SAGA Entry 1 - 'The Door into Fire' by Diane Duane

Sword and sorcery fiction has had a rough time of it since its rise to prominence in the pulp magazines of the 20s and 30s. The works of the likes of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner fell into obscurity as the pulp magazine vanished due to wartime paper shortages. After the war, the 1950s obsession with flying saucers, martian invaders and radioactive annihilation put paid to any hopes for a sword and sorcery revival.

But then, in the early 60s, a small but talented group of writers founded an informal gathering called SAGA (The Swordsmen and Sorcerer's Guild of America). Including such genre giants as Lin Carter, Poul Anderson, L. Sprague De Camp, Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock, the group was largely responsible for redefining sword and sorcery fiction (Leiber in fact coined the term in 1961) and bringing it back to the public eye.

Each member was admitted to the group based solely on their sword and sorcery output. Moorcock was in for his 'Elric' tales for example and Fritz Leiber for his 'Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser' yarns. Several other authors were admitted in the late 60s and 70s, one of them being Diane Duane for 'The Door into Fire'.

Published in 1979, 'The Door into Fire' was the first novel of the New York-born author. It tells the tale of Herwiss, a man with the potential to become a great sorcerer, possessing the power of 'the flame'. Desperate to harness this power and focus it into the blade of a sword, Herwiss decides to seek a castle in the wastelands which contains many doors to other worlds.

Making the main character of a sword and sorcery novel bisexual and spending a good deal of time focusing on his homoerotic relationship with his best friend was a pretty bold choice for a genre that is famous for being about as heterosexual as possible. I mean, look at that cover. The classic dominant male pose instantly recognisable on a glut of sword and sorcery covers.

But the book itself is far from orthodox. Mixing Celtic mythology (the concept of the triple Goddess is used here expertly) with Germanic cultures, and the divided loyalties of the protagonist (would he rather continue in his quest for power or sacrifice it to aid his lover in reclaiming his crown?), the book reaches a much higher place than the more generic entries in the genre.

Movie Review - Dr. Strange (1978)

My goodness, superhero movies were a different breed back in the 70s. Here we have Marvel's Dr. Strange in a made for TV movie which was aired September 6th 1978 on CBS. Unlike most superhero movies these days, there isn't a single building demolished, car tossed through the air or suspension bridge torn up. In fact its all pretty low-key, gradually building up through character development and exposition to quite an abrupt ending.

I'm not familiar with the comic books, but after reading a bit about the character, I get the feeling that this movie doesn't stick too closely to its source material. Here, Morgan Le Fey (she of Arthurian legend, who originally appeared in the Marvel universe as a nemesis for Spider-Woman) is sent forward in time to the present day (well, 1978) to destroy the Sorcerer Supreme who is an old man called Mr. Lindmer (Merlin, presumably). Possessing a young woman called Clea Lake, Morgan has Lindmer tossed off a bridge into oncoming traffic.

Enter Dr. Stephen Strange, a playboy type who works on a psychiatric ward. Witnessing the apparent murder of the old man via a psychic dream, Strange is surprised to see Clea Lake admitted to his ward in a state of confusion. As he tries to uncover the mystery surrounding her, Mr. Lindmer (who survived his fall at a great cost to his powers) contacts Strange and tries to convince him to join forces against Morgan Le Fey.

Stephen Strange has the potential to become the next Sorcerer Supreme (and even has the inherited ring to prove it). As Lindmer attempts to explain the existence of magical forces, Strange realises that the battle between good and evil must be played out on a different plane of existence.

Low budget to be sure, Dr. Strange isn't all that bad. Originally devised as a pilot for a proposed TV series ala The Incredible Hulk, the film was unfortunately shown at the same time as a re-run of Roots. Such stiff competition meant that Dr. Strange received little attention and the movie (and any hopes for a TV series) drifted away into obscurity.

