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%T Escape From Loki
%A Philip Jose Farmer
%I Bantam
%D August 1991
%O paperback, US$
%P 214
%G ISBN 0-553-29093-3
Philip Jose Farmer is very good at pastiche. This one, billed as the first
all-new Doc Savage adventure since 1949, gives us the origin story of the Man
Of Bronze --- how, as a downed WWI airman in an "escape-proof" German prison
camp, he recruited the nucleus of his crimefighting team and scotched the
sinister schemes of a mad Prussian genius. Farmer gives us all the flashy,
trashy allure of the pulps through an eye just modern enough to put a subtle,
wicked backspin on some of the pulps' cliches. The result can be read either
as straight adrenals-rousing fun or as an excercise in devastating ironies.
It works either way.
%T The Emanicpator #1: The Pharaoh Contract
%A Ray Aldridge
%I Bantam Spectra
%D September 1991
%O paperback, US$4.50
%P 290
%G ISBN 0-553-29118-1
This is glitter-trash formula SF reminiscent of Christopher Rowley --- the
hero is an assassin working for (but secretly against) the galactic slavers'
guild. Lots of sex, violence, perversion, decadence, grotesquerie, and
picturesque villains. Inventive, though, and better written than such stuff
usually is. You might enjoy it.
RECEIVED BUT NOT REVIEWED:
Reefsong, by Carol Severance. More wimmins' advantures for the ecologically correct. My S.O. found it too boring to finish.
A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! by Harry Harrison. Reissue of an oldy-but-goody from 1972.
Question Quest by Piers Anthony. The very thought makes me vomit.
Conan The Destroyer, by Robert Jordan. Yes, I read it. Same old garbage.
Omega Sub #4: Blood Tide by J.D. Cameron. The title tells you everything you need to know about this industrial-strength turkey.
The Maze In The Heart Of The Castle by Dorothy Gilman. Juvie city. Sweet, well-intentioned, utterly boring.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Wed Oct 09 12:32:27 EDT 1991 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>