Seeking an outlet for these feelings, I was reminded of a science fiction novel I had read a decade earlier. This was THE IRON DREAM (1972), by Norman Spinrad.
The cover of the edition I read.
You don't forget covers like this.
Art by Rowena.
Spinrad's premise is that Adolf Hitler emigrated to America after World War I, becoming first a pulp magazine illustrator and then a pulp writer himself. His last novel, THE LORD OF THE SWASTIKA, comprises the bulk of THE IRON DREAM. The balance of the book consists of the frame story about Hitler's alternate history life in the U.S. as a beloved writer of fantasy and science fiction and the political situation in a world where World War II never happens.
At a further remove, Spinrad's point is that much of conventional adventure fiction consists of violent fantasies about human heroes slaughtering (or otherwise besting) slobbering alien untermensch. The racist/fascist flavor of this kind of plotting is made crystal clear by putting Hitler's name on it. Spinrad paints with a broad brush, but an extention of his point is perfectly valid: what would we, in the real twenty-first century, really make of typical SF/fantasy characters if we met them? Would we find them noble, adventurous, and heroic, or vain, violent, and bigoted?
I resolved to do something similar with the fantasy genre. I would write a novel in which the 'heroes' would be reactionary fanatics, while the ostensible villains are of a more progressive bent. They're not completely Good Guys; that would be too obvious. Most of life's hard choices are between what's Bad and what's Less Bad.
My protagonist, a professional duellist named Rado, is a lazy, cynical brute, who kills people for money (or sport), abuses women, and generally is a rogue of the first water. His ally/antagonist is a fanatical young priestess of a Mother Goddess cult named Eridé (in three syllables, Air-uh-day). For various nasty plot reasons Rado must accompany Eridé to the distant city of Miyesti and find out about a mysterious new god there called 'the Fact.' Find out, then destroy it.
A rogue of the first water:
(Tyrone Power in The Prince of Foxes, 1949)
Rado and Eridé are not friends. She is entitled to kill him if he strays from their mission; otherwise, he has a free hand to accomplish what he can. He abuses the privilege by forcing himself on Eridé more than once. So as not to be recognized as the martially trained priestess she is, Eridé disguises herself as a boy (an inversion of THE RED HUSSAR). Rado dubs her "Thorn," as she is a thorn in his side. Thorn is a Very Dangerous Female for sure.
A fanatical young priestess:
Eridé sans stiletto.
The result is a pretty strange novel, THORN AND NEEDLE (TSR, 1992):
Cover of the first (and only)
U.S. edition.
Art by Pat Morrissey.
The back cover. TSR called it
"a highly original fantasy!"
The 'Needle' of the title is the new god, the Fact, the analogy being that Thorn is a force of nature, while the Fact is artificial, like a steel needle.
As the book is long out of print and not common, I will reveal more of the basic plot than I usually do.
Though it uses the language and tropes of high fantasy, THORN AND NEEDLE really is science fiction. It is set on a parallel Earth--the geography is identical--and the 'magic' described in the novel is purely technological. There is some paranormal stuff involved--telepathy and thought transference, for example, but the method of realizing this is technological, not thaumaturgical. The Fact turns out to be a communications satellite from our universe, accidentally transferred to the world of Rado and Thorn. The artificial intelligence built into the satellite sets itself up as a god, and imparts technical information to the people of Miyesti. Soon they have telephones and electric motors, electric lights and radio. Fact worshipers convert a galley to electric power, and airships fly over the city by night.
All this progress is allied to a tolerant but patriarchal, all-men-are-brothers philosophy alien to this world. That's why the Mother Goddess temple in Pazoa (Rado's hometown, an analog of Genoa, Italy) wants it destroyed.
Reaction to THORN AND NEEDLE was mixed, and very interesting. My agent sent it around to several paperback publishers in 1989-90. They all rejected it. One editor was quite terse; she said, in effect, that they did not publish anti-science novels! That Rado and Thorn were not the heroes of the story apparently did not register.
After 3-4 rejections, I had a really subversive idea: why not try THORN AND NEEDLE with TSR? My creative funk came on because of writing Dragonlance, so why not let TSR help me exorcise my fiction demons? They were still publishing original SF and fantasy under the TSR Books imprint, twenty-plus titles by 1992. Lo and behold, TSR bought THORN AND NEEDLE.
TSR Books published up to 1992:
STARSONG, by Dan Parkinson
ST. JOHN THE PURSUER: THE VAMPIRE IN MOSCOW, by Richard Henrick
BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN, by Sharyn McCrumb
RED SANDS, by Paul Thompson & Tonya Carter
ILLEGAL ALIENS, by Nick Pollotta & Phil Foglio
THE JEWELS OF ELVISH, by Nancy Varian Berberick
MONKEY STATION, by Ardath Mayhar & Ron Fortier
THE EYES HAVE IT, by Rose Estes
TOO, TOO SOLID FLESH, by Nick O'Donohoe
THE EARTH REMEMBERS, by Susan Torian Olan
DARK HORSE, by Mary H. Herbert
WARSPRITE, by Jefferson Swycaffer
NIGHTWATCH, by Robin Wayne Bailey
OUTBANKER, by Timothy A. Madden
THE ROAD WEST, by Gary Wright
THE ALIEN DARK, by Diana G. Gallagher
WEB OF FUTURES, by Jefferson Swycaffer
SORCERER'S STONE, by L. Dean James
THE FALCON PRESS, by Michael C. Staudinger
TOKEN OF DRAGONSBLOOD, by Damaris Cole
THE CLOUD PEOPLE, by Robert B. Kelly
LIGHTNING'S DAUGHTER, by Mary H. Herbert
THORN AND NEEDLE, by Paul B. Thompson
KINGSLAYER, by L. Dean James
The best known among these is BIMBOS, which won the Edgar Award in 1988 as best original paperback mystery.
