As a science fiction kid in the 1970s, one phenomenon I recalled well was the “ancient astronaut” works of Erich von Däniken. These took a look at various artistic and architectural creations of various ancient peoples and claimed they were the result of extra-terrestrial contact.
As von Däniken didn’t have the scientific or academic background to understand what he was looking at, the whole matter is one of pseudoscience, pseudoarchaeology, and pseudohistory. But it found a large number of ready fans who are just as unaware of these fields as well, hence his popularity then and today with the current Ancient Astronauts TV show and related on the History Channel.
But it does make an interesting idea for fictional works, which some have made use of. From the folks at Flinch Books, we get the Chronicles of Conrad von Honig. This character was created by Jim Beard and John C. Bruening, who, like me, remember von Däniken. So far he has appeared in two books: an anthology of short stories by six authors, and a novel. I finally got both volumes at the recent PulpFest. Von Honig is basically von Däniken if he was a global trotting adventurer, making real encounters in the 1970s with what he writes about, so maybe a bit of Carl Kolchak and similar as well.
Quest of the Space Gods is the anthology. Here authors Jim Beard, Desmond Reddick, Frank Schildiner, Brian K. Morris, Terry Alexander, and Fred Adams Jr. provide stories.
Jim Beard kicks things off when some people find a mysterious cave. After being calling, von Honig finds himself in a war-torn Balkan nation. Through various dangers, he and the reporter who calls him in, with the help of a local girl, find the cave, but they have run afoul of the local authorities. What does their finding mean and will they all get out alive?
In Desmond Reddick’s story, we find von Honig in Paris where he meets the daughter of his old professor from Australia. She works as a freelance music journalist and brings to his attention a strange glam-rock musician. He had disappeared for a period of time, but after his return his albums show clear influences in the idea of the “space gods.” Von Honig heads to West Berlin to find the musician and learn what he has found out. What happens and will a crazed fan turn things deadly?
In Frank Schildiner’s work, von Honig is relaxing at a friend’s house in the Hollywood Hills when he receives a strange package. It links a missing heiress to an academic who seems to have gone off the deep end in his belief in the “space gods.” There may be a link to a hummingbird god of several Central and South American tribes. This takes von Honig to Chichen Itza and then to Nazca. Can he stop the killings, save the heiress, and stop whatever the madman is trying to do?
The fall of Saigon kicks things off in Brian K. Morris’s piece. An American at the U.S. Embassy sends his son, a young half-Vietnamese, off on an errand only to evacuate without him. But it seems the young boy has some mysterious abilities. Maybe due to a strange item he has? Years later the father, revealed to be a CIA agent, seeks out the help of von Honig and “convinces” him to accompany him to Vietnam. It seems the father also has some mysterious abilities as well. But there is more to both the father and son than either we or von Honig realize. What will be the outcome of the reunion between the two?
A fortune hunter in Oklahoma contacts von Honig in the story by Terry Alexander. While von Honig isn’t impressed by most of what the fortune hunter says, he does get very interested in strange carvings the man has found, and so takes a flight to meet him. But there are complications due to rival fortune hunters who follow the pair. Will von Honig succeed in finding the evidence he seeks, especially when strange things start to occur?
The final story, by Fred Adams Jr., takes von Honig to Siberia, where a cave may have the evidence he is looking for. But thanks to Soviet soldiers, he has to flee without his photos. We finally meet his publisher, only mentioned in a few other stories. With the evidence, von Honig convinces him to finance his next trip to his home country, Australia, with a brief stop in South Africa. Will he finally be able to get the evidence he needs for his next book?
Quest for the Delphi Oculus is a novel by Brian K. Morris, who has written a variety of New Pulp works at various publishers, along with his own imprint. Things start off with Conrad in Iran, being taken to a mysterious room. But after finding it, others arrive, take him away and spirit away the room. It seems that others have plans for both the room and Conrad. This time we actually meet his publisher, Noel de Sapin, who will be appearing in this work (he was only mentioned a few times previously).
Soon Conrad (and Noel) are pulled into a mysterious global conspiracy that calls itself the Delphi Oculus. Along its members are a U.S. general, a mad scientist, another believer in the “space gods,” and a former stewardess. They try kidnapping Conrad in an attempt to get him to work with them, which launches him on an attempt to escape that takes him from London to Chicago to Paris. The group is pressuring Noel to not only drop Conrad’s books but to actually recall and destroy them. And finally they kidnap him as well.
In examining both alien artifacts and von Honig’s DNA, our mad scientists says that people with certain DNA markers — like von Honig — can use them. They show up in how he uses on of the “stone rooms.” But what is their ultimate aim? And can von Honig and de Sapin get out of their clutches?
I don’t know what we will see next for von Honig. Among others, Flinch Books publishes stories with two other characters: one being Jim Beard’s Sgt. Janus series, which I have reviewed here, and John C. Bruening’s Midnight Avenger series, which I hope to review here soon.
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