Hokas Pokas - Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson

   2000; 278 pages.  New Authors? : No, and No.  Genre : Classic Science Fiction; Anthology; Humor; YA.  Overall Rating : 5*/10.

    The book cover picture tells you all you need to know to understand Hokas.  They’re teddy bears on steroids.  They’re Ewoks with panache.  They’re charismatic and cuddly.  Well, I’m not too sure about the “cuddly” part, but by nature they’re friends with almost everybody they meet, and can drink all other species under the table.  Hokas are also avid readers, and are especially partial to the classics and anything that has to do with history.

     But they’re extremely impressionable, and routinely become completely immersed in role-playing according to whatever Terran tale they’ve last been exposed to.  If you gave them a Harry Potter book or movie, the next thing you know, they’d all be waving wands and trying to fly around on brooms.  If they're taught about Columbus, they’re apt to build a couple wooden ships and go sailing over the oceans on their home planet of Toka, hoping to discover new lands.

    So care must be taken as to exactly what sort of Earthly culture one might expose the Hokas to.  If you let them read up on Genghis Khan, the resulting role-playing could be deadly.  If they are taught about Napoleon, they might break off into the British side and the French side and civil war might erupt, all in the spirit of pretending.

    Which is what that book cover is all about.

What’s To Like...

    Hokas Pokas! is a collection of three stories previously published in Sci-Fi/Fantasy magazines.  They’re of unequal length (the final tale takes up 2/3 of the book) and are:

    1.)  Full Pack  (pg. 1)

    2.)  The Napoleon Crime  (pg. 37)

    3.)  Star Prince Charlie  (pg. 99)

 Each story features the Hokas’ take-off of some book or historical situation.  “Full Pack” uses Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Books.  “The Napoleon Crime” taps into both Lord of the Rings and the 1800’s military campaign in Spain pitting Napoleon against Lord Nelson.  “Star Prince Charlie” loosely follows the Scottish uprising led by Charles Edward Stuart, aka “Bonnie Prince Charlie”.  I’m both a bookaholic and a history buff, so the book's genres was a nice fit for me.

    The third tale is the only one with chapters, and Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson title them to give some other authors.  It’s possible that all 17 chapter titles do this, but some of the ones I recognized were Kidnapped, Fahrenheit 451, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Redheaded League, The Return of the Native, The Prince, and an earlier Hoka anthology by Anderson and Dickson, Earthman’s Burden.

     I think the target audience is YA boys since there’s not a hint of romance in any of the stories.  There is a small amount of cussing, and some alcohol gets consumed, but but this is mostly incidental.  I liked one of the Hokas’ quaint version of a cussword they’d recently learned, “damme”.  YA-oriented or not, the authors also manage to work in several neat, obscure vocabulary words; they're listed in the next section.

    I chuckled at the reference to “Lemuria”, a mythical lost continent aka as “Mu”.  The riddle contest in Star Prince Charlie was a neat take-off on some classic posers, and there’s a modicum of French, Spanish, and German vocabulary worked into The Napoleon Crime.  I thought the “five feats of the Prince” (on page 130) was a quite clever plot device.

    I wasn’t impressed with the way the first two stories ended.  Both felt contrived and hasty to me, but maybe that’s a function of being written as short stories in a magazine.  The Star Prince Charlie ending was better; it at least had a worthy moral to it: Freedom wins, as does the Common Man.

Kewlest New Word  ...

Sophont (n.) : a being with a base reasoning capacity equivalent to, or greater than that of a human being.

Others : Chivvy (v.), Cozen (v.), Calefaction (n.).

Excerpts...

    “Ouch!” howled Heragli, regaining full consciousness.  “What the sputz?  Get the snrrowl off me!  Leggo, you illegitimate forsaken object of an origin which the compilers of Leviticus would not have approved!  Wrowrrl!”  And he made frantic efforts to reach over his shoulder.

