Tag Archives: Forgotten Books

Forgotten Book: The Will to Kill by Robert Bloch (1954)

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Robert Bloch's The Will to Kill is full of twists and turns.

By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 172nd in my series of Forgotten Books.

After enjoying a Fredric Brown book last week, I thought it might be nice to try a novel from another classic writer. So I pulled my copy of Screams by Robert Bloch off the shelf. That volume contains three early suspense novels by the Psycho master, so I decided to go with the earliest novel, The Will to Kill.

I had read a lot of Bloch over the years, mostly his short fiction. His horror for Weird Tales was spectacular and he was an early acolyte/friend of H. P. Lovecraft. In fact, the two writers each did a story where they killed the other off by horrific means. Such a fun group.

The Will to Kill was, for many years, a legendary Bloch novel, available only as an Ace paperback original that was very hard to come by. Over the years, I searched for copies of this novel in many states. I did eventually find one in the late 90’s in Springfield, Missouri, at a small paperback house. I locates a lot of great titles that day, including the first five 84th Precinct novels by Ed McBain. I was about to check out when I saw this one behind the counter. The clerk said they were holding it for some customer but he had never come in. I asked when he was going to pick it up and the clerk said if it was still available on Friday, I could have it for $2. Come Friday I picked it up.

Screams collects three early Robert Bloch novels, including The Will to Kill.

I never got around to reading it before my Big Book Sale of 2007, when it went away to land on someone else’s shelves. So this last week, I decided to remedy that situation.

Tom Keller is a Korean War veteran suffering from PTSD, even though that phrase did not exist at the time. He has come home from the war to a loving wife. Sometimes Keller suffers from blackouts, fugue states where he wanders and does things that he does not remember. Following one of those episodes, he wakes up with scissors in his hand and a dead wife at his feet. Her throat had been cut … by scissors. He is jailed but eventually released when forensics prove he could not have performed the murder.

Now in another town, he runs a stamp, coin and book store where he works with his new girlfriend. He wants to be with her, but he still has his own doubts about the murder of his first wife. As the novel opens, Keller is recovering from a blackout and has no idea what he has done. He soon finds that he has told his girlfriend Kit about his fears and this drives her away.

While Kit is gone, Keller deals with a fat man with an obviously stolen stamp collection. He chooses the high road and does not buy the material, even though he could turn it into a quick profit. The seller is upset and leaves.

Soon, Keller encounters the fat man again at a bar, where he is abusing a woman and making threats. When Keller steps in, a knife comes out. But Keller is a veteran and disarms the man, ejecting him from the bar.

The girl he has saved, Trixie, invites him over and frantic sex happens at her place. Keller falls asleep, and when he wakes up, Trixie is dead. In circumstances similar to the previous murder he was involved with.

Keller is, of course, arrested and the earlier case is brought up. A blind man identifies Keller by his walk and the taps on his shoes as the killer. The murder weapon is identified as a poniard, a French style stiletto. And, of course, Tom has one in a case at his store. Or, had one, since the store has been broken into and the knife taken. The only possible lead is Trixie’s roommate. When the police go to ask her questions, she is found dead also. But, Tom was in police custody when the roommate was killed. And, of course, the same knife was used.

Kit shows up with a lawyer, Anthony Mingo, for whom she used to work and had been romantically involved. Tom, already unsure of himself, takes this new twist poorly and begins to doubt Kit’s affection for him.

The story takes several good turns and eventually resolves itself, but not before several unusual items from Tom’s and Kit’s past are revealed.

I really enjoyed this novel and read it in one sitting. And, with Screams, I still have two more early Bloch novels waiting for my attention, specifically Firebug and The Star Stalker. Bloch was really crafting his style at this point, leading up to his 1959 novel Psycho.

So, if you can find the Ace paperback, buy it. If not, get Screams and have three fun books. And, as with all such titles, your mileage may vary, but I doubt it. Bloch is fabulous.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs. This week Todd Mason is hosting the listing.

 

Forgotten Book: The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs (1969)

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By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 168th in my series of Forgotten Books.

