PAN

This is the paperback First Edition (not sure if there was ever a hardback First Edition) of Pan (© Birney Dibble/Leisure Books, of Nordon Publications: New York, 1980 – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Written by American surgeon and novelist Birney Dibble and first published in 1980, Pan tells the harrowing and ultimately tragic story of the world's first chimpanzee-human hybrid, created by a wholly unscrupulous rebel scientist, John Reynolds. Assisted by his weak, acquiescent wife, Sylvia, Reynolds stops at nothing, including kidnap, imprisonment, and murder, to achieve his obsessive, Frankensteinian objective. His goal? By raising this unique entity, whom he names Pan, as if he were his son, Reynolds hopes to divine and thence unlock the hitherto arcane secrets of what truly makes a human human, and ultimately to be the first scientist to discover, by conversing in depth with Pan once mature, how the fusion of human and ape manifests within his mental and physical development. The reality? Something very different, much darker, and so devastatingly disappointing to Reynolds that his entire world is destroyed, and Pan's transformed out of all recognition, on that fateful day when Reynolds and Sylvia finally reveal to Pan who – and what – he really is. The official blurb for Pan is as follows:

Science created him, mankind rejected him!

He was the first of a totally new species, the result of a unique scientific experiment. Half-man, half-beast, he inhabited a world of shadows, torn between his human and animal natures. The conflict within him threatened not only the success of the experiment, but Pan's own life, and the life of the one person who cared about him!

In this novel, Pan is named after the demi-god Pan from classical Greek mythology, the mercurial deity of Nature who was himself half-human, half-beast, and he becomes just as skilful musically as was his legendary namesake, after whom panpipes are named.

Interestingly, Pan is one of three different novels dealing with artificially-created ape-human hybrids that were all published within a relatively space of time, but each took this basic theme along a very different pathway from the other two.

One of these other two was Chimera by English screenwriter/novelist Steven Gallagher, published in 1982, which I've read and enjoyed. It was subsequently converted into an equally thrilling, and chilling, British TV mini-series of the same title (but retitled Monkey Boy for the American market), produced by Anglia TV for ITV and first screened in 1991, which I have lately purchased on DVD. In this two-part show, the laboratory-created hybrid, named Chad, has been produced by genetic engineering at a top-secret governmental establishment, but his behaviour becomes increasingly unstable as he grows older, and he finally escapes, to wreak mayhem and murder in the outside world as his creators frantically seek to recapture him.

Sometimes confused with Chimera by present-day TV enthusiasts is another, slightly earlier but less famous British TV mini-series, this time produced by the BBC, originally screened in 1988, and entitled First Born. Consisting of three episodes, it stars Charles Dance as the rebel scientist figure, a genetic researcher named Edward Forester, who produces a male human-gorilla hybrid. However, his attempts to surreptitiously rear his creation, whom he names Gor, have horrifying unforeseen consequences. Again, I have this series on DVD, but unlike Chimera I have not as yet read the novel that inspired it – Gor Saga, written by English novelist/playwright/poet Maureen Duffy and published in 1981.

FARPEROO

This is the hardback First Edition of Farperoo: Book One of The Dark Inventions (© Mark Lamb/Matthew S. Armstrong/The Madriax Press – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Farperoo, written by Mark Lamb and gorgeously illustrated by Matthew S. Armstrong, is Book One in a hefty three-volume hardback series of fantasy novels for older children/teenagers. There is no blurb or synopsis of any kind for this book included on its back cover or elsewhere, so here is one that was written by 'A Fort Made of Books':

Volume 1 of the Dark Inventions is the beginning of a powerful new fantasy for young readers. Set mostly in a ghastly, seaside town in a bizarro-England, for which the weather, crime, industrial pollution, corruption, and unethical journalists make Grimston-on-Sea an amazingly apt name. A weirdly talented girl named Lucy Blake - whose gifts include "inventing" (also known as LYING) - soon comes into focus. Both of her parents disappeared and/or died under mysterious circumstances, and she lives in her ancestral house with a conniving, lampstand-shaped stepmom, a spineless, jingle-writing step-stepdad, and a stepbrother whose name (Tarquin) pretty much tells you everything you need to know about him. She has a friend named Toby Lindstrom, who is pretty ordinary - not particularly brave, not very good at keeping secrets - but solidly loyal. She has another friend named Fenny who vanishes in broad daylight, on a crowded boardwalk, at the beginning of the story. And everyone else, more or less, is her enemy. That includes some pretty powerful people. By the end of the book, she has made a couple more friends (notably a "private dick" named Bentley Priory), but lots more powerful enemies including the police, the press, a law firm, the staff of a psychiatric hospital, any number of people and things in a world called Farperoo, and last but not least, an eeeevil angel named Raziel. And why shouldn't Lucy have enemies? She has the power to move between several worlds. She can conjure tons of salted-in-the-shell peanuts out of thin air. She is in possession of a book that existed before the world was created. AND she has the power to alter, create, or destroy reality simply by telling lies...erm, I mean inventions.

