Book 48: HUNT THROUGH NAPOLEON'S WEB by Gabriel Hunt and Raymond Benson, isbn 9780843962574, 320 pages, Dorchester Publishing, $14.00
The Premise: In the sixth, and possibly final, adventure of relic-hunter, and modern-day Indiana Jones, Gabriel Hunt finds himself on a quest to rescue his estranged younger sister, who has been kidnapped by a secret society intent on returning the ancient Egyptian treasures stolen by Napoleon and his men centuries ago. Of course, things are not quite as they seem, and there's the possibility Napoleon had secreted away another Rosetta Stone. Will Gabriel rescue his sister and find an artifact that might already have changed the course of history once?
My Rating: 4 stars
My Thoughts: If this really is the last hurrah for Gabriel Hunt, he goes out in fine form thanks to Raymond Benson. As with the preceding five Hunt books, HUNT THROUGH NAPOLEON'S WEB starts out in a rush (Gabriel and a cohort in the midst of a spelunking accident) and gets faster from there. Oh, there are a few quiet moments mid-book, but like the best pulpy thrillers (both old and new)the quiet doesn't last long.
Benson's story balances the "hunting for clues" and "high adrenaline adventure" aspects pretty well, driving home the point I've made with each book: that Gabriel Hunt really is a modern Indiana Jones, albeit one with a more familial support system than Indy had in the original three movies. Of course Gabriel gets a woman, no surprise there. The least suspenseful part of the book is the "how will they end up in bed" question -- it's become such a predictable part of the books that I don't even worry my little head about it beforehand, unless there's more than one potential bedmate in the book (and in this case, there's not). Benson also provides we faithful readers of the series with a moment we've been waiting for through several books now, and it is a satisfying one.
On the downside, if this is the last Hunt book, there's at least one series-long mystery that has not been resolved and that left me a little frustrated. The background mystery of what happened to the Hunt parents when they disappeared from that cruise ship a decade ago is an intriguing one, but it's also one I'd hate to see go unresolved forever. Hopefully, publisher Charles Ardai can convince someone to bring out at least one more Gabriel Hunt book. And if Raymond Benson writes it, I'm okay with that too. (Benson, or Christa Faust, or Ardai himself -- they've provided I think my three favorite installments of the six, not that I've been disappointed in any of them.)
Book 49: AFTERTHOUGHTS by Lawrence Block, isbn 9780843962574, 320 pages, Dorchester Publishing, $14.00
The Premise: A lot of Lawrence Block's early work has been reissued recently in e-book format, and Block has written new afterwords (and in some cases forewords) to explain a bit about how the books were written. All of those pieces are collected in AFTERTHOUGHTS.
My Rating: 5 stars
My Thoughts: Every time in the past month that I told people I was reading a book collecting Lawrence Block's afterwords (and some introductions) from various ebooks, I got the same response: a somewhat quizzical raising of the eyebrows and a vague "oohhh" sound that indicated I had perhaps lost my mind, because how interesting could a bunch of afterwords be, anyway?
Very interesting is the answer.
Block is a master storyteller not matter what form or format he's working in. These essays (and that's what they are) are the next best thing to a full-on memoir. In them, he relates how each book he discusses came to be written but he also manages to tell the highlights of his life story and of course share some anecdotes about his writer friends.
What makes the book interesting is that each afterword was originally written and published separately. And so what we get when we take them as a whole is various angles on the same set of life experiences. In some hands, that could just feel repetitive. But Block doesn't tell the story the same way twice even as he manages to keep all the details consistent. By the sixth or seventh (I didn't bother actually counting) retelling of his time working the slush pile for the Scott Meredith Agency, I felt like I was hanging at the bar with an old friend listening to a story I knew the ending to but couldn't wait to hear anyway.
If you want a glimpse into what the "paperback originals" market was like for writers in the 60s and 70s, as well as a look at why someone would choose to write under multiple pseudonyms long past the time where he'd need to, read AFTERTHOUGHTS. If you want an overview of a writing life, read AFTERTHOUGHTS. If you want to get to know Lawrence Block better, but despair of ever meeting him in person, read AFTERTHOUGHTS. If you want to laugh while you glean some advice on writing, read AFTERTHOUGHTS.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go read AFTERTHOUGHTS already!
Showing posts with label wold newton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wold newton. Show all posts
Friday, September 9, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Review of Three Madmen & more
Earlier this week, I read and reviewed Titan Books' reissue of Philip Jose Farmer's short novel THE PEERLESS PEER, in which Sherlock Holmes and John Watson encounter John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, a.k.a. Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. That led me to reading a small group of related stories written by diverse authors over a long span of time. Starting with:
89. His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from the Sherlock Holmes collection His Last Bow. I've been trying to read the Holmes stories in order, so who knows when I would have actually hit this story in the proper sequence (2013, anyone?) but the lead protagonist of Farmer's novel is the bad-guy from this story in which Holmes "finally" "officially" retires. The story is notable as one of the few that Watson does not narrate. I actually found that this built the tension surrounding WW1 German super-spy Von Bork -- which of the people surrounding the spy is actually Holmes, that master of disguise? Is it the Ambassador? The housekeeper? The informant? I felt like Doyle really kept me guessing and Holmes revealing himself was the high point of the story. Von Bork is no Moriarty in the minds of Holmes fans, but he's still portrayed as an effective foil for Holmes. I'd like to see a real matching of wits between them.
