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pussreboots's review
3.0
At the start of 2010, my friend Linda made a quick post about a favorite children's novel she was re-reading, Rebecca's World by Terry Nation. On that alone I added it to my wishlist and eighteen months after doing that, it bubbled to the top of my list and I was able to cross it off. I'm glad I paid attention to her post.
Rebecca's World was Terry Nation's first children's novel. It's in the style of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or any number of other fantasies where a young girl travels to a far off land and becomes a hero as she tries to find her way home.
In this case, Rebecca is beamed to a far off planet which I think is the only time I've read that set up in an otherwise traditional fantasy. If there are others, please recommend them in the comments! Rebecca after being called horrible and all sorts of other things by the perturbed scientist sets out to find her own way home.
She is quickly attacked by GHOSTS (always in all caps) and when she's rescued she learns about the environmental disaster that has given the GHOSTS free reign over the land. She and her new companions set out to fix the problem, based on the clues of an old riddle and represented graphically on the endpapers as an intricate and gorgeous series of connected mazes.
Rebecca's World ended up being part traditional quest to get home mixed together with social commentary and an environmental message. All these elements are held together by Larry Learmonth's pen and ink drawings — most of which are in black and white and some of which are colored.
Rebecca's World was Terry Nation's first children's novel. It's in the style of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or any number of other fantasies where a young girl travels to a far off land and becomes a hero as she tries to find her way home.
In this case, Rebecca is beamed to a far off planet which I think is the only time I've read that set up in an otherwise traditional fantasy. If there are others, please recommend them in the comments! Rebecca after being called horrible and all sorts of other things by the perturbed scientist sets out to find her own way home.
She is quickly attacked by GHOSTS (always in all caps) and when she's rescued she learns about the environmental disaster that has given the GHOSTS free reign over the land. She and her new companions set out to fix the problem, based on the clues of an old riddle and represented graphically on the endpapers as an intricate and gorgeous series of connected mazes.
Rebecca's World ended up being part traditional quest to get home mixed together with social commentary and an environmental message. All these elements are held together by Larry Learmonth's pen and ink drawings — most of which are in black and white and some of which are colored.
mat_tobin's review
4.0
My knowledge of Terry Nation is based on a mix between his work on Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who (he created the Daleks). When I first joined Twitter, I heard, with some reverence of a children’s book he had written back in 1975 called Rebecca’s World. Since it had been written by Nation, it steadily achieved cult status and was too expensive for me buy. By lucky chance, I found out that our University library had a copy.
Following a spate of tropes from Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and odd elements of Doctor Who, the story begins with a bored young girl who finds herself whisked off to a world in which Ghosts (vaporous, grey creatures) are devouring its inhabitants. With the help of three extremely off men, vaguely associated with Dorothy’s companions in Oz, it is up to Rebecca to find that last Ghost Tree and use its branches to destroy the Ghosts. However, Mister Glister, a megalomanic ruler who wishes to destroy the last tree and bend all remaining inhabitants to his will.
Sadly, Rebecca’s World would not do well on the shelves today. Partly because it is so darned odd but also because Rebecca is supported by (and supports) three, odd, single adult men. Such images will not chime too well in today’s society and even I read the relationships as a slightly odder Mr. Rabbit and the Present. Even acknowledging that Nation was writing the story solely for his own daughter, Rebecca, at first and that the men in the story could be various incarnations of her father, there is no doubt that adults will read something sinister into this because that’s what society suggests at this moment in time.
What I found reassuring, in some ways, is that readers who read it when it was first published (see other reviews on Goodreads) obviously saw nothing sinister in this story at all and just enjoyed the fast-paced, eccentric adventures of a little girl who was bored no longer.
Following a spate of tropes from Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and odd elements of Doctor Who, the story begins with a bored young girl who finds herself whisked off to a world in which Ghosts (vaporous, grey creatures) are devouring its inhabitants. With the help of three extremely off men, vaguely associated with Dorothy’s companions in Oz, it is up to Rebecca to find that last Ghost Tree and use its branches to destroy the Ghosts. However, Mister Glister, a megalomanic ruler who wishes to destroy the last tree and bend all remaining inhabitants to his will.
Sadly, Rebecca’s World would not do well on the shelves today. Partly because it is so darned odd but also because Rebecca is supported by (and supports) three, odd, single adult men. Such images will not chime too well in today’s society and even I read the relationships as a slightly odder Mr. Rabbit and the Present. Even acknowledging that Nation was writing the story solely for his own daughter, Rebecca, at first and that the men in the story could be various incarnations of her father, there is no doubt that adults will read something sinister into this because that’s what society suggests at this moment in time.
What I found reassuring, in some ways, is that readers who read it when it was first published (see other reviews on Goodreads) obviously saw nothing sinister in this story at all and just enjoyed the fast-paced, eccentric adventures of a little girl who was bored no longer.
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