review of
A. Bertram Chandler's The Wild Ones
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 3, 2017

Dedicated to Anna who delighted me by responding positively to my reading an Ace Double SF bk (wch might not seem like much but in these illiterate times..)

The front cover of this proclaims it to be the LAST John Grimes novel. Sad but true. The cover shows a buxom woman being burnt at the stake by some hooded men. She has shackles on her wrists wch she's broken. In fact, she's a "robomaid", a robot, so she will escape fairly unscathed. Whew!

I tend to read bks for fun & bks for serious purposes. I read this & 3 other novels at the same time that I was reading Human Tuning, a bk that I tried to give an in-depth serious review of (see the final product here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/522772-self-incineration-the-easy-way?chapt... ). The other serious reading was of Vanishing Voices - a bk that's now every important to me & that I hope to use quotes from in my in-progress 'opera' entitled "Endangered Languages, Endangered Cultures, Endangered Ideas". Vanishing Voices is next up in review queue & it's going to be quite the challenge to write about. I'm happy that writing about The Wild Ones will be comparatively easy.

The "Publisher's Note" says that: "It is ironic that "Jack" Chandler dedicated this novel to he "favorite wrist watch" for he could not have known that his own time was fast running out. He died in June, 1984, shortly after mailing the manuscript of The Wild Ones to his literary agents in America, though he had apparently been in good spirits during its writing." (p 2)

Of the 22 other Chandler bks I have in my possession the dedications are as follows:

The Rim of Space (1962) "For Susan whose blend of saintliness and cynicism is peculiar to the Rim."
Beyond the Galactic Rim (1959/1963) No dedication
The Ship from Outside (1963) "For Susan, as always."
The Coils of Time (1964) "For Susan, as ever."
Into the Alternate Universe (1964) "For my nose-to-the-grindstone keeper"
The Alternate Martians (1965) "For the Mars that used to be, but never was."
Empress of Outer Space (1965) "To all those excellent storytellers who, as well as affording us hours of enjoyment, have provided the inspiration for the Dream Sequence."
Space Mercenaries (1965) No dedication
Contraband from Otherspace (1967) "For who else but Susan?"
The Road to the Rim (1967) "For Admiral Lord Hornblower, R.N."
The Rim Gods (1968) "For itchy-footed Susan"
Spartan Planet (1969) "For Susan, whose idea it was"
The Dark Dimensions (1971) No dedication
The Prime the Pump (1971) No dedication
The Inheritors (1972) "For my favorite aelurophobe"
The Gateway to Never (1972) "For Susan, as usual"
The Big Black Mark (1975) "To William Bligh"
The Far Traveler (1979) "To all far travelers."
To Keep the Ship (1978) "For Susan—who bears little resemblance to Susie."
The Anarch Lords (1981) "For Vice-Admiral William Bligh R.N., one-time commanding Officer of the H.M.S. Bounty, one-time Governor of New South Wales, with belated apologies for the participation of an ancestral Grimes in the Rum Rebellion of 1808 A.D."
Kelly Country (1983) "For Ned Kelly, a man who could have been king."
Frontier of the Dark (1984) "For Harlan Ellison, who made me do it"

"On 25 May 1938 Chandler had married Joan Margaret Barnard at the parish church, Beccles, Suffolk. In New York during the war he met John W. Campbell Jr, the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, who urged Chandler to contribute to this and other science fiction magazines. Following the breakdown of his marriage he moved to Australia in 1956. Employed (1956-75) by the Union Steam Ship Co. of New Zealand, he started as third officer and advanced to master. After his divorce he married Susan Wilson, a designer, on 23 December 1961 at the registrar general’s office, Sydney; they later divorced. Encouraged and bullied by his wife, he returned to writing. He published some forty novels and two hundred short stories, under his own name and the pseudonyms of Andrew Dunstan, S. H. M., Carl Lawrence, and, most frequently, George Whitley. Many of his books were translated into other languages, including Russian and Japanese." - http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/chandler-arthur-bertram-bert-12307

It appears that his "favorite wrist watch" may've replaced his wife as his "nose-to-the-grindstone keeper". Then again, maybe not.

"Another cause for worry was that Billy Williams, his chief officer for many years and, for quite a while, during the term of Grimes' appointment as governor for Liberia, relieving master, was taking a long overdue spell of planet leave, returning to his home world, Austral." - p 6

Now, I 'have to admit', I don't really care about these recurring characters in Chandler's bks, even tho I enjoy reading them, the whole space opera really isn't important to me. Still, I've written reviews of something like 20 of these bks so I might as well find some other reference from another bk to Williams' so I can add a little to the overview:

"""Somethin' odd about these bastards, Skipper," whispered Williams to Grimes.["]" - p 350, Book 2 in the Saga of Commodore John Grimes: "The Inheritors" & "Gateway to Never"

There, instead of gratuitous sex (wch I'm not convinced is EVER gratuitous) there's gratuitous quoting! Speaking of sex, Grimes's sexual adventures got a little kinkier as Chandler got older. In The Wild Ones, he's in a menage à trois w/ 2 women who were descended from a genetic manipulation of kangaroos:

"The airship captain lowered his voice. "And these young ladies with you. . . . From New Alice, you say. Would they be the end result of some nutty experiment by some round the bend genetic engineer?"

"Shirl and Darleen possessed abnormal, by human standards, hearing. They turned as one away from the window to face the airshipman. They smiled sweetly.

