Book Review: 11\22\63 by Stephen King

When high school teacher Jake Epping receives a call from Al Templeton, the owner of his favourite greasy spoon diner, he’s more than a little confused. After all Jake isn’t particularly close to Al.

When he meets up with the restaurateur, Jake finds the normally hearty man decimated and apparently dying of lung cancer, with only days to live. Al shows Jake a secret hiding in his restaurant pantry, an invisible time portal that connects to 1958.

With practically his dying breath, Al fills Jake in on his impossible plan to go back in time and prevent the assassination of JFK. Jake, divorced, alone and with seemingly nothing to lose, agrees to take on the mission in Al’s stead and travels back in time over 50 years to save a president’s life, change the fate of a nation and giving meaning to a world gone mad.

A lot can happen in five years and while Jake awaits his chance to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from pulling the trigger he is startled to find himself falling in love with Sadie Dunhill, a statuesque librarian fleeing her murderous ex-husband. But by being with Sadie, Jake could be powerless to stop events from running their course.

The past might not be set in stone, but it will do anything in its power to protect itself.

I hold Stephen King up as sort of the Baby Bear of modern popular fiction, skirting that elusive boundary between too hot and too cold. His writing maintains an even keel in even the choppiest of weather, rarely stooping to shop-worn clichés and sometimes gifting readers with real depth and insight into the characters he writes.

And to those who propose that King is a bad writer I’d suggest in 2011 he’s simply an overly familiar one. After all, with over 50 books and countless short stories to his name, it’s hard to find anything new or fresh about the author’s works. His writerly tics and authorial voice are so distinct that even his new books can feel like something we’ve read previously.

Maybe that’s why I can’t get rid of the nagging feeling of dissatisfaction I’m carrying around with me after finishing up this book.

11\22\63 is ostensibly a period love tale bookended by the trappings of a traditional King pot boiler. While King lures you in with the promise of time travel and alternate futures he spends far more time charting the star crossed romance of Sadie and Jake than he does working through some of the more interesting aspects of his genre setup.

Which is fine, I can roll with that. There’s nothing wrong with an author stretching their legs and exploring some of the untrodden real estate of their craft. I suspect my sense of disappointment stems from the unrealistic expectations I brought with me to the book. I expected hard sci-fi and got QUANTUM LEAP* instead. That’s no one’s fault but my own.

But if I’m being really honest here King shouldn’t get off entirely scot-free. He’s made the classic mistake of falling into the trap that many well researched period books stumble into. King has become so enamoured with his extensive investigation of the JFK assassination and America in the 50’s and 60’s that he spends far too much time setting the scene for his audience and not enough getting on with moving the story forward.

It’s obviously important to King that he is as accurate as possible when recounting Oswald’s life leading up to JFK’s death. But his unwavering pursuit of faithfully recreating a period in American history robs the book of any sense of urgency or drive. Instead readers meander through overly detailed descriptions of mid-century USA punctuated by brief flurries of action before retreating back to explore the book’s romantic subplot once again.

It’s hard to become emotionally or intellectually engaged in this book with such a passive lead character. Jake Epping is essentially a glorified Peeping Tom throughout the bulk of the story, watching history unfolding around him but unable or unwilling to do anything to change it. He’s so busy absorbing the details and waxing romantic about the world around him that he fails to do anything with his incredible opportunity except hunker down and wait out five years until he can make up for his inaction in one incredible go. Jake’s motivation for stopping the JFK assassination is kind of shaky. Sure, we’ve all sat around with friends** and talked about how we’d change the world if we could go back in time. But Jake’s mission was researched, reconnoitred and then dropped wholesale into his lap, without him having to lift a single finger. His immediate and unquestioning acceptance of this outlandish proposition makes for a less than compelling character motivation.

Part of the problem with 11\22\63 is King’s decision to set the exit to his time portal 5 years before the actual assassination attempt. Now I assume he made that decision in part so he could tie the book into the larger Dark Tower universe, by taking readers back to Derry and poking through some of the fallout from his classic horror tale, IT. And it does also doesn’t hurt that having such a long buildup to the main event gave King plenty of time to properly develop and grow the relationship between Jake and Sadie. But in reality with such a long buildup I never got a sense of what was at stake through the book.

One of the themes in the book that King brings up repeatedly is the idea that the past tries to protect itself from being saved. This means that any time Jake tries to make significant alterations to the timeline unbelievable coincidences start to pile up to prevent him from doing anything. Unfortunately for readers the past only fights back at the exact moment the event is about to be changed. It doesn’t seem to believe in pre-emptive strikes. So with a five year head start before Jake has to do anything of substance, besides watch Oswald’s comings and goings from behind window curtains, it never really feels like he’s at risk of not accomplishing his goal.

Oh sure, King tries to spice things up by upping the stakes of his romantic subplot, but that only serves as minor distraction at best. We all know that Jake is going to have his opportunity to stop Oswald. I mean, you don’t write a story about the JFK assassination and then cut it short just because your girlfriend’s ex shows up on the scene. What I would have like to have seen out of the book is a more active representation of the past trying to protect itself. An entity that physically tries to stop Jake or derail his plans long before we get to Dallas.

If you like Stephen King there’s nothing about 11\22\63 that will scare you off. But I will caveat you up the ying-yang. This is not a bad story, it just seems so far removed from the style that King built his reputation on.

What you'll get is a gentler, more mature book that cares less about the things that go bump in the night and more about understanding the people that populate the story. His musings on what life was like in the past are so rose-coloured and syrupy I could hardly believe it was the same unflinching author who wrote stark tales like RAGE or CARRIE. King’s descriptions were so cloying at times, and so unwilling to speak harshly of the era of his youth, that it seemed like he was ignoring the reality of the world he was writing about.

It’s actually pretty logical when you think about it. King is a middle aged author now, who doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone but himself. (A far cry from the booze and drug fuelled angry young author of his earlier books.) It’s only natural that as King grows up his writings will lose some of their reactionary fury.

I’d rather have mellow Stephen King, than no Stephen King at all. But that doesn't stop me from pining a little bit for the return of the writer who wasn't afraid to go places others were to scared to write about.

*Not to run down QUANTUM LEAP. I love the shit out of that show. But QUANTUM LEAP is science fiction for romantics and soap opera fanatics.

**Okay, maybe that was just me.

In The Pipe: Scott's To-Read List for December (2011 Edition)

It snowed today for the first time since last winter.

I love snow. I love winter.  Most of the people I know who regularly drive in the winter dislike it and tell me I’d hate it just as much if I drove regularly in it. I don’t think that’s the case. In fact there is a part of me that simply likes winter, and snow because of the ideal that yearly rattles around my skull about a Dickensian Christmas.

Thoughts of candles, frosted windowpanes, roaring fires, twinkling lights, fresh pine trees, and delicious food. Snow so thick you can’t see your hand in front of your face, blanketing the world in bright shining white. Families gathering to spend the holidays with one another. Most of all, besides my excitement at the prospect of pure, undiluted Dicken’s-style Christmas, winter gives me one more thing. It allows me to curl up under a big, rumply blanket, plunk myself down in an oversized easy chair and read books.

Where am I headed with this? Well, with December starting tomorrow I thought I’d trundle out the list of books that are on the reading schedule for the rest of the year.

