Book Review: The Castle Keeps

Book Review: 'The Castle Keeps' by Andrew J. Offutt

2 / 5 Stars

'The Castle Keeps' (191 pp.) was published by Berkeley Books in July, 1972. It features cover art by Richard Powers. It's one of the first non-porn, non-pseudonymous novels Offutt published.

'Castle' is set in the late 20th or early 21st century, in a dystopian U.S. marked by economic and ecological collapse. The rest of the world isn't doing much better, save for the clever and resourceful Israelis (for some reason, some of the sci-fi novels of the early 70s liked to posit that when everything went to hell, the Israelis would come out fine, as they do in the 1974 novel 'The Texas-Israeli War').

Violent crime is pervasive and afflicts both city-dwellers and rural folk. As the novel opens we are introduced to the main character, Kentuckian Jeff Andrews. Andrews is the head of a household of eight, and he has turned their communal homestead into a fortress. This is due to the ongoing depredations of raiders ('rippers') who seek to rob, rape, and murder any hapless family (the authorities, overwhelmed by chaos in the urban areas, have left the rural population to their own devices).

Andrews is a stand-in for Andrew Offutt himself (we are told that Andrews is a science fiction writer, and there is a sly allusion to his also earning income from penning 'sexbooks').

'Castle' is episodic in nature and chronicles various trials and tribulations both of the Andrews clan, and a family of city-dwellers, the Caudills, as they cope with the scourges of pollution, overpopulation, food shortages, social disorder, and the constant threat of Clockwork Orange-style 'ultraviolence.'

Most of 'Castle' is taken up with discourses in which Andrews / Offutt promotes libertarian ideologies, and decries the failure of 1970s America to adopt these ideologies, leading to the collapse of the country. The reader is made to understand - in at-time laborious fashion - that Andrews, being a visionary and someone devoted to self-sufficiency, is adept at surviving (and thriving) in a world where many people are too passive to act in their own best interests.

In between his discourses, Offutt supplies some well-composed action sequences, in which the Andrews household indulges in shootouts with various degenerates. The novel's closing chapters see Andrews's son Scott journey to the city, where his homespun confidence, and facility with firearms, contrasts with the feeble skills of the young people with whom he falls in. There are some mildly salacious segments in which a naive Scott learns about how fresh city girls can be (and presumably gives Offutt the chance to winkingly insert some softcore porn prose, as only he can do). 

The novel ends with another exciting action sequence, and some messaging about how rural Kentucky folk can hold their own and best represent the nation's hopes for the future.

I finished 'The Castle Keeps' content with a Two-Star Score. Had Offutt provided a more focused narrative, devoid of pontification, the novel could have been an engaging look at a near-future, nightmarish America. But as it stands, I only can recommend the book to those readers who like their sci-fi accompanied by political philosophising....................

The Helltrekkers

The Helltrekkers

2000 AD / Rebellion

'The Helltrekkers' (128 pp.) was published by 2000 A.D. / Rebellion in December, 2023. It compiles the series that originally ran in 2000 A.D., progs 387 to 415 (October 13, 1984, to April 27, 1985).

'Helltrekkers' was a spinoff of sorts from the Judge Dredd universe; the story is an updating of the Wagon Train narrative of the American West.

Fed up with life inside Mega City One, a group of would-be settlers decide to pool their resources and make for the promised land; namely, The New Territories of the West, where freedom awaits. The only problem is, getting from Mega City One to the New Territories means crossing 2,000 kilometers of the Cursed Earth.......!

And the Cursed Earth is no happy place. It's infested with ravenous dinosaurs and homicidal mutants. Gruesome diseases can strike at any time. And the terrain itself can be lethal: 'dust devils' of radioactive dust; streams and lakes of impassable lava; and acid rain that can strip flesh from bone, all present challenges to our intrepid settlers and their convoy of 'Rad Wagons.'

The writing, by 2000 A.D. stalwarts John Wagner and Alan Grant, is basically an exercise in sarcastic humor, as they come up with inventive ways to whittle away at the 111 people and 28 Rad Wagons that exit Mega City One. Some sequences had me laughing out loud, while others have a tone of pathos that occasionally crops up amidst the uniquely British humor on display in 2000 A.D. I won't disclose any spoilers, but I will say that not everyone in Lucas Rudd's wagon train makes it alive and well to the New Territories.

