The Adventure Site

Embarking on a New Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy, you Truly Adventurous Souls!

Well, it's been pretty hectic here at Squadron Central! Mostly because I'm starting a new job, and it's got a weird schedule. Consequently, I don't have anything to talk about today. But come back next time; by then, I'll have a handle on things again!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Adventures of Smilin' Jack

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hello and welcome back to Squadron Central!

I recently re-watched "The Adventures of Smilin' Jack", so I guess I'm going to talk about another Thrilling Action Serial!

"The Adventures of Smilin' Jack" was a Universal serial released way back in 1943, inspired by a newspaper comic strip. There was a collection of names in the credits that I remember seeing in other serials, but a few members of the crew especially stand-out.

Chiefest of these was Sidney Toler, no doubt he is best known for playing Charlie Chan.

Turhan Bey is also in the cast. According to his IMDB page, he was apparently a pretty big star in Hollywood, I'm almost ashamed that I really only know him as evil priest Mehemet Bey in "The Mummy's Tomb".

The star I am most familiar with is Keye Luke. He was in a wide array of serials, and was Charlie Chan's number one son, Lee. However, this was during Warner Oland's run as Charlie Chan. A few fun facts: Keye Luke played Kato in two Green Hornet serials, and later got to be a guest star on the show in '66. He also got to be the voice of Charlie Chan in the Hanna Barbera cartoon series "The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan". Of course, I first encountered him later in his career, first when he was David Carradine's old blind master on "Kung Fu", and later as the old man who didn't want to sell the Mogwai in the beginning of "Gremlins".

But we're here to talk about Smilin' Jack. So what's it about? Well, the story begins in China in the early days of WW2. Smilin' Jack Martin was a flier for the Chinese, but quits to go home and fly for the US, who will surely soon enter the war. Before he leaves, General Ling (Sidney Toler) asks him for a favor...

The small, rural Mandon Province has a secret road through the mountains into India, and the General believes it could be a vital supply route during the war. Jack is asked to deliver a message to the governor of Mandon inviting him to discuss releasing this secret for the good of China.

However, this information is also coveted by the enemy, embodied by the Black Samarai, a Japanese spy ring. They bristle with resentment at their wartime leader, Fraulein Von Teufals, an accomplished and infamous German spy.

The Governor of Mandon is reluctant to disclose the secret pass without assurances from all involved that the road will again be forgotten and closed when the war is done. The rest of the serial is spent pursuing signatures from dignitaries in China, India, and the United States (because hey! This is an American production!) ensuring this promise.

This leads our hero and his stalwart companions on a rollicking journey over land and sea and through the air to collect the promise of three countries and release the secret. There are bombings from planes, ships get torpedoed, submarines get rammed, and our Jack even learns that the Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor!

I've never read the comic strip, but I dig the serial! There are tons of non-stop action, and the mystery of who among their group is secretly a double-agent!

I guess if I'm to be objective, I should admit that there's really not much to differentiate this from other serials. There is at least one fight every chapter, they don't confirm the identity of the villain (in this case, Fraulein Von Teufals) until the final chapter, each chapter starts with a summary of what's so far transpired, and ends on a life-threatening cliffhanger. I find that earlier serials suffer from poor editing and move pretty slowly, but this one moves at a pretty brisk pace. Yeah, it's kinda juvenile, and its VERY corny, but it's also very FUN! Basically, if you like serials, I think you would enjoy this one.

I've watched this one more than once. It's available for free on YouTube from multiple channels, and you could probably find it on DVD from a variety of specialty websites and Amazon, too, I'll bet.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, and I recommend it! Have you seen it? Do you want to? Tell us about in the comments below, and be sure to tune in next time when I prattle on about...uh...something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!

Timothy A. Sayell

Cloak and Dagger

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 25 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Calling all of you Top-secret Agents and Spies!

Whilst sorting through all the clutter here at HQ, I found some old movies that I'm going to talk about sooner or later here on the blog. I thought I'd start with a neat little "kid's movie" from 1984 called "Cloak and Dagger."

Fair warning: I did not re-watch the movie for this entry; I'm going strictly off of memory here, so please bear with me.

I first saw this movie in grade school. I'm talking, like 4th, maybe 5th grade. I don't remember why they were showing it. It must have been the last day of school before some vacation or the end of the year or something. I just remember it was extremely cool, and I was SO excited when I found it months/years later on...HBO or something.

The movie stars Henry Thomas, or as I knew him at the time, the kid from the E.T. movie. Here, he plays Davey Osborne. Davey lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his father Hal, who is an air traffic controller and played by Dabney Coleman! I'm used to Dabney Coleman playing some sort of antagonistic role, and I guess he kind of is in this movie, too.

See, Davey's Mom passed away before the start of the movie, and now Hal and Davey have trouble relating to one another. Davey seeks refuge in a role-playing game called "Cloak and Dagger," a very James Bond-inspired espionage game. His main character is a super-spy named Jack Flack, who Davey also talks to as an imaginary friend. In Davey's imagination, Jack Flack is modeled after his own father and is also played by Dabney Coleman.

Davey mostly plays Cloak and Dagger with his friend Kim, a girl around his age, who hangs out with him because he's not "boring like all the other boys are." He also plays with his friend Morris, who owns a game shop in the mall.

Morris sends the kids on a "real life" mission to obtain some catalogs from Textronics for him. So armed with his water pistol (filled with red ink), a softball (to stand in for a grenade), and a pair of walkie-talkies, Davey and Kim go to achieve their objective.

In the office building where Textronics is located, Davey is "in character," running from pillar to pillar, must to Kim's embarrassment. They split up, and Kim takes the elevator while Davey takes the stairs.

Davey pauses at a window in the stairwell and notices the windows of the next building are acting as mirrors, and he can see what's going on in an office on the floor above him. He sees one man shoot another man. Then the shooting victim stumbles into the stairwell, gives Davey a copy of the Cloak and Dagger Atari cartridge loaded with military secrets, and instructs him to deliver it to the FBI.

He runs out of the stairwell screaming Bloody Murder, and although the security guards are skeptical, they investigate--and find an EMPTY stairwell! Meanwhile, the murderer found Davey's softball...with his name clearly printed upon it.

Over the next few days, Davey is drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse with these murderers and spies who chase him down to get the cartridge back. He, in turn, learns of their drop-off point at the Alamo and intercepts the game cartridge before the pick-up is made. Kim gets kidnapped, the murderers hunt down Davey along the River Walk, and spies kidnap Davey and hijack a plane!

It's a wild ride! Nobody believes Davey (until it's far too late, of course!), and his only reliable help through most of the movie is Kim, who is also skeptical for half the film, and his imaginary companion, Jack Flack, who wants to play a much more violent game than Davey is willing to play.

I once read somewhere (may on Wikipedia, I forget) that the director claimed he wanted to make a suspenseful Hitchcock-style film but for kids. I'd say he hit his mark!

In case you couldn't tell, I love this movie! I think it's great! A lot of fun to watch! It seemed really relatable when I first saw it back in school. I have this on DVD, and I do re-watch it every once in a while. I heartily recommend it to anyone who likes a good adventure!

It is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, but you'd probably have to check bargain bins and eBay if you wanted a VHS or maybe even a DVD. But I'm sure they must be available somewhere!

What about you, have you seen it? If so, tell us your opinions in the comments below! Meanwhile, I have to decide just what lost treasure to discuss in the next post...

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Thongor at the End of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 11 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Hello to all you Terrific And Spectacular people!

Well, I've been working on some upcoming projects (not quite ready to talk about them yet!), but I did take a little time to read another book. As you probably surmised from the title above, the book is called Thongor at the End of Time and I'd like to tell you about it!

It was written by Lin Carter, published in 1968 by Warner Books, and is apparently the 5th book in the Thongor series. You may recall that some time ago I told you about book 3, Thongor: Against the Gods. Of course, you may not recall, so I've put in a link for your enjoyment!

In the following There Abound Spoilers!

So...the story starts off with Thongor's death...hey! I told ya there were spoilers!

But then it backs up two weeks to show the arrival of this guy called Mardanax, sometimes called the Black Druid, sometimes the Black Wizard. Apparently, he is a surviving villain from the previous book, Thongor in the City of Magicians (which I have NOT read).

This guy Mardanax has come to exact his revenge on Thongor for winning in the last book. He just walks right into Thongor's capital city of Patanga (Thongor has been a king since the end of the first book--which I have NOT read--I think) and seeks out a minor nobleman named Dalendus Vool, who is secretly in cahoots with the wizards of the City of Magicians.

During some sort of religious ceremony in a public Temple, Thongor is struck down. Mardanax then uses his magic to put Thongor's wife, the Queen, Sumia, into a trance and uses her authority to take control of the city and the kingdom. Dalendus Vool is pronounced the Prince Regent, to rule until young Prince Thar comes of age.

Several of Thongor's allies, presumably first introduced in previous books, were arrested on trumped up charges. The rest convened in a private meeting to discuss the suspicious situations. This meeting was inconclusive, so Charn Thovis takes it upon himself to break into the Palace and see Sumia, to find out if this is all the product of her grief, or if something more sinister is afoot.

There, he finds Sumia in a trance and proceeds to rescue the Prince. There's a daring chase across rooftops until they finally steal an Airboat. However, whilst running from pursuing air patrols, they are attacked by a pterodactyl-like creature called a lizard-hawk. They end up in the gulf far below, where they are eventually rescued by a passing pirate ship.

Charn Thovis saves the pirate Captain, Barim Redbeard, from a murderous crewman and from then on, he and the young Prince are endeared to the whole of the pirate crew. Unfortunately, upon their docking in the pirate City of Tarakus, they are subject to the local pirate's laws and must be auctioned off as slaves.

Redbeard vows to buy them at the auction so they can be part of his crew, but the Pirate King's wizard identifies young Thar as the Prince of Patanga and the Pirate King takes the boy as his own slave. Charn Thovis and his pirate companions rescue the Prince and race for their boat in the docks...

During all of this, Thongor manifests in the spirit realm...which is not at all as he expected. On a set of adventures of his own, he comes to the conclusion that he is not completely dead, but neither is he alive. He learns the Three Truths and makes his way to Gorm, the Chief God of Lemuria. He learns the century-spanning legacy of his Empire and is basically sent back to live the rest of his life.

Thongor is not completely dead because of a talisman one of his companions gave to him in the previous book. It is some ward against the magic of the wizards from the City of Magicians. Since he's still wearing it, Mardanax's magic did not have its full affect upon him.

