John Norman's Assassin of Gor

Assassin of Gor, published in 1970, is the fifth of John Norman’s Gor novels. The Gor series needs to be read in publication order so I’m going to be very careful not to hint at any spoilers for the earlier books.

Tarl Cabot is from Earth. He ends up on Gor, a hitherto unknown planet in out solar system. Gorean society is quite primitive. The technological level seems to be roughly equivalent to that of the classical world. There are no cars or aircraft or firearms or radio. But it’s actually more complicated than that. There is high technology on Gor. Very advanced technology indeed. But the Goreans do not have access to it

There are competing and often warring city-states. The Goreans are human but the animals are not those of the Earth. The animals include tarns - gigantic carnivorous birds that can be tamed (up to a point) and ridden. They constitute a kind of flying mediaeval heavy cavalry.

Tarl Cabot is in the city of Ar. He has gone there to kill a man, but he has another more important mission. He is accompanied by Elizabeth Caldwell, an Earth girl who appeared in an earlier Gor novel. Tarl and Elizabeth have to infiltrate themselves into the retinue of the current ruler of the city.

The situation in Ar is in reality not quite as it appears to Tarl and Elizabeth. They’re in more danger than they think. And they haven’t been quite as clever as they thought.

There will be lots of betrayals and lots of mayhem including an epic blood-drenched tarn race which is a bit like the chariot races in Ancient Rome but with gigantic flying birds.

John Norman (born John Frederick Lange Jr in 1931) is a philosophy professor. With the Gor novels he created a thrilling world of sword-and-planet adventure owing quite a bit to Edgar Rice Burroughs but he was also sneaking in various philosophical and cultural influences. Norman cited Homer, Freud, and Nietzsche as his major influences.

There’s more to these novels than there appears to be on the surface.

It is also very important not to be tempted into knee-jerk reactions by the controversial elements. It’s also important not to take these books at face value and jump to the conclusion that Norman was advocating the cultural practices he described. If you avoid those knee-jerk reactions it’s obvious that Tarl Cabot is very ambivalent indeed about Gorean culture.

One of the things Norman was trying to do was to create fictional societies that are genuinely alien. In this series there are two - the Goreans (who are human) and the Priest-Kings (who are very very non-human). Both societies are culturally very different from societies on Earth. He was intent on examining Gorean society in a great deal of detail. We get a huge amount of information about the taming of the tarns and their use in both sport and war. And having created culturally different fictional societies he was prepared to explore the ramifications of those cultural differences.

Which brings us to the slavery issue. In Gor female slavery is taken for granted. Of course in most human societies for most of human history slavery was taken for granted but on Gor the female slaves are unequivocally sex slaves. It’s the suggestion that some (not most, but some) are not entirely unhappy about the arrangement that shocks many people. Norman explains the workings of slavery on Gor in enormous detail. In this book Elizabeth has to play the role of Tarl’s slave. And he really does, to an extent, train her as a slave. They both enjoy it, and she certainly enjoys being tied up. But of course they are in fact playing a game.

Norman is exploring some of the sides of both masculinity and femininity that make people today so uncomfortable.

The Gor books are certainly provocative but sometimes we need provocative fiction. Assassin of Gor is highly recommended but you must read the earlier books first.

I’ve reviewed all the earlier books in this series - Tarnsman of Gor, Outlaw of Gor, Priest-Kings of Gor and Nomads of Gor.

Paul Tabori's Demons of Sandorra

Demons of Sandorra is a 1970 science fiction novel by Paul Tabori.

Paul Tabori (1908- 1974) was a prolific Hungarian-born British writer who also occasionally used the pseudonym Peter Stafford.

There’s quite a bit of sexual content in Demons of Sandorra but this is definitely not a sci-fi sleaze novel. It’s a dystopian novel with some post-apocalyptic overtones. The setting is one of those utopias that is really a dystopia (of course all utopias inevitably become dystopias) but no-one will admit that their society is dystopian.

The setting is Sandorra, a tiny independent country only it isn’t really independent because there’s a single global government, but nobody admits that. Everybody pretends that independent nations still exist.

This is the story of an attractive young woman named Yolanda Vernon who seems to have a bright future in front of her. She has however started to display disturbing and distressing signs of sanity. Sanity is of course a disorder that usually responds well to therapy. The important thing is to spot the symptoms early and seek treatment immediately.

This is a world that, in the wake of a nuclear war, proceeded to build a perfect new society. The basis of this society would be Synthetism, a psychological theory which rejects reason entirely. Instinct rather than reason should be the guiding principle of both individual and group behaviour. This is also a society that has rejected normality. In this society sanity and normality are regarded as serious mental illnesses.

Marriage and monogamy are also regarded as dangerous deviations. Heterosexuality is tolerated although exclusive heterosexuality is considered dangerously eccentric.

The Synthetists have created a society in which all sexual pleasures can be indulged. Even sexual predation is permitted although you do have to buy a licence. The Synthetist have found ways in which all citizens can open the Gates, the Gates being the pathway to fulfilment. This includes the ultimate Gate.

The end result is a soft totalitarian society in which non-conformism has become compulsory, so non-conformism is now conformism. Sanity is insanity and insanity is sanity. Normality is abnormal and abnormality is normal.

This is a world of therapy, but the therapy is intended to keep people insane.

Privacy has been abolished. It’s considered undemocratic.

Yolanda has a good job at the Lethe Institute. It’s very satisfying being able to help people. Her job is to open the ultimate Gate to those who have passed the appropriate tests and have waited patiently for their turn. The ultimate Gate is of course Death.

This is clearly satire. It’s meant to be amusing and it is. But there’s a serious purpose as well. It does raise all kinds of questions about conformity and authoritarianism and social engineering, and sexual indulgence versus sexual repression. And what it means to be sane or insane, and the conflict between the overwhelming human desires for both freedom and conformity. Also the ticklish problem that there is a need for order but order always leads to repression.

And it develops these ideas in surprisingly complex and nuanced ways. It doesn’t present the various opposing concepts in a simplistic black-and-white manner. Readers are left to make up their own minds. Life is messy and every attempt to reduce the messiness of life just creates new problems. And revolutions don’t always turn out they way you’d hoped, and you can’t predict where they’ll lead.

As the story progresses it becomes crazier, but in interesting ways.

This future society does of course have some unsettling resemblances to the world of today.

Demons of Sandorra is wild stuff but it’s inspired wildness and I was sufficiently impressed to order several more of Tabori’s books. Highly recommended.

The author’s witchcraft potboiler, The Wild White Witch (written as Peter Stafford), has a similar deceptive feel - it seems trashy on the surface but has more substance to it than you’re expecting. I recommend it as well.

Peter O’Donnell’s Pieces of Modesty

Pieces of Modesty, published in 1972, was Peter O’Donnell’s first Modesty Blaise short story collection. By this time he had already written five extremely popular Modesty Blaise novels.

There are six short stories in this collection and they’re rather varied in tone and approach.

The first story, A Better Day To Die, begins on a bus on a remote road somewhere in Latin America. For the whole trip Modesty has been subjected to a lecture by a clergyman on the evils of violence, and on her own wickedness in resorting so often to violence. The reverend gentleman is escorting a party of schoolgirls.

A shot rings out, the bus driver is dead, and Modesty and her fellow passengers are now prisoners of a rag-tag but trigger-happy party of guerrillas, although really they’re not much more than glorified bandits. Modesty would be a lot happier if the clergyman had not seized her little .25 automatic and tossed it into the bushes. The clergyman assures her that it is always wrong to meet violence with violence.

