Leisure's Classic Film Collection

This is kind of cool. Leisure Books recently announced a series of four Western novels in its upcoming Classic Film Collection. The novels are all the basis of classic Western films. The first to be released is Alan LeMay’s novel The Searchers. It is scheduled to be released in February 2009. I recently watched the film version of The Searchers for the first time on a local PBS affiliate. It truly is a masterpiece. John Wayne can’t do everything well—like deliver lines—but in The Searchers the director John Ford captures Wayne at his best: the long lonely look of his aging face; the heavy swagger and bravado and his sheer masculine essence. It was a great film and I’m betting the novel is just as good.

The second to be released is Destry Rides Again by Max Brand. It is scheduled for release in March. This is a novel and film that I have never read or seen. I’ve read a handful of Brand Westerns and each one was enjoyable. Here is a taste from the Dorchester website:

“Destry Rides Again helped launch James Stewart’s career and revitalized Marlene Dietrich’s in 1939. The character has remained one of Max Brand’s most famous, spawning a 1954 remake of the movie, a TV series, and a Broadway musical.”

The third will be released in April 2009. Its title: The Man from Laramie. The author: T.T. Flynn. Flynn is a writer whom I have yet to read, although I have a few of his novels floating around. I do, however, remember the film. It starred James Stewart—as I recall—and was a pretty good Western. Dorchester’s website claims that there were more than 500,000 copies of this novel printed in the day.

The fourth and final novel in the series—so far as I know—is another Alan LeMay titled The Unforgiven. This is another title that I’m not familiar with. Here is what Dorchester has to say:

"In many ways this novel, a May release, is a companion to The Searchers, as it features a different perspective on the clashes and prejudices between whites and Native Americans. Rather than chasing after a missing white girl taken captive by the Comanches as in The Searchers, The Unforgiven presents the explosive ramifications when it’s revealed a white family may have taken in a Kiowa baby 17 years before."

I’m looking forward to these titles. I grew up with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart on the television screen. My father enjoyed the work of the former and my mother the later. I’m especially looking forward to The Searchers. The film has been playing quite frequently on television recently and I’ve watched it more than once.

Top Five Reads of 2008

It’s nearly 2009 and that means one thing—well several things, but the most exciting is the Gravetapping top five reads of the year. The rules are simple. There are really only three. The first is, the novel can be published anytime, anywhere. The second is, I have to have read it in 2008. The third is it has to be new to me, which means that I can’t use the same old book year after year.

So, without further ado, drum roll please. And now imagine your favorite celebrity at the pulpit with a cheesy smile and overdone hair. Here it is—in ascending order—the top five Gravetapping reads of 2008 are…

5) Archangel by Robert Harris. I love the occasional thriller. I enjoy the fast-paced style and the deep backstory that many well-written thrillers provide. Unfortunately many of the current crop of thrillers skip backstory altogether and the fast-paced style seems less fast-paced and more contrived and tedious. However, a few months ago I read a terrific thriller by Robert Harris. It is a modern story of Joseph Stalin and it is filled with historical insight, adventure, suspense and enough twists to keep even the most jaded thriller readers—me!—satisfied.

4) Red, White, and Blue Murder by Bill Crider. I discovered the work of Bill Crider earlier this year and I’m getting dangerously close to declaring Gravetapping as his unofficial fan club. His Sheriff Dan Rhodes stories are terrific and Red, White and Blue Murder is no exception. Click Here to read the review.

3) The Other Side of Silence by Bill Pronzini. Bill Pronzini is a regular on this list. His novel The Crimes of Jordan Wise won the top honor a few years ago—I still think about that one. It was terrific. And The Other Side of Silence is right up there with it. The first chapter is actually the short story “Engines” Pronzini wrote for Tony Hillerman’s The Mysterious West back in the mid-1990s and the story follows the recently separated Rick Fallon to Death Valley where he saves the life of a young woman who is in trouble. His journey takes him from the desolate desert to Las Vegas to Bull City, Arizona, and then into the southern climes of California.

2) A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson. This is a masterpiece of psychological horror. The amazing thing is it is also a brilliantly created view into suburban American life of the 1950s. The characters are rich and the story is perfect. Click Here to read the review.