One of my mother Mary Shuker's  favourite expressions was "Everything comes to he who waits", and it has been proved true many times in my life, but rarely more so than on 12 May 2018. But to begin at the beginning: Back in 2010, Mom and I visited Lyme Regis, the town of fossils, on Dorset's world-famous Jurassic Coast. When we arrived, I found a parking place outside a charity shop, so, me being me, I couldn't resist popping inside to have a quick look around before we headed down into the main town centre to visit all of the fossil and mineral shops awaiting us there.

In the charity shop, I noticed a very handsome hardback trilogy of fantasy novels that I'd never seen before, with the subtitles Book One, Book Two, and Book Three respectively, and which were in mint condition and eyecatchingly illustrated throughout by truly spectacular b/w drawings. Moreover, Books Two and Three were even signed by the author! Interestingly, the publisher was some an obscure company that I'd never heard of and which I suspected may have been created specifically to publish this trilogy. So, fantasy novels, exquisite illustrations, signed by the author, and limited editions. In short, precisely my kind of books!

Yet for some thoroughly baffling reason that I've never been able to explain, I didn't buy them! Inevitably, however, I have regretted it ever since, and to make matters even worse, I was unusually unobservant that day, not noticing either their title or the author's name, so I have been unable to trace what they were. I didn't even notice the name of the charity shop, so even if I'd thought to phone them up later (which I didn't think to do), I couldn't have done, and as Lyme Regis is hundreds of miles from where I live, a quick revisit was not practical. In short, they were irretrievably lost to me, or so I thought - until 12 May 2018, that is.

I'd planned to stay in that day, to do some washing, and then put it out on the line to dry in the very hot sunshine, but at the last minute I changed my mind and on a whim I decided to go to a local car boot sale. Walking down the second aisle of stalls there, I came to one that had a trilogy of very handsome hardback fantasy novels in a pile, all in mint condition. As I looked at the front cover illustration on the first book, my heart-rate physically quickened - it looked so familiar. Surely not, I thought, not after all this time, and now only a few miles away from my home! I reached out and flicked through it, finding it packed with the most wonderful b/w illustrations, and suddenly, there was one that I recalled instantly. It was Book One from the Lyme Regis trilogy!

I carried on flicking through, and there was a second one that I remembered. I picked up the second book, turned to the front - and yes indeed, it was signed by the author, as was the third book. There could be no doubt whatsoever. Even if not the exact same copies, they were definitely the same trilogy of fantasy novels that I'd seen in Lyme Regis eight years earlier and had bitterly lamented not buying ever since. Gripping them tightly, I asked the seller how much they were. £2 for all three, she replied, or £2 for all four - as she said that, she took out another volume, which proved to be a second copy of Book One, and said that she'd let me have that one for nothing. So I paid my £2 and took what proved to be a very hefty bag of four books back to the car straight away.

Once again, everything had indeed come to me after waiting so (im)patiently for so long! And what was this elusive trilogy? Aimed primarily (though certainly not exclusively) at a young-adult readership, it was entitled The Dark Inventions, and Book One was Farperoo!

How Mom would have smiled and repeated her above-quoted maxim if she'd been here that day and seen this. Then again, why did I abruptly change my plans and decide to visit that car boot sale that day, and find the books on only the second aisle that I visited when I arrived there? Perhaps Mom is still smiling - and guiding me - in my life after all. I hope so - so very much.

Finally: click here for a comprehensive review containing further details concerning Farperoo and its author Mark Lamb.

DREAMSNAKE

Published in 1979, this is the Pan Books paperback edition of Dreamsnake (1978) (© Vonda N. McIntyre/George Underwood/Pan Books – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Dreamsnake is a fantasy novel written by American sci fi/fantasy author Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019), and was originally published in 1978. Her second novel, it began as a novelette entitled 'Of Mist and Grass and Sand', its title referencing the names of the three healing snakes featured in it. First published in 1973, this story inspired the opening chapter of what became the full-length novel Dreamsnake – whose official blurb is as follows:

In a world devastated by nuclear holocaust, Snake is a healer. One of an elite band dedicated to caring for sick humanity, she goes wherever her skills are needed.

With her she takes the three deadly reptiles through which her cures are accomplished: a cobra, a rattlesnake, and a snake called Grass – a creature with the power to induce benign dreams, to smooth the path between life and death.

Rare and valuable is the dreamsnake. When Grass is wantonly slain, Snake must journey across perilous landscapes to find another to take its place.

Mist is the cobra and Sand the rattlesnake; both are genetically engineered. So too is Grass, who originated in an alien world, hence its extreme value and rarity.

