Gone North by Charles Alden Seltzer

We have largely forgotten the name Charles Alden Seltzer these days outside of pulp fiction aficionados, but back in the 1920s and 30s, he was one of the better-known authors who contributed to serial publications, magazines, and quite a few movie scripts. Known mostly for his westerns, he did deviate once in a while, such as with this novel, originally serialized in 6 parts in "Argosy" pulp magazine during March and April of 1930. It was his 30th published book.

This novel takes place in the Hudson Bay country and features Jim Fallon, an adventurer recently come from the Klondike where he made a fortune in gold. And it’s pure adventure.  Fallon is on the trail of a missing man who happens to know the location of a valuable gold mine. Just imagine a plot that includes things like a huge stone castle in the middle of the forest with secret tunnels and housing a nest of high-seas pirates. Add in a beautiful young girl, a formidable Indian who acts as a sidekick, a group of Europeans who are also looking for this gold mine, sword fights, massive fist fights, and much more.  One can certainly tell this was originally published as a serial, with cliff-hangers spaced evenly throughout, always coaxing a reader to come back for the next installment.

Thankfully, Altus Press (now Steeger Books) has reprinted this story as part of its "Argosy Library", rescuing it from obscurity. Readers looking for a good old-fashioned adventure yarn are sure to love this one.  I certainly did.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

I’ve long wanted to fill in some of the holes in my science fiction reading and this one was prime among them.  First published in 1956, it is often regaled as the single best sci-fi story of all time.  I’m not sure I would go that far but it does provide a substantial number of “firsts”, including what is probably the first salvo in the cyberpunk movement.  And despite the year in which it was written, it still stands up surprisingly well today.

A central concept of the novel is the idea that a couple of centuries from now, mankind has learned to use part of their brains to transport themselves over distances of 100-200 miles or so.  Speculating on how this would impact human society is the gist of great sci-fi and the author certainly provides a lot of potential scenarios.  But to properly tell a story, you need characters and here we have Gulliver “Gully” Foyle who ranks right up there with some of the best iconic sci-fi characters of the past.  His story somewhat mirrors the Count of Monte Cristo…but in a very raw form.

I will confess to probably missing some of the weird wild trippy stuff sprinkled throughout, especially at the end, but still, I found myself quite enjoying the read.  I can finally count Alfred Bester among the authors I’ve read and enjoyed and no longer just think of that name in context of Babylon 5.

Force 10 From Navarone by Alistair MacLean

As far as I know, this is the only Alistair MacLean novel that is a sequel, a follow-on to "The Guns of Navarone".  But, strangely, it’s a sequel to the movie version of that novel rather than the novel itself and consequently a little bit confusing given the changes to the characters.

This book picks up immediately after the events of the first (movie version).  And I do mean “immediately”.  Perhaps 10 minutes have passed and the survivors of that first mission, (Captain Keith Mallory and Corporal Dusty Miller) now on the rescue boat, are told to turn back to shore in order to take on a new mission.  They recruit their Greek comrade Andrea Stavros for the mission, code named “Force 10”. This time around, together with three redshirts British Royal Marine Commandos, they parachute into Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia.  Their mission: to aid the Yugoslav Partisans in their battle against the Nazi German occupiers.  Of course this is an Alistair MacLean novel so there is a hidden mission, hidden even from the British Commandos.

Aside from the slight confusion of this being a sequel to the movie version of a prior novel, it is actually a pretty decent read. There is more confusion however, due to multiple layers of deception.  The main characters act as double agents…and then triple agents and sometimes the characters themselves are unsure of who to trust.  It does, however, all make sense…as long as you can follow it all.

Bottom line:  not quite as good as Guns of Navarone but still worth reading, especially for MacLean fans.

The Case of the Velvet Claws (Perry Mason) by Erle Stanley Gardner

When a self-absorbed woman named “Eva Griffin” comes to Perry Mason claiming her powerful

husband is blackmailing her, Perry’s intrepid secretary Della Street doesn’t trust her. That’s our first clue that neither should we. Later, when Eva overhears her husband arguing with a man just before being shot, she claims it was Perry’s voice she heard arguing with the murdered man. A trustworthy client she is not!  But in true Perry Mason style, he vows to fight for his client no matter the cost.

This is the very first Perry Mason novel, originally published in 1933.  The Perry Mason series consists of over 80 novels and is currently the number 3 all-time best-selling fiction series, following only “Harry Potter” and R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps”.  I thought it about time I sampled one.

Before reading this book, I knew very little about Perry Mason and have never seen the TV series starring Raymond Burr.  As an attorney who takes on clients in trouble, he works diligently to gather all relevant facts using his own considerable powers of observation and intellect as well as hiring private detective Paul Drake to work on his behalf.  While later books will include dramatic courtroom scenes, this first book does not but instead follows a more traditional detective novel format, albeit with some nice plot twists thrown in.

