Review Category: Books

Review: Three – Legends of the Duskwalker, Book 1 / Author: Jay Posey / Publisher: Angry Robot / Release Date: July 30th

Jay Posey has a long CV as a writer in the video game industry, and he brings this experience to bear in Three, a post-apocalyptic brawler which provides solid entertainment while doing nothing special. The titular hero is a strong, silent bounty hunter-type who befriends a woman and her son who are on the run. Too late, he learns that they were part of a notorious criminal crew who will stop at nothing to bring them back. Their only hope is to keep on moving through a wasteland patrolled by packs of screeching zombies.

This is a novel that’s light on its toes, moving breathlessly through a series of narrow escapes and bone-breaking dust-ups, with Three whipping out his trusty blade to hack his way through various genetically enhanced foes as well as throngs of the walking dead. It all happens against a widescreen backdrop of abandoned cityscapes and seedy, cut-throat human enclaves, and for what it is, it’s pretty accomplished.

The problem with it is what feels like an almost wilful lack of originally. Posey has been content to reheat elements from films such as The Book of Eli and mash them up with bits and pieces from various video games, spaghetti westerns and anime. The result is slick, well-crafted but almost anonymously generic. Still, it offers more than enough pulp fiction fun to keep you engrossed while you’re turning the pages.

Review: Man of Steel – The Official Movie Novelization / Author: Greg Cox / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

Novelizations are always a tricky thing to handle. On the one hand, you have to be respectful to the source material, yet you don’t want to just be a shell of said material and offer nothing new or of note. Greg Cox takes on adaptation duties here, working with the Man of Steel screenplay devised by David S. Goyer. Fast-paced, fluid and with just the right amount of detail, Cox’s book is a great companion to Zack Snyder’s Superman film. Yes, we’ve seen and heard it before… alien baby arrives in Kansas, grows up to become the greatest superhero of all time: Superman. But just as the Man of Steel movie is a refreshing new take on the Superman mythos, so is this novelization.

The Man of Steel novelization covers every minute of the movie, yet there are certain elements that it adds to the story. For example, at one point it is described how General Zod’s weaponry has been constructed, just giving enough added information to the reader to make the book worthwhile, yet not going into so much into detail that these little nuggets become lost in a sea of words. Cox’s detailed and descriptive prose helps progress the story rapidly, no more so than when describing Jor-El’s actions during the demise of Krypton, or the arrival of Zod and his crew as they descend upon Earth on the hunt for Kal-El. Cox’s words also do wonders in the aftermath of the climactic battle between Zod and Superman, although the actual battle itself feels a little lacking at certain turns.

So many other novelizations fall into the pitfalls of just retreading familiar ground already covered on the big screen. Man of Steel manages to avoid this problem for the most part, adding its elements to the greater picture and giving the reader a reason to purchase the book.

It works both as an accompaniment for those that have seen Snyder’s Man of Steel film and as a solid, standalone novel for those that aren’t familiar with Snyder’s film or who would rather take the book on its own merits. With the actual story clocking in at a modest 303 page read, the book is easy to pick up and plough through in a few small sittings. Adding to its appeal is the cheap price, so there really isn’t any reason for Superman fans not to pick this up and add it to their collection. Even fans of generally well-written, well thought out, emotive, action-filled stories will find something here worth their time.

Review: Apocalypse Now Now / Author: Charlie Human / Publisher: Century / Release Date: August 8th

Set against the refreshing backdrop of Cape Town, Apocalypse Now Now is the gloriously twisted novel from writer Charlie Human. Imaginative, slightly demented and wonderfully odd, it’s a striking debut that delivers a dark monster-filled tale at a frenetically enjoyable pace.

The story follows Baxter Zevcenko, a 16-year-old who deals pornography of all shapes and species in his school playground syndicate, “Spider”. A socially aware bidding entrepreneur, Baxter’s life takes a turn for the worse when his girlfriend Esme is supposedly kidnapped by the dreaded Mountain Killer that has been abducting the town’s inhabitants. Terrified and thirsty for revenge, Baxter calls upon a boozed-up supernatural bounty hunter to track his girlfriend down, allowing the story to run rampant with brutal violence, freaky nightmare creatures and African mythology.

