Fri 16 Jul 2021
Diary Review: HOWARD L. CORY – The Mind Monsters.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[16] Comments
HOWARD L. CORY – The Mind Monsters. Ace Double G-602, paperback original, 1966. Published back-to-back with The Unteleported Man, by Philip K. Dick (reviewed here ).
An astronaut, Terence O’Corcoran, crash-lands on a strange planet where he encounters strange monsters, genies and leprechauns, and the apathetic people of the city Mahtog, who are being terrorized by the Thryn. The Thryn, actually Mahtogians who have been captured and drugged, are led by the bearded and mysterious Brahubru.
An army is formed and war is begun, ending with the revealing of Brahabru as the original Terence, but it does not come as much of a surprise. It was, of course, the Genies who had made an improved copy to help their created people.
One gets the feeling that the author was glad to get away from the scientific environment of Terence’s spacecraft to concentrate on the seemingly magical qualities of the planet, but since the Genies are finally revealed to be energy-beings, this story does qualify as science fiction. The problems of language and translations are discussed (pages 60-61), but the author’s efforts do not always seem consistent.
Rating: 2½ stars.
July 16th, 2021 at 4:50 pm
Note to younger self: Based on this review, the story line makes no sense at all.
July 16th, 2021 at 6:16 pm
I notice Mahtog is Gotham backwards. Perhaps the author had one eye on the TV watching Batman as he wrote this.
July 16th, 2021 at 6:57 pm
Ha! I didn’t notice that, then or now.
July 16th, 2021 at 8:55 pm
That might be a satirical jab at the real Gotham considering the plot. I can’t imagine a lot of people noticed this considering the Dick novel it was doubled with.
July 16th, 2021 at 9:23 pm
Things I know now (thanks to Google) that I had no way of knowing then:
“Howard L. Cory” was the collaborative writing name of Jack Owen Jardine (1931-2009) and Julie Ann Jardine (1926-2012), who were married from 1958 to 1968; the name was taken from her stage name, Corrie Howard.
Author of two novels under this name:
The Sword of Lankor (New York: Ace Books, 1966)
The Mind Monsters (New York: Ace Books, 1966)
As Larry Murdock, Jack Jardine wrote four books in his Agent of T.E.R.R.A series for Ace:
1 The Flying Saucer Gambit (1966)
2 The Golden Goddess Gambit (1967)
3 The Emerald Elephant Gambit (1967)
4 The Time Trap Gambit (1969)
July 17th, 2021 at 6:56 am
Judging from the titles and look of the books, I’d say the Agent of T.E.R.R.A. books were marketed as the SF equivalent of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Has anyone in the known universe ever read one?
July 17th, 2021 at 10:12 am
I know I read them but after 50 years it’d hard to recall what they were about, I think time traveling Man from UNCLE pretty much covers it.
July 17th, 2021 at 12:49 pm
The first Agent of T.E.R.R.A. book was based on a Man From U.N.C.L.E. outline that Jardine failed to sell to Ace. He repurposed it well. I read all four books and enjoyed them. According to Jardine’s daughter, who commented after I posted about him on my blog, there were two more novels in the series written but never published.
And here’s a review I did of a collection of Jardine’s short stories, many of them with noir elements: https://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com/2011/02/forgotten-books-passionate-amazons.html
July 17th, 2021 at 3:38 pm
Thanks for the link, James. I don’t remember it from when it was first posted, but now maybe because there’s a connection, I found it very very interesting. Maybe even to the extent of trying to find a copy!
July 17th, 2021 at 4:16 pm
James, This is a book and author Al Hubin didn’t know about before, so both Jardine and the book will be included in the next (and last) online Addenda to his CRIME FICTION IV. Thanks!
July 17th, 2021 at 1:11 pm
Two and a half stars is too high for this one. I bought the book for the Dick, but read this too and my reaction was pretty much “who cares?â€.
July 17th, 2021 at 3:40 pm
That’s probably the best two word review that fits the book — but at least this means that at least two of us have actually read it.
July 17th, 2021 at 4:24 pm
Here’s something I just discovered that I found interesting. Jardine wrote at least five articles and/or stories for various men’s magazines in the early 60s under the name Terence O’Corcoran, the hero of this Ace Double novel.
July 17th, 2021 at 7:43 pm
Like Rick, I read the PKD novel and semi-liked it. Then I read THE MIND MONSTERS which I thought was terrible. I have a copy of THE SWORD OF LANKOR and a couple of the AGENT OF T.E.R.R.A books but haven’t read them.
July 17th, 2021 at 8:08 pm
SWORD OF LANCOR has a similar feel to it. I can’t say I was impressed with AGENT OF T.E.R.R.A. though. There is a feel of someone trying to do something clever with humor in the genre and not quite up to it about the books.
I applaud them for reaching, but they missed the mark by a mile for my taste.
November 21st, 2021 at 11:07 pm
[…] of Jack Jardine, who wrote other SF novels and stories as Howard L. Myers. The comments following my earlier review of The Mind Monsters which he wrote under that name has quite a bit of discussion about […]