Laurence James (1942–2000)
Author of Pilgrimage to Hell
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Laurence James also wrote as James Axler, James Darke, Richard Haigh, James McPhee, James W. Marvin, Johnathan May, Klaus Netzen and Mick Norman.
With John Harvey he wrote as L J Coburn.
With Kenneth Bulmer he wrote as Arthur Frazier.
With Angus Wells as Charles C. Garrett.
With Terry Harknett and John Harvey as William M. James.
With Kenneth Bulmer again as Neil Langholm.
With John Harvey again as John J. McLaglen.
With Kenneth Bulmer and Angus Wells as Andrew Quiller.
Series
Works by Laurence James
Cappuccetto Rosso 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- James, Laurence William
- Other names
- Axler, James (house name|used by a number of authors)
- Birthdate
- 1942-09-21
- Date of death
- 2000-02-09
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Country (for map)
- England, UK
- Birthplace
- West Bromwich, Staffordshire, England, UK
- Place of death
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Relationships
- Axler, James (house name he has been a part of)
- Disambiguation notice
- Laurence James also wrote as James Axler, James Darke, Richard Haigh, James McPhee, James W. Marvin, Johnathan May, Klaus Netzen and Mick Norman.
With John Harvey he wrote as L J Coburn.
With Kenneth Bulmer he wrote as Arthur Frazier.
With Angus Wells as Charles C. Garrett.
With Terry Harknett and John Harvey as William M. James.
With Kenneth Bulmer again as Neil Langholm.
With John Harvey again as John J. McLaglen.
With Kenneth Bulmer and Angus Wells as Andrew Quiller.
Members
Reviews
The Witches (Bk. 1) by James Darke
Much better than I expected it to be. This is essentially a revenge tale during the time of Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins. It reads a little like a western, with the plucky hero travelling the land to deliver justice to the witchfinder who has killed his parents and kidnapped his girlfriend. It’s pacy and enjoyable, with enough sex and violence to keep it interesting, even if it doesn’t justify the soft porn cover.
This is far from perfect, but there's a lot to like about it and I have to say it exceeded my expectations. It's the first of a long series of novels set in a post apocalyptic America and started in the 1980s. That sentence probably tells you a lot of what you need to know and the book delivers the extreme violence and despair you'd expect, but there's an inventiveness and playfulness to the storytelling that lifts it enough to make it a fun and satisfying read.
Laurence James's intergalactic hero isn't particularly compelling, which probably explains why this never became the long-running series the publishers were presumably hoping for.
I bought this book as a collector of Bruce Pennington cover art, of which this is a nice example, though not one of his very best. That said, it is a piece of art that was clearly commisioned for the book as it does an excellent job of portraying a scene from the early part of the story: sometimes with Pennington's art, particularly later into the '80s and '90s, his work was slapped onto the cover of a book with no apparent (to me) connection between cover art and story.
So, having not bought the book for the contents and picking it up off my bookshelf at random as I was rushing out (a case of poor book-succession planning), I had no expectations of a great read, in which I was not disappointed: this is an OK read.
It's a far-future tale with humans having colonised at least a part of the galaxy, and with earth now a backwater whose civilisation has descended into medieval feudalism for the most part, with a techno-aristocracy ruling over the peasant masses through a combination of religious and military oppression. Against this background, the offices of the galactic law-enforcement agency hears rumours of a conspiracy on old earth to foment war and rebellion, which efforts are to be quashed by the hero of the piece, Simon Rack. He's a typically handsome, charismatic hard-case who just won't play by the rules, but whose skills make him useful when dirty work needs doing. With the obligatory wise-cracking, pug-ugly side-kick, Rack is dispatched to earth to infiltrate the mysterious cabal of conspirators, a mission he is happy to take on as it provides the opportunity for him to play out a revenge plot against the heinous villains who killed his family (no spoiler - this happens in the first few pages).
For an OK cover design and an OK story, this was a fun-enough diversion to while away a couple of hours. I wouldn't feel compelled to get any of the other books in the series in order to follow Rack's further adventures, except that it looks like Pennington's covers for the next two are actually pretty neat!… (more)
So, having not bought the book for the contents and picking it up off my bookshelf at random as I was rushing out (a case of poor book-succession planning), I had no expectations of a great read, in which I was not disappointed: this is an OK read.
It's a far-future tale with humans having colonised at least a part of the galaxy, and with earth now a backwater whose civilisation has descended into medieval feudalism for the most part, with a techno-aristocracy ruling over the peasant masses through a combination of religious and military oppression. Against this background, the offices of the galactic law-enforcement agency hears rumours of a conspiracy on old earth to foment war and rebellion, which efforts are to be quashed by the hero of the piece, Simon Rack. He's a typically handsome, charismatic hard-case who just won't play by the rules, but whose skills make him useful when dirty work needs doing. With the obligatory wise-cracking, pug-ugly side-kick, Rack is dispatched to earth to infiltrate the mysterious cabal of conspirators, a mission he is happy to take on as it provides the opportunity for him to play out a revenge plot against the heinous villains who killed his family (no spoiler - this happens in the first few pages).
For an OK cover design and an OK story, this was a fun-enough diversion to while away a couple of hours. I wouldn't feel compelled to get any of the other books in the series in order to follow Rack's further adventures, except that it looks like Pennington's covers for the next two are actually pretty neat!… (more)
Lists
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 35
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 511
- Popularity
- #48,532
- Rating
- 3.1
- Reviews
- 6
- ISBNs
- 47