Saturday, February 27, 2010

Review: The Quest for Bowie's Blade--J.T. Edson (The Old West Maltese Falcon)



This was the first J.T. Edson book I've had the pleasure to read. It had a nice, well flowing plot that I could easily see filmed as an hour long 1960s TV western.

The main thrust of the novel is the maneuverings of different (usually villainous) parties to recover Jim Bowie's knife. The knife supposedly holds the map to a crashed meteor.

One thing I enjoyed was the influence Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon played on the plot. Charles X. Guilemont blunders around like a French Casper Gutman; his sidekick, a female crook, plays in Cario role (I can't help but think that making the assistant a woman was a reference to the sexuality of Cario). In addition, the Ysabel Kid's parner is shot in the opening pages of the novel! All of these similarities could be chance(there could be more since it's been a long time since I've read Falcon), except that in the final pages of the novel, Guilemont announces that he is going to "locat[e]...a statuette of a falcon, sir...it is made of solid gold and encrusted with the finest jewels to be looted from the crusades. It's value, sir, in the right circles, is immense." For any too dense to pick up on the connection, there is a helpful footnote pointing the reader to The Maltese Falcon for more information.

Despite this somewhat glowing review I have to point out an oddity that docks the book quite a few points. In the second to last chapter, the Ysabel Kid and Guilemont head off to see if they can locate the Bowie Knife again. So, while waiting the two girls go down to the beach and have a ultra-violent bloody brawl. Since there are several mentions of ripped clothes and bared bosoms I guess this is supposed to be sexy--rather it just leaves the read confused as to What The Heck that was all about.


Wold Newton: Nothing much, there's a reference to the Maltese Falcon, as noted, and Guilemont works for James Moriarty--aside from these, the novel is a complete stand alone.

Final rating: B-
(B+ without the cat fight.)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Philip Jose Farmer Reprints that Will, Sadly, Never Exist

Something I've wanted for a very long time is a three volume, leather bound, complete reprint of all the Wold Newton works by Philip Jose Farmer. In all likelyhood, this will never happen. Not only do legal rights hold some of his works from (perhaps ever) being reprinted, the cost of production alone reduces this to the dreams of Never-Never Land.

Still, since I had a few free minutes, I mapped out my ideal contents for each volume.

Volume 1: The Tarzan volume

Tarzan Alive
“An Exclusive Interview with Lord Greystoke”
“Extracts from the Memoirs of Lord Greystoke”
Time’s Last Gift
Hadon of Ancient Opar
Flight to Opar
“The Arms of Tarzan”
“A Reply to ‘The Red Herring’ “
“The Great Korak-Time Discrepancy”
“The Lord Mountford Mystery”
“From ERB to YGG”
“A Language for Opar”
Tarzan: The Dark Heart of Time

In setting this volume's contents up, I tried to place them in thematic sense. So it begins with the biography Tarzan Alive, and seges into the two smaller works that make up, more or less, extra addendums to the biography. After that, the reader is treated to the book-length prologue and first two tomes of the sadly uncompleted Khokarsa series. After that, PJF's sundry artcles on Tarzanic topics, including his inventive geneology of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Lastly, Phil's only true Tarzan novel Dark Heart of Time is reprinted to bookend the volume.


Volume 2: The Doc Savage volume

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
“Jongor in the Wold Newton Universe”
Escape from Loki
“Doc Savage and the Cult of the Blue God”
“After King Kong Fell”
“Savage Shadow”
“Down to Earth’s Centre”
Ironcastle
“Skinburn”
“The Freshman”
“The Last Rise of Nick Adams”
Greatheart Silver
“The Volcano”
A Barnstormer in Oz

This volume stands in honor of the Man of Bronze; hitting readers first is Phil's biography of Doc and his aides, followed up by an abandoned geneological entry that brings another jungle lord to the Wold Newton family. Doc then escapes from a WWI prison camp in his first adventure. Following this is a screen treatment from a sequel to the George Pal Savage film, the true story of King Kong, and a parody of Doc by The Shadow author "Maxwell Grant." Doc battles demons from Hell, and in Ironcastle a friend of his father uncovers an alien country in the heart of Africa. After this last Doc Savage related tale, several more pulp fiction homage tales come, where Lovecraft, Hemingway, (Rex) Stout, and, in Greatheart Silver's case, every known pulp hero are given the Farmerian treatment. Tying up the volume is Phil's novel homage to the land of Oz.


