Friday's Favorite OTR

 The Line Up: "The Two Tough Thugs Thing" 12/19/52

A man is arrested for a year-old murder. His guilt is easily provable, but his partner is harder to track down.

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Space Pioneers

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #169

The fourth Tom Corbett book, 1954's Space Pioneers, has a fun coincidental connection to Star Trek. It involves Earth's first attempt to colonize a planet outside the Solar System. That planet revolves around the star Wolf 359,  a real star which is a tad less than 8 light years away from Sol.

In the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds" (1990), the Federation fights a Borg Cube in the Wolf 359 system. The Feds get their butts kicked, losing thirty-nine ships and thousands of crew.

In Space Pioneers, the problem isn't a super-powerful alien foe. Rather, its dishonest politicians.

Tom Corbett and his fellow cadets are assigned to be part of the screening process for deciding who will accompany a thousand-ship fleet to the new planet. Along the way, they turn down several shady characters. But then the man assigned to be the governer of the colony overrules them. This includes making a man named Paul Vidac his second-in-command.

During the journey to Wolf 359, Vidac seems to zig-zag between being a strong leader and being a jerk, at one point sending Tom, Astro and Roger on an unnecessary but dangerous mission to find a path through an asteroid belt, even though it was possible to easily fly around it.

When the fleet arrives at the planet, there is strange interference with ships' instruments when landing, so nearly 400 of the ships are wrecked and the colonists lose a lot of their supplies. Vidac again proves effective in salvaging what can be saved and getting things organized, but he also institutes clearly illegal methods of requiring the colonists to sign over future profits in exchange for help getting started with their new lives. When valuable uranium deposits are found, Vidac uses strong-arm tactics to get personal ownership of those deposits.

When the cadets object, they are told to shut up. When they try to see the governor, the governer can't be found. And when they try to contact Earth, they get framed for murder. That, of course, obligates them to break prison and find proof that Vidac is the real bad guy.

It's a fun story, gradually unfolding so that--though we are fairly certain Vidac is the villain from the first--the nature and depth of his plan takes time to become apparently. As is usual in the series, Tom and the cadets are forced into situations where--though punching people is occasionally called for--they must think through their situation and act intelligently.

Space Pioneers is a science fiction crime story, exploring how greed can turn good men evil and punctuating the tale with effective action scenes. The Tom Corbett books continue to entertain.

Sharks and Teleportation Beams

 

cover art by Dick Giordano

Green Lantern #126 (March 1980) has writer Denny O'Neil & artist Joe Staton picking up the action right from where the previous issue left off. Hal has returned to Earth with the young boy Fabian, only to find that the Weaponers of Qward have already invaded. The Weaponers, though, have gone to ground somewhere.

Hal tries to drop Fabian off with his uncle, but instead runs into the villain the Shark, who has been hired by the Weaponers to take care of Hal. There's a fight underwater and the Shark, using a weapon provided to him by his new allies, encases Hal in a golden coffin.

In the meantime, the Weaponers have set up show in a cavern, where they are putting together a teleportation device that will be used to invade Oa. There's also another reference to their absent commander, General Fabrikant, indicating again to alert readers that the kid Fabian isn't what he seems to be.

Hal manages to again think his way out of the underwater trap by slamming into the side of the gold coffin until it tumbles off a ledge, allowing water pressure to crack it open. After dropping Fabian off with Carol Ferris, Hal tales the Shark back to the Weaponer base. 

The Weaponers "reward" the Shark by deevolving him into a shark. Hal sees this and dumps the shark back in the ocean. Since the Shark once was a normal shark, this isn't such a bad fate for him.

The Weaponers have by now invaded Oa, where they capture the Guardians. Their plan is to use the Guardians and the power battery to create "the greatest weapon in the history of creation!"

Back on Earth, Hal takes out the few guards still in the cavern, then travels through the teleporter. Unfortunately for him, he ends up INSIDE the power battery.

This is another strong issue. It continues to move the story along quickly, has plenty of action and shows Hal using his brains as well as his power ring. The art is great and the story ends with an effective (both in terms of story and art) cliffhanger. In fact, the entire story arc has so far been strong.

We'll return to Hal in two weeks. Next week, we'll pay a long overdue return visit to Turok, Son of Stone.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #37: Swords of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs Podcast: Episode #37: Swords of Mars:   Tim, Jess and Scott talk about the 1934 novel "Swords of Mars" To listen to or download the audio version, click HERE .  email ...

Cover Cavalcade

 MAY IS "WORST DATE EVER" MONTH!!

An uncredited cover from 1940.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Lives of Harry Lime: "An Old Moorish Custom" 12/14/51

"This is a love story. But don't worry--there's action. An Arab chieftain; international gangsters; a buried treasure. But essentially, this is a tale of one of the times I fell in love."

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Family Visit Break

 

Sorry--no Wednesday or Thursday post this week. I have family visiting, though odds are we won't end up stumbling across murders or smuggling rings and solving crimes. Because real-life families are mind-numbingly boring.

Cover Cavalcade

 MAY IS "WORST DATE EVER" MONTH!!

A 1933 cover by William Reusswig.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Dragnet: "The Big Streetcar" 4/3/52

A woman shoots her husband and then goes on the lam. The sound of a streetcar bell over the phone might be the clue needed to find her.

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Glasshouse Gang #2

 

WARNING: The current ebook reprints of the Glasshouse Gang books lists Desert Marauders (1976) as Book 4 in the series. This is incorrect. It is Book 2 and literally picks up the action where Book 1 leaves off.

 

But the publisher messing up the series order doesn't distract from the quality of the book. Set in North Africa during World War 2, it recounts the adventures of Captain John Offer and his Glasshouse Gang Commando Unit. Except Offer isn't really a captain and the G.G.C.U. isn't a real unit. Instead, it's a ploy used by Offer and his men (all deserters and former residents of brutal military prisons called Glasshouses) to avoid being captured by the authorities.

 

But it turns out Offer is a really good tactical field commander and--when forced to do so--his men can do real harm to the enemy.

 

The book is filled with superb action set pieces as they finish an escape from the German army started at the end of the last novel and, later, find themselves shooting up a German airbase when they run across it by accident during a rain storm.

 

By this time, they've acquired an arch-enemy in the German army and the British army has figured out who they are. But Offer is given temporary immunity from prosecution if he and his men can pull off an apparently suicidal raid on Rommel's oil depot, deep in German territory.

 

This leads to an extended climatic action sequence that is literally edge-of-your-seat stuff.

 

Like the first novel, there's an interesting thematic tension existing just underneath the action. Offer and his men despise the British army because of the brutal treatment they were subject too in the Glasshouse. But to survive the war and stay free, Offer has to recreate a system of military authority within the G.G.C.U.--replicating what he has supposedly rejected. And, when the British finally tumble to what he's doing, a particular major general doesn't react with the same arrogant authority Offer usually sees from the Top Brass. Instead, the general respects what Offer has accomplished and, though he's quite straightforward about his willingness to sacrifice Offer's men on what is probably a suicide mission, he does so out of strict military necessity.

 

So is the series anti-authoritarian or simply critical of abuse among otherwise necessary authority figures? Is Offer a criminal (stealing vehicles, supplies and payrolls without a qualm) or does his skill, courage and the loyalty he shows towards his men lift him up into something more?

 

In the end, it doesn't matter. Desert Marauders works primarily as a cracking good wartime adventure novels. Thematic issues underlying it make for worthwhile discussions, but we come to the novel mostly to watch stuff get blown up.