The Plumed Serpent Affair

Zine
Title:	The Plumed Serpent Affair
Publisher:	NorthCoast Press
Editor:
Author(s):	J.E. Bowman
Cover Artist(s):	Sepia
Illustrator(s):	Sepia
Date(s):	May 2000
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Man from UNCLE
Language:	English
External Links:	flyer here; story online here
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

cover by Sepia

The Plumed Serpent Affair is a 60-page gen Man from UNCLE novel by J.E. Bowman. The art is by Sepia.

Summary

From the publisher: "The signs were good tonight, the lines of power strong. Huetlatolli could sense the waves of energy forming in the very air. In the distance the eerie scream of a howler monkey sounded. Ignoring it, he looked up at the clearing sky to gauge the time. The rain had ceased and through the broken clouds, the full moon with its bright rabbit-shadowed face was only half-high on the horizon. This was good. Uiii, there was still time to both reach the Well of the Moon and to perform the ceremony. Stepping up his pace, he padded hurriedly along the wet trail toward the sacred cenote. He still had time to summon the champions that his people so desperately needed.

He let his mind shoot his message of need like an arrow to the men he had faith the gods would summon on his people's behalf. "Come. . ."

So starts another adventure of Illya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo. Both agents are captured by one Viktor Karmak of Thrush and taken to Central America, deep in the jungle, to act out a legend and thus ensure Thrush a stronghold in the area.

But, you know what they say about the best laid plans. . . especially where Solo and Kuryakin are concerned!"

Reactions and Reviews

Alert! Masterpiece Alert! That's not an exageration; this long story, first published in zine and recently put on line, got a well deserved Fan Q reward a few years ago.

If you want to know the premises of "Deadly Quest" and the roots of Victor Karmak's thirst of revenge, if you favour the blend of adventure, humour and fantasy, if you have always dreamed to add a new authentic episode to your old collection of MFU video tapes, then, undoubtly this story is for you. In it, you will find everything you are longing for: Action, friendship and loyalty, exotic landscapes, dark lithe dancing beauties and feathers crowned muscled Apollos (sorry I don't know the Aztec name of his counterpart), tame jaguars, mystic rituals and Lost Cities in the Central America wilderness. However, beware, in spite of it's fantastic side, this work is based upon a thorough and accurate knowledge of the ancient Aztec civilisation; an Aztec vocabulary is provided to the curious reader.

In a way the starting point of the adventure is a reverse of "Deadly Quest": Napoleon is abducted and Illya rushes to rescue him. Solo's first meeting with Karmak is worth a quotation:

"I have acquired this female as a mate for my male jaguar Ying," the man continued in a weirdly conversational lilt. "You will meet him later. He is my pride. I raised him from a cub after hunting his mother. She died bravely". "And for whom was I acquired as a mate? quipped Solo".

And so, Illya and Napoleon made a solemn entry in Tamoanchan greeted by the great priest of Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, as the revered "Flowery Captives", the ritual incarnations of the two hero twins Hohampu and Xbalanque, chosen to fight the Dark Lords of the Underworld.

To know the outcome, you have to read the story. Don't miss it, it's great!

Thanks for the rec! I've never come across this one in all the years I've been reading MFU (zines and now online); can't wait to read it!

Happy to be useful; I wish more other first rate zines could be put on line after a few years, for the pleasure of all the readers.

There are nearly as many approaches to writing U.N.C.L.E. fiction as there are fan writers. Among the many talented individuals who regularly grace U.N.C.L.E. fans with stories about their two favorite agents, there are realists and romantics, aficionados of the hurt/comfort genre, slash fanciers, and crossover lovers. Within U.N.C.L.E.S ranks are writers with a flair for action-adventure, writers of erotica, and comic prosateurs whose stories emulate the campy silliness of U.N.C.L.E.S third season episodes. Although every reader has his or her own favorites among these varied styles, most readers have enjoyed stories of all these types at one time or another. J. E. Bowman's new novella, The Plumed Serpent Affair, while it is unarguably "classic" U.N.C.L.E., in the sense that it is a non-stop adventure story full of heroic exploits, high ideals, self-sacrifice, abiding friendship, and innocents at risk, is also something else not fully covered by any of the aforementioned labels.

