Review Category: Books

Review: Terminator Vault – The Complete Story Behind the Making of The Terminator and Terminator 2 / Author: Ian Nathan / Publisher: Aurum Press / Release Date: Out Now

The Terminator, the brilliant and violent noir time-travelling adventure from 1984, and its sequel, are the focus point of this new book that delves back into the archives and allows us a peek behind the proverbial curtain.

Packed full of facts and information, it’s a great read that covers a story that started nearly thirty years ago. Taking in everything from James Cameron’s early work to the casting of Schwarzenegger to the genre-defining effects work of the late, great Stan Winston, this is pretty good at giving you an inside look. Some of the production and model photographs on show prove just how much work went into making the original film, as well as introducing you to the painstaking and precedent-setting effects of the sequel and how they would affect the whole of the film industry.

There are soundbites from pretty much all the major players and it’s fun to hear their individual recollections on the productions. For all the horror stories you’ve heard about him, Cameron comes across well here and is more than happy to share his experiences on what was his big break.

A small section at the back deals with The Terminator‘s legacy, but the book sensibly keeps the focus of attention on the two core movies rather than getting distracted by the diminishing returns of the sequels. One interesting thing to consider, the rights to the franchise return to Cameron in 2019 – just keep that in mind!

There are some removable reproductions of items from the sets, of preproduction notes, sketches and even a poster. One of the really interesting things to read is a copy of the original potential casting choices for characters. To think that Rosanna Arquette and Sting almost played Sarah and Kyle is interesting, to say the least. A cute touch is the reproduction of the Polaroid picture taken of Sarah at the end of the first film – we wonder how many fans will stick that in their car’s sun visor?

This is a good book for fans of the series and Cameron’s work in general, but as there have been other, similar retrospective volumes released recently for other sagas that are so much more in-depth, you can’t help but think that this could have gone the extra mile. Overall, however, if you’re a fan of the films, this is a must-buy.

Review: Zom-B Baby / Author: Darren Shan / Publisher: Simon and Schuster / Release Date: Out Now

Attentive readers of the first book in the Zom-B series may recall that our protagonist was haunted by a recurring dream in which a horde of zombie babies advanced on her. Thus it came as no surprise when that particular Chekhov’s Gun was fired and the baby made its first appearance in reality.

However, despite the title, that’s not what this book is all about (as evidenced by the fact that the baby doesn’t make its first appearance until page 160 of 215). B’s crisis of faith from the last book makes a return appearance and she spends most of the book arguing with herself and others as to whether the good Doctor Oystein is really on the level. It’ll be interesting to see where things go now that her crisis of faith has been resolved.

Before she gets everything straight in her head, B takes a walk around the city to look at some former places of interest, including the London Eye, where she races her fellow revitalised zombie Rage to the top of the wheel. Once they reach it, he pushes her off it. This may take the reader by surprise (well, it won’t any more), but it’s a twist executed for no good reason and looks for all the world like it was done just to provide a shocking end-of-chapter twist. It bears the hallmarks of Raymond Chandler’s words of advice, “in writing a novel, when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns.” This sticks out like a sore thumb and serves to remove the reader somewhat from the narrative. (However, according to Shan’s author notes the opening section about the London Dungeons was hastily rewritten when they were moved and it’s impossible to tell just by reading it.)

Another bugbear is that the above-mentioned storyline about the crisis of faith lends the book the feeling of filler to be read while waiting for the good bits. Here’s hoping the next book picks up the slack somewhat.

It’s not all bad, of course. The usual superb visuals provided by Warren Pleece have been given a splash of colour (although advertising them as ‘blood-curdling’ is going a bit too far). Not to mention that the mystery of what the baby will turn out to be is genuinely interesting and we look forward to seeing where it’s going in later books. One mediocre book isn’t going to turn us or his fans off the series forever.

