1959 / Audiobook / 152 pages / USA
****
This is why we can't have nice things. More cynically satirical than Philip K. Dick, this tale of reluctant and unhinged undead is still comfortingly straight compared to his other novels.
1962/70 / Audiobook / 484 pages / UK
**
A favourite writer of my favourite writers, I've wanted to crack open Moorcock for a while, but bloodthirsty sci-fantasy just isn't my thing, as my lack of Warhammer probably attests. Maybe he wrote some funny ones?
2000 / Ebook / 288 pages / UK
***
I'd unfairly dismissed the ex-Red Dwarf writer's subsequent sci-fi comedy project in the past due to idiotic fan entitlement and what might have been a bad audiobook abridgement, but reappraisal of Backwards made me want to give it a proper try. It was funny after all, if more sadistic than strictly necessary.
2015 / Ebook / 24 pages / UK
****
The best and most tangential entry in the His Dark Materials miscellany, which turns out to be ripe for expansion after all, as long as he's the one doing it.
2020 / Ebook / 67 pages / UK
***
An insubstantial interlude to perk us up between publications or if you're just desperate for more. I'll read them all.
