Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

various acquaintances. Most of the rest consists of babbling fantasy sequences played out in
Thompson's distorted brain -- quite what they had to do with what he was supposed to be reporting I
could never really work out. I never thought I'd call a Hunter Thompson book boring; but that is the only
word that describes this one. There is one small nugget in the mountain of dross -- the last chapter is
Thompson's obituary for Richard Nixon. It is vicious and ranting and it pulls no punches. It is vintage
Thompson and reading it makes you realise why he was once the political voice of his generation. But no
longer, I'm afraid.
Another generational voice was Michael Palin who, firstly as a Python and later as an intrepid world
traveller delighted millions. Now he is a novelist and Hemingway's Chair is his book. It concerns one
Martin Sproale, an assistant postmaster with an obsessive hobby -- the life of Ernest Hemingway. To the
village comes an American scholar called Ruth Kohler. She is looking for peace and quiet to write a thesis
on the women in Hemingway's life. Upheavals in the post office combine with upheavals in Martin's
general life and she encourages him to dive ever deeper into his obsessions. The book becomes
progressively more bleak as it explores the nature of obsession, and this obsession in particular.
Though the book is worthy, I found it dull. Obsessives interest me (mainly because I am one myself) but
the very private nature of an obsession in an area I am largely unfamiliar with (Hemingway's life and
works) left me cold. I couldn't help thinking that David Lodge would have done it much more
entertainingly than Michael Palin managed to do.
It was definitely time for Harry Harrison! Over the last couple of years Harrison (in collaboration with the
pseudonymous John Holm) has been writing an alternate world/fantasy series set in the so-called dark
ages. The second volume (One King's Way) has just been published. (The first was The Hammer and
the Cross). The series promises to be one of the best things he has ever done. The hero, Shef, has
fought his way from slavery to a Kingdom in an England ravaged by the Norse raiders. This volume
follows his adventures as he carries the war back to the Vikings. Separated from his companions, he is
forced to make a long trek through inland Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Meanwhile, unbeknown to
him, a group of his enemies, a fanatical order of soldiers known as the Knights of the Lance are
searching for the spear that pierced Christ's side on the cross. Once held by Charlemagne, it was the
loss of this spear that precipitated the breakup of his Empire. With it, perhaps the Empire could be
restored.
These diverse plots come together in the frozen wastes of the North in a totally satisfying, dramatic (and
largely unexpected) manner. As with the McMurtry book I mentioned previously, Harrison pulls no
punches about the realities of life in the era about which he writes. This is not a book for the squeamish.
But it is a book to revel in and enjoy for the sheer story telling gusto of it. It held me enthralled, even
through an attack of Rangoon Rot which struck me down half way through the Melbourne week. It can't
have been the water, I drank beer. Perhaps I shouldn't have breathed the air?
Harry Harrison is famous for his whimsy and Alan Dean Foster is not. And yet One King's Way is not in
the least whimsical whereas Foster's new short story collection Mad Amos most certainly is. Don't you
just love contradictions?
Mad Amos Malone is a mountain man from the old West. He rides a horse called Worthless and he has
adventures out West with dragons and spirits and shamans and volcanoes and the whole thing is so
utterly ridiculous that you can't help but laugh at it. I think Foster is a vastly under-rated writer. There are
many excellent works in his vast output, he just camouflages them under a mountain of second rate
movie adaptations and never ending series that I suppose he writes for the money. But Mad Amos is
just plain fun. I particularly enjoyed the very understated scene where Amos adjusted the leather patch
on his horse's forehead and reminded himself to file the horn down because it was starting to grow
again.
Anyone who works with computers soon develops at least a passing interest in cryptography -- a
subject of considerable interest and controversy at the moment. Indeed some of us have had an
interest in it all our lives long. I vividly remember making up ciphers in my childhood and communicating
with my friends in code. Consequently I devoured the various books that started to appear from the