Once again I have to apologize for those few regular readers, After Thanksgiving I began a new work project and that consumed my time. Normally over the holiday I would have spent some time reading but we had guests and that didn’t happen. I hope it doesn’t happen again anytime soon, but it will, so hopefully we can all bear through it.

This week’s title is a book I have had for many years and somehow never got around to reading, even though I knew it had a great reputation and that I would enjoy it. The Face in the Frost is by the great YA writer John Bellairs, but this is not a real YA book. This was meant for the adult fantasy market and it deserves the reputation it has maintained for the last 46 years.

It is a story of magic and magicians and friendship and how all these things work together. The two main characters are both magicians with familiar names, Prospero and Roger Bacon. Prospero lives in the South Kingdom while Roger lives in the North Kingdom. The two realms have no other names than that. They each have their quirks.

The two magicians are old friends and see each other rarely. So it is with joy that Prospero greeted his old friend who came telling of a book he had been searching for. The book is in an unknown tongue and has last been owned by a wizard named Melichus who had trained with Prospero and, during that training, the two had become not friends, more like adversaries.

Strange things are happening in the kingdoms and the two wizards find themselves on a quest to find the book before evil really happens. They shrink down and travel on a small ship. They get separated. Prospero finds an evil pseudo-village and nearly dies. The wizards are reunited and find themselves traveling in a smaller version of Cinderella’s coach, made form a squash.

All the above makes this sound formulaic and squeaky. It is not that at all. The writing is so wonderful it practically leaps off the page. I found myself not wanting to finish the book because I was enjoying it so much, but this column was not going to write itself if I didn’t finish. But, let me cite an example from the first chapter:

“Several centuries (or so) ago, in a country whose name doesn’t matter, there was a tall skinny, straggly-bearded old wizard named Prospero, and not the one you are thinking of, either. He lived in a huge, ridiculous, doodad-covered, trash-filled two-story horror of a house that stumbled, staggered, and dribbled right up to the edge of a great shadowy forest filled with elms and oaks and maples. It was a house whose gutter spouts were worked into the shape of whistling sphinxes and screaming bearded faces: a house whose white wooden porch was decorated with carved bears, monkeys, toads. And fat women in togas holding sheaves of grain; a house whose steep gray-slate roof was capped with a glass-enclosed twisty-copper-columned observatory…”

Your mileage may vary but I was hooked from those words on. There are not any cutesy elves or orcs or hobbits or warrior-kings. This is the good stuff, not the derivative stuff that passes for fantasy these days.

Take the time. Enjoy the ride. Treasure the words. Live. You won’t regret it.

I know this is a shorter column, but the time is late and I have a 5 a.m. wake-up staring me down.

Buy some great books for your friends and yourself for Christmas. Spread the words.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: Gestapo Mars by Victor Gischler (2015)

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Gestapo Mars: Lots of fun, but don't expect to find it at your local Barnes & Noble.

By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 165th in my series of Forgotten Books.

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween with lots of costumes and candy and fun. We had rain in San Antonio, first early in the day and then again just as the sun went down. Kind of dampened a few spirits and ghouls too.

This week I need to talk about one of my favorite living writers, Victor Gischler. It was Bill Crider who I blame for pointing me in Gischler’s direction. VG was looking for “Gischler virgins” (people who had never read his work) to try a test on. I responded that I was a virgin and he sent me a copy of Shotgun Opera. The only requirement was that I read the book and post a review. If I liked it, great. If not, tell people what I thought and pass the book on.

I posted my review on Amazon and it went along the lines of “What if Quentin Tarrant no had directed the Marx Brothers in Kill Bill and they had done it in drag?” That really didn’t describe the plot of the book, but it certainly captured the flavor. Gischler is not going to be your mother’s thriller writer. Conventional is not a word to enter into these discussions.

I’ve read many of his books, but not all. A couple are waiting for me to get to them. I just cannot binge on this stuff. But I love what I read. When I was Toastmaster at ArmadilloCon a few years back, the committee asked if there was anyone they could invite that I wanted to come. I told them Gischler’s name and he came in from Baton Rouge. He seems like a nice normal person, and I think he had a good time. I know I enjoyed seeing him there.