It’s a book that wears its influences on its sleeve, literally. Names like Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Quentin Tarantino adorn the cover and as the story progresses it is easy to understand why. We are zipped across seedy parallel underworlds with flamboyant characters, jolly gung-ho violence and a perverse sense of humour that would make each of the above quake with delight. In that sense Apocalypse Now Now reads like a zany mash-up of styles that shouldn’t really come together. But thankfully, the voice of the main protagonist prevents the madness from taking control. His intelligent quips and cocky smart-arse attitude provides an incredibly entertaining backbone to a story that slowly reveals his heart and his struggles to grasp the world around him.

A few aspects warrant nitpicking, like the early reliance on pop culture references and the overwhelming amount of characters coming out of the woodwork by the conclusion. But once Apocalypse Now Now finds that supernatural groove, it roars along with the escalating rhythm of an action-packed video game, constantly raising the stakes and ripping open its world until it finally reaches a climax worthy of its name. (Oh, and the phrase “now now” is a South African term for not happening presently but to happen shortly, just in case you were wondering.)

Despite the promise of impending apocalypse, this is a tale well worth your time and attention. If you want the dark imaginative wonder of Gaiman injected with the reckless, carefree abandon of a Tarantino flick, you’d be a fool not to hitch a ride into the mysterious world of Charlie Human’s South Africa.

Review: World War Z – The Art of the Film / Author: Titan Books / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

Against all the odds – and certainly contrary to all the poisonous pre-release word-of-mouth – Marc Forster’s World War Z is comfortably on target to become one of summer 2013’s box office big hitters to the extent that Paramount are already making noises about a sequel. Here comes the accompanying coffee table ‘behind-the-scenes’ number and whilst we couldn’t reasonably have expected a warts-and-all exposé of the film’s troubled history of reshoots and rewrites (Hollywood’s probably not quite ready for that sort of display of public candour), we might have hoped for something with a little more flesh on its zombie bones than this glorified script book punctuated by the occasional bland observation by Forster and his actors and animators.

It’s a lovingly illustrated book, to be fair, packed with powerful images from the film and its key actions sequences and it’ll help keep those moments alive in our memories until we can get our hands on the Blu-ray, but we surely deserved something a little more revealing in the accompanying box-out texts than Marc Forster’s “we crash over forty different cars” or actor Matthew Fox’s observation that “it’s a great script.” As the book wears on we get to see a few more storyboards and pieces of concept art of locations and sets from the scenes in Jerusalem and Wales and the final few pages offer up some exciting and seriously visceral concept images of grotesque, decaying, blood-crazed zombies which just makes the reader wish yet again that the film had given us the chance to see them in action in this detail rather than as an admittedly terrifying tide of ravenous flesh which does all its biting and flesh-rending off-screen for the sake of a 15 certificate. We also get a handful of images from the ‘green screen’ shooting which basically consist of a handful of actors standing against or hurling themselves around in front of green screens. Who knew?

It’s a sharp and attractive book but it’s really one to idly flick through rather than read from cover to cover unless you have a real yearning to plough through a fairly deathless script which isn’t exactly Tarantino-esque in its subtlety and literacy. Definitely not Z-rated, this  probably just about deserves a C+.

 

Review: Man of Steel – Inside the Legendary World of Superman / Author: Daniel Wallace / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

Superman is the biggest superhero of them all, and it’s only fitting that Man of Steel is a suitably big film. It naturally follows that big films mean big merchandising, be it novelisations, t-shirts, CDs, trading cards – or the obligatory tie-in coffee table book. This type of book has evolved from the simple “making of” paperback that was around when Jaws and Close Encounters were released. These days, they’re large, impressive, epic tomes like Man of Steel: Inside the Legendary World of Superman, with price tags to match.

There can be no argument that this is a sumptuous, visual treat of a book. From its embossed “S” symbol on the cover, to the heavy stock glossy paper, it just oozes quality of presentation – and therein lies its drawback. The title is a little misleading and might draw potential buyers to part with some hard-earned cash in the hope of getting a detailed account of the making of the film, the trials and tribulations of the special effects, how the iconic superhero was brought to the screen in a version that is a bit darker than the comic book legend has ever been seen before, what happened to cause the changing release dates – all the minutiae of detail that genre fans love so deeply.

