Just finished reading the newest Steven L. Kent Wayson Harris novel – The Clone Empire. Read it twice cover to cover, actually. Here’s what I think.

1) Good continuation of the main storyline from the earlier 5 books. There were definitely a few surprises (plot and character-wise) I didn’t see coming, which are always nice to see, especially in a fairly long series (sci-fi or otherwise).

2) I’m not sure what to think about Wayson’s state of mind at this point. On the one hand, he definitely seems like a man trying to escape his own past (and genetic heritage of being a programmed killing machine) but on the other hand, he can’t escape the violence when it starts, and because of that same internal programming, really can’t avoid liking it and feeding off of it, either. But unlike the many clones around him who have similar programming – he is given much more capability to ‘decide’ about what he believes in (or doesn’t believe in), which makes his decisionmaking (and ultimate mental anguish) that much tougher to bear in many situations.

3) There were two major plot ‘loose ends’ I believed I had caught as having been overlooked by the author over the past several books. One was answered at the end of this book – kudos. The other I’m still waiting to see if it gets addressed. Rather than spoil either one for people who haven’t read the books (or read them all twice like me) I would welcome a direct chat with the author on the latter – Mr. Kent, are you out there? 🙂 I simply couldn’t find an email address/form on Sad Sams Palace or i’d have pinged you directly…..

4) Stepping back to Wayson – I’m also a bit unsure about his ‘deference to authority’ seen more frequently in this book (especially as concerns Warshaw and Doctorow – Andropov seemed to light the fire just like in previous books, no love lost there) versus before. While there is an actual sentence directly mentioning this attitude mid-book, I just wondered whether Wayson was getting tired of ‘leading the charge’ every time no one else seemed capable or willing to solve major crises – yet gets perpetually dumped on and ostracized by most others the rest of the time. It may be that most other major authority figures see him as a complete threat, one that cannot be contained or stopped by anything or anyone (short of killing him), but that he’s too useful to simply execute (although that’s been tried unsuccessfully too). Hmmm…I wasn’t completely convinced of Warshaw’s motives in trying to ‘replace’ Wayson with Hollingsworth – but I’m not sure I was meant to get inside Warshaw’s head really either. Hmm….

5) One thing that occurred to me – Several books back, we got a brief glimpse (mostly through ancillary conversations) at the Mogat ‘bible’, written by Morgan Atkins about his encounters with and negotiations to hold off the Avatari. Can we see more from that? It may be too late at this stage given the next book may be well near done by now – but it would be very cool, and help understand the aliens a bit more? And why several thousand (million?) people chose to follow Atkins in the first place at that stage in the story? That was always a bit unclear to me too – They seemed to give up a LOT (as described during Harris’ invasion of their homeworld in an earlier book) but it didn’t seem that they were ‘racial isolationists’ (like Shin Nippon) or Freeman’s Baptist family (religious ‘back to basics’ farmer colony). Did I just miss the discussion of their motivations, or?

Looking forward to the next book – as I understand it – possibly the last one? doh! 🙁

candybowl

Finished the Ilium/Olympos pair of books from Dan Simmons today. I had read Ilium originally several years ago on a plane flight back from Paris (we went to attend a friend’s wedding there) and then Olympos a year or two later when it came out. As often happens, I felt like re-reading them – and it was definitely worth it.

As with Simmons’ Hyperion series, besides the space opera elements, there are many literature-based themes and plot elements going on at the same time – including the Greek Gods from Homer’s Iliad and other Greek mythology, Shakespeare, and Proust, and poem-obsessed space-faring sentient robots to boot. It’s not anywhere the mish-mash it may sound like at first glance, the books are well tied together and offer excellent and entertaining reading.

I especially liked the moravecs (space-faring robots from out near Ganymede/Jupiter who end up coming to Mars/Earth because of the crazy Greek Gods’ quantum activity – read the books, it’s too hard to explain in a few sentences). The two main moravecs, Orphu (hard-vacuum mining robot from Io) and Mahnmut (submarine-driving robot from the seas of Europa) were the best developed and definitely the most interesting to watch, although it would have been cool to understand the ‘Belt moravecs a bit more (they appear late in the first book and have many appearances in the second). I also liked their very real attachment to humanity and willingness to save it when even the humans, Greek God/post-humans and other nefarious players seemed poised to make us otherwise extinct. Nice touch.

