Blue Six

The Palleseen’s relentless pursuit of Perfection and Correctness continues with a few twists and turns along the way, possibly providing a clue has to how the series will conclude.

This novel provides the background story of Sage Invigilator Angilly and whilst it is not essential to have read it before Days of Shattered Faith I'm glad that I had.

Another excellent anthology from the British Library featuring stories from relatively obscure authors who all deserve to be better known.

If I had to pick a favourite it would be "The Underbody" by Alison V. Harding.

An eclectic collection of stories some of which are ridiculous by today's standards but are worth reading just to appreciate how ideas have changed.

The stand out story is"Dead Centre" by Judith Merrill which concentrates on the heroes family but worthy contributions are also made by Edmond Hamilton, Paul Ernst and Gordon R Dickson.

Mike Ashley's Introduction is also very good and clearly well researched

A great many Sherlock Holmes stories have been written since the passing of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but very few authors have managed to capture his style happily David Stuart Davies has done just this. Both stories are extremely well written and could very easily pass for the work of Conan Doyle were it not for the fact that they contain a supernatural element, in “The Shadow of the Rat” Holmes encounters a European Baroness with psychic powers and in “The Tangled Skein” he crosses swords with the Prince of Darkness himself. Stuart Davies has written several other Holmes stories including “The Scroll of the Dead” which despite the promising title the antagonist proves to be no more spectral than the Sussex Vampire or the Hound of the Baskervilles.

Recommended to anyone who just cannot get enough Sherlock Holmes.

An Alien Invasion story with a difference, rather than destroy the planet they try to buy it.

There is a certain similarity with The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney but there is also an element of social commentary and its a great pity it was never made into a film back in the 1960s as it could have been one of the Film Noir Sci-Fi classics.

Recommended to lovers of the original Twilight Zone series.

Much as I admire much of the work by Harry Harrison I'm afraid I have to say that this is a really dreadful book, the basic premise is to ridicule the tawdry fiction churned out by the likes of E E “Doc” Smith and Robert Heinlein but unfortunately he takes the joke too far and it have would have been much better had it been written as a short story when it could have been over and done with in just a few pages.

An excellent selection of short stories by a highly respected author covering a range of subjects many of which which would have been controversial when they were first written and even now have not been adequately addressed, it would be difficult to pick out a favourite but if I had to it would be “The Final Battle” which at only two pages long does make you think.

1. Mute Milton (1966)
2. The Greatest Car in the World (1970)
3. The Final Battle (1968)
4. The Powers of Observation (1968)
5. The Ghoul Squad (1969)
6. Toy Shop (1962)
7. You Men of Violence (1967)
8. The Finest Hunter in the World (1970)
9. Down to Earth (1963)
10. Commando Raid (1970)
11. Not Me, Not Amos Cabot! (1964)
12. The Secret of Stonehenge (1968)
13. Incident in the IND (1964)
14. If (1969) (variant of Praiseworthy Saur)
15. Contact Man (1966)
16. The Pad(1970)
17. Civil Service Servant(1967) (variant of The Fairly Civil Service)
18. A Criminal Act (1966)
19. Famous First Words (1965)

The book expands on the album, the imagery is fantastic and it is complemented by some great artwork but it is let down by a simplistic writing style making it more suitable for a juvenile audience, overall it was a great disappointment.

It is quite likely that the author of this book has more than a passing familiarity with the work of Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and John Woo.
The plot is thin and the characters mostly one dimensional but having said that I found the book very readable and it kept me entertained during a long days travelling however I probably won’t bother to read the rest of the series.

A very readable and well researched book, unfortunately after reading it I did not find myself as sympathetic to Philip K Dick as I used to be, his mind was a fairly strange place and you would probably not want to invite him to stay in your house.

Unfortunately I found this book something of a disappointment, whilst August Derleth's knowledge of H P Lovecraft was extensive I feel that he is guilty of trying to out Cthulhu Lovecraft. The stories themselves lack the mystery of Lovecraft's work and most share a common thread so that reading them in succession becomes almost painful.
A book for the Lovecraft completest only.