But beware – it’s not a “making of” book in that sense. It doesn’t cover the comic at all either. It’s actually more of what used to be called “The Art Of…” book. There’s a foreword by Christopher Nolan and an introduction by Zach Snyder, but the rest of the text is sparse, with the vast bulk of the 184 pages given over to lavish renditions of pre-production art of Krypton and some of the action sequences and costume designs. The on-set photographs are stunning in their detail, and to be fair, there are some interesting insights concerning the creative choices made in the film. Snyder tells us why the character no longer wears red trunks for instance. But, for the money, we would have preferred a more in-depth look behind the scenes from the original pitch to the final wrap. As a souvenir of a blockbuster film it succeeds fully, and is beautifully presented. As a document of the rebooting of a beloved character on the big screen, it’s a triumph of style over substance. We would urge browsing before buying.

Review: Companions – Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants – An Unofficial Guide / Author: Andy Franklin-Allen / Publisher: Candy Jar Books / Release Date: Out Now

Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is a brave attempt at tackling the stories and motivations of the Doctor’s most valued friends. It is an intense and almost scholarly work, but also a firmly engaging and enjoyable read for fans of the show.

The author has gone full tilt at the issue, tackling both the on-screen characters and those found in other media. It’s written in a friendly and very chatty style, making the book feel more like a very long and highly geeky conversation rather than a reference tome. The lack of a proper index or bibliography also adds to the feeling that this is an extended rant. However, as explorations into the nature of the companions go, this is a strong one; we get multiple motivations and ideas as to why someone would travel with the Doctor for each companion. The author valiantly tries to explain the show’s many inconsistencies and has a jolly good try at trying to untangle the continuity mess that is The Two Doctors. The Eighth Doctor is also handled particularly deftly, and it’s nice to see Charley and Crizz take centre stage for a while.

A minor niggle is that the book separates the spin-off media into a section called “Expanded Universe” (a term borrowed from Star Wars) and makes various assumptions as to which TV stories are more valid than others; given that the show’s producers refuse to apply the restrictive and pointless notion of canon to Doctor Who, this approach is often grating and unnecessary, especially as the distinction hardly seems to matter.

The assistants of later incarnations of the Doctor also get quite a bit of coverage, mostly due to the complicated relationships they have with the show’s Time Lord and each other. A lot is made of the Sarah Jane Adventure’s episode, Death of the Doctor throughout the book, as this episode does contain some insight into the future of various companions.

Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is a thorough and fun read for the die-hard Doctor Who fan; if you’ve spent ages debating exactly how many grandchildren Jo Grant has or what exactly happens to poor Peri, then this will thoroughly entertain you. It will leave casual fans cold, however, and should not be approached by novices.

Review: Fifty Years in Time and Space – A Short History of Doctor Who / Author: Frank Danes / Publisher: St Mark’s Press / Release Date: Out Now

Somehow, we suspect that Fifty Years in Time and Space won’t be ending up in any stockings this Christmas. Talk of recurring themes and a dry, academic style make this a book that will be more appreciated by parents than by children.

Of course, books written in an academic style have an audience (academics). But the dry, functional writing doesn’t quite fit with the anarchic nature of the show itself. Books about Doctor Who should be funny, interesting (at least we can’t fault Fifty Years on that count) and a little bit off the wall. While it does serve up a host of facts that the reader might not have known before, it acts more as a reference book than a fun one.

The other major grievance with this book is that it’s abundantly clear that Danes has had basically no access to anyone working on the show (and apologies to the author if this is incorrect but it really does seem like that), which lends the whole text the air of being collated from a massive pile of existing facts. This take on the history of Doctor Who feels like it brings nothing new to the table, which is fatal when there are so many other books about the programme out there.

Review: The String Diaries / Author: Stephen Lloyd Jones / Publisher: Headline / Release Date: Out Now

“Verify everyone, trust nobody, and if in any doubt, run.” With a story based on sinister Hungarian folklore and a plot that jumps between past diary entries and present-day narration, this supernatural thriller reads like The Thing by way of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with all the pros and cons that such a description entails.

In the present, Hannah Wilde and her family are hunted by an unnatural creature, fighting for survival. Through a series of decaying diaries bound by string she traces the creature back through five generations, learning what drives the monster referred to only as Jakab. I read the whole novel in one sitting, so it isn’t all bad, but my overall feeling about The String Diaries is that this could have been so much better. The author reads like somebody that wants to borrow common themes and tropes from the horror genre without any great appreciation of the genre itself. This means that despite some supernatural elements, the novel is very much a thriller.

