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‘Alien: Covenant – Origins’ by Alan Dean Foster

Paul Ferry

There are no aliens in this misleadingly titled book. That’s not so much a spoiler as a warning; if you’re a big fan of the Alien franchise and are expecting Alan Dean Foster’s unexpected prequel to the latest instalment Alien: Covenant to feature lots of face-hugging, chest-bursting Xenomorphic action, then you will be sorely disappointed. There’s none. None at all. Not a sausage. It kind of makes sense, of course. I mean, how could there be? This is a novel about the crew of the colony ship Covenant in preparation for its departure from Earth; they don’t encounter any Alien creatures until they are diverted to … Continue reading ‘Alien: Covenant – Origins’ by Alan Dean Foster

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‘Killer in the Rain’ by Raymond Chandler

Paul Ferry

Killer in the Rain is a collection of early short stories by Raymond Chandler from the pulp crime magazines Black Mask and Dime Detective Magazine. Although they don’t feature the iconic Philip Marlowe, many of the concepts were recycled by Chandler in his later and more famous novels. The private detective in the first story, Killer in the Rain, goes unnamed throughout, but to all intents and purposes it’s Philip Marlowe. He talks like Marlowe, he acts like Marlowe and he reacts like Marlowe. Add to that the fact that an expanded version of Killer in the Rain makes up the first half of The Big Sleep and you’d … Continue reading ‘Killer in the Rain’ by Raymond Chandler

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‘Trillions’ by Nicholas Fisk

Paul Ferry

When I was a boy, the name Nicholas Fisk was synonymous with science fiction. His books peppered the shelves of the children’s section of the local library and always cropped up in the latest pamphlet for the school book club. Nicholas Fisk wrote sci-fi for kids; there was no such thing as the ‘Young Adult’ market in those days, so even the most mind-bending of speculative ideas was aimed firmly at the frontal lobe of an inquisitive 9-13 year old. And quite rightly so. In my younger years I picked up a few Nicholas Fisk books, most notably Wheelie in the … Continue reading ‘Trillions’ by Nicholas Fisk

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‘Octopussy & The Living daylights’ by Ian Fleming

Paul Ferry

Octopussy & The Living Daylights was the last Ian Fleming James Bond novel, published shortly after his death in 1966. It’s not actually a novel as such; nor is it the pairing of two novellas that it’s sometimes generously referred to as. It’s actually just a pair of fair-sized short stories cobbled together to squeeze a few more pennies out of the passing James Bond novel range. Running at a brisk 95 pages, the 1966 edition featured only the titular two stories, but later editions bulked out the content with the short stories Property of a Lady and 007 in New York. My copy … Continue reading ‘Octopussy & The Living daylights’ by Ian Fleming

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‘Alien: Covenant’ by Alan Dean Foster

Paul Ferry

Alan Dean Foster’s 1979 novelisation of the Dan O’Bannon and Donald Shussett script for Alien made him the go-to guy for sci-fi and fantasy film novelisations throughout the 1980s. He’d previously novelised John Carpenter’s Dark Star and a bunch of the animated Star Trek episodes before finally scoring a big hit with Star Wars – for which he remains uncredited, as it was a ghost-writing job under George Lucas’ name. Alien was his first successful adaptation of a movie under his own name though, and he would return to the Alien universe to novelise Aliens (1986) and Alien³ (1992), with varying degrees of success. His wise avoidance of the later Alien and Alien Vs Predator films coincided with his … Continue reading ‘Alien: Covenant’ by Alan Dean Foster

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A Brief History of Timebase

Paul Ferry

Timebase Productions were formed in 1994 by the amalgamation of several North East amateur film-making groups who all shared a common love of Doctor Who. Our first 2-part video adventure was Regenesis in 1994, starring Rupert Booth as the Doctor. Production of the second video, the 4-part Cyberman epic Phase Four was delayed and extensive re-shoots meant that although it was the second story chronologically, it was completed fourth. The 2-parter Paradise in Chains introduced a new companion, the psychic vampire Amaryllis, and Long Shadows saw the Doctor meeting up with Shakespeare – 10 years before The Shakespeare Code on … Continue reading A Brief History of Timebase

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‘Switch Bitch’ by Roald Dahl

Paul Ferry

The name Roald Dahl is now so firmly associated with children’s literature that it’s easy to forget he spent most of his 48 year career writing adult fiction, only really knuckling down to the kids’ stuff in the 70s and 80s. Such is the desire of publishers for new children’s material that some of his adult books have been repackaged for teens. Switch Bitch is not one of them – and if you’ve ever read it you’ll know exactly why! When we read these days that well-known short story writers of the 50s and 60s had stories published in Playboy, it often comes … Continue reading ‘Switch Bitch’ by Roald Dahl

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‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ by Alexander Freed

Paul Ferry

I almost didn’t think there was going to be a novelisation of Rogue One, it was so late hitting the shops here in the UK. The movie had been out a couple of weeks before it appeared. Anyway, now that it is here; is it any good? Alan Dean Foster’s novelisation of The Force Awakens was a hard act to follow; capturing the spirit of 1977 and reminding us all why we love Star Wars so much. Well, I’m pleased to re-port that it is very good indeed. Alexander Freed has a background in the Star Wars expanded universe novels and I was afraid that this would … Continue reading ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ by Alexander Freed

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‘The QE2 is Missing’ by Harry Harrison

Paul Ferry

Harry Harrison may be best known as a writer of science fiction, but he has also written the odd straight thriller over the years, In fact, one of his first published novels was as a ghost writer for Leslie Charteris on Vendetta for the Saint. 22 years later, along came The QE2 is Missing, a novel very much in the mould of the kind of hard-edged paperback thriller that you might see jammed into a wire rack in the local Post Office throughout the 1970s. The story starts exactly as it says on the cover, with the famous luxury liner having dropped … Continue reading ‘The QE2 is Missing’ by Harry Harrison