Adventure in the Skies! Aviation Pulp Fiction

Hello friends and welcome to the Book Graveyard, where we talk about all things vintage genre fiction. In this installment I wanted to talk about some pulpy aviation fiction that I’ve read and do a general timeline of the sub-genre in comparison with the history of flying and what was happening in the world. What attracts me most about these stories is that it’s a world of the past. Not only is it exciting adventure pulp but it is historical. The pilots of these first planes became the equivalent of the dime novel cowboy.

Timeline:

December 17, 1903: The Wright brothers become airborne—briefly

“Flying from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled, sustained flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. Each brother flew their wooden, gasoline-powered propeller biplane, the “Wright Flyer,” twice (four flights total), with the shortest lasting 12 seconds and the longest sustaining flight for about 59 seconds. Considered a historic event today, the feat was largely ignored by newspapers of the time, who believed the flights were too short to be important.”- From the History.com website

1914: World War One accelerates the militarization of aircraft

World War I became the first major conflict to use aircraft on a large scale, expanding their use in active combat. Nations appointed high-ranking generals to oversee air strategy, and a new breed of war hero emerged: the fighter pilot or “Flying Ace.” - From the History.com website

The Flying Ace pilot phenomenon is everything in aviation pulp fiction and the first two stories I will be talking about featuring Flying Aces.

The Flying Ace sensation is what inspired many of the war aviation pulps to take the archetype pulp hero character and mixing him with real world figures like Germany’s Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen or as you probably know him - thanks to Snoopy- The Red Baron.

Two of the planes which are featured in the G-8 issue we will be talking about are the Blériot (BLAIR-ee-oh)SPAD S.510 and the Fokker Dr. I. (fock-er dray-deck-er)

The Red Baron flew the Fokker Dr. I triplane which was a German plane based off of the British Sopwith triplane. The first Fokker Dr. I appeared over the Western Front in August 1917. Pilots were impressed with its agility, and several scored victories with the highly maneuverable triplane. Von Richthofen scored 19 of his last 21 victories were achieved while he was flying the Dr. I. By May 1918, however, the Dr. I was being replaced by the newer and faster Fokker D. VII (7). - From the National Museum of the United States Air Force

Since the United States entered World War I without a combat-ready fighter of its own, the U.S. Army Air Service obtained fighters built by the Allies. After the Nieuport 28 proved unsuitable, the Air Service adopted the SPAD XIII as its primary fighter. By the war's end, the Air Service had accepted 893 SPAD XIIIs from the French, and these aircraft equipped 15 of the 16 American fighter squadrons. Today, Americans are most familiar with the SPAD XIII because many of our aces -- like Rickenbacker and Luke -- flew them during WWI. - From the National Museum of the United States Air Force

1918: World War ends and with all of the surplus of planes built for the war governments use the planes to start carrying mail. In the Mitch Mayhew book, Unwanted Passenger that we will be talking about Mitch is a pilot that works for an agency that has an airmail contract.

The now skilled battle pilots with no more use for their fighting flying skills bring the excitement back home with barnstorming daredevil air shows.

May 1927 Charles Lindbergh- solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. This is big news in the world and was prime for pulp adventure. One man defeating all odds and in the face of danger comes out at the end a hero.

August 1927 Air Stories is the first aviation pulp published- pulpmags.org

1930s-40s Passenger airlines existed but were only accessible to the wealthy. A trip from New York to Los Angelas cost half the price of an automobile. - From the National Museum of the United States Air Force

1940s-70s non-scheduled airlines first appeared in significant numbers in the United States after the Second World War, as returning pilots purchased discount surplus planes from the government and set up their own uncertificated air services under the non-scheduled charter service exemption in the 1938 Civil Aviation Act. Low overhead and fewer regulations allowed the non-scheduled airlines to offer considerably lower fares than the national scheduled carriers, inaugurating the immensely popular air coach service which attracted millions of Americans unable to afford tickets on the regular airlines. Though the regulatory actions of the Civil Aeronautics Board ultimately extinguished the burgeoning non-scheduled industry, the idea of cheap, efficient air transport endured and by the passage of the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act nearly all civil airlines had transitioned to an air coach model. - Wikipedia

This is where our final story comes in with our protagonist working for Air cargo and independent transport service. This is like a wild west time for pilots. Think Han Solo archetype: loner adventurers taking odd jobs that cross the lines between legal and illegal who themselves are morally grey anti-heroes.

The first story we will be talking about is the very first issue of G- 8 and his Battle Aces which was originally published October 1933. The series was a re-imagining of sorts of the aviation pulp series Battle Aces which ran from 1930 to 1932. The publisher was Popular Publications which was created by Harry Steeger and Harold Goldsmith.

In 1931 rival publications Street and Smith had extreme success when it released the first issue of The Shadow. Jumping on the bandwagon Popular Publications came up with its own pulp hero characters; The Spider and G-8. The Spider was a crime fighter similar to the Shadow but G-8 was something different. It took Popular’s literal high adventure excitement World War One Battle Aces and added in the pulp hero element but instead of a vigilante crime fighter he was a Flying Ace super spy.

