It's wild that this wonderfully out there story was written sometime in the 1930s or 40s. Jūza Unno i
"What a terribly thoughtless death sentence."
It's wild that this wonderfully out there story was written sometime in the 1930s or 40s. Jūza Unno is apparently considered the "father of Japanese science fiction" and that's also wild. The story reads as if it were written by a drunk middle-school kid obsessed with mind control, post-apocalyptic dystopias, sexy lady androids, trans ideology, soap operas, and William S. Burroughs. All of that and so much more. "Eighteen O'Clock Music Bath" is about the end of post-apocalyptic Japan, now greatly reduced in population, living underground and under the thumb of its authoritarian yet very wussy president. All citizens must submit to a "music bath" at precisely 18 o'clock each day, which renders them both productive and patriotic for the busy hour following that painful infusion. The rest of the day is spent in aimless, lethargically horny discontent.
A typical scene: the power-crazed Secretary of State, mistress to the President, unsuccessfully tries to feed her parrot a bloody chunk of android meat - from the same android that she had tried to stab in the heart the previous day, in a hysterical fit of rage after catching the President excitedly eyeing the comely humanoid.
The writing is laughable and I'm not sure it's all the fault of the translator. *shrug* Who needs quality prose or a competent translation when the story is this berserk.
I loved this tender scene:
"Hey Paul. You'd better be careful about Bara. She was making a big fuss about how you were a scrap battery. If she gets wind of your big secret, it's not going to be pretty."
"Penn, Bara is your wife. As long as you don't screw up, there's no fear of her finding out."
"Yeah, but that woman is as shrewd as any man. I can't tell her what to do."
"Penn, for a husband you sure whine miserably."
"Actually, I'm considering giving up being a husband. Being married to a woman like that completely sucks out the life from me."
"Really, are you serious? If you got divorced I'm sure you'd just find another wife. Do you have someone in mind?"
"Are you kidding? There aren't any nice girls out there who are right for me. Hey Paul, to be honest... I think it would be great if you weren't my guy friend, but my girl friend."
"Girl friend?" Paul blinked his eyes, mouth agape. "Penn, do you really mean that?"
"Do I mean it? Of course I do. Why would you ask that sort of thing?"
Paul grabbed Penn's hand and silently led him behind a dividing partition in the corner of the room.
There was the sound of clothes shuffling. Paul's shirt appeared, draped over the top of the partition. There was a clang as a belt was drooped over the partition.
At that moment, a startled yell came from behind the partition; Penn's screams drowned out the voice of Paul trying to calm him down.
"Oh... That's what she meant by the rumor you were doing dissections on your own body. This is some surgery you've done. You disgust me!"
Don't worry, romance fans: Penn eventually gets over his unseemly transphobia and settles down with Paul. And Bara gets her own sex change, after realizing that turning into a man will help her get past the boredom she has with life.
SPOILER: literally the whole country dies at the end due to overexposure to the music bath. All except its wily inventor Professor Kohak, who becomes the leader of the new "Android Nation of Kohak." Fun!
the generation ship travels through the vacuum of space, year after year, century after after century, it hurtles on and on and on NON-STOP, where andthe generation ship travels through the vacuum of space, year after year, century after after century, it hurtles on and on and on NON-STOP, where and when will this journey end, and what is this journey even for? the flora is monstrous, these plants have gone wild and turned the ship to jungle, these hydroponics creep and crawl in the artificial light of the ship's halls and chambers, the plants grow and grow and grow NON-STOP. the tribes live their little lives and make their little wars upon each other, kidnapping each other's women, killing each other's men, they move and move and move NON-STOP, but they are moving in place, they are living backwards, the backward little things. one tribe lives forward, trying to better their society, trying to evolve, trying to understand why it has to be this way, why why why must it all be NON-STOP. our hero Caution is a malcontent, his body always primed to fight and his tongue always ready to lash, he hurtles forward and he grows and he moves and he wonders why and his mind is always buzzing and buzzing and buzzing NON-STOP, the dizzy little thing. the author Brian Aldiss wrote the edgiest of science fiction, always trying out new ideas, his story rushes forward like his hero, his prose is pulpy his ideas are deep his pacing is breathless his characters pop, his book is bursting with secrets, his mind is always thinking of new things new twists new ways to write, he throws it all at the reader NON-STOP!...more
humans unwittingly host invisible, transdimensional parasites that coil around our brains and control our emotions. the planet Ixax has decimated itsehumans unwittingly host invisible, transdimensional parasites that coil around our brains and control our emotions. the planet Ixax has decimated itself due to these parasites that have transported themselves from our planet to theirs. the Ixaxians have had enough: kidnapping a human scientist, they free him from his parasite and then return him home, giving him but a few weeks to rid the Earth of this menace, or else a scorched-earth solution will be enacted. despite the pure pulp of the premise, this is an especially cerebral outing for the already-dry Jack Vance. the humor is scarce here, and as with those other novels where Vance has kept his wit at a minimum (Languages of Pao, Dragon Masters), the result is a narrative that is more distancing than involving. still, this is a worthwhile experience, due to its exploration of free will (or the illusion of free will), group-think, and the automatic antipathy that tribes will feel towards outsiders. is this a cautionary tale critiquing communism or, preferably, an allegory in favor of nonbinary thinking? shades of Colin Wilson....more
the houses of the planet Iszm are vegetable, carefully bioengineered to the exacting standards of Iszic craftsmen. only bland mid-level houses are expthe houses of the planet Iszm are vegetable, carefully bioengineered to the exacting standards of Iszic craftsmen. only bland mid-level houses are exported to Earth; not the sophisticated, time-consuming exemplars of this craft reserved for the Iszic elite, nor the inexpensive, easy to reproduce houses that are home to the Iszic worker class. it is the latter, if exported, that could solve Earth's terrible housing crisis, muses the botanist Farr during his tour of Iszm. if only the paranoid, secretive Iszic would allow their export! but then again, muses Farr at a later point, Earth could solve its own housing crisis if only the extremely wealthy would use their wealth for the greater good. but we'll sooner see blood bleed from a stone!
