Iris Wildthyme of Mars

Iris Wildthyme (Obverse Books) #7

by Philip Purser-Hallard (Editor), Ian Potter (Contributor), Daniel Tessier (Contributor)

The Red Planet.
Everyone agrees about the colour, at least. The rest is up for grabs.
Is Mars a dead and sterile desert, or teeming with life?
Are Martians red, green or blue? Nubile and lithe, or monstrously tentacular?
Are they long gone, or waiting still? How do they feel about visitors?
Will we become the Martians? What kind of a world might we build on Mars? What myths, new or old, might we create there?
Oh – and how many different colours can you put in front of “Mars” to make a clever title?
These Marses are of course incompatible, contradictory, and in many cases quite impossible. And Iris Wildthyme has visited them all.

Genres: Short Stories

251 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

Philip Purser-Hallard is a widely published and occasionally acclaimed author, editor and critic. He has written four Sherlock Holmes novels for Titan Books, all favourably reviewed in Publishers Weekly, and the Devices trilogy of urban fantasy thrillers for Snowbooks, as well as a plethora of shorter fiction. He is a founding editor of and frequent contributor to the Black Archive, a series of critical monographs about individual Doctor Who stories.

From his webpage:
"In my writing I like to reimagine and question established cultural icons, hence my four Sherlock Holmes novels for Titan Books. Writing dialogue between Holmes and Lady Bracknell, from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, may be the high point of my career. The Devices trilogy, published between 2013 and 2016, considers some of the icons of British mythology that I loved as a child, and how they relate to the political reality of Britain in the 21st century."

Reviews

[J. Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just now finished this excellent book.

I haven't had quite as much time as I would have liked, these past few days, for reading - so it took a few days to finish. (Actually, I've had plenty of time, but I'm so sleep-deprived that as soon as I lay down to begin reading, my eyes would start to close and I would have to turn out the light and go to sleep - only to wake up a couple of hours later to spend the rest of the night not-quite-sleeping.)

But anyway, quite possibly my favorite Iris book of all. I adored "Wildthyme in Purple", but I think this one is better. Overall, "The Scarlet Empress" is probably still my favorite book with Iris in it, but it's really a Doctor Who book co-starring Ms. Wildthyme, rather than one of her books outright (if you see what I mean).

A lot of very strong stories in here indeed. And while there are a few light-hearted tales of humor and whimsy (as there should be, this being Iris and all) I was heartened to find many of the authors took a more serious approach to their stories (not, of course, ignoring the humor for the most part). With this subject matter, many authors steer toward the frothy and funny, but here we have a wonderful mix of styles, tones, and subjects. A delightful collection.


"Wandering Stars", by Ian Potter

A fun little tale, but maybe my least favorite in the book. Ian Potter takes the interesting slant of not really telling a story about the planet Mars per se, but instead has Iris and Panda entering so-called "Greek Space" where the celestial spheres are governed by their divine representations. When Ares' burning planet threatens to break through the barriers, Iris has to confront Ares himself and fix him, in order to fix the stars.

It's a nice idea, but there's little real meat to the story, and I personally found many of the jokes to fall a little flat. I'm glad this was included, as a very interesting take on the idea, and I'm glad it came first in the book - as its approach is so different that it would jar if sandwiched between more traditional Marses.

"Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Bad Weekend" by Daniel Tessier

A sequel to Edwin Lester Arnold's "Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation" which I have never read.

Not being familiar with the source material undoubtedly lessens the impact of this story, but I am certain Tessier expects this lack of awareness and the tale works very well regardless. I assume the tone of the original is captured well; certainly it comes across very much as an early science fictional tale of the beginning of the 20th century would. I understand Arnold's novel was a precursor to the more famous Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom books, and this Iris story has a lot of the feel of Barsoom about it.

Gullivar (there's a gag about the spelling of his name that I now understand to be a reference to a rebranding of the original book in the '60s) catches another magic carpet ride to Mars, where he meets Iris Wildthyme and Panda who turn out to be the rightful owners of Jones' carpet. The attempt to retrieve it turns, naturally, into a dangerous quest.

As stated earlier, it has a nice, breezy tone to it, very reminiscent of the old SF tales. Characterization is also quite well done here, while keeping in tone with the writing style of the pastiche. Very enjoyable.

"Iris: Chess-Mistress of Mars" by Simon Bucher-Jones

I like a lot of Bucher-Jones' works, though I've mentioned more than once before that he can choose to adopt a very difficult prose style that seems specifically designed to make it difficult for the reader to engage with the material. That is not an issue here, as Bucher-Jones writes a very entertaining piece in a very accessible style.

The story begins with a quotation from an old Martian poem. The meter is a little loose, but whether the original Martian, the fictional translator, or the real human author is to blame I cannot say. It (and the later quote) is very well done all the same.

