Protocol
by Timothy Zahn (Analog, September 2002) [Novelette]
A seemingly effortless piece of SF world-building. Colonists cut off on a frontier settlement must comport themselves by unfathomable alien rules… at pain of death. But what happens if the rituals stop working? Unsatisfyingly, the story poses but doesn’t answer this question.
The Fagin File
by Terrance Dicks (Blackie & Son, 1978)
A slight, rather hurried volume, even by Dicks’s standards. The narrative chops about more than it did in the first Baker Street Irregulars mystery, and the investigation is something of a doddle. For a middle-grade adventure, though, the stakes are surprisingly adult.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Me
by Charles M. Schulz (W.H. Allen 1981)
A short, simply written autobiography that extends to Schulz’s inspirations, working process and general thoughts on cartooning, illustrated piecemeal (in black-and-white) with Peanuts strips and unremarkable family photographs. Schulz is justifiably proud of his achievements but comes across rather blandly alongside them.
The Rat-a-Tat Mystery
by Enid Blyton (Collins, 1956)
The fifth ‘Barney’ mystery is, if anything, even slighter than its predecessors. Not much detecting goes on! Yet the children have fun—overseen on this occasion by Mrs Tickle—and the animals cause their usual mayhem. The story flies by pleasantly enough.
Starhunt
by David Gerrold (Hamlyn, 1985)
Not merely a reprint. Starhunt does encompass Yesterday’s Children but reboots at that story’s conclusion and ups the word count by a third, rewriting Korie from deranged and overambitious fool to master strategist and king of mind games. The psychobabble is unconvincing.
Yesterday’s Children
by David Gerrold (Faber & Faber, 1972)
A grim search for realism in depicting space warfare. Having established his antihero protagonist aboard a tumbledown ship rife with interpersonal tensions—Star Trek in other words but stripped of hope and idealism—Gerrold pins his denouement on mental breakdown and gimmickry.
Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks
by Eric Saward; dir. Matthew Robinson (BBC, 1984)
This serial begins with eerie promise and impressive acting/characterisation but degenerates into a confused mess, redeemed only by the pathos of Tegan’s departure. The Daleks (as so often in Doctor Who) have the intellectual sophistication of tantrum-prone toddlers with no inner monologue.
The Nylon Curtain
by Billy Joel (Columbia, 1982)
No sooner had Joel embraced the 1980s than he abandoned them. Side A is a top-notch 70s-era EP. Side B reaches for the same (mostly failed) experimental indulgence as The Beatles’ White Album. The imbalance now serves as an elegy for vinyl.
Conspiracy
by John Christopher, Authentic Science Fiction Monthly 53 (Jan 1955) [Short Story]
When an eatery waitress picks one of her customers as a foreigner, he wants to know what gave him away. This short story appears at first a simple question of reality versus (SF invasion) paranoia, but Christopher adds his own little twist.
Deathwing Over Veynaa
by Douglas Hill (Victor Gollancz, 1980)
Middle-grade science fiction. Book two of Hill’s Last Legionary quartet/quintet succeeds admirably as both a standalone novel and a progression of the series. Hill’s characterisation may be unambiguous but he knows how to keep a story moving. An exciting single-sitting action adventure.