1957 / Audiobook / 255 pages / USA
****
More conventionally trippy than his later works after PKD met LSD, this odyssey through the bespoke nightmare universes of diverse caricatures would've made a great miniseries and is the stand-out of his '50s novels. By literally getting into their headspace, the author lets rip on religious fundamentalism, McCarthyism, Marxism and other -isms in a warped contemporary setting without the usual veil of allegory.
1965-66 (collected 1966) / Audiobook / 189 pages / USA
***
After setting the scene of his Dying Earth, Vance focuses on one of its denizens this time, who's pottering about having quests foisted upon him, having erotic exercise and taking pointless time trips to keep him from dwelling on the inevitable eternal night. Quite funny in places.
1955-85 (collected 1985) / Audiobook / 328 pages / USA
**
A mixed bag that tended towards boring and unlikeable. I at least respected that he refrained from naming the collection after the Dune 'story,' which amounts to a short encyclopaedia article.
Faves: 'Try to Remember,' 'By the Book,' 'Seed Stock.'
Worsties: 'The Dragon in the Sea,' 'The Road to Dune,' 'Frogs and Scientists.'
Aboud Dandachi, The Doctor, The Eye Doctor and Me: Analogies and Parallels Between the World of Doctor Who and the Syrian Conflict
2014 / Ebook / 151 pages / Syria
****
Being a literature graduate who contrived excuses to write essays on his favourite childhood sci-fi shows rather than hard books, I respected the very existence of this seemingly arbitrary mash-up, offering some critical appraisal of my favourite Doctor Who era while also giving me the excuse I still apparently need to learn about the more significant real-world events I wasn't paying so much attention to at the time. Reappraising escapist space adventures from the unfathomable perspective of a rebel turned refugee, this has the potential to kick off a whole movement of pop culture criticism under crisis.
Julian Barnes, Keeping an Eye Open: Essays on Art
1989-2013 (collected 2015) / Ebook / 276 pages / UK
***
The author knows his late-19th-to-mid-20th-century French painters, and these new and repurposed articles on individual works, careers, wider movements and the value of art in general make compelling cases that you don't have to agree with. More pics would have been nice, but you've got Google, haven't you?
Faves: Géricault, Redon, Magritte
Worsties: Braque, Oldenburg, Richer