So this week we are looking at his new science fiction thriller which is not likely to be in a lot of places because … well, it’s not very PC. Gestapo Mars is a title unlikely to send Barnes & Noble ordering 150 copies per store. It’s much more likely to be in the one-or-fewer copy range. Much like Norman Spinrad’s The Iron Dream, this attempts to make a Nazi sympathetic hero work for the reader.

Carter Sloan is a programmed and highly trained assassin and spy for the Third Reich, which is still in existence several centuries from now. He has been in cryostorage for 258 years, awaiting a mission. When he is awaked, he is told that he will be invading a resistance group looking for the Daughter of the Brass Dragon. Almost immediately, the people reviving him are attacked by the Nazis, who also want him to get to the Daughter of the Brass Dragon. His instructions are a little vague. He will have to improvise and move along. When he finds the Daughter he is to capture her. Or maybe kill her. No, it’s capture. Then it’s kill. Things get a little weird.

He is sent to the moon in a disguise and is accepted by the resistance and the lovely Meredith Capulet, who agrees to smuggle him out. But nothing goes as planned, and her little flyer is attacked by the aliens of the Coriandon race, gelatinous beings from somewhere not near here.

To save himself, he must reveal his Nazi connections and call for help. This obviously does not set well with Meredith, but he wants to live and love again. Bad things happen to the Nazis, and Carter and Meredith are on a slow ship back to the Nazi stronghold on Mars.

But, wait, things have changed. The resistance has moved against the Nazis, and no one is safe. His mission changes until he no longer cares and just wants to survive. Enter the exploding dog with new missions.

The action is fast, furious and irreverent. Sloan has to question all sides and make love to all available women. It’s kind of like Raiders of the Lost Reich, as situations change every few pages. The Nazis and resistance need to unite, because the gooey aliens are coming and they have big guns.

It’s a fun and fast read full of in jokes and odd stuff. When someone sings “Hey, hey we’re the Nazis. The people say we Nazi around,” you know sanity has left the building.

As usual, your mileage may vary, but if Ernie Kovacs and Monty Python are your type of humor, along with a tiny sprinkle of Benny Hill, you can find a home on Gestapo Mars. And the cover is fun, too.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: Earthbound by Richard Matheson (1982)

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Spooky, erotic stuff lies inside the covers of Richard Matheson's Earthbound.

This is the 164th in my series of Forgotten Books.

All of you should know the work of Richard Matheson, particularly at this time of year. His work for The Twilight Zone alone is enough to make him a demi-god. Then there were his wonderful movies, adapting Edgar Allan Poe and others like Fritz Leiber, which he and Charles Beaumont, another demi-god, adapted in Burn, Witch, Burn. I reviewed that film several years ago. If you have not seen it, you should.

But, beyond those wonderful cinematic things, there is the literary Richard Matheson. First it was the short stories. The collections Born of Man and Woman, Shock!, Shock II, Shock III, Shock Waves, Shock 4 and The Shores of Space are treasures beyond measure. The signed Collected Stories by Richard Matheson is one of the core books of my library. It was expensive but worth every penny I spent.

Then there are the novels. You must have read some of them – I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, his war novel The Beardless Warriors, the amazing Hell House, Bid Time Return and What Dreams May Come, among many others. If you have not read these books, put down this column and go find them. Get any copy you can. It won’t matter. You will fall in love with the stories, with the printed word and with the mind of the Master.

I met RM only one time, at a World Fantasy Convention in Arizona. We didn’t talk long. It would have been embarrassing because I would have blithered like an idiot. We talked about a mutual friend Chad Oliver and RM spoke fondly of Chad’s days in California. Then he was gone, and I was still alive after being in his presence.

Not many writers affect me like that. But Matheson was a personal hero and I went all fanboy.

To this book now.