this is a fast-paced conspiracy thriller, of sorts. across three settings - Iszm, Earth, and a starship traveling from one planet to the other - Aile Farr encounters plots and schemes, murders and raids, mercenaries and megalomaniacs, and a sophisticated way of turning a tourist into a mule. a clever and thoughtful book. the descriptions of these symbiotic vegetable-houses was a particular highlight....more
the wildly over the top (and awesome) cover may lead those unfamiliar with the author to believe that this will be an equally wild and over the top mathe wildly over the top (and awesome) cover may lead those unfamiliar with the author to believe that this will be an equally wild and over the top man versus monster adventure. not the case. this superb thriller is Vance at his smooth, streamlined best: wall to wall ideas to contemplate, all delivered in prose that is stylish and witty. capable everyman Joe Smith (that name!) is far from his homeworld Earth, ensnared in the political machinations occurring between various factions on various planets. religious fanaticism, decadent elite rule over dull conformist plebes, and mercantilist liberalism versus belligerent imperialism all have their turn at being reviewed and then scorned by a disinterested Joe Smith and a surprisingly revolutionary Jack Vance. we also have an excellent pair of foils for Joe: two extremely attractive, high-handed, and insular aristocrats, both basically psychopathic; Joe immediately feels an visceral and violent aversion to the fellow, while of course finding the equally callous lady of the pair to be infinitely charming and loveable. the book's cover is metaphorical: all should fear the monstrous power of religious dogma as a colonialist tool for mass oppression. in this case, religion is a gigantic tree that literally devours its foolish followers....more
Paranoia will destroy ya even if you're right about what you're being paranoid over. Like say the mutilated stranger hanging from a lamppost in the miParanoia will destroy ya even if you're right about what you're being paranoid over. Like say the mutilated stranger hanging from a lamppost in the middle of the town square that apparently bothers no one. This short story distills all that made Dick a fascinating and exciting author in the early part of his career: weird, barely described science fictional elements, normal people acting crazy, sudden violence, a herky-jerky prose style that is a good match for the frantic pace, and of course an over the top paranoid narrative in which the paranoia is all too justified.
#7 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Best Science Fiction Horror Novels
this frenetically paced slice of pulp fiction is like a kid who doesn't know what#7 on Karl Edward Wagner's list of Best Science Fiction Horror Novels
this frenetically paced slice of pulp fiction is like a kid who doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up, so they try on a bunch of identities and discard those identities whenever they see fit (including when they get bored).
and so The Flying Beast has creepy & atmospheric horror, a murder mystery, a bit of comedy o' manner, international espionage & financial skullduggery, a harrowing trip through an African desert, a Lost City, and a couple action sequences featuring humans with guns versus a subhuman, subterranean horde. (let's not think too deeply about that last one.) this all happens sequentially, in roughly the order presented. I should also make clear that the berserk narrative and the throwing of multiple things at the wall made this a fun, certainly never boring experience. Masterman is an enjoyable writer, can definitely create an atmosphere (multiple ones), quite dramatic at times but not eye-rollingly melodramatic. there's a fairly saccharine romance happening throughout the book, but fortunately nothing too nauseating.
