SF/F/H Reviewer List

Over at Grasping for the Wind (a great place for all things literary SF), SF Safari is now included in the gigantic reviewer list. I've also answered the meme about which fantasy world would I like to live in. Look for my answer tomorrow. For now, here's part one.

Coming later this week: the write-up of Science Fiction Book Club #1: Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell and the revelation of SFBC #2.

Mercury Men Trailer #2 - Now Online!

It's difficult to overstate how much I'm looking forward to the new web series, The Mercury Men. I've written about here back in May after Lou Anders posted it on his blog.

The Mercury Men is a glorious throwback to the Cold War days and science fiction adventure from the days long gone. If you like the Republic serials of the 1930s, the movies of Indiana Jones, or the new novels of Gabriel Hunt, then you enjoy good, old-fashioned cliffhanger storytelling. That's exactly what the creators of The Mercury Men are tapping into and putting up on the web this fall. What caught my attention was the varied influences writer/director Christopher Preksta distilled into his work on the Mercury Men, especially the original Star Wars movie.

Take a read at the synopsis from the Mercury Men website:

Edward Borman, a lowly government office drone, finds himself trapped, when the deadly Mercury Men seize his office building as a staging ground for their nefarious plot. Aided by a daring aerospace engineer from a mysterious organization known as “The League,” Edward must stop the invaders and their doomsday device, the Gravity Engine.

The look and feel of the project are pure Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. This serial would have found a home right next to these 1960s seminal SF programs. Take a look at the trailer here. For an HD version (recommended), head on over to the Mercury Men website.

Forgotten Books: The Tar-Aiyam Krang by Alan Dean Foster

My latest contribution to the Forgotten Books Project started by Patti Abbott. For the complete list, head on over to her blog.

Back in the late 1970s, Alan Dean Foster was my introduction to science fiction. He wrote the novelizations to the Star Trek Animated Series, expanding 22-minute cartoons into longer stories with more depth and characterizations (here's my review from earlier this year). Naturally, I gravitated toward Foster's own work and started with his first book, The Tar-Aiyam Krang. Thirty some-odd years later, I frankly can't remember a thing about that book. Now that Audible.com has The Tar-Aiyam Krang on audio, I decided to read it again.

Foster's first novel, The Tar-Aiyam Krang (1972) is the first to feature his young hero, Flinx, and his 'minidrag,' Pip (basically, a flying snake-like thing). Flinx is an orphan on the planet Moth, part of the interstellar Human-Thranx Commonwealth. The Thranx are incectoid creatures who have a good relationship with the humans. Flinx, who is a partial telepath, happens upon a mugging in which Pip played a role, an event where both muggers and victim all die. Snagging something from the victim's pocket, Flinx soon discovers it's a star map that might lead to the Krang, a large weapon or musical instrument created by a long-dead race, the Tar-Aiyam. Two gentlebeings, one human (Tse-Mallory) and one Thranx (Truzenzuzex) hire Flinx as a guide through his city. The trio end up at the home of a merchant, Malaika. Armed with the star map, they all board Malaika's starship and set off on their adventure.

The irony of reading this book when I did is all one of timing. I recently read Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island for the first time as well as Scott Lynch's The Lies of LockeLamora (my review). It's clear that Foster was at least inspired by Treasure Island (treasure map; star map; young hero) and Lynch's 2005 novel is part of a long line of orphan heroes (Oliver Twist, Batman, etc.). Foster's book was good and lighter than I remembered. With youngFlinx along, he gets the chance to ask Big Questions that result in an info dump on the reader. Thankfully, the info dumps were not too long but they still slowed the story. But the story's kind of slow anyway. Treasure Island had more action than this book. But, at least, The Tar-Aiyam Krang did have the huge ending, setting up Foster's later books. One thing that annoyed me back in the day was the names of aliens. When I read the book, I could not even figure out how to pronounce Truzenzuzex. Now, with the audiobook, I know. More importantly, I know what the name means. Okay, I get it now. My bad.

The Tar-Aiyam Krang is the first of four books Foster wrote in the 70s (Orphan Star, The End of the Matter, Bloodhype) and Flinx and Pip returns sporadically throughout the 80s and 90s. Just this year, Foster published Flinx Transcendant, the fourteeth and final novel in the series. The Tar-Aiyam Krang is a first book and it has all the good things a first book contains (new ideas, new characters, new universe) and a few minor nits (the need to explain everything at the expense of action). With most, if not all, the Flinx books now available on audio, I'm likely to forge through more Flinx books in the coming months and years. He's a fun character and, besides, are you going to argue with a teenager who has a venomous flying reptile resting on his shoulder?