90. The Adventure of the Three Madmen by Philip Jose Farmer, from The Grand Adventure. When Farmer initially wrote The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, it was a limited edition hardcover, and the Burroughs estate approved of the use of Tarzan. But when Dell released a mass market paperback version a short time later, the Burroughs estate rescinded their approval and told Farmer the story could not be reprinted until the Tarzan copyright expired in 1999... which also precluded Farmer including the story in his "best of" anthology The Grand Adventure in 1984. Rather than write a brand-new novella, Farmer simply reworked "Peer" into "Madmen," replacing Tarzan with another "jungle lord" -- Mowgli, now all grown up and a member of the British peerage himself. The rework works surprisingly well. Most of the text is the same down to key bits of dialogue, but there are differences (Tarzan arrow-skewers a cobra about to attack Holmes; Mowgli talks the snake into leaving Holmes alone, to name one example). Regardless of which Jungle Lord features, the story still moves along at that brisk pulp-adventure pace Farmer loves. One thing I did notice here even more so than in the Tarzan version: Holmes' behavior is quite erractic, and his transition from "I believe the man is a fraud" to "I believe he is entitled to his title" is a bit too abrupt. Those tend to be my only complaints in this fun story.
91. Jungle Brothers, or Secrets of the Jungle Lords by Dennis E. Power, from Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold-Newton Universe. Reading "Peer" and "Madmen" back to back reminded me of this excellent essay reconciling the two versions and giving valid logic for how both could have happened simultaneously. Power picks out the hints in both manuscripts and puts the pieces together: Watson, at the behest of Tarzan and Mowgli, wrote two versions of the story in order to muddy the waters for anyone trying to track down or connect them. I'm actually a bit surprised, knowing that Titan Books will soon be issuing new Holmes novels under the previously reprint-only "Further Adventures" banner, that they didn't ask Power and Win Scott Eckert to combine the narratives as Power suggests in this essay. I also like Power's closing thoughts about the existence of a "southeast Asian Wold-Newton family" resulting from a different meteor strike.
92. After Kong Fell by Philip Jose Farmer, from The Grand Adventure. While I was rereading "Three Madmen," I thought it was high time to reread Farmer's neat little tale about a grandfather reminiscing about the primal experience of his childhood: seeing Kong escape from the theater, rampage across Manhattan, and eventually fall from the Empire State Building. In typical Farmer/Wold-Newton fashion, there are cameos by The Shadow and the ESB's most famous resident, Doc Savage. This is a wistful, nostalgic tale built out of watching reruns of the original King Kong movie on local NY television in the 70s and 80s (back when Channels 5, 9 & 11 were WNEW, WWOR and WPIX and unaffiliated with any major national network. Yes, kids, this was before FOX and The CW!)
Bonus Content! Here's a photo of these interconnected books:
89. His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from the Sherlock Holmes collection His Last Bow. I've been trying to read the Holmes stories in order, so who knows when I would have actually hit this story in the proper sequence (2013, anyone?) but the lead protagonist of Farmer's novel is the bad-guy from this story in which Holmes "finally" "officially" retires. The story is notable as one of the few that Watson does not narrate. I actually found that this built the tension surrounding WW1 German super-spy Von Bork -- which of the people surrounding the spy is actually Holmes, that master of disguise? Is it the Ambassador? The housekeeper? The informant? I felt like Doyle really kept me guessing and Holmes revealing himself was the high point of the story. Von Bork is no Moriarty in the minds of Holmes fans, but he's still portrayed as an effective foil for Holmes. I'd like to see a real matching of wits between them.
90. The Adventure of the Three Madmen by Philip Jose Farmer, from The Grand Adventure. When Farmer initially wrote The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, it was a limited edition hardcover, and the Burroughs estate approved of the use of Tarzan. But when Dell released a mass market paperback version a short time later, the Burroughs estate rescinded their approval and told Farmer the story could not be reprinted until the Tarzan copyright expired in 1999... which also precluded Farmer including the story in his "best of" anthology The Grand Adventure in 1984. Rather than write a brand-new novella, Farmer simply reworked "Peer" into "Madmen," replacing Tarzan with another "jungle lord" -- Mowgli, now all grown up and a member of the British peerage himself. The rework works surprisingly well. Most of the text is the same down to key bits of dialogue, but there are differences (Tarzan arrow-skewers a cobra about to attack Holmes; Mowgli talks the snake into leaving Holmes alone, to name one example). Regardless of which Jungle Lord features, the story still moves along at that brisk pulp-adventure pace Farmer loves. One thing I did notice here even more so than in the Tarzan version: Holmes' behavior is quite erractic, and his transition from "I believe the man is a fraud" to "I believe he is entitled to his title" is a bit too abrupt. Those tend to be my only complaints in this fun story.