Chris Carlsen's 'Berserker' Trilogy

I love me a bit of sword and sorcery. These books, published in the late 70s, were really designed to cash in on the 'Conan' craze of book covers depicting mightily muscled warriors swinging improbably large axes against a backdrop of slaughter and nubile female forms. Although the Conan movie would not be released until 1982, Robert E. Howard's mighty Cimmerian was at the top of his game in the 70s with the popularity of the Frazetta-illustrated Lancer paperbacks and the Marvel comic book incarnation of the character.

As with any craze, there were a lot of crap imitations. And as always, there were a few gems too. The Berserker trilogy is one of them. Chris Carlsen was a pseudonym for Robert Holdstock whose reputation would later reach more lofty heights as the author of 'serious' fantasy like Mythago Wood and the excellent Merlin Codex. As with nearly all of Holdstock's work, the Berserker books depict a grim, gritty world full of bleak landscapes and earthy, dirty people. They are also brutally violent and contain more than a few scenes of rape.

Dealing with the theme of reincarnation, the books use an interesting timeframe. Rather than living one life after another as we might expect, the protagonist (Harald Swiftaxe, a Viking warrior cursed by Odin) finds each life taking place before the previous one. Put simply, the first book takes place during the Viking Age, the second several hundred years earlier in the world of Arthur and the Saxons, and the third even earlier during Roman Britain where a certain Boudicca is making a nuisance of herself.

I really love these books and intend to read them again soon. Holdstock... sorry, Carlsen, certainly knows his Norse and Celtic mythology and blends them well. The protagonist is an anti-hero to the full definition of the term. He is not a nice guy. But the world surrounding him isn't particularly nice either, which kind of makes his actions alright, I guess.

Movie Review: Torture Garden (1967)

As well as being the name of a fetish nightclub in London (I don't know why or how I know that), Torture Garden is also the title of a 1967 horror film by British studio, Amicus. I already said in my post on Hammer Horror, that Amicus was one of the studios (along with Tigon) that were keen to cash in on Hammer's success with colourful gothic horror films, and Amicus put a new spin on them by crafting 'anthologies' of several stories based on a theme. Torture Garden was the second of these with 1964's Dr. Terror's House of Horrors being the first.

Written by none other than Robert Bloch (he of Psycho fame) and helmed by veteran Hammer director, Freddie Francis, Torture Garden is one of those films which probably had a name before it had a plot. At least that is the only explanation I can think of for the film includes neither a garden, nor much in the way of torture. Instead we have Dr. Diablo (Burgess Meredith), who runs a circus sideshow. Drawing in customers, he promises to show them unspeakable horrors relating to their futures. All the customer has to do is stare into the shears of a doll-like woman whilst Diablo murmurs hypnotic humbug, causing the person to see future events unfolding...

First up is Colin, who has a sick old uncle with a large stash of loot hidden somewhere in his house. Upon the old man's death, Colin frantically begins searching for the treasure and finds it buried in the basement, along with an old cat that seems to have been buried with it. Pretty soon things take a turn for the worse and Colin begins to suspect that his old uncle buried the cat for a reason.

Next is Carla, an attractive Hollywood socialite who starts dating a big shot movie type. When her new squeeze is shot and thrown from a moving car by a couple of hoods, Carla assumes that he is dead. But she didn't count on the brilliant Dr. Heim who can seemingly bring people back from the dead.


Following that is Dorothy's story. She's a reporter who interviews a pianist. Now this young man has a rather special piano which was a present from his dearly departed mother. As Dorothy develops a more intimate relationship with the young musician, she begins to feel that the piano doesn't like her one bit.

The final segment features Jack Palance as Ronald Wyatt, a fanatical collector of Poe memorabilia. Upon meeting fellow collector (Peter Cushing), Ronald is shown perhaps the most complete collection in existence, including several unpublished manuscripts written in Poe's own hand. But where this mysterious collector got such treasures is a dark and frightening secret.

