(hb; 2004)
Review:
Eighteen years after their collective awakening from the IVR (Immersive Virtual Reality) Academy in Idlewild, five of the six clone-children -- socially maladaptive Vashti and bubbly Champagne in Germany, loner Halloween in America, Sufi-faithed Isaac in the Middle East, and Halloween-loving Pandora in Germany -- are struggling to rebuild the world as they know it via different sciences and faiths, as well as deal with the amassing fallout of their decisions dating back to their childhoods. Fantasia, who voluntarily disappeared near the end of Idlewild, is still unaccounted for.
But then two threats make themselves known: the mysterious Deuce shakes the integrity of the Pandora-run IVR where a second generation of clone-children (fourteen of them, including Penny, a wild child waiting to explode) are visiting, learning the things they'll need to know to further their parent-creators' designs. The second threat is of the microbial variety: it appears that the Black Ep virus, which destroyed humanity, as well as rendering it barren, has mutated, and might kill the new generation of clone-children, and by extension, the human race -- this time for good.
Sagan's writing and imagery is less mindf***ish than in Idlewild's, but is no less effective here. As the possibility of humanity's final hours grow more probable, the characters -- whose personalities are sharply defined, and often at odds with each other -- become more real (and therefore worth caring about), via quirks, actions and Sagan's fascinating language.
Worthwhile follow-up to Idlewild, this. Check this series out.
Followed by Everfree.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Paul Verhoeven: Beyond Flesh and Blood, by Jean-Marc Bouineau
(pb; 1994 & 2000: non-fiction)
From the back cover:
"Paul Verhoeven's name means controversy. His films have shocked the world of movie goers. Provocation is his moto. Sex has never been depicted so freely in movies before Turkish Delight, his second feature. RoboCop has set up new standards for the science-fiction genre. His somewhat overt cynicism has made him a fearless director eager to push the boundaries of movie-making.
"For the first time the director of The Fourth Man and Basic Instinct has been given the possibility to express his thoughts and feelings freely. He... speaks of his childhood, his intimate relationships with Rutger Hauer and Sharon Stone, violence, the media, [composer Igor] Stravinsky and much much more."
Review:
Interesting, short, glossy-paged read. The Dutch-born and -raised Verhoeven is blunt about his early films -- some of them not, by his own admission, worth revisiting (e.g., Business is Business), others transitional (e.g., Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange and Flesh+Blood, with actor Rutger Hauer, whom Verhoeven calls "my spokesman. He passed on my feelings, my philosophy.")
In talking about some of his films made in America -- the Alfred Hitchcock/Vertigo-influenced Basic Instinct; Total Recall and RoboCop (influenced by director Fritz Lang's Metropolis); and his other skewerings of American life, Showgirls and Starship Troopers -- Verhoeven is equally blunt, and more philosophical. (It makes sense, as he's talking about a subject -- a country -- that's largely removed from his formative years.)
Verhoeven also talks about his working relationship with actors Sharon Stone (with whom he has a "love-hate relationship"), Arnold Schwarzenegger ("He is very supportive of the director... He has no ego") and screenwriter Joe Estzerhas, who scripted Basic Instinct and Showgirls.
This is a good read, not only for film-geeks or film school students, but for artists, as well. Verhoeven doesn't talk much about technology or equipment, but his approach towards showing sex (which often signals manipulation), violence and its often-attendant politics may be one worth considering as an influence.
From the back cover:
"Paul Verhoeven's name means controversy. His films have shocked the world of movie goers. Provocation is his moto. Sex has never been depicted so freely in movies before Turkish Delight, his second feature. RoboCop has set up new standards for the science-fiction genre. His somewhat overt cynicism has made him a fearless director eager to push the boundaries of movie-making.
"For the first time the director of The Fourth Man and Basic Instinct has been given the possibility to express his thoughts and feelings freely. He... speaks of his childhood, his intimate relationships with Rutger Hauer and Sharon Stone, violence, the media, [composer Igor] Stravinsky and much much more."
Review:
Interesting, short, glossy-paged read. The Dutch-born and -raised Verhoeven is blunt about his early films -- some of them not, by his own admission, worth revisiting (e.g., Business is Business), others transitional (e.g., Turkish Delight, Soldier of Orange and Flesh+Blood, with actor Rutger Hauer, whom Verhoeven calls "my spokesman. He passed on my feelings, my philosophy.")