91. Jungle Brothers, or Secrets of the Jungle Lords by Dennis E. Power, from Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold-Newton Universe. Reading "Peer" and "Madmen" back to back reminded me of this excellent essay reconciling the two versions and giving valid logic for how both could have happened simultaneously. Power picks out the hints in both manuscripts and puts the pieces together: Watson, at the behest of Tarzan and Mowgli, wrote two versions of the story in order to muddy the waters for anyone trying to track down or connect them. I'm actually a bit surprised, knowing that Titan Books will soon be issuing new Holmes novels under the previously reprint-only "Further Adventures" banner, that they didn't ask Power and Win Scott Eckert to combine the narratives as Power suggests in this essay. I also like Power's closing thoughts about the existence of a "southeast Asian Wold-Newton family" resulting from a different meteor strike.
92. After Kong Fell by Philip Jose Farmer, from The Grand Adventure. While I was rereading "Three Madmen," I thought it was high time to reread Farmer's neat little tale about a grandfather reminiscing about the primal experience of his childhood: seeing Kong escape from the theater, rampage across Manhattan, and eventually fall from the Empire State Building. In typical Farmer/Wold-Newton fashion, there are cameos by The Shadow and the ESB's most famous resident, Doc Savage. This is a wistful, nostalgic tale built out of watching reruns of the original King Kong movie on local NY television in the 70s and 80s (back when Channels 5, 9 & 11 were WNEW, WWOR and WPIX and unaffiliated with any major national network. Yes, kids, this was before FOX and The CW!)
Bonus Content! Here's a photo of these interconnected books:
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Review of The Peerless Peer
Book 40: The Peerless Peer (The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes #13) by Philip Jose Farmer, isbn 9780859681201, 139 pages, Titan Books, $9.99
(Original 1974 paperback publication: The Adventure of the Peerless Peer by Philip Jose Farmer, 128 pages, Dell, $1.25)
The Premise: (from the back cover): "Sherlock Holmes and Watson take to the skies in quest of the nefarious Von Bork and his weapon of dread... A night sky aerial engagement with the deadly Fokker nearly claims three brilliant lives... And an historic alliance is formed, whereby Baker Street's enigmatic mystery-solver and Greystoke, the noble savage, peer of the realm and jungle lord, team up to bring down the hellish hun!" The Titan Books edition also included an afterword on the "Wold-Newton" concept by Win Scott Eckert, and a preview of Kim Newman's Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Ubervilles.
My Rating: 4stars
My Thoughts: From the beginning of Titan Books' series of reissues of classic Holmes pastiches and crossovers, I'd been wondering if they would manage to secure the rights to finally reprint Farmer's 1974 classic teaming Holmes and Tarzan. Granted, the original story penned by Farmer is relatively slim at 128 pages. As compared to most of Titans' reissues it's more novella than novel. Still, it's good to see the story back in print in a widely-available format that doesn't require fans to scour used bookstores or pick up pricier limited edition anthologies from specialty presses.
For fans of Farmer and his "Wold Newton" concept, this book is pure gold. Any Wold-Newton-connected story, whether by Farmer or Win Eckert or anyone else, is a treasure-hunt: how many casual references to other fictional characters can you find? As expected from the man who built the original Wold-Newton Family Tree, Farmer drops plenty of names in these pages. He also carefully closes the connection between Holmes and Greystoke that he first outlined in his Tarzan Alive: that Holmes' "Adventure of the Priory School" involves the Greystokes, with Watson changing the family's name to Holdernesse in the published version to protect the family name and prevent public scandal.
For fans of fast-moving pulp fiction, the book is pure gold as well. Even when the main characters are completely at rest (for instance, during long hours of air travel), the book still zips along. There are no long drawn-out descriptive passages (except, curiously, when Watson is describing the aircraft they are riding in). Holmes' mission is to stop Von Bork; the encounter with Tarzan only helps move that mission along. There aren't any secondary stories or side-trips; the longest lull in the action is the short breather towards the end where the Holmes-Tarzan connection is spelled out by the Great Detective.
As far as the "extras" in this edition go: Win Scott Eckert is perhaps THE torch-bearer for the Wold-Newton concept now that Farmer has passed away; along with folks like Christopher Paul Carey, Eckert has been completing unfinished Farmer novels and writing stories that fill in "missing pieces" of the Wold-Newton family tree. Eckert's essay "puts the pieces together" for those who are not as well-versed in the published careers of Tarzan and Holmes, explaining most of Farmer's off-hand references to other characters and clarifying things like "the succession of ducal titles" that is so important to the Greystoke/"Holdernesse" line of succession. Eckert also explains the connection between PEER and "The Adventure of the Three Madmen," and nods to Dennis E. Powers' great essay reconciling the two stories. For anyone interested in knowing more about Wold-Newton scholarship, Eckert's Afterword to PEER is a great place to start.
My only regret is that Titan didn't include "Three Madmen" in this volume. Rounding out the book with Farmer's alternate take on the story, and Powers' essay, would really have made it a complete package.
So there you have it: a rollickin' good adventure that doesn't take very long to read, and a great essay to follow it up? What's not to love?