Review: The Making of Return of the Jedi / Author: J.W Rinzler / Publisher: Aurum Press / Release Date: October 1st

The film that completed the original Star Wars trilogy finally gets its own “making of” bible. Coming after the truly astounding previous tomes that covered Episodes IV and V, executive editor at Lucasfilm Ltd J.W. Rinzler brings us another must-have for any true fan of Lucas’ original visionary space saga.

A real coffee table book, as with the two previous entries, The Making of Return of the Jedi is jam-packed from cover to cover with some interesting and rarely seen stories from behind the camera as well as pre-production notes, various character illustrations and on-set photographs of cast and crew hard at work and on their downtime.

One of the most interesting things is the script conferences held between Lucas, Kasdan and Marquand that shows that the others weren’t afraid to challenge Lucas on just about anything. But as with anything of this nature, it is the concept art that really steals the show. Covering everything from huge vistas to the smallest character tweaks – the changes to Jabba the Hut and the Rancor monster are real treats – it gives you an insight into the work that went on during pre-production and behind the scenes as the film was created. Those that still like to trash-talk the Ewoks will find plenty of information about the furry little buggers, including even more character designs.

It interesting to read the trials and tribulations that occurred when filming the Sarlacc pit (or “sand vagina” as it is called) scenes – “The whole damn set was terrifying, a nightmare” – as two stuntmen were injured before filming even began. The sheer size of the endeavour make you hanker for a time long since passed when productions actually had sets, rather than a room filled with green screens, and the models will make you feel like a kid all over again.

Let’s face it, if you’re a real fan or if you have the two previous releases, you’re going to buy this anyway. For us to say that this is pure gold for those who still love the original trilogy and the release of Blue Harvest in particular is a given. But we’ll say it anyway. Buy this damn book already!

Review: Doctor Sleep / Author: Stephen King / Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton / Release Date: Out Now

Stephen King returns to his best creation to date (although ‘Salem’s Lot, Misery or Pet Semetary fans might have something to say about that) with Doctor Sleep, the much anticipated sequel to The Shining. To say that expectations are high is an understatement, especially given that King is not a man known for his sequels. Can Doctor Sleep possibly live up to that weight of expectation, or does the book’s effect mimic its title?

Thankfully, Doctor Sleep finds King on fine form, even if little Danny Torrance isn’t in such a good place throughout. Dad dead (in fairly different circumstances from those of the controversial Kubrick adaptation), Dan Torrance grows up to be a troubled, traumatised young man. It doesn’t take him long to follow in his father’s footsteps, as he learns that the dreaded drink dulls both the shining and his memories of that fateful winter at the Overlook hotel. Settling down in a sleepy New Hampshire town some years later, Dan manages to kick the booze, hold down a steady job and finally begin to make peace with his personal demons. And then gifted young Abra Stone comes calling, reigniting Dan’s troubles and dragging him into the midst of a battle between good and (ancient) evil.

With Doctor Sleep we have a fine story on two levels – it’s both a great sequel to The Shining (Dick Hallorann, Wendy Torrance and several of the Overlook guests are revisited here) and a ripping yarn in its own right. Fans of the original novel will enjoy the references and callbacks to the events of The Shining, while more casual readers should be thrilled by the classic King tale of good-hearted but flawed all-American folk fighting psychic vampires. True, King lays it on a little thick with the AA stuff, but at least here we’re presented with his most plausible alcoholic since Jack Torrance – we’d almost be surprised if Danny didn’t turn out to be a boozehound – and it’s so markedly different from its predecessor that we could never accuse King of revisiting the characters for a quick buck or lazy book. The good guys are likeable, interesting and believable; the villains nasty yet compelling. An RV-riding gang of innocent-looking pensioners, The True Knot, are the best Stephen King villains in years.

Likewise, Doctor Sleep is the best King book since Under the Dome. He’s faltered a little in recent years (even Under the Dome suffered from being far too long, with a stupid ending) but Doctor Sleep is a fantastic return to form. It’s fast-paced, just the right length and – crucially – properly chilling at times. Detractors of the author may not be so convinced – those old King turns of phrase and his very American style are as strong as they’ve ever been – but everyone else should celebrate, for this is one horror sequel which mostly manages to live up to the hype.

