarascus of Nemedia and his mistress Demetzia want something from Conan: the location of a fabled treasure, secreted in a mine somewhere in Acheron, a lawless state in the northern border of Nemedia 

Conan not particularly inclined to corroborate with degenerate aristocrats like Tarascus and Demetzia, and makes a break for freedom.

Conan is unsuccessful, and to save his own skin, agrees to lead a major expedition to the mine. The way is fraught with danger, for the wild tribesmen of Acheron don't take kindly to the trespass of strangers.

 This being a 1985 graphic novel, the reader is treated to cheesecake images featuring 80s - inspired lingerie / bikini fashions.

I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say that the expedition does eventually find the mine where the treasure is housed. But this is just the start of Conan's troubles.....

I found 'The Witch Queen of Acheron' to be a mediocre graphic novel and Conan adventure. Kraar' script isn't particularly original, treading the same ground as previous Conan adventures. 

Gary Kwapisz's artwork is uneven, ranging from very good in one panel, to makeshift in another, a signal that Deadline Issues were cropping up. The coloring of the book also is mediocre, with the darker color schemes leaving the reader forced to peer at the murk in order to make out any details. I can't tell if the book was printed using the World Color plastic-plate flexographic process, but if it was, that might explain this drawback.

Summing up, 'The Witch Queen of Acheron' certainly isn't a must-have for either Conan fans, or fans of 80s graphic novels. 

The Deceiving Eye: The Art of Richard Hescox

The Deceiving Eye
The Art of Richard Hescox
text by Randy M. Dannenfelser
Paper Tiger, 2004

If you were a reader of sf and fantasy paperbacks and magazines in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, then it's very likely that you saw Richard Hescox's artwork. 

Starting in 1974, with his first commercial art illustration - the cover of issue 7 of Monsters Unleashed (Marvel / Curtis) - Hescox would go on to be one of the foremost artists for paperback and hardback covers.

'The Deceiving Eye' is an overview of Hescox's work from 1974 to the early 2000s. The opening chapters cover Hescox's education and early career work, which saw him grow up in Pasadena, California, and attend the Art Center College of Design in Hollywood. As a student, Hescox earned money by painting portraits for people visiting Disneyland in Anaheim. Upon graduation from the Art Center, he worked at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History. 

Seeking to break into the world of commercial art, and science fiction illustration in particular, Hescox entered his portfolio into the art show held at the 1973 San Diego Comic Con. Neal Adams, who also was in attendance, asked for a private showing of the entries, after which he asked to see Hescox. As a result, Adams volunteered to send Hescox's work to Marvel for their consideration, which launched Hescox's career as an illustrator.

In 1975 Hescox broke into the book cover market when he received commissions from DAW Books. The quality of his artwork soon earned him a steady stream of assignments for book cover art for other publishers, such as Del Rey, Signet, and Ace Books, throughout the 80s and early 90s.

 During this time Hescox also took commissions for film production and advertising.

 

'The Deceiving Eye' features a chapter on Hescox's studio artwork, which - with its portraits of nubile young women posing in exotic landscapes - is inspired by the art of 19th Century British artists like John William Waterhouse, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Herbert James Draper.

Other chapters focus on the artist's experiences earning a living as a commercial artist; there are some wry observations here about the nature of such work. One chapter is titled Never Assume the Art Director Has Read the Book, which deals with Hescox's interactions with a confused art director at Ace Books.

In 1992, after becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his interactions with art directors at the publishing houses, Hescox decided to make a major career change and seek employment in the burgeoning computer gaming realm. This led to jobs creating concept sketches and renderings for a number of sf and fantasy games such as Microsoft's Mechwarrior and Sierra's Earth Siege. 

Some of the more interesting chapters are those dealing with Hescox's thoughts and observations on the current state of education in the fine arts, modern art, and learning one's craft.

Summing up, if you're a fan of sf and fantasy illustration, and the illustrations for works of the 70s and 80s in particular, then you'll want to get a copy of 'The Deceiving Eye'. Like all of the art books published by Paper Tiger, it's a quality book, marked by high-quality reproductions of the art, and the conscientious placement of descriptive text and captions.

Book Review: When Gravity Fails

Book Review: 'When Gravity Fails' by George Alec Effinger

3 / 5 Stars

‘When Gravity Fails’ first was published in hardback in 1986; this paperback edition (276 pp) was published by Bantam Books / Spectra in January, 1988. The cover art is by Jim Burns.

‘When Gravity Fails’ is the first book in the ‘Marid Audran’ trilogy, with the succeeding volumes ‘A Fire in the Sun’ (1989) and ‘The Exile Kiss’ (1991). A collection of related short stories, titled ‘Budayeen Nights’, was released in 2003.

