The three newer Star Wars movies (episodes 1 – 3) tend to be overly maligned. The only one of the three that deserves to be skewered is the Attack of the Clowns (I mean Clones). The Phantom Menace, although maybe not as good as some of the earlier Star Wars has quite a bit to offer. First there is Darth Maul. With all due respect to any of the actors who’ve wielded a light saber, none of them do it quite like him. His combination of gymnastics and martial arts skill put the rest of them to shame. It’s little wonder that even though he only has two lines in the movie, he is featured so heavily in the movie’s promotional posters. Then there’s the pod racing, which produced some of the coolest visuals in the Star Wars series. The other thing that I like is that the movie goes far more in depth than the early ones at explaining the Star Wars mythos. This provides some necessary back story to understand much of what’s going. Finally, the light saber battle between Darth Maul and the combined forces of Obi Wan and Qui-Gon Zinn is some really cool stuff. What kills the movie is Jar Jar Binks. He makes the Ewoks enjoyable by comparison. Jar Jar was a miscalculation on George Lucas’ part. I think he was trying to entice the younger (much younger) crowd with the character, but mostly just served to annoy the adults and older kids. If you’re going to movie just for the 3D, it’s probably not worth it. This isn’t as good as 3D movies that are shot with 3D film, but otherwise it’s worth watching.
Because the Harry Potter series was so iconic and so well done by JK Rowlings, I wanted to make sure I got one of the novels in the series into my top fifteen list. There were several excellent novels in the series. The Prisoner of Azkhaban really got me hooked in the series, and The Goblet of Fire was an excellent follow up. But the reason I chose Death Hallows was because it Rowlings did such a fantastic job of wrapping up the series. I’ve read other series, most notably Stephen King’s Dark Tower that fell apart by the end, but Rowlings did an admirable job of wrapping this up. One of the things that I especially liked about the Harry Potter series is that as each novel advanced in the series, both the level of mature content as well as the writing style got considerably more geared to an older reader. When I read the first book in the series, I wasn’t sure I would finish it up because it seemed kiddyish, but I’m glad I stuck with it.
As far as the book itself, I was a little skeptical, knowing that it was not going to take place in Hogwarts, but as with most other aspects of Harry Potter, Rowlings handled it with such grace that it never missed a beat. Harry, Ron and Hermione had to go through a lot of heartbreak in the story, both with the decisions they had to make and the physical hardships they had to endure. For the first time in the series, the wizarding world is not such a great place to be in. With Voldemort and the Death Eaters now in control, being Harry and his friends has become a dangerous thing. Not to mention they have the difficult task of finding the horcruxes that will kill Voldemort. In addition, they have to make the difficult decision of either going after the horcruxes or the deathly hallows. There are characters who get killed in heartbreaking moments, the revelation of Severus Snape’s backstory which makes the reader rethink everything they thought they’ve known about the series and a crazy trip to Gringott’s. It all leads up to the Battle of Hogwarts, a winner take all fight to the finish that has many twists and turns, one of the best battle scenes I have ever read.
Pet Semetary was the first Stephen King novel I ever read and from that moment forward, I was hooked. King’s early works are unmatched in the horror genre, and Pet Semetary is a perfect example of why. The story connects at an emotional level. I wasn’t even in my teen years when I read this book. As a father, I can only imagine it would be even more horrifying if I read it today. The story contains some great horror elements, but I don’t think they would have been as effective if King didn’t do such a strong job in building his characters. Jud Crandall , the kind, elderly neighbor from next door, telling Louis, the story’s protagonist about stories of the history of the area is very memorable. Some of the stories Jud tells are as chilling as the action that follows, setting the stage for the reader and giving the background information that will be needed later in the novel.
The downward spiral starts when the family cat is killed by a rig. Traditionally these pets are buried in the Pet Semetary, which is located behind the Crandall house. Instead of burying it there, the cat is buried in a plot beyond that, the MicMac grounds, an ancient place with the power to bring the dead back to life but at a horrible price. When the cat is buried there, it comes back to life and mayhem ensues.
