Review Category: Books

When David J. Moore’s The
Good, The Tough, and The Deadly: Action
Movies & Stars 1960s-Present showed up, we could hear the sound of it
dropping onto the stoop from the other side of the building. It’s a veritable
tome — much like Moore’s prior book, World
Gone Wild: A Survivor’s Guide to
Post-Apocalyptic Movies, this is the size and heft of a college textbook.

However, the content is by no means as dry as what you’d
find in your standard college reader. Filled with reviews, interviews, and
commentary, The Good, The Tough, and The
Deadly covers each and every film, actor, and director you could hope for,
along with dozens (if not hundreds) you’ve never heard of, but will feel the
need to track down the instant you read about them.

Part of the book’s appeal is due to the fact that — unlike World Gone Wild — the reviews aren’t tackled
by Moore alone. In addition to himself, he’s enlisted the likes of Vern, Mike
“McBeardo” McPadden, and Destroy All Movies’ Zack Carlson, among others, all of
whom contribute their take on underrated, classic, and not-so-classic rock-’em,
sock-’em flicks.

It’s an absolute batty collection of reviews, and whether
you’re a fan of stars such as Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock,
Sylvester Stallone, or the films of directors like Mark Goldblatt, you’re set.
Now, to be fair: there are rules which will frustrate the hell out of some
readers. The stars and directors featured in The Good, The Tough, and The
Deadly are those who brought to the screen “physical strength, prowess, and
abilities lost through time.”

Because of this, you’ll find the likes of of a nearly
five-page interview with American Ninja star Michael Dudikoff within the first
thirty pages, but nothing regarding Die Hard or its myriad sequels. It seems
like a strange thing, but there have to be rules, or Moore’s book would just
end up more massive than it already is. And, really, Moore’s logic is solid:
action stars are those who built their careers on kicking ass and taking names.
While the likes of Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis made some great action
movies, their careers have been too varied to be considered “action stars,” per
se. At this point, Eastwood’s better known as a director, and Willis has gone
on to more standard fare.

I kind of take exception to the exclusion of Kurt Russell,
especially given his latter day return to the the sorts of roles with which he
began his career, but when stacked up against the likes of Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who’s still going to be remembered for destroying an island
full of baddies in Commando or nuking a rain forest in Predator, despite having
been governor of California for most of a decade.

David J. Moore’s The Good, The Tough, and The Deadly might
not contain everything you want it to, but it certainly contains everything it
should, and more. Any more than a couple minutes’ perusal will reveal half a
dozen films of which you’ve never heard, but will immediately have a profound
need to see. Be it the Chuck Norris grindhouse action slasher Silent Rage or
the forgotten blaxploitation of The Slams with Jim Brown, there’s bound to be a
hidden treasure or twenty to pique your interest.

Add in interviews with directors and stars — including an
in-depth chat with Dolph Lundgren which gave us a newfound appreciation for the
man — and this book is a must for fans of genre movies. Even the most dedicated
video hound is going to get something new out of Moore’s book, even if it’s
just looking at the hundreds of images source from the writer’s personal
collection.

THE GOOD, THE TOUGH AND THE DEADLY / AUTHOR: DAVID J. MOORE / PUBLISHER: SCHIFFER PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

After Roland Emmerich’s long-gestating sequel blew up
cinema screens in the summer, does this novelisation of the mediocre
blockbuster go any way towards improving it?

The book starts off well, treating the events of 1996 not
as an integral story that needed to be known in advance, but as backstory to
the plot of this one, thus allowing it to exist as a standalone tale. The first
part of the story gets a bit of expansion as minor characters are created from
whose viewpoint the aliens’ advancement through the solar system is seen,
giving a much-needed human perspective to the countless anonymous lives sacrificed
in the film for the sake of a few minutes of CGI devastation.

However, any potential for narrative enhancement falls
by the wayside once the action kicks off. The initially wide scope of the story
increasingly narrows until only the core group of characters have any relevance
to events, but at the same time the writing doesn’t maintain the same sense of
spectacle, excitement or shock that is really the purpose of the film’s entire existence.

