Sun 23 Jul 2023
Diary SF Review: TED WHITE – Phoenix Prime.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[3] Comments
TED WHITE – Phoenix Prime. Qanar #1. Lancer 73-476, paperback original; 1st printing, 1966. Cover art by Frank Frazetta.
Max Quest awakes one morning with new paranormal powers. Hi plans for using them for the benefit of mankind are interrupted by the attacks of Others with the same powers. Unable to defeat him directly, they turn to his girl friend Fran and send her to the alternate world of Qanar.
Max follows her rather than submit to being reduced to their level. After lengthy adventures, Max finds Fran and is able to return with her to defeat the Others, who have stunted their powers by failing to use them properly.
The first fifty pages, as Max learns of his powers, with a detailed view of present-day New York City, are the most interesting, the most realistic. While certainly well done, the imaginative world of Qanar lacks the perception Ted White utilizes to describe the familiar.
On page 162, the theory that man has lost his place in the system of nature conflicts with the idea that man can transcend his animalistic background. Must it be that man must take an additional evolutionary step to improve himself?
Rating: ****
The Qanar series —
1. Phoenix Prime (1966)
2. The Sorceress of Qar (1966)
3. Star Wolf! (1971)
July 23rd, 2023 at 4:06 pm
I do not remember what I was referring to in that last paragraph. I only retyped what I wrote back then.
The first three paragraphs suggest the story to be a fairly ordinary tale of heroic fantasy with SFnal overtones, a la Henry Kuttner, say.
But the last paragraph suggests to m now that White had some serious thoughts he was trying to slip in about the world and man’s place in it.
Just another book I’d like to read again, I guess, especially as I see I gave it four stars.
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:33 pm
I had similar reactions to Andre Norton’s WITCH WORLD, Roger Zelazny’s NINE PRINCES IN AMBER, and even Heinlein’s GLORY ROAD, the early bits where the fantasy/adventure stuff were contrasted with the contemporary world worked better for me than the fantasy worlds they ended up in.
I had a similar problem with the soft porn Richard Blade series that always promised more with the Earthbound set ups was never met by the fantastic worlds he found himself in.
A good series could be written where our John Carter stand in finds himself encountering those fantastic elements in the middle of civilization replete with warrior princesses, giant monsters, and multi armed green giants.
July 23rd, 2023 at 10:21 pm
I never read much of either Norton or Zelazny, but what I remember reading of either one makes me wish now I’d read more. The only author I could come up in my first comment was Kuttner. Yours are better choices.
What I’ve read of Richard Blade makes me wish I hadn’t, but I like where you’re going when you bring up John Carter and his adventures.