Book Review: Jupiter War by Neal Asher (The Owner Book Three)

Jupiter War by Neal Asher (The Owner Book Three)

Paperback, 356 pages

Published May 2014 by Night Shade Books

2013 in England

Neal Asher is a British Science Fiction who i consider to be one of the best writers whose work is entirely published in this century. His future is a weird, ultra violent place. Lots of gun battles, and cyborgs, all kinds of utter weird. Most of his novels take place in the Polity universe including my personal favorite The Skinner. This trilogy takes place in a separate universe one was was introduced in short stories Asher published in the past.

The story of Alan Saul a one time human, now he is the owner. Full integrated into the Argus Space Station, his mind controls the ship, he has become something much more than human. After disrupting the plans of a meglomanic dictator who intended to kill off the majority of Zero asset humans on earth Saul is taking the blame in the public. He is heading out into deep space with a stop off at Jupiter to power up. His enemies on earth have one last chance to stop him.

The elephant in the room is how political this trilogy is. I love a good political analogy in Science Fiction and since most sci-fi writers are liberals or left I mostly agree with them. Asher and I however do not see the world the same way. Even though I roll my eyes at many of the messages in this book, I enjoy the story. I like Asher's stories even if I think his views are dead wrong.

Each of the chapters started with a little bacck ground that was written as if A historian was setting up the events and this is where Asher really expresses his views. One of those came in chapter 9 (page 153) where Asher suggests the idea that people trying to make the world a better place are basically just coming for your freedom and want to ruin your life.

As a committed environmentalist and animal rights activist I could not disagree with it more, but it is a relevant in a discussion with this book. Weather it is the dictator Serene Galahad's iron grip on earth or Alan Saul fighting with his feelings after becoming part machine the theme of personal freedom was throughout the book. Yes Galahad is evil for trying to kill off the human race but isn't over population still a problem. It is not Asher's just to offer an alternative, he is just telling a story.

I really enjoyed the story of a man becoming a super human through a technological meld with a ship and and this trilogy looks as if it expand. I will read them of course. If however you are new to Asher I will always suggest The Skinner first.

Prince of Darkness screening in the Church where it was filmed

The year I discovered horror in my life was 1987. Living in Indiana as a kid I was starting 8th grade already reading Stephen King and Clive Barker. Obsessed with our local horror host Sammy Terry and reading Fangoria every single month. Walking down to our comic shop 25th century Five and Dime on the Tuesday it came out to get it. My favorite filmmaker was John Carpenter who I knew from first from Starman a sci-fi romance that was a movie my mother and I bonded on before she died. I was looking forward to and following the fango coverage of Prince of Darkness and Hellraiser for months. I had to get my father and later a family friend to take me as I was too young for the R-rated movies.

To this day they are two of my favorite horror films which of course got better as I got older and could fully understand them. Prince of Darkness however is my favorite horror movie no doubt. Carpenter's The Thing may be better and I am sure if I really thought about it there are better horror movies, but it is a my personal favorite.

It is very Lovecraftian, cosmic horror with lots of Science fiction melded in. It is scary moody, great score. Love it.

So on October 29th 2015 almost three decades later I with my friends Marty, Larry and Anthony to a screening of Prince of Darkness at the church (now a converted theater house)where the movie was filmed in Little Tokyo.

What an amazing experience. Driving up to the church and seeing it was a jaw dropping experience alone. There it was.

Then we parked by the back where one of my favorite scenes was filmed walked the alley where Zombie Alice Cooper stabbed a dude with a bike frame.

The movie screened in the same room where the scientists set up their control room. So this very room is where we watched the movie.

The East west players who run the theater smartly set up the front doors for pictures...

Remember this..."This is not a dream... not a dream. We are using your brain's electrical system as a receiver. We are unable to transmit through conscious neural interference. You are receiving this broadcast as a dream. We are transmitting from the year one, nine, nine, nine. You are receiving this broadcast in order to alter the events you are seeing. Our technology has not developed a transmitter strong enough to reach your conscious state of awareness, but this is not a dream. You are seeing what is actually occurring for the purpose of causality violation." Also you can hear myself and other San Diego horror professionals disscuss this Prince Of Darkness on the horrible imaginings podcast recorded live on stage at the New Central Library's Halloween event in San Diego. about 1 hour and half in we talk Prince of Darkness. You should listen to the whole thing why not. http://www.hifilmfest.com/newspost/147halloweenspecial/

Book Review:The End of All Things by John Scalzi (Old Man's War #6)

The End of All Things by John Scalzi (Old Man's War #6)

Hardcover, 380 pages

Published August 2015 by Tor Books

I have tendency to read classic science fiction still. I generally like the old school best. I have not been as serious about keeping up with the modern works outside of a few authors. John Scalzi is one of those authors, he is one of the most loved and respected modern sci-fi writers for a couple reasons. He has built two brands one with his novels which feel both modern and old school at the same time, and of course his popular blog helped too. When I say modern and old school at the same time it is hard to explain.It is the feeling I get reading his books. They feel fun, besides the humor he slips in Scalzi never shys away froma little gee whiz factor.