One of the advantages of novelisations is the written
medium providing far greater room for character introspection, giving the
opportunity to further develop them that the pace of a movie fundamentally
lacks. However, in this case not much insight is given to the characters’
thoughts and motivations that weren’t already apparent from the dialogue. Also,
while it was interesting to be given a little backstory for Jake and Charlie
explaining why they’re such close friends, would it really have been that
difficult to take some of the characters who got short shrift in the film –
such as pilot Rain Lao or warlord Dikembe Umbutu – and actually flesh them out
a bit? Likewise, the most important developmental aspect of the film, the
psychic link the aliens can forge with humans and the PTSD-like mental scarring
that remains after it has been severed, is afforded no further consideration.

Overall, the book is little more than a novel retread of
a not especially distinctive sci-fi action sequel, which given the potential it
had to distinguish itself, is a missed opportunity.

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE / AUTHOR: ALEX IRVINE / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

After Roland Emmerich’s long-gestating sequel blew up
cinema screens in the summer, does this novelisation of the mediocre
blockbuster go any way towards improving it?

The book starts off well, treating the events of 1996 not
as an integral story that needed to be known in advance, but as backstory to
the plot of this one, thus allowing it to exist as a standalone tale. The first
part of the story gets a bit of expansion as minor characters are created from
whose viewpoint the aliens’ advancement through the solar system is seen,
giving a much-needed human perspective to the countless anonymous lives sacrificed
in the film for the sake of a few minutes of CGI devastation.

However, any potential for narrative enhancement falls
by the wayside once the action kicks off. The initially wide scope of the story
increasingly narrows until only the core group of characters have any relevance
to events, but at the same time the writing doesn’t maintain the same sense of
spectacle, excitement or shock that is really the purpose of the film’s entire existence.

One of the advantages of novelisations is the written
medium providing far greater room for character introspection, giving the
opportunity to further develop them that the pace of a movie fundamentally
lacks. However, in this case not much insight is given to the characters’
thoughts and motivations that weren’t already apparent from the dialogue. Also,
while it was interesting to be given a little backstory for Jake and Charlie
explaining why they’re such close friends, would it really have been that
difficult to take some of the characters who got short shrift in the film –
such as pilot Rain Lao or warlord Dikembe Umbutu – and actually flesh them out
a bit? Likewise, the most important developmental aspect of the film, the
psychic link the aliens can forge with humans and the PTSD-like mental scarring
that remains after it has been severed, is afforded no further consideration.

Overall, the book is little more than a novel retread of
a not especially distinctive sci-fi action sequel, which given the potential it
had to distinguish itself, is a missed opportunity.

INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE / AUTHOR: ALEX IRVINE / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

In
the nuclear wasteland of the near future life has become a harsh struggle for
survival. Wandering between ramshackle towns, the teenage Kid is picked up by a
band of raiders: the maniac Wolf, taciturn Dolly, compassionate Tank and
charming Pretty Boy. She soon discovers that the group survives through
cannibalism – the last taboo in this shattered world – and that someone is searching
for them.

Not
bothering with such unnecessities as set up or scene setting, the first page
kicks off with Kid meeting the others, after which the story quickly spirals
into an extended action sequence and from there things barely pause for a
breather. The short chapters and kinetic pace keep the story flowing at a
relentless rate as the group violently hops from one settlement to the next
with the goal of discovering who is targeting them and why.

Highly
reminiscent of Mad Max, Bite is not so much a tale of heroes and villains, or
even antiheroes and villains, as in the barren wastes of the desolate future selflessness
has become redundant. There is only the depths to which people will sink in
order to survive one day to the next, and it’s a testament to the
characterisation that the band of murderous cannibals remain more sympathetic than
anyone they encounter. Everyone’s a selfish shitbag, but these “sharks” manage
to function as a highly dysfunctional family; regardless of how little they may
like or trust each other, they’re stuck together for good or ill. Even Kid, who
has the closest thing to a morality compass of anyone, still understands the
necessity of doing what you must to survive and quickly adapts to her new
situation.

