On the Omnibuses: July

Terry Pratchett, The Gods Trilogy

Small Gods (1992) ****

Daft philosophy and elementary scepticism for kids that doesn't rain on your prayed, since being stubbornly rational in an unambiguously supernatural world would look as foolish as a late period Dana Scully. It'd make a nice overture to the series if you read it first, though also setting a benchmark of maturity that follow-ups would be statistically unlikely to meet.

Various, The World Treasury of Science Fiction

John Varley, The Phantom of Kansas (1976) ****

Masturbatory meteorological murder mystery.

Josef Nesvadba, Captain Nemo's Last Stand (1973) ****

Concise Czech cosmicomedy classic.

Larry Niven, Inconstant Moon (1971) **

Depressing domestic doomsday dallying.

Frederik Pohl, The Gold at the Starbow's End (1971) ***

Idle interstellar insights.

Italo Calvino, A Sign In Space (1968) ***

Cosmicomplex.

Italo Calvino, The Spiral (1968) **

Oh yeah, that's why I abandoned Calvino.

Isaac Asimov, The Dead Past (1956) ***

Chronoscopic conspiracy cock-up.

Annemarie van Ewyck, The Lens (1977) ***

Chick stuff.

Theodore Sturgeon, The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast (1949) **

Weak whimsy.

Ray Bradbury, Zero Hour (1947) ***

Creepy kid countdown.

Shirley Jackson, The Masterpieces of Shirley Jackson

The Lottery and Other Stories (1949) ****

They're not all melancholy scenes of neurotic housewives struggling stoically against the mundane darkness of humanity, but enough of them are.

Faves: 'The Demon Lover,' 'The Renegade,' 'The Lottery.'

Dr. Seuss, A Classic Treasury

Green Eggs and Ham (1960) ***

This face-off between stubbornness and persistence was funnier than the selfish anarchy of the Cat in the Hat, even if the repetition got similarly tedious and was scandalously abridged when reading aloud to a toddler.

Fox in Socks (1965) **

I would've practised the tongue twister and failed to impress my peers if I'd had this as a precocious brat. As it is, I sided with the spoilsport as usual. Shut the fox up.

Arthur C. Clarke, Four Great SF Novels

A Fall of Moondust (1961) ***

Clarke writes a space disaster/rescue movie and does it properly, no matter how boring the result. It turns out more like 24-hour news coverage.

Alrightreads: Art Books III

Hayao Miyazaki, Nobuhiro Watsuki and artists, The Art of My Neighbor Totoro

2005 / Ebook / 173 pages / Japan

****

There's enough background, extracurricular detail and technical commentary to make this more than a load of pretty pastoral-fantastical art, but it's got that going for it too.

Hayao Miyazaki and artists, The Art of Kiki's Delivery Service

2006 / Ebook / 208 pages / Japan

***

Chronological concepts and cels to compare and contrast with commentary, but there's nothing too enlightening this time around. The surrounding chapters are dull technical affairs that might be useful if your dream is to be an animator 30 years ago.

Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman, Dust Covers: The Collected Sandman Covers 1989-1997

1989-97 (collected 1997) / Ebook / 206 pages / UK

****

I'd never thought to bother with what seemed like a reasonable cash-in, but the inclusion of another short Gaiman/McKean tale and running commentary from the author make it a valuable appendix to the greatest story ever told.

Various, The Art of Morrowind

2002 / Paperback / 48 pages / Unknown

***

I forgot I'd had this, because of its lightweight and modest nature as added value to a special edition game bundle, but like the accompanying soundtrack CD, it's a nice supplement to a game I was once immersed in, though never sufficiently obsessed by.

Various, Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time

2010 / Hardback / 144 pages / Space

****

A greatest hits of desktop backgrounds that's nice to have, even if some like the Ultra Deep Field are best served by a screen (preferably IMAX). Also a nice pictorial supplement when I get around to reading Carl Sagan again.

Alrightgames: Disney Giant Puzzle

Disney Giant Puzzle

2009 / Jigsaw puzzle / Germany

***

I've never been a fan of the Mouse, and there's no artistry to this unlikely crossover event, but it passes the time and she's bound to like at least some of the films by the time she's old enough to join in rather than unproductively commentate and steal the fairy. I'm mainly noting these things down to help her out with the self-indulgent nostalgia when she's 35, it took me ages to track down that Early Learning Centre train jigsaw I had. Still no joy on Noah's Ark.