    “Striped killer!” squeaked Bagheera joyously.  “Hunter of helpless frogs!  Lame Thief of the Waingunga!  Take that!  And that!”

    “What’re you talking about?  Never ate a frog in m’ life.”  (pg. 34)

  “Not only is yakavarsh an excellent means of self-defense, Prince; it is in truth an art, yes, a philosophy, a way of life.  Consider the lovely curve as a body soars through the air!  Create an infinity symbol when you elegantly dislocate his arm!  See a gateway to eternity in the angle of his broken neck!”  (pg. 172)

 “It’s enough to make a paranoid out of a saint.”  (pg. 49)

    A great YA Fantasy series is one that entertains both adults and YA’s.  Examples are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and His Dark Materials.  This was my third Hokas book, and unfortunately, none of them are in that category.  I’m pretty sure I would’ve enjoyed Hokas Pokas! when I was in junior high.  But now, the plots seem simplistic, the resolutions forced, and the wit repetitive.

    It must be kept in mind that Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson originally wrote these stories for Sci-Fi/Fantasy magazines, whose readership was mostly young boys, and just like “professional wrestling”, they should be judged by their YA standards.

    Both Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson were prolific science fiction writers.  The total number of Hoka short stories is less than 10, and the fact that neither author tried to develop the Hoka universe into a long-term series seems noteworthy.  I’m guessing that the Hokas occasionally garnered them a few extra bucks from the magazines, but I doubt either one of them wants their careers to be defined by Hokas.

    5 Stars.  Add 2 stars if you're in the target audience; you’ll likely find these stories hilarious.  And even if you’re an adult, you can still build your vocabulary, learn a couple foreign phrases, get acquainted with some classic novels, and pick up some interesting history tidbits.

A Midsummer Tempest - Poul Anderson

    1974; 240 pages.  New Author? : No.  Laurels: Nebula Award Nominee (1975); World Fantasy Award Nominee (1975); Mythopoiec Fantasy Award Winner (1975).  Genre : Mythopoeic Fiction; Shakespearean Lit; Fantasy; Romance; Alt-History; Steampunk; Time Travel.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

    The year is 1644.  The English civil war rages, with Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads (aka, the Parliamentarians) engaged in a bitter struggle with Prince Rupert’s Cavaliers (aka, the Royalists).  At the moment, things are going badly for Prince Rupert, who is also our main protagonist.  The battle is lost, and he is about to come under house-arrest (well, technically, we’d call it “castle-arrest”) courtesy of one of Cromwell’s devoted supporters, Sir Malachi Shelgrave.

    For Rupert, the future is grim.  It’s only a matter of time before he’s hauled off to London and beheaded.  He’s not above trying to escape from Shelgrave’s castle, but four armed guardsmen watch him whenever he leaves the tower in which he’s imprisoned.  And without young Rupert, his dashing military leader, the days of the king, Charles I, are numbered as well.

    All of this sounds like a fascinating book of 15^th-century Historical Non-Fiction.  That is, until a 19^th-century steam-powered locomotive comes chugging out of its storage shed.

    And when the King and Queen of the Faeries make an appearance.

What’s To Like...

    A Midsummer Tempest is an ambitious effort by Poul Anderson to merge five or six different genres into a coherent storyline.  Sure, Alt-History and Sci-Fi go together like peanut butter and jelly, and so do Fantasy and Steampunk.  But seamlessly blending all four of those, then tossing in Romance and Shakespearean Literature to boot?  That’s impressive.

    There are Multiverses present, but even they are done with a new twist.  You can jump from one dimension to the next, and from one point in time to another as well.  But Poul Anderson’s novelty is to allow literary universes to participate.  So characters from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream jump in and interact with characters from other “real” worlds.

    The story starts out as Historical Fiction; Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Oliver Cromwell, and King Charles I were all historical figures.  The pacing is initially slow, but when the first bit of Fantasy shows up at 17%, things pick up nicely.  If you like anachronisms (and Shakespeare did), you’ll love this book.  Besides the aforementioned  multiverses and steam locomotives, there are other out-of-place things such as semaphore towers, diving bells, and hot air balloons.

