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Books : reviews

John Wyndham.
Stowaway to Mars (== Planet Plane) .
Coronet. 1936

(read but not reviewed)

An international money prize was being offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary journey, and Dale Currance, the famous aircraft designer, volunteered as the British entrant. With a hand-picked crew, he blasted off from Salisbury Plain in his own spaceship, GLORIA MUNDI, destination — Mars. But once free of the Earth’s atmosphere, he discovered a stowaway on board — a woman.

Joan and her strange quest should have prepared them better for the fantastic world that waited far out in the darkness of space. But the men from Earth were from a relatively young and hopeful civilisation, while Mars was a dying planet. Its inhabitants knew they could survive in one way only — a way too abhorrent for the Earthmen to comprehend. Only Joan realised they might have a lesson to learn from the Martian race. For one day Earth would die, too…

This early novel from a classic science fiction writer shows the brilliant visionary talent that later produced THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS.

John Wyndham.
Jizzle.
1954

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

Una.
Jizzle. 1954
Technical Slip. 1954
A Present from Brunswick. 1954
Chinese Puzzle. 1954
Esmeralda. 1954
How Do I Do?. 1954
Affair of the Heart. 1954
Confidence Trick. 1954
The Wheel. 1954
Look Natural, Please!. 1954
Perforce to Dream. 1954
Heaven Scent. 1954
More Spinned Against. 1954

John Wyndham.
The Seeds of Time.
Penguin. 1956

(read but not reviewed)

Shots of the future from the author of The Day of the Triffids

John Wyndham catapults the reader of these stories into a world where time barriers have ceased to exist, where there is discrimination against Martians, where not only thought transference but body transference is an everyday event. Yet so convincing are the inhabitants of this extraordinary world, that its remoteness vanishes in a second.

Contents

Compassion Circuit. 1954
Dumb Martian. 1952
Chronoclasm. 1956
Time to Rest. 1956
Meteor. 1956
Survival. 1956
Pawley's Peepholes. 1951
Opposite Number. 1956
Pillar to Post. 1956
Wild Flower. 1956

John Wyndham.
The Outward Urge.
1959

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

The Space Station: A.D. 1994. 1959
The Moon: A.D. 2044. 1959
Mars: A.D. 2094. 1959
Venus: A.D. 2144. 1959
The Emptiness of Space: The Asteriods A.D. 2194. 1960

John Wyndham.
Consider Her Ways and others.
1961

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

Consider Her Ways.
A Long Spoon. 1961
Random Quest. 1961
Odd. 1961
Stitch in Time. 1961
Oh, Where, Now, is Peggy MacRafferty?. 1961

John Wyndham.
The Best of John Wyndham.
1973

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

Close Behind Him. 1952
The Lost Machine. 1932
The Man from Beyond. 1934
Perfect Creature. 1937
The Trojan Beam. 1939
Vengeance by Proxy. 1940
Adaptation. 1949
Pawley's Peepholes. 1951
The Red Stuff. 1951
And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. 1951
Dumb Martian. 1952
The Emptiness of Space. 1960

John Wyndham.
Sleepers of Mars.
1973

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

Sleepers of Mars. 1973
Worlds to Barter. 1973
Invisible Monster. 1973
The Man from Earth. 1973
The Third Vibrator. 1973

John Wyndham.
Wanderers of Time.
1973

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

Wanderers of Time. 1973
Derelict of Space. 1973
Child of Power. 1973
The Last Lunarians. 1973
The Puff-Ball Menace. 1973

John Wyndham.
Exiles on Asperus.
1979

(read but not reviewed)

Contents

Exiles on Asperus. 1933
No Place Like Earth. 1951
The Venus Adventure. 1932

John Wyndham.
Plan for Chaos.
Penguin. 2009

Written at the same time as The Day of the Triffids, the completed manuscript of Plan for Chaos was seen by only a handful of people before Wyndham abandoned it, unpublished and overshadowed by its companion‘s sudden and phenomenal success. It has remained unpublished for some forty years since Wyndham‘s death.

In a city much like New York, a series of identical women are found dead in suspicious circumstances. Magazine photographer Johnny Farthing, who is reporting on the suspected murders, is chilled to discover that his fiancée looks identical to the victims too – and then she disappears. As his investigations spiral beyond his control, he finds himself at the heart of a sinister plot that uses cloning to revive the Nazi vision of a worId-powerful master race…

Part detective noir, part dystopic thriller, Plan for Chaos reveals the legendary science fiction novelist grappling with some of his most urgent and personal themes.