Forgotten Books: Naked in Death by J. D. Robb

(This is a slightly reworked version of a review I did way back when I had few, if any, readers on my crime blog. The original review appeared in March 2008.)

(This is a contribution to Patti Abbott's Friday Forgotten Books.)

Call me bi-curious. No, not in that way. I’m talking in the way of romance books.

I’m a red-blooded American male. I write mysteries, I read mysteries, SF, thrillers, history, food tomes, almost everything but romance books. Up until now, I’ve always thought of romance books as trite throwaways that contain a couple of good sex scenes. Read those and forget about the rest of the book.

But something happened about a month ago: I actually noticed, really, for the first time, how many romance books there actually are in a bookstore. Hundreds. Thousands? And, for the first time, my countenance faltered. I realized that I might actually be up to read a romance. But which one? I asked a fellow writer who she liked and, among the names was Nora Roberts. I know Nora Roberts just like people who don’t read horror stories knows Stephen King. I went the local library, picked up a few Nora Roberts books, but none of them really caught my attention.

Then I remembered J.D. Robb. I knew that Roberts wrote stories as Robb so I checked them out. And I found my beachhead in the field of romance books. Lead character is a police detective. I’m writing a book about a female lead detective. Stories take place in 2059. Hmm, that sounds like SF. I like SF. The books are characterized as romantic suspense. I like suspense. My first novel was a suspense novel. And I’m a romantic. What’s not to like? I verified which book was the first in the series, Naked in Death, checked out the audiobook from the library, and inserted the CD.

The first disc was not even halfway through before I was hooked. And not just mild interest but hook, line, and sinker. I was all in. The book has a nice pace, not slow at all. Since the book was written in 1995, it is interesting to note some of the futuristic discrepancies but just as cool to note the stuff Roberts got right. Eve Dallas, the lead character, carries around a device that will surely be what the iPhone is going to be: the all-in-one gadget that basically does everything. I also appreciated the more mundane aspects of 2059 NYC: cars that don’t fly. Sure, I want my flying car. Who doesn’t? But we’re probably not going to get there in 50 years.

Back to the story: Eve Dallas must investigate the murders of a licensed companion, a prostitute, who just happens to be the granddaughter of a prominent US Senator. It was pretty interesting to read this book, with legalized prostitution, during the week NY governor Eliot Spitzer resigned for being with one. Roberts really let us readers get into Eve’s head and thoughts. I found myself being mad when she was and happy when she was. I’ll admit the POV shifts that frequent this book is not the style in which I write. It was annoying at first but then I got used to it.

The story was great. But what about the romance? This was a romance book after all. Rourke, the all-everything Irish guy who starts as a suspect and becomes Eve’s lover, is the kind of guy, I’ll admit, seems to inhabit romance books. Now, I’m saying this purely from a stereotypical standpoint. But, hey, the first romance book I read has one of “those” guys in it. How’s a regular guy supposed to compete with that? Anyway, the romantic aspects of the novel seemed even, believable. Even the sex scene—there’s one main one, with intimate details—was good and hot. I give a hat tip to Ms. Roberts in the many ways to describe sexual intercourse without using actual physical words.

One of my biggest questions to see Roberts answers is how the series characters Eve and Rourke go on being together, their daily interactions, their passion. Naked in Death was the ‘getting together’ book. Those are easier. Just look at all the movies out there (and probably half the romance books). What I want to know is how the characters grow together.

For the more forgotten gems, head on over to Patti Abbott's blog.

Comic Review: Joker by Brian Azzerello and Lee Bermejo

(This review originally appeared on my crime blog. I'm posting it here during my vacation away from the blog.)

Of all the things Heath Ledger did for the character of the Joker, making the Clown Prince of Crime a thug tops my list. I’ll not go so far as to say that the comic book version of Joker was genteel. He was always a murderous character, more so in the last twenty-five years. But you always got the sense that the Comic Book Joker didn’t want to get his hands dirty. Sure, he’s shoot you but he’s leave it up to someone else to clean up the mess.

Not so with Ledger’s Joker. He’s a thug. He’s dirty. He’s vicious. And he’d just as soon stab you with a knife and have you bleed on his hand as shoot you. It was a characteristic of Joker that I welcomed. It’s the difference between noir and pulp. Pulp is fun, gritty at times, but, in the end, kinda light. Noir is dark, brutal, always gritty, seamy, unsettling.

With the new original graphic novel, Joker, that sensibility is alive and well. Joker is noir.

