Book Review: The Hollow Ones (Blackwood Tapes #1) by Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan

 

 

The Hollow Ones (Blackwood Tapes #1) by Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan

 Hardcover, 326 pages

Published August 2020 by Grand Central Publishing 

 

A funny aspect of writing about this partnership is how much I have thought about the fame and success of the team writing this book.  Guillermo Del Toro is one of the greatest living filmmakers and thus I consider him to be one of the greatest living storytellers period. He is a great director but one thing I have really loved about GDT from my first introduction to him (Devil's Backbone) is that he is a serious writer. Writing is not just a step towards the movie he is a serious storyteller who takes writing seriously.
 
Chuck Hogan is no slouch a great writer who writes in a different genre, but wildly successful as well. Prince of Thieves is an incredible work of crime fiction.  There is a misunderstanding by many that GDT hired Hogan to write these books. There is no doubt that this partnership does work that way. In the Strain trilogy, there were certain parts that felt more Hogan and GDT. As that trilogy went on the blending of voices got more seamless. That blending continues to get smoother.
 
The Strain trilogy is probably been a little overshadowed by the TV show based on it, but I much more prefer the novels. The show tried to follow the story but it extended the grey area between books one and two for too long and never reached the epic scope of the novels. It appears that this is the first book and I thought maybe the authors were using a similar set structure.
 
As book one of the Strain, The Hollow Ones is a mystery but unlike that book, I think more of the stage is set here. From the author note, we know that Hogan and GDT wanted to use the name of Hugo Blackwood as a tribute to the influential author Algernon Blackwood who is one of the authors who is considered to be an ingredient in the development of Lovecraft. This is a trick this team has used before when the master in the strain's name was a tip of the hate to PKD Eldritch Palmer.

The Hollow Ones follows a few characters, while our main point of view is Odessa Hardwicke. As the novel progresses a partnership develops with Hugo Blackwood who is not exactly eternal but he has lived a long life and we get flashbacks to the 16th century and the 1960s with Blackwood.  From a narrative angle, it is important that we start with Odessa who like the reader is confused by the inciting incident of the book.

Her partner Walt Leppo who she knows as a good man suddenly snaps and Odessa is forced to shoot him in self-defense. The concept he is temporary insanity, what if there was a ghost or unseen monster that was lurking and causing all these incidents of mass murder that seem unexplainable?

I don't personally feel there is anything groundbreaking or mind-bendingly amazing here. This is a good and very solid dark fantasy/horror novel. The thing is this is a year of masterpieces. I am glad I read this, I think serious Guillermo Del Toro fans should read this. I just personally think this year has produced at least 5 horror novels already this year I would make a priority first.

If there is a weakness in this novel it is that Blackwood is a character that we just got a glimpse of. That seems to be on purpose. I assume in later books those details will get filled in. This novel does everything the story needs but I feel the crimes the Hollow Ones create needed more set-up and pay-off to give them more depth. The novel is perfectly 330 pages which are publishing standard these days but it felt this book needed a few more pages to add a little depth to the crimes.
 
Even though Guillermo Del Toro has won best director he has a mountain of unmade projects and I for one am super glad he is giving us novels as well as films. My only real sadness is that we don't get any of his concept art. You know he has done some. I am down for more Guillermo Del Toro novels with Chuck Hogan or on his own.
 
They clearly make a good team. I have lots of questions about how they write together and the process. Overall I liked this book. I think Guillermo Del Toro has shown in films like Shape of Water and Devil's Backbone that he can bring the emotional depth. The thing is he also made Pacific Rim as well. That is a movie I like, but it doesn't reach the level of awesomeness we know he is capable of. I like this book but suspect that book two will be more powerful. That is reason enough to read it. 

Book Review: Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game by Oliver Stone

 

 

 Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game by Oliver Stone 

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published July 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 

 

Oliver Stone is an interesting writer-director for me. I think when he is on Salvador, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Natural Born Killers, U-Turn he is great. He has made some turds like Alexander etc. So when I saw that he had written a book about his early career I thought it would be interesting. I have enjoyed interviews with him and learned a few things about story-telling. One of my favorite quotes about writing comes from him.

"Ass plus chair equals writing," I often say you can't write a novel without that equation.