THORN AND NEEDLE came and went without much of a splash. It's certainly not as famous as THE IRON DREAM, but then, I'm not Norman Spinrad either.
To this day people don't get it. A 2006 reviewer online remarked "A novel that takes a bold step of not including a single likable character! Rado, Thorn, their mysterious backers, the Fact, the Fact's worshippers [sic]...there is no one to root for. In some books the 'heroes' are useless and we're reduced to pulling for the villains; here we don't even have that luxury."
This is a valid description of the story, but it misses the point. THORN AND NEEDLE is science fiction disguised as an anti-fantasy. The reader is supposed to not like Rado or Thorn, but make the leap to other fantasy/SF titles where the 'heroes' act exactly like mine.
Spinrad had similar problems with THE IRON DREAM. The American Nazi Party put the book on their approved reading list. Mainstream readers didn't always get it either. Spinrad wrote, " . . . one review appeared in a fanzine that really gave me pause. "This is a rousing adventure story and I really enjoyed it," the gist of it went. "Why did Spinrad have to spoil the fun with all this muck about Hitler?" [Quoted in Science fiction in the real world. SIU Press. p. 158].
Two years later, THORN AND NEEDLE was published in Hungary as
Tüske és Tű (Lap-Ics Könyvkiadó, 1994). I heard from an insider at TSR that they offered a slate of titles to the Hungarian publisher, but THORN AND NEEDLE was the only one they chose.
Hungarian title, Morrissey art.
The title translates as "Spike and Needle"
My future wife read THORN AND NEEDLE in manuscript and wondered if she was involved with a weirdo . . . fortunately she liked SUNDIPPER a lot, so the two titles offset each other.
THORN AND NEEDLE is dedicated to her as 'Lib,' a Southern nickname for Elizabeth.
Re-reading THORN AND NEEDLE today, I think it's a good book. It's challenging, and wince-inducing in places, but by design. It would make an interesting movie, or an adult graphic novel.
The book is divided into five sections, each prefaced by a relevant quotation:
1. But for Man's fault, then was the thorn.
Robert Herrick, (1591-1674), "The Rose."
This is a poetic reference to original sin; because Man fell from grace in Eden, the world now has dangers in it. In the novel Rado's deeds are at fault, and Thorn is his punishment.
2. Do you not know, my charming lady, that the law is good, that all rules, all exact standards are good?
Hanns Heinz Ewers, ALRAUNE (1911).
This is Thorn's personal philosophy in a nutshell. Ewers, a premiere member of the early 20th century Decadent movement in literature, embraced National Socialism later in life.
3. When the crow on the tower made of brick/For seven hours will continue to scream/Death foretold, the statue stained with blood/Tyrant murdered, people praying to their Gods.
Nostradamus, CENTURIES, IV-55.
Foreshadowing (prophesying?) the outcome of the story . . .
4. Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; Unbelief, in denying them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, REPRESENTATIVE MEN (1850).
This is offered ironically. Unbelief makes the plot unfold. Rado, the cynical swordsman, is the Unbeliever.
5. I am Chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are free.
Malaclypse the Younger, PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA (1979)
A nod to the hipster audience. Thorn is an agent of Chaos, but she doesn't see herself that way--nor did most of the novel's readers.
At the end of the novel, To Explain All, I appended a news dispatch that explains the origins of the Fact. Funny thing, the 'futuristic' date given on the Reuters bulletin is May 21, 2016--more than a year before this blog entry was written.
Re-reading THORN AND NEEDLE today, I think it's a good book. It's challenging, and wince-inducing in places, but by design. It would make an interesting movie, or an adult graphic novel.
The book is divided into five sections, each prefaced by a relevant quotation:
1. But for Man's fault, then was the thorn.
Robert Herrick, (1591-1674), "The Rose."
This is a poetic reference to original sin; because Man fell from grace in Eden, the world now has dangers in it. In the novel Rado's deeds are at fault, and Thorn is his punishment.
2. Do you not know, my charming lady, that the law is good, that all rules, all exact standards are good?
Hanns Heinz Ewers, ALRAUNE (1911).
This is Thorn's personal philosophy in a nutshell. Ewers, a premiere member of the early 20th century Decadent movement in literature, embraced National Socialism later in life.
3. When the crow on the tower made of brick/For seven hours will continue to scream/Death foretold, the statue stained with blood/Tyrant murdered, people praying to their Gods.
Nostradamus, CENTURIES, IV-55.
Foreshadowing (prophesying?) the outcome of the story . . .
4. Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; Unbelief, in denying them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, REPRESENTATIVE MEN (1850).
This is offered ironically. Unbelief makes the plot unfold. Rado, the cynical swordsman, is the Unbeliever.
5. I am Chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are free.
Malaclypse the Younger, PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA (1979)
A nod to the hipster audience. Thorn is an agent of Chaos, but she doesn't see herself that way--nor did most of the novel's readers.
At the end of the novel, To Explain All, I appended a news dispatch that explains the origins of the Fact. Funny thing, the 'futuristic' date given on the Reuters bulletin is May 21, 2016--more than a year before this blog entry was written.
Next: Chapter 3, THORN AND NEEDLE
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