The series had 110 issues. Each issue was a single contained novel, and each issue was written by Robert J. Hogan.

Hogan was a prolific pulp author who wrote the series G-8 along with the yellow peril pulp title The Mysterious Wu Fang and a vigilante crew pulp series called Secret 6 which I had not heard of until researching this video and looks to be a proto-men’s adventure series that almost sounds exactly like the A-Team. After the pulps he mostly wrote western fiction.

G-8 and his Battle Aces #1 The Bat Staffel (German for squadron)

Our introduction to G-8 is him being held prison in the Freidburg Castle in Germany awaiting his execution. The Germans think he is a common spy but if they knew he was the legendary thorn in their sides, G-8 they would lose their minds. Unbeknownst to them this moderate size young pilot is not only the super spy known as G-8 but he was captured on purpose in order to get close to Herr Docktor Krueger the German’s diabolical idea man.

After some fast talking G-8 gets taken to Herr Docktor where he tricks him into divulging his master plan. And what is his master plan? Well, inside of an enormous mountain that had been sealed off for years, Herr Docktor has found the mythical giant poisonous bats. He intends to dig a tunnel from the mountain to the edges of France where he will send the bats out over the countryside, spraying their poison and killing millions. And from there, world domination. Obviously.

In a scene straight out of Indiana Jones G-8 escapes through a hole in the ceiling after throwing the poison gas that was to kill him against a wall.

He gets to his SPAD and takes off. But what’s this? He spots two other SPADS flying around. He can see from the insignia that they are US forces. No time to think though because a small squadron of German Fokkers are headed their way. We get a great dog-fight scene and the introduction of the two co-stars of the series, Nippy Weston and Bull Martin.

From here we get G-8, Nippy and Bull going up against the Germans. We get some Mission Impossible makeup, costumes and undercover work, tons of sky-high fighting action, and some serious James Bond villainy.

I know it’s been said many times before but everything we love in our post WW2 story telling started in the pulps. I mean just here in this first issue of G-8 we can see the influences on Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, James Bond and even Snoopy.

G-8 is a good title for people who aren’t necessarily into aviation but wouldn’t mind a little of that flavor in the story. It is very much a hero pulp and over the top. I mean, Germans controlling giant bats to rule the world isn’t exactly historical fiction. I think this makes G-8 standout amongst some of the other aviation pulps. Like I have read some stories in the Lone Eagle series, and they are rooted in reality; less fantastical than G-8. In fact, I would say that G-8 is geared toward a young adult audience though still completely enjoyable for old adults, like us.

Next up I wanted to talk about the Mitch Mayhew series written by Terrance Layhew. These are two modern day pulp stories in the tradition of classic adventure pulp fiction. Available for purchase here!

First off, I want to take a second to gush on the look and packaging of these books. They are published by Veritas Entertainment. There are two Veritas Entertainment companies. One did the Bob Dylan movie etc. This Veritas Entertainment is an independent publisher, promotor and film producer out of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

You will notice that they are published in not-dead-at-all mass market paperback size. I love the page count on these. One is 84 and the other is 104. I could read a hundred of these things. They completely nailed the look of pulp adventure. They seem like something from the past. Like I’m going to open it and there is going to be a Babe Ruth baseball card folded up inside a Liberty Bond as a bookmark in there.

Unwanted Passenger is the first in a series starring Mitch Mayhew, former WW1 pilot now turned mail carrier. But not a mailman. Think more like an independent trucker that takes what hauls he can get. So, as you can see per our history lesson, Terrance did his homework also as the history is on point which makes this even more enjoyable.

Mitch is hired by the Chicago DA to fly to Denver to deliver a certified envelope containing the evidence needed to put the Meadows Gang behind bars. Mitch has a bit of curmudgeon in his coffee and is not really thrilled about making the extra flight to Denver but the man who owns the delivery service says tough titties, you’re doing it, and by the way, you’ll be taking a passenger.

The unwanted passenger on this trip is Kathleen Dumont, beautiful and mysterious and nothing that Mitch wants to deal with.

We jump into Mitch’s DH-4 Liberty plane and head to our first stop in Omaha. We get some Han Solo vibes as Kathleen tries to start up a conversation. I like the reluctant romance and it’s no surprise as I know Terrance is a big fan of Romancing the Stone.

Back in the air to Denver Mitch spots a German Fokker headed his way. Strange but not impossible. Some US pilots prefer the Fokker. But then machine gun fire explodes and Mitch has to use evasive maneuvers, putting his WW1 experience to use. Unfortunately, his DH-4 has been converted to civilian use so no more gun turrets.

This has to be the Meadows Gang who got wind of him carrying the evidence to put them behind bars, right? Who else would be taking shots at a mail carrier?

And there is the set up. It doesn’t all take place in the air; we get some exciting action down on the ground in the Rocky Mountains. The pacing is quick and workman like. Terrence did a lot of work to not only get the historical aspects right but terrain detail, flying know-how, and artillery and he writes it all with punch perfect pulp flavor that would have fit right in with any of the Adventure pulps from back in the day.

