Moving Moosevan

Moosevan #2

by Jane Palmer

Moosevan has been moved to a new planet. She didn't want to go, but the machinations of the empire building Mott, Kulp and his cronies and Dax and Reniola, cosmic super intelligences, ensured its destruction. Moosevan now lives inside the Earth, moving land masses, soaking up pollution, making deserts fertile, and adding interesting twists to motorways. Unfortunately, the maniacal Mott androids and Kulp have now turned their attention to the Earth. Even worse, Dax and Reniola are sent to deal with them: as one is obsessed with terraforming neighbouring planets, and the other with chintz curtains, the planet dweller is in for another rough cosmic ride. First published in 1986 by The Women's Press

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Jane Palmer’s first title, “The Planet Dweller”, was published by The Women’s Press in their science fiction list in 1985. They also published “The Watcher” (now republished by Dodo as “The Kybion”) in 1986, and the sequel to “The Planet Dweller”, “Moving Moosevan”, in 1990.
Swift Publishers published “The Drune” (now republished as “Babel’s Basement” by Dodo) in 1999.
The author also illustrates under the name of Dandi Palmer.

Reviews

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it was my familiarity with the central premise and the tone, or that the setting has moved mainly to Earth in this sequel to The Planet Dweller but I found myself much less irritated with this book than that one, more willing to go with the flow. (Palmer is trying to send up the SF genre here and I generally find SF and humour don’t mix well.)

Moosevan, who it was established in the previous book lives inside planets, has taken up residence in Earth. Her adversaries The Mott have found a way to break through the barrier preventing pursuit and are intent on mayhem.

Moosevan herself is rather missing from the narrative, revealed only by her actions – of which beginning to move Britain and Ireland south towards the equator is only the most obvious. Most of the talk and action (which tends to be of the relentless sort) revolve around the human and alien characters but none of these ever really rises above caricature. Palmer’s technique is very broad brush indeed. There are occasional grace notes which might still jar (not many SF novels of the time mentioned Maggie Thatcher, Bert Kaempfert or acid house parties) but also the odd phrase grounding the narrative. “There had to be better causes for which to ladder your tights.”

Moving Moosevan is light reading. It has its place.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a bit dated actually, and had touches of essentialism in how the characters were gendered. I didn't see how the super-intelligent aliens were actually intelligent, it was just a meaningless label. I didn't see why Moosevan had to constantly have crushes on male humans (different species) and why every alien species anywhere in the universe has two genders and those genders are always the same- same sorts of problems, interaction and dysfunctional heterosexuality for everyone.

I think the sex positive stuff was probably more to the point at the time the book was written. Now I just yawn at that (or critique it- please note it was so mild it's not worth reading just for that). Aspects of the political and economic critique I liked, some of the humour hit home and I did like how the military (across all species) was portrayed.

Sort of maybe glad I read it. But I wouldn't go so far as to recommend it (or warn anyone off it) to anyone else as the plot didn't really hold together and there was no revolutionary way of thinking in there. It was just OK.

[J Hampshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another chance to visit the various life forms from The Planet Dweller. Weird things are happening to the Earth and, again, Diana et al are engaged in a struggle to put things right. This time there are added robots and brand new forms for Reniola to wear. I thoroughly enjoyed this fun,and funny tale.

A nice take on green issues, military involvement and a new love interest for Moosevan, who turns her attention to Salisbury, a bemused academic. He's a great addition to the ensemble.

Again I preferred the humans although Reniola, this time, was engaging as a kind of Iron Lady/WI figure. The cat, though, was creepy and I was less keen on the robots and Kulp.

Altogether this was a charming follow up.

[Sue Currie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. Science fiction at it's funniest, should only be read if you have a sense of humour. The characters come alive and the thought of an alien taking on the guise of Maggie Thatcher and who is obsessed with Laura Ashley curtains tickled me no end. As did the thought of an alien living deep inside our planet.......well, I suppose you just never know do you.