Sarban (1910–1989)

This is one of those classics that I somehow missed until I won a copy. I’m very glad it came to my attention. It’s a very interesting mix of alternate history (what if the Nazis had won their war?), time travel, and a retelling of the Wild Hunt. The story starts off slow, with hints of ‘something not quite right’ as Alan Querdilion reacquaints himself with an old friend years after WWII has come to a close. The two find themselves drinking and smoking by a late night fire when Alan show more relates his odd tale of a walk on the weird side.

Alan finds himself in a future world 102 years after the Nazis obtained dominance. He stumbled upon it after having escaped a WWII POW camp, lost, dehydrated, and zapped by something he bumbled into. He wakes up in a German hospital-type place. The two nurses and the doctor try to help him, thinking he is suffering from a bad hit to the head. Eventually, he learns something of the baron whose land the hospital resides on. Slavery is common place for both young men and women. Alan won’t let go of his believe that this place and time is not quite real, but he quiets down enough about it for the doctor to start taking him out and about.

What Alan learns is disturbing. The slaves have been bred or perhaps genetically altered at the zygote level to provide a service or entertainment for this baron. Some are physically altered as kids or teens, such as having vocal chords cut. The baron treats many of these specialized slaves as animals, using them to hunt as well as providing them to be hunted. It’s all rather disturbing and very well written. The book doesn’t get caught up in bigger picture morality issues. Instead, it stays focused on Alan’s tale as he tries to survive this encounter and his thoughts on what is wrong or right.

Alan eventually offends the baron by sneaking about and he is tossed into the fenced forest to be hunted at leisure. This starts the heart pounding suspense as Alan must avoid the Hunt again and again. The moonlit Wild Hunt scenes were absolutely riveting. The plot thickens as he meets others who are part of this hunt and he learns a little of the politics off of the baron’s property.

As you might guess, since Alan is telling this story from the beginning years after the even happens, he survives the event, though not unmarked. The reader is left to decide whether or not Alan truly experienced this event, if it was his hallucination, or if Alan made it up to mess with his friend. It’s an excellent suspense-filled tale.

I won a copy of this book from the publisher (via The Audio Book Reviewer) with no strings attached.

Narration: Stefan Rudnicki was excellent. His performance really added to the tension and excitement and the disgust Alan felt from time to time. His female voices were good and his accents were well done. During one of the hunting scenes, these wild cats (sort of) are being used to hunt and Rudnicki was in the middle of the narrative that explains the wild yowling sounds as they go on the chase when my old deaf cat let out a yowl of her own. I almost jumped out of my skin! show less

John William Wall ('Sarban') was primarily a British diplomat in the Near East who wrote few books in his lifetime. He writes beautifully and crafts his stories in an unrushed manner with such breadth of detail about all subjects and intelligence and love of language. You cannot rush through these stories. They build slowly, beginning with a geographic setting, a very long introductory windup, and only when everyone is tucked into their chosen places, he begins to tell The Story. There are show more usually comfy chairs, a fire and drinks involved and you absolutely feel as though you are in the room, too. My favorite in this book is A Christmas Story, but the journey of the story is the point as much or more than the ending. I only wish he had written more, but he was a perfectionist, as you will see. I can't imagine a contemporary fiction writer that could match his talent. They have just the right amount of supernatural slant to make them odd and compelling. show less

A good quick read but definitely the weakest of Sarban's outings. Its a sort of jacked up Most Dangerous Game set in a sketchily defined alternate future. All you really need to know is that the Nazi's won and its about 2047.

It doesn't partake of much of Sarban's real skill for depicting subtle weirdness although the setting is certainly unique. It gets a trifle sentimental towards the end by introducing a hardly believable romance angle. It in no way tries to explain how the protagonist show more gets to the future and gets back so it seems almost like an idea that Sarban didn't know what to do with, a problematic beginning and ending, so he tagged a framing story to it so we wouldn't notice.

However it was a good suspenseful quick read. I still liked it a lot.

