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Last Update 7/27/26
Stalking Horse by Rafael Sabatini, 1933
Sabatini became more interested in political intrigue than in swashbuckling in most of his later novels. This one – which deals with the Jabobite plan to assassinate William of Orange and restore a Catholic king to the throne – is a case in point. One member of the conspiracy to assassinate William is clearly a spy, but no one knows who it is. A brother and sister who are devoted to the cause find themselves at risk, and unless they identify the turncoat, their own lives are in jeopardy. History shows us that the Jacobites failed, but the novel offers the possibility that some of them escaped the consequences of their actions. But it is rather dull. 7/27/26
Chivalry by Rafael Sabatini, 1935
This is a pretty minor low key adventure novel set in 15th Century Italy. It follows the career of a mercenary captain who, during the course of several years, is affected by four women. Two of them influence him for their own purposes. Two have legitimate problems. Since our hero has a strict sense of honor, he takes only those jobs in which he believes he is siding with the good guys, although that’s not always obvious. And some of his subordinates are more interested in a large payoff than in the matters behind the various conflicts. Their loyalty to their captain is entirely mercenary. Somehow he survives betrayals, battles, and treachery on every side. 7/23/26
The King’s Minion by Rafael Sabatini, 1930
Aka The Minion. This is based on an historical character named Carr who had a great deal of influence with King James until a scandal ended his career. He falls in love with another man’s wife and his mentor tries to derail the romance because he believes it will be politically offensive. Carr responds by influencing the king to imprison the man for a minor offense, and then apparently arranges for him to be poisoned. Following his death, rumors of his murder by Carr continue until he is tried in what history knows as The Overbury Affair. Although he has now married the woman he loves, he has lost his influence and is financially ruined. This was a rather unadventurous historical novel. 7/19/26
Scaramouche the King Maker by Rafael Sabatini, 1931
Moreau has changed sides after deciding that the French revolutionary government is corrupt and evil. He smuggles aristocrats out of the country, then disguises himself and sets about undermining the new government. His plan is to make it obvious that they are corrupt and profiting off their position rather than helping the people. He also sabotages some financial transactions. Although he is in constant danger of being exposed and arrested, the story is rather slow moving and is more about political intrigue than any actual adventure. Sabatini grew increasingly reflective in his later novels and derring do became less prevalent. 7/19/26
The Hounds of God by Rafael Sabatini, 1928
Although this starts well, the second half is rather dull. The conflict begins when a ship from the Spanish Armada sinks and an aristocrat makes it to shore where he is sheltered by a local earl. He falls in love with the earl’s daughter – but she does not return his affection so he kidnaps her and takes her back to Spain. Alas, the Inquisition is in full swing and she is branded a heretic and a witch and sentenced to torture and execution. Her abductor regrets what he did but is powerless to affect the outcome. Meanwhile, back in Britain, the man she actually loves does everything possible to free her, including asking for the Queen’s direct intervention. This is all a series of political maneuvers and there isn’t much action at all for two thirds of the novel. 7/15/26
The Gamester by Rafael Sabatini, 1949
This was Sabatini’s last novel. It is not an adventure story, but rather a fictionalized account of the life of John Law, an historical figure who briefly was influential in French economic policy. He has fled England following a fatal and illegal duel and several years as a professional gambler lead to his introduction to the French government. He proposes a scheme of currency based on trade potential rather than precious metals. Although it is initially successful, it eventually and suddenly collapses, causing economic chaos and his own personal financial ruin. His one consolation is that his wife remains loyal to him despite his bankruptcy. 7/12/26
The Venetian Mask by Rafael Sabatini, 1934
Although this is not one of Sabatini’s best known novels, it is surprisingly good. Once again he deals with the French Revolution, in this case Napoleon’s campaign to conquer the free city of Venice. The hero is a fugitive French aristocrat on a secret diplomatic mission from England. He uses multiple identities as he deals with French spies, old personal enemies, and traitors in Venice who want Napoleon to take the city. He is in love with a Venetian aristocrat and ultimately has to flee the city with her after it falls to the French. Lots of intrigue, several small scale battles, and an exciting series of chases and impersonations. 7/9/26
