Book Review: Hardwired

Book Review: 'Hardwired' by Walter Jon Williams

1 / 5 Stars

'Hardwired' (343 pp.) was published by Tor Books in April, 1987, and features cover art by pinup artist Luis Royo.

 

'Hardwired' is set in the 21st century. The United States is under the hegemony of the Orbitals, the oligarchs who control the space stations circling the globe. A recent war between the so-called 'dirt' people on the Earth's surface, and the Orbitals, easily was won by the latter, through the expedient of dropping kinetic weapons down onto cities and military installations. Now all commerce on the Earth is governed by the Orbitals, who are in competition with each other to acquire the lion's share of the planetary resources.

 

Lead character Cowboy once was a member of the military elite, the pilot of a delta-winged fighter plane. Equipped with sockets in his skull and jacked into the cutting-edge computer that controled the delta fighter, Cowboy soared the skies, living on the edge. But in the short-lived war with the Orbitals, the deltas got the worst of it. Now Cowboy is a 'panzerboy,' carrying clandestine cargo aboard a specially armored hovercraft. 

 

In the employ of middlemen, whose allegiances to the Orbitals are mediated solely by avarice, Cowboy makes runs across the middle of the USA, dodging enemy vehicles and aircraft in order to deliver the goods to the waiting middlemen. Cowboy is good at his craft, but it's no substitute for the thrills he experienced as a fighter jock, and he spends his days struggling to find purpose in the postwar world.

 

In the opening chapters the reader also is introduced to supporting character Sara, a 'dirtgirl,' or mercenary, who works as a freelance assassin-slash-bodyguard. 'Wired' with implants that give her superhuman reflexes and strength, Sara hopes that taking risky assignments from Orbital intermediaries someday will grant her a place on one of the space stations drifting far above the cutthroat nature of life in postwar Florida.

 

As the novel progresses Cowboy and Sara cross paths, and form an uneasy alliance with Albrecht Roon, the disgraced former CEO of Tempel Pharmaceuticals, one of the most powerful of the oligarchies. Roon hopes to regain his position as CEO, but his plan will require confronting the Orbitals from a position of comparative weakness. It's an alliance of convenience for Cowboy, Sara, and Roon, with no guarantee of success. But if the action offers Cowboy the chance to fly again in combat in the cockpit of the delta fighter Pony Express, it's a risk well worth taking.........

 

'Hardwired' is a first-generation cyberpunk novel derived from Gibson's 'Neuromancer.' Cowboy and Sara essentially are modeled on Case and Molly, respectively, from 'Neuromancer.' This is not a bad thing, but 'Hardwired' has a number of defects that kept me from giving it any score higher than One Star.

 

'Hardwired' has a very dense, highly descriptive prose, and this is too smothering for a novel with a length of nearly 350 pages. Too many ornate passages, with too many metaphors and similes: 

The words stir a warmness in Cowboy, but it's washed away by the surge of data into his crystal, his extensions. His turbopumps moan, pouring fuel into the combustion chamber of his shrieking heart. Neurotransmitters pulse to a steel beat like Smoky Dacus's drums. "Thanks," he says, his eyes flickering in and out of infrared perception, tracking the glowing path of the shuttle in the sky.

 

The novel is at least 75 pages too long, with too many empty passages, and too many introspective segments that are intended to let us know more about the characters, but in fact slow down the narrative. While the final chapters of 'Hardwired' do culminate in some action sequences, these come too late to rescue the novel from its dilatory pacing. I finished 'Hardwired' with no urge to tackle its quasi-sequel, 'Voice of the Whirlwind.'

Heavy Metal June 1979

Heavy Metal

June 1979

 

June, 1979, and in rotation on my local album-oriented rock (AOR) station WAAL, 'Dance Away,' from Roxy Music, is in rotation. It's a track from their 1979 LP Manifesto. In a year in which New Wave was dominating the early play lists, the Roxies, with their polish and romanticism, were something of an enigma, but they made really good music.

 

The June, 1979 issue of Heavy Metal magazine is on the newsstand. Angus McKie provides the front cover illustration: 'The Performer,' while for the back cover, we get a Betty Page tribute from Marcus Boas, titled 'What Happened to Betty.'

 

For the masthead, editors Sean Kelly and Valerie Marchant let us know, in their inevitably deadpan, too-hip-too-care way, what is going on in this latest issue.