The sequel or second installment finds us in Denver Colorado. It would seem Mitch makes it out of the first one alive. That’s good news. In this one we lean more into the ground adventure and criminal underworld. Every character is resourceful and it’s not forced. Though this was written in our modern times, I believe, the characters draw heavily from 80s action-adventure movies. Think Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Damsel in distress but not really.

These books are so much fun and a testament to modern day writers still having the pulp chops.

The last book I wanted to talk about is:

The Wrong Side of the Sky by Gavin Lyall

First published in 1961 by Hodder and Stoughton and then published by PAN in 1966. This is the 7th printing.

Gavin Lyall was a British journalist turned author. In 1951 to 1953 he served as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force. Drawing on his experiences in Libya and Greece to write his first novel, The Wrong Side of the Sky. It was a hit and he quit his day job to become a full-time author cranking out aviation flavored action-adventure novels.

The Wrong Side of the Sky starts in Greece. It’s never stated but from the historical aspects mention in the narrative I would say it takes place when it was written in 1961.

The story is written in a first-person narrative told from our man, Captain Jack Clay, a pilot of a Douglas DC-3 who works for the transport service, Aircargo. He has a copilot that is more like a coworker than a blood brother which emphasizes his solo nature.

While on the ground he spots a Piaggio 160 Italian twin-engine plane whose pilot is so slick that it could only be one of a few pilots he knew that had that skill. Later in the bar he walks in and is not surprised to see his friend and former co-pilot from the war, Ken Kitson. Kitson has been working as a private pilot for the Nawab of Tungabhadra. It looks like the job pays well because Clay describes Kitson as “dressed like the inside of a millionaires wallet.” Good line!

After a few drinks Ken spills the beans on what the Nawab is doing in this part of the world. We get a backstory of extreme violence and stolen jewelry. It’s an entertaining story but Clay has other things to worry about. Mikkos the local shipping agent wants Clay to take a shipment to Libya. Tonight. Clay knows when something is rotten, so he requests more money. Flying an illegal shipment of guns to Libya is a risk that he should be paid for.

This book, the narrative, the plot, the writing style is rich; a heavy and thick craft beer. You can’t just chug this like a 12 pack of High Life. It’s tough, colorful and muscular, packed full of verbal protein. The glass is poured to the brim so you have to go slow not to spill it. Sometimes I'd have to read a paragraph twice but it was never a bummer. It was always worthwhile.

There is so much going on in this book that even if I did a regular full-length review, I wouldn’t be able to properly lay it all out so I’ll just list some of the facets of the story. We have obviously lots of sky aviation action. Foxy ladies including a woman described as looking like a middle eastern version of Salma Hayek. We travel from Greece to the Libya and over the ocean to tiny islands. There is treasure hunting. Smuggling. Violent gangsters and corrupt cops. Shootouts. Prison breaks. Murders. History. Conspiracies.

Speaking of Romancing the Stone there is a scene almost exactly like in the movie where they come upon a wrecked plane in the jungle completely taken over by the environment. This book is romantically adventure. It’s hardboiled, tough-talking and full of so much macho that a bullet would bounce off of it’s iron hard nuts.

In a way it reminds me of the 1947 Alan Ladd movie Calcutta where he and his pal William Bendix are pilots whose friend is murdered and it leads the duo into a crime filled underworld of international jewel thieves and nefarious femme fatales. Actually yeah, if you want the film version of these kinds of stories go hunt that down. It’s one of my favorites.

Riptide by Donald Cheatham

Published by Zebra in 1984

This is the Fathom Press re-issue from 2026

Yes! Another hard-to-find 80s paperback is back in print from Fathom Press. Release date today! May 22nd 2026. With new cover art by Stephen Andrade.

Where to begin with Riptide?? I randomly picked up the original about 8 years ago in a used bookstore in Arizona. I don’t remember which one. Probably Book Maze in Mesa. I paid a couple bucks for it. Two dollars for a ticket on the Riptide roller coaster of insanity. This is one of the wildest books I’ve ever read.

When I made my top ten 80s horror paperbacks video I put this book at the top. Number one. But looking back that was probably unfair as this isn’t necessarily a straight horror book. In fact, when I shared the video to the Retro Horror Paperback Art group on facebook one person commented, it’s supposed to be a top ten horror list not a top ten schlock list. Comments like that usually launch nuclear bombs in my brain but for once I had to give it to them, they weren’t wrong. Riptide IS schlock. It’s not groundbreaking, hell, it mentions the movie JAWS multiple times. It knows what it’s doing but I get the impression that Donald Cheatham really meant it when he wrote this. He didn’t sit down to write, Microwave Sharks, or Sand Sharks or even Sharknado – which, BTW, I wouldn’t be surprised if Riptide wasn’t an inspiration for that movie- Donald Cheatham sat down to write an exciting Gulf Coast tale about the small beach community that he knew and lived in, killer wildlife, and a natural disaster that is always looming over the ocean side residents of Florida. Riptide isn’t JAWS but it’s not Cruel Jaws or The Last Shark either. It’s its own thing and it’s ridiculous and bloody and horny and most importantly it is not self-aware which makes all of the craziness charming. Other than some articles in his local newspapers Donald Cheatham didn’t write anything else besides this book. And let me tell you, this is B-book royalty and though I probably wouldn’t put it at the top of my 80s horror paperback book list if I did it again, it would definitely get the number one spot on my top ten absolute fun list.

