Book Review: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey

Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe. 

LEVIATHAN WAKES is what I would deem a literary “can of worms”. Please allow me to expand on that.

James S.A. Corey (pen name of a joint effort by authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) has written a rollicking space opera with plenty of action, suspense and mystery. It actually feels like the more action-y brother to Alastair Reynolds REVELATION SPACE. In that it contains a mystery that needs solving and the end result of solving what the characters (and us as audience) thought was the whole puzzle turns out to be a small piece of a much larger and much scarier mystery. Thus the proverbial “can of worms” comment.

Corey borrows from friend author George R. R. Martin by having the narrative told though chapter character POV’s (just less of them). Though there is a chapter or two at the beginning that concerns the character Julie (before/as she goes missing), the majority of the narrative is told through two very distinct POV’s, ice-hauler XO Jim Holden, and noir-ish Ceres station detective Joseph Miller. The two are totally different, but they also seem to exist as two sides of the flipped coin. One side (Holden) errs on the side of justice and proper altruistic intentions, and the other (Miller) errs on the skeptical and lethal retribution side. Very similar in fact to the Professor X and Magneto dynamic. One wants peace because he knows peace is achievable if humanity can just weed out the riff raff and get those in power to agree. Meanwhile having been on the other side of life and seeing how humanity can corrupt itself and those around it, Miller shoots first and doesn’t bother to ask questions. This is actually the most interesting dynamic in the story, as every time I thought these two were starting to get along Miller would do something to astonish and disturb Holden and they would be at odds again. The side characters are well fleshed out and interesting, especially OPA leader Fred (who I picture as Morgan Freeman, which helps with the voice in my head). The love story part between Holden and Naomi is overblown and done on such a glacially slow level that even I was annoyed it took Holden so long. Miller’s hallucination of Julie Mao that is always present in his chapters is actually a GREAT narrative aspect. Having him sounding off her image standing near him, talking to her in his head ect. just made Miller that much more interesting. Definitely my fave character. Holden was too blatantly stupid a lot of the time for me to like him as much. He kept making rather boneheaded judgments and I wanted to yell at him through the book's pages.

The action is great and the space travel and tech involved is all plausible. I especially like little attention to detail like the simple explanation of no ship can really STOP in space, just throw it in reverse and get close. That was definitely done on a believable level. The alien menace that exists here is palpably strange and the mystery about it continues to go for the entire book, which was nice. There was no “solve it” and then 100 pages of “action”. I was still significantly mystified at the end, which is always a plus.

If the book suffers at all it’s in the pacing department. The book is about 550-ish pages long (large trade softcover) and it kind of doesn’t need to be. I felt like we could have chopped out about 200 pages and had a much tighter book. As it was there are whole sections where things are described or enacted VIA characters or between them that take so long that the pace drops right down near zero. Like when characters are discussing the latest news in-system about what’s going on in the "war" and how what they are doing currently is involved and affecting that. They spend FAR too long fleshing those bits all out so that everyone involved understands. The time it takes to do this really slows things down. Those passages could be handled in a much faster and simpler way and get the same point across. I sometimes found myself wishing they’d just get to the point so we could move onto more main event stuff.

It's as if they'll say "I want to do this" "Do you want to do this?" "Yes" "Are you Sure?" "Yes, I'm sure and here's why" "Oh I see, as long as you're sure, because it can affect things in this way too..." "Oh, true, but here's my counter to that"...

...that's a very broad way of looking at it but that's the crux of my only real complaint with the book and it doesn't happen TOO often, just enough that I noticed.

Overall a fantastic space opera with more action, intrigue and nasty corporations than you can shake a stick at. The characters are well developed, the story and tech are plausible and the mystery (as I said above) once solved, isn’t really solved and just made things blow open wider in preparation for the second book in The Expanse series titled CALIBAN’S WAR. Both author's behind Corey should be very pleased with this accomplishment as I have a very discerning taste in what I like in a sci-fi book (being more of a fantasy guy) and this one hit on all the right nodes for me. It had me guessing and enthralled right up till the last page of the epilogue. I’m very excited to see where they take this series next!

Note: This is also one of the most GORGEOUS pieces of sci-fi cover art I've ever owned. Kudos to the artist Daniel Dociu.

Movie Review: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (The best of the 3, hands down!)

When TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON ended last night and the credits rolled I wanted to applaud. It’s like Michael Bay took everything that worked about the first film, removed damn near everything that DIDN’T work about the second film, and made the 3^rd film…and then to top it off the man does 3D better than James Cameron. That’s a huge statement, but let me explain.

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON exists on the premise that the Moon Landing in 1969 was actually the result of an alien ship crashing on the moon and NASA’s sensors picking it up. So when Buzz Aldren and Neil Armstrong go to the moon, as soon as they are on the dark side and the feed was “lost” they go to explore the downed ship (The Ark) and find the bodies of Autobots (including previous Autobot leader Sentinel Prime). They bring back some tech, which the Decepticons (off the radar for a while hidden) are secretly looking for. NASA and higher ups have kept humanity largely in the dark about this discovery and when Optimus and the other Autobots find out, they are pissed that such a secret was not shared.

Bay is in fine form from moment one. Yes, you get to see the 1969 lunar landing in 3D, and yes it looks as cool as you’d think. You also get to see the last bit of the war on Cybertron and yes that is even cooler! What’s the first thing you see in the present day human timeline? New love interest (and proper 1980’s cartoon Witwicky girlfriend who he eventually marries) Carly’s (Victoria Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) ass in some scant panties going up a set of stairs…in 3D. Yup, Michael Bay reminds you (in case you forgot) that you are watching his movie. I’m a guy, so I had zero problems with this and it’s totally a self-parodying shot so Bay lives it up. Sam is now living in D.C. looking for a job and eventually finds one working for a particularly awesome and zany John Malkovich. His girlfriend on the other hand is working for a particularly slimy Patrick Dempsey, much to Sam's chagrin. The Autobots, having no Decepticons to currently fight are now helping humanity by stopping human wars. Little do they all know that Soundwave has put everybody’s favourite evil bird (Laserbeak) into action by recruiting various human helpers to bring things into alignment for a major Decepticon incursion VIA the famed (in the cartoon) Space Bridge, not to mention its keeper Shockwave.

I don’t want to delve too much into story points as I’d rather not spoil anything for you guys. Two things though. Sentinel Prime…totally voiced by Leonard Nimoy! Mirage (named Dino here…but I know he’s Mirage) is a red Ferrari with an Italian accent and badass long curved sickle blades on each arm…that he can throw as grapples to attack…seriously. So. Awesome.

This movie has everything, action, sadness, heart, triumph, betrayal, glory, pure evil, and misguided decisions. Think about everything you thought was cool about any Michael Bay movie and it’s in here. The film clocks in at 2 hrs and 33 minutes and those minutes fly by. The last hour of the film is the most incredible action battle sequence ever. In this movie you feel more for the humans, as well as the Autobots, but the balance between the two is nigh perfect here. It seems that after two movies Bay has finally found the mixture that works. He should also shoot everything in 3D. The complaint a lot of the time with the previous two was that everything blended in during the fight sequences and you didn’t know what was going on. Well shooting in 3D forces him to slow down a bit and gives depth to every scene. So you KNOW who is fighting who and shots of Bumblebee making specific ass kicking movements are clear and precise. It works on a level that (as I said above) actually trumps James Cameron as the 3D is used here not only to give depth but made Bay a better filmmaker. So even the 2D BluRay of the film is going to be better in that regard.

Yes, Shia still runs around screaming and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley isn’t the greatest thespian…but to be completely honest she delivers lines better than Megan Fox ever did...which isn’t saying much…but you get the point. Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson actually shine even better here because they get to be the balls out glory soldiers. They get to give speeches that encourage their men to do whatever it takes to get the job done and I like that. Bumblebee gets the badass award only so long as Optimus isn’t on the screen. Every time the Autobot leader shows up I couldn’t help but want to cheer and he pulls no punches here. The Optimus of the past two movies who hesitates isn’t here anymore. In his place is an Optimus Prime who can not only be called leader, but deserves every accolade we ever pinned on him as youths watching the cartoon. This is an Optimus that just isn’t going to bend this time, and that was a thrill to finally see.

