Knight Books, 1969, 151 p, plus 8 p Diagrams and Technical Data.

Super Nova is the name of a(n as yet unused in an emergency) rescue ship based on the Moon.

The scene is set on the Moon base, a relatively large establishment with some married couples and a few children among the otherwise unattached. Not quite in that last category (but also not far from it) are Nurse Janie O’Donnel and Assistant Signaller Steve Murray who are attracted to each other but not as yet actually an (as we would say now) item. Gender roles are pretty much what were recognised as such in the late 1960s. Most of the women are either married and stay at home or have nurturing roles. One of the more unusual characters is Norman the News – whose nickname is perhaps an indicator of the author’s Scottish background – a reporter for Earth based newspapers.

The crisis which leads to Super Nova’s launch comes when a supply ship, the Archimedes, is stopped in space near to the incoming Satellite 907 – which has, incidentally, somehow or other managed to make the round trip to Pluto and back in a matter of days – along with a failure of communications. O’Donnel was originally scheduled to be on the Super Nova but Murray volunteers since the usual signaller is incapacitated but mainly to be near O’Donnel.

There is a large amount of information dumping (the story was intended for young adults though.) More noticeably these days the societal assumptions of its time or, rather, of MacVicar’s time, he was born in 1908 after all, are littered through it.

It turns out that in its pass round Pluto Satellite 907 has been taken over by that (minor) planet’s native intelligences, intrinsically hateful. They had in the past boosted Pluto from orbit round Neptune, a manœuvre which also forced Triton into its retrograde motion round its parent.

Close encounters with Satellite 907 lead to the Super Nova’s crew beginning to develop feelings of antipathy towards each other, leading on to much worse emotions. This is of course the influence of the Plutonians. Relief from these comes when Pluto’s spin takes the relevant transmitter round its edge. (Did they not, I wondered, have a relay system to ensure continuity? Never mind, it’s for YA; let’s carry on.)

The main action involves Murray having to approach the satellite during the transmission lull to deactivate its self-destruct device. For this he needs the relevant tools and Janie offers to take them to him. There is an uncomfortable scene where after he loses consciousness and Janie performs the actual deed she later tells him (in order to protect his self-esteem) that he did it.

One of the characters ruminates that, as a historical phenomenon, “Nobody seemed to like the Jews” then that “this was partly their own fault for being so inward looking, so close and clannish, so rigid in their beliefs.” Victim blaming or what.

But all on Earth is apparently now in harmony, technical and social benefits bind everyone in fairness to contribute in work and example. The Plutonians are somehow managing to undermine these feelings of togetherness and instilling fear and distrust – even hate.

The orbital dynamics of all of the ‘stopped in space’ gubbins are of course nonsense but without them there wouldn’t be a story.

The quaintness of this vision of the future is underlined by one of the characters using a “pocket space-range calculator” (looking like a cross between a set-square and a spirit level!) which was his own invention.

It is unusual to find in a work of SF, let alone a juvenile, as these stories were called back then, references to Goethe and James Hogg.

Similarly, I doubt any other piece of SF has ever employed the Scots word ‘douce’. Kudos to Scotsman MacVicar for that.

Diagrams of Satellite 907, the Archimedes class of ship, Pluto’s escape from orbit round Neptune, the Super Nova, a Moon Bus (with a crane attachment!) a laser-armed scout ship and a lunar vacuum suit appear as an appendix.

Sensitivity note: as well as the reference to Jews above, there is a mention of a Negro mayor, and the phrase “the nigger in the spatial woodpile.”

Pedant’s corner:- collander (colander,) “[responsible] for discovering minerals, oils and other products” (oils? On the Moon?) “dog’s-bodies” (nowadays – and perhaps even in 1969 – dogsbodies,) similies (similes,) span (spun,) “on the base of pure logic” (on the basis of pure logic,) “came to a stop in her orbit” (spaceships are not cars; they cannot just stop, they keep going until something changes their direction. This, as a plot point, ought to have been elaborated on,) 9o7 (907,) I noted the abbreviation ‘mike’ (which is now often rendered as ‘mic’,) the burst of flame from an atomic explosion “would become a towering mushroom cloud” (not in space it wouldn’t. The ‘cloud’ would be approximately spherical in shape,) “a spot of rust having formed” (on a screw fixing on a spaceship. In space the chemical conditions for rusting are not present. [To be charitable I suppose the rusting could have occurred during manufacture on Earth.] But also only iron can form rust [other metals corrode, but the result is not rust] but if they are to be launched from Earth, iron is too dense a material to make spaceships from.)

Scholastic, 2004, 316 p.

I spotted this in one of the local libraries that’s within a few miles of Son of the Rock Acres (there are actually six – only one of which the good lady has not yet checked out – plus several more within ten miles) and since I felt like a relatively undemanding read while still cogitating on my review of Beta-Life for Interzone and Bring up the Bodies I borrowed it.

It contains more adventures of Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw in the world of Municipal Darwinism familiar from Mortal Engines. Here Tom and Hester are forced to flee the Green Storm, a militant offshoot of the Anti-Traction League, and land on the city of Anchorage whose margravine Freya, a teenage girl forced into rule by the untimely death of her parents in a plague, takes a fancy to Tom. Hester flies off in a fit of jealousy and betrays Anchorage’s location to the predator city Arkangel before being kidnapped by agents of the Green Storm. Tom is also kidnapped: by some Lost Boys, experts in burgling the wandering cities. Adventures ensue before our heros are reunited and return to try to save Anchorage from its fate.

This being a “young adult” book the subsidiary characters are drawn with broad brush strokes but are still recognisable people for all that. Not that Reeve is a slouch in the characterisation department. In the course of Predator’s Gold Freya and Hester undergo a fair degree of development.

The concept of Municipal Darwinism doesn’t withstand a moment’s scrutiny, of course. It isn’t meant to, but is a glorious device to allow the playing out of Tom’s and Hester’s relationship and the examination of issues of morality against a backdrop of jeopardy. The Lost Boys – under the direction of the nefarious “Uncle” – are a clever conflation of situations from Oliver Twist and Peter Pan.

The book is a delight throughout. (But does the cover not bring to mind Tintin books?)

Pedant’s corner:- One instance each of quick and slow being used as adverbs rather than adjectives, one opened set of brackets which wasn’t ever closed and a solitary typo, desciptions for descriptions. Reeve gets plus marks though for the word gowk and the diæresis in “Aëro engines.”