DOME by Lawrence Huff

Mary Wolford, Ph.D., assistant to Professor Nichols, explained candidly and coolly to the mayor her understanding of the Slayer equations.

"Slayer's mathematics are rigorous. Absolutely foolproof. We've already established that on the computer. What we don't know and are trying to establish by this test run is how well his equations fit the physical conditions and characteristics of the Sodium Cooled Type Eight. If they fit we're in serious trouble.

This is author Lawrence Huff's only credited novel, and I'm not sure if he's a one-off writer or a pseudonym lost in the shuffle. A certain roughness around the edges points to a one shot author - Huff certainly lays it on thick with hero Dr. George Slayer's predictions of doom and gloom, and everyone's dialogue has a certain expository cant that reminds us over and over again that this is a DISASTER novel, all caps. Huff has some fun with it, anyways, and isn't afraid to take things to the limit ... eventually. 

In the meantime, we have to be satisfied with building premonitions of looming disaster: a missing plant worker, missing children on the causeway, a Howard Johnson's blown half sky high by a steam explosion, bugs in the system and false alarms out the wazoo. Things escalate quickly around the halfway point though, and soon enough we're all gonna be nuclear experts one way or another, the most unfortunate through personal experience ...

I said Huff has some fun with things - his hero is named Slayer, after all! He handles the coverup narrative with some appreciated subtlety, however, with General Power's minions scrambling to tell themselves it's all for the greater good even as we learn bit by bloody bit all the new and exciting ways a nuclear plant can lash out in destruction, long before we ever get to the dreaded supercritical tipping point. Who would have dreamed that a jetliner would be in danger 4,000 feet above the dome? Huff also, thankfully, gets everyone on board with the threat quickly enough once it's undeniable - there's not too much slogging through the Sturm und Drang of career worries and boardroom sniping that drag down so many mid-tier disaster stories.

At times, however, the scale is shabby and small, like a community theatre play with Huff's characters tripping over themselves on a cramped stage. At other times, Huff is successful at drawing the global stakes and invoking the awesome forces barely contained by General Power's Type 8 reactor. His character work can be clunky but his humanistic lens softens a lot of the rough craft. 

Too, Dome is a relic of a certain time, the era of The China Syndrome and Three Mile Island, when nuclear power was a visceral, immediate threat. Nowadays, in the thick of the plague years of police state terrorism, genocide, and climate apocalypse, what's an old fashioned meltdown? It's almost quaint ... until we get to the very end and realize how high the stakes truly have been. Slayer's been playing for keeps while the rest of us were rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic, as it were.

As stated, Huff ties things up well enough by the climax, with some exciting derring do and dutiful philosophizing. In the end, his nuclear powered downer earns a 2/4 rating. As far as disasters go, this is an also-ran with some grody highlights ... but not grody enough!

One final note: it's funny that the moody cover art portrays a more recognizable cooling tower front and center, with the titular containment dome hidden in the back right of the image.

Pocket Books, 1979

COSMIC DEBRIS: The Dick Sutphen Seminar Tour!

Another blast from the past as Dick Sutphen launches a Western tour all the way from Texas to Portland, OR, followed by a Super Seminar in his hometown of Scottsdale, AZ! Sutphen also plugs his books, his tapes, and his self-help magazine. It will change your life ...

From Fate magazine, Volume Volume 32 - Number 2, February 1979. 

MAN IS THE PREY by James Clarke

Danger from above, danger from below, danger from every living thing ... for our final entry of the year author James Clarke lays down the law: MAN IS THE PREY!

A beefy book with a simple concept: animals that kill people. All of 'em, all over the world, but especially Africa as that was Clarke's remit. Clarke horrifies with tales of killer beasts, but he also equivocates when necessary. Consider his thoughts on the gila monster, a controversial "man killer" in the literature:

A number of people who ridicule the idea of the gila monster's [bite] being lethal to man claim that those who died after its bite were all alcoholic or sick. Curiously it seems a great many of them were, but then if an alcoholic is knocked down by a bus did the bus kill him or did the alcohol?

The "deadly" aspect of an animal may be variable, and down to circumstance. Is the elephant more dangerous than the lion, than the hippo, than the croc? Do raw numbers of victims tell it all, and do we even know the true numbers? Does any of that matter when you're the one getting chomped? 