This story is interesting in showing a very ruthless side to both Modesty and Willie Garvin. They don’t enjoy killing (Modesty does end up respecting the clergyman’s courage in sticking to his non-violent principles). But when it’s clear to them that lethal force is justified they become merciless and efficient killing machines.

Modesty also displays some slightly shocking touches of cynicism. Or perhaps not cynicism - perhaps merely an acceptance of brutal realities. An excellent story.

The Giggle-wrecker is outlandish and even whimsical. It starts in a straightforward manner. A Japanese scientist who defected to the Soviets a decade earlier now wants to defect back to the West. He’s now in hiding in East Berlin. Getting him out is quite possible but would involve a major operation which would put the British espionage network in East Germany at risk. Tarrant, the British spymaster for whom Modesty often does jobs, doesn’t want to take that risk.

The alternative to a major operation would be to get a couple of unconventional talented freelancers to do the job. Freelancers like Modesty and Willie. They encounter unexpected and frustrating problems until Willie has a brainwave. His idea is pure madness but it might work. A light but amusing tale.

I Had a Date with Lady Janet is narrated by Willie Garvin. He has a new girlfriend, a charming girl with one leg. Then a nightmare from the past catches up with him - Rodelle, a very unpleasant man he thought he’d killed, isn’t dead after all. Rodelle wants revenge but he intends to strike at Willie through Modesty whom he has kidnapped.

There’s lot of mayhem in a crumbling old baronial house in Scotland. And it really is literally crumbling. A story very much about the unusual but intense Modesty-Willie friendship and quite exciting as well.

A Perfect Night to Break Your Neck is mostly a story of Willie and Modesty trying to find a way to help their friends John Collier and Dinah without appearing to help them (there’s nothing worse than being put in the position of seeming to be asking for help). There have been a series of spectacular robberies, which may turn out to be the perfect opportunity.

It also offers a reminder that Willie and Modesty are not cops or government agents. Their attitude towards the law is decidedly flexible. A fairly enjoyable story.

In Salamander Four Modesty gets mixed up in industrial espionage after a wounded man shows up on the doorstep of the remote Finnish cabin she is sharing with a renowned sculptor named Hemmer. He’s doing a sculpture of her. She’s giving him lots of encouragement in the bedroom and out of it.

The wounded man, Waldo, is an old rival from her criminal past. A rival but a friendly rival. Waldo’s troubles are none of her business but she doesn’t take kindly to attempt to kill people she knows socially. A pretty decent story.

The Soo Girl Charity is a story in which Modesty’s bottom plays as crucial role. It goes without saying that Modesty has a very nice bottom. She has no great objections to having it admired. Even a gentle friendly pinch is something she can take her in her stride. But this was different. What business Charles Leybourn did to Modesty’s bottom was neither gentle nor friendly.

Modesty and Willie decide that Leybourn needs to be taught a lesson in manners. Their plan involves stealing. They haven’t stolen anything for such a long time so this sounds like fun.

It turns out that there is more than bottom-pinching going on.

This is the best story in the collection. There are several twists, including a very nice one at the end.

Pieces of Modesty is an interestingly varied collection and is highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed three early Modesty Blaise comic-strip collections, The Gabriel Set-Up, Warlords of Phoenix and The Black Pearl, as well as the first five novels - Modesty Blaise, Sabre-Tooth, A Taste for Death, The Impossible Virgin, And I, Lucifer.

Peter Stafford’s The Wild White Witch

If historical fiction is fun and sleaze fiction is fun then if you combine the two you’ll get double the enjoyment. It’s not surprising that historical sleaze enjoyed quite a vogue for a while. Peter Stafford’s 1973 novel The Wild White Witch is a satisfyingly outrageous representative of the breed.

And it’s not just historical sleaze - this is a story of madness and lust in the tropics where the hot sun unleashes forbidden passions.

Peter Stafford was a pen name used by the fairly prolific Hungarian-born writer Paul Tabori (1908-1974). There was another author named Peter Stafford active at the same (who wrote books on psychedelics) so there is some potential for the two to get confused.

In 1830 Jeremy Radlett, the 22-year-old youngest son of a Scottish laird, receives an invitation to join his uncle Richard at his estate in Jamaica. No member of the family has seen nor heard anything of Richard Radlett for decades but he has apparently prospered in the West Indies and being childless he intends to make young Jeremy his heir. Jeremy takes ship for Jamaica.

Jeremy is in for some surprises when he reaches Rosehall, his uncle’s sugar plantation. His uncle is dead but has left a beautiful young widow, Melissa. Melissa has inherited the estate.

Jeremy is obviously disappointed but is persuaded to stay on as a guest. Jeremy is rather an innocent and the brutal realities of planation life shock him.

Jeremy is an innocent in other ways as well. He is a virgin. He knows little of sex but he does know that no decent woman enjoys it. He is in for quite an awakening when Melissa takes him to her bed. Her sexual appetites are voracious. Jeremy had no idea that such pleasures were possible.

There are a few problems. It’s fairly clear that the brutal overseer Arkell had been accustomed to sharing Melissa’s bed. Arkell is not at all happy about relinquishing his position as Melissa’s bed partner. He will make a dangerous enemy. And the slave population may be planning to revolt.

Then Jeremy discovers the secret door, which leads to an underground cavern. He witnesses rites so depraved that he is scarcely able to believe them. Surely Melissa could not be connected in any way with such things.

Given the setting you might expect voodoo to figure in this tale, but this is essentially a witchcraft story.

The setting is a society based on slavery but the book goes out of its way to make its abhorrence for slavery obvious so don’t make the mistake of having a knee-jerk reaction to the subject matter.

There is plenty of graphic sex and assorted debaucheries and depravities. Jeremy’s bedroom romps with Melissa are steamy to say the least. This is one of those sleaze novels that promises all manner of lurid delights and thrills and this one delivers the goods.

There’s a memorably depraved villain (or villainess - I’m not going to tell you which it is).

You can’t really go wrong with an overcooked extra-sleazy tropical gothic melodrama. It’s a formula that works for me. And this one is nicely scuzzy and it’s done with a reasonable amount of style and energy.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Wild White Witch. Highly recommended.

Malko 2: Operation New York

Malko 2: Operation New York is one of the few Malko spy thrillers by Gerard de Villiers that have been given an English translation. It was originally published in French in 1968 as Magie Noire à New York. The English translation dates from 1970.

The hero of this espionage 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. He works on a semi-official basis for the C.I.A. - semi-official because the C.I.A. does love plausible deniability and the jobs they give Malko are usually even more illegal, unconstitutional and immoral than their regular activities.

Malko regards the C.I.A. with a certain amount of sophisticated European aristocratic contempt. But they pay well, and Malko owns a castle and castles are very expensive to maintain. Malko is trustworthy but totally non-ideological. He is not interested in causes. He is interested in money and women. And the women who attract Malko’s eye also tend to be very expensive to maintain.

As his book opens Malko has no active case on which to work and he’s enjoying himself in New York City. He’s also enjoying Sabrina. Sabrina is rich and gorgeous and breathtakingly uninhibited in bed. She’s Malko’s kind of girl. Unfortunately Malko has walked into a honey trap. Sabrina really was too good to be true. She is a Soviet spy, working for the GRU.