synyposis: an old recluse is found hanged in a spooky mansion. and then things really start to happen....more
so the commission sent to dampen down the ambitions of a sneaky tyrant crash lands, ouch, due to the machinations of that tyrant. and off the survivorso the commission sent to dampen down the ambitions of a sneaky tyrant crash lands, ouch, due to the machinations of that tyrant. and off the survivors go! across this very big planet known as Big Planet, full of all sorts of crazy places and crazy customs and crazy people who fled from the boring Earth and her boring federated planets. oh man this book took me back. the commission basically ziplines across this world, seeing all the sights, which reminded me of ziplining in Costa Rica. they accidentally and then purposely smoke some hella hallucinogenic plants which reminded me of my time in the Netherlands. they visit some really cosmopolitan cities right next to some let's just say religiously excitable cities which reminded me of my time in Turkey. they see a lot of countryside vistas and also enjoy some nightlife and also get into some fights which reminded me of my various times in Mexico. they even get to scale a fucking gigantic mountain which reminded me of my time in Kenya. a couple of the commissioners take on some eager slaves to help out with rest and relaxation which reminded me of my time in Cambodia. oh and they get to betray and kill each other too which reminded me of my times in Italy and the various murder parties that lessened the number of my friend group but also helped release some pent-up tensions. gosh all the memories that came flooding back!...more
Clark Ashton Smith, one of my favorite classic writers of ornate science fantasy, closes out his career with less of a bang and more of a... well, I'mClark Ashton Smith, one of my favorite classic writers of ornate science fantasy, closes out his career with less of a bang and more of a... well, I'm not going to say "whimper" because I'm not going to insult him. He closes out his career with a whisper. A whisper of his former skills, I suppose, rather than the more full-throated confidence and command of effects that he had in his heyday. There are certainly some of the worst stories I've ever read by him in here. Happily, there are plenty of perfectly fine stories, and handful of excellent ones that are just as wonderfully written and magically malevolent as his prior classics.
I loved his return to the Atlantean land of Poseidonis: "The Death of Malygris" features a cabal of understandably anxious second-level wizards who seek to plunder the fortunes of their apparently-dead superior. They should have known better.
CAS revisits his classic (and shared) setting of sword & sorcery, Hyperborea, in three treats. One about the robbery of a temple, another about an arrogant king bespelled by a grouchy enchanter to offer himself up to a range of underworld monstrosities, all who find the offering rather lacking (the delightful and macabre "The Seven Geases"), and a somewhat Lovecraftian story of an alien being intent on bringing death by ice to the world (the atypically somber "The Coming of the White Worm").
The Vancean far-future continent of Zothique is featured the most heavily in this collection. I was disappointed by a number of these stories, but there were some standouts. (All of my favorites are bolded below.) The best tales of Zothique, as with Poseidonis, are the ones suffused with a bleak melancholy. Just as Poseidonis is doomed to drown, Zothique exists at the end of days. "Morthylla" and "Necromancy in Naat" in particular exude the kind of luscious romanticism and literally necrophilic love affairs that are perfect for undead readers like myself.
It's sort of funny to describe these different worlds of Poseidonis and Zothique and Hyperborea, because they often feel like very similar places. Same goes for his setting in the provincial French countryside, Averoigne. All include dark wizardry, dying or dead civilizations, horribly ironic endings, and all portrayed with the deepest shades of purple prose.
A standout that felt quite different is the scabrous and unusually graphic "Schizo Creator" - starting with that fun title. The jumping points are Manichaeism and Gnosticism: the binary of a Good God of Order and the Dark God of Chaos, the right-hand path and the left. But what if, wonders a very modern psychoanalyst with some surprising sorcerous skills, there is only one being, and this God is schizophrenic. I mean seriously, LOL! And so our resourceful brain-panner manages to trap a high-level demon that he mistakes for Satan and then provides that very modern treatment, electroshock therapy. The results are pretty amusing, to the reader and to the high-level demon. And the whole experiment - dutifully reported back by that demon - is certainly of interest to the High Devil himself. Or should it be... Himself? No spoilers! Or blasphemy!