This is the movie that will redeem this franchise. This is the movie that will make you believe in the glory of giant robots, and the resilience of humanity as well. If you watched the first movie and thought it took too long to get going, or watched the second movie and thought it overlong and too goofy with a convoluted plot, then this one is for you. Bay learns his lessons and finally gives us the wall to wall awesome TRANSFORMERS film we’ve been wanting to see since the get go. He also manages to show recent alien invasion movies like SKYLINE and BATTLE: LA not only how it’s done, but how it’s done RIGHT.

An absolute spectacle from start to finish, you would be hard pressed to find a better action movie this summer.

Now roll out and go see this flick!

Book Review: HERO OF AGES by Brandon Sanderson

The third book in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.

HERO OF AGES was also previously reviewed by the Scottness, those of you who are interested in balanced reviewage can read that review here.

(Those of you who are interested can get your click-on here and here to read my opinion on the first two entries.)

By using the Well of Ascension and relinquishing the power it contained Vin has released the dark god Ruin into the world.

A chaotic force, Ruin’s sole desire is to destroy the entire world and all those who live upon it. His freedom causing chaos and anarchy to ripple across the land.

Crops are failing, buried under a blanket of ash, kings and heads of state are infected by madness and Steel Inquisitors stalk the earth, leaving only death and destruction in their wake.

Meanwhile, the remnants of Kelsier’s thieving crew (for whom it takes a Herculean amount of effort for me not to refer to them as ‘rag-tag’) and newly minted emperor, Elend Venture, are racing across the Dominances shoring up defences and searching for the former Lord Ruler’s hidden caches.

Each cache contains clues about various Allomantic metals and provides supplies to be used by the populace in case of an emergency.

In the struggle to unite the disparate parts of the Empire under a single banner the crew find themselves flung across the Dominances, each trying to beat back Ruin’s influence in their own little corner of the world.

Damaged in body and soul Spook, the former thief, prowls the streets of the canal city of Urteau in search of a hidden cache and keeping a watchful eye on the dangerously unbalanced leader known as the Citizen. When Spook is caught trying to assassinate the Citizen he finds himself visited by the ghost of Kelsier and mysteriously able to burn pewter.

Sazed, the eunuch Terrisman, disheartened after the death of his lover Tindwyl (just roll with it), scours the teachings of ancient religions in the hopes that one of them will provide the answers that he needs to bring closure to his grief. But as he continues to eliminate religions he falls deeper into a dark depression.

In the secret homeland of the kandra, TenSoon tries to convince his brethren to take up the fight against Ruin. Imprisoned and abandoned his task seems hopeless, especially since the Second Generation seems so determined to maintain their isolationist stance by silencing him forever.

Elend may have taken the role of emperor reluctantly, but that’s not going to stop him from doing everything he can do protect his subjects. With an army of koloss at his command he throws himself into his duty, risking life, limb and the woman he loves in order to unravel the mysteries left behind by the Lord Ruler and defeat Ruin.

Vin is trapped in the city of Fadrex by the upstart King Yomen. Her supply of metals are exhausted, Ruin whispers constantly in her ear, a constant reminder of her own failures, and time is rapidly running out as the very planet seems to be dying around her. Out of time and out of options Vin must make a choice between giving up or fighting with her last breath.

Yowza! Pretty heavy stuff.

Unfortunately I don’t have much to add for the actual review portion of this summary sandwich.

If you liked the previous entry in the Mistborn trilogy, WELL OF ASCENSION, then you probably won’t find much here to put you off. By building on the sturdy foundation of his previous two novels Sanderson is able to cut right to the chase and do away with any unnecessary setup. This book has a faster, more action oriented pace here and considering Sanderson’s tendency to overwrite a bit the two forces counteract each other to set up a well paced story.

And there’s some good payoff here, the biggest of which has to do with the heretofore unknown secret origins of the kandra. But there are other little treats layered in throughout the book about the true motives of the Lord Ruler, the balance between Preservation and Ruin and mysterious history of the planet.

I just wish that Sanderson had been able to maintain this pacing throughout the previous novels.

I’ve touched on the emo-elements of the two main characters, Vin and Elend, in my previous reviews. But in this novel, Sanderson tweaks the relationship slightly, creating lovers tortured by circumstances beyond their control rather than TWILIGHT style romances based on teenage angst and hormones. It’s a subtle change but one I whole heartedly embrace. I’m fine with conflicted protagonists, hell, I embrace them, I just don’t need them to remind me of that fact every time wander off alone.

And again, I give the Sanderson props for not putting his characters up on pedestals, protected and untouchable. It makes for much more interesting reading to know that any character, big or small, could suddenly find themselves shuffling off their mortal coil when faced with a stabby situation. No one is safe.

Quibbles? I have a few. I still think Sanderson spends too much time laying out the ground rules of HOW THINGS WORK (big booming god-like voice optional) and he often gets bogged down in describing what characters are thinking and feeling and ruminating about. He also has an unfortunate tendency to slow the story down a bit by unnecessarily describing everything around his characters.

(Yes. I know. They are living in a world beset my mist and falling ash. But if the aforementioned mist and ash are so bloody important at least bust out a thesaurus and use new words to describe them, like fog or cinders or something. Once you’ve described one ash choked landscape you’ve pretty much described them all.)

On the whole I enjoyed the series, was interested in the series; but I wasn’t particularly engaged in the series. While I can point to individual elements of the books and say, these things didn’t really work for me, in truth none of them were so egregious as to prevent me from enjoying the story or recommending it to others. There were things present here that I was genuinely interested in, it was just the execution and presentation that tripped me up.

I guess there was just something about this trilogy that just didn’t resonate with me. In the end I think I was reading it out of habit and not out of a burning desire to know what comes next.

Social Media Explosion! AKA Some new Iceberg Ink-related pages!

Far be it from us to hang around in the dark ages. Is that a dot matrix printer? How antiquated!

To help foment discussion of our various ramblings and postings, book reviews, TV reviews, film reviews, or other random postings we have created a Facebook page. So feel free to click on the Facebook Logo to the upper left of the page and have a gander at our page. It’s still fledgling as I write this, so we hope our readers will join up and have at it.

This way we can connect with you, and you can have your say about the things we’ve posted as well. We will try our best to make every post available as a link VIA the FB page as well as over on Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, you’ll notice that our Twitter account is also linked over on the left hand side with a handy icon to click. It links to our main account, but Chris and I both have personal accounts for the site IcebergInkChris and IcebergInkScott respectively where we get to be a little more chatty so if you’d like to hear more rambly fun tweeting you can find us there as well.

We thought it was time to get rid of our cassette deck and use the CD player…wait what?

Anyways, enjoy the social media explosion everyone!

Rant: Summoning the collective ire of Book Bloggers is a poor idea

It’s not often we here at Iceberg Ink draw attention to what I would term “internet goings on”, but a guest post over at the Santa Cruz.com about the most recent Book Expo has raised a lot of hackles and ire. My own included.

You can read the whole post (I refuse to call it an “article” as it is ill-researched and generally elitism of the highest order) over HERE.

Paraphrasing though, Daniela says boneheaded things like:

“This year’s BEA confirmed what most writers and book reviewers already knew: that the publication of serious literature, and particularly of literary fiction, has been abandoned by the big publishers to the small or medium-size independent presses.”

As well as Blogger rage-inducing tripe like:

“Book blogging has become a subculture whose members are mostly women between 20 and 50 years old, often known as “mommy bloggers” because they are housewives who blog about romance novels, horror/vampire stories and paranormal novels.”

Oh, and the writer of the post also makes confounding statements about social media like:

“At the Book Bloggers reception I met many girls in their early twenties who already have hundreds of followers on Twitter. As far as I could tell, I was the only person at the convention who doesn’t tweet.”

What’s even funnier is that if you trawl through the 138-odd comments on the post, book bloggers have come out in force to vehemently decry this Daniela persons post as the pinnacle of idiocy simply for being woefully ignorant not only of what she’s talking about, but about the publishing and review industry at large. There’s some random dude trolling every last comment with his own particular brand of snobbery and elitism, but mostly he just comes off as a petty troll with too much time on his hands and a ready library of classics in his arsenal. Basically the entire comments section is one long defensive argument letting Daniela know that not only is she wrong, but that book blogger's have a voice and will gather en masse to use it. In fact it’s probably unfair that since she doesn’t use twitter she doesn’t know the onslaught of mentions she’s likely getting and SantaCruz has probably never been a busier site. Similar to that author who self-destructed her career a few months ago by posting nasty comments on a random book blogger’s site calling him out for his negative review of her book, tweeting it proved her ultimate demise career-wise simply because of how fast wildfire spreads in the age of the interwebz. This story has been making the rounds for a few days, and there are already numerous blogs about it, but I wanted to chime in myself.

Firstly, it’s obvious to anyone with half a brain that book bloggers come in all shapes, sizes, colours, ages, ethnicities ect. Saying otherwise is just so incredibly silly that I can’t even comment past that. Chris and I are certainly NOT mommy bloggers, nor are we 20-50 year old women.

My main issue here, other than the blatant elitism of the posting, is actually to do with her dismissal of genre fiction as not “serious” and that children’s books shouldn’t be so popular, and that we should all be reading more “serious” literature. In what has become an increasingly pointy thorn in my side as Chris and I have embarked on this Book Blog journey, more and more I hear people (mostly pretentious hipsters) saying things like “Why are you wasting your time with fantasy and sci-fi? Why don’t you read something REAL for once?” This seems to be sadly a prevailing opinion with folk not into “genre” or “speculative” fiction. Now I am narrowing in more within the post in question (which is more broad), but the basic premise seems to be the same. The notion that Daniela puts forth is that what we are reading (as society) is not “serious literature” and therefore is worth less somehow, that as bloggers we are not serious reviewers and shouldn’t be paid attention to by the masses of readers out there, and above and beyond all that she mention's concentration on Children’s books is too heavy these days.

I’m not joking.

This woman is actually implying such things.

In a world where the HARRY POTTER series literally got an entire GENERATION of children reading again, not to mention showed their parents that these books could be enjoyed on many levels. I don’t think this many teenagers have read so voraciously in the last 30 years to be honest. So instead of ALWAYS watching TV, a good percentage of kids are actually CHOOSING to pick up books and read. Not only that, but kids who read stuff like POTTER and grew up on it are now in their mid-late teens and hopefully POTTER sparked in them the need to continue on, check out classics, but also to continue to indulge that part of them that desires entertainment that only books can provide. That’s HUGE to me. Absolutely HUGE.

An example, there is a middle-aged guy at my office who’s mainstay is being a man’s man and talking sports and being generally gruff. Well he watched HBO’s GAME OF THRONES and so enjoyed it, that after the finale he came to me and asked me if he should read the second book. This is a guy I’d never peg as reading a fantasy book in a million years! Yet there we sit, and he wants to read it.

That’s not something we can afford to scoff at. We can’t sit there as readers and say that classics like Chaucer, Shakespeare and Joyce are the only “serious literature” we should all be reading. We can’t sit there and behave as if those titles are the cream of the crop and everything else is crap. That’s absurd. In fact why does it even need to be mentioned? Why can’t one person enjoy classics, but also enjoy an airport thriller or an urban fantasy paranormal romance? Why do the two have to exist in different clubs? I don’t quite understand that notion. We read for entertainment full stop, so why does it matter what story you’re being told as long as you are enjoying it? Why are there people in the world like Daniela who seem to think that writing and books exist in this bubble of aristocracy where only something they deem as “serious literature” (a phrase she fails to define, but I am sure she and I would differ on the definition) makes the grade?

Beyond even all that, Newspaper and Magazine (print media) are NOTORIOUS for completely ignoring genre and spec fiction UNLESS it’s on the NYT Bestseller list or has an HBO show. Seriously, when was the last time you cracked an issue of EW and saw a review of a proper fantasy or sci-fi book? When was the last time you opened the Toronto Star and saw a book review of that type in there? It’s not only rare, it borders on proper exclusion. Look at last years arguably biggest SFF title, Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson’s 13^th Wheel Of Time book TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. It reached #1 on the NYT Bestseller list, and NOT ONE newspaper in my area (Toronto Star, The Sun, Globe and Mail, National Post) covered it or made mention of it. Why? Because it’s fantasy and they feel that not enough of their readers would be interested in that. Which is why I think they are all so behind the times. Their readership is now comprised of people weaned on stuff like TRUE BLOOD, BUFFY, GAME OF THRONES, LOST ect. I think the newspapers are totally missing the boat by pointedly ignoring these sub-genre’s of fiction. Then again, I guess their loss is our gain.

As my final thought here I’ll tell you all what I tell those pretentious people who tell me to read something REAL and not bother with fantasy and sci-fi. I read to be ENTERTAINED. That’s the bottom line. I will, quite frankly, read what I want to read. I personally read to escape, not bore myself with contemporary books about everyday life. Actually, if I’m being totally honest I’m usually more abrupt with those pretentious hipsters…and a lot less eloquent, but you get the point.

So the book bloggers have united and become a Voltron of sorts. Daniela will be suitably, and probably epic-ly put in her place. She’ll likely think twice in the future about her comments, and the interwebz will have one more self-destruct to witness and tweet about. If there is one thing that proves it’s that Book Blogger’s are not only here to stay, but we defend our own and are not some fly by night mommy bloggers.

Book Review: The Devil Colony by James Rollins

Thrillmaster James Rollins’ latest Sigma Force book THE DEVIL COLONY (2 years in the making) is a strange animal. On the one hand it has all the trappings of a Sigma story. Great action, terrific suspense, and insight into some brand new mysteries! On the other hand, it’s longer (480 pages-ish trade sofcover) with a broader scope and more characters that make our Sigma faves further apart from each other and concerns some mysteries that just aren’t as interesting (to me personally) as previous installments.

Let me ‘splain better.

The book is written with the Rollins-style of breakneck pacing, wonderfully fleshed out characters, intriguing plot twists and all the action packed Hollywood-esque sequences you can handle. The short fiction piece that he released on eBook a few weeks ago THE SKELETON KEY does indeed (as professed) blend right into this narrative (at least where Seichan is directly concerned). The mysteries herein, like the founding of America, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, The Masons, Native American peoples, the Book of Mormon, and nanotechnology are all decent plot notions and fit really well into the Sigma style story. This is the classic Rollins Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style and I usually LOVE that to no end. In a number of chapters I just found myself voraciously reading because of pace, not story… if that makes any sense.

There are a larger number of side characters and plots here and I think that’s one thing that threw me a bit. Usually we have a narrative strand where our Sigma Operatives (Gray, Painter, Monk, Kat, Kowalski ect.) are in one or two disparate places and the two teams usually jive information to solve whatever is happening in the main plot. Here we have them spread a little thinner, and while Gray meets up with Monk on a few occasions for some good times and ANY scene with Painter trying to keep Kowalski from blowing everything up is great, the characters are still further apart from one another. With Kat being preggers, it makes perfect sense for her to be the go-to person hanging out at HQ in D.C., but I can’t help missing her in out in the field. I think that with the non-Sigma sideplots things are blown a little too wide and thus things don’t feel quite as tight, and for me the tension suffered for it.