With the young Prince stolen from them, Mardanax hatches a plan for Dalendus Vool to marry Sumia and directly become the new King of Patanga. Charn Thovis, Prince Thar are picked up by a pair of Thongor's friends in an Air Boat, and they leave their pirate friends and rush to stop the wedding.

In the very Temple where Thongor died, the wedding is underway. The Air Boat crashes into the dome, heroes emerge, fight ensues. Dalendus Vool is killed, Sumia's trance is broken, but Mardanax gets the upper hand on the heroes with his magic. Then, Thongor emerges from his sarcophagus and battles Mardanax.

I don't want to just straight up spoil the ending, but I will say that there is another book after this one.

I liked the book, it was full of cheesy goodness. The beginning was a little daunting, they name-drop a LOT of names from previous books, and they're ALL weird names. It was a little confusing to keep straight, but after a couple of chapters, it was clear who we were actually following, and we could forget the rest!

I have only read two of these Thongor books, but I will keep an eye out for the rest! Have you read this one, or one of the others? If so, leave a comment telling us about it! And I'll meet you back here next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Tales of the Gold Monkey

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy you Truly Adventurous Souls!

I know why you're here! I knew you were coming! I didn't bake a cake though, but I do have a true treat this time, team, a terrific trophy of television's times-gone-by called "Tales of the Gold Monkey"! This is a re-working of an old article that I wrote a few years back for my "Odd Reviews by Oddcube", a feature of the former Abandoned Towers ezine.

Be warned, There Are Spoilers!

"Tales of the Gold Monkey" aired its one-and-only season on ABC in 1982. The show was created by some guy named Donald P. Bellisario, who created some other obscure shows with names like "Magnum, P.I.", "Airwolf", "Quantum Leap", "JAG", and "NCIS". In fact, "Gold Monkey" was apparently the very first series that he got a "Created By" credit for.

So, the scuttlebutt from several online sources is that Bellisario created "Gold Monkey", inspired by such classic movies as "Only Angels Have Wings" and "To Have and Have Not" and that he began trying to sell it to the networks since the late 70's. He was repeatedly turned down, as them dumb ol' TV execs thought no one would be interested in way cool adventure series set in the 1930's. And then it happened:

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" was released in theaters, and was a smash hit!

Then all of a sudden, all three networks (yeah, there were only three back then, how did people survive?!) were scrambling to find something similar that they could air. The good news here is that some guy at ABC remembered "Tales of the Gold Monkey", which came complete with a tropical island and a hero in a leather jacket! ...The bad news is that they really wanted it to be more of an action-oriented adventure and less the character-driven drama Bellisario originally intended. The resulting series is somewhere in between, and way cool!

"Tales of the Gold Monkey" takes place in the South Seas in 1938. More specifically, on the fictional island of Boragora, part of the French Mandate which covers the southern half of the volcanic Marivella Island chain. The northern half of the Marivellas compose the Japanese Mandate. The show focuses on the adventures of Jake Cutter, a former Flying Tiger who is now a pilot-for-hire who transports passengers and cargo with his Grumman Goose (that's an airplane, if ya don't know). Jake is played by Stephen Collins, whom you may remember from "Brewster's Millions" starring Richard Pryor and John Candy (he's the guy Richard Pryor gets to slug at the end), or from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (he's the guy who merges with V'Ger at the end of the movie...in case ya fell asleep and missed that part, which is TOTALLY understandable!), or as a priest in the TV series "Seventh Heaven".

Of course, a good hero needs good sidekicks, and Jake has several characters to back him up. His best, or at least most loyal, friend is Corky, the best (and only) mechanic within a thousand miles. Corky is amiable, optimistic, a little naïve, a little dense, and has a poor memory as a result of how much he drinks. Corky is played by Jeff MacKay, who also played recurring roles on "Magnum P.I.", "JAG", "Battlestar Gallactica" (the original one), "Black Sheep Squadron", and "The Greatest American Hero". And on top of all that, I found out that Jeff MacKay was Robert Redford's cousin!

Jake Cutter never went very far without his faithful friend, Jack, who was a one-eyed Jack Russell Terrier. Jack was smarter than the average dog; in fact, he was often smarter than the average human. He could hold a conversation with you by barking once for "no" and twice for "yes"...or is it the other way around? To be honest, I think he switched it around every once in a while, just to confound people. Jack had a glass eye made of opal with a star sapphire center, but Jake lost in a poker game in the pilot and Jack holds a king-sized grudge against him until he tracks it down and gets it back which, of course, Jake tries to do through the entire run of the show. In the meantime, Jack wears an eye patch and is very cool, even though he's kinda contrary.

Next up, we have Sarah Stickney-White, who turns out to be an American secret agent...even though she sounds British...who has been assigned to eavesdrop and relay any information that may be useful to the U.S. in the upcoming war. As her cover, she was the singer in Boragora's central meeting spot, The Monkey Bar. In addition to all of that, she was Jake Cutter's romantic interest throughout the series, cuz you need that sort of tension in a series. Sarah is played by Caitlin O'Heaney who was on "One Life To Live" for a while, and was in the Woody Allen films "Zelig" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo", and for a while she had her own perfume, called "Caitlin".

The most mysterious of Jake's companions is "Bon Chance" Louie.
Louie is the French Magistrate in charge of Boragora and also the proprietor of the Monkey Bar. Louie is a likable scoundrel and rogue who occasionally drops little hints about various experiences in his exotic and apparently infamous life. In the pilot, Louie was played by Ron Moody, who has apparently been in tons of things, but I only know him from Mel Brooks' "The Twelve Chairs". Also apparently, he and somebody didn't get along, because in the ongoing series, Louie was played by Roddy McDowall. ...I don't have to tell you who Roddy McDowall is, do I? I mean, he's Roddy McDowall! Everybody knows and likes him, right? He was in, like, EVERYTHING it seems like.

Of course, a hero also needs some opposition, and there were some members of the regular cast to help in that capacity, too. For starters, there was the Reverend Willie Tenboom, who was actually a Nazi spy assigned to Boragora. Of course, he wasn't much of a spy; he was actually quite content to be stationed out on that tropical paradise mostly away from weighty worries like war and politics. He was set up as a Reverend, and his favorite pastime was giving private--ahem--"blessings" to the local native girls. He certainly didn't seem very devoted to the Nazi cause, and in fact was rather fond of the show's heroes. As such a reluctant opponent, he wasn't really played up as a villain, but more as focal point for occasional comedy. Willie was played by John Calvin, who seems to be in one episode of just about everything, and a couple of small movie roles, but "Gold Monkey" seems to be the largest part in his repertoire.

A more affective villainess was the Princess Koji, a half-Irish/half-
Japanese princess who governed the Japanese Mandate in the Maravellas. She was sort of a classic Dragon Lady type of character, very clever and cunning, and (of course) intrigued and enamored of our stalwart hero, Jake Cutter. Princess Koji was played by Marta DuBois, who was also Thomas Magnum's wife on "Magnum P.I." and John Larroquette's love interest on the "McBride" series of mystery movies.

Princess Koji had several people at her beck and call, but her best servant is Todo. Todo was some sort of samurai-guy who was fanatically loyal to the Princess. He has a quick temper, unfaltering determination, and a samarai sword--and he's ready to use them all! Todo is played by John Fujioka, who you might remember from "Pearl Harbor", or "Mortal Kombat", but I remember him from "The Private Eyes".

Anyway, "Tales of the Gold Monkey" is an adventure show, and there's plenty of adventure everywhere! There are claim jumpers, guys trying to blow up members of Royal Families, kidnappers, slavers, killer apes, tigers, and curses from ancient island gods! From start to finish, it's just plain cool!

Now, some of these plot elements were part of Bellisario's vision of what the series should be, but some of the more exotic things like ape-men and natives were apparently added at the insistence of the network. Remember, they wanted it to be more Indiana Jones. Well, remember also that this is the first series that Bellisario got "Created By" credit for, and since his name was on it, he was very insistent about how it turned out, too. The short version here is that arguments ensued, and the series was not picked up beyond the first season, much to the surprise of rival networks and the disappointment of their growing fanbase.

Despite stubborn, short-sighted network execs, the show retains a loyal cult following. I guess I'm part of it, cuz I totally dig it the most. And what's not to like? There's adventure, excitement, romance, intrigue, and exotic scenery! So if you like Indiana Jones, or Allan Quatermaine, or Jungle Jim, or the movie "Firewalker", or the Disney show "Talespin" (which itself was supposedly inspired by "Tales of the Gold Monkey"), then you will like this show, so check it out!

Or maybe you've seen it already? If so, tell us what you thought about it in the comments below!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Executioner #14: San Diego Siege

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy, you Triggermen And Shooters!

So, a while back, I won a couple of auctions on eBay that were small collections of "Men's Adventure" books. I got some Executioner (Mack Bolan), some Destroyer (Remo Williams), some Matt Helm, some Nick Carter, and the first book of the Specialist. This time, I decided to read an Executioner book.

I have read one Executioner book before, way back when I was in my mid-teens back in the 90s. I don't remember the title, all the covers looked alike (a white background with a collage of images and the logo was on an upward slant). I'm under the impression he was working with the government or at least some sort of organization. He went undercover as some kind of journalist, and I remember it being stated that articles are regularly published under the pseudonym to support the cover identity. And I'm pretty sure he blew up a helicopter from his hotel room. I have NO idea who was fighting, or what the bad guy was trying to achieve.

So, I was going into this with little idea of what to expect, beyond the cliche idea that he was one of those heroes who basically kills everybody and blows everything up. Because, well, that's basically what all these guys are about, right?

I grabbed the earliest book in my current collection: The Executioner #14: San Diego Siege. Of course, the author's name is Don Pendleton. It was published by Pinnacle Books, with a copyright of 1972. I have no clue who made the cover art.

So, Mack Bolan was some kind of special forces super soldier and sniper back in Vietnam. He came home and found most of his family dead, his father driven to murder/suicide because of dealings with the Mafia. His younger brother was the sole survivor and told him everything. So Bolan began a one-man war against the Mafia, which has driven him through thirteen previous adventures.

In this novel, Mack Bolan has been "summoned" to San Diego. He meets with Bancanales, apparently, they fought together in Vietnam, and in one of the previous books. Bancanales tell him that their former Colonel reached out for help. But Bolan is unsure because he found some dirt on this Colonel in a previous novel. First, he wants to scout things out and try to see how dirty the Colonel is, to determine if he is deserving of Bolan's help.