(Original 1974 paperback publication: The Adventure of the Peerless Peer by Philip Jose Farmer, 128 pages, Dell, $1.25)
The Premise: (from the back cover): "Sherlock Holmes and Watson take to the skies in quest of the nefarious Von Bork and his weapon of dread... A night sky aerial engagement with the deadly Fokker nearly claims three brilliant lives... And an historic alliance is formed, whereby Baker Street's enigmatic mystery-solver and Greystoke, the noble savage, peer of the realm and jungle lord, team up to bring down the hellish hun!" The Titan Books edition also included an afterword on the "Wold-Newton" concept by Win Scott Eckert, and a preview of Kim Newman's Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Ubervilles.
My Rating: 4stars
My Thoughts: From the beginning of Titan Books' series of reissues of classic Holmes pastiches and crossovers, I'd been wondering if they would manage to secure the rights to finally reprint Farmer's 1974 classic teaming Holmes and Tarzan. Granted, the original story penned by Farmer is relatively slim at 128 pages. As compared to most of Titans' reissues it's more novella than novel. Still, it's good to see the story back in print in a widely-available format that doesn't require fans to scour used bookstores or pick up pricier limited edition anthologies from specialty presses.
For fans of Farmer and his "Wold Newton" concept, this book is pure gold. Any Wold-Newton-connected story, whether by Farmer or Win Eckert or anyone else, is a treasure-hunt: how many casual references to other fictional characters can you find? As expected from the man who built the original Wold-Newton Family Tree, Farmer drops plenty of names in these pages. He also carefully closes the connection between Holmes and Greystoke that he first outlined in his Tarzan Alive: that Holmes' "Adventure of the Priory School" involves the Greystokes, with Watson changing the family's name to Holdernesse in the published version to protect the family name and prevent public scandal.
For fans of fast-moving pulp fiction, the book is pure gold as well. Even when the main characters are completely at rest (for instance, during long hours of air travel), the book still zips along. There are no long drawn-out descriptive passages (except, curiously, when Watson is describing the aircraft they are riding in). Holmes' mission is to stop Von Bork; the encounter with Tarzan only helps move that mission along. There aren't any secondary stories or side-trips; the longest lull in the action is the short breather towards the end where the Holmes-Tarzan connection is spelled out by the Great Detective.
As far as the "extras" in this edition go: Win Scott Eckert is perhaps THE torch-bearer for the Wold-Newton concept now that Farmer has passed away; along with folks like Christopher Paul Carey, Eckert has been completing unfinished Farmer novels and writing stories that fill in "missing pieces" of the Wold-Newton family tree. Eckert's essay "puts the pieces together" for those who are not as well-versed in the published careers of Tarzan and Holmes, explaining most of Farmer's off-hand references to other characters and clarifying things like "the succession of ducal titles" that is so important to the Greystoke/"Holdernesse" line of succession. Eckert also explains the connection between PEER and "The Adventure of the Three Madmen," and nods to Dennis E. Powers' great essay reconciling the two stories. For anyone interested in knowing more about Wold-Newton scholarship, Eckert's Afterword to PEER is a great place to start.
My only regret is that Titan didn't include "Three Madmen" in this volume. Rounding out the book with Farmer's alternate take on the story, and Powers' essay, would really have made it a complete package.
So there you have it: a rollickin' good adventure that doesn't take very long to read, and a great essay to follow it up? What's not to love?
Friday, June 24, 2011
Review of Challengers of the Unknown
Book 37: Challengers of the Unknown by Ron Goulart, isbn 9780440113377, 155 pages, Dell, $1.50 (1977 cover price)
The Premise: (from the back cover) Deep in the South American jungle, a real and sinister menace lurks in the shadows of the supernatural... In a remote lake, a legendary monster, incredibly vicious, surfaces after a sleep of centuries. Acting to protect its oil stake, the U.S. Government calls in... The Challengers! Men with young faces and old memories move mysteriously in the area, speak in low tones about the capital city. The country's president alerts... The Challengers! A dying man names a desert fort, many miles away... bizarre mechanisms keep the curious away... Unseen enemies... Strange accidents... Strong-arm assailants... A hair-raising test of the celebrated ingenuity of the Challengers of the Unknown."
My Rating: 3 stars
My Thoughts: Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for pulp adventure, and just about any pulp adventure I read is going to end up with around 3 stars: they're not always great literature, but rarely are they disappointing either.
Anyone who knows me knows I also have a soft spot for secondary (and tertiary) DC comics characters like the Challengers of the Unknown. I loved collecting the out-of-print original run of comics from the 60s, I loved the revival in the late 70s. I remember reading this novel (the only one written featuring the Challs) back in high school. I lost that copy, but found another not long ago in a Half-Price Books somewhere (probably Pittsburgh, but might have been Dallas).
Sadly, I cannot say it was as good as my teenage self thought it was. But it was still a rollickin' good pulp adventure.