Our hero in Riptide, and I use that term in the loosest possible sense, has a backstory that sounds like it would have been an action-packed crime thriller best seller. Michael Stark was a St Louis cop who took on a sniper serial killer in a long and drawn-out manhunt. The killer was someone from his past who was now massacring innocent people in St. Louis for a wrong he believes Stark did to him. The sniper’s body count is hilarious and gives you a little taste into what is to come; pregnant women, children Etc. Stark has a downtown shootout with him near a floating McDonald's on the river. St Louis people…did you really have a floating McDonald’s in the early 80s?? Tons of innocent bystanders get killed. It reminds me of the movie Demolition Man. The case and publicity ruin his life, so he leaves his family and moves to Florida to take this easy job as a detective in the small beachfront town of Surfside.

So basically, Riptide is the after-story of the tough as nails cop who went one-man-army against a psycho killer who is now taking it sleazy in big titty bikini land, sort of battling a giant tiger shark and surviving a devastating hurricane.

A huge part of what makes Riptide so fun is you never where it’s going. There are so many avenues this goes down that will make you literally say, “wait, what?” out loud.

So normally when I do reviews, I do an in-depth set up, talk about the general plot and then what I thought about it. But with the way Riptide plays fast and loose I feel like it might be better to give a little sample of what this book has to offer. I mean the basic set up is- ex St Louis-super cop gets new position in beach town, meets a plethora of smoking hot to trot ladies that he must navigate through, he has to catch a rapist on the nude beach, and there is a giant tiger shark eating people but in the end it doesn’t matter because a catastrophic hurricane is about to kill ninety thousand people. And we’re there for all of it. Crime, horror, sleaze and disaster novel all rolled into one.

Right away we get our first shark kill. A man sitting on the edge of a dock, completely out of the water is attacked when a rushing explosion of sharp-teeth shark-mouth chomps down on his leg and drags him in; a gurgling scream reaches no one’s ears from under the surface of the water.

Our hero Stark shows up at his new Surfside precinct. Yes, our hero’s name is one letter off from the word shark in a book about a killer shark. Stark is taken aback that not only is his superior Liza Sallings a woman, but she is also incredibly hot. You are probably wondering about her bra size. Well don’t worry because Cheatham lets us know it’s a 36D. These first two chapters are the perfect introduction to this book. Here is what’s on the menu, insane shark attacks and porn stars playing the roles of professional career women and neither ever lets up.

Let’s take a quick look at a small sampling of the insanity:

A shark chomping off a person’s head

A bus full of the elderly drowned

Hurricane winds blowing people’s skin right off their bodies

A guy riding a shark

A hurricane orgy with a death count

Undercover at the nude beach

Shark-Stark staring contest

Fires, floods, tan lines, no tan lines, hammerheads, hangovers, legs, pubes, killer pebbles, orgies, guns, tiger sharks, Jaws references, snakes, boobs, police work, bikinis, mothers and children eaten by sharks, incest twins eaten by sharks, cheating wives eaten by sharks, tourists eaten by sharks who are then immediately eaten by a bigger shark, and surprisingly lots of factual information on the ocean, sharks and hurricanes.

I’m going to go a little more in depth from here on out. If this book sounds like something you want to read already, stop reading right now and go buy it from fathompress.com. If you want to hear a little more and don’t mind lite spoilers- as if you could spoil this- stay tuned because there is no way I am not talking about the nude beach scene. I have to tell someone. It’s one of those things.

So, after we get our character introductions, we get Sallings in the world’s smallest bikini driving her and Stark in her yacht/houseboat out to a shipwreck crime scene. We get Stark watching ladies play with their pubes on the nude beach through binoculars from his 20th floor condo. Of course we get interspersing shark attacks throughout all of this. Stark and Sallings start to put together that there is a very big shark behind all these gruesome ocean events. Stark goes out with Sallings and meets a group of her hot younger friends who all want him. Being the good guy that he is he only takes one home. Stark finds a dead body on his first trip to nude beach. When he goes to see the medical examiner to discuss the body, surprise, it’s a woman and she is flirty and pretty hot. She suggests Stark go talk to this shark expert who happens to be in town. You all aren’t going to believe this. Are you ready? It’s a woman and she is smoking hot. She is wearing a thin little low-cut dress and much to Starks’ delight he could see that she was suntanned but didn’t have any bathing suit marks. Hello nude sunbathing Dr. Shark Expert!

From the very first chapter the looming threat of this giant hurricane is approaching. We start to get chapters from the Weather Institute perspective. I’m no meteorologist but Cheatham drops a lot of technical weather data here that sounds completely legit. Also, because it’s his style, there is a young woman who works at the institute trying to get her male co-worker’s attention by not wearing a bra to work. It’s insane! It is literally a sentence about her not wearing a bra at the end of a paragraph about the oncoming hurricane.

