Star Trek and Barsoom

The Saint and I actually had a "date" last night, with no children in sight. I drug her (only mildly kicking and screaming) to the local Barnes and Noble for a coffee and sandwich before we went to see the new Star Trek movie. I really enjoyed the movie, it was fun and full of action and had just the right balance of Star Trek old school links and allusions while throwing in enough new stuff for the series to "re-boot" as it were. I'd probably give it a 3.5 or even a 4 out of 5 stars if pressed to be a film critic, but I'm notoriously easy to please when it comes to movies. The quote “For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.” seems particularly apt here, but I'm posting not so much to review the movie, but to point out that I saw some definite Pulp archetypes and themes in the movie, more so that I would have expected (long time Trekkies may not have been so surprised, but I don't consider myself any kind of expert in the ST universe).

The most Pulpish part of the movie to me was the sword fight on top of the platform high above Vulcan. I flashed back to Burroughs' Barsoom books during the scene, mentally substituting John Carter or Ulysses Paxton for Sulu or Kirk in this well done scene. Of course one could also make a reference to the early fight scene above the sand worm in "Return of the Jeddi" but since there's a link between Star Wars and Leigh Brackett back to Burroughs, I think the original master deserves the credit here.

At any rate, I thought the movie was good fun, and I recommend it, but afterwards I say go out and read some Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian books...

Thank You, Jeeves

Thank You, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is first Jeeves and Bertie Wooster novel Wodehouse wrote and was published in 1934. Previously Jeeves appeared only in various short stories. It's a usual mix of humor and mix up and has lots of characters from the stories make a re-appearance, such as Roderick Glossup (a psychiatrist who Bertie often describes as a "looney Doctor") along with beautiful and head strong Pauline Stoker (one of Bertie's numerous former fiancees) and her equally strong willed father, who of course doesn't think much of Bertie.

The crux of the story is that Bertie and Jeeves part ways due to Bertie's latest musical addiction, banjo playing. Jeeves ends up in the employ of Bertie's old classmate Chuffy, while Bertie ends up in a summer cottage on Chuffy's estate, along with his new valet, who is definitely not anything like Jeeves. Before the end, Bertie will be shanghied, engaged against his will, and forced to pretend to be part of a minstrel troupe.

An enjoyable story, the only jarring note being the usage of racist terms to describe the mostly off stage minstrel troupe. I realize that the book was in some ways a product of it's time, but hearing Wooster use the "n word" even a couple of times was too much for my modern sensibilities. I gave the book a 4 instead of my usual Wodehouse 5, other works of PGW's are just as humorous and don't have the racist terms.

Still, if you are a Jeeves and Wooster fan, you need to read this one, as several characters make their appearance again in later novels.


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March, 2009 Reading

The year 2009 seems to be going by like a rocket (the Ray Bradbury or Star Wars or Star Trek kind that cover distances faster than light)...maybe I've fallen into a worm hole and just come out in mid March, 2009. Certainly seems that way lately.

Through a tiny bit of personal and professional "interesting" times, and also while fighting off a deep addiction to Facebook in general and the Facebook Zynga games such as Football and Mafia Wars in particular, I've still managed to read quite a bit of late. Much thanks to my dear friends at my local Barnes and Noble for allowing me and various family members to haunt the premises and spend way too much money on large numbers of books. I keep telling myself that I'm doing my part to "stimulate" the economy...

A quick list of books read, all or in part, in no particular order, since the fall of 2008:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

The Code of the Woosters, by P. G. Wodehouse

Flashman at the Charge, by George MacDonald Fraser

Lonely Werewolf Girl, by Martin Millar

Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me, by Martin Millar

The Age of Reagan: A History 1974 - 2008, by Sean Wilentz

Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters

Jeeves and the Tie that Binds, by P. G. Wodehouse

The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger

The Secret of Sinharat, by Leigh Brackett

I'm presently finishing up an estimated 5th or 6th time rereading of Flashman at the Charge ( I shamelessly admit I love Flashman) and a similarly upteenth rereading of "How Right You Are Jeeves" by P. G. Wodehouse ( I freely admit to love for Jeeves and his employer Bertie Wooster as well). Along with those I'm reading Fritz Leiber's novel about his fantasy heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, "The Swords of Lankhmar" for my Goodreads Group Pulp Magazine Authors and Literature Fans, which is also a Facebook group. Join us if you're so inclined. For March, 2009 we're reading Leiber's great novel of how the tall and short heroes (or anti-heroes) battle the rats of Lankhmar...