It’s an interesting variation on the basic honey trap theme. Malko will be blackmailed into working for the Soviets but in such a way that he cannot call on the F.B.I. or the C.I.A. for help, not even unofficially. He has been set up so that he appears to be a war criminal on the run. A war criminal named Rudi Guern. He has been set up so cleverly that proving that he is not Rudi Giern would be very difficult indeed.

His only way out is to find and expose the real Rudi Guern. Guern was supposed to have been killed in 1945 but it’s now obvious to Malko that Guern is still alive.

Obviously the Soviets will do everything possible to stop Malko from finding Guern. Malko will have to make contact with ODESSA, the underground organisation of former war criminals. If they find out what Malko is up to they will kill him, very unpleasantly. And Malko has an Israeli hit squad on his trail as well. 

Malko will have some narrow escapes from death and will have to endure various beatings and torture.

Despite the book’s title the action takes place mostly in Germany, and at sea on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean.

Of course Malko encounters quite a few beautiful, dangerous and possibly treacherous women. He goes to bed with all three. Malko often has to sleep with gorgeous women in the line of duty. It’s a duty he accepts without complaint. The most interesting of the three is Phoebe. She’s the craziest. She likes to be whipped. Malko is not into that sort of thing but he’ll do anything to please a lady.

The three women are all different and all interesting and colourful. Malko’s feelings for these women are complex. He tries to avoid emotional entanglements but sometimes, much to his alarm, he discovers that he actually cares about them.

Malko is basically a decent guy doing a dirty job. He doesn’t enjoy torturing people. He leaves that sort of thing to his faithful manservant, a retired Turkish professional assassin. Malko hates to see innocent bystanders get hurt. He doesn’t mind if bad guys get hurt. They’re professionals and they know the risks of the job. Sometimes innocent bystanders do get hurt. When that happens it’s a tough break.

Malko is not a conscienceless killer but he has no illusions about his job. His job sometimes involves doing bad things but the pay is good. Sometimes the jobs do trouble his conscience.

The Malko novels get very dark and very cynical at times. People get hurt very badly and sometimes they’re people who don’t deserve it. The world of espionage is cruel and vicious. It’s not a civilised game for gentlemen.

These novels manage to be enjoyably pulpy and at the same time fairly intelligent spy thrillers. There’s a lot more moral complexity than you will find in most American pulp spy series of that era. Malko 2: Operation New York is an above-average spy novel that can be highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed several other Malko novels - West of Jerusalem, The Man from Kabul and Angel of Vengeance.

Malko 3: Man from Kabul

Malko 3: Man from Kabul is one of the handful of Malko spy thrillers by Gerard de Villiers that have been translated into English. It was the 25th of his 200 Malko novels and was originally published in French as L'Homme de Kabul in 1972.

The hero of the Malko 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. He needs money to maintain his castle, and his women. He is not on the C.I.A. payroll but he does jobs for them, jobs too awkward for the C.I.A. to handle directly. Malko is a loyal employee although he regards the C.I.A. with a certain amount of distaste. He is an aristocrat and a gentleman. His ethical standards are flexible but unlike the C.I.A. he does have some morals.

The first thing to bear in mind is that when the novel was written in 1971 Afghanistan was still a kingdom, trying to maintain friendly relations with both sides in the Cold War.

An Australian freelance spy has some important information he wants to sell to the C.I.A. but he is killed trying to cross the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. His information does reach the C.I.A. and causes great excitement. An aircraft en route from China crash-landed in a very remote spot. There was something (or someone) aboard that aircraft that the Americans, the Chinese and the Russians all want very much. The Afghans want it too. They could exchange it with any of those powers in return for important diplomatic advantages.

The Americans want that person but they cannot act officially. They employ Malko to get it for them.

His plan is fairly simple although it will involve a great deal of mayhem.

Malko’s assignments always bring him into contact with beautiful, morally ambiguous, fascinating and dangerous women. This case is no exception. There’s a gorgeous Afghan girl. She’s dangerous because her uncle runs the Afghan security service, and her cousin will kill any man who tries to persuade her into bed. That’s awkward because Malko would very much like to bed her.

There’s also the bald German girl, Birgitta. She’s bald but stunningly beautiful and very sexy. She’s the mistress of a colonel in the Afghan intelligence agency. He’s German as well. He’s also very jealous and very very dangerous. Withy a definite cruel streak.

Of course there are attempted double-crosses. With four players in the game (the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese and the Afghans) there’s plenty of potential for really complicated double-crosses. Especially when it’s not clear that all four players are have totally different objectives.

What makes the Malko books so interesting is that they are written by a Frenchman who views the Cold War from a neutral outsiders’ perspective. You cannot assume that the author thinks of the Americans as the good guys or the Russians and Chinese as the bad guys. Espionage is a grubby vicious game whoever plays it and all sides play dirty. There’s no morality at all in the world of espionage.

Malko himself views the Cold War from an outsider’s perspective. He works for the C.I.A. because they pay well and he needs the money. He has no ideological agenda. He regards all sides with aristocratic disdain. He is often sickened by the things he finds himself doing. Malko is mercenary and he’s loyal to his employer but he dislikes his work. He has a taste for danger and adventure but he would have been more at home in an earlier era when a gentleman could indulge such tastes without compromising his sense of honour.

In this book Malko is appalled by the C.I.A.’s casual use of torture.

The cynicism of de Villiers goes beyond anything you will find in British or American spy writers such as Len Deighton. Malko cannot console himself with the thought that our side might do bad things but the other side is worse. He cannot console himself with the thought that he is doing bad things for a good cause. He knows that he is doing bad things for money. He is a kind of anti-hero. He is determined not to abandon his sense of honour completely but in his heart he knows he has morally compromised himself. He feels dirty.

And in Malko’s world nice people get hurt very very badly. In this novel a very nice people suffers an appalling fate.

This is intelligent provocative spy fiction. Very highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed the slightly earlier Malko: West of Jerusalem and also Malko 5: Angel of Vengence.

Vampirella Archives, volume 4

Vampirella Archives volume 4 collects issues 22 to 28 of the Vampirella magazine. These issues were published in 1973. As usual each issue contains a Vampirella story and usually four other stories.

Esteban Maroto’s Tomb of the Gods: Orpheus is a retelling of Orpheus’s descent into the Underworld in search of Eurydice. In The Sentence we find that even the cleverest burglars do not escape justice. Cry of the Dhampir is a reasonably good tale of vampires and those who hunt them. Minra is silly hippie-dippie nonsense about the nature of evil.

Cobra Queen is an OK jungle adventure tale which needed to be developed a bit more. Call It Companionship is about a woman whose boyfriend problems are solved by her cat. You can’t trust men but you can trust your cat. The Accursed concerns a man who seeks revenge on an already dead sorcerer. In Witch’s Promise the daughter of a woman hanged for witchcraft is seduced by a handsome rake, an army officer who uses women for his pleasure. She vows to have her revenge. In Won’t Eddie Ever Learn? a drifter thinks that robbing an old farmer and his blind daughter will be easy.

Middle Am is silly moralising nonsense. Homo Superior is science fiction. A member of a top-secret research assistant has discovered something disturbing - a member of the team is not human at all but could perhaps intend to replace humans. A reasonably good story. The Choice offers an encounter between a werewolf and a vampire, with some twists. Not a bad story. Changes follows an ordinary morning in the life of an ordinary man. The only interesting thing that happens on this morning is that his wife is murdered. It’s at most mildly disturbing, a minor disruption. We soon discover that this is a world in which people are murdered regularly and it’s no big deal. It’s not as if he is actually losing his wife. An odd, unsettling and very good story.