 

Looking through this issue from perspective of 46 (!) years, I'm struck by how impactful it was to see comic art rendered in process color. Although Heavy Metal had been on the stands for over two years now, it was striking to see the color schemes displayed on the pages of a 'slick' magazine devoted to sci-fi and fantasy comics and graphics.

 

Look at the colors for the second installment of 'Alien: The Illustrated Story,' and the penultimate episode of Corben's 'New Tales of the Arabian Nights':

 

In 1979, this kind of reproduction was commonplace in the albums sold in Western Europe, but novel and exciting for comics published in the USA.

 

For an excerpt for the novel 'East Wind Coming,' by Arthur Byron Cover, the HM editors feature a full-page illustration by Bernie Wrightson. Had it been done in the CMYK 'spot color' print scheme then still in widespread use in comics, it would not have had the visual impact that it does when rendered in process color.

 

The major piece in the June issue is the complete saga of 'Captain Future,' by Serge Clerc, which first appeared in Metal Hurlant in 1978. Its deep blacks and finer lines are admirably displayed in the pages of HM, showing that it wasn't just color artwork that benefited from the 'slick' magazine printing process.

 

Captain Future is filled with little allusions to pop culture; one character, 'Stiv Budder,' the captain of a fleet of space pirates, is modeled on Steven John Bator, aka 'Stiv Bator,' lead singer for the Cleveland punk band the Dead Boys. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rolling Stone, May 4, 1978

 

 

Then we have two quintessential 'stoner' comics, from those early days of HM. 

 

First, there's ............'Pyloon,' by Ray Rue  and Leo Giroux, Jr. Several episodes appeared in the late seventies, all featuring cribbed artwork, brilliant colors, and deranged narratives. Deranged, that is, if you weren't stoned. If you were stoned, then it all made perfect sense.

 

And of course, we must have a look at the latest installment of McKie's 'So Beautiful and So Dangerous,' another comic that mandated process color reproduction, and the assistance of Cannabis sativa, to understand.

 

The June, 1979 issue of Heavy Metal is another of the better ones. Worth picking up if you can find it for $10 or less on the shelves of a used bookstore or antiques mall.

Book Review: Maske: Thaery

Book Review: 'Maske: Thaery' by Jack Vance

5 / 5 Stars

 

'Maske: Thaery' (216 pp.) was published in hardcover in 1976. This Berkley Books paperback was issued in September, 1977, with cover art by Ken Barr. 

It has been some time since I last had read a Vance novel, so the initial twenty-five or so pages of 'Maske' were slow going as I tried to reacquaint myself with Vance's idiosyncratic prose style:

 

Jubal borrowed Trewe's old ercycle and rode thirty miles up the side of Eirse Mountain, through forests of stunted ebane and tall thin thyrse, across stony glades and dark dells, and finally arrived at Vaidro's antique house: a rambling, tall-roofed structure of dark wood. Vaidro, a somber man, compact and economical of movement, came out to meet Jubal and conducted him to a shaded terrace. They sat in wicker easy chairs, and a Djan maid brought a silver tray with a carafe of wine and a dish of biscuits. Vaidro leaned back in his chair with a goblet of wine and studied Jubal through half-closed eyes. "Yallow has changed you, more than I might have expected."

 

Eventually I settled into familiarity with Vance's prose and its flourishing collections of invented nouns and unusual adjectives. It does help that Vance keeps his plot straightforward, as if in compensation for the ornate prose. 

 

Thaery is the foremost nation on planet Maske, and our protagonist, Jubal Droad, is at a disadvantage, being born a Glint, a member of the lumpen proletariat, a class looked down upon by the native-born residents of Thaery. Nonetheless, Jubal is determined to be more than a simple laborer, and makes his way to the Thaery capital city, Wysrod, hoping to leverage a family connection into a position with the patrician Nai the Hever. 

 

Nai is one of the five leaders of Thaery. While outwardly he is of elitist and dismissive bearing, internally, Nai is troubled by the maneuverings of one Ramus Ymph, a nobleman with considerable political ambition. Nai suspects that Ramus is involved with offworld polities, to the detriment of Maske. 

 

Seeing Jubal's rough and ready bearing as something of an asset, Nai assigns him a billet in Department Three, the Sanitary and Hygiene Office. Jubal is chagrined at the idea of spending his working life inspecting taverns and inns for cleanliness. But it turns out that the Office actually is a front for the Thaery intelligence service. And adventure, intrigue, and danger await Jubal Droad !

