Tough cops and serial killers

I'm a fan of Robert de Niro and Al Pacino. It is a rare pleasure to see them in the same movie. It looks like Righteous Kill is their second collaboration after 2005's Heat.

The movie tells about the story of two tough cops, Turk and Rooster, and their attempt to solve a set of serial murders. Clues point towards one of their own, namely it is one of their own. Soon the clues start pointing towards Turk, but is he being framed? What about the video recording in which Turk seems to confess.

A cleverly written scenario, frequent twists and turns and a good performance from the two veterans make this a good movie to watch, albeit a little bit dark and violent. It's also good to see that both of them have not lost their touch and can still bring a lot of value to every movie they take part in.

The Power of the Story

The power of the word is a common theme in fantasy and science fiction literature. Maybe the best example of this is Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy. However, it was the power of the spoken word, when the word was actually the "True Name"of an object or person, in that it gave the speaker absolute power over the named.

The addictive and very popular game Myst (recently re-issued for the iPhone) also used the same metaphor. It was possible to go into a written book and discover the civilization there, with some devastating results in the continuation of the story.

Inkheart is the adaptation of Cornelia Funke's bestseller novel to cinema. It is about the power of a man which helps bring to life characters from any book that he reads. This ability is first interesting, but soon he finds out that there is a price to pay.

The movie follows the footsteps of similar efforts recently in popular fantasy series such as Harry Potter and Narnia. Funke has written the series (Inkworld) as a trilogy, but only the first has been adapted to cinema yet.

Brendan Fraser (of The Mummy fame) is doing fine, Helen Mirren playing one of the supporting roles with grace. It is an entertaining movie, but is a bit weak in substance as compared to the complexity of Harry Potter and Narnia.

Hostile Aliens

I think I have not watched the original The Day The Earth Stood Still, which features a funny-looking but supposedly menacing robot and an alien called Klaatu. I was able to see the new version starring Keanu Reeves recently.

The movie is about a mysterious alien which falls to the Earth and is greeted with suspicion and animosity as to his motives. Although he tries to convince people that he is trying to save them, he is not very successful, especially given the fact that lots of aliens land all over the Earth.

He befriends a woman scientist and her stepson. When everything else fails, they will try to convince him that Humanity is still worth saving when humans are slowly but surely destroying their world and environment.

The story behind the movies is quite environmentalist in its essence (especially for the 1950's) but is quite simple. The special effects in the movie are quite impressive, but I found the story quite weak. You keep telling yourself "so what?". Keanu Reeves is a kind of quiet and dark Neo (of Matrix) and there are lots of nasties, but there is something less than convincing about the movie. It could be that we have seen too many "hostile-aliens-invading-the-earth" type of movies and any new one has to have something very original, to be convincing.

Stephen King's Change of Style

I have read several Stephen King novels up to now. He has a unique style, inducing horror at every turn of the page. His style is usually not too complicated or elegant, and seems to fit his topics well.

He changes this legacy a little bit in his latest novel, Duma Key. His style is much more complicated and he weaves the set of events that lead to a climactic ending very slowly. Poetic images, strong descriptions of places and paintings have a prominent role in this book.

The book tells the story of Edgar Freemantle, who loses and arm and has part of his skull damaged in a workplace accident. He leaves his home town and settles down in Florida in a secluded neighborhood of the Duma Key.

He suddenly discovers a previously unknown painting skill and starts painting feverishly. It's as if his painting is controlled by a greater power and also the resulting paintings seem to be almost too realistic.

He befriends an old woman living nearby and learns about her scarring past. As events unfold, he would find out why his paintings seem to have this much power.

What I did not like about the book is that it is too long. It is good that King uses a more elegant style, but it looks too long for the set of mysterious events the plot reveals.

By the time I reached the end, I had become quite tired and have lost interest in the ending. Still, it is another interesting book by King.

Machinations of the Camel Club

David Baldacci has been one of my favorite writers in the last few years, especially because his fast-paced thrillers. He has introduced The Camel Club in 2005 and this has written 4 books involving the Club members.

I am surprised that these books haven't yet been adapted to the big screen, since they seem to be perfect for that.

The Camel Club

The leader of this unofficial club is an individual in his sixties who calls himself Oliver Stone (as the famous movie director). He has a tent in front of the White House and is a continuous protester and self-proclaimed watchdog on suspicious government activities. There is a sign on his tent proclaiming "I Want the Truth". What even his friends do not know is that his real name if John Carr and he has been employed by a super-secret branch of the CIA (called the Triple-6 division) to perform tasks such as high-profile assassinations and other difficult and secret duties. When he was fed up with what he was doing and tried to opt out, he was persecuted and his wife was killed, his daughter disappeared in the attempt to kill him.

He has befriended a handful of fringe individuals who have their own problems. Caleb Shaw has two Ph.D. degrees in political science and 18th century literature, and he has been a protester against the Vietnam war, where his brother was killed. Being an eccentric, he lost his chance to hold a proper position in the establishment and he now works for the Rare Books division of the Library of Congress. Milton Farb is a child prodigy with a photographic memory, but he has lost all proper jobs due to his Obsessive Compulsive Disease. Reuben Rhodes is an ex-military who was working for the Defence Intelligence Agency and a Vietnam War protester.

They have their sights on Carter Gray, the President's Secretary of Intelligence who they see as being involved in the conspiracies within the Government. When they become involuntary witnesses to a killing on Theodore Roosevelt island, their lives change drastically. As the killers notice that they are being observed, they try to find out who the observers are. It turns out that the man who was killed was a CIA employee. While the Camel Club is trying to keep ahead of their pursuers, the President is preparing for an important ceremony where a town is being renamed in his honor, and Middle-Eastern terrorists are preparing for an assault at the president on that special day. The Camel Club members befriend a Secret Service Agent and try to get his help in evading their pursuers.

It is a very fast-paced book and the characters evolve slowly throughout the story. I really enjoyed reading this first installment of the Camel Club series.

The Collectors

In this second book in the series, The Collectors events start fast with the assassination of the Speaker of the House and the murder of the Rare Books Division of the library of Congress. Events got really tangled when we are introduced to Annabelle Conroy, con artist and daughter of famed con artist Paddy Conroy. She is trying to avenge the death of her mother, which she knows to be the work of Casino boss and mobster Jerry Bagger. As she cons Jerry into losing 40 million dollars and tries to disappear, her path crosses that of the Camel Club. While Oliver and his friends are being threatened by the evasive and coldblooded killer from the dark side of government organisations, Jerry Bagger is trying to find Annabelle and her co-conspirators. Again a very fast-paced book and a very enjoyable adventure. One side effect of the book is to have Annabelle as a kind of associate member of the Camel Club and we see her in future books.

Stone Cold

In this third book, Stone Cold Oliver and his friends are being targeted by an enemy from Oliver's distant past, an assassin who was raised for this purpose, and also the goons of Jerry Bagger trying to find Annabelle Conroy. It is an intricate plot, involving the assassination of Soviet leaders in the Cold War era and secrets from Oliver's own past. Oliver is trying to eliminate the ghosts from his past and avenging the death of his wife and the disappearance of his daughter, whereas Annabelle is trying a counter-strike on Jerry Bagger since she notices that the best defense can be attack.

Divine Justice

I haven't yet read this fourth book of the Camel Club series, Divine Justiceand I'm looking forward to it.

Lies and More Lies...

I wasn't initially very much impressed with Leonardo di Caprio when he debuted in his earlier movies, and I thought his performance in Titanic was OK. However, I noticed in the last few years that his acting has seriously improved. The last movie with Leo that I watched was Blood Diamond and he was really perfect there.

I went to see the new di Caprio movie Body of Lies and really enjoyed it. This is a movie of today, with the Iraq war going on, and the U.S. trying to get control of the situation in Iraq and the Middle East. Caprio is a CIA operative (Robert Ferris) on the ground, with constant link back to his Langley boss Ed Hoffmann (played by Russell Crowe) and he is trying to uncover a terrorist cell operating out of Jordan.

There has been a few films about the Iraq operation already and they are getting better. Designed around the main idea of trusting no one in the intelligence business, director Ridley Scott does a good job of reflecting the other side of the equation, namely the mentality of the jihadis anf the people who support them. The way he handles the slowly developing friendship between Ferris and the Iranian nurse Aysha is quite good and humorous.

However, when you look at the totality of the movie, there is very little criticism about America's presence in Iraq or the way some operators (such as Hoffmann) approach the problem.

Actions sequences are impressive, characters are intimidating and threatening, and the movie reflects the spirit of the conflict quite well. I have to applause Leo in one of his most developed character portrayals on screen. Since Russell Crowe plays an unimpressive CIA operator, his character is sort of one-dimensional but that is probably intentional, to create a contrast with the Caprio character who has lots of conflicting instincts.

All in all, a good movie of our age.

The Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe

Matthew Pearl is a talented new writer. I head read his debut novel, The Dante Club, and I had really liked it because of the setting. Starting with The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, Literary Mystery (maybe not the best name for this genre) which is Crime Fiction with a literary twist has been one of my favorites.

In The Dante Club, Pearl took on the events around a literary club which started with Dante's La Divina Comedia and folded into grisly murders that seem to copy Dante's punishments in L'Inferno. It was a pretty enthralling book and I enjoyed reading it a lot.

