I finished two books during this week, as well as one pulp magazine issue.
Books
- The Interlopers, by Matt Helm. Matt Helm takes the place of a murdered courier so that another agency can identify all the people making up the spy network for which the dead man worked, but Helm has an assignment of his own: eliminating an enemy assassin who recently killed another agent. As part of his role, Helm travels with a dog up the Pacific Coast and then to Alaska, fishing along the way. As is usual in the series, there are plenty of twists, people who may or may not be trustworthy, and sudden death. Recommended.
- Galactic Effectuator, by Jack Vance. This volume brings together two stories about Miro Hetzel, “Galactic Effectuator,” a sort-of private eye and fix-it man. In the longer first story, “The Dogtown Tourist Agency,” Hetzel comes to the planet Maz, home to the Gomaz, a culture of warriors that, for the safety of the rest of three space empires, are forbidden advanced technology, in particular weapons. His inquiry concerning a company undercutting its competitors, perhaps in an underhanded way, puts him on the planet when the representatives of two of the three empires and a couple native representatives are assassinated, and his investigation expands to identify several interrelated situations. The second story sees Hetzel on the trail of a vicious former schoolmate who has pursued a medical career of sorts and who has committed a crime against Hetzel’s client. Both stories were well constructed and display Vance’s wry humor, but the first story is better than the second, perhaps because the greater length allowed for more development. Recommended.
Continuing Reads
- A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away, by humorist Irvin S. Cobb — a collection of 366 amusing anecdotes published in 1923, which I’ll be reading at the rate of one per day.
- More Heart Throbs — the sequel to the similar Heart Throbs, an anthology of prose and verse selections, often sentimental in nature, submitted by the general public and famous people, published in 1911; I’ll be reading one or more pages (as needed for the selections) per day throughout the year.
- The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments, translated by Sir Richard F. Burton in the late 19th century — I hope to read all ten volumes as well as the six supplemental volumes this year.
- Orlando Innamorato, by Matteo Boiardo, translated by Charles Stanley Ross — I hope to finish this Renaissance Italian epic this year.
Magazine
- Adventure, March 10, 1923
Solid stories make up this issue, with the lead novel in particular a gripping tale of an aging shipping magnate’s return to sea with a killer crew. For comments on each of the stories in the issue, see last week’s Wednesday Pulp post.