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Interstellar
tyrant Glavis Judd usurps the monarchy of the planet Esselven,
but the royal family manage to escape him. Elsewhere, the
Sixth Doctor and Peri land in a huge and exquisite ornamental
garden populated by strange playful creatures, over-zealous
gardener robots and human scavengers. This, it turns out,
is the Esselvanian royal retreat - a planetoid upon which
Judd has now set his sights...
I
found myself with very little time to read this book, but
fortunately Bulis' novels tend to make light reading, and
this one is no exception. That is not to say that this book
lacks mystery or surprises, because the exact opposite is
true. The author takes great pains to disclose the truth about
his peculiar planetoid very gradually, but his storytelling
technique takes a no-nonsense approach that shows no need
to befuddle the reader for the sake of it.
For
me, Bulis' best books have been those that are splendid homages
to established popular fictions or genres - take Imperial
Moon or his Bernice Summerfield New Adventure, Tempest,
for example. In this novel he incorporates the familiarity
of Alice in Wonderland, in the guise of two curious
denizens of the ornamental garden, while several story elements,
including a mechanical device that achieves sentient thought,
have a distinctly Star Trek flavour to them. The author
also alludes to fairytale traditions, with two rival noblemen
competing for the hand of a beautiful - though somewhat reluctant
- princess.
This
rivalry, which comes complete with some witty verbal sparring,
is starkly contrasted by the ruthless machinations of Glavis
Judd, a kind of space-age Oliver Cromwell. For a time you
might wonder how these two worlds can possibly co-exist, but
that is the whole point.
Ironically,
Bulis also includes a character from what is in my opinion
his weakest novel, The Ultimate Treasure. However,
this character, the unscrupulous freelance reporter Dexel
Dynes, works well in this context as a conveyer of backstory,
as he reports on the political activities of Judd. The narrative
states that Dynes has "worked hard over the last few years
to recover his audience recognition rating after the Gelsandor
treasure story" - the author could so easily have been referring
to himself!
Bulis
has certainly regained my appreciation over recent
years.
Richard
McGinlay
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