The artwork is a mixed bag. The inaugural episode of The Helltrekkers was illustrated by Jose Ortiz, whose pencils can impart a gritty sensibility, without sacrificing legibility. However, every succeeding episode was penciled by Horacio Lalia, whose cruder style is not well-served by the low-res printing process of the original magazine, nor by the scans of those pages that (presumably) were used to provide the content of this trade paperback. Too many panels in 'Helltrekkers' are over-inked and underexposed and as a result, it's often difficult to make out what is being represented.

Murkiness is a problem with more than a few of these vintage UK comics (I observed it in the 2018 compilation of 'El Mestizo' comics). I can't help wondering if 'The Helltrekkers' would have benefited from being printed in a larger size, as its dimensions of 7 1/2 x 10 inches can't help but give the book a cramped presentation. 

I note that Rebellion took care to print its recent compilation of 2000 A.D.'s 'Summer Magic' on glossy paper, at a dimension of 8 1/2 x 11 inches.........

The verdict ? While fans of 2000 A.D. of the 1980s may find this compilation sparks nostalgia, it's difficult to see modern-day comics readers responding well to the grainy artwork and facetious humor and violence that characterizes the book (as well, I suspect some aspects of Helltrekkers, such as the Asian family, will draw criticism for being non-Woke). This is too bad, because 40 years after its first appearance, 'The Helltrekkers' has an irreverent sensibility that is refreshing compared to the overindulged narratives showcased in contemporary American comic books.

Frazetta Book Cover Art

Frazetta Book Cover Art

by J. David Spurlock

Vanguard Publishing, April 2022

'Frazetta Book Cover Art' (167 pp.) was published by Vanguard Productions, a firm dedicated to classic illustration and graphic art, with an emphasis on comics and cartooning. 'Frazetta Book Cover Art' is one of a number of Vanguard books about Frazetta's art. These books come in hardcover deluxe editions with slipcases and additional content, along with less expensive hardcover editions (which is what I purchased). 

All the Vanguard catalogue consists of well-made books, with sturdy binding and higher-quality paper stock.

'Frazetta Book Cover Art' opens with a 10 page chapter, written by Spurlock, that outlines Frazetta's career in commercial art. The following five chapters provide a chronologically-organized portfolio of the artist's covers for paperbacks, as well as a small number of hardbound books issued by the Science Fiction Book Club / Doubleday, starting in the early 1960s and going into the early 1990s.

The covers are given an entire page each, and are accompanied by remarks and observations on the pieces by Frazetta, and other artists and persons involved in the fantasy and science-fiction publishing enterprise. 

As best as I can tell from looking at the Frazetta entry in the ISFDB, every paperback that was published with a cover by Frazetta, is represented in the book. 

If you are a Baby Boomer like me, perusing the book and seeing those paperback covers is going to take you back in time to an era of fun and excitement. It's hard to imagine anyone but Frazetta having the ability to imbue reprintings of Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs stories and novels, first written in the 1910s to the 1940s, with a modern, dynamic, eye-catching sensibility. 

Trying to read those Burroughs titles nowadays, when I'm much older, is something of a chore, but there's no mistaking the way the Frazetta covers dramatized the contents of book like 'Thuvia, Maid of Mars.'

Some of the paperbacks presented in the book nowadays are rarities that command premium prices, so it's best to settle for vicarious thrills at seeing the cover for 'The Flesh Eaters'.

Who will want a copy of 'Frazetta Book Cover Art' ? Baby Boomers with a fondness for the paperbacks of their youth, as well as Justin Marriott's Paperback Fanatics, will certainly find the book rewarding. And while the book isn't an overview of Frazetta's artistic techniques, I believe it will be useful to those artists who are interested in commercial art and the design and composition of book covers. 

Book Review: Weaveworld

Book Review: 'Weaveworld' by Clive Barker

3 / 5 Stars

'Weaveworld' first was issued in hardback in 1987 in the UK. This Pocket Books mass-market paperback version was published in October, 1988, and features cover art by Jim Warren.

