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Chanticleer, v. 1, issue 3, December 1945

Page 22

dwell together in an organized society and man is the lowest of the low. In the previous tale an Englishman hunting elephants in central Africa was transferred back to these times to discover a wife and a happy home. In this book he is followed by a savant, the absent-minded professor of literature, a biologist who was accompanying the hunter on his expedition. Must, of course, be taken with a large grain of salt, but very enjoyable as pure fantasy, although somewhat horrific scenes of carnage appear to be indispensible to the authors writing. It is impossible to describe the happenings and background of the work in anything less than a moderate essay length.

THREE MAKE A WORLD by Andrew Marvell, p. Victor Gollanz, 1938.

A bacteriologist in an obscure South American country discovers a bacterium which not only lives in petroleum and practically all of its derivatives; but solidifies its habitant, thus causing it to be useless as a fuel. Even worse, oils of every type cease to be able to be used for lubrication. This is an obvious threat to our present form of civilization and the international oil interests in particular. These latter are out to destroy the discovery and silence the bacteriolist and his two assistants by murdering the former, one of the latter, and bribing the other. But the one assistant passes on some salient facts to one of our heroes; and the other is thoughtfully attempting a double-cross. However, our three heroes come on the scene, (a) a London biologist, (b) the communist son of a Midlands millionaire, and (c) a write of detective stories--the narrator. With the best of motives this trio investigates the discovery and the murky syndicate attempting to throttle it. Whilst in the throes of an attempt to decide whether to loose this scourge on the world, during which they are pursued by all and sundry-- World War II commences with a heave aerial bombardment of London. Ironically this sets the bacterium loose; civilization crashes and the book ends with a new small-scale agrarian culture beginning to emerge from almost primeval chaos. One could call the book "a clamming indictment of our current civilization" but its primary value to me seemed to be as a thriller pure and simple; and it was as such it was classed in the shop from which it was purchased. Good enough in itself, but I fear a sad comedown after the same authors magnificent story "Minimum Man", which I reviewed in "Spaceways" quite a while back.

"SAVARAN AND THE GREAT SAND by Douglas Danton, p. Cassell, 1939.

Have you ever had a beeootiful dream in which you were second only in conquering warriors, to conquering women? In which your daring figure braved all odds, you foresaw everything as you took part in adventure after adventure whilst beautiful women flung themselves at you. Well, here is such a story, with a hero who can do anything, apparently, and do it better single handed than a normal army corps. Such is Savaran--an adventurer in Africa. However the plot in which this prodigy struts; tis a tale of expedition to discover a lost city in the African desert, with a tradition of a tremendous treasure of gold a jewelry. One English girl, her brother and her fiance-a cavalry captain, from the original party, but numerous nondescripts and our wonderful little friend Savaran become attached during vicissitudes before the trek proper commences. Hue and cry in an African town, muting and murder on board ship; battle after battle with cannibal impi, all come as grist to the Savaran mill. But at long last we reach our city, only to be taken prisoner by the Amazon inhabitants. Does this deter Savaran--you've said it--NO! He jumps up to the beautiful virgin queen, she falls in love with him, he overthrows the court executioner and all is well. Or is it, for there is a wicked scheming priestess in the background. Yet, she too is eventually overthrown and as our original travellers file slowly and deeply laden with loot, out of the hitherto hidden

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dwell together in an organized society and man is the lowest of the low. In the previous tale an Englishman hunting elephants in central Africa was transferred back to these times to discover a wife and a happy home. In this book he is followed by a savant, the absent-minded professor of literature, a biologist who was accompanying the hunter on his expedition. Must, of course, be taken with a large grain of salt, but very enjoyable as pure fantasy, although somewhat horrific scenes of carnage appear to be indispensible to the authors writing. It is impossible to describe the happenings and background of the work in anything less than a moderate essay length. THREE MAKE A WORLD by Andrew Marvell, p. Victor Gollanz, 1938. A bacteriologist in an obscure South American country discovers a bacterium which not only lives in petroleum and practically all of its derivatives; but solidifies its habitant, thus causing it to be useless as a fuel. Even worse, oils of every type cease to be able to be used for lubrication. This is an obvious threat to our present form of civilization and the international oil interests in particular. These latter are out to destroy the discovery and silence the bacteriolist and his two assistants by murdering the former, one of the latter, and bribing the other. But the one assistant passes on some salient facts to one of our heroes; and the other is thoughtfully attempting a double-cross. However, our three heroes come on the scene, (a) a London biologist, (b) the communist son of a Midlands millionaire, and (c) a write of detective stories--the narrator. With the best of motives this trio investigates the discovery and the murky syndicate attempting to throttle it. Whilst in the throes of an attempt to decide whether to loose this scourge on the world, during which they are pursued by all and sundry-- World War II commences with a heave aerial bombardment of London. Ironically this sets the bacterium loose; civilization crashes and the book ends with a new small-scale agrarian culture beginning to emerge from almost primeval chaos. One could call the book "a clamming indictment of our current civilization" but its primary value to me seemed to be as a thriller pure and simple; and it was as such it was classed in the shop from which it was purchased. Good enough in itself, but I fear a sad comedown after the same authors magnificent story "Minimum Man", which I reviewed in "Spaceways" quite a while back. "SAVARAN AND THE GREAT SAND by Douglas Danton, p. Cassell, 1939. Have you ever had a beeootiful dream in which you were second only in conquering warriors, to conquering women? In which your daring figure braved all odds, you foresaw everything as you took part in adventure after adventure whilst beautiful women flung themselves at you. Well, here is such a story, with a hero who can do anything, apparently, and do it better single handed than a normal army corps. Such is Savaran--an adventurer in Africa. However the plot in which this prodigy struts; tis a tale of expedition to discover a lost city in the African desert, with a tradition of a tremendous treasure of gold a jewelry. One English girl, her brother and her fiance-a cavalry captain, from the original party, but numerous nondescripts and our wonderful little friend Savaran become attached during vicissitudes before the trek proper commences. Hue and cry in an African town, muting and murder on board ship; battle after battle with cannibal impi, all come as grist to the Savaran mill. But at long last we reach our city, only to be taken prisoner by the Amazon inhabitants. Does this deter Savaran--you've said it--NO! He jumps up to the beautiful virgin queen, she falls in love with him, he overthrows the court executioner and all is well. Or is it, for there is a wicked scheming priestess in the background. Yet, she too is eventually overthrown and as our original travellers file slowly and deeply laden with loot, out of the hitherto hidden