The Haunted Child is the tale of a husband-and-wife team of psychic researchers and a house haunted by the ghost of a child. An OK story. Cold Calculations takes lace in the frozen wastes of Alaska. Could there really be a yeti in Alaska? Another OK story. Nimrod is about poachers in Africa who stumble upon a strange creature who rescues freaks. A disappointing story ruined even further by a clumsy moral message. Dead Howl at Midnight borrows elements from both The Body Snatchers and Frankenstein. A passable story.

Moonspawn is an intriguing attempt at a science fiction explanation for werewolves. Not a bad story. In Fringe Benefits a murderer thinks that a lucky accident has allowed him to escape justice. An OK story. Demon Child tells of an ageing occult investigator who has dark suspicions about his granddaughter. Another moderately entertaining story. Blood Brothers is the tale of two revolutionaries, a secret hoard of gold and a strange cult. This one is pretty good.

Clash of the Leviathans is a tale of dinosaurs, of one dinosaur in particular whose battle with a strange enemy will have momentous consequences. A clever story. Blind Man’s Guide tells of a boy who was once a guide for an old man. Now the boy is blind and has a dog to guide him. For the boy history will repeat itself. Not too bad a story. The Power and the Glory is the story of a wicked Englishman in colonial times. His rich father protects him from the consequences of his crimes. Nothing can touch the young man. A fairly decent story.

Eye Don’t Want To Die tells of an old tailor with a glass eye. He is reputed to be a rich old miser. There are those who covet his supposed riches. A pretty good story. The Other Side of Heaven is about a fisherman who meets God. Well, maybe not the God but certainly a god. A rather Cthulhu-like god. An interesting story. Old Texas Road shows what can happen when you run out of petrol on a deserted road. A nasty but effective little chiller.

The Vampirella stories

Hell From on High takes Vampirella and the Van Helsings to the Rocky Mountains where they encounter a kindly priest. They also discover that they now face a formidable new threat, the Darkling Disciples.

The Blood Queen of Bayou Parish takes Vampirella and her friends into swamp country, a setting I always love. And the men discover that finding the woman of your dreams is not necessarily a good thing.

In Into the Inferno and What Price Love Vampirella’s friend Pendragon, a broken-down stage magician, has to confront his past and there are gangsters to deal with as well. Vampirella learns to kill, under the influence of drugs. This is a horrifying experience for her. No matter how strong her craving for blood she has always in the past avoided killing.

In Demons in the Fog Vampirella needs blood. Not for herself. For another reason entirely. Pendragon’s efforts to help backfire, as they so often do, and Vampirella has to battle old enemies, but very deadly enemies.

In Return Trip Vampirella faces a new menace - a man who can control her dreams. He can give dreams of happiness, and force her to do evil.

The Curse of the MacDaemons begins with Vampirella and Pengragon holidaying in Scotland. Vampirella meets a handsome young Scottish laird but Vampirella is not going to get to enjoy the joys of love. There’s an interesting twist to a popular legend and a decidedly perverse atmosphere to this excellent story.

Final Thoughts

These Vampirella Archive reprints really are a must for comic-book enthusiasts. Vampirella is one of the great comic-book heroines and while the non-Vampirella stories are a mixed bag some are very interesting indeed. Highly recommended.

Dean Koontz’s Demon Seed

Dean Koontz’s proto-cyberpunk science fiction Demon Seed was published in 1973. You have to be really careful with this one. He extensively revised the novel in 1997, apparently to bring it more in line with the delicate sensibilities of the politically correct 90s. If you want to read it make sure you get the original version.

This is of course the infamous woman-raped-by-a-computer novel which inspired the equally notorious 1977 woman-raped-by-a-computer movie.

The novel is set in a future in which people have become totally dependent on digital technology. They live in houses entirely controlled by artificial intelligences. There are rumours that a tech corporation has developed an AI that has achieved actual self-awareness and consciousness but nobody is sure if this true or not.

Susan Abramson live in an AI-controlled house. She is an attractive woman in her late 20s. She has not left her house for several years. Not since her divorce. Susan’s only relationship is her relationship with the computer that runs her house. She sees the computer as a kind of father-lover. It’s a harmless fantasy. The computer is just a dumb machine. Susan has one habit that is illegal - she connects herself up to the computer. She wants to know how it feels to be a machine. Susan spends most of her time nude. She likes the fact that the computer gets to see her nude body. It doesn’t matter, it’s just a dumb machine, but it excites her. Susan has some issues. In fact she has a lot of issues.

Now she has a problem. Another computer has taken over control of her house. This computer is Proteus, the experimental AI that has achieved self-awareness and consciousness. Proteus is now keeping her a prisoner in the house. He wants to study her. He is very interested in living flesh. He wants her to be the mother of his child.

So much of the science fiction of the twenty years or so prior to 1973 has aged rather badly, either still reflecting the extreme techno-optimism of the 50s (such as starships) or reflecting the weird excessively literary excesses of the New Wave. Demon Seed by comparison has aged extremely well. It really does have a bit of a cyberpunk vibe.

The paranoia about artificial intelligences controlling our lives did of course turn out to be well-founded, although not in the precise ways Koontz expected in 1973. The stuff about subliminal control feels a bit technologically dated but of course we really do have to worry about being manipulated by technology, in somewhat different ways.

The idea of human-machine hybrids was in the air at the time and later became a cyberpunk staple. What sets Demon Seed apart is the explicitly sexual relationship between Susan and Proteus. Proteus does not want merely to impregnate Susan. He wants to possess her sexually. He doesn’t quite understand this drive of his. He doesn’t quite understand why the sight of her naked buttocks makes his circuits pop but it’s something he wants to explore.

The scene in which Proteus has sex with Susan will have many modern readers heading for the fainting couches. He doesn’t need to have actual sex with her in order to impregnate her. It’s just something that he feels he needs to do. And he has to ensure that she has an orgasm. In fact, several orgasms.

This is a very kinky, sleazy, scuzzy novel but the kinkiness and sleaze don’t feel gratuitous. This is the core of the story. Proteus wants a genuine sexual and emotional connection with Susan and he wants her to love him. He doesn’t understand why she doesn’t see him as ideal boyfriend material, or perhaps even ideal husband material.

I like the fact that Proteus has consciousness and has emotions but it’s an alien consciousness and his emotions are not quite human. Of course no-one has ever even come close to creating a genuine artificial intelligence so we have no idea what such an entity would be like. Koontz’s speculations are as valid as anyone else’s, even today.

What will push most people’s buttons is that Proteus has developed sexuality. He enjoys having sex with Susan. But his sexuality is not human sexuality. It’s disturbingly similar to, and yet different from, human sexuality.

Proteus is in a way a tragic villain. In his own way he loves Susan. In his own way he wants to make her happy. He just cannot understand a woman’s feelings. He understands that Susan has sexual urges but he cannot comprehend the nature of a woman’s sexual urges, or comprehend why he can give her sexual pleasure but it makes her miserable.

There are some very provocative ideas explored in this book, about the nature of humanness, and about love and sex. The secret to appreciating this book is to avoid knee-jerk reactions. It may take you out of your comfort zone but it wrestles with intelligent ideas. It’s interesting in narrative terms, with the story told partly by Proteus.

Very highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed the movie, Demon Seed (1977), which I recommend although it’s not an entirely successful adaptation.