Rather than attempt to synopsize a 704 page novel, I'll simply give an outline of the book's plot:

Calhoun Mooney is just a regular guy, living in Liverpool in the late 1980s and working as a staffer in an insurance firm. Cal raises pigeons, and one summer afternoon, a pigeon gets loose and Cal pursues it to a house, where the banal act of falling onto a carpet introduces him to a mystical experience. One that comes to define, and dominate, his life.

Lodged in the carpet is Weaveworld, a pocket universe where magical people live in magical landscapes straight out of fairytales and storybooks. These people, known as the Seerkind, have been subjected to persecution from mankind, who the Seerkind refer to (disparagingly) as 'cuckoos'. For the Seerkind, Weaveworld is a place of refuge and succor.

In more modern times, some Seerkind have elected to depart Weaveworld and live in our society. Some cuckoos have familial connections to the Seerkind, although they may know this only through transitory experiences involving the otherworldly.

However, as Cal is about to find out, Weaveworld and its people are under threat. Immacolata, one of the most powerful, embittered, and nihilistic of the Seerkind, wants to destroy Weaveworld and its inhabitants

But even worse than Immacolata is the Scourge, an ancient and malevolent entity that wants to extirpate every one of the Seerkind from the earth. Including any cuckoos who ally themselves with Weaveworld.

As events unfold and the danger to the Seerkind grows, Cal will form an alliance with those few people who are capable of preventing the destruction of Weaveworld. An alliance that will be tested on a snowy plain in England, the Sceptered Isle.........

It took me some time to finish 'Weaveworld' and when at last I did, I was content with giving it a Three-Star Rating. Barker is a good writer, and the pages flow smoothly. He keeps the chapters short and avoids overindulging in worldbuilding or characterization. There are Barker-esque moments of horror that lend propulsion to the narrative and keep things from becoming too indolent.

But as I progressed through Weaveworld and its episodic structure I began to wonder when and how and where the climax finally would arrive, and whether it would justify my considerable investment in the book. Unfortunately, the climax, which doesn't arrive until page 671, had a contrived quality that left me disappointed. No, I'm not saying the story ends on a 'it was all a Dream !' note, but it avoids a cataclysmic confrontation in favor of one too muted to be very effective.

If you are willing to accommodate a rambling narrative that covers much ground without seeming to get anywhere, then you will find 'Weaveworld' rewarding.

[ in the interests of fairness, I will direct readers to a review at the 'Too Much Horror Fiction Blog', which gives high marks to 'Weaveworld.' ]   

National Lampoon May 1976

National Lampoon
May, 1976

May, 1976, and on the Billboard Hot 100, the number-one song in the country is 'Welcome Back', the theme song to the TV show 'Welcome Back Kotter', by John Sebastian.

Looking at the cover of the May, 1976 issue of the National Lampoon, we see this is the 'Unwanted Foreigners' issue, sure to satirize ethnic and cultural identities, and thus, to offend..........

The advertising features the latest album from Paul McCartney and Wings, along with a humorous treatment of Scotch cassette tapes.

The 'Facts' section provides some real-life misadventures. The one involving the motorcycle is my favorite.

The 'Unwanted Foreigners' theme goes transgressive, without hesitation, with a satiric portrayal of Africa, couched as a high school social studies textbook.

In the interests of Equity and equal opportunity disparagement, editor P. J. O'Rourke takes aim at Europeans, and the member states of the European Economic Community (a sort of particularly hapless early version of the European Union) with 'EEC ! It's the U.S. of E !

Written by Tony Hendra, the article showcases amazing puppets and dioramas handcrafted by Peter Nigel Luck and Roger Law (no such things as AI and Photoshop, back in 1976). Hendra, Luck, and Law all were Brits, so they brought a particularly vicious sensibility (that might not otherwise be present in an American humor periodical) to mocking the EEC.

Another outstanding piece of art in this May issue is an oil painting by none other than Boris Vallejo. A sure sign that in the 1970s, the Lampoon could afford top talent:

Probably the most offensive segment in the May issue was O'Rourke's 'Foreigners Around the World', the kind of article that never would be allowed to see the light of day in this 21st century. 

Each ethnic vignette has just enough bald truth, and nastiness, to make the best formula for derision. The black-and-white illustrations, by Randy Jones, are brilliant caricatures.

Whew ! After all that Transgression, let's have some lighter fare. How about a nice bit of nudity, with 'Foto Funnies.' There's also a mockery of the 'Peanuts' comic strip.