In talking about some of his films made in America -- the Alfred Hitchcock/Vertigo-influenced Basic Instinct; Total Recall and RoboCop (influenced by director Fritz Lang's Metropolis); and his other skewerings of American life, Showgirls and Starship Troopers -- Verhoeven is equally blunt, and more philosophical. (It makes sense, as he's talking about a subject -- a country -- that's largely removed from his formative years.)
Verhoeven also talks about his working relationship with actors Sharon Stone (with whom he has a "love-hate relationship"), Arnold Schwarzenegger ("He is very supportive of the director... He has no ego") and screenwriter Joe Estzerhas, who scripted Basic Instinct and Showgirls.
This is a good read, not only for film-geeks or film school students, but for artists, as well. Verhoeven doesn't talk much about technology or equipment, but his approach towards showing sex (which often signals manipulation), violence and its often-attendant politics may be one worth considering as an influence.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Traitors Gate, by Anne Perry
(hb; 1995: fifteenth book in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series)
"...Police Superintendent Thomas Pitt is charged with investigating nothing less than a matter of treason. Someone in the Colonial Office is passing information to Germany about England's African strategy, and the traitor can only be one of a half dozen distinguished public servants. At the same time, Pitt is quietly looking into the sudden, tragic death of his childhood mentor, Sir Arthur Desmond, whose demise, an inquest has concluded, was due to an accidental overdose of laudanum.
"Pitt's own verdict is that Sir Arthur has been murdered, and that the crime is connected in some way to the treachery in the Colonial Office. He is certain that the link is a clandestine organization called the Inner Circle that, beneath the cloak of anonymous charitable benevolence, wields a sinister secret power over public affairs and private lives. But despite the apparent cooperation of great men in government, he makes little progress -- until news of a second sensational murder reverberates through London's most elegant drawing rooms.
"In the small hours of a May morning, a Thames waterman finds the strangled body of an aristocratic society beauty floating nearly lonely Traitors Gate. Only then do hard-pressed Pitt and his clever wife, Charlotte, begin to untangle the threads of passion and intrigue, to see clearly the pattern of tragedy and frightening evil that Pitt must deal with, at the risk of his career -- and his life."
Review:
The fifteenth Pitt mystery shows Pitt dealing with three professional -- and life-threatening -- problems: discovering the Foreign Office traitor who's selling state secrets to the Germans; clearing the name of his mentor, Sir Arthur Desmond, who was probably poisoned with laudanum in gentlemen's club; and unmasking the killer of a well-liked, lovely Society wife -- all of these dilemmas are likely tied to the Inner Circle (a ruthless secret society whose existence was first revealed in Belgrave Square), and may center around one killer.
Traitors Gate focuses more on Thomas Pitt, as he goes into places that Charlotte and their friends and family can't go -- that's not to say Charlotte, along with series regular Vespasia Cumming-Gould, and even Eustace March (Emily Radley's easily-scandalized, semi-blustery great-uncle by her first marriage) don't help, it's just that their case-pivotal roles in this deadly drama are limited this time out.
The killer(s) is/are not easily sussed out, there are some surprising twists scattered throughout, and the ending, as usual, is superbly rendered.
Another excellent read from Perry. Followed by Pentecost Alley.
"...Police Superintendent Thomas Pitt is charged with investigating nothing less than a matter of treason. Someone in the Colonial Office is passing information to Germany about England's African strategy, and the traitor can only be one of a half dozen distinguished public servants. At the same time, Pitt is quietly looking into the sudden, tragic death of his childhood mentor, Sir Arthur Desmond, whose demise, an inquest has concluded, was due to an accidental overdose of laudanum.
"Pitt's own verdict is that Sir Arthur has been murdered, and that the crime is connected in some way to the treachery in the Colonial Office. He is certain that the link is a clandestine organization called the Inner Circle that, beneath the cloak of anonymous charitable benevolence, wields a sinister secret power over public affairs and private lives. But despite the apparent cooperation of great men in government, he makes little progress -- until news of a second sensational murder reverberates through London's most elegant drawing rooms.