Pearl takes another writer as the centerpiece of his new book in The Poe Shadow. The book tells the story of Quentin Clark, who is a lawyer in 19th century Baltimore obsessed with bringing into light the mystery behind the death of Edgar Allan Poe, his favorite author. This involves trying to find out who was the inspiration for Poe's Auguste Dupin and also looking into what was happening in Baltimore around the time Poe died.

My problem with the book is the style and the tempo. Since Quentin Clark (a fictional person) is a 19th century lawyer, he writes with that century's style. The book really slows down after the interesting opening chapters. When events unfold finally, you have the urge to say "so what?". Matthew Pearl has also edited a Poe collection including the famous "Murders of the Rue Morgue" so he knows the era very well, however, the book just does not click. It is still interesting if you like Edgar Allan Poe.

Obama and the advance of African Americans

The whole world has been watching Barack Obama becoming the first African-American president of the United States after a clever campaign. it is understandable that many people see it as a very important event in boosting the confidence of African-Americans in the U.S. after so many years of seeing themselves as a minority.

Hollywood has several good movies looking into the relations of white vs. black in the U.S., but I watched one of the best movies tackling this issue when I had a chance to catch it in a Classic Movie Channel.

The movie mentioned is Guess Who's Coming To Dinner starring Sydney Poitier, Katherine Houghton, and the great couple of Hollywood, namely Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Shot in 1967, in the heat of the Civil Rights Movements, Dr. Martin Luther King's campaigns, it takes a liberal stance (as most of Hollywood usually does) against the problem of race and inter-racial marriage.

A white, liberal couple is shocked when their daughter (Joey) comes back home and tells them that he's going to marry a young physician, John. The problem is that it is the year 1967 and John is black, whereas Joey is white. The movie takes over from that point and walks through that one day where the young couple is trying to get their parents' consent for the marriage.

There has been some criticism about this movie, to the effect that it took an easy way out of the problem, by portraying Joey's parents (the white ones) as liberals and having John (the black protagonist) as a well-off physician. I do not necessarily agree. Given that the movie was shot in 1967, this was quite a controversial handling of a delicate issue.

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn shine as usual with their superb performance (Hepburn got an Oscar with this role). Spencer Tracy's tirade at the end of the movie where he talks about eternal love and uses as a justification for not objecting to the marriage any more seems to reflect his own eternal love for Hepburn (they could not marry since Spencer could not get a divorce from his wife).

The movie is also balanced in its treatment of the reactions from both the white and the black families, since both men object to the marriage whereas both women support in and so on, giving the message that white and black are more similar than they seem.

All in all a romantic, enjoyable movie and a good classic movie at that.

Bond in Action

I went to see Quantum of Solace in the cinema today. I had watched Casino Royale the night before and had enjoyed it.

Quantum of Solace starts with a typical Bond car-chase scene. Unlike the previous movie, this one has lots of action scenes which are carefully choreographed, and also includes favorite Bond action sequences such as car chases in narrow Italian mountain roads or - of course any Bond movie would be lacking without them - speedboat chases.

The different character of James Bond portrayed in the new reboot of the series is apparent in thsi movie as well. Daniel Craig has a poker-face (he needed it in Casino Royale) and the humor is subtle but existent. The plot is not very strong, but slowly unfolds new dimensions of the newly introduced international organization, Quantum. It was trying to get money in the first movie, now they are trying to get control of water resources in Bolivia.

The main themes have been completely harmonized with today's security environment, with the U.S. getting the brunt of the criticism. I think this Bond fits more in today's MI6, which must have adapted itself after Britain tasted the bitter consequences of global terror for the first time in many years.


Quantum of Solace trivia:

• Important scene from the Palio di Siena horse-racing event in Siena, Italy.
• Relatively few Bond girls compared to earlier movies
• Daniel Craig is tough
  

Lean and Mean Bond

Since I have to go see Quantum of Solace soon, I had to watch the first Bond movie with Daniel Craig, Casino Royale.

Casino Royale was the first book Ian Fleming wrote, however it was not brought into the movie screen as a regular Bond movie, except in a Peter Sellers-led Bond spoof in the sixties. By starting Daniel Craig's career with Casino Royale, the producers are making a symbolic gesture and in a sense restarting the whole Bond franchise.

My initial reaction when the new Bond was announced a few years ago was that I did not necessarily like Daniel Craig. However, it was obvious when I watched the first movie that the producers went for a totally different kind of Bond and Daniel Craig was probably one of the best choices for this. Previous Bond movies showed Bond as an agent with a sense of humor, and one who could fight and kill when necessary.

This new Bond does not have too much of a sense of humor (well, a little bit) and he is actually a killing machine. He does not mind killing people and he sometimes takes on his own and does no necessarily follow orders.

I must say I really liked the movie, although the Bond here is very different from the very English gentleman demeanor of Roger Moore with the continuous tongue-in-cheek or similar performance of Pierce Brosnan.

One thing Bond-afficionados might complain about is that the plot is a bit simple as compared to earlier adventures. Also there are fewer Bond girls.


Some Bond trivia:

• Bond goes to the Body Worlds exhibition in Miami (see my blog for a description of the Los Angeles version of the exhibition)

• The poker they play is not one I am used to, but instead Texas Hold'em, where the table has 5 cards (community cards) and everyone draws just 2 cards (holes) and completes the hand by combining it to any 3 of the 5 on the table. Pretty interesting, since all hands are related and can not be too different from each other.

• For the first time in a Bond movie, the movie ends with a cliffhanger, so it's obvious that it will continue, unlike the totally independent Bond movies of the past.

Atheists' Champion

Richard Dawkins is a well-known scientist and professor at Oxford University. However, he has been more known for his staunch support of atheism.

The God Delusion is Dawkins' main treatise against religion, especially the idea of God. He attacks it on several fronts, and first tries to discredit agnosticism by showing that its reasoning is not more logical or convincing than that of religion or some extreme offshoots of it such as creationism.

He has a very poignant style and apparently this has alienated a lot of people who could have been his allies.

The book is stimulating thought and is interesting in its directness and courage in facing religion, but is certainly not politically correct and would antagonize a lot of the readers. That's why it has to be read and discussed.

It is interesting to note that Richard Dawkins' web site (www.richarddawkins.net) has been banned in Turkey through a court order, pre-dating more publicized banning of the likes of YouTube and Blogger.

Iron Man

I have never read the comic-book Iron Man, but I believe there are fans of it. My experience with comic-book heros brought onto the movie screen has been mixed. Some are good (like the Superman of Christopher Reeve) and some have suffered from frequent change of cast (Batman), some are acceptable (Spiderman), some are terrible (Fantastic Four and possibly others).

I can rate the movie Iron Man somewhere in the middle. On one hand the cast is quite good. Robert Downey Jr. is good as Tony Stark, wealthy industrialist and celebrity. Gwyneth Paltrow is one of my favorite actresses and sparkles in this role. Jeff Bridges is OK as the baddie (bald!).

The plot has been adapted to include Afghanistan, war against terror, arms dealers and so on. If you can set aside the implausability of Tony Stark's escape and little scientific plausibility of the Iron Man, it is enjoyable.

It's okay if you have two hours to spend without worrying too much about the content. I heard that they are planning a sequel already.

Indie is back!

I am a fan of the Indiana Jones movies by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Introduced with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. Although the movie was almost like a comic book, the pace was just breath-taking. The opening sequence took several minutes and it was an explosive fast-paced action sequence which is probably one of the best in Spielberg's career. Scenes with attacking swordsmen were just brilliant and had some inside jokes about earlier scenes. Harrison Ford certainly improved his acting after the adventure with Star Wars which introduced him to the movie audience.

The second movie in the series, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom was released in 1984. It was a bit disappointing, since some of the scenes were really cartoony and the whole approach was a little bit derogatory for certain cultures, but I think Spielberg got this from the Republic movie serials the series is based on. (The series have titles like Flying Disc Man From Mars and are usually classified as B movies)

The third movie in the series, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade was released in 1989 and casted Sean Connery as Indiana Jones' father, Henry. I think he brought some more excitement to the series and in general the third movie was better than the second, although it did not reach the level of the first.

My expectation was not so great when I watched the fourth in the series, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Since this has now become a cult series, the fourth movie is very enjoyable for Indiana fans, but it is perhaps not such a great movie after all. Of course it has the usual in-jokes referring to earlier movies and other movies, and it has some great action sequences. Some of the plot devices are outright ridiculous, but you really have to suspend disbelief to enjoy these movies.

Greg Bear's Quantico

After thoroughly enjoying Greg Bear's Darwin series, I started to buy more of his books. The first one I read is Quantico. It is a novel of the near future, where global terrorism has reached new heights, with the destruction of the Golden Mosque in Mecca and the retaliation to the U.S.

The terrorist threat of the day is bioterrorism and is threatening to be used in a large-scale attack. William Griffin is a new FBI trainee trying to cope with the difficulties of the job, whereas his father is after a vicious domestic terrorist who has been using anthrax since the days of 9-11.

William teams up with a group of FBI agents, but the days of FBI are also coming to an end since the internal conflict between security agencies in the U.S. could easily result in the dismantling of some of them, including the FBI.

The book has a slow pace and seems to put a lot of emphasis to the internal conflicts in the U.S. security agencies. I personally found that theme to be weakening the book, just like a similar theme weakening the two Darwin books, dragging them away from the central theme of human evolution. It is still readable, but not in the same quality as the Darwin books.