However, when he goes to spy on the Colonel, he finds that the Colonel is dead, and embroiled in some plot with the local Mafia. Somehow, this changes things, and Bolan is determined to figure out what happened and clearly establish the Colonel's involvement.

It was a pretty fun story, but a little silly. See, the Mafia was using the Colonel to steal military radio equipment so they could set up a series of radio relays from Las Vegas to San Diego to Mexico in order to capitalize on horse race gambling. I can't help but picture these radio relays set up like the fire beacons between Minas Tirith and Rohan in the Lord of the Rings movies.

To tell the truth, this seemed a lot lighter in tone than the Specialist did. In the Specialist, the villain made people fight to the death with steak knives for his amusement, another mobster had a secret dungeon in his basement where he kept teens that he planned to sell into sex slavery, and the descriptions of inflicted damage seemed more visceral and gritty and generally stomach-churning.

Now I'll admit that Bolan's family dying by murder/suicide is pretty dark, but you don't see it, you're only told that it happened. The first guy Bolan kills gets shot in the head and you're told that his head exploded and he fell off the boat into the ocean where you didn't have to see it. This was probably the most gory thing in the book. Yes, a bunch of people were killed and others got hurt, but they didn't dwell on it. Plus, these bad guys were really only after the goriesthorse track gambling market. Mostly, it felt like an episode of the A-Team or some other 80's action show. Except people died, and one girl spent two whole chapters wearing nothing but a bikini bottom so you knew this was "more grown-up" or whatever.

Maybe this is because this book came out in '72 while the Specialist came out in '84. Or maybe it's just my own mindset and sensibilities. Some things seem more serious depending on your outlook, after all. But I think I liked this book better than the Specialist and I'm looking forward to reading the other books in my collection.

Of course, you can still get this physical book through Amazon or eBay, and a digital version from various places on the net if you want to check this one out. Or perhaps you've read it already, if so, leave a comment below and tell us what you thought about it! Well, I guess that's all I have to say for now, so I'll see you next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Shadow in Temple of Crime

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy, you Trackers And Sleuths!

Hope everyone is doing well because we have a mystery to solve! And it's a classic, too! This time we're going to talk about a story that appeared in The Shadow magazine, it's called "Temple of Crime".

It was written by Walter B. Gibson but published under the house name of Maxwell Grant by Street and Smith in November of 1941. However, my copy is in "The Shadow #77" published by Sanctum Books in 2013. I got my copy from Radio Spirits, a company that specializes in CDs of old-time radio shows and other (sometimes loosely) related items.

This issue also features another Shadow story called "The Curse of Thoth", a brief essay by Will Murray, and a radio script for an Egyptian-themed episode of Nick Carter.

So here's the situation in this one: a rich guy named Amru Monak has reconstructed an Egyptian temple of Ammon-Ra on his estate and started up a cult to worship him. The Shadow sent Margo Lane to join the cult, to investigate it from within. During their first ceremony in the temple, a murder occurs!

Amru Monak is one of the primary suspects, but not the only one. The other two suspects are Basil Gorth, an archaeologist who was part of the expedition who found the temple in Egypt; and Jan Ravion, a university professor who hopes to be the first person to translate the mysterious hieroglyphics on the pedestal that supports the statue of Ammon-Ra.

The premises are stalked by Monak's sinister servants and also a mysterious gang of ruffians who wear masks styled after Egyptian gods. The weird temple seems to be magical...or haunted. And at one point, The Shadow gets locked in a mummy case!

I'm not going to spoil the ending for you, but I will tell you that there are abundant action scenes, panicky crowds, the enigmatic Book of Thoth, and mysterious goings-on! The Shadow does not "cloud men's minds" like he does in the radio show, but he does seem to have the supernatural ability to...well...become darkness, and therefore go unseen by human eyes.

I have only read a few Shadow stories, so I don't know how the die-hard connoisseurs rate this one, but I enjoyed it very much. If you like pulps, you'll certainly like this! Or maybe you've found it already, if so tell us what you thought about it in the comments below! I'll be back in a few weeks to talk about something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Gunthar (and the) Devil From Beyond

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 01:00:00 +0000

Greetings Friends and Fans!

So, I've been busy and distracted with other things, so let's see if we can get back on track. I've got a short one to talk about this time, called "Gunthar: The Devil From Beyond". This is part of a series about a barbarian adventurer named Gunthar, in this adventure he is embroiled in an adventure against the Devil From Beyond. Gunthar himself is NOT the Devil From Beyond, I just want to make that clear.

The story is written by Steve Dilks and published by Carnelian Press, this edition is copywritten in 2018. There are a few other stories in this series, and a collection as well.

I found the series by accident when I was searching the internet for vintage Conan clones like Lin Carter's Thongor and Gardner Fox's Kothar. When the Gunthar stories popped up in my internet search, I wasn't sure if they were old or new. Turns out they're new!

So the hero is Gunthar. Apparently, he is from some western culture that is not named in this story, but spent a lot of time with a nomadic tribe of warriors in the steppe land of Tatukura and now considers himself one of them. He is sometimes called the Black Wolf of Tatukura, and a black wolf's head is carved into the handle of his signature curved sword.

This is actually the second Gunthar story I've read, the first was "Gunthar and the Jaguar Queen". It's been a while since I read that one, and I don't remember the exact passage, but I am under the impression that Gunthar actually lives in some sort of post-apocalyptic world. In "Jaguar Queen" there was a type of steamship that took him and his companions across the sea, and in this one, the city guards are equipped with energy whips. These are sort of like lightsabers, except when turned on you get a flexible cord of energy instead of an erect blade.

This is a contemporary story, it's available on Amazon (for Kindle and physical book) and probably other places, too; so I don't want to spoil the ending. I mean, I wouldn't want someone leaking the plot of my story so no one has to buy it, and I'm not going to do that to someone else.

But I can go ahead and explain the setup.

Gunthar has come to the city of Pashuvia as a merchant caravan guard. Pashuvia is an Arabian-Nights-inspired location. It's out in the desert, with buildings made of stone and stucco, with domed tops and onion-shaped towers. There are dancing girls in harem pants and men wearing turbans and gauzy desert costumes. Pashuvia is a major midway point on a prominent caravan route and is also a seaport city.

On his first night in town, Gunthar is carousing and gambling and runs into a runaway concubine from the King's harem. Her name is Ranya and she is having frightening prophetic dreams about a shadowy thing that is coming for her. She is pursued by the King's guard, led by Captain Jamal. After a brief altercation, both she and Gunthar are captured.

In the dungeon awaiting trial, Gunthar meets Tullus Vantio, a wandering poet and minstrel who came to Pashuvia to make his fortune and has not fared well. Upon their eventual release, Gunthar looks up Tullu, and the two become friends.

Meanwhile, King Shunga II is feeling poorly, possibly suffering from the mind sickness, but really being slowly poisoned by his trusted advisor, the astrologer Kabir Kaaliya. Upon learning about Ranya's escape and capture by the guards, he is disturbed by the role of Gunthar, an outlander! According to some horoscope or prophecy he privately received, the presence of an outlander could be the undoing of his plan to reclaim his rightful place as King of Pashuvia!

To preserve his plot, Kabir summons his shadowy demon Shimunu and instructs him to kill Gunthar! This is about the halfway point of the story, and I don't think I should reveal more.

Gunthar is a likable hero, in my opinion. He is not stupid and is a skilled and cunning combatant. He has a set of morals and seems like an everyman trying to get through life when the adventure imposes itself upon him. The world he lives in feels bigger than the story itself as they allude to other cities and kingdoms, and mention deities and snippets of history.

So if you like sword and sorcery, then I can heartily recommend that you check out the Gunthar series by Steve Dilks! Like I said, I've read two of them, and I will be looking for the rest of the series! I guess that's all I have to say about that, so I'll see you next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Dark Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 01:00:00 +0000

Welcome back to the Trove of Ancient Secrets!

I was reminded of the greatest board game ever. It was a rare masterpiece even in my youth and has only grown more scarce as time lumbers ever on. It is an epic game of Good vs Evil, spanning over four great kingdoms all riddled with tombs and ruins, bedeviled by Brigands, beset by an Evil Wizard, and stalked by a ferocious Dragon!

I am, of course, talking about the Milton Bradley fantasy board game called Dark Tower!

In the center of the board stood the Tower itself, really a computer that kept track of all the monsters, as well as your troops and supplies. Each player starts in a different Kingdom. No matter which kingdom you start in, you have to retrieve a Key from each of the other Kingdoms. You must use all three keys--in the proper order--to enter the tower and confront the bad guy.

But that's not all! You can hire warriors to help you in your fights with Brigands. You can hire a Healer so you don't lose as many during a fight or from sicknesses you can get during your travels. You can hire a Scout so you don't get lost during your travels. But then you have to buy enough food to feed everyone, and sometimes hire a Beast of burden to carry your supplies. If you're lucky enough to find the Magic Sword, you can kill the Dragon if you happen to cross paths with it! All of these are represented by different Icons that appear on the Tower.

Once you rally your forces and collect the three Keys, you advance to the Tower and try to unlock the main gate. If you use the Key in the wrong order...I think you lost at least one of them and had to go find it again. It's been a long time, I don't recall exactly.

But it was the coolest board game ever! Stop Theif only had sounds, making it the third-best game ever.* This had sounds and pictures (and was Fantasy!). I really can't think of anything else that was quite like it.

I understand that Restoration Games had a Kickstarter to raise funds to make a reboot called Return to Dark Tower. I believe the Kickstarter was successful, and they were hoping to release the game in July of last year, but I haven't found it anywhere. The release was probably screwed up by the lockdowns, everything else was.

As for the original Dark Tower, I've only ever seen it on eBay, and if it has all the pieces and actually works--it costs a small fortune! But I still have very fond memories of that game!

How about you? Have you ever played Dark Tower? Were you fortunate enough to have owned it once? If so, what happened to it? Tell us about it below in the comments!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

* The Second-Best board game ever is obviously Fireball Island, but you knew that cuz you read my post about it.

Unknown Island

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 01:00:00 +0000

There you are! I've been waiting for you because it's Time for Another Safari!

So get this: I was over on YouTube, minding my own business; when I spied this suggested video. It was an old adventure movie from 1948 called "Unknown Island". I had never heard of it before.

It stars a bunch of people I don't know who are, but then I found a point of reference for a couple of them. Virginia Grey was in "Another Thin Man" (great series of mysteries starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles) and also in "The Big Store" (a Marx Brothers vehicle).

