Postcards From a Dying World
News, views, book reviews and commentary from the Science Fiction and Horror fiction underground. Home of the Wonderland award nominated author of Vegan Revolution...With Zombies and Boot Boys of the Wolf Reich.
By now you should know that I think Cody Goodfellow is the best new horror writer of our(well my) generation. Swallowdown is set to release this week (you can already order it) A Perfect Union, his first solo novel to be released in 7 years. Buy, read and enjoy. my review coming very soon.
in the mean time he has a new novella online in the Dark Recesses magazine...
Cursed by Jeremy C. Shipp 214 pages Trade paperback and hardcover Raw Dog Screaming press
It's really hard to to this review without
1).making a list. 2).resorting to praise. 3).saying shit, because I promised I wouldn't make a list.
Cursed is the second novel and third fiction release of Jeremy C. Shipp who is quickly making a name for himself in two fields of dark medicine. A word surgeon with skills that cut like a knife across the genres of horror and bizarro. A first rate surrealist who is assured enough in his craft to throw out the rules completely. It takes amazing skill to weave a horror tale the way he has without the benefit of a standard structure. That structure became standard because it works, but this is dark bizarro after all.
The story follows Nick and Cicely whose grow to become friends after they realize that each has been cursed. Nick can't make threw a day without getting slapped. He can't fake either asking his friends to slap doesn't count. At some point somebody is gonna be mad at him and give him a smack.
Nick and Cicely set out to find the person or thing that has cursed them. Along the way you might think that Shipp is writing by the seat of his pants but I don't think he was. Cursed while written with an experimental structure, mostly in Elmore Leonard worthy dialogue with action done mostly in lists it works. Lots of little details fly by and most of them pay-off. Probably all of them pay off I'm just not sure I caught all of them.
Shipp is my favorite Bizarro writer, this book is surreal, horrific, edgy, weird, funny and unlike most Bizarro books sentimental at times. A short entertaining read, Shipp is doing some great stuff I hope you reward him for his efforts. Read this book!
The Bleeding Edge Edited by William F Nolan and Jason V. Brock Cycatrix Press and Dark Discoveries Publications 288 pages
It only takes a short conversation with this book's editing team Jason V. Brock(of Dark Discoveries magazine) and William F. Nolan (Logan's Run and Dark Universe) to know they put a ton of work into this anthology. It's been a long time since an anthology had such a treasure trove of authors involved. Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson(Both father and son), Joe R. Lansdale, Dan O' Bannon, and Gary Braunbeck to name a few. More importantly for me personal favorites John Shirley, Lisa Morton and Cody Goodfellow. In the horror underground rumors of well known authors in the field being turned down and rigorous editing cuts only helped to create a buzz for this release.
As I opened the beautifully laid out and packaged limited edition book I was worried it could not live up to the hype.The sheer presence of Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson rose eyebrows, these are not re-prints so the excitement level is justified. One of the ways they achieved this high stature of names, was by not limiting the collection to prose. This book included screenplays(An excerpt from O'Bannon's Omnivore),plays(The Matheson's Madri-Gall),teleplays (George Clayton Johnson and Norman Cowin) and an essay (Frank M. Robinson). The diversity in form is interesting and I enjoyed it. Not sure
I'll be honest with you the Bradbury story is to me the weakest story in the book. I know how hard it is to believe, but this story may be unpublished, but is not exactly a new story. It's a politically charged piece that he wrote in the 50's."Some of My Best Friends are Martians," about inter-racial dating. At this point the story's only value is as relic showing how far we have come. I know Bradbury is one the world's greatest living legends in the field but as opener it didn't do much for me.
Luckily the story after "Just a Suggestion" by John Shirley (author of Demons and Bleak History) is a fantastic ghost story about a haunting at a costco. Anyone reading my blog knows JS is my favorite author and it is no surprise that his story is at the top of my list. Next behind it for best of the collection would be Joe R. Lansdale's short but effective "The Boy who Became Invisible" which is both disturbing and evocative in only a few pages. Some of the shortest stories are the most effective, case in point co-editor William F. Nolan's short but touching piece.
