Happy Holidays!

Felicitations To All Squadroneers! 

Well, the Holiday Season is upon us once again.  It sure seems like we just did a post like this, I can hardly believe it's been a whole year already!

This year, of course, was also a trial.  It seems like for every step forward, we also took a step back.  Still, slowly but surely, things seem to be generally improving.

On a more personal note, we've had some health issues in my household, but things seem to have stabilized.  Sadly, I don't think I've been very productive this past year, which inspires me to strive for better habits in the future.

As for you, my loyal Squadroneers, I truly hope this Holiday Season is a happy one for you!  And I do hope the New Year brings Good Fortune for all!

Happy New Year!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Jungle Raiders

Howdy folks! Thirsting for A Safari?  Then let's go! 

The wintry Holiday Season is upon us once again, and I hope you are enjoying it!  Here at Squadron Central, we've been deluged by an influx of Christmas carols and extended Black Friday ads.  I soon found myself longing for an escape, so escape I did!

Thanks to the 1945 Columbia serial "Jungle Raiders"!  (Not to be confused with the 1985 Italian movie "La Legenda del Rubino Malese", known here in the US as "Jungle Raiders".  It stars Lee Van Cleef!)

Our Jungle Raiders was a serial produced by Columbia, released in 1945; I know because I already said that in the paragraph above.  This one stars Kane Richmond and a collection of players who seem to get shuffled throughout various serials made at the time.

I think this is supposed to take place "someplace in Africa", but I don't know why I think that.  I don't remember if they gave any indication of the location.  There were a lot of scrublands, rocky and hilly terrain, caves, steaming volcanic badlands, and lots and lots of forests...but I don't remember seeing anything that looked like a jungle.  Hey, that sort of thing often happened in these old serials!

So get this set up:  a doctor came here to find a native tribe whose witch doctor uses the powder of some ground root which has properties that could cure all sorts of terrible afflictions, like cancer.  He found the tribe, had visited their secret hidden village, and been allowed to leave again.

He stays at Jake's Trading Post (and apparently motel).  But Jake wants the jewels that these natives are supposed to have and wants the doctor to tell him how to get to their village.  The doctor refuses, and Jake and his henchmen tie him up and hide him in a secret basement.  They force him to write letters to his daughter and a colleague to lure these people to the Trading Post to use as leverage and convince the doctor to divulge his information.

All this happened before the start of the serial!

The doctor's daughter arrives, as does the colleague (another doctor).  But the colleague wrote to his son, Kane Richmond, who arrives with his sidekick--both either on leave or discharged from the army.

So Kane Richmond and his entourage find the hidden Arzec tribe.  This is where they learn that the local witch doctor (in cahoots with the high priestess of the Fire God, Rana) have poisoned the tribal chief and plan to replace him as the leaders of the tribe.  

It is a fifteen chapter serial, so there is an abundance of fights, captures, escapes, double-crosses, several trips back-and-forth to the hidden Arzec village, and absolutely NOBODY believes the good guys when they say they don't want any jewels, only the witch doctor's plants--for medical purposes!

However, this is a really good one!  I was impressed with how fast the chapters felt; I've seen some serials that seemed to slog slowly on.  Someone was always in need of rescue, and someone was always separated from the rest so they could show up and save someone at the last minute.  Plus, each of the villains comes to their own appropriate and satisfying end.

All in all, it was very enjoyable, and I might watch it again!  I'm sure it's available on DVD from Amazon and the specialty places, but I watched it for free on YouTube, and you can, too, if you are so inclined! 

Have you seen it?  Do you want to see it?  Tell us about it in the comments below!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Red Sonja: The Ring of Ikribu

Hello to all you Terrifically Armed Sword-persons! 

So, I'm going to tell you all straight up:  I like the movie "Red Sonja".  Always have, and I make no apologies for it.  

Naturally, my discovery of Red Sonja--and Conan himself--were from the movies made back in the early eighties.  Yes, I like "Conan the Barbarian".  I also like "Conan the Destroyer" even though most people seem to malign that movie.  And I've always loved "Red Sonja", which apparently puts me into the minority.

It was a fair few years before I got into reading my fantasy instead of watching it.  But eventually the Choose Your Own Adventure books led me to "The Hobbit" (thanks to the Rankin/Bass animated film" and then to "The Lord of the Rings".  They were pretty much the only fantasy I would read for a few years.

Then I discovered Dungeons and Dragons, and the Dragonlance Chronicles, and Appendix N.  I was very curious about the list of authors and novels that appeared in Appendix N.  Slowly, I discovered some of the authors on that list, which led me to stories by Howard, and Lieber, and Brackett, and Moorcock.

Of course, as a character, Red Sonja is a special case.  She's part of Conan's world of Hyborea, so she was created by Robert E. Howard, right?  Well, yes and no.

According to Marvel comics writer Roy Thomas, when they were adapting Conan into comic book form, they wanted a selection of characters who could return from time to time, and not just die in the adventure they were introduced in.  They had an easy time finding male characters in the original stories, but had a more difficult time finding suitable female characters.

Then he found her:  Red Sonya of Rogatine.  She was not in a Conan story, but was the sidekick of a Germannic knight in a pseudo-historical adventure.  The story was called "The Shadow of the Vulture", and apparently she kicked ass.  Roy decided this would be a suitable character who would be able to fight beside Conan.  So with a few tweaks to her character, he imported her into the world of Hyborea.  

She was instantly popular, and soon had her own spin-off comic.  Eventually, there were novels written about her--she's gone full circle!

