special assignment: A JOHN GRIMES READING GUIDE
Over 25 years, a 'tapestry' of John Grimes's life was woven by A. Bertram Chandler. All the pieces were delivered haphazardly & out-of-order, and in fact, some planned stories never came into existence. This process allowed many imperfections to creep in that need forgiving, not to mention portrayals and attitudes that haven't aged all that well in the decades since.
Still, many find this run of vintage science-fiction fun & entertaining, with its overlay of maritime life & conventions over that of the work-a-day spaceman.
The many stories appeared on their own and in a myriad pool of publications & collections. There were numerous title-changes, re-workings, and submersions into novel-length re-tellings. There have indeed been efforts by many to group together varied tales into some timeline, chronology
or reading-order (entitled variously after the man's major ranks; Commander Grimes, Captain Grimes or Commodore Grimes). I thought there was still room for my own organizationally subjective point-of-view, and I hope that if you've come across this and are reading it, you will find it in some way useful.
Know that there seems to be a consensus that the best division of the canon is into three time-sets ("Early", "Middle" & "Late") grouped about two major transitions in Grimes's life. Every story where Grimes appears is given some kind of entry here, illustrated by found book covers & art. There's also the inclusion of a handful of tales where he is absent, but the proceedings are too tied into his own activities to omit.
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EARLY GRIMES
[note that in the Chandler story Lost Art, you'd find a character named Sgt. Grimes, but he is not our hero.]
[In John Grimes: Autographical Notes (whose entry is placed at the end of this guide), Grimes's Australian birth is reported, as well as his Interstellar Federation Survey Service Academy training, where originates his quite heated rivalry with Francis 'Frank' Delamere.]
THE ROAD TO THE RIM
We now catch up with young Ensign Grimes on Earth, his training done, having had family matters keep him from shipping out with the rest of his Academy class. To report to his first posting, he must take passage on a mercantile spaceship under the command of Captain Jerry Craven. Aboard, he gets his first taste of how several of residents of 'The Rim' look at things - the feeling that they are on a frontier, the last frontier, between the more clustered worlds and the infinite nothing that is intergalactic space, but then also yearning for full independence, rather than seemingly being a 'protectorate' of the Federation. He also gets his first taste of state-sponsored space-piracy, provided by the Duchy of Waldegren (a piracy that, at the moment, is strategically ignored by the Federation) and allows himself to become second-in-command in the reactionary scheme to address it. He now has his first blot on his record before he's even properly begun his service.
[Recommending a paperback volume that combines it with the soon-needed The Hard Way Up]
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TO PRIME THE PUMP
Lieutenant Grimes has been posted to Captain Daintree's Aries, now taking him to the planet El Dorado, an aristocratic human colony populated by self-entitled near-immortals. He and his new acquaintance, the Princess Marlene von Stolzberg, become part of the supranatural solution to the sterile planet's fertility problem. We are told that in the months that follow, Grimes continues his service on the Aries under Daintree and more than plays his part in the suppression of the bloody insurrection on Mergenta, the chase of the mutineers of the Dog Star Line's Corgi, and the rescue operation after the destruction of the capital city of Ayr (not to mention a spectacularly rebuked pass at one of his shipmates, purser Ellen Russell), but that also after that time, amid the large number of the then resulting El Dorado births, is one baby with distinctively prominent ears….
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GRIMES AT GLENROWAN
(I will be ignoring for the moment that this tale was 'made public', very late in the game, through the offices of the Shakespearian Sector Entertainment Correspondent Kitty Kelly). While on leave, Grimes returns to the Central Australian desert homestead of parents George Whitley Grimes and Matilda Hornblower (yes, you can see that the lieutenant is already aware of his descendancy from 'that' Horatio (not to mention the minor 17th century Barbary Coast pirate Roger Grimes)). At the site of the famous besieged, burnt-down Glenrowen Hotel, which we learn was a pivotal historical moment (what with all that might change had Australia become a different nation than it did) it's residue creating a 'weak' spot between dimensions or time-tracks - the resulting adventure here, a scheme of a couple of former shipmates to alter the fate of freedom-fighting bushranger Ned Kelly, is Grimes's first such experience with the alternative weirdness that will later grow to become his meat-&-potatoes.
[This story is most economically found in the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commodore.]
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THE HARD WAY UP
Under this title, seven varied short stories are collected:
WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Grimes first meets Lieutenant Commander (Dr.) Margaret Lazenby (ethologist).
THE SUBTRACTER (originally THE MINUS EFFECT)
During a lull between postings, Grimes is comforted by Maggie Lazenby in regards to what he perceives as his poor promotion prospects. Indeed, Commodore Damien displays to him the bulky file of conflicting reports with Grimes's name on it, before giving him a chance by assigning the lieutenant a command (without promotion), a courier ship, the Adder.
THE TIN MESSIAH (originally THE SOUL MACHINE)
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY (a.k.a. SLEEPING BEAUTY)
The bee-like Shaara, amidst a rare cooperative diplomatic phase with the Federation, welcomes Grimes's emergency help in delivering a frozen queen to a colony that has lost theirs. Commodore Damien is once more less than happy with the unexpected results and, sadly, relations between the two empires return to the old belligerent status quo.
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******(Sorry, order-wise, a standalone story has to be squeezed-in right here too)*****
GRIMES AND THE GREAT RACE (a.k.a. GRIMES AT THE GREAT RACE)
(A later-reported Kitty Kelly story). When a valuable lower-technology planet decides to align itself with one of the large empires, Grimes & the Adder, as the Federation outfit most available, are ordered to make all possible speed there and 'show the flag' until the arrival of real representation (the Aries & Captain Daintree). The lieutenant & crew find themselves having to physically compete against both the Shaara & the avian Hallicheki in order that the 'prize' not be lost.
[This story is most economically found in the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commodore.]
**********(OK!-right back to our story collection here...already in progress...)*********
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THE WANDERING BUOY
THE MOUNTAIN MOVERS
WHAT YOU KNOW
[You should already have this book in the Ace 'Double' edition, bound with The Road To The Rim]
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THE BROKEN CYCLE
In the middle of a newly developed inter-agency squabble that has delayed resolving a pirated ship now derelict in the hyper-space lanes, Grimes (now promoted to Lieutenant Commander) along with Sky Marshall Una Freeman have appealed to Commodore Damien, who has then ordered Lieutenant Commander Frank Delamere to deliver them to the wreck. The ill-functioning thermonuclear device, the threat of which was central to the hijacking, suddenly lets loose as our pair approaches in their smaller workboat, which causes them to be propelled to….somewhere else. John & Una are castaways-of-a-fashion until their return months later.
[That location would later be characterized as an alternate universe and while this would clearly have to been a major early 'landmark' on the trail to the weirdness to come in future tales, it seems striking how little it is brought up.]
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SPARTAN PLANET (originally FALSE FATHERLAND)
On an all-male planet, Sparta, from the viewpoint of a security foot-soldier (Brasidus), we see the arrival of Maggie Lazenby and Grimes, with his new command, the Federation Survey Service's Seeker. While It's clear that the ship is happy with their new lost-colony discovery, the crew has no conception of what they have walked into. At the same time, Brasidus himself also has no clue about what's really happening on his world, and it's mainly he & Dr. Lazenby that bring that to light.
