Four Quick Book Reviews

 

So my plan this year was to start off with “anti-epics,” i.e., SF paperbacks under 200 pages. I’ve more or less stuck to that rule, and have put away five so far. I also wanted to pen reviews for each, but, alas, life has intervened (more on that in a follow-up post). The only one I reviewed was the first novel, Between Planets, by Robert Heinlein. Since I want to get at least something of my humble opinions on each here on the blog before I forget, I decided to simply spew a few sentences on the four other tales I’ve read.

Ready?

OK!

 

The Grayspace Beast © 1976 by Gordon Eklund

I first read this book in the summer of 2010, recuperating from all my lung surgeries, when I realized that I really first read this book as a child in the late 70s. Everything came back – the characters, the plot, the beast itself. I vaguely recalled enjoying it thoroughly as a lad, though I was easily pleased, and not really enjoying it as a middle-aged dude. A group of carny-like aliens come together to find lasting and last-ditch glory in hunting down the mythical grayspace beast, a monster inhabiting the “subspace” that’s hardly used anymore since teleportation has become commonplace. Flash Gordon combined with Baron Munchhausen with some very cool SF ideas. It’s also a story-within-a-story, where you have to guess which character in the grayspace beast story is narrating the story as told to a group of children. As it turns out, you can’t, but the double reveals at the end make it a worthy read. Find and devour it if you can.

5-day read

Grade: A-

 

The Deep Range © 1957 by Arthur C. Clarke

A somewhat ponderous but intriguing Clarke novel from his early days. The focus is on oceanography, specifically the herding of whales and gardens on the ocean floor to feed mankind. Strength in ideas as opposed to characterization, though the main protagonist is more fleshed out than the average Clarkian character. A second character’s sacrificial death is basically meaningless. Clarke’s pro animal rights comes out, as well as his Buddhist slant, but I was okay with both. Got me interested in the physics, chemistry, and biology of the seas, if only for a week.

7-day read

Grade: B+

 

Who Goes Here? © 1977 by Bob Shaw

Nifty tale of a man who has his memory completely wiped and joins the equivalent of the space foreign legion. A statuette of a purple frog is the only clue to his prior life. Tries to be an SF comedy, and succeeds more often than not. Kind of like the equivalent of Ron Goulart novel meets that Christopher Nolan movie Memento. There are some real mean baddies called “Oscars”, crazed single-minded bodybuilders with glowing red eyes that will hunt you down and feed you to “throwrugs” – blobby like things that fall on you from trees and eat you alive. Some slapstick stuff, some horror stuff, all mixed into a fast read that went from a B to an A- due to the really awesome reveals at the end, from the Oscars and throwrugs to how the hero got his post-memory wipe name, “Warren Peace.”

2-day read

Grade: A-

 

West of Honor © 1976 by Jerry Pournelle

Straight up military with a dash of SF thrown in. A map on page 1 was a good sign. Seems that Arrarat, an agricultural world settled by Amish-types, is having trouble dealing with convicts Earth is dumping on them. Send in the colonial marines. Heavy on military theory and machismo, but no so much on science fiction. Paradoxically interesting and dull at the same time. Had a hard time visualizing the story as it was unfolding. Learned some good military axioms that most likely young Napoleon heard, maybe even young Alexander. Had a textbook feel to it, and I’d like to have more focus on the commanding officer, Captain Falkenberg, rather than the newbie lieutenants.

5-day read

Grade: B-

 

I’m looking to read two more quickie science fictions paperbacks followed by a return to Richard Sharpe and the Napoleonic wars next, and get all that done by Ash Wednesday. Because I have something interesting I want to do for Lent…

Book Review: Between Planets

 

© 1951 by Robert Heinlein

 

Between Planets, a “juvenile novel” written by Robert Heinlein in 1951, has been sitting on the shelf for six years. I decided to start 2023 with it because my goal this year is to be “anti-epic.” Not anti-epic in scope, theme, plot, or vision, but anti-epic in page length. Between Planets clocks in at a lean, mean 182 pages.