In the "review" of the previous story, I mentioned the John Carter stories. Those stories really come into play here, as an actor in an adaptation of Farley Farrier: Warrior of Mars (guess what old SF stories this might be referring to?) ends up on Mars himself. (An actor, BTW, who passed up a remake of Battleship Anathema - see "A Hundred Words From a Civil War" for more details.) As the actor faces the prospect of repopulating Mars, Panda has to engage a brilliant Martian brain in the game of Martian Chess.

A very detailed story, full of little asides about Martian history, culture, and other bits and pieces (I love the idea of the "Martian Chessianic Era") this is very evocative and clever. And funny, too, without relying on being too flippant and self-referential. There are way too many little throwaways to pay tribute to here, but I'll mention that one of my favorites was a fun little nod to Adric.

"Death on the Euphrates" by Selina Lock

The only thing I had previously read by Selina Lock was the Señor 105 novela "Green Eyed and Grim". That was a solid, unspectacular but enjoyable tale. This Iris story, on the other hand, is one I just couldn't quite get into.

I can't be sure whether to blame my mental state at the time, or the story, but there seemed little sense of direction or purpose to this one. It begins as a murder mystery on the raised canalways of Mars (Agatha Christie-style), and becomes a kind of eco-terrorism tale. The mystery segment just kind of happens without development (Iris and Panda talk to some folks, then without any real kind of detection or deduction, decide to skip to the denouement) and without warning decides to be a different story altogether.

The prose is pleasant, but I personally found the characters fairly unmemorable and the story pretty bland. Not the worst Iris story I've ever read, but probably the least good one in this collection.

"And a Dog to Walk" by Dale Smith

One of my favorite stories in the book. This is one of the less light-hearted entries. It depicts an early Earth-originated voyage to Mars. A human couple are aboard, with patchy communication to the home world, on route to Mars when the equipment begins to malfunction.

A stuffed Panda appears on board to help, communicating with a (largely off-page) Iris Wildthyme, but how much can any of them accomplish? The ship appears to be heading for a crash-landing, but Sue and Phil (the inhabitants of the ship) handle their situation with maturity.

Dale Smith really creates a couple of believable character that we want to root for. There's not a lot of "story" here, but a lot of heart. It really focuses in on the plight of these two people and what they hope to accomplish. Calling it a literary Gravity would not be 100% accurate, but I think it gives you an indication.

"Talking With Spores" by Juliet Kemp

If the previous story was Iris does Gravity, this one is her version of "The Waters of Mars".

Not really, but here Iris comes face-to-face with an early Mars explorer from Earth, whose work will be important in the development of humanity's future. And the success of this mission is under threat from an alien invader, so Iris Wildthyme must stop the future from unraveling.

Like a lot of good SF, this one has some interesting ideas. About yeast, mainly. (Look, you're going to have to read it, but trust me it totally works.) The Zeffn aren't quite well-developed enough as a foe to be either much of a threat, or much of a laugh, but they do their job well enough. I like the enviroment-suit technology that Iris uses here - another nifty idea.

This balances the real speculative fiction and the parodical humor quite well, though I wouldn't much have minded if the balance had tipped a shade to the latter.

"Doomed" by Richard Wright

If I described this as "Iris is forced to play a first-person-shooter" this probably wouldn't sound like much, would it? But it's actually an exceptional little story.

Wright's use of the second-person in the majority of the prose correctly places the reader as the protagonist to give us the sensation of the FPS experience. He doesn't need to do too much actual exposition for us to understand what's happening here, as the prose style gets it across perfectly.

Something about the main character's experience reminds me vaguely of the protagonist of Philip K Dick's "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon", though obviously the situations are actually very different. But that horrifying sense of being forced to relive this experience over and over is there, and has pretty much the same impact.

The "game" being played in "Doomed" is (unsurprisingly) quite reminiscent of a very popular FPS series being referenced in the story title. Nicking the name of one of the guns was a bit unnecessary, but otherwise this is all played very well indeed. You get the references and everything, but actually rather than being amusing, this story is very harrowing. We never even really get to understand what the situation is, or see how it resolves, only to experience the unfolding of it.

A very well-crafted story.

"The Last Martian" by Rachel Churcher

I'm not quite sure I understood this one.

Or, rather, the plot was pretty straightforward. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary. But the fact that it take place in the year 2005, on a Mars colonized by Americans who are very well entrenched already and basically appearing like something out of the mid-20th century is all a bit bizarre. The appearance of an olive-skinned woman called Creek, and her casino-owning nemesis Coyote, led me to wonder if I am missing out on some kind of Native American legend being reinterpreted here, but it doesn't seem very fable-like. (As it turns out, it's homaging Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles, which I have never read. So fans of these books will get a lot more out of this than I.)