Earthbound is an overlooked Matheson title. It was originally published by Playboy Press under the pseudonym Logan Swanson in an uninspired looking paperback edition. Very few people saw it. In 1989, a small press in the UK, Robinson Publishing, presented the work in a hardcover edition bearing Matheson’s name and a creepy cover that was not given an artist credit.

Earthbound's original, far less exciting cover.

I had this book for a long time and decided that since this was Halloween week, I might as well read the master. What a quick, wild read. David and Ellen are a California couple whose marriage is in serious trouble. David has had an affair and been caught. He loves Ellen, in his way, but they have been married more than 20 years. Their kids are grown and gone. They are about to be grandparents and David is feeling mortality.

They decide to go on a second honeymoon back to the small town where they originally honeymooned. But their original cottage is gone to a fire, so they take another one nearby. They visit some of the same places, order the same meals but something is just not right.

Then David meets Marianna, a free spirit who wants nothing more than wild sex and depravity. When David succumbs to her temptations he feels excitement, guilt, lust, enervation and more. David immediately resents the liaison and vows to be faithful to Ellen. But Marianna is persuasive.

The novel moves between erotic thriller into erotic horror with astounding ease and makes twists and turns you don’t see coming (or at least I didn’t), leading to violent confrontation and resolution.

It’s short, vicious and packs a mean punch. Just like a Richard Matheson novel should.

Again, Halloween is a couple of days away. Enjoy your favorite horrors and candy and films. Scare yourself.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: PS Showcase #3: Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal by Robert T. Jeschonek (2008)

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Chances are you've never read anything like Robert T. Jeschonek.

By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 163rd in my series of Forgotten Books.

Frequently when I review the books for the Forgotten Book column, I use a book I have read before and share my love or hatred of the book right here. Last week’s book Beastly Bones was new to me but not the writer. This week everything is new. I was looking for a book to read and talk about and, for some reason, this one caught my eye.

It fit several parameters I had established. It had to be short. Check. It had to have horror. Well, there are five stories here and several of them have horror elements. So, check. And it had to grab my attention. HUGE CHECK!!!

I loved this book. Robert T. Jeschonek was not a name I was familiar with. I had gotten the book from the publisher, PS Publishing, in a grab bag when they offered some of their back stock at a reduced price. Several small press publishers will do that occasionally as a way to move slow stock, odd items and to raise some quick cash. As a collector, it’s a great way to get some odd things I might not have initially ordered, but at a reduced price, I can take a chance on it.

And PS is one of those publishers I really like. I’ve got a lot of their books — many in the signed limited state. This is one of them. There is a hardback edition of 200 copies signed by Jeschonek and then this one with a dust jacket limited to 100 copies signed by Jeschonek and introducer Mike Resnick.

It was the introduction that sucked me in. I’ve met Mike Resnick many times over the years and I enjoy his work as a writer and an editor. Resnick starts his introduction remembering those guide-to books of the 80’s and 90’s that said stuff like, if you like Poul Anderson, try Gordon R. Dickson. He remembered that it said something like “If you like R. A. Lafferty, buy up all his books and keep reading them because no one else is remotely like him,” or something like that. He says that could apply to Jeschonek too.

So, with that type of fanfare, I had to see what was going on. Before we get to the stories, let me say, Resnick is right. If anything, he understated the case.

These were mind-blowing stories, the likes of which I had not seen in a long while. First up was “Something Borrowed, Something Doomed” which blew me away. This is the story of genebillies living in West Virginia.  Simple mountain folk know for their wicked sense of humor and gene splicing (“wildshinin’”) abilities. One of their traditions is to try to make a couple’s wedding into the most horrible day possible with the idea that, if you survived that, your marriage could survive anything. Our narrator is Vicky Dozen, a master wildshiner who is about to marry Bigfoor Tourniquet, who may be her equal. She is hoping the wedding is up to her mother’s best effort which reproduced the 12 plagues of Egypt in the wedding hall. Boils, locust, frogs and blood rivers were the least of it. Vicky is hoping her five brothers don’t do something stupid and, of course, they do. They end the world and someone forgot to protect the wedding chapel from that.