The Lost King by Rafael Sabatini, 1937
There is a myth that the son of the last king of France did not die in prison but actually was rescued. Sabatini plays on that idea, although he has the boy drown before reaching safety. Some years later, a group of influential royalists find a boy in Switzerland who looks a lot like the dead one and since the real body was never found, they decide to have him impersonate a member of the royal family and become the inspiration for a counter revolution. That never happened, of course, so we know from the outset that the plot fails. Sabatini provides reasons why – internal bickering, political differences, power struggles, personal rivalries, and more. The plot falls apart in the novel as well. There is very little physical conflict in this novel, which was late in Sabatini’s career, and it is not one of his better ones. 7/6/26
Brethren of the Main by Rafael Sabatini, 1921
A collection of Captain Blood adventures drawn from different points in his career, including one that predates his being an active pirate. The others involve him not only as a pirate, but as captain of a ship who has loose control of other pirates as well, although several of the stories point out the conflicts within his organization. Sabatini eventually incorporated the best parts of this collection into the novel, Captain Blood, which is arguably his best book. They suffer a bit at times because of a lack of transitional material since they are drawn from several years of his career as a pirate. This is unlikely to ever be reprinted given the novel’s existence. 7/6/26
Bellarion the Fortunate by Rafael Sabatini, 1926
This is one of the author’s best novels. It is set in 15th Century Italy and involves an orphan raised by monks who loses his naivete when he is robbed by a friar, arrested for a crime he did not commit, meets a princess, discovers a plot against the throne, murders a spy, is adopted by a mercenary captain, and eventually commands his own band of mercenaries. He has a strained relationship with a princess who believes that he is working against her when he is actually quietly manipulating the political atmosphere in her favor. She realizes the truth at the end. The transformation from naïve youth to calculating maturity is rather quickly done but otherwise this is a very fine novel. 7/3/26
The Chronicles of Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, 1931
A series of short stories that runs parallel to the novel and describes some of the minor adventures of Blood and his crew, starting with some clashes with a pirate named Easterling who wishes to take over their ship. Easterling clashes with Blood again in the second story, and loses even more dramatically. He organizes the defenses of a small colony menaced by a Spanish warship and rescues some pirates by posing as a Spanish envoy. He briefly is allied with Don Juan against a corrupt Spanish official. In the final story, he encounters Easterling again, and this time his opponent is doomed by his own past misconduct. Also appeared as Captain Blood Returns. 6/28/26
The Fortunes of Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, 1936
The final collection of Captain Blood stories. The plots are pretty much the same as in the previous collection – rescuing women in distress, outsmarting the authorities, helping allies escape. He spends some of the time incognito and discovers that exploits by other pirates are being attributed to him. He rescues some shipwrecked Spaniards. He frees a shipload of slaves. In general these stories are more reflective and less overtly action oriented than in the first collection, and provide more depth to Blood’s personality. 6/28/26
The Romantic Prince by Rafael Sabatini, 1929
This is another typical Sabatini, although with relatively little swashbuckling. The protagonist is a 15th Century aristocrat who decides that the corruption at court is too pervasive. He changes his name and travels around Europe, falls in love with a woman, and is about to marry her when his identity is revealed and he is forced to return to his courtly duties. The woman agrees to an arranged marriage, but a powerful nobleman has his eye on her and he exerts pressure against her husband. The husband dies and the villain plans a forcible marriage to the woman, but he has been up to no good at court and our hero finds out what is going on and arranges for evidence to reach the authorities. The villain is arrested and the couple, presumably, live happily ever after. 6/27/26
Gulf Coast Stories by Erskine Caldwell, Signet, 1957
I read a bunch of Caldwell novels while I was in high school and recently reread them and found they held up well. I am slowly looking for the rest of his books, of which there are many. This was a collection of short stories, typical thematically, of his longer work. A few of them are quite well done. The rest of them seem almost to be afterthoughts, or pieces intended to be parts of novels. I often wanted to know more about the characters than was told in just a few pages. Readable, but his longer work is much better.
