G. C. Edmondson (1922–1995)

I once saw some quote to the effect that a period is best understood by its second-tier artists. I.e., great is timeless but the next level is informative. If that's so, SF of the 1970s was really at sea. It seems like every other lesser known book from that period I read is bizarre in multiple ways. Case in point: G C Edmonson's T.H.E.M.. The premise is unconvincing at best -- in the recent past, a huge fleet of alien ships was seen approaching Earth, other aliens show up and convince Earth show more to join an alliance on a major counter-offensive. That's prologue to the main story following Art, an ex-college student who fell into a life of smuggling on the Mediterranean, and his boss Jort. The novel opens with them mining ice in space, watching the Alliance get wiped out, ramming one of the invaders with their ship, gleefully killing 100s of unarmed human-looking aliens on board with pickaxes, defeating the fleet, then going to the homeworld for a "rape" -- the book's term -- where plenty of sex with super hot bosomy aliens await, and finally heading back to Earth for an even less convincing conclusion. Common to these novels of the 1970s is lack of any concern for plausibility, social Darwinist views so half-baked as to be almost raw, and dollops of sex as promulgated by Playboy. The only slightly redeeming quality is a diverse cast of characters that would fit in well in the Fast and Furious.

Not recommended except for historians of SF. show less

I grew up reading science fiction: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke.. & the not exactly SF but related (at least in my opinion) Ray Bradbury. I even belonged to a science fiction book club that delivered such shockers as Heinlein's "Farnham's Freehold". I now consider Heinlein to be as much an incest promoter as a SF writer - but that's another story. Heinlein was important to me as the author of "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" - an encouragement to the DIY show more attitude if there ever was one!

"The Man Who Corrupted Earth" reminds me of something that I read by Samuel Delaney in wch he remarked that one of the reasons why he got into SF was b/c he'd read a Heinlein novel in wch it was only revealed in passing that the hero was black - & that over halfway thru the story. I interpret this as meaning that in SF, at least, a future can be imagined in wch the idiotic dividing of people into 'races' that're pitted against each other may be no more. Good riddance!

As I entered my teens & became more aware of literature in general, I temporarily rejected Sci-Fi as too trashy. It might not've been until 10 or 15 yrs later that I began to rediscover it thru writers that I thought were truly great & not as shallow as I'd come to feel Heinlein was.

It was in this phase that I discovered that writers that were to become the standard bearers of SF excellence for me, the ones who addressed issues that I cd relate to & did it w/ sufficiently writerly style: Philip K. Dick, J. G. Ballard, Samuel Delaney, Stanislav Lem, & the Strugatsky Brothers. Alas, though, I quickly read almost everything I cd find by all of these & was hungry for other writers that cd make as strong an impression.

Along came James Tiptree (Alice Sheldon), Michel Jeury, Vladimir Savchenko, & Ursula K. LeGuin. Unfortunately, I've only found one bk each so far by Jeury & Savchenko; & I've read all the Tiptree that I know of. Fortunately there's still plenty of LeGuin to go thru - but I find her somewhat hit or miss.

Later still came along the cyberpunks: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John Shirley. I still read them from time to time but find Gibson, in particular, to be little more than a one trick pony whose writing hasn't lived up to the promise of "Neuromancer".

Then a trip to Australia turned me onto Greg Egan, Damien Broderick, & Greg Bear. Somewhere along the way I found Rudy Rucker, Pamela Sargent, Joan Slonczewski & many, many others. But how many of these cd provide the stimulation that Dick, Ballard, Delaney, Lem & the Strugatskys had? Alas, not many. But each had something to offer.

& in the many, many more there were people like James Gunn & G. C. Edmondson. Now, I don't consider either of these guys to be 'great writers' - but, still, there's plenty there to hold my interest.

"The Man Who Corrupted Earth" is the 5th novel I've read by Edmondson & not one of my favorites of his. In the author's bio to his "Blue Face" from 1971, Edmondson is described as "by profession a special projects engineer for the United States Navy, or, as he prefers to call himself, "a creative blacksmith."" Now, given that in 1971 I was a draft resister against the Vietnam War & governments in general, this is hardly a promising bio for me. Nonetheless, it's not like I haven't had friends in the military. Fuck, I was even friends w/ a retired Air Force officer who was an anarchist!

It seems that there's a thread that runs thru Edmondson's novels in wch oppressed peoples turn the tables & create a more just society. & this, of course, appeals to me. Plus he has characters like "Blaise Cunningham" who "was a Nobel-Prize winner, the world's foremost expert in artificial intelligence and one of the best computer programmers alive. He was also a falling-down drunk whose only friends were an intelligent computer, a good woman, a bad scientist,and a frisky puppy named Dobie" - from the back cover blurb of Edmondson & C. M. Kotlan's "The Cunningham Equations". In other words, he has dysfunctional & alienated characters that I can identify w/.

In "The Man.." he has a duo of entrepreneurs, Gus Dampier & Albert, who are champions of a version of 'free enterprise' that Edmondson extolls the virtues of. The bad guys? Well, Ralph Nadar, by proxy, gets more than his fair share of kicks in the ass & this is one aspect of the novel that gets problematic for me. Edmondson, perhaps as a Navy-type guy, really seems to believe in these entrepreneurs who, as far as I can tell, often do more harm than good, & thinks they shd proceed on their 'heroic' paths unhampered by anyone. Well, I don't completely disagree but this particular can of worms is too complicated for the purposes of this review.