☥
INANE SYNOPSES
The Dark Age - post-apocalyptic caveboy learns that last living elitists still elitist The Chain of Aforgomon - fuck around with Father Time and find out The Primal City - cloud monsters don't like climbers Treader of the Dust - ashy book leads to ashy skin leads to ashy death The Great God Awto - hear them sing their paeans to this god Strange Shadows - drunk dude sees clearly Double Cosmos - druggie dude sees other self and other self is an asshole Nemesis of the Unfinished - writer needs to write more and drink less Symposium of the Gorgon - drunkard meets Gorgon, Pegasus, cannibals Schizoid Creator - psychiatrist needs to rethink his thesis Monsters in the Night - werewolf feeding time Phoenix - boyfriend not returning from trip to reignite sun The Dart of Rasafa - makes me sad that this was author's last story cause it sucked
Poseidonis
The Death of Malygris - oh he ain't that dead
Averoigne
Mother of Toads - nasty, horny sorceress + toads = bad news for handsome apprentice The Enchantress of Sylaire - who cares how she really looks, she fucks
Hyperborea
The Coming of the White Worm - disgusting slug sorcerer wants the world to just chill Seven Geases - hypnotized human sacrifice: "Eat me, I'm yours." 7 entities: "Sorry, just not into you." Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles - Ocean's 11 - 3 + fake ghosts
Zothique
The Tomb-Spawn - escape from cannibals leads to discovery of something pretty gross The Witchcraft of Ulua - entitled temptress mad she can't get it on with new cup-bearer Xeethra - Ozymandias called, wants kingdom and name back The Last Hieroglyph - astrologer gets on Fate's last nerve Necromancy in Naat - dead people make great servants but not great lovers The Black Abbot of Puthuum - racist travelers don't want to provide lonely, hungry monk with sustenance or sex The Death of Ilalotha - after the funeral orgies, it's jealous queen vs. living dead girl The Garden of Alompha - bored king not so bored anymore when being torn apart by vengeful veggies The Master of the Crabs - crabs make unreliable friends Morthylla - "After his death, he forgot that he had died..."...more
synopsis: 2 Allies and 2 Nazis find themselves at the end of Earth's lifespan, where things like World War II lack any relevance. Together, they fightsynopsis: 2 Allies and 2 Nazis find themselves at the end of Earth's lifespan, where things like World War II lack any relevance. Together, they fight against the mutated denizens of this dying Earth, and then alongside those mutants against a far greater threat - a cylinder of light shrouded in darkness, an energy being that longs to consume them all.
Cognitive Dissonance: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
I think cognitive dissonance may also be a reason why this book was often so confusing, frustrating, and yet sometimes genuinely exhilarating. This Golden Age of Science Fiction classic was written by a husband & wife team (both well-known separately, and well-regarded) and that may explain the cognitive dissonance itself, as it was put together by two minds. Characters start off as exciting (especially the Nazis: a sharp-witted redhead adventuress and her feral mercenary companion - a fellow with the name of Mike Smith!)... but end up being cardboard or barely in the story; god-like threats are genuinely disturbing (including a floating Oz-like head in a tower made of what looks to be water)... but are also weirdly petty, poorly-defined; a vision of the future that is by turns rich with overripe ideas and shallow, derivative; the narrative both straightforward and irritatingly patchwork; the story often thrilling yet at times it literally put me to sleep. Some incredible ideas, many that went nowhere. All in all, an exciting and boring novel.
Fecund fructuous luscious decadent dissolute immoral empurpled grandiose theatrical refined cultivated stylized mordant acidulous barbed sanguinary neFecund fructuous luscious decadent dissolute immoral empurpled grandiose theatrical refined cultivated stylized mordant acidulous barbed sanguinary necromantic, and to me at least, salubrious Clark Ashton Smith! He's a lot!
There is also a lot of fabulous Zothique, dire and sorcerous world of our future, in this dense collection. Cause for celebration. All of the Zothique stories are wonderful. I particularly appreciated the strange, sad adventure of a poor prince of a dead kingdom, stranded on "The Isle of the Torturers" (trigger warning: torture, lol) and the evil wit in "Voyage of King Euvoron" especially the King of Birds' collection of human taxidermy, and most of all the fantastic showdown between evil wizard and evil king - plus an evil concubine turned into a sacrifice, and also an evil god of hell just biding his time - of the enchanting "Dark Eidolon" - swoon! So much evil and they all get what's coming to them. Except for the evil god of hell of course, he always wins.
The very disdainful, very bored, and - wait for it - very evil sorcerer supreme Maal Dweb is featured in the two stories about a weird world called Xiccarph that exists in a weird solar system with a bunch of other weird planets and in which weird adventures are apparently occurring around the clock. After dispatching some dull, lovelorn interlopers on some kind of rescue mission who dare to intrude on his peace of mind in "The Maze of the Enchanter" (I totally sympathized with his irritation), he decides to have some adventures of his own in "The Flower-Women" and those adventures are very, very weird. Both stories delighted.
Two more standouts are the rousing and rather less decadent adventure stories set in the deep caverns of Mars. One was exceedingly creepy (as eyeless undead slug people who want you to be One Of Us are always fated to be, the poor things) and the other was just a lot of fast-paced fun, as it features two losers who have to match their rather dull wits against an ambitious, sweet-voiced, manipulative god of - wait for it - evil who wants to branch out and conquer another planet... our planet Earth, egads!! The latter story also includes a holographic PR rep who floats around dispensing a lot of inane bullshit, which felt like this story was set in 2021.
