BRAK VS. THE SORCERESS by John Jakes

The ghastly red eyes, huge as midsummer moons, had opened again. They watched, watched from the black where the stench drifted. Out of the pit blew more than a smell. Out of the pit came some nameless, ancient evil palpable as a cloud.

Brak's face twisted as the gap between hands closed. Sharp rocks poked his belly, his thighs, little shafts of pain. His shoulders ached. Groping upwards for his hand, the girl lost her balance.

She cried out. She started to fall.

Brak is back! The blond barbarian continues his quest for far Khurdisan (typo'd as Khurdistan on the back cover) and finds himself drawn into more dark doings when he passes through a backwater kingdom that's under siege from a strange new horror. The local alchemist has disappeared, rumored murdered, and his daughter has been acting strangely since. The locals are gossiping that's she's in tune with evil forces, the very same that Brak has tangled with before - the outsider Yob-Haggoth, and where that squat devil-god appears Brak knows that his earthly minion the wizard Septegundus can't be far behind. The local king is weak and fading fast, his armies deserting, the people terrified. Can Brak's savage strength and cunning prevail?

Of course! But thanks to Jakes, we'll be on the edge of our seats the whole way through. Brak will tangle with monstrosities like the subterranean Manworm and Scarletjaw the Direwolf, as well as human treachery and greed as the Sorceress bribes followers with that ancient dream of lead into gold. Jakes has a way with monsters and black magic rites, making us feel the burning ichor, smell the rot, cringe at the obscene rituals ... but it isn't all blood and guts and hopelessness, as Brak meets another of those curious Nestorians, who worship their nameless god with a small stone cross. Ambrose the Pillarite has been asleep atop his rock spire, dreaming across the astral plane, when Brak stumbles into this cursed land. Jakes is working alongside August Derleth's recontextualisation of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, wherein Christian or "Nestorian" practitioners can fight back against the encroaching darkness and chaos. Brak holds the Nestorians at arm's length throughout his adventures, and as often as not relies on his own godless barbarian skill. The climax features his quick thinking, his brute strength, and some Nestorian power in an assist. I'm happy to say that Brak makes for a dynamic hero and is easily a top tier Conan clone. His battle with the Manworm matches Robert E. Howard's own sublime action, albeit with a more day-glo, in-your-face genre savvy. There's more monsters I haven't spoiled, because Jakes' imagination delivers some pleasantly nasty surprises of a kind with his catfish creatures from Mark of the Demons.

Brak vs. the Sorceress must have been another crowd pleaser, because once again there's plenty of editions out.

The Tower Books edition is interesting in that it portrays the dread Manworm with some accurate details from the text, but has shrunk the poor creature down so small he's hardly a menace at all, and looks more like some kind of devilish frog! The real Manworm is a titan of terror, and the Star Books cover next to the Tower version at least gets the size and ferocity of the beast across. The Pocket Books edition that tops this entry is another fanciful cover, with a giant horned guy who isn't in the story at all. Jakes has a prefatory note where he remarks on the cover art for his Brak stories, but it doesn't cover this 1977 version. Meanwhile, the Paperback Library original from 1968 features a gorgeous Frazetta piece titled "Apparition." Here it is in full:

Brak's battle against the Sorceress and Septegundus earns him a solid 3/4 rating. Once again, get yourself Brak'd!

Pocket Books, 1977 (original pub. 1968)

COVER UPDATES: FLYING SAUCERS ARE HOSTILE

A spaced out cover by UK publisher Tandem for Steiger and Whritenour's Flying Saucers Are Hostile, matching their edition of Steiger's Strangers From the Skies. Reprint copyright 1972, original Tandem edition from 1970, original Award Books printing from 1967.

THE STORY OF THE LOCH NESS MONSTER by Tim Dinsdale

 “Another type of Monster was attracting world-wide attention (in the '30s) - a political Monster in the evil form and posturings of Adolf Hitler,” - Tim Dinsdale, The Story of the Loch Ness Monster, page 47.

"The great Asian country known today as Communist China," - Dinsdale, Loch Ness, page 16.