The only other thing I’ll mention is that the whole founding of America thing is being overdone right now (by various authors) and I don’t think it has as many legs to stand on to be as interesting as stuff like the Seven Ancient Wonders, Angkor Wat and Hindu deities, or even Ancient Greek refugees in India. There is something decidedly global about Sigma usually, and bringing it home to the USA actually just makes it feel a little less exciting (except for the time in Iceland, my fave part of the book actually). That said, PLEASE know that if there is one author who does the “founding of America” story RIGHT…it’s Rollins. If I had to pick from all the authors doing it, I’d pick him no question. The issue being that I’ve read a few books (thriller books) about this topic already is all, so I’ve personally been saturated by it. It makes me wish I’d gotten to read THE DEVIL COLONY first, as I think it might have had a better impact had it been the first of those I’d read instead of the 4th. Still, that’s by no means any reason not to pick it up as most of you folk may be down with that as the mystery bit, and you can ignore my inane ramblings.

Don’t get the wrong idea here though, I still really enjoyed this book and it was totally worth the wait. Everything that works, really works well. All the characters are here how you love them, including my fave Kowalski (Kat was my fave till she decided to have a family instead of action-y bits…booo! Haha!) An especially compelling aspect is Gray having to deal with his father advancing Alzheimer’s and his mother’s inability to cope with it on her own. Since the Pierce family has been involved with us for a while, it’s good to see Rollins paying attention to Gray’s deteriorating father and the subsequent affect it has on him. Having Seichan present during that sequence is a nice touch as we continue to bring her into the Sigma fold. I have more and more respect for her and her back-story with every bit more I get about her past. I’m also one of those people who thought Monk should have bit the big one back when we all thought he did, but I can’t complain about him now as his gruff comments and great sense of humor are always welcome, not to mention he really is a character you can’t not love. He is however, no Kowalski. Kowalski is gold incarnate, a scenery-chewing machine whenever he’s in the frame. Having him here playing off Painter’s serious personality is like a great Laurel & Hardy bit. The side characters (previously unknown) like Hank and Kai, and the Japanese scientists ect. are good, but as far as side characters go I think it’s the Military leader (Ryan?) in the Utah mountains and Sigma geologist Chin who steal the sideshow. There is a sequence in the Utah Mountains that has everything I expect from a Rollins thriller action sequence and I loved every last drop of it.

The Guild (Worldwide secret organization), Sigma’s enemy, are fleshed out a little more but still not fully. There are a few huge reveals in the book about them, but no full unveiling yet. I am not going to lie I was expecting a full reveal in this book as they’ve been dangled for a while, but I’m not utterly disappointed by the lack of one simply because still not knowing DOES add a certain tension to the proceedings.

One thing I’d like to note is that the best part of how Rollins writes these books is that he never reveals too much too early. He never depends his final 100 pages on action alone. Instead he keeps the mystery revelations popping off alongside the breathtaking action finale until the very last page, and in a number of cases the very last LINE of the book is a revelation. That’s key to why I buy this man’s books the day they come out. He is literally unmatched in the genre.

Though I had a few issues with THE DEVIL COLONY, overall it was a very enjoyable read, and one that will give you more of that Sigma adventure you’ve gotten used to. If you like the Sigma books at all, then this one will please you to no end, and I’ve actually heard people say it’s their fave of the series so far as well. My two faves are still MAP OF BONES and THE JUDAS STRAIN, because both of those are like the very pinnacle of action-adventure-historical-scientific-thriller for me, and would be welcome in my ten desert island books easily!

I feel pretty safe in saying that Rollins has another winner on his hands here, and he should be very pleased with it. I only have one favour to ask him, please let it not be another 2 years till the next Sigma Op, as there is some cliff-hangery stuff going on at the end of this one and I need to know what happens!

The Great Malazan Re-Read!

Well, it's that time. It's still a few weeks till the release of the latest ASOIAF title A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, and in the interim I have begun what is to be my summer project and that's a re-read of my favourite series of all time. Steven Erikson's MALAZAN BOOK OF THE FALLEN series.

So last night, for the first time since 2003 (when I started the series) I started into the first book GARDENS OF THE MOON again. At only a hundred pages into it I realize just how layered this series really is. How much is mined even in the first book that matter down the road. Erikson put so much in that makes a re-read so decidedly rich. Heck, even the chapter preludes are far more telling and mean so much more to me now. It's like seeing a movie you already love from a different angle and being able to enjoy it on another level.

So, over the course of the summer I will be popping in to put up reviews of each book as I re-read them, starting with this one when I finish it. So if you are a fan, or haven't even heard of the series, stay tuned, come along with me on a journey through the warrens to a place where war, magic and societies clash.

First Book Memories: Norbert Nipkin by Robert McConnell & Steve Pilcher

I have two REALLY solid memories from being like 2 or 3 years old. That was an age, that unless your memory is decidedly awesome, you only recall in fuzzy snippets. Small noted occurrences, or pieces of events rather than full sequences that you can put into words easily. Bright primary colors stand out, or the way something felt when you touched it. Other than these fleeting images you usually remember only a few things with anything more than a noteworthy passing.

So, two I have. Two memories that have never left me and I remember them quite clearly.  Number one would be when I was 3. It was 1980. What on earth could a 3-year old (future pop culture nerd) remember from 1980? If you guessed his first film screening in the form of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, then you get a prize! (Note: prizes will not be honored). I remember that vividly. Sitting in the darkened theatre downtown at the Bloor, as the Fox fanfare played and a yellow scrawl played across an ocean of stars.

Ah memories…

I digress. We are in fact here to talk about my OTHER memory. When I was 2 (psst, that’s 1979), my mother bought a picture book called NORBERT NIPKIN. Written by Robert McConnell and illustrated by the supremely talented (I think he works for Pixar now) Steve Pilcher, this book was a visual wonder.  It’s also a Fantasy book, go figure!

I remember my mother reading it to me for the first time, the cadenced poetic style to the words, and the pictures that took me away to another place. It took me to the nooks of trees, where lived the tiny Nipkins, and into the mountain fasts, where lived the terrible giant Zlogs. It dropped me off in clusters of autumn leaves and I thought I could hear them crinkle, and it tucked me in safe in my bed inside the hollow of a great oak. It saw me through a dark nighttime wood safely, only to bring me face to face with a nightmare giant who wanted to eat me.

The nuanced style of the text was such that any child could catch on and remember the words. As picture books often do, the poetic rhyming words, makes it so after the first few reads I could read along. Sometimes my mother would read a passage and then look to me to read the next. It’s one of my fondest memories, and exists in a time when my parents weren’t fighting; and I wasn’t worried about the umpteen things that an adult has to worry about day to day. It exists for me, untouched in my memories exactly how it was then. Every now and again I like to dust off that memory and recall that at one time, everything was hushed and warmly lit, and perfect.

It quickly became my favourite. Every time my mother asked what book she should read, I am pretty sure I answered "Norbert!" She likely got sick of reading it to me, but she’s never said if she did or didn’t. Books, especially picture books (since you outgrow them), came and went as I grew up but I never let NORBERT NIPKIN go. Garage sales would come and even some of my Star Wars toys would get sold to someone younger. Someone more able to enjoy them for what they were. But I was never able to let NORBERT go. No matter what happened or where we moved, I made sure he was safe. Yeah, the dust jacket got dinged and torn, and the spine was well worn from reading it over and over, but it was still a treasure to me. Many years later, unbeknownst to me, McConnell and Pilcher made a sequel book. So in 2005 (27 years after the first one came out), on my 28^th birthday my father bought me NORBERT NIPKIN AND THE MAGIC RIDDLE STONE and inscribed it hoping it brought me nostalgia. It did, in spades, even though I was a grown adult. The cadence of the rhyming text. The glorious art on the pages. The solid, meaningful story told. A great addition. Is it as good as the first? No, but that’s not for any other reason than the soft spot I have for the first. That warm, candle-lit memory in my head is unassailable.

The book is long out of print now, and finding a First Edition in any decent shape will cost you a chunk of cash. Mine’s not in any great shape now, and part of me thinks the dust jacket may even be gone, but I don’t care. Which is funny, I’m SO picky about keeping all my books in pristine condition even while reading them (not cracking the spine ect.), but with Norbert I don’t care. As long as it still exists and I can still open it and read it, I’m happy. In fact it’s probably a lesson I should learn about my other books and my need to keep them pristine. The fact that my NORBERT is so well-worn just shows how much I’ve loved it over the years.

