Forgotten Books: Anarchaos - Curt Clark (Donald E. Westlake)

Donald E. Westlake isn’t that well-known for his science fiction, but he wrote one SF novel, ANARCHAOS, published by Ace Books in 1967 under the pseudonym Curt Clark. I’ve heard this book described as “Parker in space”, and I can kind of see why people would think that. The narrator/protagonist of ANARCHAOS, Rolf Malone, shares some traits with Parker, most notably his willingness to kill quickly and efficiently when he needs to in order to accomplish his goal. Unlike Parker, though, Malone’s goal is personal: he arrives on the planet Anarchaos, where there’s no system of government and everybody is on his own (the planet’s name comes from the combination of “anarchy” and “chaos”), to find out who murdered his brother, a mining engineer who worked for one of the corporations that provide what little semblance of civilization exists there. Naturally, it becomes obvious in short order that somebody doesn’t want him to find out the truth.

From that set-up, Malone sets out on a years-long quest that finds him in danger again and again before he finally sorts out what really happened to his brother and tries to exact vengeance on the people responsible. It’s a tough, bleak book – lots of terrible things happen to Malone – and Westlake spins the yarn in his usual smooth, fast-paced prose. Pseudonym aside, I think most people who have read much of Westlake’s work would recognize who was really behind the name “Curt Clark”. (Of course, there’s also a funny little moment where Malone comments on a body of water known as West Lake.)

I enjoyed ANARCHAOS very much. Westlake’s world-building is excellent, with the physical details of the planet well thought out, leading me to think that he could have had a successful career as a science fiction writer if he’d wanted to. Even in a book like this, though, the real emphasis is on crime and suspense despite the SF setting, and it’s clear that’s where Westlake’s real tendencies were. ANARCHAOS was reprinted in 1989 by Mysterious Press in a volume entitled TOMORROW’S CRIMES, which is where I read it. That collection also includes nine of Westlake’s fantasy and science fiction short stories, which originally appeared in some of the SF digests, EQMM, and assorted other places. Not surprisingly, most of those short stories have some crime or suspense element, too. Copies of ANARCHAOS and TOMORROW’S CRIMES can both be found pretty easily and inexpensively on-line, and I highly recommend either version. (Although I’d go with TOMORROW’S CRIMES because you get the short stories, too, that way.)