Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness!

Fritz Leiber’s novel Gather, Darkness! was serialised in Astounding Science Fiction in May, June, and July 1943 and published in book form in 1950.

Leiber had been part of Lovecraft’s circle of correspondents and Leiber was always more a writer of weird fiction than science fiction.

In the distant future the world is governed by a theocracy. The priestly Hierarchy enforces the worship of the Great God. The power of that theocracy is now being challenged by occult forces, servants of the dread archfiend Sathanis. Rebellion is being plotted by the New Witchcraft.

But in fact it’s all an illusion. The reader knows this right from the start. There is no Great God. This is a synthetic religion invented by scientists to just a dictatorship of scientists. Miracles are performed regularly, but by means of advanced technology. There are angels, but they are really ultra-light aircraft. The Hierarchy has sophisticated mind control technologies and powerful drugs at its disposal. The population is kept in an uneducated superstitious state and the religion of the Great God has never been challenged.

Now occult forces, labelled the New Witchcraft, are at work spreading terror and confusion. But this is an illusion as well. There’s nothing supernatural about the New Witchcraft. They just have their own advanced technologies.

So what appears to be either a clash between opposing religions of dark and light, or a clash between science and magic, is in fact a power struggle between two fake religions invented by opposing factions of scientists and technocrats.

The trouble starts when a priest named Jarles suddenly harangues a crowd with a blasphemous anti-Hierarchy rant. He expects immediate arrest and punishment but it doesn’t happen.

The archpriest Goniface is gradually consolidating his control over the Hierarchy, driven by complex ambitions which will be revealed more fully at the end of the story.

There’s mind control in this book as well, a subject that would soon become an obsession for both science fiction and spy fiction writers. In Leiber’s novel a man’s personality can be moulded into a new form, but the old personality doesn’t quite disappear. Which can cause complications. Jarles is an enemy to the Hierarchy, he is remoulded into a loyal servant of the Hierarchy but there is now a major conflict set up in his mind. He has become an unpredictable factor.

The way technology is used to mimic the supernatural are quite clever. The witches have familiar spirits, but there’s nothing actually supernatural about them.

There’s certainly satire here but religion is not Leiber’s target. He’s more concerned with aiming his barbs at political ideologies and most of all he’s concerned with the way regimes (all regimes) construct an intricate web of deceptions to give themselves legitimacy.

The technologies deployed by both the Hierarchy and its opponents rely on the falsification of perceptions. Some of the more terrifying weapons are no more than illusions. The power struggle between the Hierarchy and will at times become violent but mostly it’s a lengthy complex exercise in the control of mass psychology. Fear is the most powerful weapon of all if it’s used subtly and effectively.

The major characters are all motivated by fears and by their own illusions and self-deceptions as well as ambition and, occasionally, the most deadly motivation of all - misguided idealism.

Gather, Darkness! is complex intelligent science fiction by one of the masters. Highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed other Fritz Leiber books - You're All Alone and The Big Time.

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss's The Flame and the Flower

The Flame and the Flower is a 1972 romance novel by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss.

I’ve read most genres of fiction but I must confess that I have read virtually no romance fiction. I do however think that if one claims to be interested in genre fiction one should sample as many genres as possible, and while this novel is clearly aimed almost exclusively at a female readership I thought it was worth taking a look at it.

This is considered to be one of the most important romance novels ever written. It more or less established a whole new sub-genre, the erotic historical romance. It is regarded as the first full-blown “bodice ripper” and the first modern steamy romance with much stronger erotic content compared to earlier romance novels. As the story unfolds bodices will be ripped and bosoms will heave. By the end of the 70s it had sold four-and-a-half million copies and it’s still in print and still selling steadily.

It’s also interesting in being quite controversial and it has many over-sensitive modern reviewers clutching their pearls. 1972 was a more enlightened time. It was a time when women were beginning to be open and honest about their sexual desires. It is the author’s honesty about such matters that leads to so much pearl-clutching.

It begins in the year 1799, in England. Heather Simmons is a well-bred girl but since her father’s death she has lived in poverty, grievously mistreated by her vindictive aunt. She thinks her luck has changed for the better when her aunt’s brother invites her to London where he assures her he can find her a respectable position in a school. Heather is rather innocent and discovers that her Uncle William and his associate Mr Hint are scoundrels. She escapes with her virtue intact but she leaves a corpse behind her. She flees, convinced that she will be pursued by the law and hanged as a murderess although she acted in self-defence.

Wandering in a state of confusion on the dockside she encounters two friendly sailors who assure her that the captain of the Fleetwood, an American trading ship, will be overjoyed to receive her. She is naïve and she thinks that taking ship for America might be the only way to avoid the hangman’s noose.

