Red Rising - Pierce Brown

My bookclub's April pick is Pierce Brown's Red Rising (see our full calendar here). When I first picked up this book, I was turned off by the clunky, dialect-heavy feel of the dystopian Mars mining colony - it reminded me a bit of the feral children's irritating ramblings in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome about "tomorrow-morrow land."

"I's looking behind us now, into history back."

However, the book's scope explodes beyond this point, and I became very engrossed in its exploration of the themes of social control, exploitation, and revolution.

Personally, I thought the movie Hunger Games was insipid, but I would recommend this book to HG fans, and any other survival enthusiasts.

Old Man's War - John Scalzi

I was somewhat underwhelmed by Hugo Award nominee Old Man's War - although the book has some interesting nuggets, and nicely rounds out the treatment of the consciousness-divorced-from-physicality concept explored by works such as Rudy Rucker's Software and Morgan's Altered Carbon, I did not find that it has much staying power.

Altered Carbon - Richard K. Morgan

Our Department Chair noticed my interest in sci-fi novels, and recommended two books to me, including Altered Carbon, which turned out to be drop-dead amazing. AC is set in a future where the technology to download a person's mind and personality into a "cortical stack" at the base of the brain, and transfer this chip between physical bodies (or "sleeves"), has extended life for most, and made immortality possible for the few who can afford continual re-sleeving and personality back-ups. These immortals, or "meths," are hundreds of years old, and are hated by the general populace for their cold and detached attitude toward morality. Just Takeshi Kovacs' luck, therefore, to awake from storage and find he has been re-sleeved at meth Laurens Bancroft's expense, with an ultimatum for a contract - solve the mystery of Bancroft's apparent suicide, or be returned to the shelf. 

I read Rudy Rucker's Software not long ago, so Morgan's elaboration of the consciousness-divorced-from-physicality concept was a nice "sequel." I was especially intrigued by his portrayal of the ugly consequences of wealth inequality, in a world where the technology of immortality is largely limited to the economic elite. (Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy also fruitfully explores this issue.) 

I will definitely be checking out the other Takeshi Kovacs novels!

More delights from Arthur Upfield

Every Upfield Bony story is enjoyable, but some more than others.  Several Bony books, including The Death of a Lake, feature some kind of particularly unusual and characteristically Australian theme such as flash floods, rabbit migrations, fishing for swordfish or, in this case, a lake that forms every 20 years or so due to flooding, and then takes several years, but at an accelerating pace, to evaporate.  Rabbits visit the disappearing lake each night by the thousands, to quench their thirst - the descriptions of this scene and the opportunities it presents for trapping, are grippingly described.  Typically, however, these stories seem almost to have been written because of a strong attraction to the phenomenon, rather than in order to provide a strong setting to feature the mystery. The Death of a Lake has a couple vivid characters,  and there is tension as the lake vanishes as to whether a body that is expected will be found - but it's a limp mystery.

In contrast, The Battling Prophet is terrific - one of the best of the Bony stories.  A the outset, Bony is invited to stay, for a few days of fishing (!), with Mr. Luton, an old but extremely vital, tough man - a former bullock team driver (he's cracking the whip on the book cover).  Mr. Luton believes that his very old friend and boon companion, former bullock team partner and neighbor, Ben Wickham, has been murdered.   After their glory days together on the trail, Wickham, the Battling Prophet of the title, has become famous throughout Australia and the world for developing scientific methods for exceptionally precise weather prediction.  He has gained passionate adherents and bitter enemies - and several people want to get their hands on his methods.

The books starts quickly with an outrageous story about how Wickham died - and the seemingly wacky reason why Luton is convinced it was murder.  The mystery is excellent and the characters fascinating, particularly Luton and Miss Alice McGorr, who is recruited by Bony to pose as Luton's niece for the purpose of protecting him while Bony investigates.  Alice, a former delinquent turned extraordinary police woman is a complete, laugh out loud riot.  Wonderful story!!

The Call of Cthulhu - H.P. Lovecraft

My friend Terra is a huge Lovecraft enthusiast, and so at her suggestion (her Lovecraftian primer shared below), I have begun my exploration of the genre with The Call of Cthulhu, a very short novel which I greatly enjoyed. The protagonist of the novel is a Man of Science, who is deeply skeptical about his scholarly uncle's mysterious writings on a horrific beast known as Cthulhu. Full of atmosphere and delicious prose - a vivid and enjoyable tale that has definitely sparked my interest in reading more.

A Lovecraftian Primer for the Novice Scholar

Books & Stories

​Works by H.P. Lovecraft

(The following short stories are where I would recommend any budding cultist or bold investigator begin their journey. Many of HPL’s short stories can be found online here: http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/)

The Call of Cthulhu (Gives a good sense of the atmosphere and style in many HPL stories. The central source of the famed Cthulhu mythos.)

The Shadow over Innsmouth (A tale of intrigue and dread in a small town. Introduces some of Cthulhu’sfishier relatives.)

The Whisperer in Darkness (Dread terrors from above. While not explicitly about the King in Yellow, this is the only HPL story that contributes to his mythos.)

​Lovecraft’s Inspiratons

Ambrose Bierce (I’ve never read any Bierce, but I hear that HPL was enamoured of his stories.)

Robert Chambers (He wrote a collection of short stories entitled “The King in Yellow” which alternates between stories of the pallid king and tales of daily life in revolutionary Paris, for some reason. I would highly recommend the story “The Repairer of Reputations” from this collection.)

​Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft

(This list could go on forever – so much current fiction makes at least reference to Cthulhu or unspeakable horrors lurking beneath the waves or beyond the stars… here are a few examples I have enjoyed.)