Review: Doctor Who – Spore / Author: Alex Scarrow /Publisher: Puffin / Release Date: Out Now

Puffin’s monthly fiftieth anniversary run of ‘quick-read’ style Doctor Who eBooks reaches Paul McGann’s Byronesque Eighth Doctor who, you’ll recall, enjoyed just an hour’s worth of TV time in the 1996 American TV movie. Tough call. Fortunately Scarrow, best known for his Time Riders series of children’s adventure novels, has opted to focus more on his plot than the character of a Time Lord who, in this incarnation at least, is still a blank page for many readers (despite Big Finish’s stirling work in putting some flesh on the Eighth Doctor’s TV bones).

The TARDIS lands near a dusty New Mexico town where a deadly alien pathogen is on the loose, growing and infecting on a scale which could consume the whole planet in a matter of weeks. It’s already spread to the nearby town and turned its inhabitants into an icky black mush (surprisingly nasty and graphic for what’s ostensibly a short story for kids) and, after a quick chinwag with some American soldiers, the Doctor decides to venture into the town to try and find a way to stop the spread of the infection. Here he meets up with soldier Evelyn Chan, only survivor of an army unit sent into the town for investigation purposes. The Doctor faces a race against time to find a way to communicate with the pathogen and force it to leave the Earth forever.

Nothing much wrong with Spore apart from the fact it doesn’t feel much like a Doctor Who story. McGann’s Doctor is disappointingly generic – there’s really not much sense of anything but a fairly typical square-jawed hero in the way he’s written – but at least Scarrow’s brief description of the Doctor identifies him as the TV movie version of the character and not the leather-jacketed upgrade more recently created by Big Finish. But the story itself seems more suited to something like The X-Files and in some ways it’s easy to imagine it as an episode in any US-based McGann TV series which might have (but didn‘t) follow from the TV movie.

So while it doesn’t really sit that well as a Doctor Who tale, Scarrow seems happy enough with his occasionally grisly text; we’re told frequently how human victims of the pathogen are effectively melted or absorbed into the virus itself. It’s a story which doesn’t mess about, it just gets on with it, gets the job done and gets out. McGann fans might be frustrated by the blandness of the depiction of their hero whereas others might find much to enjoy about Spore’s simple, linear storyline and its undercurrent of gruesome body horror.

Review: The Hobbit / Author: J.R.R. Tolkien / Artist: Jemima Catlin / Publisher: HarperCollins / Release Date: Out Now

Peter Jackson has very much made Tolkien’s Middle Earth his own since he set out on the epic task of bringing the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the big screen. Tolkien’s children’s novel The Hobbit (or The Hobbit, or There and Back Again to give it its proper title), which effectively became a prequel to the Rings saga, is now on its way to becoming a movie trilogy of its own with The Desolation of Smaug, following on from last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, due in cinemas in time for Christmas. To both long-standing Tolkien fans and newcomers alike, the characters and creatures of Middle Earth will be forever associated with Jackson’s bold, striking visuals, extraordinary special effects and lavish, breathtaking actions sequences. To fans and moviegoers across the world, Bilbo Baggins will always be Ian Holm (in the Rings trilogy) and Martin Freeman (in The Hobbit) and Gandalf will always evoke the memory of the artificially towering, bewhiskered Ian McKellen. But this sumptuous, gorgeous new edition of The Hobbit, the first for fifteen years, may well go some way towards reminding fans that these characters lived and breathed in the minds of readers decades before Hollywood finally found a way to bring Tolkien’s extraordinary fantasy world to life.