[Keep in mind that the colony will apparently adopt the modified name "New Sparta" upon its alignment with the Federation.]
[For an unknown reason, Lazenby is referred to here as "Peggy".]
[Far below, because of so few choices, we recommend purchasing an Ace Double edition that has The Commodore At Sea bound along with this story -- so we recommend purchasing it now.]
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GRIMES AMONG THE GOURMETS
(Another later-reported Kitty Kelly story). In what can only be considered a diplomatic blunder, Grimes, Lazenby & the officers of the Seeker are culinarily embarrassed by their counterparts on the Empire of Waverly's premier battlecruiser, the William Wallace.
[This story is most economically found in the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commodore.]
THE INHERITORS
The Delamere family really seems to get around - take for example that it is a different officer Francis Delamere (a cousin to our Frank) who is serving on the Corgi, of the merchant Dog Star Line (based in the Sirian Sector), when it has Mannschenn Drive troubles and in settling on the first available planet to make repairs, discovers Morrowvia, a beautiful lost-colony world home to local Queen Maya. The Intelligence wing of the Federation Survey Service gets wind of it and Admiral Buring makes sure that the Seeker, along with Grimes, Lazenby and the rest of its crew are soon rocketing there (as is also the Southerly Buster captained by reputed slaver & possible pirate Drongo Kane, with his first mate Aloysius Dreeble ["Dreebly" in my edition]. Once all together, everyone is achingly cordial to one another, but battle-lines are quickly drawn and a showdown is inevitable, where what is right seems to be contraindicated by what is legal.
[The long connective narrative of Grimes's life contains conflicting information about the parameters and/or depth of the relationship between John & Maggie - in this period, it is detailed that she is definitely not the Captain's Woman and in some instances stand-offish in a 'the-courtship-is-not-over' manner, but much later there is evidence that they have now been much closer, on a long-term semi-stable basis. It is clear that there is no lack of affection on either side,]
[Recommending the ACE paperback 'Double', bound with much-later-needed Gateway To Never. ]
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THE BIG BLACK MARK
John Grimes had been promoted to Commander and he is now to captain the largest vessel he has yet, the Discovery. Unfortunately, the previous captain had just removed himself for 'nervous' (read: mental) reasons -- certainly the current crew seems to be the largest single assemblage of incompetents, misfits & malcontents ever seen and its new leader here wonders if his superiors have subtly evaluated him as fitting right in. The base's Admiral Buring does share with him "There are many people in the Service who don't like you and who not at all approve of your last two promotions. I didn't altogether approve of them myself, come to that, although I do admit that you possess the one attribute that just might, in the fullness of time, carry you to flag rank. You're lucky…" Grimes does find among Discovery's complement a former shipmate, Ellen Russell (who has grown only more disgruntled with time) and all are removed from everyone's hair by being sent off on a hunt for yet-undiscovered lost-colonies. Due to the Commander's wiles, they are ultimately successful, landing on their own newly-found planet Botany Bay (and embraced by the Mayor, Mavis, of its capital city Paddington). When things go hideously sideways, ultimately our hero is standing in an airlock facing one tormentor railing at him, "…'Lucky' Grimes! … you've committed all the crimes that we have, and got away with them … You're no better than us. Just luckier, that's all. I've always prayed that I'd be around when your luck finally ran out." Later, while Grimes perversely owes his life to Miss Russell, he has survived only to find himself having to try and clean-up the mess through the embarrassingly ordered services of the hated Frank Delamere & his Vega. More chaos ensues and Grimes's Federation career is now well & truly done -- to avoid court-martial, he must resign, desert, and remain on Botany Bay (now aligned with the Empire of Waverly). He starts to consider that a spacer's life out among the less-picky Rim Worlds may possibly be the only avenue left to him -- his relationship with Maggie Lazenby is also over, as she cannot follow him down such a trail.
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[As we break here before entering the next phase of the Commander's lore, we note that the lives of Buring, Daintree, and Russell are never mentioned again in the affairs of John Grimes]
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MIDDLE GRIMES
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THE FAR TRAVELER (the collection novel)
This novel is actually the created compilation of six reformulated prior stories:
THE FAR TRAVELLER (the story)
Grimes is now Port Captain of Botany Bay's new spaceport (Paddington's huge stadium & cricket grounds, actually). Frank Delamere's FSS Vega still lies on its side there. It is joined on the no-longer-greens by the planet's newest visitor, El Dorado's Baroness Michelle d'Estang (currently dabbling in scholarship), in her solid-gold spaceship, The Far Traveller (it's actually made of a prototype strength-enhanced gold isotope). Delamere exudes his charms and the Baroness partakes, which leads to an agreement between the two for utilizing her ship to tow Delamere's upright (at a hefty cost to the Federation, not to mention the accidental death of Grimes's deputy). Now in a position to make a quick getaway, Delamere spitefully risks an inter-empire incident and kidnaps Grimes so as to haul him back into Federation space to stand trial. At the urging of Mayor Mavis & Grimes's other local friends, the Baroness quickly intervenes with her ship's assets to successfully free him, but it's clear that he is not safe at his new home and enters d'Estang's employ, becoming the sinecure yachtmaster of The Far Traveller (and its extremely dominant artificial-intelligence (nicknamed Big Sister)).
THE LONG FALL
The Baroness's current field of study is the social evolution of lost-colonies, and in keeping with that, the ship's destination is another one, named Farhaven (a confusingly frequent-used self-established name for settled planets).
OPERATION STARQUEST
From breaking-news clues, The Far Traveller seeks where another damaged colony-ship ended up.
[This portion was reported to be heavily re-worked from the original story titled here. When discussed, the separate (apparently unpublished) draft of the Grimes-present version of it carries the name Another Redskin Bit The Dust.]
[never titled]
The next stop on d'Estang's lost-colony tour returns Grimes to Morrowvia, now mostly a Dog Star Line resort, where he becomes re-acquainted with local Queen Maya, who now has an off-worlder Prince Consort. Grimes unfortunately finds that, beforehand, Drongo Kane had also returned in the Southerly Buster, and now boasts that he & his entourage have found & resuscitated the rightful owners of the planet, a party of true humans, progeny of the original continually-unlucky crash survivors, who had been deep-frozen, hidden & forgotten for hundreds of years. Impressed, the Baroness takes up with Kane, but the rogue's schemes are ultimately upended, through the offices of Commodore Francis Delamere (now himself a different Queen's Prince Consort and Dog Star Line's Resident Manager).
[When discussed, the separate (apparently unpublished) draft of this lost-colony update carries the name Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.]
THE SLEEPING BEAST & JOURNEY'S END
Enroute to New Sparta, The Far Traveller encounters a seemingly ancient floating hulk of unknown origin. Investigation by Grimes & d'Estang wakes a dormant malevolent machine intelligence, much to the wonderment of our own, Big Sister. Allegiances are tested and when the spacedust settles, there is only the Baroness and our disgraced ex-Commander left floating alone in their ship's pinnace.… and then soon thereafter, when the lovebirds Michelle d'Estang & the coincidently nearby Drongo Kane have swooped away on his ship, it's just Grimes…..