I was surprised and delighted to learn that there were a series of books about Red Sonja.  I found the first book "The Ring of Ikribu" in a second-hand book shop a few years back, and finally got around to reading it.  It was written by David C. Smith and Richard Tierney, and I believe they wrote all six books in the series.

The book starts off with a foreword by Roy Thomas explaining the inception of Red Sonja as we know her, which I summed up here.  

Now for the story (mild spoilers)...

An evil sorcerer (is there another kind?) seeks the Ring of the Elder God Ikribu, so that he might live forever and wield even more power.  Upon learning the Ring is hidden somewhere in the ancient city of Suthad, he invades it with an army of demons, driving out King Olin and his citizens.

King Olin sends out officers to recruit mercenaries to form an army and take his city back.  One of these mercenaries is Red Sonja.  During the lengthy adventure Sonja gets to fight a barroom brawl, battle winged demon-things, tentacle monsters that burst from the ground, mutinous mercenaries, sinister cultists, an enchanted swamp (no, really!) and various magical traps in the wizard's lair.

She met some interesting characters...most of them die by the end of the book, but I expected that.  Some of them died sooner than I expected, but *shrug* whatcha gonna do?

The very last chapter kind of annoyed me, but I don't really want to say why because it could be a major spoiler...for a book from 1981...that isn't that easy to find (cheaply) nowadays...  Well, the final confrontation with the wizard just didn't go as I expected or hoped, and I found it rather disappointing.  Other than that, I liked the book, and do plan to read book 2, since I have it.

Are you a Red Sonja fan?  Would you like to find some of these books?  Your best bet is eBay, but some of the prices a little high in my own humble opinion.

Well, I guess that's all I have to say about that.  I have other things I should be working on now.  But I'll be back in a couple of weeks to talk about...uh...something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Love and Monsters

Howdy you Tenacious Apocalypse Survivors! 

How ya doing?  Seen any good movies lately?  Well, I saw one that I thought was pretty good, and I'm gonna tell ya about it.  Partly because it was pretty good, and partly to let you know that I watch some more modern stuff, too.

In case you missed the title of this particular post, I'll tell ya that the movie is "Love and Monsters".  

In case you don't know, "Love and Monsters" is a post-apocalyptic story about a guy who has been hiding in a bunker for seven years, finds out that his girlfriend is still alive in another survivor colony and decides to take the perilous journey to go to her.

How did the world end in this one?  Well, there was a massive asteroid headed for Earth, but that's not what got us.  Several governments fired nuclear missiles at it, to break it up and destroy it.  Kinda like in "Armageddon", except we didn't have to leave the planet.  Anyway, it worked!  The asteroid was demolished into smaller pieces and missed Earth!  

However, the chemicals in the rockets wafted back down to Earth and began to mutate all the lesser, vermin-type wildlife.  Little nuisance things like mice and insects grew to gargantuan size and went on a rampage.  About 95% of humanity died fighting them back while the rest hid in bunkers and shelters.

But our story is about Joel, played by some guy named Dylan O'Brien.  I'd never heard of this guy before, apparently he's in those "Maze Runner" movies.  

On a slight sidetrack:  I only know one actor in this whole movie, and that's Michael Rooker.  I know him because he's Yondu in "Guardians of the Galaxy" (the blue guy with the arrow that he controls by whistling).  In this, he's a wandering survivor.

Back to Joel.  His hometown was "ground zero" for the mutagenic chemicals, and his parents died while trying to evacuate the town.  He only survived because he was pulled into a pickup by some passing strangers.  

Anyway, apparently he managed to fix a ham radio and they were able to contact other survivors in other colonies.  He found out that his girlfriend, Aimee, is still alive.  After years of lonely brooding, he decides to go find her because being with her "was the last time he was truly happy".  

So, he packs some supplies and heads out on an 85 mile trek that should take him at least 7 days to travel.  Along the way he meets a dog mourning for his former master, a pair of survivors making their way to a new location high in the mountains where the monsters don't seem to go, and even a robot who was saving it's last hour of power for someone to find her.

And he does run into monsters!  Giant bugs!  Giant frogs!  Carnivorous worms!  Giant snails!  This movie felt like a cool combination of Gamma World and Fallout!  

I don't really want to tell you everything, after all, I don't want to ruin it for you if you decide to watch it.  But I DO recommend that you watch it!  It was pretty cool, and it was entertaining.

I streamed it on Amazon, and its got to be on DVD by now if you want to go that route.  

I also feel obligated to point out that if you like this movie, you might like my "Mutant World" stories, so check 'em out!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Mysterious Mr. M

Greetings all you Truly Adventurous Souls! 

So what's it all about?  How ya doing?  I guess we're doing okay here at the Adventure Site, thanks for asking!  That's just one of the reasons that I always look forward to your visits!

This time I've got another serial that I'd like to talk about:  The Mysterious Mr. M!  I know what you're thinking, you're thinking:  That's A Serial?!  And I'm here to tell you that Yes, That's A Serial!   

All right, so here's the schtick:  This criminal guy, Anthony Waldron, everybody thinks he's dead...well, except for his inner circle of criminal accomplices, of course.  He wants to steal the plans for a new submarine engine--which would power much larger submarines than are currently in use--from the designer, Dr. Kittridge.  He hopes to sell these plans to some foreign country for a boatload of money.  Since he is dead, he makes up a mysterious super-villain mastermind called Mister M, to take the credit and blame for the series of associated crimes.

So this guy Waldron is hiding out in the secret basement of his Grandmother's manor house.  The poor old lady has NO clue about it because they keep injecting her with their experimental drug "Hypnotreme" which--you guess it!--more or less puts the recipient into a state of deep hypnosis!  They use it and a bunch of other characters throughout the series.

