Gunner Cade

by Cyril Judd (Pseudonym), C.M. Kornbluth, Judith Merril

From the back cover:

"The Emperor had no more devoted Armsman than Gunner Cade. In this warped civilization of murder and death, Cade fought as he was expected to, destroying enemy after enemy until he himself was shot down in honorable battle.

"But Cade did not die. After weeks of unconsciousness, he awoke to find he was a fugitive, the object of a world-wide manhunt. Why was it so important to silence him? What undiscovered secret did he possess as he desperately fled over the earth and into outer space?

"And Cade began to realize that he held in his hands the fate of all mankind..."

Genres: Science Fiction, Novels, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1952

About the author

Cyril Judd was a pseudonym used for the collaborations of C.M. Kornbluth (1923 - 1958) and Judith Merril (1923 - 1997).

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gunner Cade was the second of a pair of novels that were written collaboratively by Judith Merrill and C.M. Kornbluth. Like the first, Outpost Mars, it was published under the pseudonym Cyril Judd. It was serialized in the March - May issues of John W. Campbell's Astounding SF magazine in 1952 and then printed in hardback by Simon & Shuster. The first paperback edition came in 1957 when Ace published it in one of their Double volumes. It was really too long for that format, but they backed it with a short H. Beam Piper - John J. McGuire novella, Crisis in 2140. In 1969 Dell released it on its own with a nice Paul Lehr cover. Kornbluth is best remembered for his collaborations with Frederik Pohl, to whom Merrill was married in the early 1950s, and Merrill is best remembered for her editorial work, but they wrote some good work together. (I preferred Outpost Mars to this one.) It's a military story, about a soldier who learns he's been misguided and misled. It's an episodic story, with the Earthside battles giving way to interplanetary pursuit. It has more and better-defined female characters than most of the military-themed sf of the 1950s, surely Merrill's influence, with the fast-paced conflict and pursuit typical of Kornbluth. It's not remarkable, but better than much of the similar work of the time.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science-fiction novel co-written by C. M. Kornbluth and Judith Merrill under the shared pseudonym Cyril Judd. The setting is a distant future where humanity is ruled by a theocratic galactic empire prone to infighting between local feudal lords, held in check by an elite fighting force ran more as a monastic order of knights than a modern military. I can already see the influence on Frank Herbert's ”Dune”, 2000AD's Judge Dredd and Games Workshop's ”Warhammer 40,000” franchise. The plot follows one of these elite warrior-monks (a clear prototype for both Herbert's Sardaukar, 2000AD's Judges and GW's Space Marines) who on a mission gets captured by resistance forces, erroneously reported KIA by his superiors and when he finally escapes gets mistaken for an impostor resulting in a planet-wide manhunt.

Despite the short length, the authors switch between different genres with great elegance and master all of them: In the first act, ”Gunner Cade” plays like a futuristic take on the ”men on a mission” military action genre later popularised by Alistair Maclean in books like ”the Guns of Navarone” and ”Where Eagles Dare”; then becomes a ”wrongfully convicted man on the run” hardboiled crime thriller in the 2nd act, where the protagonist hides from the authorities with help from prostitutes and drug runners (selling tobacco which is illegal in this dystopian future) while slowly piecing together the truth about the different conspiracies at work; the third act, where Cade joins the Martian independence movement's fight against the empire, is traditional space opera complete with spaceship battles and planetary invasions. Overall feel and tone are closest to "The Stars, My Destination" by Alfred Bester out of any other novel I can think of but not quite as experimental in writing style.

I really liked this. While staying within the conventions of pulp action-adventure, ”Gunner Cade” has an unpredictable complex plot with convincing characters each running their own detailed hidden agendas that are gradually revealed as the plot unfolds. The worldbuilding shows an impressive level of thought despite the novel's short length and sparse use of exposition – a rare gift in science-fiction. Examples include: the detailed depiction of the religious observances followed by the order of mystic sharpshooters, the plot being kicked off by the local feudal lords on Earth fighting over a newly discovered motherlode of iron ore, because the planet at this point has been almost entirely depleted of its resources; the imperial military's supreme commander living in the ruins of the Pentagon; the consistent depiction of the empire as systematically corrupt, inefficient and dysfunctional which I found refreshing – reminds me of Tsarist Russia just before the revolution.

The result is a novel which excels as both dystopian science-fiction, military action-adventure, crime/espionage thriller and space opera. Recommended for fans of all those genres – in particular fans of ”Dune”, ”Judge Dredd” or ”Warhammer 40,000” curious about an early precursor to those 3 properties.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's a pleasant surprise. A fanatical brainwashed moron gets out of the system, has his eyes opened, and goes on a quest to discover truth of the world and of himself. A bleak dictatorship with vile yet understandable antagonists, more than functioning story arc, plenty of tension and discoveries and eventually growth. The prose is more than functional, flows well, never stumbles. The action's good. Feels like it could've influenced Warhammer 40k as much as Dune did.

All in all, it's a book and an author that more people should know. Three and a half.

