Moore Books

I'm thinking that I first read this when I was around the age of 12 (1965). It really grabbed my attention. The story is simple. An unknown virus infects people swimmming in the ocean. This causes them to mutate to people "monsters" that stalk and kill. The government finds out and seals off LA and nukes it. The story is of those that are "normal" and are trying to survive.

Short book. Easy to read. A great story. Enjoy!

Up to this point (1960) there had been published nine volumes of "The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction." Robert P. Mills carefully examined the back issues and culled 40 stories which he felt should have been included in those volumes. Then he eliminated any which had appeared in ANY other anthology. The result is this thick, 416-page paperback.

CONTENTS:

The Martian Shop Howard Fast
Walk Like a Mountain Manly Wade Wellman
Men of Iron Guy Endore
Rabbits to the Moon Raymond E. Banks
The Certificate Avram Davidson
The Sealman John Masefield
The Sky People Poul Anderson
The Causes Margaret St Clair (as Idris Seabright)
The Hypnoglyph John Anthony
A Tale of the Thirteenth Floor Ogden Nash
Spud and Cochise Oliver La Farge
Unto the Fourth Generation Isaac Asimov
Jordan Zenna Henderson
Will You Wait? Alfred Bester
Proof Positive Graham Greene
Shock Treatment J. Francis McComas
Gandolphus Anthony Boucher
The Last Shall Be First Robert P. Mills
A Trick or Two John Novotny
Lot's Daughter Ward Moore
Saturnian Celia Horace Walpole
Fear is a Business Theodore Sturgeon
Meeting of Relations John Collier
First Lesson Mildred Clingerman
To Fell a Tree Robert F. Young

Deception In Disguise is perfect for all mystery lovers--from the very beginning to the very end, the read is left gasping for air and holding on to the edge of his seat! Designed for the good-old fashion murder lovers, as well as the hardcore romantics. Deception In Disguise, a great read!

Robert Drury was a 15 year old English sailor when his ship The "Degrave" ran aground on Madagascar in the early 1700's. All the crew were either killed or enslaved by the natives. After 15 years, Drury escaped and returned to England. He left this account of his adventure when he died. Some say his journal is fiction and is the work of Daniel Defoe. But "Sources for Robert Drury" tells how church records of the time list a person who's name was Robert Drury or Robert Jury, and who was not only born at the time of the protagonist, but entered the navy at the same time. A recent expedition to Madagascar found that all locations and historical references in the book are accurate. If Defoe realy did write the book, then he first heard the story from the real Robert Drury.

This horror collection is not the usual, PC fluff or CGI that is passed by the media today as being fit for consumption. Reality can be very scary.

Moore captures the sense of Hardy's writing in historical literary context. He demonstrates, in detail, that Hardy's novels were ironic, satirical, and by and large critical responses to the major themes of Romantic and Victorian cultural postions. Moore argues, convincingly, that Hardy's main theme in Wessex was the fall of idealism into a history which was without Reaon, or "non-rational," as Hardy once named it. Hardy's major novels, more shows, replay the dark themes of Shelley's "Triumph of Time," in local contexts.
Moore's study is comprehensive, detailed, and well-argued. It is surprising that it is not more widely appreciated in the Hardy and Victorian studies communities, both of which are sorely in need of a few good arguments and fresh critical approaches.

I enjoyed this book very much. I have also met others on the internet and found the similar experiences very interesting, the mixed feelings of fear of the unknown with excitement too. The book was very easy reading and some parts were very sexually exciting. I could easily identify with the emotions of the author throughout the various adventures.

Youngblood, Jack and Robin Moore 1961 The Devil To Pay - The True Story of an American Soldier of Fortune in Castro's Revolution. Coward McCann, New York Library of Congress number 60-12501 ASIN: B000G3FZQ0


This is a most interesting book since it seems compiled not only from the personal experiences of Jack Youngblood who like I was there at the time, but also from the oral histories of other veteran rebels' of War Against Batista. This was published long before scholars' examinations took full hold. The sexual adventures reflect the times and I can state that they hold general truth. The flights to bring in weaponry from Venezuela really occurred and so did the executions for alleged rape, and these had started even before January 1958.