Dinsdale! Here's a vintage Loch Ness Monster primer by one of the grand old men of monster hunting, aimed at a younger audience hungry for the facts on Nessie, with updates up to the minute circa 1974! Target is UK publisher Tandem's imprint for young readers, and is best known nowadays for their long running line of Dr. Who novelizations (or is that novelisations?) still being published today.

No time to watch Dr. Who? Try the books!

A loyalty badge for Target readers, from 2017

Dinsdale does well writing for a younger audience, speaking in plain language but never sliding into treacle or condescension. The intro goes over some other famous mysteries like the Mary Celeste and the Indian rope trick to set the scene. Dinsdale makes a perceptive comment here, as an Indian friend of his has never heard of this supposedly famous trick: it was ultimately revealed as a piece of classic American yellow journalism. Dinsdale ropes in the Yeti, Sasquatch, and the Great Sea Serpent as backup muscle for Nessie - it might be hard to recognize now, but the Loch Ness Monster was always a bit thin on the ground, so to speak, and it makes sense that Dinsdale rallied the reputations of these other more famous monsters to bolster Nessie's.

The sixth edition, 1982. Quoting Naish: "You might doubt

that encounters as close and thrilling as this ever occurred."

Darren Naish of Tetrapod Zoology has written an essential series of posts on classic Loch Ness books, and again, you might be surprised nowadays by how much of the Loch Ness Monster legend was promulgated by a handful of dedicated amateurs and a hungry tabloid media, ultimately all out of proportion to any purported evidence. It's worth quoting Naish here on Dinsdale's well meaning credulity:

“On that note, and while it again shames me to say it, I’m impressed – if that’s the right word – by Dinsdale’s naivety when we look at specific parts of his Loch Ness experience. Take his interaction with Tony Shiels, the self-proclaimed Wizard of the Western World. In 1977 Shiels claimed to capture on film the most remarkable colour photos of Nessie ever taken, an object affectionately known today as the Loch Ness Muppet. Any familiarity with Shiels and his adventures quickly reveals that he has, and seemingly always has had, a tongue-in-cheek, jovial take on monsters and how they might be seen. They’re not really meant to be undiscovered animals lurking in remote places, but interactive pieces of quasi-surreal art akin to open-air theatre, the ensuing cultural response in literature and news being as much a part of the event, if not more, as the claimed sighting and photo. While I undoubtedly write with the benefit of hindsight (and, dare I say it, some quantity of insider information), Dinsdale was seemingly unable to perceive this. And thus the muppet photo appears – as a legit image of the Loch Ness animal – on the cover of the fourth edition of Dinsdale’s The Loch Ness Monster, a decision that speaks volumes.”

Dinsdale's 4th edition of Loch Ness Monster -
not to be confused with this title,
The Story of the Loch Ness Monster

This title serves well as a fair minded but ultimately pro-monster Loch Ness reader, and perhaps Dinsdale's greatest achievement is navigating the oft-tumultuous scene of professional monster hunters at Loch Ness. He's scrupulously fair to competing identities for the monster, ranging from the well known plesiosaur to giant eels and sturgeons, wayward giant seals, and occultist F.W. Holiday's bizarre but lovable invertebrate Tully Monster, last seen 300 million years ago! Dinsdale presents the classic version of the Nessie story, beginning with St. Columba's miracle routing of a water monster in the River Ness circa 564 AD - this must be a true story, Dinsdale affirms, because no author of a saint's biography would tell lies! Never mind that St. Columba's biography as written by Adamnan (around 700 AD) is full of many miraculous feats just as outlandish as Nessie's revocation, being a hagiography of a miracle man written for the faithful. But maybe that's just more evidence for Nessie's reality, as Dinsdale brings in legends of water horses and kelpies as mythological support for the monster. 