Also quite pleased that a teen favorite has remained a favorite: "Genius Loci" which is about, well, an evil meadow. I remember excitedly reading this one to my girlfriend at the time, on a road trip. I also remember her wondering if maybe she and I were really the right fit for each other. :(
I think this period of CAS's writing career may be his peak, but I do still have 1 more volume of his stories to go. I want I want I want to give this one 5 stars because he's a favorite author but I'm miserly and am just going to hold out until I finish them all. Not all of the stories gave that pure-pleasure feeling, but if you like his overripe & overheated & often overly-written style, each and every story here is a winner.
STUPID SYNOPSES AHEAD
A Star-Change - grass is always greener on the other planet Dimensions of Chance - Americans rescued by racist aliens 3rd Episode of Vathek - CAS finishes Beckford's ode to twincest Genius Loci - "the presiding spirit of a place" Secret of the Cairn - eating a pear from an alien Tree of Life
Averoigne The Mandrakes - bury the wife & dig up the mini-wives Beast of Averoigne - hark! the demon comet approaches! Disinterment of Venus - sexy statue inspires priapic monks
Hyperborea The White Sybil - like a moth to a white flame goes the poet The Ice-Demon - don't mess with a malevolent glacier
Zothique Isle of the Torturers - out of the frying pan and into... The Charnel God - only dead offerings allowed Dark Eidolon - evil, evil everywhere & so many souls to drink Voyage of King Euvoran - both fool & fowl shall the king become The Weaver in the Vaults - lil' floating globe seeks nourishment
Mars Dweller in the Gulf - "Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?" Vulthoom - the lovely Martian god of evil wants to visit Earth
Xiccarph Maze of the Enchanter - change or stasis await all who enter The Flower-Women - bored sorcerer befriends vampire veggies...more
* Assume that a teenage boy can be smart, motivated, and understanSUPER-SECRET SPACE SUIT SECRETS REVEALED!
How To Build Have Space Suit - Will Travel:
* Assume that a teenage boy can be smart, motivated, and understand everything from mechanical engineering to calculating the radioactive half-life in various elements, while being occasionally prone to losing his temper. *
* Assume that a pre-teen girl can be an amazing genius who is quick-witted, brave to a fault, eager to save lives, all while still carrying around a raggedy doll and occasionally having a secret cry session when things get tough. *
* Assume that juvenile readers will be interested in the nuts & bolts of building a proper space suit. *
* Assume that juvenile readers will be both canny and sensitive enough to appreciate wry humor and subtle ironies delivered via prose that is not dumbed down, a charming and straightforward storytelling style, and most of all, a whole lot of sincerity. *
* Assume that the future will look much like the small towns of the 1950s. *
* Assume that an idealized version of the small towns of the 1950s will actually have a lot to recommend them. *
* Assume that the reader will understand the difference between empathy and sympathy and will be fine with super-empathy as an actual super-power for an adorable, lemur-eyed alien police officer that communicates by singing. *
* Assume that an adventure novel where the adventure ends three-quarters of the way through but the story continues with an unnerving trial adjudicated by an intergalactic tribunal in which the fate of humanity will be determined by the words of a teen boy and a pre-teen girl... will remain an involving story. And will end with a milkshake being tossed in the face of the town jerk. *
* Assume that your rather minor-note little story will live on as a perfectly accomplished little classic. *
That's a lot of assumptions! In this case, Heinlein assumed correctly....more
What are those strange shapes in the distance, those shapes like a factory like a city like a cemetery, what are they? Where are those beings fleeing What are those strange shapes in the distance, those shapes like a factory like a city like a cemetery, what are they? Where are those beings fleeing to, in a blind rush of terror like lemmings like a hive mind like things trained to fear, where do they run? Why are all those bodies in a ditch, piled up like debris like waste like a mass graveyard, why are they there? When did this atrocity take place, an atrocity so strange so inhumane yet so familiar, when did this happen? Who would do such a thing, it could only be an alien it could only be a monster it could only be a being who acts like a human, who could be capable of such terrible things? How would an author tell a story about humans crash-landing on a planet, a place full of appalling alien misdeeds full of eugenics full of genocide, how should he write about horror in space while also writing about the history of the fucking human species itself? What was where is why are when do who does how could they, we do such things?
"Shape-Up" - 4 stars A trap is sprung, concealed weapons are revealed, mysteries are solved. As Miriam notes in her review, this short story is a maste"Shape-Up" - 4 stars A trap is sprung, concealed weapons are revealed, mysteries are solved. As Miriam notes in her review, this short story is a master class is saying a lot with a little. A whole society and way of living are outlined briskly, tantalizingly.