The Reaping by Rafael Sabatini, 1929
Another of the author’s novels of the French Revolution, although this is quite short and has no swashbuckling to speak of. A married couple have mixed feelings about the rebellion, but they both live in fear that they will somehow run afoul of the new government. A villain has his eye on the wife and decides to manipulate the political situation to destroy the husband and make the wife dependent upon him. There is a good deal of intrigue but virtually no real action. They survive and the bad guy gets thwarted. The background and setting is typical of Sabatini but the plot was a bit different than his usual fare. 6/25/26
The Sword of Islam by Rafael Sabatini, 1939
This swashbuckler is set during the 16th Century, mostly in Genoa, which is trying to free itself of its foreign overlord while also battling the Barbary pirates, who are preying on their merchant ships. The protagonist is the commander of a small squadron of ships who are supposed to foil the pirates. His peers are often incompetent and shift blame for their mistakes, and his family is at odds with that of the fleet’s overall commander. The sea battles are the highlights of the novel, of course, and the backbiting, finger pointing, and corruption of the other commanders has its echoes in the present day, unfortunately. 6/23/26
Master-at-Arms by Rafael Sabatini, 1940
Aka The Marquis of Carabas. A French citizen who was raised in England discovers that he is descended from aristocrats, and had a brother whose existence was kept secret from him. The brother has died and left him a fortune, but he must travel to France in the middle of the French Revolution to claim it. He decides to go but is soon derailed because of his sympathies for the outlawed royalist part and they are interested in him because of his imminent wealth and the fact that he is a master swordsman who operates a fencing academy. He falls in love with a local woman and has to fend off the murder attempts by two cousins, who hope to inherit the estate in his stead. About middle quality for Sabatini. 6/18/26
The Banner of the Bull by Rafael Sabatini, 1928
This consists of three novelettes about Cesare Borgia – and Sabatini also wrote a book about his life. Each of these pits him against a rival city, usually a vassal trying to escape his control. In the first, his enemies try to assassinate him, but he turns their attempt into the means of suppressing their rebellion without even having to use force. The second has him facing a coalition of small cities and mercenaries who are, when united, able to bring a larger army onto the field. So instead of fighting them directly, he uses various devices to get them to turn against one another and when they start fighting one another, he defeats them all with his now superior force. The last story is about his rivalry with the city of Venice, whose rulers have sent a spy to undermine his core constituents and foment a revolution, but once again he outsmarts his enemies and emerges more powerful than ever. 6/15/26
The Fortunes of Casanova and Other Stories by Rafael Sabatini, Oxford, 1994
About half of this collection consists of stories about Casanova, while the other half is random unrelated stories. Several of them are very good and all of them are readable. Sabatini often used the twist ending, what we used to call the Alfred Hitchcock device. They all involve historical settings and almost all of them are what we might call swashbucklers, although a few are more sedate. They involve pirates, rogues, outraged wives, thieves, soldiers, and people pushed by circumstances into acting outside their normal roles. I am surprised that his short fiction has fared so poorly over the years, but then again, short stories in general seem to be in a decline. This is worth tracking down. Most of the unrelated stories are better than most of the Casanova tales. 6/12/26
Columbus by Rafael Sabatini, 1941
This is a fictionalized version of his life starting with his efforts to convince Spain to finance his expedition to find a new trade route. The woman who was his real mistress in history is introduced as a spy assigned to steal his secret map, but she falls in love with him instead. Sabatini transforms Columbus into a typical swashbuckling hero who fights off thugs, outwits politicians, and influences others through the force of his own personality. It would not be politically correct nowadays. The story comes to an end with his return to Spain after his first trip, but there are dire warnings that his enemies are not giving up. Chief among them is the doge of Venice, who sees the new route as a threat to his city’s economy. This never really came alive for me. 6/10/26
The Evidence of the Sword by Rafael Sabatini, Crippin & Landru, 2006
A collection of mostly unrelated stories by the master of historical adventure. A couple of these have contemporary settings – particularly the very nice novelette, “The Valet Mystery.” The others have various historical settings, but they all involve some degree of criminal or murderous activity, with bits of swashbuckling thrown in. His protagonists usually win by their wits as much as by their swordplay, and the stories often have a wry twist. One of them, a novelette called “The Dream”, is a complex story of attempted murder by hypnotism. It is one of the many films from the period that have been lost. A very good collection overall – only one story that I found boring. Some interesting notes by the editor. 6/8/26
The Justice of the Duke by Rafael Sabatini, Stanley Paul 1912
