Book Review: Elric of Melnibone

Book Review: 'Elric of Melnibone' by Michael Moorcock

5 / 5 Stars

It's been 50 (!) years since the first publication of 'Elric of Melnibone', so I recently sat down with a copy of the DAW Books paperback edition (160 pp.), which was published in October, 1976, and features a cover illustration by Michael Whelan. 

I last read this novel some 30 or more years ago, so I was overdue to revisit it, particularly as this month, Simon and Schuster is publishing a brand-new Elric novel, 'The Citadel of Forgotten Myths', in hardcover.

The Elric character first appeared in a set of stories published during the early 1960s in the UK magazine Science Fantasy. These later were compiled into various paperback editions for publishers in the UK and the US. The stories that constitute 'Elric of Melnibone' were gathered into a 1972 paperback from Lancer Books, titled 'The Dreaming City'. Moorcock didn't approve of the title, nor the editorial changes, made to 'The Dreaming City', and thus the 1976 DAW version represents that which Moorcock approves. 

Trying to keep track of the various printed incarnations of the Elric canon is.........a formidable task. It's best, probably, either to collect the five-volume paperback series published in 1976 - 1977 by DAW Books (although these copies increasingly are rare and thus, expensive) or to acquire the various omnibus editions, such as the Science Fiction Book Club / Doubleday hardbacks, which are titled 'The Elric Saga' Parts I and II. More recently, Saga / Gallery Press issued the Elric novels in deluxe hardback editions, featuring color illustrations.

Anyways, on to 'Elric of Melnibone'. After reading some pretty lengthy fantasy novels (such as 'Shardik') over the past few months, I was quite pleased with the shorter length of Moorcock's novel. I appreciated the concise nature of the prose, the succinct approach to world-building, and the regular insertion of various action sequences into the plot. 

What is most noticeable upon a re-reading of 'Elric' are the sharp, nasty little episodes of cruelty and violence that are inserted into the narrative, such as the actions of the Court Torturer, Doctor Jest:

.....the scalpel he held was thin, too, almost invisible save when it flashed in the light from the fire which erupted from a pit on the far side of the cavern.

Dr. Jest returned to his charges and, reaching out with his free hand, expertly seized the genitals of one of the male prisoners. The scalpel flashed. There was a groan. Dr. Jest tossed something into the fire. Elric sat in the chair prepared for him. He was bored rather than disgusted by the rituals attendant upon the gathering of information and the discordant screams, the clash of the chains, the thin whisperings of Dr. Jest, all served to ruin the feeling of well-being he had retained even as he reached the chamber.

These quasi-splatterpunk episodes, along with the moral ambiguities of Elric's dealings with the various gods and devils of his worlds, emphasize how 'transgressive' these stories were for the time period in which they appeared. Indeed, in the early 1960s the Conan novels were known only to a relatively circumscribed group of readers, and fantasy fiction was limited to children's adventures, such as T. H. White's 'The Once and Future King', and of course, Tolkien. Those with a particularly driving interest in fantasy during the 1950s and 1960s might have been familiar with the novels of Fletcher Pratt, or C. S. Lewis's 'Narnia' novels. 

All of these authors and their works were at the time designated as suitable for children and young adults. And of course, none of the these authors fostered the melding of the numinous with the depraved in the manner that Moorcock did with his Elric pieces.

I finished 'Elric of Melnibone' thinking, not for the first time, that Moorcock delivered an engaging story in the span of just 160 pages, while so many contemporary fantasy novels can't do half as much, in the span of novels of 500 or more pages. 

In closing, if you haven't yet read 'Elric of Melnibone' and the other volumes in the series, now is a good time to start. 

Exterminator 17: The Ellis Trilogy

Exterminator 17: The Ellis Trilogy

by Enki Bilal, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, and Igor Baranko

Titan Books, 2018

'Exterminator 17' (240 pp.) was published in hardcover by Titan Comics in 2018. It's a compilation (integrale) of both old and new comics / bandes dessinées featuring the eponymous android.

'Exterminator 17', written by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and illustrated by Enki Bilal, debuted in Metal Hurlant issue 11 (November 1976). In 1978 and 1979, an English translation was serialized in Heavy Metal, and became one of the best comics to appear in the early issues of that magazine. 

Originally printed in black and white, 'Exterminator 17' was colored when compiled into a graphic novel by Catalan Communications in 1986, as was the hardcover graphic novel issued by Titan Comics in 2002.

