Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen by Dylan Horrocks (2015 Victoria University Press softcover 222pp)

 

In this graphic novel Sam Zabel is a New Zealand comics artist who has reached rock bottom – he’s drawing a superhero comic he hates for a large overseas publisher and he has writer’s block when it comes to his own creations. Fantasy is where he spends a chunk of his life, neglecting what’s important. He flies down to Christchurch to give a presentation at an academic conference and finds himself in an adventure.

He is sucked into the world of an antique science fiction comic and is transported to the planet Mars..well the Mars as seen by a sexist and racist creator from the early 20^th century. He meets the locals and they think he is their long, lost god-king. He meets others travelling as he does and ends up in a struggle against those who would use the power of the fabled magic pen (which can create these worlds) for evil. He is joined by a self-proclaimed geek girl and a Japanese schoolgirl with rocket boots.

The art is fine and there’s a lesson in there about the dangers of too much fantasy. There’s also lot of name-dropping and references to NZ culture so I’m not sure how an overseas reader would fare. A handy section at the back does explain it all if you remain perplexed.

The book has a certain playful nature that keeps you reading but overall, I thought the story was over too soon and lacked some depth. Still, it was a fun diversion.

 

Slough House Novellas

Slough House Novellas:

The Drop & The List by Mick Herron (2019 John Murray Publishers paperback 202pp)

The Catch by Mick Herron (2020 John Murray Publishers hardcover 105pp)

 

 

These two volumes contain three short novella-length excursions into Mick Herron’s Slough House spy thrillers universe. The stories are so short and slight that now only a couple of weeks after reading them I’m struggling to recall the finer details of the plots.

If you are already fan of Herron’s Slough House (aka Jackson Lamb) novels it’s a no-brainer recommending these to you.

The plots, as such, follow the downward spiral of one John Batchelor an MI5 agent who has found himself relegated to doing the ‘milk round’ – checking in on elderly agents and assets who even in their twilight years could cause trouble if what they know came to light. Batchelor isn’t particularly fastidious in his rounds and is always looking for an easy way out of his situation.

In “The List” one of Batchelor’s charges a German called Dieter Hess dies and a hidden list of names is found in his possession. It seems Hess was receiving money from abroad to run a spy-ring but was actually pocketing the money and most of those on the list were either disabled shut-ins or dead themselves. One name on the list however turns out to be a capable young woman and a plan is hatched to bring her over to the British side – Batchelor thinks he may finally have a success as an agent but of course things don’t go exactly to plan.

In “The Drop” (renamed “The Marylebone Drop” in US editions) one of Batchelor’s charges Solomon “Solly” Dortmund witnesses a ‘dead drop’ (a disguised passing of material between agents) in a local café and reports it to Batchelor. The agent then takes it upon himself to investigate and the consequences spiral out of control leading to Solly’s death and even more humiliation for Batchelor himself.

“The Catch” starts some months later with Batchelor still living in Solly’s flat (he’s neglected to report the old man’s death to the authorities of course). He’s a roused from his slumber by what seems to be two rogue agents who want him to find the current location of Benny Manors, a notorious Cat Burglar who once worked for MI5. Manors is on the list of people Batchelor is supposed to be keeping tabs on for his “milk round’ but in reality, he’s lost track of him after a physical confrontation years before. Things aren’t quite what they seem and soon Batchelor finds himself on the wrong side of a fist again.

You could probably finish all three in a couple of hours without distractions. If you’re already a Herron fan there’s a certain joy in finding yourself back in that world with the wry comments and sarcasm. Two or three characters from the main novels also make an appearance including one Jackson Lamb himself in fine form.

If Herron writes more of John Batchelor’s misadventures, perhaps we’ll find all the stories collected in one volume instead of these thin and relatively expensive books. We’ll see...

 

51

51 by Patrick O’Leary (2022 Tachyon paperback 296pp)

 

The first book by Patrick O’Leary which I read was “Door Number Three” way back in the late 1990s. It was a library book and I remember enjoying it but feeling it lacked a certain something for a SF, time-travel tale. I later bought the same library copy only to find a substantial number of the pages had gone missing. I must still have it somewhere. That was his first novel and he’s not a very prolific writer. O’Leary spent over 15 years writing and polishing “51” and it shows.

Going by the cover and the title you might expect this is another sub-X-files tale about UFOs, aliens and conspiracies but you’d be wrong. This is an exceptional novel that touches on all those things but is much more.

The set up is pretty simple – 70-something retiree and former alcoholic Adam ‘Nuke’ Pagnucco stops his car on a freezing night to help what he thinks is a vagrant in trouble. The other man actually turns out to be Winston Koop, formerly Nuke’s best friend in an earlier part of his life.

The majority of the rest of the book is Koop telling Adam anecdotes about what he really did after he accepted a top-secret job with the U.S. Government. The stories jump around from the early 1970s back to the 1940s and forward through to the 2000s. Slowly a strange picture builds up about what has been really going on at a certain secret base.

Keeping in mind that Koop is a classic unreliable narrator and all is definitely not what it seems we gain a vague understanding of that reality.

After 1940s nuclear tests opened a ‘door to anywhere’ the base has attracted entities known as IFs (‘Imaginary Friends’) in their hundreds and the military has been covering up their existence by laying hints that they are Aliens. Going as far as crashing a mocked-up flying saucer with three IFs onboard.

Koop himself took on a role that saw him travel the country removing the memories of those who either worked at the base or otherwise dealt with the IFs.

The above makes this seem like some SF pot-boiler but the prose is lyrical and sometimes dream-like. The story moves on to deep topics like love, friendship and loss. I was drawn right into the text and enjoyed every minute I spent absorbed in Koop’s stories. From runaway IFs, those who would try and help or harm them to the comical visits of US presidents to the base throughout the years. Some things were simply left unexplained – what was up with the eggs??

The big climax was a little bit cliched but I can forgive that in a book this strong – the mood and feeling of this book persists long after you finish reading it. That’s the best kind of writing.