ANYWAY, Albert, Dampier's partner, is black & poses as Dampier's chauffeur - mainly to camouflage himself in a racist society so that he can function at a more subtle level. The other main black character is "Army" who ends up as an astronaut for Albert & Damier's asteroid belt enterprise. His 2 cohort astronauts are a woman & a man of Arabic descent. Dampier & Albert team up w/ Mansour, the Arabic father of "Jeff", the other male astronaut.

W/o getting into too many spoilers here, the entrepreneurs, after attempts on their lives & attempted government interference & such-like, succeed in their enterprise AND in leveraging some unexpected justice-oriented influence on the political arena.

So why do I only give this 3 stars? After all, I think I've made it seem somewhat interesting. It's the writing.. there's just something too crude about it for me. Sure, it's written to be easy reading, for the plot to be conventionally engaging (although it does get pretty disconnected at times).. but writers like Dick just pull that style off so much better somehow. show less

review of
G.C. Edmondson & C.M. Kotlan's Maximum Effort
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 10, 2012

This is the last bk in a trilogy. By happenstance I read the 1st bk 1st w/o having any idea that it IS a trilogy. That bk's called The Cunningham Equations. Then I read the 2nd part of the trilogy, The Black Magician, & was surprised to find the same characters again. Still no clue that I was reading a trilogy. This is not as stupid of me as it might seem: looking at the 1st 2 bks, there's no show more indication on the 1st editions that I have that they're part of a trilogy. Maybe these authors didn't start out w/ that intention, maybe they thought they'd never get all 3 published. Dunno. At any rate, by the time I read THIS ending bk, I knew it was the last part. I'd also more or less forgotten the content of the 1st two. Too much time had passed between readings.

Given that I only very vaguely remember the 1st 2 bks, I decided to look for my reviews of them here on GoodReads. To my surprise I HAVEN'T reviewed them. That means that more time may've lapsed since I read them than I realized. I did find a surprisingly long review of Edmondson's The Man Who Corrupted Earth ( http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7635738-the-man-who-corrupted-earth ) in wch I found this:

"Plus he has characters like "Blaise Cunningham" who "was a Nobel-Prize winner, the world's foremost expert in artificial intelligence and one of the best computer programmers alive. He was also a falling-down drunk whose only friends were an intelligent computer, a good woman, a bad scientist,and a frisky puppy named Dobie" - from the back cover blurb of Edmondson & C. M. Kotlan's "The Cunningham Equations". In other words, he has dysfunctional & alienated characters that I can identify w/."

The Cunningham referred to is the protagonist running thru the trilogy. I vaguely remember reading The Cunningham Equations & finding it to be a sortof 'California Slacker' novel reminiscent of Rudy Rucker but w/o Rucker's breezy writing style. Somehow, Edmondson/Kotlan's writing is too 'normal'.

Now, tho, reading Maximum Effort was like plunging mid-stream into what Barnes & Noble calls something like 'Teen Paranormal Vampire Romance'. The back cover blurb heading for Maximum Effort reads: "LORD OF THE LIVING DEAD" wch doesn't have much to do w/ anything - except perhaps trying to tap into the vampire market.

This bk was probably more Gothic than it was SF - although there is a 'cosmic' element to it. All in all, I found it to be a desperate mix of "worm brains" (weirdness) government nastiness (National Security Council bad guy turned into computer network memory storage device as punishment) , perhaps most importantly of all, RELIGION. Yes, religion. Much of the action takes place in a church that's a refuge for the worm brains. & there's an Indian Medicine Man too to add to the cultural mix.

It's hard for me to tell whether the authors are just 2 really philosophically confused guys or whether this somehow seriously reflects their thinking. In a way, the mix was so over-the-top ridiculous that I might've liked it as parody if it hadn't ultimately seemed like some sort of desperate attempt to tap into some variation on the Gothic Romance market.

While this might seem contrary to what I've just written, in the end I sortof feel like this wd make a great Hollywood blockbuster. Don't those folks ever get tired of remakes?! This story is at least different from what Hollywood seems to keep doing over & over & it has tons of interesting details & drama to keep things rolling. Oddly, what I dislike about it as a bk wdn't really interfere w/ its being a completely engrossing CGI monstrosity. show less

This is, apparently, the sequel to "The Ship that Sailed the Time Stream" - wch I haven't read but I suspect I wd've enjoyed this more if I had. I don't think I've enjoyed any of Edmondson's solo bks as much as the 2 I've read that he coauthored w/ C. M. Kotlan ("The Cunningham Equations" & "The Black Magician") so maybe I shd seek out more by Kotlan to read.

"To Sail the Century Sea" has its time travel centered story as an excuse to make the plot somewhat hodge-podged & I reckon it works show more but I still didn't find it that compelling. It was kindof like alotof subplots flying around w/o their being a deep enuf central narrative. W/o resorting to spoilers I can at least say that the ending was sufficiently satisfactory & probably wd've been much more so if I'd read the 1st bk.

My perception of Edmondson is gradually deteriorating to the point where he's beginning to seem to be a hack(ish) writer like Barrington J. Bayley. I'll read more.. but I'm not likely to recommend his bks to anyone. show less