Richard Denning will go on to be in the classic Universal Monster movie "The Creature From the Black Lagoon". And later in the less prestigious films "Creature With the Atom Brain" and "The Black Scorpion"; a pair of really bad B-movies that are in my vast collection.

So here's the story:

In Singapore, a formal WWII pilot named Osborne and his fiancée Carole (played by Virginia Grey) want to charter a shady ship's captain to take them to an island well off the shipping routes. During the war, Osborne was knocked off course by a storm and found the island to be inhabited by dinosaurs! He wants to go back and get a bunch of pics so he can make a ton of money.

The ship's captain informs them of another man who knows about the island: a local drunkard named Fairbanks (played by Richard Denning). Fairbanks was once on a boat that also got lost in a storm and shipwrecked on the island. He and his fellow castaways built a raft to escape, but Fairbanks was the only one who made it...the rest of the castaways were eaten by dinosaurs.

Since the two stories seem to corroborate the other, the shady captain agrees to the voyage. The trip is long and arduous, and his crew of natives tries to mutiny...but fails. Then they get to the island...and things start to get dangerous!

Yes! There are cheesy dinosaurs! Some are stop-motion brontosaurus-types, others are rubber-suit T-Rex wannabes. And some...I guess are just some kind of puppets.

But that's not all! The crew are still mutinous, Fairbanks is falling for Carole, Carole is getting disillusioned with Osborne who wants more pics, and the shady Captain vows he won't leave the island until he captures a dino alive!

In addition to all of this, there is another creature on this island. They call it a Giant Sloth, but it looks more like a guy in a gorilla suit. In fact, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, it's supposed to be none other than Crash Corrigan in that gorilla suit! He played a LOT of cowboys and a LOT of gorillas and he went to the Undersea Kingdom!

This was a fun bit of cheese! It mostly went the way I expected it to...thought one guy lived that I thought was gonna die and another guy died that I thought was gonna live... I tried to go in with low expectations, but it was surprisingly good!

Is it the best movie ever? No! But it was an enjoyable way to kill an hour-and-a-half. There's a pretty good chance I would sit through it again, and I recommend you try it out, too, if you like those cheesy old movies with rubber-suit monsters! Like I said, a simple search on YouTube will lead you right to it!

Or maybe you've already seen it? If so, what did you think about it? Tell us down in the comments below!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Jack Hunter

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 01:00:00 +0000

Greetings, you Treasure and Antiquity Seekers!

Good to have you back! I hope you're ready for adventure because this time we're talking about the Jack Hunter miniseries. I believe this debuted on the Syfy Channel (but don't quote me on that) around New Year 2008-2009.

These three episodes run about an hour and a half each, forming a single, all-encompassing story arc. First is "Jack Hunter and the Lost Treasure of Ugarit".." Here we meet Jack Hunter, jaded and cynical archaeologist, on a mission to photograph a tablet in a private collection in Paris. A bad run-in with a security guard smashes his camera, so he takes the entire tablet.

His friend and mentor believe this tablet holds a riddle that leads to a long-lost Ugaritic treasure. Jack thinks it's a bunch of hooey and refuses to get involved until someone kills his mentor. Before his death, the mentor marked a spot on a map, and this leads Jack to Syria, where he is joined by Nadia Ramadan from a local antiquities institute (she and Jack hate each other right away, so you know they end up together by the end of the series) and Tariq, a driver/tour/guide provided by some tourism bureau.

The main opposition is a rival archaeologist named Littman, who is working for the Russian Mafia. There are other bad guys, too...but I don't even remember who they were supposed to be. Some weird secret society that's still around from ancient times...they worship the magical staff that is part of the Treasure.

There were foot chases, car chases (Tariq is supposed to be their driver, but somehow every time Jack drives, there turns out to be a car chase...go figure!). There are some caves and ancient ruins and weird ancien traps. Anyway, all this leads to the staff.

What staff? Oh yeah, there's this magic staff. It's the first of a two-part ancient superweapon. The weapon is called the Eye, and the Staff is the Iris. It's a solar-powered magic staff that shoots a laser beam. The secret society is trying to keep everyone away from it.

But they blew it. Everyone gets to the temple where it's kept, and--of course--Littman gets it by the end of the first movie!

But that's ok because we're not done yet! We move to part two, "Jack Hunter and the Quest for Akhenaten's Tomb." See, there's a second part to the superweapon. It's called the Star of Heaven, and it attaches to the orb at the top of the staff, and...no one's quite sure what it does. But Littman is after it, so we have to stop him!

Our heroes believe that the Star of Heaven was captured by the forces of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and hidden away in Egypt, so that's we they go next.

More political intrigue, more ancient mysteries, another secret society. But it turns out that the Star of Heaven is not here because thousands of years ago, the Romans looted the place and moved the entire treasure, but left a pair of Roman coins on the eyes of the Pharaoh. Oh yeah, and we fail to get the Staff away from Littman!

But we're not through yet; we still have "Jack Hunter and the Star of Heaven." This time there's a trail of private collectors that our heroes must follow to eventually find the Star. And of course, Littman gets it, and we have to get it back before he can turn it over to the Russian Mafia...or is that even his true intention? I won't spoil it, just in case you want to check it out for yourself.

So, how was it? Well...it was okay. The mystery and intrigue really weren't so bad. They make the mistake of dressing the hero up in a way that reminds you of Indiana Jones, and I think that was a bad idea. Jack Hunter is NO Indiana Jones.

As I said, the plot is okay. It has all the necessary parts to be something great, and it takes place in the modern world, which helps set it apart from period pieces like Indiana Jones. However, in my opinion, none of the characters were very likable. And the story just isn't told in the fun style of Indiana Jones or "The Mummy" with Brendan Fraser. It's like they wanted all the corny adventure stuff but were hoping to inject verisimilitude and believability...or something.

It was good in its way, it was watchable, and I'm not sorry I watched it. On the other hand, I'm in no hurry to watch it again. It just wasn't as much fun as Indy or O'Connell.

But if you want to watch it, I'm sure you can find it on some streaming channel or other; I watched it on YouTube.

Have you seen "Jack Hunter and Lost Treasure of Ugarit"? If so, tell us what you thought about it in the comments below!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Star Kings

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 01:00:00 +0000

Howdy-do to all you Travelers Among the Stars!

Welcome back to another fun-filled thrill-a-minute report here at Squadron HQ! This time, we're talking about a rollicking space opera adventure that encapsulates the sort of entertainment we strive for here at TAS. It has everything! It has telepathy, time-travel, planet-hopping, imposter royalty, romance with a space princess, mutant blob monsters, a massive space war, and a weapon that could destroy the entire galaxy!

What is it? It's "The Star Kings" by Edmond Hamilton!

Edmond Hamilton was, of course, a popular, prolific pulp writer whose stories filled the pages of many a sci-fi and horror magazine. Later, he moved on to write stories for comic books like Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern. He wrote several space opera stories, including the Captain Future and Starwolf series.

John Gordon is a pilot who survived World War II and returned to his everyday life as an accountant, which he now finds very dull. At night when he drifts off to sleep, he begins to hear a voice in his head. It is Zarth Arn, a prince of the Mid-Galactic Empire calling from 200 centuries in the future. He wants to study history first-hand by switching bodies with John Gordon, kinda like in Quantum Leap.

Gordon--craving adventure, excitement, and really wild things--jumps at this opportunity. His consciousness is transported through Time And Space into the body of Zarth Arn in his Earth laboratory 200,000 years in the future. Zarth Arn is not only a prince (second-son of the Imperial Emperor) but also a scientist. Apparently, he does this mind-swap thing with various persons throughout history, and his trusted associate is present to help Gordon get oriented and updated with simple things like language.

But then Gordon gets pulled into a much more exciting adventure than he planned. The laboratory where the mind transfer took place is attacked by a group of political dissidents; they are troops of "the Cloud," headquarters of the League of Dark Worlds. They want to kidnap Zarth Arn, who--as a member of the royal family--knows the secret of the Empire's super-weapon. They have come for John Gordon!

They conveniently kill the assistant guy, the only guy who knows that Gordon is NOT Prince Zarth Arn. Then, by luck and happenstance, these troops are in turn conquered by a passing patrol of the Imperial navy, and Gordon is saved! Sort of! They insist on reporting the incident to Zarth's father--the Emperor!--who orders his son return home to the safety of the Imperial capital city of Throon! They take Gordon away from the lab and the precious mind-swapping device!

From here on out, Gordon's sole objective is to return to Earth and bring the real Zarth Arn back to deal with his own problems. But Gordon just keeps getting farther and farther from this goal as he is bombarded with one setback after another!

He is accused of treason, framed for the assassination of the Emporer, kidnapped by agents of the Cloud, tortured with a mind-reading ray, crash lands on a planetoid filled with monsters, causes a mutiny, and pressured to use a secret weapon that-if used incorrectly-could destroy the entire galaxy! Wow!

This is a nonstop thrill ride! Like, no kidding, EVERY chapter ends with a little cliffhanger that makes you want to keep going! It is a little episodic, and, as others on the internet have pointed out, it is corny and cheesy--but these are just plusses, in my opinion!

I WILL be reading this again sometime! I've read some other Edmond Hamilton stories, but this just makes me want to find some more! So if you like super-cheesy, action-packed space operas, I highly recommend that you read "The Star Kings"! You won't go wrong!

Apparently, there are more stories in this series, but I haven't found them...yet! Have you read this one? Or any Edmond Hamilton stories? Drop a comment below to tell us what you read and what you thought about it!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Happy Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 01:00:00 +0000

Felicitations To All Squadroneers!

Well, the Holiday Season is upon us once again. It sure seems like we just did a post like this, I can hardly believe it's been a whole year already!

This year, of course, was also a trial. It seems like for every step forward, we also took a step back. Still, slowly but surely, things seem to be generally improving.

On a more personal note, we've had some health issues in my household, but things seem to have stabilized. Sadly, I don't think I've been very productive this past year, which inspires me to strive for better habits in the future.

As for you, my loyal Squadroneers, I truly hope this Holiday Season is a happy one for you! And I do hope the New Year brings Good Fortune for all!

Happy New Year!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Jungle Raiders

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 01:00:00 +0000

Howdy folks! Thirsting for A Safari? Then let's go!

The wintry Holiday Season is upon us once again, and I hope you are enjoying it! Here at Squadron Central, we've been deluged by an influx of Christmas carols and extended Black Friday ads. I soon found myself longing for an escape, so escape I did!