Captain Brandon Birmingham is indeed overjoyed to receive her and this time she does not escape with her virtue intact. It is important to note that he is absolutely convinced that she is a prostitute. He had asked his crewmen to fetch a whore for him. It does not for one moment cross his mind that she is anything other than a whore. He assumes that her unwillingness is feigned - that she is playing hard to get in order to increase his ardour. If one can avoid having a knee-jerk reaction to this scene then one has to admit that Brandon has no reason to suspect that she is in fact a naïve virgin.

As a result of this encounter Brandon finds himself forced to marry the girl. He is very unhappy about this. To complicate matters Heather is now pregnant.

Everything in this story hinges on misunderstandings, misunderstandings that could easily be cleared up if only these two people were not both so proud and so stubborn and so determined not to reveal the way their feelings towards each other are changing. Heather is determined not to allow Brandon to share her bed. He is determined that Heather will be his wife in name only - that he will give her neither the love nor the physical intimacy that marriage entails.

They hate each other, but it’s the kind of hate that can just as easily become love. And there is strong physical attraction on both sides. Sharing a small cabin on his ship they get to see each other at very close quarters. He cannot help noticing her luscious body. She thinks he is a monster, but a very handsome tall well-muscled monster and she is very impressed by his manliness. He is very manly indeed. Soon he is climbing the walls in sexual frustration but he still will not do anything about it even when she seems keen for him to do so. She is also climbing the walls in sexual frustration but will not admit that she wants him in her bed.

The author manages to make all this fairly believable.

There’s a mystery thriller plot here as well, which simmers in the background and eventually takes centre stage. There are several murders, wild accusations, some fairly decent suspense and some action.

It’s all very overheated and melodramatic but it’s entertaining. Brandon and Heather both have their faults and they’re complex and contradictory characters. They may not be immediately likeable but this is doubtless intentional - as their mutual affection grows and they learn to appreciate each other’s good points so the readers’ affection for them grows as well.

The Flame and the Flower is rather enjoyable. Recommended.

Malko 8: Death on the River Kwai

SAS L’Or de la Rivière Kwai, published in French in 1971, is one of just a handful of the 200 hugely popular Malko novels written by French former newspaper reporter Gérard de Villiers to be translated into English. That English edition, Malko 8: Death on the River Kwai, came out in 1975.

The hero of this spy series is His Serene Highness Prince Malko Ligne, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Knight of the Black Eagle, Knight of the Order of Landgrave Seraphim of Kletgaus, Knight of the Order of Malta. This Austrian prince works for the CIA. He does it for the money. He owns a castle and castles cost a fortune to maintain. Despite his mercenary motivations the CIA regards him as absolutely reliable.

The jobs he does for the CIA are the tricky ones that require a certain amount of flair. They can at times be a bit morally murky.

He’s currently in Thailand investigating the disappearance of his espionage mentor Jim Stanford. Stanford is retired from the CIA but spies can never really retire. Their pasts are always likely to catch up to them. Stanford may have been killed or he may have been abducted. And, oddly enough, back in the States his sister is murdered.

The local CIA station chief has given Malko an assistant - his pretty Thai secretary (who turns out to be from an incredibly rich family). Tepin is efficient and helpful. She is a virgin. She makes sure that Malko knows this. Tepin intends to defend her virtue. On the other hand she can’t help noticing that Malko is terribly brave and handsome and he has such sexy eyes. But she’s a good girl.

There are plenty of leads but they just leave Malko more bewildered. Stanford had a beautiful Thai wife, a thriving silk business, a luxurious house and an impressive art collection. But clearly he had secrets. His wife is not saying anything. Her attitude is puzzling and she seems just a little scared.

He discovers that Stanford was a regular customer at a Bangkok massage parlour where he got special favours (very special) from a very cute masseuse. Malko gets the same treatment from her and he can well understand why Stanford was such a loyal customer. She introduces Malko to pleasures he had never even imagined.

Stanford also has a mistress, a Chinese singer/whore. Malko doesn’t get much useful information from her but she teaches him a thing or two as well. Malko finds that the most effective place to interrogate pretty female witnesses is in bed. Even if they don’t reveal useful information the interrogations are still rewarding.

The problem is that while he now knows that Jim Stanford was no Boy Scout none of this offers Malko any clues as to why someone would want to liquidate or kidnap him. Stanford chased women but there are no indications that he was mixed up in anything political. On the other hand, taking into account that his sister was targeted as well, he had to have been involved in something big and something sinister.

Meanwhile Tepin is starting to reconsider this whole defending her virginity thing.

A major strength of this novel is the female characters. They are of course dangerous and sexy but they also have complex and believably feminine motivations. Malko is smart enough to know that one of these women is the key to the mystery but he has no idea which of them it might be.

And after he’s been beaten up several times he’s sure he must be getting close to some answers.

