Binary Z

by John Rankine

F. S. Hartley was making the best of a bad job. The rebuilding programme at his school was drawing on all his skills in crisis management. Today, the digger had just cut the main power line--again, the School Inspector was threatening the whole future with talk of 'comprehensive education' and 'mergers' with rival schools, the boiler room was filling up with water, and then, as ever, there was the distraction of Mrs Gleave. And, it was only 10:30 in the morning. But today was not going to be just a typical day in the life of Wellington Mixed Secondary School. Today, the workmen unearthed something...

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 2, 2013

About the author

John Rankine (born Douglas Rankine Mason) is a British science fiction author, who has written books both as John Rankine and as Douglas R. Mason.

Rankine was born in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales and first attended Chester Grammar School and in 1937 went to study English Literature and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, where he was a friend of Anthony Burgess (as mentioned in Little Wilson and Big God: The First Part of the Confession, AB's autobiography).

Reviews

[J McEvoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early novel from Rankine, and a strange one. A small-town headmaster somewhere in rural England is beset with problems, particularly when informed that his school is to be merged with several others to form a large Comprehensive. Excavations for the new building uncover a strange and clearly alien ovoid, buried undisturbed for perhaps centuries in the English countryside. The ovoid, which the headmaster names Binary Z, much to the chagrin of the Education Board, is not overtly hostile, but definitely defensive. All attempts to deal with it are repulsed. Meanwhile said headmaster is attempting to woo one of his teachers, a young divorcee, and as their relationship proceeds it leads them repeatly back to the mystery and the threat of Binary Z.

Typical of many allusive British sf novels, nothing is resolved. Nothing can be resolved. None of it is a metaphor, none of it treats seriously with the known or the unknown, and there is not one jot of science in the entire novel. It is instead a small treatise of human relations; it is the science fiction version of a horror novel wherein a teenage girl in puberty breaks some delft with her mind. It is Carrie for duffle coats. And if you like your English characters eccentric, unconcerned, and infuriating, look no further.

These are my favourite kinds of novel, and for me they constitute the real literary output of Britain between say, 1950 and 1985. It was somewhat of a surprise to find this one in Rankine's bibliography as he mostly specialised in space opera. His prose is reminiscent of American author John Boyd (The Last Starship from Earth) - weirdly poetic about satellites and petrie dishes, and his views on sex are dated and would probably cause a modern readership much conniption. Which is their loss entirely as there is much to enjoy within Rankine's epic journey through the publishing houses of Hale and Corgi during the best years of the 20th century.