One:

moderan, by David R. Bunch

The stories that appear in this book first stated showing up in sf mags in the late 50s. Amazing, Fantastic, and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction were the havens of the late Mr. Bunch’s peculiar and poetic visions, partly satire (though what he was satirizing was often open to debate), partly dark comedy, wholly engrossing and original. The world of moderan is one of a plastic-coated landscape where the denizens are consumed by their quest to rid themselves of the flesh they bear and become eternal, and by their incessant territorial wars. Not typical of the sf yarn of the late 50s, the time of the Engineer-as-hero paradigm, practiced by Asimov and Heinlein and del Rey among other notables, and stylistically the precursor of the “new wave” that was to begin appearing a couple of years later, in tales by British authors like Ballard and Aldiss.

 

They’re not an especially easy read. The characters live in Strongholds, deploy force-beams against one another, communicate by pulse-beam, and in general are not reader-sympathetic. But reading through and learning to assimilate the style is not without its rewards. The world depicted in the stories is well-worked-out and utterly unlike anything else in fiction. The series of stories function in the aggregate as a novel, wherein the story emerges through a series of disconnected episodes not unlike journalistic dispatches from some far-future warfront.

Two of the stories from this book, Incident in Moderan, and The Escaping, appeared in Harlan Ellison’s first Dangerous Visions, where they found a much wider audience, and this led to the publication of the book moderan, by Avon in 1971. Long out of print, the book deserves a renewal. Amazon usually has a copy or two, and I’ve had good luck locating the book at used book dealers, having run through several copies (as a paperback original, the binding leaves something to be desired).

Recommended for the original vision and idiosyncratic use of language, moderan would likely appeal most to hard-science-fiction fans and fans of literary fictions such as Burroughs and Joyce. General readers may be put off by the style and subject matter.

 

An excerpt from the “Introduction”:

“But hey! Let me not forget now to emphasize that this man had hate. It plays through all the stories like a cold cold wind, a hot all-searing flame and a leaking ball of acid that put all human endeavor and aspirations to the test of gall. In fact, it seemed at times that he almost was consumed by, or at least was fully absorbed in, his hates, which he gave full play to as almost a kind of virtue…”

(c) 1971 by David R Bunch

 

contents:

Introduction

PART ONE: THE BEGINNINGS

Thinking Back (Our God is a Helpful God)

No Cracks or Sagging

The Butterflies Were Eagle-Big That Day

New Kings Are Not For Laughing

One Time, A Red Carpet…

Battle Won

Head Thumping The Troops

New-Metal Mistress Time

And So White Witch Valley

The Bird Man of Moderan

Bubble-Dome Homes

One False Step

Survival Packages

New-Metal

Of Hammers and Men

The Stronghold

2064, or Thereabouts

Penance Day In Moderan

Strange Shape In The Stronghold

Getting Regular

The Walking, Talking I-Don’t-Care Man

PART TWO: EVERYDAY LIFE IN MODERAN

To Face Eternity

In The Innermost Room of Authority

Playmate

A Husband’s Share

The Complete Father

Was She Horrid?

A Glance At the Past

Educational

It Was In Black Cat Weather

Sometimes I Get So Happy

Remembering

A Little Girl’s Xmas in Moderan

The Flesh-Man From Far Wide

PART THREE: INTIMATIONS OF THE END

The One From Camelot Moderan

Reunion

The Warning

Has Anyone Seen This Horseman

Interruption In Carnage

The Miracle of the Flowers

Incident In Moderan

The Final Decision

Will-Hung and Waiting

How They Took Care of Soul in a Last Day for a Non-Beginning

How It Ended