The End of All Things is the 6th book set in the Old Man's War universe. The first three books were a contained trilogy, all three of which I loved. The second book The Ghost Brigades is to me the strongest of the six, but all are worth worth reading. After the trilogy he pulled a trick Orson Scott Card did with the Ender's series and re-wrote parts of the story from a different POV.

Scalzi has had sucessful books out of this universe I reviewed the hilariously meta Redshirts here, so it is not like he needed to go back to this well. There are important universe building reasons for the last two books which are short story/ novella collections set in the Old Man's universe. This book feels like a close out to the story or at least an era in the QMW universe.

This book is made up of 4 1/2 novellas. Four new novellas and an alternate draft of the first novella. This book had much more of a single novel feel than the last collection The Human Division. There is a clear point A and Point Z and one narrative flow despite the radical shift in POV.

My favorite of the novella's was Can Long Endure which had the military sci-fi tone of the OG Old Man's War novels. The second novel was a bit of slog compared to the pace the rest of the book had. That novella had a complex political background story and was thick with twists and turns. Not bad but compared to the fun of the third novella it just seemed overly complicated.

If you are a fan of the Old Man's War universe it is a no-brainer, if it sounds interesting but you have not read any of the books... Well start at the beginning. the trilogy is must read sci-fi.

Book Review: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published June 2nd 2015 by William Morrow

I was interested in this book from the first time I saw it sitting on the shelf at Mysterious Galaxies. I picked it up, read the dust jacket and made a note to read it at some point. Then I heard Brian Keene say it was one of his favorites of the year, and Listened to a great interview he did with Tremblay on his podcast. I heard several others say it was on their best of the year list. This is a great problem for an author to have but suddenly the hype machine was spitting out praise to a crazy level.

At this point anything less than mind blowing was going to feel like a let down. So my initial rating on good Reads was 3 stars. I felt like the hype was a bit over the top. The book didn't grab me right away and without the hype I may not have kept reading but I did. I am glad I did because not only did I enjoy it but a curious thing happened. The longer I thought about the book the more I enjoyed it.

Long after I closed the book, I was still thinking about it,and my opinion changed. It was better than I first thought. For reasons that are a total spoiler. Normally I don't do spoilers in a review so after a good amount of non-spoiler You'll get a warning. Then it's on.

A Head Full of Ghosts is a very interesting horror novel, that is meta-horror at times. It is the story of Merry whose family is in crisis. Her older sister Majorie is having problems. Her father who recently found god believes she is possessed. Why not? Majorie is not denying in fact she is playing along or is she? Things get really intense when her exorcism becomes the subject of a reality TV show.

Told through first person accounts, blog entires and various other tricks. Those things were my least favorite part of the story. I know that is a personal thing but the shifting narrative takes me out of story often. Tremblay however is very talented story teller and it is no doubt he found a neat way to attack a tired subject in the genre. He pulls it all off. The hype may become a problem for this novel but it delivers over all. This books works on levels of subtext I can get along with. It is likely that you may miss some of it. See it through, because in the end it is a nearly perfect masterpiece. I am going to raise my rating to 4 stars.

OK, OK. This book is that good. Tremblay blew fresh air into a tired trope of the genre. I can't tell you why that is the hard part.

OK SPOILERS:

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WARNED. OK A Head Full of Ghosts is a great horror novel that I think will be open for interruption. How you judge this story will depend greatly on how close you read it. Honestly I put the book down and it wasn't till hours after I finished it that I didn't consider it. My first thought was that Majorie was not possessed at all. I still don't think that she ever was possessed. She had issues for sure, she could have been "possessed" by the idea of it. The media influencing her seems more likely. She at a young age knows everything about exorcism movies. When I closed the book the first time, that was my assumption.

