A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

I obtained this book at a library book sale with the cover above, after getting a deliberately vague rec from sovay. It is currently in print, in both paper and ebook form, but very frustratingly, both the cover and blurb of the new edition give away the premise, which in the book you don't learn until about a quarter of the way - and it's much more fun to find out for yourself.

Written in 1958, the novel at first appears to be a post-war spy thriller with a noir tone. Something mysterious but probably bad is going down in Russia; British spies are looking into it; a man is called away from his wife and peaceful life due to his expertise in chemical warfare. But when a British boat is wrecked by a Russian naval vessel and its crew are washed ashore, the book takes a sudden, chilling turn into horror. What sort of horror? We don't know. It has a Charles Fort feel, with inexplicable terrors and mysteries hovering just out of sight.

I can't say more without spoilers, and I am deeply annoyed at how difficult it is to read the book unspoiled as it's very pleasingly cross-genre and odd. The horror elements do come into clear focus, but never quite clear enough to lose their essential fear of the unknown and the unknowable.

I quite enjoyed this weird little book, with its dour and cynical tone, atmosphere of existential dread, and unexpected amount of agency on the part of its female characters, and was pleased to see that Blackburn has written many other books. I'm going to attempt to dive into them knowing nothing.

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"I'm afraid you're right," agreed Worrals sadly. "Excitement is like a drug. The more you have the more you want, and when you can't get it the old nerves begin to twitch."

Since Worrals acquitted herself so well in the last two books, she's asked if she'd be willing to fly a tiny unarmed plane with foldable wings (the better to hide it) to occupied France so she can fly messages back from a French spy network. Naturally, she brings Frecks. (Poor Frecks, no authorities ever seem to think she was the key to victory even though she often is.)

Worrals and Frecks set up at a decrepit chateau, which they are nonplussed to discover is also inhabited by 1) their main contact, a depressed and apathetic old man, 2) his not-all-there son given to frequent fits of maniacal laughter, 3) an unexpected squad of Nazis. Not what you want when the only place you have to park your airplane is the chateau's immense wine cellar...

Homing pigeons, presumed dead, atmospherically melancholy chateaux, death by antique crossbow, and a Gestapo officer disguised as a nun: this book has it all. It's particularly good with spy vs spy shenanigans. At one point Worrals muses that of five people in a room, all but maybe one were using false identities. Later, we have an English spy pretending to be a German spy pretending to be an English spy.

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Like the other Worrals books I've read, this one is not only implicitly but explicitly feminist. While Worrals is perfectly willing to use Nazi preconceptions about women to her advantage, she does not tolerate anyone on her own side viewing women as less capable than men or implying that her success was due to chivalry rather her own efforts.

Johns has a surprisingly good understanding of what it's like to be a minority in this context and have to simultaneously deal with risking your life, not being allowed to do things solely because of your gender, having some people assume you're not as good as a man and others try to overprotect you, and, in particularly low moments, wondering whether maybe everyone is right about what women can and can't do.

It's accurate to describe the Worrals books as "Biggles, but with women," but it's equally accurate to describe them as "Biggles, but on extra-hard mode." I assume through conversations with his female pilot buddies on whom he based the characters, Johns has a surprisingly sensitive understanding that Worrals and Frecks can do everything Biggles and his crew can do, but they have to do it backwards and in high heels.

Possibly relatedly, Worrals and Frecks have yet to actually kill anyone, though they've both made very solid efforts in that direction. (In the first book Worrals shoots down a plane but the pilot survives, in this one a male ally kills the Nazi before Frecks can brain him with a poker, etc.) I wonder if that was a bridge too far for Johns' publishers? It really doesn't seem like Johns himself would have a problem with it. Frecks is ferocious in up-close combat, and Worrals has the cool nerve of a fighter pilot.

The ebook includes the original illustrations, of which my favorite is a Gestapo officer disguised as a nun. You can obtain it for free at Faded Page

"I'll keep an eye on you, my chicken."