"In the small hours of a May morning, a Thames waterman finds the strangled body of an aristocratic society beauty floating nearly lonely Traitors Gate. Only then do hard-pressed Pitt and his clever wife, Charlotte, begin to untangle the threads of passion and intrigue, to see clearly the pattern of tragedy and frightening evil that Pitt must deal with, at the risk of his career -- and his life."
Review:
The fifteenth Pitt mystery shows Pitt dealing with three professional -- and life-threatening -- problems: discovering the Foreign Office traitor who's selling state secrets to the Germans; clearing the name of his mentor, Sir Arthur Desmond, who was probably poisoned with laudanum in gentlemen's club; and unmasking the killer of a well-liked, lovely Society wife -- all of these dilemmas are likely tied to the Inner Circle (a ruthless secret society whose existence was first revealed in Belgrave Square), and may center around one killer.
Traitors Gate focuses more on Thomas Pitt, as he goes into places that Charlotte and their friends and family can't go -- that's not to say Charlotte, along with series regular Vespasia Cumming-Gould, and even Eustace March (Emily Radley's easily-scandalized, semi-blustery great-uncle by her first marriage) don't help, it's just that their case-pivotal roles in this deadly drama are limited this time out.
The killer(s) is/are not easily sussed out, there are some surprising twists scattered throughout, and the ending, as usual, is superbly rendered.
Another excellent read from Perry. Followed by Pentecost Alley.
Monday, February 04, 2008
The Infinite by Douglas Clegg
From the back cover:
"Harrow is haunted, they say. The mansion is a place of tragedy and nightmares, evil and insanity. First, it was a madman's fortress; then it became a school. Now it lies empty. An obsessed woman named Ivy Martin wants to bring the house back to life. And Jack Fleetwood, a ghost hunter, wants to find out what lurks within Harrow. Together they assemble the people who they believe can pierce the mansion's shadows.
"A group of strangers, with varying motives and abilities, gathers at the house called Harrow in the Hudson Valley to reach another world that exists within the house... A world of wonders... A world of desires... A world of nightmares."
Review:
This is best read as a sometimes-clever, by-the-numbers homage to other classic horror/haunted house novels, namely: Thomas Tryon's Harvest Home, Shirley Jackon's The Haunting of Hill House, and Richard Matheson's Hell House.
Clegg is a competent writer, but The Infinite lacks the necessary haunted-house tension. Clegg lays the multi-layered creepiness on thick -- problem is, most readers have read this story before, created by more effective writers.
The characters are semi-stock: Chet Dillinger, an angry nineteen-year old hick telemetrist, who can move things with his mind; Calista Nybird, a friendly urban psychometrist in her late twenties ("she could hold an object associated with... murder... and if the situation was right, find out something about the murderer or the victim..."); Frost Crane, a forty-five year old bestselling author who channels otherworldly "Voices," most of whom are like Crane himself -- seething, circumstantially-impotent and violent; Jack Fleetwood, an academic type who's in love with the going-mad (and rich) Ivy Martin, who owns the Harrow mansion; and Miranda Fleetwood, Jack's sarcastic sixteen-year old daughter, who lacks psychic abilities (and nevertheless senses the mansion's ethereal-dread).
Near the end, there are some well-rendered splatter-punkish scenes of supernatural mayhem, but even they can't make this anything more than it is: a disposable spookhouse beach read.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Coffee & Kung Fu, by Karen Brichoux
(pb; 2003)
From the back cover:
"Twenty-six year old Nicci Bradford doesn't exactly love her job of fixing the grammar in company brochures. She doesn't exactly love living in Boston, or going on awkward dates with men she barely knows. What she does love is Kung Fu movies... especially the ones starring her beloved Jackie Chan. Their timeless and inspired wisdom offers her a philosophy of life. The problem is, she doesn't have much of a life to philosophize about.
"But wisdom isn't the only thing that Jackie Chan has to offer. he's also a pretty good action hero. And when opportunity -- and risk -- present themselves in unexpected ways, it's up to Nicci to follow her hero's example, focus on her goal and strike..."
Review:
A thread of melancholy runs through this light-on-the-surface work, which is simultaneously funny and sad. Brichoux's gimmick -- relating Nicci's life to lessons learned from Jackie Chan movies -- is used sparingly, so the novel's underlying emotions are never cheapened; it's the lightness that balances the novel, makes Nicci's moodiness palatable.