“Dionysus Dying” deals with a legendary saxophonist meeting his idol right at his death bed. Bobby Ball has enjoyed success in his past and when his idol Omar Wild sends for him as the one man to perform his final work, he sees possible new fame and success.

“Food Chain” deals with a woman having to deal with the idea that her food comes from a living, talking human being called a Ration who can make his flesh taste like anything and regenerate whatever you eat. She has her reasons for hating the Ration, though.

“The Day After They Rounded up Everyone Who Could Love Unconditionally” is very short: 750 words. It didn’t work for me.

The final piece is “Playing Doctor” features Dr. Hildegarde Medici, female mad scientist, bent on world conquest and her assistant Glugor (”Glue”), who has been in love with her since she was six years old. But of course, she does not realize it. As her plans fail and bad news happens, Glue has a surprise for the mad doctor. A touching story of world domination and love.

This is an amazing book and I loved it. I had never heard of Jeschonek but I will be searching out more of his work. And you should too. Kudos for PS Publishing for putting out this little gem. They do this on a semi-regular basis so you should check them out too.

Read something new, bold, and different. You owe it to yourself.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: Beastly Bones by William Ritter (2015)

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By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 162nd in my series of Forgotten Books.

One of my favorite books from last year was Jackaby by William Ritter, a young adult novel of weird happenings. R. F. Jackaby is an eccentric supernatural detective living in New Fiddleham, New England. He sees things that go bump in the night as well as in the daytime. Through extraordinary circumstances, he acquires an assistant/protégé, a young independent minded woman named Abigail Rook who was not content to sit at home while her parents looked for a suitable husband for her. When she was turned down for the position of assistant to her father in a paleological dig, she left England in disguise and world her way to America. As Jackaby’s assistant, they solved a vexing and complex murder involving the supernatural.

I enjoyed the first book thoroughly and immediately ordered the second one, Beastly Bones, to be delivered upon publication. It came the other day and I began to delve. The characters lived again as they had last year. Jackaby was still an odd mix of Sherlock Holmes, John Silence and Carnacki. Abigail was headstrong and plucky.

The house where Jackaby lives is filled with many things. There is the ghost of the owner Jenny Cavanaugh, who is Abigail’s closest friend, since Jackaby has some less-than-sociable tendencies. Jenny has been murdered and the murder has never been solved. Jackaby has vowed to do it when Jenny wants him to but that time has not yet come.

The case begins with a woman who is upset that her cat had kittens and then turned into a fish. The kittens are far from normal. They are chameleomorphs, animals who take on the form and characteristics of their food source. The mother cat has been fed fish, ergo she begins to change. Jackaby is concerned because these are seriously dangerous beasties, and he has plans to turn them into fish and then feed them insects within a confined area. As trapped insects, they are not nearly as tough.

They attract the attention of Jackaby’s friend Hank Hudson, a trapper of oddities and an old friend. He is hunting something big and odd in a neighboring county. While trying to determine where the dangerous kittens came from, they are asked to check out the mysterious death of a farm wife nearby. Her husband has found dinosaur bones and is trying to get some help and publicity. This brings in two rival paleontologists who hate each other. Then bones start to turn up missing and Jackaby becomes sure that the bones represent a mystical beast that should not be there.

And then the strange footprints appear.

It was a fun story and I got suckered deep into it, so I missed a few of the vital clues. But, in the end, I was very satisfied and horrified that it will again be a long time before the next book is available.

The characters are fun, even Jackaby’s former assistant, who is now a duck. The ghost is likable most of the time. The policeman, Charlie Barker from the first book, provides a suitable romantic interest for Abigail, though they are both incredibly shy and inexperienced, much like the intended audience for this volume.

I can heartily recommend these titles. There’s also a short story available for Kindle that I have not yet read, but the weekend is coming soon. Check it out.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: Danger: Dinosaurs! by Richard Marsten (1953)

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When time travelers go back to hunt dinosaurs, what could possible go wrong?