Of course the whole narrative is wrapped up in the dark doings of Dr. Diablo who reveals himself to be more than a mere circus trickster. Torture Garden isn't a bad piece of 60's British horror. But nothing particularly stands out as brilliant from any of the segments and Amicus would go on to make much better anthologies in the years to come.

Flash Gordon Movie Serial (1936)

I've always loved Flash Gordon. The 1980 movie, the original comic strip, the Defenders of the Earth cartoon, whatever. For me it's always been the epitome of wonderful retro-pulpy goodness; total nonsense and thoroughly entertaining. This is demonstrated no better than here in Universal's 13-chapter serial from 1936. This was only three years after Alex Raymond began the weekly newspaper strip so the character was as fresh and as exciting as could be.

Starring Larry "Buster" Crabbe (they don't name 'em like that anymore!) as Flash and Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, this was the first of three Flash Gordon movie serials. This was back in the days before TV of course, and so this sort of thing was shown in cinemas, one chapter per week, along with a cartoon, a newsreel and perhaps another short film before the feature presentation. When the advent of TV arrived, many serials were cut down to 90+ minutes and shown as 'movies'. This was no different with Flash Gordon which was renamed 'Space Soldiers' for the small screen.

Also starring in this classic adventure is Charles Middleton as the wicked Emperor Ming the Merciless and the stunning Priscilla Lawson as his daughter Princess Aura. Nobody seems to know what became of poor Ms. Lawson. I heard that in a later interview, Jean Rogers related that Lawson lost a leg in a car accident during the war and drifted off into obscurity, and was last heard of running a stationary shop. Something about that story just makes me sad because I think she is great here and she should have gone on to do other things instead a few uncredited roles before vanishing circa 1941.

Chapter 1: The Planet of Peril

The serial is remarkably true to the original newspaper strip, particularly the first chapter in which the plane carrying Flash and Dale is hit by a meteorite and crashlands in Dr. Zarkov's back yard. Kidnapping them, Zarkov takes off in a homemade rocket ship headed for Mongo; a planet on a collision course with Earth. After encountering some giant lizards (iguanas with bits stuck on them) the trio are captured by Ming's guards and taken to the palace where introductions are made. After being thrown into the arena for insolence, Flash fights off several ape-men before Princess Aura (who has developed quite a fancy for Flash) steps in to his aid. The chapter ends with Flash and Aura plummeting into blackness as a trapdoor is opened beneath their feet...

Chapter 2: The Tunnel of Terror

Caught by a giant net, Flash and Aura are saved from certain doom and make their way through the tunnels beneath Ming's palace. Hiding Flash in a rocket ship, Aura heads back to the palace whilst our hero changes into some Mongo attire just in time to witness a fleet of flying saucers attack the city. These are piloted by the Lion Men of whom Flash promptly shoots down two. Making pals with Prince Thun of the Lion Men, Flash is shown a secret way into the palace. Hurrying onwards, Flash hopes to save Dale from a forced marriage to Ming, but instead finds himself up against a dragon that dwells in the tunnels...

Chapter 3: Captured by Shark Men

Defeating the dragon and rescuing Dale from Ming's clutches, the heroes escape back down into the caverns beneath the palace. Thun is caught up battling some guards whilst Flash and Dale tumble through a trapdoor that drops them into an underground river. Enter the Shark Men (swimmers in silver bathing caps). Taken by submarine to the underwater palace of Kala, King of the Shark Men, Dale once more finds herself in somebodies harem and Flash is again tossed into an arena to fight for his life. This time its against a giant 'octosac'...

Chapter 4: Battling the Sea Beast

Thun and Aura arrive at Kala's palace in time to persuade Kala to stop Flash's death. Split up, Aura and Flash make for the control room where Aura blasts the pressure controls resulting in flooding and loss of oxygen for the underwater kingdom. Flash heads back to rescue his friends but a wall gives way and all are swept away in the rush of water...