Vitals is next.....

Deaver introduces new Protagonist : Kathryn Dance

Jeffery Deaver has introduced a new Protagonist after writing for years about Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic forensic expert. Kathryn Dance was introduced in Cold Moon as a kinesic expert (namely one who is an expert interrogator and can be used almost like a human lie detector) helping Lincoln Rhyme, but in this novel she is the main character. (Lincoln Rhyme appears for a page or two...)

She is interrogating Daniel Pell, the self-proclaimed cult leader who had killed almost all the members of a family along with women in his "Family" who would follow him bravely. He has been in jail for many years, but there has been a new development which makes him a suspect in another case. He escapes, and Kathryn is in his trail, in a destructive search in the California landscape.

Unlike Lincoln Rhyme who works with scientific equipment and a knowledge of most materials man-made, Kathryn Dance uses psychology, body language and clues during an interrogation, and an analysis of human behaviour to guess Pell's next move. Pell in turn tries to shake her loose, but she is always following him very closely.

It is a quite enjoyable novel and Dance seems to be a good candidate to stay around for more books. I think Deaver has done quite some research about cult leaders and how they control the people around them.

The book still has twists and turns typical of Deaver, but much less than in the Lincoln Rhyme books. It is a bit similar to the story - in its development - in The Blue Nowhere, but it has its uniqueness as well. Next in line is the new Lincoln Rhyme book, The Broken Window.

Supernatural in Koontz' "Life Expectancy"

After ignoring Dean R. Koontz for a long time, mistaking him for a cheap horror novel author, I discovered some of his better books and got hooked to his fiction. One of these books was Life Expectancy.

The day Jimmy Tock is born, his grandfather dies, but before he dies, he has five predictions, each of a particular date in the new-born Jimmy's life that will have a profound impact on his life and possibly on the lives of people around him. As the story unfolds with Jimmy's narrative, the reader, just like Jimmy and his family goes into a period of worry and anticipation about what will happen on those days and will the events get more and more horrible every time.

It is a well-told tale and has twists and turns. The end is tied to the beginning of the story and by the end everything goes full cycle, and everything is explained.

The subtle irony and humor in the author's style - which is apparent in some of his other books - is quite openly conveyed to the reader, and this makes the book an easier read. If you suspend your disbelief about the supernatural nature of the events in the book, you will certainly enjoy it a lot.

Deaver takes on the Internet

Jeffery Deaver is notorious for his treatment of serial killers, maniacal killers and other kinds of killers, and his books are usually a collection of twists and turns, where the reader constantly tries to outguess the author about these, but fails. His famous books are those that involve the forensic expert Lincoln Rhyme, who is a sort fo Sherlock Holmes for the 21st century, trying to solve strange crimes although he is a quadriplegic confined to his bed.

However, Deaver has also written a lot of books without Rhyme. The Blue Nowhere is one where he has taken on the Internet and the world of hackers. He introduces an evil hacker (nickname Phate) who hacks his victims' computers to learn everything about them, then lures them to their destiny. When the police can not cope with this hacker, they bring in a convicted hacker (Wyatt Gillette) to try and trap this experienced hacker.

Deaver has portrayed the Internet and the hackers' world with a surprising realism. Although some of the methods and programs used are yet fantasy, they are not too far off. He still offers the twists and turns expected of him, in using more and more intelligent tricks within tricks using hackers' lingo.

All in all another exciting title by Deaver....

Bruce Sterling's Disappointing Angle

The Zenith Angle is a relatively new book by Bruce Sterling. I had first read Bruce Sterling as one of the two prominent writers of the cyberpunk movement (the other being William Gibson).

The book I read was Islands in the Net and I had liked it a lot. Unlike the pessimistic post-cybernetics world of William Gibson, Sterling's world was more lively and - I must say - more realistic. In this book he was dealing with the 21st century where data is the most valuable commodity and data piracy is something that is the main type of crime (I think we're almost there, in this first decade of the 21st century).

I had also liked Sterling's collaboration with Gibson, namely The Difference Engine, which describes an alternate world where the Computer Revolution has occurred a century ago, with steam computers. (Quite an interesting brain teaser, I must say).

The Zenith Angle continues that tradition, but it is marked by the events of September 11, 2002 and is describing the intricate relations between the various security organisations in the U.S. gettnig organized under the leadership of the Homeland Security. The technology is not far-fetched, but the book just doesn't - work.

It tells the story of a genius university researcher which is drawn into the new post-September-11 security organizations to ensure the security of the computer systems in all government security organisations, but ends up working to correct a space telescope, fails to convince the military officers in charge of the program, and so on, and so forth.

It is certainly a disappointing book from Sterling, and I hope this will be fixed in future books.

Koontz' New Thriller: The Darkest Evening of the Year

Dean Koontz is a master of the thriller genre. His books range from pure crime to Stephen King-like supernatural terror tales.

His latest offering is the book the Darkest Evening of the Year stands somewhere in between. It tells of the story of two individuals who have devils from their past chasing them, and have to reach some difficult decisions to get rid of them. Brian has an ex-lover, Vanessa, who would do anything to get to him, including hurting their daughter - which Brian does not know about. Amy is working in the field of dog rescue, usually from the dog owners themselves. She is hassled and eventually hunted by unknown people.

They team up and try to get rid of these enemies, whereas some supernatural forces related to dogs are manifesting themselves, with strange results.

The plot twists and turns, a bit reminiscent of Jeffery Deaver, and the second half of the book is a bit complicated, but it is a good read, like most of Koontz' books.

The Future of Humanity in Greg Bear's "Darwin" series

I had previously read a few stories by Greg Bear in Asimov's and Fantasy and Science Fiction. I seem to remember that his stories always had a "hard science" element and less of a speculative, fantasy element.

This feature of his stories certainly manifests itself in his "Darwin" series of novels looking into the future of mankind and the biological evolution.

Darwin's Radio is the first book of the series. It follows the activities of Kaye Lang, prominent virus researcher and publisher of articles hinting that there might be other mechanisms, that we are not aware of, to speed up evolutionary traits. The story also follows Mitch Rafelson, who is an archeologist trying to discover whether rumours of ancient remains in a Swiss glacier are actually corresponding to reality.

Kaye Lang has already proposed the possibility of viruses that would have genetic information encoded and would cause the hosts to react in a manner that does not seem to follow from its own genetic footprint. It turns out that there is such a virus, and it it nicknamed SHEVA. The virus starts to cause a mass of abnormal terminations in all women. However, the women will get pregnant (without further sexual activity) and would also show symptoms of nonhuman behaviour (strange skin patches, releasing strange scents). Some of the pregnant women will eventually shed mutated viruses that would infect and kill humans.

Mitch discovers that this is not unique to our own time and sees evidence that this might have been repeated in the transition from Neanderthals to the current Homo Sapiens species. In fact, it seems that some of the newborn have been massively massacred.

As public panic grows, politicians start doing what they know best, namely take advantage of the situation to establish more and more restrictive rules and laws. Segregation towards the new "Shevite" parents starts and gradually increases. The theory is that the second batch of babies will also be grossly mutated and would bring new viruses that would be very dangerous for mankind. Some desperate parents are resorting into terrorist acts.

Kay and Mitch encounter each other and develop a romantic relationship. All the dramatic events occurring due to the SHEVA crisis would push Kay to get pregnant and decide to give birth to a Shevite baby, proving her theories and showing the world - that is progressively getting crazier - that this new evolution in mankind's history is something that should be reconciled with, rather than fought with. Their daughter, Stella Nova ("New Star") would be raised and would show that nature has bene sending messengers, preparing the human race for a new evolution.

It is a complex book that does not take its theoretical background lightly. Although Bear admits that some of the theories in his book are unproven and maybe controversial, at least the science is believeable and within the realm of feasible.

Darwin's Children takes the story up 11 years after the first book. There are many Shevite children who have been held in camps or special educational institutions. As Kay and Mitch work with Washington insiders to try to prove that the children constitute no health risk, different actors are moving to take more totalitarian actions to establish their kingdoms within the government. The Shevite children are growing up and they are reaching puberty, with complications of their own.

As the tyrants move to strengthen their powers, Kay, Mitch and other parents are trying to make sure that the new children can form their own societies and develop the skills (that many people are afraid of) to establish the future of mankind.

The second book did not provide too much of a hint into how the Shevite society would actually develop, although it touches some of the collective practices the children apply in a group. I have a suspicion that we will see a third book which looks into the future, describing how the new human species is transforming the society they have bene recluctantly accepted into.

Greg Bear is certainly on of the authors I will be watching very carefully, since I do favor "hard science" books with minimal fantasy elements.

V for Vendetta: A Movie for Today's World?

I finally had time to watch the video version of V for Vendetta about 2 years after it was released. It is a moving enquiry into the possible futures for today's world when governments go to extreme lengths to restrict humanitarian rights to deal with the increasing security threats and terrorist situations.

Evey, the narrator of the story (marvellously portrayad by Natalie Portman), has had activist parents but they were both killed as a result of government suppression, although Evey herself has been out of trouble mostly because she was not as brave as they were. When a mysterious masked man blows up the Old Bailey (the central criminal court in London), Evey gets involved inadvertently and is dragged to a year-long trail of anarchy and destruction the masked man (who calls himself V, after Vendetta, portrayed by Hugo Weaving, although we do not see his face in the movie). Although initially wary of the destructive methods V uses, Evey finds more and more meaning into the acts of V.