What I didn't like about the book can be summed up with two words: Characterization. Dialogue. Aside from Ace Morgan and Red Ryan, the Challs feel "off" somehow. Prof. Haley in this version is a rabid womanizer, sort of a brainiac young Hugh Hefner. Rocky Davis is a wrestler rather than a boxer (I seem to recall in the comics he was ret-conned to have been trained by the great Ted Grant), a health-food nut (that I can accept). June Robbins comes across far ditzier than she should (and if it's meant to be an act for her reporter cover story, that's never stated in the book). And the dialogue -- I'm not saying the Challs have to have stereotypical speech patterns that fit their roles (Ace as gruff ex-AF, Red shouting "hey rube," Prof sounding like a thesaurus, Rocky sounding addled from too many blows to the head), but they should at least sound consistent throughout the book. There were points where I was jarred out of the book because something Rocky said was written in Prof's style, etc. Ron Goulart is a good writer with a strong sense of pulp history -- I was disappointed that he seemed to drop the ball on dialogue.
Now, for what I did like: pretty much everything else. The plot is classic pulp adventure: Challs get sent to South America to deal with a supernatural menace and end up encountering a human menace that is as bad or worse. Straight-forward action segues into trippy 70s supernaturalness with just a dollop of Lovecraftian mythos. The Challs, like their peer Doc Savage, overcome sometimes ridiculous odds to beat both menaces. Extra bonus: Wold-Newton Universe fans don't have to dig very far to make connections to Farmer's works and world.
Three stars for pulpy goodness -- grab this for a light, fun read (I read it on one short plane flight). Maybe someday someone will write more Challs novels with these original five characters. If any secondary DC characters could carry a tv series (SyFy at least, preferably HBO) or movie series, it'd be the Challs.
The Premise: (from the back cover) Deep in the South American jungle, a real and sinister menace lurks in the shadows of the supernatural... In a remote lake, a legendary monster, incredibly vicious, surfaces after a sleep of centuries. Acting to protect its oil stake, the U.S. Government calls in... The Challengers! Men with young faces and old memories move mysteriously in the area, speak in low tones about the capital city. The country's president alerts... The Challengers! A dying man names a desert fort, many miles away... bizarre mechanisms keep the curious away... Unseen enemies... Strange accidents... Strong-arm assailants... A hair-raising test of the celebrated ingenuity of the Challengers of the Unknown."
My Rating: 3 stars
My Thoughts: Anyone who knows me knows I have a soft spot for pulp adventure, and just about any pulp adventure I read is going to end up with around 3 stars: they're not always great literature, but rarely are they disappointing either.
Anyone who knows me knows I also have a soft spot for secondary (and tertiary) DC comics characters like the Challengers of the Unknown. I loved collecting the out-of-print original run of comics from the 60s, I loved the revival in the late 70s. I remember reading this novel (the only one written featuring the Challs) back in high school. I lost that copy, but found another not long ago in a Half-Price Books somewhere (probably Pittsburgh, but might have been Dallas).
Sadly, I cannot say it was as good as my teenage self thought it was. But it was still a rollickin' good pulp adventure.
What I didn't like about the book can be summed up with two words: Characterization. Dialogue. Aside from Ace Morgan and Red Ryan, the Challs feel "off" somehow. Prof. Haley in this version is a rabid womanizer, sort of a brainiac young Hugh Hefner. Rocky Davis is a wrestler rather than a boxer (I seem to recall in the comics he was ret-conned to have been trained by the great Ted Grant), a health-food nut (that I can accept). June Robbins comes across far ditzier than she should (and if it's meant to be an act for her reporter cover story, that's never stated in the book). And the dialogue -- I'm not saying the Challs have to have stereotypical speech patterns that fit their roles (Ace as gruff ex-AF, Red shouting "hey rube," Prof sounding like a thesaurus, Rocky sounding addled from too many blows to the head), but they should at least sound consistent throughout the book. There were points where I was jarred out of the book because something Rocky said was written in Prof's style, etc. Ron Goulart is a good writer with a strong sense of pulp history -- I was disappointed that he seemed to drop the ball on dialogue.
Now, for what I did like: pretty much everything else. The plot is classic pulp adventure: Challs get sent to South America to deal with a supernatural menace and end up encountering a human menace that is as bad or worse. Straight-forward action segues into trippy 70s supernaturalness with just a dollop of Lovecraftian mythos. The Challs, like their peer Doc Savage, overcome sometimes ridiculous odds to beat both menaces. Extra bonus: Wold-Newton Universe fans don't have to dig very far to make connections to Farmer's works and world.
Three stars for pulpy goodness -- grab this for a light, fun read (I read it on one short plane flight). Maybe someday someone will write more Challs novels with these original five characters. If any secondary DC characters could carry a tv series (SyFy at least, preferably HBO) or movie series, it'd be the Challs.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Review of Terror in the Navy
Book 28: Doc Savage: The Terror in the Navy by Kenneth Robeson, 122 pages, Bantam, .50 cent cover price (picked up at a used bookstore for $1)
The Premise: A mysterious force appears to be pulling US Navy vessels into reefs to wreck, as well as pulling planes out of the sky and smaller boats under water. Doc Savage gets wind of the situation and investigates, alongside his usual 5-man team and cousin Pat.