Above, the original hardcover edition with a back cover cameo from a chacma baboon. Clarke's careful treading elevates his book above a simple chronicle of misery and helps us think about our place in nature, as a part of nature despite our best efforts. Owing to its era, much of the color comes from big game hunters and safari tales. Goodreads reviewer Brett Dulle has an insightful review which helps put certain parts of the book in context:

The book has two clear biases:

1. The author is an ex-pat living in South Africa and as a result the book is more focused on African wildlife than other countries dangerous animals. For example, his chapter on crocodiles is almost exclusively about the Nile crocodile. It's hard to criticize him for this because it is obviously much easier to write about what you have a personal experience with and these firsthand accounts are the most interesting parts of the book.

2. The author has a strong interest in big game hunting. My estimate is that over half of the information in the book comes from big game hunter's memoirs or conversations with big game hunters. This effects the coverage of different animals. The crocodile, an animal the author admits is probably the most voracious man-eater, gets 10 pages while the elephant gets 20 pages of coverage. As the book moves away from the big game animals, it feels more like he's simply listing off facts about these animals and the book starts to drag. Again, it's hard to complain since the stories of the big game hunters are usually quite exciting.

These foundational biases aside, the author also takes sides with some of the animals. Bears are depicted as practically harmless while wolves are ravenous hellhounds that, according to a story he reprints, almost ate an entire village in one night.

Another example of Clarke's personal views coming through is his treatment of the killer whale. Despite no real hard data about orcas eating or killing humans, he takes it as read from anecdote and reputation that the fearsome predator is a known, guaranteed killer. After all, no less an authority than the US Navy says that orcas "will attack human beings at every opportunity." And would you want to test that out yourself?

James Frederick Clarke (1934-)

The final chapter details the most dangerous animal to man: himself. The second to last chapter covers insects and arachnids, and delves into disease and famine - we know the mosquito is one of the deadliest creatures on earth, due to its transmission of a multitude of diseases. Bees and wasps can kill through swarming by the thousands or from one single sting on someone unlucky enough to be allergic. How does this stack up against a tiger's fangs or a shark's jaws? How much does public health and policy factor into a focus on deadly animals? It's not so easy as a top ten list but the journey is rewarding.

That ol' showman Ivan T. Sanderson shows up in Clarke's bibliography with a book on elephants, The Dynasty of Abu. Famous tiger man Jim Corbett features as well ... of course! It wouldn't be much of a book on killer animals without the hunter who bagged the Man-Eaters of Kumaon among many others!

More of man against nature ...

Lions, tigers, bears ... sharks, snakes, and things that sting! Killers from legend and in the laboratory, who kill for food, for self defense, or just for the hell of it! Clarke catalogs them all, and we're all the better for it! Man is the Prey is well worth picking up even today, as both a snapshot of an era and a thoughtful, expansive exploration of its subject. Grrr, hisss, ahhh!

Panther Books edition

Another hardcover, with a goofy snapshot!

Clarke's excellent text is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Pocket Books, 1970 (original pub. 1969)

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Old Egypt of the Pharaohs

Another map of the jewels of the Nile, from The Curse of the Pharaohs by Phillipp Vandenberg.

Courtesy Pocket Books, 1977 (original pub. 1973).

BRAK: WHEN THE IDOLS WALKED by John Jakes

Once again, Brak the Barbarian finds himself far from home and further still from Golden Khurdisan, as he washes up on the damned shores of Rodar just in time for an invasion by the Gordmen and a merchant's coup backed by dark magics. Heads will roll and the walls will come tumbling down when THE IDOLS WALK!

Still alive with pleasure!

There's spoilers ahead, so beware. The biggest reveal I'll drop is the novel's greatest feat: the sublime imagery of a bronze age mech battle, as Brak takes control of a 150 foot tall goddess statue with pulleys and levers and maneuvers it against a similar gigantic idol possessed by the spirit of a mad strangler! Readers back in 1964 knew what they were in for when they read the original version of this tale in Fantastic Stories:

Over at Dark Worlds Quaterly, writer G.W. Thomas has compiled an excellent history of Brak which details some of the chronology and editing behind Jakes' series, as short stories were compiled and fixed up into "new" novels, and old works were slotted into new order. Thomas notes that in this entry there's no mention of Nestorianism or of the evil amir Septegundus, things that would become central to Brak tales written later. When this story was reworked and republished as a novel in 1978, Jakes didn't bother with any updates on that, and honestly I'm glad he didn't - it's unnecessary!

