Jonathan Gould (1)

This is one of those short stories you read from start to finish with a big smile across your face……it was quirky, funny, imaginative, oddball and ingenious.

What do you do when everything in life is going too quickly for you? The world seems to be making you run too fast and you just want to shout, 'Stop the world, I want to get off'? You do exactly what Neville did. You just get off. Yes, you read correctly, you just get off the world, it couldn't be simpler. Indeed there are minor details to attend to – you have to find somewhere to live and goodness me, there are some jolly strange asteroids out there with all sorts of bizarre and eccentric people on them. Not only that, while you are asteroid-hunting, you certainly don't suddenly want to find yourself having to find a way to stop with the world escaping its orbit and hurtling into the asteroid field.

There are so many delightful elements to this short story, if I explained them all it would give far too much away. I will say, though, that it's uplifting and entertaining, and it's a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours in the company of toasterless inhabitants of an asteroid (have you any idea what it's like to live without a toaster?), a young lady who wants a book but can't read and I'm still wondering when I can go and celebrate the unmissable Venezuelan Alpaca Milking festival. Not only that, I'd love to put my finger on Everest's tip and give the world a gentle nudge.

This is probably beginning to sound like I've had a glass too many of the red stuff…..to find out whether this makes any sense, I advise you to be magically entertained for an hour or two with Neville and his asteroid-resident friends. You will love it.
… (mere)

Do you ever get one of those moments when you want to lose yourself in a book that is totally magical, brimming with imagination and fantasy, and entertaining from start to finish? This book by the very talented Jonathan Gould is the very thing that delivers on all counts.

I actually read it twice and was doubly captivated, doubly enthralled and doubly awed by this author’s incredible imagination. I loved it.

Magnus Mandelora’s brother Jangos gets an attack of the dreaded Grompets – a desire to see more of the world outside the quiet, dozy little village in which they live. Unfortunately for Magnus, fate decrees that he too has to leave his comfortable little kertottage in search of justice and revenge. His eventful journey takes him across weird and wonderful lands and he experiences adventures he never thought possible. Along the way, he meets all sorts of . . . beings . . . some of them foes, but some of them companions who become firm friends.

When you have a story with diperagoffs, truffelongs, frazzletoads, gleeprogs, lothfarines, how can you keep a smile from your face? When a character has three ears and a long nose (to stick into other people’s business), or only one hair that grows half an inch every ten years, or has to walk around with a bowl of water on its head, how can you not be anything but charmed and enchanted?

This is Jonathan’s first full-length novel after two short stories (Doodling and Flidderbugs). He brings to it as much talent, aptitude, and ingenuity.

I can think of only one way to describe this book. In the words of our valiant hero, Magnus, it’s nothing short of “beautifagnificextraordimazing”.
… (mere)

Jonathan is one of the most creative writers I have come across. This is my third (after Doodling and Magnus Opum) encounter with this talented author and he never ceases to amaze me.

Flidderbugs is about two groups of ‘bugs, the Triplifers and the Quadrigons, who live – divided – in the Krephiloff Tree. If you thought that politics and devious ‘business’ practices were exclusive to humans, be assured that they find their way into the Flidderbugs’ world too. A very important and divisive issue separates the two groups – does a leaf have three or four points? It takes the offspring (Kriffle and Fargeeta) of the elders, who have long held council, to bring a refreshing new outlook to proceedings and to make them see the error of the traditionally held beliefs; but they have to act quickly – three points or four on a leaf will make no difference when there is a much more serious and urgent dilemma needing immediate attention.

I loved the characterisation of dotty professors, dogmatic seniors, smarmy dodgy ‘business’ characters and homely, doting (Klummerfly soup-making) mothers. I loved the way the ‘tree’ is the Flidderbugs’ ‘world’ which brings a new dimension to the phrase ‘What in the Tree was I thinking of’. I loved the portrayal of the wheeler-dealer Flidderbug and his shiny, pristine carapace and sleek, trim antennae, and I especially loved the shambolic professor’s very logical explanation of the impending disaster, “The vectors of pressure bearing down on the indices of the central support elements in regard to the key structural components have reached a point where the proportion of lateral forces henceways in opposition to the lateral forces forthways have exceeded the most preferred ratio, leading to a situation in which vertiginous damage will shortly be unavoidable, resulting in a catastrophic breakdown in said structural components and raising the potential of a near complete collapse of the entire encompassing environment.” It’s obvious, really, isn’t it?

This is only (sadly) a short, really easy-to-read story, but it’s huge on entertainment, charm, likeability, and genius.
… (mere)

One of the best things about picking up a book by Jonathan Gould is the knowledge that there’s absolutely no doubt you are going to be smitten, entertained, and basking in the afterglow of a satisfying read! What’s more, catching up with Neville (Doodling) is an extra treat.

Neville had quite a dilemma in Doodling, when the world was going so fast, his only solution was, very simply, to get off. He now has a different problem. The world is the wrong shape for the poor chap. It’s just not a Neville-friendly-shaped world. Of course, once again, the solution is remarkably easy: a tug here and a tug there and everything should be hunky-dory...and it is—for Neville. Little does he know that he has unwittingly caused chaos for other (rather odd but quaint) people, by altering the world’s shape.

This novella is quirky, humorous, infinitely appealing, and original. Jonathan isn’t just an excellent writer: he has the ability to turn his imagination into an enchanting experience for the reader.

I want more of Neville Lansdowne. He’s been Doodling and Scribbling: what’s next, I wonder: Jotting?… (mere)