The movie has several elements from popular culture, as well as solid references to today's world. England's path to authoritarian regime passes from the failure of the U.S. in its war and the consequent bio-terror that bring the U.S. down to its knees. There are references to a racist campaign to eliminate everything to do with muslims and other "subversive elements" such as homosexuals. It is an interesting twist that John Hurt, who plays the chancellor/dictator Adam Sutler has played Winston Smith, who was tortured by an equally oppressive regime in the movie 1984 from George Orwell's famous book. The underlying message of freedom may be too generic and trivial, but the movie is really well handled.

Starter for 10: The Pain of Growing Up

Starter for 10 is a 2006 movie about a young university student making mistakes and trying to grow up. Brian is a new university student who has tried to be clever all his life. This results in him finding a place in the university challenge team and trying to win the heart of the beautiful member of the team, Alice.

However, he will find out that life is not as simple as it seems initially, when he discovers the different attributes of Rebecca, the campus radical, who is less of a beauty, but has real substance. He is also going to make real mistakes, but will genuinely try to fix those mistakes in the process of growing up and taking responsibility.

A light, easygoing romantic comedy with some typical British characters and a portrayal of all aspects of British University life (including the binge drinking, pompous protocol and the all-existent protest movement). Predictable, but warm and full of living characters. There are no celebrity actors, but they are believable in their portrayals.

The Teleporters of "Jumper"

Jumper is a new science-fiction flick starring Hayden Christensen of "Annakin Skywalker" fame. It tells the story of David, who discovers that he could "jump" (teleport) from place to place instantaneously. he discovers this as a result of an accident, when he is in danger, but then learns to control it and uses his skills to rob a bank and get a lot of money.

However, he would find out that there are other jumpers (meets one) and an organization of "paladins" who try to catch and kill these jumpers, and this battle has been going on for centuries. He would also discover the facts behind the disappearance of his mother when he was 5 and would try to escape from the mysterious Roland (well played by Samuel Jackson), who is the "master hunter" and a very dangerous foe.

The special effects are quite good, a lot of stuff remains unexplained at the end of the movie (is anyone other than myself thinking of sequels?). Acceptable quality, does not really go into a lot of sophisticated explanations for the physics of jumping (that has been covered in science fiction books such as Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, named "jaunting").

I Am Legend: The Curse of Genetic Manipulation

Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend tells the story of the last person in the world full of vampires as a result of a disease. Will Smith is starring in the movie version of I Am Legend.

The movie takes place in New York whereas the book was in Los Angeles. The "disease" of the book has been transformed into a genetic manipulation effort to solve cancer horribly gone wrong. Robert Neville is the lone survivor, a scientist dedicating himself to reverse the effects of the mutated virus which has killed most of humanity and has converted most of the survivors into aggressive creatures (in contrast to the vampires of the book) that hunt and eat other humans in their hunger.

Apparently this book has really created the "zombie" genre in its depiction of the infected humans and their flesh-eating habits.

The movie is shot economically, but with some nice special effects in the sequences with the infected humans. The story has been changed into one that enables Will Smith to do some noble heroics at the end, but it stands as an acceptable movie in itself.

Cloverfield

I watched one of the most acclaimed movies of the last few months, namely Cloverfield on the new in-flight entertainment system introduced in Delta's Boeing 767 planes. As I had previously observed on a United 767, this one is also based on individual Linux screens for each seat (they had to reboot, so I could observe the Linux startup sequence).

The whole movie is shot with a personal video camera which is supposed to be found in the area 'previously known as Manhattan". The story follows the lives of a few young characters that are suddenly and violently catapulted into a dangerous situation which they do not understand. It involves some kind of an attack on Manhattan, which most people initially think is another terrorist attack. The resulting panic is reminiscent of 9/11 or worse. They then find out (sort of, since they can never see it clearly) that it is some sort of alien monster or mechanical contraption which has suddenly decided to appear and destroy all of humanity in its path. The reasoning and the goal for the attack is never explained, but humans are losing the fight, even when they use the latest technology within their arsenal.

In parallel to this, the story follows the love story between Beth and Rob, including some heroics by Rob and his friends to save Beth when she has to stay behind in the danger zone. The cinematic technique is just amazing. The camera sometimes stays pointed at the ground when the owner is running in fright from some unseen enemy, it falls down and records events on the side, even records the death(s) of some of the characters. Some of the panic and flight scenes reminded me of the original Alien, which also dealt with an enemy only briefly observed and never shown in totality until the last bit of the movie, when Ripley had to confront the alien.

One thing that annoyed me is that the movie seemed to end hanging up in the air, and this seemed to be like the technique dominating - and suppressing - the story.

Still, a very interesting and energizing movie, with some of the most original camerawork seen recently.

More Twisted Stuff from Deaver

I continued my Deaver collection with two books that do not feature Lincoln Rhymes (sort of...).

The first is the second collection of short stories from Deaver titled More Twisted. I had written an earlier post about the first collection of Twisted stories. These are similar stories, in that they have turns and twists and usually unpredictable. What made this second book of stories interesting for me was that it had a short Lincoln Rhyme story and a Sherlock Holmes story in the style of Deaver. The other stories are also enjoyable. I hope he releases more short story books.

The second book I read was an older one from 1999. Speaking in Tongues is another "independent" book (namely it is not in the Lincoln Rhyme series) which is quite enjoyable. It tells the story of a psychiatrist turned evil and using the persuasive power to seek revenge from an attorney. This is a tale of psychological terror, of what a deranged professional can do to other humans when all human feeling has been removed from his soul.

It is quite good, and includes the familiar plot twists that are the signature of Deaver.

For more reviews of Deaver's books, see this or this or this.

August Rush: The Thrill and Joy of Music

My latest flight to Los Angeles had its transfer hub at Houston. While flying to Houston on a Continental Airlines Boeing 767, I noticed that the interactive mode of the in-flight entertainment system was not working and the selection of movies was not very impressive, so I selected a movie that I had not heard about, namely August Rush.

This turned out to be the best part of a 10-hour flight in an extremely cold cabin.

The movie tells about the efforts of the 11-year old Evan to re-unite with his parents. He has been given away to a foster home but has not managed to stay with a foster family and is showing an enormous interest in music. He can actually "hear" the music of/in everyday objects and events.

Being a sort of child prodigy, he shows unparalleled talent in composing, performing various instruments and even conducting a philharmonic orchestra while at the same time he is trying to evade an evil exploiter (a wonderful Robin Williams in a Fagin-esque role) who is trying to cash-in using the talented child.

Flashbacks show us how Evan's father (an Irish rock guitarist) and mother (a talented chello player) meet each other, fall in love and the girl is whisked away by her father for the next concert in her tour, not knowing that she is now pregnant. Not knowing any of his own history, Evan believes that his parents will find him only through music.

The movie excels in describing the love of music in its depiction of the lives of the three main characters. I liken it to the joy and enthusiasm for music emanating from the scenes in Milos Forman's Amadeus (especially the opening scene with the wonderful 25th Symphony). It's also emphasizing the importance of family life and sticking together as a family. Some may dismiss these ideas as cliché, but the message about the power of music is dominant.

I was not familiar with the players. Freddie Highmore, who plays Evan/August resonates a kind of easy acting that's found in the likes of Haley Joel Osment and other talented child actors. Kerrie Russell plays the mother Lyla and is amazing with her fresh, believable character. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the father, and has a good performance.

Robin Williams seems to have found a refreshed actor identity in playing baddies. He's phenomenally good in this short part.

The film has been nominated for an Oscar, and Freddie Highmore has been nominated for other awards with his performance. August's Rhapsody (as named in the movie) is a remarkable fusion of modern and classical music that I would like to include in my playlist.

All in all, a moving and remarkable movie and a salute for music.

Deaver without Lincoln Rhyme?

I read two of Jeffery Deaver's older books that were written before Deaver introduced the character Lincoln Rhyme in The Bone Collector.
Praying for Sleep tells the story of a psychopath killer and his attempt to get revenge from the woman witness whose testimony resulted in his conviction. But, just like many Deaver books, things are seldom what they seem to be, so you should be ready for surprises. Lacking the detailed forensic descriptions of the Lincoln Rhyme books, the book can still create a spooky atmosphere and lets the user guess and fail to correctly guess events until the very end.

A Maiden's Grave tells about an abduction where a convicted felon and his friends escaping from prison abduct a set of deaf girls and their teacher. They take refuge in an abandoned slaughterhouse and the FBI quickly takes control of the situation with one its Hostage Negotiation experts. Again, Jeffery Deaver has used his well-known technique of deception and plots-within-plots in this novel, so he gets you guessing until the very end. However, for a Deaver-fan like me who has read many of his books, it is not really so difficult to guess the plot twists. Nevertheless it is a very enjoyable book that flows smoothly.
What was interesting for me was to read about some of the interesting aspects of the Deaf community. For example, I never knew that the Oralists (namely Deaf who used speech) were thought to have a lower status than the pure Deaf in this community.

Again, if you have read many Deaver books, these two older books might seem a bit familiar, but are still very enjoyable for the enthusiast crime reader.