[You'll find both parts of this last story separately published in the magazine Amazing Stories/Science Fiction. I can report that the version here and the version initially appearing are not the same, with the final fate of Big Sister and The Far Traveller being vastly different. The last paragraphs of THE SLEEPING BEAST are not at all the same and then the immediately following JOURNEY'S END takes us dimension-hopping, acknowledges what took place in THE BROKEN CYCLE, and gives reason to Drongo Kane's amazing proximity when all is done. The old magazine is the only place to see these unexpected twists - If the link has survived till now, here is access to the Internet Archive's particular magazine exhibit of it: https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v52n02_1979-02_Gorgon776/page/n63/mode/2up ]
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STAR COURIER
When they parted, the Baroness had 'settled-up' with Grimes, generously deeding to him The Far Traveller's solid gold deep-space pinnace, which he now names Little Sister and endeavors to use in the starting of a courier business. His very first hire runs him and an attractive postmistress afoul of a rogue Shaara Queen looking to establish a new hive world. Her found target proves unfortunately inhabited by blue puritanical humanoids and our two captive heroes are soon channeling & portraying their pale gods in hope of bringing down the invaders.
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GRIMES AND THE ODD GODS
(Another later-reported Kitty Kelly story). Another charter for Little Sister, transporting a Lady Bishop and her materials to a planet of happy nudist sunworshippers for unsolicited exposure to her true religion. Despite her missionary zeal, she is forcibly & embarrassingly rebuffed. Shamed beyond all measure, a quick pilgrimage and a sincere appeal to a higher power is accomplished and she succeeds in getting the native population's attention. His charter apparently satisfied, Grimes urgently takes his leave. (It is reported years later, that, for all involved there, matters did not end well.)
[This story is most economically found in the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commodore.]
TO KEEP THE SHIP
After one embarrassingly ill-fated charter to the planet Bronsonia, the Little Sister was temporarily impounded while awaiting resolution of various legal challenges. Grimes was reduced to accepting a solitary custodial position on the economically orbiting Bronson Star, which was hopefully awaiting purchase. Thus, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time as the ship was skyjacked and he became, under gun, embroiled with a counter-revolution on a distant planet led by some of the children of exiled royalty. He ultimately extricates himself, with the ship, only through the efforts of two disenchanted militants, Susie & her half-brother. Now with the lives of the two siblings forfeit if caught, Grimes remembers a poorly-known resource for extreme body-sculpting. As they part ways, Susie (secretly having utilized John's sentimental media to now assume the visage of Maggie Lazenby) gifts him with a small simulacrum of her former self, made from her own excess flesh. During Grimes's solo return to Bronson, the glass container preserving the homunculus is broken open and after battling a swarm of little Susies and a resulting life-size conglomerate, he is ultimately trapped inside one of the Star's auxiliary boats. He is forced to broadcast a plea for help which is answered by a FSS ship that happens to have in its science complement Maggie Lazenby, who is able to affectionately prop up Grimes's very-adulterated recounting of events. Maggie's new inamorato is her ship's captain and she says goodbye once more, but Grimes has learned that due to Frank Delamere's drastic oversteps on Botany Bay, the Federation Survey Service is no longer trying to take their ex-Commander into custody. However, his recent happenstances don't seem to have improved at all his predicament on Bronson, but the exposure & attention has opened new opportunities - providing private transport to Fenella Pruin, celebrity investigative reporter for The Bronson Star (the news & syndication service)
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MATILDA'S STEPCHILDREN
Having married the Baroness d'Estang and becoming an El Dorado citizen, Drongo Kane has continued to stay busy. He's finally established the slave trade he had wished to on Morrowvia by secretly ferreting-out yet another lost-colony, New Alice, where yet again some master-geneticist had centuries-before been in control. Under Aloysius Dreeble's oversight, now running smoothly is Kane's operation, providing kangaroo-ish 'showgirls' to New Venusburg, a pleasure-planet for the rich & elite. It is there that two such conscripts, Shirl & Darleen, have violently rejected that debauched gameplan and now find themselves fighting for their lives in this planet's ersatz Roman Colosseum. They are joined by Grimes, being forced to furiously add 'gladiator' to his resumé. As you might imagine, his participation in Fenella's current investigation has gone expectedly awry and all four of them are soon on the run. Things ultimately resolve with the arrival of Michelle d'Estang and her pledge to put paid to her beloved husband's more unethical impulses and New Venusburg's deadly entertainments.
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GRIMES AND THE JAILBIRDS
(Another later-reported Kitty Kelly story). Grimes & his Little Sister engage in a long charter, continually running staff, inmates & supply transport between a world and its far-off orbiting prison-moon.
[This story is most economically found in the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commodore.]
STAR LOOT
Becalmed on the planet Austral, Grimes had finally found his small courier enterprise unsustainable and has begrudgingly sold the golden Little Sister to a wealthy roboticist there. He then purchases a more traditional large cargo tramp, Epsilon Scorpii, having been urged to do so by new friends William (Bill) Williams & Magda Granadu, who become the core of his new crew. The ship is quickly renamed Sister Sue and Grimes discovers that the Police Commissioner there is Una Freeman, former co-castaway who, after their experiences, resigned from the Sky Marshalls (but remained a reservist). Sister Sue's first cargo takes her to Earth and Australia's Port Woomera, where Grimes once again comes under the sway of now Rear Admiral Damien, and is 'convinced' to return to the Federation Survey Service as a secret reservist (with the new secret rank of Captain). While in his homeland, Grimes takes the opportunity to visit his parents after many years apart, but is soon off on his mission, with his ship and a new passenger, undercover FSS Psionic officer Kenneth Mayhew. It being a couple of decades since Grimes was last there, all together they are taking cargo to El Dorado, with only a select few knowing it is in service of eventually disrupting the frowned-upon legal privateer fleet the elites are compiling for the riches to be earned capturing merchant ships involved in the Hallicheki Hegemony conflict. On El Dorado, Grimes reconnects with the conspirators he confronted there last time, as well as the Princess Marlene von Stolzberg, Baroness Michelle d'Estang and Commodore Baron Drongo Kane, and also surprisingly stumbles across another Delamere, Lord Francis, who is the planet's ambassador to the rebellious planet of Kalla. Among the growing cadre of merchant captains tempted into privateering is Agatha Prinn with her Agatha's Ark. Most importantly, Grimes is able to interact with his son, Graf Ferdinand von Stolzberg, though he has pledged to the boy's mother not to reveal to him their true relationship. Grimes has surreptitious orders (to deliberately leave legality behind for a moment) that, while distasteful to him, will ultimately add to his reputation the role of pirate.
[An important resource characterizes this tale as a direct retelling of Chandler's Space Mercenaries, but in comparison, I don't find the few similarities between the two to be of any consequence.]