This was the first of two collections about Cesare Borgia that Sabatini published, as well as a biography. In the first, Borgia tricks an enemy into helping him eliminate a spy. Two stories focus on one of his generals, who manages to overwhelm a much larger enemy force by using guile to make his own army seem larger than it is. The best story is “The Lust for Conquest,” in which Borgia manages to survive three different assassination attempts sponsored by the cities he is trying to subdue. In the closing story, Borgia meets with the Pope. These were entertaining enough that they do not deserve their obscurity. 6/8/26
The Carolinian by Rafael Sabatini, 1924
A rare setting for this author – the novel is set in South Carolina during the American Revolution. The protagonist is alienated from his former guardian and his fiancé because they are loyalists and his sympathies lie with the rebels. He discovers the identity of a spy, but is framed for espionage before he can act. This means he is no longer trusted by either side and is subject to execution for treason or murder because of his supposed betrayal. It all works out in the end and he gets the girl. The chief villain is a British officer who wants to marry the protagonist’s love interest as well as crushing the rebellion. Has most of Sabatini’s usual tropes, but they don’t work quite as well this time around. 6/6/26
The Outlaw of Falkensteig by Rafael Sabatini, Pulp House, 2026
This is a collection of seven related stories set during the Thirty Year War in Europe during the 17th Century. There are actually two different outlaws. In the first story, the outlaw is pardoned by the king after his marriage to one of the king’s favorite women. A new outlaw, Felsheim, features in the others. He is similar to Robin Hood in that he is an honorable man despite his banditry. He is often involved in complicated plots to help someone he likes or to save some of his men who have been captured. The writing lacks the depth of Sabatini’s later work, but his gift for storytelling and action sequences was already evident. 6/6/26
The Nuptials of Corbal by Rafael Sabatini, 1927
This short novel takes place during the French Revolution. A young woman has been condemned to death but has attracted the nefarious attention of a corrupt revolutionary official. He manages to get her out of prison, but she escapes and takes refuge with the Marquis of Corbal, who has somehow managed to retain his position. The villain tracks her down eventually and by now the couple are in love with each other. He uses political and physical pressure, but the Marquis is clever enough to thwart all of his plans. The plot is somewhat restrained for Sabatini, but it’s a good story. 6/5/26
Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini, 1921
This is my second favorite Sabatini novel and this is at least the third time I’ve read it. A cynical lawyer has an abrupt awakening when his friend is essentially murdered in a provoked duel by a French aristocrat. He makes a speech that causes a riot, becomes a fugitive, and joins a traveling acting troupe which becomes very successful thanks to his efforts. He is forced to flee when a member of the audience recognizes him and becomes apprenticed to a master swordsman who dies, leaving our hero in charge of his fencing academy. He not only teaches himself to become a skilled fencer but he invents some new techniques that make him the best swordsman in all of France. The aristocrats, meanwhile, are using provoked duels as a way to murder opposition politicians, so he decides to turn their own trick against him. He kills several of them before fighting his main enemy – but it turns out the man is his real father. Dad goes into exile and son gets the girl and runs off with her. Super book. 6/4/26The Circus, the Garden (and Mario Lanza) by Holly Wade Matter, Aqueduct, 2026, $12, ISBN 9781-61976-288-6
Molly McBride thought she might be a witch, but it doesn’t appear that she has any powers and that she is just an ordinary teenager with a sort of friend who is pregnant and terrified that her boyfriend will find out. Her mother expects her to attend a formal dance but she is not excited about it. As the title suggests, her interests are mainly gardening and Mario Lanza. Her uncle works for the circus and she’d much rather go there than to the dance. Her mother is not thrilled with Mollie’s behavior, but Mollie has found out part of a family secret and wants to know the rest. This was very well written but it felt like an excerpt from a longer work. 6/2/26
Fortune’s Fool by Rafael Sabatini, 1923
A British mercenary during the outbreak of the Plague is destitute and unable to find a position in the British army because of his late father’s questionable political activities. He is forced to accept employment by Lord Buckingham, who intends to abduct a stage actress with whom he is obsessed. The actress turns out to be the protagonist’s lost love, using a new name. Instead of helping Buckingham, he decides to protect her from his interference and a series of escapes and sword fights soon follows. A bit slower to develop than usual for Sabatini, but the closing third of the book is very well managed. 6/2/26
The Snare by Rafael Sabatini, 1917
This historical adventure story is set during Wellington’s Peninsula War against Napoleon in what is now Portugal. A loyal but unwise British officer is foraging for supplies when he gets drunk and mistakenly leads a raid on a convent. Wellington has been attempting to shore up his local support and this obviously doesn’t help, and various parties exacerbate the situation for reasons of their own. He finally decides that the offender will have to be executed, but the guilty man goes into hiding. The officer sent to find him is married to the fugitive’s sister and she makes efforts to save her brother. He mistakes these for signs that she is having an affair. Everything works out reasonably well for everybody, but not much actually happens in this one. 5/31/26