Somewhere along the line I think I brought it over to my sisters when my eldest niece was a child to read it to her while I babysat her. She enjoyed it, I hope, on the same level that I did. Well, it’s been a number of years since then, and my eldest niece is now fifteen, but her younger sister is only 5 and the book currently sits on her shelf and she's read it a bunch of times. I still have the sequel on my shelf, and my sister has said that I can take NORBERT back as well at some point. My dearest wish is that one day, when I have kids I can read it to them and hopefully bring them the same kind of clear memory of their earliest years. A nice memory. One that can stay untouched for the entirety of their lives. So that no matter what happens to them or the family around them, there can be this little thing in the back of their heads of a simpler time, with simpler wishes. A wish for adventure!

I think that may be the key to why activities like reading, watching movies or TV, or even listening to music are so special and important to us as society. It’s because that's something that NO ONE can steal from you, ever. It’s safe.

Movie Review: Green Lantern

I am usually the very first person to discount movie Critics (capitalized for those who specifically do it professionally) when it comes to genre flicks, and most especially “popcorn” flicks that are simply meant to entertain. I actually really enjoy movies that simply entertain. CLASH OF THE TITANS, PUSH, UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS, DOOMSDAY, were all pretty much pissed on across the board by the Critics, but if you looked at audience reactions, those were more varied and there seemed to be a number of people, like me, who actually enjoyed those movies for what they were: fun, genre, popcorn entertainment. I’ve always been of the mind that the Critics won’t like such a flick unless there is something IN it that their Critical eye can glom onto (like gorgeous cinematography, or in the case of IRON MAN, Downey Jr.’s amazing performance) and tout. I think they’ve forgotten what it was to just go to a movie and enjoy it for enjoyment’s sake.

That said when it comes to Martin Campbell’s live action DC Comics film GREEN LANTERN starring Ryan Reynolds...they were SPOT on the bean. For lack of a better phrase it is fairly awful.

As far as bad comic book-to-screen adaptations go, the bottom of the barrel is usually occupied by the first FANTASTIC FOUR, SPIDERMAN 3 and DAREDEVIL. So where does GL fall? Somewhere in between those...but really NOTHING is worse than DAREDEVIL.

I’m also kind of baffled as to how this movie is so bad. I mean Martin Campbell directed CASINO ROYALE and almost single handedly revived the James Bond series!...but then I remember that he also did VERTICAL LIMIT and THE LEGEND Of ZORRO and things settle into place in my head.

Where does GL fall apart? Well, it’s not in the effects department, as the film LOOKS just fine, especially the scenes on Oa everything looks lavish. Even GL’s suit is nicely presented and doesn’t look too CGI that I couldn’t get past it which I had been worried about. That all worked fine. No, I think because this film went through more than one script re-write is probably problem one. There is some seriously clunky dialogue and some strange plot progression moments where I wondered if we were missing a reel. As far as acting goes I have to only give any credit to Reynolds who does his very best to pull off Hal Jordan (and Mark Strong, see below), but even his best (I’m afraid) is just not good enough and there were whole sections where he descends into goofy one-liners. Hal is a sarcastic, cocky guy...not a goofy, cocky guy. I give Reynolds credit for trying, but in the end I think he was the wrong choice to play Hal. While we are at it, I don’t think every huge animated character in movies needs to be portrayed or voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan...there I said it. I would preferred Kilowog to have been gruffer (but that’s a personal nitpick). Geoffrey Rush, on the other hand, as Tomar Re was genius, he works perfectly. However, Sarsgard, Robbins, Basset and Lively get reduced to carboard cutouts gibbering pointless dialogue and being too over the top for their own good. Sarsgard especially doesn’t come across as villainous as Hector Hammond but actually seems to be doing his level best clowning bad guy sidekick impression. When people like Jeff Bridges, Wilem Dafoe, Heath Ledger and Tom Hiddelston have come before you playing comic book villains you really need to come with your “A” game, and the best Sarsgard can seem to manage is his “F” game. Robbins is almost laughable as Hammond’s Senator Father as he seems to just be an afformetnioned cardboard cutout of the asshole father, right down to the scene where it looks as if he’s going to macho-ly punch Hammond Jr. in the gut and shout “Hey Tiger!”, and we KNOW that Robbins is capable of much subtler performances and much better acting. Even the bit character of Kalmaku played here by Taika Watiti (Hal’s mechanic in the comics) is reduced to comedy sounding board for Reynold’s goofier moments as Jordan.  The only real standout is the always amazing Mark Strong as future baddie Sinestro, who chews scenery in every scene he’s in.

Okay, you say, so the acting’s bad, is that all? I’m afraid that’s not all. As I said above the script is really messy and tries to jam too much into the hour and forty minute running time (who told them to make such a densely back grounded story into a movie that is 1 hr 40?!). The funny thing about that is that this is basically Geoff John’s  Green Lantern: Origin story which isn’t that deep. It basically establishes Hal into the role and has him fight an enemy. It SHOULD have been easy as hell to do, but instead someone decided to complicate things. I think Chris’ comment to me after the film spells it out best. Having Parallax show up VIA Hector Hammond was a bad bad idea. As he noted, what could have happened is Hal could have fought Hector in the downtown streets with Hal making constructs and Hammond throwing shit at him with his mind and that could have made a decent climax battle. But someone decided that Parallax needed to show up now. So we get the too many villains angle and Parallax never has time to be painted as anything too much. Sure it can destroy people on a whim and seems to delight in taking out a few city blocks, but was I ever really frightened by this creature that supposedly feeds on fear? Not at all. In as much as I think Sarsgard’s portrayal of Hammond was bad, I think Parallax was worse. He may as well have been called “Big Nameless Cloud Macguffin that destroys”. 

Lastly, what do you go to see a GL movie for? You got to see Hal make ring contructs right? Well he does that for all of 12 minutes over the course of the whole 1hr 40 minutes...and I’m being generous. Mostly he does it on Oa, and those scenes are great but there isn't enough. Likewise we never get enough of Oa as a setting... the Guardians who are totally interesting in the comics, are here completely underused as the dudes who actually created the GL Corps. Then there are Sinestro, Kilowog and Tomar Re who don’t get oodles of screen time either. I don’t really mind that as this is Hal’s show, but if you are going to introduce us to a whole world of Space Police, please at least spend more time there. It seems like Hal gets an hour or two of training (that in the film lasts as a 4 minute montage) and then off he goes to save earth. Even in John’s origin book he spends a bunch more time there before returning to earth, going to the central battery to learn things about the Corp. Ect. I needed more of that in a GL movie. 

GL is a wasted opportunity to make a third big DC character into a viable franchise. With Nolan's Batman films doing so well, and Zack Snyder re-launching Superman next year in MAN OF STEEL, we COULD have had a decent, serious GL movie and instead we get something that isn’t even as good as the animated origin story GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT that came out last year. GL is a squandered opportunity and a practically lifeless, definitely soulless effects-ridden movie that gave me memories of the second Mummy movie. Seriously. I feel awful saying that. I went in with lowered expectations, and I don’t think I could lower them enough to enjoy the dog’s breakfast mess that is GREEN LANTERN.

Book Review: WELL OF ASCENSION by Brandon Sanderson

WELL OF ASCENSION (WoA) is the second novel in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy.

Those of you with enough time on your hands can read my review of the first entry, MISTBORN, here.

WoA picks up roughly a year after the events of MISTBORN.

Elend Venture has freed the skaa, brought stability to Luthadel and the Central Dominance and managed to cobble together a working government with himself as King.

Most days Elend has enough problems just trying to keep his government from tearing itself apart due to its own naked self interest. When two warring armies deposit themselves outside his front door he finds himself struggling to keep control of his Assembly, who would rather quietly surrender then fight for it. But who should they surrender to, the bloodthirsty Straff Venture, who just happens to be Elend’s father, or the crippled and enigmatic Lord Cett. Elend cobbles together a plan with the help of the remnants of Kelsier’s former crew to keep the Assembly occupied and play the two besieging armies off against each other.