Currently Reading:

BROKEN ANGELS (Takeshi Kovacs book #2) – Richard Morgan

I read the first book, ALTERED CARBON over a year ago, and really enjoyed it. So it was only a matter of time until I got to the other books in the series. I’m about a quarter of the way into this one and I’m enjoying it even more than the first.

THE FOUNDING (A GAUNT’S GHOSTS OMNIBUS) – Dan Abnett

Warhammer and Warhammer 40K from The Black Library are a series of books that I have heard about from all corners of my fellow book nerds and just have never gotten around to reading. Considering the sheer amount of books that exist in these two universes, I finally decided to take the plunge and get reading them. Beginning where the website and various people have told me to start, with the story of the Imperial Guard, the Tanith First And Only and their commander, Commissar Ibram Gaunt. I’m only about 75 pages in, but I’m already blown away and enjoying the hell out of this book.

On Deck for December:

THE BUTCHER OF ANDERSON STATION (short fiction) – James S.A. Corey

A short piece that I downloaded for my Kindle concerning the past of one of the major character’s (Fred Johnson) from Corey’s debut sci-fi, space opera LEVIATHAN WAKES (which I quite enjoyed) that I am looking forward to getting into.

THE VISCOUNT & THE WITCH (short fiction) – Michael J. Sullivan

A short piece that takes place 10 years prior to the first book in the author’s amazing Ryria series. It concerns the early relationship of Royce and Hadrian and an early adventure together. This should be a good one!

PERCEPLIQUIS (Ryria #6) – Michael J. Sullivan

Apparently, I was put on the short-list to receive an ARC of the final book in the Ryria series from Orbit, and I don’t think I can even explain properly my excitement about getting to read the final book in Sullivan’s series. WINTERTIDE was such a doozy of a cliffhanger that I can’t even wait for the last one!

THE SIMARILLION – J.R.R. Tolkien

I’ve put this one off for years, and I think it might finally be time to try to settle down and read this one. I have heard from various people over the years that it is a tough read, and that it reads more like a historical middle-earth encyclopedia than a novel. Still, I want to be able to get it under my belt as I have read LOTR so many times.

VICIOUS CIRCLE (Felix Castor #2) – Mike Carey

I really enjoyed the creepy, urban fantasy vibe that Carey sent out in the first book, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, and I am really looking forward into seeing what sort of insane, truly frightening situation that Felix gets into next.

 

MEMORIES OF ICE (Malazan #3) – Steven Erikson

Continuing with my massive full series Re-Read, I actually have fond memories (pun intended) of reading MOI for the first time near Christmas, so what better time of year to start my Re-Read?An absolutely amazing book that I cannot wait to get back into.

 Okay, so I’ll admit that those last 3 books are probably a huge pipe dream, as I’ve only got 3 feasible weeks in which to read all this. A major component of that being the same reasoning as last year: All of my family and friends are aware that books are my life and huge lists have gone out to them. Thus, as of Christmas Day all bets are off as to what I will be reading. With a refreshment of the To-Read pile done present-style, I’ll probably jones to read one of them. At any rate, January, as always will prove to be a month in which I will have WAY too many books to read.

What are you all reading as 2011 comes to a close?

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1, Episode 8 (Father's Day)

FATHER’S DAY, the 8^th episode of Series 1 DOCTOR WHO is one of my all-time faves. Written by Paul Cornell (a veteran of a number of the DW novels), the episode is very self-contained and concerns an aspect briefly covered in the last episode, that of changing something in time, and what the effects of that are. The difference being that Adam had TRIED to change something in time and the Doctor stopped him, but this time it’s Rose who does it (albeit for completely understandable, if selfish, reasons) but she succeeds as well.

It all starts when Rose asks the Doctor for a favour. She wants to go back and see her father (Pete Tyler, who died when she was a baby), and so he takes her to see him when he married her mother Jackie. After that she begins to reminisce about how her mother used to talk about him when she was little and that he was killed by a hit and run driver on the way to the wedding of a couple friends on November 7^th, 1987. Jackie told her that no one was there with him, as he died. The more she thinks about it the more Rose wants to go to the day he died, and be there for him as he dies. The Doctor reluctantly agrees and the two travel to the time and place of the hit and run. The problem arises as she stands there and watches him get hit she is frozen and can’t make herself go to him. She asks the Doctor for another chance, so they watch themselves watching Pete get hit and Rose can’t help herself and runs to push him out of the way of the oncoming car and saves his life. Then all hell breaks loose. These huge gargoyle creatures start attacking and devouring people.

The Doctor is upset as he, Rose and Pete head back to  Pete’s  flat so he can change into the clothes for the wedding. When Pete is in the other room the Doctor has it out with Rose about changing something so significant, and the fact that he believes she only wanted to travel with him to come back and save her father, which she denies. The argument ends with the Doctor leaving her there and telling her goodbye, storming out. Pete and Rose head out to the church where Jackie has just arrived and her two parents get into a huge argument about how Jackie thinks Pete plays around on her and that he’s a useless inventor who will never succeed. This stuns Rose as she has always believed her parents were very much in love when he died as her mother says a bad word about him in the future. It’s a poignant moment in the story and one that delves deep into not only Rose as a character, but her family as well.

The Doctor meanwhile has discovered his TARDIS has no interior any longer and that time is wounded. The gigantic gargoyle creatures are bacteria attempting to seal the wound by eating everyone in it (this being a problem the Doctor explains that the Time Lords would have sorted out in the past, but without any around the gargoyles (Reapers) have to do it). Inside the Church where the wedding is supposed to take place it is safe since the event that created the death of Pete in that timeline took place near it.

This episode is the first time that showed me how brilliantly, and uncompromisingly emotional DOCTOR WHO could function as a TV show. Here we have a wound in time that Rose has created because she wants to save her father from his fate, and the Doctor’s subsequent efforts (though he is pissed with her for her choice) to make sure that he saving of Pete is able to stick and she will have her father back. Sadly, the paradoxical nature of the event has made it clear that healing such a wound is not easy. During all this Pete discovers that Rose is actually his grown daughter, and oh my god that scene makes me cry manly, manly tears. I can’t even fathom the depth in that scene, and as just he realizes and Rose’s tears are falling she calls him “daddy” and my heart just melts. How can you not feel that way? Here is a chance given that no one has, to have your father back from a death that meant you never knew him. The tumult of emotions would be staggering.

In what I deem as another step up the ladder/stairs of recovery from the Time War PTSD, the Doctor instead of feeding his anger about what Rose has done, he sympathizes and even goes so far as to try to make sure her act saves her father.  Sadly, in a moment that you can see coming, but is no less hard to watch, Pete realizes (through Rose telling him lies about things he does in the future that are out of personality for him) that he dies in his timeline and that his living is responsible. Imagine the sacrifice you’d have to make. Time is seriously messed up and people are dying, how easy or difficult would it be to make the decision to set the timeline right by dying when you need to? Pete shows himself to be a hero, and the story Jackie is telling Rose as a little girl from earlier (yet still in the future) changes and she says that no one knew why he ran outside the church, but that when he died they said an unknown girl stayed with him the whole time he laid there dying. I mean come on! I’m not made of stone. I’m not afraid to admit this episode makes me very emotional. It also impresses the hell out of me that RTD and Cornell didn’t shy away from the “some things in time MUST stay as they are” and that changing things is a tricky business.  This episode shows us that sometimes even the thing you want most you simply can’t have, and that some things are actually better for having been left as they were. Rose gets a few hours with her father and he gets to show her that although he is not exactly who she imagined him to be, he is still her hero and she gets to show him the strong person she grows up to be. It’s a wonderfully bittersweet episode, and one that I love to watch.

