Fantastic Planet

I didn’t actually plan to visit Fantastic Planet. I was just exploring the delights of Shafto Lane when it caught my eye. I don’t mind the occasional sci fi book or movie, but I am surrounded by people that are a little more obsessive about the genre (this is what happens when you work with computer geniuses).
The owner who works behind the counter is friendly and happy to chat about all things sci fi, even to a complete noobie like myself. He seems to know his stuff and is well versed in everything in store. I think with his knowledge and passion this place is going to become big for the Perth geek scene. I know that I have been telling everyone I know that would be interested to go and check it out.

If you are a fan of the science fiction and fantasy realm, you have all the series of Star Trek on VHS still and have watched Lord of the Rings with each different type of commentary that the only way to satisfy your Middle Earth craving is to see The Hobbit. Well, if that sums you up and you’re looking for a good read then Fantastic Planet is where you need to head to.
It is found down Shafto Lane and literally lined with books covering every science fiction theme from urban myths and legend tales, to post-​apocalyptic worlds, satire sci-​fi, alternate history, epic fantasy adventures, and dark and sinister stories. The new owner of the store, currently working solo, certainly knows his stuff as we had a good long chat about our favourite styles of science fiction and he was telling me about various science fiction movements that occurred not only in novels but the music and film that went alongside it. He had a lot to teach and I was happy staying in the store learning. He clearly has a lot he’d like to change about the store, for example minimising the amount of graphic novels and giving the store a much needed make over. He has a lot of passion about the novels and science fiction realm and it will be interesting to see where he takes the store.

Fantastic Planet is a charming little science fiction and fantasy bookshop that operates out of a single room on Murray Street, with two full walls of Philip K. Dick and J. G. Ballard, George R. R. Martin and Alison Croggon, and a couple of fold-​out tables stacked with Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis, Alan Moore and Frank Miller. And those are just the names that a genre layman like me is able to recognise.
But Fantastic Planet is undergoing a change. The new owner, who purchased the place two months ago, has big plans for his acquisition. Not only is he bringing in new furniture, he’s bringing in new names – names like P. D. James and Patricia Cornwell. He is very excited about his new crime section. The idea, he says, is to embrace any and all genres. He has only one stipulation: he will only sell stuff that he considers cool.
Which is why he recently got in a few copies of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s equally recent Alexander McQueen book. Hardly science fiction, of course, and hardly fantasy, but unique enough to catch his attention, as well as that of his customers, who snapped the copies up quick-​smart.
Science fiction and fantasy will remain the store’s backbone, of course. But Fantastic Planet is in the process of becoming even more fantastic.