Alrightgames: The Wizard of Oz – Book & 100 Piece Jigsaw

The Wizard of Oz: Book & 100 Piece Jigsaw

2019 / Jigsaw puzzle / Australia

****

Individually reviewing the jigsaws bought for my daughter several years in advance by well-meaning relatives might seem like a desperate excuse for blog content or to save me from having to read a book this week, but as we wasted no time tackling the preschool puzzle ourselves, I was impressed with its inappropriately sly gameplay. All those sodding trees.

Babyliography IX

Roger Hargreaves, Mr. Men: My Daddy

2017 / Hardback / 32 pages / UK

*

Repurposing a dead author's illustrations to check off laudable attributes that can't possibly all apply to all dads and seem a bit judgemental for a modern publication. Bad luck if you're short.

Dawn Sirett, Sarah Davis and Dave King, Pop-Up Peekaboo!: Playtime

2011 / Pop-up board book / 12 pages / UK

***

The daytime counterpart to her Bedtime book, there's some more interesting overlapping going on and entire characters haven't been edited out by a roughhousing toddler this time, which is always a bonus.

Jane Hissey, Old Bear: A Pop-up Book

1995 / Pop-up hardback / 12 pages / UK

*****

I don't know if I was ever read this story or just absorbed it passively through the early education ether, but it's very nice and this pop-up/slider/wheel adaptation is more impressive than it was required to be, even if she just obsesses over the one page.

Unknown, 123 Train Jigsaw Book

2007 / Jigsaw board book / 18 pages / UK

****

Animals and a choo-choo in a jigsaw seemed like a winning combination, but she couldn't care less. I thought it was clever, anyway. Maybe she'd have preferred the ABC train, since she's always singing that. I'm out of touch already.

Michelle Breen, Enchanting Mermaid Book & Model Set

2014 / Book and model pack / 24 pages / UK

**

Finally, after all the refunds and a return, a gift set arrived as more than just the boring book part, since it's glued in this time. The extras are just some cardboard, admittedly, but she seems to like her first cheapo playset. We might get around to reading the book one of these years.

On the Omnibuses: June

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Original Illustrated Strand Sherlock Holmes

The Valley of Fear (1914–15) ***

The final novel is a regrettable mirroring of the first, with the displaced denouement taking up half a book, but it holds together better. Where the first was lifted by the origin story, this has retrospective foreshadowing and the crowd-pleasing return of a classic baddie, just ignore the continuity gaffe.

His Last Bow: The War Service of Sherlock Holmes (1917) ***

Real-world events forcing our fictional hero out of his comfortable retirement would be more stirring if that didn't keep happening anyway. Bogstandard spy fare, notable for a nice speech.

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1921–27) **

One collection too many doesn't do any harm to the legacy, though breaking down the wall to let Holmes narrate a couple himself is as disappointing as when Jeeves did it, even admitting himself that some of them are shite. No shit.

Terry Pratchett, The Gods Trilogy

Pyramids (1989) ***

My infrequent visits to the Discworld had never been as rewarding as the brochure hyped. I enjoy the writing style, it's just all the events and people it's describing that I don't really care about. This one wasn't doing much better in the first half until the mystical sci-fi came out in full force and threatened to convert me, to the point that I invested in several more discount omnibi for the overflowing shelves. Better not be a fluke.

Various, The World Treasury of Science Fiction

Gérard Klein, The Valley of Echoes (1973) ****

Martian malaise.

Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972) *****

Atrophied ambiguity.

John Updike, The Chaste Planet (1983) ***

Silly symphonies.

Nathalie-Charles Henneberg, The Blind Pilot (1960) **

Mutant madhouse.

Alfred Bester, The Men Who Murdered Mohammed (1958) *****

Bunglers in time.

Manuel van Loggem, Pairpuppets (1974) **

Sexbot satyre.

C.M. Kornbluth, Two Dooms (1958) **

Nazipunk fuckoff.

Stanislaw Lem, The Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon (1977) ****

Ferrous fairytale.

Robert A. Heinlein, The Green Hills of Earth (1947) ****

Cosmic crooner.

Robert Sheckley, Ghost V (1957) ***

Exoplanet exorcists.

Christopher Marlowe, Complete Plays and Poems

Tamburlaine the Great (1590) **

Distastefully convincing historie of an absolute rotter.

I bought this by accident when temporarily forgetting I already had Dr Faustus in an anthology, so I'll donate it before I waste more precious reading time trying to get my money's worth.

Saki, The Penguin Complete Saki

Reginald (1904) ***

Bertie Wooster's impertinent cousin dispenses drawing-room epigrams like Python's Wilde sketch extended to purgatorial eternity. An unintentional time capsule of an incredibly thin slice of society.

Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches (1910) **

More substantial and loosely themed to allow some dark comedy and fantasy in, but got wearying as it went on, brief as they are.