But that's not all!  After killing a couple of cops--and accidentally killing Kittridge--and leaving Mr. M's calling card, Waldron and his gang begin to receive record albums.  These albums feature whispered instructions from some unknown person who seems to know their every move and installs himself as their new leader, assuming the moniker of Mr. M!

So that's what going on with the bad guys, but what about the good guys?  Well, on the case is Agent Grant Farrell, whose brother was found dead along with Mr. M's calling card.  His trusty sidekicks are insurance investigator Shirley Clinton and Detective Lieutenant Kirby Walsh.  

Fortunately, Kittridge was a sly (and paranoid) old duck, and his plans are not all in one place.  Furthermore, he had different companies and experts working on constructing different specialized parts for his engine.  So it's a race between the good guys and the guys to collect the various prototype parts and plans before the other.  A lot of typical serial shenanigans ensue:  fistfights, car crashes, explosions, falling from planes, planes crashes...that kind of stuff.

I recognize a couple of names in the credits, but really only from other serials.  But I did recognize the old lady's weasally little lawyer, I think I've actually seen him in a couple of old movies as well as other serials.  Apparently his name was Byron Foulger, but I didn't know it until I looked him up.

This is supposed to be the last serial ever made by Universal Studios.  According to the all-knowing Wikipedia they made a total of 137 serials!  Whew, that's a lot!

If you want to see it, it's available on DVD, of course, thanks to various specialty stores and Amazon.  But you can watch it for free on YouTube, I know because I did!  The sound is a little out of sync, and it's worse on some chapters than others, but it's watchable.  So see it for yourself!  Or don't!  Either way come back next time when I ramble on about something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Specialist: A Talent For Revenge

 Hello to all you Troopers, Assassins, and Snipers! 

I got something a little different for you this time.  See, when I was in my teens, there used to be a section at the bookstore called "Men's Adventure".  Nowadays I think this stuff is filed under some sub-category of "Thriller" on storefronts like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  This caught my eye because I found some Indiana Jones novels there.  But there were other series, too.  Things like "The Executioner", "The Destroyer", "Able Team" and "Phoenix Force".  

Now, I understand that these were the sort of thing where the hero was some disaffected rogue government agent or free-lance soldier-for-hire who basically kills everybody else by the end of the book.  Of course, that's the general impression of sword-n-sorcery, right?

So, I eventually read an Executioner book...I don't have any idea which one...I remember that he went undercover as a magazine journalist, and I think there was a helicopter in the collage on the cover.  I eventually read a Destroyer book, because I had enjoyed the Remo Williams movie so much.  I think it was called "Chinese Puzzle", and I really don't remember anything that happened in it, either...but I still have the book packed away somewhere, so  Icould re-read it someday.

Mostly these books bored me, cuz at the time, if it didn't have dragons and knights and wizards, I wasn't very interested.  But, in recent months decided to track down some books that I had heard of, but never found anywhere.  I bought some obscure books on eBay, some fantasy and sword-n-planet stuff.  I eventually found a lot of these old men's adventure books:  some Executioner, some Remo Williams, Nick Carter, Matt Helm.  Then I stumbled upon The Specialist #1 "A Talent For Revenge".

It was the FIRST ONE!  It's so hard to find the FIRST BOOK in a series, so I jumped on it.  It showed up about two weeks later and I read it.  So today I'm going to talk about it.

First of all, a little context:  Usually I read some pretty cheesy stuff.  Lots of ridiculous adventure, sure there's death and destruction, but it usually your attention isn't drawn right to it.  I've read a couple of fantasy things where your attention IS drawn to it for a moment, usually to emphasize how terrible the bad guy is, or how terrible life is for these people before the hero comes to save them.  

Think things like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".  As they're trying to enter the temple where the Holy Grail is, there is a booby trap that chops off people's heads.  This is horrible if you sit and think about it.  But in the movie, it's presented sorta like "uh-oh! it's game over for that guy!"  You know what I mean?  It's not all gory and gut-wrenching and stuff.

In my humble opinion, there are one or two instances where they looked a little too closely at the violence, and it was to show how bad the bad guy was.  There were two brief little sex scenes that I don't really think were necessary, but we didn't dwell on it too long so it wasn't a big deal.  There were also a smattering of swear words, especially the F-bomb (the most commonly used bomb in the book!).  

I understand that these things were put in to show that the story was "gritty" and "grown up".  But to tell you the truth, these things could have been left out and not really affected the story at all.  I don't really think that it was written any better than, for example, "The Warrior of Vengeance:  Sorcerer's Blood", and I could pretty much see both stories in my head being the basis of a Roger Corman flick.

I don't really think of myself as a prude or anything, but I thought I ought to point this stuff out as it is the first book I've decided to talk about with these features.  The other stuff is kinda PG to PG-13; but language and sex definitely elevate this book to an R rating.

With that said, let's get to the story!

Our hero is Jack Sullivan, a veteran of two wars who apparently became a mercenary before the beginning of this book.  He hasn't taken a job in about three-and-a-half years, he is mourning the death of his...uh...wife? ...Fiance? ...Girlfriend?  Well, some woman named Lily who was on his boat when someone blew it up.

In the French Riviera, he gets a job offer from an old acquaintance, formerly from the FBI.  His name is Malta, now he works for a rich lady who wants to hire a mercenary to kill a man.  The man is Ottoowa, a deposed African dictator who once kidnapped the woman and her sister in his small country.  There, the two women were used, abused, starved and tortured.  The sister was decapitated and her head was brought to the woman on a platter.  When she finds out that Ottoowa is also in the French Riviera, she wants him dead--and to have his head brought to her on a plate.