There are many stories I consider highlights, ironically these are written less by the living legends but by the younger voices. Nancy Kilpatrick's Goth erotica tale "Hope and the maiden", Lisa Morton's "Silk City" and Cody Goodfellow's super bizarro "At the riding school." were among my favorites.
The Bleeding Edge lives up to it's hype, not only that but it's soy inked and wind power produced and edited by two ethical vegetarians. This book is a green horror classic in the making. The kind of high quality that doesn't happen every day in our field. It presents a cross section of styles and forms, but best of all it's authors stretch through several generations of horror. Packaged with beautiful art and laid-out with a reader friendly system of pictures and bios at the end of the stories this book is not to be missed. Great job by Brock and Nolan I can't wait for the follow-up, best part is they have already promised it will come.
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The Deluxe Edition includes 75 signed/numbered hardcovers with individual author pages and five illustrations by Kris Kuksi. ($175.00 — Get $20 off the full retail of $195.00 for pre-orders, shipping will be a flat $15 in the US for Priority Airmail with Insurance and Delivery confirmation. More for overseas.) There will also be a Trade hardcover retailing for $65 ($55 with pre-reserve). This will be an unnumbered print run of only 400 copies, signed by the editors William F. Nolan and Jason V Brock.
The Damnation Game By Clive Barker 433 pages, Berkley There are several reasons I choose to re-read this novel. This debut novel by Clive Barker appeared on the horror scene after he established himself as the next “big thing” After Stephen King. Due in part to an introduction by Ramsey Campbell ,and more importantly the prediction by Stephen King that the future of horror itself was Clive Barker. What a burden this praise put on Barker who is less of a horror writer than an author of Dark Fantasy.
Funny, after that King never really had much nice to say about Barker. I think like many people King thought Barker was a great short story author but not as good at the novels. Lets get something clear I like Barker’s novels, (with a few exceptions like Gaillee which I find unreadable) I like almost everything I have read by the man. There was a time when he was my favorite author.
When Damnation game came out Barker had a mountain climb. The six volumes of the books of blood were ground breaking to say the least. He was already considered by many to be a young master of the macabre. How would this translate into his first full length novel. When it was released I was already a horror and Barker reader. I was in 8th grade so Lets be clear I didn’t get a lot of the subtext. I read the Damnation Game and honestly I didn’t get it. Oh after begging to get the $20 hardcover for my birthday, I wasn’t about to quit. And yes I thought I liked it.
Recently I decided to re-read it. Not only as an adult who could grasp what happened in it, but as an author myself. Would I still see Barker as the genius I believed he was when I was young? Some have suggested that this is CB’s only novel length horror tale. I disagree as Coldheart Canyon and Sacrament are both prime examples of Barker style horror. They have a Tinge of fantasy but so did the books of blood. Sacrament to me is an underrated masterpiece and the best of Barker's later novels. Coldheart Canyon is Barker's most straight forward Horror tale, better than most give it credit for, but it is still 100 pages to long in this reader's opinion.
So Damnation Game, the structure of the novel holds up well. It has been often noted the opening is brilliant. A thief wondering in the ruins of world war II Poland seeks out a card game with a gambler that is legendary for never losing. Puzzles and games often are gateways to the fantastic in Barker’s universe and here the card game and the gamblers spirit lead on a path to darkness. After winning the Card game the thief assumes the Card player's luck but even after sixty years the thief cannot escape the devil's due.
The novel has strong characters in Moumalion the last European, Breer the razor eater and of course the Hero ex-con Marty Strauss. Not as excessively wordy as some of Barker’s novel, but it is a bit long, still I was in it the whole time. The story is dark and disturbing, the characters sympathetic when they should be and fascinating when they are evil.
Is it Barker’s best work? Not sure, it is my favorite. What makes Barker special as a story-teller is that no one else could create these novels. From the first to the last page Barker has a style and skill that cannot be imitated. Many have tried, Tone maybe but Barker's art and imaginary worlds are unique. Consider the art, films, plays and prose of this man. He is gifted with an intense imagination. This may not be his best novel but it’s his darkest and tightest novel. If you haven't read it you have missed a horror classic.