Thanks to the 1945 Columbia serial "Jungle Raiders"! (Not to be confused with the 1985 Italian movie "La Legenda del Rubino Malese", known here in the US as "Jungle Raiders". It stars Lee Van Cleef!)

Our Jungle Raiders was a serial produced by Columbia, released in 1945; I know because I already said that in the paragraph above. This one stars Kane Richmond and a collection of players who seem to get shuffled throughout various serials made at the time.

I think this is supposed to take place "someplace in Africa", but I don't know why I think that. I don't remember if they gave any indication of the location. There were a lot of scrublands, rocky and hilly terrain, caves, steaming volcanic badlands, and lots and lots of forests...but I don't remember seeing anything that looked like a jungle. Hey, that sort of thing often happened in these old serials!

So get this set up: a doctor came here to find a native tribe whose witch doctor uses the powder of some ground root which has properties that could cure all sorts of terrible afflictions, like cancer. He found the tribe, had visited their secret hidden village, and been allowed to leave again.

He stays at Jake's Trading Post (and apparently motel). But Jake wants the jewels that these natives are supposed to have and wants the doctor to tell him how to get to their village. The doctor refuses, and Jake and his henchmen tie him up and hide him in a secret basement. They force him to write letters to his daughter and a colleague to lure these people to the Trading Post to use as leverage and convince the doctor to divulge his information.

All this happened before the start of the serial!

The doctor's daughter arrives, as does the colleague (another doctor). But the colleague wrote to his son, Kane Richmond, who arrives with his sidekick--both either on leave or discharged from the army.

So Kane Richmond and his entourage find the hidden Arzec tribe. This is where they learn that the local witch doctor (in cahoots with the high priestess of the Fire God, Rana) have poisoned the tribal chief and plan to replace him as the leaders of the tribe.

It is a fifteen chapter serial, so there is an abundance of fights, captures, escapes, double-crosses, several trips back-and-forth to the hidden Arzec village, and absolutely NOBODY believes the good guys when they say they don't want any jewels, only the witch doctor's plants--for medical purposes!

However, this is a really good one! I was impressed with how fast the chapters felt; I've seen some serials that seemed to slog slowly on. Someone was always in need of rescue, and someone was always separated from the rest so they could show up and save someone at the last minute. Plus, each of the villains comes to their own appropriate and satisfying end.

All in all, it was very enjoyable, and I might watch it again! I'm sure it's available on DVD from Amazon and the specialty places, but I watched it for free on YouTube, and you can, too, if you are so inclined!

Have you seen it? Do you want to see it? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Red Sonja: The Ring of Ikribu

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 01:00:00 +0000

Hello to all you Terrifically Armed Sword-persons!

So, I'm going to tell you all straight up: I like the movie "Red Sonja". Always have, and I make no apologies for it.

Naturally, my discovery of Red Sonja--and Conan himself--were from the movies made back in the early eighties. Yes, I like "Conan the Barbarian". I also like "Conan the Destroyer" even though most people seem to malign that movie. And I've always loved "Red Sonja", which apparently puts me into the minority.

It was a fair few years before I got into reading my fantasy instead of watching it. But eventually the Choose Your Own Adventure books led me to "The Hobbit" (thanks to the Rankin/Bass animated film" and then to "The Lord of the Rings". They were pretty much the only fantasy I would read for a few years.

Then I discovered Dungeons and Dragons, and the Dragonlance Chronicles, and Appendix N. I was very curious about the list of authors and novels that appeared in Appendix N. Slowly, I discovered some of the authors on that list, which led me to stories by Howard, and Lieber, and Brackett, and Moorcock.

Of course, as a character, Red Sonja is a special case. She's part of Conan's world of Hyborea, so she was created by Robert E. Howard, right? Well, yes and no.

According to Marvel comics writer Roy Thomas, when they were adapting Conan into comic book form, they wanted a selection of characters who could return from time to time, and not just die in the adventure they were introduced in. They had an easy time finding male characters in the original stories, but had a more difficult time finding suitable female characters.

Then he found her: Red Sonya of Rogatine. She was not in a Conan story, but was the sidekick of a Germannic knight in a pseudo-historical adventure. The story was called "The Shadow of the Vulture", and apparently she kicked ass. Roy decided this would be a suitable character who would be able to fight beside Conan. So with a few tweaks to her character, he imported her into the world of Hyborea.

She was instantly popular, and soon had her own spin-off comic. Eventually, there were novels written about her--she's gone full circle!

I was surprised and delighted to learn that there were a series of books about Red Sonja. I found the first book "The Ring of Ikribu" in a second-hand book shop a few years back, and finally got around to reading it. It was written by David C. Smith and Richard Tierney, and I believe they wrote all six books in the series.

The book starts off with a foreword by Roy Thomas explaining the inception of Red Sonja as we know her, which I summed up here.

Now for the story (mild spoilers)...

An evil sorcerer (is there another kind?) seeks the Ring of the Elder God Ikribu, so that he might live forever and wield even more power. Upon learning the Ring is hidden somewhere in the ancient city of Suthad, he invades it with an army of demons, driving out King Olin and his citizens.

King Olin sends out officers to recruit mercenaries to form an army and take his city back. One of these mercenaries is Red Sonja. During the lengthy adventure Sonja gets to fight a barroom brawl, battle winged demon-things, tentacle monsters that burst from the ground, mutinous mercenaries, sinister cultists, an enchanted swamp (no, really!) and various magical traps in the wizard's lair.

She met some interesting characters...most of them die by the end of the book, but I expected that. Some of them died sooner than I expected, but *shrug* whatcha gonna do?

The very last chapter kind of annoyed me, but I don't really want to say why because it could be a major spoiler...for a book from 1981...that isn't that easy to find (cheaply) nowadays... Well, the final confrontation with the wizard just didn't go as I expected or hoped, and I found it rather disappointing. Other than that, I liked the book, and do plan to read book 2, since I have it.

Are you a Red Sonja fan? Would you like to find some of these books? Your best bet is eBay, but some of the prices a little high in my own humble opinion.

Well, I guess that's all I have to say about that. I have other things I should be working on now. But I'll be back in a couple of weeks to talk about...uh...something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Love and Monsters

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 01:00:00 +0000

Howdy you Tenacious Apocalypse Survivors!

How ya doing? Seen any good movies lately? Well, I saw one that I thought was pretty good, and I'm gonna tell ya about it. Partly because it was pretty good, and partly to let you know that I watch some more modern stuff, too.

In case you missed the title of this particular post, I'll tell ya that the movie is "Love and Monsters".

In case you don't know, "Love and Monsters" is a post-apocalyptic story about a guy who has been hiding in a bunker for seven years, finds out that his girlfriend is still alive in another survivor colony and decides to take the perilous journey to go to her.

How did the world end in this one? Well, there was a massive asteroid headed for Earth, but that's not what got us. Several governments fired nuclear missiles at it, to break it up and destroy it. Kinda like in "Armageddon", except we didn't have to leave the planet. Anyway, it worked! The asteroid was demolished into smaller pieces and missed Earth!

However, the chemicals in the rockets wafted back down to Earth and began to mutate all the lesser, vermin-type wildlife. Little nuisance things like mice and insects grew to gargantuan size and went on a rampage. About 95% of humanity died fighting them back while the rest hid in bunkers and shelters.

But our story is about Joel, played by some guy named Dylan O'Brien. I'd never heard of this guy before, apparently he's in those "Maze Runner" movies.

On a slight sidetrack: I only know one actor in this whole movie, and that's Michael Rooker. I know him because he's Yondu in "Guardians of the Galaxy" (the blue guy with the arrow that he controls by whistling). In this, he's a wandering survivor.

Back to Joel. His hometown was "ground zero" for the mutagenic chemicals, and his parents died while trying to evacuate the town. He only survived because he was pulled into a pickup by some passing strangers.

Anyway, apparently he managed to fix a ham radio and they were able to contact other survivors in other colonies. He found out that his girlfriend, Aimee, is still alive. After years of lonely brooding, he decides to go find her because being with her "was the last time he was truly happy".

So, he packs some supplies and heads out on an 85 mile trek that should take him at least 7 days to travel. Along the way he meets a dog mourning for his former master, a pair of survivors making their way to a new location high in the mountains where the monsters don't seem to go, and even a robot who was saving it's last hour of power for someone to find her.

And he does run into monsters! Giant bugs! Giant frogs! Carnivorous worms! Giant snails! This movie felt like a cool combination of Gamma World and Fallout!

I don't really want to tell you everything, after all, I don't want to ruin it for you if you decide to watch it. But I DO recommend that you watch it! It was pretty cool, and it was entertaining.

I streamed it on Amazon, and its got to be on DVD by now if you want to go that route.

I also feel obligated to point out that if you like this movie, you might like my "Mutant World" stories, so check 'em out!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Mysterious Mr. M

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings all you Truly Adventurous Souls!

So what's it all about? How ya doing? I guess we're doing okay here at the Adventure Site, thanks for asking! That's just one of the reasons that I always look forward to your visits!

This time I've got another serial that I'd like to talk about: The Mysterious Mr. M! I know what you're thinking, you're thinking: That's A Serial?! And I'm here to tell you that Yes, That's A Serial!

All right, so here's the schtick: This criminal guy, Anthony Waldron, everybody thinks he's dead...well, except for his inner circle of criminal accomplices, of course. He wants to steal the plans for a new submarine engine--which would power much larger submarines than are currently in use--from the designer, Dr. Kittridge. He hopes to sell these plans to some foreign country for a boatload of money. Since he is dead, he makes up a mysterious super-villain mastermind called Mister M, to take the credit and blame for the series of associated crimes.

So this guy Waldron is hiding out in the secret basement of his Grandmother's manor house. The poor old lady has NO clue about it because they keep injecting her with their experimental drug "Hypnotreme" which--you guess it!--more or less puts the recipient into a state of deep hypnosis! They use it and a bunch of other characters throughout the series.

But that's not all! After killing a couple of cops--and accidentally killing Kittridge--and leaving Mr. M's calling card, Waldron and his gang begin to receive record albums. These albums feature whispered instructions from some unknown person who seems to know their every move and installs himself as their new leader, assuming the moniker of Mr. M!

So that's what going on with the bad guys, but what about the good guys? Well, on the case is Agent Grant Farrell, whose brother was found dead along with Mr. M's calling card. His trusty sidekicks are insurance investigator Shirley Clinton and Detective Lieutenant Kirby Walsh.