The
nicknames the raiders have for each other are the result of the tendency of people
to die so quickly and frequently there’s little point in trying to get to know
them. Even Kid, who narrates the entire story, reveals very little about
herself, and so the loss of names becomes part of a loss of identity and a constant
reminder of the brief and transitory nature of life in the harsh and
unforgiving desert. As the past is quite literally gone and the future a
constant uncertainty, everyone lives in the present, and so life is merely what
you do with the few precious moments you still possess. And in the case of
these guys, it usually involves shooting people or blowing them up.

Fast,
engaging and brutal, Bite is an uncomplicated tale but a decent effort from a
debuting author, and promises greater things to come.

BITE / AUTHOR: K S MERBETH / PUBLISHER: ORBIT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

Whilst it may sound like a strange club from one of Stephen King’s own novels, The Folio Society is an organisation which specialises in creating carefully crafted editions of the world’s finest literature. For them, the act of holding a book, of turning a page, of the feel of the paper, even the typography, as an essential part of ones enjoyment of the content.

And they’ve just given The Shining, now approaching 40 years old, a make-over. King’s third novel might come as a surprise to anyone who knows the story only via the Stanley Kubrick film version. Essentially it’s the same: Jack and Wendy Torrance move in to the grand and remote Overlook Hotel for the winter to take care of it as it becomes snowbound and isolated. Their young son, Danny, has ‘the shining’, a gift which allows him to pick up on remnants of the past and suggestions of the future. But the hotel seems to be haunted and starts to play with them, turning Jack’s mind to the story of a previous caretaker’s axe-wielding murder of his family.

The Shining is a story about fathers and sons, responsibility and selfishness, addiction and redemption. King delves inside his characters as they delve inside the Overlook, where nothing is simple and complex themes become manifest in the horrors that the hotel throws up. As Jack battles to keep on top of the Overlook and his life, (he’s a recovering alcoholic who changed his ways after breaking his young son’s arm), Wendy balances a mixture of support and resentment for her husband, and Danny’s self-awareness of his gift grows, the hotel’s secrets reveal themselves in increasingly unsettling, terrifying and deadly ways. At first, you question if it’s all in their minds as much as they do themselves. But it’s not.

It’s a hugely impressive piece of work.

Superbly creepy images linger in the mind – the dead old women in room 217, the moving topiary animals, the opening and closing of the lift at night time – but the slow creeping dread of approaching REDRUM as Jack slips over into insanity, is just as unsettling.

This edition’s superb illustrations by artist Edward Kinsella help to free the mind of the iconic film, and holding this beautiful book in your hands encourages you to treat the contents within with the respect they so fully deserve.

THE SHINING / AUTHOR: STEPHEN KING / PUBLISHER: THE FOLIO SOCIETY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

With their family near financial ruin,
sisters Arafura and Adrana Ness sign themselves up to sail the stars on the
sunjammer Monetta’s Mourn under
Captain Rackamore. But when Bosa Sennen, the most fearsome pirate in the skies,
tears their lives asunder, Arafura must journey to the edges of space – and her
own endurance – in order to enact her revenge…

Alastair Reynolds is one of the biggest
names around in British sci-fi, so you know you are going to get a well-told,
intelligent piece of hard science fiction with him. As such, the worldbuilding of
Revenger is expertly done. Told in
the first person, the book never shoves exposition down the reader’s throat as
Reynolds prefers to drip feed the rules and history of this ancient universe
throughout the narrative. It’s an intriguing and atmospheric place – a cosmos
where spacefarers scavenge the treasures of civilisations long since gone and
use the skulls of the dead to communicate between ships. There is also the
flavour of old-fashioned sailing novels about it. Similar to Treasure Island, it’s a coming-of-age
tale told in recollection and Victorian slang words like “cove” are frequently
used.