The frame that this memoir hangs on is the years Oliver Stone worked in the Hollywood salt mines. His early life, his parents, going to war, screenwriting, and up to the moment when he was at the top of the film world when Platoon upset the Oscars and swept the major awards. It is a success story that is not exactly rags to riches in a straight line. Stone won the Oscar for writing Midnight Express.

It is interesting to see how winning the major prize didn't guarantee he would get the movies he wanted to make. I was somewhat interested in his early life and upbringing, once it got into Hollywood life and cocaine I was a little uncomfortable how sad some of that stuff was.

I liked some of the details behind his Conan script which I have read and really enjoyed. A few of the projects that never happened was interesting. His struggles with his first horror movie The Hand were OK. The stories of what a jerk James Woods was in the production of Salvador was not surprising but very interesting considering he has become a big Trumper

The thing is this information and the stories were fine but really were more fitting for a DVD audio commentary or a long-form interview like Marc Maron or Terry Gross. That is my biggest problem with this book is that I wanted these stories I just don't think it was worth 300 pages and taking away from other reading.

 

  

 

 

 

Book Review: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

 

 

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published July 14th 2020 by Gallery / Saga Press 

 

Interview I did with the author:

 

Interview on Apple Podcasts 

On Spotify

 

On YouTube 

 

 “We’re from where we’re from,” she says back. “Scars are part of the deal, aren’t they?”
 
I can see the headline now. Well-Intentioned Critic makes Ass of himself Trying to Unpack this Novel's Layers. I have to admit I am nervous about writing this review. It is my unwritten policy to write these reviews before I interview authors and directly ask these questions.  I am aware that this novel is working many levels, I also understand that no matter how hard I try some of those levels will be beyond me. This is a feature, not a bug. It is a book that will lend itself to the discussion.

The levels this book is working on come in many interesting ways. First of SGJ is always one to experiment with prose. This book has very subtle experiments that are not as daring as the constant violation of unwritten rules of writing that peppered his novel  Mongrels. You are in the hands of a master stylist who can violate the rules and still very much in command of the story and those of us lucky enough to read his work.  This novel features asides into fictional headlines and has three acts with very different tones and my favorite hinges a pivotal moment on a one on one basketball game.

The second layer I am not sure I fully understand is the setting and characters. Much like SGJ's novel Mongrels, this novel gets much its strength from characters that come from a background we don't see often in fiction. Lewis our Point of View and his friends live on the Blackfeet reservation. This novel doesn't baby your understanding of reservation. The first act paints a vivid picture of the rez but doesn't beat you over the head. It feels honest.

The third layer is trickier. There is a classic trope in horror, the angry Native American spirit. The Only Good Indians is at its heart a reversal. Even if you understand what is coming you are helplessly watching it unravel. In many ways, this novel reminded me of Pet Semetery  in all the right ways. On this layer, I felt like I had the most understanding but I also get that there are probably meaning yet for me to discover.

The Only Good Indians is a pure horror novel, one of the best not just in this year, but in many years.  2020 has been shit for many things but horror novels have had a hell of a years. We have not even gotten Sam J. Miller and Jeremy Robert Johnson's new releases yet. This summer however is special because of the success of this novel and Silvia Moreno Garcia's  Mexican Gothic. Very different books but unapologetic in giving us horror with non-white characters and settings.
 
SGJ disarms the reader with an intimate and amusing first act that will have you laughing while nervous about turning the page. The dialogue between Lewis and his co-workers was hilarious reaching Fletch or Elmore Leonard give and take.  SGJ skill is on display in plenty of moments but one that got me was on page 68 perfectly set-up with a humorous scene about the train that passes their house like an earthquake opens a chapter.  "When the Thunderball Express slams past at 2:12 in the morning, Lewis's half asleep mind turns those slamming wheels into thundering, going up and down faster and faster into muck, until he sits up hard from...what?"
 
Plenty of writers have written scenes when a character is waking up but this one was evocative to me. It also paid off an earlier detail. The details are so finely tuned in this novel.
 
Then the second act takes a huge shift in point of view and tone. This is part of the book that might not work for some readers. As the fun energy of the first act is missing from the final two. This is for good story reasons. Turning the pages gets harder. The last two acts have very little to lighten the mood, but you know what you are in a horror novel now. On a pure writing level, I enjoy the style of the first act but I think I understand what is happening in the last act.

“These are the kind of wrong thoughts people have who are spending too much time alone. They start unpacking vast cosmic bullshit from gum wrappers, and then they chew it up, blow a bubble, ride that bubble up into some even stupider place.”

