Created by Barney Cohen (1944–)
and Jim Baen (1943-2006)
One of the earliest sci-fi eyes is ASHER BOCKHORN, a tough, cynical, jasper-smoking world-weary op for the MexAmerica and Pacific Security Company who has a rather nifty hobby: he collects old (ie: 20th century) detective and science fiction paperbacks.
Bockhorn appeared in just two novels, The Taking of SATCON Station (1982), co-authored by Barney Cohen and soon to be famous science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen, and and Blood on the Moon (1983) written by just Cohen. But the Pulp Force is strong in both of them.
In the first novel, space-based detective Bockhorn is hired to look into a missing persons case on the SATCON space station, once proudly acclaimed as the “Queen of the Skies,” and known for its cutting-edge research.
But that was then. By the 2080s, SATCON Station is over eighty years old; a dilapidated, aging piece of space junk; “an orbiting Chinatown,” as one reviewer tagged it. But sure enough, there’s more going on than first expected, and Bockhorn, who mostly hunts down stowaways and space workers skipping out on their contracts, is soon knee deep in corporate skullduggery, blackmail, assorted thugs, space babes, lesbian thugs, a possible government coverup, a few winks at The Maltese Falcon, and some pretty nasty secrets.
At the time of its release, the book may have been considered something of a minor classic — noted for its then rare blend of science fiction and noir (William Gibson’s Neuromancer was still a few years away), and its handling of social issues, particularly homophobia, although it hasn’t aged particularly well (see “Under Oath” below).
In the sequel, Blood on the Moon, Bockhorn and his new assistant, Pekkar Foskollio, are hot on the trail of a runaway from the Lunar Mormon Society, when they discover a number of mutilated corpses in a bar on the moon. Soon enough, the two of them are tangled up in a web of conspiracies, some more kinky space sex (naturally), blackmail, and some computer treachery that now seems a little laughable.
Neither book, as far as I know, has ever been reprinted.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Writer Barney Cohen was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, and spent the early part of his career in Manhattan writing novels (Coliseum, The Night of the Toy Dragons, the Asher Bockhorn books) before moving to Los Angeles to write for film and television. his credits include Forever Knight, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Killer Party, Doom Runners, Spider-Man and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
James Patrick Baen was an American science fiction publisher and editor, who founded his own publishing house, Baen Books, specializing in the adventure, fantasy, military science fiction, and space opera genres. The Taking of SATCON Station seems to be his only published stab at actually writing fiction.
UNDER OATH
- “These are two fine, tough books, with quite a bit of cynicism and guts.”
— Gary Lovisi (1986, Science Fiction Detective Tales) - “Time has not been kind to this novel. To be honest, it started off at a disadvantage since the authors hewed more closely to their Black-Mask-era inspirations than they should have in a 1982 novel set in 2087. I’ll grant that few people in the early Reagan era foresaw that smoking would become unfashionable or that the Soviet Union would collapse2. That said, few 1982 novels offered amiable, elderly negro janitors speaking in colourful argot. Presumably he is only there because the authors couldn’t work out how to justify a Pullman Porter in space.”
— James Nicoll onThe Taking of SATCON Station (October 2019, Saturday Night Masquerade)
NOVELS
- The Taking of SATCON Station (1982) | Buy this book
- Blood on the Moon (1983) | Buy this book
COLLECTORS, TAKE NOTE
- The first edition paperback of The Taking of SATCON Station has a nice wrap-around Howard Chaykin cover painting.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Down Those Mean Skies: SciFi P.I.’s
This site’s listing of private eyes who boldly go where no dick has gone before….
Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