Fortunately, Kittridge was a sly (and paranoid) old duck, and his plans are not all in one place. Furthermore, he had different companies and experts working on constructing different specialized parts for his engine. So it's a race between the good guys and the guys to collect the various prototype parts and plans before the other. A lot of typical serial shenanigans ensue: fistfights, car crashes, explosions, falling from planes, planes crashes...that kind of stuff.

I recognize a couple of names in the credits, but really only from other serials. But I did recognize the old lady's weasally little lawyer, I think I've actually seen him in a couple of old movies as well as other serials. Apparently his name was Byron Foulger, but I didn't know it until I looked him up.

This is supposed to be the last serial ever made by Universal Studios. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia they made a total of 137 serials! Whew, that's a lot!

If you want to see it, it's available on DVD, of course, thanks to various specialty stores and Amazon. But you can watch it for free on YouTube, I know because I did! The sound is a little out of sync, and it's worse on some chapters than others, but it's watchable. So see it for yourself! Or don't! Either way come back next time when I ramble on about something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Specialist: A Talent For Revenge

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Hello to all you Troopers, Assassins, and Snipers!

I got something a little different for you this time. See, when I was in my teens, there used to be a section at the bookstore called "Men's Adventure". Nowadays I think this stuff is filed under some sub-category of "Thriller" on storefronts like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. This caught my eye because I found some Indiana Jones novels there. But there were other series, too. Things like "The Executioner", "The Destroyer", "Able Team" and "Phoenix Force".

Now, I understand that these were the sort of thing where the hero was some disaffected rogue government agent or free-lance soldier-for-hire who basically kills everybody else by the end of the book. Of course, that's the general impression of sword-n-sorcery, right?

So, I eventually read an Executioner book...I don't have any idea which one...I remember that he went undercover as a magazine journalist, and I think there was a helicopter in the collage on the cover. I eventually read a Destroyer book, because I had enjoyed the Remo Williams movie so much. I think it was called "Chinese Puzzle", and I really don't remember anything that happened in it, either...but I still have the book packed away somewhere, so Icould re-read it someday.

Mostly these books bored me, cuz at the time, if it didn't have dragons and knights and wizards, I wasn't very interested. But, in recent months decided to track down some books that I had heard of, but never found anywhere. I bought some obscure books on eBay, some fantasy and sword-n-planet stuff. I eventually found a lot of these old men's adventure books: some Executioner, some Remo Williams, Nick Carter, Matt Helm. Then I stumbled upon The Specialist #1 "A Talent For Revenge".

It was the FIRST ONE! It's so hard to find the FIRST BOOK in a series, so I jumped on it. It showed up about two weeks later and I read it. So today I'm going to talk about it.

First of all, a little context: Usually I read some pretty cheesy stuff. Lots of ridiculous adventure, sure there's death and destruction, but it usually your attention isn't drawn right to it. I've read a couple of fantasy things where your attention IS drawn to it for a moment, usually to emphasize how terrible the bad guy is, or how terrible life is for these people before the hero comes to save them.

Think things like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". As they're trying to enter the temple where the Holy Grail is, there is a booby trap that chops off people's heads. This is horrible if you sit and think about it. But in the movie, it's presented sorta like "uh-oh! it's game over for that guy!" You know what I mean? It's not all gory and gut-wrenching and stuff.

In my humble opinion, there are one or two instances where they looked a little too closely at the violence, and it was to show how bad the bad guy was. There were two brief little sex scenes that I don't really think were necessary, but we didn't dwell on it too long so it wasn't a big deal. There were also a smattering of swear words, especially the F-bomb (the most commonly used bomb in the book!).

I understand that these things were put in to show that the story was "gritty" and "grown up". But to tell you the truth, these things could have been left out and not really affected the story at all. I don't really think that it was written any better than, for example, "The Warrior of Vengeance: Sorcerer's Blood", and I could pretty much see both stories in my head being the basis of a Roger Corman flick.

I don't really think of myself as a prude or anything, but I thought I ought to point this stuff out as it is the first book I've decided to talk about with these features. The other stuff is kinda PG to PG-13; but language and sex definitely elevate this book to an R rating.

With that said, let's get to the story!

Our hero is Jack Sullivan, a veteran of two wars who apparently became a mercenary before the beginning of this book. He hasn't taken a job in about three-and-a-half years, he is mourning the death of his...uh...wife? ...Fiance? ...Girlfriend? Well, some woman named Lily who was on his boat when someone blew it up.

In the French Riviera, he gets a job offer from an old acquaintance, formerly from the FBI. His name is Malta, now he works for a rich lady who wants to hire a mercenary to kill a man. The man is Ottoowa, a deposed African dictator who once kidnapped the woman and her sister in his small country. There, the two women were used, abused, starved and tortured. The sister was decapitated and her head was brought to the woman on a platter. When she finds out that Ottoowa is also in the French Riviera, she wants him dead--and to have his head brought to her on a plate.

Jack Sullivan takes the job.

The bad guy has a yacht and a castle on a cliff overlooking the sea, because what's more dramatic than that? There are complications, of course, he knows some of the mercenaries currently working for the bad guy--in fact, one of them is his old mentor. He has to dodge the French police, and local thugs, but also has a couple of run-ins with the Mafia. But worst of all is a 20 year old girl whose smitten with him and gets embroiled in the adventure (of COURSE she gets kidnapped by the bad guys as insurance).

Jack has several run-ins with the bad guy's henchmen in small groups of two or three or four, and he takes 'em out one-by-one so there won't be as many when he tries to break into the castle. But the bad guy just hires more guys, so it doesn't seem to matter much. There's a lot of shooting, and explosions, and a couple of guys get knocked down cliffs, a guy gets caught in a noose, another gets garroted. Again, sorta like bad barbarian fiction when they just kill all the bad-guys by the end of the book.

Of course, one of the henchmen gets revenge on Sullivan before he expires. This guy tells Sullivan that he and another fellow--whom he refers as "the Blue Man"--placed the bomb on the boat that killed that girl Lily. But then he dies before Sullivan can get any more information out of him!

It's the first in the series, so I guess it's not much of a spoiler to say that Sullivan lives to go on to the next book. A little bit of online research suggests that he gets more clues in the next book or two and finally tracks down the people responsible for Lily's death, so there's an over-arching story arc, that's kinda neat.

So...would I read another one? If I had another one, yes, I probably would. Am I going to go looking for another one? No. I have a whole room full of books and pulp magazines and comics that I want ot read, I really don't need to add to it. If and when I ever finish that...I might. It would depend on what else I want, how hard it was to find, and how much it would cost me. I DID find Book 3 on the Internet Archive where it can be borrowed for free, so I might read that one sooner or later.

It wasn't a bad book, but I do prefer things with dragons...or spaceships...so this was a fun diversion from that stuff. And I do have some other vigilante guys to read, like the Executioner, and Remo Williams, and Nick Carter, and Matt Helm... Maybe I'll like one of them a little better. Then again, maybe they'll be so bad that I change my mind and decide this was great!

I guess we'll find out in time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Nyoka and the Tigermen

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy you Truly Adventurous Souls!

Today I'm going to talk about a serial. Back in the day (before my time), you could go to the movies for, like, a nickel, and get to see a movie and two or three short features. Short features included cartoons, news reels, various short movies, and chapter plays.

See, there was no TV yet, so people went to the movies every week. And every week there was a new episode of the newest serial. These were various adventure stories, sometimes based on comic strip characters like Flash Gordon or Dick Tracy. Sometimes they were based on pulp heroes like the Shadow or the Spider. And sometimes they were based on adventure stories.

Republic Pictures was famous for its serials. In 1941 they made a serial called "Jungle Girl" and it was based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the same one who created Tarzan, John Carter, and Pellucidar. Well, the serial took several "artistic" changes from the original story, and centered on a Jungle Girl in Africa named Nyoka, who did not appear in the original story.

Apparently this serial proved popular in the theaters, a comic book spin-off was made by Fawcett Comics and in 1942 Republic decided to make a sequel. However, since they didn't want to pay any royalties to Burroughs, they could not use the term "Jungle Girl" anywhere in the production. So they used the name Nyoka, which they had created for the first production, changed the character's last name, moved the story to the "deserts of Africa" (which mostly consisted of Southern California woods and scrubland), and came up with their own story, which they called "The Perils of Nyoka", and later re-released as "Nyoka and the Tiger-Men". ...You know, I'm really not sure why they renamed it that. The "Jungle Girl" serial actually had natives who worshipped a Lion Goddess. The best suggestion I've heard about this name is that some of the bad guys where striped robes.

Kay Aldridge plays Nyoka, who wants to find her father, who disappeared on an expedition into the African Jungle. She joins up with a new expedition, which hopes to find the Golden Tablets of Hippocrates, since they hold the secret to curing cancer (and presumably other diseases). Part of this expedition is our male lead, Dr. Larry Grayson played by Clayton Moore, who would later be best remembered as the Lone Ranger.

However, the Golden Tablets are also coveted by the wicked Vultura, evil ruler of the Arabs. You see, the Tablets also reveal the location of a long-lost treasure, and Vulura wants it for herself. To this end, she enlists the aid of Cassib, a tribal chief loyal to her, and played by Charles Middleton--who is probably best remembered as Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials.

It's an action-packed production full of fistfights, gunfire, running, riding, climbing up rocks and cliff-faces, being thrown off cliffs to the water below, killer gorillas, avalanches, explosions, cave-ins, bubbling geysers, and mechanical sacrificial pendulums! Primal caverns! Ancient temples! Deadly booby-traps! And tons and tons of exterior locations!

It's good stuff, and I totally recommend it. You can watch it for free on YouTube if you're interested, but it's also available on DVD and Blue Ray from Amazon and assortment of specialty sites.

Have you ever seen it? What did you think about it, leave a comment to let me know! Have you seen any other serials? Again, tell me below in the comments!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Balzan of the Cat People 1: The Blood Stones

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy-do to all you Travelling Astro Sword-wielders!

Well, I'm proud to report that my Mother is doing better. She's had two operations now, and seems to be recovering quite well. There was a lot of post-op healthcare that monopolized my time, but following one more appointment with her doctor, I expect things to get back to normal, which means that I should be able to devote more time to writing. At least, that's the plan.

But all is not lost! I did read another book this weekend, and I'd like to tell you about it.

This one was call "Balzan of the Cat People #1: The Blood Stones". This is book one of a three-book series written under the name of Wallace Moore. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, this is apparently a pen name for Gerry Conway, a comic book writer and editor of legendary reknown who has worked for both Marvel and DC.

