Books: Shadows, Cats, Tentacles, and Jaws

[woodwardiocom]

Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny

This is a short fantasy novel, set on an Earth which does not spin, so that one side, ruled by technology, always faces the sun, and another, ruled by magic, is always dark. Our antihero is one of the Powers of the dark side, who is undefeatable so long as he stands in shadow. In the opening chapter, however, he is caught thieving, and executed in a well-lit room. He spends the rest of the novel reviving from death, and unfolding his revenge against those who killed him. In the end, however, he finds there are things more important than revenge.

Most of the novel is spent darkside, and Zelazny does his usual fine job of presenting magic and monsters sui generis. The brief bit set on the dayside is basically a 1970s California college drama, and I'm not sure the point it makes about how radically different the sides are is worth the disjoint in tone. Nevertheless, a fun little book.

The Green Millenium by Fritz Leiber

This is a short satiric (also satyric) novel set in "the near future" when, as usual, society has slipped into commercialized decadence and fashion involves codpieces for men and bare breasts for women. Our wage-slave flunky is fired, and later that day is adopted by a green cat who makes anyone near him feel reeeal good. Assorted shenanigans involving women wrestlers, women fauns, women with serious daddy issues, and numerous gangsters, about half of whom work for big business or the government, ensue. Mildly recommended.

Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors by Robert E. Howard

This is a collection of horror shorts by Howard, including a few which touch on the Cthulhu Mythos. I was inspired to re-read it by Trail of Cthulhu. It's an interesting take on the Mythos, in that the protagonists are often not neurasthenic researchers, but two-fisted men of action, and they sometimes even survive the story with sanity intact. On the flip side, despite the aforementioned two fists, the events often seem to happen to them, without them actually doing much but observing. Still, moderately recommended.

Jaws by Peter Benchley

When I last read this, I was really way too young to get most of it. I was certainly way too young to appreciate it as a classic example of the 70s novel, shockingly open for its time, weirdly tawdry today. (As seen in the adultery and mob subplots which were completely removed for the movie.) And, you have to wonder why, when Benchley decides to write about sex, he grabs ahold of words like "tumescent", "genitals", and "pudenda" which, while technically valid, are still jarringly, well, technical. See the movie, don't bother with the book unless you're really curious.

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I remember reading Jack of Shadows several times and enjoying it, though not remembering the plot much (which goes the same for RZ's Roadmarks as well, come to think of it.) I enjoyed The Green Millenium as well, even if some of it seemed a bit jarring, like the mention of Korean War vets still being held as POW's in the far flung future of the 1970's.

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the movie, but I remember reading Jaws when I was young enough to be shocked by the sex. Not the gore--you kinda expect that with the picture of a giant shark about to eat a kid on the front of the cover--but I remember being irate at the time that there was all this random weird gross sex (I think I was maybe eleven) in the midst of an otherwise great shark story.

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

Does the Howard collection contain the short story "Scarlet [or possibly Crimson] Tears"? I loved that one when I read it in a Weird Tales reprint anthology at age 11.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Hmm, nope, it doesn't. I'll keep an eye open for it.