Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker by Kieron Gillen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is exactly what it says on the tin–a story about a group of teens who are returned as adults to a realm where their tabletop RPG is a real world. The concept is a favorite of D&D or D&D adjacent nerds, but Gillen’s writing elevates the material beyond its hackneyed premise. It is very dark, but in that darkness the characters feel authentic and make mistakes and judgment calls that never feel driven by the needs of the plot.
The art by Stephanie Hans is bursting with color and drama, perfectly matching the grim setting.
Recommended, with the caveat that Volume One does not have real closure–you are fully intended to move on to see the rest of the story.
View all my reviews
Reviews
Book review: Young Protectors, Vol. 1
The Young Protectors, Vol. 1: Engaging The Enemy by Alex Woolfson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked this up on sale and it’s a great example of “if you want something done, do it yourself” as it’s a Kickstarter-funded queer superhero comic–not exactly a sub-genre bursting with entries.
It’s fun and a bit naughty and sometimes juvenile, but it keeps things PG-rated. The hero of the story is not yet 18 years old, so this is also a kind of YA adventure. The art is appropriate for a superhero comic and there are lots of explosions and things, along with the innuendo, sly side looks and snappy comebacks.
My own real beef (not to be confused with beefcake, which there is plenty of) is that the story stops abruptly, and I am not seeing a Volume 2…yet.
Otherwise, recommended.
View all my reviews
Book review: You Are Awesome
You Are Awesome: How to Navigate Change, Wrestle with Failure, and Live an Intentional Life by Neil Pasricha
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In the bio for You Are Awesome it’s mentioned that Neil Pasricha gives 50 speeches a year–nearly one a week. I saw one of these speeches, back in December 2019 (what a simpler time that was) and he is a fantastic, engaging speaker. He could probably give 150 speeches a year (post-pandemic, of course) if he could clone himself. You get some of that same zest and enthusiasm in his books, but while You Are Awesome doesn’t get the blood pumping like his oration, it does a pretty good job of outlining his philosophy on taking on life and, in particular, accepting and moving past adversity.
He breaks things down into nine “secrets”, or steps to follow and the book is a quick, breezy read, full of anecdotes that Pasricha always makes interesting, his tone so dang friendly and relatable.
The advice ranges from simple and sensible (“Be resilient. Keep going.”) to what has worked well for him (“Be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond.”) to somewhat less conventional things. When he talks of shifting the spotlight, for example, he refers to the belief many have that everyone is watching them, when for the most part everyone else is too absorbed in themselves to be paying much attention to every little thing you do. Accepting this means letting go of your ego. Pasricha is basically saying get over yourself.
My favorite piece of advice is to carve out time strictly for yourself–no interruptions tolerated! This may be more difficult for some, depending on their work or home life, but I really like the idea of shutting out this noisy world of social media and the relentless drive to catch and keep our attention (“Engagement!”) so I’m fully on board with this.
Overall, I think someone–especially someone young, though it’s never too late, as they say–following the advice in this book may not necessarily end up awesome, but they will probably be a happier, more content, and more successful person.
Recommended.
View all my reviews
Mini movie re-reviews: Star Trek: Into Darkness, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
I’ve actually watched a few movies recently, perhaps finally feeling the pangs of not seeing a movie in a theater since March 2020 (it was Onward, which was on Disney+ by the end of the month as all movie theaters shut down for pandemic fun times). Now, I don’t actually miss seeing movies in theaters (hell is other people), but movies themselves? Yeah. And I’d been wanting to indulge in some science fiction. It didn’t even have to be good. Which leads me to my first mini re-review:
Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013): I mostly remembered this one as being inferior to the 2009 remake origin story, and it still is. There is plenty of silliness to be had, from re-purposing bits from the original Khan storyline to no good effect (the Spock/Kirk death reversal, which lands with an utter thud), Khan now a supremely white Benedict Cumberbatch (though he is wonderfully slimy and weird in the role) and once again using improbable devices to propel the plot forward, like having all the Starfleet bigwigs conveniently meet in a room lined with huge windows and completely vulnerable to attack (guess what happens next?!)