1) Death Ground by Ed Gorman. I can’t say enough about this novel specifically or Ed Gorman’s work as a whole. He is a favorite writer of mine and Death Ground is one of the many reasons why. It is dark and pessimistic, with an overcast of sly humor and unruly humanity. Click Here to read the review.

This year it was particularly difficult to narrow the list down to five. I very easily could have made a list of ten or fifteen. Ed Gorman had another novel that barely missed the list—Sleeping Dogs—as did Bill Crider with Gator Kill. A few other honorable mentions are: Breeding Ground by Sarah Pinborough, Baby Moll by John Farris, Zero Cool by John Lange, Luck Be a Lady, Don’t Die by Robert J. Randisi, The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson and Stephen Mertz’s The Korean Intercept.

An excellent year in my reading chair. And here is to 2009. I bet it’s even better.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; Feb 2009

The latest issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine arrived in the mail Friday, and as always it is a treat. I have the mail schedule pretty much pegged and I had been expecting it for a few days. Not that it was late, but rather I was impatient. It is the February 2009 issue and it is a celebration of Sherlock Holmes. But like always there is a broad array of high quality stories that will appeal to any and all mystery readers.

The contents are (I haven’t read all the stories yet--I try to savor every issue--so if there aren’t any comments it means I have been there yet):

“The Last Drop” by R.W. Kerrigan

“Greetings from Purgatory!” by Steve Hockensmith – Old Red and Big Red are back in a Sherlock Holmes-type adventure set in the old West; the thriving metropolis of Lovelock, Nevada. A can’t miss story that is whodunit, Western, and down right humorous.

“That One Small Thing” by Shane Nelson

“The Package” by Frank T. Wydra

“Wolfe at the Door” by Loren T. Estleman – An Estleman story is always worth the price of admission and this take on the Nero Wolfe mysteries is no exception.

“Clowntown Pajamas” by James Powell

“The Wilt of Love” by Michael Z. Lewin

“A Stab in the Heart” by Twist Phelan

“The Adventure of the Dying Ship” by Edward D. Hoch – This is a reprint of the late-EQMM regular and it is a dashing Sherlock Holmes story.

“Down to the Bitter Dregs” by Silvija Hinzmannn – This Passport to Crime story originates from a Croatian-born German. A terrific little tongue-in-cheek satirical revenge story. A great introduction to a foreign language writer.

It also includes The Jury Box by Jon L. Breen and Blog Bytes by Bill Crider. Another terrific issue that every mystery reader should make a point to pick up.

HARM by Brian W. Aldiss

Apologies in advance. This is another retread review. I originally wrote it for SFReader.com last summer. It posted 27-July-2007. The good news is, most of you probably never saw it, so it very well may be just as good as something new. Maybe. I have a couple reviews slated for next week; probably Monday and Wednesday. I just need to find time to write the damn things. Have a great weekend.

Brian W. Aldiss is a living legend in the science fiction genre—he has won the Hugo Award, the Nebula, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He has been a progressive voice in the genre for decades, and his latest novel, HARM, has all the life, voice and thought provocation of anything he has ever produced.

HARM—an acronym for Hostile Activities Research Ministry—is a satirical novel based in the near future. It is the story of Paul Ali, a writer and British citizen of Islamic heritage, who is being held as a political prisoner in a terrorist detention camp. Inside the prison he is known only as Prisoner B. His crime: a few characters in his comic novel "The Pied Piper of Hament," drunkenly joke about the assassination of the British Prime Minister. His only human contact is with his interrogators, who practice torture and violence with a particularly frightening glee.

When Paul is not in interrogation he is sequestered in a solitary cell where he suffers visions and vivid imaginings due to a mental illness. He lives in two separate and distinct worlds. The first is the world of torture and pain, and the second is a distant world where insects are dominant, and the local human population has been transplanted with extreme difficulty. They were transported in Life-Process Reservoirs, which contained their brain functions and DNA and then were reconstituted on arrival. Unfortunately the reconstitution did not work perfectly, and many of them have lost significant verbal skills, a vast amount of their intelligence, and their cultural identities.