NEXT TIME: Oh the first of the Moffat-Excellence written eps with THE EMPTY CHILD and THE DOCTOR DANCES two-parter!

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1, Episode 7 (The Long Game)

The 7^th episode of Series 1 DOCTOR WHO is a bit of an odd duck. It’s written by Russell T Davies, and even stars Simon Pegg in a villainous role, but it’s a really tough episode to properly like. What’s worse about that statement is that this episode is actually the first real key/notice that something is not right with humanity, and this is the first inkling of things that will come to fruition later near the finale two-parter, so you really have to watch it.

That said, if I COULD have skipped THE LONG GAME (I can’t, as I want to be thorough, and I want my co-watchers who haven’t seen these to have the full experience), I definitely would have.

Is it a bad story? No, not at all, and the writing in it is even good. The problem arises two-fold. Issue #1: is that this episode pretty much exists as cautionary tale concerning Adam (picked up in the TARDIS from last episode DALEK). Remember that moment in BACK TO THE FUTURE II when Marty has the sports almanac to place some bets in the past and get rich, but Doc catches him and tells him he didn’t invent the DeLorean to win at gambling…and then the rest of the movie shows why Biff using it is such a bad plan? That’s what THE LONG GAME is for Adam and the Doctor. Only the Doctor is about a hundred times more pissed about it. Issue #2: Is that aside from Adam’s (rather quick) fall from the Doctor’s grace, the episode doesn’t have oodles to say arc-wise, and even the clever first signs of the stuff that will be dealt with in the finale don’t really fit the bill of importance yet. So the episode feels like mostly filler. Which is sad, since as I said above, the writing and dialogue is very good.

Basically The Doctor, Rose and Adam land on a space station in 200,000 years in the future, overlooking the 4^th Great And Bountiful Human Empire. The station, they quickly discover has many levels, and is a conduit for all news to be distributed across the empire (96 billion people). In a macabre display that shows the Doctor something is really wrong with this human timeline, the people who report this news have holes built into their forehead that open to receive thick data streams of compressed info, not to mention the station is REALLY hot. Of course it doesn’t take long for the audience to find out that some big nasty baddie (in this case the Jaggrafur creature; a huge upside down fleshy volcano with razor teeth and no eyes that needs to keep cool) is running the show (with his underling Simon Pegg’s The Editor) from the 500^th floor, which is a place the inhabitants of the Station believe is some golden-walled Shangri-la, and if they are good they will get “promoted” up there. Little do they know this means their death, so the chips in their heads will blindly keep doing the bidding of the creature.

The episode follows the logical progresson: Something is wrong, The Doctor and Rose investigate, They find a human who is both annoyed by their meddling, and perplexed that her life may not be what she thought, meddle, Get Caught by the Villains, are saved by helpful human, kill the baddie, everything goes back to normal. The only addition to that narrative is the above mentioned “sports almanac” Adam storyline which ends with the Doctor dropping him at home (with the data hole in his head that activates by snapping fingers), destroying his answering machine where he left a message of all the data from the future, and tells him he is not welcome in the TARDIS any longer. He implores Rose to let him come along, but she turns her back on him too. So yeah, they could have called this episode ADAM IS A MORON WHO FORFEITS HIS CHANCE AT TIME & SPACE TO GET RICH QUICK because that is essentially what it does for you. The only other thing it really does is set the Doctor’s mood for the beginning of the next episode (one of my faves), which you will see when we get there.

Simon Pegg is good. He's not great because he doesn't really get to do his comedy thing and is more the villains sidekick who gets to say nasty things, but generally isn't a comedian. 

It’s a decent episode as far as a filler one goes, but beyond that you could skip it without missing too much…BUT if you want to be in the KNOW come finale time this episode actually serves as prologue and shouldn’t really be missed. It’s a conundrum, but thankfully the episode isn’t painfully bad or anything, simply kind of boring and by-the-numbers.

NEXT TIME: One of my all-time faves from this series FATHER’S DAY is up next.

Anne McCaffery 1926 - 2011

Science Fiction and Fantasy juggernaut Anne McCaffery passed away earlier this week shortly after suffering a stroke.

With over 100 books to her name and a career that spanned four decades its not much of a stretch to suggest that McCaffery was a tremendous presence in her field.

In particular her CRYSTAL SINGER series was always one of my favourite stories and holds a position of privilege on my book shelves.

She will be missed, but not forgotten.

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1, Episode 6 (Dalek)

The Doctor’s anger, when properly on display, is a frightening thing. It is powerful enough to wither even the most powerful villain’s resolve, and it is certainly a sight for us as an audience to behold.

Thus do we get to the 6^th episode in my Re-Watch of Series 1 DOCTOR WHO. Titled DALEK and written by Robert Shearman (as a special request by RTD himself), the episode is nothing short of brilliant. Some of the very best episodes of this show (especially during RTD’s tenure) are the self-contained, we are stuck in a tight space and something is after us type episodes. Add to this the unleashing of the Doctor’s proper fury and humans being cruel and torturous and you have the makings of incredible television.

Rose and the Doctor respond to a distress signal that is beaming out into space from an unknown source deep under the Utah desert, and find themselves in the lower levels of a multi-level bunker/personal collection of alien artifacts and technology. American billionaire (and supposed OWNER of the internet) Henry Van Statten collects alien artifacts (including a Classic Series Cyberman head, nice touch that!) and stores them underground in his massive complex. He is assisted by numerous helpers and an entire squad of armed guards to keep his collection safe. One of Statten tech’s Adam (Bruno Langley of CORONATION STREET fame) takes Rose o a tour, while Van Statten offers to show the Doctor their only living artifact, an alien they keep chained up and torture in an attempt to find out more about it. That’s where things get interesting, because the live specimen is:

A single, solitary Dalek.

Once the Doctor realizes this fact as he is locked in a room with it he literally FREAKS OUT and shouts to be let out as he is afraid it will kill him…until he realizes that the Dalek not functioning properly and is merely a lost soldier of the Time War who’s weapons systems are offline. At which point something strange happens. The benevolent Doctor, the one who usually tries to save things actually laughs and begins to mock the trapped Dalek. Heckling it, and regaling it with stories it is unaware of, like the decimation of its race and planet and the fact that it is now a roaming soldier with no orders. The Doctor laughs in its face like a bully who has his opponent on the ground. He then attempts to kill the creature, but is stopped

by Van Statten’s guards.

Rose and Adam eventually make their way to the chamber and Adam revels in showing the Dalek off to her, but Rose (being Rose) takes pity on the creature because it is in pain, confused, chained and tortured. It speaks to Rose in human tones and she lays her hand on it…and her DNA/time energy/radiation allows it to re-energize itself and power up. It quickly discovers that it is the last Dalek, and breaks its restraints and begins a rampage.

It isn’t until he gets a chance to explain to Van Statten and his assistants just what this thing is that they start to realize why he behaved like this towards it. I think it all comes out best in a conversation between the Doctor and Van Statten in his offices after they realize that Rose has accidentally awakened the Dalek to its power, and without orders it has defaulted to the prime objective, exterminating all non-Dalek life in the universe:

Henry Van Statten: I thought you were the great expert, Doctor, if you're so impressive, why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate, there must be something that it needs, everything needs something.

