Transit to Scorpio (Dray Prescot #1)

Author: Alan Burt Akers (aka Kenneth Bulmer)
First Published: 1972
Pages: 120

At the age of about 16 or 17 in school I was forced to read Shakespeare for English Literature. I cannot remember which play it was. It might have even been a selection of his work. I would start out full of enthusiasm in each lesson, but rapidly as I started to read the strange words on the pages I would realise that I didn't understand anything of what was going on or was being said by any of the characters. I would complain to our teacher that it was "pointless learning this stuff" and that we would "never use any of this knowledge" after we finished our education.

Reading Transit to Scorpio by Kenneth Bulmer gave me the same feeling I had all those years ago. I cannot see what the attraction is for readers of this series? I started it thinking I was about to read a classic of the Sword and Planet genre, something entertaining and full of action and adventure. What I got was a totally incomprehensible story, at times I even doubted my own sanity. I know Bulmer has written a lot of stuff, hundreds of novels apparently. And some of them are praised as classics. Unfortunately this was my first experience of Bulmer's writing (unless I've read something else of his under a different name and am completely unaware of it). Was this a very early effort? This was one of the most difficult reads I've encountered for many years.

I knew what I getting into. A Sword and Planet story, in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars series (it even says so on some the variant covers). I have to admit I've never read ERB's Mars series all the way through, but at least what I did read made sense to me! I have also read Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman, which retrospectively I now have a greater appreciation of and may pick up again.

1983 Edition

So, the Dray Prescot books. Let's cover the basics. Begun in the early seventies, the novels saw publication by DAW up to thirty-seven instalments in paperback up to 1988 - which is bloody staggering in my opinion. A following series were published only in German language for years until recently, where the final volumes have been published in English up to volume 52. Bulmer had intended to wrap up the series in volume 53. The entire series has an internal structure consisting of 'cycles' which form substories within the overall storyline.

The downside is you have to start at the beginning.

The plot of Transit to Scorpio tells the story of 18th century sailor Dray Prescot, who is transported to the planet Kregen, of the Antares star system in the constellation of Scorpio. There he meets his soul-mate Delia of Belphond, a beautiful woman with a crippling injury to her leg. Dray initially arrives on Kregen and finds himself floating down a river on a giant leaf, with a giant scorpion for company. The scorpion eventually leaves Prescot to himself, and he journeys to the end of the river using his wits to survive. He finds himself at a glorious city, the city of the Savanti, a benevolent secret society on Kregen. The  city is described as The Swinging City (I kid you not). I got a bit excited. Where is this going I chortled. Unfortunately, the name is derived from the means of transport from the high towers, swinging platforms that swoop between locations. The people are called Swingers (I chortled again). And they part with the saying "Happy Swinging!" (I chortled for the last time).

It was at this point that I started to get a bit lost. This book is not very long at 120 pages. But Bulmer packs in a lot of story (the paragraph of plot above is probably only about 20 pages as an example). Things move very swiftly, almost too swiftly to cope with. Pretty soon Dray has swept Delia off to a fountain of youth to restore her damaged leg. But his joy is short-lived as he is transported back to Earth suddenly.

There now occurs a strange passage of time in the book. A few years on Earth pass with Prescot back as a sailor before he is able to be sent back to Kregen. He finds himself stranded this time on a beach with no sign of the city of the Savanti anywhere. He catches a brief glimpse of Delia who is spirited away by strange creatures. Eventually he befriends a nomadic tribe and, believing Delia dead, rises to become their chieftain over the next FIVE YEARS. Yep, the story skips five years in a couple of sentences. The story meanders after this, finally settling on a kind of Sparticus tale of Prescot being pursued by his Princess owner and raising to eventually defeat her.

It would seem that Prescot is saving himself for Delia. Despite a lot of nakedness in Transit to Scorpio, both for Dray and Delia, and especially the Slave Princess Natima, all seemingly very young and fit, nobody gets their rocks off. There isn't a hint of it.

1974 Edition

There were so many things I had problems with. Characters seemed to disappear in the middle of scenes. There are references to higher beings, Star-Lords, who may be manipulating Prescot for their own means, which never get expanded upon. The names of some of the characters just meld together because there are so many of them and they are introduced so frequently. There is even a bizarre reference to a vase, which eventually Prescot smashes to reveal a hidden weapon - but we never witness him hiding the weapon in the first place? Things just seem to blur or skip suddenly - I found the whole thing so confusing. Which is strange because at its heart its not really very complex.

Oh and another thing. Prescot is good at everything, especially fighting. There are frequent references to how good he is at stuff because he did at as a sailor - but its been FIVE YEARS since he was a sailor - how can he still be that good?

The finale of the story involves what you think is going to be a great battle - only Prescot (who is narrating the whole story to someone hundreds of years later on cassette tape) decides "not to expand on the details of the battle". Great. Thanks Dray. Really appreciate that.

And the last word - I really never want to read "breachclout" again.

The eBook cost me £4.99. It was an omnibus version containing the first four stories, referred to as the Delian Cycle. Not bad value in normal circumstances, but I just can't see myself reading books 2 to 4.