""Yes captain," said Shirl. "Although we are legally human our ancestors were not, as yours are, monkeys."" - pp 24-25

"He kissed her good night then made his way to his quarters. The double bed, he saw, was already occupied. By Shirl."

"And Darleen." - p 36

"And Darleen had found two large, smooth pebbles, about the size of golf balls, and was clicking them together with an odd, compelling rhythm. Both girls were crooning softly to the beat of the singing stones. There was melody, of a sort, soft and hypnotic. Grimes felt the goose pimples rising all over his skin.

"They were not alone. He and the girls were not alone. Silently the kangaroos had come from what had seemed empty desert" - p 44

Nudity's a recurring theme in Chandler novels. I'm glad he managed to squeeze some in in his last novel: "["]I remember when you were only twelve, when we were living in that old school house in Flynn Street, and you appointed yourself secretary of the Flynn Street Nudist Club which held its meetings by the pool in our backyard . . . As I recall it, you were the only male member."" - p 30

I'm sure "male member"'s a double entendre. Anyway, pro-nudism puts Chandler in a proud tradition w/ H. G. Wells & yrs truly. That last passage is from a scene where Grimes is visiting his parents. His mom's a bit disapproving but his dad toasts thusly:

"George Whitley Grimes raised his condensation-misted glass of beer to his son and said, "Here's to crime!"" - p 32

George has his reasons for his toast, one of wch is that he likes his highly efficient & intelligent robomaid who he's modified to be more independent & to use a slang vocabulary at times - much to the disapproval of his wife:

"["]And there's one really far-fetched one—association with humans of more than average intelligence and creativity."

""I like that," said George.

""You would, Herr Doktor Frankenstein," sneered Matilda. "But, from what I've told you, do you think we've a wild robot on our hands, John?"

""It seems like it," said Grimes." - p 54

Grimes calls his parents by their 1st names, a practice I've always associated w/ a 'liberality' that was entirely lacking in my own upbringing & wch I always find a bit unnerving in others's:

""And after that? Back to Earth with a full load of similar forms filled in?"

""I don't know, George. The mate told me that Damien has some further employment in mind for me."" - p 61

"Like most spacemen he always carried on his person a multi-purpose implement that was called, for some forgotten reason, a Swiss Army Knife." - p 66

I'm reminded of the time when my friends Jake T. Unclean, Peter Pan, & I were on tour & we got pulled over by the Oklahoma State Police for something like "driving too much in the left lane" or whatever pretext it was for pulling over the obvious weirdoes for harassment. Each of us was taken individually into the patrolman's car & interrogated. When Peter was being questioned it came out that he had a Swiss Army Knife. The cop then asked if he was in the Swiss Army. Good thing he wasn't carrying a Leatherman.

The kangaroo women are jealous of their Grimes they are & they harm anyone who has sex w/ him or even tries to:

"Selena had decided to walk from the sub-base to the ship, escorted through the fog by one of the native guides. Suddenly, without warning, she had been struck by a heavy missile."

The kangaroo women are experts w/ boomerangs & w/ making any handy object serve as one. Never date a boomerang expert descended from kangaroos. I'm thankful to Chandler for that lesson.

The Wild Ones is esp appealing to me b/c it's ultimately an animal rights novel. Grimes & co are on a planet run by religious people who use their religion to justify greedy sadism. What's new, eh?!:

""Couldn't you kill the pups before you skin them?"

""Keep your nose out of things about which you know nothing. Kill them first, and ruin the pelts? Everybody knows that a pup has to be skinned while it's still living."

""But , , , It's cruel."

""Cruel? How so, spacer? Everybody knows, surely, that the Lord God gave Man authority over all lesser beings. How can the exercise of divinely granted authority be cruel?"" - p 156

It turns out that the seal-like creatures being skinned alive for their pelts are intelligent & the kangaroo women & the robomaid are capable of communicating w/ them. Fancy that. I'm reminded of selkies, legendary creatures sd to be seals in the water & humans on land - this in turn reminds me of a song wch I'll sing for you if you click on this link: https://youtu.be/oBBjSe3REHA?t=3m16s .

The robomaid doesn't have hair but she can be disguised w/ it:

""But nobody would know that she is a robot, sir. I was with Tomoko when she applied the make-up, the body paint, the cosmetics. And Tomoko made a very thorough job, even to a merkin. You could strip her and nobody would dream that she wasn't a human woman—as long as you left her dark glasses on."" - p 162

When you're trying to decide whether the person you're dating is a robot or not look at the eyes, don't bother w/ the pubic wig. Another lesson learned from Mr. Chandler.

&, yes, while we're at it, let's save the whales too, ok?!

""What gave us our imagined superiority over certain other intelligent inhabitants of the Home Planet, Earth? The cetacea, I mean. Our hands. Our tool-making, weapon-making, weapon-using hands. With our hands we built the whaling ships, made the harpoons and the harpoon guns. With our hands we launched the harpoons—and continued to do so even after it was generally accepted that whales are intelligent beings.["]" - p 188

Yes, all in all a good read & not at all a bad novel to have be your last one there, Mr. Chandler. ( )

The Last 'Grimes' novel written by A. Bertram Chandler, although not the last chronologically, marks the end of the 'Middle Grimes' period, after he resigns from the Survey service, but before he moves out to the Rim Worlds Confederacy.

A very average entry in the series. I believe he directed most of his later writing effort to 'Kelly Country', an alternate history novel concerning Ned Kelly.

Just okay. ( )

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/0886770319/0886770319.htm