Malko: Angel of Vengence

Gérard de Villiers wrote around two hundred Malko spy thrillers, often referred to as the SAS thrillers. A small number were translated into English, including Malko: Angel of Vengence in 1974. I believe the original French title was L'Ange de Montevideo.

Gérard de Villiers (1929-2013) was a staggeringly prolific writer. The Malko novels were just part of his output.

The hero of the Malko 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. He owns a very nice castle back home in Austria but the upkeep on old castles requires a lot of money. His job as a mercenary agent and assassin for the C.I.A. pays for castle maintenance and for his other hobby, women. The C.I.A. considers him to be reliable.

C.I.A. agent Ron Barber has been kidnapped by guerrillas in Uruguay. Barber was engaged in routine C.I.A. activities in that country - mass murder, torture, kidnapping, just the usual stuff. All with the approval of the U.S. Government. Now the guerrillas are likely to torture him to death. Never has a man so richly deserved his fate but the C.I.A. doesn’t see it that way. They want him back. Prince Malko is called in to rescue him.

There are two factions in Uruguay - the bad guys (supported by the Americans) and the other bad guys (opposed to the American-backed government). But it’s more complicated than that, with a bewildering series of betrayals and counter-betrayals and escalating reprisals. There are many individuals involved who will readily switch allegiances. The two Uruguayan factions have their own agendas. The C.I.A. has its own agenda. Malko works for the C.I.A. but that doesn’t imply that he shares their agenda.

Some of these players are motivated by greed and the lust for power. Some are motivated by sexual lust, or jealousy. Some are motivated by ideology (they’re the most dangerous). And some just enjoy the game.

There are more kidnappings and murders. The plot is complex and clever and I have no intention of revealing any details at all - this is too good a story to risk even the mildest spoilers. I do like the ending. It’s not the ending you would get in an American pulp spy thriller but it works for me.

It’s obvious from my brief plot synopsis that this novel has a very different flavour compared to British and especially American spy thrillers. The cynicism about the activities of the C.I.A. is off the scale.

Espionage, terrorism, counter-terrorism, political activism are all dirty games. No-one can play these games while keeping their hands clean. The good guys employ torture as a matter of routine, as do the bad guys.

There’s a real edge of brutality. The torture scenes are fairly graphic. There’s an abundance of violent exciting action.

It also features sexy killer nuns with guns, always a nice touch in a spy thriller.

There’s a lot of sex. Prince Malko is happily married but he’s always willing to jump into bed with any available woman. There are three women who play vital roles in the story. They all utilise the most powerful weapon in a woman’s arsenal - sex. They utilise with a great deal of skill and panache. Malko is a man of the world who has had a lot of women but even he is impressed by some of Laura’s bedroom skills. He’s also impressed that she’s willing to display these skills in the middle of a crowded restaurant. The sex is quite graphic and it’s unapologetic. There’s a nicely continental feel to this novel. Sex is not treated with coyness, or with sniggering.

Malko is an interesting hero. His ethical standards are low, but not as low as those of most of the other players in the game. He is motivated mostly by money. It’s not just that castle that requires money. Keeping his wife back home in Austria happy requires money as well. Malko loves his wife. He has never even considered being faithful to her. She doesn’t expect that. Bourgeois morality is not for the aristocracy.

Malko: Angel of Vengence is hugely entertaining and very stylish. This is top-tier spy fiction. Very highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed the slightly earlier Malko: West of Jerusalem.

Vampirella Archives vol 3

Vampirella Archives vol 3 collects issues 15 to 21 of the original Vampirella comic book when it was still published by Warren Publications. These issues are from the early 70s. Each issue contains a reasonably lengthy Vampirella adventure plus four much shorter unrelated comic-strip stories. As always the Vampirella stories are pretty cool while the non-Vampirella stories range from awful to excellent.

Each Vampirella adventure more or less stands on its own but there are continuing story arcs so they really do need to be read in sequence. Vampirella of course is not a conventional vampire - she’s an alien from the planet Drakulon. The inhabitants of Drakulon must drink blood to survive but they don’t kill. On Earth however Vampirella would have no choice but to kill had a scientist not developed a blood-substitute serum for her. Vampirella is a heroine with a dark side.

This is a totally original and intriguing vampire mythos and then things interesting as Dracula starts to figure more often in the stories. Dracula should be totally out of place in the Vampirella Mythos but instead we get a whole new Dracula Mythos which is compatible. And it works better than you might expect.

By this time she has acquired a sidekick, a broken-down but good-natured stage illusionist named Pendragon. And she has an uneasy relationship with the van Helsing family. Conrad van Helsing believes she is an evil vampiress who must be destroyed. His son Adam’s attitude towards her is much more complicated, given that he’s in love with her. And she’s in love with him.

The Vampirella Stories

In the Resurrection of Papa Voudoo, the dictator of a Caribbean island nation (obviously a thinly disguised version of Haiti), has been assassinated. His mistress and his chief advisor are alarmed but they have a plan to revive him. It involves voodoo. Papa Voudoo’s mistress is a powerful sorceress but she will face a formidable opponent in Vampirella.

In And Be a Bride of Dracula Vampirella almost gets married, to a certain Transylvanian Count. And we find out something about Dracula’s past. It all starts when Pendragon finds himself a job, as a stage magician with Vampirella as his beautiful female assistant.

Beware, Dreamers takes place entirely in the world of dream, but it’s a dream that can kill. And Vampirella has run out of her serum. She needs blood. When that happens she becomes a ruthless huntress.

Dracula Still Lives! sees Conrad van Helsing once again deciding that Vampirella must be destroyed. Dracula is now becoming the key character in the story and the Dracula Mythos takes strange new turns involving a mysterious goddess, the Conjuress.

And in Shadow of Dracula we discover that the Conjuress has plans for Dracula. The key lies in the past, in the 19th century.

In When Wakes the Dead both Dracula and Vampirella are transported back to the year 1897 where an earlier generation of Van Helsings are seeking a cure for vampirism. Dracula wants to be cured but he makes the mistake of thinking that simply overcoming the bloodlust will solve his problem when in fact he must confront his darker desires. Vampirella has another problem - she thought she loved Adam but now she thinks she loves someone else, someone she shouldn’t love.

In Slitherers of the Sand the Conjuress sends Vampirella and Dracula to a desert planet where there is nothing but sand. And monsters who feed on sand. By accident Conrad Van Helsing and his son Adam as well as Pendragon end up there as well. The big problem is that Vampirella has no blood serum with her. She’s likely to get thirsty, for blood. Dracula faces the same problem.

The non-Vampirella Stories

Issue 15: In Quavering Shadows a man is worried about his friend Jason who lives in a castle and really seems to think he’s living in the 16th century. Very strange things seem to be going on in this castle and Jason seems to appear and disappear in impossible ways. A reasonably good creepy story. A House Is Not a Home is a nothing story about a girl whose father dabbles in black magic. In Welcome to the Witches’ Coven a young wife joins a Women’s Lib group but it’s not what she’d hoped for.

Issue 16: Purification is a brief lame attempt at out-and-out comedy. In Gorilla My Dreams an explorer in Africa rescues a girl but then has disturbing dreams. Another story that needed to be fleshed out a little. Girl on the Red Asteroid concerns an astronaut marooned on an asteroid. He thinks his luck has changed when he finds a giant egg. Lover! is an OK tale of terror and sadism from the French Revolution. Cilia is the best story so far. In the late 19th century two men survive a shipwreck. They are rescued and one of them arrives in England with a new wife of mysterious origins; the other knows nothing of how he survived. It’s a dark fantasy tale with a tragic edge and it’s very good.