Plenty of horror movies and novels are about the actions of thought-less teens coming back to haunt them.  Few of these horror writers understand the cycle of violence that is life in colonized America. It is a rare horror novel that takes an unblinking look at that ugly state of affairs.  The Only Good Indians is a reversal of a trope. The Native American teens at the heart of this story are not thinking about that cycle either and that is ultimately why they are haunted. This novel is a journey, at its darkest moments there are moments of beautiful creation that make you thankful that Stephen Graham Jones found his calling. In a year of masterpieces, The Only Good Indians is a horror novel that you just feel becoming a classic in front of your eyes. It is a book you understand will be studied and it will teach.
 
I for one am ready to learn, this is a book you should read and I know we will all come back to many more times. It is that good.

 

Book Review: The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin

 

 

The City We Became (Great Cities #1) by N.K. Jemisin

Hardcover, 437 pages

Published March 2020 by Orbit 

 

“Come, then, City That Never Sleeps. Let me show you what lurks in the empty spaces where nightmares dare not tread.”

There is a feeling when you go to a city the first time. The city I call home took a little bit of time, but Portland, Seattle, and Santa Cruz are places that I felt the energy of right away. This novel is an exploration of that feeling, based on a fantasy that the souls of these cities are starting to manifest. This concept feels closest to 90s Clive Barker or Neil Gaiman type dark fantastic too me, that said the voice is purely one of a kind.

Three Hugo awards in a row are no joke. That has never happened before and I circled that trilogy a couple of times but never quite read those books. The type of space fantasy that Jemisin was in conversation with is not my favorite corner of the genre. I mean I have read that stuff in the past but it wasn't until this book and its concept that I decided I had to check her out. I'm sorry it took me this long.

The concept of cities coming life and being aware is not new in Science Fiction, in fact, the novel that William Gibson called cyberpunk patient zero in John Shirley's 1978 masterpiece City Come A-Walkin' did just that. While the starting points are similar the landscapes of the novel are very different. The heart of The City We Became is Jeminsin's point of view. You often hear critics throw out the trite observation that the city of a piece is a character. In this novel that is literal, but Jeminsin's perspective on the city is also a character.

This novel wears its heart on the sleeve and opinions of the city jump off the page in a way that is impossible to ignore. That is why one of the few negatives I have seen mentioned in reviews is that some readers found the novel preachy. To me, this is a feature not a bug, a strength not a weakness. I like my sci-fi loud, proud and opinionated. I am not saying I agreed with all of it, and certainly can see why some readers found this to be a little on the nose.

The City We Became is the story of cities coming to life and since the focus of novel is New York, it is not just alive as one person but each borough of the city has life. In this sense, this novel has action and weird fantastic elements with monsters and multiverses but when you get down to it The City we Became is a character-driven novel.

Even the conflict of the characters is driven by the author's perception of the different boroughs which is why there is lots of conflict with Aislyn who represents Staten Island. Brooklyn seems to be a stand-in for the author. All the characters take on the personality of the city in their own way. I think it is amazing that Jeminsin has distilled the city into these characters and it is a neat magic trick.

You gotta love a fantasy novel that can have a character say “I don’t know where the old girl found a bikini that big, but she’s got maximum Don’t Give A Fuck mode engaged, and I’m surfing on her bitch wave.” and have it fit the tone just fine.

The prose is written with power and style, the characters are well-drawn and detailed. My only problem with the construction of the story was the 45 page or so chapters. That might be on me but I don't like to stop reading unless it is a planned break. As good as it all was there were times I wished the chapters were about half the length. Overall this is not a light or breezy read although there is plenty of fun to had along with the delightfully opinionated genre mash-up.

I was impressed by this and think you should check it out but here out we are going to talk about a twist that actually got me so I think it would be best to not read the rest if you have not read the book yet... Read it. Good stuff.


OK let's get into the fantasy aspects. Well I consider these light spoilers The author has talked about some of these aspects in promo events. When the city comes to life it chooses a champion or avatar. "The enemy" is attempting to stop these births, which happen when the cities when enough stories or legends are told about it. I love on page 304 when the distinction between dead and lost cities was made. That was a genius way to set up stakes.

