Dark City
dir. Alex Proyas (1998)
1940s noir in a SF/Halloween setting. Director Alex Proyas delivers Dark City’s scenario like a knife thrower, hurling mystery elements in quickfire until the plot takes shape. More accessible than Kafka; more coherent than Gilliam. Intelligent, atmospheric dystopia at its cinematic best.
Flash Gordon
dir. Mike Hodges (1980)
Terribly scripted and more kinky than camp, with lavish costumes, cut-price model work, Queen’s SF rock soundtrack, and a bizarre mixture of quality actors and utter hams, tongue-in-cheek space opera Flash Gordon makes history as the most expensive B movie ever made.
Cat’s Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963); audiobook read by Tony Roberts (HarperAudio, 2007)
To appreciate Vonnegut, one must concede to him the heightened facetiousness of Wodehouse within a satire less halcyon. Cat’s Cradle riffs on the everyday world turned sordidly askew, its protagonist forever teetering – either the only keeper or only inmate of the asylum.
The Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle (George Newnes, 1902); audiobook read by Stephen Fry (Audible, 2017)
Despite lacking its protagonist for extended periods and being little more complex a mystery than those of Conan Doyle’s short stories, The Hound of the Baskervilles sustains itself quite charmingly at novel length. The unhurried telling affords added solemnity to the narrative.
Star Wars: The New Rebellion
by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Bantam, 1996)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch was one of few authors who managed to tell a proper Star Wars story without bemiring herself in the minutiae of that universe. Granted, the dénouement leaves something to be desired, but the preceding narrative is hard to fault.
Tintin: The Broken Ear
by Hergé (Casterman, 1943)
Tintin in this sixth book remains very much in his lucky reporter phase, barrelling with many an improbable escape through a convoluted, rather contrived mystery. That said, Hergé clearly delights in the action scenes and shows also his growing appreciation of satire.
Rusputin’s Revenge
by John Lescroart (Dutton, 1987); audiobook read by Tim Baltz (Brilliance Audio, 2011)
A mystery rich in period detail but lacking a detective. Set in the Russia of Tsar Nicholas II, narrated by naïve French spy Jules Giraud and nominally featuring the son of Sherlock Holmes, this muddles along nicely enough until its absurd dénouement.
Jingo
by Terry Pratchett (Victor Gollancz, 1997); audiobook read by Nigel Planer (Isis, 2000)
Plotwise, Jingo ties itself in knots and threads. The humour is less overt than elsewhere in the Discworld canon, but there remains a droll, page-turning appeal in Pratchett’s railing against—with every weapon at his disposal, primarily Sam Vimes—humanity’s absurd jingoism.
Horton and the Kwuggerbug
by Dr. Seuss (HarperCollins, 2014)
These four ‘lost’ stories (ie. published originally in Redbook magazine in the 1950s, not in book form) show nascent elements of more-famous Dr. Seuss tales. Though slightly too wordy and more overtly moralising than Seuss’s early reader books, the illustrations remain masterful.
The Dark Side of the Sun
by Terry Pratchett (Colin Smythe, 1976); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2007)
Pre Discworld, pre Hitchhiker’s, Pratchett’s first (unrewritten) novel is a SF not-quite-comedy, rich in exotic detail and soaring with wild concepts… albeit not quite going anywhere. It is a tantalising glimpse into a universe where Pratchett parodied the future, not the present.