LEVON'S SCOURGE

 

LEVON’S SCOURGE

(Levon Cade – Book Twelve)

By Chuck Dixon

Rough Edge Press

262 pgs

 

With this installment, writer Chuck Dixon stamps a finale on his terrific action series featuring a Marine veteran from the south named Levon Cade. From the first book, Cade was a man jinxed to collide with trouble due his inherent sense of justice and morality. He eventually becomes a wanted fugitive only because he dared cross savage criminal gangs from around the world.

In this final entry, Cade is determined to put an end to his personal war by going on the offensive. Tired of always being on the run and concerned for the safety of his daughters, he sets out to find the Asian crime lord who wants him dead. Through a series of events that lead him from Mexico to Saigon, Levon Cade becomes the lethal hunter we’ve all come to know in this incredible saga. Dixon’s prose is lean and hard. Hemingway would have loved it. At the same time, he touches the heart of the man and has us cheering wildly by beautiful homecoming that reunites him with his daughters.

“Levon’s Scourge” is a fitting ending. Now Hollywood, where’s that Levon Cade movie?

Merian C. Cooper's KING KONG

 

MERIAN C. COOPER’S KING KONG

By Joe DeVito and Brad Strictland

St.Martin’s Griffin

203 pgs

 

Our all-time favorite movie is the 1933 RKO production of KING KONG, produced and written by Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace, Jack Creelman, Ruth Rose and directed by Ernest Shoedsack. We saw it as a child in the theater during a 1950s re-release and it imprinted itself on our psyche. Even as a child, we knew somehow intuitively that the giant gorilla, the supposed monster, was actuality the victim of the tale. We left the theater almost in tears at his demise. 

As the years rolled past and we matured, so did our affection for this amazing cinema classic. Our admiration and respect for its creators, to include special effects pioneer Willis O’Brien, grew as well. Over the subsequent years, we began picking up book novelizations whenever coming across them. Thus, we found ourselves owning a copy of this one, dated 2005. We were long familiar with the fact that artist Joe DiVito was a fellow Kong fanatic and while assuming co-writing duties on the paperback, he also provided the powerful cover painting and a handful of beautiful pencil illustrations. 

Some may ask what is the value in a book that repeats a story we’ve practically memorized scene for scene? The answer is simple; DeVito and Strictland have added character insights and in so doing given us another layer of drama. Their portrayals of showman Carl Denham, seaman Jack Driscoll and actress Ann Darrow are rich with understanding. King Kong is the story of man versus nature, of the civilized versus the savage and these three souls are caught at its center. We will always love the movie and now, thanks to this book, even more so.

CAPTAIN FUTURE - Lost Apollo

 

CAPTAIN FUTURE

Lost Apollo

By Allen Steele

Amazing Selects

160 pgs

 

For the past few years, award winning sci-fi writer, Allen Steele, has entertained lots of us diehard space-opera fans with his new exploits of the classic pulp hero, Captain Future. His last, “The Horror at Jupiter,” seemed to be the series finale what with its resolution of the conflict between Captain Future and his archenemy, the Magician of Mars, Ul Quorn. A fitting and exciting climax indeed but one that still left us readers saddened. Obviously not for long, as this review blatantly indicates.  

According to Steele’s own introduction in this volume, the series proved to be well received. Then, when fans began writing asking for more, it wasn’t all that difficult to nudge the powers that be into green lighting a second series of which “Lost Apollo” is the first.

In this new adventure they find themselves challenged by the eerie reality of inter-dimensional travel. As the tale opens, it is a year since the last book and Curt and Joan Randall of have married and reside, along with the Futuremen, in the Captain’s hidden moon base. When an unknown spacecraft mysteriously appears in space nearing the rocky satellite, the Futuremen are called to intercept and determine its identity. What they discover is a 20^th Century Apollo spacecraft manned by three astronauts. They somehow flew through a time warp as they were about to begin their final approach to the moon thus depositing them in the 23^rd Century.

As if that wasn’t enough of a puzzle, i.e. finding exactly how the time-hole occurred, upon questioning the astronauts, they learn their mission is Apollo 20, whereas Curt’s research of history indicates there were only seventeen Apollo flights, with the proposed eighteenth and nineteenth having been cancelled. So where exactly did this crew come from? Answer, an alternate earth which did in fact continue the Apollo moon flights beyond seventeen. Not only do Captain Future and his allies have to send these stranded fliers back to their time period, but also their alternate earth.

In the end, Curt’s mentor, the cyborg Dr. Simon Wright, the Brain, recommends they recruit the insane genius criminal Tiko Thrinn to assist them in customizing their warp capabilities to include shifting alternate dimensions. From this point, the action begins picking up speed and never lets up. Again, Steele proves himself a master space thrills and his deft handling of Grag, Otho, the Brain is spot-on. In reading “Lost Apollo,” we could easily imagine Edward Hamilton applauding loudly. This is space opera the way it was always meant to be.

Finally, kudos to Michael Kaluta’s cover and M.D. Jackson’s wonderful interior illustrations. Consider them frosting on the cake.