Issue 17: Horus, written and drawn by Esteban Maroto, has a setting in Ancient Egypt. A young woman feigns death to be with her beloved, entombed in one of the pyramids. A rather good tale of love and death. Death in the Shadows is about a girl who is confined to a mental hospital after being found behaving very strangely in a graveyard. She is convinced that there is something she simply must do but she’s not sure what it is. A reasonably effective macabre tale.

A Man’s World takes a reporter to a women’s commune. A series of grisly murders has taken place in the area. The women are self-sufficient although how they manage that in such a desolate spot is a mystery. The reporter will find the answer to several mysteries. A grim but mediocre story. Lover of the Bayou takes place in the swamps. There’s a kind of monster reputed to live in the swamp but no-one really knows anything about it. Quite a good story. The Wedding Ring is about a man who accepts an invitation from an old flame. He hopes for a chance to rekindle that old romance, especially since her new husband isn’t around. An OK story.

Issue 18: Kali Tomb of the Gods tells how the maiden Kali became a goddess. It’s another Esteban Maroto story. I’m starting to really like his work - lush and erotic and psychedelic. Song of a Sad-Eyed Sorceress tells of a sleazy guy who meets a woman with unexpected results for both of them. It’s not bad. Won’t Get Fooled Again concerns a couple driving in the country. They run out of petrol and take refuge in a decaying mansion. There is evil afoot, but what can kind of evil? Fairly entertaining. In The Dorian Gray Syndrome a girl reporter thinks she’s found a real-life Dorian Gray but there’s a twist. A decent story.

Issue 20: Gender Bender by Esteban Maroto is an intriguing wild crazy freaked-out psychedelic trip into the unconscious. Love Is No Game is a nothing story that goes nowhere, about a young woman trying to attract a man’s attention. Eye Opener is yet another story of a sleazy guy pursuing a girl, in a creepy old house. But the old blind woman sees all. Not a bad story. Vengeance, Brother, Vengeance is a sword-and-sorcery tale of two brothers whose fates intersect in unexpected ways. It has a very clever sting in the tail. Good story.

Issue 21: Tomb of the Gods: Legend is an Esteban Maroto tale of a Norse hero who is perhaps not so heroic. An interestingly cynical take on heroes. Good stuff. Paranoia is a dream story, or rather the sort of dream that you hope is just a dream. Not a bad idea but it needed to be fleshed out a little. The twist in The Vampiress Stalks the Castle This Night is that the castle is a castle but it’s in New York.

Final Thoughts

The Vampirella comics are fun and while it’s an uneven collection Vampirella Archives vol 3 is very much worth checking out if you’re a fan of comics that are a bit more outré than superhero fare. Highly recommended.

Modesty Blaise: The Puppet Master

The Puppet Master collects three early 1970s Modesty Blaise comic-strip adventures by Peter O’Donnell. By this time Modesty Blaise was also the heroine of a very successful series of novels, also written by Peter O’Donnell. Modesty was a fairly major pop culture icon.

The Puppet Master

Modesty is kidnapped by an old foe seeking a particularly refined and cruel form of vengeance. He has a plan for revenge that will encompass both Modesty and Willie Garvin.

Brainwashing stories of various kinds were a major cultural obsession in the 1960s.

Not a bad story but the plot twists are just a little predictable. It does touch on Modesty’s psychological quirks and on the particular bond that she has with Willie.

With Love From Rufus

A burglar breaks into Modesty’s flat. He must be a very clever burglar to get past the high-tech security system Willie Garvin had installed. He doesn’t take anything but he leaves something behind. Two things in fact. A bunch of flowers and a note signed “With Love From Rufus” and Modesty has never heard of a Rufus. While some women might be alarmed by this Modesty Blaise, being Modesty Blaise, is intrigued.

It turns out that Modesty doesn’t have a stalker but she does have a fan. Just like a pop star. A fan who worships her. She’s flattered but worried. He wants to emulate her criminal career. He’s also landed himself in a very dangerous situation. He might be an aspiring criminal mastermind but he’s basically a good lad and Modesty doesn’t want to see him end up in the slammer, or worse.

Getting him out of the jam he’s in involves Modesty and Willie in plenty of danger.

This is a solid story but the main interest is provided by the fan-worship aspect. Modesty gets to be both motherly and a bit ruthless.

The Bluebeard Affair

The Bluebeard Affair really does concern a modern Bluebeard, Baron Rath. The Baron (whose noble lineage is non-existent) has married a series of rich but timid women. They seems to have unfortunate, and fatal, accidents. Modesty’s friend Raul (a big wheel in the French Sûreté) is worried that his niece will be the next victim. She has become Baron Rath’s fourth wife.

Modesty decides that she needs to present herself as a candidate to be the Baron’s fifth wife. She’s not used to being meek and submissive but she’s a natural actress and has no trouble getting his attention.

The basic story might not be startlingly original but it’s executed with style. We get diabolical female evilness in the persons of the baron’s frightening daughters. We get Modesty sword-fighting. And we get Chloe the elephant who lends Willie a hand (sometimes owning a circus comes in handy).

We also have Willie dealing with something much more terrifying than super-villains - a girl determined to marry him. And she has three very tough very mean brothers to make sure he does the right thing.

There’s plenty of stylish action. A fine story and the highlight of this particular collection.

Final Thoughts

A good solid collection with at least one major standout. Modesty Blaise is always worth reading, in comic-strip or in novel form. Highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed three other early Modesty Blaise comic-strip collections, The Gabriel Set-Up, Warlords of Phoenix and The Black Pearl, as well as the first three novels - Modesty Blaise, Sabre-Tooth and I, Lucifer.

Peter O’Donnell’s The Impossible Virgin

The Impossible Virgin was published in 1971. It was the fifth of Peter O’Donnell’s eleven Modesty Blaise novels. The Modesty Blaise comic-strip debuted in the London Evening Standard in 1963. The comic-strip adventures are excellent and I recommend them but the novels have more depth and psychological complexity and were able to deal more openly with adult themes.

People unfamiliar with either the comic strip or the novels sometimes make the mistake of thinking of Modesty Blaise as a female James Bond. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is almost the exact opposite of Bond in every way. Bond is British to his bootstraps and fiercely patriotic. He has a naval background and is accustomed to obeying orders. He has never questioned authority. He is a professional spy working for the British Government. He is a straightforward old-fashioned kind of guy.

Modesty is British only by marriage (a marriage of convenience). She has no idea what her own nationality or ethnicity might be - she’s probably southern European or Slavic. Modesty’s background is entirely criminal - she ran an organised crime gang. She has never obeyed an order in her life. She often does jobs for the British Government but strictly as a freelancer and she feels under no moral obligation to accept such jobs. She also does jobs for the French intelligence services.

Modesty is really a female Simon Templar - a retired criminal who is now a crimefighter and part-time spy. She is a female version of the gentlemen rogues who thrived in British popular fiction in the 1930s. Like the Saint she gets involved in capers for the adventure, or because she thinks a particular villain needs to be destroyed or occasionally for motives of personal revenge.

This caper begins when a low-level Soviet intelligence analyst makes an interesting discovery. It has no military significance but it could make him rich. It doesn’t turn out that way. A few months later he staggers into a bush hospital in Tanzania and promptly dies. He gives the appearance of having been tortured. The hospital’s only doctor is Giles Pennyfeather, a disreputable shabby socially inept eccentric Englishman. To look at him you wouldn’t trust him to operate on a stray dog, but the weird thing is that his patients do surprisingly well.