During the hurricane finale there are many inventive and hilarious kills but one of my favorites is there is a group of beach party people who decide to have a hurricane party which then turns into an orgy. While a man and woman are going at it, a hurricane wind blows the door off the building and the man who was on top goes right into the cement wall but the woman who is so in the moment doesn’t notice and keeps thrusting her pelvis in the air even after the man is gone.

The hurricane in this book is where I believe Sharknado might have got its premise. Obviously, the town floods during the storm and now we have killer sharks swimming through the streets. Now at the time this was written I don’t know if this was an original idea or maybe a Florida urban legend but in reality, this is something that is extremely rare. And they don’t go around munching people. I saw a few articles about it online. It actually has a bigfoot type legend around it. Google “hurricane shark” and you’re in for a treat.

And finally the undercover at the nude beach scene.

Though our focus has pretty much been on this dang shark eating people up and Stark meeting ladies for some reason we now have our Police Chief yelling at us about catching this rapist on the nude beach. Um. Ok.

Stark and Sallings need to take care of business, and first order of business is heading down to that nude beach to look for clues. You can’t be walking around in your clothes on nude beach asking questions; everyone will know you are cops. So, you must go undercover as nudists. AND it’s going to be a rough job, so you better take super sexy Hispanic officer, Juanita Hernadez.

Down at the beach Hernandez pops it all off and starts piling suntan lotion on. Stark goes next. She starts rubbing oil on him, including a close up of his backside. Sallings is next. The carpet matches the curtains. We take a second and admire all three bodies. Wait isn’t this a book about a killer shark?

While naked and combing the beach looking for clues, a group of dolphins is spotted and mistaken for sharks. But wait! A little boy watches a giant shark jump out of the water and eats a dolphin. A little girl is sitting in the water smacking it with her shovel to get the dolphins to come to her. Hold on! Hold on! Stop the review. What the hell are children doing on the nude beach?! Did the author forget where he was? Yes, he did because Stark happens to notice the shadow of the giant shark heading for the little girl, so he grabs her and scoops her into the air as the shark comes almost completely out of the water and on to the beach. Yes, naked Stark swinging and swaying holding a five-year-old girl in the air while a 20-foot tiger shark is snapping its jaws trying to get a delicious human in its mouth.

Stark puts the girl down and starts hitting the shark with a piece of driftwood. Still naked, mind you! And then throws a couple rocks. This makes the shark angry. It slides back into the water. But as Stark is walking down the beach they notice the shark is following him. Back and forth. Now it’s personal! The two stare each other down. Eyeball to Eyeball. Finally, Hernandez shows up with the bathing suits and automatic rifles but it’s too late the shark has swam off.

Need I say more?! Go buy this book now!

The Rig by Ronald Wilcox

The Rig by Ronald Wilcox

Published by Leisure in 1978

Written review below. Video review here:

Ron Wilcox was born in Holladay Utah in 1934. He attended Brigham Young University and has a master’s degree in arts from Baylor University. He was an actor and a playwright. He wrote four plays and appeared in over sixty. He published one novel, this one, The Rig. He has been a consistent contributor to Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought since the 1960s which featured his poetry. Much of it of a religious nature including an epic poem apptly titled Mormon Epic and Mormon Epic II.

A great white Kenworth was gliding through the desert night. Easing the Roadranger transmission into high thirteen, the man inside lit up a cigarillo, settled in for the long haul.

He seemed sane enough, to himself- a good old boy, a trucker. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. But something was wrong, terribly wrong. His eyes took on a kind of blankness, cold as the white Bonneville salt flats.

Cold as midnight.

The story starts on Interstate 80 just east of West Wendover Utah. An unnamed trucker is hauling is brand new rig, an acquisition courtesy of his deceased wife’s insurance policy. He sees a VW Bus broken down on the side of the road. He slows down. It’s a woman with a flat tire. Inside the van are her three kids.

The women is relieved to finally see some help out here. She asks the man for help but he only stares. She tells him that her husband is also a trucker and could he maybe radio in and tell him the situation. He ignores her again and pulls a shotgun up the edge of the window. She is now terrified and starts praying. The kids want to know what’s going on. She turns to try and change the tire herself.

Our protagonist, her trucker husband Larry Hatcher, CB handle: True Grit and his friend Axel are at a truck stop an hour down the road. Their rig broke down and they are waiting for mobile mechanic Attila the One to fix it.

Here we get set-up and back story through dialogue. It’s incredibly colorful and completely manly trashy trucker conversation which jumps back and forth from wholesome family talk like Larry’s relationship with his Mormon wife Jean and how he is thinking of converting for the kids and banging lot lizards and truck stop hookers like the one who happens to double as their waitress which his horny friend Axel and some other truckers indeed do take to the storage room and hire her services.

Hey Larry, come join in the fun!

No, no, I can’t. Jean will be here any moment. Plus it would be wrong.