Jack Sullivan takes the job.  

The bad guy has a yacht and a castle on a cliff overlooking the sea, because what's more dramatic than that?  There are complications, of course, he knows some of the mercenaries currently working for the bad guy--in fact, one of them is his old mentor.  He has to dodge the French police, and local thugs, but also has a couple of run-ins with the Mafia.  But worst of all is a 20 year old girl whose smitten with him and gets embroiled in the adventure (of COURSE she gets kidnapped by the bad guys as insurance).

Jack has several run-ins with the bad guy's henchmen in small groups of two or three or four, and he takes 'em out one-by-one so there won't be as many when he tries to break into the castle.  But the bad guy just hires more guys, so it doesn't seem to matter much.  There's a lot of shooting, and explosions, and a couple of guys get knocked down cliffs, a guy gets caught in a noose, another gets garroted.  Again, sorta like bad barbarian fiction when they just kill all the bad-guys by the end of the book.

Of course, one of the henchmen gets revenge on Sullivan before he expires.  This guy tells Sullivan that he and another fellow--whom he refers as "the Blue Man"--placed the bomb on the boat that killed that girl Lily.  But then he dies before Sullivan can get any more information out of him!

It's the first in the series, so I guess it's not much of a spoiler to say that Sullivan lives to go on to the next book.  A little bit of online research suggests that he gets more clues in the next book or two and finally tracks down the people responsible for Lily's death, so there's an over-arching story arc, that's kinda neat.

So...would I read another one?  If I had another one, yes, I probably would.  Am I going to go looking for another one?  No.  I have a whole room full of books and pulp magazines and comics that I want ot read, I really don't need to add to it.  If and when I ever finish that...I might.  It would depend on what else I want, how hard it was to find, and how much it would cost me.  I DID find Book 3 on the Internet Archive where it can be borrowed for free, so I might read that one sooner or later.

It wasn't a bad book, but I do prefer things with dragons...or spaceships...so this was a fun diversion from that stuff.  And I do have some other vigilante guys to read, like the Executioner, and Remo Williams, and Nick Carter, and Matt Helm...  Maybe I'll like one of them a little better.  Then again, maybe they'll be so bad that I change my mind and decide this was great!

I guess we'll find out in time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Nyoka and the Tigermen

Howdy you Truly Adventurous Souls! 

Today I'm going to talk about a serial.  Back in the day (before my time), you could go to the movies for, like, a nickel, and get to see a movie and two or three short features.  Short features included cartoons, news reels, various short movies, and chapter plays.

See, there was no TV yet, so people went to the movies every week.  And every week there was a new episode of the newest serial.  These were various adventure stories, sometimes based on comic strip characters like Flash Gordon or Dick Tracy.  Sometimes they were based on pulp heroes like the Shadow or the Spider.  And sometimes they were based on adventure stories.

Republic Pictures was famous for its serials.  In 1941 they made a serial called "Jungle Girl" and it was based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the same one who created Tarzan, John Carter, and Pellucidar.  Well, the serial took several "artistic" changes from the original story, and centered on a Jungle Girl in Africa named Nyoka, who did not appear in the original story.

Apparently this serial proved popular in the theaters, a comic book spin-off was made by Fawcett Comics and in 1942 Republic decided to make a sequel.  However, since they didn't want to pay any royalties to Burroughs, they could not use the term "Jungle Girl" anywhere in the production.  So they used the name Nyoka, which they had created for the first production, changed the character's last name, moved the story to the "deserts of Africa" (which mostly consisted of Southern California woods and scrubland), and came up with their own story, which they called "The Perils of Nyoka", and later re-released as "Nyoka and the Tiger-Men".  ...You know, I'm really not sure why they renamed it that.  The "Jungle Girl" serial actually had natives who worshipped a Lion Goddess.  The best suggestion I've heard about this name is that some of the bad guys where striped robes.

Kay Aldridge plays Nyoka, who wants to find her father, who disappeared on an expedition into the African Jungle.  She joins up with a new expedition, which hopes to find the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, since they hold the secret to curing cancer (and presumably other diseases).  Part of this expedition is our male lead, Dr. Larry Grayson played by Clayton Moore, who would later be best remembered as the Lone Ranger.

However, the Golden Tablets are also coveted by the wicked Vultura, evil ruler of the Arabs.  You see, the Tablets also reveal the location of a long-lost treasure, and Vulura wants it for herself.  To this end, she enlists the aid of Cassib, a tribal chief loyal to her, and played by Charles Middleton--who is probably best remembered as Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials.  

It's an action-packed production full of fistfights, gunfire, running, riding, climbing up rocks and cliff-faces, being thrown off cliffs to the water below, killer gorillas, avalanches, explosions, cave-ins, bubbling geysers, and mechanical sacrificial pendulums!  Primal caverns!  Ancient temples!  Deadly booby-traps!  And tons and tons of exterior locations!

It's good stuff, and I totally recommend it.  You can watch it for free on YouTube if you're interested, but it's also available on DVD and Blue Ray from Amazon and assortment of specialty sites.

Have you ever seen it?  What did you think about it, leave a comment to let me know!  Have you seen any other serials?  Again, tell me below in the comments!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Balzan of the Cat People 1: The Blood Stones

Howdy-do to all you Travelling Astro Sword-wielders! 

Well, I'm proud to report that my Mother is doing better.  She's had two operations now, and seems to be recovering quite well.  There was a lot of post-op healthcare that monopolized my time, but following one more appointment with her doctor, I expect things to get back to normal, which means that I should be able to devote more time to writing.  At least, that's the plan.