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THE ANARCH LORDS
Back on Earth, John is able to spend time with his parents, who begin to suspect that he may not be completely forthright about what has been happening behind him in the shadows. Meanwhile, leaving its owner behind, the star tramp Sister Sue has left for New Sparta with a lucrative new time-charter, under its new shipmaster, Billy Williams, along with Magda Granadu. Still smarting from being "arrested" by Una Freeman and, in court, ultimately losing his spaceman's Certificate Of Competency, Grimes is put to use again in his fledgling career as agent provocateur by Rear Admiral Damien & the Federation Survey Service. He now assumes the position of the Federation's Planetary Governor of Liberia, with its anarchist origins, current low technology, near-slave labor, and pampered aristocrats. Among the small multitude of those greeting Grimes's arrival is Aloysius Dreeble, who is on the verge of leaving the spaceport having delivered some 'indentured servants' - that berth will soon be filled by the incoming Agatha Prinn and her Agatha's Ark.
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THE LAST AMAZON (FIND THE LADY was a working title occasionallly referenced instead)
John Grimes is now ex-Governor of Liberia, with his assigned replacement being (who else?) Captain Frank Delamere. He has been able to restore his removed Certificate Of Competency and, in order to join-up once more with Billy, Magda and the rest of the crew on his Sister Sue, takes passage to New Sparta, weeks before their scheduled return there. After landing, he almost immediately re-unites with Maggie Lazenby, who lets him know that she has also been co-opted into Rear Admiral Damien's in-all-but-name Intelligence division, and that Grimes is not yet off the hook either. Together, they are to ferret-out the forces behind a rising secret revolution, a revolution to remove New Sparta's leader, Brasidus, who has in the years since their last encounter & his rise to power, has married and overseen the near-complete meshing of the female sex into the Spartan society & culture. Maggie & John revive their star-crossed relationship (but ultimately in a much looser, open, and mutually-agreed-upon fashion), while their surreptitious mission (such as it is) is joined by Fenella Pruin, Shirl & Darleen. It will surprise no one that matters quickly devolve into ship-takings, kidnappings, beheadings, fighting, shooting, explosions and extremely bad weather.
[It can be noted that in the course of this tale, Grimes encounters several Rimworlders and begins to appreciate that operations out there are tighter than the slap-dash environment that is their widely-held reputation.]
[The single paperback of this story is fine, but do note that we will later be recommending the getting of the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commander because of what singular items can best be found there - this story happens to be included also.]
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THE WILD ONES
As Sister Sue returns to Port Woomera in Australia with Shirl & Darleen along for the ride, Rear Admiral Damien realizes their value and signs them up as junior cadet members of the Survey Service and soon places them as crew on Grimes's ship. Billy Williams & Magda Garanadu disappear on a long-deserved leave and in his own downtime, Grimes takes the kangaroo-ish girls to the house of his elderly parents in the central Outback so the two can explore their own ancestral home. The book's title plays on a term coined in this story - wild robots - meaning those produced, but not intended to be independent thinking, but are, by some unknown quirk somewhere in the process. The one in this story is a purchase by father George Grimes and soon rejected by the mother Matilda (because of the very talent being spotlighted here) that gets handed down to John and quickly grows into being another member of his crew. Back at the spaceport, Grimes has learned that he isn't particularly welcome back on New Sparta and his time-charter has been allowed to expire, so Damien sends him on a new cargo run -- of course, with a mission attached. He is to surreptitiously investigate a puritanical colony planet that fill their own coffers by brutalizing aquatic 'silkies' for their furry hides - there is a rising suspicion that the animals are actually sentient & intelligent (and therefore in need of protection).
[The single paperback of this story is fine, but do note that we will later be recommending the getting of the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commander because of what singular items can best be found there - this story happens to be included also.]
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GRIMES AND THE GAIJIN DAIMYO
(Another later-reported Kitty Kelly story). While stuck at Japan's new spaceport, Sister Sue's Japan-descended Chief Mannschenn Drive engineer, now very-inspired by her newly discovered heritage, dabbles in some very-illegal time-travel experimentation. Returning from visiting with his parents and making that discovery, Grimes must quickly provide some course-correction.
[Most cohesively found in the omnibus Gateway To Never.]
[At this point, there is a clear gap in the tales of Grimes's exploits, due to author Chandler's passing at 72-years of age (oddly, I could find no more information on that event). The Wild Ones above was the last story he wrote about John Grimes and, almost immediately below, Chance Encounter was the first. We are deprived of the final tales of Grimes the tramp captain. The same could be said about any further actions he may have perpetrated as secret agent for the Federation. And finally, there must be now unknown tales about the coming transition before finally starting the quest to find new Rim Worlds.]
[I suspect during this time, Grimes lost both of his parents and in so doing, lost the last of whatever moorings kept him bound to Earth and its larger galactic holdings. It's clear that he has encountered Rim Worlds Navy Commodore Jerry Craven and, well..., we have his own words about the Sister Sue (delivered many years in the future) "…And then, while I was trying to weather a rather bad financial storm, I drifted out to the Rim Worlds. At that time Rim Runners, the Confederacy's merchant fleet, was going through a period of expansion. They were buying anything-anything!-that could clamber out of a gravity well and still remain reasonably airtight. They offered me a good price for the ship and offered, too, to absorb myself and my people with no loss of rank or seniority while guaranteeing repatriation to those who did not wish to become Rimworlders…" Interestingly, all Rim Runners officers are automatically officers of the Rim Naval Reserve. Ultimately, one imagines that Grimes had to ethically sever any conflicting political ties once he threw in his lot with the Rim Worlds.]
[So, below we will now make our way to the last phase of our hero's life. It seems clear that Billy Williams also became a Rimworlder (though Magda's fate is unknown, as Billy is clearly on his own). Ken Mayhew will also be found on the Rim, having followed his own path there. We only hear that Shirl & Darleen ultimately made it back to their homeworld and that Maggie marries an Admiral Mike Carshalton. With Grimes's life-changing transition to the distant Rim, we all need to say goodbye to Mowrowvia's Queen Maya, Botany Bay's Mayor Mavis, Rear Admiral Damien, Una Freeman, Aloysius Dreeble, Fenella Pruin, Agatha Prinn, Brasidus, Baroness Michelle d'Estang, *this* Frank Delamere, *this* Maggie Lazenby, Princess Marlene von Stolzberg, and her & Grimes's son- Ferdinand.]
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LATE GRIMES
GIFT HORSE
This is a non-Grimes story that might be of relevant interest as the occasional weirdness found on & near the Rim becomes more and more of a focus in Grimes's life. It seems to be frequently referenced when the Rimworlders discuss such phenomena. The story takes place on the barely-sustainable colony planet of Dusinane, in the neighboring Shakespearian Sector. The inhabitants become overjoyed when suddenly appears in their skies an unknown deserted spaceship - a spaceship that, despite its alien design, could be commandeered & outfitted to serve their import & export needs to improve the fortunes of the desperate colony. (We read of a Dr. Calver here, but he is no apparent relation of the Derek Calver we will soon meet.)