The novel is emotionally gripping and chilling. The fate that befalls Louis is an easy one to relate to, and King does so skillfully. Pet Semetary is one of the scarier novels I’ve read and it works on many different levels.
Chronicle is a dark movie about three high school kids who develop advanced telekinetic powers after climbing down into a cave and discovering a crystalline structure that is alien in nature (my theory anyway). Their powers continue to grow stronger, while Andrew, one of the three boys who has developed this power, continues to brood and ooze teenage angst. Things degenerate as Andrew’s character continues to get more dark and desperate. Eventually all whole breaks loose and the city of Seattle takes a severe beating.
The movie had a very different feel than most others I’ve seen of late, which is certainly a good thing. The three boys develop super-hero powers but there’s nothing particularly heroic about them. They’re realistically portrayed as high school kids who just happen to develop super powers. What I didn’t like about the movie was that the whole movie was shot cam-corder style, which got old after a while. Also, Andrew going off the deep end so severely didn’t work for me. Yes, he had a horrible relationship with his father, who physically and mentally abused him. He was also the target of bullies and your typical mean high school kids, but he also developed strong friendships with the other two super heroes in the movie. He was no longer the unpopular loser at school. In short, things were looking up for him. Despite that he still has an all out melt down. I didn’t buy it. Still, Chronicle was a good movie, not typical in anyway, and well worth watching.
Joe Hill’s debut novel certainly lived up to the hype of something you might expect from the son of Stephen King. It is well crafted, well plotted, with good creepy elements mixed throughout. Ghost stories are pretty much a dime a dozen, so in order to standout the story has to have strong characters and good writing, two elements which Heart Shaped Box certainly has. The main character is Jude Coyne, an aging rocker with a taste for the macabre. I kept trying to figure out what real life rocker was the model for Jude Coyne, and I came down with him being a cross between Lemmy from Motorhead and Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. I’m probably weigh off base since both of those guys are Brits and Jude is from Louisiana. Jude buys a dead man’s suit off the internet, which entitles him to the ghost of the man it belongs to. The purchase was a setup and it leads to a shitstorm of epic proportions. The ghost is the father of a woman Jude used to live with, and is claiming revenge for Jude supposedly leading his daughter to suicide. Later, the reader learns that this isn’t actually the case. This leads to a long journey of the dead man haunting Jude and him making his way to Georgia, Florida and eventually Louisiana in order to rid himself of the ghost.
The characters in the book are very strong, starting with Jude but including Jude’s current girlfriend Georgia (he names his women based on the state they come from). The ghost is a mean, nasty character as well as his daughter. They both ooze with despicability. Florida, the woman who supposedly committed suicide, turns out to be a fascinating character as well. The journey is an interesting one and the novel is well worth reading. The only downside is the theme of child molestation is overdone to the point that it loses its effectiveness. All in all a strong first effort by Joe Hill.
Once upon a time (as all good stories start) I was trying to come up with short story ideas. While struggling to conjure fresh ideas, I thought I would try taking parts of novels and making a short story out of them. I tend to write my chapters as mini stories anyway. My first stab at this was my story Sweet Pain from my novel Blood Street. In Sweet Pain the vampire Gabriella has made a habit of only feeding on the bottom feeders of society, administering justice when the system will not. In this case, Gabriella has been following a court case with an abusive husband who got away with giving his girlfriend a horrible beating. Gabriella meets said man at a bar and all hell breaks loose. You can read Sweet Pain at shortstory.me Blood Street is due out in November by True Grit Publishing. Read both and compare notes.
When I was in high school I wanted to write a story with a werewolf and my friend suggested I read this book. I had never heard of Robert McCammon before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I got was a book that I couldn’t put down. Wolf’ s Hour is much more than just a werewolf book, although just at that level, it’s a fantastic read.