By Scott A. Cupp

This week the Forgotten Book folks are celebrating the life of Ed McBain. I haven’t read anything by Ed for this review, but I thought I would revisit this review from a couple of years ago. This was a favorite book growing up. I have also inserted a few new comments down below.

This is the 101st or 160th (you decide) in my series of Forgotten Books.

The astute mystery fans among our readers already know that Richard Marsten is a pseudonym for Salvatore Lombino aka Evan Hunter, Ed McBain, Curt Cannon, S. A. Lombino, D. A. Addams and Ted Taine. A prolific writer of mysteries, he came very close to being a major science fiction writer.

In the early 1950’s as he was writing the first of his 87th Precinct novels, Evan Hunter (he legally changed his name in 1952) wrote several science fiction novels including the Winston juveniles Find the Feathered Serpent (as by Evan Hunter) as well as Rocket to Luna and Danger: Dinosaurs! (both as by Richard Marsten). I did an article in the early ’90s for a Martin Goldberg book to be entitled The Ed McBain Companion in which I postulated that had the 87th Precinct novels not taken off as they did, Hunter might have continued in the science fiction realm.

We will never really know.  He did about two dozen short stories and one more novel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which I recall liking quite a bit though it has been quite a while since I read it.

To the book at hand! Danger: Dinosaurs! is a classic time travel novel where people can travel back via the Time Slip to the Jurassic period to “hunt” dinosaurs with camera and lens. Young Owen Spencer is set to take his first trip, theoretically as his brother Chuck’s assistant.  They are taking back a group led by Dirk Masterson, his assistants Brock Gardel and Arthur Baron, and Masterson’s niece Denise. They will be safe with their use of a mile-radius force field which will keep everything safely away.

What could go wrong? Ask Ray Bradbury and L. Sprague de Camp.

In the first few hours, Masterson “accidentally” destroys the force field and all bets are off. The trip only allows dinosaurs to be shot only with cameras to prevent any potential time paradoxes from occurring. But Masterson has conveniently brought high powered weapons along (very much against the rules) and is planning on hunting and protecting the group at the same time. His first targets are a herd of stegosaurus and a pteranodon.

Nothing fazes the beasts and when Masterson starts a brontosaurus stampede, he nearly dies. Chuck saves him, at the cost of his own life.  This brings up a time paradox that I found implausible. Marsten postulates that since Chuck dies long before he is born, he ceases to exist at any point in time. All memory of Chuck is erased, just as if he had never lived. I think he would have existed for those periods of his life up until his death. It is a major plot point, and while it bothered me, it wasn’t a deal breaker. I still enjoyed the book.

During the week they have to spend before being rescued, they encounter a number of dinosaurs as well as two lost scientists, Dr. Perry and Dr. Dumar, who were doing geologic work and had discovered a large uranium deposit.

The group heads for the two white hills marking where they have to be when the automatic return is set to occur, when they experience an earthquake and find their markers gone. This is just one of many setbacks and problems that befall the team, not including Masterson’s personal agenda, which does not include following any of the rules set down by the time agency or Owen and Chuck.

The book is a good fast, fun read that I quite enjoyed in the early ’60s, again in the 90’s and once more this last weekend. It’s highly recommended. Unfortunately it has not been reprinted in an accessible format. The copies online range from $50 to $400 or so. You can find some copies less expensively if you don’t mind a lot of wear and not having a dust jacket. I like my copy better. But, when you get one, you get the fabulous Alex Schomburg endpapers (and the wonderful dustjacket). These are full  of iconic science fiction tropes and should be represented in every science fiction fan’s library.

And if you like this one, try the others. They are superb stories. Science fiction lost a great writer when McBain decided to go to the 87th Precinct. But the mystery field rejoiced. And so should we.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: Space For Hire by William F. Nolan (1971)

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Psychedelic cover art isn't the only thing going for Space for Hire.

Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 156th in my series of Forgotten Books.

William F. Nolan has been around a long time and produced a great body of work. Most famous for his collaboration with George Clayton that gave us LOGAN’S RUN. He’s worked in the teen market, star biographies, non-fiction, mystery, television and film industries. He’s won the Life Achievement Award from the International Horror Guild, the Horror Writers of America, and the World Fantasy Convention. He is an Author Emeritus of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He has also won the Mystery writers of America Edgar Award a couple of times.

