There have been quite a few things read while I've been, and continue to be a little, sick. A few won't make the grade for being talked about, mainly due to being a bit lightweight and flimsy. 'Lightweight and flimsy' is excellent when you're a bit distracted and disconnected from reality! Let's get to it.
'She Died A Lady' (1943) by Carter Dickson a.k.a. John Dickson Carr
This one has faded from memory quite quickly. There was an unhappy marriage, a pair of lovers leaping from a cliff, Sir Henry Merrivale cavorting around in a powered wheelchair and a toga, and a very extended unravelling at the end which didn't quite cut the mustard. The characterisation is excellent, though, and the ultimate ending to the story is unexpected. It seems that villains sometimes get away with things in the Carr universe. How strange that is. It's oddly reminiscent of 'The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd, while being quite different. Middle of the road Carr.
'He Who Whispers' (1946) by John Dickson Carr
This has actually grown a little in my memory since the reading. Carr seems to have been a very brave writer in terms of brushing with what must have been taboo subjects, mostly in the realms of sexuality. Here we have a pre-war scandal about a lady secretary being built up around her once again, a vampire allegation, a country house mystery, and they're all tied up together by a curious string of coincidences. It's good, better than you think it is on the first reading. The final unravelling is not the best in the world, however, but it is much better than that of 'She Died A Lady', and culminates in something entirely unexpected. Needless to say, there are no real vampires in the Dr Gideon Fell universe. Or are there? He seems to be constantly dicing and debunking the supernatural in his cases, which we will surely return to. Maybe it's because he seems part supernatural himself, in that grandiose, too large to be true, description he has.
'The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer' (1876) by Mark Twain
The complicated relationship with Twain continues, as 'Tom Sawyer' has drawn to a close. It's a great example of a youthful adventure story, so far removed from the world of 2018 as to be entirely fantastical. There was a time when children could get away with roving wild in the countryside, living lives of comparative innocence, free of the insecurities caused by being as extremely interconnected as we are now. It's charming, comparatively brief, and free of the quality that makes Twain such a nervous read at times: The unbendable impulse to make a satirical point. 'Tom Sawyer' has none of that, and is brilliant as a result. That man Twain could write like no other. Even the inclusion of a crime story doesn't over-balance the narrative too much. Someone (Oh, I give up, it was John Dickson Carr, continuing our trend) once said that adventures were impossible to write after the Second World War as the world had gotten too small. Would a cavern labyrinth cause so much fear and confusion if written in the year 2018? Probably not. Tom Sawyer himself would have been demonised as some kind of delinquent after all his misadventures and his parents beleaguered by Social Services, despite the fact that he ended up as Mark Twain himself!
It's charming, and meanders around in some kind of circle before we end up back with the mischievous Tom Sawyer, the delinquent Huck Finn, and the prospect of other stories that will follow. It's a nice children's story, with a lot of appeal for adults jaded by the present too.
'Dimension Of Miracles' (1968) by Robert Sheckley
Ah, Sheckley, the great weirdo. You can never tell what you're going to get with this writer, except that it will probably be offbeat, and sometimes very, very confusing. In 'Dimension Of Miracles', we get one of his most comedic novels, wherein an executive called Carmody is mistakenly awarded a galactic sweepstakes prize, before immediately being mislaid in the cosmic scheme of things, while a Carmody-eating predator is automatically spawned according to the natural laws of the universe. What follows is a bizarre quest for home, with an intelligent and rather sarcastic prize in tow, and the mystifying questions of 'Where, when and which?' to answer before safety is reached.
'Dimension Of Miracles' is incredibly inventive, with so many bizarre concepts thrown in that you can get quite overloaded at times. The self-consuming Prize, the Carmody-predator, the 'where, when and which?' conundrum, a crippled God of a lonely world, and planetary architects combine to make this confection. Is it any good? Honestly, I have no idea, but it has been read a few times. The ending just sweeps out of nowhere.