"The Man from Zodiac" - 4 stars Zodiac Control Inc. creates governments. Milton Hack is their nondescript field representative. Poor Milton has to deal with creating a functioning society out of two gross barbarian clans. Achieving this will require skulduggery, bamboozlement, mining operations, and putting greed and opportunism to work in the service of the greater good. This is Vance at his most sardonic and dispassionate. Fun stuff!
"Golden Girl" - 3 stars It sure is depressing being an attractive alien from an evolved civilization stranded on a detestable barbaric world called Earth. I really felt for the poor lass.
"The Planet Machine" - 3 stars A mechanic is perhaps accidentally sent to a strange planet to fix a talkative machine that has become sick and deadly. Jack Vance loves languages and he loves long-game mysteries and this story is full of both. Very enjoyable.
"Crusade to Maxus" - 4 stars 'Tis revolution time! Technocrat slavers must die! This was a rousing adventure delivered coolly in the classic ironic Vancean style. Although there was less irony and more satisfying albeit brutal schadenfreude in the exciting finale of technocratic overlords vs. telepathic revolutionaries. One side holds rather an advantage... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"Three-Legged Joe" - 2 stars Two arrogant young prospectors find a threat on a barren world. This was overlong and too concerned with which tools and devices would best destroy Joe, whose only offense is his appetite. Poor hungry Joe, I really felt for him too.
"Sjambak" - 3 stars A documentarian visits a placid society of Javanese and Arabic heritage. Such a peaceful lifestyle is sure to create its small share of malcontents and would-be warriors, if only to combat boredom. And thus the "sjambaks". A pleasant and amusing story.
"The Augmented Agent" - 5 stars
And now for something completely different! This novella is a Cold War espionage tale set in the imaginary African country of Lakhadi, caught between the Soviet Union and China, and trying to forge its own destiny. It is rife with cyborg agents: spies, assassins, and doubles; its hero an African-American spy in the highly augmented, weaponized guise of a tribal chieftain. Vance quickly removed any fears I may have had of reading a potentially colonialist take on Africa. His sympathies are squarely with a Free Lakhadi - one that could unite and lead the African nations - while still retaining his typically ironic perspective. The finale of multiple doubles trying to take each other out was wild.
"Peculiar sort of assassination," he reflected. "Everyone gets killed but the victim."...more
I liked this one rather more than the preceding collection and rather less than the first volume. here are the mid-career stories in which the weird mI liked this one rather more than the preceding collection and rather less than the first volume. here are the mid-career stories in which the weird master's idiosyncratic style has reached its peak. two more collections to go, so hopefully this peak will be a plateau. the occasional amateurishness that marred some prior stories is nowhere to be found in this book. same goes, mainly, for the love stories; he's just not that into them at this point. this is CAS at his most polished, although "polished" does little to describe his marvelous combination of disdainful irony and bleak humor, hysteria and grotesquerie, bizarre flights of fancy, dense walls of prose delivered in an extravagantly purple style, and of course the fulsome harvest of obscure words in each and every story. nobody does it better.
I had a bunch of favorites. the frequently anthologized Seed from the Sepulcher was wonderfully grim and disgusting and did body horror decades before anyone else. Plutonium Drug puts forth a nifty twist on seeing the future and also details a range of interesting new drugs and poisons imported from various planets. Empire of the Necromancers is the first in the Zothique story cycle - stories which feel like they were written by a death-mad Jack Vance from another dimension. Double Shadow is about the doom that befell two sorcerers and their pet mummy due to some poorly thought-out trips to the very distant past - to crib the spells of a long-vanished serpent race, of all things. also featuring astral trips to archaic times, Ubbo-Sathla is a mindbending take on reincarnation. mindbending to this reader and unfortunately for the protagonist(s) as well. always remember: you can't go home again, especially if that first home is an oozing primordial mother-mass that is probably from outer space. The Holiness of Azédarac, set in that always interesting (and made-up) French province of Averoigne, starts off the collection on a fun note and spryly pivots from being about the murderous mage of the title to a tale of a well-meaning monk and an equally well-meaning enchantress falling quickly in lust and love. And The Demon of the Flower is as gorgeous, strange, and vicious as its titular monster; that CAS purple prose is at its most opulent.
my favorite of faves was Colossus of Ylourgne. this fabulous adventure is CAS at his most ripe, full of ghoulishness and aiming to please with an exciting narrative. basically it is about a sorcerer who has constructed a giant out of corpses; he'll inhabit that giant and use it to lay bloody waste on the various villages, churches, and judgmental monks of unlucky Averoigne. nice. maybe clerical types should stop finger-pointing so much. fortunately for them, there is a helpful young novice wizard who'll try and save the day. this story was super fun from beginning to end.
and now for some ridiculous synopses:
Averoigne "Holiness of Azédarac" forget that wizard - a witch loves you! "The Maker of Gargoyles" resentment & desire come alive! "The Colossus of Ylourgne" attack on undead titan!