For more reviews of Deaver's books, see or this or this.

African Plight and a Journey to the Human Soul

The Day of Creation is the first non-Science-fiction book of J.G. Ballard that I have read. I have read many Ballard books in the 70's and 80's when I started reading lots of science fiction. I especially liked his short stories which sometimes had surrealist images and stories a bit like Jorge Luis Borges. I keep remembering the poignant story The Drowned Giant from the book The Terminal Beach.

The book tells the story of Dr. Mallory, who is treating patients in a central African country and also overseeing some irrigation projects so as to bring water to this arid part of the world.

He is in a conflict zone when government forces and guerrilla forces are fighting it out. Both sides are treating him with some respect but also are afraid of any advantage their opponents can gain by utilizing him. He inadvertently creates a small flow, which then turns into a small stream. Mallory suspects that the water is coming from a secret underground reservoir and might end up draining all that, removing any chance of irrigating the area. He decides to go to the source of the river and destroy it. He is trailed - pursued - by a young girl who used to be part of the guerrilla movement and a filmmaker who is interested in capturing images for the Japanese viewers.

As Mallory and the girl, sometimes tracked by the relentless government Major who is hunting him because he stole his boat and car, Mallory becomes more and more obsessed with the stream, for which he has claimed objective by bribing the Major initially. He is also trying to educate the young girl. Events will unfold in an unexpected twist.

It is a quite interesting book, since the story line progresses very slowly, mimicking the slow growth the tiny stream Mallory created undergoes. It is almost a journey to the human soul, while describing the plight of Africans, which has not really changed since the book was written (about 20 years ago). It gave me the motivation to read more non-SF from Ballard.

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Interesting Threesome and an incredibly Complex Book

I was probably in the first year of my M.S. study at the university where I first heard about Douglas Hofstadter's Book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. The first description of it was that "It is a book that only less than 10 people in the whole world fully understand". If any of you know me, you would understand that this was the perfect trigger for me to get interested in the book! The appeal of the book was that it was establishing similarities in the works of Kurt Gödel (A 20th century mathematician), Johann Sebastian Bach (An 18th century classical musician, and one of the greatest musicians ever) and Maurits Cornelius Escher (A 20th century Dutch painter).

Later on we recruited a person for my software company, and he claimed to understand the book almost entirely. This guy was an Electrical Engineer who attended high-level Math classes and just listened to the professor without taking any notes, then could show you any proof in its entirety without so much of an effort. He had been studying in the U.S. for a Ph.D. but eventually lost interest and came back to work in the software business.

While struggling with the intricacies of the M.S. work in Industrial Engineering, I was also working on my second major in Mathematics. Along with the inconceivable dimensions and abstract contraptions of Topology, I had to understand the intricate mechanism of being able to prove or disprove any given theorem or conjecture. Gödel had shown in his famous Incompleteness theorem published in 1931 that any mathematical system which has a consistent set of axioms will always have some propositions the value of which (TRUE or FALSE) can not be decided within that mathematical system. Namely, there would be an infinite number of propositions that would be undecidable using the program. This generalization of of the Liar's Paradox (The person who says "I'm a Liar" creates a paradox that makes it impossible to decide whether this statement is true or false) has some negative implications for Information Technology, since it would not be possible to write a computer program that would be able to decide whether a given statement is correct or incorrect.

I had started to get interested in Classical Music while in High School. I was a boarding student, and the mother of one of my good friends was a real classic music lover. She started taking us to the Friday evening concerts in the Classical Music Concert Hall. These usually consisted of real classics, usually with a concerto and maybe a symphony if we were lucky. Since these concerts would normally cover anybody from Mozart to Sostakovich, but would rarely touch Baroque and composers like Back, it took me several years before I got introduced to Bach's music. I used to go to the University library to get an album (Long-play, of course this was way before CDs!) and listen to it with a good headphone in the absolute silence of the library.

Hofstadter's book points to the way Bach has woven his compositions with recursive patterns, with almost mathematical perfection. These recursive patterns form the way counterpoint and other classical techniques are used in his music to reach harmony, that was the crux of early and Baroque era classical music, getting its justification from the religious idea of musical harmony mimicking the perfectness of God's vision.

The concept of recursion is also apparent in Escher's works. He is famous for building impossible worlds in his woodprints, where he has depicted scenes that could not happen in real life, such as rectangular stairs seemingly climbing continuously up to infinity, a waterfall that seems to defy gravity by means of water continually moving upward to create the power with which the waterfall falls down, and similar constructions. He has also formed infinitely recursive patterns and structures on some his paintings. (Use this link to find out about the Escher Museum in The Hague)

Hofstadter has structured his book to cover these three genius individuals in three major divisions of the book, but has interspersed the regular chapters with philosophical fables that look into some of the recursive concepts in philosophy, such as Zeno's paradox, where the philosopher Zeno decides that the perceived world can not be real. He uses the argument of halving the distance to the target and showing that no matter how far the arrow goes, there is still a short distance to cover, and thus the arrow can not reach the target. Since we do see the arrow reaching the target, the perceived reason must be an illusion. His fables are quite interesting, since they usually follow the structure of one of Bach's musical pieces, and they include puns, acrostiches and other literary mechanisms.

Although I read the book a few times, I don't think I have really covered all of the book's explicit and tacit knowledge, so I recently ordered a new copy of the book - which is revised as the 20th anniversary edition, with some additional material and a new preface by the author - so that I could try to fathom its mysteries further.

Is It Possible to Escape Reality?

Martian Child is a 2007 movie which stars John Cusack. I had seen John Cusack mostly on TV shows, but he is a familiar face. He plays David, a recently widowed science-fiction writer who is wondering whether he should adopt a child and try to be a family once again. He is interested in a child who claims he is from Mars. The boy sits in a box all day, wears dark glasses (claiming that Earth is too bright for him) and hanging weights on himself so he does not "float away". He waits for the day when he will be picked up by his fellow Martians.

Realizing that the boy clearly feels the after-effects of being abandoned at a very young age, he works hard to convince the boy that he is wanted, and that they could become a family. It is not a very surprising movie, and the story line continues as expected.

It was a low-key movie that could be enjoyable. It reminded me of another movie I watched a couple of months ago.


The movie I refer to is K-Pax. It has two great actors, Kevin Spacey, who plays a mental patient, Prot, who claims to be from the planet K-Pax, and Jeff Bridges, who plays Dr. Mark Powell, the psychiatrist who tries to treat him. As the plot unfolds, Dr. Powell has ambiguous thoughts about Prot's claims. By hypnotising him, he gets a glimpse of the terrible events in Prot's past, and tries to bring him to reality.

Both actors are quite good in the movie, but Kevin Spacey just excels.

The theme of a person claiming to be from a different planet or from outer space in order to escape the terrible facts of real life is very popular in American cinema. It is probably in parallel with the UFO sightings or claims of alien abduction. These two movies are good examples of how this theme can be treated in movies.

Quo Vadis - Mankell?

Picking two Mankell books in a row from the bookstore was an exciting event for me. Both seemed to be outside the Wallander detective stories, which made it even more interesting, since I had not read any non-Wallander books from him.

Depths is a story that takes place in the early days of the 1st World War. Sweden has not yet chosen her side, but Germans and Russians are already shooting at each other.
Capt. Tobiasson-Svartman is a specialist for depth measurements for the Swedish Navy. He has a very cold relation with his wife and is quite relieved to be sent on a secret mission to measure the depths of the approaches to the Stockholm area.

While he is carrying out the measurements he stumbles upon a small island and encounters a woman living by herself. Meeting her changes his boring life and is the first step to his obsessive behavior which carries on with a lot of separate acts, each speeding up his descent into oblivion.
The first part of the novel reads almost like an Ingmar Bergman scenario describing a person with a barren soul, trying to cling on to life. As time passes, some incredible events - including murder - seem to change this seemingly calm atmosphere, ending with a bang.

I can foresee a minimalist movie of the book, with the right, pessimistic atmosphere created by a good director/auteur, but I failed to get the significance of the story. The reason for his alienation to his wife, the strange obsession with the unruly, almost feral woman and the seemingly unnecessary acts of violence did not really work for me.

The only stylistic point to note is that the novel consists of 206 very short chapters.

I could imagine a Bergman film - alas that is no longer possible - but I think that I would probably leave the cinema in the second half of the movie, something I did not do even while watching Fellini's La Citta delle donne in Italian, a language I do not speak.

After this disappointment, I am looking to Mankell's next book in my list, Kennedy's Brain, which, I hope, is a more traditional crime novel.

The next installment by Michael Crichton : Next

I grabbed Michael Crichton's latest book Next and finished it over a trip in Europe. It describes the world of maybe a decade later where improvements in genetic engineering have started to change the world as we know it now. He describes events like a monkey undergoing gene therapy and getting human genes, resulting in unforeseen problems, or a company claiming rights on the cells of a person and then extending the claim to all his descendants when the original cells are destroyed, and so on. It is obvious that Crichton has done his research and knows a lot of developments in genetics. He raises ethical and technological questions about probable genetic manipulations. However, the book lacks coherence and reads like a collection of seemingly unrelated events being described over a period of time. A lot of writers use this literary mechanism (e.g. Tom Clancy starts maybe 10 threads) but they pull these themes or story threads together and relate all these to each other in the remainder of the book. Still, it is interesting to read about potential problems in our future.