Biggles is James "Biggles" Bigglesworth, ace pilot and adventurer. Biggles is a boys' adventure series of widely varying quality, but the good ones are legitimately good. Johns flew in WWI, and the series features realistic depictions of aviation and aerial combat from that time period, though the series later extends into WWII and post-war adventure. If you click on the author tag, you will find a post with more context on him and Biggles.

The other thing about Biggles is that he uses some truly unique epithets and exclamations. Maybe they were real slang? But no one else in the books says stuff like "Suffering rattlesnakes!

Biggles Flies East features the fantastic opening hook of Biggles getting mistaken for a different British pilot, a shady malcontent, and offered a job spying and flying for the Germans. Next thing he knows, he's been inserted as a double agent - a job which he isn't qualified for and which he dislikes very much, but which he turns out to be surprisingly good at.

Biggles has an extremely nervewracking time on every possible level. Not only does he need to maintain his cover, gather information, and regularly report back to his own side without getting caught, but the Germans quickly discover his piloting skills and want him to fight. For them. Against his own side. And that's not even taking into account his nemesis Erich von Stalhein, a spookily perceptive intelligence agent who seems to sense something off about Biggles...

This is basically an adventure story with elements like spies being given signet rings as identifiers, but if you take that stuff as a given, the book is surprisingly well-plotted, with some excellent twists. It plays the spy/undercover aspect to the hilt and is legitimately tense. It's extremely full of incident, and leans into the premise to an astonishing degree. Whatever your favorite undercover/imposter trope is, this book probably contains it.

Biggles is a very human character in this installment. He's uncomfortable with his job all the way, is terrified a lot of the time, and has a lot of compassion and fellow feeling for other soldiers, even if they're the enemy. He and von Stalhein have a fascinating relationship, very heavy on mutual respect and slashy vibes.

This makes the unintentional innuendo-by-language-drift moments even better. I'm talking about stuff like, "Not so fast, my cock," Biggles ejaculated.

I don't recall von Stalhein appearing in the books I read as a kid, which is too bad as one of my absolute favorite things is honorable enemies who would be friends if they weren't on opposite sides of the war, and sometimes are friends anyway but they must still meet in battle. I am pretty sure I got this from the Mahabharata, which I also read as a kid.

Von Stalhein is the archetype of the noble and honorable enemy. You see this type of character a lot in WWI fiction, especially when focused on aerial combat, and he's a very appealing version of it. His introduction in this book is GREAT.

He appears in that context in the WWI books, then makes some appearances in WWII books where he's completely different and basically an evil thug, then vanishes from the series only to reappear when it's safely post-war, where he picks up from where he left off in the WWI books and continues to be the dashing and honorable enemy/crush.

Here's what I think happened. W. E. Johns created a classic WWI archetype, then the books became smash hits, then he continued them into WWII and realized that his honorable enemy character did not work in that setting TO SAY THE LEAST, tried writing him as actually terrible, found it deeply depressing, then jumped him ahead in time to a setting that suits him better. At least I assume that's what happened. If so, I feel for Johns.

For my continued fannish enjoyment, I shall consider that von Stalhein was a double agent in WWII and that's why he was so out of character, which would actually make sense with his roles in both earlier and later books.

These books are very hard to find in the US and I obtained my copy at this odd site.

You can also find a few Biggles books and several Worrals books at Faded Page.

Worrals was Biggles' female counterpart. I'm excited to read some of the Worrals books, as those have previously been impossible to find (as opposed to difficult).

General content note for Biggles books: Levels of racism/colonialism range from zero to a line or two of mild stereotyping along the lines of "The Arabs are a noble warrior race" to holy shit I didn't know you could pack that much racism into a two lines of dialogue. In general, I recommend avoiding any books with titles like Biggles in Australia.