Brichoux's writing is good, neither saying too much nor too little, which can be difficult when writing a first novel.
Excellent, funny and a great read -- worth your time.
From the back cover:
"Twenty-six year old Nicci Bradford doesn't exactly love her job of fixing the grammar in company brochures. She doesn't exactly love living in Boston, or going on awkward dates with men she barely knows. What she does love is Kung Fu movies... especially the ones starring her beloved Jackie Chan. Their timeless and inspired wisdom offers her a philosophy of life. The problem is, she doesn't have much of a life to philosophize about.
"But wisdom isn't the only thing that Jackie Chan has to offer. he's also a pretty good action hero. And when opportunity -- and risk -- present themselves in unexpected ways, it's up to Nicci to follow her hero's example, focus on her goal and strike..."
Review:
A thread of melancholy runs through this light-on-the-surface work, which is simultaneously funny and sad. Brichoux's gimmick -- relating Nicci's life to lessons learned from Jackie Chan movies -- is used sparingly, so the novel's underlying emotions are never cheapened; it's the lightness that balances the novel, makes Nicci's moodiness palatable.
Brichoux's writing is good, neither saying too much nor too little, which can be difficult when writing a first novel.
Excellent, funny and a great read -- worth your time.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Book of Reuben, by Tabitha King
(hb; 1994)
From the inside flap:
"In a decade shadowed by the draft and the war in Vietnam, Reuben is a raw-boned, determined teenager whose ideas of romance have been shaped by the songs of his generation and whose dreams seem well within his reach despite the death of his tyrannical father. He tries to do everything right according to the standard American success story -- but life is not a straight line for him. He stars in high school sports, but has to abandon his athletic ambitions to go to work. He labors hard at the local filling station and works his way up to buying it, but is frustrated by obstacles in his way. He meets a rich and beautiful older woman who takes him into her bed, and has the misfortune to witness her child's mysterious murder. He marries his childhood sweetheart, and finds himself on a battleground that lies between desire and responsibility.
"While nothing turns out as Reuben expects, his incredible spirit and core of strength, his refusal to break down or cave in, is evidenced by his readiness to love again after he meets the beautiful Pearl. And his struggle to become the person he had envisioned gives insight into what it costs him to become a man in a world he never made but learns to accept."
Review:
This is a heartbreaker and a charmer of a novel. It's a heartbreaker because of the bad breaks that Reuben (and by extension, Reuben's other characters) endure, but, which, in King's sure narrative, sweeten the novel's (i.e., life's) compensative everyday miracles.
It's a charmer because of not only how King handles the story, detailing the characters' lives to the extent that the reader cares, becomes immersed in (as I did), their daily and emotional states, but because of the complexity of the characters. Reuben, a life-thwarted professional athlete and mechanic, is sincere and emotionally awkward; David, son of the widow Reuben becomes a lover of, is an adolescent rich-spoiled vandal, but he's also kind and sensitive to others; Sixtus, the owner of the auto shop Reuben hopes to buy, is cranky as all aged hell, but is surreptitiously caring; even Laura, Reuben's ball-busting cult-crazed wife, isn't completely villainous -- she's bad, but there's legitimate reasons why her sense of tenderness goes dangerously awry.
King seamlessly imbues the characters' lives with small details from the outside world -- e.g., the Vietnam War and its attendant political-social views, evolving tastes in music and drugs, attitudes towards sex (which really don't seem to change all that much).
This is a perfect novel -- no end-flaws (like those in King's mostly-excellent Survivor), and worth owning.
Side-note: story-wise, Reuben follows two other novels from King's Nodd's Ridge series: Caretakers (which features Reuben's Joe Nevers as a younger man) and Pearl (which features Pearl Dickenson from Reuben). One on One, a story-overlapping sequel to Reuben, was published the year before Reuben was.
From the inside flap:
"In a decade shadowed by the draft and the war in Vietnam, Reuben is a raw-boned, determined teenager whose ideas of romance have been shaped by the songs of his generation and whose dreams seem well within his reach despite the death of his tyrannical father. He tries to do everything right according to the standard American success story -- but life is not a straight line for him. He stars in high school sports, but has to abandon his athletic ambitions to go to work. He labors hard at the local filling station and works his way up to buying it, but is frustrated by obstacles in his way. He meets a rich and beautiful older woman who takes him into her bed, and has the misfortune to witness her child's mysterious murder. He marries his childhood sweetheart, and finds himself on a battleground that lies between desire and responsibility.
"While nothing turns out as Reuben expects, his incredible spirit and core of strength, his refusal to break down or cave in, is evidenced by his readiness to love again after he meets the beautiful Pearl. And his struggle to become the person he had envisioned gives insight into what it costs him to become a man in a world he never made but learns to accept."
Review:
This is a heartbreaker and a charmer of a novel. It's a heartbreaker because of the bad breaks that Reuben (and by extension, Reuben's other characters) endure, but, which, in King's sure narrative, sweeten the novel's (i.e., life's) compensative everyday miracles.
It's a charmer because of not only how King handles the story, detailing the characters' lives to the extent that the reader cares, becomes immersed in (as I did), their daily and emotional states, but because of the complexity of the characters. Reuben, a life-thwarted professional athlete and mechanic, is sincere and emotionally awkward; David, son of the widow Reuben becomes a lover of, is an adolescent rich-spoiled vandal, but he's also kind and sensitive to others; Sixtus, the owner of the auto shop Reuben hopes to buy, is cranky as all aged hell, but is surreptitiously caring; even Laura, Reuben's ball-busting cult-crazed wife, isn't completely villainous -- she's bad, but there's legitimate reasons why her sense of tenderness goes dangerously awry.
King seamlessly imbues the characters' lives with small details from the outside world -- e.g., the Vietnam War and its attendant political-social views, evolving tastes in music and drugs, attitudes towards sex (which really don't seem to change all that much).
This is a perfect novel -- no end-flaws (like those in King's mostly-excellent Survivor), and worth owning.
Side-note: story-wise, Reuben follows two other novels from King's Nodd's Ridge series: Caretakers (which features Reuben's Joe Nevers as a younger man) and Pearl (which features Pearl Dickenson from Reuben). One on One, a story-overlapping sequel to Reuben, was published the year before Reuben was.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
North Dallas Forty, by Peter Gent
(pb; 1973)
From the back cover:
"Eight days in the life of a pro-football player. Eight days of savagery, pain, drugs, drinking, laughter and raunchy sex, and haunting love between a man and a woman... Eight days that take you into the heart of a man, a team, a sport, a game and the raw power and violence that is America itself. The author, Peter Gent, former offensive for the Dallas Cowboys, has emerged as an astounding writing talent."
Review:
Laugh out loud funny in some parts, sad in others, this dark comedy is a roller-coaster ride of Dantean proportions. It's not just another football book: it's a written-from-the-gut, inside look at a sport and a country that's troubling, compromised (by power-brokers, money men and players alike) and often admirable.
The ending is one of the most shocking I've ever read. I still get upset when I think about it, all the while applauding Gent's galvanizing finish.
By all means, check it out. Avoid the lackluster book sequel, North Dallas After Forty, which posssessed none of the power and realism of the original novel.
The film version was released stateside on August 3, 1979.
Nick Nolte played Phillip Elliott. Mac Davis played Seth Maxwell. Charles Durning played Coach Johnson. Dayle Haddon played Charlotte Caulder. Bo Svenson played Jo Bob Priddy. John Matuszak played O.W. Shaddock. Dabney Coleman played Emmett Hunter.
Ted Kotcheff directed the film, from a script by Peter Gent, Nancy Dowd (uncredited) and Rich Eustis.
From the back cover:
"Eight days in the life of a pro-football player. Eight days of savagery, pain, drugs, drinking, laughter and raunchy sex, and haunting love between a man and a woman... Eight days that take you into the heart of a man, a team, a sport, a game and the raw power and violence that is America itself. The author, Peter Gent, former offensive for the Dallas Cowboys, has emerged as an astounding writing talent."
Review:
Laugh out loud funny in some parts, sad in others, this dark comedy is a roller-coaster ride of Dantean proportions. It's not just another football book: it's a written-from-the-gut, inside look at a sport and a country that's troubling, compromised (by power-brokers, money men and players alike) and often admirable.
The ending is one of the most shocking I've ever read. I still get upset when I think about it, all the while applauding Gent's galvanizing finish.
By all means, check it out. Avoid the lackluster book sequel, North Dallas After Forty, which posssessed none of the power and realism of the original novel.
The film version was released stateside on August 3, 1979.
Nick Nolte played Phillip Elliott. Mac Davis played Seth Maxwell. Charles Durning played Coach Johnson. Dayle Haddon played Charlotte Caulder. Bo Svenson played Jo Bob Priddy. John Matuszak played O.W. Shaddock. Dabney Coleman played Emmett Hunter.
Ted Kotcheff directed the film, from a script by Peter Gent, Nancy Dowd (uncredited) and Rich Eustis.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Hyde Park Headsman, by Anne Perry
(hb; 1994: fourteenth book in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series)
Review:
Spring, 1890: eighteen months after the arsons of Highgate Rise, and the unsolved Whitechapel murders, Thomas Pitt is now Superintendent of the Bow Street station. Uncomfortable with his new position -- he's used to working the streets, not politicking or doling out orders to other inspectors from behind a desk -- new pressures are brought to bear on Pitt from all sides, when several unrelated citizens are found beheaded. Threats of demotion from hypocritical -- and more importantly, Inner Circle-associated -- superiors are overshadowed by death threats from pimps who are losing "trade" money because of terrified customers, who won't go near Hyde Park, where all the bodies have been found.
(The Inner Circle, for Pitt-uninitiated readers of this review, is a group of rich, positioned and influential men in government who have formed a society that encourages sometimes-morally dubious favors among its members. Pitt, like anyone who is not a member of the Inner Circle, is viewed as a possible threat to the Circle.)
Once again, Pitt has help: his wife, Charlotte, who's hard-pressed to find ways to aid him; Great-aunt Vespasia Cumming-Gould, Charlotte and Emily's great-aunt by marriage; the Pitts' maid, Gracie, now eighteen years old and headstrong. And, of course, Emily Radley, Charlotte's sister, who now has two children: seven-year old Edward (from Emily's marriage to George Ashworth, which came to a fatal end in Cardington Crescent) and Evangeline, aka "Evie", less than a year old and born after the last Pitt mystery, Farriers' Lane.
Other things are happening, too: Jack Radley, Emily's husband, is making a second, hotly-contested run for a Parliament seat. Caroline Ellison, Charlotte and Emily's once-socially "proper" mother, is having a love affair with a younger -- Jewish -- actor, Joshua Fielding (who first appeared in Farriers' Lane).
If all this sounds soap opera-ish, it's not. Perry's era-consistent, character-based writing keeps things interesting, in a fast-paced way. Fourteen books into the Pitt series, Perry has managed to keep the books fresh and exciting, while building on the characters and themes (murder, social scandal) that were birthed in the first books. Additionally, Perry has kept the later books accessible to new readers who may not have read earlier books, because Perry provides ADD-quick backstories in these mysteries.
The endings to Pitt mysteries usually fall into one of two categories: Shocking and Dramatic, and Effectively Understated and Melancholy. The ending to Hyde manages to be both.
Another excellent entry, well worth your time.
Followed by Traitors Gate.
Review:
Spring, 1890: eighteen months after the arsons of Highgate Rise, and the unsolved Whitechapel murders, Thomas Pitt is now Superintendent of the Bow Street station. Uncomfortable with his new position -- he's used to working the streets, not politicking or doling out orders to other inspectors from behind a desk -- new pressures are brought to bear on Pitt from all sides, when several unrelated citizens are found beheaded. Threats of demotion from hypocritical -- and more importantly, Inner Circle-associated -- superiors are overshadowed by death threats from pimps who are losing "trade" money because of terrified customers, who won't go near Hyde Park, where all the bodies have been found.
(The Inner Circle, for Pitt-uninitiated readers of this review, is a group of rich, positioned and influential men in government who have formed a society that encourages sometimes-morally dubious favors among its members. Pitt, like anyone who is not a member of the Inner Circle, is viewed as a possible threat to the Circle.)
Once again, Pitt has help: his wife, Charlotte, who's hard-pressed to find ways to aid him; Great-aunt Vespasia Cumming-Gould, Charlotte and Emily's great-aunt by marriage; the Pitts' maid, Gracie, now eighteen years old and headstrong. And, of course, Emily Radley, Charlotte's sister, who now has two children: seven-year old Edward (from Emily's marriage to George Ashworth, which came to a fatal end in Cardington Crescent) and Evangeline, aka "Evie", less than a year old and born after the last Pitt mystery, Farriers' Lane.
Other things are happening, too: Jack Radley, Emily's husband, is making a second, hotly-contested run for a Parliament seat. Caroline Ellison, Charlotte and Emily's once-socially "proper" mother, is having a love affair with a younger -- Jewish -- actor, Joshua Fielding (who first appeared in Farriers' Lane).
If all this sounds soap opera-ish, it's not. Perry's era-consistent, character-based writing keeps things interesting, in a fast-paced way. Fourteen books into the Pitt series, Perry has managed to keep the books fresh and exciting, while building on the characters and themes (murder, social scandal) that were birthed in the first books. Additionally, Perry has kept the later books accessible to new readers who may not have read earlier books, because Perry provides ADD-quick backstories in these mysteries.
The endings to Pitt mysteries usually fall into one of two categories: Shocking and Dramatic, and Effectively Understated and Melancholy. The ending to Hyde manages to be both.
Another excellent entry, well worth your time.
Followed by Traitors Gate.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Idlewild, by Nick Sagan
(hb; 2003)
Review:
A young man -- who quickly discovers his name is Halloween, and he's a in strange place where disembodied voices and crazy hallucinations run amuk -- works through various onion-layers of "reality" to discover who's trying to kill him. Is it one of his eight classmates, who, like him, have a virtual instructor (Maestro), who seems to becoming increasingly hostile? Or is it Maestro himself? And who is that gray human-shaped phantom who flickers in and out of his reality?
Sagan ably cuts between two storylines: the first one, where Halloween is not only puzzling out the mystery of his and his classmates' circumstances, but the identity of a murderer, whom everybody claims doesn't exist; and the second, where a group of scientists are trying to outrace a pandemic disease (Black Ep) which has a hundred-percent mortality rate, and will certainly wipe out the human race. The two storylines, cleverly woven around each other and full of brainy quips, are suspenseful, with a denouement that ends one chapter of what promises to be a Matrix-style (but better, if Idlewild is any indication) epic trilogy.
Fun, informative (it's full of weird story-enhancing facts), quick-moving and engrossing, this is one of the best science fiction books I've read in a while. Highly recommended, this.
Followed by Edenborn.
Review:
A young man -- who quickly discovers his name is Halloween, and he's a in strange place where disembodied voices and crazy hallucinations run amuk -- works through various onion-layers of "reality" to discover who's trying to kill him. Is it one of his eight classmates, who, like him, have a virtual instructor (Maestro), who seems to becoming increasingly hostile? Or is it Maestro himself? And who is that gray human-shaped phantom who flickers in and out of his reality?
Sagan ably cuts between two storylines: the first one, where Halloween is not only puzzling out the mystery of his and his classmates' circumstances, but the identity of a murderer, whom everybody claims doesn't exist; and the second, where a group of scientists are trying to outrace a pandemic disease (Black Ep) which has a hundred-percent mortality rate, and will certainly wipe out the human race. The two storylines, cleverly woven around each other and full of brainy quips, are suspenseful, with a denouement that ends one chapter of what promises to be a Matrix-style (but better, if Idlewild is any indication) epic trilogy.
Fun, informative (it's full of weird story-enhancing facts), quick-moving and engrossing, this is one of the best science fiction books I've read in a while. Highly recommended, this.
Followed by Edenborn.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, by Melissa Bank
(hb; 1999)
Review:
This (mostly) well-written book focuses on "Jane," whose first-person narrative traces her love life from childhood to her early thirties. The tone of the book is warm, intimate, and full of details that enrich and make up our lives; however, Bank's propensity for neurotic Woody Allen-style humor turned me off. It's a fast read -- a saving grace -- but in no way memorable. If you like Woody Allen's humor, check it out.
#
The resulting theatrical film, Suburban Girl, got wide release stateside on October 31, 2007. Marc Klein scripted and directed the film, based on two stories from Bank's book, namely "My Old Man" and "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine".
Sarah Michelle Gellar played Brett Eisenberg. Alec Baldwin played Archie Knox. Maggie Grace played Chloe.
James Naughton played Robert Eisenberg. Jill Eikenberry played Marlene Eisenberg. Peter Scolari played Mickey Lamm.
Review:
This (mostly) well-written book focuses on "Jane," whose first-person narrative traces her love life from childhood to her early thirties. The tone of the book is warm, intimate, and full of details that enrich and make up our lives; however, Bank's propensity for neurotic Woody Allen-style humor turned me off. It's a fast read -- a saving grace -- but in no way memorable. If you like Woody Allen's humor, check it out.
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The resulting theatrical film, Suburban Girl, got wide release stateside on October 31, 2007. Marc Klein scripted and directed the film, based on two stories from Bank's book, namely "My Old Man" and "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine".
Sarah Michelle Gellar played Brett Eisenberg. Alec Baldwin played Archie Knox. Maggie Grace played Chloe.
James Naughton played Robert Eisenberg. Jill Eikenberry played Marlene Eisenberg. Peter Scolari played Mickey Lamm.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Inkspell, by Cornelia Funke
(hb; 2005: second book in the Inkheart trilogy. Translated from the German by Anthea Bell)
From the inside flap:
"Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of Inkheart, the book whose characters came to life -- and changed her life forever.
"But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater brought into being from words, the need to return to the original tale has become desperate. When he finds a crooked storyteller with a magical ability to read him back, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges into the medieval inkscape once more.
"Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and before long both are caught inside the book, too. There they meet Inkheart's author, Fenoglio, now living within his own story. But the tale is much changed, and threatening to evolve in ways none of them could ever have imagined. Will Meggie, Farid, and Fenoglio manage to write the wrongs of a charmed world? Or is their story on the brink of a very bad ending?"
Review:
The second book in the Inkheart trilogy is a worthy sequel to Inkheart. Set mostly in Inkworld, an alternate realm created by the writer Fenoglio, it has all the excitement, pathos and great characters -- plus new ones: the Black Prince (with his attendant black bear) and Jink, another horned marten, are especially fun. Inkspell's downfalls are that the few plot-twists it contains are too obvious (not that Inkheart's twists weren't obvious, at least to an adult reader, but they weren't annoying like those in Inkspell), and that certain characters (especially Fenoglio) occasionally suffer from uncharacteristic plot-convenient bouts of stupidity.
But these are minor complaints. Ninety-nine percent of this story and its characters thrill, its pacing is flawless, and it ends at a solid, pseudo-cliffhanger transition point, that undoubtedly will leave most readers eagerly awaiting the third novel, Inkdawn, which is set for Stateside publication sometime this year (probably about the time that the Inkheart movie comes out).
From the inside flap:
"Although a year has passed, not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of Inkheart, the book whose characters came to life -- and changed her life forever.
"But for Dustfinger, the fire-eater brought into being from words, the need to return to the original tale has become desperate. When he finds a crooked storyteller with a magical ability to read him back, Dustfinger leaves behind his young apprentice Farid and plunges into the medieval inkscape once more.
"Distraught, Farid goes in search of Meggie, and before long both are caught inside the book, too. There they meet Inkheart's author, Fenoglio, now living within his own story. But the tale is much changed, and threatening to evolve in ways none of them could ever have imagined. Will Meggie, Farid, and Fenoglio manage to write the wrongs of a charmed world? Or is their story on the brink of a very bad ending?"
Review:
The second book in the Inkheart trilogy is a worthy sequel to Inkheart. Set mostly in Inkworld, an alternate realm created by the writer Fenoglio, it has all the excitement, pathos and great characters -- plus new ones: the Black Prince (with his attendant black bear) and Jink, another horned marten, are especially fun. Inkspell's downfalls are that the few plot-twists it contains are too obvious (not that Inkheart's twists weren't obvious, at least to an adult reader, but they weren't annoying like those in Inkspell), and that certain characters (especially Fenoglio) occasionally suffer from uncharacteristic plot-convenient bouts of stupidity.
But these are minor complaints. Ninety-nine percent of this story and its characters thrill, its pacing is flawless, and it ends at a solid, pseudo-cliffhanger transition point, that undoubtedly will leave most readers eagerly awaiting the third novel, Inkdawn, which is set for Stateside publication sometime this year (probably about the time that the Inkheart movie comes out).
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