To Prime the Pump (John Grimes, #2) by A. Bertram Chandler

To Prime the Pump (John Grimes, #2) Reviews

• 
  Mark

  I have reviewed Chandler before, who was a staple of the magazines in the 1960s and 70s, and particularly John W Campbell’s Astounding/Analog. Recently collected by Baen Books, they show the progress of John Grimes from a new Ensign recruit in To the Galactic Rim (2011) to Commander by Gateway to Never (2015). For that reason, they have (in my view erroneously) often been referred to as “Hornblower in Space.” (CS Forester’s Hornblower was a character that followed a similar path but in the English Royal Navy of Napoleonic England.)
  
  Chandler was born in England in 1912, but emigrated to Australia in 1956. He was a merchant seaman, whose exploits seem to have led to inspiration in his characters. John Grimes in particular seems to have been Chandler’s alter-ego in space.
  
  To Prime the Pump is the second novella in the series.
  
  Clearly this is a world where men are men and women are to be admired, often from afar. Men smoke, drink and experience all kinds of hi-jinks whilst onboard the spaceships and at port.
  
  Chandler’s navy has no women onboard, and Grimes is a young relatively inexperienced young man who whilst on his travels is being shown the wonders of the universe. It’s rather like a Star Trek kind of universe, for good and bad.
  
  It’s not a particularly new idea – I’m reminded of David Feintuch’s Seafort books, which are more like Hornblower to my mind, or even David Weber’s Honor Harrington series, though unlike those two heroes Grimes is at this stage not at war as far as I can see.
  
  In this story the young Lieutenant Grimes and his spaceship Aries are sent to the wealthy planet of El Dorado where the wealthy people have requested help from the Federation in solving a problem. Initially this problem is undisclosed, but as we read on it seems that the issue is a biological one, that the men are infertile and people are unable to produce heirs. It seems that the residents all want family successors for the future:
  

  “ These people, and never forget it, are in their own estimation the aristocrats of the Galaxy. They want children to inherit their wealth, their titles. But they made it quite clear to me that such children must be sired by themselves, not by mongrel outsiders.”

  
  To prepare for the grand arrival of the Aries’ Captain, Grimes is given the task of landing on the planet in the ship’s pinnace, but crashes it to avoid hitting the Princess Marlene von Stoltzberg, who is water-skiing on her lake.
  
  Obviously, Marlene is young and attractive. Grimes is easily persuaded to stay at Stoltzberg’s residence – a castle, imported brick by brick from Europe, naturally - and meets some of the other locals. A hunting session and an evening meal whilst there shows Grimes that although there’s no government on the planet to speak of, the social structure of the planet is unsurprisingly based on social class and status, which Grimes dislikes. He also discovers that Marlene is descended from Aryan stock, with distinctly unpleasant views to Grimes’ own at times. Nevertheless Grimes becomes romantically involved with her.
  
  At the end of the story, Grimes leaves El Dorado with the rest of his crew. Marlene is expecting but has made it clear that she is not expecting to see Grimes again, unless he has the prerequisite amount of money required to live on the planet.
  
  There is a certain old-fashioned predictable comfort in this reading, even knowing that it ticks off every cliché you might imagine. Whilst the language is surprisingly accessible, some of the cultural norms have changed. The result is that the story is straightforwardly enjoyable, but not for everyone, and definitely not a reflection of modern tastes.
  
  Thinking back on the story after finishing, there are some worry-some issues in there as well. Are we really reading a story where Navy men are being used to top up a planet’s gene pool with the women as breeding stock? Well, not quite. It is hoped that the medical staff of the Aries can create a solution, though actually what is the solution is conveniently never fully explained.
  
  That part of the story is conveniently brushed aside as the story becomes more of a study of social status and class than sex. It is almost as if the upper echelons of the British Empire have been transported to space. I very much got the impression that the Grimes stories are Chandler transposing his own experiences at sea onto a galaxy-wide map.
  
  Because of this, I felt that the story was dated. With its pipe-smoking, drinking, all-male crew on a mission for the British Empire Federation, it feels more like a story out of the pulps of the 1950s or 60s, rather than 1971.
  
  And yet, despite knowing all of this, I must admit the pages kept turning. If you can read them as stories from a bygone age, they are quite entertaining, and they were very popular in their time. This then begs the question - why were these worth reading? Whilst modern stories are more complex and more nuanced, they lack the simplicity, comfort and familiarity that I suspect some readers appreciate in these stories. It is perhaps this that keeps them readable, even now.
  
  On my part, it also helps that I quite like Grimes as a character. He is well-meaning but rather naïve and gullible, lacking wider experience of the world – no, galaxy. It is this aspect that I suspect appealed to readers – he is not a genius nor a polymath, but someone who realises his limitations, learns from his mistakes and always tries to do good.
  