Chapter 5: The Destroying Ray

Controlling a device in his laboratory, Ming raises the city of the shark men to the surface, saving his daughter (and Flash) from a watery grave. Zarkov meets Prince Barin, the true heir of Mongo who pledges his allegiance and the two of them take off in his rocket ship. Flash and his companions are soon attacked by the Vulture Men upon leaving the risen city and as Barin and Zarkov arrive on the scene, Dale and Thun are captured and taken to the floating city of the Vulture Men where Dale is once again at the pleasure of a beastly ruler and Thun is put to work in the furnaces. Flash, Zarkov, Barin and Aura approach the sky city in Barin's rocket ship only to be targeted by King Vultan's 'melting ray'...

Chapter 6: Flaming Torture

Surviving the fall, Flash and his friends are captured by King Vultan and put to work in the furnaces alongside Thun (except Zarkov, of course, who finds himself at work in a new laboratory). Flash organises a rebellion which fails and soon he is chained up at the mercy of Vultan's torturers...

Chapter 7: Shattering Doom

Aura rushes in with a ray gun and forces Vultan to stop torturing Flash. After being revived by Zarkov, our hero soon finds himself back at work in the furnaces, only this time with an electical wire around his ankle that will kill him if he tries any more tricks. Ming and his entourage arrive and argue with Vultan who seems to be double-crossing his emperor. Zarkov connects Flash's wire to his shovel which the youth promptly hurls into the furnace creating a massive explosion...


Chapter 8: Tournament of Death

Flash makes a run for it during all the confusion and makes his way to the throne room. Ming orders his execution, but the gravity rays holding up the city fail due to the explosion and everybody starts to slide about. Zarkov promises to fix the problem if Vulatn and Ming let his friends go free. Vultan agrees and so Zarkov complies. But upon rectifying the city's gravity problem, Ming orders a tournament of death in which Flash must enter. First he fights a masked swordsman (who turns out to be Barin) and then a 'mighty beast of Mongo'...

Chapter 9: Fighting the Fire Dragon

Flash is saved from a grisly end at the hands of the beast man by Aura who hands him a spear which he promptly jabs into the creature's weak spot. Reluctantly agreeing to honor his word, Ming lets Flash and his companions live. But dastardly plans are afoot. Aura drugs Flash and has him taken through the tunnel of terror, intending to revive him in the Temple of Tao where they can live happily ever after. But Ming's High-Priest, for reasons of his own, rings the gong that awakens the fire dragon...

Chapter 10: The Unseen Peril

Zarkov arrives just in time to destroy the fire dragon with a grenade and Flash is carried back up to the palace to be revived. Only, the effects of the drug mean that he has lost his memory. Aura convinces Flash that he is in love with her and Barin is his enemy. A fight ensues and Flash is knocked unconscious and taken down to Zarkov's lab where the professor tries to reverse the effects of the drug. Ming sends his guards down to execute Flash, but fail to do so as our hero mysteriously turns invisible before the order to fire is given...

Chapter 11: In the Claws of the Tigron

The guards, terrified by Flash's vanishing act, quickly flee, leaving Zarkoz to explain that he had targeted Flash with a newly discovered invisible ray. One it is established that the effect is not permanent, Flash takes a second dose of the ray and heads off to Ming's throne room to cause havoc and then down to the dungeons to rescue Vultan. Meanwhile, Barin takes Dale down into the catacombs. Unfortunately, this has been overheard by Aura who has the terrifying 'tigron' released (a pretty normal looking tiger)...

Chapter 12: Trapped in the Turret

Flash arrives on the scene and defeats the tigron single-handed. Barin talks some sense into Aura who seems to come around to the idea of helping the Earthlings and the group head off to confront Ming once and for all. Once it is agreed that Flash and his companions can go in peace, they head off to rendezvous with Barin at the lake of rocks. The Prince's ship arrives but begins firing upon them, causing the group to scurry into a rocky cavern for shelter but are consumed by a fiery explosion...