If you search for it I also did a long review of Barker's last book Mister B.Gone. Next review up is the Bleeding Edge Anthology edited by William F Nolan and Jason V. Brock.
The pilot novella of The Fallen Guardian's Mandate will be published on the Freezine of Fantasy and Science Fiction starting Jan 4th 2010. It will be published a Chapter a day Monday-Thursday through this whole month. On Friday the freezine will publish unrelated stories by Johnny Strike and my very close friend from San Diego Paul Stuart. After this month I'll return to adventures of Xu(pronounced Shee-You) on the freezine from time to time to continue the story. I have even talked a few writer friends about them writing stories in the Moon Tribe-Verse.
This year my first novel Hunting the Moon Tribe will be published by Afterbirth books. For me this is a long journey. The idea for this novel came to me in 1994. It’s changed many times over the years. In the beginning I was inspired to write a classic traditional vampire novel, complete with an epic battle in Transylvania at the end.
The structure of the story never changed much, but in 1999 it occurred to me that I had not seen a really effective blending on my two favorite genres. The martial arts fantasy (Wuxia Pan) and horror. I have since then discovered many great examples of this kind of crossover but I still feel I had something original to give with this story.
This was perfect crossover for me. Growing up in Indiana every Friday night was Sammy Terry (look him up on you tube!). Our local horror showed more Hammer vampire movies than are in print on DVD now. After Sammy Terry channel four had Black Belt Theater which showed amazing Shaw Brothers classics like Spearman of Death,Executioners of Shoalin, Chinese Super Ninjas and the Five Deadly Venoms.
In 2002 I finished the first draft of a screenplay of Hunting the Moon Tribe. I had this idea that in the wake of Crouching Tiger’s amazing success that Hollywood was looking for a script with an all Chinese cast and a special effects budget through the roof. The first draft of the script actually placed as a finalist in a screenwriting competition co-sponsored by miramax’s action arm Dimension.
The script had a lot of problems, shit it was my first time trying. I studied screenwriting for a year intensely. Devoting most of my free time to reading classic scripts and books on the subject. The second draft of the script then placed as a finalist in the Nicholl Fellowship. This contest is a non-professional contest put on by the Oscars.
For almost a year I was sending the script out to various production companies who were actually contacting me. Basically everyone said the same thing, Great script, but all Chinese cast. You should shop this in Hong Kong. Sure I'll just do that. Ugh.
I got burned out on screenply and decided to write my first novel. I had intended to write something else when my friend and brilliant novelist Cody Goodfellow suggested that I write Moon Tribe first. His reasoning was simple, writing the first one is the hardest, in a sense I had already done three drafts. I knew this story inside out.
Once it became a novel an intensely deep and textured back story formed in my head. Thanks to Shaun and the Freezine this story will be a serialized prequel to Hunting the Moon Tribe Called “The Fallen Guardian’s Mandate.” Moon Tribe costs money to buy and this one will be free. I am not telling you a big secret that I hoping you’ll get hooked on the free one and go on to buy the book.
The first couple chapters of FGM will be posted before the book is released and if we time it right it will unfold in a cool way with the book. If you were to read Moon Tribe before certain chapters of FGM it could “spoil” a few parts. No matter when you start it should work, I am just promising people who follow the blog and book as they will be released will get the best experience.
I thought this was a really cool way to tie Moon Tribe to the Wuxia Pan novels like Book and the Sword, Sword Stained with Royal Blood and others that inspired it. Those novels were published as serials in Hong Kong newspapers. With four novels (written) under my belt I decided to work on this one from time to time. I hope you like it and will keep up with it.
Moon Tribe takes place in modern times but FGM does not. The prequel takes place in china in the year 1643. If you know anything about Chinese history you’ll know this is a really important time in their history. The Ming dynasty was dying on it’s feet. I would rather not discuss the plot like you would on the back of the novel (hell it may change). Lets just say it will have swordsmen and women, ghosts, monsters, demons, angels and more political intrigue than you can shake a stick at.
So without further a do… go check out the Freezine...