 

'Maske: Thaery' is a Five Star novel from Vance. At heart it's an adventure novel, with a fast-moving plot propelled by sharp little episodes of violence. The people and cultures depicted in the book all have a quirky originality that demonstrates Vance's imaginative approach to world-building. 

 

The novel's central theme, of the ambitious, 'Outsider' young man who contests with a close-minded, self-perpetuating establishment, is one that occurs frequently in Vance's works. Jubal Early is the counterpart of Sklar Hast from 'The Blue World,' Ghyl Tarvok from 'Emphyrio,' and Gastel Etzwane from the 'Durdane' series. 

 

As with those novels, in 'Maske' the denouement does bring with it a long-awaited confrontation between our hero and the adversary (or adversaries), and is satisfying without being predictable. 

 

Summing up, 'Maske' shows that Vance, a veteran author in 1976, was able to frame a work that accepted the aesthetic of the New Wave era, while staying true to his own ideas of how science fiction should be composed and written. Fans of Vance, and the New Wave era, will want to have this book in their collection.

National Lampoon June 1974

National Lampoon

June 1974

June, 1974, and as we sit down with our latest issue of the National Lampoon, on the FM radio's 'Top 40' format, we're listening to Paul McCartney and Wings, at number one with 'Band on the Run.' Also in the top five are Ray Stevens with his novelty song, 'The Streak,' soul hits from the Stylistics and the Jackson 5, and Gordon Lightfoot's mean breakup song, 'Sundown.'

 

 

 

On the back cover of the Lampoon we have an advertisement for an LP from the late rock guitarist Rick Derringer (1947 - 2025).

The June issue is the 'Food Issue,' and while most of the contents are mediocre, standing out for its crudity is Tony Hendra's piece, 'The Joys of Wife-Tasting.' Crudity, that was the Lampoon !
 

 

 

 

 

 

We get a satirical, some might say offensive, treatment of George Washington Carver, courtesy of Doug Kenney and artist Joe Orlando.

 

 

 

 

 

The 'Foto Funnies' delivers a double-dose of 'double D' entertainment (snigger) !

 

We've got our usual assortment of black-and-white comics in the back pages of the issue. Printed on newsprint, and in low-res, they are a bit difficult to make out, despite tinkering with the scanner settings.....

 

 

 

 

That's what you got for your 85 cents, 51 years ago...........

Book Review: Nightmare Age

Book Review: 'Nightmare Age' edited by Frederik Pohl

2 / 5 Stars

 

'Nightmare Age' (312 pp.) was published by Ballantine Books in October, 1970, and features evocative cover art by Peter Schaumann. 

 

This anthology was packaged as an effort to capture the zeitgeist of Eco-catastrophe that was, in 1970, highly topical in science fiction. However, the entries in the anthology all were previously published, some as long ago as 1951, so 'Nightmare Age' lacks the currency that an all-original anthology would have had. 

 

In his Forward, editor Pohl remarks that he sees the anthology as a chance to demonstrate possible 'nightmare' scenarios for an Earth that neglects to address mounting problems with pollution and overpopulation. The stories assembled in 'Nightmare' thus are monitory, rather than predictive, and Pohl considers this the true value of science fiction.

 

Taking into consideration that the anthology includes two stories by Pohl, as well as two each from C. M. Kornbluth and Fritz Leiber, and (inevitably) a contribution from Heinlein, it's basically a recycling of dated material from 'Pohl and Friends.'

 

If you've read any post- WW2 sci-fi, then you likely are familiar with these much-anthologized entries: Kornbluth's 'The Marching Morons' (1951), Leiber's 'X Marks the Pedwalk' (1963), and Pohl's 'The Census Takers' (1955) and 'The Midas Plague' (1954). The latter novelette, in particular, is a profoundly boring, profoundly labored effort at satirizing American consumerism.

 

Heinlein's 'The Year of the Jackpot' (1952) features a statistician whose analyses confirm that the End of the World is approaching; he meets up with a swell dame named Meade. They prepare for the end with jokes and affection. By 50s sci-fi standards this is a decent enough story, although the protagonist has the nickname 'Potty.'

