The Professionals #8: Dead Reckoning
by Ken Blake (Sphere, 1980)
Another workmanlike effort by Kenneth Bulmer (writing as Ken Blake). As previously, his novelisation follows three separate stories and successfully evokes the on-screen action. As a distinct work, however, this would have benefited from a less slavish shot-by-shot adherence to the scripts.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
dir. Robert Wise (1951) [Black and white]
A well-paced early SF film. Extraterrestrial ambassador Klaatu (British actor Michael Rennie, showing tolerant amusement at America’s stirred-ants’-nest mentality) lands a flying saucer in Washington, D.C., to deliver a warning to the peoples of Earth. The anti-aggression message comes with a twist.
The Case of the Missing Masterpiece
by Terrance Dicks (Blackie & Son, 1978)
This first book of the Baker Street Irregulars series shows Terrance Dicks to be right at home in a London setting. Unlike his Doctor Who novelisations, the Holmes-inspired mystery is rich in background detail and characterisation, its investigation offering plenty of suspense!
Agaton Sax and the Colossus of Rhodes
by Nils-Olof Franzén; ill. Quentin Blake (André Deutsch, 1972) [From the Swedish Agaton Sax och den bortkomne mr Lispington, 1966]
There’s plenty of fun to be had following Swedish super sleuth Agaton Sax in his masterly pursuit of the world’s most dastardly criminals. The focus on bureaucratic filibuster and a sequence of muddles and misunderstandings, however, renders the plot a little scattershot.
Butterfly Planet
by Philip E. High (Hale, 1971)
High’s prose is slapdash, his grammar shaky and his punctuation atrocious. His wealth of SF ideas offers some compensation but these gush forth as if from a newly struck oil well. Only having laid claim does High refine them (in subsequent novels).
After the Goat Man
by Betsy Byars (The Bodley Head, 1974)
A remarkable middle grade novel. By delving deep into the protagonists’ wistful ruminations—especially poor overweight Harold’s—Byars not only guides her characters to a precocious philosophical maturity (cf. Peanuts) but also holds the reader’s attention despite there being almost no plot.
Hood’s Army: Earth Invaded
by Nathan Elliott (Dragon Books, 1986)
Uncomplicated and fast-moving, this first book of Elliott’s middle-grade SF trilogy recalls the action machismo of Flash Gordon (with touches of Robin Hood). There’s nothing subtle about the invasion narrative or male-minded response. The robot AMOS, however, offers a point of uniqueness.
The Stranger, Series 1
by G. K. Saunders; dir. Gil Brealey (ABC, 1964)
Early Australian SF. A cagey alien befriends three schoolchildren while seeking refugee status for his people. The Stranger is played seriously and contrives across six episodes (particularly through its incidental music) to maintain a sense of ambiguity vis-à-vis the extra-terrestrials’ true intentions.
Mission Earth #1: The Invaders Plan
by L. Ron Hubbard (New Era, 1985)
Hubbard wrote SF in a pulp style. While Mission Earth on the one hand offers a memorably characterised satire, on the other it is an insubstantial and oddly distasteful wad of fairy floss. Each chapter rattles along but very little actually happens.
The Complete Peanuts: 1993 to 1994
by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics Books, 2014)
Spurred perhaps by Rerun’s belated coming of age, Schulz bestows upon the Peanuts gang some nice little touches of character growth (Charlie Brown’s more active pursuit of the Little Red-Haired Girl, for instance). Unfortunately, his once-consummate penmanship is starting to look shaky.