But all is not lost!  I did read another book this weekend, and I'd like to tell you about it.

This one was call "Balzan of the Cat People #1:  The Blood Stones".  This is book one of a three-book series written under the name of Wallace Moore.  According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, this is apparently a pen name for Gerry Conway, a comic book writer and editor of legendary reknown who has worked for both Marvel and DC.

This is a sword-and-planet story, which means it is high-action, high-cheese adventure about a human having barbaric adventures on some alien planet.  In the case of Balzan, sometime in the future, he and his parents were en route to Mars to begin a colony but some mysterious disaster happened.  The ship inexplicably accelerated, perhaps through a wormhole, into a different solar system and crashed upon an alien world.  His parents died in the accident, but Balzan survived, as an infant encased in some sort of suspended animation cube.  He was found by a humanoid cat-person who took him home and raised him.

The cover claims that Balzan is the Tarzan of outer space, so instead of being raised by apes, he's raised by cat people.  I am not very familiar with Tarzan stories, but this was the only real connection that I could see.  Otherwise, Balzan seemed closer to heroes like John Carter, or Thongor, or the hero from Goddess of Ganymede.

But I'm OK with that, in fact, that's pretty much why I got the books in the first place!  So let's go!

There Are Spoilers ahead!

The story begins and Balzan is grown...about twenty-ish I guess.  he is hunting for some wild animal that has been terrorizing his cat-people village.  He is armed with a knife and a "therb", which is a whip that delivers a potent poison through the barb on the tip.

He finds it and kills it, and then hears the sounds of fighting coming from the village itself.  He rushes back and finds the village is under attack by some lizard men.  He finds his adoptive father, dying, who tells him that the lizard people took many prisoners--including his daughter, Balzan's adoptive sister.

So Balzan goes after them, and finds out they were working for this warlord-guy named Lord Sha, who took the prisoners away in a sky ship to the city-state of Kharn.

So Balzan goes to Kharn.  He notices how everyone their seems stoned, and gets into trouble with the local authorities.  Running from the guards, he falls in with a group of thieves who like to stick it to the man.  They join forces, and Balzan finds out that the Red Lord and his Queen Myrane host these gladiatorial-style games here in the city, and his pacifist tribesmen are going to get thrown to the wild animals for the enjoyment of the people!

So Balzan and his thiefy friends get captured by the guards so they can be taken into the palace.  They are sentenced to be gladiators.  Balzan deduces that his fellows are being drugged, via their food, and realizes that the entire city is also being drugged!

Lord Sha made Balzan's sister, Kitta, one of his personal slaves; but really lusts for Queen Myrane.  Queen Myrane lusts for Balzan, who turns her down flat.  It's plenty convoluted, but there's TONS of action through out the story.  

Balzan eventually learns that the games weed out the weak, leaving strong specimens whose blood feeds the Blood Stones (remember them?  They're, like, THE title of the book!).  The Blood Stones, once powered, perpetuate the lifespan of the bad guy...but I won't spoil that for you, in case you want to read it for yourself.  But if you're wondering if Balzan lives, I only want to remind you that there are two more books!

I don't understand the front cover.  He is NEVER dressed like that throughout the entire story.  I think they told the artist he's the "Tarzan of outer space" and they came up with this guy that looks kinda like Zandor from The Herculoids.  In the background you can plainly see Cat People, you know, the sort of people that raised him, and they're wearing a LOT more clothes than he is!  Oh well...

My Theoretically Assessed Speculation:

I liked it!  Is it High Literature?  NO! ...That's probably why I liked it!  it's plenty cheesy, and some of the plot points didn't get a lot of build up...but the action moved right along, and the plot kept a sort of internal logic.  I guess it's the sort of thing you expect from this type of stuff...and that's exactly what I wanted!  It was cheesy escapist adventure, and that's what I look for in my sword-n-planet stuff, so I liked it!

I found my copy on eBay, and I've seen it available through Amazon.  You might be able to find it in a second-hand book shop.

Have you ever read this book?  If so, what did you think of it?  Feel free to leave a comment below!  Otherwise, I'll see ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Once Upon A Spy

Hello to all my Trenchcoat Adorned Spies! 

Hey, you remember a few blog posts back I was talking about various spy shows and movies?  Well, I stumbled across a one I'd never heard of before and I'm gonna tell you about it!

I was on YouTube one day, just minding my own business, when suddenly this video suggestion pops up.  It's a movie from 1980 called "Once Upon A Spy" and it stars Ted Danson (before he got on "Cheers") and Christopher Lee (long after he was Dracula for Hammer Pictures).  Apparently this was a TV movie-of-the-week, and was intended as the pilot to a proposed series, though I'm not 100% sure about this.

So get this...Christopher Lee is an evil genius (naturally!) who wants to take over the world.  He sends in an elite team to steal this super-computer from NASA...and I mean one of those old fashioned early computers that takes up the entire wall of a building!  Remember, this was back before there was any such thing as a personal computer.  Anyway, they crash into the NASA building with a semi truck and blast the computer with a mysterious laser beam.

So the government...they don't really define which agency...brings in Ted Danson as Jack Chenault, a government computer programmer to go talk to the scientist who built the super-computer and to investigate the scene of he crime.  All escorted with by an actual field agent, of course!

The field agent is Paige Tannehill, played by Mary Louise Weller, an attractive blonde best best known for appearing in the movie "Animal House".  You know how these things go, first they don't get along, but are practically dating by the end of the movie.  They tried to have snappy banter...and...well, let's just say they tried.