After discussing that novel and reviewing the current reads I'm planning of tackling The Complete Stories, by Flannery O'Connor along with The Dead Father's Club, by Matt Haig. I have no idea when I'll be able to get around to all the political biography and history I have waiting on the shelf, such as Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America by Adam Cohen or those books that friends have recommended such as Christopher Moore's "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" (thanks Jennifer and Michelle) or "The Shack" by William P. Young (thanks Joy, Ms. Etienne and Carri) but I'll post reviews as soon as possible.

Best to everyone, over and out for the time being...

Review of Tarzan Triumphant (Tarzan # 15)

Tarzan Triumphant by Edgar Rice Burroughs

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
First loves are always remembered. This was the first Edgar Rice Burroughs book I ever read, and I still find it enjoyable. Not the best Burroughs or the best of the Tarzan series, it still is a fast moving adventure, with some likeable characters and a very interesting lost civilization. If possible, find a copy of the Ace paperback with the classic Roy Krenkel cover, as I think it's one of the best artist renditions of Tarzan ever.

Anyone looking for deeper levels beyond just a great adventure story can find out a lot about Burroughs feelings regarding organized religion and the Soviet Union by reading this book as well (hint: he wasn't a fan of either).

I highly recommend this book.

Note: Strangely enough, this was the first Tarzan book (and Edgar Rice Burroughs book) I ever read. I say strangely because I bought both Tarzan of the Apes (the first novel in the Tarzan series) and Tarzan Triumphant on the same night. Why I read the 15th novel in the series first instead of the 1st novel is anybody's guess, but I was always a contrarian.




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Review of Land of Ice, A Velvet Knife - Wm. Michael Mott's sequel to Pulsifer: A Fable

If possible, this sequel to "Pulsifer: A Fable" is an even better story. Rogue Pulsifer scams even when he would do better not to, blunders sometimes, outwits his foes at other times, fights heroically when he has to, runs away when he can. The only thing he is never guilty of is being boring. Author Wm. Michael Mott has created a great character, and set him in a finely realized imaginary world that I found just as interesting as Jack Vance's Dying Earth or Clark Ashton Smith's Hyperborea and Zothique, all of which Temudoth somewhat resembles, but Mott interjects much that is original. I consider these Pulsifer books among the best fantasies I've read this year, keeping company with works by Neil Gaiman, Charles R. Saunders, and Manly Wade Wellman. I recommend them to any one who likes the fantasy genre, but a warning, Pulsifer grows on you, but he is by no means a hero or even likeable, he is totally into whatever he can do for himself, even at the expense of others, but his adventures are too interesting to stop reading (at least, they were for me). 5 Stars easily.

Review of Karl Edward Wagner edited anthology "Echoes of Valor III"

Here's a review I've posted on GoodReads.com of the fantasy anthology Echoes of Valor III, edited by the late Karl Edward Wagner and published back in 1991. EOV III is still worth having for any serious fan of fantasy, especially heroic fantasy or "sword and sorcery" as some call it, as well as any student of the Pulp Magazine Era authors:


Echoes of Valor III by Karl Edward Wagner

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
The late Karl Edward Wagner edited three Echoes of Valor anthologies for TOR fantasy books. Volume III was published in 1991 and unfortunately was the last in the series. All three of the EOV books are worth seeking out and purchasing if you are a serious fan of fantasy, especially of the heroic or "sword and sorcery" variety.

This volume contains stories by Robert E. Howard, Henry Kuttner, Manly Wade Wellman, Jack Williamson, and the little known Weird Tales Magazine great Nictzin Dyalhis. While all but the Dyalhis stories have recently been reprinted in collections of these authors works, this book is still highly valuable just for Karl Edward Wagner's editorial comments and introductions to each author alone. Wagner, in addition to being one of the all time great American fantasists and horror writers of the 20th century, was also a very erudite fan of the fantasy, horror and pulp writers who came before him. Volume III contains information on Wellman and Dyalhis especially that I have never seen printed anywhere else. For this reason alone the book should be recommended, however in addition, all of the stories chosen are excellent (something that can't always be said about these types of anthologies).

