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Born: Established: 1994 New York (City), New York (State),
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3 y separately published work icon The Way Back A. Bertram Chandler , London : Robert Hale , 1976 Z810928 1976 single work novella science fiction 'Because the universe was vast and they had been out beyond the Galactic Lens. Because time is infinite and they had slipped beyond their own epoch. Because in whatever universe they were in they could raise no etheric word, no telepathic beacon, no other star vessel. But for John Grimes, a veritable Commodore Hornblower of the future space seas, there had to be a way back. The first step was to locate Earth, the launching place for all humanity. But Earth turned out to be legend and myth and faith - and Grimes' rebellious crew were to enact roles already fabled before they were all born.'

[Source: www.fictionwise.com]
5 1 y separately published work icon Spartan Planet False Fatherland A. Bertram Chandler , Sydney : Horwitz , 1968 Z810931 1968 single work novel science fiction
— Appears in: Коммандер Граймс 2004; (p. 231-352)

Lt Commander Grimes arrives on the forgotten planet Sparta where humans had long ago settled and have since modelled their society on the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta. Indeed, Sparta, originally an early Federation colony, has been out of touch for so long the people have forgotten they’re a colony. Over time a civilisation based on war and violence and crude pleasures has developed. It is also a planet where human beings (all men) are produced by birth machines and women are unknown.

The story is told from the perspective of Brasidus, one of the small planet's policemen. Never having laid eyes on a woman, or imagined that such strange beings exist, he and most other residents of the planet Sparta think that the female crew of Grime's ship, including Margaret Lazenby (Grime's sometimes sex partner) are deformed men, and they can’t fathom what the peculiar bumps on their chests are.

Although Grimes and his crew have the best intentions during their stay on the planet they eventually manage to turn the whole society on its head. Horrific events unfurl and truths become known, setting in motion changes that have a profound effect on the Spartan society.
4 2 y separately published work icon To Prime the Pump A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : Curtis Books , 1971 Z811048 1971 single work novel

By now a Lieutenant in the Federation Survey Service, Grimes, finds himself serving aboard the cruiser Aries bound for the planet El Dorado. Abundantly wealthy, and inhabited only by the super-rich and their android servants, the population nevertheless has an increasingly urgent problem. The men are infertile, cause unknown, and the women want someone to do something about it. After crash-landing the advance party rocket boat on a lake, Grimes meets the beautiful but haughty Princess Marlene von Stolzberg. Once again out of his depths Grimes will need every ounce of his famous luck to get him back in the good books and hopefully salvage his career prospects.
4 Into the Alternate Universe A. Bertram Chandler , 1964 New York (City) : JABberwocky Literary Agency , 2002 Z811000 1964 single work novella science fiction
— Appears in: Zvezdnyi Put 3 1993;
— Appears in: Gammel'nskaya Plague 2004; (p. 5-110) Practical and hard-headed John Grimes is not the sort to believe in ghosts but he's willing to give psychics a chance when shapely Sonya Verrill, a commander in the Federation Survey Service, proposes a ghost-hunting expedition in the sector around Kinsolving's Planet. Out where the fabric of space wears thin, ships have encountered Rim Ghosts—apparitions of craft and crewmates from alternate universes. When Grimes organizes a séance to make contact, their ship is yanked into an alternate universe, and their only hope of getting home lies in a lost relic - a sleeper ship from the first age of space exploration.
5 y separately published work icon The Dark Dimensions A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : JABberwocky Literary Agency , 2002 Z810973 1971 single work novella science fiction
— Appears in: Коммандер Граймс 2004; In a John Grimes Rim adventure, strange things happen out where the stellar medium grows thin, out where it is difficult to say if you remain within the galaxy or you're falling through the intergalactic void. Add to that strangeness an Outsider ship filled with technology so far in advance of the human as to appear magical, and the catalytic presence of Commodore John Grimes, and anything can happen... anything at all.

