markyon's review
3.0
I have reviewed Chandler before, who was a staple of the magazines in the 1960s and 70s, and particularly John W Campbell’s Astounding/Analog. Recently collected by Baen Books, they show the progress of John Grimes from a new Ensign recruit in To the Galactic Rim (2011) to Commander by Gateway to Never (2015). For that reason, they have (in my view erroneously) often been referred to as “Hornblower in Space.” (CS Forester’s Hornblower was a character that followed a similar path but in the English Royal Navy of Napoleonic England.)
Chandler was born in England in 1912, but emigrated to Australia in 1956. He was a merchant seaman, whose exploits seem to have led to inspiration in his characters. John Grimes in particular seems to have been Chandler’s alter-ego in space.
To Prime the Pump is the second novella in the series.
Clearly this is a world where men are men and women are to be admired, often from afar. Men smoke, drink and experience all kinds of hi-jinks whilst onboard the spaceships and at port.
Chandler’s navy has no women onboard, and Grimes is a young relatively inexperienced young man who whilst on his travels is being shown the wonders of the universe. It’s rather like a Star Trek kind of universe, for good and bad.
It’s not a particularly new idea – I’m reminded of David Feintuch’s Seafort books, which are more like Hornblower to my mind, or even David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, though unlike those two heroes Grimes is at this stage not at war as far as I can see.
In this story the young Lieutenant Grimes and his spaceship Aries are sent to the wealthy planet of El Dorado where the wealthy people have requested help from the Federation in solving a problem. Initially this problem is undisclosed, but as we read on it seems that the issue is a biological one, that the men are infertile and people are unable to produce heirs. It seems that the residents all want family successors for the future:
To prepare for the grand arrival of the Aries’ Captain, Grimes is given the task of landing on the planet in the ship’s pinnace, but crashes it to avoid hitting the Princess Marlene von Stoltzberg, who is water-skiing on her lake.
Obviously, Marlene is young and attractive. Grimes is easily persuaded to stay at Stoltzberg’s residence – a castle, imported brick by brick from Europe, naturally - and meets some of the other locals. A hunting session and an evening meal whilst there shows Grimes that although there’s no government on the planet to speak of, the social structure of the planet is unsurprisingly based on social class and status, which Grimes dislikes. He also discovers that Marlene is descended from Aryan stock, with distinctly unpleasant views to Grimes’ own at times. Nevertheless Grimes becomes romantically involved with her.
At the end of the story, Grimes leaves El Dorado with the rest of his crew. Marlene is expecting but has made it clear that she is not expecting to see Grimes again, unless he has the prerequisite amount of money required to live on the planet.
There is a certain old-fashioned predictable comfort in this reading, even knowing that it ticks off every cliché you might imagine. Whilst the language is surprisingly accessible, some of the cultural norms have changed. The result is that the story is straightforwardly enjoyable, but not for everyone, and definitely not a reflection of modern tastes.
Thinking back on the story after finishing, there are some worry-some issues in there as well. Are we really reading a story where Navy men are being used to top up a planet’s gene pool with the women as breeding stock? Well, not quite. It is hoped that the medical staff of the Aries can create a solution, though actually what is the solution is conveniently never fully explained.
That part of the story is conveniently brushed aside as the story becomes more of a study of social status and class than sex. It is almost as if the upper echelons of the British Empire have been transported to space. I very much got the impression that the Grimes stories are Chandler transposing his own experiences at sea onto a galaxy-wide map.
Because of this, I felt that the story was dated. With its pipe-smoking, drinking, all-male crew on a mission for theBritish Empire Federation, it feels more like a story out of the pulps of the 1950s or 60s, rather than 1971.
And yet, despite knowing all of this, I must admit the pages kept turning. If you can read them as stories from a bygone age, they are quite entertaining, and they were very popular in their time. This then begs the question - why were these worth reading? Whilst modern stories are more complex and more nuanced, they lack the simplicity, comfort and familiarity that I suspect some readers appreciate in these stories. It is perhaps this that keeps them readable, even now.
On my part, it also helps that I quite like Grimes as a character. He is well-meaning but rather naïve and gullible, lacking wider experience of theworld – no, galaxy. It is this aspect that I suspect appealed to readers – he is not a genius nor a polymath, but someone who realises his limitations, learns from his mistakes and always tries to do good.