They arrive in time to find the scientist and his daughter get kidnapped by the bad guy's henchmen and give chase...until a helicopter uses a magnet to pick up thee bad guys car and take them away.  

They investigate the scene of the crime and deduce that the computer was shrunk, which leads them to the villain, Marcus Valorium, played by Christopher Lee in a nifty space-age wheelchair, complete with firing missiles!  He remembers Chenault as the only man who ever beat him...several years ago when they were competing for some science award.  

So, Chenault figures out that with the NASA computer to connect him to satellites (and the computer's creator to operate the now-miniature computer--apparently he can re-enlarge an object once it's been shrunk), Valorium can bounce his shrink ray to just about anywhere in the world. And although Chenault insists that he is NOT a field agent, he keeps volunteering for missions partly due to his expertise, partly due to his personal connection to the bad guy, and partly due to the feelings he's developing for Tannehill.  

So Chenault goes to see Valorium and confirms that he is behind the theft.  He goes with Tannehill to parachute to Valorium's observatory hide-out to rescue the professor & her daughter...and also to help destroy the shrink ray, of course.

But they get captured, and the girl gets dropped into a trippy mirror-walled maze that Chenault must guide her through, avoiding the two hit men Valorium is guiding to take her out.  It's a weird, sick game that Valorium wants to play to prove he's better then Chenault, cuz the guy holds a grudge.

All in all, "Once Upon A Spy" is kind of a James Bond wannabe.  It's not too bad, but far from excellent.  What they were attempting isn't bad, but you can see that it lacked some vital spark, and it's really no wonder the series wasn't picked up.  This reminds me of movies that I watched as a kid and thought were great, then grew up and rewatched and found out they were horrible.  ...Maybe it would be ok for a preteen audience? *shrug*

If you can't find anything better, this could help you pass and hour-and-a-half.  I don't recommend paying for it, though.  If you want to watch it, find it streaming somewhere for free!  Like I said, I found it on YouTube, so watch it there! ...Or don't!   

Well, that's all for now!  I'll see ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Adventure Squadron

Greetings and Salutations, friends and fans!

I have a message of vital importance for you this month:

The Adventure Squadron needs You!

I know what you're thinking:  But Tim, what IS this Adventure Squad-thingy that you speak of?  Well, I'm gonna tell ya!

This is a special organization devoted solely to the purpose of providing First Notice and Special Considerations to my Truly Ardent Supporters!  Sounds like a fan club, you say?  Fair enough, then join my fan club and you will receive my newsletter and Free Gifts!

That's right!  By joining The Adventure Squadron you will receive my newsletter: the Call To Adventure!  This will inform you whenever I release a new adventure or run a special offer or sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or DriveThru Fiction!  (This will appear most for the DriveThru store, as I have the most control there, and you can actually download a Kindle File or Nook File there as well as a PDF!)

But that's not all!

You also get a printable certificate confirming your acceptance!  Print it out wallet-size and be a card-carrying member, or print it on a full page--suitable for framing--and hang it on the wall of your office, den or study and display your affiliation with pride!

Our chiefest incentive is a growing library of FREE BOOKS!  The first of these is available right now!  It's called The Adventure Sampler and it's a collection of short stories previously published in an array of ezines and anthologies and a few that have NEVER BEEN PUBLISHED BEFORE!  

These include stories that helped influence some of my upcoming series!  Including an Aurivyn story (called "Wondara" at the time), Tales From the Triddian Sector, and The Phantom Sleuth! Plus several others!

There are more stories and surprises on the way, so don't delay...join today!  Otherwise, you could miss out on heart-pounding adventure, super-exclusive promotions, and a growing library of FREE books!  You don't want that to happen!  I don't want that to happen!  

So just click this link and type in your email address and before you know it...you, too, will will a part of The Adventure Squadron!

You have my solemn vow that your information will NEVER be sold nor traded and you are free to unsubscribe at any time!  Nor will you be spammed.  But you WILL receive the Call To Adventure newsletter whenever there is news of new stories for sale, special promotions at any of our storefronts, and of Free Gifts that become newly available to you! 

I know you don't want to miss out on that, so sign up today and listen for the Call!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Warrior of Vengeance 1: Sorcerer's Blood

Howdy you Triumphant Adventure Seekers! 

So, one of the pillars of the writing philosophy is that "if you want to write, you've got to read".  This way you develop a sense other writer's styles and influence your own; get a sense of what's been done, or at least attempted; maybe even get a sense of how other writers handle mood and atmosphere and other boring technical stuff.

Now, I've read several books, both for entertainment and scholarly reasons, but the simple fact is that I have a wide collection of books, magazines, and pdfs that I have accumulated but not got around to reading yet.  Bottom line is:  I don't think I read enough.  Well, I'm trying to remedy that!

I'm trying to manage my time better...we'll see how it turns out...and one of the changes I'm trying to implement is to read more often.  My goal is to spend my weeks working more diligently and spending most of my weekends reading.  Still trying to iron out some kinks, but I have successfully started!

This weekend I read Warrior of Vengeance #1:  Sorcerer's Blood by Ross Anton Coe.  I found this and Book #2 Trails of Peril together on eBay during one of my online searches for sword-n-sorcery and sword-n-planet books from the 60's, 70's, and 80's.  These were both published in 1982, apparently, by Pinnacle Publishing, and promised a third book which seems to have never been produced.

I can find no other works by Ross Anton Coe, but according to the copyright page the story is copyrighted to Ron Renauld, which makes me wonder of Coe is just a pen name.  Ron Renauld wrote several media tie-in novels like the A-Team and Airwolf (I didn't even know there were novels of these properties!), and ghost-written multiple Executioner books as well.

