City of the Beast/Lord of the Spiders/Masters of the Pit
and
The Wrecks of Time (New Worlds serialisation)
Following on from my post in the 'Von Bek and the Blood Red Game' thread I finally (after 15+ years) read the Michael Kane trilogy while on holiday at the end of July/beginning of August. Taken individually they're decent page -turners that adhere quite strongly to Lester Dent's Master Plot Formula. As such, I would recommend them to anyone looking for examples of LDMPF in action.
Of the three individual titles, the second is probably the most mis-named since the eponymous character of the title only turns up for one chapter roughly in the middle of the book before being dispatched. The original title - Blades of Mars - is no more descriptive of the actual themes of the book, but I guess it had to be called something.
Speaking of themes, it seems to me that the central theme of the trilogy as a whole is 'Freedom vs Tyranny', with the scope of the theme widening with each book. As such, there's a progressive narrative that takes you through all three books, rather than just a repetition of the same events in each subsequent volume. The Kane trilogy shares much in common with the Elric and Corum series and their rejection of gods as shapers of human destiny. Men - or Martians in this case - should be allowed to follow their own destinies rather than be ruled by dictators.
Stylistically, the books are quite simplistic; Michael Kane is a fairly typical square-jawed hero of the 1950s (although the books were written in the mid-60s) with few of the complexities of characters like Elric or Jerry Cornelius. He describes himself as a man of action rather than introspection though his background as a scientist is made good use of.
Overall, I rate the series 7/10.
Next, having managed to source copies of New Worlds #156-158 I set to re-reading The Wrecks of Time. I originally read this as The Rituals of Infinity in the mid-80s so naturally had forgotten completely what the story was about. I already had a copy of the Ace Double edition of Wrecks, but I really wanted to read it in the uncensored (unrevised?) original.
This was the third of Mike's 'pure-SF' novels that I've read recently (that's The Shores of Death and The Sundered Worldsbut not the Kane Trilogy, which is still more fantasy than SF imo). Like the two previous novels Wrecks is also concerned with the extinction of the human race, and like TSW we also get a variation on the Multiverse, with the 15 simulations of the Earth that Prof. Faustaff strives to save. Other recognisable elements are the 'Principals' who share a godlike similarity with the beings that Renark & Asquiol encounter in TSW, as well as the eventual solution to the multiple Earths which mirrors the Sundered Worlds themselves.
In reading these three novels in close succession, I noticed common themes and tropes appearing in both these and later novels, which emphasize the concept of the Multiverse and the Eternal Champion. Faustaff is opposed by Orelli and Steffelomeis (sp?) in a similar way to how Clovis Marca is set up against Andros Anders, or Hawkmoon by Baron Melidius, or Elric by Jagreen Lern or von Bek by Montsobier/von Minct/etc. On the other hand, perhaps it's just the nature of dramatic narrative to have two opposing dialectics, so maybe I'm reading too much intent into the texts?
Faustaff himself is a decidely atypical incarnation of the Eternal Champion - if that's what he is - not least since at 20 stones he's more than a couple of clothes sizes away from Michael Kane's sleek atheletic warrior of Mars' physique. His pacifist attitude to violence also sets him apart from other ECs.
Overall, I rate the novel 6.5/10.
It's interesting that Mike is nowadays best known as a fantasy or literary author, when the majority his early (1960s) output was almost predominantly SF and it's easy to imagine how he might have had a different literary career had Elric not been so successful - and Mike not had a self-avowed adversion of SF in the first place.
and
The Wrecks of Time (New Worlds serialisation)
Following on from my post in the 'Von Bek and the Blood Red Game' thread I finally (after 15+ years) read the Michael Kane trilogy while on holiday at the end of July/beginning of August. Taken individually they're decent page -turners that adhere quite strongly to Lester Dent's Master Plot Formula. As such, I would recommend them to anyone looking for examples of LDMPF in action.
Of the three individual titles, the second is probably the most mis-named since the eponymous character of the title only turns up for one chapter roughly in the middle of the book before being dispatched. The original title - Blades of Mars - is no more descriptive of the actual themes of the book, but I guess it had to be called something.

Speaking of themes, it seems to me that the central theme of the trilogy as a whole is 'Freedom vs Tyranny', with the scope of the theme widening with each book. As such, there's a progressive narrative that takes you through all three books, rather than just a repetition of the same events in each subsequent volume. The Kane trilogy shares much in common with the Elric and Corum series and their rejection of gods as shapers of human destiny. Men - or Martians in this case - should be allowed to follow their own destinies rather than be ruled by dictators.
Stylistically, the books are quite simplistic; Michael Kane is a fairly typical square-jawed hero of the 1950s (although the books were written in the mid-60s) with few of the complexities of characters like Elric or Jerry Cornelius. He describes himself as a man of action rather than introspection though his background as a scientist is made good use of.
Overall, I rate the series 7/10.
Next, having managed to source copies of New Worlds #156-158 I set to re-reading The Wrecks of Time. I originally read this as The Rituals of Infinity in the mid-80s so naturally had forgotten completely what the story was about. I already had a copy of the Ace Double edition of Wrecks, but I really wanted to read it in the uncensored (unrevised?) original.
This was the third of Mike's 'pure-SF' novels that I've read recently (that's The Shores of Death and The Sundered Worldsbut not the Kane Trilogy, which is still more fantasy than SF imo). Like the two previous novels Wrecks is also concerned with the extinction of the human race, and like TSW we also get a variation on the Multiverse, with the 15 simulations of the Earth that Prof. Faustaff strives to save. Other recognisable elements are the 'Principals' who share a godlike similarity with the beings that Renark & Asquiol encounter in TSW, as well as the eventual solution to the multiple Earths which mirrors the Sundered Worlds themselves.
In reading these three novels in close succession, I noticed common themes and tropes appearing in both these and later novels, which emphasize the concept of the Multiverse and the Eternal Champion. Faustaff is opposed by Orelli and Steffelomeis (sp?) in a similar way to how Clovis Marca is set up against Andros Anders, or Hawkmoon by Baron Melidius, or Elric by Jagreen Lern or von Bek by Montsobier/von Minct/etc. On the other hand, perhaps it's just the nature of dramatic narrative to have two opposing dialectics, so maybe I'm reading too much intent into the texts?
Faustaff himself is a decidely atypical incarnation of the Eternal Champion - if that's what he is - not least since at 20 stones he's more than a couple of clothes sizes away from Michael Kane's sleek atheletic warrior of Mars' physique. His pacifist attitude to violence also sets him apart from other ECs.
Overall, I rate the novel 6.5/10.
It's interesting that Mike is nowadays best known as a fantasy or literary author, when the majority his early (1960s) output was almost predominantly SF and it's easy to imagine how he might have had a different literary career had Elric not been so successful - and Mike not had a self-avowed adversion of SF in the first place.

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