I could have done a bit less, however with some of the more risque plot activities – they really didn’t add anything for me save in a couple circumstances where that stuff is directly tied to the plot – otherwise I thought it was largely fluff or in at least one case, pretty lame. I would have much more enjoyed instead more explanation about the most enigmatic players in the second book (Setebos, Prospero, Ariel and ultimately, Moira, and the voynix) in addition to some major endpoints I felt were simply ignored or left to the imagination.

But whatever – it’s still a great pair of books and despite the pervasiveness of science throughout, still manages to often stay in a fantasy-type storyline – normally I’d not bother with such books but Simmons (again like th earlier Hyperion) can definitely integrate the two without alienating fans of either type, IMHO.

I’ve got some nonfiction to read next, as well as finish up the latest Clone story from Steven L. Kent – stay tuned. May have to read the latest Gibson trilogy also, I’ve been meaning to get back to that.

So watched the two recent Narnia movies again on DVD in the past couple weeks, and (again) enjoyed them both. Despite the Christian overtones of the stories (based on well-known and devout Christian professor/author/intellectual C.S. Lewis) – the movies don’t seem to preach in my view. I haven’t read the book(s), so they may be a bit ‘stronger’ in that regard, not sure.

But the stories are strong and in both movies, there is an EXCELLENT villian – Tilda Swinton as The White Witch in the first (VERY brief appearance in the second); and Sergio Castellitto as Miraz in the second. Definitely a great counterpoint to Liam Neeson’s ‘jesus lion’, Aslan, in both movies. Both villians are so definitely, unmistakably evil, that the audience all but HAS to root for Aslan and the children in the end.

But to me what’s also interesting with these CGI extravaganzas now increasingly coming to the movie theater – e.g. the LOTR trilogy, the Harry Potter series, (and I’m sure many more, given Marvel Comics’ seeming intent to commit nearly every comic superhero they’ve ever done to film) is to watch both the quality and quantity of the CGI effects (which arguably make all this possible) evolve over time.

Even between the battle scenes in the 3rd LOTR movie and the Narnia movies, I think there’s been improvement – when they show large fields filled with armies, the level of detail is just subtly more believable every time around. In the 3rd LOTR, there are a couple places where it just looks a bit too ‘cgi’ – when the horses are running in for the attack and a few get munched by flying boulders/arrows, or when Legolas is jumping back and forth as he climbs the Oliphaunt to bring it down with his arrows, etc.

This was one of my major gripes with the second set of Star Wars movies. Notwithstanding the largely lame and predictable plots and some *very* questionable character choices (Jar Jar Binks lowering the bar every time he appears or opens his mouth for example) the battle scenes just looked like a cartoon trying to be live-action. Yes, in the first three movies they had effects to make the armies (good and bad) look bigger, etc. than the amount of extras they had on the set, of course. But especially in Attack of the Clones – it just looked to me like ‘here’s an army of CGI guys that are going to fight this second army of CGI guys’ – and ultimately who cares who wins? At least in the third movie with its convoluted and confusing plot, they had the saving grace/bad guy of Christopher Lee – definitely NOT a CGI guy for the most part (wither Yoda?).

But back to Narnia. I just think these two movies (presuming there will be several more to track the rest of the books) have a good mix of effects, villainy, and plot, without one overdoing the rest to the detriment of the movie. GOOD STORYTELLING, as always, wins out in the end.

This is ultimately why Pixar has been so consistently successful – even for their only ‘good’ movies (e.g. Cars, possibly A Bug’s Life) there is still a strong character element that really builds a connection between the audience and the action onscreen. And in the GREAT ones (The Incredibles, Ratatouille being at the top of the list of course) the dialogue is sharp, the characters are real and human – even if not actually ‘humans’ – and the plots are complex, complete and diverse. Of course Pixar are also animation masters, but that’s usually just icing on the cake next to the great storytelling.

candybowl

(Re)watched the ancient sci-fi classic WestWorld late last night. It was shorter than I remember (in other words gets to the killing spree/chase scenes/etc. faster than I remembered), but definitely some classic performances in there, most notably Yul Brynner in the title role as The Gunslinger.

