For the first half of Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter teases us with details of the lives of sisters Claire and Lydia. Their family was torn apart twentFor the first half of Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter teases us with details of the lives of sisters Claire and Lydia. Their family was torn apart twenty years ago when their sister vanished under mysterious circumstances from the University of Georgia and now a recent, similar girl's disappearance unearths some old memories, feelings and resentments.
Both sisters hold pieces of the story -- and it's not until Claire's husband is killed in a random act of robbery on an Atlanta alley that the two get back together and begin to see that things weren't necessarily what they seem in their family, then or now.
It's once we reach the the mid-point of the novel and the threads start unraveling that Slaughter's Pretty Girls takes a big left turn and slowly begins to leave credibility in the rear view mirror. I found myself rolling my eyes on multiple occasions as Slaughter reveals the secrets held not only by Claire's husband but by members of her own family in connection with the kidnappings. Instead of being shocking, these revelations made me think, "Oh really? You must be kidding" on multiple occasions.
With cover blurbs by some of the better suspense writers in the business today, I was expecting a lot more from Pretty Girls. And for the first half of the book, it delivers on the promise of those blurbs. It's just the ending that left me feeling a bit let down by the entire experience. This was the first novel I've read from Slaughter in some time and while the first half had me eager to dive into her back catalog, the last half of the story made me a bit wary....more
One of my big complaints about the current state of science-fiction and fantasy is the overwhelming need to make EVERY single concept into a trilogy oOne of my big complaints about the current state of science-fiction and fantasy is the overwhelming need to make EVERY single concept into a trilogy or on-going series.
Which is what makes going back to the classics of the genre such a pleasure.
Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is one of the most economic genre novels ever published. But I'd argue that the novel packs more ideas and punch into its two hundred pages than some on-going series have packed into their thousand plus (and counting) pages.
In many ways, Clarke created the mythology of the alien invasion. The Overlords arrive in ships that hover over the greatest cities on Earth, saying that they are here to help humanity. The Overlords put an end to petty conflicts and help point humanity toward a better tomorrow -- but there could be a price to it all. They refuse to allow human beings to see them as they really are for the first fifty years of their overseeing our world. Instead, a single human is chosen as the intermediary for humans and Overlords.
Interestingly the plot I've described there only encompasses the first twenty-five or so pages of the novel. There are ideas galore packed into this one and Clarke quickly throws out one after the other, leaving it up to the reader to ponder the implications of them fully. Like many novels of this era, Childhood's End is full of big and exciting ideas. But it's not necessarily full of interesting, well-rounded or even the most dynamic characters. If you're looking for deep character development, you may need to look elsewhere. The characters aren't deep and they aren't necessarily the point of the novel.
Instead, it's the idea of a superior alien race showing up and trying to offer humanity a better way and how we react to it that is at the heart of this novel. Clarke attempts to debunk religions (not entirely successfully -- at least to this reader) as well as try to show humanity there is a better way to live and co-exist on our planet.
But what is really most remarkable about this book is how many touchstones of the alien invasion mythology spring from this text. As Clarke says in his introduction, Independence Day borrows much of the set-up of this book, if not necessarily the conclusion and certain revelations that are to come. The Overlords aren't here to blow up major structures across the world and unite humanity in a fight against a common foe. But they are here to unite us for an entirely different purpose.
If you haven't read this one in a while or you've never read it, I recommend giving it a try. SyFy recently aired their mini-series adaptation of the novel, updated and changing certain things and trying to make it a bit more character driven. It wasn't quite as successful an adaptation as it could have been. But my hope is that it will create curiosity among viewers to explore the original vision that Clarke gave us many years ago....more
IDW's re-imagining of certain episodes of the original (and still the best) Star Trek has been hit or miss. This latest installment, collecting issuesIDW's re-imagining of certain episodes of the original (and still the best) Star Trek has been hit or miss. This latest installment, collecting issues 46 - 49 of the on-going series is no exception.
The collection starts off with a re-telling of one of my favorite installments from classic Trek, "The Tholian Web." As with other re-imaginings of episodes from the original series, I find myself torn between wanting the story to be as faithful as possible to the original story and somehow offer me something new to make it feel like it's worth my time to spend reading this version of the story. Unfortunately, this telling of the Tholian storyline doesn't really succeed on either level. The new twist is that in the re-imagined universe, the NCC-1701 has the ability to separate the saucer section. So the Enterprise is in two pieces, trapped in the titular web, which I suppose should double the drama. Instead it merely isolates the characters who need to be working together to get out of this region of space.
The story also misses the opportunity that the original took full advantage of -- giving us a really good Spock/McCoy storyline while Captain Kirk was presumed dead. McCoy takes himself out of the equation early in the story, which isn't necessarily a move I can see our ship's doctor making under the circumstances.
The next story is an original one called "Deity" and sees Sulu tapped to lead an observational mission on a planet where the inhabitants have descended from birds. Of course, things go awry and the technology meant to keep our landing party cloaked fails, thus violating the Prime Directive all over the place. Meanwhile, a ship has shown up in orbit that is threatening things -- or is it? This is the most discouraging of the stories included here simply because it has some potential, very little of it realized. Some of this comes down to the artistic choice made for the bird inhabitants. Maybe it's the sports fan in me, but I found it hard to take the aliens seriously when they look like the San Diego Chicken. Another part of it is that the story feels a bit derivative of Next Generation's "Justice" (only without the scantily clad natives to distract us) and that it's stretched to run over two issues.
