book reviews

Book review: The Deep

The DeepThe Deep by Nick Cutter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Deep starts out strong but has an odd ending that perhaps goes a little too far in explaining the proverbial man-behind-the-curtain and the overall story is diminished somewhat as a result.

Conversely, if you hate horror stories that end with “it’s all a spooky mystery that no one will ever be able to explain!” you may actually prefer the almost Bond villain-level of explanation that wraps up the novel. I discuss the ending a bit more in the spoiler section at the end of the review.

The premise is in broad strokes similar to Cutter’s previous novel, The Troop (Cutter is the macho pseudonym of Canadian author Craig Davidson). Both stories feature a small group of people confined to a space where very bad things are happening. In The Troop, it’s a scout troop on a woodsy island that gets visited upon by a man carrying a horrifying and very contagious disease. In The Deep it’s the crew of an underwater facility researching a substance that holds promise in curing “The ‘Gets”, a disease that causes people to essentially forget how to live.

The rest of this review contains spoilers. The biggies are behind spoiler tags at the end.

Where The Troop’s premise is straightforward and further fleshed out through interviews, journals and other bits sprinkled between chapters, The Deep aims for a greater mystery and ratchets tension by revealing more and more disturbing little details, layering on levels of psychological horror until it finally goes all out with blood and body parts everywhere.

The story starts out with a global scale suggested–The ‘Gets is a worldwide phenomenon–but quickly focuses on a handful of scientists on the Trieste, a research station situated eight miles below the ocean surface in the Marianas Trench. It is there that a seemingly miraculous healing substance dubbed ambrosia is found. After the lead scientist, the misanthropic Clayton Nelson, sends out a strange request to have his estranged brother come to the station, the story plunges (ho ho) into the meat of the matter.

The protagonist, Luke Nelson, is a troubled veterinarian, divorced from his wife after their son vanished from a park when he briefly let the boy out of his sight some seven years previous. On top of that, his brother is essentially an unfeeling robot that likes to experiment on animals, his father is a cowed, ineffective guardian, and his mother–deceased as the story begins–was pretty much a monster. He joins a tough but sensible soldier named Alice to descend to the Trieste and find out why his brother summoned him.

Things get increasingly weird after that.

Cutter again uses journals to document large parts of the action that the protagonist would otherwise have no knowledge of. While it’s a blatant cheat, it’s done with enough finesse that it didn’t pull me out of the story. The concept of slipping into “dream pools” is handled well, too. At times the characters realize they have nodded off and moved around, having dreams that feel seamlessly connected to the waking world, producing extreme disorientation when they awaken.

It gets increasingly bizarre and disturbing until Luke decides to get out before it’s too late. It’s at this point that the story abruptly shifts tone as the ending goes into specifics about what is behind the mystery of the ambrosia.

[spoiler title=”Ending spoiler” icon=”plus-square-1″]

The creatures responsible for the ambrosia go on at length describing their thought processes and rationale for essentially creating a trap to lure people down to the bottom of the ocean and as I mentioned at the start of the review, the dialogue in this section feels like a Bond villain going on and on about his clever and dastardly plot.

On the one hand, kudos to Cutter for actually trying to tie everything up, but at the same time it felt hokey, sort of like Trelane playing with his human toys on the original Star Trek. It also turns out that The ‘Gets is just a coincidence so what is billed as a major plot element ends up seeming like a red herring.[/spoiler]

Despite my issues with the ending, the trip there is still one worth taking. If you like old-fashioned horror that doesn’t shy away from gore, The Deep is recommended.

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Book review: How Not to Write a Novel

How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them--A Misstep-by-Misstep GuideHow Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them–A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide by Howard Mittelmark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Why would you read a book about how not to do something?” he asked quizzically, his eyebrows knitting together like two large black caterpillars intent on copulation.

“I don’t trust myself. I never have!” I sobbed sadly. “If I don’t have someone telling me what not to write, surely I will write it!”

“You sound just like my Uncle Norman the unpublished novelist!” he said ruefully.

“I’m drawn to cliches but try to avoid them like the plague,” I explained earnestly. “I’ve told myself a million times to never use hyperbole when creating characters but I never learn. But this book–How Not to Write a Novel–has been like manna from Heaven when it comes to what not to write.”

“Tell me more!” he exhorted.