In The Plumed Serpent, Bowman addresses a theme that other fan writers have touched upon but have rarely, if ever, developed as fully as Bowman does in this wonderfully entertaining tale. That is, the theme of U.N.C.L.E. as a modern-day hero myth. Although U.N.C.L.E. was a true product of the sixties, held together as it was by the lynch-pin of Soviet-American friendship set against the backdrop of the Cold War, it can also be argued that Solo and Kuryakin, as well as U.N.C.L.E. itself, belong more properly to the realm of myth, in the timeless company of King Arthur's knights and other legendary heroes of world mythology. Considering how many television programs have come and gone—and vanished without a trace—in the last three and a half decades, would McCallum's drop-dead good looks or Vaughn's inimitable savoir faire really have been enough to hold fans' imaginations in thrall for more than thirty-five years, if there weren't an archetype or two resonating around somewhere in the U.N.C.L.E. cosmos? Although the media of their transmission have changed over the centuries, the substance of myth is unchanging. Mythology arises from concerns that are common to all ages and cultures. On the stage of world mythology, monumental conflicts such as the struggle between good and evil are played out. Through mythological symbolism, adolescents come to terms with the passage to adulthood, and humankind wrestles with the specter of death and the promise of resurrection. Bowman's wonderful story would have been irresistible anyway, just because it was so much fun to read. It was well-researched and provocative use of mythology, however, adds an extra dimension to this tale of exotic adventure that will make it a pleasure to read and read again. Referring to The Plumed Serpent Affair as merely "well-researched" scarcely does it justice. A look at a few mythology sites on the web was enough to verify that Bowman did all of her homework for "Ancient Central American Deities 101"— and then sonic—before writing her story. Bowman also makes impressive use of Aztec astrology in one portentous scene in which the old priest, Heutatolli, casts horoscopes for Solo

and Kuryakin. The fact that Bowman was able to glean enough information about so arcane an art-form not only to present it believ-ably, but to use it effectively as a tool for revealing character, speaks volumes about the preparation that went into the telling of this story. Additionally, once Napoleon and Illya reach the city of Tamoanchan, Bowman simply outdoes herself in her portrayal of the ancient temple city. Detail is piled upon exotic detail as she describes the natives' dress, diet, ornamentation, architecture, religion, and language. The reader even learns what these mountain dwellers use for soap, and from which malodorous components the evil priests of Xipe Totec concoct their body paint. (Scorpions, carrion, tobacco, and—well, never mind— but somebody definitely ought to tell these guys about Calvin Klein!).

Finally, her chilling description of the sacrificial ritual carried out at the pyramid's summit reads like Sir James Frazer's description of human sacrifice in Mexico from The Golden Bough. "On reaching the summit, he [the victim] was seized and held down by the priests on the block of stone, while one of them cut open his breast, thrust his hand into the wound, and wrenching out his heart held it up in sacrifice to the sun." The quotation is from Frazer, but if there is any doubt at all about how beautifully researched this story was, one has only to read Bowman's version of the sacrificial ceremony and compare the two. As one reads Bowman's novella, one is repeatedly impressed by the absolutely astounding amount of research she had to assemble to put together so complete a picture of this remote culture. The end result is that Bowman successfully creates an alien world in which one gradually senses the realities of day-to-day existence being superseded by the forces of myth and magic. The Plumed Serpent draws upon U.N.C.L.E. canon for its villain.

This is Bowman's version of the origin of the vendetta between Solo and Kuryakin and Victor Karmak, the megalomaniac hunter featured in the fourth season U.N.C.L.E. episode, "The Deadly Quest Affair." For her stories' other dramatic personae, Bowman presses into service a number of prominent figures from the ancient Aztec and Mayan pantheons. Here one meets Quetzalcoatl, the "old man" god of the Aztecs (who is also the "plumed serpent" of the title); Xochiquetzal, or "feather flower," a Mayan goddess of love and beauty; Mixcoatl, a Mayan god of the hunt; the terrible deity, Xipc Totcc, "Our Lord the Flayed One"; Camazotz, the bat god; and most importantly, the twin heroes, Xbalanque and Hunahpu, whose exact relationship to Solo and Kuryakin readers must ponder for themselves.