Annnnd… gratuitous gangbang scene on a truck stop waitress hooker. It surprisingly has some detail to it. I had heard Ronald Wilcox was a practicing Mormon when he wrote this so I was really amazed at this graphic and very not-marital sex scene. It gets weirder also. Larry mentally justifies it, pros versus cons, and then dives right in. While he’s pounding away a call comes over on the CB, a pregnant roller-skate has been in a bad accident.

A pregnant roller-skate is trucker lingo for VW Bus. So yes, while cheating on his wife with a prostitute Larry gets the bad news. This thing is skanky already!

Thankfully we don’t get to watch our unnamed antagonist take out Larry’s family. What we do get though is a scene post-murder of our psycho killer; miles away he pulls off the side of the road, puts on an all-black cowboy outfit complete with six shooters, walks out to the pasture and shoots every cow in the field. Then he jerks off. Then he pulls out a knife and cuts off one of the udders. He then hangs it on a hook next to a woman’s severed breast in his frozen meat delivery trailer.

This is a nasty little introduction!

So, what IS the plot here?

After the death of his family Larry is stricken with not only sadness but guilt over what he was doing at the time of their death. He quits working, starts drinking heavily and puts his house up for sale. He doesn’t want to be alive anymore. His buddy Axel tries to talk him into doing a run with him by taking Larry out for some pick-me-up pancakes. A stranger comes and sits at Larry’s table while Axel is in the bathroom. The man says he is a trucker also and wants to join Larry and Axel. No thanks, dork. Stranger insults Axel and leaves.

Our protagonist and antagonist have now met but, number one Larry doesn’t know his family was murdered and number two he has no idea that this looney is the one who did it.

Down the line Larry takes on a job where he has to ride along with this guy who has a name now; Langley. He doesn’t remember him from the pancake house, but he can tell right away that he doesn’t like the guy. Larry assesses him as a wannabe. A poser. He is dressed like he thinks truckers should dress. He overuses trucker lingo. He notices that he is trim and fit probably from lifting weights which in Larry’s mind is for soft men who don’t have that natural masculinity. I’m paraphrasing but daaamnn.

Langley wants nothing more than to be Larry’s best friend. Or just be Larry in general. If you’ve seen the movie The Cable Guy it’s like that but with a serial killer and brutal violence.

This book in general is incredibly suspenseful. The writing is fluid and real, it’s working-class prose and dialogue which means, it’s accessible. Though I am generally the target range audience for this book, it is very specific to truckers. Lots of terminology and culture. In fact, the author almost has a Langley type worship about truckers. He talks about them in the same way people talk about war veterans. Like truckers are hardened soldiers out there on the front lines risking their lives for their country.

But at the same time, there is some very interesting psychological study into the serial killer mind here that predates a lot of the concepts that are now widely known in mainstream culture.

Even though he consciously commits these murders he is also detached. At one point he reads a newspaper article about Larry’s family being killed. He's upset that a fellow trucker whom he considers his brother has been so hurt. Even though, he's the one who did it. Not that he acknowledges that. He decides he's going to find him and help him out. In order to get Larry in a position to need his friendship he takes fiendishly prepared steps, and it works. The Langley character is like an actor playing the part of a regular person. His mind is in two places at once, one taking part in what is happening and the other watching from a distance.

I loved this book so much and though I want to talk about the third act I am just going to leave it completely untouched. The Rig is a book that needs to be re-issued. It’s trashy but clever at the same time. It never slows down or lulls in momentum. This is one of those rare moments where the book is rare and sought after AND it delivers. This is Cape Fear on eighteen wheels drenched in the height of the trucker culture exploitation era of the 70s. It’s filled with brutal violence. It’s a working-class psychological thriller that gives it a noir tone. The every-day-Joe takes on Silence of the Lambs.

My only complaint about this entire novel is the two main characters’ names both starting with the letter L; Larry and Langley. It’s a small gripe and one that doesn’t affect the enjoyment but it will make you stumble every once in awhile and have to reset.

This Island Earth by Raymond F Jones & Shasta Publishers

One day while perusing the shelves at Bonnett’s Books here in Dayton Ohio I came upon a spine that said This Island Earth. I excitedly grabbed it. Was this a coincidence!? A novelization of the movie!? To my surprise it was indeed THAT Island Earth and it was the original novel that the 1955 movie was based on. One that I had watched many times as it was the movie that appeared in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Movie.

Video review here. Written review below.

This Island Earth was written by Raymond F Jones and originally was published as a three part serial in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Part one was titled, “The Alien Machine” and appeared in the June 1949 issue.

Part two was titled, "The Shroud of Secrecy” and appeared in the December 1949 issue.

Part three was titled, "The Greater Conflict” and appeared in the February 1950 issue.

Raymond F Jones combined the three and filled it out to make a full-length novel and in 1952 it was published in hardcover by Shasta Publishers out of Chicago. I have the hardcover Shasta Book Club Edition, and it has this absolutely terrible cover here that makes it looks like a 1950s high school science textbook. I will say I do love the giant SCIENCE-FICTION at the top.