Still, J.J. Abrams is adept at keeping the action rolling, and there is plenty here. This is basically an action movie in sci-fi clothing. There is also some nice interplay between the cast members (I could watch Karl Urban as McCoy all day long) and everyone just seems to be having a good time in their roles. The effects are big and loud and very Abrams.
In the end it’s not a bad movie per se, even though there are any number of weak points, but this is a case where Abrams’ approach of “more is more” somehow manages to hold together till the end.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Director’s Cut (1977): Spielberg wanted to fix some issues with the original film and asked the studio for money. They agreed with one condition–that he show inside the mothership. He reluctantly agreed, giving us the “special edition” of the movie. That’s also included on the Blu-ray I have, but I skipped it in favor of the Director’s cut, which is essentially Spielberg’s fixes, but with the mothership interior rightfully cut.
Some effects, particularly the matte work and the painfully obvious set that comprises the mountain road where the police chase a group of UFOs, do not hold up very well, but this movie is now 44 years old, so I’m willing to cut it some slack. Other effects still hold up decently and the mothership’s arrival at Devil’s Tower is still spectacular.
There’s a lot of very Spielberg stuff here–the camera dollying in to a character (or out), overlapping dialogue, quirky people who feel real, not out of Casting 101. There’s also something almost painfully authentic about the domestic scenes involving Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) and his family. In one early scene, one of the boys climbs into the daughter’s playpen in the living room and starts bashing apart a doll on the rail. Why? Because that’s the kind of mindless, attention-seeking destruction kids engage in. It’s great.
You can quibble with some actions of the aliens–Spielberg is clearly more interested in setting a mood than being logical, but the moods he creates work so well–from the subtle horror of screws on a floor vent unscrewing themselves and toys coming to life, to the child-like wonder of watching the mothership interact musically with the scientists gathered at the Devil’s Tower landing site.
This is also a very 70s movie. The pace is deliberate at times. There is no build-up to a final big action scene. The story ends gently, and there are no real villains. It presents the idea of aliens wanting a kind of cultural exchange. It’s hopeful and just nice.
Also, despite coming only two years after Jaws, the fashions hold up much better than you might expect. Maybe the 70s have just become hip (or groovy) again.
Book review: The Successful Author Mindset
The Successful Author Mindset: A Handbook for Surviving the Writer’s Journey by Joanna Penn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Joanna Penn’s short book is exactly what it says–a look at how to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally to live the life of a writer, through new writer tribulations, on to actual publication and then dealing with what comes after (should you be so fortunate).
As such, there is little in here about how to write, but plenty of advice on how to deal with everything from self-doubt to overzealous fans, using a Problem/Antidote format. Penn’s style (seriously, a writer named Penn? The closest I get is someone calling me “pencil neck”) is open and friendly, and she provides excerpts from her private journal to illustrate points she is making, which is a nice way of building trust with the reader. The advice is practical and pretty common sense–you’re unlikely to slap your forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” but it’s still handy to have all of these ideas collected together and presented in a way that’s easy and entertaining to absorb.
It’s also just a nice change-up to read a book about writing that is not about, well, the actual writing part.
Recommended for new writers or those on the cusp of publishing.
View all my reviews
Book review: I Am Legend
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This short novel, published in 1954, is another entry in the Richard Matheson collection of grim futures, pasts or presents. In this case the story is set about 20 years in the future, in 1976, although there are no issues with verisimilitude as Matheson largely steers clear of any references that would date the novel as another incorrectly depicted near-future. The main character of Robert Neville drives a car, not a flying car, and he listens to vinyl records, just like hipsters do today.
For those only familiar with the 2007 Will Smith movie, the story is the same only in broad strokes. Neville has survived a virus that has turned most of the world’s population into vampires, and is convinced that he is likely the last human alive. Hiding in his fortified house at night, he tries to stay sane while investigating possible cures for the virus.
Not counting the alternate ending on the DVD release of the movie, both book and 2007 film agree on Neville’s ultimate fate, though they differ significantly in the specifics.