A web-search has these books come up at various online stores, but they can be found on the old standbys:  Amazon and eBay, prices may vary.

There Are Spoilers ahead!

There is a Conan-style little preamble, explaining the continent is shaped vaguely like a condor's head and was thus named after the Condor-God Dorban.  Some people tried to break off into their own countries but were brought back into the fold of the Sorcerer-King, who resides in the capital city of Cothe.  Then, Time passes...

We meet our hero, Nuroc, at the age of twelve.  He is suppose to be a shepherd, but we never see any sheep.  However, he spied a wolf slinking through the brush and is stalking it to protect the sheep.  He slays the wolf, and just in time because...

This happens to be the night of a double-eclipse.  The two moons are going to get covered by the world's shadow, and this a moment of great significance.  He takes the wolf's carcass to offer to the Condor God as a sacrifice but before he can...

A massive rock shifts revealing a cavern and a stream of horsemen pour out and ride away through the countryside.  Nuroc recognizes them as Sorcerers from Cothe but does not know why they are riding away.  The eclipse happens and catastrophe occurs!  The ground shakes!  Tidal waves wash over the lands!  A tidal wave reaches Nuroc and washes him through the cave that the Sorcerers came out of!

He finds himself deposited in some sub-basement beneath the city of Cothe, specifically beneath a place called the Obelisk.  I don't recall any actual desciption of what it looks like, but I imagined something not unlike the Washington Monument, mostly because it was hollow and you could climb stairs to different tiers inside of it.  Apparently this is where the Sorcerers learn magic, from runes carved on the inner walls.  The higher up you climb, you find stronger magic spells inscribed.

Here, he finds his parents, who are servants to the current Sorcerer-King Talmon-Khash...who is also here!  It turns out that some upstart mid-tier sorcerer named Augage wants to use higher level spells to imprison the Condor-God Dorban, kill Talmon-Khash and usurp the kingdom, so he gathered some other sorcerers to his cause and they split, he tried to conduct his ritual out in the wild and miscast the spells, causing the cataclysm!

By some miracle, the capital city of Cothe was untouched by the cataclysm, and the peasants decided the sorcerers did it on purpose and marched in to kill all the sorcerers.  

Talmon-Khash cuts open his wrist and extracts some blood, which he magically infuses into Nuroc and his parents so they can carry his blood and he will "live-on" in some sense until they can defeat Augage.  Talmon-Khash then sends them to escape while he casts magic to preserve the Obelisk and the magical knowledge and treasure within.

So Nuroc and his parents escape with the help of a loyal sorcerer named Inkemisa and his daughter Myrania, who Nuroc has the hots for.  They know that having failed the spell and inciting riot, that Augage will flee to a western land where he will eventually unite the barbarian tribes under his rule and eventually come back to try again.

The only real problem I had with the book was:  if they know this, why don't they just go after him now before he can raise an army?  I don't get it.  They don't go after him.  Of course, it is never explained what sort of servants Nuroc's parents are.  I guess valets and maids and shepherd boys make lousy medieval commandoes.

Once again, Time passes...and we rejoin our five years later...

Nuroc is now seventeen.  He and his parents went north to the town of Weshi, where he and his Dad work in a local mine.  That is...until the raiders show to kill his family, leaving only him alive to carry on their destiny and duty to the Sorcerer-King!  He fights with raiders, dodges condors, sharks, giant centipede monsters and zombies!  He gains and loses allies, finds his girlfriend Myrania working for a shady pimp who travels up and down the river...

Of course, his adventures lead him back to Cothe, where he reunites with Myrania and has a showdown with Augage in the Obelisk, where the renegade sorcerer once more tries to capture the Condor-God Dorban and usurp his immortality, or something, so he can conquer all the known lands!  Bwah-ha-ha!

It was pretty cheesy stuff, but it was a decent plot that moved along pretty well in my opinion.  It was easy to read and the world was developed enough to tell the story.  There was a little cosmology, and a little religion (we're only told about the Condor-God Dorban, but I got the feeling there were others, unnamed).  All in all, it was an entertaining way to spend a weekend!  If you like  light, fun fantasy adventure then you would probably like this, and I recommend you give it a try if you can track it down!

My Theoretically Assessed Speculation:

Thumbs up!  It moved along, it was fun to read, sparked a few inspirational ideas, and kinda made me want to get writing.  I found it entertaining!

Have you ever read this book?  If so, what did you think of it?  Feel free to leave a comment below!  Otherwise, I'll see ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

Howdy you Truly Adventurous Souls! 

So, the other day, I was looking through some old video tapes and I found (among several other things) my copy of Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.  Then I thought, "Hey!  That's adventure!  I should talk about it on the blog!"  So...I am!

The movie came out in 1985, but I never saw it until it got on HBO.  I must have been about twelve, and I had no idea who Remo Williams was.  For that matter, I had no idea who Fred Ward or Joel Grey were, either.  But I knew Wilford Brimley!  He was the only guy in the movie I recognized!

Anyway, Remo Williams was a New Jersey cop at the beginning of the film, and he was selected by a top-secret government organization to be their new recruit.  The first thing they did was fake his death, then they gave him reconstructive surgery (mostly shaving off his mustache) and informed him he had been recruited and given a new name:  Remo Williams.

The organization was CURE (I don't remember what the acronym was for), and seemed to be a three-man operation led by Wilford Brimley as Dr. Harold Smith, who implied that they were some kind of government institution.  So, they wanted Remo to be trained up to be an assassin, so they give him to an old Korean named Chiun who was to teach Remo the ways of Sinanju, kind of philosophy and a style of martial arts.  