    There are some neat phrases from at least five different foreign languages: German, French, Danish, Latin, and Spanish.  The malapropisms, many of which are misquotes from Shakespeare, were a hoot.  One example: "Abstinence makes the font grow harder”.  Occam’s Razor shows up; so does the magical herb Thistledown, the latter for the second book in a row that I've read.  I want to go to my local used-book store in hopes of finding “Introduction to Paratemporal Mathematics” and “Handbook of Alchemy and Metaphysics” and I’d also love to stop in at “The Oald Phoenix” tavern for some suds and socializing.

     The ending is predictable but adequate.  A major case of deus-ex-machina occurs, but I suspect that was deliberate.  The Epilogue was my favorite part of the finale, nicely resolving the elves-in-a-human-world paradox.  Those who read this book for the Romance will not be disappointed.  A Midsummer Tempest is a standalone story, with no ties AFAIK to any other Poul Anderson stories or settings.

Kewlest New Word. . .

Dumbledores (n., plural) : Bumblebees.

Others : Descry (v.); Wadmal (n.); Postilion (n.).

Excerpts...

    “Ye mortals do have powers, do know things, which are for aye denied the Faerie race,” she said.  “Among them is the strength of mortal love.”  Wistfulness tinged her speech: “Mine ageless, flighty kind knows love … of sorts … but simply pleasantly, like songs or sweets.  True human love is not a comedy; time makes it tragic.  In those heights and deeps rise dawns and storms beyond our understanding, the awe and the abidingness of death.”  (loc. 865)

    “Ha, ha, I’m not the only freak around!” he hooted.  “Who’rt thou that walkest thin as sparrowgrass behind yon red cucumber of a nose?”

    “Well, not a mildew-spotted calabash,” drawled the Englishman.  “I think I know thee from my maester’s taele.  Now come an’ sniff mine own.”

    Caliban edged toward him, stiff-legged and bristling.  “Be careful, cur.  I’ll haul thy bowels forth to make thy leash.”  (loc. 2948)

Kindle Details...

    A Midsummer Tempest presently sells for $4.80 at Amazon.  Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was a prolific science fiction and fantasy writer, and a couple dozen of his works  are available as e-books.  They range in price from $4.53 to $8.99.  There are also a couple of bundles available, priced from $7.80 to $9.99.  A tip: another good place to find Poul Anderson novels is at your local used-book store.

“I hope (…) you’ve got the wit to grasp the fundamental ideas of the transcendental calculus.”  (loc. 1564)

    The writing is great, the genre-blending is impressive, and the historical setting is fascinating.  But there are also some weaknesses, the most salient of which is a rather humdrum storyline.

    The romantic angle is obvious, yet the two lovers are allowed to meet and hatch an escape plan.  Indeed, there are two escapes, both of which proceed with a yawning lack of snags.  The key artifact is surprisingly easy to retrieve, and the Faerie folk’s largesse with magical gifts solves any challenge that our heroes might face.  In short, no tension ever builds.

    Then there’s the dialogue.  Rupert speaks in a Shakespearean lingo, and his sidekick, Will Fairweather, uses some sort of ersatz Scottish dialect that got old in a very short time.  Imagine reading paragraph-after-paragraph filled with words like: thic, backzide, loard, zaddle, caere, zuppoased, etc.   Yuck.

    The critics certainly loved A Midsummer Tempest, judging from the 1975 laurels listed in the header of this review.  Their reasons are valid – this really was an innovative approach to writing a Fantasy tale.  But personally, I found it to be all form, and very little substance.

    6½ Stars.  My favorite parts of A Midsummer Tempest were the spellbinding set of characters at The Oald Phoenix Inn and those times when the Faerie folk were present.  Unfortunately, those instances were few and far between, lying in the shadows behind the spotlighted (shouldn’t that be “spotlit”?) life and loves of Prince Rupert.  Fantasy yields to Drama and Romance, and more’s the pity for that, methinks.