Speculative Japan Edited by Genevan Troyer and Grania Davis 290 pages Kurodhan Press
This review is long overdue, but I got hung up on writing project. SJ is everything I wanted when I first read about the book online. Most of what I know about Japanese fiction comes from years of watching Japanese films. I also have a bit of experience with some of the really strange punk rock they have produced. I had imagined that Japan would produce very interesting Science Fiction. This book might have been more appropriately titled “Classic Speculative Japan,” as most come from the 60's and 70's.
That is fine since most of the stories are truly fantastic and not really dated at all. Perhaps the best thing about this book is the amount of pages and time the editors and publisher took to enlighten the reading to the history of not only the authors and translators but also the genre in Japan itself. I enjoyed reading about Canadian Science Fiction author Judith Merril and her struggle to bring attention to Japanese Science Fiction in our part of the world.
One thing I noticed, many of the genre authors were translators themselves, bring the works of Asimov, Clarke, Phillip K Dick and Larry Niven into their native Japanese. Thankfully you don't end up with Japanese rip-offs of those western authors. Japan's science fiction of that era is of course very influenced by being the world's only atomic victims and the general events of World War II.
That being said the first horrific story in the collection “The Savage Mouth by Komatsu Sakyo” was everything I expected in Bizarro Japanese Science Fiction. The second story “A Time for Revolution” was also a strange post-Apocalypse tale. Some of the other stand-out tales for me in this book are “The Legend of the Paperstarship” by Yano Tetsu which read like a folk tale. My second favorite entry “Reiko's Universe Box” by Kaijo Shiniji feels like a Twilight Zone episode. The diversity of the collection is strong, the ideas contains make for a very original collection of Science Fiction.
A second book in the series is already published and you can bet it is already on my list. This is the second book I have read by Kurodahan Press. They are committed to bringing Japanese cult and genre fiction in print in English they are doing an awesome job. As a press they deserve support because not only are they putting out great books but their mission is important. I excited by the stories in this book but also that I have a greater knowledge of Japanese Genre fiction's important history
Honorable mentions: House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower, Ashes of Time Redux, The Restless, Legend of the Black Scorpion, The Promise, Chocolate, Kiss of the Dragon, Ong Bak, Forbidden Kingdom.
The Rebel – Johnny Tri Nguyen got his start being a stunt double as the Green Goblin in spider-man. This movie cements his status as a star in the next generation of MA film stars. He not only starred in it but he co-wrote and directed this film too. Set in colonial 1922 Vietnam, this is the first action movie I've seen out of Nam. Dustin Nguyen (21 jump st) is also great as his boss in the police. Ngo Thanh Van is a love interest, but she has great MA scenes in the film as well. Great action, top notch.
The Protector – Thai actor Tony Jaa was excellent in Ong Bak, and it made him a star. If you are looking for pure fights that is your ticket. But this follow -up has more story, so it's a little cheezy with Jaa being the protector of an elephant. How can I not love martial arts ass whipping over a non human animal. The reason this makes the list is one scene which is worth the rental. A three story fight that was done in one building as Jaa climbs filmed in a single shot. Amazing.
Seven Swords: Master filmmaker Tusi Hark has had a rough decade after coming out strong with a fantastic off the hook action movie Time and Tide in 2000. Legend of Zu looked pretty but tanked and didn't make sense even after you read the back of the video box. Black Mask 2 sans Jet Li was embarrassing to watch. His big comeback film was supposed to be Seven Swords. It did alright, but not well enough to launch the sequel Hark had planned. He still insists he is making it. He also produced a TV show based on the same material.
Seven Swords is a Wuxia Pan kungfu fantasy based on the novel “Seven swordsmen of Mount Tian” by the same author who created the Bride with White Hair - Liang Yusheng. Hark tried to do some inserting things with the story, focused on the swords(title was changed for a reason) and shot the film different. I am in a minority who liked the film. The cheap-o sounding score is only thing I think hurts the movie. That may have in the 1993 hey day of HK cinema, but Wuxia Pan movies had graduated to have full scores with powerful takes on ancient Chinese music.
Donnie Yen is great, infact the whole cast is great, the fights are good and best of all is the crazy mohawked super goth villain with crazy wheat cutter sword. She is collecting the heads of suspected Martial Artists. The story takes place during the manchu take-over and is about the martial artist ban. Thumbs up here.