[Source: www.fictionwise.com]
6 1 y separately published work icon The Inheritors A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : JABberwocky Literary Agency , 2002 Z810970 1972 single work novel
— Appears in: Urania , February no. 637 1974; (p. 3-119) Le Vie Della Frontiera : Ciclo Galattico di A. Bertram Chandler 1979; (p. 97-196)
— Appears in: Коммандер Граймс 2004; 'Drongo Kane never broke the law.... He was a cunning, ruthless opportunist who paid when he had to and stole when he could -- but never when there was the slightest chance of getting caught. That's what had John Grimes worried: here was Kane directly under the watchful eyes -- and guns -- of a Federation Survey vessel, openly engaging in kidnapping and trafficking in human flesh! Despite the fact that the beautiful inhabitants of this Lost Colony faced a fate worse than death, a more cautious -- or less gallant -- officer would do nothing -- secure in the knowledge that regardless of appearances there would be some loophole that placed the Law squarely on Kane's side. But Grimes, being Grimes, would have to act -- knowing full well that to "interfere with a merchantman on her lawful occasions" meant a blasted career... and knowing too that Drongo Kane never broke the law..'

[Source: www.fictionwise.com]
4 y separately published work icon The Gateway to Never A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : JABberwocky Literary Agency , 2002 Z810967 1972 single work novel
— Appears in: Коммандер Граймс 2004; (p. 465-586)

'John Grimes is stranded on a Hell Planet! Another adventure with the pipe-smoking, action-loving spaceship commander Lieutenant John Grimes.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Orion ed.)
6 y separately published work icon Contraband from Otherspace Edge of Night A. Bertram Chandler , London : Orion , 2016 Z810964 1966 single work novella science fiction
— Appears in: Zvezdnyi Put' 4 1993; (p. 331-424)
— Appears in: Gammel'nskaya Plague 2004; (p. 111-206)

Grimes and Sonya embark on a wholly different adventure: marriage. But running their own little shipping company takes a back seat to danger when a distress call leads the pair to an alien ship from an alternate universe—a ship carrying contraband from otherspace— mutant rats which evolved to rule their universe...and threaten to breakthrough to ours. This deadly cargo threatens to sheer through the fabric of reality, like a knife through soft butter.
10 3 y separately published work icon The Road to the Rim A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : JABberwocky Literary Agency , 2002 Z810946 1967 single work novella
— Appears in: Urania , October no. 499 1968; (p. 3-119) Le Vie Della Frontiera : Ciclo Galattico di A. Bertram Chandler 1979; (p. 5-96)
— Appears in: Коммандер Граймс 2004; Ensign John Grimes of the Federation Survey Service is fresh out of the Academy and as green as they come. After boarding the Interstellar Transport Commission's merchant spaceship Delta Orionis as a passenger bound for deep space, Grimes finds himself involved, reluctantly, in salvaging another ship which has been attacked by space pirates. It doesn't help that his decision-making process has been influenced by the more than attractive Jane Pentecost (and Grimes is as green with women as his he is as a spaceman), or as a consequence of having been put under guard as a mutineer. As much as the odds will be stacked against him, Grimes soon begins to earn his infamous reputation as a 'lucky bastard.'
4 y separately published work icon The Rim Gods A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : JABberwocky Literary Agency , 2002 Z810940 1969 single work novella
— Appears in: Urania , November no. 527 1969; Le Vie Della Frontiera : Ciclo Galattico di A. Bertram Chandler 1979; (p. 197-320)

'Gods! Dragons! Fairies! Frog Princess! Knights! and much more. John Grimes faces them all.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Orion ed.)
3 y separately published work icon The Last Amazon A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : DAW Books , 1984 Z811024 1984 single work novella science fiction 'John Grimes's career as a space pirate has ended, he faces his toughest assignment yet. He has been made governer of the anarchist's own planet. His first task is to stay alive with a whole world plotting his murder!'