In 2003 Dionnet decided to revisit the franchise, this time with Igor Baranko as the artist. Three albums des bandes dessinees were ultimately released in this 'Ellis' trilogy: L'Alliance ('The Alliance') in 2003; Retour à Ellis ('Back to Ellis') in 2004; and Des Larmes de Sang ('Tears of Blood') in 2008. 

English translations of the Ellis trilogy, as well as the original Exterminator 17 story, titled simply 'Rebirth', all are included in this 2018 Titan Books edition. The book also features interviews with Dionnet and Barank, alternate covers, and promotional art pieces.

[ Somewhat confusingly, all the English language graphic novels share the main title Exterminator 17, so you have to use the date of publication (and the page count) to figure out just what the contents of a given printing actually consist of.......... ]

The color scheme for the four stories is unattributed, but relies heavily on earth tones. As for the art, Barank does as good a job as anyone could in terms of trying to mimic the style of Bilal's artwork for the original installment of the franchise.

In his interview, Barank reveals that illustrating the Ellis trilogy was not easy, mainly because Dionnet was somewhat capricious in his dedication to the project, thus leaving Baranko without instructions for long stretches of time. Unfortunately, this means that the Ellis trilogy has a disconnected, haphazard quality. 

Indeed, Exterminator 17 spends most of his time off-screen in the first episode of the 'Ellis' trilogy. Most of the narrative is devoted to fleshing out the planet of Ellis, which is a kind of multinational European world. Dionnet apparently was intent on suffusing the trilogy with a 'Sicilian' sensibility and thus, the main adversary for Exterminator 17 is a nobleman named Don Alessandro, who rules with a mixture of ruthlessness and guile.

The succeeding issues of the trilogy place the Exterminator more firmly into the plot. But, while the Ellis episodes deliver some well-composed fight scenes and some striking visual imagery on Baranko's part, as a whole, the trilogy is a disappointment. I won't disclose spoilers, but particularly in the closing pages, Dionnet demonstrates he was tired of the 'Ellis' enterprise, and opts for a glib and unconvincing conclusion that reinforces the ad hoc quality of his scripting efforts throughout the whole trilogy.

Summing up, only the most diehard fans of the Exterminator 17 franchise are going to find 'The Ellis Trilogy' to be rewarding. My advice is, stick with the 1976 installment, as it stands on its own as an imaginative piece of 1970s sci-fi.  

At Hobart

At Hobart
November, 2022

Hobart, New York, is a strange little place. It's a 'middle-of-nowhere' sort of place. 

It's a hamlet in Delaware County, about a half-hour drive east from Oneonta. To get to Hobart, you take a scenic drive on two-lane blacktop roads that wind through the Catskill mountains and landscapes showcasing valleys, rolling fields, and farmhouses. And a power line maintenance depot (below). 

Hobart's Main Street, which isn't very long, has - depending on the source - anywhere from five to eight used book stores, all operating out of repurposed residential and commercial buildings (the site of Liberty Rock Books, pictured above, is a former car dealership / garage).

I went there on a rainy, stormy Saturday after Thanksgiving. I found some nice old paperbacks (below) in Liberty Rock Books. 

I didn't have sufficient time to check out the other stores on the main street, but I think I will return to Hobart in the future. 

Other than the bookstores there's not much else in Hobart, besides a little antiques place and a Mirabito gas station. If you want a restaurant meal, or overnight lodging, you'll likely have to head north up Route 10 to Stamford. So a visit to Hobart is best approached as an all-day affair dedicated solely to looking at books............

Book Review: Blue World

Book Review: 'Blue World' by Robert R. McCammon

 4 / 5 Stars

'Blue World' (435 pp.) was published by Pocket Books in April, 1990, and features cover art by James Warren. The book is long out of print, and good-condition copies are highly priced. I was able to get a beat-up copy for $8.

Robert R. McCammon (b. 1952) is arguably the most commercially successful of the splatterpunks, with many of his novels, starting with 'Baal' in 1978, published by such well-known paperback publishers as Avon and Pocket Books. Others of his novels have been published in hardback by firms such as Holt, Rinehart, & Winston. Since 2002, McCammon has focused on historical thrillers featuring his character Matthew Corbett.

'Blue World' is an anthology of 12 short stories written by McCammon during the interval from 1981 to 1990, some of these seeing print first in other anthologies, or Twilight Zone magazine. Also included in 'Blue World' is an eponymous novel.

[A reprint of 'Blue World', featuring three additional stories, was issued by Subterranean Press in 2015.]

My capsule summaries of the contents of 'Blue World':

Yellowjacket Summer: Jerome Bixby's It's A Good Life, with nasty vespids. 