I was kinda fascinated by the Sinanju training sequences.  The idea was that the human body was capable of so much more than we use it for.  Like...the way they say we only use a small percentage of our brain, but could do fancy telepathy and telekinetic powers if we could learn to use the rest of our brains.  Except, this was the whole body.  With Sinanju training and discipline, you were supposed to be able to do all sorts of fantastic Jackie Chan-type acrobatics and tings that seemed superhuman.

However, Remo is a typical American slob, and is very skeptical, but is impressed with the few uncanny moves Chiun has displayed and wants to learn because...it was just too cool.

On top of all this, there is a shady military arms dealer--an evil 80s business tycoon--who is fleecing the government for funds to build new weapons for the armed forces and only supplying shoddy equipment that blows up in the hands of our soldiers.  He had a sham weapons satellite that was rigged to blow up before anyone could get close enough to tell it was a phony.  This guy needs to be taken out, but whenever his stuff comes under investigation he gets away scott free and some underling gets all the blame.

This is a job for CURE, and they want to send Remo, their newest assassin, to eliminate him.

It was a nifty little flick when it came out, entertaining enough to occupy a couple of hours.  Fred Ward from the the first two Tremors movies played Remo.  Joel Grey played Chiun.  Wilford Brimley, as I said, was Harold Smith, the head of CURE.  And nowadays I recognize Kate Mulgrew, but I don't like her in anything since she stole Billy Crystal's novel in Throw Momma From the Train. 

It wasn't until years later that I found out it was based upon a series of books called "The Destroyer" by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy.  Apparently a line of men's adventure novels akin to The Executioner.  I tracked some down, but I've only read one so far...and that was some years ago now.  I don't remember what the plot actually was.  I remember a Chinese lady with a big coat who kept stealing essential like toilet paper and carrying them in her coat.  And Remo fighting some guys from a karate school.  I think they ended up in China and he got the Sword of Sinanju...why was it in China instad of Korea?  Maybe I remember wrong.

Anyway, the movie is kinda neat, although I've read some opinions online that suggest the books are better.  Hey, big surprise, right?  I'll have to read a few more books and watch the movie again to see if I feel the same way.

I also read that the movie folks wanted this to become a big franchise to rival stuff like James Bond.  In fact, he was supposed to the blue-collar James Bond.  So they hired a writer who wrote a couple of James Bond movies, and a director who directed a couple James Bond movies...but in the end, it just didn't become what they hoped for.  Sad, really.  I would have watched more of them. 

I wouldn't be surprised if someone in Hollywood was trying to reboot the series.  I mean, seems like they try that with everything, doesn't it?

Well, I guess that's all for now.  See ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

Greetings, all you cadets who Travel Among Stars!

I just finished watching all the episodes of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, conveniently located on YouTube, for anyone interested.  So, since it's fresh in my mind, I thought I'd talk about it today.

Rocky Jones is a TV show that aired back in 1954.  Technically, I think it was a kids show, but it was still pretty good.  Rocky Jones is--now get this--a Space Ranger (didn't see that one coming, did you?).  The Space Rangers are sort of space cops who patrol space to uphold the laws and treaties of the United Worlds.  

He patrols the spaceways in a V-2 type rocket ship.  First in one called the Orbit Jet, which is later replaced by the Silver Moon.  He has a co-pilot named Winky (replaced later when the actor was arrested for carrying a firearm), later replaced by Biffen Cardoza, an alien from Herculon.  His crew often included space navigator, Vena Ray, and Junior Space Cadet Bobby--the token kid all these shows require.  There was often a scientist on board too.  Earlier episodes featured Professor Newton, Bobby's ward (replaced when the actor died), and later replaced by Professor Mayberry.

Other characters made regular appearances, most notably Secretary Drake, the head of the Office of Space Affairs (and the Space Rangers), and Ranger Clark who was in charge of space station O.W.9.  

The show featured episodic stories that mostly formed short 3-chapter story arcs, with a few one-episode stories thrown into the mix.  During this run, we travel to various moons and planetoids, all conveniently coated with an oxygen-rich atmosphere.  We also meet a wide array of indigenous alien peoples...who all look human and either speak or learn English.

Some of the science is kinda wonky, but makes for interesting stuff.  Like a pair of moons connected by a chain of atmosphere, their gravity pulling one another across the galaxy on an unfixed course, until one inevitably crashes into a planet that is running on a fixed orbit.  There was some silly double-talk about how the heat in the desert makes you see mirages that are not there, so super-cold light can turn something that is there invisible.  

All the cheesy tropes and clichés that you think of with 50's sci-fi are here, but they were new at the time, and setting up the tropes and clichés we all think of. It's actually more sophisticated stuff than I was expecting.  And you can clearly see where it may have influenced later stuff.

The Space Ranger uniforms, for example, look as though they may have inspired the uniforms worn by the ship's crew in Forbidden Planet, and certain Star Trek uniforms.  Vena Ray was a female bridge officer on a star ship long before Lt. Uhura.  And Professor Newton's costume and hair reminded me (a lot) of William Harnell as the first incarnation of Dr. Who.

Apparently episodes got edited together to make a bunch of movies, and a couple of these were featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Some of these are also available on various streaming platforms, and apparently it's also available on DVD.  But as I said earlier, you can watch the entire series on YouTube for free!

Well, I guess that's all I have to say about that (at least for now)!  So be sure to tune in next time when I talk about...uh...something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell