The Wrong Stuff

Reviewed by Tahlia Newland

January 7, 2013

This is the second book in the Pan of Hamgee series. I loved the first one and this is even better. The author has created a bunch of truly loveable – and in one case, truly scary – characters that I just love to hang out with. They come from an alternative reality, the same earth but populated with a variety of different sized and coloured creatures, some more human looking than others. The Pan – basically human – enters our reality with the help of a portal in a thimble to rescue the one chosen by the Candidate for the role of spiritual and temporal leader of his country, but the arch bad guy follows him. A destructive chase through London in flying cars starts off the action and it just keeps moving.

The Pan of Hamgee is one of my favourite characters of all time, the best getaway ever because he’s a coward – or so he says; it makes him good at running away. But the Pan is much more than just the getaway man he thinks he is; he’s funny, smart, noble, humble and, best of all, is just a really a good bloke. He always does what’s right even when he’d rather be running in the opposite direction. However in this, the second of the Pan of Hamgee series, his negative opinion of himself is holding him back from realising his true potential.

Ruth is another wonderful character, one we didn’t have the chance to get to know in the first book, but in this one, she plays a major role, and her feisty interactions with the Pan are just delightful. Their relationship grows as the story progresses. First, he rescues her from a couple of Grongles who want to take her to the very nasty Lord Vernon. She has never met the Pan before and is, quite rightly, suspicious, but they end up spending a lot of time together because they’re on the run, and he’s not only the best getaway man in the business, he’s also pretty adorable.

Big Merv, the bright orange Swamp Thing also deserves a mention, as another delightful character, and Lord Vernon deserves an award for one of the creepiest bad guys ever.

The story is tight and unpredictable and the pacing excellent. The characterisation is superb and the humour delightful. I don’t like the use of the word alright instead of the more correct, all right, but since this is becoming an acceptable usage in dialogue, I’ll have to pass it. The copy editing could be better; it’s not bad, just the occasional lack of punctuation where it would have been helpful, certainly not enough of a problem to stop you enjoying this delightful story.