Mechanismo
by Harry Harrison (Reed, 1978)
A bizarre attempt to apply the notion of ‘fix-up novel’ to the visual medium. Harrison presents a lavish hodgepodge of SF illustrations, artwork and schematics, stitched together with sections of (surprisingly derisive) genre-focussed literary criticism and stultifying excerpts from invented far-future history.
The Dam Busters
dir. Michael Anderson (1955)
Compelling war film that tells its story in a straightforward fashion, allowing the drama to speak for itself (with poignant character moments pre- and post-mission, and occasional low-key, tension-relieving one-liners). The acting is unobtrusive rather than outstanding, the special effects rightly lauded.
TV Comic Annual 1968
(TV Publications, 1967)
An abysmally written Adam Adamant short story, plus 90 pages of lame comics. Two simplistic, murkily illustrated four-page Doctor Who strips feature an overly tall Second Doctor defeating (with mammoths) Trods and (with rocks) Daleks, having first pre-invented the Goodies’ flying trandem!
Blake’s 7, Series 2
(BBC, 1979)
Series 2 benefits from the influx of new writers—Chris Boucher, Allan Prior, Robert Holmes—developing a sharper edge and becoming, paradoxically, more cohesive than when Terry Nation scripted every episode. The Liberator crew move obdurately (if fractiously) towards a death-or-glory showdown.
Have You Forgotten Yet? Between the Two World Wars
by Alan Delgado (David & Charles, 1973)
Written fifty years ago and looking back a further fifty, Delgado’s aide-mémoire of the English interwar period encompasses politics and society; libraries and publishing; music, radio, dance, film and theatre; technology; leisure, sport; and news media. Faded b&w photographs provide nostalgic testimony.
Petunia
by Roger Duvoisin (Alfred A. Knopf, 1950; Picture Lions, 1973)
Pride and mishap collide in this picture book of a farmyard goose who discovers a book and thinks that owning it is enough to make her wise! Good fodder but the two-page spreads alternate between black-and-white and colour, leaving an unfinished impression.
Keep Your Shape
by Robert Sheckley
Galaxy Science Fiction (November, 1953); UK No. 13 (April 1954), pp. 4-20.
Humorous SF invasion short story with philosophical undertones. Sheckley posits a race of shapechangers whose oppressive caste system limits each individual to a prescribed set of forms. Confronted with Earth’s biological diversity, the disgruntled lower echelons exhibit a tendency to go native!
The Z Murders
by J. Jefferson Farjeon (Collins Crime Club, 1932)
audiobook read by Tim Bentinck (Soundings, 2020)
A bit of a hot mess. Detective Inspector James does very little while tally-ho protagonist Richard Temperley goes all in on blind-faith instalove, his romantic interest acting inexplicably until the sinister, shadowy villains get together at the end for an expository powwow.
Lirios: A Tale of the Quintana Roo
by James Tiptree, Jr.
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (September 28, 1981), pp. 140-167.
Dreamy fantasy novelette set in a post(mid?)-apocalyptic imagining of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Tiptree Jr’s languorous, lyrical style and the story within a story make for pleasant enough reading, though the ocean tale is actually quite slight when stripped of cultural exoticism.
Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven Annual: Well Done, Secret Seven
(Purnell, 1979)
Blyton’s novel, reworked and competently re-illustrated with half the chapters in (b&w) comic-book form, interspersed with games and activities. The artwork is inconsistent in depicting character ages, and overcluttered—especially when squeezing seven (or occasionally a miscounted eight!) children into treehouse scenes.