This edition has been illustrated by Dorset-born artist Jemima Catlin, whose images – there are 150 of them, ranging from full-page plates to tiny postage stamp-sized caricatures nestling in the corners of pages – are scattered liberally throughout the book. Catlin’s illustrations are charming, simplistic and occasionally – such as in Bilbo’s confrontation with one of Mirkwood’s giant spiders – starkly dramatic. But without exception they offer a new perspective on characters we’re used to seeing through Hollywood’s eyes and they effortlessly reposition the story as a rousing adventure for children. The tale of young hobbit Bilbo Baggins and his journey to the Lonely Mountain with the wizard Gandalf and thirteen lusty dwarves to recover their ancestral treasure from the dragon Smaug needs little introduction, but this beautiful edition restores the whimsy, magic and sense of innocence which was inevitably lost in the bluster of the movie version. The intention of this new volume is to take a step back and allow a new generation of children to experience the wonder of The Hobbit without any preconceptions from the movies. It’s exciting to imagine children immersing themselves in Tolkien’s timeless tale, with Jemima’s singular depictions of Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin and the dwarves and all the creatures they meet on their unexpected journey firing and inspiring their imaginations and bringing vividly to life a world and a story which will stay with them forever. This is a seriously beautiful, cherishable, lovingly produced volume which absolutely deserves a place on the bookshelf of any discerning Tolkien aficionado, regardless of their age.

Review: Steelheart / Author: Brandon Sanderson / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: Out Now

The genesis for Brandon Sanderson’s latest novel Steelheart occurred when someone cut him off in traffic. “I had this immediate guttural reaction of, ‘You’re lucky I don’t have superpowers, because I would totally blow your car off the road!’ And I was horrified, right? Because I was like, ‘Where did that come from, that side of me? It’s a good thing I don’t have superpowers!’” That idea joined another he’d already had in mind: “What if the good guys didn’t always have the power?”

Having completed the late Robert Jordan’s mammoth Wheel of Time series, as well as creating the richly imagined world of the Mistborn trilogy, Sanderson has rapidly become one of the fantasy genre’s most respected authors. So is Steelheart, his first young adult novel, a worthy addition to his body of work so far? The short answer is… yes!

The story takes place ten years after Calamity, a cosmic event that bestowed certain individuals with superhero-like powers. However, unlike the superheroes that we all know and love, these Epics, as they are called, are anything but heroic. They are capricious, wanton killers who revel in the suffering of others. This is not a world where, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Rather, it’s power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

This is evident from the beginning when an Epic, who calls himself Deathpoint, decides that killing customers in a bank is more fun than robbing it. The description of a mother holding her baby as it is turned to dust and bone is particularly disturbing. Deathpoint is rapidly dealt with when Steelheart – the most powerful Epic – arrives and kills him for trespassing in his territory. It’s during this sequence that Steelheart kills the father of the novel’s protagonist, David. Vowing revenge, he has to wait ten years before he has a chance to get even, but during those years he studies all the strengths and weaknesses of all known Epics. And David knows Steelheart’s secret, he’s seen Steelheart bleed! During a chance encounter with the Reckoners – the human resistance – David’s research gives him the leverage he needs to join the group, affording him valuable resources to fulfill his self-imposed mission. But does he succeed?

Although this is a young adult novel, it’s a dark, dark read. Death happens quickly and the threat of danger is almost tangible. Yet it is often punctuated by humour in the form of David’s tortured metaphors, which he admits himself he needs to work on, “I feel like a brick made of porridge.”

With snappy dialogue, high-octane action, and a relentless pace, this is a book that throws readers from one tension-filled encounter into another, yet without sacrificing characterisation or plot. Our only criticism would be that, as this is a first-person narrative from David’s perspective, we don’t get an insight into Steelheart’s mind. Just who was Steelheart before Calamity?

Review: The Carnac Campaign / Author: Joe Parrino, Graeme Lyon, Rob Sanders / Publisher: Black Library / Release Date: Out Now (eBook)

The Carnac Campaign is a collection of three short stories set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Each story focuses on a particular character or vehicle, all of which just happen to be new models for the Eldar range of wargaming toys. Eldar are essentially space elves; they have their own weird culture, ancient technology, traditions, etc. Like the rest of the 40K setting, they have a strong fantasy feel, with jet fighters replacing dragons, force swords replacing magic swords and so on.