Meanwhile Vin continues to develop her own Allomantic powers, honing them on her nightly patrols of Luthadel. Burning pewter to stave off exhaustion she still manages to spar with the mysterious Watcher who haunts the rooftops of the capitol city. Vin senses a change in the mist and all around her she perceives a great Allomantic pulse rippling through the city.

In the Southern Dominance Sazed, Vin’s former teacher and steward, is approached by Marsh to explore an abandoned Canton of Inquisition building. The two men find the building deserted, but Sazed locates a metal inscription that purports to be the chronicle of Kwaan, the Terrisman Worldbringer who first predicted the rise of the Hero of Ages.

(Look, I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that you’ve read the previous book, because all the recappery in the world isn’t going to help that last sentence make sense unless you’ve got previous experience with the story.)

Leaving Marsh behind Sazed decides to return to Luthadel. On his way he notes a pair of disturbing observations, that the ubiquitous mists are now coming during the day and that an army of koloss, bloodthirsty semi-human savages, are on the march towards the capitol city.

Back in Luthadel Elend has been deposed because of his refusal to surrender the city. Freed from the restraints of royalty he casts about for other ways to serve his people and begins to fortify the city against the attack that he knows is coming. But time is running out, the armies are growing restless and it seems that no one has the will to stand-up for the skaa.

Beset by enemies both inside and outside their walls Vin, Elend and their allies must work quickly to put a plan in place that will return Elend to the throne and protect the people of Luthadel.

This is a much better book then the first entry into the series. Gone is the idiot primer that helped readers understand the properties of Allomancy. This leaves more real estate to actually tell a story.

Unfortunately, the romance novel motifs from the first book are still at play. Vin and Elend spend a LOT of time staring off into emo-space, questioning their abilities, their partner’s love for each other, their place in the world and so on and so forth. A little self doubt and uncertainty make for flawed characters and good readings. Too much self doubt makes Vin and Elend sound like whiny emo crybabies and bring the story action to a halt.

(It’s clear why Sanderson makes such a great replacement writer for Robert Jordan’s WHEEL OF TIME series, some of his inner monologues could be lifted directly from the Rand ‘al Thor school of self doubt.)

There was more than one occasion when I wanted to shout ‘Just get on with it’ as we evidenced, for the umpteenth time, just how conflicted these characters were. A little more restraint on the depiction of their inner turmoil would have gone a looong way to heightening the inter-character drama.

I also feel that a lot of conflicts for the main character group smacked of similarity. One invading army is tense, two invading armies has the potential for multi-pronged conflict, but throwing a third invading army into the mix, no matter how scary and frightening, just seems repetitive. Especially when you consider that for the bulk of the novel the armies just sat there and didn’t DO anything.

But I have to give Sanderson kudos for not being afraid to shake up his supporting characters. A number of his larger second tier characters, ones I would normally identify as being safe from any real harm, actually end up dying in the book’s final conflict. Rather than using the threat of death as a toothless danger he lets readers know that no one, well, almost no one, is safe. Seeing supporting characters dispatched in these numbers is a rarity for an ongoing series and I admire him for the choices he’s made. A lot of these deaths will clearly have ramifications for his surviving characters and could make for interesting growth in the next book.

An interesting read and I’m looking forward to the series final entry.

Book Review: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

There I was standing on the subway and staring at me was a grayish-white plastic, seamed robotic face with red eyes. The poster for the buzz-worthy book ROBOPOCALYPSE by Daniel H. Wilson. Here was something that sounded hella interesting and was apparently optioned by Steven Spielberg for a movie based solely on 100 pages of the book before it came out. That’s kind of astonishing.

So intrigued by the poster, the blurb and the buzz that seemingly surrounded it, I had to grab myself a copy of it. So off I trundled to the book store. Later that night, nose tucked firmly into the pages I got a hint of what the buzz was all about.

Told in the form of a dossier of collected material about a war with an AI run amok and its subsequent turning of every bit of robotic tech on the planet against us, this is at once a completely arresting narrative that will hook you from page one.

Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace, a soldier in the New War (the war against Rob [Robots] and Archos, the AI that started it all), after the war ends has found a cube. A black box, which contains the dossier pieces in the forms of interviews, surveillance videos, news reports, depositions, and even eyewitness accounts all recorded by the robots themselves of what it deemed as the “heroes” and the “survivors” of humanity. Each chapter is bookended by notes from Cormac which sort of acts as the fill in the gaps of the story between the events the dossier documents.

A few years ago a scientist in a remote Alaskan lab attempted (for the 14^th time) to activate a being of artificial intelligence without it wanting to annihilate humanity within minutes. Archos keeps seeing “life” and loving it. The problem with that is that history teaches it that humans exist to kill. So for life to flourish, humans must (logically) be exterminated. The first 13 times the scientist shuts down Archos after it decides this, but on the 14^th activation it tricks him and escapes. The subsequent events with robotic and computerized life across the globe being turned against us is where we begin in earnest.

The storytelling style of these dossier fragments, which in other stories might not work, REALLY works here. Wilson shrewdly gives us everything we need to see both sides of the conflict from the outset to the closing without needing to draw anything out too long. So all the gaps in the storyline over 3+ years of stories about various personages involved actually help the pace move along at a clip that will have you reading and not stopping. A REALLY interesting facet of the story is how a large chunk of the characters (from different places around the world) fragments are interconnected in some way, not just because the war connects them, but also because that’s how Archos would move from one thing to the next. There’s a progression there that just works for how an AI would move from one person or action to the next, and in doing so would connect these people who either knew each other or were closely connected VIA some other way.

The characters themselves are all entertaining and all have distinct, compelling personalities. I think Takeo Nomura, a brilliant robot repairman in Tokyo, Japan is especially realized. In the former human world he is treated with derision and is the but of jokes, but in the post human New War society he is not only a leader, but also a genius and a savior. Through that change his personality NEVER wavers. It’s nice to see an author pay that much attention to personality traits. The characters from the Bright Boy squad and the Gray Horse Army go through some decent character development, some going from pretty much shits to upstanding and heroic people.

The action is really well realized and Wilson’s background in actual robotics gives him the edge on storytelling featuring robots. Every scene in which we either get a robot described, or from a robots POV it’s always totally believable and feels very realistic. I love the way he has robotic and computerized aspects of society that are totally believable to us today in 2011…and then the mods start to come and they make perfect sense as well.

This will make a decidedly great robot movie. In fact as I was reading it I kept thinking here is the story that will shame Terminator as it actually goes into the guts of the “why” and the “how” a Skynet-like intelligence would turn against us. In those movies it’s always this relatively anonymous and utterly evil AI, whereas Archos never feels as such and instead is kind of sympathetic, in a strange way. In that Archos’ goal is “life”, and it just so happens that our blood-soaked human history works against us and doesn’t fit into the puzzle pieces of “life” that it assembles. This is definitely a cautionary tale, but one where the villain isn’t a clear black and white entity. There are shades of gray all over the volume and that only add more depth to an already layered story.

What really works I would say is that this has summer blockbuster written all over it, and not just as a book but also as the future movie. Certain scenes and ideas are going to make this one to look out for on the big screen, especially with Spielberg at the helm.

If you like Robots at all and apocalyptic fiction then this book is totally for you. A wondrously imaginative read, with good characters, and a cautionary tale of a narrative that will make you think about just what it is to be human on this planet.

Cover Art: Bernard Cornwell's latest, DEATH OF KINGS (including synopsis)

 For me, Bernard Cornwell has (since I first read his work) been at the top of my historical fiction author list. Like Ridley Scott in the film world, he just does epic historical adventures RIGHT.

I’ve only recently started to scratch the surface of his Sharpe books, but I’ve been following his Saxon Stories (beginning with THE LAST KINGDOM) since they began. The story of Uhtred, a saxon child raised by Vikings who later in life has to serve the pious king Alfred The Great, is compelling and action packed.