'Of Mist and Grass and Sand' was first published in the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and won the prestigious Nebula Award for best novelette in 1974, as given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Four years later, in 1978, Dreamsnake won the equally prestigious Hugo Award for best novel, as given by the World Science Fiction Convention in its 1979 ceremony, fighting off stiff competition in particular from Anne McCaffrey's science fantasy novel The White Dragon (my favourite of her Pern series). Both novels were also nominated for that same year's Ditmar Award in International Fiction, but this time The White Dragon emerged the victor.

Vonda N. McIntyre is also famous for having written three novelizations for Star Trek movies – namely, The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock, and The Voyage Home – as well as two other, non-movie-themed Star Trek novels. Also, she was the person who came up with the Star Trek character Sulu's first name, Hikaru, which duly appeared on the sixth Star Trek movie, The Undiscovered Country. Her most active decades of writing were the 1970s and 1980s.

Last but not least: the very striking front cover illustration of the above-depicted Pan Books paperback edition of Dreamsnake, which is the edition that I own, was produced by none other than British artist/musician George Underwood. He is particularly famous for illustrating not only numerous book covers but also many famous LP album covers from the 1970s – these latter including Mott the Hoople's 'All The Young Dudes', Davie Bowie's 'Hunky Dory' and also 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars', as well as T. Rex's 'My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair'.

THE WIND WHALES OF ISHMAEL

Published in 1973, this is the Quartet Books paperback edition of The Wind Whales of Ishmael (1971) (© José Farmer/Quartet Books – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

The Wind Whales of Ishmael is a science fiction novel written by American sci fi/fantasy author Philip José Farmer and originally published in 1971. Conceived as a sequel of sorts to Herman Melville's classic whaling novel Moby Dick (1851), it is set on Earth but in a far-distant future where the oceans have long since vanished and their former leviathans, the whales and the sharks, have evolved into huge aerial sky beasts. However, these gargantuan yet exceptionally lightweight creatures are hunted not only by each other but also by a new breed of whalers who no longer set forth in maritime ships to pursue this aerial megafauna but instead in sky vessels. Here is this engrossing and highly original novel's official blurb:

With no more noise than of a ghost gliding over the ocean, the sea disappeared.

And Ishmael, lone survivor of Ahab's Pequod and now of the Rachel, falls through the empty sea-space, down through layers of membrane – into another world. Earth, but not the Earth he knows. A world where the sea has condensed through Time's evaporation; a world where whales fly and the sky is a swarm with floating animals and plants; a world of bloodsucking palsied vegetation, shaking land – and the Purple Beast of the stinging death.

But where there are whales, a whaler from another age can always find a home…

The Wind Whales of Ishmael is a startlingly imaginative tale of a weird, nightmare world from one of America's foremost science fiction writers.

There have been many editions of this novel since its original publication almost 50 years ago, but none of them boasts more spectacular front cover artwork than the edition detailed and depicted above. Its extraordinary wind whale and the tiny human whaler figure standing boldly if precariously upon its enormous bulbous head with harpoon poised are the sublime artistic creations of Bob Habberfield - a prolific front cover illustrator for sci fi and fantasy novels (particularly those of Michael Moorcock). Indeed, it was this vibrant illustration that originally attracted my attention and duly cajoled me into purchasing this edition when I spotted it in a local secondhand bookshop one afternoon during the early 1980s.

In addition, the concept of sky beasts from a non-fiction standpoint has always fascinated me, inasmuch as Nature famously abhors a vacuum and yet the vast skies above us seem inexplicably lacking in sizeable creatures that have evolved specifically and exclusively to inhabit this rarefied upper zone, never sinking down to the ground until felled by death itself. Over the years I have comprehensively chronicled the extremely radical, highly remote, yet tenaciously tantalizing cryptozoological possibility that perhaps such creatures do exist, remaining exceedingly elusive amid the most distant clouds and loftiest levels within the atmosphere, only very rarely spied by our planet's earthbound inhabitants, and, if so observed occasionally, are mistakenly assumed to be alien spacecraft or suchlike, when in reality they are indeed UFOs, but living ones, not mechanical.

Dr Shuker's Casebook: In Pursuit of Marvels and Mysteries (© Dr Karl Shuker/CFZ Press)

For more details, please click here to access on my ShukerNature blog a very extensive cryptozoology article on the subject of currently hypothetical sky beasts and cloud creatures. I have also devoted a very detailed chapter to the history and investigation of alleged bona fide sky beasts in my book Dr Shuker's Casebook: In Pursuit of Marvels and Mysteries, whose front cover portrays me in the company of two gelatinous sky medusae (courtesy of incredibly talented artist friend Pippa Foster).

Little wonder, then, why I find this novel so enthralling as well as entertaining to read – giving me a veritable whale of a time, in fact!