My introduction to Michael Crichton was through his first novel The Andromeda Strain. I read the hardcover version while I was at High School - end of 70's - and really enjoyed the book. It was written as a page by page account of a microbiological crisis where a small town in the U.S. is devastated by a sudden epidemic. I think it was one of the first books that used the style of a stopwatch account of events in real time, since time was very essential for the events happening. A "scientific thriller" was not very commonplace in those years (now there are many examples of it and more come every day).

The progression of the book, with several scientific theories examined and discredited, was also breath-taking. There was a movie adaptation later, but it was a low-budget item which did not cause too much of an impact on the movie world.

His second book was The Terminal Man, where an electronic device is implanted into the brain of a man suffering from seizures. However, he finds a way to convert the soothing pulses from the device into a source of continuous impulses and starts a murderous rampage. The book was not as influential but still was interesting, since it looked into the dangers of manipulating the brain through artificial means, which is a trend Crichton would continue in later years.

I missed some of his books after that, usually seeing the movie adaptations first. Jurassic Park was a big success, with Steven Spielberg's magnificent direction. It was continued by The Lost World, but Crichton did not contribute to the script of Jurassic Park 3.

Disclosure became a big discussion point, with the theme of a female boss forcing herself on a male employee, using the power she has. I think the book did not put that much emphasis on this theme, but the movie, with Demi Moore and Michael Douglas, was a big hit.

Sphere was another interesting movie adapted from Crichton's book. I enjoyed the cast, including Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel Jackson and others. The mystery about the unknown sphere in the depths of the ocean, the weird changes occurring in the environment were all increasing the tense atmosphere. Of course it reminds me a lot of Philip K. Dick's The Eye in the Sky, in which the protagonists live the fears and nightmares of each other after a terrible accident at a power plant, but the resemblance is not so great as to claim plagiarism.

I watched the movie Timeline without reading the book. It is a time travel story to France in the 14th century. A botched time travel attempt leaves a scientist stranded and his son and students attempt to rescue him. However, their sheer existence in this era threatens to change the future. The movie was quite good, although it does not have any recognizable names in the cast.

Congo was one of Crichton's books which went a bit unnoticed. It tells the story of a research team going into the deep Congo forest to encounter, among other things, an ape capable of sign language, but does not really impress the reader, so it is a weak offering from the author.

Airframe is another book of Crichton which is better to read but again does not really impress the reader. It tells about the shortcomings of the airlines in the area of maintenance and discovers a deliberate effort to conceal serious problems in their maintenance process. Readable and interesting, but no big deal.


After a long hiatus, Prey was the first Crichton book I read for a while. It left the nice taste that Andromeda Strain had left when I originally read it. It is written in a similar style, with time being carefully noted and a lot happening in a short time frame. It looks into nanotechnology and what could go wrong. Scientists develop highly adaptable nanobots which prove to be much more adaptable than they thought and start preying on humans. Quite alarming and believable. It also explains some of the algorithms and logic in programming nanobots. I can see a very nice movie being made out of it, but did not see any sign of that happening.

State of Fear has been a very controversial book, since it describes radical environmentalists' efforts to create artificial disasters in order to continue the support for environmentalist causes. It reads like a George Bush manifesto (before he changed his mind and decided that Global Warming is something we should take into account) but then continues with a more balanced treatment of both sides.

In general I'm interested in any new Crichton books. It may not always have the same quality, but it usually has great movie potential (although some adaptations have been dreadful) and quite a breathless read.

The Pendragon Series

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has dominated children's literature for the last few years and has reached unprecedented levels of popularity, with the additional interest caused by the movies. When the last novel was published this July, all fans must have been relieved, to find out about all the unresolved issues. Perhaps it was a relief mixed with a bit of sadness.

However, there are other good examples of children's literature that may have been overlooked due to the aura of the Harry Potter series. One such series is the Pendragon series written by DJ MacHale.

Bobby Pendragon seems like a normal schoolboy. He lives with his parents and attends school with two of his best friends: Mark Dimond, who is his best buddy, and Courtney Chetwynde, who he has a crush for. When he is visited by his uncle Press and asked to go with him to help him solve something, he couldn't have imagined that his life would be changed for good.

He finds that he is a "Traveler" who can use some kind of teleporting device called a "flume", that uncle Press is not really his uncle, and there are many territories (parallel worlds?) with a Traveler each. He then finds out about St. Dane, who is a demonic Traveler whose only goal is to bring down all territories, thus throwing the whole of Halla (the combination of all territories, namely the whole inhabited universe) into chaos.

Bobby goes off to different territories, sending his journals back to his two best friends and describing his adventures in the different territories. Mark and Courtney are later dragged into the adventure, by becoming "acolytes" namely helper for travelers.

Each book is in a separate territory, so we find out about them one by one. Each plot becomes more and more intricate, while St. Dane is using more and more satanic methods to bring each territory down.

The books are at the same time both simple and complicated. Although the plot in each book seems to be simplistic (there is always a "turning point" for a territory when St. Dane pushes people in the territory to a certain action so that the territory plunges into chaos), the overall goal of St. Dane and the history of Bobby and the other travelers are not getting clearer.

Although each book has enough repeat material to introduce readers into the history of the series, it is best to read all the books.
Currently 8 books have been published, the names are as follows:


1. The Merchant of Death (Territory : Denduron)
2. The Lost City of Faar (Territory : Cloral)
3. The Never War (Territory : First Earth)
4. The Reality Bug (Territory : Veelox)
5. Black Water (Territory : Eelong)
6. The Rivers of Zadaa (Territory : Zadaa)
7. The Quillan Games (Territory : Quillan)
8. The Pilgrims of Rayne (Territory : Ibara)

I believe it is mentioned somewhere in the books that there are 10 territories in total, so we may expect at least two more books before the series might end. I believe the series are suitable for children from 10-11 years up to maybe 16-17, although I enjoyed reading them as an adult as well.

Is Deaver Twisted or What?

I had previously written about Jeffery Deaver's books that I have read (See earlier post). All but one of these were about the most famous hero of his books, the forensic investigator Lincoln Rhyme and his partner/lover Amanda Sachs.

Twisted is a short story collection putting together various short stories Deaver has written. It even has a short Lincoln Rhyme story. Most of the stories have a twisted end that is difficult to guess, thus the name. If you have read most of his novels like I did, the stories are a bit predictable, or at least they look similar, although you may not be able to predict the exact ending, you can predict the type of ending that he will come up with. However, it is still an enjoyable book for crime fiction fans, better than the average.

For more reviews of Deaver's books, see this link.

Children of Men - A Chilling Warning

I recently watched the movie Children of Men, based on the book by PD James. I had seen the author's books in bookstores but had not read any of them.

The movie stars Clive Owen. I've only seen him in The Bourne Identity in a relatively minor role. It shows us a bleak future where mankind is no longer able to procreate and the oldest child has died at 18 years of age. Theo Faron, a bureaucrat, joins his revolutionary ex-wife and other radicals to protect a black woman who is miraculously pregnant. The movie follows them in their seemingly hopeless quest to reach the mysterious Human Project to find a sanctuary for the soon-to-be-mother and the unborn child.

Michael Caine is amazingly good, Clive Owen also has an economic but good performance.

The movie has some of the best and most disturbing urban guerilla warfare scenes I have seen recently. Also notable is the emphasis on the radical islamic movement that seems to have caught up in England at the time of the movie (2027). There are a few cliche scenes such as the newborn baby being escorted by dumb-struck soldiers with a reverence worthy of Baby Jesus, but overall it is a really chilling warning about a possible human future in the wake of bio-catastrophes in-the-wait.

The Pursuit of Happyness

No, this is not a typo. It is the name of a new movie by Will Smith. I've been accustomed to seeing Will Smith in explosive and exaggerated comedies, and I usually liked his portrayal.

He has played with his son - Jaden Smith - in their first common appearance in this movie. The movie is actually describing the failure of the American Dream. The events take place in the course of 1981. Chris Gardner is trying to support his family by trying to sell a bone density scanner which nobody really seems to need, while aspiring to be a broker. The movie tells about his slow spiral into the Hell that is America at its worst. Failing to have a proper income he goes deep and deep into a hopeless situation, finally ending up on the street. Although the director could not avoid a happy ending, the atmosphere of the movie shows how difficult it may be to have a decent life in the land of opportunities.

A bit predictable and cliche, but a moving simple story and a first-rate performance from the father-son team.

The Power of Fantasy - Two Films on the Contrast of Real Life and Fantasy

Pan's Labyrinth

I frequently travel between Europe and the U.S. The long flight is only bearable when I can watch a few good movies I have missed due to the busy schedule I have.

In my last trip I watched two movies which, although they are very different, have one common theme: Fantasy or the Power of Imagination and the contrast it may have with real life.

The first of these movies was a Spanish movie by Guillermo del Toro (director of Hellboy and Blade II) named Pan's Labyrinth. It got three Oscars in 2006 (Cinematography, Art Direction and Makeup).
The story takes place during World War II, when Franco's forces are trying to establish their absolute power in Spain and are slowly decimating the Spanish resistance.
Ofelia moves to the country side with her pregnant mother, to prepare for her brother's birth where she is witness to the unbelievable brutality of her step-father, one of Franco's officers.
To cope with the harsh reality of this life, she starts building up a fairy tale where she is a princess who is separated from her father the king. However, the evil of the real world will quickly permeate her fantasy world and will show the realities of her life.
Although I watched the movie on the small screen of an airline in-flight entertainment system with headphones on, I was really moved by the story. The child actress playing Ofelia has an amazing performance. Sergi Lopez is relentless in his portrayal of the sadistic captain. Apparently the movie had a 20-minute standing ovation after its debut in the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and I would believe it.

