Transcribe
Translate
Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 11, Summer 1946
Page 285
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
FANTASY COMMENTATOR 285 CHANNING, Mark White Python London: Hutchinson & Co., Ltd., 1934. 286 pp. 19 1/2cm. 7/6.. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1934. 320pp. 19 1/2cm. $2.00. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1935. 286pp. 19 1/2cm. 3/6. Synoptic review: White Python should provide a feast royal for both the lover of the supernatural and for one who likes other types of fantasy as well, for it is a novel that one can review with only the greatest enthusiasm. Fundamentally it is concerned with the supernatural, treating a theme of ancient serpent worship, and being replete with many phases of Oriental occultism. The hero finds himself an ally of Tibetian adepts, a partaker in magical rites; and so convincingly has the author woven his atmosphere that the reader finds himself believing the truth of the strange phenomena that pass before his mind's eye. Beneath a blue lake rumored to be bottomless lies an endless series of caverns within which lives a forgotten race of men--men blind from ages of subterranean living, who worship a great white serpent. This serpent is a living, hungry god, receving human sacrifices at periodic intervals. There is an ancient prophecy, and the hero is identified with the man mentioned therein as coming ruler of this underworld---an underworld destined (if the prophecy is realized) to spread its rule through all the lands above the surface. He meets the woman prophecied to be his bride, the priestess Gynia--- Gynia of swift-changing moods, who claims to have lived centuries, versed in ancient evil, who revels in the embrace of the forty-foot serpent and dances nude with serpentine grace before its altar while it crushes its victims to death. Efforts to save from sacrifice a captured English aviatrix, whose plane has been forced down in a nearby Himalyan valley, coupled with a psychic duel between the high priest of the serpent and a monastery llama, bring White Python to a terrific and catastrophic conclusion. Never once, during all the intrigue and counter-intrigue, does Channing permit the aura of the supernatural to fade, and never does the plot's tension slacken. Seldom have the supernatural and exciting action been so neatly interwoven, so that it is hard indeed to understand why a book of this quality should have failed to receive greater acclaim from fantasy lovers. ---Thyril L. Ladd ---o0o--- The Far Future of Science-Fiction---continued from page 275 reduced Tyrannosaurus to a carrion-eater is a decided threat. As for the legendary civilizations, Atlantis and its ilk should go by the board, and magic Egypt be fairly well discredited. There would still be room for stories about the quasi-civilizations that must have existed in the lost ages, and romancers could dress them up for any reader-audience that might yet remain backward-looking rather than forward-looking. 60. Temponautics: Like dimensional stories, temponautical tales are unlikely ever to be put to the test, but glossing over means by which time-travelling is accomplished will become more difficult---as it already has. (Present-day time tales which offer no explanations are relying on readers' acquaintance with Wells' classing and the specious stuff about "time as a stream" of fifteen years ago.) Of course, one-way travel from past to future presents no serious difficulties, and may even be actualized. The old-fashioned tempo tale wherein one visits the past or sees the future but is unable to change it will (concluded on page 301)
Saving...
prev
next
FANTASY COMMENTATOR 285 CHANNING, Mark White Python London: Hutchinson & Co., Ltd., 1934. 286 pp. 19 1/2cm. 7/6.. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1934. 320pp. 19 1/2cm. $2.00. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1935. 286pp. 19 1/2cm. 3/6. Synoptic review: White Python should provide a feast royal for both the lover of the supernatural and for one who likes other types of fantasy as well, for it is a novel that one can review with only the greatest enthusiasm. Fundamentally it is concerned with the supernatural, treating a theme of ancient serpent worship, and being replete with many phases of Oriental occultism. The hero finds himself an ally of Tibetian adepts, a partaker in magical rites; and so convincingly has the author woven his atmosphere that the reader finds himself believing the truth of the strange phenomena that pass before his mind's eye. Beneath a blue lake rumored to be bottomless lies an endless series of caverns within which lives a forgotten race of men--men blind from ages of subterranean living, who worship a great white serpent. This serpent is a living, hungry god, receving human sacrifices at periodic intervals. There is an ancient prophecy, and the hero is identified with the man mentioned therein as coming ruler of this underworld---an underworld destined (if the prophecy is realized) to spread its rule through all the lands above the surface. He meets the woman prophecied to be his bride, the priestess Gynia--- Gynia of swift-changing moods, who claims to have lived centuries, versed in ancient evil, who revels in the embrace of the forty-foot serpent and dances nude with serpentine grace before its altar while it crushes its victims to death. Efforts to save from sacrifice a captured English aviatrix, whose plane has been forced down in a nearby Himalyan valley, coupled with a psychic duel between the high priest of the serpent and a monastery llama, bring White Python to a terrific and catastrophic conclusion. Never once, during all the intrigue and counter-intrigue, does Channing permit the aura of the supernatural to fade, and never does the plot's tension slacken. Seldom have the supernatural and exciting action been so neatly interwoven, so that it is hard indeed to understand why a book of this quality should have failed to receive greater acclaim from fantasy lovers. ---Thyril L. Ladd ---o0o--- The Far Future of Science-Fiction---continued from page 275 reduced Tyrannosaurus to a carrion-eater is a decided threat. As for the legendary civilizations, Atlantis and its ilk should go by the board, and magic Egypt be fairly well discredited. There would still be room for stories about the quasi-civilizations that must have existed in the lost ages, and romancers could dress them up for any reader-audience that might yet remain backward-looking rather than forward-looking. 60. Temponautics: Like dimensional stories, temponautical tales are unlikely ever to be put to the test, but glossing over means by which time-travelling is accomplished will become more difficult---as it already has. (Present-day time tales which offer no explanations are relying on readers' acquaintance with Wells' classing and the specious stuff about "time as a stream" of fifteen years ago.) Of course, one-way travel from past to future presents no serious difficulties, and may even be actualized. The old-fashioned tempo tale wherein one visits the past or sees the future but is unable to change it will (concluded on page 301)
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