To be honest, I was somewhat surprised at the character of Perry Mason.  He has no qualms about bending and even breaking the law as long as it leads to helping his client.  He will lie about what evidence he has in order to trick somebody into revealing more than they should.  He will intercept personal mail and even a legal summons, read it and then use it to trap people into confessions.  In fact, a large part of his technique, at least in this first novel, is to set up elaborate false situations to trick people into telling him what they know. But because he is a lawyer, he knows just what he can get away with and he deftly pulls out the legal buzz words to impress the right people at the right time.

Overall, I enjoyed this book even more than I thought I would. The plot was nicely complex with several surprising twists, but it was fairly easy to keep track of who’s who and follow Perry’s thought process as he went.  Looking forward to reading more of this series as well as sampling Gardner's other work.

The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean

During World War II, five men are recruited to achieve the impossible:  destroy a German fortress that threatens Allied Naval operations in the Aegean Sea and prevents over 1,200 isolated British soldiers from being rescued. These five men are all experts at various specialties required by the commando operation, including demolitions, engineering, and most provocatively, mountain climbing since access to the fortress is impossible without scaling a sheer cliff face.

Even though the Greek island of Navarone does not actually exist, the story takes place within the real historical context of the “Dodecanese Campaign”, (specifically the Battle of Leros), the Allies' attempt to capture the German-held Greek islands in the Aegean Sea in 1943. Only the second novel by Alistair Maclean, this 1957 World War II novel has been considered a classic of the genre for decades now.  These days, of course, stories or movies about a handful of talented men, each with specific specialties, teaming up to pull off a near-impossible task are a dime a dozen but I dare say many of them owe quite a bit to this book.  In 1961, a classic film was produced staring Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, among others.

I’ve read a number of Alistair MacLean books over the years and usually find them OK, but notice they do tend towards the “slow-burn” style, taking quite a while to build to their climax.  This one, however, kept me riveted throughout.  It’s easy to see why this has become a classic: excellent characters, plenty of edge-of-your-seat suspense, and wonderful pacing.  MacLean didn’t believe in much of a wrap-up after the major climax and this one is no exception.  The big story payoff was literally on the last page of the book.

I’m very glad I finally got around to reading this one, and now have my sights set on the sequel, [book:Force 10 from Navarone|149608].  I’m also planning to see the Guns of Navarone film this week so as to fill another hole in my WWII film history.

The War Chief by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs has created some of the finest adventuring heroes in all of literature, including house-hold names like Tarzan, John Carter, David Innes, and more.  But many readers are surprised to learn ERB also wrote several fine westerns, including the “Apache novels” which consist of only two books. As a young man, Burroughs enlisted in the 7th Cavalry and saw active service in southern Arizona so he had some first-hand experience with the setting of the Apache Indians. First published in 1927, “The War Chief” is the first of the two books and is centered around the character Shoz-Dijiji or “The Black Bear”.

The novel opens swiftly with a pioneer family getting ambushed and slaughtered by a band of Apaches.  All, that is, except for a young baby boy who doesn’t even cry when dangled by the ankle for all to see.  Go-yat-thlay, the leader of the band of Apaches (and who will go down in history as “Geronimo”) thinks the young babe is unusually brave so decides to raise him as his adopted son. The first half of the book is a coming of age story as young Shoz-Dijiji learns the ways of the Apache, including hunting and tracking skills, extreme patience, religious beliefs and especially, their hatred for the Pindah-lickoyee (“White Eyes”).  He grows to young adulthood, becomes an accepted warrior and eventually War Chief, still operating under the ultimate leadership of Geronimo. A central theme of the book revolves around the Apache way of bringing maximum fierceness through mutilation of their foes even after death and the purposeful slaughter of women and children, all for the purpose of becoming so feared that the white men will leave. Shoz-Dijiji, however sees no honor in doing this, choosing to define bravery by his actions against enemies that can fight back. The resulting strife combined with his white origins lead to all sorts of misadventure.

The novel is written in Burroughs’s unmistakable style and includes quite a few of his typical plot devices.  In fact, for the first couple of chapters I thought I was reading “Tarzan among the Apaches” with very similar origin stories, (including earning his name by killing a black bear at the age of 10).  Just substitute Apaches for the Great Apes.  But soon, it became its own story and I was fully absorbed in its complexities. Reading through the various skirmishes from the Apache point-of-view was absolutely riveting.

Burroughs, I think was ahead of his time when it comes to describing the plight of these indigenous peoples and how both sides reacted to the other.  Written in the 1920’s it is, of course, not entirely politically correct by today’s standards.  But as long as readers can adjust to complex names like “Nakay-do-klunni”, “Be-don-ko-he” and “Chi-e-a-hen”, this one is definitely worth reading.