I first encountered his work in short story form in the mid 1960’s and then found LOGAN’S RUN. I liked what I read. I later met him at a couple of conventions and found he was a pretty nice guy. In 1987, Joe Lansdale and I took our families on vacation to southern California and one evening was spent over dinner with Nolan, RC Matheson, and David Schow. This was a very fun trip.

So, I was ready for a really good time when I picked up SPACE FOR HIRE the other night as a book to read. It’s an early mystery/science fiction combination. Nolan has a passion for the Black Mask Boys – Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Erle Stanley Gardner (with three novels featuring the characters, formal biographies of Hammett, and an informal study of the three writers).

This book was fun. Sam Space (it only takes one small straight line to convert that to Spade) is working on a case for Esma Pitcairn Umani (a striking Venusian woman with three heads and the skill to use all three of them. Her father, Dr. Emmanual Quantas Umani, is working on a secret project. His enemies are fairly successful at killing him, but he has perfected the process of transferring his mind to other bodies. Unfortunately, his supply is low and he needs Space to accompany a load a fresh bodies from Allnew York and see that they arrive safely on Mars. It’s a simple job.

But no job is ever simple. On the trip he meets Nicole, a stunning red head with winking nipples who wants to seduce him. He gets hit with drugs and finds he has missed his return trip and Dr. Umani and Esma have been killed.

This would normally be the logical end of the story, but logic plays no part in this story. There are alternate realities, multiple versions of each person, time travel, Zubu birds from Pluto, gungoons, the Robot King of the Solar System and his pet dragon, and many more twists and moebius style turns.

At first I was skeptical but the story got wackier and wackier until I was absolutely loving it. So, give it a look if the above piques your interest (and even if it doesn’t). Nolan is a demonstrated master of many forms and they all run wild in here.

As always, your mileage may vary, particularly if you have trouble with the whole cross genre thing.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: Man of Many Minds by E. Everett Evans (1953)

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"Man of Many Minds" offers up Golden Age sf thrills, if you can bear with the info-dumps.

Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 153rd in my series of Forgotten Books.

After last week’s fantasy novel, I was ready for some deep space fun adventure stuff. My eyes travelled over the bookshelves and came to rest on MAN OF MANY MINDS by E. Everett Evans. I knew the book by reputation but had never read it. Somehow it found its way into my hands for examination.

It passed the first test – it was short, just 192 pages in the paperback edition I had on hand. The next test was the first page preview. Again, it passed. The story featured a young man disgraced and drummed out the Inter Stellar Corps and he was happy. The final test was the cover, front and back. The front was a shapeless mess by Gray Morrow, an artist I like. The cover was likewise a mess, not really giving much insight into the story. Pass for two of three tests. I went ahead and dipped on in. The prose was readable and the action started on page 2.

This was a fun. Young George Spencer Hanlon is at the top of his class at the Cadet Academy of the Inter Stellar Corps and about to embark on a career of space service. He is summoned before the Commandant of Cadets, as all graduating seniors are, to discuss his future. Suddenly, he finds his life changing. George has a talent that he suppresses – he can “read” minds, not actual, tangible thoughts but feelings and similar processes. The Corps is aware of this ability, though he has not used it while in the Academy. He is offered a job in the Secret Service of the I-S based on his performance in the school, his natural abilities and his special talent. The I-S wants him, but their membership is closely guarded. To join the SS, he has to be dismissed from the I-S in disgrace and shunned by all his friends and family.

George agrees to do this, being the bright, patriotic kid that he is, and he is introduced to his commanding officer, who turns out to be his father. George is surprised until he remembers his father had been disgraced earlier.

George is given his marching orders and sent to the planet Simonides Four, where something is going on. No one is sure what is happening but something is not right. Hanlon books passage on a luxury liner and encounters a man named Panek who is intent on killing another passenger. Figuring that Panek might be part of the problem on Simonides, George convinces the man that he is disgusted with the Corps and is looking for big money. He stops Panek’s attempt on the man and fakes the death to get in good.