Malko has a tendency to be careless. He gets himself into scrapes that could have been avoided. It’s not that he isn’t a good intelligence agent, but he is not an infallible super-spy.

There’s plenty of action, there’s a well-crafted plot with effective twists, there’s an exotic setting and there are those beautiful dangerous women. It all adds up to a fine spy thriller and it’s highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed five of the other English-translated Malko books - West of Jerusalem, Operation New York, Man from Kabul, Malko versus the CIA and Malko: Angel of Vengence. They're all very much worth reading.

Gardner Francis Fox's Warrior of Llarn

Warrior of Llarn is a 1964 sword-and-planet adventure by Gardner Francis Fox. Maybe Fox wasn’t the greatest writer in the world but I’ve read a lot of his stuff and so far I haven’t come across a single boring book of his.

It has a classic sword-and-planet setup. Alan Morgan is a regular guy living in the modern United States, except that for years he has heard a mysterious voice giving him enigmatic messages. And for reasons he can’t rationally explain he has become an expert swordsman. He believes that something important is expected of him but he has no idea what it might be.

In a sword-and-planet story there is no reason to stress about finding a scientifically plausible explanation for the fact that the hero suddenly finds himself transported from 20th century Earth to a distant planet (called Llarn). It’s a much-used trope in this genre and one of the conventions of the genre is that no explanation is required.

Fox always believed in getting straight into the action so almost immediately Alan is set upon by four horned blue-skinned men riding horned horses. And then a flying machine appears, pursued by four other similar machines. The first machine crashes and Alan rescues the pilot and disposes of the pursuers. The pilot is a very pretty golden-skinned girl.

You won’t be at all surprised to find out that she is a princess. Or that an evil usurper now occupies her father’s throne.

But Alan will soon meet a second princess. She’s a beautiful but evil princess. Or that’s what she appears to be.

There are several humanoid species on Llarn, some closely related and some distantly related. Some of them only came into existence after The War. This is one of those stories in which atomic radiation can do absolutely anything - it can create new species and change existing species but it can also create bizarrely non-human lifeforms. Lifeforms that are possibly not even organic. Maybe not corporeal at all. Lifeforms with extraordinary powers. Powers that resemble magic.

Sword-and-planet stories usually do not involve actual magic. That is one of the things that distinguish the genre from sword-and-sorcery. But they can involve highly advanced technologies that seem magical. This novel does involve magic but it’s not really magic since atomic radiation can explain anything.

I don’t have a huge problem with this. Sword-and-planet stories do not have to follow the rules of hard science fiction. And let’s face it, a lot of actual hard science fiction stories involve impossible technologies that might as well be magic.

What matters is that this is a well-written fast-paced action-packed tale, it has some hints of horror, it has some weird coolness elements and there’s a fine love story. There’s a brave noble resourceful hero and a proud noble heroine. And there’s an interesting romantic triangle. There’s action on land, in the air, at sea and in the gloomy dungeons of ancient castles.

The author understands pulp fiction. This is pure entertainment. Recommended.

A second book, Thief of Llarn, appeared in 1966 but Warrior of Llarn works just fine as a standalone novel.

Gardner Francis Fox wrote in multiple pulp genres. His sexy spy thrillers such as the Cherry Delight books (beginning with The Italian Connection) and the Lady from L.U.S.T. books (beginning with Lust, Be a Lady Tonight) are huge amounts of fun. His 1967 black magic novel The Druid Stone (which combines occult thriller and sword-and-sorcery elements) is truly excellent.

Thomas B. Dewey’s Hunter at Large

Thomas B. Dewey’s Hunter at Large is a 1961 crime novel which has been reissued by Black Gat Books.

Thomas B. Dewey (1915-1981) was a prolific American crime writer.

Hunter at Large is a revenge story. Mickey Phillips is a young police detective. He and his wife Kathy live just outside of town. It’s a bit remote but that’s what Kathy wanted.

Then two guys knock at the door and Mickey’s whole world falls apart. Kathy is brutally murdered. Mickey is shot and left for dead.

The killers make one big mistake. They don’t check to make sure Mickey is dead. He survives. Only just, but he survives. When he recovers he wants revenge. He quits the police force. This is a quest he must undertake on his own.

He has two clues to go on. The killers knew his name but obviously didn’t know what he looked like. They had been hired to kill him but obviously had been given only his name. And one of the killers wields a razor the way only someone familiar with a razor would wield it - someone like a barber. It’s not much to go on but in Chicago he gets a break - he recognises a mug shot. It’s a guy named Lou Roberts.

The chase will take him to Kansas City, Denver and Arizona. To resort hotels and abandoned mines. His problem is that he has no evidence and no idea of the motive for the crime. He just figures that somehow or other he will find both evidence and a motive. Because he has to. But first he has to find Lou Roberts.

