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Enter: Wildthyme

JANUARY 2011

Some people have all the luck. OK, he might have had a pretty tough adolescence, what with his parents being killed, but now Simon, the hero of Enter Wildthyme, has landed himself not only ownership of an aged eclectic bookshop, but a trip aboard Iris Wildthyme’s Celestial Omnibus!

Enter Wildthyme is the first full-length Iris and Panda novel. Iris has, of course, appeared in several novels before this, some within the Doctor Who range, others beyond it; however, this is the first fully-fledged Iris Wildthyme novel. It’s an obvious step following the continuing success of Iris and Panda’s short fiction adventures; in fact, it’s surprising it’s taken so long to appear. However, this is to the book’s benefit, as now Iris’s strange universe has a full and rich history.

Enter Wildthyme is stuffed full to burst with characters and concepts from writer Paul Magrs’ earlier work. Hyspero, the Ringpull, the Dogworld poodles, the Glass Men of Valcea, Jenny the traffic warden, the Tomorrow Twins, MIAOW, Barbra the sentient vending machine… a whole host of Magrs’s creations from his previous Who and Iris works make appearances, be they fleeting cameos or extended roles. Even the two Earthly protagonists, Simon and Kelly, originate in another of his works (the full-length novel Exchange, which is now high on my reading list).

To begin with, this seemed to be detrimental to the story, as if there were new ideas on offer. These fears were soon quelled as the plot takes our heroes on a twisty-turny adventure to all manner of bizarre locations. Completely bonkers ideas leap of the pages, including the most unexpected of alien races. The familiar elements, combined with the laid-back, conversatio-nal prose, make the whole experience comfortable, like a reunion with old friends.

That said, foreknowledge of previous Paul Magrs works isn’t necessary in the slightest. In fact, coming into this book as a Wildthyme virgin would be a heady experience, as the array of barmy ideas spread out before you, promising a whole new universe to explore. Simon and Kelly are effective viewpoint characters, and I had no idea, until after I’d read then novel, that they’d featured in an earlier work. Simon is the more adventurous, but less grown-up of the two, lapping up the dimension-hopping lifestyle Iris enjoys. Kelly, on the other hand, is a more mature, level-headed sort - the type of person who dyes her hair purple as if attempting to cover up just how sensible she is. Good friends, but opposite in temperament, they both have roles to play in the adventure, that take them to the furthest edges of time and space, both together and apart.

Anthony Marvelle, mysterious,

seductive and amoral, provides

the villainy. He’s a fine character,

at once likeable and loathsome,

although his “murmur murmur”

affectation gets annoying after

a while. The many supporting characters add their own colourful touches to the proceedings, but naturally it’s Iris and Panda who steal the show, and quite rightly so. Iris is particularly well portrayed throughout, her roaming and adventuring viewed in a slightly sinister, amoral light, as likely to cause harm as good. There are even mysterious hints about her future.

Enter Wildthyme spends a good deal of time setting the scene and getting the characters introduced to one another, but by the second third or so, heroes, villains and even those in-between are dashing off to all the corners of the cosmos. There’s plenty of incident, yet the ending is left open; almost unfinished. Some might find this frustrating, but it’s the journey, not the destination, that we get to enjoy here. In any case, it leaves the door wide open for

a follow-up or two. The chase could continue for years to come...

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2011

Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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