[Source: 1984 DAW edition]
3 2 y separately published work icon Star Loot A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : DAW Books , 1980 Z811015 1980 single work novella science fiction 'In luck and out of luck, John Grimes was a living legend of the spaceways. He had been an officer of the service, he had been the victim of a mutiny, he had discovered lost worlds, he had served under strange masters and on strange ships, but he had never turned space pirate. Until this adventure. How it happened was a complex story to begin with, but typical Grimes luck. How he became the terror of the star lanes developed, as usual, from his own efforts to make an honest living and other's efforts to use him for devious diversions.

[Source: www.goodreads.com]
3 1 y separately published work icon The Big Black Mark A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : DAW Books , 1975 Z810958 1975 single work novella

'Commander John Grimes, Federation Survey Service, should have been happy but he was not.' Although recently promoted, much to his surprise, Grimes finds himself consigned once again to being captain of a non-war ship. It doesn't help that his new vessel, Discovery (another Census ship) is a badly neglected rust-bucket. Worse still is the crew - a bunch of malcontents comprising the worse the Survey Service has to offer.

Before long a mutinous atmosphere begins to pervade the ship, with the situation spiraling downhill after Grimes is forced to cite the leader of the ship's marines, Major 'Mad' Swinton with the court-martial offence of murdering citizens from another planet. Grime's own misgivings about the voyage also manifest themselves through snatches of memory relating to the 'Wild Colonial Boy' and the ill-fated Bounty.

When the Commander and a few of his faithful crew are eventually dispatched into space aboard a tiny escape craft, he begins to understand how Captain William Bligh must have felt. Not only about the big black mark against his service record, but also about surviving against impossible odds.
4 y separately published work icon The Broken Cycle A. Bertram Chandler , London : Robert Hale , 1975 Z810925 1975 single work novel science fiction Newly promoted to Lieutenant Commander, John Grimes find himself assisting sky marshall Una Freeman in the attempted recovery of Delta Geminorum. Things go haywire, however, when they find temselves lost in the colossal alien spacecraft. Complicating matters is there discovery that the universe they thought they were in is not their own but an alternate and that they've been captured by the omnipotent force of that entire other cosmos. Grimes and the comely policewoman soon find out theat they have been selected as the only inhabitants of a Garden of Eden. But there were two serpents in this one—both of them bicycles!'

[Source: www.baenbooks.com]
4 1 y separately published work icon Matilda's Stepchildren A. Bertram Chandler , London : Robert Hale , 1979 Z810922 1979 single work novel science fiction
— Appears in: Urania , June no. 841 1980; (p. 3-182) 'John Grimes, owner of the deep space pinnace Little Sister, could not afford to be fussy about whom he carried. But there were compensations, for if his ship had not been chartered to take Fenella Pruin, muckraking reporter, to exclusive New Venusberg he would never have been able to visit that fabulous pleasure planet. But there was to be a little pleasure in it for him. Among the visitors was a Shaara princess who owed him vengeance. The planet's authorities were after Fenella's blood to prevent her snooping. Had it not been for the boomerang throwing abilities of two sexy dancers from New Alice, the spaceman and the journalist would have been sacrificed to make a Roman holiday. The spectator sports of the very rich and very depraved involve a high mortality rate among the players.'

[Source: www.fictionwise.com]
4 y separately published work icon To Keep the Ship A. Bertram Chandler , London : Robert Hale , 1978 Z810919 1978 single work novella science fiction Having resigned his commission in the Survey Service rather than face a court martial, John Grimes is now owner and master of Little Sister, a pinnace spacecraft made of modified gold. Formerly the property of the Baroness d'Estang of El Dorado, the ship has come to Grimes in lieu of back pay. Grimes is at a low point in his ever-shifting space career. His last delivery ended in disaster and he's now stuck on a planet with Little Sister impounded and awaiting a law-suit. Financial necessity forces him to take on the lowest space job of them all - caretaker captain of a decommissioned orbiting spaceship. Then Grimes falls into the clutches of terrorists and needs all his luck to get out alive. Even when he does, with the help of Susie and her comrade, he bounces from one danger to another - this time in the form of tiny female-like sharp-toothed creatures whose only reason for existing is to eat Grimes alive!'
4 y separately published work icon The Far Traveller The Far Traveler A. Bertram Chandler , London : Robert Hale , 1977 Z810916 1976 single work novella
— Appears in: Urania , February no. 822 1980; Urania Millemoni Estate : Il Pianette del Tesoro 1997; (p. 270-426)

