Kenneth BulmerRezensionen

Quite enjoyed Cherry Wilder's The Ark of James Carlyle, and No Certain Armour by John Kippax. None of the rest particularly stood out.

El representante de Asia Sudoriental en la Confederación de Naciones es asesinado vandálicamente por un robot, y Alberto Duchein, miembro de la Coordinación Mundial, es comisionado para resolver el caso. Pero Duchein no sabe que aquel inexplicable asesinaro va a llevarle a descubrimiento de la que es en verdad la Sociedad de los Hombres, sociedad secreta que lucha contra el creciente poder de las máquinas, y a una nueva concepción de su mundo, mucho menos perfecto de lo que pudiera parecer.

review of
Kenneth Bulmer's / Mack Reynolds's Behold the Stars / Planetary Agent X
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 18, 2018


Here's another Ace Double that I got for the Reynolds story — only to realize once I got it home that I already had Planetary Agent X in a different edition. Duh. I wasn't that excited about reading another bk by Bulmer since I hadn't liked the only other thing I read by him very much (see my review of his The Key to Venudine here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2460708541 ). However, it was a quick read & an easy review & I liked it more so here's the thin skivvy:

"He would look forward to the reunion hopefully, as each year passed and his buddies filled out and married and became good citizens—they really had been a tear-away bunch. He would go along to enjoy himself in the old talk and the jargon and the memories. But each year brought the same jokes and the same memories that yet were subtly not the same, so that the outlines blurred and—was it Johnny Red who got that Venie gunner on their forward base or was it Jackie Franks?—no, he bought it in the drop on Suvla—surely that was when that new blond young shavetail got his when his parapack roman-candled—no, you're thinking of that guy, what was his name? was always sick when we went through the box . . ." - p 6

An ex-military guy goes to a reunion of his former unit members. These days, his job is to service space freighters that're accessed thru faster-than-light boxes that were the same boxes that enabled him & his unit to drop in uninvited on the Venies they were fighting. The bk was published in 1965 & we're in the future where it's possible to travel to very far-away places almost instantaneously.. but some things just never change:

"As soon as he decently could after the meal, when the ex-troopers were once again standing and sitting around the bar and looking forward to a night of it, Ward walked through to the phone booths." - p 8

Yes, phone booths are still w/ us, maybe tape is too, alcohol is bound to be. Anyway, there's talk of another possible-threat-to-humans-from-another-exraterrestrial-but-people-are-not-in-any-hurry-for-yet-another-war:

""Stupid talk. Those aliens may look like us and the Venies and the Centaurians and Procyns and a dozen other local stellar races; but they're more alien, if you allow a vague sentiment like that—"

""We know what you mean." Crombie sat quietly with the others now, his usual liveliness not evident. "We remember the Venies as they were—oh—ten years ago. But today they're just another friendly race in our local interstellar civilization. Sometimes you can make contact with an alien race and remain friends and sometimes there just has to be a dumb stupid war. But so far we haven't bumped into any alien aliens so hostile that they won't see sense."" - p 9

My description of the boxes as FTL isn't quite accurate:

"Zukowsky switched his train of thought: "Pal of mine working for SSA tells me they're still a million parsecs from ever pushing a ship along at FTL."

""I don't think they ever will. Einstein won't be mocked."

""We do, don't we, every day, after a fashion? We break down a person or a load of freight, shoot them along our beams from one box to the receiver box and recreate them. Just about instantaneously too."" - p 26

Close enuf for me. But what about the possibilites for things not working as you've intended? Computers & marriages are bad enuf:

"He'd shown himself to be a coward; in a way that step across the matter transmitter threshold was in a very real sense a step towards his own mental rehabilitation.

"He stepped out the far door, adjusting his body to the anticipated near free-fall conditions in the carrier and fell full length on his face, his body crushed down by a stunning and unexpected and altogether terrifying acceleration." - pp 44-45

Some violence ensues but he survives & the next thing he knows he's encountering a conspiracy of pacifists. PACI-FIST? That wd make a nice knuckle tattoo. A variation on LOVE HATE that plays off the hand position.

""So you've seen . . ?"

""I've seen tough men talking like pacifists. There's no harm in that, it's the only sensible way to think about aliens when the aliens come in friendship. But I've been worried—"

""Something—or someone—is deliberately forcing our fighting men to demand peace at any price. You have the wit to guess what that will do if the Gershmi are out for a fight? Steve was assigned a task in trying to uncover the truth. He has disappeared."" - p 62

But what I want to know is Do the Gershmi have any natural resources that we want?