The Lovers of Yvonne by Rafael Sabatini, 1902
Akan The Suitors of Yvonne. This was Sabatini’s first published novel. The king of France is weak and the French cardinal is exerting political power. A soldier of fortune is hired to look after a young man as various parties attempt to contrive a marriage for political reasons. There are several assassination attempts, sometimes in the form of duels. The soldier has to rescue his charge several times, and at the climax has to infiltrate an enemy stronghold to free the woman he loves. Two couple untangle their interrelated romantic issues. The villains get frustrated. This was a bit awkward at times, but Sabatini got much better very quickly. 5/27/26
Love at Arms by Rafael Sabatini, 1907
This was typical of many of the novels Sabatini would write in the years that followed. A rather naïve count in 15th Century Italy tries to satisfy both sides in a dispute by other nobles and the duke to which they are all subordinate. Predictably he alienates both sides. He also falls in love with a woman whose father intends to marry her for political reasons to another man. Fighting breaks out. Eventually our hero and a small group of followers are besieged by the duke’s much bigger army, but they outwit and outfight them, which encourages other dissidents to rise up. He gets the woman he loves as well. 5/24/26
Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard, Liveright, 2006
Ballard revisits the themes of his last three novels in this, his final book. The protagonist decides to investigate the death of his father, who was shot to death in a mall, apparently a random attack. He discovers that the boredom of current life has led to the rise of a new fascist movement among the wealthier class, unofficially led by a charismatic television personality. Rather than report his findings to the police, he eventually decides to join the group. 5/16/26
Millennium People by J.G. Ballard, Harper, 2003
The protagonist is determined to discover who was responsible for the terrorist attack that killed his ex-wife with a bomb at Heathrow. He discovers that the upper middle class has become increasingly disenchanted with modern life and has produced an effective terrorist group. Rather than expose them, our hero finds that he feels considerable sympathy for the group and eventually he becomes a member. The novel shares themes from the previous few books and would continue into his next and last novel. 5/12/27
Rushing to Paradise by J.G. Ballard, Picador, 1994
A very strange novel about a group of environmentalists who decide to prevent the French government from conducting nuclear tests on a Pacific island because of its danger to the local albatross. They are aided by a sympathetic press and after some minor encounters, the French are embarrassed into abandoning their plans. The protestors effectively take control of the island, but they attract more extreme environmentalists with ambitious plans including the construction of a resort to pay for the maintenance of the island. Things rapidly fall apart and the French navy eventually has to evacuate them all. 5/7/26
Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard, Counterpoint, 1996
This is actually a crime novel, although a very unusual one. The protagonist goes to France when his brother, who has been working as manager of a kind of club/resort, is arrested for setting a fire that killed several people. His brother has confessed but the protagonist thinks he is covering for someone else. He eventually discovers that the club has a unique joint hobby – they commit serious crimes on a regular basis in order to stimulate themselves and live fuller lives. The truth comes out in small doses, but our hero does not save his brother or solve the case publicly. Instead he decides that it is a good idea and he takes his brother’s place. 5/7/26
The Kindness of Women by J.G. Ballard, Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1991
This is the sequel to The Empire of the Sun, so it is autobiographical. The survivor of a Japanese prison camp has returned to England where he has difficulties adapting to the more placid society there. Eventually he seems to settle down and marries, but when his wife is killed in an accident, he loses control. He experiments with sex, promiscuity, and becomes obsessed with violent acts including car crashes. He reaches some kind of balance with his past when he visits the movie set where his early life is being adapted for the screen. Not nearly as good as its predecessor but still worthwhile. 5/4/26
Running Wild by J.G. Ballard, Liveright, 1988
This short novel could almost be classified as a murder mystery. All of the adult residents in a Utopian community are found murdered one day, by a variety of different methods, and all of their children are missing. It is pretty obvious – though not to the police – that the children killed their parents in an act of rebellion against a society that preached freedom and tolerance but imposed that idea so that it became stifling. One of the children is eventually found, but she is rescued by some of the others in a violent attack on a hospital. One of Ballard’s better novels from his later period. 5/3/26
The Day of Creation by J.G. Ballard, Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1987
