Dominic Flandry makes an appearance in the the John Grimes series .
A. Bertram Chandler
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Dominic Flandry makes an appearance in the the John Grimes series .
I had a look on Amazon at the recent reprints of some of Chandlers books, by Baen. Sheesh, look at those covers.... definitely some candidates for GoodShowSir on there. I prefer my older covers.
Now that I've had a second look at the older covers, some of them are nothing to write home about either! I remembered that the cover to Road to the Rim did show up on GSS. And The Commodore at Sea features a scantily clad lady sitting in a command chair with what appears to be a laser gun built into the left armrest. Used to motivate the bridge crew? I guess the woman could be the sultry Sonya Verrill. Hmmm. Hope she doesn't get a chill. And everyone seems to be wearing a big helmet. Even Sonya. Next time we have a couple of days of bad weather, I'll have to go through these again. Its been a few years.
The novel that that I remember most clearly is The Ship from Outside, which isn't a John Grimes story. I found some of the ideas in that story interesting. I also recall the SS Waratah appearing in the story Into the Alternate Universe. The ship was on the cover of the old Ace Double along with The Coils of Time (I remember checking this one out of the library waaay back when...).
Will
Now that I've had a second look at the older covers, some of them are nothing to write home about either! I remembered that the cover to Road to the Rim did show up on GSS. And The Commodore at Sea features a scantily clad lady sitting in a command chair with what appears to be a laser gun built into the left armrest. Used to motivate the bridge crew? I guess the woman could be the sultry Sonya Verrill. Hmmm. Hope she doesn't get a chill. And everyone seems to be wearing a big helmet. Even Sonya. Next time we have a couple of days of bad weather, I'll have to go through these again. Its been a few years.
The novel that that I remember most clearly is The Ship from Outside, which isn't a John Grimes story. I found some of the ideas in that story interesting. I also recall the SS Waratah appearing in the story Into the Alternate Universe. The ship was on the cover of the old Ace Double along with The Coils of Time (I remember checking this one out of the library waaay back when...).
Will
He was very prolific.
As noted in a previous post, I have a number of Chandler's Rim Worlds/Grimes books stashed away, but I have not read them in years. I recently added to my collection by picking up used copies of The Big Black Mark (1975), The Anarch Lords (1981) and The Broken Cycle (1979), and got a chance to read these over the last week or so.
The Big Black Mark is Grimes as Captain Bligh on the Bounty. The novel parallels the events of the mutiny.
The Anarch Lords is Grimes as Governor Bligh in New South Wales dealing with the Rum Rebellion (which I didn't know anything about). The agricultural planet Liberia uses refugees from other planets as indentured servants, and Grimes has to sort things out.
Both books have the usual Australian references that characterize many of the Grimes books (which makes them unique).
The title The Broken Cycle is a bit of an inside joke that becomes apparent when you read the novel. The poorest story of the three by far.
And as is typical in Chandler's Grimes/Rim Worlds books, the women in the survey service are either pursers, stewardesses or intelligence agents, all eager to bed Grimes.
None of these books have aged well, and that has got me wondering about the other books in my Chandler collection, which were all written in the sixties and very early seventies. Did Chandler's writing style change over the years? I remember them as being light entertaining reads, somewhat marred by the portrayal of his female characters. Not hard SF by any means but with imaginative settings and interesting insights on life on a spaceship.
I'll have to get them out again and read a couple to see.
I had a somewhat similar experience with Poul Anderson's books. I read them years ago and, once more, seemed to recall liking them. Then a couple of years ago I re-read some of his Psychotechnic and Van Rijn stories and .... yikes.
On the other hand, I have just read Helliconia Spring (1982), a book I first read thirty years ago. And it is still a masterpiece.
The Big Black Mark is Grimes as Captain Bligh on the Bounty. The novel parallels the events of the mutiny.
The Anarch Lords is Grimes as Governor Bligh in New South Wales dealing with the Rum Rebellion (which I didn't know anything about). The agricultural planet Liberia uses refugees from other planets as indentured servants, and Grimes has to sort things out.
Both books have the usual Australian references that characterize many of the Grimes books (which makes them unique).