 

Of the other entries in the anthology, 'Calculated Risk' (1962), by Christopher Anvil, about a a chemical additive that can convert barren soils into productive soils, is a cleverly composed tale about unexpected consequences. 'Station HR972' (1966), by Kenneth Bulmer, has an interesting premise about future throughways as a medevac enterprise, but is crippled by stilted prose: for the first time in my life, I enountered the adverb 'blockily' (as in, "All the time the driver sat blockily in the rest area...").

 

'New Apples in the Garden' (1963), by Kris Neville, is another of the standout entries in the anthology. It's a treatment of the contest between increasing complexity and the likelihood of increasing entropy, as things get too complicated to maintain.

 

Another Kornbluth contribution, 'The Luckiest Man in Denv' (1952), posits a future USA where 'Denv' (i.e., Denver) wages war against 'Ellay' (i.e., Los Angeles) using nuclear warheads. The premise is interesting, but the execution poor. 'A Bad Day for Sales' (1953), by Leiber, tries to say something profoundly cynical about consumerism, but comes across as a perfunctory, minimal-effort piece.

 

Clifford Simak's 'Day of Truce' (1962) posits a near-future USA where the suburbs have become a depopulated wasteland, save for outposts manned by homeowners determined to resists the depredations of juvenile delinquents. It's a great premise, but Simak does little with it. 

 

Eco-Catastrophe, by Paul Ehrlich, is the only 'modern' entry; it first saw print in Ramparts magazine in 1969. It's an effective 'what if' about a near-future world gripped by overpopulation, pollution, and famine. Ehrlich has the world saved by none other than Teddy Kennedy ?! A plot point that means this story has not aged very well. Still and all, this is another of the better tales included in this anthology.

 

The verdict ? The entries by Anvil, Neville, and Ehrlich are not enough to prevent me from giving 'Nightmare Age' a mediocre Rating of Two Stars. This warmed-over reissue of Eco-Catastrophe fiction from the Atomic Age just doesn't offer much to the interested reader........ 

Book Review: Hitler Victorious

May is 'Third Reich Triumphant' Month at the PorPor Books Blog

Book Review: 'Hitler Victorious' edited by Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg

3 / 5 Stars

'Hitler Victorious' (278 pp.) was published as a hardcover by Garland Publishing in 1986. Some of the contents previously were published, while others were commissioned especially for the anthology.

In his Preface, Benford alludes to Einstein's concept of the gedanken, or 'thought experiment,' and its history in both general and sci-fi literature as a vehicle for asking 'what if.' 

Norman Spinrad, in his Introduction, examines the allure the idea of a victorious Third Reich has on science fiction writers. As far as Spinrad is concerned, there is something decidedly psychosexual to it all (?!):

Thus the forthrightly phallic Nazi salute, the tight black uniforms of the SS, the silver death's heads,the twin lightning bolts, the barbarian torchlit splendor, the stirring martial music, the 'SS Werewolf Division,' the whole obsessive and twisted Satanism of the Nazi symbol systems, as the supermen in their chrome-and-black S & M gear thrust their right arms erect and, with their assholes tight and fire gleaming in their eyes, march off to bugger the world.

Well...........! Who woulda thunk it ?! Anyways, below are my capsule summaries of the contents:

Two Dooms, by C. M. Kornbluth (1958): it's May, 1945, and in New Mexico, physicist Edward Royland is laboring on the Manhattan Project. He decides to partake in a 'sacred plant' ceremony in the hut of the Indian shaman Nahataspe, and blacks out. When he wakes up, Royland is 150 years in the future, in an America divided in two, shared between Imperial Japan and the Nazis.

This novelette apparently was a posthumously published draft, and while it has some striking imagery and some intriguing extrapolations, it suffers from Kornbluth's overly wordy prose style, and his insistence on larding said prose with all sorts of cutesy wordsmithings designed to let us know what a clever fellow he, Kornbluth, is.........

The Fall of Frenchy Steiner, by Hilary Bailey (1964): it's 1955, and the UK has been conquered by the Third Reich. The first-person narrator, Sebastian, is a folk singer in a shabby bar; a disheveled young woman named Frenchy likes to come by every now and and then, and sing accompaniment. When Frenchy gets in a spot of trouble, against his better judgment, Sebastian decides to help her. 

This is one of the better entries in the anthology. Bailey's depiction of a Britain under Nazi subjugation has a memorably bleak quality. The second half of the novelette goes off in an unexpected, but imaginative, direction, with an ending that features notes of dark humor.