[There is no published appearance of this story, except in its original magazine (Worlds Of If 1958-June). Provided this has survived until now, here is a link to that magazine collected at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/1958-06_IF/page/30/mode/2up
CHANCE ENCOUNTER
There are currently only four Rim Worlds - Lorn, Thule, Faraway & Ultimo (no one really mentions the hellish Elbis or the deserted colony world, Kinsolving's Planet). The Rim Worlds government, after many years of the Federation Survey Service being unable to devote any resources to finding new inhabited worlds in this outer region, has decided to fulfill this task themselves. The endeavor's oversight falls to Captain Grimes, in his role as the Rim Runners's Chief Superintendent. It appears that his former ship, the Sister Sue, which has been serving the government as Rim Sister, is re-outfitted, and re-named Faraway Quest. Thus begins the long canvasing of system after system which proves to be dismally unproductive until they finally encounter the humanoid Lowanni and their system, the Dain worlds….
[Note that in this earliest of tales, it was Epsilon Pavonis that was the ship that became Faraway Quest, but all of the later reporting belies that.]
[This story is most economically found in the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commodore.]
[Without specific tales, it is reported that Grimes & Faraway Quest changed direction and, over the course of several trips, found four new inhabited worlds: Tharn (where his efforts to equalize the out-of-whack stratified status system there gets the new spaceport named after him), Grollar, Mellise & Stree (together they became known as the Eastern Circuit). We are told young Mr. Vickery was crew on one of the later such voyages. Unsatisfied, Grimes would return several times to the anti-matter systems that had been his first discovery, hoping that trade in technology might be effected, but lengthy non-contact communication failed to yield anything more than slight variations in the two civilizations that, through the cross-sharing, could be changed for the better. However, he did ultimately return home with a chunk of anti-matter, suspended in magnetic fields, to be studied.]
THE KEY
On Lorn, the Outhouse King, Halvorsen, goes to Grimes, the Aerospace Superintendent, looking for a replacement Master Astronaut for his expedition, and is told no one with Rim Runners is available, but has Charles Merrill recommended to him, as well as the places he might be found - and he is, at Susie's Bar And Grill, the establishment of 'Fat Susie', who Chandler tells us elsewhere is our Susie from To Keep The Ship (whose description is no longer the same as that of Maggie Lazenby). Crewing complete, Stree is the next stop on this new leg of Halvorsen's search for the source of the continuous flow of new free hydrogen into our galaxy and there they are taken to a much older philosopher lizard who provides direction for Halvorsen to one of the far-off free hydrogen 'ports'.
[collected in Beyond The Galactic Rim (as is Wet Paint, and Forbidden Planet).]
THE RIM OF SPACE (originally TO RUN THE RIM)
No Grimes in this tale, but it sets up events & people about to enter his long narrative. Derek Calver signs onto the Lorn Lady and tramps to Faraway and then the worlds of the Eastern Circuit (Tharn, Grollar, Stree, and Mellise - not to mention an emergency rescue mission above the hell planet Elbis). Throughout the voyage there are incidents & mishaps - some involving Federation intelligence operatives Sonya Verrill & her brother (at their most cutthroat), a rim ghost, loss of shipmates, all ending up with Calver captaining the ship.
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[On Faraway, Bill Maudsley had been landing his ship, the Polar Queen, when it went hideously bad and killed all the crew except himself. Grimes now presides over the Court Of Inquiry into the crash which is ruled accidental. Maudsley can be seen to be terribly affected (but had that really begun with the smash-up... or before….?]
[note that in the Rim Worlds story The Man Who Could Not Stop, you'd find a neer-do-well named Clavering, but he is not the spaceship Master that Grimes is about to meet…]
FORBIDDEN PLANET
Ian & Sally Ann Clavering, Ron Larwood, and their crew/fellow-owners, have made a strategic error, agreeing to fill their passenger tramp, the Sally Ann, with a gaggle of migrants for transport out to Lorn, all in a desperate bid for elusive stable chartering once there. Grimes regretfully explains that Rim Runners itself is nowhere near their own capacity with the meager passenger traffic here, thus making the prospect of a viable competitor a non-starter, but very soon, after a barely-controlled Faraway Quest landing, so hard that it will be out of commission for some time, he is forced to engage Clavering & company to take, to Elbis, the Rim Worlds scientific expedition that has been left waiting.
[collected in Beyond The Galactic Rim (as is Wet Paint, and The Key).]
[Momentously, The Federation now recognizes the independence of the Rim Worlds Confederacy.]
THE SHIP FROM OUTSIDE
It had been some time since the Elbis rescue and the Lorn Lady's surviving crew finally got their reward-they were all serving at the time on the Rim Runners's Rimfire (Derek Calver had married shipmate 'Calamity Jane' Arlen). Grimes supported the group's desire to go independent and would be chartering them himself, as there was more demand than he had tonnage to cover, but he warned them that a day would come when the Rim Runners's fleet would be what it needed to be and he would not be able to be so obliging with the competition. The band pooled their money to purchase the Epsilon Aurigue and re-named it The Outsider. It was on that return to the Rim that a broken-down Chief Mate they had had to hire on (the disgraced Bill Maudsley) deteriorated even more and before his death, deliriously revealed that his ruin was finding on the edge of the galaxy…something (legend had long said there was something lurking out there). Calver's interest was piqued, and he thought of the rewards coming to them all should they find it themselves, but his co-owners voted against such a search. Now, after two happy years of tramping the Eastern Circuit, Grimes's prediction comes true and The Outsider is becalmed with no more Rim charters forthcoming, but Calver's 'family' still votes to not go along with the possible wild-goose-chase, wanting rather to fight for business inwards among the far more crowded star systems. Federation operative Sonya Verrill catches up with Derek and wants him & his crew to follow his desire and reveals that Maudsley was also a Federation agent (and her lover) who, for the Service, was secretly trying to locate whatever it was that he found - she wants to know what happened to him as well as complete his mission. Matters soon follow that course, Sonya's insertion into The Outsider's crew proves disastrous to the Calver's marital-bonds and she gallantly withdraws, but not before having her first encounter with now Commodore John Grimes, swaying his belief in the object of the hunt, having him replace her with his representative (Mr. Vickery), and securing from him the vastly superior Mass Proximity Indicator that the Federation had loaned him in the first place. The searchers take off……..
[There is no standalone paperback of this, so we recommend the Ace Double edition where it is bound with Beyond the Galactic Rim, which is itself a necessity for completeness.]
[Upon their return, what The Outsider discovered hanging 50 light-years off the Rim is reported to all contributing parties, John Grimes, Sonya Verrill, the Rim Worlds Confederacy, and the Federation. Ultimately, Derek Calver & The Outsider 'family', extremely tight-lipped to all others, armed with new knowledge, vanish and are rumored to be heading to the distant Bernhardt's Nebula galaxy.]
RIMGHOST
Our narrator, Henry Willoughby, way out on The Rim, by circumstance rather than desire, has been hired by Commodore Grimes and is serving on Rimgirl when it apparently encounters itself.