Finally there's a one-shot story involving every doctor who has appeared in the Trek universe working together to stop a contagion that turns people to stone. It's a nice idea and it's fun to see Crusher, Pulaski and Bashir working together on the problem as well as the older JJ-verse version of McCoy running around. And yet as much as I complained about "Deity" feeling stretched out, I kept feeling this one was rushed to keep the page count to one issue. It's frustrating that the story I wanted to spend more time with is the one that feels like it's getting the most short changed.
All in all, the eleventh collection of the rebooted Trek comics is more misses than hits. But odds are I won't give up on the series just yet. I have a feeling the comics may be used to set up some things for next summer's Star Trek Beyond.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received a digital ARC of this collected comic from NetGally in exchang for an honest review....more
When a pyramid from another world appears in Sydney Harbor, the Doctor begins to investigate how it got there and what can and should be done about. AWhen a pyramid from another world appears in Sydney Harbor, the Doctor begins to investigate how it got there and what can and should be done about. Also hot on the trail is a familiar time-travelling archaeologist, though as the cover warns you, it's not necessarily the one you were expecting.
In his afterward, Gary Russell says that the reason he decided to use Benny Summerfield instead of River was because series runner Steven Moffat nixed the idea. Russsell goes on to say that Moffat suggested bringing Benny back because he'd always liked the character and that then novel turned out to be better because of it.
I'm glad Gary thinks the novel turned out better than he originally imagined. Because this reader found the novel a pretty big disappointment.
Russell does a fine job of capturing the Peter Capaldi Doctor on the printed page and I have to admit that I was really looking forward to seeing the new Doctor and Benny interact. Unfortunately, those interactions fizzle rather than sizzle. A lot of this can be put at the feet of an abundance of continuity surrounding Benny that this reader wasn't aware of. I will admit I haven't followed every twist and turn in Benny's story once the New Adventures ceased publication. So the various characters in her entourage who presumably come from her Big Finish audio line were all mystery to me. Having no investment in any of them, I found myself rapidly wanting to skip the sections that involved these unfamiliar characters and get more into what I'd hoped to get when I picked up the novel.
And that was a good story from Russell. In the past, I've been impressed with many of Russell's Doctor Who offerings -- probably more so than many of my fellow Whovians. But Big Bang Generation is a misstep by Russell and a dud.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ...more
Madeline lives a fairly contained life. She's home schooled, rarely ventures beyond the the walls of her house and has little contact with the outsideMadeline lives a fairly contained life. She's home schooled, rarely ventures beyond the the walls of her house and has little contact with the outside world beyond her mother and her nurse, Carla.
Madeline has a very rare condition that makes her extremely susceptible to any kind of germ. Her immune system can't fight them and so Madeline has to live inside her sterile, clean home, experiencing the outside world only by looking out the window and the books she reads (all brand new and properly sterilized, of course!)
She's perfectly content in her world until one day a new boy moves in next door and Madeline has become intrigued by him and his family. Suddenly, her world seems a bit smaller and Madeline is willing to do and risk whatever it takes to get to know this boy and possibly fall in love with him.
Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything has received a lot of praise since its publication -- and it deserves much of it. However, it's not quite the be-all, end-all book that certain fans or the marketing materials would have you believe. For one thing, there's the issue of insta-love that crops up far too often in novels targeted toward young adult readers. Madeline's crush on her neighbor morphs far too quickly into love -- even factoring in that she rarely has much contact with the outside world. Her increasing desperation to spend time with the boy next door and getting to know him does ring true at certain points, but other developments don't quite sustain the feeling.
There's also the question of the big revelation in the novel's closing chapters. It's one that is fairly well telegraphed by the mid-point of the story, thus ceasing to really be a surprise. Instead the revelation when it finally occurs only confirms what we thought was happening all the time.
Those two factors put this one into the category of a good book rather than a great one.
But it shouldn't take away from the sheer hook of the novel's opening chapters nor that compelling first-person narration we experience with Madeline. ...more
When Jughead's old pal Hot Dog is hit by a car, the distraught teen takes him to Sabrina and her family to bring him back to life. While her aunts refWhen Jughead's old pal Hot Dog is hit by a car, the distraught teen takes him to Sabrina and her family to bring him back to life. While her aunts refuse, Sabrina is moved by Jughead's plight and taps into some dark magic to bring Hot Dog back to the land of the living.
Apparently, all the copies of Pet Semetary were checked out before Jughead decided to this. Because while Hot Dog does come back, sometimes dead is better. Before you know it, Hog Dog has unleashed a wave of zombie terror in Riverdale -- and wouldn't you know it, on the night of the big dance!
Afterlife with Archie is a hybrid of the squeaky-clean stories of Archie, Jughead and company and the gritty, over the top horror of The Walking Dead. Reading that sentence, you might think these are two things that won't go well together. But instead of being jarring, the two pieces fit well together, giving us a band of survivors that we know and can root for all while watching their world go to hell in a hand basket as several familiar faces become zombies and begin attacking.
And yet for all the humans who die in this collection (and there are a few), it's interesting that the death that readers may feel the most is Archie's beloved old dog pal. Heading home to check on his parents, Archie comes across the zombie Hot Dog and looks doomed, only to see his old pal step in to save his life one last time. The use of thought balloons to narrate Archie's pal's internal monologue and thoughts about saving his beloved master are moving at first, turning tragic as the zombie virus consumes him and he turns on Archie.
I won't lie and say I wasn't more than a bit moved by this moment and the emotions that this comic taps into. I also won't lie and say I caught every nuance of the storyline because I'm not necessarily familiar with every character and cliche from the world of Archie comics on display here.
But none of that matters because this collection of five issues works well as a homage to both the tropes of Archie and horror stories....more
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