70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

All rightey, I have put down the pen and the spirograph and am back in fine form. This week's entry is a doozy! Science fiction isn't just about imagining the future or imbuing it with fantasy - sometimes it's about one man's manly science fiction fantasies, such as...

Hook: The Virility Gene

The illuminated cube lit up with the scattered lights, looking like a handful of diamonds strewn carelessly across a velvet backdrop. Hook easily picked out the Jarhed system - any almost normal F-type sun and ten planets, with only three suitable for human habitation: Rondelle, Pheruchia, and Shyle.

Within that system, specifically on Shyle, Ryder Hook knew an inter-galatic "gold rush" was happening. The virility gene - once highly prized and more precious than any other substance in the universe - was being claimed and mined by all takers. Its source, once intensely guarded, and now, revealed, was being ravaged. Every form of intelligent life knew that the virility gene not only increased, but also prolonged, sexual pleasure.

Hook eagerly journeyed to this weird planet to stake a claim. But the joyous, potentially profitable events took a disastrous turn for the worse when he uncovered the gene's true source - and his arch-enemies, the Boosted Men, arrived to manipulate the powerful secret of the gene for their own evil ends.

I wish this cover was in better shape, and I suppose the title alone made it well read. I have to wonder if this 1975 book is a nod to 1967's Logan's Run - in the book version, Logan is tormented by women who give him a dose of something called Everlove. At least it's communicating all the right things - action! space! babes! Now if you're thinking Tully Zetford is the least manly name ever, it actually belonged to Kenneth Bulmer, who passed away in 2005. Apparently he was quite fond of pseudonyms as Wikipedia lists just over a dozen. It's easy to see why, because not only is this book has clunky named things, it also has bad steamy prose:

He stopped by a damak-velour couch. He did not release his hold upon Iola. She stood looking up at him, her eyes meeting his, her breath soft and sweet. Slowly, feeling the magnitude of the occasion, Hook bent. He kissed her. He kissed her and he felt the fires flickering all along his limbs and devouring his body. She responded. She was the flame. He held her to him and put a hand on her white gown and she put her slender hand on him and pressed. He could feel her heart beating. She moaned and her lips grew hot and soft under his.

Snortle!

World of Whirls

This blog may need to be retitled if this keeps up. I have been more absorbed in making spirals than gazing at my navel this past week. Maybe it's because the drawings gaze back. Behold! 

I think this one is definitely book cover material:

The right tools make all the difference, and fancy art paper and all my pointy felt pens produced awesome results. The only downside is overlapping an area too much with a marker wets and wears the paper. I didn't have to hold the frame down so hard though as the pens swept along the shapes. Part of it is that I'm a lefty - lefties push the pen against the paper instead of pulling it across like righties. So I swung by a stationary store and bought some Papermate Inkjoy pens. A bag was ridiculously cheap ($1.99!) and they flow so sweetly. I would have killed for these pens as a teenage doodler, because nothing says "Math sucks!!" like "Math sucks!!" written in eight different colours in the margins :-D

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Well, I think I used up all my silly for the week in Wednesday's post, so I'll see what I can work up for today. One of the amazing things science fiction is that it is such an open framework, and if you want to add some fantasy to it, go right on ahead. No one says you can't, such as in 1978 when barbarian fantasy was all the rage. Conan, He-Man, Vardeman?

The Sandcats of Rhyl

SPACEPEDITION!

Nightwind and his cyborg companion were an unlikely team, by galatic standards, but they shared a fierce drive for independence and adventure. When they heard about the lost civilization, and its untapped treasures, they wasted no time to search for it. But Rhyl was a barren, unrelenting planet, covered with endless deserts, and deadly sciroccos. They were prepared for that hardship, but not for the beasts - sandcats of Hell!

This book sounds like it has it all, and it should, because Robert Vardeman is a prolific writer of space operas and at least one Star Trek novel. Just another book on the shelf that I haven't gotten around to reading, I think this would be a good one...it seems the sandcats are telepathic. The best thing I like, of course, is the cover. My gut is telling me that the artist is not Frank Frazetta, but heavily inspired by him. Here's to you, unknown book cover artist!

The Klutz Spiral Draw Book Review

Every year I get myself a birthday and a Christmas gift, and I encourage you to do the same. Nothing is quite as awesome as opening your gift, giving yourself the thumbs up in the mirror and saying "It's just what I wanted. Thank you, me!"

Just kidding, I don't go that far. This year I bought myself the Klutz Spiral Draw Book, mostly so I could get birthday bonus points on my Indigo book club card. Klutz books are great because they come with everything you need to get started right away and the materials are good quality, plus, they're just fun. It comes with a drawing book, a spiffy six colour pen and the drawing gears. Perfect for the impatient child or adult. Amazon has a picture of the older version, which was spiral bound and had three gel pens with it.

No batteries, AC Adapter or expansion set required!

Right way I began making these masterpieces. Clearly, the cover of my next book is going to have a lot of spirals.

Even though this book is Klutz proof, it's not without a couple of flaws. First of all, I didn't even realize the book came out of the package! Doh! Secondly, the frame needs to be held down quite firmly and the paper needs to be as flat as possible, so don't be afraid to bend the book open. I could see this being a challenge for younger children. On more than one occasion the gear slipped under the frame (woe!) and then when drawing near the binding of the book, the gear wouldn't turn all the way. No problem though, because the drawings don't need to be perfect. In fact, you don't even have to make a whole circle to make a cool picture.