What a disappointment to go from the incredible cover art of those pulp mags to this almost plain cover. The painfully basic cover art did lead me down an interesting rabbit hole as I was curious to see who this Shasta was and what their other covers looked like. So, we’re going to take a little detour because I think this story is very inspiring especially to people like us and all other fans who want to participate.

Shasta was founded in 1947 when three science fiction fans from Chicago, Erle Melvin Korshak, T. E. Dikty, and Mark Reinsberg came together to release The Checklist of Fantastic Literature compiled by E.F. Bleiler, a comprehensive list of science fiction, fantasy and weird books published before 1949. The book records over 5000 titles. Which if you needed to be reminded, this is the 40s. Acquiring this kind of information would take years and the logistics are beyond my understanding. Imagine how much money was spent on stamps alone.

After they released their book and it was a well received success, they decided, well hell, we should keep going. Shasta then released a string of science fiction classics. Their next book published is in my top five favorite short stories of all time, Who Goes There? By John W Campbell with the iconic Hannes Bok cover art, who also happened to do the cover for The Checklist.

They released seventeen more titles. The first eleven had incredible artwork. Let’s just take a min and check it out.

Slaves of Sleep, by L. Ron Hubbard (1948) H.W. Scott

The Wheels of If, by L. Sprague de Camp (1949) Bok

The World Below, by S. Fowler Wright (1949) (what happened here??)

The Man Who Sold the Moon, by Robert A. Heinlein (1950) Hubert Rogers

Sidewise in Time, by Murray Leinster (1950) Bok

Kinsmen of the Dragon, by Stanley Mullen (1951) Bok

Space on My Hands, by Fredric Brown (1951) Malcom Smith

The Green Hills of Earth, by Robert A. Heinlein (1951) Hubert Rogers

Cloak of Aesir, by John W. Campbell, Jr. (1952) (short fiction collection) Malcom Smith

And what was number twelve? This Island Earth. Cover by Robert Johnson

And here the cover art really takes a dive. Maybe they weren’t doing so well financially and couldn’t afford to have top genre illustrators do their covers anymore?

We might as well take a look at the rest of the titles since there is only seven left.

Murder in Millennium VI, by Curme Gray (1952) Robert Johnson. Please fire this guy.

The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester (1953) Mark Reinsberg (one of the Shasta owners)

Space Platform, by Murray Leinster (1953) Isaac Heilbron. This one is YA. It has a passable cover for what it is.

Revolt in 2100, by Robert A. Heinlein (1953) Hubert Rogers. They threw some money into this cover. Heinlein must have sold well for them.

Science Fiction Carnival, edited by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds (1953) Ardi Ames

Space Tug, by Murray Leinster (1953) Malcom Smith. Another YA novel but with some fun and exciting cover art.

Empire of the Atom, by A. E. van Vogt (1956) Malcom Smith

So yeah, what an impressive little run they had. What makes it more special in my eyes is that these books were released out of love. A major publisher is probably more aware of what won’t and what will make money and lean into the latter. Which, there is something to be said about that also because those publishers lasted for decades. Some are still going. But I do love an underdog and really appreciate people with passion who make things happen.

I’m so glad that I stumbled upon this book and took a minute to look into who released it. What an exceptional random find. And of course, today the books are even more collectible than they were back then. Who Goes There? is up on ABE books for $500 2nd edition to $1500 1st edition.

And now on to THIS ISLAND EARTH

Joe Wilson is the purchasing agent for Ryberg Instrumentation Corporation. He stares out the window, depressed. He always wanted to be an engineer but now here he is an office flunky whose sole purpose is to order mechanical parts for hunky leading man Cal Meacham. Cal is a radio engineer, a pilot, a pacifist, and an honorable scientist. He thinks science should be used to make the world a better place, not to destroy or kill. I like him already.

Joe has ordered a new condenser from his usual supplier, but when it arrives it is much more powerful than the one he ordered. Even more odd, it came from a completely different supplier than who he ordered from.

Cal is blown away with how the condenser works. This technology doesn’t exist! He asks around the other departments at Ryberg. They have also gotten parts from this mysterious new supplier and likewise they have mechanics and power that seem impossible.

Some time goes by and from the same supplier comes an instruction manual on how to build and “interocitor.” What’s an interociter? Cal wonders. He takes his time putting it together and we are there step by step with all of the fun sci-fi and electronics jargon.

Once assembled we see that Cal has built a high tech communications device. A man appears on the screen. He congratulates Cal on building the interocitor and invites him to join his group of super scientists called, The Peace Engineers. Which is great, because Cal loves peace. The Peace Engineers mission statement is basically to work on cutting edge electronic, physic, and mechanical inventions but keeping them out of the hands of world leaders and the common people as they can’t be trusted with it. Sounds very James Bond villain to me but not to Cal and he is all in.

So right off the bat there are a few differences from the movie but nothing major. Joe isn’t Cal’s fellow engineer who helps him build the interocitor. There’s no hint of something alien at the beginning. Cal’s plane doesn’t glow green and malfunction. The unnamed-at-this-point man who appears on the interocitor is not Exeter and is completely human looking. The time frame of events is stretched out. In fact it’s like that in the whole book. We’re talking years for this whole plot to unfold.

