Edwin Corley (1931–1981)

I stumbled on this in a resort hotel library and was startled to find that my library had stashed it away in a special storage section. When I read it, I understood why.

Siege details the evolution and execution of an African-American led revolution and a meticulously planned takeover of the the island of Manhattan. In a paranoid age when government and industry now guard even the most innocuous information, it is easy to see why this book, with its detailed strategic terrorist plans, might show more disturb The Powers That Be.

Yet that is not the best part. Written in 1967, while the Vietnam War was still raging, ghetto riots were still recent news and Black Power was in the air, the plot must have seemed really plausible. The story is told chiefly through the lives of a black radical and a black career military man. Both have suffered slights and humiliation for their race, but have developed differently.

William Gray becomes a man obsessed with power, a man without scruples who leads a revolution, yet refers disdainfully to this followers as “burr heads”. Shawcross is a dedicated soldier, unhappy with the wanton loss of black soldiers in Vietnam, but unmotivated to do anything about it until he is radicalized by the murder of his family. The tensions between these men form the central drama of the novel.

The book is written as a thriller, and certainly succeeds at that level, but it is most interesting as a piece of cultural history. show less

A 1970s technothriller is not my normal reading, but since this one features both an Apollo space mission and underwater exploration… The initial set-up is intriguing: the command module for Apollo 19 splashes down in the Atlantic after its crew have spent time aboard a Soviet spacestation in an ASTP detente-in-orbit type exercise… but when the CM is opened, it’s empty. No astronauts. And yet Mission Control was communicating with them as they left orbit and fell to Earth. After much show more guff about the Bermuda Triangle – as that’s where the splashdown occurs – and an ocean survey ship with a submersible which experiences a total power failure seconds before the splashdown… Not to mention a re-enactment of Flight 19, and a man who has been alive for more than a hundred years… It all turns out to be payback for a dastardly plot by those evil communistic Soviets. A back-cover quote praises the book’s research, but I thought it pretty slipshod. Not that the book made much of an effort at detail anyway. The prose barely rose to workmanlike, the cast were the usual stereotypes, and sometimes I wonder why I bother reading some books… show less

A journalist begins to investigate a rising political star, only to stumble across the biggest 'secret' of all; nuclear weapons don't work. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were frauds. Although Corley manages to keep a bit of suspense going, the premises of his book fall apart faster than wet tissue paper. Thousands of Hollywood special effects people all keep quiet about their war work? Since nuclear reactions work just fine while stationary (otherwise the Manhattan project would show more have been abandoned early) no nation is working on bombs that hit the ground and THEN explode? And everyone in every nuclear capable country is keeping quiet about this for 'world peace'? Wish fulfillment writ large; unsupported by logic. show less

Excellent opening (prologue) with a throw-away character that we come to care for in about 2 sentences, and then a stunning opening, characterizing and giving backstory in the first paragraph. Wow.
Shira
James-MEOW Date: Sunday, July 8. 12014 H.E. (Holocene Era)