Harvest Of Stars - Poul Anderson

   1993; 531 pages.  Book One (out of four) in the “Harvest of Stars” series.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Science-Fiction; Dystopia; Speculative Fiction.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

    A few centuries from now, Earth is a quite different place.  Canada, Mexico, and the USA are no more; they’ve all be conglomerated into one totalitarian entity, ruled by the Avantists, a decidedly leftist-leaning group.

    Rebellion isn’t exactly boiling over, but it simmers in places; one of which, surprisingly, is the mega-corporation called Fireball Enterprises.  Its CEO is a download (more about those later) named Anson Guthrie., and it’s just a matter of time before the Security Police (“Sepo”) arrest him on some trumped-up charge.

    But Guthrie’s in hiding in North America, and ace spaceship-pilot Kyra Davis has been dispatched to smuggle him out of there.  That is no small task since Orwellian technology exists and it has to be assumed that the Sepo can see and hear just about anything they want to within the Avantist realm.  We hope Kyra succeeds, but the question arises: Where on Earth will Guthrie be safe?

    Well, let’s think outside the box, er… sphere.  How about the Moon?

What’s To Like...

    Harvest of Stars is divided into three discrete sections.  Part 1 (“Kyra”) is the longest (40% of the book), and is mostly a dystopian thriller.  Part 2 (“Eiko”; 30% of the book) focuses more about political intrigue, and Part 3 (“Demeter”; 30% of the book) is where speculative Science Fiction finally kicks into gear.

    There’s a Dramatis Personae list at the very beginning, which I found very useful.  Not a lot of time is devoted  to the backstories of the characters, but both minor and major ones receive names, and often pop up again hundreds of page later.  So it is nice to be able to flip to the start of the book whenever someone reappears, and get refreshed about who they are.  There are some flashbacks, but the author signals this by inserting the word “Database” into the chapter’s header.  I thought this was an innovative way to avoid confusion.

    The settings are somewhat limited for the first two sections: Earth, the Moon (“Luna”), and an orbiting space colony called “L-5”.  The settings in the Demeter section are much more interesting: three planets circling a binary set of suns in the faraway Alpha Centauri cosmos.

    The story takes place far enough in the future to where a separate race, the Lunarians, has evolved on the moon.  The newly-evolved Metamorphs on Earth were also neat to meet.  Poul Anderson mixes in some Arabic and French vocabulary, and a slew of Spanish expressions.  In this future world, we’re all polyglots.  There’s only a smidgen of cussing, and even a couple of new euphemisms: “MacCannon” and “flinking”.  I liked those.

  

    The thing I enjoyed the most about Harvest Of Stars were the “downloads”.  By the time of the storyline, technology allows you to “clone your brain” into a mechanical body.  Indeed, you can make multiple copies of your mental/psychological self.  This adds a certain amount of mayhem to the plot, and also gives some innovative new options for coping with the dilemma of intergalactic voyages, and of course, immortality.

    Harvest Of Stars is a standalone book, as well as part of a series.  I found the ending to be superb; it'll leave a lump in your throat.

Kewlest New Word  ...

Halidom (n.) : something regarded as sacred; a holy relic.

Others : Agley (adj.); Gyrocephalic (adj.); Pollulated (v.); Contumacious (adj.); Fleered (v.); Knaggy (adj.); Asymptote (n.); Apotheosis (n.); Quivira (n.).

Excerpts...

    “Sing a song of spacefolk, a pocketful of stars.

    Play it on the trumpets, harmonicas, guitars.

    When the sky was opened, mankind began to sing:

    ‘Now’s the time to leave the nest, the wind is on the wing!’”  (pg. 343)

    ”Eiko, it’s such a forlornly long shot.”