My Rating: 2 stars
My Thoughts: The cover says this is the 33rd of Doc's adventures, reprinting in paperback from from its original pulp magazine publication in the 1937. It contains all the classic pulp elements, but I can't say it's the most exciting Doc Savage adventure I've ever read. I enjoyed the banter between Monk and Ham, as usual. And the banter, such as it was, between Doc and his cousin Pat is also fun: Pat wants to be in on the action, but Doc doesn't want his female cousin in danger at all. She finds a way to be involved anyway, of course. The author drops the usual batch of red-herrings to make it seem like different characters are actually behind the goings-on, although it's fairly obvious early on who is actually in charge. A fun, breezy read and not one that requires a lot of deep thought.
The Premise: A mysterious force appears to be pulling US Navy vessels into reefs to wreck, as well as pulling planes out of the sky and smaller boats under water. Doc Savage gets wind of the situation and investigates, alongside his usual 5-man team and cousin Pat.
My Rating: 2 stars
My Thoughts: The cover says this is the 33rd of Doc's adventures, reprinting in paperback from from its original pulp magazine publication in the 1937. It contains all the classic pulp elements, but I can't say it's the most exciting Doc Savage adventure I've ever read. I enjoyed the banter between Monk and Ham, as usual. And the banter, such as it was, between Doc and his cousin Pat is also fun: Pat wants to be in on the action, but Doc doesn't want his female cousin in danger at all. She finds a way to be involved anyway, of course. The author drops the usual batch of red-herrings to make it seem like different characters are actually behind the goings-on, although it's fairly obvious early on who is actually in charge. A fun, breezy read and not one that requires a lot of deep thought.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Advs of Holmes
Book 45: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, contained in The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume 1, isbn 9781593080341, 265 pages, Barnes And Noble Classics, $7.95
I decided not long ago that I really needed to go back and read some (or all) of Doyle's original Holmes work, to be able to more capably judge how the stories by more recent writers stack up to those of Holmes' creator. Since there seem to be new Holmes short stories in every issue of The Strand magazine and in just about every period mystery anthology, I decided to skip rereading A Study In Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, the first two Holmes novels, and proceed to the first short story collection.
Of course, I've reviewed all of the individual stories over on the![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
365shortstories community. If you want my individual thoughts (with pretty much no spoilers), you can check that out.
Overall, the collection really brings out certain facets of Holmes' personality. Some of them are repeated in story after story: the penchant for closing his eyes and ducking his head when he's trying to think in public; the habit of having reached a conclusion from the barest set of clues even before the parties involved give him more details. That last part, of course, is what makes him The Great Detective. It's also a bit infuriating for someone brought up on "fair play mysteries." The most important details of most of these cases tend to get noticed by Holmes when he's off-screen rather than when Watson is with him to show how Holmes got to that detail.
The other facet of Holmes' personality that really shines through in these stories is his attitude towards women. Much is often made of how Holmes refers to Irene Adler as "The Woman," and how she is the only woman who ever earned his respect because she outsmarted him in one particular case. I've seen many a review talking about how misogynistic Holmes is, that he veritably hates women. But in story after story in this collection he goes out of his way to protect women, whether it be physically (by warning Violet Hunter to stay away from a situation Holmes would not let any sister of his get involved in) or emotionally (by helping men who have wronged women pay their dues without the women being further emotionally injured). I can't say I approve of Holmes' decisions in every case where a woman's feelings were in danger of being hurt, but I can say that I find it an interesting aspect of his character. (And speaking of Ms. Hunter -- at the end of the story in which she appears, she seems to have gained high respect from both Holmes and Watson, and this time for not outwitting Holmes but matching him detail-for-detail.)
There are a few classic tales in this particular collection: A Scandal in Bohemia introduces Irene Adler; The Red-Headed League is just a fun outing; The Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb are the most gothic-feeling of the tales; and The Adventure of the Copper Beeches introduces Violet Hunter. The stories I enjoyed the least: The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet seemed forced and The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor felt like a retread of the much more interesting A Case of Identity.
I decided not long ago that I really needed to go back and read some (or all) of Doyle's original Holmes work, to be able to more capably judge how the stories by more recent writers stack up to those of Holmes' creator. Since there seem to be new Holmes short stories in every issue of The Strand magazine and in just about every period mystery anthology, I decided to skip rereading A Study In Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, the first two Holmes novels, and proceed to the first short story collection.
Of course, I've reviewed all of the individual stories over on the
365shortstories community. If you want my individual thoughts (with pretty much no spoilers), you can check that out.Overall, the collection really brings out certain facets of Holmes' personality. Some of them are repeated in story after story: the penchant for closing his eyes and ducking his head when he's trying to think in public; the habit of having reached a conclusion from the barest set of clues even before the parties involved give him more details. That last part, of course, is what makes him The Great Detective. It's also a bit infuriating for someone brought up on "fair play mysteries." The most important details of most of these cases tend to get noticed by Holmes when he's off-screen rather than when Watson is with him to show how Holmes got to that detail.