A very well-written Napoleonic-period adventure-romance between a chatty and resourceful French spy, Annique, and Robert, the stoic English spy whom she alternately rescues, kicks, is imprisoned by, seduces, and is seduced by. In between there's impersonation, field surgery, and lots and lots of intrigue.

The first two-thirds were fantastic. The last third suffered from Robert having all the power and Annique having very little, and from a revelation which tilted the deck even more in his favor. Also she has tons of angst over loving someone on the other side, while he ends up having little and thinking everything he's doing is A-OK. I started out liking him a lot and thinking they were well-matched, and ended up vaguely disliking him and thinking they wouldn't be happy together.

Two-thirds of a high recommendation, one-third meh. Beware spoilers in comments.

If anyone's read it, how's the sequel?

Thanks to the one-three punch of Casino Royale, MI-5/Spooks, and a re-read of Tim Powers' Declare, I am now obsessed with spies, secret agents, moles, and all things deceptive and paranoid. Recommend me some good books (fiction or non), movies, TV shows, or other media about spies.

I already have Sandbaggers in my Netflix queue, and have read (but not really understood) Stoppard's Hapgood. I have never read John LeCarre or any of the other spying classics (so recs of specific books rather than general recs of an author would be good.) I am particularly taken by the angst of spying, the paranoia, the confusion between persona and identity, and the possibility of agents becoming so doubled, tripled, or quadrupled that no one really knows what side they're on, including themselves.

I've read enough about the Enigma machine to be interested, but is there a book about it that isn't incomprehensibly technical?

Finally, is there any good history on early spying, like pre-twentieth century?

ETA: During a recent visit to Costco, during which Dad used his wife's card since he didn't have his own with him (which you're not supposed to do there), he confessed that while he was living at the ashram, a combination of boredom and LeCarre had gotten him so obsessed with spies that he used to pretend to be one and see how far he could sneak through low-level security without actually displaying his ID. Damn, I wish I'd known that two years ago; I would have definitely mentioned it in All the Fishes Come Home to Roost. My father, the secret agent, slipping undetected through life.

I have now watched the first discs of Princess Tutu and MI-5 aka Spooks. (Links to non-spoilery introductions to the series-- read these, because they are better than any intros I could do.)

I think my head just exploded.

That is, either series could make one's head explode all on its own-- MI-5/Spooks by means of an extremely shocking and disturbing plot twist, and Princess Tutu because it is so totally demented (a pas de deux with a giant anteater in a tutu) and also the most metafictional thing I've ever come across, and that includes Revolutionary Girl Utena, the complete works of Jane Yolen, and Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem's "The Man on the Ceiling." Put them both together, and you get... well, for one thing, you get me sending these consecutive e-mails to oyceter:

Subject: Princess Tutu disc one

Body: !!!!!!!!!!!!! Anteaterina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: MI-5/Spooks disc one

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Can't wait to see more of this. Um, hopefully with less [OMG SPOILER!]

By the way, turning on the subtitles was a good idea. Especially with the WTF accent that I think was supposed to be US southern but was actually more like "actor with thick Irish brogue attempts to replicate a US southern accent by studying the Japanese voice actors in the baseball episode of "Samurai Champloo.""

Both series highly recommended, with the following notes:

Princess Tutu: This seems very accessible. It uses a lot of anime conventions, but the context is European fairy-tales and ballet, so it's probably fine as a first anime. Also, it is charming, sweet, very smart and literate, and totally insane. As a bonus, the dub track is pretty good. The actress who plays Duck and does (non-spoilery) commentary on the first episode is delightfully fangirlish.

MI-5/Spooks: Smart, gripping, well-acted. Would probably be enjoyed by many people who liked Casino Royale, with the caveat that the violence, while not graphic, is much more disturbing. I didn't think it was gratuitous, but I could see how people might disagree. On the other hand, there isn't much of it and it's mostly implied rather than seen. Turn on the subtitles if you have a hard time with the accents. Apparently some people on Netflix were really offended by the lack of Muslim terrorists in the first two episodes; so, warning that there are no Muslim terrorists in the first two episodes.