    “Does that mean it is ridiculous?” the other replied.  Her gaze went into the swaying, whispering, light-unrestful green.  “Some fantasies came to me while I sat, often and often, high in the Tree.  Fancies about evolution.  It has no purpose, the biologists tell us, no destiny; it simply happens, as blindly and wonderfully as rainbows.  Nevertheless the scum on ancient seas becomes cherry blossoms, tigers, children who see the rainbow and marvel.”  (pg. 389)

 “Word would leak out like … like electrons quantum-tunneling through any potential barrier I can raise.”  (pg. 22)

    For me, the whole first section of Harvest Of Stars was a slog.  This was probably because I read Poul Anderson books for Science Fiction adventures, and frankly, there isn’t any to be found for quite a while in this book.  Yes, our heroes are running from the Big Brother types, but I never got the sense that they were about to be caught.

    We at last get up into space in the second section, but it’s still kind of a slow go.  Things aren’t helped by Anderson seeming to want to tell you all about his libertarian viewpoints and why leftists are such meanies.  Plus, he never seems to use one word, when a dozen will serve just as well.

    But if you can trudge through all the politics and tediousness, you arrive at section 3, and that, quite frankly, is a masterpiece, and demonstrates why Poul Anderson is considered a top-tier sci-fi writers of all time.

    We’ll rate section 1 at 5½ stars, section 2 at 6½ stars, and section 3 a whopping 9 stars, just to make the math come out even.  Averaging them out comes to:

    7 Stars.  And BTW, the concept of downloading one’s self was extremely timely, as I am also currently reading a non-fiction book about Philosophy.  The author, Peter Cave, gives a number of situational conundrums, including the fascinating one: “what if you could clone yourself?” (*)

    As any good philosopher would, Cave asks all sorts of muse-worthy questions, such as which one is the “real you”?  Further, if you were to kill your clone (or if the clone kills you), would we call it murder?  Suicide?  Or was no crime at all committed?  Food for thought.

(*) : actually, Cave speculates about what would happen to "you" if the two lobes of your brain were put into separate bodies.  But it works out to be the same as being cloned.

The Avatar - Poul Anderson

1978; 404 pages.  Genre : Sci-Fi.  New Author? : Kinda.  I've read the "Hoka" books he co-wrote with Gordon Dickson, but never one that he wrote alone.  Overall Rating : 5½*/10.

    Ah, T-machines!  A.k.a.  portals, star-gates, wormholes, etc.  If you enter them via the carefully-placed guidance beacons (placed there by the mysterious "Others"), you will come out at a pre-selected, terra-compatible planet many light years away.

    But if you enter it haphazardly, as the spaceship Chinook and her crew did (the alternative was to be obliterated by rapidly-approaching missiles), you will come out at any one of thousands of other time-space points.  And the odds of you ever finding your way back to present-day Earth are ...ahem... astronomical.

What's To Like...
     The Avatar is a nice blend of space opera and "hard" science fiction.  Poul Anderson held a degree in Physics, so it is not surprising that he works a lot of Quantum Mechanics into the story.  Which is timely, given that I just got done watching a 4-part PBS/Nova special ("The Fabric of the Cosmos", hosted by Brian Greene) on that subject.

    Being part Space Opera means that there are lots of worlds to visit, some of which have strangely different life-forms.  It also means there is lots of sex.  Too much sex.  Free love with lots of partners.  Poul either was writing out his own fantasies, or else those of the teenage boys that would presumably be his target audience.

    The crew of the Chinook are interesting enough - there's the rugged captain, a "hippie" first mate (with emphasis on "mate"), a holothete (huh?), etc.  Most interesting of all is the alien ("Betan")  dubbed Fidelio, who is there as an emissary to try to understand human beings.  The book cover captures his description nicely.

    Finally, it's nice to have to deal with alien races that are actually more advanced than us.

Kewlest New Word...
Sophont : an alien being, with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of humans.