I began counting on my fingers in order to visually illustrate my points. It was a technique I learned in college and have used throughout the long, lonely years since then, often counting out the days of relentless rain, when everything is as gray as the embers that once sparked inside me, beaten down into dust by the burden of living in a heartless and unfeeling world. I took a sip of my Pepsi Cola that I purchased in a six pack at WalMart, then continued. “The book shows you how to write unbelievable characters, how to change tense in whimsical, nay, unpredictable ways, how to insult your reader with strident or weird positions you hold that are expressed by the people populating your story, and how to write unconvincingly about things you love to talk about but have little to no knowledge of. It wraps up with examples of the worst query letters and pitches you could possibly compose, anything likely to turn away an editor or agent forever.”

“Wow!” he blurted.

“So I just do the opposite of everything and walla–yes, walla!–I’ve written a surefire bestseller!” I smiled broadly, my grin an irrepressible rictus.

“Wow!” he shouted again, spittle flying from his mouth like a jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. “This book sounds great. How would you rate it?”

“Hmm,” I puzzled. “On a scale of one to ten failed writers living on dirt and gum, I rate it a solid eight failed writers.”

His face suddenly caved in, like a cave where the top part collapses onto the floor. “Eight out of ten? So there is room for improvement?”

“There’s always room for improvement,” I said sagely. “Now I must get back to my epic tale, All the Shades of Grey The Light Cannot See Games.”

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Book review: UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record

UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the RecordUFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record by Leslie Kean

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s probably accurate to say that most people think of UFOs–Unidentified Flying Objects–as being craft controlled by extraterrestrials. This is to say that few people think of UFOs as being quite literally what the acronym stands for, objects in the air that are unidentified. Since the modern UFO era began in the 1940s the subject has, especially in the U.S., been treated as one not worthy of serious study or investigation. Project Blue Book, the Air Force group tasked with checking out UFO reports, was closed down in 1969 with a summary that essentially said “UFOs lol!!”

UFOs (the book) argues the case for returning to the serious study of UFOs, advocating the U.S. government take a leadership role as the world’s leading technological power. With the current congress stuffed full of climate change deniers, it seems a less likely prospect than when the book was published in 2010, but stranger things have happened. Many are documented in this book.

The book’s chapters switch between the author’s advocacy for serious investigation, with ideas on how such investigation could be organized in the U.S., to first person accounts of UFO sightings from credible witnesses ranging from commercial and military pilots to generals and even a state governor. Throughout, none of the witnesses nor Leslie Kean, the author, assert that UFOs must be alien-controlled craft. Instead, she describes herself as a militant agnostic, refusing to commit to what UFOs are because we simply don’t know yet. She doesn’t deny that extraterrestrial craft may be the likeliest explanation.

On the question of the validity of UFOs as a phenomena, she is much more certain. There are hundreds of well-documented sightings (often by multiple credible witnesses) with physical evidence, radar tracking and photographs that stand up under the scrutiny of modern image analysis. In light of all the evidence, Kean argues that the question isn’t if “UFOs are real” but rather, what are they? She repeatedly comes back to a primary reason for investigating and that is the unknown nature of the UFOs, coupled with their physics-defying properties (ignoring gravity, being able to move instantly and silently at great speed and so on) and the tendency for so many to appear near sensitive sites like military bases and nuclear power plants makes them potential threats.

I wonder how many skeptics will read this book and come away buying into Kean’s arguments. Her case is well-researched, detailed and presented without sensation, but as she admits, the taboos surrounding the subject are strong and have become ingrained over the last half century, especially in government circles, where admitting to the reality of UFOs–whatever they may be–is tantamount to acknowledging that with our current technology, there is little to nothing we can do to control or if need be, defend against them.

If you have any interest in the subject, this is a highly recommended read.

Plus come on, UFOs are neat. And scary.

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Book review: Mr. Mercedes

Mr. Mercedes (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #1)Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of King’s thrillers, with no supernatural elements, and because of that it has a decent ending, a plus right from the start…er, finish.

Mr. Mercedes is a book with few surprises. The good guys have their flaws but they’re all nice people. The bad guy is a psycho with loads of issues but not so much that you feel any real sympathy for him, more pity than anything.

The good guys–recently retired police detective Bill Hodges, a teenage boy who helps the Hodges with various chores, and a woman in her mid-40s with mental issues–are sufficiently clever enough to put together the identity of a mass killer that Hodges couldn’t collar before retiring. The villain, the 30ish Brady Hartsfield, is portrayed as a man brilliant with technology but one who also shifts between thinking of everything and being strangely careless and sloppy. In a way the depiction of the protagonists and antagonist reminds me of Stoker’s Dracula, where the heroes easily outmatched the vampire. Here the retired Bill Hodges and helpers make all the right guesses and even when they slip up they recover in time. Brady not so much.