However, what might surprise you is how
character-driven the story is. Despite the author’s hardcore sci-fi reputation,
Revenger is primarily focussed on the
journey of Arafura. She’s a brilliant female lead – a book-lover who is
wrenched from her cosy homeworld and thrust into a life of adventure, hard work
and heartbreak. Never a passive character, it is Fura’s single-minded mission
and perseverance that keeps the reader racing through the book to see if she
makes it. In fact there is a strong female cast of characters all round, with
Fura’s best friend, sister and mortal enemy in Bosa Sennen proving to be
fascinating characters as well.

On the one hand, Revenger is definitely worth a go for space opera fans and
followers of Reynolds. Yet even if your tastes are a bit more down to earth, the
book is still a must-read as it is an unexpectedly personal and emotionally-driven
tale of determination and retribution – with some great twists along the way
and a gutsy heroine who will appeal to fans of young adult literature. Even
though everything is mostly wrapped up by the end, the hints at more to come
leave us eagerly awaiting a return trip to this corner of Reynolds’ sci-fi
universe. 

REVENGER / AUTHOR: ALASTAIR REYNOLDS / PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ / RELEASE DATE: 15TH SEPTEMBER
 

A
long time ago… Before the advent of home video, before the internet and the instant
gratification that video streaming allows, one of a handful of ways a young genre
fan could relive their favourite film or TV series was through trading cards. Beloved
scenes and moments forever immortalised on palm sized pieces of cardboard were
essential items of fandom for those of us who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. The
trading card company Topp’s became synonymous with a generation for their collections
of licensed properties with Star Trek, Superman: The Movie, Battlestar Galactica
and, of course, Star Wars being amongst them. And every pack of cards was accompanied
by a brittle, pale pink, wafer thin stick of gum that crumbled away to nothing
in the mouth. Just what was that stuff made of? As with most treasured things from
childhood we either outgrew such items or overzealous mums on mad cleaning
sprees threw out our precious collections.

Fortunately
Abrams ComicArts has collected the entire Star Wars saga trading card sets in
three quality volumes. Volume One, naturally showcased all five series of cards,
and as anyone who grew up in those heady days will remember, we in the UK could
only get our hands on the blue bordered series one, and the red bordered series
two sets. Who knew that there were green, yellow and orange bordered sets too?

Volume
Two covered The Empire Strikes Back, which had a total of three series, but by
1980 trading cards were being usurped by sticker sets in the UK, so this card
set never appeared in the local newsagents.

And
now comes Volume Three, which covers The Return of the Jedi. Unlike the
previous sets Jedi only had two series. As Gary Gerani, the original editor of
the Topps series, explains in the books introduction this was because Topp’s
thought that once the fans had seen the film, knowing it was the final chapter
in the trilogy, interest would quickly wain and wouldn’t warrant further
series’. This works in the books favour as, unlike the previous two volumes,
each card, image on the front and text on the back, gets its own page so that
you can view them side by side. The text on the backs of series one tells the
story of Jedi, whilst series two is an all things Star Wars quiz. Interestingly
the final card of the set mentions that George Lucas’s next trilogy would focus
on the Clone Wars, but fans would have a while to wait! Also included within
these pages are the images of the stickers and wrappers for both series. And at
the end of each section there are images of the completed puzzles that were
created from the stickers backing card.

The
images themselves vary in quality. This is not a fault of the book, but rather reflects
the printing technology of the time. Gary Gerani provides brief factoids of varying
interest for several of the cards throughout. Some of the facts presented will
be well known to Star Wars fans but there are some that are specific to the production
of the cards. For instance, one card depicts the Millennium Falcon flying through
the Death Star’s superstructure and Gary decided to present the image portrait
fashion, rather than landscape, as he felt it had more impact.