And that's how it was, 48 (!) years ago in the pages of the National Lampoon.........

Book Review: Brak the Barbarian

Book Review: 'Brak the Barbarian' by John Jakes

 4 / 5 Stars

This slim (160 pp.) little volume of 'Brak' tales was issued by Tandem Books (UK) in 1976. The striking cover art is by Bob Fowke. Some of the stories in this compilation first saw print in the mid-1960s in Fantastic Stories, while others were composed by Jakes expressly for the initial 1968 paperback printing. 

'Brak the Barbarian' has been reprinted in various paperback editions through the years, including a Pocket Books edition in 1977.

In the Tandem Books edition, we get 'The Unspeakable Shrine', 'Flame-Face', 'The Courts of the Conjurer', 'Ghosts of Stone', and 'The Barge of Souls'. 

As I have stated in my reviews of other entries in the Brak franchise, these stories are as good as the Conan pastiches of Lin Carter, with his 'Thongor' stories. In the tales collected in 'Brak the Barbarian' the horror element - and the gore and violence - are considerably more overt, as are the intentions of the beauteous women who try to tempt our hero from his quest to arrive in the shining southern city of Kurdisan. 

Here's an example of the sensibility Jakes brings to the chapter / story 'Flame Face':

Somewhere along the endless corridor on to which the rock pens opened, a prisoner shrieked in the grip of dementia. Guard boots slammed. A bolt was shot back. An argument ensued. The maniacal captive could not be silenced.

All at once, his burbling came sharply to a stop. Coarse laughter and the slower footfalls of the guards indicated that a dagger had served where blows and oaths would not. On more than one occasion the big barbarian had seen a troublemaker thus dispatched in the mines, his corpse flung into the glaring furnaces.

In the story 'The Barge of Souls', Jakes provides a grim and evocative description of the aftermath of a titanic battle:

At highest noon, the sun was but a pale silver-white disc through the murk overhead. Everywhere lay bodies, whole or dismembered, stinking blood that mingled with the richer, redder stuff bled out of horses slaughtered by the hundreds.  Brak saw grisly remains of war engines, and all the paraphernalia of a gigantic combat.

The ground beneath the pony's hooves was loamy. This silt partially covered many of the bodies.....

Jakes's post-pulp approach to the Sword and Sorcery genre holds up well some sixty years after these stories first saw print. If you're a fan of the genre, then having some Brak titles in your personal library is recommended.

At the library sale April 2024

At the library sale 

April 2024

Earlier this month, it once again was time to patronize the annual library sale, held at a shopping center in the northern part of town. 

With each passing year attendance continues to grow, and on opening day, the lines to get in the door are getting longer and longer.

I made a couple of trips, and came away with a decent enough selection of hardcovers and paperbacks.

I was surprised to see that Robert Sheckley had authored an entry in the 'Aliens' franchise, 1995's 'Alien Harvest.' Given Sheckley's penchant for humor in his writings, it will be interesting to see what he does with the sci-fi horror theme that marks 'Aliens.'

The Alfred Hitchcock anthology is a monster of a book, at 631 pages. It has some entries from sci-fi stalwarts such as Barry Malzberg and Ron Goulart, as well as authors more anchored to the crime / thriller / horror genres, such as August Derleth, Bill Pronzini, Lawrence Block, and Brian Garfield.

'Psychlone', from Greg Bear, is an earlier work (1979), so I'm not sure what to expect there.

While I like Bruce Sterling's short stories and novelettes, his longer works can be hit-or-miss. I'll have to see how 'Holy Fire' turns out.

The 1970 Dell reprint of 'Cotton Comes to Harlem' was part of a movie tie-in. And I'm always up for another collection of Shirley Jackson short stories.

And that's the story of the library sale, April, 2024. Quite a lot of inventory for the sci-fi and fantasy section of the floor, but lots of the books were one I'm not overly interested in: many, many Stephen King hardbacks, Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, Peter Hamilton, Dean Koontz, David Eddings, etc. The dealers usually wind up taking the bulk of those books. 

I was happy with what I got, it didn't cost me all that much, and with my car insurance and my cable bill going up by big margins this Spring, I'm looking for cheap thrills..............!