NightSpear focuses on the elite ranger Illic Nightspear and a small band of similarly themed space Legolas types. It’s the sort of story where heroic snipers sneak around taking out evil snipers (in this case, soulless robot monsters). It’s well paced, rapid and fun, and its brevity adds to the impact of the story.

On the other hand, Sky Hunter feels like it would be improved by having more time to develop and grow. Graeme Lyon does a great job of adding depth to the idea of alien fighter aces running desperate assaults on the enemy, and there are some neat insights into what it means to an elite pilot in an ancient and alien culture. It gets a little bogged down in its own premise, though, and really needs some better-paced action to break up the character-building. Its biggest flaw is that it simply isn’t long enough for decent story development.

Spirit War is a nice showcase for the talents of Rob Sanders; Eldar stories tend to be ones of loss and staving off the inevitable collapse of their civilisation. Spirit War certainly has plenty of that, but it also has lots of robots stomping other robots. Sanders is great at spinning a cinematic tale, and if this was a movie, it would be a Hollywood blockbuster. Great stuff.

Overall, this is a nice collection, and it’s a lovely idea as a tie-in. It could just do with being longer and more comprehensive, and given the new treatment the Eldar recently got, it is surprising that there isn’t more.

Review: Star Trek – The Art of Juan Ortiz / Author: Juan Ortiz / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

Puerto Rico-born artist Juan Ortiz has become something of a sensation in Star Trek circles recently. A former illustrator for the likes of Disney and DC Comics, the artist embarked on a project to create retro style posters for every episode of the original series. Over the last year or so Ortiz has produced an original poster for each of the 80 episodes, which have been reproduced on everything from fine art prints to T-shirts and even shot glasses. Now for the first time all 80 posters are gathered together in Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz, a labour of love for the artist and a wonderful companion piece for fans.

Taking in a wide variety of influences, including Saul Bass, Jack Kirby and even Terry Gilliam, Ortiz beautifully condenses the plot and tone of each episode down to a single image. This sees the Jack the Ripper escapades of Wolf in the Fold rendered as a 1960s horror B-movie. Meanwhile the notorious Way to Eden, where the Enterprise is commandeered by hippies, is reimagined as a psychedelic piece that wouldn’t look out of place as a Hendrix album cover.

Whilst the majority are done in the style of movie posters, Ortiz occasionally looks to other sources for his inspiration. Mirror, Mirror is styled as a poster for a boxing match (with Spock facing off to his mirror universe counterpart), The Gamesters of Triskelion is reimagined as a Marvel-style comic and By Any Other Name becomes a toy advert. Ortiz doesn’t discriminate between the good and bad episodes. The City of the Edge of Forever and Space Seed both have memorable posters (the latter used as the cover art) but the infamous Spock’s Brain is treated with equal love, resulting in a superb Pythonesque image with the Vulcan’s head flipped open.

The artist also allows his imagination to run free, taking the opportunity to expand upon certain episodes. Amok Time shows dragons on Vulcan, whereas A Piece of the Action turns the human-imitating beings of Sigma Iotia II into tentacled shapeshifters. The Gorn also get a revamp, with the artist imagining what they might have looked like without the restrictions of a modest 1960s television budget.

Whilst Ortiz does a remarkable job in keeping the images varied, there are however a few occasions where he comes close to repeating himself. A couple of stylised images of Kirk make multiple appearances, and there’s a recurring theme of giant, threatening hands reaching out for the Enterprise, but for the most part this is a stunning collection and a worthy addition to any Trek fan’s coffee table. (And if you don’t have a coffee table, this book is the perfect reason to get one.)

Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz is more than a love letter to Star Trek. It’s a beautifully designed tribute to movies, classic TV shows, comics, music – in short, everything you love. Those who aren’t Trek will appreciate it for its diverse styles and its nostalgic appeal. For those who are into Star Trek, it takes something you know and love and lets you see it again from a new perspective. At a time when Star Trek’s cinematic incarnation is blandly recycling elements from the classic series, it’s a delight to see something that takes the series and finds something fresh to say about it. Ortiz has just finished a new set of prints picturing the 22 episodes of The Animated Series. Here’s hoping he continues covering all of the series’ various incarnations. Essential.

Review: Now on the Big Screen – The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who at the Cinema / Author: Charles Norton / Publisher: Telos Publishing / Release Date: Out Now

You might think that the history of Doctor Who on the cinema screen begins and ends with Max Rosenberg and Milton J. Subotsky’s two cheap-and-cheerful Peter Cushing Dalek movies in the mid-1960s. But you’d be quite wrong… and yet also quite right. Whilst it’s true that Doctor Who has never returned to the silver screen since 1966’s Daleks – Invasion Earth 2150AD, what’s remarkable is that virtually ever since someone, somewhere, has been working on a new Doctor Who film project intended to capitalise on the continuing high profile of the world’s most successful TV sci-fi show.

Forget all your Doctor Who dictionaries and miscellanies and all the other assorted series guides churned out during this fiftieth anniversary year. This entirely unofficial and unauthorised guide to the Doctor Who movies that were and nearly were is sure to be the very best Doctor Who-related book of the year, even though it’s really only tangentially connected to the TV series which inspired it. Norton’s clean, no-nonsense text intricately details the making of the 1960’s Dalek movies with reference to amusing contemporary censor observations about the script of the first film (it was often common practice for a film script to be submitted to the BBFC in order to secure a certificate for the movie prior to filming), the films’ critical maulings and their impressive – for the time – box office performance. Perhaps what’s most interesting here is how easy it was for the Daleks to cross over from the flickering black-and-white TV screen to the big screen in full colour: a simple, straightforward licensing agreement with a BBC still slightly bemused by the success of this odd new Saturday evening teatime family sci-fi adventure.

It’s all in marked contrast to subsequent struggles to get Doctor Who back ‘in the pictures’ and it’s here, in less-familiar territory, that Now on the Big Screen excels. Who knew that TV series Yeti creator Mervyn Haisman cannibalised his (and co-writer Henry Lincoln’s) 1967 Abominable Snowmen script into a never-published novel with new characters taking the place of the Doctor and co and even into a film script pitched to Disney, replacing the Doctor with Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger? Tom Baker struggled throughout the 1970s – accounting for the actor’s longevity in the role, the promise of a feature film always tantalisingly just out of reach – to finance the Scratchman project he developed with series co-star Ian Marter. The film finally came to nothing in the wake of the Star Wars phenomenon which blew their modest effort out of the water. Even in the 1980s, as the show’s star began its slow descent on British TV, interested parties were working on a feature film to capitalise on the series’ sudden growing reputation stateside. Now On the Big Screen examines each of these projects – and the many which flourished following the BBC’s abandonment of the show in 1989 – and speaks to many of the major players (including Dire Straits’ bass guitarist John Illsley, who was involved for a time, as well as producer Peter Litten, whose fingers were severely financially burned by some frankly reprehensible behaviour by the BBC). Completists will thrill to the many full story outlines reproduced, most of which fail utterly to capture the essence of Doctor Who in their desperation to go ‘big screen’ (several of them rewrite the character’s history and morality altogether). The outline presented for Baker and Marter’s Scratchman reveals a wild and schizophrenic storyline which would have made for an extremely interesting movie (in a world where ‘interesting’ is a euphemism for ‘absolute rubbish’).

Now on the Big Screen is endlessly, exhaustingly fascinating, a brilliant and informative read which is surely the very last word on an area of Doctor Who’s history rarely investigated. In 2011 Harry Potter director David Yates publicly announced his desire (and intention) to eventually direct a new Doctor Who cinema film. Readers of Now on the Big Screen will know better than to hold their breath waiting for the premiere…