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A review by mat_tobin
Rebecca's World: Journey to the Forbidden Planet by Terry Nation
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.