[There is no published appearance of this story, except in its original magazine (Famous Science Fiction 1967-Sprng). Provided this has survived until now, here is a link to that magazine collected at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/FamousScienceFiction02V01n021967Spring/page/n71/mode/2up ]
TO CATCH THE STARWINDS (originally THE WINDS OF IF)
After years of study & thought, and a long period of defeated contemplation, Grimes's anti-matter finally paid-off when he suddenly had the epiphany about how it could be utilized, with solar-sailing, to create a much safer, albeit slower, nearly-faster-than-light drive. Scientists worked the problem & declared the idea feasible, and then a ship, the Flying Cloud, was designed & built and now ready for its maiden voyage, crewed by Ralph Listowel, Sandra and most of the other officers from the recently decommissioned Rim Dragon.
[In some versions of these stories that were the first to come to light about Grimes, you might come across references to a current wife & child, but with so very little support when looking across the canon as a whole, we are choosing to disregard them.]
[The single paperback of this story is fine, but do note that we will later be recommending the getting of the omnibus John Grimes: Reserve Commander, because of what singular items can best be found there - this story happens to be also included.]
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[A major consequence of this experimental voyage was the accidental development of a near-speed-of-light protocol that reverses atomic polarity, allowing cross-presence, and then commodity-trade, with the Rim's anti-matter systems (the first being the Llanithi Consortium, where the Flying Cloud ended up).]
INTO THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
Sonya Verrill returns representing the Federation. She reports that the number of reported rim-ghost incidents have tipped the scientific community's interest into active-mode and proposes a funded 'hunt' with Rim Worlds resources & support. The Faraway Quest is outfitted and crewed with, for a large part, those who've experienced rim-ghost phenomena. Also part of that crew is psionic-officer Ken Mayhew. It seems sure that rim-ghosts are temporary crossovers from other dimensions and the exploration of that drops the ship into a void between dimensions, a void that quickly proves not to be completely empty. Their efforts to escape do pull them through a different dimension where they encounter a ship commanded by an alternate Sonya & a strong Bill Maudsley. With all the intense exposure to one another, John & our Sonya have been drawn together and a strong relationship has ignited.
[In the beginning of this tale, you will find that the light-jammer Flying Cloud is instead referred to as the Aeriel. Now then, we've heard tell of an alternate universe where the experimental light-jammer was the Aeriel, but we simply aren't starting this story in that universe, as what few details there are don't align, so we are disregarding this name-switch as erroneous. Also, again, we are choosing to disregard characterizations of Grimes as a widower with a handful of adult planet-lubber children. In the same vein, note that the reporting of Mayhew's background is different than that of his introduction to us in Star Loot.]
[There is no English standalone paperback of this. We recommend purchasing the edition doubled with following novel]
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CONTRABAND FROM OTHERSPACE (originally EDGE OF NIGHT)
Sonya & John (now married) are preparing to resign and settle into a non-Rim existence. When a ship suddenly appears and begins silently falling into Lorn's sun, a rescue mission is launched with Grimes captaining Rim Mamelute along with its usual First Mate, Billy Williams, as well as Sonya & Ken Mayhew. While saving the uncontrolled ship, they find all aboard dead and clear evidence that it was blasted from an alternative dimension into ours. They re-outfit the ship and succeed in travelling back with it to its home continuum. They discover a single pivotal mutation has changed the duplicate flow of history there, and work to correct the disastrous consequences (they return with middle-aged Mayhew now experiencing the consequence of his body having physically been reverted to young adulthood). Nothing more is mentioned about The Grimes's inclination to leave The Rim.
[There is no English standalone paperback of this. We recommend purchasing the edition doubled with previous novel]
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[After a survey mission, Commodore Grimes has been directed to 'show the flag' at Elsinore, a leading planet in the neighboring Shakespearean Sector. Either on the journey's final leg or on the tarmac, Faraway Quest developed major drive troubles that required an extremely long layover. It is during this time that a local Entertainment Correspondent, Kitty Kelly, was able to conduct a number of interviews with the Commodore (which seem to have been just an excuse to turn on the recorders and capture Grimes's storytelling…). The events of these stories are acknowledged above as Grimes at Glenrowan, Grimes And The Great Race, Grimes Among The Gourmets, Grimes And The Odd Gods, Grimes And The Jailbirds, and Grimes And The Gaijin Daimyo.]
[These stories are collected variously in the omnibuses John Grimes: Reserve Commodore and Gateway To Never.]
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[Grimes is about to meet Clarisse Lane, a descendant of the caveman below. In addition to that personal angle, the caveman's story itself is part of the Rim's lore that repeatedly comes up in these stories. So, take a moment to look back at…]
WET PAINT
A tale of roughly a century-&-a-half ago (which has become current-day legend) about a furry-eared caveman of Kinsolving's Planet, who, along with his bestial tribe, was somehow catapulted forward in time to this modern age. He is a rare psionic individual whose adventure here ends with him leaving the planet to join society (and spawn descendants, one of which, Clarisse Lane, bears talent from same psionic pool he does (and has the same pointed, furry ears)). (Strangely, even though Kinsolving is subsequently visited again, repeatedly, I don't believe the tribe left behind is ever encountered or mentioned again).
[Some may find this story jarring as it was written as a standalone and only later made into Grimes legend and, in its original execution, isn't really aligned with the time-frame it later needs to be.]
[collected in Beyond The Galactic Rim (as is Forbidden Planet, and The Key).]
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THE RIM GODS (the collection novel)
This novel is actually the created compilation of four connected slightly-reformulated prior stories:
THE RIM GODS (the story)
Sonya has left Lorn for a trip to planets with more temperate climes, leaving Grimes alone for some Rim adventures. Right off the bat, Admiral Kravitz has him off on his first jaunt to Kinsolving's Planet, accompanying a religious sect looking to establish a new Sinai there, on which to directly receive God's word, utilizing the psionic talents of young Clarisse Lane, the great-grand-daughter of the above-mentioned caveman. In addition to that, she is in constant rapport with Ken Mayhew back on Lorn. The party gets a surprising response to their summons.
THE BIRD-BRAINED NAVIGATOR
The next jump has his new transport dropping down to Tharn, at Port Grimes. The Commodore has to sort out a very thorny HR issue.
THE TIN FISHES
On Mellise, his earlier discovery and embracing of this native race of aquatics earned him a prominent statue in the planetary capital. He must now support them again against a new threat to their world-wide economy..
THE LAST DREAMER
Finally heading home, Grimes encounters a new kind of anomaly in hyperspace.
[There is no English standalone paperback edition of this book, so we recommend purchasing the Ace Double edition that has it bound with The Dark Dimensions (which has the same problem)]
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THE COMMODORE AT SEA (originally ALTERNATE ORBITS)
This is a collection of four separate stories:
HALL OF FAME (originally THE KINSOLVING'S PLANET IRRERULARS)
Sonya Grimes has finally returned to John from her long vacation, but both are almost immediately sent off by Admiral Kravitz to Kinsolving's Planet, as the last debacle there has raised the interest of both the Rim Confederacy & the Federation. They board Faraway Quest with Billy Williams, the now-married Clarisse Lane & Ken Mayhew, and other scientists & planetary specialists, all of whom spend quite some time there (while not mentioned specifically, it would seem that they would have had to determine that the time-relocated cavemen tribe left there a century-and-a-half ago did not ultimately prosper & survive). While in jest it has been said by those who know him, considering some of his previous mishaps, that if anybody could just fall through a crack in the continuum it would be Grimes. He does. Now, perhaps the less said about it here, the better…..