The article over at Dark Worlds Quarterly ... check it out!

The cover art is another pleasingly weird tableau by the artist "CM" with Brak attacking the idol Jaal. The stone menace has been given two eyes here when in the text he's a cyclopean monster, but we're used to that detail fuzziness now with these covers. It's still an atmospheric image and "CM" has served Brak well in the Pocket Books line. The art from Tower Books is serviceably dramatic:

Some of the plot beats are by the numbers, maybe owing to its fix-up origins, but nevertheless Jakes is a pro as always at transporting us to his weird worlds and immersing us in Brak's struggle. Our hero is pretty noble here, throwing in with the doomed Rodarians owing to their kindness in nursing him back to health earlier. Things move along at breakneck speed and Brak also tangles with an evil priest caste who rule a subterranean hell-pit, a three headed hydra bird, and more phantasmagorical sea serpents than you can shake a stick at! When the Idols Walked earns a nice 3/4 rating as superior barbarian storytelling.

Art taken from the Dark Worlds Quarterly article

Pocket Books, 1978

BIGFOOT: AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE MONSTER by Daniel Cohen

Watch out! This is a Bigfoot primer for younger readers by reliable pop-sci writer Daniel Cohen which rivals "adult" titles for its measured style and broad coverage of AMERICA'S NUMBER ONE MONSTER. All the usual Bigfoot history is here, with Ape Canyon, Albert Ostman, the Patterson-Gimlin Film, Momo, the Minnesota Iceman, and so on. Cohen even mentions William Roe's sighting and includes artist Morton Kunstler's recreated drawing of the event, but leaves out any description of big Bigfoot breasts, perhaps in deference to his young audience. The Roe/PGF connection would have to wait a few more years to be made explicit ...

There's lots of maps and illustrations, including several of Momo and two different cartoons where the gag is that Bigfoot's a tiny little guy with giant feet.

Cohen does a bang up job relating recent Bigfoot sightings, including many involving UFOs and other high strangeness. The most disturbing of these concerns one Stephen Pulaski of Uniontown, PA, who witnesses some hairy beings next to a parked UFO in a field. He tries shooting them, but nothing doing, and they leave. Later, he suffers apocalyptic nightmares!

The only letdown is Chapter 10, Bigfoot History, where Cohen's normally meticulous style slips and he throws in a handful of Native American "Bigfoot" stories that really seem nothing like it  - he calls the dread Wendigo a "huge creature of terrifying strength" and says it eats human flesh, but leaves out the demonic qualities and function of the cannibalism taboo entirely! One wonders how the other monsters like the Mahoni of the Yukon (not given a source), the Enemy (described by the Tlicho or Dogrib people), and the Gugwes (described by the Micmac) are being misrepresented. Cohen does accurately describe the original Sasquatch people related by J.W. Burns as being "wild Indians" as opposed to apemen.

Cohen tracks Bigfoot all over the country, and worldwide too, including those wonderful Almas who don't seem to get much press nowadays. It's an honest survey of a varied subject that normally gets a ... let's say selective presentation in many other sources. One odd detail sticks out though, when Cohen says that no one knows how the term "Abominable Snowman" came about. Real Bigfoot heads will know the popular story of newsman Henry Newman's coinage of the term, as related by Ivan T. Sanderson and others in Bigfoot literature. Was Cohen ignorant of the story or did he just not believe it?

Cohen doesn't discriminate in whether a Bigfoot sighting is proper or not, and as mentioned the freaky Hairy Bipeds of the '70s Midwest UFO waves get ample inclusion, including credit to Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman's Creatures of the Outer Edge (1978). His final chapter goes over competing theories for the monster, from simple apeman to surviving proto-human to space visitor to inter-dimensional ultraterrestrial to all out hoax. This volume would have been a good introduction to the subject for young readers back in 1982, and despite some nitpicking by your reviewer still holds interest today as a very professional presentation of a well trod subject.

Bigfoot: America's Number One Monster is available to read and download at archive dot org.

An Archway Paperback Original, 1982