Makeup: petty thief Calvin Doss heists a makeup case formerly owned by the horror film actor Orlon Kronsteen. There are consequences. A fun story, with a fun ending.

Doom City: Brad wakes up from a bad dream, only to find reality is even worse.

Nightcrawlers: just when it's dark and stormy, Bad Company arrives at a diner in the Alabama countryside. 

Yellachile's Cage: prison, and a Magic Negro. McCammon shows he can do the theme as well as, if not better, than Stephen King.

I Scream Man ! : a Twilight Zone - style tale set in what seems to be an idyllic suburban neighborhood.

He'll Come Knocking at Your Door: life in Dan Burgess's suburban Alabama neighborhood is really nice.....maybe too nice. A nice treatment of the 'deal with the Devil' theme.

Chico: in a sweltering tenement apartment, the odious Marcus Salomon copes with the unfairness of life. The story's subdued splatterpunk flavoring works well with its offbeat premise. One of the best entries in the anthology.

Night Calls the Green Falcon: an elderly man who portrayed a costumed hero in prewar serials decides to reprise his role in the seedy landscape of modern Los Angeles. This story fulfills its goal of being an affectionate homage to the heroes of the Pulp Era (one character is named Lester Dent). 

Pin: a psycho, and his monologue. Not that exciting.

The Red House: in a joyless Factory Town, the arrival of an eccentric family brings with it an appreciation for Diversity, and the awareness that Being Different can be a Good Thing. 

The virtue messaging in this story is very earnest (the eccentric family obviously are stand-ins for Black People). 

Something Passed By: the End of the World comes to a small Nebraska town. Imaginative, and another of the better entries in the anthology.

Blue World: Father John Lancaster, a priest at the Cathedral of Saint Francis, befriends Debbie Stoner, a beautiful but witless young woman who works in the porno industry in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Things get quite complicated when Father John's emotions turn from the brotherly to the romantic, emotions reciprocated by Debbie. Father John finds himself distressed by the tension between his priestly avocation, and his infatuation with an adult film star. 

Making things worse, a serial killer is leaving corpses strewn in the Tenderloin........and he has a particular interest in Debbie Stoner........ 

'Blue World' is an effort by McCammon to write a novel devoid of supernatural trappings, focusing on Humanistic Issues and Psychological Suspense. 

The novel starts promisingly, with a man reading a Slash Maraud comic book inside of a XXX Live Show Theatre. But the remaining narrative never fulfills the early promise. It tends to lumber along, handicapped by its low-gear prose (on wet pavement, neon lights stream like the rivers of Hell; leg muscles scream; grins are big-toothed; when people sweat, they sweat cold sweat; voices take on a hint of acid, etc., etc.) and a sense of indecision as to whether it's meant to be a suspense novel with Melodrama, or a Melodrama novel with suspense.........  

The verdict on the anthology 'Blue World' ? There are enough good stories to justify a four-star rating. I will note that over at Too Much Horror Fiction, Will Errickson was much less impressed with the book than I was. Let's just say that McCammon fans will want to have a copy in their collection.

'Stranger' by Shakatak

'Stranger' by Shakatak

Looking through the old singles charts for the UK always is interesting. 

For the last half of November, 1982, at position No. 53 we find the single 'Stranger', from the band Shakatak.

According to their Wikipedia entry, Shakatak was a jazz-fusion band, formed in 1980 by Nigel Wright and Kev Roberts. 'Stranger' was a track on the band's second album, Invitations. 

'Stranger' is a very listenable song, a well-composed jazz / disco fusion number with silky smooth guitar and piano motifs. 

Shakatak continues to record and release, issuing the studio album In the Blue Zone in 2019, and the live album Live in Lockdown in 2021.  

Burton and Cyb: The Next God Will Be A Better One

Burton and Cyb

'The Next God Will Be A Better One'

from Heavy Metal magazine, March 1989

The March, 1989 issue of Heavy Metal magazine features cover art by Luis Royo. By now, editor Julie Simmons-Lynch was firmly dedicated to filling the magazine with softcore porn and cheesecake content and abandoning the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror pieces that had made the first five years of Heavy Metal interesting and worthwhile. 

That said, the centerpiece of this issue, the lengthy 'Leo Roa' comic written and illustrated by Juan Gimenez, is reasonably entertaining (although it does channel the sensibilities of Jodorowsky and Moebius and 'The Incal').

Also of value in the March, 1989 issue is another episode of 'Burton and Cyb'. Here, the galaxy's favorite con men find themselves engaged in more trickery, this time involving some fractious aborigines............

