Robert Lory

review of
Robert Lory's / Mack Reynolds's The Eyes of Bolsk / The Space Barbarians
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 19, 2018


This is the type of bk I probably wd've judged negatively by its cover for much of my life & dismissed w/o reading it. These days, esp in the case of Mack Reynolds, I see the titles & the cover art as somewhat misleading marketing lures for content that's deeper than the garishness might imply.

As usual w/ these Ace Doubles, I read the work by the author that I don't know 1st, saving the Reynolds, wch I'd expected to enjoy (& did), for last. I eat in the same way, saving the food I like the most for last so that the meal doesn't have an unclimactic ending. Lory's The Eyes of Bolsk begins:

"Boredom—We include a special subheading on this psychological state, which you may well experience during your term of service. Because environmental conditions here at headquarters render you relatively static in terms of your normal aging process, and time as you have known it passes in hardly traceable movements, the "time" you may spend in any given staff assignment may appear to you to be exceedingly lengthy." - p 5

An interesting aspect of this bk is its framing of things w/ bureaucrat-speak such as the above & then contrasting the 'reality' of how things play out. The "employee handbook" that the preceding is a 'quote' from is often reasonable & cautionary while the 'actuality' is quite different. The handbook is somewhat considerate & tactful, the 'reality' is otherwise:

"Kane thought of his gun and his knives, of which one was buried in the guard's chest behind him. All right, he had the means, but . . . "After I kill this man and put out his eyes, you say I can return here. Here to this exact place?"

""To this exact place and time, which will then begin to flow for you again."

""But then that bullet there . . ."

"Aylan smiled. "I'll leave that problem to your ingenuity. As for the man, you won't be required to kill him."

"Kane said grimly. "Committee ruling, I suppose."

""Not at all. There's no Committee ruling which says you can't kill the man. But that doesn't change the fact of the matter. You cannot kill Bolsk. He's already dead."" - p 15

I think that's a catchy beginning. This is, after all, a work of the imagination & such a premise is imaginative. The over-the-top legend that explains it is even more so:

"Doyak had already limped across the room and his right arm wielding the heavy sword in one horizontal swish, lopped off Bolsk's white haired head. "False old man!" he howled. "You wished your sight restored. Now you see not. Now your eyes are dead. Now you have need of the magic I've brought. Now see, old man, now see!" And as a guard's sword rent his own heart, Doyak thrust the contents of the earthen jar into the eyes of the severed head on the floor." - p 21

"["]Between Trovo and a certain elsewhere a window has existed since long before the death of Bolsk. Since his death, however, the window has widened. That window is the eyes, which are not yet a door but which may become so. It is only a matter of time. That is why the eyes must be put out."" - p 23

As I pointed out in connection w/ Kenneth Bulmer's The Key to Venudine, "it occurred to me that Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) is the earliest example of the genre I can think of" - by wch I meant the genre in wch a technology of a particular time & place gets transplanted into a time & place where it hadn't previously existed. In this case that means a gun into a more medieval setting:

""All of you—over to the door with the others," Kane snarled as the object lesson of their fallen comrade took hold. "The door I want opened, and fast. I also want every single one of you out of it as fast as your feet can travel. Understand that there is a new ruler in Castle Bolsk and that if ever I see or hear your coming back to this place, the magic of my booming tube will blast out instant death to you as it has to your leader and to one of your number already. Am I quite clear in my meaning?"" - p 50

Finally we meet part of what-once-was-Bolsk. One might say that after being a ruthless dictator life (or death) hasn't been good to him:

"What might once have been a man stepped heavily to a place between two couches. The body looked sick, withered, but the horror was where there should have been a head. A head was there—but not a human head. It was a brass colored metal of some kind, Kane decided, egg shaped and positioned vertically as if the bottom part of the egg was resting deep within the shoulders. There were no facial features, just a large circular lens, the outer edge of which converged on two three inch protrusions whose functions were not clear by their position." - p 62

This is a novella, 90pp long. Near the end is a non-human appraisal of humans, a type of appraisal that's common to SF:

"They are negative even in affirmation, destructive even in advancement. The underlying trait extends to their mode of limited space travel, for example. It depends entirely on the fist thrust (term is their own and revealing, symbolizing as it does a folded and tightened hand, which in this configuration is utilized solely for the striking of another member of the species of material against material." - pp 75-76

So, who is Robert Lory? Is that a pen name? He seems to've mainly written hack Dracsploitation stuff so it's no wonder I've never read anything by him before:

