This column is all about setting the Wayback Machine to when I was a young teen with a voracious reading appetite, but not for the books that were meant to be read for school. No, I’m talking about the science fiction and fantasy that filled my shelves at home. Two of them are part of series I read the bulk of back in those days, while the third is based on a show I would watch whenever it would make an appearance on a UHF channel.
THIEVES’ WORLD edited by Robert Lynn Asprin — The recent passing of Asprin reminded just how much of his output I read, including most of his MYTH books and a good amount of the PHULE series. Then it clicked in my head that I had a few of the THIEVES’ WORLD titles as a teen, but I can’t remember if I read them straight through or just picked and chose certain stories. So when I came across a whole set for dirt-cheap, I grabbed it.
For those unfamiliar, the series is set in a town called Sanctuary, wherein resides nothing but crooks, con men, slave traders, brothel dwellers and killers. As explained in the prologue, the king decided to stick all of them in one town to keep an eye on them. So, in plain English, these were people not to screw with, unless you wish to have your life ended.
From 1979, the first book in the series is a bit hit-and-miss, as nothing truly stands out as a must-read, while a few stories reminded me of why I don’t read that much fantasy anymore, what with all these confusing ideas of gods and wizards. Each story does a fine job of introducing the main set of characters, explaining why they live in Sanctuary and the crosses they bear.
For instance, in John Brunner’s “Sentences of Death,” we meet Enas Yorl, a magician who lost a duel and now has to live in a castle by himself, since he can’t control the shapeshifting he is now cursed with. “The Face of Chaos” by Lynn Abbey deals with the world of magic, the temples that occupy the town, and how even religious types are none too keen to let anyone else have an upper hand in this world, with a fortune teller being used as a pawn.
In “The Secret of the Blue Star,” Marion Zimmer Bradley explains the secret of Lythande, the wizard with the star on his head. This story is actually the best of the bunch since the reveal is done in a way where you’re like, “Wait, what just happened?” and you’ll even look at these books in a new light. Asprin’s own contribution, “The Price of Doing Business,” tells of Jubal, a businessman who makes his money the old-fashioned way: by selling slaves. It’s a business venture that doesn’t work out for the best for his crew.
That is only a small smattering of the stories, but the closing essay is just terrific. In it, Asprin explains how the series came to be. These were the days before we had cell phones, e-mail and instant messaging, so just imagine trying to get all these authors to work together while a publisher is breathing down your neck. This is just a guilty-pleasure read, plain and simple — fun for people who remember the days of rolling 20-sided die.
THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT WANTS YOU! by Harry Harrison — All the blame should be pointed at 2000 AD. When I think about it, the British strips were my foray into the world of crime fiction, by way of this series. The Stainless Steel Rat books, especially the early ones, are fantastic reads about a galactic con man named James Bolivar diGriz.
See, 2000 AD adapted three of the novels into a comic series which followed the storylines pretty accurately. It was then I discovered they were actual books and devoured a good amount of them. This 1978 one is one of the few that had slipped through the cracks for me, so it was nice to come across this blast from the past in my used-bookstore travels.
It deals with Jim and his wife, Angelina, and their now fully grown sons who seem to take after their parents. Jim is forced into action with the kidnapping of his wife, only to discover that it was all a ruse for him to work again for the special corps. He has an unlikely working alliance with them — I mean, he still is a criminal at heart. The main problem is that a lunar base all of sudden just disappeared, with the last transmission mentioning a giant set of teeth, then nothing. This leads into a plot about a slug-like race bent on conquering all the planets.
The title is totally misleading, since this has nothing to do with some sort of army recruiting. It deals more with Jim and his family helping out the people who were first taken over by these creatures. Harrison’s writing has always been tongue-in-cheek, no matter the series, which is why I kept reading him over and over.
For those people who like to read series in order, there is a bit of a problem, as these books jump back and forth in Jim’s history. My suggestion is to stop after A STAINLESS STEEL RAT IS BORN, if you read them in publication order. You’ll be better off, since the later titles that came out in the ’90s don’t match up with the earlier ones’ style or substance.
THE AVENGERS #1: THE FLOATING GAME by John Garforth — THE AVENGERS is that cult classic that would show up every once in a while on my local TV — not regularly, but one week it would be on, then gone the next. Thanks to the old VHS tapes and now those DVD sets, it’s super-easy to catch. Well, here is a suggestion: Stick with the show.
This 1967 book takes a person the same amount of time as watching a better-plotted affair. It’s not that book doesn’t feel like a Avengers story, but it lost my interest over and over throughout. A mishmash of ideas comprises the plot, which deals with brainwashing, Russian spies, a gambling establishment, Emma Peel dressed like a cowgirl, Steed running for office, and, of course, more then a few attempts on Steed’s life.
All of this takes place in less than 140 pages. It gets a bit jumbled more than a few times, but Garforth tries his hardest to get Steed and Peel right, which is fine. It’s everything else he should have spent more time on. At one point, I literally had no clue who were the good guys and bad guys. What you should do is search out the other AVENGERS book I covered a long time ago. That one really captures the series; this one is not worth the time or money — especially since I saw one copy go online for $74 more than what I paid.
Next time: I bought some brand-new books. —Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THE AVENGERS:
• THE AVENGERS: TOO MANY TARGETS by John Peel and Dave Rogers
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF HARRY HARRISON:
• MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM! by Harry Harrison
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- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> AM Radio Ruined My Youth
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Two-Fisted Tales
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> TV Party
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> No Murder, Please, We’re British
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Countdown
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Love the Rat books – and, yeah, stop after “SSR is born.” Bit of a dropoff after that.