A one-act play, 10 or 15 minutes long. An injured factory worker, turned to crime, breaks into an upper-class house. Coincidentally, the house belongs to his ex-employer's lawyer.
The unfortunate thief ends up spilling his whole story, leading to much hand-wringing.
Drama is not Sinclair's medium; there are way too many orations. To be charitable, it's a dud. One and a half stars.
With the sudden end of the interstellar war, everyone just went home, leaving some planets, like Poictesme, impoverished weapon and supply dumps. Conn Maxwell comes back from school on Terra with lots of information on secret installations, but without the crucial bit: the location of Merlin.
Merlin was rumored to be a supercomputer that ran the Terran Federation side of the war, but after 40 years no one is sure it ever existed.
Conn wheels and deals, gradually enriching Poictesme, but the real issue is "where is Merlin?"
A rather convoluted story, but for the most part easy to follow. The business end of the manipulations is pretty dry, but the overall search for Merlin and all the dead ends and twists keep it entertaining.
A tragic story of a stupid, drunk, rich man, his long-suffering wife, and her lover. The writing is excellent, as are the characterizations, but the anguish of the rich is a bit hard to identify with.
A Flash Gordon/Buck Rodgers type of story, with the science you would expect of the time.
Two heroic scientists are about to attempt to fly their new plane as high as 90,000 feet to set a new record, but a friend of theirs takes off first after giving them an ominous warning. At the same time, strange rays with no origin are stealing men and cattle. As the rays shift to New York City and begin lifting and dropping buildings and bridges, the frozen body of their friend lands by parachute on their roof. Yes, their roof.
All they can do is give the plans of their superplane to the government, and take off to find the source of the mysterious ray from nowhere. Is it space aliens? or something more sinister?
Cardboard characters, a hokey plot, and wonders galore.
Renegade Irish chieftain Cormac FitzGeoffrey is prowling the Holy Land in the uneasy truce after the 3rd crusade. He is looking for his old liege lord. His search sends him after a outlaw Arab, who hopes to betray both Saladin and the remaining Christians and carve an empire of his own in the chaos.
Great plotting and description, with lots of gore. The only hero who comes close to Cormac is Conan.
An alien crashes on Earth, and is unable to believe humans run the place. So he kills and eats them (raw). Eventually he is tracked down, but the bigwigs don't want him killed, they want him captured. So they set a huge decade-long plan into effect.
An okay story. Some of the medical technology is a bit far-fetched, and the nuclear war seems to have made women scarce, but it'll do for a pre-teen.
An opium-addicted recluse in 19th century London acquires a carved ivory god from India. Is it the opium, or is the god telling him stories?
A pretty good bogeyman story. Some of the description is Lovecraftian in its vagueness: "a series of gestures indicative of mental and physical fatigue," "he frowned, as if in anger or distaste." What did he do and feel? pick something!
Anyway, the story is plotted well, ends up predictably, and, save for the bedmaker, spares us female frivolity.
The title work is last in the book: a play in verse concerning an Irish legend of three heroes, a shape-shifter from the sea, and his army of cat-headed followers.
The remainder of the book is minor poems praising women, lamenting lost youth, insulting imitators, and puzzling over love. Nothing is astounding, but there is consistent good writing, with some memorable lines: "cling close to me; since you were gone, My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone." "where's the wild dog that has praised his fleas?" "begone From this unlucky country that was made when the devil spat."
You can do worse than reading this one.
The Frigid Fracas is what the Cold War evolved into. A strange story, both dated and futuristic. The Communist East and the Capitalist West each ended up feeding their people, and both societies stratified into a caste system of the hereditary wealthy, the useful, and the huge mass of everyone else who just exist, drug themselves, and watch the entertainments.
Maj.Joe Mauser is a mercenary who fights in the pre-arranged battles (with real killing) to settle disputes between corporations. They are televised as entertainment. He is ambitious and has already moved from the Low caste to the Middle, but he loves an Upper, and to gain status he has to become a "personality" in the fracas programs--to be noticed and made a hero. His plans go awry.
Then the story shifts and becomes a plot to overthrow the caste system. It's almost a story in itself.
The writing is good, nothing is too outlandish, and the characters are fairly realistic.
A frequently funny satire of 19th Century England. A poor London slum-dweller, Mr. Ginx sets out to throw his 13th child off a bridge. He is interrupted by a nun, who takes the child, promising never to give it back. The nuns, believing the child to be God's gift, prepare him for sainthood. However, the Protestants band together and sue the nuns for the child on behalf of the mother, who, while not Protestant, at least hates Catholics.
The child's adventures among the sects, the wealthy, the liberal and conservative politicians, the trade unions, and the thieves, make up the rest of the book.
Amusing social satire.
Lisa Carr’s book reviews
The unfortunate thief ends up spilling his whole story, leading to much hand-wringing.
Drama is not Sinclair's medium; there are way too many orations. To be charitable, it's a dud. One and a half stars.
Merlin was rumored to be a supercomputer that ran the Terran Federation side of the war, but after 40 years no one is sure it ever existed.
Conn wheels and deals, gradually enriching Poictesme, but the real issue is "where is Merlin?"
A rather convoluted story, but for the most part easy to follow. The business end of the manipulations is pretty dry, but the overall search for Merlin and all the dead ends and twists keep it entertaining.
Two heroic scientists are about to attempt to fly their new plane as high as 90,000 feet to set a new record, but a friend of theirs takes off first after giving them an ominous warning. At the same time, strange rays with no origin are stealing men and cattle. As the rays shift to New York City and begin lifting and dropping buildings and bridges, the frozen body of their friend lands by parachute on their roof. Yes, their roof.
All they can do is give the plans of their superplane to the government, and take off to find the source of the mysterious ray from nowhere. Is it space aliens? or something more sinister?
Cardboard characters, a hokey plot, and wonders galore.
Great plotting and description, with lots of gore. The only hero who comes close to Cormac is Conan.
An okay story. Some of the medical technology is a bit far-fetched, and the nuclear war seems to have made women scarce, but it'll do for a pre-teen.
A pretty good bogeyman story. Some of the description is Lovecraftian in its vagueness: "a series of gestures indicative of mental and physical fatigue," "he frowned, as if in anger or distaste." What did he do and feel? pick something!
Anyway, the story is plotted well, ends up predictably, and, save for the bedmaker, spares us female frivolity.
The remainder of the book is minor poems praising women, lamenting lost youth, insulting imitators, and puzzling over love. Nothing is astounding, but there is consistent good writing, with some memorable lines: "cling close to me; since you were gone, My barren thoughts have chilled me to the bone." "where's the wild dog that has praised his fleas?" "begone From this unlucky country that was made when the devil spat."
You can do worse than reading this one.
Maj.Joe Mauser is a mercenary who fights in the pre-arranged battles (with real killing) to settle disputes between corporations. They are televised as entertainment. He is ambitious and has already moved from the Low caste to the Middle, but he loves an Upper, and to gain status he has to become a "personality" in the fracas programs--to be noticed and made a hero. His plans go awry.
Then the story shifts and becomes a plot to overthrow the caste system. It's almost a story in itself.
The writing is good, nothing is too outlandish, and the characters are fairly realistic.
The child's adventures among the sects, the wealthy, the liberal and conservative politicians, the trade unions, and the thieves, make up the rest of the book.
Amusing social satire.