Upon thinking about the book I started remembering details about the younger sister Merry and my thoughts changed. It seems that Tremblay was subtlety pointing out that it was Merry all along that was possessed. That she manipulated her sister, to taking the all the blame for the poisoning of their parents. The cold in the room, the fact that everything happened when she was in the room. to me that is what happened. A fantastic ending that is open to debate and I assume everyone reads this will debate the ending. That alone makes it a great novel.

Book Review: Fear City (Repairman Jack The Early Years #3) by F.Paul Wilson

Fear City (Repairman Jack: The Early Years #3)

by F. Paul Wilson

Hardcover, 368 pages

Published November 2014 by Tor Books

Mystery and thriller writers have a tendency to write series of books with a central character. Often you'll have characters like Jack Reacher or Alex Cross that start interesting but a dozen books later you feel the author (or who ever ghost writes for them) is using carbon copy paper to set up their paint by number stories. F.Paul Wilson has written two dozen or more Repairman Jack novels including this early years trilogy and YA novels about his childhood and yet I have never not one time been disappointed. Wilson was Trailblazer in horror with a series character, now other writers have series like Jonathan Maberry has Joe Ledger, Weston Ochecs has Seal Team 666 but no one has created the interconnected universe that Wilson has created with his Secret history of the world saga.

There is no reason to read this book alone it is one thread woven into one of the more elaborate fabrics in the history of storytelling not just Horror fiction. I know that sounds like hyperbole but it's not. Consider that 41 novels and short stories take place in the Secret History. Two different series The Adversary Cycle and Repairman Jack series weave in and out of each other. RMJ#1 and #15 are at the same books as Adversary Cycle books #3 and #6. F.Paul Wilson can plot a story like Russian chess masters set up check mates.

Fear city is the third in a prequel trilogy that manages to create a interesting stand alone Jack story while weaving into the larger story, tying directly to a book more than dozen Repairman Jack novels later. We see the early years, where Jack makes alot of connections that lead to him creating a his "Fix it" business.

Wilson can't kill his lead, and since we know Jack will live he has to create tension in the other characters. If you have read as many of these books as I have every time a character is likable you know they are in trouble. Wilson brings the pain here again. Wilson weaves the real life events of the first World Trade center bombing into his saga. That is actually important to the mythology, considering the events of 9/11 and the destruction of the towers plays a role in the later Repairman Jack novel Ground Zero.

If you are a fan of this series you will not be disappointed. We see how Jack gets his first ad, makes connections and loses one of his first loves. It informs how he develops as character. Besides that you get a good thriller. This is before Jack is pulled into the supernatural mystery that will over take his life, but it delivers.

Fear City by F. Paul Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mystery and thriller writers have a tendency to write series of books with a central character. Often you'll have characters like Jack Reacher or Alex Cross that start interesting but a dozen books later you feel the author (or who ever ghost writes for them) is using carbon copy paper to set up their paint by number stories. F.Paul Wilson has written two dozen or more Repairman Jack novels including this early years trilogy and YA novels about his childhood and yet I have never not one time been disappointed. Wilson was Trailblazer in horror with a series character, now other writers have series like Jonathan Maberry has Joe Ledger, Weston Ochecs has Seal Team 666 but no one has created the interconnected universe that Wilson has created with his Secret history of the world saga.

There is no reason to read this book alone it is one thread woven into one of the more elaborate fabrics in the history of storytelling not just Horror fiction. I know that sounds like hyperbole but it's not. Consider that 41 novels and short stories take place in the Secret History. Two different series The Adversary Cycle and Repairman Jack series weave in and out of each other. RMJ#1 and #15 are at the same books as Adversary Cycle books #3 and #6. F.Paul Wilson can plot a story like Russian chess masters set up check mates.
Fear city is the third in a prequel trilogy that manages to create a interesting stand alone Jack story while weaving into the larger story, tying directly to a book more than dozen Repairman Jack novels later. We see the early years, where Jack makes alot of connections that lead to him creating a his "Fix it" business.

Wilson can't kill his lead, and since we know Jack will live he has to create tension in the other characters. If you have read as many of these books as I have every time a character is likable you know they are in trouble. Wilson brings the pain here again. Wilson weaves the real life events of the first World Trade center bombing into his saga. That is actually important to the mythology, considering the events of 9/11 and the destruction of the towers plays a role in the later Repairman Jack novel Ground Zero.

If you are a fan of this series you will not be disappointed. We see how Jack gets his first ad, makes connections and loses one of his first loves. It informs how he develops as character. Besides that you get a good thriller. This is before Jack is pulled into the supernatural mystery that will over take his life, but it delivers...