THE SISTER SHIPS
We learn now that Grimes, with his encyclopedic knowledge of ancient Terran maritime, has by this time written at least four volumes based in it, The Inter-Island Express, The Flag Of The Southern Cross, The Western Ocean Greyhounds, and Times Of Transition. Though only found in a few libraries, they have been quite popular on the planet of Aquarius, a water-world colony whose maritime technology has stubbornly progressed to only the level of diesel shipping with electronic enhancement. At that planetary government's invitation, Grimes has now travelled here to look into above-expected spike in shipping mishaps. While taking the opportunity to experience real seamanship (and his first command of an ocean-going vessel), it is wife Sonya that really digs into the nuts-&-bolts of the mysterious phenomenon.
THE MAN WHO SAILED THE SKY
Trading on her Reserve Federation Survey Service contacts, Sonya is able to catch a ride home for both of them on the Star Pioneer. A detour is forced when the Federation-supported ruling party of humanoid-aliens on Esquel are deposed & require evacuation.
THE RUB
The consequences of their last transport leaves the Star Pioneer in poor shape and provides its captain an excuse to land on the nearby Kinsolving's Planet for 'another bite of the apple' for The Federation. In the ruins of the abandoned colony city, Sonya & John find the Temple Of The Principle and are sucked into the lives of their counterparts in an another dimension and encounter alternate versions of Maggie Lazenby & Frank Delamere.
[This book has no English standalone paperback edition, so we recommend the Ace Double edition where it is bound with Spartan Planet (which you may have already secured).]
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THE GATEWAY TO NEVER (the novel) (a.k.a. GATEWAY TO NEVER)
We find that Ian & Sally Ann Clavering have been very successful setting up a tourist resort on the hell planet Eblis and they additionally employ their Sally Ann for needed transport of large parties. Grimes & Billy Williams, called back to active Rim Naval service by Admiral Kravitz, arrive in Rim Mamelute following the trail of drug smugglers. Drongo Kane, Ron Larwood & Sonya Grimes all play their part in this tale.
[It has to be commented here that placing this 'standard' adventure so late in the game seems off, as if Grimes has forgotten all the weirdness that he's been put through in the previous books. And yet it was indeed published (written?) after most of them and Chandler himself placed it here (as part of his autobiographical essay My Life And Grimes in the 1982 Chicon 4 Program booklet).]
[If following our recommendations, by this time, you have two possible copies of this novel at hand.]
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****************** FLASHBACK TIME AGAIN *************************************************************************
[Grimes is about to encounter, from an alternate universe, Benjamin & Irene Trafford and the crew of their ship Wanderer. Here are the two previous novels that featured them.]
EMPRESS OF OUTER SPACE
Benjamin Trafford serves in the Imperial Navy under its Empress, Irene Smith (selected from the common populace), and must join her (along with Susanna Weldon, Mr. Tarrentire, Mr. Bronheim, and Mr. Mertzenther) in chasing down one of her 'stand-ins' & a rogue captain who have made off with her yacht/battle-cruiser, the Wanderer. The long adventure comes to a close with Irene secretly abdicating to take up a less power-hungry life with Trafford as her husband and her ship & loyal crew joining her in new pursuits.
[There is no English standalone paperback edition of this tale, so the Ace Double must suffice.]
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SPACE MERCENARIES
The crew of the Wanderer take up their first charter from Mr. Smith of GLASS (the Galactic League for the Abolition of Suppression and Slavery), one that involves Halicheki blockade-running.
[Most economically found in the Ace Double edition.]
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NEBULA ALERT
We find Faraway Quest, with Grimes, Sonya, Mayhew & Williams investigating lifeboat wreckage marked 'Star Scout' which is thought to have originated in another dimension, as apparently its evidence doesn't align with any registry data. The Wanderer, with Benjamin Trafford, his wife ex-Empress Irene and crew, on its own voyage of transporting protected aliens back to their homeworld, has been chased by pirates through the Horsehead Nebula and has slipped from their dimension to ours. It is now theorized, from this encounter and additional information gathered since Halvorsen's original discovery (above), that the Nebula itself is a special conduit, part of the closed system of matter flowing back & forth between these two dimensions. It is Grimes that is able to conceptualize a method of their return.
[There is no English standalone paperback edition of this tale (nor omnibus inclusion), so the Ace Double must suffice.]
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THE DUTCHMAN
Billy Williams flies Grimes to Lorn's distant isolated light-jammer base, Port Erikson, to meet the incoming Pamir commanded by the now married Ralph & Sandra Listowel. That pair bring with them reports of two light-jammers on the Lorn/Llanithi run (one of them their own) having near collisions with a mysterious similar ship that vanishes afterwards. Grimes gets Admiral Kravitz's permission for Sonya & him to ride Pamir back in investigation of it all, leaving Billy to warm his office chair.
[collected in the omnibus Gateway To Never (otherwise needed anyway).]
THE LAST HUNT
Now we know the spacelanes between Lorn & the anti-matter domains have become home to the Energy-Eaters, so alien as to be thought to have drifted in from outside the galaxy. They represent a danger to all shipping on these routes and it appears that the Rim Navy has done a good job in eradicating almost all of them. In these final stages, Admiral Kravitz insists that Grimes accompany Captain Haab & his ship as they attempt to bring one back alive.
[collected in the omnibus Gateway To Never (otherwise needed anyway).]
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ON THE ACCOUNT
Know that the title refers to one's 'going on the account' meaning taking up piracy. Intelligence has reported that the Duchy of Waldegren may, or may not, be engaging in piracy once more, with their own militant light-jammer. Having two missing ships, Admiral Kravitz wants an answer to his questions about that. The Pamir, with the Listowels & the Grimes, sets out to satisfy him.
[collected in the omnibus Gateway To Never (otherwise needed anyway).]
RIM CHANGE
We meet George Rule, Dog Star Line captain of the Basset. Because Farway Quest is currently out-of-service for extensive maintenance, Rule's ship is chartered by Grimes to take yet another scientific expedition to Kinsolving's Planet with himself, Sonya, Ken & Clarisse Mayhew and scientists from the University. Once there, another visit is made to the Temple Of The Principle and more secrets of this mysterious planet are revealed.
[collected in the omnibus Gateway To Never (otherwise needed anyway).]
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DOGGY IN THE WINDOW
This follows immediately on the heels of the previous story, ended so abruptly that the reader only now learns that what was thought of as temporary dimensional-displacement was permanent.
[While our Rim expedition, their non-working transport, Basset, and her crew, were all seemingly stranded in the distant past on Kinsolving, there is no indication that their struggles related here changed their circumstances in any way. The Rimworlders here are later seen again, but never an explanation how that could have come to be.]
[collected only in the omnibus Gateway To Never.]
