Wildthyme in Purple

Iris Wildthyme (Obverse Books) #5

by Stuart Douglas (Editor), Cody Schell (Editor), Paul Ebbs (Contributor)

The Big Crunch by Jim Mortimore
Frank Reade Jr’s Electric Time Canoe by Steve Mollmann
Dance of the Voodoo Valkyries by David McIntee
Iris in Dead Man's Gulch by Paul Ebbs
Her and Allan by Simon Bucher-Jones
Running With Caesars by Geoffrey Hammell
Amser Gwyllt by Steffan Alun
The Bronze Door by Dale Smith
Flash Rogers Conquers the Universe! by Richard Salter
The Web of Terror by Iain McLaughlin
The Many Lives of Zorro by Richard Wright
Fantomville by Nick Campbell
The Devil Wears Panda by Cody Quijano-Schell

Genres: Doctor Who, Short Stories

268 pages, Hardcover

First published November 20, 2011

About the author

Author of The Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries.

Reviews

[Jack McLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obverse Books have quietly been turning into a very reliable source of Doctor Who books, both fiction and non-fiction. This Iris Wildthyme anthology contains stories in various pulp genres. The hit rate is very high, as you'd expect from a book containing reliable Doctor Who alumni like Jim Mortimore, David McIntee, Simon Bucher-Jones, Iain McLaughlin and Dale Smith. Obviously, some stories are more to my taste than others but there wasn't one that I'd call a clunker. Well worth a read.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I normally love Iris but this seems to be the exception. The first story seems to be trying to do an Alan Moore, mixing up people from different stories, but without any greater meaning or purpose. The second story was truly appalling! Ok using racist slurs as humour, is still racist. Not to mention the whole thing seemed to be making fun of steampunk and missing the point entirely. THEN there was Iris wearing ONLY A CORSET AND STOCKINGS!!! Now Iris is quite a flamboyant woman but I really don't think she'd be wandering round with her fanny exposed to all and sundry!!! Really!!! She'd be wearing knickers!!! Corsets don't include a part that covers up your bum! Katy may have played a nudist on casualty but Iris would never be in such a state of undress! I can only imagine that the author was picturing her in a Frank N Furter type outfit but didn't realise that pants weren't included as part of the corset! But how on Earth did that slip past the editors? I know it's all men involved in this but surely one is gay enough to know what a corset is and is not?

The next couple stories were ok. A horror one that was alright and a Western that was a little inconsistent but not objectionable.

Next up was a Haggard parody of She which wasn't bad. He didn't quite get the style right but it was a fun idea.

The I Claudius/Rome parody was the best so far. Very funny and felt more in keeping with Iris and Panda than most of the other stories.
The Pulp film noir was ok, though the writer didn't quite have Chandler's style down it was a fun idea anyway. The surrealist one was a bit surreal. The Welsh one was great fun, and made me wish I knew Welsh!

All told really not that great a collection of Iris stories. The weakest I've read so far. Hoping the other volumes I have are better.

[Bookcollector · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is mad, funny and very entertaining. I'm not a huge fan of the iris wildthyme character but this version, based on actress Katy manning's portrayal alongside the brilliant sidekick, panda is the best version. I primarily bought this for a favourite author but most of the stories are good. Three are weaker but that's to be expected with short story collections. The other 10 are very enjoyable. Overall a fun, well written collection.