Tag Archives: book reviews

ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE DOMINION IN 1983 (1883)

Dominion in 1983THE DOMINION IN 1983 (1883) – Written by “Ralph Centennius,” the presumed pseudonym of an unknown author.

Oh, Canada! Our neighbors to the north hopped on the speculative science fiction bandwagon with this short story. The premise is that the author is looking back at the 100 years of Canadian “history” from 1883 to 1983.

In futuristic 1983 the population of Canada is 93 million, there are 15 provinces and the country is a model for the world in terms of peace, learning, arts and sciences. We readers are told that there was a period around 1885 when many Canadians supported the idea of Canada becoming part of the United States, but this movement faded after losing at the ballot box.

Mascot new lookCanadian technology leads the world, with rocketships that can fly at a mile per second and electric automobiles for ground transport. Electricity is the predominant energy source, and Electropolis, the first all-electric city, was recently completed. Continue reading

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PHILIPPINE SUPERHEROES: SANDUGUAN

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at a superteam from the Philippines – Sanduguan (Blood Oath), created by Gener Pedriña.

sanduguan

Before I examine the individual members of this team, here are some quick facts:

sanduguan againThe team name Sanduguan dates to the era of Filipino resistance to the Spanish colonial forces. Rebels would take an oath of blood to the cause. Sanduguan, the term for the oath ritual, has also been translated as One Blood and Blood Pact.

Sanduguan first appeared in February of 1999. The emergency which caused the gathering of individual superheroes who would found the team was the freeing of Siginarugan – a vile entity from Philippine mythology. The heroes defeated the menace and formed their team. 

sandataSANDATA (Weapon)

Secret Identity: Jae Ener Pedriña

Debut Year: 1999

Origin: From a very young age, Jae’s grandfather educated him in Arnis, the Filipino martial arts discipline. As an adult he was declared so proficient that his grandfather gave him a pair of mystic bastons used in Arnis. After thwarting a robbery with the bastons Jae adopted the costumed identity of Sandata to fight crime.   

Powers: This hero is the foremost master of Arnis techniques of fighting. His mystic bastons are virtually indestructible and occasionally manifest other aspects as needed.  Sandata is the leader of Sanduguan. Continue reading

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AUSTRALIA’S HERO THE SHADOW (1950-1966)

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at Australia’s very different version of a superhero called the Shadow. 

THE SHADOW

Secret Identity: Jimmy Gray

Debut Year: 1950

Origin: When Jimmy Gray inherited the family fortune, he used the money to train himself physically and mentally to fight crime and wrongdoing around the world. He would often rob the criminals and give the proceeds to charity.

Powers: The Shadow was in peak physical condition, was more agile than an acrobat and was a master of unarmed combat.

He wore a tight purple custom mask to conceal his face and tight rubberoid gloves to conceal his fingerprints.

Comment: Many of this hero’s villains were femmes fatale along the line of the Spirit’s foes. For the Shadow, that included Fifi Daniels, commander of an all-female crew of pirates in a submarine, Mira, an Arabian belly dancer, Senora Montez, a former Nazi spy turned Communist spy, and Lol Soho, international smuggler and jewel thief. 

Despite his 1950 series being canceled in March 1952 after 23 issues, a new Shadow series was launched later in 1952. That second series ran until 1966, making it the 2nd longest running comic book series in Australian history.

THE SHADOW: 1950-1952 SERIES Continue reading

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ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS (1686)

conversationsCONVERSATIONS ON THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS (1686) – Written by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. The author offered up some science fiction concepts that were considered real possibilities in 1686. These ideas were presented within the frame of conversations, as indicated in the full title. The conversations happened over the course of six evenings.  

FIRST EVENING – Bernard presented these conversations as taking place during flirtatious evening walks with a fictional Marchioness based on his real-life female acquaintance Madame de la Mesangire of Rouen. Due to the time period, she had not been educated in the sciences and Fontenelle needed to introduce her to certain concepts from the ground up.   

This first evening found him explaining what 1686 science knew about the rotation of the Earth and the Earth’s revolution around the Sun. An interesting, outdated element of the conversation came in when Bernard discussed what some scholars of the time apparently believed – that space was not a vacuum but was made up of “celestial fluid” in which the Earth and certain other bodies moved. Continue reading

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VETERANS DAY: SIX RECOMMENDED BOOKS PLUS MORE

Happy Veterans Day, formerly called Armistice Day since it marked the end of World War One on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. Here are six books on that often-neglected conflict. (I will omit Barbara Tuchman’s Guns of August because of how well-known it already is.) 

Hat in the Ring GangTHE HAT IN THE RING GANG: THE COMBAT HISTORY OF THE 94th AERO SQUADRON IN WORLD WAR ONE – Written by Charles Woolley, this excellent book covers America’s 94th Aero Squadron aka The Hat in the Ring Gang.

When it comes to Flying Aces of World War One the Americans in the Lafayette Escadrille get the lion’s share of the attention. That’s ironic since Eddie Rickenbacker, America’s greatest ace of the war, served in the Hat in the Ring Gang along with many other famous paladins of the skies. To buy it click HERE 

Doughboy WarDOUGHBOY WAR: THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE IN WORLD WAR I – Written/ edited by James H Hallas. I feel this book is perfect for people who are just diving into World War One and don’t want inundated with all of the overwhelming details of more involved works. Doughboy War covers every aspect of American soldiers’ experiences in the Great War, often in their own words.