The stories represent the authors chosen at some of their best. The Howard tale is the introduction of the real "Red Sonya", not to be confused with the Marvel Comics chain mail bikini clad version "Red Sonja". The two Kuttner stories feature his fantasy hero Prince Raynor, whose adventures take place in a prehistoric empire in Asia. Manly Wade Wellman's story is one of my favorites, wherein his Cro-Magnon era hero Hok "the Mighty" visits Wellman's take on Atlantis. Possibly the best story in the book is Jack Williamson's story "Wolves of Darkness" and the book winds up with two rousing stories by the obscure Dyalhis.

I give this book a well deserved 5 stars.


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Review of Pulsifer: A Fable, by Wm. Michael Mott

This is a really good read. The main character is a "rogue" in the model of other literary rogues such as Jack Vance's Cugel the Clever and George Macdonald Fraser's Harry Flashman. Many of his adventures and misadventures are the result of his own machinations. Despite this, I found myself caught up in the story and actually caring about what Pulsifer did or what happened to him, which to me is the mark of a good storyteller.
The fantasy world in which the action takes place is a continent surrounded and threatened by encroaching ice, where magic works, and science has been forgotten. The story is reminiscent of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique and Jack Vance's The Dying Earth series, high class company indeed, but Mott pulls the whole thing off with his own imagination. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys fantasy and adventure.

Best Books I've Read (or maybe re-read) in 2008

This has been a really good year for me for discovering new authors, especially in the areas of fantasy and pulp magazine type fiction. I started the year out by reading Imaro and later Imaro 2: The Quest for Cush, both by Charles R. Saunders. These two novels chronicle the adventures of the eponymous hero in an ancient alternate Africa. At the same time I was reading Imaro's coming of age adventures, I was perusing a copy of pulp era author Manly Wade Wellman's Hok the Mighty, another eponymously named collection, this time about a Cro-Magnon hero of the Stone Age, whom Wellman posited as the basis for many of the Hercules legends. Reading the two of these authors and their take on their heroes was an interesting study in contrasts and I highly recommend both to anyone who likes adventure with a little touch of fantasy thrown in.

I was aware of both of these authors before 2008 and had read a few short stories by each, but Paul Malmont, author of The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, was totally unknown to me until I came across his book while browsing my local Barnes and Noble. His book was one of the most exciting I've read in years, and I recommend it to just about anyone who loves to read, regardless of genre preferences. His protagonists and characters are fictionalized versions of real pulp authors of the 1930's, several of whose names will ring a bell even for those readers who aren't big fans of pulp magazine era fiction, but you don't have to be a pulp fiction fan to enjoy this wonderful book. Malmont has a new book coming out on Jack London (a historical fiction novel in the same vein as TCDCP) and I'm planning on being one of the first to buy a copy when it comes out.

Anyone who has ever seen my bookshelves knows that two of my favorite authors are Robert E. Howard and Jack Vance. Author (and internet correspondent and friend I happily disclose) Wm. Michael Mott has taken some of the best elements of each writer and added some highly creative touches of his own to pen two of the best fantasies I've read in decades in his Pulsifer: A Fable and Land of Ice, A Velvet Knife. In their own way both these novels set in a vividly realized fantasy world are just as memorable and good as some of the masterpieces written by Vance in his "Dying Earth" series. I consider these two novels tied for the best fiction I read so far this year, along with Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Anansi Boys, and I don't say that without serious thought. I'd really love to see what Mott could do if he were able to write full time.

As for the aforementioned Gaiman, I admit that I foolishly ignored people telling me I should read him for years, only just picking up American Gods this year. I was blown away, and quickly followed that worthy book with Anansi Boys, Coraline, Stardust, and am planning on starting the Sandman series of graphic novels next, along with his short story collections. I'm now officially a Gaiman convert, and eagerly await his next works.