Dinsdale on the battlements

Dinsdale's monster identikit

Per Dinsdale, the Loch was an isolated locale prior to highway blasting in the early '30s which provoked Nessie and also brought witnesses to the lakeside. Foundational writers Rupert T. Gould and Constance Whyte are trotted out as serious researchers setting the stage for the "modern" '70s investigations which are going to yield rock solid proof any day now. Skeptical writer Ronald Binns has shown how the Loch was actually a popular tourist destination all through the 1800s, without any attendant monster legend prior to the '30s. His Decline and Fall of the Loch Ness Monster (2019) is another essential text for reinterpreting the classic Ness legend. But back in 1974, Dinsdale was positive that cutting edge tech like sonar and autogyros would expose the monster - wait a minute, we know all about the sonar and Rines' underwater photos, but autogyros? Yes! Dinsdale details how pilot Ken Wallis flew his one man gyrocopter over the Loch taking gorgeous large format photos ... no monster, unfortunately, but Dinsdale says the pics were spectacular anyways. Wallis also gave his chopper and flying talents to the Bond entry You Only Live Twice back in 1967, another subject perfect for Target readers.

Wallis in later years, still flyin'

The irascible Frank Searle gets a brief but fair review of his monster watching action, stationed in a van by the lakeside. A decade later in 1983, Searle would be the main suspect in an attempted firebombing of a Loch Ness Monster Project vessel! Searle also started shilling obvious hoax photos to the tabloids around 1973, and perhaps Dinsdale would revise his opinion in later years.

One of Searle's monster photos ...

... taken from a postcard being sold locally!

Dinsdale makes a lot out of the 1972 Rines "flipper" photos, touched up beyond recognition from their original grainy nothing images. The infamous "surgeon's photo" is defended, because it may look primitive, but, Dinsdale claims, we should keep in mind that photography was a primitive art form in the '30s! This is ridiculous on the face of it and an unfortunate example of the special pleading that undergirds the Loch Ness Monster legend. Still, this title is an enjoyable snapshot of an era, and benefits from Dinsdale's affable prose and clean cut image. There's no railing against scientific elites here, no bitter recriminations, just some classic midcentury scientific positivist faith. It's fun! Dinsdale warns potential monster hunting teenagers to be careful around the Loch, and take water safety seriously. Hear, hear! He ends with an abrupt chapter on Morag of Loch Morar, another potential lake monster. Unlike Loch Ness, Morar is privately owned, and Dinsdale believes this may have given Morag some solace and privacy. It also leads into the most famous Morag story, as a couple of deer poachers in a dingy claim they were attacked by Morag and broke an oar defending themselves! Dinsdale quotes a completely invented Scottish lay about Morag, and that's all she wrote:

"Morag, Harbinger of Death,

Giant swimmer in deep-green Morar,

The loch that has no bottom ...

There it is that Morag the monster lives."

Target, 1974 (original pub. 1973)

COVER UPDATES: THE FLYING SAUCER STORY

A cool tropical vision for this later UK edition of Brinsley Le Poer Trench's UFO psychohistory The Flying Saucer Story, advertised with new updated material! Courtesy Tandem Books, 1973 (original pub. 1966).

COVER UPDATES: THE UNKNOWN and STRANGERS FROM THE SKIES

A striking edition of Brad Steiger's early Fortean potpourri, The Unknown, from the Popular Library. Cool font, beautiful rich purple color, and sub-human gorilla-like creatures! Can you explain it?

And across the pond, a lovely sci-fi painting wraps around this 1970 edition of Steiger's Ufological mixer Strangers From the Skies, from UK publisher Tandem Books. Both titles originally published 1966.

NEW UFO BREAKTHROUGH by Brad Steiger and Joan Whritenour

Brad Steiger and partner in crime Joan Whritenour deliver a tight little text, presenting the more conspiratorial side of Ufology circa 1968 as a NEW UFO BREAKTHROUGH!

The main threads entwined are Gray Barker's Men in Black, Carl Allen (alias Carlos Allende) and his Philadelphia Experiment, and the sinister Shaver Mystery, with additional color provided by Brinsley Le Poer Trench's hippy dippy Sky People and those dear old Dropa Stones. Brad and Joan highlight more than a few people who were threatened or silenced for their attempts at UFO truth, including Carl Allen, Ufologist Morris K. Jessup, and superstar writer of the "Strange" Frank Edwards. Something strange is definitely going on ... Shaver's deadly Deros almost got to me today, and prevented this update entirely! Allen said that the lack of evidence for his teleportation story was actually proof of the Navy's coverup, naturally, while Jessup's death by suicide was really a hit job because he was getting too close to the truth. Ditto for Frank Edwards' death by heart attack. Edwards himself claimed that government pressure forced sponsors to drop his successful radio show after he began focusing on UFOs. Interestingly enough editor Ray Palmer, who popularized the Shaver Mystery as a true story and stands as one of the major figures on the darker side of Ufology, tells Steiger and Whritenour that he doesn't believe in the mysterious Men in Black, having been visited many times by government agents who were always upfront with their credentials! John Keel rails against Ufology's failures in the face of government stonewalling, claiming that he's been two steps behind the MiB multiple times while chasing UFOs.