National Lampoon November 1979

National Lampoon, November 1979

It's that time to travel back in time, 43 years, to November, 1979. On the radio, in heavy rotation, are 'Babe' by Styx; 'Escape (The Pina Colada Song)', by Rupert Holmes, and 'Heartache Tonight' by the Eagles. Anticipation is building for the release next month of the blockbuster films Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and Steven Spielberg's 1941.

The November issue of National Lampoon is on the stands. This is a 'Love' themed issue, and it's not very good (too many mediocre pieces from editor P. J. O'Rourke). The advertisements actually are some of the more interesting examples of pop culture detritus in this issue. For example, we get Bruce Jenner selling cameras...........

Fleetwood Mac's double album, 'Tusk', gets some promotion.......

Smoking 'Camel' brand cigarettes, and wearing flannel shirts and bellbottom jeans, will get you noticed by foxy ladies.....

I never imbibed any liqueur from 'Bols', but they still are in the beverage business to this day.

I never thought much of Steve Martin and his type of comedy, but back in '79, he was a big deal.

And buying ad space in the back pages of the magazine are purveyors of prophylactics, and 'Mr. Bill' tee shirts...........

One of the more interesting comedy pieces in the November issue is a comic from Shary Flenniken, titled 'Perfect Pickup', that plays on the singles bar scene of the decade's end, and uses an unusual, ankle-level perspective in its narrative.

'Foto Funnies', a staple of the early years of the magazine, has been replaced by 'Michael Brennan's True Experience':

Cartoonist Charles Rodrigues contributes '22 Houston Street', which mocks people dealing with substance abuse. You could get away with a lot of stuff, back in '79.

We close with a three-page comic, 'Love Under Laboratory Conditions', from Ted Mann, Blaine Schlosser, and Bernie Wrightson. I can't say the story is all that engaging, but as always, Wrightson did a fine job with the artwork.

There you have it. Laughs and culture from 43 years ago..........!

Book Review: Software

Book Review: 'Software' by Rudy Rucker

1 / 5 Stars

'Software' (211 pp.) was published by Ace Books in January, 1982. The cover artist is uncredited. It's the first volume in the so-called 'Ware' series, followed by 'Wetware' (1988), 'Freeware' (1997), and 'Realware' (2000).

'Software' is set in 2020. The protagonist, 70 year-old robotics expert Cobb Anderson, is spending his retirement on the coast of Florida. In his younger days, Anderson was responsible for stimulating robots to evolve their intelligence according to Darwinian mechanisms. This in turn led to the development of sentience among the robots, and initiated a revolt of the automatons staffing a mining and construction facility on the Moon. The Moon now is a redoubt of robotkind, and while the robots are not overtly hostile towards humans, neither are they convinced that humanity deserves to inherit the universe.

Indeed, the Moon robots believe the world will be a better place once all of the human race are converted into androids, and emplaced within the consciousness of robotkind. Having developed what they believe is a successful technology for transferring a human's thoughts, memories, and personality - in other words, his or her 'software' - into an android body, the robots, in a demonstration of sentimentality, are interested in converting their creator, Cobb Anderson, into an android.

Anderson is intrigued by the idea of acquiring immortality through technology. But so doing will require travel to the Moon, where the robots are carefully vague about just how Anderson's personality and consciousness will be implanted in a android body. Will the reconstituted Anderson be solely a software construct, slaved to the commands of his robot saviors ? Or will Anderson the person persevere ? 

For Anderson, time to decide his own fate is running out, for a policeman named Mooney has suspicions that a conspiracy is in the offing...........with Cobb Anderson a key element in its designs..........

'Software' was, for me, a dud. I'm not much of a fan of the genre of comedic sci-fi, which, more than cyberpunk, 'Software' belongs to. Had the novel been longer than 211 pages of large-font type, I might have given up on it at the half-way mark.

Like many comedic sci-fi novels, 'Software' relies on a breathlessly paced prose style, as if taking too long between gags might risk sinking the narrative. There is a reliance on cutesy mannerisms (one character is named 'Sta-Hi', another 'Haf-N-Haf'), one-liners, witty quotes, sarcastic comments, and Southern slang rendered phonetically (never a good sign). 

The plot has a haphazard, throwaway quality, as if the author considered it simply a backdrop upon which to post one humorous escapade after another. When the denouement finally arrived, I found it but a small return on my investment in reading 'Software'.

The verdict ? I finished 'Software' with no desire to read the additional novels in the series. If you are a fan of the fiction of Ron Goulart, Robert Sheckley, Douglas Adams, and Terry Pratchett, then you may like Rucker's novel. Otherwise, there's no penalty for passing on it..........