FORGOTTEN BOOK -- OSSIAN'S RIDE

Ossian's Ride by Fred Hoyle (1959)

My selection for this Friday's Forgotten Book is a strange thriller/mystery/SF, the second novel by Fered Hoyle.  Ossian's Ride takes us firmly into John Buchan territory with a young adventurer caught in a vise, desperately hunted as he tries to find answers before the whole political framework of the world topples.

     The time is 1970, eleven years into the future.  Ireland has suddenly become one of the most powerful countries in the world because of a new industrial complex -- Industrial Corporation Eire, or I.C.E. -- that has harnessed thermonuclear power and has syphoned off many of the world's leading scientists.  I.C.E. jealously guards its secrets, turning Ireland into almost a police state.

     Thomas Sherwood, a young mathematician and Cambridge student is recruited to penetrate I.C.E. and discover its most precious secret -- not that of thermonuclear power, but  how the industrial complex has made such progress in so short a time.  What allowed it to jump-start, to go directly to such power with no intervening steps?

     Sherwood must avoid police and government authorities, as well as various political groups, to penetrate I.C.E.'s secrecy.  The world he has been thrown into is one where he can trust no one and where he is at risk at every turn.  His assignment, supposedly to last only a few weeks, takes over his life as he is trapped in enemy territory for months.  Before he can find out the answers he was sent for, he must answer one other question:  is he the player or the played?

     Fred Hoyle was a world-famous (and controversial) astonomer who penned several well-known science fiction books.  Ossian's Ride is an interesting thriller that leads to a startling and logical conclusion, marred only by a few creaky passages.

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     For a complete list of today's Friday's Forgotten Books, visit Patti Abbott's blog Pattinase, where our gracious hostess will provide you with a mix of great, interesting, or just plain strange reading.

119 MINUTES DOWN THE DRAIN, AND THEN SOME

If Ishtar and Heaven's Gate had a child and that child was beaten severely with an ugly stick, it still would be a more pleasant viewing experience than Seth Rogan's The Green Hornet, a film I just rented on DVD.  I kept watching in hopes that there might be some redeeming value.  Sadly, I was wrong.  Perversely, I returned the DVD in full knowledge that someone else would rent it and have to undergo the same dispairing experience.  **For those averse to subtlety, this has been a negative review.**

     Since I was on a roll, I also rented Little Fockers, the third in the decreasingly unfunny series.  At least this one had a couple of chuckles, but not much else.

      Now that Osama bin Ladin has been killed, I suspect the most terrifying thing that could happen to the American public would be if Seth Rogan and Owen Wilson co-starred in a movie.

WELL...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmRGUWtm9CM

OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: CRUSADER RABBIT

Before there were Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle Moose and before there were Mr. Peabody and Sherman, there were Crusader Rabbit and Ragland T. Tiger, Jay Ward's first foray into animated television.  In fact, Crusader Rabbit was the first animated series for television anywhere.  Crusader Rabbit aired in syndication from 1950 to 1952 with 195 episodes covering ten story arcs.  Originally, the series was little more than story boards.  He was revived in 1957 for another 260 episodes covering 13 story arcs.  The second series is the one I remember fondly -- wildly inventive and subversively funny, the great precursor to Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Here's America's very first look at a Crusader Rabbit episode, wherein our hero goes off to battle the state of Texas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hHQvkUhJo

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For more Overlooked Movies, Television, A/V, or What-Have-You, tune into Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom today for all the links.

INCOMING

Westerns, westerns, westerns...with a few others thrown in.

• Piers Anthony, Total Recall.  SF Ahhr-nold movie tie-in.  Based on a screenplay, based on a screen story, based on a Phil Dick story.  A remake is supposedly in the works; may be interesting.
• Raymond E. Feist, Magician:  Master.  Fantasy.  Volume II in the Riftwar Saga.  This is the author's preferred edition.
• Bernhardt J. Hurwood, Haunted Houses.  Supposedly non-fiction collection about haunted houses written for the school-age market.  Isn't Hurwood the author of Dracutwig, the famously and amazingly bad novel, under the name "Mallory Knight"?
• Louis L'Amour, Bowdrie (collection; 8 stories about the title character), Catlow, Conagher, Fallon, Galloway (#11 in The Sackett series), How the West Was Won (movie tie-in), The Key-Lock Man, Kid Rodelo, Kilkenny, Lando (#5 in the Sackett series), Law of the Desert Born (collection; 11 stories), The Man Called Noon, Mustang Man (#10 in the Sackett series), Ride the Dark Trail (#14 in the Sackett series), The Rustlers of West Fork (first of four Hopalong Cassidy novels originally published as by "Tex Burns"), Sackett (#4 in the Sackett series), Sackett's Land (first in the Sackett series), The Sky-Liners (#12 in the Sackett series), Son of a Wanted Man, The Trail to Crazy Man (collection of 3 novel-length stories originally published in the pulps), Under the Sweetwater Rim.  Westerns all -- I think it was L'Amour Day at the thrift store.
• Ron Miller & Frederick C. Durant III, The Art of Chesley Bonestell.  Coffe table art book, with over 300 illustrations from the master of space painting.  Gorgeous!
• Richard Paul Russo, The Rosetta Codex.  SF novel.
• G. Clifton Wisler, Sam Delamer.  Western, part of the Delamer series.
• Roger Zelazny & Neil Randall, Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Castle Amber.  Fun literary reference.

THIS ONE'S FOR BILL CRIDER

Bill Crider is usually the first post all things gators and crocs, but he's evidently recuperating from this weekend's World Horror Convention, so here goes.

     From The Washington Post, May 1st, quoting from Peter Galuszka's Bacon's Rebellion blog:

     "It came as a big surprise to Laurie Duncan.

     "This past Saturday, the woman was fishing with her husband and 13-year-old daughter on the Pasquotank River near South Mills, N.C., about five miles south of the Virginia Border.  There on the river bank, sunning itself, was a seven-foot alligator.

     "American alligators are common in parts of the Tar Heel state, but the northern extent of their range had been perhaps 30 or 40 miles to the south of South Mills, along the southern shores of the Albemarle Sound.  A state wildlife official says that the gators are moving north as temperatures warm.

     "In other words, alligators, thanks to global warming are crawling or swimming closer to Virginia..."

     The Old Dominon State may soon have to change its tourist motto to "Virginia is for gator lovers."

DANCE FEVER, BY JINGO!

This weekend, TMC filled in one of its between-the-movie spots with a short feature, 1935's The All-Colored Vaudeville Show, spotlighting a number of talented performers.  Given the year and the title of the short, jingoism was predominent:  one background had cartoonish Black faces painted on musical notes, another had a painted watermelon, the acrobatic troupe played their act like stereotypical buffoons.  But the talent shone through.

     Best of all, for me, were the Nicholas Brothers.  Harold may not have been in his teens and Fayard may not have reached his majority, but the duo had the same presence and energy that marked their act throughout their careers.  For my money, no one could dance as well as the Nicholas Brothers -- even Gregory Hines was a pale imitation.  Astaire, Kelley, O'Connor and other hoofers of Hollywood's heydays couldn't cut the mustard in comparison.  Every performance by the Nicholas Brothers that I have seen was joyous and amazing.

     If you are not convinced, here are a few clips, picked at random, from Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBb9hTyLjfM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EexOzjz6Gn4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dtoie1MD9w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu1odwWrCKE (Their act begins about six minutes in, but you get to see Roy, Dale and Trigger before that)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiUR3lTU558