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.
The Lyran Case
by Bill Pronzini & Barry N. Malzberg, Analog (March 1980), pp. 110-114.
Flash fiction mystery that establishes a SF scenario (shape-changing alien terrorist attempting to smuggle a bomb through customs), lays its clues in very short order and then twists the ending, only to tack on a blow-by-blow explanation for the hard of understanding.
The Time Dissolver
by Jerry Sohl (Avon, 1957; reprinted Sphere, 1967)
An amnesiac ex-scientist investigates his own memory loss. Sohl favours gentle SF intrigue in pursuing his premise, working in a low-key human element rather than driving forward with the psychological breakdown/conspiracy thrills of, say, Eric Frank Russell’s “With a Strange Device” (1964).
The Collector
by John Fowles (Jonathan Cape, 1963)
audiobook read by James Wilby (Bolinda, 2015)
Chilling only insomuch that it lays bare the knowledge that such people exist, more or less integrated into society. Wilby puts real emotion into his audiobook reading but it’s still just half a novel of pure ick, inadequately countervailed by Miranda’s reminiscences.
Flash Gordon, Season 2
(NBC, 1982)
Perfunctory and pointless. With Ming defeated, Flash Gordon and a playfully feminist Dale adopt the baby dragon Gremlin (irredeemably annoying) and embark upon 16 non-episodic, half-length action adventures all of which start with them playing happy families and end with demented laughter.
The Nargun and the Stars
by Patricia Wrightson (Hutchison Junior, 1973 / Puffin, 1975)
Wrightson’s MG fantasy makes the most of its Australian setting and Aboriginal Dreamtime influences while sneaking in a tale of bereavement and found family. The plot moves at its own pace, in its own direction, while the characters find their way forward.