Since this is an old movie, even for me (in 1973, I was 6) let’s recap – a very expensive ($1,000/day), exotic resort (Delos) opens up in a distant desert (they never say where, but looks like the American Southwest), where there are three distinct ‘worlds’ people can visit – Roman World, Medieval World, and West(ern) World – each is tailored to fulfull guest fantasies based on advanced robots to cater to their every whim, within the theme of each ‘world’. In an early part of the film, an announcer talks about enjoying the ‘relaxed morality of earlier Roman times’ (meaning guilt-free sex with lifelike robots, let’s be clear here 🙂 ) And this is consistent with the other ‘worlds’ – the main two characters (james Brolin and Richard Benjamin) visit WestWorld (and at least one brothel therein). Then, things subtly start to go wrong, and mayhem ensues in a variety of ways.

So, this is a pioneering and influential sci-fi film in many ways. It is very well made for its time, obviously a bigger budget than some of its contemporaries (yeah, Omega Man, i’m talking to you). The decor, sets and computers/effects are spartan, but still look decent, and unlike many sci-fi movies, don’t get in the way of the plot. Not on the level of the earlier 2001: A Space Odyssey – but almost NO movies (sci-fi or otherwise) compare to that one even now.

WW has to be considered one of the first ‘relentless, unyielding stalking killer’ movies – Yul Brynner’s Gunslinger – used to great effect many times later in countless horror movies but also every Terminator movie ever made, elements of The Matrix movies, etc. Even Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men is reminiscent of this theme (and also very scary). In WW, this may be considered more remarkable because The Gunslinger stalks Richard Benjamin throughout the day – never at night – so his power over the intended victim grows not through cheap special effects or misdirection, but ultimately on the strong, almost silent performance of Yul Brynner (who hardly has more than maybe 3-4 sentences of dialog in the whole movie).

WW’s story also builds one of the earliest ‘no matter how perfect our technology gets, it will get us in the end’ themes – and does it about as subtly as the 16-ton weight from the classic Monty Python sketch. But the early ’70s was definitely a time of ‘man is doomed’ themed-sci-fi movies (Soylent Green, the earlier Omega Man, Silent Running, etc.) so not really surprising in hindsight.

Another thing that struck me this time around has to be the interaction between the resort guests and the robots who serve them. At one point after a barroom shootout, James Brolin remarks about ‘the beauty of the place is you never know if it’s real’ (or words to that effect). The guests feel free to just shoot the place up, start bar brawls, have sword battles (in effect act like a pillaging pirate – no Pirate World? :)) etc. – and let someone else pick up the pieces. I guess at $1,000/day, i’d expect the same – but it’s interesting how easily they just slot into it and tear it up with no consequences (well, that was the Delos sales pitch anyway). Given that the director/screenwriter was Michael Crichton – author of this theme many times over (The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, etc.) again, not a big surprise.

Stepping back (to a soapbox) it’s also interesting here is that despite continually warning us of the dangers of technology and how we overreach ourselves far too often in his books and films – MC was one of the biggest global warming deniers on the planet, right up there with Big Oil and James Inhofe! Like Mel Gibson of recent past, MC shows that many times in Hollywood – appearances can be VERY deceiving. Was he having fun at our expense on either side of the issue? I’ll have to look around to see if anyone ever asked him that question – he’s dead now (2008) so we may never know. End soapbox.