Excerpts...
    "You're being a government, Aurie," he remarked.  When she gave him an inquiring glance, he explained, "The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants."
    He could have gone on to admit that he was oversimplifying, since she was obviously acting on behalf of a group whose own behavior might well be unlawful, but he didn't think it was worth his while.  (pgs. 27-28)

    "We could stay here, in spin mode and a wide orbit," Weisenberg suggested.  "Apparently we've a reasonable chance that a ship will come in before we starve.  I daresay her civilization can synthesize food for us and won't mind doing that.  Her crew won't be able to guide us home, but doubtless we could live out quite interesting lives on her planet of origin."
    "Are you serious, Phil?" Caitlin asked.
    "No.  I have a family.  I did think one of us ought to state the case for remaining."  (pg. 331)

"Ever heard of Occam's razor?  I've shaved with it from time to time."  (pg. 26)
    All the trappings in The Avatar are well-done.  Unfortunately, the crux of any science fiction novel is its storyline, and that's a major weakenss here.

    First off, the pacing sucks.  The book's more than half done before we enter the first T-machine.  That's way too long of an introduction.  Then we visit some really neat new worlds and times, but without any advancing of the plot until there's only 50 pages left, at which point we still have no idea why this is called The Avatar.  We finish off with an ending that is unconvincing and feels rushed.

    One gets the feeling Anderson was more interested in preaching his libertarian politicial views here than creating a compelling sci-fi story.  I still enjoyed this book, mostly for the "hard science fiction" it presented.  But if Quantum Physics isn't your shtick, you might give this a pass.  5½ Stars.

Earthman's Burden - Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson

1957; 189 pages.  Genre : 50's Science Fiction; Humor.  New Author(s)? : No.  Overall Rating : 5*/10.

    Earthman's Burden consists of six short stories (each about 30 pages long) about the Hokas, a race of Teddy Bear-like creatures on an alien planet.  You also meet their human plenipotentiary, Alexander Jones, and his wife, Tanni.  All but one of the stories originally appeared in various Sci-Fi magazines in between 1951 and 1955.  A couple "interplanetary memos" were later inserted to try to give some cohesion to the tales, but frankly, it wasn't necessary.

What's To Like...
      Hokas love everything about earth - our movies, our books, our history, our radio transmissions.  They take everything as absolute truth, so if they see a movie, say, about ancient Rome, they immediately try to build a settlement on their planet Toka to mimic it.

   Each of the stories in Earthman's Burden is set in one of these mimicries.  Specifically, the settings are (in order) : (1) the Wild West; (2) Don Juan; (3) Space Travel; (4) Sherlock Holmes; (5) Pirates; and (6) the French Foreign Legion.

    The stories all have a similar template.  Alex awakes to find the Hokas embracing a new bit of terra-culture; he gets embroiled in their antics; some sort of crisis arises; mayhem ensues, Alex devises an ingenious solution by going "in character", and all turns out well because of (or in spite of) the best-laid plans of the Hokas/Alex.

Kewlest New Word...
Tussock : an area of raised solid ground in a marsh or bog that is bound together by roots of low vegetation.

Excerpts...
    "Great jumping rockets!" exclaimed the other Hoka.  "Don't tell me the Coordinator didn't recognize you?"
    "It's the moonlight, probably," said the first Hoka.  "All clear and on green now, Coordinator?"
    "I- I-," stammered Alex.
    "Aye, aye!" repeated Jax Bennison crisply.  (pg. 68)

    Alex discovered the consensus among them was that the captain was becoming too obsessed with his navigation to pay proper attention to the running of the ship.  No one had been hanged for several weeks, and there hadn't been a keelhauling for over a month.  Many a Hoka standing on the sun-blistered deck cast longing glances at the cool water overside and wished he would be keelhauled (which was merely fun on a planet without barnacles).  There was much fo'c'sle talk about what act could be committed dastardly enough to rate the punishment.  (pg. 135)

"Damn the tiddlywinks!  Full speed ahead!"  (pg. 186)
    The stories are cute but formulaic and shallow.  This was my second Hoka book, and chronologically precedes the other one, which is reviewed here.  Frankly, I didn't find Earthman's Burden as entertaining as Hoka!.