The passages I sought today for my own work are found on pages 143 -146 of the Youngblood and Moore book. On these pages there is an account narrated as coming from Camilo Cienfuego. This account concerns the false accusations from Raul Castro and the Che Guevara of rape of Vilma Espin that ended in the execution of Armando Sanchez, a man said to be close to Castro).

This narrations runs "Camilo launched into his story ... The scheme was as old as the Bible ...Vilma (Espin a hard case who would be Raul Castro's wife after victory over Batista) took Armando's arm and laughing and talking, they started back to the camp. The path was a narrow one, so Armando led the way. An hour and a half later Vilma stumbled into camp, screaming hysterically, her clothing torn, her face bruised ...she cried out that Armando Sanchez had tried to rape her... Raul shouted, "Fuego!" ...The Che walked to youth and calmly shattered his head with a soft-nose .45 slug."

This is oral history and thus details may well be inaccurate, especially the role of Fidel Castro is seemingly out of character ... yet it is probably essentially true. Rene Cuervo, a rebel who had been once friend of mine would die in much the same way, falsely accused and then executed.

This is how I describe the effect of such actions in my own life in the Sierra as found in my as yet unfinished and unpublished manuscript "Narrations of War in Cuba" in a draft of a side bar entitled: "La Ley de la Sierra."

"The life of any soldier, especially a guerrilla is full of fear. In the days of the war against Batista this was made especially so by "La Ley de la Sierra" prepared by the head of Castro's legal council Humberto Sorí Marín.

The effects of this draconic legislation would reach a crescendo between 1959-1965. However in earlier years, it preyed on the thoughts of us rebels, in the years of fighting that preceded victory. Perhaps it consumed more of my thoughts than was common among my companions. "

"In my mind La Ley de la Sierra took the form of a most dreadful and personal fear, since unlike other members of my group who were the less well read and travelled, for I knew what it was like to be an outsider. Or is this an elitist presumption on my part, that the others did not fear it so. I do know that I was aware of the possibility of false accusations and here these could have deadly consequences."

"Whatever I had already assisted at one trial (as described else where in this manuscript) and was not impressed by "revolutionary justice." Thinking of this gave me nightmares."

"This fear coupled to my virginal and devout Irish Catholic upbringing delivered such a deep suspicion of the results of having sex that despite my raging hormones I was completely inhibited.

"Today contemplating the past and the present realize that this was part of the mind control to which we were subjected. The rebel leadership held themselves immune both from this fear and its consequences, however this was not really so."

"In the spring of 1961, at the time of the Bay of Pigs Humberto Sorí Marín, the author and often the prosecutor of "La Ley de la Sierra" also died by the same firing squads he had once justified. "

Later safe in the U.S., I would read in a book by Jack Youngblood and Robin Moore 1961 how Vilma Espín, future spouse of killer Raúl Castro, already a very ruthless guerrilla who betraying her superior and fellow guerrilla Frank País in the city of Santiago, had in the mountains where she sought refuge again seduced a ideological rival and then by proclaiming rape delivered this rival to the execution squad."

Among More's last works, "A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation" is one of his most important. There are scholarly editions, from Yale and the University of Indiana Press, and there are popular editions from Everyman and Septer that are available. More wrote this book in the Tower of London as he awaited execution, but the style is not the raging virtupretive one he used when confuting Tyndale. There are "merry tales" such as the one about the German who was never satiate his own praise, in Book Three Chapter 10, but most of the book is given over to meditation on death. More has two characters, Anthony a young man, and Vincent, his aged Uncle. They are placed in Budapest and they are fearful of an impending invasion by the Turks. More's story has been read as thinly veiled alagory of his own situation. Anthony standing in for More's son-in-law William Roper, and Vincent for More himself. That may be putting it too simplistically, but it is a good starting point. Unlike More's best known work "Utopia," "A Dialogue of Comfort" was not written in Latin, but in English. I doubt one in a thousand readers have read More's classic in the original Latin, but everyone who reads English can read More's "Dialogue of Comfort" without the aid of translation. This is a spiritual book. In this book More asks where shall comfort come from. More answers his own question: "For God is and must be your comfort, and not I."

This was a very engaging story with believable characters, none of which were stereotypical or one dimensional. The author captures some interesting themes of how people see themselves and what motivates them.