Faves: 'The Lost Sanjak,' 'Gabriel-Ernst.'

The Chronicles of Clovis (1911) **

A bit more refined, though a best-of would strengthen the themes and unflinching morbidity without all the irksome interruptions.

Faves: 'Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse That Helped,' 'The Peace of Mowsle Barton,' 'The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope.'

Various, Children's Literature: An Anthology 1801–1902

Maria Edgeworth, from Early Lessons (1801) *

A good boy deserves favour, receives it. Nothing like starting your anthology off strong to really whet the appetite.

Ann Taylor, Jane Taylor and Adelaide O'Keeffe, from Original Poems for Infant Minds & Rhymes from the Nursery (1804–06) ***

'The Star' was the surprise hit amid otherwise dispiriting indoctrinations, but the extreme cautionary horror of 'Never Play with Fire' was my favourite.

William Roscoe, The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (1807/8) ****

Enchanting parade of minibeast merriment that's begging for the chamber musical.

Elizabeth Turner, from The Daisy; or, Cautionary Stories in Verse Adapted to the Ideas of Children from Four to Eight years old (1807) *

I'd forgotten these anthologies are mainly intended as samplers for essays rather than entertaining in their own right. Here are more otherwise worthless exhibits for the bland moralising column. At least it's chronological, so we're implicitly outgrowing this. The Victorians were famously advocates of free-spirited childhoods, right?

Barbara [Wreaks] Hofland, from The History of an Officer's Widow, and Her Young Family (1809) *

Another insufferably good boy lives to please his fellow humans. How long until Dennis the Menaces start corrupting the youth?

Mary Martha [Butt] Sherwood, from The History of the Fairchild Family or, the Child's Manual: being a Collection of Stories Calculated to Shew the Importance and Effects of a Religious Education (1818) *

"And Mrs. Fairchild knelt by the bedside, and prayed that God, for his dear Son's sake, would take the wicked desire to be great out of her dear little girls' hearts."

Alicia Catherine Mant, from The Cottage in the Chalk Pit (1822) **

Polite children are denied the indulgence of educational hobbies and taking an interest in their new surroundings. Maybe they won out in the end, but it doesn't look promising.

Clement Clarke Moore, A Visit from St. Nicholas (1823) ***

Origin and context for another cultural building block, and nice of them to let the indoctrination slide for Christmas.

Mary [Botham] Howitt, The Spider and the Fly (1829) ***

A more sensible moral fable, and nice of them to bother bringing out the anthropomorphic nature this time. I prefer The Cure's version.

Sarah Josepha Hale, Mary's Lamb (1830) **

The quirky character study turns out to have a compassionate moral all along. I prefer Coleridge's version.

Catharine Maria Sedgwick, from Home (1835) *

Drowning a kitten and sentencing a child to solitary confinement for a fortnight, and you're supposed to be the goodie. The implicit youthful rebellion's taking its sweet time.

Jacob Abbott, from A Little Scholar Learning to Talk & Rollo at Work (1835–37) **

Unprecedented fairness from the elders without dropping the work ethic, maybe it's the country air.

Babyliography VIII

Moira Butterfield, Stephen Koster, Brian Voakes and Geoff Dann, Barbie Story Treasury

1998 / Hardback / 97 pages / UK

*

She likes her Barbie ("Boobay") pencil case, so I thought I'd give her a book to aimlessly flip through in full acceptance that it would be appalling shite.

Jan Pieńkowski, Yes No

1991 / Hardback / 25 pages / Poland

***

I assume it was retitled from the more fitting Opposites when all young readers obsessed over the yes/no page. More worthwhile than another colours or shapes book, even if some of the comparisons are a bit strange and some images not especially helpful.

Roger Priddy, My First Words

2018 / Board book / 18 pages / UK

*

She's got enough of these already (and better illustrated), but this one was advertised as coming with matching cards. As expected and hoped for, the eBay used book giant refunded rather than going through the hassle of a return, so I can't complain. I just drew the cards myself.

Lucy Cousins, Maisy's Bathtime and Maisy's Bus

2000 (collected 2003) / Hardback / 44 pages / UK

**

Another book + game set, another generous refund when the rest failed to materialise. I may have stumbled upon a limited duration scam here, but I would've much preferred to receive the admittedly unlikely jigsaws. The stories are pretty rubbish on their own, but the first is darkly amusing in an Elsagate kind of way, enhanced by Maisy not having a voice of her own and wearing that unchanging smile.