All symbolism and soapboxes aside – WestWorld is still an entertaining movie despite being now almost 40 years old. Yul Brynner makes the movie for me – without him, i don’t think WW would have been near as effective – his Gunslinger really is a Hollywood icon, sci-fi or otherwise.

candybowl

As seen elsewhere on this blog, i’ve become a fan of anime in the past several years. I think there’s several reasons:

a) I’ve always liked animation, whether movies, TV cartoons, and in many cases, even ads;

b) the diversity of animation just keeps on getting better and more interesting, even if increasingly computer-based. Of course, just as seen in video games over the past 15-20 years, there is no substitute for actual plot, good writing and coherent themes with good character development. The best looking animation(s) can still end up boring and predictive without them (yes, Appleseed Ex Machina – I’m talking to you!);

c) I think in part anime is also interesting because so often the characters are written in a more over-the-top sensibility (certainly every Initial D episode i’ve ever seen qualifies on that score, but many others are right behind) and often have characters act as if they are in ‘life or death’ struggles (which in many cases isn’t true, but they act that way anyway).

d) Anime just has a different take on things. It’s not usually glorified sitcom situations or plots (at least not the anime I watch) and often has crazy inclusions for characters (Poipodor in Mars Daybreak comes to mind) or fantastical futures that all but make no sense (IGPX) but somehow still manage to entertain.

Which brings me to Initial D. This is an anime series about a school kid living in Gunma province in northern Japan, whose father runs a tofu shop and is an ex-street racer. The father, Bunta, subtly encourages this trait in his only son by having him deliver tofu to several accounts in the early morning over a mountain pass. The kid, Takumi Fujiwara, is fairly dense but seems to have a talent for racing and surprises older 20-somethings who race more seriously. In the first several series, we see Takumi’s talents develop until he’s the equal or better of most other racers in the area and beyond. In Stage 4, ‘Project D’ – he’s now become part of a traveling race team led by a former rival, Ryosuke Takahashi, who dreams of conquering japan’s many mountains and street racing teams with his brother Keisuke and Takumi as the two ace racers on the Project D team. They travel around Japan, challenging team after team in tough and varied races.

What’s appealing about this series is as mentioned before – the characters take themselves VERY seriously, which in some cases comes across as laughable but endearing in a way. You’d think the world would end if this kid doesn’t win a given race by the way they act in posturing against each other up to and during each race.

Also cool is simply the thought of blasting down mountain roads in souped up cars at clearly WAY illegal speeds – watching it on animation is about the only way i’d ever do THAT – I don’t like driving SLOW on cliffside roads – ask kerewin about that one when we were driving around on Crete or Santorini last fall!

Also amusing is how no matter where they go, everyone (racer-wise, anyway) knows about them and keeps putting the best racers up against them. Yet no cops ever show up to THROW THEM IN JAIL for such blatant mountain-racing at nearly every mountain pass they encounter? This was amusing in Wangan Midnight too – although in that series they are largely blasting around highways IN THE CITY at ridiculous speeds but also apparently immune to police (or at least, invisible)?

Anyway, Initial D is pretty entertaining – don’t expect detailed character development or much valid social commentary – it’s pretty focused on one thing, blasting down mountain roads in the middle of the night. But it does a good job of handling that story over and over. Hoping there will ultimately be a Stage 5, but time will tell…..

candybowl

Saw this in today’s NY Times and it got me thinking – what is a ‘generation x’ anyway?

First, there are a lot of big words in the first few sentences and beyond. Far be it from me to castigate anyone about using an overabundance of enormous, hyperpretentious and likely overreaching words when a simple piece of profanity will otherwise do – there are still many I don’t understand in here.

It reminds me of an otherwise horrible book about Smashing Pumpkins (the band I like, Billy Corgan, a.k.a. Bat Boy, I can do without) that had so many big words rammed into the first 5 pages I couldn’t even finish the foreword without retching – back to the library (and for once, on time!) it went.

but back to the article. I will have to look at the underlying book they are indirectly reviewing here – ‘The Ask‘ – never heard of it or the author. But then they mention the much-despised (by me) Douglas Coupland who coined ‘generation x’ in the first place. Thanks, El Doo-shay – we’ll never live that one down. I had a roommate in college who was obsessed with that book, which naturally I read at one point and have loathed ever since.

What’s very spot-on in this article is the repeated slams on our aging 40-something sense of cool (“fake-vintage rock ’n’ roll T-shirt and thick-framed glasses”), the constant need for pop-culture-quip-meets-relevance in our daily conversations, and calling out John Cusack and Ben Stiller as movie archetypes of our generation. There are others, but these will serve quite well (and Lloyd Dobler loved Fishbone, so there!). I haven’t seen Greenberg yet, but will definitely have to now.