Wolf’s Hour is as much a World War II novel who’s main character, Michael Gallatin is a British spy who also happens to be a werewolf. That in itself is a pretty ingenious idea by Mr. McCammon. Gallatin is tasked with uncovering a top secret Nazi plan to stop D-Day. The plot is both gripping and thrilling, but some of the best parts of the book are flashbacks to Gallatin’s youth as a werewolf. The world building that McCammon does is excellent, and his blend of fantasy and history is handled with exceptional skill. The book also is chocked full of some nasty bad guys Nazis who I wanted to find an untimely demise.
This was the first book I read by Robert McCammon but certainly not the last. His story telling ability is that of a master and this is one of his finest works.
If you watched that weak effort put forth by Ben Affleck in the movie adaptation of Phantoms, you probably won’t be interested in reading the book, but trust me, you would be making a mistake. As with many of Koontz’s earlier works, this one really hits the mark. The story starts with Jennifer Paige and her sister Lisa returning to Jennifer’s home town in California only to find the town abandoned, Jennifer’s housekeeper dead and a host of dead bodies littering the town. It would seem like a virus would be the culprit to this massacre, but the actual cause is more sinister.
Jennifer calls in the nearby sheriff to investigate. Eventually this leads to a whole host of people descending on the town including a chemical weapons team and an academic type named Timothy Flyte who is the key to solving this mystery. The books succeeds in creating suspense as this ensemble casts investigates the strange happenings in this town. In the end, the cast comes face to face with Timothy Flyte’s “Ancient Enemy”, a living entity that’s the basis of Satan.
Phantoms is an example of how when Dean Koontz is on, his writing can be fantastic. The story is chocked full of suspense, has a great mystery element, and has great world building. It’s a riveting tale that you won’t want to put down. It’s amazing that Dean Koontz can be so brilliant in some of his books, and so God-awful in other books. Anyway, this one is a definite winner that you will want to check out.
Graham Masterton is an absolutely brilliant writer. I only started reading his novels inthe past five years and I still have to catch up on his earlier stuff, but everything that Masterton writes is top notch. A Terrible Beauty was the second novel of his that I read after The Doorkeepers (spoiler alert – that will also be appearing on my list) and I was just wowed by how masterful he is at the craft of his writing. If I could describe A Terrible Beauty in one word, it would be gritty.
Set in Ireland, Detective Katie Maguire has to investigate a grave in Cork where she finds bones from eleven bodies. Katie’s investigation shows that these horrific murders are part of a ritual to call up an evil witch. As Katie gets closer to finding the killer, she discovers that she is to be the final victim in this ritualistic killing.
A Terrible Beauty is definitely not for the faint of heart or the squeamish with its gruesome torture scenes. The level of violence is graphic and detailed but it fits perfectly for the book. It’s part suspense thriller, part horror but a very enjoyable, well written novel. I have yet to read a novel by Graham Masterton that is anything less than top notch and a Terrible Beauty is one of his best.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was part thriller, part mystery and exceeded my expectations. In the movie, exiled magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist is hired by a wealthy entrepreneur in Sweden to investigate his niece’s disappearance and likely murder from decades ago, the suspects his own family. As Mikael gets closer to the answer, he hires Lisabeth, the girl with the dragon tattoo, as his assistant. Lisabeth’s character is what makes the movie. She’s enigmatic, highly intelligent, half crazy and unpredictable. The wildest part of the movie is when she sets up a social worker taking care of her case to rape her so that she can blackmail him. To spice things up she tasered him and tatooed I’M A RAPIST PIG on his chest. The interaction between her character and Mikael was high quality stuff. The only real drawbacks was that it was hard to keep up with all of the members of the family they were investigating. Also, I thought the movie should have ended at the point where Mikael and Lisabeth solved the mystery and took care of the bad guys. There was almost a whole second movie after that. All in all, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a well crafted movie worth watching. Now I have to read the book.