The Doctor: What's the nearest town?

Henry Van Statten: Salt Lake City.

The Doctor: Population?

Henry Van Statten: One million.

The Doctor: All dead. If the Dalek gets out it'll murder every living creature, that's all it needs.

Henry Van Statten: But why would it do that?

The Doctor: Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing, and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose!

So in this episode we finally see the Doctor’s violent anger. He actually, more than once, tells the Dalek it should just kill itself and die since it has no purpose. He shouts and rages at pretty much everyone in the episode. This is the PTSD Doctor rearing himself to face the camera in all his growling glory. This is a man who thought he’d seen the last of a race who basically caused the extermination of his own Time Lord race, and he’s faced with one of them still alive. His reaction is pure, unadulterated, and passionate emotion. But what is really telling in the episode is not that final reveal of the emotional condition of the post-Time War Doctor and his subsequent actions, but rather the point of the whole episode exists in one single line uttered by the Dalek. After a particularly brutal barrage of nastiness and demands on the part of the Doctor when the Dalek is looking for “orders” he demands that the Dalek kill itself.

To which the Dalek replies with a very even “You would make a good Dalek.”

I mean hell, what a gut punching line that is. Here is the Doctor, finally shedding the emotions that roil within him and allowing that anger out to play onto the very creature who’s race was its cause, and in all his righteousness he loses sight of a very simple difference…that he not act like his enemy…and he has become just that. In fact, if you flip this episode around and presume that the Doctor is the bad guy and the tortured Dalek is the good guy, then the Doctor actually doesn’t come off far from the Dalek mentality at all. What an eye-opener that was. In fact, the only shred of humanity that the Doctor is allowed to cling to is his defense of Rose, his tireless efforts to make her safe (which nearly costs the complex and everyone in it their lives) and his keeping of a promise to her mother. That’s a really nice thread to have come from the last episode with Jackie having been so distraught, that the Doctor actually took notice of something human and allowed it inside his tortured soul. I think this is the first time that Rose takes root in him as an ideal, as a healing notion. This is it, the Doctor has reached rock bottom, and his misery about the Time War has come full circle and confronted him. What’s great about that is that his defense of Rose is his first step on the stairway that leads up and out of that post-war despair into something more powerful, something more generous…the stuff of legends.

This is also the first time we see the classic villain, the Daleks, show up in the re-launched DW. The Daleks scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid, and they are my favourite villain (easily), and when I first watched this episode when it aired on TV I got so excited to see one again after so many years. I got even more jazzed when the Doctor makes a cryptic reference to Davros when speaking with Van Statten. Nicholas Briggs has done various voices on the show, but the Daleks are probably his most well-known, and he does such a stellar job at it!

Probably one of the BEST Christopher Eccelstone episodes that exists in canon. Shearman does an absolutely incredible job at uniting aspects of Classic Who with Re-Launched Who and ties them together with the Time War. I never get tired of watching this episode.

Next Time: THE LONG GAME features a big guest star (Simon Pegg), and the newest TARDIS companion (Adam) finds out that his own personal gain is not a good reason to time travel.

Book Review: Dawnthief - James Barclay

Second Time is the charm.

I started to read James Barclay’s first Chronicle of the Raven series book DAWNTHIEF a number of years ago, and for whatever reason could not get into it. I put it aside and over the intervening years and a house move or two, I lost the book.

Every subsequent time I had passed the book in the store after that I kept reminding myself to give Barclay’s novel another go at some point. Well, I finally picked up another copy of it and started to read. This time, I really got into the story.

These birds are rough!

The raven is a mercenary fighting force consisting of seven men, who live by an honor-bound code of “no killing unless in battle”, but sometimes find themselves working for the less reputable people and groups of society. Thus do the members of the Raven find themselves fighting for a dark mage college in an effort to find the elements of a spell called…you guessed it, Dawnthief. Said spell is said to have the power to destroy everything, but with ancient, and powerful enemies massing across the mountains in the west it is probably the only thing with the power to stop them.

"Hey what's that over..." *thunk*

The very first (and surprising) aspect I noticed about Barclay’s work is that no one is truly safe. The peril that The Raven find themselves in therefore feels that much more dire as it happens simply because events happen that you will not expect. The world is quite well created and there is a clear sense of menace about certain people who populate it, those seen and heard from at the start (from the various mage colleges), and those only whispered about for most of the book (The Wesmen and the Wytch Lords). The world building is quite decent and happens over the course of the book (as opposed to massive info dumps that can be prevalent in some fantasy series) in a very organic way.

Go to your room, at the amusement park.

The second thing I noticed is that Barclay’s imagination has seen fit to design a huge world in which to set his characters on their path, but he also crafts tightly knit little scenes that feel very self-contained. That’s probably not all that clear. I mean that while you sit there and know that there is this entire world boiling in the pot out there, when you are with the Raven in the house of a long-dead mage and seeing a gateway through to…somewhere else, that is all there is to you. There is a quality of concentration to that which makes each big sequence happen in an of itself while also existing in Balaia. That is a difficult balance to strike, and one that could cause for a bad reading experience if it leans too much to one side or the other.  Thankfully, Barclay finds that balance and pretty much nails it every time, succeeding in immersing the reader in the scene and not allowing them to forget the outside influences.

 There is a hilt sticking out of your forehead sir.

Third aspect. In a number of fantasy series you have what we, the fans, have lovingly referred to as “Holy shit, did I just read that?!” moments.  Barclay wings these at you like thin-bladed throwing knives, which settle into your skull before you even realize. Thus causing you to jump back a line or two, breathe, and whisper an expletive. Those scenes are sometimes action-oriented, sometimes character/emotion-oriented, and sometimes villain-craziness-oriented, but they are always memorable. What a refreshing surprise, in fact. Here is, for all intents and purposes a fantasy series with some of the standard tropes built-in, but it slyly subverts those without you really realizing it till later. It wasn’t until I finished the book that I realized how much better the story I read was than the “insert standard fantasy book here” type novel I thought I was going to read. I’ll be the first to admit that I went into the book expecting something generic, but ended up with something altogether more complex and enjoyable. 

Sorcery!

The Spells. The Spells in this book are awesome. They are like the spells you’d cast in an RPG game as they have names and do specific things depending on the mage’s skill level. That’s actually a breath of fresh air in a genre where A LOT of magic is totally non-descript fireballs and iceballs. Here, everything has a name, a purpose and a cost (to the user) and I dug that.

DAWNTHIEF is a great introductory book to the Chronicles Of The Raven series and James Barclay is a fantastic author who has a definite sense of pacing, character, and ‘splodey, ‘splodey action. The pace especially nearly never slows down and during the breakneck ride while shit is blowing up to either side of you and you are attempting to get your short-knives out of their underarms sheaths, a mage will knock your ass on the ground with a spell and send you into another dimension.

What a blast of an adventure. Count me in for the rest of the series now!

Book Review: PANDORA’S STAR – by Peter F. Hamilton

Dudley Bose, a lone astronomer marooned on the fringes of the galaxy, witnesses the envelopment of a pair of stars, in a matter of minutes, by a set of Dyson spheres. His discovery sets off a chain reaction and soon humanity is obsessed with the idea of visiting the Dyson stars to learn how they came to be.