The graphic novel is about Joker but it’s also about Jonny Frost. He’s the narrator, a young punk who doesn’t know what he’s getting into when he agrees to go pick up Joker from Arkham Asylum. It seems someone thought the Joker cured and got him released. Wonder if that doctor isn’t an inmate in the asylum. Nonetheless, Frost picks up Joker and starts his crash course in revenge, Joker-style.

Another difference with Ledger’s Joker is his obsession with controlling the crime in Gotham. As that stack of money burns, Ledger’s Joker announces he controls Gotham now. In the comics, you never really got the sense that Joker was after power or control. He was just out to have some demented fun at everyone else’s expense. Azzerello’s Joker is, again, more in the Ledger vein than previous incarnations. Joker, upon his release, discovers that his organization has gone to the crapper. And he’s out to fix that situation no matter how many bodies pile up.

The first body is that of Monty, the man who is a lieutenant in Joker’s army who didn’t please the master well during the master's absence. Literally, Monty is skinned alive. Frost is shocked (as are we readers) but then Joker gives a little speech. And Frost is…awestruck. The artwork by Lee Bermejo is painted, not your typical four-color art. Every frame is beautiful despite its occasional grisly nature. The frame with a starstruck Jonny Frost tells more than an hundred words. Jonny Frost is in the spell of the Joker.

The story progresses as we watch Joker, Frost, and Harley Quinn (a stripper) go see various members of Gotham’s rouges gallery. “Killer” Croc is a big-ass black man with acne scars. Croc is drawn so huge on the page that it feels like the white frames surrounding the artwork won’t be enough to hold him in. Abner (aka Penguin) is the moneyman of Gotham, something Joker doesn’t have enough of and something that he craves. Two-Face is here and he seems to be as vain as Harvey Dent used to be before a punk threw acid on his face. He’s the big cheese, too. It’s all about Joker getting back what’s his from Two-Face. And the Riddler, er, Edward Nigma, is here and he’s, well, weird.

All this is to say that this is almost an alternate universe kind of thing but it speaks to what makes the Joker tick just as good as The Killing Joke (my review here) or other famous Joker-centric stories. There’s a few scenes of honest empathy if you’ll allow yourself to feel for a psychopath. In one crucial four-page sequence, Joker takes a broken bottle to the face of another thug, blows up a building, and then, is seen crying and hugging on Harley. This is almost as shocking as the violence.

If Joker’s involved, you just know Batman will eventually make an appearance. For the most part, however, he's merely a looming presence off-screen. To be honest, the way the story moves, I didn’t need Batman to show up. I knew he was coming...and I almost didn't want him to. Just as I enjoy the Gotham Central (my review) comics (featuring the police officer of the G. C. P. D.), I was quite enjoying all the criminals without the hero. But he’s called (you’ll never guess by whom and how) and dispatched. Quick as lightening, the story wraps up.

A bit too quickly for my tastes. The ending, while decent, wasn’t the gee-whiz ending of, say, The Killing Joke or The Dark Knight Returns or Branded Woman by Wade Miller. It was just an ending. It spoke to why the Joker was released from the asylum but never really answered the question why he was released. Unless the answer is in some subtext, I missed it.

Azzarello can do believable dialogue with the best of’em. It’s fun seeing these hardened, yet flamboyant criminals talk trash to each other. In a cast full of insanity, it’s even fun to read two of them joke about a third person:

Abner/Penguin: Someone is very sore at you.
Joker: Really? That’s wonderful news. I just like to make him sore. It’s what drags me out of bed.
Abner/Penguin: No, not him. Though I’m certain he’s not very happy about what you’ve been up to either. I’m speaking of Dent.
Joker: Harvey’s mad? Which one?
Abner/Penguin: Ha!
Joker: You think it’s funny, Abner?
Abner/Penguin: I think it’s a fair question. I don’t know how to answer it.

What about Jonny Frost? Well, let’s just say he’s us. He’s the “us” who looks at the movies and comics and sees all the havoc created by a man who looks like a clown and thinks “That’s cool. I want to be like the Joker.” Jonny Frost thinks that, too, at the beginning. He gets his first row seat to the madness that is Joker. Jonny looks into the abyss and makes a decision. It’s the most crucial decision of his life.

What this book boils down to, for me, is this: it’s a sequel to this past summer’s “The Dark Knight.” Visually, Joker is drawn as the perfect blend of Ledger’s Joker with the comic book Joker. Characteristically, he’s more Ledger’s Joker than the gentlemanly version from the comics. You get in the head of a killer. And you see things you never expected. Just be sure to go into the story with an open mind. It’s a good story and well worth your time.

Comics Review: DC's Wednesday Comics

Now, this is what I'm talking about!