As the plotlines begin to converge it all just starts to feel too familiar, as if the Watcher’s Council from Buffy the Vampire Slayer were gatecrashing the end of the Twilight Saga. The human interest and the love elements carry the plot and humanise the characters, but when so many lovers are killed off you begin to feel disconnected to the survivors, who have little going for them other than their relationships. The deaths themselves are brutal enough, and have impact, but the characters very rarely have enough interesting facets to make you care about them individually.

Call this a callous review from somebody overly invested in the genre, but I LOVE horror, and I want to read original voices, not more retreads. The String Diaries gets points for an interesting premise and strong female protagonist, but stumbles in the execution, with cookie-cutter characters, too much fantasy and not enough grit. If you’re looking for a little menace in your thriller, then give it a go, but well-read horror fans should give it a miss.

Review: #geekG@D / Author: Patrick Luby / Publisher: lulu.com / Release Date: Out Now

#geekG@D is a novel by the up and coming writer Patrick Luby. It is also available under its originally published title of Conversations with a lonely God. This is the meandering tale of the somewhat hapless Tim O’Donnell, described by Luby as “your average friendly neighbourhood geek.”

Tim is the unhappy recipient of a number of peculiar encounters with an unfamiliar white-haired man, who eventually introduces himself as God. Tim is then taken on a journey of discovery by God (aka Charles). They visit far off realms inhabited by warring oceans, tetchy dragons, lost souls and a glimpse of heaven. These expeditions are briefly interspersed with the odd takeaway, coffee and stilted conversations on the meaning of life. God has become “bored of this universe” and is seemingly relying on the unsuspecting Tim to save the day. How is Tim meant to relieve our maker’s boredom? Why, capture the heart of a damsel in distress of course!

Unfortunately Luby’s attempted foray into answering the eternal questions is somewhat lacklustre. Tim is a one-dimensional character, written as a drab, profanity loving loner. God wishes to unite him with the seemingly unsuitable Julia, a man-hungry adulteress. You just know it will all end in tears; mine, yours and no doubt Tim’s if you make it to the final page, which I nearly didn’t.

That said, Luby clearly has the ability to write sections of prose of powerful poignancy and imagery such as when Tim goes to meet Charles at his local park. “The old man sat quite motionless… Small birds landed in different spots around the bench, they hopped as close as they dared, left a small offering of twigs or a worm before flying off again to circle above.” However, this ability is interspersed with reams of linguistically challenged dialogue and an apparent addiction to the double use of exclamation and question marks. Why??!!

In conclusion, if you encountered a copy of this novel on a slow moving train to Carlisle and wished to avoid speaking to your fellow passengers it would while away a few hours.

Review: Doctor Who – The Complete Guide / Author: Mark Campbell / Publisher: Constable & Robinson / Release Date: August 6th

Doctor Who: The Complete Guide (aka A Brief Guide to Doctor Who: The Complete Series Guide) provides a short survey of each and every Doctor Who storyline up to and including the first Matt Smith series. Usually, this kind of thing can be quite dry, not to mention a minefield of spoilers, but not in this case. Plot synopses are terse and spoiler-free, and Mark Campbell livens things up by furnishing fascinating “observations” (behind the scenes info) and trenchant verdicts along with a rating out of 10.

The heaps of trivia will turn you into an instant Who anorak. For example, Campbell explains the origins of the famous “howlround” title sequence, and describes how in the Horns of Nimon storyline from Series 17, the Nimon actors wore 12-inch platform heels to increase their height. Meanwhile, some of the verdicts and ratings are surprising, with a number of the Sylvester McCoy episodes scoring highly. On the other hand, Campbell doesn’t pull his punches when he thinks a particular storyline is below par, and for that reason this book should be enormously helpful to anyone trying to sort the gems of the vintage Who series from the dross.

Amongst the supplementary material, various small screen spin-offs are also covered in the same way, albeit very briefly, and there are useful lists of lost episodes and book tie-ins. If you want to get into the classic early Who stories and you’re bewildered by the slew of different DVDs currently available, then this handy volume could be for you what the sonic screwdriver is for the Doctor.