  With that in mind, this was a good quick read - not too taxing, but despite some issues (as mentioned above) surprisingly engaging for a story over 50 years old. I’m looking forward to reading how this character develops in further stories.
• 
  Vickey

  The only thing that can save this planet of nudist hedonistic billionaires from infertility is the magical dick of the racist, sexist, pipe-smoking spaceman John Grimes. :|
• 
  Tentatively, Convenience

  review of
  A. Bertram Chandler's To Prime the Pump
  by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 17, 2016
  
  
  The front cover of this one says: "El Dorado is a planet with a problem: the men are infertile—and the ladies are getting out of hand" so the targeted reader of the time, 1971, probably mostly young heterosexual boys, is immediately led to imagine 'our hero', John Grimes, landing on a planet where he's expected to impregnate a bevy of desperate women. This is sortof what happens but the whole business is more about class than it is about sexual fantasy.
  
  "["]Even you, young Grimes, must know how, on world after world, the trend has been towards socialism. Some societies have gone the whole hog, preaching and practicing the Gospel According to St. Marx. Some have contented themselves with State control of the means of production and supply, with ruinous taxation of the very well-to-do thrown in. There have been levelling up processes and levelling down processes, and these have hurt the aristocracies of birth and breeding as much as they have hurt the aristocracies of Big Business and industry.
  
  ""And so the Corporation was formed. Somehow its members managed to get most of their wealth out of their home worlds, and much of it was used for the terraforming of El Dorado. Terraforming? Landscape gardening would be a better phrase. Yes, that world's no more, and no less, than a huge, beautiful park, with KEEP OFF THE GRASS signs posted insofar as the common herd is concerned."
  
  ""What about servants? Technicians?" asked Grimes.
  
  ""The answer to that problem, my boy, was automation, automation and still more automation.["]" - pp 10-11
  
  Alright, here're a couple of typical asides of mine: Notice that the word "levelling" has a doubled consonant before the suffix. That wd've been 'correct' at the time. Now it's 'incorrect'. That's how fast the rules of language change. Change them yrself! Take yr new language out for a test drive! ALSO, automation as a thing that eliminates the need for human labor is completely delusional. Just as there are factory workers for cranking out the cars & mechanics for servicing them so will there always be humans somehow stuck w/ keeping the automation going.
  
  "The voice was as arrogant as Daintree's own but in a different way. It was the arrogance that comes with money (too much money), as with inherited titles, with a bloodline traced back to some uncouth robber baron who happened to be a more efficient thief and murderer than his rivals." - p 15
  
  Well put. Strangely enuf, these days, tho, I'm not hating on the robber barons as much as I once did. In Pittsburgh, where I live, Henry Clay Frick was 'smart' enuf to buy the coke ovens off of the individual owners & to turn the result into the basis for a huge steel industry. Then Frick violently suppressed any attempts by the workers to unite for better working conditions. Alexander Berkman tried to assassinate him during the thick of this. I admire Berkman's audacity but he wasn't really a killer or he wd've succeeded. He was probably too nice a guy. Now there's a Frick Park in Pittsburgh. It's large & I love to go there. It's too bad that there's no Berkman Park but I'm thankful for the Frick one.
  
  El Dorado, the planet of the super-rich, has no government. I reckon that that makes this particular fantasy planet of Chandler's a little less believable insofar as I find it hard to imagine any planet of ruthless bloodsuckers not trying to dominate a radioactive shit-pile. Then again, maybe they save that for planets where there're serfs.
  
  "["]I take it that you are representative of your government."
  
  ""We have no government, Captain Daintree, such as you understand the word," said de Messigny. "But it was decided that this little group here was the best qualified to meet you.["]" - p 45
  
  This makes the people of El Dorado anarchists - highly improbable given their wealth & their choice of planet name. Then we get to the meat of the matter:
  
  "["]Insofar as the humans are concerned, there are no births. No, that's not quite correct. Some of the women were pregnant when they came here. The youngest of the children born on El Dorado is now a girl of seventeen."
  
  ""Something in the air , or the water, sir?"
  
  ""Could be, Grimes. Could be. But I'm a spaceman, not a quack. I wouldn't know. If it is, it must be something remarkably subtle. And you'd think that such an . . . agent? would affect the plants and the livestock as well as the people.""
  
  [..]
  
  ""Do you think, sir, that they called us in so that we could . . . ? How can I put it? A sort of artificial insemination by donor? Only not so artificial."
  
  ""Mr. Grimes!" Daintree at once reverted to his normal manner. "I ask, no, I order, you to put such ideas out of your alleged mind at once. These people, and never forget it, are in their own estimation the aristocrats of the Galaxy. They want children to inherit their wealth, their titles. But they made it quite clear to me that such children must be sired by themselves, not by mongrel outsiders."" - pp 55-56
  
  "["]You're away from your bloody ship, and all the stiffness and starchiness that are inevitable when the common herd puts on gold braid and brass buttons."
  
  ''You snobbish bitch! thought Grimes angrily.
  
  ""Sorry," she said casually, but you have to remember that we, on El Dorado, regard ourselves as rather special people."
  
  ""That reminds me," said Grimes," of two famous Twentieth Century writers. Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald said to Hemingway, quite seriously, 'The rich are different from us.' Hemingway replied, 'Yes. They have more money.'"
  
