Issue 9 - Gold Dust magazine

Truckerson
by John Griffiths
ISBN: 190606105X
Bluechrome, 2007
Printed: £7.99
Pages: 138
Skytrucker
by Allen Murray
ISBN: 0595247296
iUniverse, 2002
Printed: £14.49
Pages: 300
Book Review
David Gardiner, Gold Dust’s resident reviewer, compares John Griffiths’ Truckerson with Allen
Murray’s Skytrucker.
Truckerson is a novel that examines in
some depth the cock-up theory of history.
Massively arrogant, totally incompetent,
supremely self-satisfied, irredeemably
vain, as politically incorrect as
it is possible to be and completely
unquestioning in his loyalty to Queen and
country, Flight Lieutenant (later Air Vice
Marshal and Marshal of the Royal Air
Force) Barry "Trux" Truckerson blunders
his way through the Second World War
and a NASA mission to save the world,
blissfully unaware of the assistance continually
heaped upon him by blind good
fortune. Everyone who encounters him
mistakes his ineptitude for genius, and
splendid outcomes flow, completely fortuitously,
from his bumbling attempts to Do
the Right Thing. Over and over again his
inept interference in history is the necessary
catalyst to bring about some major
social breakthrough or the "eureka"
moment for some great inventor. Only
when he encounters the American milierent
rearward glance at World War 2:
we have only to think of Catch 22, 'Allo,
'Allo, Dad's Army and that awful early
Spielberg film 1941. The first part of
Truckerson is in this general tradition – a
tradition to which it makes a worthy contribution.
The second half moves on into
the territory of the recent spate of asteroid
collision movies (Armageddon,
Judgement Day, Tycus, Deep Impact,
Asteroid), and the Eric Shapiro novel It's
Only Temporary reviewed in a previous
issue, and manages to extract quite a lot
of fun from a genre that you might have
thought was beyond parody.
There is really only one question
worth asking about a comedy novel: Is it
funny? Yes, I enjoyed it immensely. Not
often "laugh-out-loud" slapstick funny, but
tongue-in-cheek, throw-away line funny,
like the best James Bond moments.
Those familiar with Allen Murray,
the author of the (excellent) autobiographical
account of a flying career
name but very much the same amiable
self-mocking persona that is the public
face of "Trux" Murray, and one scene is
an obvious parody of "The Epilogue" in
Skytrucker, where the ageing airman
hands over the torch to his pilot son on
the flight deck of a modern leviathan of
the sky.
I suggest you read both books,
Truckerson and Skytrucker, which has
been out for a while but is none the worse
for that, particularly if you find yourself at
a loose end on a flight to some far-off
land. Truckerson also contains one of the
best chapter headings I have come
across: "3: The Plot Stays Very Much the
Same", not to mention the unusual generosity
of two epilogues. At present
Truckerson is only available from the
publishers, bluechrome, at
bluechrome.co.uk, but will be generally
available soon.
Gold Dust
tary top brass does he meet people Skytrucker, widely known on writers' sites
whose inability to perceive the obvious by his "Trux" nickname, will see an appar-
exceeds his own.
ent small homage in some passages of
The passage of time has given Truckerson. Mr Griffiths has given his
comic writers permission to cast an irrev- central character not only the same nick-
50 www.golddustmagazine.co.uk - Issue 9 - Winter 2007