'A Study In Scarlet' (1887) by Arthur Conan Doyle
This is the legendary and lesser read first Sherlock Holmes story, a novella, which so brilliantly defined Holmes and Watson that its details stood nearly unaltered for the whole canon. There's the first meeting, the classic list of Holmes' talents that Watson compiles, the violin, the unusual murder, the introductions of both Lestrade and Gregson, and the Baker Street Irregulars. That's practically the whole universe, although I don't recall whether this is the story with the Mrs Turner / Mrs Hudson confusion. It might have been one of the best of them all, except for the extremely frustrating and extended flashback that explains the motivations of the ambiguous villain of the piece. That flashback, in combination with Zane Grey's 'Riders Of The Purple Sage', really takes a hammer to the Mormons of the time. Was there a societal campaign/prejudice against Mormonism at the time? It is, overall, a mixed bag as a result, but the Holmesian portion is most brilliant, and its importance is paramount.
'The Sign Of Four' (1890) by Arthur Conan Doyle
Now, we get to the second Sherlock Holmes story, which is one of the great crowd favourite. It has everything you could want, packed into novella length: Thrills, a romance, hidden treasure, a mystery, subcontinental connections, a secret sign, huge pearls delivered annually, a siege, poisoned darts, and even a frantic boat chase down the Thames. Strangely, considering that the vast majority of the stories remain to be written, Watson is effectively written out of the mythology by the conclusion. He will, however, return! This is practically the prototype or quintessential adventure, and you probably can't do too much better. The boat chase may directly have inspired the train chase in 'The Seven-Per-Cent Solution' by Nicholas Meyer, which is a great inspiration to take.
Oh, there should probably be some kind of plot summary for this one. A young lady hired Holmes and Watson to accompany her when she receives a message from the same hand that has been sending her a magnificent pearl annually, saying that she has been greatly wronged and will get justice. What follows is a grand yarn with roots in the Indian Mutiny, the Andaman Islands, and in treasure. Treasure! Oh, and Watson gets engaged. If you want any more, then you'll have to read the thing! Classical, legendary, brilliant, and adventurous.
Dr John Watson will return...
'They Shall Have Stars' (1956) by James Blish
This is the first chronologically, but the second written, in the 'Cities In Flight' series, and is quite distinct from the other three novels, in that it is an origin story for the ensuing status quo and based effectively in the present day (2013, to be precise). 'They Shall Have Stars' is a scientific and philosophical tale, which revolves around the dangers of ignoring crackpot and marginal theories, of becoming so like your enemies that they win by default, of the great vistas of exploration that still await, and even more cosmic endeavours. Down on the strictly textual level, it's the story of an astronaut who stumbles into something unusual while delivering soil samples to a laboratory, of a gigantic experiment on Jupiter, a political intrigue being run by a besieged senator, and a McCarthy-esque figure overseeing the accidental destruction of the West in its ultimate Oswald Spengler decline.
The whole thing works together well, and Blish write so interestingly that you have to keep reading. It's amazing to think that he's not a very well known writer, in comparison with the established Giants of science fiction. His 'Star Trek' adaptations will stand forever as great writing especially, as will 'Cities In Flight' and 'A Case Of Conscience'.
Is it a good novel? Yes. Is the Spengler stuff interesting? Yes, although it's only really highlighted in the collected 'Cities In Flight' volume. We seem to have deviated from Spenglerian laws a little in our world, but also followed them quite a lot. What will happen to us next? The invention of the Spindizzy is one of the best ideas in all of science fiction, and its culmination in lifting whole cities into space to become galactic 'fix-it men' is spectacular, but that awaits in future volumes. For now, the stars have been opened up for all. How glorious is that?
Other things read:'Star Trek: Dark Victory' (1999) by William Shatner
'Star Trek: Preserver' (2000) by William Shatner
Selections from 'The Complete Prose' (1998?) by Woody Allen
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