The Plumed Serpent Affair is linked by both its content and its setting to Bowman's other New Orleans story, "The Danse Manchac Affair," which was recently published in Kuryakin Files #19. Although it isn't necessary to read "Danse Manchac" to make sense of The Plumed Serpent, reading the first story does help the reader to understand Solo's apprehension upon learning that he and Kuryakin arc once again being senr on a mission to the Crescent City. Also, because of their thematic continuity, "Danse Manchac" and The Plumed Serpent make nice back-to-back reading. Just as otherworldly forces drive the events in "Danse Manchac," events in The Plumed Serpent are set in motion by the casting of a spell. Huetlatolli, priest of the beneficent deity, Quetzalcoatl, has gone at midnight to the well of the moon to beseech the gods to send the twin heroes or Mayan mythology, Xbalanque and Hunahpu, to the hidden city of Tamoanchan to liberate his people from the evil that afflicts them. As Huetlatolli works his magic and the sacred well accepts his sacrifice, Solo and Kuryakin are simultaneously transfixed by strange visions of the full moon, ancient temples, and blood-red altars. This is how the adventure of The Plumed Serpent begins. On the trail of an illegal arms dealer, the agents are next sent to New Orleans, where true to his own evil premonitions, Solo is kidnapped by the arms dealer, Victor Karmak before he can even check into his hotel. Using Solo as bait, Karmak next summons Kuryakin into his trap. As Joseph Campbell explains in his renowned study of mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the call to adventure in myths and fairy talcs is often delivered to the hero by a disgusting, repellent or terrifying beast, such as a frog, dragon, or serpent. In true fairy tale form, Karmak's summons to Kuryakin is delivered in the company of a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake in the shower is the first appearance of the snake motif that recurs throughout Bowman's narrative. Snakes are one of several motives that appear again and again as the story unfolds. Carved snake heads anchor the mysteriously undulating stairs of the pyramid in Tamoanchan, and the serpentine shedding of skin also figures prominently in the course of events. The snake is manifestly associated with Heutlatolii, the priest of the "plumed serpent," Quetzal coatl. Snakes are also associated less obviously with Kuryakin. Kuryakin, in his role of Hunahpu, is also associated with the sun, a fact that lends some interesting symbolic overtones to Napoleon's first pitched encounter with Karmak, in his guise as Mixcoatl. Solo, for his part, is associated throughout with the jaguar, and more subtly, with flowers.

Images of the sun, the big cat, and flowers reappear frequently throughout the story. Once Karmak has carried the agents off to Tamoanchan, Solo and Kuryakin must discover the reason behind their abduction and devise a means of escape. Their escape efforts are compromised by the fact that Karmak threatens to kill the young princess, Xochiquetzal, and the agents' ally, Heutlatolli, should Solo and Kuryakin disappear. Gradually, Napoleon and Ulya piece together the puzzle, and discover the appalling truth of why Karmak has spirited them off to the Honduran jungle. When escape seems impossible and rescue improbable, they must make a final stand against evil on the blood-red altar of their visions. There are plenty of excitement and laughs on the way to the big finale. Solo's encounters with the amorous Xochiquetzal and the local cuisine are wonderfully funny, and Kuryakin learns about some of the native customs the hard way at an afternoon soccer match. Bowman portrays the agents as U.N.C.L.E. fans remember them best—with their nobility and their senses of humor both intact.

What sets this story apart from other U.N.C.L.E. tales is Bowman's use of myth. In The Plumed Serpent Affair, as well as in "Danse Manchac," the real setting for the story isn't New Orleans or Tamoanchan, but the mysterious dimension where age-old archetypes and the realm of magic, which the twenty-first century typically knows only from its half-remembered dreams, collide with the modern-day.