Also – the article implies/hints at the marked difference between compatriots of mine who have had children (and thus, being responsible adults, had their priorities completely adjusted for them by reality) rather than the self-indulgent ‘high drama’ I seem to have mastered of late. Or maybe not of late – maybe for way too long? Dunno.

this quote is telling:

“But what if you never gave up adolescence in the first place? What if you donned the binding garment of maturity only tentatively, and accessorized it with mockery, as if it were a hand-me-down from Grandpa or an ugly shirt plucked from a used-clothing rack? And what if, from the start, your youthful rebelliousness had been a secondhand entitlement, without a clear adversary?”

As someone who still revels in ‘sticking it to the Man’ (regardless of what form, major or minor, that takes, even if only a delusional metaphor many days) this sticks pretty well. If you are middle class, grew up in a suburban-style town, went to public school, went to college, etc. and now have a job that pays the bills – barring chronic illness or some sort of major tragedy – what do you have to bitch about? So where’s my ‘adversary?’ I’m not going to answer that, if you’ve been around me more than 10 min. you already know at least one 🙂 – but one thing is certain – even in going to graduate school, i’ve never connected with ‘suit society’ – and it’s only due to luck (being in the tech industry with its -shall we say ‘loose’ – theories of proper dress and hygiene) that i’ve largely avoided it as an adult. Being on the West Coast doesn’t hurt either. So maybe I never did grow up? Again, dunno.

Is this rambling getting anywhere? Back to the article – in talking more about the main character of The Ask – this quote sums it all up, doesn’t it?

……“If I were the protagonist of a book or a movie,” Milo says to his onetime boss, “it would be hard to like me, to identify with me, to like me, right?” The response is devastating: “I would never read a book like that, Milo, and I can’t think of anyone who would. There’s no reason for it.”

Wow. the above reminds me of Woody Allen’s classic Annie Hall quote about his relationships “I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.” Boom!!!! or the more modern version, from the (other) spokesman for our generation, Homer Simpson – and his attempts when a kid to join the ‘No Homers Club’ – Sad, but effective use of plurals, that.

What was the original point again? That someone wrote a book summing up ‘modern 40-something’ – yet most of us it describes don’t want to read it? Or that we are simply beginning to reach the midlife angst felt by others before (and will be felt by ‘millenials’ someday – ha – suck it!) and we 40.x still can’t deal with it.

Who knows? Interesting to ponder, though. And for those in the same age group who parade around like they’ve got it figured out – ha! I fart in your general direction! Your mother is a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries! The point is, they’re kidding themselves too – which based on the Bill Watterson book I literally just finished reading – gives me that evil, evil Calvin grin…muhhahaha!

So in summary, if you can find real meaning in the above, I have some beach property in Tibet that I’ll sell you for a song… 🙂

candybowl

Pretty d*** cool – if you haven’t ever read him – he was one of the ‘big three’ way back in Weird Tales days – the other two (better known than CAS) were H.P. Lovecraft (Cthulhu sushi, anyone? Tastes better than Soylent Green! :)) and Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian).

I had never heard of CAS myself until reading Stephen King’s ‘Different Seasons’ many many years ago – Different Seasons is really four novellas, the first 3 of which have since been made into movies – bu the fourth story – ‘The Breathing Method‘ – has not. If you’ve read it, you probably know why. But several times through the story King references CAS alien landscapes and settings, which got me interested in finding some stories to read.

Given no convenient ‘internets’ to check out at the time – I went to the next best thing – Powell’s Books – which actually had some used paperbacks (imagine that) – CAS is often as hard to find on the stacks as Philip K. Dick and for a while there, I was thinking CAS was harder to find than Kilgore Trout books. But, thankfully other fans exist out there too and besides the existing paperbacks here and there, a few hardback story collections have been put together. CAS didn’t write novels – only short stories and poetry.

Anyway, check out some of the stories here and enjoy – after which you may be ready to find a copy of The City of the Singing Flame all your own…..

candybowl