A plane with no pilot shows up to pick Cal up and take him to just north of Phoenix Arizona. As he exits the plane he is met by a looker of a lady whose name is Ruth. Ruth works for The Peace Engineers as a psychiatrist ...but also a secretary/ personal assistant to Dr Warner, the man Cal spoke to on the interocitor. Cal does not recognize her like in the movie which is fine because that whole little interaction didn’t really make sense. Cal does have a hard time calling Ruth doctor though because she’s a pretty woman.

Cal meets with Dr Warner who tells him that this is an interocitor plant and he wants Cal to manage it. Being that they are working on an item that is not a weapon Cal is all in. At the facility he meets his old Swedish college roommate Ole. Right away Ruth and Ole tell Cal that something fishy is going on around this here interocitor plant but Cal is way too excited about science to listen. Then we get a huge chunk of this book where Cal is just running the plant. Exciting stuff.

Eventually we meet the leader of the Peace Engineers, Dr. Jorgasnovara. Cal instantly likes the man and completely dismisses the worries of his friends.

And there is our set up. I would imagine this is the end of the first part of the original serial, The Alien Machine. I loved it. It’s intriguing, suspenseful and mysterious. Who are these Peace Engineers really? What does the interocitor actually do? I also appreciate how drawn out the time frame is. It works better than the movie. Not that the movie is unenjoyable in the beginning. I mean, it has different story telling logistics. It HAS to move faster but with the novel you could slow down and fill in the gaps. Aside from the section where Cal starts running the plant, the novel’s pacing isn’t slow.

Unfortunately, here is where the book takes a bit of a dive.

Finally, Cal starts to become suspicious but there is a lot of back and forth. Unfortunately, that suspicion envelopes everything so it becomes a complete conspiracy. It’s the Peace Engineers, it’s Ruth, it’s Ole, and back and forth over and over. What starts off as intriguing becomes tiresome.

The rest of the book is almost completely different from the movie.

Cal and Ruth are married by the beginning of part two.

This Island Earth is explained. Jorgasnovara explains that his people are from another world and are at war with another. He likens Earth’s part in it all to how in World War Two the warring countries would enlist the help of the “primitive people,” the locals of various small islands, to help clear forests which in turn helped the troops of the good guys to win the day. So essentially Earth people are the primitives and our planet is an island strategically located on the battlefield. And peace loving Cal who thinks science should be used only for the advancement of his world immediately flips and signs on to help battle this alien race.

It’s a strange turn of events but I’m starting to see that Mr. Raymond F Jones had some political comments and now you’re going to hear about them. Which, you know, it’s his book, totally fine. Let’s hear what you got Jones.

I would surmise that maybe Raymond F Jones thought that people who believe in peace and not getting involved aren’t being realistic. This point was written in the plotline pretty well. It made sense, he made some valid arguments. No issue with this.

On the other hand, Raymond F Jones does not like the Union. There is no surmising from me on this point. It is loud and clear. At one point the interocitor production floor is sabotaged in the middle of the night. Cal immediately blames the union. The union doesn’t want money Ole explains, “It won’t matter how much you give them. They just have to strike periodically to show things are still done the democratic way around here, and they’re just as good as the next guy.”

Ok, not bad. It's subtle and fair. Let's hear what Cal has to say though,

"Don't blame the union," said Ruth. "They don't support this kind of thing. It's the crackpot morons who get in that are responsible for this."

"The union is responsible! said Cal. "It's responisible because it admits and upholds and goes on strike in behalf of the crackpots and morons. Each individual member of the organization is responsible for this as long as he votes and strikes in support of a sub-normal moron we need to remove in order to run a factory. There's no way on Earth they can escape that responsibility."

You like unions? You don’t like unions? You want to give your opinion in your novel? Whatever. My only stipulation is that it has to cohesively fit in the storyline and be a valid dispute. You can’t turn to the camera and give speeches. There was no compelling argument and the idea that because this interocetor union went on strike now meant the whole world would be destroyed is so outrageous.

Sorry. I don’t mean to harp on about this but not only is it mentioned over and over through the middle of the book, there is a whole chapter dedicated to it. AND spoiler alert, it wasn’t even the union that sabotaged the facility. The whole incident was created just so he could have Cal give these insane angry tirades.

As you can see we lost a lot of fun here and we are still at the plant with Cal while he tries to manage it. Yes, This Island Earth the movie is now out in space having the adventure of a lifetime and in the book Cal is trying to figure out how to triple production in a factory full of "petulant child-minded laborers."

I’ll just leave the climax detail here untouched. It is nothing like the movie and proceeds on the same trajectory and dies with a whimper.

Big disappointment here but only because I have the movie to compare it to. The beginning was so promising but at the start of the second installment it breaks down slow and steady until you get to the end and you are glad it’s over. There are enjoyable aspects to it so it’s not a complete disaster. I am glad I read it though and I am really glad that I bought this edition. After learning about Shasta I feel like I have something special here even if the story contained inside was middle of the road.