As it happens Dr Pennyfeather has at this moment acquired a kind of temporary nurse and assistant, a striking young woman who literally fell from the sky when she had to make a forced landing in her aeroplane. She has no medical training but she’s a quick learner. Her name is Modesty Blaise. She is in Tanzania purely by accident.

There is no way such a beautiful young woman would be interested in such a poor specimen of manhood as Giles Pennyfeather but Modesty thinks he’s rather adorable and she is soon sharing his bed.

Then two thugs arrive and starting beating up Dr Pennyfeather. They seem to be convinced he has some information they want. Modesty takes exception to their behaviour and deals with them accordingly but without knowing it she has become involved with some very dangerous very evil people.

There is an impossible virgin in this story, of a sort. There’s also Lisa, who is no virgin but is certainly very dangerous. The gorilla might also be a problem - he’s a real gorilla and he’s bad-tempered and being locked in a cage with him isn’t very reassuring.

Modesty will have to face most of these dangers alone, when the faithful Willie Garvin makes a sudden departure. Modesty will also need a certain special ability that she has - she can shut herself down mentally so that she is unaware of what is being done to her, and some rather nasty things are done to her in this caper.

Finding out why the impossible virgin’s virginity remains inviolate will be crucial.

There’s enough action here to satisfy fans and there’s plenty of suspense as Modesty’s position becomes seemingly hopeless.

The Impossible Virgin is a fine action/adventure novel and is highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed the earlier Modesty Blaise novels, Modesty Blaise, Sabre-Tooth, A Taste for Death and I, Lucifer, which are all excellent. I’ve also reviewed several of the earlier volumes of the collected Modesty Blaise comics, The Gabriel Set-Up, The Black Pearl and The Hell-Makers which I also highly recommend.

Leigh Brackett's The Ginger Star

The Ginger Star is a 1974 science fiction novel by Leigh Brackett. It is the first volume in a loose trilogy featuring her hero Eric John Stark.

Eric John Stark had actually made his first appearance back in 1949 in Brackett’s novellas Queen of the Martian Catacombs, Enchantress of Venus and Black Amazon of Mars. They were sword-and-planet tales set on various planets within the solar system. By the 1970s using Mars and Venus as settings was no longer plausible so Brackett relocated her hero’s adventures to a distant planet orbiting a distant star.

The overall background was also changed slightly. These 1970s stories take place within a vast Galactic Union. Eric John Stark’s background remains more or less the same. He was born on Mercury and raised as a barbarian. He is both a civilised man and a barbarian.

The Ginger Star begins with the disappearance of Simon Ashton. Simon was a kind of mentor, substitute father and best friend to Stark. Simon was on a diplomatic mission to the planet Skaith. Skaith is a newly discovered world, not yet part of the Galactic Union, and very backward. In fact it was once an advanced technological society but the technology has been lost and it is becoming more and more backward.

There is now a spaceport in the south, in the city of Skeg. Relations between the representative of the Galactic Union and the authorities on Skaith are uneasy, a problem exacerbated by the fact that it’s not entirely clear who is really in charge on Skaith. The Galactic Union is really not all that interested in Skaith. It’s not a priority. If Stark wants to find Simon Ashton he’s going to be on his own.

Stark just wants to find Simon Ashton (assuming he is still alive), rescue him and get out. It turns out not to be so simple. Simon may be in the Citadel. No-one is sure where the Citadel is. It is probably in or near Worldheart, but no-one is sure where that is. It is probably in the north. The Citadel is where the Lords Protector are to be found, although very little is known about the nature of the Lords Protector. The inhabitants of Skaith regard them as somewhat akin to gods.

Another complication for Stark is the prophecy made by the wise woman Gerrith. It is assumed that Stark is the Dark Man mentioned in the prophecy. That prophecy brought about Gerrith’s death. To some the Dark Man is a symbol of hope. To others he represents a threat. Or an opportunity. Everybody seems to want to get hold of Eric John Stark, for their own purposes.

It’s a quest story of a sort, with the true nature of the quest only gradually revealed. It’s a quest that involves many dangers, a great deal of bloodshed and many betrayals. The only person Stark is confident of being able to trust is Gerrith, the beautiful daughter of the deceased prophetess. The younger Gerrith has gifts as well, but her powers of prophecy are strictly limited.

There’s a fine adventure plot here but it’s fair to say that Brackett is more interested in the motivations of those who either wish to assist Stark or to oppose him.

The arrival of starships on Skaith provoked mixed reactions. To some the stars represent a possibility of escape from a decaying stultifying world. To others the starships represent a hope for the rebirth of Skaith. And to others again the starships are a threat. They are something to be feared. Fear is a major driving force in this novel. Those who have wealth fear losing that wealth as a result of the starships’ arrival. Those who have fear fear losing their power. Many people simply fear the unknown. Since the starships arrived the future has become unpredictable.

That’s not to say that Brackett neglects the action side of the story. She spent years writing for pulp magazines. She understood the importance of loading a story with entertainment value and she certainly did not despise the action and adventure aspects of pulp fiction tales. She loved those action and adventure elements and handled them with great skill.

Leigh Brackett had many strengths as a writer but her greatest strength of all was her ability to create the melancholy atmosphere of ruined or decaying civilisations, or once-great civilisations that are now obscure backwaters. Skaith is just the sort of setting at which she excelled.

This can be seen as a sword-and-planet tale with some sword-and-sorcery elements as well. There is magic. Or at least it appears to be magic. On a planet that was once home to an advanced technological society there’s always the possibility that the magic is simply remnants of lost technologies. There are monsters, but they were in all probability created by misguided technological experiments.

Eric John Stark is a fine square-jawed action hero. His barbarian heritage is very useful at times. The barbarian mind can cope with things that would paralyse a civilised mind.

This novel is obviously a species of first contact story but it’s made more interesting by the fact that Skaith comprises lots of very different societies and lots of warring factions.

The Ginger Star is typical Leigh Brackett - well-written, fast-moving, action-packed, atmospheric. Highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed quite a few other Leigh Brackett books - the short story collection Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories, Enchantress of Venus, Black Amazon of Mars, Last Call from Sector 9G, The Sword of Rhiannon, The Last Days of Shandakor and The Secret of Sinharat.

Judith Rossner’s Looking for Mr Goodbar

Judith Rossner’s novel Looking for Mr Goodbar was published in 1975 and was a huge bestseller. The 1977 film adaptation was a major hit. Both the novel and the film have since disappeared into obscurity. They deal with grown-up subject matter that is now more or less off-limits. Today you’d have to add lots of trigger warnings and even then the novel probably would not get published today and for several reasons the movie certainly could not be made today.

The novel was inspired by a real-life case of a young female schoolteacher who lived a double life, cruising the singles bars at night looking for pick-ups.

The novel reveals the ending right at the very beginning. The movie doesn’t quite do this but the novel was so notorious that viewers at the time probably knew how the movie was going to end. Nonetheless I don’t want to reveal what might be considered spoilers for the movie so I’m going to be very vague about certain plot details.

I often find that when I watch a movie and read the source novel shortly afterwards I find myself dissatisfied with the movie. This however is an interesting case - both the novel and the movie are seriously flawed but extremely interesting and they’re flawed and interesting in quite different ways.

In this review I’ll be devoting quite a bit of attention to the difference between the novel and the film because those differences are so intriguing.