While on the ship, George is trying to expand his mental capacities and finds himself able to get into the mind of a small dog, then multiple dogs at the same time. On arriving on Simonides Four, he is aware that he is being followed and goes to look up Panek, supposedly seeking work.

He meets the Boss behind Panek and is given a test: kill the man who was following him. His ability to control a dog works well here, and he is able to orchestrate the death of the man and suddenly finds himself in the gang and assigned a task on a hidden planet. He’s to run a slave operation using living trees called Greenies as miners for rare ores.

Evans keeps the operations moving and the action is hot and fast. Young George expands the uses of his powers and finds himself in a vast conspiracy to take over the Galaxy. All he has to do is get home, stop everyone, stay alive, set the Greenies free and remain sane. A simple task.

This was a fun book, nothing special or notable but a quiet relaxing evening at home with what seemed like old friends. Evans was a friend of E. E. Doc Smith back in the day, and his influence can be seen here. This was a fun example of Golden Age science fiction.

Again, as with many books I read and talk about, your mileage may vary. There are some big info-dump chapters to get the reader up to speed, but they are not incredibly intrusive and you can still move on. The book probably could not be published today, but I had fun reliving my old youthful enthusiasm.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Book: Slaves of Sleep by L. Ron Hubbard (1939)

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Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 152nd in my series of Forgotten Books.

There was a time when Ron Hubbard was considered a very good writer of science fiction, fantasy, western, adventure and other types of pulp fiction. Then came the Dianetics and Scientology works and he entered into the religious field. Regardless of your opinions of his later efforts, his early writings contain some fine work.

I first read SLAVES OF SLEEP about 20 years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. The other day I was looking for a new Forgotten Book and this one jumped up and said “ME! ME! ME!”

Never being one to refuse a book screaming to be read, I picked it up again. Instantly, I was back in its thrall. Jan Palmer is a young man who has a problem. He’s the head of a transportation company worth a lot of money and he has no interest in it at all. The business is run by his lawyer and business manager. Jan likes his books, boats and other stuff. He lives with his Aunt Ethel who respects the local mutts more than Jan.

When visited by Professor Frobish, Jan finds himself with a problem. Frobish recognizes a large brass jar in Jan’s home as a sealed bottle containing an Ifrit, a type of genii. Jan refuses to let Frobish examine the bottle, so Frobish breaks into Jan’s home at night and breaks the seal on the bottle, releasing the Ifrit, one Zongri. Zongri has been imprisoned for many thousands of years. At first, he promised himself that he would reward anyone who released him with incalculable riches. Then he promises revenge on the human race. Zongri kills Professor Frobish and curses Jan to a life of eternal wakefulness. When the police arrive, Jan’s story is met with derision and he finds himself facing murder charges. Unwilling to lie, he is universally despised.

The problems really escalate when he tries to sleep. Suddenly, Jan finds himself in a fantasy world where Ifrits flourish and he is known as a sailor named Tiger. He is in trouble in both worlds, facing certain death in either one. People from his Earth world seem to be prevalent in some form in the fantasy world. Living in both worlds, he gets no rest and is running ragged in both.

It’s not a great novel or an important one, but it is fun. Some of the characters are stereotypes but I found I could not stop reading and enjoying it. The paperback I was reading reprinted some of Edd Cartier’s illustrations from UNKNOWN magazine which are quite fun.

If this sounds like fun, check it out. There was a hardcover edition from Shasta Publications with a striking Hannes Bok cover. There is also a sequel MASTERS OF SLEEP which I have not read and cannot comment on. SLAVES has had several paperback editions, some in combination with the sequel.  You might also check out THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, AND THE UNKNOWN by Paul Malmont which features Hubbard in a World War II adventure with Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and L. Sprague de Camp.  It was quite a bit of fun, too.

Series organizer Patti Abbott hosts more Friday Forgotten Book reviews at her own blog, and posts a complete list of participating blogs.