Monday, July 09, 2007
 
Book Report: Kill City: The Enforcer #3 by Andrew Sugar (1973)
Wow, you know, I never thought to myself, "Why isn't there any Objectivist pulp fiction?" Even if I had asked that or thought perhaps maybe I should write some, I probably would not equal the achievement of Andrew Sugar's THE ENFORCER series.

I mean, imagine Atlas Shrugged if, instead of a cipher for Ayn Rand's fantasies of the perfect man, John Galt was an author who died somehow and was now living in a series of cloned bodies that deteriorate in 90 days while he works for the John Anryn Institute using his wits, his special power over his own life force (ki), and judo to take on all the Tooheys of the world (sorry, wrong book). But it's pulp fiction with a definite Objectivist theme.

In between bursts of violent action, we have Penthouse letters sex scenes, the most graphic I've seen depicted in any paperbacks I assume were sold at drug stores. I mean, in some pulp, you get the "they're going to have sex" paragraph, "they're having sex" paragraph, and then the "it was good" paragraph. In this book, you get the he did that and she did this to his that and it was good thing. It starts graphic to the N-degree and then goes into the metaphorical several paragraphs later. Conforming with Ayn Rand's theory of sex, I reckon.

Also, we get the speechifying, but in small doses, where the protagonist and his Institute compatriots go on about the power mongers who would rule over men. Nothing comparable to Galt's Speech, though, so the narrative is not impaired too badly.

It's cheap, it's tawdry, and it's definitely a suspense/science fiction pot boiler worthy of its tawdry cover. However, the Objectivist slant adds a touch of camp to it. Maybe real Objectivists wouldn't think so, but they have no sense of humor.

I might have to go find the rest of the series.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:07 AM
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To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."