The other facet of Holmes' personality that really shines through in these stories is his attitude towards women. Much is often made of how Holmes refers to Irene Adler as "The Woman," and how she is the only woman who ever earned his respect because she outsmarted him in one particular case. I've seen many a review talking about how misogynistic Holmes is, that he veritably hates women. But in story after story in this collection he goes out of his way to protect women, whether it be physically (by warning Violet Hunter to stay away from a situation Holmes would not let any sister of his get involved in) or emotionally (by helping men who have wronged women pay their dues without the women being further emotionally injured). I can't say I approve of Holmes' decisions in every case where a woman's feelings were in danger of being hurt, but I can say that I find it an interesting aspect of his character. (And speaking of Ms. Hunter -- at the end of the story in which she appears, she seems to have gained high respect from both Holmes and Watson, and this time for not outwitting Holmes but matching him detail-for-detail.)
There are a few classic tales in this particular collection: A Scandal in Bohemia introduces Irene Adler; The Red-Headed League is just a fun outing; The Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb are the most gothic-feeling of the tales; and The Adventure of the Copper Beeches introduces Violet Hunter. The stories I enjoyed the least: The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet seemed forced and The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor felt like a retread of the much more interesting A Case of Identity.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Holmes in brief
254. The Adventure of the Speckled Band Holmes once again comes to the rescue of a pretty young damsel in distress. This one is concerned that her step-father and the gypsies in residence on his property are somehow complicit in the death of her sister, who was due to be wed. The action takes place in the town of Stokes Moran, and for some reason I expected a connection to Col. Sebastian Moran, aide-de-camp to the notorious Prof. Moriarity, Holmes' nemesis. But there is no connection (at least not in the story itself. I'd have to read back through various Wold-Newton sites to see if any later authors came up with a connection). The story moves quickly, and Holmes of course spots the key details everyone else has missed. Several early details are essentially red herrings.
255. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb Doctor Watson is brought an intriguing patient: a young civil engineer who has somehow lost his thumb. Once he's patched up as best as Watson can manage, Watson brings Holmes on board to hear the man's story. How he lost his thumb is not the mystery Holmes needs to solve, but rather where the man lost his thumb and who the perpetrators really were. Another of those cases in which Holmes solves the crime but doesn't catch the criminals.
256. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor Doyle seems to like these stories in which one member of a wedding party disappears before, during, or just after the nuptial ceremony. (Jim Butcher somewhat pays tribute to this trope in his Harry Dresden story Heorot.) This time, it is the newlywed husband who is left without a spouse when his new bride disappears during a post-wedding luncheon. The facts of the mystery itself are a good read, although I do wish more of them had been hinted at in the story itself.
257. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet The implication at the start of the story is that the Important Person who hocks the royal beryl coronet to a banker for a loan is Prince Albert. In our modern day and age, it's almost impossible to imagine someone so well known being able to visit a major banker in full daylight business hours to hock a piece of jewelry that normally resides in a locked guarded case. The late 1800s were a simpler time, for sure. The main mystery is not why "Prince Albert" put the coronet up as collateral for a loan (that's never revealed by Doyle in the story), but rather how the coronet is almost stolen and definitely damaged by someone in the banker's household. Holmes believes the man arrested for the crime didn't do it and sets about to prove himself right. I felt like this was one of the fairer-play mysteries in this set. I could not only understand how Holmes got to his conclusion, I could actually go back and see the hints where they were dropped.
258. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches Much is made of the fact that Irene Adler, or "The Woman," is the only woman for whom Holmes ever showed actual respect as an equal. In this story, Holmes and Watson meet a young governess named Violet Hunter, and I humbly submit that Miss Hunter shows as much mental fortitude and attention to detail as Holmes himself. Adler may be the woman who outwitted Holmes, but Hunter is the one who essentially matches him stride for stride. She starts out a little demure and unsure of herself, but by the end she has gained Watson's respect and I suspect Holmes' as well.
And that wraps up the first Holmes short story collection. I'm going to hold off on starting Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes for a little bit so as to cleanse the palate a bit, so to speak.
255. The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb Doctor Watson is brought an intriguing patient: a young civil engineer who has somehow lost his thumb. Once he's patched up as best as Watson can manage, Watson brings Holmes on board to hear the man's story. How he lost his thumb is not the mystery Holmes needs to solve, but rather where the man lost his thumb and who the perpetrators really were. Another of those cases in which Holmes solves the crime but doesn't catch the criminals.
256. The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor Doyle seems to like these stories in which one member of a wedding party disappears before, during, or just after the nuptial ceremony. (Jim Butcher somewhat pays tribute to this trope in his Harry Dresden story Heorot.) This time, it is the newlywed husband who is left without a spouse when his new bride disappears during a post-wedding luncheon. The facts of the mystery itself are a good read, although I do wish more of them had been hinted at in the story itself.