[Rog Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this the first book in which a warrior realizes the force he represents is built on lies and corruption and finds the means to combat it? Maybe. Probably not. It’s fun though.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Digging down again into my box of old paperbacks from the 60s and 70s, I found this one by Cyril M. Kornbluth ( also by Judith Merril). CMK seems to have been an interesting guy. He was born in New York in 1923 and was a member of the Futurians, the original science fiction fan club which included Isaac Asimov ( the greatest of all SF writers!), Fred Pohl, and others. Of course, Kornbluth got into writing-"Gunner Cade" was first published as an "Astounding Science Fiction" serial in 1952. Very sadly, a most promising career was cut short when Kornbluth died suddenly of a heart attack in '58 at the age of 35. "Gunner Cade" is the story of a big man, a highly trained killer as a member of the elite police force in the service of the Emperor of the World ( who rules from his palace in Aberdeen, Maryland). Cade is captured while fighting enemies in France and wakes up only to find himself a fugitive. As he runs from a world-wide manhunt, he is forced to learn the truth of the world he has been living in---A good story, but, if anything, not developed enough and could have been longer. I'm not talking about a multi-volume series with books of 800 pages each--but a little longer story would have been nice!

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a title like that I wasn't expecting much more from this than a blaster-driven, he-man-hero-saves-the-day story... so this is easily worth 4-stars for its adventurous plot. Gunner Cade IS entirely capable but IS ALSO utterly naive.

When presumed dead after a mission goes wrong for him, Cade's whole world is about to be shook apart. The adventure takes off when Cade is trying to make his way back to his duty for The Emperor but nothing is going to plan and each attempt seems to set him back further.

This is a fun one!

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

review of
C. M. Kornbluth & Judith Merril (writing as Cyril Judd) 's
Gunner Cade
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 16, 2011

This was probably written in the same yr as Kornbluth & Pohl's The Space Merchants & published as a bk before The Space Merchants was. & while the approach to the story-telling is substantially different, there're significant correlations between the 2.

In both bks, the main character is a dupe of the ruling elites - benefiting in some respects from their unquestioning servitude. In both cases, the main character somewhat haphazardly plunges into realities that they were previously unaware of & eventually have to come to terms w/ in order to recreate their relation to the world. In both cases, these characters resist facing reality as long as they can - only incrementally being disabused of their delusions. In both, they eventually become heros of forces that they previously didn't understand at all. AND, in both there's another planet that's ultimately the hope of resistance to tyranny. In the case of The Space Merchants that planet is Venus; in the case of Gunner Cade that planet is Mars.

As I've gradually become more aware of C. M. Kornbluth, I've been particularly interested to learn of his collaborations w/ Merril. It's somewhat to my discredit as a hypothetical scholar that I'm not more aware of the many pen names that authors that I'm interested in have written under. The name "Cyril Judd" has some transparency insofar as "Cyril" is Kornbluth's 1st name & "Judd" is an abbreviation of Merril's 1st name. But if I'd previously seen a "Cyril Judd" novel somewhere I might've passed it over as by someone I'm not familiar w/. & I have to wonder: How many good bks have I missed this way? I, of all people, shd be hyperaware of multiple name use given that I might have as many as 60 names myself - & how many people know them all? Noone that I know of.

I've been interested in Merril for a long time b/c when I 1st started reading SF in the early 1960s I knew of few or no women involved. Then I discovered & read Merril's 1961 editing of the 6th Annual Edition The Year's Best S-F & was happy to find something both edited by a woman & including women writers. This was certainly one of the earliest SF anthologies I ever read & I remember being very impressed by it. As such, Merril stuck in my mind as someone to watch for. Nonetheless, I've read very little by her since! Having just now read her Wikipedia bio, I'm once again astounded that I hadn't previously learned more about her. Her activities as a political activist alone are enuf to strongly endear her to me.

Again, as in The Space Merchants, Gunner Cade presents history & language distorted for propaganda control purposes. People are taught that the world(s) had been created 10,000 yrs before & that an Emperor & a particular political system had been served throughout. Creationism anyone? Page 10: a teacher 'explains' that: "'They must be always occupied with fiddling details' - I should perhaps explain that a fiddle was a musical instrument; fiddling hence means harmonious, or proper." The joke here being that at the time Gunner Cade was written "fiddling details" wd've meant 'trivial, little, petty, worthless, insignificant' details - in other words, something to keep the dupes busy to keep them from thinking about anything important.

Another instance of this is on page 18: "'Always assume mankind is essentially merciful; nothing else explains why crooks are regularly returned to office.' If you know as little of Philosophy as you do of decency, Brother, I should explain that a crook is an implement formerly used by good shepherds and in this case stands, by a figure of speech, for the good shepherd himself." Ha ha!!

Making this whole tale even more poignant for me is that much of it takes place in Baltimore (my home town), Aberdeen (the military weapons testing area north of Baltimore), & Washington DC (similarly nearby in the South). These are, indeed, highly significant locations for American militarism. The society of this story is a future one so these locations are described circuitously: eg: the Pentagon is a ruin called the Caves of Washington.