As
with the previous volumes, this one also includes a pack of replica cards and
the book’s dust jacket is the same waxy paper that that used to contain the
cards. It’s a shame that the book doesn’t smell of the weird bubble gum, but
when you remove the dust jacket an image of the strange confectionary awaits to
get your tastebuds watering, and the back cover shows a shattered stick of gum.
Now that’s attention to detail.

This
is a wonderfully produced book utilising quality paper stock and is superbly bound.
Most of all it is an outstanding homage to Star Wars and to the ageless hobby of
collecting trading cards. Indulge your inner child, add this volume to your bookshelf
and allow yourself to wallow in simpler, carefree times.

STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI – THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES – VOLUME 3 / PUBLUSHERS: ABRAMS BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: 16TH AUGUST
 

What if some of William Shakespeare’s
greatest works and the creatures of HP Lovecraft’s nightmarish imagination
collided? That’s what ‘Shakespeare vs Cthulhu’ is all about, a selection of
short stories, poems and even a comic updating of ‘The Tempest’ for the Twitter
generation, gorgeously illustrated, and incredibly entertaining. What happens
when a college production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is violently derailed by the
discovery of a mystical grimoire? What horrors does Hamlet discover in the
tombs of Elsinore? What deal-with-the-devil does Henry V make, that reveals the
true meaning behind his oft-quoted war-cry “Once more unto the breach”? and how
did John Dee and William Shakespeare prevent the end of the world? In a story
that owes more than a nod to ‘Alien’s facehuggers and Heinlein’s ‘The Puppet
Masters’, we find out what awful preternatural power really led to Julius
Caesar’s assassination, and in a tale about Richard III we are made privy to
the gruesome secret of what actually lurks inside the monarch’s famous crooked
back. But there are some special guests in here as well – Shakespeare’s contemporary
Christopher Marlowe is hunted down by grotesque fish-creatures and Ben Jonson
and the Elizabethan poet Michael Drayton are treated to a disgusting meal they
will never forget – we find out what that stage direction ‘Exit, pursued by…’
really means (it has nothing to do with bears) and, in a genius twist, we learn
why Lear really exiled Cordelia, which gives us a bloody new take on the old
King’s madness. And it’s not just the tragedies and histories that get the
Lovecraft workover – in the shortest, but also one of the strongest, of the
stories, we discover what Lovecraft’s ancient gods have got in store for
‘Twelfth Night’s Lady Olivia, and her servant Malvolio.

All of these stories are quite wonderful,
and beautifully written, although this is a book that it’s probably best to dip
into rather than read in a couple of sittings – certain Lovecraft tropes like
weird geometries, portals opening into (or out of) other worlds and amphibious
warriors chasing our heroes through dark and deadly landscapes are frequently
used and re-used throughout this collection, which can prove a little
repetitive. These are tales that should be slowly and individually savoured,
with the only disappointing entry being an episode based upon ‘Macbeth’
(surprising, given that ‘Macbeth’ should lend itself more naturally to a
Lovecraft injection than any of Shakespeare’s other plays.) Still, that’s a
minor bump in the road. Whether you’re a fan of the Bard or a devotee of the
redoubtable HPL you will find much to enjoy and admire within these pages.

 SHAKESPEARE VS. CTHULU / EDITED BY: JONATHAN GREEN / WRITTEN BY: VARIOUS / PUBLISHER: SNOWBOOKS
 

Jack Sparks is a legend in his own
lifetime. He is a writer, social media celebrity and unashamed narcissist with
a rabid cult-following and an ego to match. For his latest book, ‘Jack Sparks
on the Supernatural’, he intends to prove that the paranormal is garbage. He
doesn’t care who he tears down in his quest, so long as Jack Sparks remains the
star of the show. And if he discovers that the paranormal actually does exist?
Simple. Jack will ignore it. Jack Sparks is never wrong.

Except Jack Sparks is about to get an
(un)reality check.