This is not fantastic despite some flirtation with surrealism. A doctor working in the African desert accidentally creates a river when he unearths an underground spring. He and two companions set out to find the source, which project is the doctor’s obsession, although as the river becomes polluted and other incidents occur, his views change and he decides that it should be destroyed rather than preserved. The prose is great but I had trouble staying interested in this one because the plot is tenuous and I didn’t find the characters as interesting as is usually the case with Ballard’s novels. 4/30/26
Embassy by Keith Laumer, Pyramid, 1965
This was Laumer's mainstream novel about the diplomatic service, where he served. It clearly inspired the Retief stories and the protagonist, Brion Bayard, shares his name with the hero of Laumer's first published novel. Bayard is frustrated because his superiors are ignorant and are not serving the best interests of the country. He decides to make his own independent decisions, which naturally work out because the author can arrange things that way. It's not a bad novel, overall, but it has not aged well. 4/21/26
Tarzan and the Lightning Man by William Gilmour, Sabre, 2024
This is actually just a novelette that I tracked down because I recently read all of the Tarzan stories. It's typical in terms of plot. Tarzan must rescue a European man stranded and lost in the jungle. There is a hidden city, a bloodthirsty tribe that worships an evil god, and a climax that involves the collapse of a mountain. The prose is very awkward. I think Tarzan is now in the public domain, which means we can probably expect a lot more of these non-authorized stories to being appearing. 4/5/26
Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard, Panther, 1974
This is another novel that is often referred to as SF for reasons I cannot fathom. It is entirely non-fantastic, if rather strange. The protagonist has an automobile accident that leaves him stranded on a large piece of undeveloped land that is completely surrounded by highways in London. An injury to his leg makes it impossible for him to climb out and he is unable to attract the attention of passing motorists, so he survives by searching litter for edibles. Eventually he finds two other people living there – a mentally ill acrobat and a runaway girl. He begins to identify with the piece of land, comes to dominate the other two, and decides to remain even when he is able to climb out. The woman has already left and the acrobat has died in an accident. It’s an odd mix of psychological tension and Robinson Crusoe. 3/20/26
Crash by J.G. Ballard, Pinnacle, 1973
I’ve seen many references to this as science fiction but it’s not. The protagonist is in a serious automobile crash that changes his mental state. He now associates violent crashes with sex – blood and torn mental become erotic objects. He drifts into a group that shares his obsessive linking of the two. They even stage accidents to turn themselves on – there is a lot of explicit sex in the novel. The leader of the group is determined to die in an accident involving Elizabeth Taylor, but when he tries to ram her limousine, he hits a bus instead. He does die. The protagonist decides that this is the future he wants for himself and begins plotting his own death. Strange, deftly written, but I still find it overly long for its plot. It was made into a controversial movie. 3/19/26
The Sea-Hawk by Rafael Sabatini, 1915
Twice filmed, this was the first of Sabatini’s novels to achieve classic status. An English aristocrat is betrayed by his murderous brother, who sells him into slavery. The slave ship is attacked by Arab corsairs, but he is able to integrate into their society and becomes one of their captains. He has several adventures before he decides to return to England and raid the family estate. The raid is a success and he carries away his brother and the brother’s fiancé, formerly betrothed to the hero, who now believes that he killed her brother. By corsair rules, they both have to be put up for sale and he buys them both, despite some competition from a prominent Arab who doesn’t always play by the rules. He tricks his brother into a confession and marries the woman. Quite good, but his later works were often far superior. 1/17/26
The Strolling Saint by Rafael Sabatini, 1913
The story begins at the end of the 15th Century in Italy. It follows the adventures of a young man whose mother has promised to make him a priest. He becomes dissatisfied with that role and has an ambivalent attitude toward the church thereafter. When he is forced to kill a man who attacks him, it becomes the catalyst for his break with his mother’s purposes, and eventually leads to his determination to oust her from control of the region of Mondolfo, which is legally his to administer. He is in and out of prison because the church sides with mom, but he is a determined man who develops allies and eventually has his way. A minor and sometimes rather slow adventure story. 1/8/26
Giving it Away/The Art of the Fugue by Barry Malzberg, Stark House, 2026, $15.95, ISBN 979-8-88601-187-6
These are two mainstream novels from 1970, combined in a single edition. The first is about a very rich but not very bright young man who becomes obsessed with an even dimmer young woman. He decides to marry her and then set about giving away his fortune. It sounds pretty straightforward until his intentions become public knowledge and he is inundated by a horde of people who all feel their situations deserve to benefit from his largesse. The second is more anecdotal. The protagonist is arrested for performing indecent acts in a parked automobile. He is remanded for psychological treatment, and his doctors think they will learn a great deal by interviewing women who have been his past sexual partners. But their stories are wildly divergent, and frequently very funny. 1/7/26