Mickey is a trained detective and now that he’s off the police force he has plenty of time. He can afford to be patient. And he is patient.

Along the way he hooks up with a cute prostitute named Irene. He befriends her because he thinks she might be some vague sort of lead. He’s just using her for information but he becomes oddly fond of her. She’s not quite a Whore with a Heart of Gold but she’s rather likeable and he helps her out of a couple of jams and she’s never had a man do anything nice for her before. They don’t fall in love but they develop a certain quirky affection for each other. He thinks he can trust her, up to a point. He doesn’t think she would deliberately betray him but he has had to tell her a few things which she might let slip.

He will meet another woman who might provide a lead and that will get complicated.

There’s a certain amount of action but very little gunplay. Rather surprisingly and perhaps foolishly, Mickey doesn’t even carry a gun and there are occasions when a gun would have come in real handy.

There’s some reasonable suspense and the mystery plot is quite serviceable.

The central issue is whether Mickey wants justice or just revenge. That’s a question that Mickey has asked himself and he can’t answer it. He takes a lot of risks because he feels he has nothing left to lose. Maybe he’s seeking self-destruction. Maybe he can still find some reason to live, or maybe he can’t. You’ll have to read the book to find out the answer to all of those questions.

He’s an archetypal obsessed hero driven by a single passion but he still has some humanity left in him. He treats Irene kindly even though he doesn’t owe her anything because it’s in his nature to do so.

There’s a major twist which is to an extent foreshadowed which is perhaps a weakness.

This is not noir fiction but it’s a competent hardboiled mystery crime thriller and it’s recommended.

Edmond Hamilton’s novella The Starcombers

Edmond Hamilton’s novella The Starcombers first appeared in Science Fiction Adventures in December 1956.

Edmond Hamilton (1904-1977) was an American science fiction writer who wrote some fine space opera for the pulps in the 1930s and 40s. He was a major contributor to Weird Tales. In 1946 he married Leigh Brackett.

Sam Fletcher works for Harry Axe. Harry Axe runs a space salvage operation. They find formerly inhabited planets and salvage anything that might be of value, especially metals. It’s quite legal but it’s the kind of business that attracts operators who are perhaps a bit shady, or at the very least rather ethically flexible.

Sam Fletcher is the pilot of Harry’s scout ship. He doesn’t like the work but it’s OK as long as he stays reasonably drunk.

Harry’s wife Lucy has become a problem for Sam. She desperately wants to sleep with Sam but he isn’t interested. Lucy reacts the way a lot of women would react in that situation. She feels scorned, so she wants to get even. She tells Harry that Sam seduced her. Harry isn’t sure if he believes her or not but the seed of suspicion has been planted and now things are tense between Sam and Harry. Lucy has caused trouble, which is what she wanted to do.

Harry and his team have found a planet that is pretty much dead. There’s a huge cleft running through it, as if the planet had been almost torn in two. There’s no atmosphere but there are ruins of a civilisation and there’s enough metal to make a profitable haul.

Then Sam spots somebody. Somebody apparently human, or at least human-like - it’s hard to be sure when someone is wearing a spacesuit. The planet is supposed to be uninhabited.

What interests Harry is that the stranger’s spacesuit and helmet are made of an incredibly lightweight incredibly tough totally unknown substance. That could mean money - there are people who would pay big bucks to analyse that substance.

And then all hell breaks loose. The planet is inhabited by a variety of life forms, some humanoid and some very bizarre indeed. They live in that cleft, where the last of the planet’s atmosphere is to be found. They all want food. Food is in very short supply. Harry assumes that this will make trading easy.

All the species native to the planet are constantly at war. Harry thinks he can scheme his way out of anything but maybe this time he’s miscalculated.

Sam is not exactly a standard square-jawed action hero. He’s not a hopeless drunk, but he is a drunk. He’s cynical. He’s not outstandingly brave. What he does have is a burning desire to survive, which is odd since he gives the impression of being a guy who puts very little value on his life.

Whether Harry is a villain or just reckless and foolish remains to be seen.

The story is not short on action and danger.

There are a few moral quandaries that Sam will have to face.

This is space opera but with at least some substance. Recommended.

Armchair Fiction have paired this title with The Year When Stardust Fell by Raymond F. Jones in a double-header edition.

I’ve reviewed some of Edmond Hamilton's other fiction including The Avenger from Atlantis and Crashing Suns.

Who is Number 2? The Prisoner tie-in novel)

David McDaniel’s Who is Number 2? was the second of the original novels based on The Prisoner TV series.

Like the first novel, Thomas M. Disch’s The Prisoner, it appears to take place some time after the events of the TV series.

You do need to be familiar with the television series. But if you are a fan of the TV series it’s worth reading and it’s recommended.

My full review can be found at Cult TV Lounge.