Chapter 13: Rocketing to Earth

Narrowly escaping the explosion via a trapdoor that leads down into the catacombs, Flash and co. head onwards, encountering Barin who had been captured previously. They make for the lab and try to barricade themselves in, but soon the palace is under attack by Thun and the Lion Men in their space gyros. Ming brings Flash and his friends to the throne room to witness the destruction of the Lion Men. Only Ming's forces lose. The Lion Men storm the palace and in the ensuing scuffle, Ming sneaks out and heads for the sacred temple of the great god Tao, where he is consumed by smoke and presumably meets his maker. Victorious, Flash, Dale and Zarkov head for home on a rocket ship, but discover a time bomb on board, placed there by Ming's high priest. Flash tosses the bomb out of the rocket ship and our heroes continue onwards towards Earth.

John Norman's Gor Books

Whilst poking around in a second hand bookshop the other day, I stumbled across a shrink-wrapped collection of the first four Gor books by John Norman. I've heard a lot about these books but have never read them until now. They have something of a saucy reputation and are often spoken of in connection with cults that involve BDSM. Naturally, I was intrigued...

I've read a couple of the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Gor books really take their cue from there. Beginning in 1967, Chicago-born philosophy professor John Norman has written them steadily ever since and now the series numbers around 28 volumes. The books chronicle the adventures of history professor Tarl Cabot on the exotic 'counter-world' of Gor, a world ruled by the mysterious 'Priest-Kings' who regulate the advancement of technology and keep the human population in a state of barbarity. Gor is a world of rigid caste systems where Social Darwinism is brutally apparent and women exist merely as slaves and sex trophies. Not exactly the books to introduce to any staunch feminist girlfriends fellas!

Tarnsman of Gor's (1967) general plot is remarkably similar to Burroughs' Princess of Mars. During a ramble in the hills, Tarl Cabot is whisked away to an alien planet with no explanation given other than a cryptic letter from his father (who he never knew). Here, Cabot meets his long-absent father (who has been living on Gor for many years) and begins his training as a rider of the 'Tarns' - giant hawk-like birds. Cabot is given the mission of stealing the home stone of the rival city of Ar and falls in with Talena, the beautiful (and very bitchy) Princess of Ar.

Outlaw of Gor (1967) sees Tarl Cabot return to Gor after spending seven years back on Earth. Dismayed to find his home city of Ko-ro-ba razed to the ground and all of his former friends scattered across Gor, Cabot sets out for the Sadar Mountains where the Priest-Kings dwell but soon gets involved with Lara, the Tatrix of the city of Tharna and a conspiracy to usurp her throne.

Priest-Kings of Gor (1968) sees Tarl Cabot continue his quest into the Sadar Mountains. Here he enters the nest of the insectoid Priest-Kings who keep many humans as slaves. Treated with respect by his hosts, Tarl gets caught up in a civil war between two factions; that of Sarm and Misk - two rivals who want different things for the future of the nest.

Nomads of Gor (1969) follows Tarl Cabot in his search for the ferocious Wagon People who hold the last egg of the Priest-Kings and with it their last hope for survival. Infiltrating their violent culture, Cabot meets a prisoner called Elizabeth who is a fellow abductee from Earth.

The books are little more than pulpy fun but Norman does sometimes go off on a tangent in his descriptions of Gorean culture, and being a philosophy professor, he's pretty good at the old 'world building'. The books are also outrageously sexist (more so than normal in this genre) in that Norman's views on the role of women in society are less than appealing in this day and age. Tarl Cabot is an Earthman who encounters a world where a woman's role is completely subservient to that of a man. Rather than pronounce his disgust of such a society (as the reader might expect), Cabot in fact rather embraces it and likens the marriage traditions of his home planet to the rather more brutal ones of Gor (carrying a bride across the threshold = dragging a woman home against her will, wedding bands = slave manacles etc).