"Jordan shook his head. "I can understand why you are saying this, Dave. And I can understand what you are saying. But, surely you realize that I cannot feel it at all? You know the detractors take away all combative feeling for aliens? I just can't envisage what you're suggesting, and the effort to achieve the impossible makes my head ache. . . ."" - p 107

Don't worry, there's bound to be a Happy Pill for that soonish. SF is full of stories of battle between Earthlings & Extraterrestrials, it's full of stories of Earth being quarantined b/c of human violence. Behold the Stars puts a slightly new twist on it.

As for Planetary Agent X? You can read my review of that here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/629641-gotta-luv-ya-mack-reynolds .

Have a nice day.

a solid meh.

The John Carnell memorial volume, and the first under the editorship of Kenneth Bulmer. Notably includes the original novelette version of Christopher Priest's The Inverted World.

Ja, es ist pulp, es ist sexistisch und gewaltverherrlichend - aber es macht Spaß!

Lo spazio non è amico degli uomini. Lo spazio è un nemico da vincere, ma dal quale non bisogna lasciarsi impressionare, e al quale non si deve lasciar prendere il sopravvento. Questa in breve la filosofia di Dan Harding, che nonostante tutto considera gli uomini più importanti di ogni altra cosa. Gli uomini e tutto ciò che essi sanno costruire, sulla Terra per giungere nello spazio, e nello spazio per spingersi sempre più oltre. Stazione spaziale 539 parla di Dan Harding e della tenacia quasi feroce con cui egli accetta la sfida che lo spazio gli ha lanciato quando per la prima volta lui ha osato alzare gli occhi al regno delle stelle. Per la sua audacia Harding è stato anche orribilmente punito. Ma l'umiliazione a cui il corpo dell'uomo è stato sottoposto, non gli ha indebolito né il cuore né il cervello, ed è con rinnovato fervore che Harding riprende la lotta contro il cosmico nemico. Seguiamolo nella sua titanica impresa attraverso le parole di Bulmer, un autore nuovo per i lettori di Urania, ma un autore originale, che non si dimentica.

This is my second Bulmer novel and the better of the two. This prolific British author was churning out novels from the early 1950s forward. I don't believe he won any awards but he brought a lot of joy to adolescent SF readers.

This was a short fun adventure. If I had read this as a teen I would have given it 4 stars.½

Sorry, just not my thing. If this were a film - and it might be but I haven't heard of it, I have a feeling that I would only end up watching it because the OH picked it, and then I'd spent about half an hour debriefing the complexities afterwards. Also, I find it highly depressing that as this was a vision of the future (albeit from around a generation ago) that there wasn't the imaginative scope to extend women beyond secretaries in see-through blouses, tiresome wives and actresses who couldn't hold a role on their own. A big old bagful of nope.

Sword and Planet Fiction at its best. Fast-paced entertaining reads. Rereading this series nearly 50 years after the first book's publication, I was surprised at how well they held up and at the erudition and learning of the author. For "pulp" fiction, the vocabulary is rich and rewarding to logophiles like myself. I purchased the ebook omnibus editions for my reread of the series to facilitate dictionary and web access to definitions and references to 19th century history and the Age of Sail -- since I am a student of history as well. However, this is not necessary for the causal reader who desires only the pleasure of the experience, just as enjoying a delicious meal does not require knowing the precise recipe. The marvelous interior illustrations are the added seasoning (and only present in these original paperback editions).

Sword and Planet Fiction at its best. Fast-paced entertaining reads. Rereading this series nearly 50 years after the first book's publication, I was surprised at how well they held up and at the erudition and learning of the author. For "pulp" fiction, the vocabulary is rich and rewarding to logophiles like myself. I purchased the ebook omnibus editions for my reread of the series to facilitate dictionary and web access to definitions and references to 19th century history and the Age of Sail -- since I am a student of history as well. However, this is not necessary for the causal reader who desires only the pleasure of the experience, just as enjoying a delicious meal does not require knowing the precise recipe. The marvelous interior illustrations are the added seasoning (and only present in these original paperback editions).

Sword and Planet Fiction at its best. Fast-paced entertaining reads. Rereading this series nearly 50 years after the first book's publication, I was surprised at how well they held up and at the erudition and learning of the author. For "pulp" fiction, the vocabulary is rich and rewarding to logophiles like myself. I purchased the ebook omnibus editions for my reread of the series to facilitate dictionary and web access to definitions and references to 19th century history and the Age of Sail -- since I am a student of history as well. However, this is not necessary for the causal reader who desires only the pleasure of the experience, just as enjoying a delicious meal does not require knowing the precise recipe. The marvelous interior illustrations are the added seasoning (and only present in these original paperback editions).