DC Comics is always one to play with a theme or a marketing gimmick. But, this time, they've come up gold. Wednesday Comics is a 12-issue weekly comic title that, in this digital age, seeks to recreate the golden age. It's printed in a 20 x 28" tabloid, 16-page newspaper-type format. It’s gorgeous. And the feel of it in your hands (and the smell of it) will evoke days of childhood. The paper is folded twice, bringing the size down to basic comic book size. Carrying it around, it’s kind of like being a business man carrying around the Wall Street Journal except more fun.

Gimmick or not, the folks at DC still have to produce something worth reading. They haven’t skimped here, either. Clearly written in episodic format, the first issue gives readers a taste of what to expect. Here’s the breakdown.

• Batman by Brian Azzarello and Risso - Yes, this is the same Azzarello that wrote 100 Bullets and last year's Joker (my review). An investment banker has been kidnapped by forces unknown. Gordon sends up the Bat-Signal but it's too late. The art is sepia-toned, evoking some of the scenes from Batman Begins.
  
• Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth - This one gives you a bit of background as to who Kamandi is. The original Jack Kirby art is hinted at as well as the lettering from the old Prince Valiant comic strip.
  
• Superman - The artist, Lee Bermejo, is spectacular. You can tell that Supes is wearing boots and cloth in his costume, the detail is that good. You also get one of the funniest lines in this issue. As Kal-el is about to fight an alien, he ponders "I just wish somebody could tell me why every 'close encounter' has to end in a fight."
• Deadman - A murder-mystery, nothing less for the Dearly Departed Detective. And we end by seeing the back of the killer's head!
• Green Lantern - This one goes retro with the story taking place in the early 1960s as the Gemini project (NASA) is getting off the ground.
  
• Metamorpho: The Element Man - None other than Neal Gaiman writes this one. Again, another wonderful retro look-and-feel to this one, especially in the art. You even get the head shot roll call like the JLA titles back in the day.
• Teen Titans - The villain (or maybe he's not?) gives us a peek as to how he's going to destroy the Titans.
  
• Strange Adventures - Adam Strange, the spaceman, returns! Here, the Rock-People of Ragathann invade his city. These ape-like, blue monsters look mean and ugly. What's Adam to do? Blast off into the sky, gun in hand.
• Supergirl - The funniest entry of the issue. Best thing: Supergirl *looks* like a girl, not some tramped-up teenage object of lust. I knew about Krypto the Superdog. When did Streaky the Super Cat show up?
• Metal Men - I never read this title back when I was younger. Just reading the one page and the humor involved, I think I'm going to have to find some old issues.
• Wonder Woman - Okay, this one was trippy. It's almost an origin story. Diana is dreaming but, for almost the entire page, we (and she) don't know it. She's about to be sent to the Mortal Land (i.e., the rest of earth). Best thing here: she talks, in her dream, to two birds who hold a running commentary not unlike Pat Oliphant cartoons or the old Pogo comic strip. Trippy, but in a good way.
• Sgt. Rock - Written by Adam Kubert and drawn by his dad (and co-creator), Joe Kubert. Yeah! Rock's captured by a SS Officer and is getting pummeled. Dunno why but you know Rock's got stones of, uh, steel.
• The Flash - This one's a twofer. The top half of the page is Flash battling Gorilla Grodd. The bottom half is "Iris West." That's Flash's wife. This one has that soap opera look and feel (complete with the Warhol-esque dots for color) of comic strips like "Apartment 3-G." But what she sees makes her wonder...
• The Demon and the Cat - Demon doesn't make an appearance here but the Cat is Catwoman. And I think she might trying to steal something. No, really!
  
• Hawkman - Again, a peripheral character for me but there's a huge splash panel of a sky full of Hawkmen, flying upward to retake a hijacked plane. Oh yeah.

Basically, if you can't tell, these stories are intended to be FUN! And I had a blast reading them. Can't wait until Wednesday. Or the next one. Or the next one...

Robert E. Howard's Conan Stories on Audio

Audible.com just made my day. I just discovered the first 13 Conan stories on audio. A quick peek at Wikipedia, "The Source of All Things True," reveals these are the 13:

* "The Phoenix on the Sword"
* "The Frost Giant's Daughter"
* "The God in the Bowl"
* "The Tower of the Elephant"
* "The Scarlet Citadel"
* "Queen of the Black Coast"
* "Black Colossus"
* "Iron Shadows in the Moon"
* "Xuthal of the Dusk"
* "The Pool of the Black One"
* "Rogues in the House"
* "The Vale of Lost Women"
* "The Devil in Iron"

I am one happy dude!