1955 / Ebook / 64 pages / USA
*****
I never realised Penny Crayon was a bare-faced rip-off. This is just great, so minimalist and elemental that I couldn't help myself from mentally (in both senses) filling in all the white space with speculations. What is the significance of purple? Why nine pies?????????
1987 / Audiobook / 385 pages / USA
***
This started out as an intriguing first contact procedural with a nice bunch of characters, before its screenplay colours came fully into bloom. Some of the science and maths in Jurassic Park still goes over my head as an adult, but this one's junior introductions to black holes, psychology and marine life just felt patronising.
1987-89 (collected 1989) / Audiobook / 188 pages / UK
****
There's no faulting Iain Banks' prolific writing ethic, but it's a shame he didn't write more stories of this length, or allowed the ones he did write to be swallowed and digested among other ideas in his monstrous novels.
Fave: 'Descendant'
2004 / Ebook / 123 pages / UK
****
It'll be hard for other writers of this listen-along series to top this obsessive effort. I still don't 'get' the album, even after his comprehensive analysis for expert and idiot alike, but his wider comparison of what makes a great vinyl vs. CD album was a revelation I probably should have had at some point.
2010 / Ebook / 95 pages / Australia
**
A glorified blog post or sign-up-to-download-our-free ebook that thinks it's a coffee table book, this is a lot more elementary than its title promises, so there's a bonus marketing lesson for you.