Through Road No Wither, by Greg Bear (1985): two Nazis enjoying the Reich victorious in 1979, make a fateful detour while traveling on a dark and foggy night in France. It's a little too opaque to be very rewarding.

Weihnachtsabend, by Keith Roberts (1972): the title is 'Christmas Eve' in German. In a 1960s UK subservient to Nazi Germany, a bureaucrat named Mainwaring, on holiday in a country estate, confronts the true reality of the Reich. 

Over the decades I've become familiar with Roberts's inferential style of writing, where the attention is placed more on atmosphere, setting, and characterization, while plot developments are alluded to in an elliptical manner. So I found this story rewarding, if needing more attention than I usually am wont to give.

Thor Meets Captain America (1986), by David Brin: it's 1962, and the Allies are losing the war against the Reich. A desperate commando mission is undertaken, its goal to strike a decisive blow against the Nazis. And Loki, the trickster god, is along for the ride ?! Of all the stories in 'Hitler Victorious,' this one comes closest to displaying the wacky energy of the modern-day 'Wolfenstein' franchise of video games.

Moon of Ice (1986), by Brad Lineweaver: it's April, 1965, and Joseph Goebbels is in a retrospective mood. The Third Reich is triumphant in Europe, but the recent passing of Adolf Hitler signals the end of the era. And the rise of a resistance......

This novelette starts off on an interesting enough note, but at its halfway point, transitions into pulp / comic book escapades involving super mutants, mad scientists, conspiracies, genetic engineering, etc. It's too contrived to be effective.

Reichs-Peace (1986), by Sheila Finch: it's the 1980s and a young woman named Greta learns that she is very, very important to the Reich and its continued rule. This novelette seeks to humanize some of those Germans who flourished during Hitler's regime.

Never Meet Again (1957), by Algis Budrys: it's April, 1958, and Europe is ruled by the Third Reich. Professor Klempfer is pondering a way to escape to another reality.....maybe one where the Nazis lost ?

Do Ye Hear the Children Weeping ? (1986), by Howard Goldsmith: a young American couple rent a house in Munich. A house with a very troubling background. This is more of a horror story than science fiction.

Enemy Transmissions (1986), by Tom Shippey: in a 1985 UK under the rule of the Third Reich, Richard Grenville is recruited for some very unusual experiments involving dreams, and messages from alternate realities. 

Valhalla (1986), by Gregory Benford: it's April, 1945, and in the Fuhrerbunker, in the ruins of Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun are preparing to commit suicide. Suddenly, a strange blue glow appears inside the bunker........

Summing up, 'Hitler Victorious' comes away with a Three-Star Rating. At the time of its commission, the pool of stories that could qualify as tales of a triumphant Third Reich was small and necessarily placed some constraints on the editors. 

At the same time, however, the fact that the bulk of the entries in this anthology were written in 1986 suggests that the editors could have, but didn't, look to solicit more contributions from the cyberpunks. I have to believe that (apart from Greg Bear) Gibson, Sterling, Shirley, Dozois, and Swanwick could have done better with the theme than most of contemporary contributors. In that regard, 'Hitler Victorious' represents something of a missed opportunity in the catalog of 1980s sci-fi anthologies........

Sea of Destiny from Bizarre Adventures No. 32

Sea of Destiny
by Alan Zelenetz (story) and John Bolton (art)
Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 32, August 1982

August, 1982. On MTV, the latest video from Eddie Money, 'I Think I'm In Love', is in heavy rotation.

The latest issue of Bizarre Adventures has been on the stands for a month. The magazine is on its last legs; more and more of its content consists of mediocre comics, probably a reflection of the fatigue of editor Dennis O'Neil. 

Issue 32 is advertised as a 'God' issue that focuses its attention on the phenomenon of deities. Most of the strips in this issue ('Demon's Bridge', 'What Fools These Gods Shall Be', 'The Streak') are cartoony works of low quality.

Bizarre Adventures will fold with issue 34,but there still are some memorable stories within its pages, and for issue 32, 'Sea of Destiny' certainly qualifies as memorable. It features Thor, and some outstanding graytone artwork by the British artist John Bolton. It's one of the best stories ever to appear in a Marvel / Curtis magazine. I've posted it in its entirety below.