The Bridge to Terabithia

The second movie I saw was The Bridge to Terabithia, using the invented fantasy world as a mechanism, but it is much more different from Pan's Labyrinth. Jesse is a teen who grows up in a crowded house with several brothers and sisters, has little attention from the parents and is also struggling to have real friends at school. When a neighbor moves in next door he befriends their teenage daughter, and they discover that they have many things in common. They dream up a fantasy world of Terabithia, where they can do whatever they want, away from the cruel realities of the real world. However, the fantasy world would crumble when reality catches up.

This plot summary looks very similar to the previous one, however the atmosphere and the background is very much different. I thought that Ursula K. Le Guin's wonderful essay "Why Americans are Afraid of Dragons?" is probably the best account of why people are afraid of fantasy and imagination. I think these two movies show that it is important to use the imagination - whether it is imagining fantasy worlds, or using your imagination to create wonderful art - but that it can not always protect you from the realities of real life.

Wallander on the Run : More Mankell

I had covered some books of Henning Mankell in a previous blog item. All these books were Inspector Wallander books and they had the unique Swedish (read Scandinavian) feeling and this was what distinguished them from typical crime novels you can find everywhere. I had covered#4, #7 and #8 of the series.

Lately, I have noticed that I had not read most of the earlier Wallander books and decided to complete my Wallander collection. The two books I picked up were Dogs of Riga (#2) and The White Lioness (#3).

These had a difference from the previous Wallander books in that Wallander goes out of Ystad and even abroad within the storylines.

In Dogs of Riga, Mankell looks into the dismantling of the Soviet empire and the changes inflicted to the Baltic republics, among other ex-Soviet states. In his determination to solve a murder, Wallander ends up in Riga, does several "crazy things" which did not seem to occur in later books and tangles with powerful people trying to exert their influence in the tumultous days of the crash of the Soviet Empire.

The White Lioness brings Mankell to South Africa. In his usual determination to solve a murder and other weird events (including the finding of a severed finger of a black person in Sweden) he gets tangled in a plot to kill a prominent figure in South Africa just before the Apartheid regime is dismantled. Is it de Klerk or maybe Mandela the perdon to be murdered, and can Wallander do anything about it. Again Wallander goes beyond his character in this novel, to do what he believes is right.

I was pretty impressed with the quality of the writing in these two novels. I don't mean to say that the later novels are not good, it's just that they stay in Sweden and are predominantly occupied with the Swedish character, rather than being more international in the events occurring.

I have now grabbed Sidetracked (#5) and The Return of the Dancing Master (which is not a Wallander novel) and will read and evaluate them later.

Killers, More Killers and Serial Killers in Jeffery Deaver's Fiction

I had inadvertently encountered Jeffrey Deaver's universe when I first watched The Bone Collector. It was an exquisite movie with two great players, Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. I did not really pay attention at the time who the writer of the original work was.

Last April I saw the book for The Bone Collector (not the novelization, thank you!) and decided to read it, since I really liked the movie. This 1997 book was even better than I thought. It matched the wits of Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic ex-forensic-detective, and Amelia Sachs, his sidekick and rookie police, against a very intelligent and evil serial killer who was interested in the bones of his victims. As usual, the book included so much detail about forensic science that it was much more interesting than the movie, which was appealing in its own way.

Soon after this I saw another Deaver book featuring Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs. This was The Twelfth Card, a 2005 book, namely the sixth in the Lincoln Rhyme series. This time Deaver was following a serial killer as he tried to murder a young high-school student in Harlem. The most striking part of the book was the plot twists and turns. It was almost impossible to guess what would happen and who was who. Once I finished the book, I was really hooked to Deaver and I started collecting all of the Lincoln Rhyme books. All the books shared the same style, namely a twisting and turning plot, along with some events in the life of Lincoln Rhyme that could have changed the direction the plot was taking, and a lot of forensic details captured in the famous tables/charts. The style does not become repetitive, since the more familiar you get with this universe,the more surprises Deaver seems to bring.

Here is a full list and book covers:

1) The Bone Collector (1997)

2) The Coffin Dancer (1998) Lincoln Rhyme is trying to find the "Coffin Dancer" who is trying to kill three witnesses before a trial starts.

3) The Empty Chair(2000). This time Lincoln Rhyme is trying to locate a teenager called "the Insect Boy" who has abducted two young women.

4) The Stone Monkey (2002) Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are after a ruthless human trafficker from China and trying to stop him from killing his innocent victims.

5) The Vanished Man (2003) Rhyme and Sachs are now trying to catch an illusionist and murderer who uses conjuring tricks to disappear.

6) The Twelfth Card (2005) Rhyme and Sachs are trying to protect a high school girl in Harlem, who seem s to have been targeted by a ruthless killer, but things are not as simple as they seem (like in all Deaver novels).

7) The Cold Moon (2006) Rhym and Sachs are trying to catch an evil serial killer called The Watchmaker.


I have read one more Deaver book which is not a Lincoln Rhyme book. Garden of Beasts (2004) is a book taking place in World War II. Although mildly interesting, it comes nowhere near the Rhyme books.

All in all, Deaver is a very interesting read, and a must for any one who likes Crime Fiction.

Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel Prize for Literature!

Orhan Pamuk gets the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature!

This is really a surprise for me, even though I have been following him since his debut novel in Turkish (Cevdet Bey ve Ogullari) which I read in early 1980's.

See my post in this Blog from March 2006 for more on him.

The StoryTeller from the North : Henning Mankell

I saw a Henning Mankell book for the first time around a year ago. I was waiting at an airport and realised that I did not have enough books for the long trip. While browsing through the bestseller books in a small bookshop at the airport, I saw a book by an author named Henning Mankell. If I'm not mistaken, this was Firewall(#8 in the Wallander series). I read the book quickly and really enjoyed it.

After the crime masterpieces by older-generation authors like Agatha Christie, it is difficult to find a genuine crime writer. Mankell is one. He is Swedish, and maybe this is one of the factors that make his books interesting. (I discovered him a bit similar to the way I discovered the other interesting Scandinavian author, namely the Norwegian Jostein Gaarder) All the books have the gloom that must be the typical ingredient of the Swedish atmosphere.

His hero in many of his novels is Kurt Wallander, an aging police inspector. He is an old-timer but can easily adapt to the modern worls, even if he does not like everything that it brings. His relations with his father, his daughter and his colleagues shed some light on the Swedish character - I presume, since there is only one Swedish person I regularly see in my trips and it is difficult to get a valid impression from a population of one. Although the books can be high-paced sometimes, the approach Kurt Wallander uses is one he shares with Hercule Poirot, Miss Marples and many other crime fiction protagonists, namely careful analysis and deduction. He makes use of forensic technology when necessary, but is first and foremost a thinker.

I continued buying Mankell books, including The Man Who Smiled (#4), Before the Frost, One Step Behind(#7). In Before the Frost, he has now made Linda Wallander his protagonist, portrayed as a policewoman following her father's footsteps. I am sure of one thing: I will probably buy all his books.

"Bourne Supremacy" and the rest of the Bourne Saga

I just saw The Bourne Supremacy, the follow-on to The Bourne Identity. Both movies are based on Robert Ludlum's Bourne trilogy books. I only discovered Ludlum about two years ago and quickly read most of his books. Although he seems to write very similar books based on a well-defined schema, most of his books are enjoyable. (A short list that I've read: The Janson Directive, The Matarese Countdown, The Prometheus Deception, The Icarus Agenda(Good novel about international terrorism), The Tristan Betrayal (a John Le Carre-like spy thriller), The Aquitaine Progression (Some people with enormous economic power to take over the world), The Sigma Protocol, The Apocalypse Watch (Neo-Nazis trying to take over the world).
I think the only other notable movie I have seen Matt Damon in was Ocean's Eleven. In "The Bourne Identity" (which I saw about a year ago on TV) he plays an ex-CIA hit-man who has lost his memory and trying to find out who he is and what he has done. By the way, there are people trying to kill him, just for a change.
It is an action-packed, high-speed movie and is quite enjoyable.

I will not elaborate more on the plot, but it suffices to say that it is a direct, no-nonsense action feature and you can easily leave yourself to the flow and moves
Last week I had a chance to see "The Bourne Supremacy" while packed in a Boeing 777 with lots of other people, and I must say it helped pass some of the 8 hours I had to spend in that metal sardine can. I would say it is similar to the first movie, Jason Bourne is still trying to remember some of his past, but has decided to stay out of the game. Of course "they" would not let him. The pace is somewhat less than the first movie, but there are remarkable escape sequences which are really clevely designed. I really liked the way Matt Damon portrayed Jason Bourne in the two movies and I am looking forward to The Bourne Ultimatum when it comes out in 2007.

Unfortunately Robert Ludlum is dead. There are still books written by other authors and quoting his name, but I think these are more or less using the same characters he has created or a follow-up to some books he has written.