  ""So you read, John. You actually read. A spacefaring intellectual. I didn't know that there were any such."" - pp 80-81
  
  I'm reminded of a Bulgarian expatriate friend of mine who I 1st met online or in a phone conversation a decade or more ago. This friend made a disparaging remark about Americans 'not reading' that was meant to dismiss a whole nation of 100s of millions of people as idiots. Naturally, I deflated this person's stupid European aristocratic stereotypes ASAP.
  
  ""And you mean to tell me that that huge building is for one person?"
  
  ""Isn't it time that you started to lose your petty-bourgeois ideas, John? I warn you, if you start spouting Thorsten Veblen at me on the subject of conspicuous waste I shall lose my temper. And as far as Marxism, there isn't any exploited proletariat on El Dorado, with the exception of the lower deck ratings aboard your ship."
  
  ""They aren't exploited. Anyhow, what about the people on the other worlds who've contributed to your fantastically high standard of living?"" - pp 82-83
  
  "Conspicuous consumption is a term introduced by the Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his book "The Theory of the Leisure Class" published in 1899.
  
  "The term refers to consumers who buy expensive items to display wealth and income rather than to cover the real needs of the consumer.
  
  "A flashy consumer uses such behavior to maintain or gain higher social status. Most classes have a flashy consumer affect and influence over other classes, seeking to emulate the behavior.
  
  "The result, according to Veblen, is a society characterized by wasted time and money." -
  http://www.conspicuousconsumption.org/
  
  "what about the people on the other worlds"? The people of El Dorado wdn't want them on their planet!
  
  ""You mean that there's no privacy?" asked Grimes, shocked.
  
  ""I suppose you could put it that way."
  
  ""But . . . But I thought that this was a society of . . . aristocratic anarchists."
  
  ""That's a good way of putting it, John. And a true way." She lay back in the chair set before the huge screen, relaxed, but her fine features were thoughtful. "But can't you see?, neither the aristocrat nor the anarchist suffers from false shame. I can conceive of situations in which a petty bourgeois such as yourself would be agonizingly embarrassed if he knew that he was being watched. During copulation, for example, or defecation. But we . . ." In spite of her almost supine position she managed a delicate shrug. "But we . . . We know that it doesn't matter."" - p 97
  
  "aristocratic anarchists" is an oxymoron insofar as "an-archy" means w/o rule & an aristocrat is defined by hier-archy. Being watched does matter if the activity so watched is likely to be used against the person watched.
  
  Anyway, as yet-another SF bk that shows an appreciation for class issues I enjoyed this very much, as just a novel w/ a story n'at I also enjoyed it. As a sexual fantasy? Well, I prefer my sexual fantasies manifested in real life - bks just don't do it for me.
• 
  Megan

  I did not really like this book that much. I want John Grimes to be a good character and he's just not. He whiny, immature and very annoying. In this book, he goes to help a planet with their problem of being unable to have children. Obviously, Grimes helps by sleeping with a woman after being told not to do just that. I understand that this was written in the 1970s but it's really dated, especially the attitude towards women. John finds himself pining after this woman who is nothing but condescending to him and doesn't seem to like him at all. That doesn't matter to John, as long as he gets to sleep with her. There was absolutely no sci-fi action in this book at all. Towards the end, we get told that the Aries goes and does some fighting in an insurrection and helps evacuate a city. Those would have been much better stories than this one. 2 out of 5 stars, I'm hoping this series gets better.
• 
  Alvin

  A sci fi series to divert.
• 
  Norman Howe

  For a novel published 46 years ago, the SF holds up rather well. I'm happy to finally read one of the pivotal novels in the Grimes canon. They should film these: they'd play well on HBO.
• 
  Richard

  I'm enjoying this series more than I expected. The odd elements, such as the space navy officers wearing cocked hats and swords for formal dress, I find amusing.
• 
  Rogue-van (the Bookman)

  Grimes' invitation to visit a beautiful, luxurious planet that normally only admits billionaires is hard to understand. With their resources, why do they need military medical assistance? One aloof but extremely attractive woman, Princess Marlene, gets John Grimes attention all right, but . . . what does she really want? Intriguing situation.
  
  In spite of the fact that the "spark" theory in this story is highly questionable, the theory that a spaceman can fall for a princess is very believable, going all the way back to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars. Both writers are very action oriented. (Sexual situations, decadence, some violence.)
• 
  Karen-Leigh

  Lieutenant Grimes of the Aries lands on El Dorado. Three attempts are made on his life but in the end he leaves safely and leaves a Princess behind pregnant with his child.
• 
  Ralph Carlson

  Back in the 60s and 70s Chandler was one of my favorite SF writers. It was great fun toread him again after all these years. I will be reading more of his books.
• 
  manka

  Oproti prvnímu dílu je druhý ještě o něco bizarnější, co se ženských charakterů týče. Jako odpočinková literatura, když se chce člověku spát už v pět odpoledne ideální.
• 
  Brenda

  I liked it but it was hardly perfect, it stayed true to the character of John Grimes but that is the only reason I finished it.