I found the story curious. Matheson does a good job of unspooling Neville mentally, as he pounds back the booze, smokes like crazy, rages, then goes quiet and back to the work of surviving. He reminisces about his wife and daughter, both years dead as the story opens. He gets sloppy at times and nearly pays with his life as he scavenges the landscape under the safety of daylight. All of this is good stuff, but the relentlessly grim and humorless tone started to wear on me about halfway through. The occasional melodramatic flourishes don’t help, either.
Matheson does mix things up a bit, but the inevitable march toward what one surmises will have to be a tragic ending, seems more about Matheson making some clever, Twilight Zone-style reflection on how WE are the monsters, not the vampires. Well, they’re monsters, too, but MAN is the real monster. Admittedly, this may have been more a more radical statement for a science fiction novel in the mid 1950s than it is in 2021 (and especially as the world slowly pulls out of an actual global pandemic), but still, it left me unsatisfied. I almost felt like this was a first pass at what could have been a deeper, richer story.
It’s a quick read, though, and anyone who’s seen the 2007 movie may be interested in comparing how much it diverged from its source material.
View all my reviews
A review of 3/5ths of Atom Heart Mother
I can’t recall exactly where or why I recently came upon Pink Floyd’s 1970 album Atom Heart Mother, but I did and after listening to it on Apple Music, I added the album to my library so I can listen to it in the scary world of not-being-connected-to-the-internet.
This is my quick review of 3/5ths of the album. I will explain.
Much like a number of Pink Floyd albums, Atom Heart Mother consists of a small number of songs (in this case, five), which means some of the songs tend to be very long. Atom is bookended by two such songs, with the title track opening the album and clocking in at 23+ minutes and “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” coming in at 12+ minutes to close the album. In-between are three average-length songs.
“Atom Heart Mother” is…interesting. It features a choir and orchestration, but it’s not used in the same way as on The Wall, and the song has an experimental feel to it. I haven’t listened to it enough but it seems like it would be good background music (this is not intended as a backhanded compliment). I may come back and offer more on this song later.
“Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” starts with a bunch of sound effects and reading up on the song has led me to never fully listening to it. I just haven’t been in the mood.
But I have listened to those three tracks in the middle.
The first is a song by Roger waters called “If.” It is melancholy and acoustic and feels a bit like some of the quieter moments from his solo albums, though his voice is in better form here. It’s a nice song. I like it. I don’t know that he could write something like this today.
The second song, and my favorite of the three, is the last PF song from the classic line-up to be written and feature lead vocals by Rick Wright. His voice actually sounds very reminiscent of David Gilmour’s, smooth and silky. “Summer ’68” is said to be about the groupies Wright may have fooled around with while on tour and the lyrics really don’t do much for me—I can easily imagine a better song being written over the music. But if you fuzz out the literal words, the song is catchy and wholly unlike what people consider the Pink Floyd sound. There is a jumpy, jangly piano, brass horns kicking in, some patter that recalls the harmonies of The Beach Boys. Describing it, the whole thing sounds like a mishmash, but somehow it all holds together. It’s catchy enough even as I write this it’s getting stuck in my head again. It kind of makes me want to seek out Wright’s solo work.
The last of the three is David Gilmour’s effort, “Fat Old Sun.” Let’s be clear—Gilmour is not a great lyricist and I think he would willingly admit that. The lyrics here aren’t bad, but they are very ordinary. He presents the song as a languid mood piece, strumming away and singing in that light, breathy voice he finally seemed to shed on The Dark Side of the Moon. It’s probably meant to be dreamy-sounding, but is more sleepy than dreamy. The song ends in a guitar solo that one critic correctly stated amounts to not much at all. This is not “Comfortably Numb: Early Preview.” But while it’s my last favorite of the three, it’s not a bad song. It’s more a formative one, that reveals Gilmour—as with the other members of the band—trying out things to see what clicks. It’s inoffensive.
Overall, the three songs form a relatively mellow and accessible mini-album that is sandwiched between the extremes of the tracks that precede and follow it. If you’ve never listened to early Pink Floyd, I can recommend these songs as some of the better examples of their pre-Dark Side efforts. On a scale of one to five cows on album covers, they rate a collective three cows.
Book review: Later
Later by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There are two things I like about King’s Hardcase crime novels: they’re short and cheap.