King gets most of the technical details right, though there is some over-explaining, particularly by one character to another. There is the expected noble sacrifice and the brief final scene is a cute callout to Halloween.

The way I’ve described the book probably makes it sound predictable, even boring, yet King’s writing is smooth enough I found myself willing to forgive the flaws. It also helps that I don’t read a lot of thrillers so I’m likely easier to please in that regard.

Thumbs up, then. This is better than King’s sloppiest work but falls short of his best.

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Book review: The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shirley Jackson has apparently fallen out of favor these days, though many still get exposed to her work in school through the classic short story, “The Lottery.”

A take on the Gothic ghost story, The Haunting of Hill House applies some modern touches by having the characters gather at the house under the pretext of a scientific investigation of the alleged ghostly phenomenon, a nod, perhaps, to Stoker’s use of science to battle Dracula in the self-same novel (I was amused at just how poorly the ol’ vampire managed against the array of instruments and techniques used against him).

Hill House does not surrender so easily and focues its malice on an emotionally vulnerable woman named Eleanor. While the characters are at times a little too busy saying clever and silly things to each other, Jackson still does a nice job of casting the house as a sinister character of its own. This is as much a tale of psychological terror as it is about things that go bump in the night.

Worth reading if you are interested in one of the early modern horror classics.

One warning if you are reading the Penguin Horror edition — Laura Miller has an opening essay that is filled with spoilers. It would probably have been better at the end of the book.

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Book review: Irresponsible Government

Irresponsible Government: The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in CanadaIrresponsible Government: The Decline of Parliamentary Democracy in Canada by Brent Rathgeber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the most depressing book I’ve read this year.

Rathgeber, now sitting as an independent in Parliament, is free to write without repercussion from political masters on what exactly he feels is wrong not only with the current Conservative government, but with the fundamental structure of Canadian government in general.

His main contention is that the federal government has become little more than an elected dictatorship for two reasons, the first being the concentration of power around the Prime Minister’s Office (a trend greatly accelerated by Stephen Harper, who prefers absolute control) and the second being the failure of MPs to act as a balance against the government/PM by being little more than cheerleaders for the governing party or powerless members of opposition who simply rail against everything the government does to better position themselves as a “government in waiting.”

He offers some solutions, some of which already exist in BC (recall and citizen initiatives), most of which make MPs more accountable to their constituents and less so to party leadership. One can argue about the details of his suggestions but it’s difficult to deny the reasons calling for reform.

Rathgeber even surprised me by presenting persuasive reasons for reforming the Senate rather than just shoving it into the ocean, my previously preferred solution.

One of the biggest problems we face in Canada or any democracy, is a disengaged electorate. It lets politicians–and governments–get away with too many things. Politics is depressing and this book, despite presenting solutions after laying out a disheartening litany of problems with our system, is also depressing. But it’s short and whether you’re a fiscal conservative (like Rathgeber) or a tree-hugging socialist (I’m somewhere between the two extremes), you should read it. And tell your MP to read it.

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UPDATE: Here’s a story CBC posted to its site today that perfectly captures the kind of indifference and contempt the Harper government has for Parliament. They should be ashamed of such behavior but they don’t give a damn: Leona Aglukkaq admits reading newspaper was a ‘bad idea’ during question period

Book review: Bag of Bones

Bag of BonesBag of Bones by Stephen King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is what I’d call a mid-tier King novel, not as good as the classics but better than others. I actually preferred the first third of the novel where it’s mostly about the writer struggling to overcome the sudden death of his wife and the early stages of a child custody case. It’s still a decent read once the spooky shenanigans kick in but becomes less interesting somehow.

There’s also a graphic rape scene that, while vividly depicted, struck me as unnecessary. I think any rational adult understands rape is awful without having the act described in explicit detail.

Still, it had a better ending than Cell. 😛

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Book review: Odd Thomas

Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas, #1)Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought a couple of Dean Koontz hard covers a hundred years ago when they were on sale cheap. That was back when he still had the “R” in his name.

I never read them.