This is a sword-and-planet story, which means it is high-action, high-cheese adventure about a human having barbaric adventures on some alien planet. In the case of Balzan, sometime in the future, he and his parents were en route to Mars to begin a colony but some mysterious disaster happened. The ship inexplicably accelerated, perhaps through a wormhole, into a different solar system and crashed upon an alien world. His parents died in the accident, but Balzan survived, as an infant encased in some sort of suspended animation cube. He was found by a humanoid cat-person who took him home and raised him.

The cover claims that Balzan is the Tarzan of outer space, so instead of being raised by apes, he's raised by cat people. I am not very familiar with Tarzan stories, but this was the only real connection that I could see. Otherwise, Balzan seemed closer to heroes like John Carter, or Thongor, or the hero from Goddess of Ganymede.

But I'm OK with that, in fact, that's pretty much why I got the books in the first place! So let's go!

There Are Spoilers ahead!

The story begins and Balzan is grown...about twenty-ish I guess. he is hunting for some wild animal that has been terrorizing his cat-people village. He is armed with a knife and a "therb", which is a whip that delivers a potent poison through the barb on the tip.

He finds it and kills it, and then hears the sounds of fighting coming from the village itself. He rushes back and finds the village is under attack by some lizard men. He finds his adoptive father, dying, who tells him that the lizard people took many prisoners--including his daughter, Balzan's adoptive sister.

So Balzan goes after them, and finds out they were working for this warlord-guy named Lord Sha, who took the prisoners away in a sky ship to the city-state of Kharn.

So Balzan goes to Kharn. He notices how everyone their seems stoned, and gets into trouble with the local authorities. Running from the guards, he falls in with a group of thieves who like to stick it to the man. They join forces, and Balzan finds out that the Red Lord and his Queen Myrane host these gladiatorial-style games here in the city, and his pacifist tribesmen are going to get thrown to the wild animals for the enjoyment of the people!

So Balzan and his thiefy friends get captured by the guards so they can be taken into the palace. They are sentenced to be gladiators. Balzan deduces that his fellows are being drugged, via their food, and realizes that the entire city is also being drugged!

Lord Sha made Balzan's sister, Kitta, one of his personal slaves; but really lusts for Queen Myrane. Queen Myrane lusts for Balzan, who turns her down flat. It's plenty convoluted, but there's TONS of action through out the story.

Balzan eventually learns that the games weed out the weak, leaving strong specimens whose blood feeds the Blood Stones (remember them? They're, like, THE title of the book!). The Blood Stones, once powered, perpetuate the lifespan of the bad guy...but I won't spoil that for you, in case you want to read it for yourself. But if you're wondering if Balzan lives, I only want to remind you that there are two more books!

I don't understand the front cover. He is NEVER dressed like that throughout the entire story. I think they told the artist he's the "Tarzan of outer space" and they came up with this guy that looks kinda like Zandor from The Herculoids. In the background you can plainly see Cat People, you know, the sort of people that raised him, and they're wearing a LOT more clothes than he is! Oh well...

My Theoretically Assessed Speculation:

I liked it! Is it High Literature? NO! ...That's probably why I liked it! it's plenty cheesy, and some of the plot points didn't get a lot of build up...but the action moved right along, and the plot kept a sort of internal logic. I guess it's the sort of thing you expect from this type of stuff...and that's exactly what I wanted! It was cheesy escapist adventure, and that's what I look for in my sword-n-planet stuff, so I liked it!

I found my copy on eBay, and I've seen it available through Amazon. You might be able to find it in a second-hand book shop.

Have you ever read this book? If so, what did you think of it? Feel free to leave a comment below! Otherwise, I'll see ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Once Upon A Spy

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Hello to all my Trenchcoat Adorned Spies!

Hey, you remember a few blog posts back I was talking about various spy shows and movies? Well, I stumbled across a one I'd never heard of before and I'm gonna tell you about it!

I was on YouTube one day, just minding my own business, when suddenly this video suggestion pops up. It's a movie from 1980 called "Once Upon A Spy" and it stars Ted Danson (before he got on "Cheers") and Christopher Lee (long after he was Dracula for Hammer Pictures). Apparently this was a TV movie-of-the-week, and was intended as the pilot to a proposed series, though I'm not 100% sure about this.

So get this...Christopher Lee is an evil genius (naturally!) who wants to take over the world. He sends in an elite team to steal this super-computer from NASA...and I mean one of those old fashioned early computers that takes up the entire wall of a building! Remember, this was back before there was any such thing as a personal computer. Anyway, they crash into the NASA building with a semi truck and blast the computer with a mysterious laser beam.

So the government...they don't really define which agency...brings in Ted Danson as Jack Chenault, a government computer programmer to go talk to the scientist who built the super-computer and to investigate the scene of he crime. All escorted with by an actual field agent, of course!

The field agent is Paige Tannehill, played by Mary Louise Weller, an attractive blonde best best known for appearing in the movie "Animal House". You know how these things go, first they don't get along, but are practically dating by the end of the movie. They tried to have snappy banter...and...well, let's just say they tried.

They arrive in time to find the scientist and his daughter get kidnapped by the bad guy's henchmen and give chase...until a helicopter uses a magnet to pick up thee bad guys car and take them away.

They investigate the scene of the crime and deduce that the computer was shrunk, which leads them to the villain, Marcus Valorium, played by Christopher Lee in a nifty space-age wheelchair, complete with firing missiles! He remembers Chenault as the only man who ever beat him...several years ago when they were competing for some science award.

So, Chenault figures out that with the NASA computer to connect him to satellites (and the computer's creator to operate the now-miniature computer--apparently he can re-enlarge an object once it's been shrunk), Valorium can bounce his shrink ray to just about anywhere in the world. And although Chenault insists that he is NOT a field agent, he keeps volunteering for missions partly due to his expertise, partly due to his personal connection to the bad guy, and partly due to the feelings he's developing for Tannehill.

So Chenault goes to see Valorium and confirms that he is behind the theft. He goes with Tannehill to parachute to Valorium's observatory hide-out to rescue the professor & her daughter...and also to help destroy the shrink ray, of course.

But they get captured, and the girl gets dropped into a trippy mirror-walled maze that Chenault must guide her through, avoiding the two hit men Valorium is guiding to take her out. It's a weird, sick game that Valorium wants to play to prove he's better then Chenault, cuz the guy holds a grudge.

All in all, "Once Upon A Spy" is kind of a James Bond wannabe. It's not too bad, but far from excellent. What they were attempting isn't bad, but you can see that it lacked some vital spark, and it's really no wonder the series wasn't picked up. This reminds me of movies that I watched as a kid and thought were great, then grew up and rewatched and found out they were horrible. ...Maybe it would be ok for a preteen audience? *shrug*

If you can't find anything better, this could help you pass and hour-and-a-half. I don't recommend paying for it, though. If you want to watch it, find it streaming somewhere for free! Like I said, I found it on YouTube, so watch it there! ...Or don't!

Well, that's all for now! I'll see ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

The Adventure Squadron

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings and Salutations, friends and fans!

I have a message of vital importance for you this month:

The Adventure Squadron needs You!

I know what you're thinking: But Tim, what IS this Adventure Squad-thingy that you speak of? Well, I'm gonna tell ya!

This is a special organization devoted solely to the purpose of providing First Notice and Special Considerations to my Truly Ardent Supporters! Sounds like a fan club, you say? Fair enough, then join my fan club and you will receive my newsletter and Free Gifts!

That's right! By joining The Adventure Squadron you will receive my newsletter: the Call To Adventure! This will inform you whenever I release a new adventure or run a special offer or sale at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or DriveThru Fiction! (This will appear most for the DriveThru store, as I have the most control there, and you can actually download a Kindle File or Nook File there as well as a PDF!)

But that's not all!

You also get a printable certificate confirming your acceptance! Print it out wallet-size and be a card-carrying member, or print it on a full page--suitable for framing--and hang it on the wall of your office, den or study and display your affiliation with pride!

Our chiefest incentive is a growing library of FREE BOOKS! The first of these is available right now! It's called The Adventure Sampler and it's a collection of short stories previously published in an array of ezines and anthologies and a few that have NEVER BEEN PUBLISHED BEFORE!

These include stories that helped influence some of my upcoming series! Including an Aurivyn story (called "Wondara" at the time), Tales From the Triddian Sector, and The Phantom Sleuth! Plus several others!

There are more stories and surprises on the way, so don't delay...join today! Otherwise, you could miss out on heart-pounding adventure, super-exclusive promotions, and a growing library of FREE books! You don't want that to happen! I don't want that to happen!

So just click this link and type in your email address and before you know it...you, too, will will a part of The Adventure Squadron!

You have my solemn vow that your information will NEVER be sold nor traded and you are free to unsubscribe at any time! Nor will you be spammed. But you WILL receive the Call To Adventure newsletter whenever there is news of new stories for sale, special promotions at any of our storefronts, and of Free Gifts that become newly available to you!

I know you don't want to miss out on that, so sign up today and listen for the Call!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Warrior of Vengeance 1: Sorcerer's Blood

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy you Triumphant Adventure Seekers!

So, one of the pillars of the writing philosophy is that "if you want to write, you've got to read". This way you develop a sense other writer's styles and influence your own; get a sense of what's been done, or at least attempted; maybe even get a sense of how other writers handle mood and atmosphere and other boring technical stuff.

Now, I've read several books, both for entertainment and scholarly reasons, but the simple fact is that I have a wide collection of books, magazines, and pdfs that I have accumulated but not got around to reading yet. Bottom line is: I don't think I read enough. Well, I'm trying to remedy that!

I'm trying to manage my time better...we'll see how it turns out...and one of the changes I'm trying to implement is to read more often. My goal is to spend my weeks working more diligently and spending most of my weekends reading. Still trying to iron out some kinks, but I have successfully started!

This weekend I read Warrior of Vengeance #1: Sorcerer's Blood by Ross Anton Coe. I found this and Book #2 Trails of Peril together on eBay during one of my online searches for sword-n-sorcery and sword-n-planet books from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. These were both published in 1982, apparently, by Pinnacle Publishing, and promised a third book which seems to have never been produced.

I can find no other works by Ross Anton Coe, but according to the copyright page the story is copyrighted to Ron Renauld, which makes me wonder of Coe is just a pen name. Ron Renauld wrote several media tie-in novels like the A-Team and Airwolf (I didn't even know there were novels of these properties!), and ghost-written multiple Executioner books as well.

A web-search has these books come up at various online stores, but they can be found on the old standbys: Amazon and eBay, prices may vary.