Having resigned from the Federation Survey Service rather than face a court-martial for losing his ship in a mutiny (see The Big Black Mark), John Grimes finds himself stuck on the Planet Botany Bay and in urgent need of employment. His saviour comes in the form of the lofty Baroness Michelle d'Estang and her ship the Far Traveller. Built of gold and designed to be a rich woman's plaything the ship is piloted and run by an advanced computer known as Big Sister. And thus while Grimes might be the human Master (in so far as the ship's insurer is concerned), its Big Sister who rules the roost.

'Take one thoroughly spoiled, fabulously wealthy El Doradan baroness, one solid gold spaceyacht complete with almost human pilot-computer, one piratical space tramp captain, add the accident-prone John Grimes, late of the Federation Survey Service, stir and mix thoroughly-and the things that happen shouldn't happen to a Morrovian dog!' (1977 Hale edition).
3 y separately published work icon Star Courier A. Bertram Chandler , London : Robert Hale , 1977 Z810913 1977 single work novella

Having resigned his commission in the Survey Service rather than face a court martial, John Grimes is now owner and master of Little Sister, a pinnace spacecraft made of modified gold. Formerly the property of the Baroness d'Estang of El Dorado, the ship has come to Grimes in lieu of back pay, and provides him with the opportunity to run his own courier service. Unable to transport anything other than small loads at a time Grimes's first job is to ferry the attractive post-mistress Tamara Haverstock and her mail from the planet Tiralbin to Boggarty. What should be a easy run turns upside down when they encounter the insectoid Shaara. After being taken by force to an uncharted planet Grimes and Haverstock are tortured and publicly humiliated in front of the indigenous population as a show of superior Shaara might. However, things go awry for the Shaara when the pair escape and are mistaken for gods by the planet's resistance army. Grimes must not only defeat the Shaara to save their lives and that of the planet but also complete his contract and get the mail delivered.
2 y separately published work icon The Wild Ones A. Bertram Chandler , St Kilda : Void Publications , 1984 Z810910 1984 single work novel science fiction

'They called the robomaid "Clockwork Kitty" until she informed them of her right name. She was a triumph of Japan's far-future robotics industry and she was a present to John Grimes as he set out aboard Sister Sue for a voyage to the planet called New Salem.

New Salem was a colony of blue-nosed religious fanatics and Grimes knew it meant trouble. For in addition to his sexy-looking robot he had Shirl and Darleen aboard, two wild ones of kangaroo ancestry, sure to be problems. And trouble came, not merely from the fire-wielding bigots but from Grimes' old enemy, Drongo Kane.'

(Source: www.baenebooks.com)
3 1 y separately published work icon The Anarch Lords A. Bertram Chandler , New York (City) : DAW Books , 1981 Z810901 1981 single work novella science fiction 'His wild career as a space pirate ended, Grimes faced his toughest assignment - he was "punished" by being made governor of the anarchists' own planet! John Grimes, living legend of the spaceways, had been in and out of some cosmic catastrophes but this threatened to reach his luck's ultimate breaking point! An influx of planetary refugees had made that world a paradise of cheap labor and the original anarchist colonists had become such masters of wealth that no mere outsider could hope to dictate "law and order" to them. They had their own ideas which included slavery, treachery, and utter villainy. Grimes' first task as governor would be simply to stay alive with a whole world plotting his murder!'

[Source: www.goodreads.com]
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