Sword and Planet Fiction at its best. Fast-paced entertaining reads. Rereading this series nearly 50 years after the first book's publication, I was surprised at how well they held up and at the erudition and learning of the author. For "pulp" fiction, the vocabulary is rich and rewarding to logophiles like myself. I purchased the ebook omnibus editions for my reread of the series to facilitate dictionary and web access to definitions and references to 19th century history and the Age of Sail -- since I am a student of history as well. However, this is not necessary for the causal reader who desires only the pleasure of the experience, just as enjoying a delicious meal does not require knowing the precise recipe. The marvelous interior illustrations are the added seasoning (and only present in these original paperback editions).

Sword and Planet Fiction at its best. Fast-paced entertaining reads. Rereading this series nearly 50 years after the first book's publication, I was surprised at how well they held up and at the erudition and learning of the author. For "pulp" fiction, the vocabulary is rich and rewarding to logophiles like myself. I purchased the ebook omnibus editions for my reread of the series to facilitate dictionary and web access to definitions and references to 19th century history and the Age of Sail -- since I am a student of history as well. However, this is not necessary for the causal reader who desires only the pleasure of the experience, just as enjoying a delicious meal does not require knowing the precise recipe. The marvelous interior illustrations are the added seasoning (and only present in these original paperback editions).

Sorry to see this often overlooked series end. Foxey never changes but always succeeds followed by persecution from his "betters" Even submarines do not prevail as GA and his ship en flute make their way back to England. Perhaps, one of the many "Age of Sail" writers of today could finish his career for us. After all, he is still only a commander and he will never make admiral.

Foxey is aground again; fighting the French in Egypt. A lot of dust, fighting, and no loot. Back aboard his "flute", he is taking wounded and prisoners back to Gibraltar when accosted by a French privateer. Then the fun begins, lots of action but of prizes, none. What else would we expect, remember this is Foxey, the man born under a cloud?½

Rescued, gazetted and on the beach, what is Fox to do? Off to the Med on a cargo? ship; he lands with the RedCoats in Egypt and searches for loot. What else is a poor commander to do?½

Fox is rescued to face another court-marshal. Should be no problem; two enemy ships sunk, plenty of witnesses. Unless Lord Lyme is one of the judges. Unexpected assistance intervenes and he is on to his next command, a fire ship. He celebrates his birthday with a bang and ends up swimming again.

Although now a commander, Fox's bad luck does not change with the "shy" Lord Lyme as his squadron commodore. His success in supporting clandestine landings gains him more approbation than glory. And, in a splendid grand finale takes down two Frenchies but loses his ship. His last sight as he goes overboard is another corvette swooping down to capture.

Fox is finally made Master and Commander of a slow but well-armed ship. He also discovers that an old love is back in a new and forbidding form. After completing some very complex and successful actions, his career seems to be moving in the right direction. However, this is Fox and an old nemesis takes over as his squadron commander.½

Fox does something stupid and participates in a highway robbery. Surely he will regret it someday. Rescued by his previous captain he becomes the first lieutenant on an 80gun ship of the line. Fleet action is ahead and successfully concluded but his prizes sink maintaining his bad luck and penury.½

Fox faces a court-martial with all of his witnesses at sea. Rescued by their timely arrival, he resumes his role at first lieutenant for a disinterested but supportive captain. They are successful in action but remember; this is Foxey. Returning to England, his ship is struck from the fleet and he is "on the Beach".½

The Raccoons with Foxie as their leader manage to capture several ships; the final one, a Spanish First Rate. Sailing it to port, they rescue a British Frigate that is in dire straits and under attack by numerous galleys. A late injury renders Fox unconscious. He awakes to find himself and his crew on a raft after the prize is lost in a fire. His history of bad luck continues but there may possibly be a ray of sunshine breaking through.½

Fox, in temporary command of the Raccoon, ends up supporting the British troops defending against Napoleon's siege. It is a brutal battle as were most sieges in this military era. As usual, his success is rewarded badly as he loses his ship and girl.

Fox is now an accomplished but disdained sea officer. Finally, he is the first officer on a very small ship that is sent on a rescue mission. The very large fair maid and her wealthy father are duly succored and GA has a ship to command and a new set of problems.½