There have been five novels in the series so far, and it turns out the sixth is now on the horizon. Set to be released in September of this year, THE DEATH OF KINGS will continue Uhtred’s tale in the kingdom before there was a kingdom. Sign me up!

Synopsis:

As the ninth century wanes, England appears about to be plunged into chaos once more. For the Viking-raised but Saxon-born warrior, Uhtred, whose life seems to shadow the making of England, this presents him with difficult choices.

King Alfred is dying and his passing threatens the island of Britain to renewed warfare. Alfred wants his son, Edward, to succeed him but there are other Saxon claimants to the throne as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north.

Uhtred‘s loyalty – and his vows – were to Alfred, not to his son, and despite his long years of service to Alfred, he is still not committed to the Saxon cause. His own desire is to reclaim his long lost lands and castle to the north. But the challenge to him, as the king’s warrior, is that he knows that he will either be the means of making Alfred’s dream of a united and Christian England come to pass or be responsible for condemning it to oblivion.

TV Review: GAME OF THRONES - Episode 9 (Baelor)

So here we are, the penultimate episode of GAME OF THRONES.

There's just one episode left in this massive fantasy series the onscreen action and excitement is slowly being ratcheted to a fever pitch.

With casting for a second season already underway it’s comforting to know that my emotional investment of the past year won’t be for naught.

But first we should get our recappitude on so everybody is on the same page.

As always, spoilers abound, so if you don’t wanna know…DON’T READ!

Ned continues to waste away in a jail cell, visited only by Varys who tries to convince the stubborn lord to recant his statement about the validity of Joffrey's claim to the throne, if not to protect his own neck but to save the lives of his daughters.

Ned’s son Robb continues to lead Stark forces south towards King’s Landing in order to secure his father’s freedom. Hemmed in by a pair of Lannister armies and the Trident river, Catelyn Stark negotiates passage across the river with the crotchety Lord Frey by promising Robb’s hand in marriage to one of Frey’s many daughters.

At the army of Tywin Lannister, Tyrion passes a sleepless night playing drinking games and recounting the story of his brief marriage to his new paramour as well as his bodyguard, Bronn. Placed in the army’s vanguard Tyrion doesn’t think much of his chances for surviving the upcoming battle with Robb’s forces.

The next day, with Robb’s army seemingly on their doorstep, Tyrion rallies the hill people of the Vale to battle but is himself knocked unconscious by a wayward club before the two forces can meet. When he awakes Bronn informs him that the battle only involved a small portion of Robb’s army and that the bulk of his forces are still uncounted for.

Later it is revealed that Robb chose to fight Jamie Lannister’s forces instead, winning the encounter and capturing the former Kingsguard in the process.

Across the ocean Khal Drogo is revealed to be in near death, his sword wound from the last episode festering and weakening him. Unable to lead his people his wife Daenerys attempts to rule in his name. However the horse people are reluctant to take order from a woman, even their Khaleesi, and it is clear that as Drogo’s health fades his subjects are becoming increasingly rebellious.

Desperate to save her husband Daenerys implores the witch, Mirri Maz Duur, to save the Khal’s life using whatever means necessary. Mirri agrees, telling Daenerys that she can save her husband using blood magic but also warning that the cure might be worse than death itself. In a gruesome display, Mirri sacrifices the Khal’s horse and orders everyone out of his sickroom.

Finally, at King’s Landing, Ned agrees to recant his statement. Paraded in front of an angry crowd he confesses to treason and begs for mercy. Despite the counsel of his mother and others to strip Ned of his titles and send him to the Wall, Joffrey denies the Lord of Winterfell mercy and demands his head instead.

This show only gets better the further into its run we get. If we’re splitting hairs here I would have liked to have seen some of the Stark\Lannister fight scenes actually make it to the screen. With a show that purports to dream as large as this one does limiting the battle sequences to epilogue status only ultimately doesn’t feel very satisfying.

I suspect that budget got in the way (doesn’t it always). But considering how much the second book\season deals with the ongoing War of the Five Kings I’m hoping they’ll free up enough dollars to allow a little more action to hit the screen next time.

As the series progresses the clear standout performer for me is Peter Dinklage. Seriously, this guy is getting all the best bits to work with. While most of the cast is reduced to grim and frowny, Dinklage has seemingly portrayed the entire range of human emotion. His presence defines every scene and practically demands the audience’s attention at all times.

It's no secret that my interest in this show has waxed and waned over the course of the season. While clearly a high quality production I think I was a little let down by the fact that being overly familiar with the books meant that there were no real surprises for me to react too. However as the show continued to find its own voice I found myself more consistently being drawn in to the story and its inhabitants. In the end I think I was successfully able to put my reluctance aside and appreciate GAME OF THRONES on its own merits.

Now with THRONES and a disappointingly mediocre season of DOCTOR WHO wrapped for the year my biggest problem will be figuring out what to watch next. Any suggestions?

Doctor Who Monday: A Good Man Goes To War (review)

Okay, I said I wasn’t going to do this but I think after some rumination, and more than one person asking me to do so, I will.

Last Saturday (in the UK) and just this past Saturday in North America, the mid-series finale of DOCTOR WHO aired. Titled A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR, it was supposed to leave us all gasping from revelations, and change everything we thought we knew.

Does it?

Nope.

(spoilers below)

For a show that is an hour long, it was like writer-showrunner Steven Moffat, was pulling an RTD (Russell T. Davies, the showrunner for the first 4 seasons) and throwing EVERYTHING in plus the kitchen sink. The problem is he was doing it in HIS writing style and not RTD’s writing style. So what we ended up watching was like what would happen if Sofia Coppola directed a movie trying to emulate Michael Bay. We’d get an interesting, but ultimately frustrating movie with a number of cool things that don’t quite cohere into a proper narrative.

A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR, which mainly concerns The Doctor and Rory gathering friends to them in an attempt to rescue the real Amy (the last episode revealed that Amy has been a fake Flesh version since sometime around the sixth season premiere) from the clutches of the Clerics and Madame Kovarian (eye-patch lady). It would seem they are holding her on an asteroid base called Demons Run. The plan is simple, go in guns a blazing with a number friends in tow, including (completely inexplicably) the space-modified Spitfires from last years VICTORY OF THE  DALEKS (don’t ask me how they came through time to help). So the Doctor has a lesbian couple of Silurian Madame Vastra and Victorian maid (Jenny), a disgraced Sontaran nurse named Strax, the (now) space pirates he helped earlier this season, the spitfire guys (Danny Boy et al), Big blue dude Dorium Maldovar, and Rory in Roman Centurion-mode with him as he destroys a Cyberfleet (easily?!) and then infiltrates the base after Amy has given birth to her daughter Melody Pond to rescue them.

So in and amongst there is some very cool stuff. Aside from making little sense, the Cyberfleet destruction with Rory not even turning around was cool before the opening credits. The various helper warriors (most especially Madame Vastra the Silurian with a Samurai Sword, and Strax the Sontaran) are super cool and a very good way to have an “army” at your disposal. Even the plot aspects that happen within the base, though at certain points ludicrous, happen in a manner that is at least entertaining.

The holes and problems though begin with the fact that all these various “cool” plot points and characters never get the chance to fully fuse together into a proper narrative. The whole thing felt very much like a dog’s breakfast. It was all over the place. The headless monks for example, while using the cool Moffat-ism of "looking or not looking" at your enemy can cause you harm, are entirely wasted as said enemy. The Cleric leader spends SO much time setting them up as these mythical, and forbidden creatures, only to have their actual reveal and use be completely hum-drum, up to and including the pseudo-Lightsabers (someone get Lucas on the phone! Haha!). Well it turns out that the entire thing is a trap for the Doctor to be swindled into believing that Melody and Amy are safe, but the old switcheroo happens and Madame Kovarian is able to whisk the real child away (to be raised as a “weapon”) and the baby Amy has explodes as a Flesh copy.  Then through a sequence of flashbacks to the child from the opener two-part episode (in the found torn spacesuit) we learn that this will be the child that appears asking for help in that episode (who subsequently regenerates in the 1960’s after being wounded). Then we go one further as after the child is taken away River Song finally appears and reveals to us that…dun dun dun…she’s actually Melody Pond grown up and is Amy and Rory’s child. We are lead to believe that since she was conceived in the TARDIS that she has some sort of Time Lordy powers and can at least heal herself or possibly fully regenerate.