Poseidonis "A Vintage from Atlantis" pirates shouldn't drink so much! "Double Shadow" some serpent-spells shouldn't be cast!
Hyperborea "The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqqquan" don't be a greedy pig! "Ubbo-Sathla" AKA Shub-Niggurath? maybe!
Zothique "Empire of the Necromancers" the dead make poor servants!
science fantasy "The Demon of the Flower" don't assassinate a plant-god!
science fiction sequel: "Beyond the Singing Flame" alas for the end of things! "Seedling of Mars" Martian vegetable wants to help you evolve! "The Eternal World" don't mess with the Gods of the Galaxy! "The Invisible City" don't go looking for things you can't see! "Immortals of Mercury" human protoplasm is required! "The Plutonian Drug" future is now - unless you're dead! "The God of the Asteroid" Mars is hell but asteroids are worse!
science fiction horror "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis" that black turban ain't no turban!
horror "The Nameless Offspring" nobody loves a step-ghoul! "Seed from the Sepulcher" that head's a flower-pot! "The Second Interment" uh oh, premature burial! "The Supernumerary Corpse" two bodies for the price of one!...more
there is a marvelously entertaining short story that is contained within Planet Savers: a mission into the dangerous wilderness of an alien world to bthere is a marvelously entertaining short story that is contained within Planet Savers: a mission into the dangerous wilderness of an alien world to beg for help from the enigmatic, arboreal "Trailsmen" in combating a deadly epidemic. this story has a sociopathic doctor of parasitology whose revolting personality has been switched off to allow another personality - an adventurous, open-minded young man - to emerge and lead the expedition. the two personalities of course despise each other, which leads to a fun scene where the misanthropic doctor self briefly emerges to take care of some medical matters, and another more questionable scene when the doctor emerges to say and think various cynical things before being quickly banished by the wholesome power of some good old fashioned fucking. ah, split personalities... always a fun plot device! possibly less fun for the split personality itself though.
this would be an easy 3 star book but man it was kinda torturous getting to the fun parts. so much sloppy logic and cringeworthy dialogue to deal with before the adventure, ugh. and then the adventure itself is much too short. still, I will give the likewise schizophrenically minded Bradley her due: this was her first novel in the lengthy Darkover series and it is brisk, tight, and competently written - at least after that terrible opening - with none of the bloat that would plague her later novels. all of the things that would come to fascinate her are present: Othering; emotional blockage that damages but also creates powerful abilities; independent women that don't need no man but aren't necessarily against them; psychic abilities; the tensions that can exist between radically different cultures (in this case both human versus Trailsmen and Darkover human versus Terran human). unfortunately I don't recall her returning to explore much more about the fascinating (and rather adorable) Trailsmen, which is a shame. I guess tortured psychodrama replaced xenoanthropology in her interests....more
rope-a-dope is a boxing tactic of pretending to be trapped against the ropes, goading an opponent to throw tiring ineffective punches. rope-a-dope is rope-a-dope is a boxing tactic of pretending to be trapped against the ropes, goading an opponent to throw tiring ineffective punches. rope-a-dope is a tactic employed by Winston Niles Rumfoord as he blithely controls the fates of his wife Beatrice, entrepreneur Malachi Constant, the buffoonish and warlike Martians, and of course all of the humans crowding up this planet Earth. they try to push back against this immaterial man, beamed to them with his hound of space Kazak for less than an hour, every few months, full of plans that will change their identities, change their ultimate destinies. they take their swings, throw their punches, they tire themselves out. they don't even see the knock-out coming.
Vonnegut employs his own sort of tactics. he's a playful author and a serious thinker. such a delightful tale; such darkness below the surface. this a breezy story about the dismantling of faith and religion as the only way to save humanity. this is a cheerful story about long-game manipulation, memories wiped, rape, friend killing friend, and genocide used to bring people together. this is an upbeat story about lives upended, dreams destroyed, and exile from all of your kind. the lovely sirens of Titan call to readers and characters, beckoning them to a place of delight; those lovely sirens live on Saturn's moon, statues submerged in a pool of green muck and murk, ignored....more
I love the foreword that Vance put in this one, which outlines the probable future of space travel but is mainly improbable nonsense. This is the VancI love the foreword that Vance put in this one, which outlines the probable future of space travel but is mainly improbable nonsense. This is the Vance that I know: charming and sardonic, a list-maker, smiling as if at his own secret joke. I love how it opens by declaring that the modern era is the most exciting one yet, now that the world is moving past boring, outdated European traditions. And I especially love how the foreword closes on a note of caution for the novel's young readers: kids, don't grow up to be a space pirate - you'll come to a bad end. Join the Space Navy instead!