257. The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet The implication at the start of the story is that the Important Person who hocks the royal beryl coronet to a banker for a loan is Prince Albert. In our modern day and age, it's almost impossible to imagine someone so well known being able to visit a major banker in full daylight business hours to hock a piece of jewelry that normally resides in a locked guarded case. The late 1800s were a simpler time, for sure. The main mystery is not why "Prince Albert" put the coronet up as collateral for a loan (that's never revealed by Doyle in the story), but rather how the coronet is almost stolen and definitely damaged by someone in the banker's household. Holmes believes the man arrested for the crime didn't do it and sets about to prove himself right. I felt like this was one of the fairer-play mysteries in this set. I could not only understand how Holmes got to his conclusion, I could actually go back and see the hints where they were dropped.
258. The Adventure of the Copper Beeches Much is made of the fact that Irene Adler, or "The Woman," is the only woman for whom Holmes ever showed actual respect as an equal. In this story, Holmes and Watson meet a young governess named Violet Hunter, and I humbly submit that Miss Hunter shows as much mental fortitude and attention to detail as Holmes himself. Adler may be the woman who outwitted Holmes, but Hunter is the one who essentially matches him stride for stride. She starts out a little demure and unsure of herself, but by the end she has gained Watson's respect and I suspect Holmes' as well.
And that wraps up the first Holmes short story collection. I'm going to hold off on starting Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes for a little bit so as to cleanse the palate a bit, so to speak.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
2010 Book 39: Crossovers
Book 39: Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, Volume 2 by Win Scott Eckert, isbn 9781935558118, 477 pages, Black Coat Press, $30.95
Back in May, I reviewed the first volume of Win Scott Eckert's massive Timeline of character crossovers. I was excited that Volume 2 would be out so soon, and as expected I plowed through it in short order. Volume 1 covered gothic, pulp, crime, mystery and other character crossovers (including a limited number of super-heroes) from pre-history through 1939. This volume covers 1940 through the far future, and has appendices that list books and stories Win opted to not include in the Crossover Universe timeline for a variety of reasons. I liked this particular touch, pointing people to stories he felt were just too hard to reconcile with the relationships and histories originally laid down by Philip Jose Farmer and acknowledging that in many cases the stories are well told (and that for the most part, quality is not the reason some crossovers are excluded).
I did find myself disagreeing on a few points of inclusion or dis-inclusion. For instance, there are a number of times where Win suggests that stories happened, but were greatly exaggerated by the authors who told those stories (a good example: The Day of The Triffids probably happened on the Crossover Earth, but with nowhere near the level of carnage and mayhem the movie ended with) while others are dismissed for similar reasons. But that's the joy of a project like this: my own version of which crossovers to include could certainly diverge from Win's at any point and neither of us is hurt by it. For instance, I would personally choose to include the characters of Arn Munro and Neptune Perkins, from Roy Thomas' Young All-Stars comic series, because of their connections to Philip Wylie's GLADIATOR and Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym, but would note that not every issue of that comic series is automatically incorporated into the CU because of the rule about limiting the proliferation of super-heroes in the CU. But that's just me.
As I said about the first volume, Eckert has done an absolutely amazing job synthesizing over 100 years of meetings between fictional characters to come up with a cohesive storyline in which there is something for everyone, from Conan to Holmes to Batman to Spenser, to Charlie's Angels to Lost to Star Trek. The book is also lavishly illustrated with book and magazine covers featuring the characters mentioned throughout.
True mystery/gothic/horror/sf/pulp/comics/crime/literature geeks can't really do without this two volume set.
Back in May, I reviewed the first volume of Win Scott Eckert's massive Timeline of character crossovers. I was excited that Volume 2 would be out so soon, and as expected I plowed through it in short order. Volume 1 covered gothic, pulp, crime, mystery and other character crossovers (including a limited number of super-heroes) from pre-history through 1939. This volume covers 1940 through the far future, and has appendices that list books and stories Win opted to not include in the Crossover Universe timeline for a variety of reasons. I liked this particular touch, pointing people to stories he felt were just too hard to reconcile with the relationships and histories originally laid down by Philip Jose Farmer and acknowledging that in many cases the stories are well told (and that for the most part, quality is not the reason some crossovers are excluded).
I did find myself disagreeing on a few points of inclusion or dis-inclusion. For instance, there are a number of times where Win suggests that stories happened, but were greatly exaggerated by the authors who told those stories (a good example: The Day of The Triffids probably happened on the Crossover Earth, but with nowhere near the level of carnage and mayhem the movie ended with) while others are dismissed for similar reasons. But that's the joy of a project like this: my own version of which crossovers to include could certainly diverge from Win's at any point and neither of us is hurt by it. For instance, I would personally choose to include the characters of Arn Munro and Neptune Perkins, from Roy Thomas' Young All-Stars comic series, because of their connections to Philip Wylie's GLADIATOR and Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym, but would note that not every issue of that comic series is automatically incorporated into the CU because of the rule about limiting the proliferation of super-heroes in the CU. But that's just me.
As I said about the first volume, Eckert has done an absolutely amazing job synthesizing over 100 years of meetings between fictional characters to come up with a cohesive storyline in which there is something for everyone, from Conan to Holmes to Batman to Spenser, to Charlie's Angels to Lost to Star Trek. The book is also lavishly illustrated with book and magazine covers featuring the characters mentioned throughout.
True mystery/gothic/horror/sf/pulp/comics/cri
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