With that in mind, this was a good quick read - not too taxing, but despite some issues (as mentioned above) surprisingly engaging for a story over 50 years old. I’m looking forward to reading how this character develops in further stories.
Chandler was born in England in 1912, but emigrated to Australia in 1956. He was a merchant seaman, whose exploits seem to have led to inspiration in his characters. John Grimes in particular seems to have been Chandler’s alter-ego in space.
To Prime the Pump is the second novella in the series.
Clearly this is a world where men are men and women are to be admired, often from afar. Men smoke, drink and experience all kinds of hi-jinks whilst onboard the spaceships and at port.
Chandler’s navy has no women onboard, and Grimes is a young relatively inexperienced young man who whilst on his travels is being shown the wonders of the universe. It’s rather like a Star Trek kind of universe, for good and bad.
It’s not a particularly new idea – I’m reminded of David Feintuch’s Seafort books, which are more like Hornblower to my mind, or even David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, though unlike those two heroes Grimes is at this stage not at war as far as I can see.
In this story the young Lieutenant Grimes and his spaceship Aries are sent to the wealthy planet of El Dorado where the wealthy people have requested help from the Federation in solving a problem. Initially this problem is undisclosed, but as we read on it seems that the issue is a biological one, that the men are infertile and people are unable to produce heirs. It seems that the residents all want family successors for the future:
“These people, and never forget it, are in their own estimation the aristocrats of the Galaxy. They want children to inherit their wealth, their titles. But they made it quite clear to me that such children must be sired by themselves, not by mongrel outsiders.”
To prepare for the grand arrival of the Aries’ Captain, Grimes is given the task of landing on the planet in the ship’s pinnace, but crashes it to avoid hitting the Princess Marlene von Stoltzberg, who is water-skiing on her lake.
Obviously, Marlene is young and attractive. Grimes is easily persuaded to stay at Stoltzberg’s residence – a castle, imported brick by brick from Europe, naturally - and meets some of the other locals. A hunting session and an evening meal whilst there shows Grimes that although there’s no government on the planet to speak of, the social structure of the planet is unsurprisingly based on social class and status, which Grimes dislikes. He also discovers that Marlene is descended from Aryan stock, with distinctly unpleasant views to Grimes’ own at times. Nevertheless Grimes becomes romantically involved with her.
At the end of the story, Grimes leaves El Dorado with the rest of his crew. Marlene is expecting but has made it clear that she is not expecting to see Grimes again, unless he has the prerequisite amount of money required to live on the planet.
There is a certain old-fashioned predictable comfort in this reading, even knowing that it ticks off every cliché you might imagine. Whilst the language is surprisingly accessible, some of the cultural norms have changed. The result is that the story is straightforwardly enjoyable, but not for everyone, and definitely not a reflection of modern tastes.
Thinking back on the story after finishing, there are some worry-some issues in there as well. Are we really reading a story where Navy men are being used to top up a planet’s gene pool with the women as breeding stock? Well, not quite. It is hoped that the medical staff of the Aries can create a solution, though actually what is the solution is conveniently never fully explained.
That part of the story is conveniently brushed aside as the story becomes more of a study of social status and class than sex. It is almost as if the upper echelons of the British Empire have been transported to space. I very much got the impression that the Grimes stories are Chandler transposing his own experiences at sea onto a galaxy-wide map.
Because of this, I felt that the story was dated. With its pipe-smoking, drinking, all-male crew on a mission for the
And yet, despite knowing all of this, I must admit the pages kept turning. If you can read them as stories from a bygone age, they are quite entertaining, and they were very popular in their time. This then begs the question - why were these worth reading? Whilst modern stories are more complex and more nuanced, they lack the simplicity, comfort and familiarity that I suspect some readers appreciate in these stories. It is perhaps this that keeps them readable, even now.
On my part, it also helps that I quite like Grimes as a character. He is well-meaning but rather naïve and gullible, lacking wider experience of the
With that in mind, this was a good quick read - not too taxing, but despite some issues (as mentioned above) surprisingly engaging for a story over 50 years old. I’m looking forward to reading how this character develops in further stories.
bookcrazylady45's review
3.0
Lieutenant Grimes of the Aries lands on El Dorado. Three attempts are made on his life but in the end he leaves safely and leaves a Princess behind pregnant with his child.
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