I appreciate the price given the premium that King’s novels carry these days, but even more I appreciate the length. These novels are short enough that you don’t get the usual pages of backstory, side plots, poetry or whatever King may decide to include and that no editor will touch. Instead, you just get a simple story, told directly and without flab.
In this case, Later is told from the perspective of 22-year-old Jamie “Champ” Conklin, who begins this story when he is around nine years old. Jamie and his literary agent mother live in New York, the father having disappeared and never being spoken of. Jamie’s childhood is fairly ordinary, save for one thing: he can see the recently dead (and yes, The Sixth Sense gets name-called). Jamie picks up a few things from the ex-living he encounters. They don’t hang around long. They don’t seem interested in the living. And they are compelled to answer any questions put to them truthfully. This becomes very important later (ho ho) in the story.
Without getting into spoilers, Jamie’s life becomes complicated when his mother meets up with a police officer and they start a relationship. The hard crime part of the story gets folded in here–there are killers on the loose, crimes committed and future crimes to be thwarted. In the middle of it all Jamie discovers that sometimes the recently dead don’t just fade away–that bad people can be inhabited by bad things. As they say, hijinks ensue.
King adopts a kind of patter for Jamie’s telling of the story, and it has a breezy feel to it, making it feel like it really is a still fairly young schmuck recounting some freaky things that happened to him as a kid.
The story is pretty straightforward and leads to an ending that is largely predictable, save a bit of a twist right at the end, but the journey there is full of King’s effortlessly believable characters and dotted with moments both funny and poignant. Later isn’t a deep red, but it’s a good one.
Recommended.
View all my reviews
Book review: Welcome to the Writer’s Life
Welcome to the Writer’s Life: How to Design Your Writing Craft, Writing Business, Writing Practice, and Reading Practice by Paulette Perhach
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I am continuing on my unofficial second career as not a writer, but one who reads every book about writing instead. Then writes about them.
Welcome to the Writer’s Life succeeds on a couple of fronts. First, author Paulette Perhach has an entertaining voice and regularly drops funny little zingers in with her advice without ever making it feel like she’s trying really hard to make you laugh.
Second, the book tackles a few things that a lot of new writer books don’t cover or cover minimally. There are plenty of books that will cover the classic plot structures, character development and other things you need to know in order to tell a convincing story–whether it be through fiction or non-fiction. Perhach covers the other stuff in a writer’s life, relating her and the experiences of other writers in finding ways to nurture and grow your writing habits, covering everything from what to read (and how important reading is) to meditation to clear your mental decks (she claims to never suffer writer’s block because of her daily 15-minute meditation sessions), as well as touching on the business side of writing, along with thoughts on pursuing an MFA (spoiler: she doesn’t think it’s necessary).
It took me awhile to read through the book and though I enjoyed it, I found myself wondering why, and I believe it’s two things: I found the quotes from other writers largely unnecessary (fewer would have been fine) and there are sections where even Perhach’s writing style can’t lift the subject matter from feeling just a little dull. But I have read a lot of books on writing, so it’s just as likely that I am becoming a bit weary of the topic of writing itself.
Still, I think this is a good intro to the craft of writing for a new writer and have no problem recommending it alongside other more “nuts and bolts” book on the writing process itself.
View all my reviews
Book review: Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love
Teddy Spenser Isn’t Looking for Love: An LGBTQ Romcom by Kim Fielding
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Another romance novel bought on sale. I think what got me here is simply the title. I like the title.
As you might expect from that title, the story is cute and fluffy, with the tone kept light and the drama minimal–it’s more of a romantic comedy than drama, and plays to that well.
Although I haven’t exactly read a ton of romance novels, this one did stand out from the others I have in a few ways (spoilers ahead): one is how the romance comes together fairly quickly and then just keeps sailing along, with the couple firmly in lust/love and only external factors presenting a threat. All of the thorny stuff is before their (unintended) courtship begins. I think it works, but it does undercut any potential tension. Then again, it’s clear this is a “happily ever after” book, so I can’t complain that it delivered what it said on the tin.
The bulk of the story concerns two men working at a company looking to design, market and sell a smart vase. One is the titular Teddy Spenser, a snappy dresser and designer who vows to remain single after a bad romance, the other is Romeo Blue (yes, the name is mocked in the story itself), the programmer making the software work.