THE DARK DIMENSIONS
Knowing that the Duchy of Waldegren has taken an unhealthy interest in it, Admiral Kravitz wants Grimes to take the Faraway Quest and pre-emptively investigate the Outsider that has apparently been sitting 50 lightyears off the Rim for a very long time (not to be confused with Derek Calver's ship The Outsider). Grimes pulls in Sonya, Billy Williams & The Mayhews and arrives at the anomaly, which we come to understand has somehow warped continuums about itself, creating a convergence, a common ground for all of them. And indeed, many representatives of them independently decide to come at the same time. First, the Faraway Quest is joined by the Trafford's Wanderer & their crew, along with Mr. Smith chartering them because GLASS wants to reap the technological benefits of the super-science expected there. Then, from a different universe, the Vindictive's Captain Dominic Flandry arrives. Finally, Commodore Grimes has to greet … Commodore Grimes (a different version that married Maggie Lazenby and toughed out the continuance of his Federation career). Add the late-arriving Waldegren ship to the recipe and create a dish that impresses the Outsider not at all.
[For the background of Captain Flandry, one must look up materials on author Poul Anderson.]
[There is no standalone paperback edition of this book, so we recommend purchasing the Ace Double edition that has it bound with The Rim Gods (which has the same problem). (Don't forget that if you followed our recommendation about getting the omnibus Gateway To Never, you do already have this story at hand.)]
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THE WAY BACK
The Outsider's repulsion of the Grimes party maroons them on Kinsolving's Planet in a time period ages before their current day. Many end up back on Faraway Quest making their way back to the Sol system and the Earth civilization in ancient times that awaits them there. There are many forms in which this last story could have been composed and I suspect that, as always, some readers will be left finding it unsatisfying, but there have many literary endings that some thought even more so. In his autobiographical essay, My Life And Grimes (in the 1982 Chicon 4 Program booklet), it's interesting to notice that at the time, a couple of years before his death, he stated clearly that he was intending to write at least one more book to take place after this one.
[The single paperback available for this is fine, but note that if you followed our recommendation about getting the omnibus Gateway To Never, you do already have this story at hand.]
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JOHN GRIMES: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
[This entry has been placed here at the end of our reading-order because, as an extensive overview, it could be thought of as 'spoiling' many story elements in the lore. Also, do know that it is a bit incomplete, as it was put down by Chandler before the many events between Star Loot and Chance Encounter had come to light. It first appeared (in English) in the 1978 program booklet for MARCON XIII]
[Provided it has survived until now, here is a link to its transcription at BertramChandler.com.]
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RELEVANT COLLECTIONS & OMNIBUSES
Gateway To Never - An omnibus (Baen Books #6) that includes the novels The Gateway To Never, The Dark Dimensions, The Way Back, and the short stories Grimes And The Gaijin Daimyo, Doggy In The Window, Rim Change, The Dutchman, The Last Hunt, and On The Account.
[This book is a necessity for completeness, as it seems to be the only Grimes-centric book publishment of both Grimes And The Gaijin Daimyo and Doggy In The Window, but then can also stand as a needed source for the rest of the short fiction here. (Unfortunately the Gateway title novel itself is superfluous because of the weird ACE Double that was needed earlier.)]
John Grimes: Reserve Commodore - An omnibus (Science Fiction Book Club #4) that includes the novels The Last Amazon, The Wild Ones, Catch The Star Winds (The Winds Of If), the short stories Chance Encounter, Grimes at Glenrowan, Grimes And The Great Race, Grimes Among The Gourmets, Grimes And The Odd Gods, and Grimes And The Jailbirds.
[This is the recommended book to get most of the Kitty Kelly stories and the rare-ish Chance Encounter.]
Beyond The Galactic Rim - A collection that includes The Key, Forbidden Planet, and the non-Grimes stories Wet Paint and The Man Who Could Not Stop.
[As of this writing, this is pretty much the only avenue to get this as a standard paperback in America - Note that it is 'doubled' with The Ship From Outside, which you need anyway.]
John Grimes: Lieutenant of the Survey Service- An omnibus (Science Fiction Book Club #1) that includes the novels The Road To The Rim, To Prime The Pump, The Hard Way Up, Spartan Planet, and The Inheritors.
John Grimes: Survey Captain - An omnibus (Science Fiction Book Club #2) that includes the novels The Broken Cycle, The Big Black Mark, The Far Traveller, and Star Courier.
John Grimes: Tramp Captain - An omnibus (Science Fiction Book Club #3) that includes the novels To Keep The Ship, Matilda's Stepchildren, Starloot, and The Anarch Lords.
John Grimes: Rim Runner - An omnibus (Science Fiction Book Club #5) that includes the novels Into The Alternate Universe, Contraband From Otherspace, The Rim Gods, and The Commodore At Sea.
John Grimes: Rim Commander- An omnibus (Science Fiction Book Club #6) that includes the novels novels The Gateway To Never, The Dark Dimensions, The Way Back, and the short stories The Dutchman, The Last Hunt, On The Account, and Rim Change.
To The Galactic Rim - An omnibus (Baen Books #1) that includes the novels The Road To The Rim, To Prime The Pump, The Hard Way Up, and The Broken Cycle.
First Command - An omnibus (Baen Books #2) that includes the novels Spartan Planet, The Inheritors, The Big Black Mark, and The Far Traveller.
Galactic Courier - An omnibus (Baen Books #3) that includes the novels Star Courier, To Keep The Ship, Matilda's Stepchildren, and Starloot.
Ride The Star Winds - An omnibus (Baen Books #4) that includes the novels The Anarch Lords, The Last Amazon, The Wild Ones. Catch The Star Winds(The Winds Of If), and the short stories Chance Encounter, On The Account, The Dutchman, The Last Hunt, and Rim Change.
Upon A Sea Of Stars - An omnibus (Baen Books #5) that includes the novels Into The Alternate Universe, Contraband From Otherspace, The Rim Gods, The Commodore At Sea, and the short stories Grimes at Glenrowan, Grimes And The Great Race, Grimes Among The Gourmets, Grimes And The Odd Gods, and Grimes And The Jailbirds.
From Sea To Shining Star - a large collection with illustrations that appears here because it includes The Last Hunt, Hall Of Fame(The Kinsolving's Planet Irregulars) and Journey's End, in addition to a large number of other Chandler stories, some of which might be considered in the Grimes-universe, or at least Grimes-universe-adjacent. Reportedly hard to find because of its scarcity.
Up To The Sky In Ships - a small collection that appears here because it includes Chance Encounter, in addition to a handful of other Chandler stories, some of which might be considered in the Grimes-universe, or at least Grimes-universe-adjacent. This collection is "doubled" back-to-back with a collection of essays & short fiction by Lee Hoffman titled In And Out Of Quandry.
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OTHER RESOURCES
BertramChandler.com John Grimes Reading Order: http://www.bertramchandler.com/johngrimes.aspx
LibrayThing's John Grimes Chronology: www.www.librarything.com/nseries/15805/John-Grimes-Chronology/
The Internet Science Fiction Database A. Bertram Chandler publication list (with John Grimes stories partially broken out): www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?72
Wikipedia's author-entry for Chandler with a somewhat parsed publication list: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Bertram_Chandler#Bibliography
parting shots: more Grimes art
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