Dawn Sirett, Sarah Davis and Dave King, Pop-Up Peekaboo!: Bedtime

2014 / Pop-up board book / 12 pages / UK

***

A bedtime book with a bedtime theme, that ought to be manipulative enough. You'd have to be some kind of cheapskate parent to buy your child a pop-up book second-hand, but it saved her the trouble of ripping those bits herself.

Top 10 Babylon 5 episodes

Probably. I kept a short list of contenders for a couple of seasons before escalating quality and serialisation made that seem a pointless task, but in the sentimental afterglow of the finale, collating hazy reminisces felt like the least I could do. The best part of most episodes is still the opening narration.

Alrightreads: TV VIII

Jane Killick, Babylon 5: No Surrender, No Retreat

1998 / Ebook / 200 pages / UK

***

My other episode guide ran out and someone else loaned this out from the Internet Archive part way through, leaving me to go it alone and catch up later without even having had various shocking events carelessly spoiled. Turns out that would have been quite a good approach all along. This damned show, I'll have to go on a recovery programme of sitcoms for a year.

Various, Star Trek: The Next Generation – Enemy Unseen

2000-01 (collected 2001) / Ecomics / 224 pages / USA/UK

*

The old DC comics were rarely much good, but at least they captured the spirit of the times. I read a couple of these retrospective Wildstorm comics at the time before giving up due to lack of interest, only to pick them up again a couple of decades on for the sake of pointless closure or something. They got worse.

Jane Killick, Babylon 5: The Wheel of Fire

1999 / Ebook / 200 pages / UK

***

A largely episodic victory lap makes reading about individual instalments more worthwhile than doing it in batches, and the interviews have the same reflective finality as the season. I wonder where she filed the specials.

J. Michael Straczynski, J. Gregory Keyes and Fiona Avery, Babylon 5: The Short Stories

1999-2000 (collected 2015) / Ebook / 123 pages / USA

***

I might get around to at least some of the canonical novels, but these short trips were an easier digestif for now. Not further stories I needed, but neither was the majority of the final season.

Faves: J. Michael Straczynski's 'The Shadow of His Thoughts' & 'Genius Loci.'

Ensley F. Guffey and K. Dale Koontz, A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5

2017 / Ebook / 480 pages / USA

***

Rather than going over the production yet again, this companion mainly concerns itself with themes and allusions. Comprehensive coverage of the entire franchise is the main thing this has going for it, but page limit and personal interest mean that coverage can only be fleeting.

Alrightreads: TV VII

Alan Dean Foster, Star Trek: Three Exciting New Complete Stories

1975 / Audiobook / USA

***

The 1970s Power Records LP/comic sets are one of the more obscure continuities out there, but conceivably one of the most nostalgic for those born in a certain time and space. The ubiquitous Alan Dean Foster keeps things on brand with brief adventures that manage a mini message and even make use of the audio medium on occasion. I don't know how well they work as comics, since I only glanced at those for the hilarious ethnic mixups.

Fave: 'The Crier in Emptiness'

Al Ewing, Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Boo Cook and Warren Pleece, Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor – The Complete Year One

2014 (collected 2015) / Ecomics / 368 pages / UK

****

A decent stab at an intermediate era, coming out just after the real run ended means they can be retrospective about character and style while still being caught up in that zeitgeist. Along with the plot's characteristic mild non-linear tomfoolery, this makes it a more satisfying answer for what fans would be specifically searching for than the usual franchise blandness, with a David Bowie stand-in absorbing much of the compulsory quirk to take the pressure off our hero.

Tim Child and Dave Morris, Knightmare

1988 / Egamebook / 144 pages / UK

***

For the first and possibly only time in the series, the novella's the more engaging, uneven half, a chronicle of bloody vengeance that only remembers it's supposed to be for children as it goes along. The cramped gamebook has one too many unnecessarily harsh mechanics to make it worth the constant restarts. Nasty!

James Roberts, John Barber, Nick Roche and Alex Milne, The Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye

2011-12 (collected 2012) / Ecomics / 124 pages / UK/USA/Canada

***

Fortunately for my parents' bank account, I was born slightly too late for the most egregious toy advert cartoon of them all to really be part of my nostalgia (or I was just watching the wrong channel). Not really knowing what the hell was going on didn't hinder my enjoyment of this subversive mutilation of the premise into downbeat space survival sitcom, but it does mean there isn't sufficient motivation to continue, even with the side quest of spotting all the Red Dwarf references.

Neil Gaiman, Day of the Dead: An Annotated Babylon 5 Script

1998 / Ebook / 56 pages / UK

***

Scanning along with the episode, it was interesting to see how minimal the alterations were from script to screen. Not as interesting as if it had gone the other way, of course. Maybe one day he'll publish his Doctor Who scripts.