Barker, Allen, Jessup, and Keel

After outlining the sinister saucer silencers and their brave critics, Steiger and Whritenour quote one Bob Stiff, reporting staff at Whritenour's Florida based UFO newsletter Saucer Scoop, on the "tragic case" of one Mary R., a young Oklahoma girl terrified into catatonia by a UFO sighting. Her mother then receives threatening calls from the silencers! Stiff gets too close to the case and ends up threatened himself! High drama and high strangeness, as twisted as anything penned by Gray Barker or John Keel.

The authors wrangle Wilhelm Reich and his bogus Orgone energy into their UFO coverup based on his arrest by the FBI and his later troubles with the FDA. The FBI claims mistaken identity, saying they only took him in because they mixed him up with a communist bookstore owner with the same name. Glad that's cleared up! The authors tread on dangerous ground defending Reich against charges of sexual impropriety, casting him as a liberated genius striving to better humanity ... an alternate view might be that he was a sex creep cultist using "liberation" as a cover for abuse. For a slim little volume, Steiger and Whritenour pack in a lot of dense material, and pulling a single thread can lead down a dangerous number of rat holes.

Co-author Joan Whritenour (1937-2014)

More saucer attacks follow, including Snippy the horse, with quotations from NICAP and more reporting from Bob Stiff. Next, the Dropa Stones are dusted off to support ancient UFO visitations, along with those fake quotes about nuclear war from the Mahabharata. The authors are kind enough to explicitly cite Paulwels and Bergier, as opposed to von Daniken who simply plagiarized their groundbreaking work. Some great Bigfoot/UFO cases follow including the Florida Sandman that Steiger and Warren Smith use in some of their other books. We get into some truly weird Biblical interpretation courtesy Brinsley Le Poer Trench, who decodes Genesis as a creation story for galactic humanity. The destruction of Atlantis and Velikovsky's catastrophism tie in too, as does Olaf Jansen's The Smoky God, another story of the inner earth a la Shaver. This is another bit that Steiger (and Smith) would recycle many, many times. 

We're getting towards the end, and Steiger and Whritenour toss in a random chapter on alchemy to fill things out, with a dialogue between the authors and an invented alchemist character, Augustus Magnus. Weird. Joan Whritenour finishes with a chapter on "psy-war" and the "mental rape" some contactees are experiencing via voices from the void. Whritenour joins with John Keel and Jacques Vallee in doubting these experiences are extraterrestrial at all, and fears that someone very earthly is planning something sinister ...

Above, a 1974 edition by Tandem for the UK. What a grueling grind! Compelling but draining, pure nonsense but skillfully arranged, Steiger and Whritenour at the top of their game. Recommended for a window into the vintage dark side of Ufology.

New UFO Breakthrough is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Award Books, 1968

OPERATION EARTH by Brinsley Le Poer Trench

Once again, author Brinsley Le Poer Trench wants to make it plain: gotta make way for the Homo superior! As an arch-reactionary hippie, Trench sees the New Age as an opportunity to open our minds to our lost heritage as children of the spacemen, and he links this awakening to an ancient war between the benevolent Space Brothers and malevolent imposters from beneath the Earth. Everything from the Bermuda Triangle to the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill, from Atlantis to Antonio Villas-Boas, is cited as evidence in his melding of the Shaver Mystery with classic Contactee cant.

Trench is logical within the confines of the subject matter, studiously documenting his connections with an extensive bibliography. That his thesis is irrevocably cracked is only natural considering the eclectic personalities involved with the clique behind the Flying Saucer Review.

Operation Earth is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Tandem Books, 1975 (original pub. 1969)