‘When Gravity Fails’ can rightfully be considered a First Generation Cyberpunk novel, one standing alongside Neuromancer, Dr. Adder, Hardwired, and Metrophage….. although, curiously, it doesn’t appear on at least one of the more comprehensive lists of novels of the Cyberpunk Canon.

‘Gravity’ certainly can be regarded as the first novel to mix cyberpunk with the detective / private novel; it is the forerunner of such later novels as the ‘Carlucci’ series by Richard Paul Russo and Noir by K. W. Jeter.

‘Gravity’ is set in a near-future Cairo (although it is never explicitly named as such), in the red-light district known as the Budayeen. Along with brothels, bars, shady merchants, and myriad tourist traps, the Budayeen offers a relaxed attitude towards vice and crime, albeit with the tacit approval of the authorities.

Marid Audran is a young Arab man who earns a living as a fixer and go-between among the personalities in the Budayeen. Marid’s worldly aspirations are modest:, and centered on earning enough money to maintain an apartment, a girlfriend, regular forays into the local night life, and a drug habit.

As the novel opens, Marid has been contacted by a Russian exile, who is seeking to hire someone to find his son, presumed to be in hiding among the narrow streets and alleys of the Budayeen. Hardly has the meeting between the Russian exile and Marid begun, then events take a violent turn. What at first seems to be a random series of particularly brutal, sadistic murders may in fact be the work of a serial killer, and Marid’s friends and acquaintances may be among his prey.

When Friedlander Bey, the ‘big boss’ of the Budayeen, decides that the murders are disrupting the district’s profitability, he approaches Marid with an offer that is not meant to be refused. For Bey wants Marid to be surgically altered, outfitted with neural implants that accept ‘mods’ – computer chips containing personality profiles of persons both real, and fictitious. Once equipped with his new implants, Marid’s task is to track down and eliminate the killer. But time is running out, for there is evidence that Marid himself is next on the list for elimination…..

For the first third of its length, ‘When Gravity Fails’ is an engaging read. The near-future Budayeen, with its eclectic mix of Muslim piety and crass commercialism, is an offbeat locale, one that stands out from the generic East Asian metropolises usually encountered in cyberpunk works. The novel’s large cast of characters is handled in a deft manner , and the incorporation of the private eye / noir elements of the plot is done with the right notes of sardonic humor.

Unfortunately, the middle segments of the book lose momentum, as the author shifts attention from the unfolding of the main plot, to examine - in some lengthy expositions - Marid Audran’s psychological and emotional travails. The final third of the book sees the narrative refocus on the murder mystery driving the plot, but it’s a case of too little, too late, and I found that the resolution of the mystery had a contrived quality. It also didn’t help matters when Effinger’s final-chapter efforts to tie together all of the various red herrings and side plots was confusing, rather than enlightening. To be fair, a lot of private eye novels suffer from this same defect, so I can’t over-criticize ‘When Gravity Fails’ for this defect.

When all is said and done, ‘When Gravity Fails’ is a good entry into the Cyberpunk Canon. If you’re a fan of that genre, you’ll want to have it in your collection.

Nuclear Disaster Novels

Nuclear Disaster Novels

With the arrival of the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, I thought I'd highlight one of the more offbeat sub-genres of sf: the nuclear disaster novel. Here are the ones in my collection, and - for those I've read - a brief summary, and a link to my full review.

Dome in its Pocket Books (1979, bottom) and New English Library (1980, top) versions. I haven't read this one. The plot has to do with a reactor disaster in the Southern USA.

Hapless Canadians confront the meltdown of a nuke plant near Toronto. I reviewed this one and gave it four stars.

This 1985 book was one of the Ace Science Fiction Specials. One hundred years after Three Mile Island underwent a meltdown in March of 1979, a vast chunk of Pennsylvania is inhabited only by outlaws and mutants. I gave this novel four stars.

Del Rey's 1956 novel is the earliest treatment of the theme in sf, but that's about the only noteworthy thing about it. Nerves is poorly written and at times incomprehensible. I gave it one star.

This one is not easy to find. The original hardcover was published in 1974 as Paradigm Red. When the TV adaptation, titled Red Alert, was aired in 1977, Pocket Books released it as the above paperback.

This is a 1979 English translation of the 1976 German novel Die Explosion. I haven't read it.

In the USA of the future, unregulated nuke plant construction has left most of the country exposed to radioactivity from accidents and waste. I gave this novel four stars.

A nuke disaster strikes southern California. Although the disaster itself doesn't take place until half-way through this lengthy novel, it's a well-written account of a meltdown, and I gave it four stars.

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.