The Commonwealth feels they must investigate this strange phenomenon to see if there is any danger to Earth. However, because almost all interplanetary transportation in the Commonwealth is done via wormhole, the government needs to build an interstellar space ship to explore the Dyson spheres, something that hasn’t been done in hundreds of years. The Commonwealth commissions the Second Chance and puts Wilson Kime, the universe’s last living astronaut in command.

When the Second Chance arrives at the first Dyson sphere they find an impenetrable shell that can’t be scanned, monitored or measured in any way. Shortly after their arrival the Dyson sphere vanishes and Chance is able to covertly monitor the alien species that was trapped inside. While conducting an away mission the Chance is discovered, viscously attacked and forced to flee, leaving two crew members behind, including Dudley Bose.

They Dyson sphere aliens call themselves Primes. Made up of a series of emotionless, highly calculating group minds the Primes are in endless competition with each other for territory and resources. Perceiving the threat from the Commonwealth the Primes extract the secret of wormhole technology from the abandoned Chance crewmen and set about building a wormhole generator from which to attack humanity.

When he starts thinking outside the box, very few authors working in sci-fi today could match author Peter F. Hamilton for his inventiveness and creativity. In PANDORA’S STAR Hamilton juggles a number of high brow concepts and meshes them seamlessly together to create a complex social fabric that is unlike any I’ve seen before. Rejuvenation, wormhole technology and artificial intelligence by themselves are all rich subject matter for sci-fi authors, but to take aspects from each and world build on the scale that Hamilton has is something else entirely.

Hamilton has also done a superb job in his characterization of the unfeeling Primes. Putting aside the standard tropes of creating pseudo human beings in alien form, he has created a new social order which is uncomfortable and unpleasant to imagine simply because its sheer alien and otherworldly outlook is so foreign to human thinking.

Its clear Hamilton put a lot of time and effort into imagining this brave new world and the payoff is a fresh and engaging take on a shop worn story line.

Hamilton’s elaborate world building is PANDORA’S STAR’s greatest strength. Unfortunately it is the book’s greatest weakness as well.

Hamilton puts so much work detailing his complex social structures that he goes on frequent and unnecessary tangents which rob the story of its much needed early momentum.

As a result the story can feel like its structure is bloated at inoppurtune moments. For example the book takes something close to 200 pages before Hamilton finishes introducing all the lead characters. For a 1000+ page novel that’s almost 20 per cent of its real estate. You can't squander a reader's initial goodwill like that by dragging them through countless character introductions.

Unfortunate readers are left trying to puzzle out how these seemingly unconnected characters and plotlines fit together. Continuing disconnect seems to be a part of the problem with STAR. Hamilton needs to do a better job linking the various sub plots together. Whether it’s the mystery of the Dyson spheres' existence, the allure of the shaman-like Silfen, or what the true nature of the Starflyer is, Hamilton introduces a number of interesting plot threads but then refuses to even hint at how they’re connected only implying, between the lines, that said connection in fact does actually exist.

Hamilton doesn’t even attempt to give the reader enough information to let them draw their own conclusions. Instead he plays his cards insanely close to the chest, only revealing what he’s holding when circumstances force him too.

Think of STAR like a futuristic murder mystery. In this instance the crime that needs solving is ‘who put the Dyson sphere around the alien star and why?’ In a standard mystery story important details are released throughout the course of the book, giving readers just enough information for them to think they have a chance at solving the crime before the charmingly eccentric detective pieces it together at the last minute. In STAR the lead characters simply move from set piece to set piece, trying to solve the mystery without the benefit of any clues whatsoever, while our eccentric dick is presenting the reader with a bound copy of a backgrounder somewhere off camera.

Hamilton has done such a thorough job imaginings all the ins and out of his universe that its only natural he’d want to show it off a bit to the reader. Unfortunately what could be done in a couple pages is often done in whole chapters.

When STAR finally does start chugging along it’s an interesting and thought provoking book, despite its frequent detours.

Basically, STAR is a good sci-fi novel that gets held back because it’s overly long, takes unnecessary story digressions and doesn’t attempt to tie its disparate parts back together to serve the needs of the narrative.

I think it would be vastly improved by the touch of a clear eyed editor who was willing to leave some of the background information on the editing room floor and keep the writer on point telling the story, not setting up the story.

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1, Episode's 4 & 5 (Aliens Of London / World War Three)

How’s this for playing catch-up with the DOCTOR WHO Re-Watch? The first Two-Parter, reviewed in one post!

Davies wrote both parts of ALIENS OF LONDON and WORLD WAR THREE, and what immediately jumps out at you when you watch, is that the actual alien portion of the story has the backseat for both hour's. It’s the human, interpersonal relationships that are present foremost here.

The Doctor and Rose return to 21^st Century earth, with the Doctor telling Rose it’s been only 12 hours since they left at the end of the first episode. Sadly, it has been rather a while longer as a whole year has passed, Rose’s mother Jackie is beside herself, her boyfriend Mickey has been accused of killing her and she was generally very missed. Just as the whole situation of her mysterious return is about to come to a head, a spaceship crashes through Big Ben and into the Thames and the Doctor and Rose are off to investigate. The Prime Minister and most of his cabinet end up killed and Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North) is on the hunt to discover why and what exactly the spaceship crash has to do with it. Close investigation reveals that an alien race family known as The Slitheen are impersonating the government for their own nefarious purposes.

Like I said above, the alien stuff is fairly by the numbers. The aliens are wearing ill-fitting human suits (in which they have a gas exchange to make them smaller to fit human proportions, but it makes them fart...which I'm sorry, is pretty funny), are attempting to take over the world and the Doctor has to figure out why. Sounds pretty standard for DW doesn’t it? That’s quite alright because the REAL story here is the one about Rose returning, the one about how distraught Jackie Tyler was over what might have happened to her, the one about Mickey Smith being accused not only by the police, but by his own neighbors and Jackie herself of murdering Rose, the one about how furious Jackie is with the Doctor for daring to put her daughter in danger, and the one about the Doctor himself coming to terms with his own attitude about Rose and what she could mean to him and others. 

Davies makes a hell of a statement in the second episode, and one that is really uncomfortable to view. Jackie finally comes to terms with the Doctor as benevolent after having seen him saving the world, and plans on having him in for dinner. Rose pleads with him to attend as her mum just wants to get to know him. In true post-Time War Doctor fashion, he flat out refuses, telling her he doesn’t do dinner, or families, or the like. He also gives her a choice between that or coming with him right then to see a phenomenon in the Horsehead Nebula. She quickly makes her decision and Jackie catches her packing to leave again and begins to cry. It is a scene that REALLY pulls at the heartstrings and makes you wonder at just how much of a draw the Doctor has on Rose that she is willing to leave her family and friends behind just to go on adventures with him. It’s also nicely juxtaposed with the scene where the Doctor is being unreasonably, and most certainly in-humanly cold and indifferent to those feelings. It is a very telling scene written very well to illustrate that although Rose is travelling with him, she has yet to actually have an effect on the hard shell he built around himself following the Time War and his part in it. He is still, at heart, a cold individual who has just seen too much death and suffering to be anything but disconnected from it, lest he go mad with the grief over the death of two entire races. I mean honestly, think about that for a second. When someone in your family dies, you go cold inside. You do everything you can to inoculate yourself from allowing that persons death to consume you entirely. You slowly mourn them, and after a good long time, usually with help from other family and friends, you heal. Now imagine those reactions on a planetary/population scale. The weight of that would be enormous, and the Doctor has (as a result) inoculated himself against the overwhelming sadness he must feel by becoming this cold, indifferent individual.