Basically, the bus crashes and Iris is forced to get help from some of the locals - Joy, Anna and Dot - to get a replacement part for it. And the mysterious Creek is the only one on Mars who can order it, but she needs a favor...

It's a fun enough story, but I never felt like I connected with it fully, due to feeling like I was missing something. I didn't like the young women having to tart themselves up to infiltrate the casino, though I was amused at the waitresses dancing on the bar in Coyote's casino (which may or may not be a deliberate movie reference). All in all, enjoyable but strange.

"Lilac Mars" by Mark Clapham and Lance Parkin

This one has all the best jokes in the book. And none of the plot. (Though this, in itself, prompts a nice self-referential gag later on.)

An earthquake (sorry: aresquake) rocks the surface of Mars, and Iris, Panda, and a rodent-like professor investigate.

There's not a whole lot to discuss about this story, because it's largely just a flimsy excuse for a lot of great humorous writing. (The "boutique publishing" line might be my favorite.) Anything I can say about it will just be pointing towards the jokes, which will ruin most of them anyway.

Just read it, and laugh. A great accomplishment of wit.

"City of Dust" by Aditya Bidikar

I have a complaint about this story: it doesn't really resolve or explain itself (that I noticed).

Which leads me to my second complaint: that this isn't an entire novel. It's an astounding story, so full of richness that it deserves to be a lot longer than what it is. It works brilliantly as is, of course (and a longer format would require an extremely different presentation and structure than what we've got here) but I didn't want it to end.

Very imaginative, and very well written. It presents an Arabic Mars (of interest in itself to me, as I have a passing interest in the culture(s) and am trying to learn the Arabic language) which is rich in detail. The planet is low on resources, and suddenly plagued by visitors from 20 years in their own future, draining them even further. Iris arrives, having been to this Mars before, and gets involved with a young princess and with a murder investigation.

Explaining the plot is impossible. The joy of this story isn't in the plot anyway, but in the texture and the tone and the details. It's very rich and sumptuous and you just want to cover yourself in it and never leave. (Or, at least, that was my own experience.) The only thing I had read of Bidikar's before was "Dharmayuddha" in "Faction Paradox: Burning With Optimism's Flames". There, I wondered how much of the genius came from the original myths and how much from the author.

Now I know.

"The Calamari-Men of Mare Cimmerium" by Blair Bidmead

After this, and the creation of Desolador, I'm starting to wonder if Blair Bidmead has a thing for tentacles...

Anyway, this is a confidently written work that makes a lot of other writers just seem less talented. Bidmead has an easy confidence in his writing that makes for great reading. His characters are great too, relatable and believable as well as likeable.

Here we are introduced to green-skinned Martian Vardo, and a diver called Rachel, who together with Iris go in search of the fabled Calamari-men in order to rewrite Mars' history and restore Ares to his rightful place.

This story is interspersed with some original illustrations - presumably by the highly talented Blair Bidmead himself.

The plot seems slightly rushed towards the end, but is otherwise impeccable. And like the creation elsewhere of a certain Theo Possible, Bidmead here introduces a character that seems destined to return in another form (possibly literally). Actually, in a way, I'm surprised he got away with what he did, vague as the reference may be.

Anyway, it's a great story, full of smart ideas but never seeming overly clever. A definite highlight of this book.

"Green Mars Blues" by Philip Purser-Hallard

Ah, editor Philip Purser-Hallard saves his best story, and his best writer, for last. Yes it's his own, but it's easily the best in the book and shows a talent that deserves to be a lot more widely known than it is.

Not only does this story sum up a lot of the themes of the book, sort of justifying its own existence, but it does so by creating a highly engaging character (Marcie Thakrall) who we can all relate to, engaging in a kind of personal quest that really draws the audience in. By the time we really got to dealing with what all of this was about, I was kind of annoyed at getting distracted from Marcie's personal story which I didn't want to deviate from.

She is a student of Mars history - specifically of the legends of the so-called "Locals". On a version of Mars like our real one, where no indigenous inhabitants exist, wild stories abound of various "Locals" - Martians - who resemble any number of Martians from old human tales. At a conference where Marcie will be giving a talk on her favorite topic, she meets another conference attendee who shares her own interests, and in whom Marcie is personally interested.

The story ruminates on the importance of stories, on the function of legend, and religion. And it is a very human story, populated with people we actually care about. Philip Purser-Hallard crafts a wonderful tale that displays enormous talent, and I realize all of a sudden that I have to pick up "The Pendragon Protocol" soon.

Having spent close to two hours now writing this (it is late, and I need to go to bed) I can only sum up by saying that if you have any interest at all in Iris Wildthyme, or in classic science fiction, you need to get this book now.

You won't be sorry, I can promise you that.

[Chris Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection, not a single disappointing story in the collection. A great use of Iris in visiting various versions of Mars from literary history. From Greek myth to Doom clone. A very good collection.