It would have been nice to see some blank pages in the book, as it is illustrated with cartoon characters throughout. The Klutz editors were very thoughtful though in making it appealing to girls and boys and adults.

There's a zen quality in creating for the sake of it, especially when the results are so random. Nowadays people tend to plan everything down to the tiniest detail, so happy accidents were just that. I found myself absorbed in making round after multicolored round of shapes, so much so that I barely noticed the time passing. That kind of relaxing, imaginative play is the most priceless gift of all.

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

It surprises me how quickly I run out of queued up posts, but at least I will not run out of books! I'll be photographing a whole bunch to show off in the coming Saturdays in between dashing to a couple of Thanksgiving dinners this weekend. Today I picked a book that I am quite fond of, Larry Niven's 1971 short story collection...

All The Myriad Ways

This collection contains some of Niven's most famous stories such as "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" which makes a clear case for why a relationship between Lois Lane and Superman is ultimately doomed, and one of my favourites, "Wait It Out", about astronauts stranded on Pluto. If I remember right, the cover depicts "Inconstant Moon", as illustrated by Dean Ellis. Niven toys with hard science fiction, humour and speculation in a very carefully crafted way. I really prefer short stories over novels, and not just because they are quicker to read. The format gives the author room to zoom in on a few ideas and a few characters, instead of adding more and more. Filler in books is just as unappetizing as filler in sausages. But I guess really this post is filler too :-D Have a great Thanksgiving if you're in Canada, and enjoy your long weekend if you are American!

Tea for Tuesday

Much like the several farmer's markets around town, we are total suckers for import stores. We always end up spending too much, but it always seems like money well spent for the pleasures they bring. Whether it's the big Asian supermarket or the quaint German store with schnitzel to die for, we can't resist. A couple of weeks ago we paid our first visit to a long running Italian store called Lina's, which has a cozy cafeteria. It was hopping and all the tables were covered in crumbs from crusty buns. We had homemade lasagna and Oraginas, and after that, a giant focaccia, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and jam found their way into the cart.Then I found heaven- the smart people at Lina's stocked the tea and biscuits next to each other!

Tea time isn't complete without a little something something. Most mass made cookies are pretty pathetic these days. Peek Freans haven't tasted good since Kraft took over and cheapened them. But these Trancetto cakes I found at Lina's were lovely, just perfect and not overly sweet. Clipper's Earl Grey tea by Clipper is a bit too citrus for my taste, but still pleasant. I just add a bit of Yorkshire Gold to give it more body.

These new treats required the most special tea cup in my collection. It was part of a set that was a gift to my granny from her first husband - apparently he walked miles to get it for her. The set has blue, green and yellow siblings; all four now belong to a granddaughter. It's so dainty and probably stronger than it looks, but I still have to be careful that it doesn't end up in the dishwasher by accident!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Science fiction is regarded as the realm of "adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds" to quote the introduction of the old time radio program X Minus One. What iffing comes naturally to people, so much so that there is a whole genre of alternate history works, cousin to the time travel trope. An author doesn't have to imagine merely historical outcomes - they can have a fantastical element such as...

Baphomet's Meteor

CRUSADERS OF THE ATOM

Are there parallel dimensions in which history turned out differently? Are there other universes with other Earths where the alternates become the realities? Here is an exciting science fiction novel of such an historical by-pass. Told with the color and romance of the Crusades, reminiscent of the work of Harold Lamb and L. Sprague de Camp, what would have happened had the Knights Templars really made the demonic alliance claimed by their royal rivals?

The "demon" was Baphomet - a stranded extra-terrestrial - and his alliance gave the Templars the atomic arms and scientific equipment to create the empire Baphomet needed for his own outer-space motives.

Pierre Barnet, one of the Old World's most popular science fiction authors, has created a fascinating and authentically researched novel of the empire upon which our sun never rose.


First of all, I love this book, just for the delicate scent of its 41 year old paper. It takes me back to my junior high library full of thirty year old (or older still) books. You can bet in 1991 that my homework was written with the most up to date information from the 1967 Book of Knowledge encyclopedias.

But lest I become nostalgic for my teenage self, let's look at how all the elements in the cover painting by Karen Thole are simply awesome. No slick airbrushing here - her painterly strokes bring out the whoomph of the nuclear explosion behind Baphomet. And look, look what she did there by cleverly showing the demon-knight alliance. "Here," Baphomet says, "I give you great power," and the knight is all "Oh yeah, baby! 25 kilotons of TNT, that's what I'm talking about."

The simple contrast of black and white and the pentagram and cross keep this cover from being overcomplicated. Limiting the colour palette was a smart move, but there's almost no room for the title. You can feel the relief of the layout artist as she or he discovers there's just a few millimetres of space between the top of the horn and the author's name. Whew, crisis averted!

Baphomet's Meteor was translated from French by the way. The author, Pierre Barbet, was a pseudonym for a pharmacist (the book notes that he is a "distinguished doctor of pharmacology"). It seems that when he wasn't filling prescriptions, he was prolifically writing space operas. Just proof that those who daydream, "What if I was an author?" can make it happen!