Adventure Tales #5

Adventure Tales #5

by John Gregory Betancourt, Vincent Starrett, Achmed Abdullah

The fifth issue of ADVENTURE TALES showcases the work of Achmed Abdullah, with two long "The Remittance Woman" and "Their Own Dear Land." Also featured are "The Pearls of Paruki," by J. Allan Dunn, and "The Midwatch Tragedy," by Vincent Starrett.

Nook

First published June 9, 2008

About the author

John Gregory Betancourt is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels as well as short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at Amazing Stories and editor of Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field, the revived Weird Tales magazine, the first issue of H. P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror (which he subsequently hired Marvin Kaye to edit), Cat Tales magazine (which he subsequently hired George H. Scithers to edit), and Adventure Tales magazine. He worked as a Senior Editor for Byron Preiss Visual Publications (1989-1996) and iBooks. He is the writer of four Star Trek novels and the new Chronicles of Amber prequel series, as well as a dozen original novels. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in such diverse publications as Writer's Digest and The Washington Post.

Reviews

[Paul Cornelius]

Achmed Abdullah's novel, The Remittance Woman, is the centerpiece of this collection. The story of a rebellious young woman, Marie Campbell, who leaves her wealthy American home for a stay in Canton was originally made into a movie in 1923, which Abdullah scripted. The novel then appeared in 1924. Thus it takes place just at the moment when China was reeling from the revolution that deposed the Dowager Empress and the warlord era that followed. This is also a time when Westerners flocked to places like Canton, Shanghai and Peking for adventure, economic opportunity, or safe harbor, especially if they were refugees from the newly installed Bolsheviks in Russia. Abdullah hits all the right notes in bringing not only the expatriate community into view but also the local Chinese. Four characters represent a much broader coalition of international forces descending on China, the home-bred wealthy Sun Yu-Wen, the Portuguese-Turkic-Jewish financier Moses d'Acosta, the refugee Russian prince/general Kokoshkine. and the American lynchpin for peace, Marie, who carries with her a secret talisman that could bring either peace or violent anarchy to China and through China the world. Opposing and representing the resentment, fury and anger of China towards the outside world is the Chuen to yan, the head of a secret sect committed to reigniting the Boxer rebellion. Exoticism. A quest. A venerated object sought by all. Danger. Romance. Abdullah mixes it all perfectly together. And as usual his imagery is cinematically vivid and detailed. (Abdullah published novelizations of several of the films he scripted.) To make things even more intriguing for the current day reader is the fact that there exists no known copy of the film version, which is listed officially as a lost film. Expatriate China, Abdullah at the height of his writing, and Hollywood at the apex of the silent era. But only this neglected novel remains.

There is another Abdullah piece, a short story, "Their Own Dear Land," that begins the collection. Relatively light-hearted, its adventures take place in a Mongol khanate, where two brothers vie for wealth, women, and power. Allan Dunn's "The Pearls of Paruki," a quintessential South Seas adventure comes next and surpasses at least ninety percent of that genre's usual fare. Finally, there is a Vincent Starrett Jimmie Lavender story that tracks down murder, theft, and disguised identities on a transatlantic ocean voyage. So far, this is the strongest collection of tales in this series.