So who is the Enemy? We know that she attacks covered in white with tentacled monsters, the reveal of who she is was well done and really got me on page 391. That is when the enemy is revealed to R'leh the mythical city below the ocean where the old ones slept. This was foreshadowed in plain sight on page 341 when The Enemy tips her hand to Aislyn when she asks her if she has read Lovecraft. Much like Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff this novel is in conversation with Howie P.

It is more subtle here obviously, but in many ways, it is much more Lovecraftian in a pure sense. It is interesting because it addresses the Lovecraft mythos but also in a way where Lovecraft himself was writing about the fantastic reality in the novel. Victor LaValle's genius novella The Ballard of Black Tom also dealt with Lovecraft's The Horror at Red Hook. While Lavalle mirrored it and told it from black character's point of view this novel has characters talk about it.

This is the enemy talking in the novel on 341. "Lovecraft was right, Aislyn. There's something different about cities, and about the people in cities. Individually, your kind are nothing. Microbes. Algae. But never forget algae once wiped out nearly all life on this planet."

So you see this is the City never sleeps vs the City that has slept with Cuthulu dreaming. So the question is The Enemy R'leh itself or Cthulu? Not sure but that means this novel is 200% Lovecraftian. Think about that, in 2020 we have a bestselling Lovecraftian novel by a black author and a hit show on HBO made by black filmmakers (Misha Green and Jordan Peele).

This aspect of the novel was a surprise to me, and welcome. I like the subtle take on Lovecraft however I think that will be less subtle in the books to come. Well done.

Book Review: Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks

 

 

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks 

Hardcover, 286 pages

Published June 2020 by Del Rey Books 

 

I was looking forward to this book, which was accidentally my third Del  Rey new release in a row. I have always enjoyed Max Brooks as a podcast guest. He has been a really good and important interview during the Coronavirus as the world events are very much in the wheelhouse of his research. NPR's Fresh Air, Ana Marie Cox's Expanse podcast The Churn did a great bonus WW Z episode, and Books was on Local NPR's Cinema Junkie with Beth Accomando. I suggest you listen to those great interviews.

Those interviews were so good I knew I wanted to check this novel out even though sasquatch fiction and lore has never excited. I didn't have a strong memory of WW Z because I listened to it on Audiobook something I rarely do more than 15 years ago.

I gotta say from the start that I really didn't enjoy this book. That being said I not going to say it is an all-around terrible book. I can see why it would be fun and interesting for other readers. This might be it's not you Max, it is me. This book does a few things I just personally don't enjoy. Add sasquatch battles and I was looking at the last hundreds and thinking...What am I doing here?
 
The story is set mostly in Washington in the shadow of Mt.Rainer about the aftermath of a Volcanic explosion that basically sends Seattle and western Washington into nuclear winter. The most interesting aspects of the novel are all about the disaster response.  Those aspects of the novel were far more interesting than anything related to sasquatch. Brooks knowledge of these issues is deep, he clearly knows what he is talking about. That is what makes him a great interview.

I also get, a article about disaster response is not going to get the eyeballs and attention that a book with zombies and monsters.

Devolution is a horror book sorta and if you notice it doesn't say it is a novel on the cover and in any way it is not a novel.  Just like World War Z is not a novel.  This is a series of accounts based on an event that didn't actually happen. The problem for me is I love a good novel. As a writer myself I think about the structure of novels all the time.  When I read them, I like being swept away by the characters, the construction and when I sit down to review them I like that flow.

Max Brooks is not writing a novel where the flow matters. It is a story but not really a novel in my opinion. I am sure the choppy style of interview fragments, journal entries (that are unrealistic as he is telling a story in more detail than a journal would) and interesting but extra-narrative asides that info-dump through the book.
 

That lack of narrative flow kept me from really understanding what was happening with characters. I lost track of who was writing the journals early on and had to look at the dust jacket to confirm. The setting of the Green loop eco-village was interesting but as I had friends who lived in a similar community I cringed at some of the characterizations that were too heavy in some ways and light in others.
 
I could live with that. It took a awhile to get to the monsters but as I was not looking forward to the sasquatch aspect I was OK with that. I wanted to be wrong on the monsters. Brooks however sees more interested in tidbits of primates than building suspense.
 
I think plenty of people will enjoy this book. I respect Max Brooks and what he set out to do. It just didn't personally work for me.  I think if you are not as picky about narrative flow you could enjoy lots here. Just not for me.