You also get a smattering of the first real signs that Mickey isn’t just Rose’s scaredy-cat, dopey boyfriend. There are sections of real heroics while helping Jackie, and eventually the Doctor with the fight against the invading Slitheen. These lead up to even the Doctor himself realizing that Mickey (the idiot) may not be the person he thought he was. A plot thread that is laid bare mostly when Mickey himself, after the Doctor invites him to join them in the TARDIS, confesses to the Doctor that such things he just doesn’t think he could handle. The Doctor gives him a look of immense respect, and later when Rose asks Mickey to come along the Doctor says Mickey is a liability and he won’t have such a screw-up in the TARDIS, and the Doctor shares a bit of a wink with Mickey about the lie.

Probably one of the most poignant episodes about the human condition and its core characters, and it is totally disguised as a by-the-numbers alien invasion. How very clever! It also showcases one of the best things about RTD-era WHO (missing from Moffat’s latter Series 5 & 6) and that is attention to family and how they react to a companion traveling with the Doctor in time and space.  To me there is a realism to that that doesn’t exist in current WHO (since not once has Amy or Rory’s families ever been mentioned as wondering where they are) and such notions are well-represented in both these episodes. 

Easter Eggs NOTE: The BAD WOLF phrase shows up again, this time spray painted by a kid on the side of the TARDIS in stark white.

Next Time: One of my favourite episodes named DALEK. 

Doctor Who: Christmas Special 2011 Trailer!

It's that time, CHILDREN IN NEED special debuted the trailer for the upcoming Christmas Special, which will be aptly titled THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE (told you guys it was going to be a Narnia/CS Lewis-tinted one)!

Enjoy with your eyeball thingies below:



Best Line: "I'm called The Doctor, of the Caretaker, or Get Off This Planet."

Book Review: Use Of Weapons - Iain M. Banks

 

The man known as Cheradenine Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing the destiny of planets to suit the Culture through intrigue, dirty tricks or military action. The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought. The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past. 

Iain M. Banks, in his 3^rd Culture novel USE OF WEAPONS, has crafted a story that is so completely different from the previous entry (PLAYER OF GAMES) that I was very pleased. It’s really nice when an author creates a universe and then actually takes the time and care to tell unique stories within it.

What’s that? You’re confused? Me too. We are lost together.

USE OF WEAPONS is a tale that is told from two different (seemingly disparate) narratives, each with their own POV. Both work for Contact Special Circumstances within the Culture, Cheradenine Zakalwe who was born outside the Culture but works for them, and Diziet Sma who keeps recruiting and acting as handler for him as he spends time keeping less civilized planets in line or under control. There is also, thrown into the mix a particularly violence-prone Drone named Skaffen-Amtiskaw. All these three characters mix in various ways and the narrative itself is completely non-linear. Sma’s timeline seems to movie pretty straightforward for the most part, while Zakalwe’s seemingly moves backwards to the point that you can never be completely sure at what point in his timeline you are reading about.

I don’t think I like these people, but I don't think we are meant to.

Having two protagonists that are essentially unlikeable is a brave move. I’m not saying they are easy to hate or anything, just that they make cold, calculating decisions and are kind of hard to like is all. Both Sma and Zakalwe have sordid pasts, and those pasts slowly come to light as the narrative moves forward/backward ( < ---see what I did there?) and as they peel back layer after layer you will find yourself with your jaw inching its way further and further towards the floor. Skaffen-Amtiskaw is kind of the far end of what a Culture Drone can be, in the violence area, so far as to make Sma herself quite abhorred at more than one point in time. I liked that, as I feel that the Drones and Ships are the best part of these books, and Mawhrin-Skel in PLAYER OF GAMES was sneaky, untrustworthy, violent-if-pushed and ultimately endlessly amusing. Skaffen-Amtiskaw on the other hand is funny and yet purely LETHAL. Again, another aspect of the Culture universe as an exploration in diversity.

Can you hear that sound and smell that burning? That’s your brain melting.

As you round the halfway point and we dwindle into Sma’s future but move further into Zakalwe’s past you start to realize that things aren’t right. Something wonky is going on and certain aspects are starting to deeply unsettle me. In the final chapters of the book you are kind of hit hard with a few revelations and each successive one serves to change not only your opinion about what is going on, but also the physical nature of the novel itself. It twists and loops around so much that the only thing my brain could do in response was melt down. Stunned and more than a little unsettled I put the book down. My first thought was “That was messed...up.” and then my second thought a few hours later was “Man, that was significantly brilliant, just wholly messed up.” The first analogy that popped into my head was the film DONNIE DARKO, not because the narrative was a certain way or the story was similar or anything. It’s more that the way I felt after watching that movie was similar to how I felt upon finishing USE OF WEAPONS. I was really impressed and really horrified at the same time. 

Worthy of praise? In spades!

A singularly difficult book to read and digest, but also a book that I can understand as being one of the author’s best in the series and worthy of the praise heaped upon it. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the book a bgreat deal, but would never consider it an easy read. If you like Bank’s Culture novel you will like this, just be prepared for a scattered and bizarre narrative.

 

Doctor Who Reminder: Children In Need Special (airs tomorrow in the UK)

 

To our UK readers, don’t forget tomorrow night is this year’s CHILDREN IN NEED special on BBC 1, which will again (as tradition and fans demand) feature a short DOCTOR WHO piece starring Matt Smith. There will also be a trailer for this years upcoming DOCTOR WHO Christmas Special (which I don’t need to tell you I am excited about).

For the rest of the world, I am sure in the coming days the video of both the Children In Need segment story and the trailer will be made available online for your viewing pleasure.

Chris and I will be recording this month’s Podcast tonight and plan to touch on the forthcoming Christmas Special there, so stay tuned for more info, and the second the trailer shows up online I’ll post it here.

Matt Smith with mascot Pudsey

Doctor Who Re-Watch: Series 1, Episode 3 (The Unquiet Dead)

Ah, Dickens.

How can you not love Dickens?

 A DOCTOR WHO story that takes place on December 24^th to boot! 

There really are some hidden gems in Series 1 of DW, and I think that the Mark Gatiss-penned 3^rd episode THE UNQUIET DEAD is one of them. No, not because it pulls at any particular heartstrings, or because it stars Simon Callow as Charles Dickens (a role he recently and briefly reprised in the Series 6 finale THE WEDDING Of RIVER SONG), but because it was a good old fashioned period ghost story.

RTD-era DW usually began with a 3-episode pattern. First Episode: Modern Day Earth, Second Episode: Future Earth or other planet or space station, Third Episode: Period piece set at some point in Earth’s past. This being the latter there were lots of lustrous costumes, sets, and special effects to be had here.

The story begins with a funeral home in Cardiff (Wales) having problems with zombies. The dead rising and walking and attacking. The Funeral home director, Mr. Sneed, is aware of it but is trying to keep it under wraps as to not discredit his business, and he uses his maid Gwyneth (Eve Myles in a role that would see her end up as Gwen on latter spin-off TORCHWOOD) who is psychic to find the missing walking dead. One shows up at a show that Dickens himself is putting on that night and the author ends up involved as well. Enter the Doctor and Rose and all hell (or the rift) breaks loose. 