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (Short story in Fragile Things, also available in a beautiful format here http://neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf)

Rehearsals for Oblivion (Various short stories which all have something to say about the King in Yellow mythos. Highly recommended if the tattered king strikes your fancy.)

The Hastur Cycle (A more scholarly approach to the King in Yellow mythos. Each story is accompanied byan editor’s note explaining its literary/historical context. This collection includes “The Repairer of Reputations” as well as “The Whisperer in Darkness”.) 

New Cthulhu 2 (This is a short story collection by various authors that I happened across at the library. These stories take HPL themes and legends and address them in a modern setting. I found most of them to be quite enjoyable.)

Locke and Key (Graphic novel which draws from some HPL mythos, also includes a lot of magic that is not from HPL.)

Films, Shorts, & Audio

​Feature Films:

The Whisperer in Darkness (Adaptation by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (2011))

Die Farbe (Adaptation of HPL’s “The Color Out of Space” (2010). Filmed in Austria; subtitled)

Dagon (Inspired by “The Shadow over Innsmouth”(2001). I have not seen this one yet but it is supposed to be quite good)

Re-Animator (Adaptation of HPL’s “Herbert West – Reanimator” (1985). A classic gore-fest.)

The Burrowers (Info here: http://hplfilmfestival.com/films/burrowers)

Short Films:

(While most of these are not strictly Lovecraft, they are definitely Lovecraftian and worth a viewing. If you enjoy any of these, consider coming to the H.P.Lovecraft film festival in Portland in October!)

Fat Rabbit 

(http://www.adampetke.com/#!fat-rabbit/c1qfk)

Frank DanCoolo, Paranormal Drug Dealer

(Full 8 minute film is somewhere on the internet if you look hard enough. Clip can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZmASfMOpxw)

Silas and the Tomb(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlNQecZ6Rj4)

Dirty Silverware (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXkl_j02pNE)

Flesh and Bone (Music video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzJYFGx2pQ4)

The Mill at Calder’s End (I don’t know if you’ll be able to find the full film online, but here is a trailer https://vimeo.com/ondemand/themillatcaldersend)

Thresher (https://youtu.be/SqNdbHHWtBc?list=PLKikQyzc03Rq50vrHUZ5jVeOazbsKq4qf)

Escape from Midwich Valley (http://lovecraftzine.com/2015/12/28/free-to-watch-escape-from-midwich-valley-inspired-by-the-shadow-over-innsmouth/)

The Earth Rejects Him (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcDXYYPhdAs)

The Call of Farqunglu (Lego spoof of the genre, very well done. https://youtu.be/n7o6ERhuEN4)

Roe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5IemrVVbc)

August Heat (https://vimeo.com/151533546)

Autumn Harvest (Very dark. http://zombiehamster.com/reviews/indie/watch-lovecraftian-noir-autumn-harvest/)

Dark Adventure Radio Theater

A product of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, these radio programmes never fail to provide an evening’s entertainment. More info here: http://www.cthulhulives.org/radio/DART/index.html

The Boys in the Boat

This book is terrific!  Well, I often run from "uplifting" books, but this is so well written, with different narrative threads providing resonance with the rags-to-glory story, that it's exceptional - and I was absorbed and stirred by the book.

In brief, it's the story of a collection of young men, most very poor and from logging camps, farms and mill towns, who were members of the 8-oar crew at the University of Washington in Seattle, which ultimately won the gold medal at the infamous 1936 Olympics in Berlin.  The events are set against the backdrop of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Depression and the turmoil wrought by the devastating Dustbowl storms.

The story of Hitler's frustration by the gold medals of Jesse Owens is well-known and this is a parallel story, though along the way, these young men first had to conquer the skills and superior attitudes of crews from elite East Coast schools.  While Owens' story demonstrates the superlative achievements of one man, The Boys in the Boat emphasizes what can be accomplished by a group working in a harmony that is almost spiritual.   The central character is Joe Rantz, whose upbringing provides first a heartbreaking story of abandonment and poverty that is overcome by determination, resourcefulness and strength, which commands admiration and respect.  Joe's early struggles and doubts, eventually followed by triumphs and a fulfilling marriage, mirror and enrich the story of the crew.

The story is extremely well-researched and documented and is driven by it's improbable and ultimately joyful and heroic achievements.  YouTube offers a very nice presentation by the author, who reads from a portion of the book.   Very highly recommended!

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) - Oscar Wilde

The Faustian tale of Dorian Gray is my bookclub's pick for February 2016. In it, young, innocent, Adonis-like Dorian sits for a painting by his friend, the worshipful Basil Hallward. The painting is Basil's masterpiece, but this sitting is the occasion for a fateful encounter - Dorian meets and is corrupted by the glib hedonism of another of Basil's friends, Lord Henry. Utterly taken in by Lord Henry's poetical musings on the supreme value of youth and beauty, Dorian impetuously makes a wish that changes his life forever:

"How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that- for that- I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!"

Although the plot is very simple, Wilde's prose is magnificent, and this short (213-page) novel is utterly captivating. It is also interesting how delicately Dorian's sins are portrayed - everything alluded to rather than shown, perhaps due to the publication in 1890, when the work was decried as obscene - amazing how standards for the depiction of sex and violence have changed in the past century.

Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the novel is Lord Henry's indulgence in cynical epigrams, such as, "the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." Although his wordplay is delicious, Lord Henry's amoral fascination with beauty, and his artistic interest in the destruction of Dorian's life, is frightening - he would have done well to learn from his contemporary, Tolstoy, who said “It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”