There Are Spoilers ahead!

There is a Conan-style little preamble, explaining the continent is shaped vaguely like a condor's head and was thus named after the Condor-God Dorban. Some people tried to break off into their own countries but were brought back into the fold of the Sorcerer-King, who resides in the capital city of Cothe. Then, Time passes...

We meet our hero, Nuroc, at the age of twelve. He is suppose to be a shepherd, but we never see any sheep. However, he spied a wolf slinking through the brush and is stalking it to protect the sheep. He slays the wolf, and just in time because...

This happens to be the night of a double-eclipse. The two moons are going to get covered by the world's shadow, and this a moment of great significance. He takes the wolf's carcass to offer to the Condor God as a sacrifice but before he can...

A massive rock shifts revealing a cavern and a stream of horsemen pour out and ride away through the countryside. Nuroc recognizes them as Sorcerers from Cothe but does not know why they are riding away. The eclipse happens and catastrophe occurs! The ground shakes! Tidal waves wash over the lands! A tidal wave reaches Nuroc and washes him through the cave that the Sorcerers came out of!

He finds himself deposited in some sub-basement beneath the city of Cothe, specifically beneath a place called the Obelisk. I don't recall any actual desciption of what it looks like, but I imagined something not unlike the Washington Monument, mostly because it was hollow and you could climb stairs to different tiers inside of it. Apparently this is where the Sorcerers learn magic, from runes carved on the inner walls. The higher up you climb, you find stronger magic spells inscribed.

Here, he finds his parents, who are servants to the current Sorcerer-King Talmon-Khash...who is also here! It turns out that some upstart mid-tier sorcerer named Augage wants to use higher level spells to imprison the Condor-God Dorban, kill Talmon-Khash and usurp the kingdom, so he gathered some other sorcerers to his cause and they split, he tried to conduct his ritual out in the wild and miscast the spells, causing the cataclysm!

By some miracle, the capital city of Cothe was untouched by the cataclysm, and the peasants decided the sorcerers did it on purpose and marched in to kill all the sorcerers.

Talmon-Khash cuts open his wrist and extracts some blood, which he magically infuses into Nuroc and his parents so they can carry his blood and he will "live-on" in some sense until they can defeat Augage. Talmon-Khash then sends them to escape while he casts magic to preserve the Obelisk and the magical knowledge and treasure within.

So Nuroc and his parents escape with the help of a loyal sorcerer named Inkemisa and his daughter Myrania, who Nuroc has the hots for. They know that having failed the spell and inciting riot, that Augage will flee to a western land where he will eventually unite the barbarian tribes under his rule and eventually come back to try again.

The only real problem I had with the book was: if they know this, why don't they just go after him now before he can raise an army? I don't get it. They don't go after him. Of course, it is never explained what sort of servants Nuroc's parents are. I guess valets and maids and shepherd boys make lousy medieval commandoes.

Once again, Time passes...and we rejoin our five years later...

Nuroc is now seventeen. He and his parents went north to the town of Weshi, where he and his Dad work in a local mine. That is...until the raiders show to kill his family, leaving only him alive to carry on their destiny and duty to the Sorcerer-King! He fights with raiders, dodges condors, sharks, giant centipede monsters and zombies! He gains and loses allies, finds his girlfriend Myrania working for a shady pimp who travels up and down the river...

Of course, his adventures lead him back to Cothe, where he reunites with Myrania and has a showdown with Augage in the Obelisk, where the renegade sorcerer once more tries to capture the Condor-God Dorban and usurp his immortality, or something, so he can conquer all the known lands! Bwah-ha-ha!

It was pretty cheesy stuff, but it was a decent plot that moved along pretty well in my opinion. It was easy to read and the world was developed enough to tell the story. There was a little cosmology, and a little religion (we're only told about the Condor-God Dorban, but I got the feeling there were others, unnamed). All in all, it was an entertaining way to spend a weekend! If you like light, fun fantasy adventure then you would probably like this, and I recommend you give it a try if you can track it down!

My Theoretically Assessed Speculation:

Thumbs up! It moved along, it was fun to read, sparked a few inspirational ideas, and kinda made me want to get writing. I found it entertaining!

Have you ever read this book? If so, what did you think of it? Feel free to leave a comment below! Otherwise, I'll see ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy you Truly Adventurous Souls!

So, the other day, I was looking through some old video tapes and I found (among several other things) my copy of Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. Then I thought, "Hey! That's adventure! I should talk about it on the blog!" So...I am!

The movie came out in 1985, but I never saw it until it got on HBO. I must have been about twelve, and I had no idea who Remo Williams was. For that matter, I had no idea who Fred Ward or Joel Grey were, either. But I knew Wilford Brimley! He was the only guy in the movie I recognized!

Anyway, Remo Williams was a New Jersey cop at the beginning of the film, and he was selected by a top-secret government organization to be their new recruit. The first thing they did was fake his death, then they gave him reconstructive surgery (mostly shaving off his mustache) and informed him he had been recruited and given a new name: Remo Williams.

The organization was CURE (I don't remember what the acronym was for), and seemed to be a three-man operation led by Wilford Brimley as Dr. Harold Smith, who implied that they were some kind of government institution. So, they wanted Remo to be trained up to be an assassin, so they give him to an old Korean named Chiun who was to teach Remo the ways of Sinanju, kind of philosophy and a style of martial arts.

I was kinda fascinated by the Sinanju training sequences. The idea was that the human body was capable of so much more than we use it for. Like...the way they say we only use a small percentage of our brain, but could do fancy telepathy and telekinetic powers if we could learn to use the rest of our brains. Except, this was the whole body. With Sinanju training and discipline, you were supposed to be able to do all sorts of fantastic Jackie Chan-type acrobatics and tings that seemed superhuman.

However, Remo is a typical American slob, and is very skeptical, but is impressed with the few uncanny moves Chiun has displayed and wants to learn because...it was just too cool.

On top of all this, there is a shady military arms dealer--an evil 80s business tycoon--who is fleecing the government for funds to build new weapons for the armed forces and only supplying shoddy equipment that blows up in the hands of our soldiers. He had a sham weapons satellite that was rigged to blow up before anyone could get close enough to tell it was a phony. This guy needs to be taken out, but whenever his stuff comes under investigation he gets away scott free and some underling gets all the blame.

This is a job for CURE, and they want to send Remo, their newest assassin, to eliminate him.

It was a nifty little flick when it came out, entertaining enough to occupy a couple of hours. Fred Ward from the the first two Tremors movies played Remo. Joel Grey played Chiun. Wilford Brimley, as I said, was Harold Smith, the head of CURE. And nowadays I recognize Kate Mulgrew, but I don't like her in anything since she stole Billy Crystal's novel in Throw Momma From the Train.

It wasn't until years later that I found out it was based upon a series of books called "The Destroyer" by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy. Apparently a line of men's adventure novels akin to The Executioner. I tracked some down, but I've only read one so far...and that was some years ago now. I don't remember what the plot actually was. I remember a Chinese lady with a big coat who kept stealing essential like toilet paper and carrying them in her coat. And Remo fighting some guys from a karate school. I think they ended up in China and he got the Sword of Sinanju...why was it in China instad of Korea? Maybe I remember wrong.

Anyway, the movie is kinda neat, although I've read some opinions online that suggest the books are better. Hey, big surprise, right? I'll have to read a few more books and watch the movie again to see if I feel the same way.

I also read that the movie folks wanted this to become a big franchise to rival stuff like James Bond. In fact, he was supposed to the blue-collar James Bond. So they hired a writer who wrote a couple of James Bond movies, and a director who directed a couple James Bond movies...but in the end, it just didn't become what they hoped for. Sad, really. I would have watched more of them.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone in Hollywood was trying to reboot the series. I mean, seems like they try that with everything, doesn't it?

Well, I guess that's all for now. See ya next time!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger

noreply@blogger.com (Timothy A. Sayell) — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings, all you cadets who Travel Among Stars!

I just finished watching all the episodes of Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, conveniently located on YouTube, for anyone interested. So, since it's fresh in my mind, I thought I'd talk about it today.

Rocky Jones is a TV show that aired back in 1954. Technically, I think it was a kids show, but it was still pretty good. Rocky Jones is--now get this--a Space Ranger (didn't see that one coming, did you?). The Space Rangers are sort of space cops who patrol space to uphold the laws and treaties of the United Worlds.

He patrols the spaceways in a V-2 type rocket ship. First in one called the Orbit Jet, which is later replaced by the Silver Moon. He has a co-pilot named Winky (replaced later when the actor was arrested for carrying a firearm), later replaced by Biffen Cardoza, an alien from Herculon. His crew often included space navigator, Vena Ray, and Junior Space Cadet Bobby--the token kid all these shows require. There was often a scientist on board too. Earlier episodes featured Professor Newton, Bobby's ward (replaced when the actor died), and later replaced by Professor Mayberry.

Other characters made regular appearances, most notably Secretary Drake, the head of the Office of Space Affairs (and the Space Rangers), and Ranger Clark who was in charge of space station O.W.9.

The show featured episodic stories that mostly formed short 3-chapter story arcs, with a few one-episode stories thrown into the mix. During this run, we travel to various moons and planetoids, all conveniently coated with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. We also meet a wide array of indigenous alien peoples...who all look human and either speak or learn English.

Some of the science is kinda wonky, but makes for interesting stuff. Like a pair of moons connected by a chain of atmosphere, their gravity pulling one another across the galaxy on an unfixed course, until one inevitably crashes into a planet that is running on a fixed orbit. There was some silly double-talk about how the heat in the desert makes you see mirages that are not there, so super-cold light can turn something that is there invisible.

All the cheesy tropes and clichés that you think of with 50's sci-fi are here, but they were new at the time, and setting up the tropes and clichés we all think of. It's actually more sophisticated stuff than I was expecting. And you can clearly see where it may have influenced later stuff.

The Space Ranger uniforms, for example, look as though they may have inspired the uniforms worn by the ship's crew in Forbidden Planet, and certain Star Trek uniforms. Vena Ray was a female bridge officer on a star ship long before Lt. Uhura. And Professor Newton's costume and hair reminded me (a lot) of William Harnell as the first incarnation of Dr. Who.

Apparently episodes got edited together to make a bunch of movies, and a couple of these were featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Some of these are also available on various streaming platforms, and apparently it's also available on DVD. But as I said earlier, you can watch the entire series on YouTube for free!

Well, I guess that's all I have to say about that (at least for now)! So be sure to tune in next time when I talk about...uh...something else!

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell