Books

THE ANATOMY OF PUCK: An Examination of Fairy Beliefs among Shakespeare’s Contemporaries and Successors by KM Briggs was a little too specialized a folklore study for me (I know Briggs from her later more mass-market works such as The Encyclopedia of Fairies). Briggs’ main emphasis is less folklore of the 16th and 17th centuries than how it was used in literature, with an increasing emphasis on making them cute and innocuous. I was more interested in her discussion of how fairy beliefs overlapped with tales of ghosts, witches (some witches claimed their alleged familiar was actually a fae, which was apparently less objectionable) and demons. In its own right, an excellent piece of work.

WALL OF SERPENTS wrapped up L. Sprague deCamp and Fletcher Pratt’s Harold Shea series (Pratt’s other work consumed too much time for him to collaborate again before his death), starting as the police close in on Harold and his wife Belphebe to find out why the detective investigating them has disappeared mysteriously. Realizing that “We left him in a parallel world resembling Coleridge’s Xanadu” won’t cut it, the couple set off to find help bringing him home, which leads them first to the world of the Kalevala, then to the saga of Cuchulainn (this was originally two separate novelettes). Great fun.
THESE OLD SHADES is a Georgette Heyer romance set in Louis XV’ France, though with an English hero, a duke embittered by Tragic Love to become a dark and scandalous rake. This makes his taking in a female street urchin as his disguised-as-a-boy page a bafflement for his friends as they try to figure out if he’s her predator or protector and what could possibly have possessed him. More a costume drama than a Grand Sophy-style romp, but good.
THE GREAT SILENCE: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson makes a bookend of sorts to Perfect Summer, her history of British life right before the war. Nicolson uses an assorted collection of lives to look at Britain coping with shell-shock, disfigured soldiers, the new jazz craze, the first woman member of Parliament, Irish independence, angry veterans and the collapse of the aristocracy (the story of one duke reluctantly selling off his vast holdings reminded me a lot of Downton Abbey). Works better than her first book, simply because there’s more drama and a better structure (it ends with the dedication of the Tomb of the Uknown Soldier). I was also surprised to learn that British arch-fascist Oswald Mosley started out representing the area I grew up!

HULK: Grey by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sales chronicles the first 48 hours or so of the Hulk’s life, as recounted to psychiatrist Dr. Samson (AKA Bronze Age super-hero Doc Samson). Good, though nothing terribly new, and better at hinting at deepness than actually being deep. For example, the argument Betty was comfortable with the Hulk because her father was so much more terrifying really doesn’t work for a woman who fell in love with the calm, rational Bruce Banner (so obviously her taste doesn’t run to brutes).
MAGNUS, ROBERT FIGHTER, Vol 1 by writer/artist Russ Manning adds a fresh twist to the old theme of humanity becoming too dependent on machine: In future North America, (Nor-Am) Magnus has been trained from birth to beat robots at hand to hand combat, a skill that comes in handy as increasing numbers of renegade robots manage to beat the Three Laws, or mad scientists (the scheming roboticist Xyrkol is Magnus’ chief enemy here) manage to reprogram them. Nothing ground-breaking, but good entertainment (cover by Russ Manning. All rights go to current owners of all images