Everybody goes on about the BDSM connections when talking about these books, but honestly, I was surprised at the tameness of these four. I understand that Norman really played up the sex element in later books, but any kinky business in these ones is pretty low-key. But I suppose that the whole 'sex-cult' thing should be addressed. Now, knowing nothing about such things (ahem!) I had to do a little digging. Here's what Wikipedia has to say;

"As applied to non-fictional individuals, the word Gorean means an adherent of the philosophies espoused in Norman's writings, especially someone who lives a lifestyle based on this philosophy. While the most conspicuous Gorean departure from mainstream modern norms is that Goreans allow and indeed promote sexual master-slave relationships, many who take the Gorean worldview seriously would insist that being Gorean is not necessarily about either sex or slavery, but about the general Gorean philosophy (so that one would not have to participate in a master-slave lifestyle or relationship in order to be Gorean). Some of this philosophy is concerned with "natural order" and the relations between men and women, which may or may not take the form of a master-and-slave dynamic. Where there is a master-slave relationship, the level at which adherents follow the books varies."

These books were written at the height of the feminist movement, and John Norman apparently disagreed with such ideas, believing that women are naturally submissive (not inferior, mind). 'Goreans' just seem to adhere to this world view, regardless of sexual fun and games.

Also worth mentioning, are the two awful films based on Tarnsman and Outlaw of Gor. Produced by the infamous Cannon Productions (responsible for such classics as 1987's Masters of the Universe and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) and starring Oliver Reed and Jack Palance, the films bear little relation to the books other than a few names and ideas. I haven't seen either, but if I ever get the chance, I shall certainly be reviewing them on this blog.

Gor (1987) and Outlaw of Gor (1989)

Movie Review: Batman (1966)

This film is often overlooked and remains in the shadow of the various Burton/Schumacher/Nolan movies that came after it. Of course, it's a spin-off from the lovably daft TV series, but it was released in cinemas after all and, other than the two Batman movie serials from the 1940's, it is really the first Batman movie.

Released between seasons 1 and 2 of the series, the movie was devised to sell the series to international audiences. Before the big-budget Batman movies of the 80s and 90s, the Batman TV series, was the general public's only concept of the Caped Crusader, with its iconic and endlessly hummable theme tune, its 'Biff! Bang! Pow!' effects and its intentional silliness. Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. the film is very much in the same vein of the series (of which he wrote many episodes).

The plot sees four major Batman villains team up and form a ludicrously devious plan to hold the world to ransom. Joining us from the series, there's The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and the Riddler (Frank Gorshin). Catwoman here is played by Lee Meriwether as the regular Catwoman from the series (Julie Newmar) had other engagements when the movie went into production. The 'Unholy Quartet' kidnap Commodore Schmiddlapp aboard his boat and steal an experimental 'dehydrator' device that can suck the moisture out of whoever it is targeted at. With this they hope to hold the members of the United World to ransom.

Once Batman and Robin try to crack the villainous plot, the foursome devise a plan to trap the Dynamic Duo by kidnapping Bruce Wayne and use him as bait. The lure for the trap is Catwoman (disguised as Russian journalist, Kitka) who Wayne has the hots for. Escaping the dastardly net, Wayne makes for the Batcave and returns with Robin to rumble the villain's hideout. The Penguin then infiltrates the Batcave disguised as Schmiddlapp and armed with dehydrated henchmen who he re hydrates to do battle with the Dynamic Duo.

The Penguin escapes and rejoins his fellow comrades in crime at the United World headquarters where they dehydrate and make off with the members of the security council. Batman and Robin, hot on their tail, bombard the Penguin's submarine with bombs from the Batboat, forcing it to surface where the climatic fight takes place.

There's not a whole lot to be said about the quality of the movie as it's little more than a feature length episode of the TV series. Now you either like the series or you don't, but the film was pulled off quite well. Some extra money was clearly well spent with an enlarged set for the Batcave and the introduction of some new toys like the Batboat and the Batcopter.