Having read most of Sarban's published output I think it is a shame he didn't decide to write more in his life. All of his stuff is top shelf, everything. It seems that from his biography he treated writing as a hobby when he had free time during his civil service stint overseas. Its kind of sad to think of the fact that with so much natural writing ability that Sarban just considered it a hobby to dabble in and as soon as he found he was too busy or just lost interest in it he stopped, forever. Almost worse than a life cut too short in a way. show less

Sarban - Ringstones and Other Curious Tales
Another book from 1951 and another delightful discovery. Sarban was the pen name of author and diplomat John William Wall. He only published three books during his lifetime and he wrote in the fantasy genre. He is described in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy as "a subtle, literate teller of tales, conscious of the darker and less acceptable implications that underline much popular literature." I take form this quote a subtle, literate teller of tales show more because his prose is excellent and his storytelling leads the reader on to conclusions that leave much to the imagination. The bit about the darker less acceptable implications is also pertinent because there is an underlying sexual almost erotic feel to some of these stories which hark back to a Victorian era of innuendo hidden by acceptable good taste.

The story RIngstones is of novella length and takes place mainly on the English Yorkshire moors and like all the other stories it features a story within a story. The first person narrator meets with his friend Piers Dubourg an archeologist at the start of a walking tour. Piers asks him to read a manuscript that he has received yesterday from one of his former students Daphne Hazel, which he finds a little disturbing. Daphne has opted to become a physical trainer rather than an academic and during the summer holidays she accepted a post as an English tutor to three foreign children who were under the care of a Doctor Ravelin who lived on an isolated estate (Ringstones) on the Yorkshire Moors. The manuscipt tells her story of her first meeting with the boy Numan who is strangely seductive and has some power over the two girls Marvan and Ianthe. Daphne feels challenged by Numan and there is physical contests between the two, running, tree climbing, wrestling challenges. Numan never sets foot outside of the estate and Daphne is drawn into the circle of the three adolescents along with Katia, a Polish maid whose English is almost undecipherable. Towards the end of the Summer holidays Daphne feels claustrophobic in the little foreign community and takes herself off on a walking expedition to the nearest village, but becomes lost and exhausted and thinks she sees Numan in the distance with some other people. On her return to RIngstones she is a little feverish and has a weird dream in which she is back in Roman times and Numan is intent on yoking her up to a chariot to drive him across a crowded colonnade. Here the story ends and Piers and his friend think that Daphne is in some sort of trouble and travel to RIngstones on a rescue mission.

Calmahain is an equally good story. Two adolescents a boy and a girl play a game which they call Journey, where they separately forage around a large garden then meet up to tell each other a story about what they have discovered. Ruth's elaborate and detailed tale is about a voyage to a strange land where she meets a slave girl who begs her for help. Martin's story is not so adventurous, but he is fascinated by Ruth's tale and she asks him if he can build a boat so that she can travel to the town of Aguavildir to rescue the slave girl. Martin sets to works using tools purloined from their guardians the Maples. Mr Maples has no time for childish games and in a fit of temper smashes the boat. Martin undeterred says he will make a better boat and borrows tools from their neighbour Mr Leadbetter who is astonished by Martin's skills as a woodworker and his attention to detail. It is war time in England and the Maples live in Hull which is coming under attack from the German Luftwaffe; bombs are falling around them, Mr Leadbetter is building an air raid shelter, but Martin continues working to build his boat which is finally afloat on the little stream that runs through the garden...............

There are three other tales. "Christmas story" takes place in Jedda where a group of ex-pats organise a carol service around the town. They always end up at the house of a retired Russian diplomat and the vodka flows. The Russian tells a story of a desperate journey in Alaska where two friends battle to survive intense frozen conditions, relying on a small hunting party of indigenous men who seem to be hunting bison. In The Khan we are in Tabriz (Iran) and an engineer tells a story of a woman who is in an abusive relationship with a project manager and takes solace when she is given a bear cub to look after. Rumours of the woman preferring the bear to her husband become common place and when the bear is released in the wild the woman leaves to search for him in the desert. Capra is a murder mystery story told by a travelling salesman in Cairo, when he unexpectedly meets a rather pedantic man from his past who is now married to a beautiful young woman. He hears a story of how the pedant who fancies himself as a hunter is lured to Greece in search of wild goats by a handsome young man, who is fascinated by his young wife. A garden party involving the young man dressed as the god Pan provides a suitable climax.

All these stories are mysterious, understated, but rich in prose that are the very essence of magical realism. In Ringstones and Calmahain Sarban has produced two stories that linger in the memory and the other three shorter tales are not too far behind. Tall stories, travellers tales whatever you like to call them they are worked though with care and attention and so 4 stars. show less