Fabulous Monsters: Dracula, Alice, Superman, and Other Literary Friends by Alberto Manguel; ill. Alberto Manguel (Yale University Press, 2019) A series of non-fiction vignettes, each of which takes a literary figure as its starting point. Manguel is widely read and lets his intellect wander, musing about this and that and not very much. His insights are engaging enough in small…
42 Word Reviews
Dr. Ninth
Dr. Ninth by Adam Hargreaves (BBC, 2017) As if inspired by a particularly insipid Terrance Dicks novelisation, Hargreaves doesn’t so much attempt a mash-up here as a clumsy retelling of Rose’s first story. The text is belaboured and even the pictures offer little. Jack Harkness is a middling highpoint.
The Ardlamont Mystery
The Ardlamont Mystery: The Real-Life Story Behind the Creation of Sherlock Holmes by Daniel Smith (Michael O’Mara, 2018) Whereas Smith sifts every last scrap of the defendant’s and victim’s backstories, the key medical witnesses—Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn, upon whom Doyle based Sherlock Holmes—have walk-on parts at best. An assiduously researched historical non-event with a reprehensibly misleading subtitle.
Steins;Gate
Steins;Gate by Jukki Hanada; dir. Hiroshi Hamasaki & Takuya Satō (2011) Viewers are dropped without exposition into a character-rich scenario that encompasses both fantasist imaginings and SF disruptions to the timelines. Beyond the shock of immersion, Steins;Gate unfolds as a serious (though frequently funny) and ever-more-tangled thriller turned love story. Classic Japanese anime.
Doctor Who: Find and Replace
Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles – Find and Replace by Paul Magrs (Big Finish, 2010) This short, tightly plotted story makes clever use of both Huxley (an alien narrator) and Iris Wildthyme (quasi Time Lady, owner of a transdimensional bus) in transporting Jo Grant back to the 70s and giving her one last scene with the Doctor.
Polity Agent
Polity Agent by Neal Asher (Tor, 2006); audiobook read by Ric Jerrom (Macmillan, 2017) Science fiction at its most futuristic and sweeping, yet totally lacking in heart. For all the complex characters, grand ideas and unstoppably momentous tectonic-plate plot clashes, listening to this was the aural equivalent of chewing through cardboard. Aborted at the two-fifths mark.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (Raven, 2018); audiobook read by Jot Davies (Bolinda, 2018) The combination of body-swapping protagonist and Groundhog Day recurrence makes for an intricate, shifting tangle of a murder mystery. The plot is skilfully woven overall yet clumsy in places, and becomes overlong as Turton works towards a purpose beyond his original premise.…
Asterix & Obelix’s Birthday
Asterix & Obelix’s Birthday by Albert Uderzo (Orion, 2009) An exuberant but indulgent celebration of Asterix’s 50th anniversary, longer than other albums and yet overburdened with filler. Though Uderzo has clearly enjoyed himself drawing a mélange of vignettes and objets d’art, these pieces mostly emphasise the dearth of storytelling sans Goscinny.
Billy Idol live @ Riverstage
Billy Idol live @ Riverstage (Brisbane, 31 January 2020) Rocking out afront an 80s-reminiscent ever-changing neon cityscape backdrop, Billy Idol showed that he still has the voice, physique and strut of a man half his age (though perhaps not the stamina). Highlights included ‘Flesh for Fantasy’, ‘Rebel Yell’ and ‘Mony Mony’.
Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks
Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks by Eric Saward (BBC, 2019) At last, lagging thirty-five years behind the TV serial, former Doctor Who script editor Eric Saward has novelised Revelation of the Daleks. If only he’d spent some of that time learning to write! This is BBC-endorsed beige-wallpaper fan fiction without the heart.