    Maybe it was because Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson were still feeling their way around in the series.  Maybe it was because the attempt to string these six stories into a coherent overall novel was ill-advised.  Maybe it was because of the horrid printing job - each page was set on about a 10-degree angle.

    In any event, all six tales are still amusing to read, and a pleasant break if you're plodding through a 1200-page Space Opera like I am.  It's uninspiring fluff, but that's okay at times.  Anderson and Dickson would subsequently  tweak and refine their style, and their efforts would pay off when Hoka! came out.  And I do appreciate it when authors evolve and improve with each work they put out.  5 Stars (out of 10).

Hoka - Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson

1984 (but three of the stories are actually from 1955-57); 253 pages. Genre : 50's Sci-Fi. Overall Rating : C+.

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What if the initial humanoid contact for those cute furry Ewoks in the Star Wars series, instead of being Darth and Luke and Death Stars; had been terran Movies, Books, TV, and History? This book explores that, save that the living, breathing teddy bears here are called Hokas. The book is a compilation of four stand-alone stories (There's a fifth one, but it's a 10-page exercise in self-promotion and is eminently skippable) starring these ursine creatures, who love everything about our culture, and who completely immerse themselves in role-playing, including uniforms, earthly accents, and literary/cinematic dialogue.

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What's To Like...

Three of the stories are take-offs of (literary) Casey At The Bat, Sherlock Holmesian mysteries, and Kipling's The Jungle Book. The fourth one draws upon (historical) Napoleonic Europe, as seen in the cover art. The compilation is a fun read, and a quick one. The stories have neat drawings in them done by one Phil Foglio. The Hokas can drink all other creatures in the universe under the table, and in one story (written in the 1950's) a curiously stimulating herb of some sort is smoked.

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There's not much depth here, but that's typical for the genre. There are two instances of cussing, albeit mild ("H*ll and d*mnation" and "a h*ll of a request"). Which seemed needless to me, since the salty-mouthed alien spouting these phrases had just engaged in about 10 pages of ersatz swearing. For example, "Go sputz yourself" and "Sput Meowr. Meourl spss rowul rhnrrr!"

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Cool/New Words...

Encardined : reddened. Ineluctable : unavoidable. Aquiline : with the characteristic of an eagle or the beak of one. Sui Generis : in a class of its own. Mangel Wurzel : a large beet used for cattle feed (although here it was a term of endearment). Brobdingnag : a land where everything is huge (taken from Gulliver's Travels, and definitely one bodacious word). Autochthones : indigenous people.

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Excerpts...

"It may be sheer accident," Brob suggested. "Mortal fallibility. There is a great deal of wisdom in the universe; unfortunately, it is divided up among individuals." (pg. 178)

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The Hoka France had never had a revolution, merely an annual Bastille Day fête. At the most recent of these, Napoleon had taken advantage of the chaos to depose the king, who cooperated because it would be more fun being a field marshal. The excitement delighted the whole nation and charged it with enthusiasm. Only in Africa was this ignored, the Foreign Legion preferring to stay in its romantic, if desolate, outposts. (pg. 201)

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"I was born with a dull, sickening thud..." (Hoka-penned literature)

Hoka was a nostalgic visit to the sort of book I used to read in my early teens. A lot of Poul Anderson's books reportedly deal with time- and dimension-travel; similar to my favorite writer from those years - Andre Norton. The Hoka series seems to be a comedic side-project by Anderson and Dickson.

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I liked the clever and subtle introducing of higher lit to young readers. Unfortunately, science fiction has come a long way in the past half-century, so this book came off a bit dated. It was a pleasurable read, but there wasn't much substance to it. We'll give it a "C+" and resolve to read at least one of Anderson's mainstream sci-fi books, to see how it compares to Norton.