Volume 3: Sherlock Holmes and the Nine Trilogy

The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
The Adventure of the Peerless Peer
“The Adventure of the Three Madmen”
“The Problem of Sore Bridge—Among Others”
“The Two Lord Ruftons”
“A Scarletin Study”
“The Doge Whose Baroque was worse than His Bight.”
"Who Stole Stonehenge" (fragment and outline)
“Jonathan Swift Somers III, Cosmic Traveller in a Wheelchair”
Venus on the Half-Shell
“The Obscure Life and Hard Times of Kilgore Trout”
A Feast Unknown
Lord of the Trees
The Mad Goblin
“The Monster on Hold”

This final volume opens with Phil's homage to Victorian fiction, before rushing though Holmes' meetings with Tarzan, Mowgli, and Raffles. An essay on the connections between Conan Doyle's different series is followed by the adventures of Ralph von Wau Wau--pity the cannine detective didn't have more stories devoted to him. A quick spin though the works of Kurt Vonnegut is followed by the grand finale of the works. The titanic Nine series, which managed to fit nearly all of Phil's obsessions into three novels and one fragment. (The only thing oddly missing is an air-ship.)


James Bojaciuk

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Planetary Annotations--"Strange Harbours" (Issue Four)

Theme: Captain Marvel

Quick Summary: Jim Wilder, private investigator for the Hark Corporation, chases a mugger though ground zero of a bomb blast that Planetary is also investigating. He makes contact with a artifact uncovered in the blast and is teleported to a pluriverse traversing ship. Wilder is augmented with alien technology, and agrees to find six other people willing to help him return the ship to its home universe.

Opening Line: "It was like Satan farted, that's what it was like."


Annotations:
Page 3, panel 3: “The Snowflake” is the representation of the pluriverse from issue one.

Page 10: Note the lightening bolt motif. Also, a gray alien is in the lower corner of the far right golden pillar.

Page 11: This is my favorite dialogue from the entire series.

Page 12: Doc Brass is glaring at Wilder because the “ship” he contacted was one of the foes the pulp heroes encountered. See issue five for slightly more information.

Page 13, panel 4: Again note the Captain Marvel-type lightening bolt motif.

Page 14, panel 1: Again, the snowflake reappears.

Page 17, panel 1: The number seven is reference to Captain Marvel’s transformative battle cry: “Shazam.” Which stood for:
Issue Four: “Strange Harbours”

Page 3, panel 3: “The Snowflake” is the representation of the pluriverse from issue one.

Page 10: Note the lightening bolt motif. Also, a gray alien is in the lower corner of the far right golden pillar.

Page 11: This is my favorite dialogue from the entire series.

Page 12: Doc Brass is glaring at Wilder because the “ship” he contacted was one of the foes the pulp heroes encountered. See issue five for slightly more information.

Page 13, panel 4: Again note the Captain Marvel-type lightening bolt motif.

Page 14, panel 1: Again, the snowflake reappears.

Page 17, panel 1: The number seven is reference to Captain Marvel’s transformative battle cry: “Shazam.” Which stood for:
S: The wisdom of Solomon.
H: The strength of Hercules.
A: The stamina of Atlas.
Z: The power of Zeus.
A: The courage of Achilles.
M: The speed of Mercury.

I can’t help but feel that the close relationship of the crew is a reference to the concept of the Marvel Family.

Page 18: panel 3: This outfit is mostly a pallet swap of Captain Marvel’s costume.