As Gunner Cade, the title's character, becomes less naive re what's actually going on around him, a respected military figure is found to be completely cynical. Cade learns that wars that he'd fought in were at heart divide-&-conquer strategies to keep the masses disunited. WWI anyone? As a "Gunner" Cade is to keep absolute distance from women. Look to the more militaristic culture of Papua, New Guinea (& most other places) for contemporary parallels. But it takes contact w/ one of these dreaded creatures for Cade to finally learn about history - a very dangerous subject indeed.

All in all, the bk's slant is pro-technology wch is to say pro-science wch is to say pro-progress - a slant that I suspect that Merril probably came to qualify as its more destructive ramifications became increasingly apparent after WWII. According to Wikipedia, "From the mid-1970s until her death, Merril spent much time in the Canadian peace movement, including traveling to Ottawa dressed as a witch in order to hex Parliament for allowing American cruise missile testing over Canada." Wch isn't to say that technology is only cruise missiles - wch is to say that an unquestioned support of technology will most certainly include such things as cruise missiles & even worse.

Both Gunner Cade & The Space Merchants end on an optimistic romantic note: the women are the ones who know what's going on from the get-go & the men are the ones who are gradually converted by love to apply their power to less slavish ends. If the implication is that this is generally the case between the 'sexes' then I probably disagree. Nonetheless, this was yet another good subversive novel written at a time when such things were very important - just as they are now.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

2026 Book #21:
Gunner Cade (1952) by C. M. Kornbluth & Judith Merril

Baby's first ideology critique. A novel that tells the story of our titular hero, an imperial military drone fed on propaganda that guarantees his servility to authority. Cade slowly comes to realize how his false consciousness is produced through a suppression of history and scientific inquiry, and how the people in power maintain their power by crafting narratives to justify their position. For something published in _Astounding_ under the curmudgeonly conservative editorship of John Campbell, _Gunner Cade_ is a surprisingly progressive SF book. However, it suffers in several respects. In form, this is a space opera written for young boys, complete with the perfunctory battle scenes and pat romantic interest. The sheer conventionality of the plot makes this a very unremarkable and even boring read. Kornbluth and Merril are both competent and erudite writers that I usually enjoy, but they seem hamstrung by this particular assignment. Sadly, there's very little trace here of Kornbluth's edgy, zany satirical tone. Instead, _Gunner Cade_ is stylistically unmarked and narratively straightforward. Its admirable political message feels too didactic in the simplistic context of the book. I would compare this unfavorably to Carol Emshwiller's _The Mount_, which does a much better job at baby's first ideology-critique precisely because its premise is so unusual and ripe for allegory. _Gunner Cade_, on the other hand, is about as flat and predictable as it gets. (low 3/5)

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A military man with firm convictions, who has all his beliefs shattered, but struggles to keep all the pieces together as long as possible. This book has a unique view of what could happen if we forget our history, if doing so was originally to save ourselves from ourselves. I always felt there was one more layer of deception, though not knowing how deep it went was part of what kept my interest. I'll need to read it again to really decide if it's a keeper.

[Alien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schütze Cade gehört dem Waffenorden an und ist völlig erfüllt von seiner Mission und seinem Lebensstil. Dann wird er während eines Häuserkampfes gefangen genommen und sein Leben fällt auseinander.

Ich hatte den Roman nach kurzer Zeit in eine Schublade gesteckt, doch er hat sich als komplexer herausgestellt als erwartet. Vor allem, da das Büchlein nicht gerade umfangreich ist.
Irgendwie fand ich das geschilderte Szenario aber nicht wirklich überzeugend.
Der Blick auf die Welt ist eigentlich eher zynisch, das Ende ist dann im Widerspruch dazu überraschend idealistisch.
Ich frage mich auch, ob mich die charakterliche Entwicklung des Protagonisten überzeugen konnte.

[Vorik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kleine Einer-gegen-alle-Geschichte, in der sich die Hauptfigur plötzlich in eine Verschwörung mit zahlreichen Wendungen wiederfindet. Wer wortreiche oder tiefsinnige Personen- oder Situationsbeschreibungen liebt, wird hier nicht fündig. Die Geschichte besticht durch eine flotte Handlung ohne Leerlauf. Wäre nicht die homophobe Szene in der Romanmitte, hätte ich sogar vier Sterne vergeben. Das Büchlein bietet anspruchslose, kurzweilige Zerstreuung für ein regnerisches Wochenende – mehr hatte ich auch nicht erwartet.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Becomes a little saccharine at the end, but overall is an enjoyable novel. A story of disillusionment which works very well. At moments there are treats of Kornbluthian writing which are the highlights, these are moments of angry and sharp writing. Specifically the section on firing from fliers is the best part of the novel; contains a mix of wit and anger and stylish writing that is very compelling. It’s one of the SF moments where the characters view our world from their world, often this falls flat for me, but Merrill and Kornbluth pull it off in this novel.