Wow. That was. Boring.

Seriously, of all the possibilities of her identity, and the notes by cast and crew alike that we were all going to be so utterly blown away that we’d need the summer to recuperate and drink in the info…this was about as by-the-numbers as Moffat could have gotten. Other than adding a significant couple of wrenches into the interaction between River, The Doctor, Amy and Rory as character developments, this actually doesn’t affect previous River Song appearances at all. In fact you don’t have to rethink anything you thought about her previous appearances in the timeline. It doesn’t actually change much at all form the rest of HER life. It makes the Doctor's future have a few things that we might look forward to, but again we haven't the foggiest "what that may be". Game changer indeed, I don't think so. I’m not going to lie and say that I was pissed off or anything. I was merely frustrated at how ho-hum the idea is.

Now, I will have to wait for the whole season to air before I make final judgements, but it’s starting to look like this may be the first series of the re-launched DOCTOR WHO that I won’t buy on DVD/BluRay…and I’ve bought all of them so far. Hell, when I bought the first few they were over $100/set! That said, nothing has happened this season that made me think “Oh, I MUST own that!” This mid-series finale actually casts that idea into bas relief showing me just how much I am watching simply for the sake of watching right now.I'm saddened by that.

That said, there does appear to be some interesting stuff on the horizon that sound as if things may perk up. What needs to happen (IMHO) is Moffat REALLY needs to up his game and finish MUCH stronger this year (with the finale for the whole series in October), than he did last year with THE BIG BANG. The fans seem to be divided over this season’s stories, with a number actually saying that they wish for the days with RTD in charge and Moffat doing a couple of self-contained stories, as that’s what he’s best at.

One note: When asking us for a suspension of answers for MORE than one season (like who River killed and the exploding TARDIS), then pimp it out to us on a continuous basis on the front burner and not deliver, and  don’t do a mid-series finale like this that just opens up more questions and gives us one, petering little answer that comes across as lackluster.

Some of the other things that happened in this episode were the Doctor getting mad again. Something that he does to show us not only he’s fallible, but that without tempering, he can run amok. But we were beaten round the head with the notion of the Doctor “rising higher than he ever has, and falling so much further”, up to and including a ridiculous line when Madame Vastra actually tells him “You’ve never risen higher” (Really?!?!). He rose somewhat high, but I would say he HAS actually fallen further before. I’d say Tennant in THE WATERS OF MARS “Time Lord Victorious” was a further fall to me. Hell, his punishment of the Racknoss in THE RUNAWAY BRIDE was a further fall. To me anyways. They also spoke of his anger and how he would have never been this angry. But to be honest, as angry as he was, he seemed angrier in the end of THE BEAST BELOW. Not to mention that Tennant got angrier on a weekly basis than Smith is in this episode.  It’s just not clicking on all cylinders.

As I said in a previous post I am waiting for Moffat to blow my doors off, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s in the future of this season for that to happen. I dearly hope it is.

So, A GOOD MAN GOES TO WAR, had some cool ideas and stuff, but overall it’s kind of a mess narrative-wise and I’m hoping the second part, this fall’s LET’S KILL HITLER, makes more sense of it all and makes a better whole. I’m also, as previously stated, hoping that the various plot mysteries get wrapped up this season as I think it’s time for some fresh ideas.

TV Review: Game Of Thrones Episode 8 (The Pointy End)

 

“What do we say to the god of death?” ~Syrio Forel

“Not today.” ~Arya Stark

What is there to say about the 8^th episode of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES titled THE POINTY END? Wow, where to start. This episode is amazing top to bottom. I suppose it helps that this one was written by the author himself George R. R. Martin who knows what to put in and what to leave out. Except it seemed like he covered an excessive amount of ground in this one!

Let’s begin with what we got to see.

-Syrio Forel’s defense of Arya and fight against the Lannister guardsmen, and his “last stand” against the nasty Ser Meryn Trant.

-Arya’s escape from Kings Landing after grabbing Needle and running a dirty stable boy through.

-Robb calls the Stark Bannermen with the intent on marching south, cutting through Jaime Lannister’s host in the hpes to reach Kings Landing and freeing his father.

-Catelyn, having lost Tyrion, received a letter from Sansa who says to come south and bend the knee to Joffrey, and her insane sister Lysa Arryn who won’t budge troops from the Eyrie, heads north instead to meet up with Robb on his way south.

-GreyWind (Robb’s Direwolf) takes two of GreatJon Umber’s fingers and he LAUGHS IT OFF!

-Varys visits Ned in the dungeon twice and talks to him about various things.

-Sansa is convinced by Cersei to write to Robb and ask him to come to Kings Landing and bend the knee to Joffrey.

-Tyrion and Bronn meet the men from the mountain clans, Shagga son of Dolf, Timmett son of Timmett, and Chella (ugly as sin Chella), brings them to his fathers host, where Tywin says if they fight for him they will get everything they desire and more.

-At the Wall two dead Ranger’s who died north of the Wall are brought into Castle Black for eventual burial.

-Jon Snow, while having been confined to his quarters by the Lord Commander for attacking drill sergeant Alliser Thorne, ends up on the receiving end of an attack by one of the dead Ranger’s who has risen zombie-like with blue eyes intent on killing the Lord Commander and Jon. Jon draws his sword but the blade has no effect, so instead he grabs a lantern burns the cursed thing.

-Daenerys going against Dothraki custom tells the Khal’s horde that they can no longer rape women of the enemy after a victory. The Khal backs her up and ends up in a fight with a raider who he quickly dispatched and takes a wound on the chest.

-Lastly, King Joffrey tells commander of the Kingsguard Ser Barristan Selmy that he is to retire (for not having defended his father well enough) and Barristan begrudgingly does so but not till after he’s pulled his steel and told the rest of the men that he could cut through them like cake. After that Sansa comes forward and pleads that Joffrey show mercy to her father, to which he agrees provided Ned bend the knee and proclaim him the rightful king.

Phew. That is A LOT for one episode, and I don’t know about you but for me it literally FLEW by. Everything fit here. There were no jarring moments or anything to take me out of the narrative. In fact the flow of how the scenes happened was quite deftly handled.

The acting of course was once again pretty much amazing across the board. I think this episode let’s Syrio Forel (Miltos Yorelemou) really shine. I mean this is one of his best scenes in the book and Yorelemou plays it absolutely gracefully. Loved every drop of that scene and since it was one of my top five scenes in the book it certainly is here as well. I also think that Richard Madden who plays Robb Stark really got to shine here as he totally takes command of the Banners and proves that he can lead them. Newcomer to the show Clive Mantel who plays The GreatJon Umber absolutely nails the role as to how I saw him in the books. Lastly I once again am mesmerized by Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) as he brings such a depth of evil mastery to the role, even when he is one upped by scene-stealer Jerome Flynn (Bronn) “You wouldn’t know it.”.

All in all, it really was an amazingly progressive episode and the pieces are fast moving into place for the last two episodes of the season, and the culmination of the story from the first book. What more can I say? Everything in this episode was great. The acting, the dialogue, the sets, the tension. I have zero complaints in fact.

Oh and if you didn’t melt with emotion when Arya was running down the stairs with her wooden sword repeating “Not today. Not today. Not today.” As she had to leave Syrio to his fate, then you are cold and dead inside.

I think it’s going to be really great to get to see the battle of Whispering Wood in the next episode, and some of the other things that transpire of course.  I think the main thing I will have to worry about now is that I know how the 1^st book ends and I KNOW my gf is going to really want to know what happens next, but she’ll have to wait till 2012 to find out…unless I can convince her to read the second book.