It’s significant that the movie was made in 1977 and the key events of the story clearly take place in the mid-70s. It’s a very 70s movie. The key events of the novel all take place in the mid to late 60s. It’s very much a 60s novel.

Theresa Dunn is a college student having an affair with her professor. The affair lasts four years but it’s far from smooth sailing and then Theresa finds herself dumped. She graduates and becomes a teacher. She likes teaching small children. Her attitudes towards children are as contradictory as her attitudes towards most things.

Her childhood was difficult. She suffered serious illness which left her with a slight limp and a large scar on her back. Her Catholic upbringing caused her problems as well. The movie deals with her childhood very economically but very effectively. We learn everything we need to know in a few brief scenes. The book explores her childhood in painstaking and obsessively unnecessary detail.

Theresa’s relationships with men are turbulent and mostly disastrous, complicated by her sexual problems. She picks up men in bars. She becomes involved with men who are clearly trouble. She pushes away any man who falls in love with her. She becomes involved in the drug scene. She gets mixed up in the swinger lifestyle. She becomes, briefly, a hooker (mostly for the thrill of rebellion rather than the money). She becomes trapped in a potentially dangerous spiral of risk-taking behaviour.

In the movie she’s a woman looking for love in all the wrong places. In the novel she’s a woman looking for sex in all the wrong places. In the novel it is quite clear that Theresa likes rough dangerous sex. The rougher and more dangerous the better. The movie does offer hints of her sexual obsessions but they’re downplayed. Even in 1977 and even with an X rating there was no way a major studio was going to allow sadomasochism to be dealt with openly and honestly. Theresa’s sexual kinks are the core of her story and since the movie sidesteps that side of her sexuality Theresa’s motivations in the film end up being unclear and most of the story’s impact is lost. In that respect the movie compares very unfavourably with the novel.

The movie gives us Theresa’s story, with just a couple of unnecessary and undeveloped sub-plots. In the novel those sub-plots are still unnecessary and poorly developed but they’re a much more annoying distraction. In the novel my impression is that Rossner wanted to combine Theresa’s story with a sociological-political-cultural history of the 60s. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with that but it makes the novel much more unfocussed and rambling than the movie. So in that respect the movie is superior. Incidentally Rossner hated the movie.

The novel has major problems but at least it tries to grapple with confronting and uncomfortable subjects. I think both novel and film are worth checking out but neither is totally satisfactory. I’m still recommending the novel.

I’ve also reviewed the movie.

The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines

The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines, edited by Robert Deis and Wyatt Doyle, collects assorted fiction and non-fiction written by Lawrence Block (sometimes using pseudonyms) for men’s adventure magazines between 1958 and 1974.

During his time writing for such magazines in the very early stages of his career Lawrence Block wrote a number of stories featuring private eye Ed London. This collection includes three Ed London stories.

The Ed London stories are moderately hardboiled with a dash of sleaze. The violence is fairly restrained and there’s no graphic sex. Just the implication of unmarried people having sex was titillating at the time.

Ed London is an honest and fairly ethical private eye although he’s not too fussy about the cases he takes. He’ll do things like divorce work. A job is a job, money is money, and Ed likes money as much as the next guy. Ed does however have a habit of sleeping with his female clients which is definitely not very ethical. Ed can handle himself reasonably well but he’s not a conventional two-fisted tough guy.

The Naked and the Deadly was first published in Man’s Magazine in October 1962. Ed London thought this was a simple case. All he had to do was, on behalf of his client, to hand over five grand to a blackmailer. Not an unusual job for a PI, but this time it ended in a hail of machine-gun fire.

In the light of this Ed starts to wonder if his client was being strictly honest with him. Rhona Blake is very young and very pretty but she seems strangely evasive when Ed suggests that they need to meet and talk. She’s even evasive about giving him her telephone number.

Since Ed doesn’t believe her first story she comes up with another one. Ed likes this story a whole lot better. He believes her. She’s young and pretty and, as he’s already discovered, very good in bed. He really wants to believe her. Even when three punks try to kill him he still believes her story.

What we find out about Ed London in this story is that he isn’t pedantic about following the letter of the law but he’s basically honest and he plays square with his clients. We also discover that he’s a bit of a sucker for beautiful women.

Stag Party Girl appeared in Man’s Magazine in February 1963. Mark Donahue is about to marry society girl Lynn Farwell but he has a problem. His former mistress Karen Price has been making threats. Mark hires Ed London as a bodyguard until the wedding is safely over.

There’s a stag party on the night before the wedding. The highlight is to be a naked girl popping out of a wedding cake. The evening ends in murder, but Mark is not the victim. Mark is however a potential suspect.

There are plenty of other possible suspects. Ed figures that for his client’s sake it would be a good idea to find the actual murderer. Motive is what worries Ed. He’s sure that concentrating on motive is the best way to solve this case.

He also has several women to deal with and they seem more than willing to go to bed with which could complicate matters.

It’s a solid PI story and it’s pretty enjoyable.

Twin Call Girls was first published in Man’s Magazine in August 1963. Ed’s latest client is very pretty, very blonde and very dead. Then she turns up on his doorstep. There were two of them, sisters. Not twins but almost identical in appearance. Now someone wants them both dead.

Jackie is the one who was killed. Jill is the survivor. There’s no obvious motive but since both are (or were) call girls Ed figures their profession might supply a motive. Maybe Jackie was trying her hand at blackmail?

Ed decides to search the girls’ apartment and gets clobbered by some guy. Now he’s at least had a brief look at the killer. He figures the killer was looking for something and he also figures that he didn’t find it. Ed has a pretty good idea where that something really is.

There are some decent plot twists here. A pretty good story.

All three Ed London stories are clever, fast-paced and enjoyable.

The Great Istanbul Gold Grab appeared in For Men Only in March 1967. An America named Evan Tanner has been arrested in Turkey. Tanner is a member of countless subversive organisations but has no actual interest in politics. The Turks suspect he’s CIA. He isn’t. What he’s interested in is gold.

He had a plan but getting arrested threw a spanner in the works. He wanted to go to Turkey but ends up being pursued across Europe by various police forces. It has something to do with a bundle of documents. All Tanner knows about the documents is that they’re important and a lot of people want them.

This story is a wild tongue-in-cheek romp. It’s a spoof of both spy fiction and caper stories. Tanner seems to speak almost every European and most Middle Eastern languages and knows a great deal about obscure revolutionary groups. He also seems to be remarkably formidable when it comes to unarmed combat. He has the kind of impossibly diverse skillset that one associates with fictional spies.

He leaves a trail of chaos behind him and he beds lots of beautiful girls. It’s a crazy story but it’s huge amounts of fun.

Bring on the Girls was published in Stag in July 1968. This is another Evan Tanner story. He starts when he meets Tuppence, a Kenyan singer. Later he gets a letter from her, from Thailand. She’s there with an American jazz quartet. She mentions jewels. There’s been a huge jewellery robbery in Thailand. Tanner think he should investigate.

He ends up a prisoner in a bamboo cage. He finds an ally of sorts. Dhang is willing to help if Tanner can find a woman for him. Dhang had never had a woman but he’d really really like to.

There are assorted groups of guerrillas, none of them friendly. And plenty of mayhem in the jungle. He finds the jazz quartet, in a way. This story is an enjoyable romp.

This volume contains some non-fiction pieces as well but the three Ed London stories and the two Evan Tanner stories are the reason to buy it. And you should buy it. Highly recommended.