Altered Carbon : The New Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is one of the new science fiction sub-genres that started when William Gibson published his phenomenal novel Neuromancer in 1984. It was characterised by a future in which people jacked-in to their computers and used these in a virtual reality environment (yes, this was way before The Matrix!) Gibson is also attributed with the coining of the term cyberspace.

Some of the unique features of Neuromancer was globalisation of the world (should I say Japan taking over the world! Maybe it looked like that was going to happen, back in 1984). The book also had a dark, pessimistic mood, a chaotic view of tomorrow's Internet. Neuromancer got all the prestigious Science Fiction awards (Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards) and prompted Gibson and a couple of other authors to write in this sub-genre.

After the initial success, the field seemed to cool off, with fewer works by the originator and other contributors.

I was given British author Richard K. Morgan's book Altered Carbon as a birthday gift by my dear friend LA. The author has produced a fresh example of cyberpunk (although some would classify this as futur noir, maybe) using some interesting ideas that I did not see in too many science fiction books up to now.

The main premise is that consciousness can be stored in a "stack" and can be moved between bodies or "sleeves" in the book's parlance. This transfer can also be done over great distances through a kind of Internet. Rich people can have multiple clones (bodies) of themselves and can frequently back up thei consciousness so that they do not lose any of their experience in case they die.

Takeshi Kovacs is an "envoy" (a kind of elite soldier who is as good with diplomacy as with the gun) who gets discredited and has to work for a rich man to find out why he has seemingly killed himself (and subsequently came back to life using his backed-up consciousness and a clone body). As Kovacs deepens his investigation, he will find out that things are not as they seem and he will also meet ruthless enemies, although he has unanticipated assistance from the Police.

Altered Carbon really gave me the excitement I had felt when I first read Neuromancer. The author has produced the next two novels in the trilogy, namely Broken Angels and Woken Furies, and has produced an independent novel about Corporate Aggressiveness named Market Forces.

Who's Afraid of Frankenstein's Monster?

Our childhood nightmares are full of werewolves, vampires, demons and similar creatures at times. Undoubtedly, one of the most notorious of these creatures is Frankenstein's monster . Most of us have probably seen the original Frankenstein movie which has now been accepted as one of world classics, with the excellent acting of Boris Karloff. (I remember seeing an old, faded copy of the movie in a small town moviehouse)

As popular as Frankenstein is, few people have actually read the original novel published by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in 1818. Of course the term "Frankenstein" which has been used as an adjective in some languages to depict a horrible creature, is not the name of the monster - as some people still think - but of the scientist who creates him.

When we look into the life and friends of Mary Shelley - who has been neglected in the area of literature - we will see a lot of authors who have been influential in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her father William Godwin is an atheist who is known for novels like Caleb Williams. He has married Mary Wollstonecraft, who has contributed to the discussion of her times with her work Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). Her daughter Mary married the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

It is a period of great events. Captain Cook's voyages in the South Seas have resulted in the import of lots of previously unknown types of plant to Europe. Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) has started to use evolutionist ideas in his poems and the two-volume Zoonomia. (He would be forgotten after his grandson became famous) The industrial revolution is in full swing, natural sciences are advancing daily. A steamship has crossed the Atlantic for the first time. Locomotives, railroads, roads and bridges are built, work is being done in the study of electricity.

Mary Shelley has been influenced by many people and has come up with a novel which seems to be in the Gothic tradition, but actually includes the contradictions of the times she is living in. The main theme in the novel is the conflict between reason and feelings in modern man.

Victor Frankenstein tries to discover the secret of life and is isolated from the society and from his freinds during this difficult quest. This is obviously similar to the theme in Faust, but science has replaced the mysticism and religion. Frankenstein's success is based on a series of stages and enormous effort, rather than supernatural or religious forces. Shelley has not abandoned the basic themes of Romantic Literature and has displayed the dual nature of Man. This duality will later on re-emerge in works like The Picture of Dorian Grey and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

On the one hand there is a belief that Mankind will eventually conquer nature and will improve living conditions, but on the other hand the emphasis is on the nature and character of Man which might prevent him to achieve this goal. Probably Shelley's novel is the first place where the pros and cons of science has been analyzed in literature.

When the novel was first published, it was acclaimed as a successful Gothic novel. Critiques did not really understand the structure and content of the novel which is a departure from the Gothic tradition. Shelley has first described the act of creation, with the spark of her wide imagination - and then has combined her reasoning with a lot of thoughts she had been influenced with, has added some sub-themes on top of the main one and has come up with a balanced synthesis of reason and feeling. These sub-themes have slightly damaged the structure of the novel, but the novel must really be compared to its contemporaries where an omniscient author goes on a didactic monologue for the reader.

One of the interesting points is that the creature in the novel does not have a name. Frankenstein, who signifies the Modern Man getting acquainted with science, becomes the victim of something he has created but has not really understood entirely.

The whole novel reflects a series of conflicts. Shelly swings from Darwinism (not the evolutionary one) where she attributes change and creativity to nature, to Milton & the theology of Paradise Lost. The way the creature describes itself is a reminiscence of Lucifer, the fallen angel.

Another conflict is between different "scientific" traditions. Frankenstein first searches the solution in the books of ancient alchemists like Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus, but then discovers the scientific method - albeit crude by today's standards. Shelley is aware of he changes in the new Era, and that there is no need for alchemy and other dusty remnants of the old Era.

The fact that the novel was usually ignored by the general public is partly because of the success of Frankenstein in the Movie Screen. After being filmed in the Silent Era several times, the movie has really launched after Boris Karloff portrayed the monster in 1931. After that Frankenstein had a Son, Daughter, Ghost, House, Bride, etc. and fought various creatures like Dracula, Werewolfe and other mythical figures.

Behind Karloff's horrifying creature lies a brilliant novel which reflects the complex effect of a changing world on the literature and authors of the time.

Orhan Pamuk : A Post-Modern Turkish Author

For many people in the West, Turkish Literature is an unknown. This is a Literature that comes from the East, so the effect of Eastern Literary forms is clear. In the 20th Century, a lot of Turkish authors became Western.

After the Independence War (ending 1922), the alphabet was changed. Turks began to use the Latin alphabet. The new Revolutionary establishment wanted society to change, so it was not promoting Eastern themas in literature, and similarly in music, where the government would actively promote Western Classical Music, Opera and similar forms.

The movement towards the West resulted in a conflict. In one group were people who did not want to change. In the other group stood people who wanted to be completely Western. Authors who were part of the second group knew Western literary forms and techniques very well.

Orhan Pamuk is a famous Turkish author who had a high profile recently, because of the political controversy he was in, his Trial for defamation of the Turkish people, and so on. I am primarily interested in his work, especially in work that used the West-East relation (and conflict) as a major theme. He is very much familiar with the Western literary themes and techniques, but is also equally aware of Eastern traditions and (usually verbal) literary forms. This is similar to Umberto Eco , who uses ancient literature and philosophy in his work.

In his historical novel The White Castle , Pamuk tells the story of two people who are the actors of a slow transformation. The first - who is nameless - is from Venice. He travels to Naples, but Ottoman pirates ram his ship and grab him and others to be used as slaves. The pirates bring him to Istanbul and sell him to a Turk - who is also nameless in the novel. The Turk shares a lot of his hobbies with the slave.


These hobbies are things like astronomy, physics and painting. The two men are similar. The master wants the slave to teach him about Venice and the Western science. He says that he will free the slave - if he teaches him everything. He is interested in how "They" (Western people) are happy "to be themselves". He asks why the slave is himself. The slave tells him that this is a philosophical question.

The Master begins to understand Western thought. Later he learns everything that is necessary from his slave, so that he can go to Venice and live his - the slave's - life. The slave stays in Turkey and lives the life of the Master. This is of course a well-known theme from Western Literature, namely that of "twins" or "doppelganger" (changing places). Here Pamuk is searching why one seeks Westernisation, essentially "to become somebody else". It is the slave - who has now become a Turk - that tells the story.

My favorite novel from Pamuk is The Black Book , which is a postmodern work. The book uses all literary mechanisms of the East, but in a Western form. It is about Galip's search for his wife Rüya (Turkish for "dream"). but this is only a metathema, since the book has many short stories that form a comples structure. The stories are similar to the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights, but the meta-theme is about identity and change.


The protagonist - Galip - replaces the journalist he was searching for. He starts writing in his style, thus he becomes that journalist. The book really tells us that writing or telling a story is important. This is maybe a little bit Borgesian. The short stories imitate the style of ancient traditional stories or they repeat old tales. After reading it, it is only the book that remains. Pamuk takes a real postmodern stand in this book.

Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today's World

I have bought this book in a recent trip to Norfolk, Virginia and immediately started to read it. I must admit that my knowledge about the Crusades was really limited to what I read in Middle School (which was no really much but a few dates and statements) and what I gathered from good or bad movies about them. Karen Armstrong covers the Crusades in detail and ties it to the recent conflict between Muslims, Christians and Jews in the Middle East.

The significant difference from other books about the same topic is that she uses what she calls the "triple vision", namely tries to explain everything from the three different perspectives of the three religions. I found the treatment very balanced and the conclusions quite reasonable. Although not an academic, she covers the topic with great confidence and the language is quite easy to follow.

I would really recommend it to anybody interested in the past and the present conflict in that area.