Running Blind by Desmond Bagley (1970)

Ex-MI-6 spy Alan Stewart is coerced by his former masters into undertaking a very simple final mission: to deliver a small parcel to a man in Iceland. The mission should be simple for Stewart, as he happens to be fluent in Icelandic and has an Icelandic girlfriend.

This is pure spy vs spy stuff. An one of Bagleys best books. As usual, in first person and with possibly an unreliable narrator. There is a lot to discover about the characters over the story. But true to form, Bagley bring everything together for an explosice ending.

The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster

Released in 1954 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies. The novel is a fix-up from three short stories, “The Mad Planet” and “The Red Dust”, both of which had originally appeared in the magazine Argosy in 1920 and 1921, and “Nightmare Planet”, which had been published in Science Fiction Plus in 1953.

A planet had been seeded for life by humans, first with microbes and later with plants and insects. A third expedition, intended to complete the seeding with animals, never occurred. Over the millennia the insects and plants grew to gigantic sizes. The action of the novel describes the fight for survival by descendants of a crashed spaceship as they battle wolf-sized ants, flies the size of chickens, and gigantic flying wasps.

Written in third person omniscient, the story is more of an explanation of science and biology than a human centered nattative. There is plenty of actions as the main protaganist, Burl fights for his life against the megafauna. There is litle dialoque and the story ends quickly with the planet joining a galactic empire forged by mankind.

The unlikely duo who might just save the world

Ben must be the hungriest cat ever…

One moment, he was enjoying a breakfast of salmon trimmings in his home in South Wales. The next, he was teleported across time and space onto the cold stone floor of an evil warlock.

Locked in the warlock’s tower through day and night, Ben may have to serve him for a while. He’ll hate this, especially having to hunt those infernal demon rats when the warlock doesn’t feed him well at all.

Planet Z by Kristen Middleton (2017)

The story follows Alexandra Logan and her little brother, Jimmy as they embark on a mission to find a habitable planet after the Earth’s resources have been depleted.

The Spoilers by Desmond Bagley (1969)

When film tycoon, Sir Robert Hellier, loses his daughter to heroin, he declares war on the drug peddlers. London drug specialist, Nicholas Warren, is called in to organise an expedition to the Middle East, in an attempt to track down the big-time dope runners, inveigle themselves into their confidence and make them an offer they can’t refuse. No expense is spared in the plans for their capture, but with a hundred million dollars worth of heroin at stake, the ‘spoilers’ must use methods as ruthless as their prey.

Aliens 4.2 Beserker by S.D. Perry

Based on the spaceship Nemesis, it consists of three brutal ex-cons and the Berserker itself: an armed exoskeleton powered by the brain of what was once a human, an unstoppable killing machine. The Nemesis is sent to a space station containing the largest alien hive in history, with nearly a thousand hapless humans cocooned and incubate

It took month s to read this as I lost interest several times. It’s all just one big war between humans and aliens, with little in-between.

Probably the least successful of the Alien Books.

One of the most-read books in New Zealand was published on this day in 1960, A good keen man established Barry Crump’s reputation as an iconic ‘Kiwi bloke’.

Crump’s 20-odd books capturing the humour and personalities of rural New Zealand had sold more than a million copies by the time he died in 1996.

Robert Selden Duvall
(January 5, 1931 – February 15, 2026)
American actor and filmmaker.

Smokescreen by Dick Francis (1972)

Edward Lincoln has scaled the Himalayas, survived car chases and defeated scores of assassins. As a movie action man he’s even suffered stoically at the hands of sadistic directors.

After finishing his latest film, he visits South Africa to discover why a dying friend’s horses are suddenly failing on the race track. Lincoln’s attempt to help a friend soon puts him in harm’s way.

This story suffers from a very long buildup. There are only two incidents of intensity. And the one at the end could be predicted from the first scene. So not one of his best.

The 2026 Philip K. Dick Award nominees are:

• Sunward, William Alexander
• Outlaw Planet, M.R. Carey
• Casual, Koji A. Dae
• The Immeasurable Heaven, Caspar Geon
• Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, Thomas Ha
• Scales, Christopher Hinz
• City of All Seasons, Oliver K. Langmead & Aliya Whiteley