Follow them from enlistment, training and crossing the Atlantic to facing action in Europe, including accounts of the ordeals faced by wounded Doughboys. To buy it click HERE    Continue reading

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LONER (1988-1991) – ENGLAND’S ANSWER TO SABRE

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at the British character Loner.

lonerLONER – In 1988 the U.K. comic book Wildcat introduced a sci-fi character called Loner. This figure was, shall we say, reminiscent of America’s post-apocalypse rebel Sabre (lower right), who debuted in 1978 and made his last appearance in 1985. I’m not accusing anybody of anything. We all know that comic books recycle and borrow ideas all the time. And at least they didn’t spell it “Lonre.”

While Sabre’s adventures were about a heroic rebel fighting the dictatorship that had arisen in the wake of a global epidemic, famine and nuclear disasters, Loner’s adventures were set far away from the planet Earth. 

sabre coverIn the year 2492 a huge spaceship called Wildcat searches the universe for a planet fit for the human race to settle on as Earth faces destruction from a meteor storm. Loner was the world’s highest-paid mercenary warrior and bought his way onto the Wildcat by chipping in twenty million in financing.

Armed with his custom-made, multi-projectile firearm “Babe,” Loner goes forth to explore potential new worlds for the human race to colonize. Naturally, he faces a variety of science fiction menaces while carrying out that mission of exploration.

NOTE: Like Sabre’s “flintlock” laser pistol, Loner’s gun may look like an antique pistol but is really a high-tech weapon in a deceptive vintage casing. Continue reading

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ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: MOUNTAINS, SEAS AND GIANTS (1924)

bergeMOUNTAINS, SEAS AND GIANTS aka BERGE MEERE UND GIGANTEN (1924) – Written by Alfred Döblin, later famous for the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. A 2021 translation of the book uses the title Mountains Oceans Giants: A Novel of the 27th Century.

I wanted to make sure I made my blog post about this work during its Centennial year and I’m squeezing it in with a little time to spare. Berge Meere und Giganten is quite a piece of work, ranging as it does from standard Future History themes to dystopian settings and ultimately an Earth ravaged by wild and grotesque abominations of nature unleashed by reckless experimentation and terraforming.

The novel is almost Dune-like in its environmental concerns and its epic scope, in this case from shortly after World War One to the 2600s AD. Given Döblin’s experimental use of language I would have loved to read a review by James Joyce if he had ever read this novel.   

Berge Meere und Giganten is broken down into nine main sections: Continue reading

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THE TOP FIFTEEN GODS FROM PEGANA MYTHOLOGY

Gods of Pegana

Gods of Pegana

Lord Dunsany’s 1905 book The Gods of Pegana and its 1906 followup, Time and the Gods, are forgotten masterpieces of comparative mythology which introduced the author’s pantheon of fictional deities. Though neglected today Dunsany’s work inspired authors from H.P. Lovecraft to J.R.R. Tolkein to C.S. Lewis. (But oddly, NOT e.e. cummings or A.A. Milne. Go figure.)

Like many of my fellow mythology geeks I spent a lot of time during childhood inventing my own pantheons of gods and breaking down their powers, cultural relevance and relations to their fellow divinities. We can all appreciate the fun Lord Dunsany had with the concept and the ingenious way in which he fused elements of Hindu, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Chinese mythology with his own ideas.  

Dunsany didn’t just dwell on surface details of the gods he created, he used their tales to reflect the philosophy, customs and taboos of the fictional land of Pegana, just like real-world belief sytems represent those aspects of the cultures that spawn them.

An additional benefit of Dunsany’s work is that it provides us with a consistent vision since it was all composed in the same time period. Real-world ancient myths often evolved or were “retconned” over the ages due to political or social reasons we have no written record of and we are therefore forced to speculate. Continue reading

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RED CROSS: HIS WORLD WAR TWO ERA STORIES

For this weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog let’s go Old School and look at the 1940s character Red Cross.

THE RED CROSS 

Secret Identity: Peter Hall, MD

First Appearance: Captain Aero Comics # 8 (September 1942).

Origin: Doctor Peter Hall, a captain, was a physician serving in the field with America’s armed forces in World War 2. Outraged at Axis atrocities in the Philippines he vowed to take action but, constrained by his Hippocratic Oath he employed the VERY intellectually dishonest strategy of adopting a second, costumed identity.

Calling himself the Red Cross he took to battling both the Japanese and the Germans – with his physical abilities and with guns. (I’m guessing his motto was “First I’ll INFLICT their wounds, then I’ll HEAL their wounds!”). Not even his aide – Nurse Lucy Feller – suspected that the dedicated field surgeon Dr. Hall was also the homicidally violent Red Cross. You’d think the big Rx prescription logo on the superhero’s chest might have given her a clue.   Continue reading

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H.P. LOVECRAFT – HIS 1916-1921 WORKS

masc graveyard smallerHAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM BALLADEER’S BLOG! This year for my October 31st horror post I’m looking at my favorite stories from H.P. Lovecraft’s earliest works by year of publication.

I chose 1916 to 1921 because using 1921 as the cutoff year means we can avoid over-reviewed Lovecraft material like Herbert West – Reanimator and most of the Cthulhu Mythos. SPOILERS AHEAD!

1916 

the alchemistTHE ALCHEMIST – Count Antoine de C- is the last of his family line. Hundreds of years earlier one of his ancestors caused the death of the sorcerer Michel Mauvais. Michel’s sorcerer son Charles cursed the Count’s family so that all male descendants would die shortly after turning 32 years of age.

All of Antoine’s male ancestors did indeed die in their 32nd year and Antoine himself has devoted all his adult life to studying Black Magick in hopes of coming across a cure for the family curse. Our main character is all alone in his crumbling ancestral castle, with his last remaining servant having passed away recently.   

Antoine’s 32nd birthday is approaching, so his desperation is increasing. He begins exploring the decrepit portions of the castle hoping to find eldritch tomes that might provide salvation.  Continue reading

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