This is the first time we see the evidence of, or even hear ABOUT the rift in Cardiff that allows alien things through. This particular theme not only runs as a thread through future DW episodes, but also is the basis for the TORCHWOOD spinoff as TORCHWOOD 3 is based in Cardiff BECAUSE of the rift.

I am a big Charles Dickens fan, so when the Doctor gushes about how big a fan he is I can’t help but smile. This theme is another that runs through DW. The Doctor has met many famous authors and playwrights and likes to let them know that they are well received in the future. Agatha Christie, Shakespeare, and even Vincent Van Gogh have met him and been so informed. I truly like that. As an artist it would only bolster their career and drive to know how enduring their works were. 

Anyways, I got away from myself there. The ghosts! The ghosts are actually the Gelf, creatures from the rift who CLAIM to be few in number and as higher beings they were supposedly decimated by the Time War. This notion, and the doctor’s subsequent desire to see them helped even at the expense of them using reanimated corpses (something Rose is vehemently against) to further live, is the first time that we see The Doctor make a horribly blind decision. This is the first decision that is made by an old soldier suffering PSTD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) from the time War. The guilt over what transpired not only to the Daleks during the Time War, but also to other higher beings is too much and the Doctor is going to help blindly come hell or high water, even if it is a poor decision (which Rose knows it is from the outset). I think that is a key reason why this episode is important for the whole Series 1 arc, as it is the first time that rose makes a call that is right and is nearly shunned for it. The Doctor will later realize his faith in his companion will be much more valuable than he could have imagined back when he saved her from the Autons. 

I do also believe that this is the first mention of the Bad Wolf theme in Series 1 (I think), and though I’ll not reveal it here, that is something that will be a major player down the line. It always mystifies me that RTD had the forethought to put so many little nods to overall continuity just into random, almost throwaway sentences in each episode. A sign here, a comment there, but if you were paying attention ...you understood that something important was mentioned. This works on an even BETTER level on a re-watch, because you know all the nods, and you can watch for the cues and really get into the meat of the episodes’ writing.

A solid period piece episode and a rollicking good ghost story to boot. THE UNQUIET DEAD is Mark Gatiss’ first contribution to NuWho and was not his last, though I am beleaguered to try to sort out if it was his best. It is certainly up there with his best stuff.

Lastly, I feel the need to point out that both my girlfriend and her sister pointed out that they don’t love Eccelstone as the Doctor. My girlfriend having seen only Tennant and Smith and her sister only really Smith, they have not really been exposed to 9 like I have. I had to tell them to hang tight, that just like the other incarnations, it takes a bit for a Doctor to get his feet and grow on you. I am therefore patiently awaiting them watching episodes like FATHER’S DAY, THE EMPTY CHILD, THE DOCTOR DANCES and THE PARTING OF THE WAYS which were the ones that REALLY endeared me to the 9^th Doctor. We’ll get there in the re-watch folks, we’ll get there.

Next Time:  ALIENS OF LONDON

The Internet Explodes: A Doctor Who movie RE-BOOT?!

As I saw a tweeter on Twitter say:

In the voice of David Tennant: "What? What? WHAT?!"

No, no, no, no, non, nein, nada,  just NO.

I want to be nice. I truly do.

I like David Yates, and he finished the HARRY POTTER film series quite well (for the most part). He has a number of awards under his belt. For all intents and purposes he is one of the better directors out there making films. But there are some properties you don’t touch. There are some properties that are currently stronger than ever. There are some properties with a rabid fanbase that will never accept messing with the object of their fandom.

The news came down last night that David Yates (VIA Jane Tranter of BBC Worldwide) announced, and then BBC America had tweeted that they were “starting work” on a Doctor Who movie ( < --- yeah, that’s right I’m not even capitalizing the idea like I normally do with titles, take THAT establishment) that would “start from scratch” and essentially Re-Boot the franchise.

WTF?!

Let me tell you guys something. First of all I don’t believe that the BBC (who owns the property) would ever let someone make a movie (bad or good) with a FLAGSHIP title that has a long history and mythos and let it be “re-booted from scratch”. I just don’t, so let’s get that out of the way first.

Secondly, when a fanbase (for a property) reacts to news like this with such upset and anger, the same fanbase you want to win over and be your audience...it’s not the best idea. My hope is that the backlash is significant that we won't see something that plans to rip a hole in continuity and canon and change something that is already established, and established well.

The show is doing swimmingly well round the globe. RTD brought it back and made it a big hit in Britain again, and a cult hit in North America, and then Moffat made it an even bigger hit in North America and worldwide...and someone thinks it’s primed for a film version? WHY? Seriously, why does our show, if it is good, have to grow up and be a film? It just doesn't. A film version should not happen unless A. The show is off the air, or B. It is doing horribly bad with ratings ect. Otherwise why mess with something that is working just fine? 

Let’s think of some genre films that were made while their TV incarnations were still airing. X-FILES: A mostly horrible film that was followed by the TV show’s most ridiculous and lacklustre seasons....and then there was...oh wait...I’m out. That’s all I can think of. No seriously, that ought to be a sign right there. NO ONE makes a film version of a TV shows while the show is still airing, it’s TV show suicide. Either the film will be of better quality and show the TV version up (which I think we can agree won't happen here), or the film will be horrible and fans will be left distraught that anyone messed with their program in the first place.

Is the Peter Cushing movie canon (not really, but so far he’s our only anomaly)? Is the TV movie from the 90’s (that one at least seems to be canon since the 8^th Doctor has been acknowledged)? I’m pretty sure that RTD and Moffat have built a STRONG base for a FUTURE film. You see that? In ten years time when the show might have run its course and gone off the air, then a film version would be a viable project. Right now though, it’s experiencing the same sort of internet backlash that so many “film projects” do and I hope that will prove to David Yates and Jane Tranter that we, the fans (though I'm sure I don't speak for every fan, I'm probably not off base to assume a lot agree), don’t want this. Find another property to flog and maim because we won't support this sort of nonsense idea at the box office.

Book Review: Allow Of Law (A Mistborn Novel) - Brandon Sanderson

Probably one of the books I was most looking forward to reading this year was Brandon Sanderson’s new steampunky Mistborn novel ALLOY OF LAW. Well it came out last week and like you might expect I got right down to devouring it. 

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first. Is it good? You’re damn right it is. If you liked his previous Mistborn novels at all, then you are in for a treat here as well. Both Allomancy and Feruchemy are evenly used within the pages and add the aspect of guns and iron and girder 1800’s style city and you have the makings of a blast of a good time. Are there some flaws? Yes, albeit very minor stuff that didn’t bother me too much.

Basically this is the story of Waxillum Ladrian (descendant of Breeze’s house from the original series) and it takes place 300 years after the end of HERO OF AGES. The heroes from those books have passed into legend and even days of the week are named for them (Vinuarch), or cities (Elendel). The society is again split into nobles and not-so-nobles, and various religious sects based around the events in the first trilogy. Wax, after having been unable to prevent a death early on in the book, ends up leaving his home and job as a Lawman in the Roughs (wild west-ish style setting on the outskirts of civilization) to come to the huge prospering city of Elendel . The city is coated in railways and large buildings, lavish estates and caters to any city-dweller’s need. Wax is meant to try to bring the bootstraps up of his House, that his Uncle left in shambles and poor, by marrying into a richer family and giving up life as a Lawman. Everything seems to be going according to plan until Wax’s old friend Wayne shows up from the Roughs, the woman he is meant to marry is too serious, there is a spat of robberies by a group of people known as the Vanishers, and someone is trying their damndest to kill Wax. Thus begins the rollicking good time that is ALLOY OF LAW.