"(1936- ) US public relations adviser and author who began publishing sf with "Rundown" for Worlds of If (see If) in May 1963; his stories have been assembled as A Harvest of Hoodwinks (coll 1970 dos). His sf novels, mostly light, fantasy-laced adventures, are unambitious but competent; they include Identity Seven (1974), which involves Identity Exchange in various realities, and The Thirteen Bracelets (1974). The Trovo series – The Eyes of Bolsk (1969 dos) and Master of the Etrax (1970) – and the Shamryke Odell sequence – Masters of the Lamp (1970 dos) and The Veiled World (1972 dos) – are Science Fantasy of an undemanding sort. The Dracula Vampire sequence, beginning with Dracula Returns! (1973) and ending with Challenge to Dracula (1975), features an immortal Dracula who has survived Atlantis only to be subjected to a villain's electronic control, gradually becoming a Superhero under duress; the Horrorscope sequence, beginning with The Green Flames of Aries (1974) and ending with Gemini Smile, Gemini Kill (1975) is horror, a genre with which he became identified. His contributions under the House Name Paul Edwards to the John Eagle Expeditor series of adventure thrillers were nonfantastic. [JC]" - http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lory_robert

I can't honestly say that any of that interests me. In fact, I find the idea of writing yet-another-Dracula/Vampire-rip-off to be so nauseatingly unoriginal that I just deduce that, for Lory, a job is a job.

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On to something much more to my liking: Mack Reynolds's The Space Barbarians. The protagonist, John of the Hawks, is presented as a precociously triumphant warrior/raider probably inspired half by Scottish clan history & half by pre-European invasion AmerIndian culture.

"John was grinning again, even as he herded the loot before him. "There will shouting of my name by the criers tonight," he boasted.

"The other had his petty revenge. "I doubt it," he said.

"John halted his horses and scowled puzzlement. "How do you mean?" he demanded. "How long has it been since either a Hawk or a Fielding counted coup on three raiders in a single day and seized their possessions as well?"

""A long time indeed, John of the Hawks, and your feat is praiseworthy. But unfortunately for your moment of honor, the muster is to go into session shortly."

"It was John's turn to stare. "The muster! But this is only Apriltime."

""Yes, and ordinarily the sachems and caciques would not join in the muster for three months; but they are gathering to discuss the travelers from Beyond."" - p 10

Don't you just hate it when that happens? You accomplish something spectacular & you expect some love for it & you get trumped by some astronauts plopping on yr turf. It just ain't fair. Making matters worse, these astronauts are up to no good:

""I'm no ethnologist, and your guess is probably as good as mine. I'd say they're the result of a crash of some pioneer group, Skipper. A very bad crash, since they lost communication."" - p 12

""You must forgive us if we are unacquainted with some of your customs," he said. "As you know, we come from a great distance."

"Which was a strange thing to say, John thought. Surely customs were the same everywhere. The Banns laid down by the Holy were as necessary on one world as on another, and surely the Holy presided over all creation." - p 18

"["]Very well, where you have potent nip, you've got people who are hooked on it. All we have to do is find a sachem or so hooked on uisgebeatha, get him binged and have him sign over mineral rights to us."

"His voice expressing interest, Harmon said, "How do you know that under local laws the sachems have such power?"

""What do we care? They're kind of a chief, aren't they? With the papers signed by one or two sachems, we can go to one of the less punctilious planets and get some military beef to back up our local rights."" - p 39

The origins of the people whose planet has been 'discovered' by these astronauts is gradually revealed:

""The Ark," John said. "All of the people of Caledonia came in the Holy Inverness Ark."

""Krishna!" the skipper said. "I remember now, Possibly the first pioneer craft ever to be lost in space. Crewed largely by colonists from northern Great Britain."" - p 43

After failing to con the Caledonians out of their natural resources in one way the astronauts return to try missionaries as their 2nd way. The locals are suspicious:

"The other nodded. "That is correct. I am now skipper of the Revelation. All members of the crew also follow the footsteps of Krishna. None are armed."

"Don of the Clarks said, "And so are protected by the bann." He grunted. "I suspect you cozen us, Skipper of the Harmons."" - p 59

The 2nd way involves drugging people into passivity:

"John grunted and looked back at the older man. "Then, what happens after you take soma?"

""You become one with Krishna, our redeemer, and follow his teaching the rest of your years until the end of mortal life comes and you are gathered into the bosom of Kalkin."

""What teaching?"

""Thou shalt not harm."" - p 60

The typical ruses of missionaries are effectively put in place:

"The bedel said in disgust. "What can be done? Obviously, the guru, at least, is a holy man. He performs miracles."

""He performs medicine," John growled. "While we of Caledonia have remained stationary with our banns and our traditions, they have advanced in every direction.["]" - p 91

"["]And then the two of you take your soma and return to Aberdeen to set a good example. Six months from now, oh, perhaps a year, and you'll both be working in the new mines, all civilized, along with everybody else in Caledonia."" - p 98

As I've come to expect from Reynolds, anything he writes questions status quo assumptions — in this case: who're the barbarians & who're the civilized? & what makes one preferable to the other? While many SF writers seem to have military experience that informs their stories, Reynolds seems to have a deep knowledge of history that's closest in spirit to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States while clearly predating it.… (mais)