Faerie Tale
by Raymond E. Feist (Doubleday, 1988)
While Feist’s leisurely characterisation of the Hastings family draws the reader in and makes them susceptible to the creeping dread of faerie lore, the workmanlike omniscient narrative and muddled plot (once removed of its glamour) are unlikely to truly unsettle adult readers.
The Edinburgh Mystery and Other Tales of Scottish Crime
ed. Martin Edwards (British Library Crime Classics, 2022)
audiobook read by Sarah Barron, Mark Meadows, David Monteath & John Telfer (Soundings, 2023)
A readable but unremarkable collection of historically overlooked short stories. Though often possessed of comely prose, few are satisfying as mysteries—tending to some combination of character vignette without detection, token framework for clever ‘shock’ ending, or revelation based on withheld information.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson (Longmans, Green & Co., 1886)
audiobook read by Ian Holm (Canongate, 2007)
Stevenson’s gothic horror novella holds up well, despite the plot twist being well and truly out of the bag for modern readers. The story’s original publication as a ‘shilling shocker’ reflects the sensationalist speculative element rather than any dearth of literary quality.
The Sea of Adventure
by Enid Blyton (Macmillan, 1948); audiobook read by Thomas Judd (Bolinda, 2021)
Blyton mixes the formula just right in this fourth adventure, adding a real sense of peril to the usual holiday atmosphere. The girls make genuine contributions. Huffin and Puffin, with only one syllable between them, enter the pantheon of great support characters!
Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker
by Brian Hayles; dir. Bill Sellars (BBC, 1966/2024)
The most ambitious lost story animation to date. Even if the characters now stray into the uncanny valley, the 3D, multi-angle approach offers a zaniness lacking in the original. The colour version is particularly eye-catching… but it’s still a deplorably weak script.
The Possessors
by John Christopher (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965)
![Book cover: “The Possessors” by John Christopher (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965) [Sphere, 1978 edition]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Christopher_Possessors.jpg)
The sort of novel whose publication in 1965 might well have informed Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis as they gravitated Doctor Who towards ‘base under siege’ stories. Christopher postulates an isolated setting and bleak alien invasion scenario, grimly explored through damaged characters.
Dreadful Sanctuary
by Eric Frank Russell (Astounding Science Fiction, 1948)
revised novelised edition (Lancer, 1963)
How do you know you are sane? Russell’s hardboiled, offbeat prose drives a SF conspiracy thriller born, like Sinister Barrier, of Fortean speculation. The Lancer publication, purportedly revised by Russell himself, substitutes an ending markedly more pessimistic than those of other editions.
Tintin: The Shooting Star
by Hergé (Casterman, 1942)
trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1961)
A straightforward adventure in the style of early SF novels: a hint of the supernatural, a lashing of fantastic elements (most memorably the gigantic mushrooms and other dreamlike eruptions), but a dramatic pulse that comes largely from the sabotage- and race-to-get-there-first plots.
Chaplin
dir. Richard Attenborough (1992)
A lengthy biopic that musters unexpected pathos in portraying the rise and fall, the brilliance and obsession, the unhappy wretchedness (some dictated by circumstances, some self-inflicted) of the man behind the tramp mask. Downey Jr. is exceptional even amongst a stellar cast.
Field of Dreams
dir. Phil Alden Robinson (1989)
An audacious mixture of nostalgia, yearning, and regrets made good, held together by baseball (as a national institution) and wrapped in a fantasy scenario perfectly served by its cast: Kevin Costner, yes, but notably Amy Madigan and James Earl Jones. Thoroughly entrancing!