Vandals of the Void was Vance's first novel, written for juveniles. It is about a deft and self-sufficient 15 year old who was raised on the lovely world of Venus and is now off on a voyage to meet his father on the Moon. And there he becomes involved in a murderous mystery featuring nefarious plots, double agents, an easily outsmarted bully, and of course dastardly space pirates whose penchant for wholesale slaughter really pisses young Dick off. Dick's morals are not of the flexible sort. He learns some life lessons like never judge a stranger by their hook nose, and also finds a fabulous dead city hidden under the Moon's surface. But the latter is not a particularly important part of the story, which is mainly about how this smart kid foils some evil plans and then eventually realizes that he wants to join the Space Navy. A boy after the author's own heart, who was once a Merchant Marine.
Vance doesn't put much of his trademark style into this one, but he doesn't dumb things down for the kids either. It's a swift, fun, satisfying tale, but mainly for Vance completists....more
This fast-paced slice of pulp science fiction may only be 2 stars worth of fun, but at least it is a breezy, painless 2 stars, despite sloppy plottingThis fast-paced slice of pulp science fiction may only be 2 stars worth of fun, but at least it is a breezy, painless 2 stars, despite sloppy plotting and mainly cardboard characters. It was smart fun as well. The story hurtles back and forth, from our solar system to the edge of the galaxy, into the distant future to visit Earth's last resident and back again, universes colliding & altruistic robots & all-powerful but senile puppetmasters, oh my. There's an interesting character in the peace-loving scientist woken from her thousand-year suspended animation - a suspended animation where she was busy thinking away, the entire time. Now awake, and ready to save the universe with her supra-intelligence!
This is probably only for Simak completists, which after reading City and Way Station and A Choice of Gods, I definitely consider myself. And as a Simak enthusiast, it was fun seeing all of the themes and favorite subjects that would come to define him, already present in nascent form: the need for humans to evolve - without a reliance on technology; robots and dogs; the regrettable human urge to reject the physically alien; a detached intelligence that could be God; the nonsense of human bureaucracy; an ideology that somehow combines progressive values with old-fashioned conservatism. I also quite enjoyed the short bit that appears to be endorsing Christian Science as a viable perspective on life and the universe - that was a surprise!...more
a bit less quality than the prior volume. still fairly entertaining, with a handful of excellent stories and only one that was laughable drek.
with tha bit less quality than the prior volume. still fairly entertaining, with a handful of excellent stories and only one that was laughable drek.
with this second stage in his career, story-wise it appears that CAS became less interested in yearning tales of love, alien and otherwise, and refocused on contes cruel. the majority of the pieces in this collection are short ones describing unfortunate and disturbing endings for a range of deserving or undeserving characters. unfortunately, that particular offshoot of short horror fiction has little interest for me. they usually lack the depth, resonance, and ambiguity that I often crave in my Weird Fiction. alas!
however that handful of excellent stories truly shined. "Door to Saturn" is a lot of droll fun as two enemy wizards find themselves within the bizarre landscape of Saturn, and at the mercy of its various bizarre residents. "The Testament of Athammaus" features an absorbingly repulsive villain/monster. both have the feel of classic sword & sorcery high fantasy, except with a thick red vein of CAS darkness. "A Rendezvous in Averoigne" takes place in one of the author's more underrated locales: the imaginary French countrysides and castles of Averoigne, circa the 12th century, I assume. this one features two lovers and their servants encountering a dismal castle in the countryside, and its hungry residents. "The Letter from Mohaun Los" is an amusing science fictional tale of space travel to a couple very off-kilter and threatening planets. featuring a giant tentacled robot, of all things! and the bonafide classic of the the collection, "City of the Singing Flame" details the haunting lure of a flame of extermination, captivating all sorts of alien creatures - as well as our protagonist and his buddy - to their potential doom.
CAS' prose throughout all of the stories is lushly descriptive and gorgeously purple, per usual.
Hyperborea The Door to Saturn The Testament of Athammaus
Averoigne A Rendezvous in Averoigne
- love - Told in the Desert The Willow Landscape
- death - The Gorgon An Offering to the Moon The Kiss of Zoraida The Face by the River The Ghoul The Kingdom of the Worm The Justice of the Elephant The Return of the Sorcerer A Good Embalmer
- strange adventures - The Red World of Polaris & A Captivity in Serpens An Adventure in Futurity The City of the Singing Flame The Letter from Mohaun Los
- drek - The Hunters from Beyond (although it did introduce me to the word "nympholepsy" for which I suppose I'm grateful?)...more
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