“Juvenile novel” is the term given to the dozen or so science fiction stories he wrote for Scribner’s in the 50s with young male readers in mind. When yours truly was a young male reader I read only two (Red Planet and Time for the Stars) but would have gladly devoured any that would have come into my possession either through the local library or as Christmas or birthday gifts. Nowadays when I come across one I usually pick it up for the nostalgia that the style of story elicits in me. I think, over my adult years, I re-read Red Planet and Time for the Stars and read an additional one, Rocket Ship Galileo. I also own another book of long-shelf vintage, Citizen of the Galaxy, which, unfortunately, is packed away in a box in some closet or possibly the garage after the New Jersey to Texas move, and will have to be sampled at some undetermined time in the future.

Anyway, as I expected, I dug it. It was a quick read – check. It had intriguing aliens – check. It had a space war – check. What more could a young male reader want?

Written before probes were sent to Mars and Venus, it tells the tale of war between colonized Mars and Venus and home world Earth. Rather, the independence war fought by Venusians to escape Earth’s heavy-handed rule. Mars is more or less a research facility, while Venus is growing as a fully populated world (with breathable air and potable water, banks and even Chinese restaurants!).

Our young hero is Don, whose mother is of Venus and father is of Mars (or maybe it’s the other way around – I forget). Don is a student at an exclusive New Mexico high school, and as planetary tensions near the breaking point, gets called back to Mars by his parents. With one request: to bring with him a nondescript but very, very important ring a family friend will give him. He is never to part with it.

Unfortunately for young Don, war breaks out as he’s at the space station in low Earth orbit. He’s sent to Venus against his will along with other passengers as the rebel Venusians destroy the station. Stranded on Venus with no money or connections, he strives to get to Mars, and after a tragic encounter joins the Venus Resistance to fend off an Terran invasion.

Eventually he does get to the Red Planet, a hundred pages later, and the significance of the ring – and Mars – is revealed.

The most interesting part of the story are the native inhabitants of Venus: large, scaley, multi-limbed reptiles called “dragons.” They have a comparable if not superior intelligence to man but lack our belligerent concupiscence. They speak in whistles and have translating devices strapped about their chests. Yet they can speak human, oddly enough retaining the accent of the person who teaches them the language. Hence we have our main dragon character speaking in a cockney accent and another in a Texas twang. Additionally, a dragon will give themselves an honorary name of a human he respects immensely. Our main dragon is named “Sir Isaac Newton.”

The only negative I could put to the book is that the military depicted is basically World War II soldiery. A feature in early SF very similar to the “Asimov effect,” where every novel of Asimov’s reads to my modern ears like 1940s Long Islanders. Understandable, I suppose, as the book is a product of its time. And perhaps endearing. While I noticed it I was never taken out of the story.

Verdict: Good way to start the new year of the SF paperback.

Now to move on to more interesting stuff … !

Jeff Beck

 

Minor guitar guru of mine, passed away yesterday at the age of 78.

I was never a huge Beck fan, but as I reflect now I seem to have fallen into three distinct periods of minor fandom. As a teen, struggling to figure out how to make barre chords, I discovered Beck in a magazine and spent hours trying to piece together the history of this band called the Yardbirds, a band which gave the world not one, not two, but three guitar gods: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. During this time I was enamored with the song Beck’s Bolero as well as the album Truth, which I owned and played a lot. Might have to listen to that again in its entirety off iTunes.

As a more established guitarist in a semi-working band in 1990, I bought the CD Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop¸ and played that much much more than Truth. Though I haven’t heard Guitar Shop in twenty years (it was in the box of 200 CDs stolen from an apartment storage room just before I bought my first house), there were two songs I really enjoyed. Again, I’ll check that one out in its entirety off iTunes, and when I identify those two songs, I might post them here.

Finally, my third bout with Jeff Beck happened between 2002 and 2004. I had bought his solo CDs Wired and Blow by Blow, and played them a thousand times during those three years. Those were three happy years. I lived in a great apartment, had money, and had good friends (one of which, sadly, is no longer with us). And I listened to those CDs almost daily, especially during the summer. The song “Freeway Jam” is the only one whose title I remember, but when I re-listen to them over the next few days they’ll all come back to me.

Anyway, rest in peace, mate. I enjoyed your work.