For those who love Sanderson’s magic systems, and especially alomancy, shouldn’t be disappointed as not only does he give us allomantic gunfights, but he adds an ability here and there that is new. Wayne, for example, is able to make time bubbles in which he and Wax can have private conversations, or allow them time to organize themselves. It’s really nice that Sanderson found a way to add some new stuff to classic alomancy and I will say that Wayne’s ability especially made for some breathtaking moments during action sequences.

Wax as a main character is very well laid out, in a way I wasn’t expecting. He’s roguish and his metal vials are filled with whiskey or some other alcohol. That made me chuckles, because I mean how else would a cowboy lawman ingest his metals? Whisky! He does a good job at playing the line between Rough’s guy and noble without sacrificing who he is in the process. He’s also incredibly honest with himself about just what is going on in his life. Wayne is probably my favourite character. Always ready with a hilarious quip or comeback. The cockney-accented deputy is a barrel of fun all the way through, is on the ball in every situation, and is even a master of disguise. A great addition to the story and a perfect foil for Wax’s more serious nature.  A true duo in every sense of the word.

The love story is very interesting, and while I’d rather not give anything away I want to congratulate Brandon for not shying away from doing something that makes sense. The complexity of Wax’s character comes to the forefront for the love story and went in a few directions I wholly wasn’t expecting and that made it utterly fresh and engaging.

Now, what would a Sanderson story be without twists and revelations. Are there any? Yes indeed, some doozy’s. Am I going to tell you anything about them? No way! As Sanderson is wont to say you need to RAFO (ReadAndFindOut) that.

There is a very minimal expositionary bit in the middle that slowed the pace down a tad, but it really is not that long and is worth getting through. There are some repeated phrases or words that end up in the overused territory, and a few bits that seemed superfluous to the overall story, but in the end my complaints are VERY minor and truly didn’t affect my reading experience much at all.

If you want to see how Brandon’s Mistborn world has grown in 300 years, then you really need to get this book, as it is pretty much an absolute treat from beginning to end, and it will certainly leave you wanting more. It’s quite nice to have read the previous trilogy and have that base to work off of while the world grows up around you. It will be awesome as time moves forward even further in the two future trilogies (one in urban modern time, and one in the future) and how technological growth will affect the planet of Scadrial, and then to go one further and see how that affects the overall cosmere that Brandon has created. I’d be lying though if I didn’t want at least one more book starring Wax and Wayne, as they are a stellar duo that are a joy to read.

Go out and get this book. You know you want to, and you won’t be let down by it. I'd also like to point out how hardworking Brandon is. The man is a machine. He is currently finishing the WOT series, he wrote his first in the ten book Stormlight series, and found time to write this book as well. And the best thing is the consistency in his writing. I can't say I have ever not enjoyed anything he has written. He is easily one of my favourite authors.

Doctor Who News Roundup: Fall/Winter 2011

I know exactly what you’re going to say.

“Scott, where is the next DOCTOR WHO re-watch review? We’re waiting!”

Well, as luck might not have it, things have been even more chaotic with my co-watchers schedules in the last week and there hasn’t been the chance to move on with Series 1 re-watch. What I might start to do is watch a few eps on my own for the blog re-watch purposes, and then watch them again when my co-watchers get time to do so. I mean it’s DW, it’s not like I’m going to get bored by it.

At any rate, there hasn’t been much in the DW way here for the past while, so I thought it might be time for a roundup of news items in said universe. Let’s get to it shall we?

Classic DOCTOR WHO

Rather quietly in the summertime BBC Books republished six Classic DOCTOR WHO stories with new introductions by current folks involved in the series in one way or another. They are as follows:

Doctor Who and the Daleks (1^st Doctor) - David Whitaker
Introduction by Neil Gaiman

Doctor Who and the Crusaders (1^st Doctor) - David Whitaker
Introduction by Charlie Higson

Doctor Who and the Cybermen (2^nd Doctor) - Gerry Davis
Introduction by Gareth Roberts

Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen (2^nd Doctor) - Terrance Dicks
Introduction by Stephen Baxter

Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion (3^rd Doctor) - Terrance Dicks
Introduction by Russell T Davies

Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters (3^rd Doctor) - Malcolm Hulke
Introduction by Terrance Dicks

What is nice about these is not just that they are classic stories with the first 3 Doctor’s, but that they are lovingly reproduced versions with the original cover art. It’s also quite nice to have the intro’s by those current DW folk. They are short, and easy to read and are definitely on my Christmas list.

RTD-Era

 

BBC and 2Entertain have seen fit to give fans the ultimate David Tennant DVD set. THE COMPLETE DAVID TENNANT YEARS will release later this month. The set will cover all of his stories in a 26-disc collection and is set to retail at $169.99. For fans who already have all the DVD box sets for his time on DW there is nothing new here. This is a repackaging of those discs (Series 2 – 4 + The 2009 Specials) into one convenient box. Since I already own all his series there is nothing new for me here, but a fan that has yet to bite the bullet and buy all Tennant’s Series because the price tag for the individual Series was usually upwards of $75-80 each, then this is a perfect time to get the Series and is an absolute steal pricewise!

Series 6

Well, Series 6 (which we all know my feelings on) will also be released later this month on DVD & BluRay. I will of course get it, but I am more interested to see the extras that are included on it than the eps. It will also be the first full Series I will own on BluRay (I’ve a BluRay of last years Christmas Special), and that should be a nice aspect of ownery. So look out for that in your stores if you are so inclined to want to purchase it. I also will re-watch the entire Series in one fell swoop in the hopes of changing my overall opinion of it when it is watched all at once instead of all the waiting we had to do as it aired (especially that big hiatus over the summer).

The Christmas Special

 Finally, a few things have come to light about this year’s Christmas Special, and I thought I’d share what I know. The BBC has also released a brief synopsis for the episode:

"The special, set during World War II, sees Madge Arwell and her two children, Lily and Cyril, evacuated to a draughty old house in Dorset, where the caretaker is a mysterious young man in bow tie, and a big blue parcel is waiting for them under the tree. They are about to enter a magical new world and learn that a Time Lord never forgets his debts..."

Sounds kind of C.S. Lewis-ish, Narnian even. Whatever I said about the most recent Series and my issues with it, nothing is more exciting than the prospect of a new DW Christmas Special, since last years ep was so great. It’s also key that Matt Smith’s jubilant portrayal of the Doctor lends itself so well to the holiday. It’s hard not to get excited. In fact, on Christmas Day, aside from presents and excellent Turkey/gravy-like things I get really, really giddy at the thought of sitting down after dinner with my girlfriend and her sister and watching the newest episode. The rumor is that Amy and Rory won’t appear, but there were things shot outside their house on the show, so who knows. At any rate, a standalone adventure for the Doctor at Christmas? Count me in!

That’s about it for now on the news front. This is the slow time of year for DW info anyways, and I don’t really want to speculate on the timing and direction of next season since none of the info is ever very reliable at this stage.