Dune: The Duke of Caladan by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

 

(hb; 2020: first book in the Caladan Trilogy. Twentieth novel in the Dune series.)

From the inside flap

“Lord Atreides, Duke of Caladan and father of Muad’Dib. While all know of his fall and the rise of his son, little is known about the quiet ruler of Caladan and his partner, Jessica. Or how a Duke of an inconsequential planet earned an emperor’s favor and the ire of House Harkonnen to set himself on a collision course with his own death. This is the story.

“Through patience and loyalty, Leto serves the Golden Lion Throne. Where others scheme, the Duke of Caladan acts. But Leto’s powerful enemies are starting to feel that he is rising beyond his station., and House Atreides rises too high. With unseen enemies circling, Leto must decide if the twin burdens of duty and honor are worth the price of his life, family, and love.”

 

Review

Duke is a well-written, solid entry in the Dune series, with plenty of science fiction drama, action, and familiar characters from the source Dune novel as well as mentions of events and characters from Dune-centric prequels and sequels. In it, Paul Atreides, fourteen years old, struggles with his sense of advanced self and his boyish emotions while his father and mother, also caught between real-world concerns and their desires and fears, struggle with theirs. Meanwhile, others scheme around them (including Baron Harkonnen and his sly, treacherous brood), a new synthetic drug (ailar)─sourced from Caladan─causes empire-wide overdoses, and another terrorist element threatens the foundation of the Corrino rule.

While not a necessary story in the Dune-verse, Duke is fun, relatively light, and small in scale compared to other Dune works (even though it leads to the social upheaval shown in the original Dune), and worth reading. Might be worth owning for Dune completists.

Followed by Dune: The Lady of Caladan.

Vic Valentine: Fever Dreams by Will Viharo

 

(pb; 2021: serial-vignette anthology. “Foreword” by J.J. Sinisi.)

Review

Writing about Viharo’s work is different than reviewing most other authors’ works because of Viharo’s fierce, neo-pulp and pop-culture quippy insular logic, surroundings, and characters, which mix explicit lust, violence, melancholy, jubilation and other relatable emotions in intuitive slip-slide “cross dissolves” (Viharo’s words). True to that creative and intensely personal adherence, Fever’s sixty-three serial-vignettes, originally published online in serial form during the initial COVID-19 outbreak, force stick-with-it readers to let go of real-world preconceptions and just enjoy the go-damn-near-everywhere ride (provided its not far from a tiki bar, a retro-cool movie soundtrack, or a salvation-or-damnation vixen). While Fever continues in the vein of relatively recent Viharo books (e.g., Things I Do When I’m Awake, Vihorror! Cocktales of Sex and Death and his Mental Case Files trilogy), it reflects further maturation, less wallowing-in-despair in its often-clever prose.

Fever’s loose storyline, such as it is, takes place during a pandemic where Vic time, place, and character travels through vivid, possibly crazy, and highly personal scenarios, any of which are merely titular fever dreams or reality. Vic has guides for this wild rollercoaster─namely his wife (Val, who’s appeared in previous Valentine books and stories), Rose (another Vic-chronicled lover) and Harold Floyd, a client, a demon of sorts, and who-knows-what-else.

The vignette chapters are short, possibly excessive for those who like tight, logical narratives. As I’ve written before, fans of David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and other offbeat creative types may revel in this blink-and-everything-changes anthology, with its strangely satisfying and collection-true ending, one worth owning.

The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olsen

 

(hb; 2014: fifth book in the Department Q series. Translated from the Danish by Martin Aiken. Translation Consultant: Steve Schein.)

From the inside flap

“All fifteen-year-old Marco Jameson wants is to become a Danish citizen and go to school like a normal teenager. But his uncle Zola rules his former Gypsy clan with an iron fist. Revered as a god and feared as a devil, Zola forces the children of the clan to beg and steal for his personal gain. When Marco discovers a dead body─proving the true extent of Zola’s criminal activities─he goes on the run. But his family members aren’t the only ones who will go to any lengths to keep Marco silent. . . forever.

“Meanwhile, the last thing Detective Carl Mørck needs is for his assistants, Assad and Rose, to pick up a missing persons case on a whim: Carl’s nemesis is his new boss, and he’s saddled Department Q with an unwelcome addition. But when they learn that a mysterious teen named Marco may have as much insight into the case as he has a fear of the police, Carl is determined to solve the mystery and save the boy. Carl’s actions propel the trio into a case that extends from Denmakr Africa, from embezzlers to child soldiers, from seemingly petty crimes to the very darkest of cover-ups.”

 

Review

This is one of my favorite Department Q novels thus far. Adler-Olsen’s usual, deft mix of mainstream cop procedural thrills, humor, pathos, and social conscience is kicked up a notch by the author’s especially sympathetic portrayal of teenager Marco Jameson, who’s far from sainthood, but still a real, especially relatable victim (and avenger). Like previous Department Q novels, this jumps between multiple characters and their outlooks in an easy-to-follow manner, with enough action (some of it quite brutal and moralistic) to satisfy those looking for a violence kick with their law-and-order entertainment. Worth owning, this, like earlier books in this series.

Followed by The Hanging Girl.

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The resulting Danish film was released on May 27, 2021 in Denmark. Martin Zandvliet directed it, from a screenplay by Anders Frithiof August and Thomas Porsager.

Ulrich Thomsen played Carl Mørck. Zaki Youssef played Assad. Sofie Torp played Rose. Thomas W. Gabrielsson played Hardy.

Lisa Carlehed played Mona. Mads Reuther played Gordon. Lobus Olàh played Marco Jameson.

Joen Bille played Jens Brage-Schmidt. Anders Mattheson plays Teis Snap. Caspar Phillipson played Rene Erickson. Zdenek Godla played Zola.

Jaws by Peter Benchley

 

(pb; 1974)

Review

This is one of my all-time favorite pulp-thriller novels, a hard-to-set-down, entertaining mix of pulpy corruption, class warfare, a killer monster, character development and cinematic-vivid (without becoming verbose) writing. Obviously, given its setting, this is a great beach read, one worth owning (I’ve re-read it three times in four decades, and been wowed anew every time).

Followed by Hank Searls’s notably-different-from-the-film Jaws 2.

Note: The novel is considerably different than its streamlined 1975 film version, by having Martin Brody as a native of Amity, Long Island (in the film he’s “not an islander. . . [he's] from New York”). The book, which may upset those sensitive to bad things happening to cute land animals, also has equal-to-shark-time focus on corrupt mayor/real estate agent Larrry Vaughan (it’s Vaughn in the movie) and his likely criminal “silent partners.” A subplot about a key character’s infidelity and Amity’s history is also highlighted, as well as how the Brodys have three sons (not two, like the film version) with different fates for one of the main characters.

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The resulting film was released stateside on June 20, 1975. Steven Spielberg directed the film from Carl Gottlieb’s screenplay (Gottlieb also played Harry Meadows in the film).

Roy Scheider played Brody. Robert Shaw played Quint. Richard Dreyfuss played Matt Hooper.

Lorraine Gary played Ellen Brody. Chris Rebello played Michael Brody. Jay Mello played Sean Brody.

Murray Hamilton played Larry Vaughn. Peter Benchley played an “Interviewer.”