Brotherhood of the Wolf: Why is Mark Dacascos not a huge action movie star? With better career management he would have stayed out of the awful Cradle 2 tha Grave and would be a huge star now. This should have done it. He is amazing as a native american ass-kicker, Why this french man's native American Sidekick is martial artist is besides the point. This is weird arthouse french martial arts horror movie. Yes, werewolves and kungfu. It is not perfect, but boy is it fun. Actually I need to see this again.
Red Cliff: John Woo made a few amazing martial arts movies in his young career. Hand of Death with Sammo Hung and Jackie Chain and the amazing Shaw Brothers production “The Last Hurrah for Chivalry.” The rest is history he made genius action movies like Hard-Boiled and the Killer before crapping garbage like Paycheck and Mission Impossible II.
Yes Woo is back in china making an epic Wuxia Pan war movie based on the classical novel the Three Kingdoms. It has amazingly huge battles with seemless CGI and it has Woo's over the top action. What most impressed me is John Woo not doing his usual tricks. No slo-mo, and most all I was impressed that it didn't look like a John Woo movie. Impressive. Watch it on video so you can see the whole two part epic.
Fearless – Jet Li scared us all by saying this was his last Martial Arts movie. He was of course splitting hairs. None the less this is a passion project and epic MA movie. The Yuen Woo Ping fights are all amazing some of the best Li/Woo Ping fights since Fist of Legend. That is saying a lot since Fist is the best fights of Jet Li's career. This film is directed by Ronny Yu (Bride with White Hair/ Freddy Vs. Jason). Jet Li gives a fantastic performance that at times is heart breaking and uplifting.
The Warlords – After the stunning Wuxia Pan fantasy The Promise director Peter Chan (Which didn't make my list because I couldn't stand the looney tunes meets running of the bulls scene) followed it up with this bleak and realistic ancient china War drama. This has been an Asian film trend of late to do the bleak war movies. This is a remake of the Chang Cheh Shaw classic The Blood Brothers. Great cast with amazing performces by Andy Lau and Jet Li
As an actor Jet Li is more talented than he is given credit for. I first really began to notice it with his underrated performance in Kiss of the Dragon. Since this was Li's first film after Fearless much was made about Jet Li in an acting role. He does more acting than fighting but he does do his share of fighting in the movie. This is violent epic with more huge battles but it is the insanity of Jet Li's character that really carries this movie.
SPL - Released in the us under the cheezy title Killzone this Donnie Yen action drama is really badass. Sammo Hung is amazing a gangster who is a new father. Donnie Yen and Simon Yam are great as cops forced to work together As Simon Yam character is about to die from a terminal illness. His one regret is not jailing Sammo's character. Wilson Yip the director teases the auidence for the first forty minutes by showing the drama leading to the fights but not the fights.
When the fights come they are off the hook. You'll find it hard to believe Sammo at his age and girth can move like he does. Donnie Yen designed the fights and they are the best of his career. The last fight between Sammo and Donnie is worth a rental alone.
Hero: I was bothered by the nationalistic message of this film but the first Wuxia Pan epic by Zang Yimou was everything I hoped for. It stomps Crouching tiger for epic Wuxia Pan-ness. The cast from Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi are all outstanding. The best sound effects, special effects and scope ever attempted in a Wuxia Pan film. I was breath -less through most of my first viewing. When it was over I was ready to start it over.
Musa the Warrior: One of the stars of Iron Monkey and Zhang Ziyi is a Korean sword movie. That is all I knew when I rented this movie. This powerful brutal piece of kungfu movie is not exactly a kungfu fantasy, as it is grounded in mostly brutal realism. Outside of the title characters fight scenes which are a little over the top this movie is biggest Korean movie every to be made at the time. Mongol armies, Ming armies and Korean soldiers. All filmed speaking their native languages.
The main characters are Korean enoys who need to return in disgrace after the diplomats they were escorting are killed. They are offered a chance at redemption, Save a Ming Chinese Princess (Zhang Ziyi) from capture by a Mongol army. Brutal battles over the princess plays out over this Two and half hour epic. If you see one movie on this list, this is the one.