Feel free to comment with clearly labeled spoilers WITH THE TITLE OF THE SHOW IN THE SUBJECT HEADER, and FOR THE FIRST DISC OF EACH SHOW ONLY.

Spoil anyone for any episodes past 5 of Tutu and 2 of MI-5, and I will do that thing that happened in the first disc of MI-5.

I've never been a big fan of James Bond, though I treasure the memory of watching Octopussy, which was partly shot in India, in a New Delhi theatre so jam-packed that we all would have died if it had burst into flames, with a crowd of people who cheered madly every time they saw a location they recognized or when a random extra they knew walked into the frame. Otherwise, I've watched them when they were on TV or when someone else wanted to rent one. The ones with Sean Connery are fun, although annoyingly sexist and a bit slow in between the action set-pieces, and the Roger Moore and recent ones are a bit ridiculous. I've never much cared for camp, so the alleged humor of a lot of the dialogue eluded me.

I've also read one Ian Fleming novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, which was pretty awful although possibly not characteristic, being narrated by a totally unconvincing woman whom Bond rescues, and which devotes about a fourth of its length to her unremarkable, yet pruriently described sex life. It further alienated me by having her think things like "Every woman enjoys a bit of semi-rape." EW.

Casino Royale, which ditches the elaborate gadgets in favor of something vaguely resembling realism, was much more to my taste. Though I loved the ways in which it is dialogue with the earlier Bond movies and the Bond iconography, it could easily be enjoyed as a particularly well-done action movie even if you've never seen a James Bond movie, or dislike the whole franchise. I suspect that the people most likely to dislike it are fans of the Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan films, which this seems a reaction against.

There are terrific action sequences, but stripped-down, relying on physical stunts (like a marvelous chase at the beginning through a Tetris-like construction zone) or old-fashioned suspense (a variant on the bomb-defusing scene, which takes place entirely in the front seat of a car with Bond on the phone to headquarters.) Judi Dench and Daniel Craig have wonderful chemistry, and I now am dying for a prequel where we see M as a young agent. There is an annoying interlude with a random Bond girl early on, but the actual female lead, though not an action heroine, is believable and not helpless. Plus, she is involved in a shower scene that is not what you would normally think a shower scene would be, and is not only the emotional center of the movie, but has now gone on my top ten list of hottest scenes ever filmed.

When I saw Casino Royale, I realized why I have never been much of a Bond fan, though I do like a good action/spy movie and enjoyed many elements of the Bond films: I never believed that Bond could be hurt. Of course you know going in that Bond won't die; but I know when I watch Lord of the Rings that the Black Riders won't catch the hobbits in the Shire, and that Boromir will succumb to temptation, and yet I still feel a terrible suspense every time I see the film. It's all in the presentation: acting, script, and direction. I never believed for a second, in any Bond movie before this one, that anything really bad could ever happen to him. And that prevented me from ever being truly engaged with the character.

Casino Royale made me worry about Bond. Daniel Craig's knuckles bleed after he punches people, and his face bleeds when other people punch him. He's not a perfectly suave and unflappably competent gentleman who can stroll out of any confrontation with his hair slicked back and a perfect quip on his lips; but that's the persona you can see him creating for himself. This is the beginning of Bond, and the Bond icon is something we see being constructed onscreen. The whole movie is about the tension between the persona and the barely-glimpsed self, between elegant poker games and men getting beaten to death in stairways. Bond is arrogant, and he makes mistakes; and his mistakes have consequences. He's sexy, and he knows it and uses it to his advantage; but he's not really conventionally handsome, not like a Teflon model. There's a line early on about the lifespan of a double-0 agent, and it echoes through the whole movie. This has got to be the only Bond movie ever where you believe that he could die.