Things start going bad when he attends the
exorcism of a young Italian girl and, convinced that the whole performance is
staged, laughs at the wrong moment. You should never laugh at the Devil. Since
that night Jack has followed a combat magician in Hong Kong and joined a
paranormal group in LA on an experiment to manufacture a ghost a ’la the famous
‘Philip’ experiment of the 1970s. En route there are cameo appearances by ‘The
Blair Witch Project’s Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick and legendary film
producer Roger Corman, all of whom Jack suspects might have planted a
disturbingly realistic ghost video on his website. But when he is joined in LA
by his platonic flatmate Bex, who is seemingly on the rebound from an
unfaithful boyfriend, things seem to be looking up for Jack. But Jack is at the
summit of a monstrous slide into the abyss, because events are about to turn
(quite literally) bloody terrifying.

Don’t you just hate jumping on a bandwagon?
‘The Last Days of Jack Sparks’ has already earned a multitude of ecstatic
reviews, and this is another one. It is scary, disturbing, funny, almost
impossible to put down, and scores a massive bullseye in its dissection of vapid
celebrity culture and the YouTube generation. Just as impressively, Jason
Arnopp succeeds in making his rather unpleasant title character a charismatic
and compelling leading man, even if you never quite feel sorry for what happens
to him at the end.

Does it work as a horror story? Mostly,
although we didn’t find it as creepy as other reviewers. But it’s a pretty
solid primer on the worlds of the paranormal, touching everything from exorcism
to trapped spirits to tulpa’s to time travel – Arnopp has obviously done his
research. And the final coda, supplied by an afterword from Jack’s brother,
ties the whole story up in quite a brilliant bow and then slams us on our heads.
Genius.

THE LAST DAYS OF JACK SPARKS / AUTHOR: JASON ARNOPP / PUBLISHER: ORBIT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

It’s the mid-1930s and an expedition is
due to set out in hopes of reaching the summit of Kanchenjunga in the
Himalayas.  Dr Stephen Pearce is a medic and relatively capable climber,
drafted in as a last minute replacement to his brother’s climbing party, and it
is through Pearce that we experience the events that take place.  As with
many seemingly unconquerable mountains of that region, a number of ill-fated
attempts have taken on the challenge and failed, and one in particular, the
Lyell assault of some 30-years earlier, hangs heavy over this new endeavour.
 

Early on Pearce encounters ominous
forewarnings via a survivor of the Lyell team, as well as struggling to temper
his Western rationalism against the superstitions of the locals who will act as
porters for the group.  Running from a misjudged and now broken engagement
back in England, not even these warnings, or his fractious relationship with
his wealthy, arrogant sibling and his own fears that he is not a good enough
climber put Pearce off the mission ahead.  Aware of the effects of
altitude sickness and the dangers of climbing, Dr Pearce clings to this
‘enlightened’ reasoning even as unnerving and unsettling events begin to
suggest that the native superstition is not unfounded, and something is waiting
on the mountain to punish these men for their hubris.

Having actually been to Kanchenjunga
herself, Paver vividly but economically establishes the sights, sounds and
atmosphere of the journey.  Paver’s research into mountaineering at that
time, as well as the region and customs of the people, shines through in a
strong and convincing tone.  With Pearce as narrator, Paver uses his
commentary to effectively and quickly build the other characters in the book
and create a convincing history for the lack of love between the two
brothers.  Mixing in references to real climbers and expeditions of that
time period helps to understand what drives the men to push on despite
setbacks.

There’s no obvious shocks here but
instead a sustained, creeping dread as the likelihood increases that it’s not
all in Pearce’s mind and that they are heading for tragedy just like Lyell and
company.  Subtitled ‘A Ghost Story’ this is very much the classic
approach, concentrating on mood and subtlety to create chills in the
reader.  It could be argued the story itself is slight, but even if so,
that matters little when told with such confidence and ability.

THIN AIR / AUTHOR: MICHELLE PAVER /
PUBLISHER: ORION / RELEASE DATE: 6TH OCTOBER