When the famous if eccentric designer Joyce Alexander offers to help fund the project, the two men–who at this point have negative and preconceived notions of each other–are forced to fly together to Seattle from Chicago to perform three seemingly arbitrary tasks to prove their company worthy of the funding. Hijinks ensure as Teddy and Romeo fumble through a mountain hike, making a dinner and more. At the end they are given an ultimatum and fear the worst. but vow to stay together no matter what.
The interplay of Teddy and Romeo is cute and they both seem so darn nice–you want to reach into the pages to pinch their cheeks. Watching them bask in their newfound romance is like sitting in front of a cozy fire on a cold winter’s night.
And it all works out in the end (spoilers). This is a very light read, but its so breezy and well-intentioned, with the occasional clever turn of phrase, that it’s hard to fault it for being somewhat slight.
View all my reviews
Book review: Exhalation
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ted Chiang’s second collection of short stories continues to demonstrate his ability to take “big idea” science fiction themes like time travel and parallel universes, and relate them at a personal level or present them in ways that are fresh and inventive. Long after reading them I am still lingering over the questions they raise, playing out various “What if?” scenarios in my head.
Two of the nine stories are originals and one, “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” is a perfect example of what Chiang does so well. Here, he imagines a near-future where devices called prisms allow people to communicate with others–including themselves–in parallel dimensions. The design of the prisms means each one eventually exhausts itself, forcing any communication to ultimately end. Around this Chiang weaves the stories of several characters caught at crossroads in their lives, hung up on actions or decisions in the past that have kept them from moving forward, and how the prisms help (or hinder) them.
The longest piece is “The Lifecycle of Software Objects”, a novella which imagines another near-future where “digients”, basically cute-looking AI pets that are capable of learning (and acting) like small children, are made as companions for virtual worlds people can visit.
Over a period of twenty years the main character of Ana Alvarado works to not only keep her digient and others like it alive after the company that created them shuts down, she works with others to get them to evolve past their child-like minds, to learn and become more. Chiang convincingly presents the idea that there is no shortcut available in doing this, that the teaching of the AI is slow and methodical, and has costs on the emotional and mental energy of its teachers. He also manages to create convincing relationships between Ana, her AI robot Jax and others that feels authentic without becoming creepy or weird. The people in the story are flawed, but smart and believable.
The other stories are just as entertaining and thought-provoking. If you enjoy speculative science fiction, this is among the best. Highly recommended.
View all my reviews
Book review: Bird by Bird
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Book Review: Bird by Bird
There are a couple of important things to remember when reading Bird by Bird. The first is that it was published in 1994, so it predates the internet. This means that the writing advice is not informed at all by the last 27 years of technological and social change. It makes a difference.
The second is that, while Anne Lamott is enthusiastic and funny, this is not anywhere close to a formal how-to on writing. Lamott covers some broad topics–writing every day, not worrying about the quality of first drafts, how publishing shouldn’t necessarily be looked on as an end goal–but does not get into any kind of nitty-gritty. The advice is more inspirational than nuts and bolts.
A lot of it is amusingly written. Lamott seemed a tad neurotic at the time but also rather self-deprecating, so a lot of the book consists of colorful recollections on how she dealt with various writing-related crises, and sometimes her advice translates to simply “don’t do the thing I did.”
I was glad to finally read Bird by Bird, but the passage of time, changing markets and new technologies have made some advice less relevant in 2021. Some fault may also undoubtedly lie with me–if this was one of the first books on writing I’d read, I probably would have found it hilarious rather than amusing, and found the tips more compelling. Still, it’s a quick read and a lot of the information it contains remains relevant today.
UPDATE, September 24, 2021: I have fixed a few egregious typos and such in this review. I always seem to commit the worst writing mistakes when reviewing books on writing.
I also think my take on the book is a bit glib–this is a well-loved classic and I think I was in an especially cynical place when I read it, and that colored my view of it. If you are just starting on your potential career in fiction writing, this is one of the books I highly recommend reading. There is a joyfulness in it (along with pain) that you don’t find in many books on writing.
View all my reviews