The title The Broken Cycle is a bit of an inside joke that becomes apparent when you read the novel. The poorest story of the three by far.
And as is typical in Chandler's Grimes/Rim Worlds books, the women in the survey service are either pursers, stewardesses or intelligence agents, all eager to bed Grimes.
I thought that the Anarch Lords was a missed opportunity to explore deeper an alternate economic reality. The landlords on Liberia do not use mechanization on their farms as labour is free. The Roman Empire knew of waterwheels, but refused to build them as slaves were far cheaper. Could something similar happen in the future? Grimes discovers parallels on Liberia to events in our own past, but unfortunately the resolution is contrived and the novel ends poorly.
The ending also shows the unintended consequences of using gimmicks to advance or resolve a plot. In The Black Mark, knock out gas is used by Grimes rival Delamere to capture the mutineers. In The Anarch Lords, Grimes is holed up in the governor's mansion along with other rebels. Why didn't the Colonel of the Army (Bad Guy #1) drop knock out gas on the mansion? As it is such a handy thing, surely it would have been available to the local garrison. A small point to be sure, but lack of internal consistency, either within a book or a series of books, is something that always annoys me. But perhaps I am being too picky...
On a side note, the character of Captain Agatha Prinn shows up to save the day. Ah, a female space captain! Finally! Although not even she can avoid taking Grimes into her arms and kissing him...
Pity that Chandler did not write several novels about her adventures. I would have liked to have seen what he could have done with a female protagonist for a change.
I came away from these books a bit puzzled. They aren't really that good. The endings are, well, phony, the editing could have been much better and some of the 'romantic' interludes are uncomfortable to modern sensibilities (one scene between Grimes and his personal assistant Su Lin in the Anarch Lords is downright creepy, and The Broken Cycle is creepiness X 10).
The ending also shows the unintended consequences of using gimmicks to advance or resolve a plot. In The Black Mark, knock out gas is used by Grimes rival Delamere to capture the mutineers. In The Anarch Lords, Grimes is holed up in the governor's mansion along with other rebels. Why didn't the Colonel of the Army (Bad Guy #1) drop knock out gas on the mansion? As it is such a handy thing, surely it would have been available to the local garrison. A small point to be sure, but lack of internal consistency, either within a book or a series of books, is something that always annoys me. But perhaps I am being too picky...
On a side note, the character of Captain Agatha Prinn shows up to save the day. Ah, a female space captain! Finally! Although not even she can avoid taking Grimes into her arms and kissing him...
Pity that Chandler did not write several novels about her adventures. I would have liked to have seen what he could have done with a female protagonist for a change.
I came away from these books a bit puzzled. They aren't really that good. The endings are, well, phony, the editing could have been much better and some of the 'romantic' interludes are uncomfortable to modern sensibilities (one scene between Grimes and his personal assistant Su Lin in the Anarch Lords is downright creepy, and The Broken Cycle is creepiness X 10).
None of these books have aged well, and that has got me wondering about the other books in my Chandler collection, which were all written in the sixties and very early seventies. Did Chandler's writing style change over the years? I remember them as being light entertaining reads, somewhat marred by the portrayal of his female characters. Not hard SF by any means but with imaginative settings and interesting insights on life on a spaceship.
I'll have to get them out again and read a couple to see.
I had a somewhat similar experience with Poul Anderson's books. I read them years ago and, once more, seemed to recall liking them. Then a couple of years ago I re-read some of his Psychotechnic and Van Rijn stories and .... yikes.
On the other hand, I have just read Helliconia Spring (1982), a book I first read thirty years ago. And it is still a masterpiece.
Try his lt history novel Kelly Country. It was written in the 1980's
Jesse Harris
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Just finished The Broken Cycle, the last part of the collection To the Galactic Rim of John Grimes. I haven't enjoyed a book, or really 4 books, like this in a long time. Solid writing, good stories, interesting themes, all together just awesomeness. The second collection has moved up on my to-read list.
@DeltaV I did find The Broken Cycle somewhat lacking. I am just glad it didn't end with a "it was all dream".
@DeltaV I did find The Broken Cycle somewhat lacking. I am just glad it didn't end with a "it was all dream".
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