I can’t say why, exactly. He had been compared to Stephen King back then (the 80s and early 90s) and as prolific as King is, he couldn’t write more than I could read, so Koontz seemed like a natural alternative. It was even easy to find his stuff in the bookstore–it was right next to King’s. But for some reason I waited and waited until someone suggested I watch the movie version of Odd Thomas, as it combined a light tone with dark happenings, something I’ve done with much of my own writing. The movie doesn’t seem to have gone over well so I dove into the original 2003 novel instead.

I liked it. It’s told from the first person perspective, which can be tricky at times, especially at novel-length, but Koontz does a fine job in keeping Odd’s tone, outlook and actions consistent. He comes off as fragile, yet practical, sentimental but resolute–a likeable schmuck with the unenviable gift of seeing dead people.

Odd Thomas is a quick read and at times the dry, even droll delivery of Thomas is at odds (ho ho) with the grim events of the story. Koontz also leans heavily on the ol’ unreliable narrator shtick at the end, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and it all hangs together somehow. While the novel is ultimately a downer and I have no idea if the rest of the series keeps the same tone, I am now a little curious to find out, which I hadn’t expected going in.

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Book review: You Are Now Less Dumb

You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart YourselfYou Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself by David McRaney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a follow-up to David McRaney’s previous book You Are Not So Smart, You Are Now Less Dumb not only has a more positive spin to the title, it’s an overall better book. While the former reads much like what it was–a collection of blog posts assembled into book form–the latter is a more fleshed-out examination of how and why we act the way do, with tips on how to be “less dumb”, even if some of the tips amount to little more than “Here is some awful behavior you may find yourself engaging in, try to be aware of it.”

While the book follows the light tone of the first previous entry, each chapter offers more detailed analysis and studies covering many aspects of our social behavior. Some of the things revealed are not exactly revealing (most of the confirmation bias material) while others are downright chilling, like the chapter describing mob mentality, complete with examples of people yelling at potential suicide jumpers to jump–and then the jumpers doing just that, resulting in their deaths.

This isn’t a book that will change your life or make you overhaul the way you conduct yourself around others but it is informative, insightful and may make you that much more aware of the way you act, both positively and negatively. And that’s not a bad thing.

Recommended.

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Book review: Rendezvous with Rama

Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rendezvous with Rama is an incredibly lean science fiction mystery. Clarke doesn’t spend dozens or hundreds of pages world-building, he doesn’t bolt on any number of subplots or drama between the crew members of the Endeavour, a solar survey vessel whose crew is tasked with exploring and analyzing the massive alien vessel dubbed Rama before it journeys out and beyond our solar system, possibly never to return.

In exchange for detailed character development and a complex plot Clarke serves up an almost documentary approach to how the Endeavour’s crew tackles the enigma of the Rama vessel, with government figures offering advice and orders from the moon, one of the many colonized celestial bodies in this world set in the 2130s.

Despite the presence of political wranglings (the Mercury colony is particularly willful) Clarke also makes no attempt to use his story to set up parallels to the then-present day of 1973, giving it a sense of timelessness, save for a few nods to the “swingin’ 70s” by furnishing the commander of the ship with two wives and having him note the inevitable low-gravity orgy that will happen at the end of their mission (without the wives, as one is on Earth and the other is on Mars).

This is otherwise a terse but fascinating examination of how we might explore a completely alien environment. Despite the sequels that came later, Clarke never intended to follow-up on the story and I would recommend treating it as a standalone.

Rendezvous with Rama is considered a science fiction classic and a cornerstone of Clarke’s body of work. If you like hard science fiction and have somehow missed it, I highly recommend picking it up.

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Book review: The Great Gatsby

The Great GatsbyThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am not going to review one of the all-time classic American novels, since people with bigger brains than mine have already made much smarter comments about it over the past 89 years.

I will say that I was curious to see how I’d react to the book as an adult, having last read it as part of my high school curriculum nearly 89 years ago. I didn’t remember much about it except it involved places called Eggs, something something about cars and Gatsby, who was an enigmatic and ultimately pathetic sort of fraud. Mostly I recalled the lack of explosions, monsters, ghosts and sharks. It did have gun play and a car chase, of sorts, so there was that.

Mostly I am left with two things, having now re-read it lo these many years later: the bitter snark of Nick Carraway, the narrator, as he observes these rich and wretched people, and the utter bleakness of the story. Nick leaves West Egg essentially having gained nothing and being worse for the experience. Gatsby, of course, picks a very bad time to finally take a dip in the swimming pool. This is not the book to read when fantasizing about what you’d do if you won the lottery.

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