HARM is a disjointed novel that is effective for the simple reason that when all of the storylines are connected and examined as a whole, they become something more than their parts. It is a story that casts a cynical eye at our post September 11th society. Mr. Aldiss cleverly unmasks the tightrope that many British Muslims are walking—they must embrace the British culture without losing their own—and he also casts a shadow against the methods used by Britain and the United States in the war on terror.

HARM is a novel that is both enlightening and demanding. It is very much a novel of our time, and it captures many relevant themes—immigration, identity, racism, torture—but it also examines the obscurities and nuances of what has happened to our culture since the September 11th terrorist attacks. It translates the hate and anger with a perfect pitch, all while telling a compelling and entertaining story. I recommend HARM wholeheartedly.

Book Trailer: The Chameleon Conspiracy

I've read two thrillers by Haggai Carmon this year -- Triple Identity and The Red Syndrome -- and I enjoyed both. The novels feature DOJ lawyer Dan Gordon; a protagonist that has a little trouble with authority and doesn't mind breaking the rules to catch the bad guy. There is always a financial connection and Gordon always follows the money.

The third novel in the series is due out in April 2009 from Leisure Books and Mr. Carmon sent a link to a book trailer that highlights the series. It's pretty good and makes me excited to read The Chameleon Conspiracy.





PS. If anyone knows of any good book trailers send me an email. If you are an author or publisher I would love to hear from you. 

Tom Piccirilli: "The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back"

This is a repeat post (at least the review of "The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back"). It first went live 21-June-2007.

It has been a hectic week at my house and the blog has suffered from more than just a little neglect. So…

I’ve been reading Tom Piccirilli short stories for years. I’m a big fan, and a few months ago I decided to track down all of his Western short stories. I even emailed him and asked for a list. The list wasn’t long, but it was long enough. Here it is:

"The Day Lamarr Had a Tall Drink with His Short Daddy"; Desperadoes edited by Gorman & Greenberg, 2001

"The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back"; Texas Rangers edited by Gorman & Greenberg, 2004

"Slicing Through Ninety-Two Pages of the New Testament"; Guns of the West edited by Gorman & Greenberg

"The Comfortable Coffin of Miz Utopia Jones Clay"; Boot Hill, edited by Randisi, 2003 (I think this one is also the first chapter of Piccirilli's novel Coffin Blues.)

"Tracking the Death Angel"; The Best of the American West II edited by Gorman and Greenberg, 1999

I recently re-read the “The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back” and I liked it better the second time than the first. If that’s possible. My only complaint. I need more Tom Piccirilli Western short stories. A novel or two wouldn’t be bad either.

And now the review...

Tom Piccirilli is best known as a horror writer, but he has published two western novels—Grave Men and Coffin Blues—and several western short stories. I recently read his western short story “The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back” and it had the same power as his best horror—the prose sharp as a dagger, the story literate, and very entertaining.

“Blood Beneath” is the story of Smoke, a Texas Ranger, who is hot on the tracks of two outlaws: rapists, murderers and overall bastards in the worst way. They left a child to die in the hot sun and raped her mother. Smoke quietly follows the outlaws across the open country of Texas until he hunts them down in the small town of Last Chance where he seeks justice and more than a little vengeance.

“The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back” is one of the best stories I have read this year—short story or novel. It has the feel of a 1970s Spaghetti western, and as I read I couldn’t help but picture Clint Eastwood with his quiet strength, compassion, and tough-as-nails exterior. Smoke is the champion of the downtrodden, the protector of the weak, and basically one tough dude—an anti-hero to root for. Mr. Piccirilli brings a solid story to life with a bare, stark, cynical and violent style. The opening is pitch perfect:

“Smoke found the dying child in the rocks about midday, gave her water and shade for the two hours she lasted, and buried her beneath a red plum bush.”

The power of the prose never lets up, and the story glides seamlessly to its inevitable conclusion. Mr. Piccirilli is a terrific writer who deserves a larger audience, and “The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back” not only gives hope to a shrinking genre, but is also one hell of a good tale.

“The Blood Beneath When the World Draws Back” was originally published in the anthology Texas Rangers—edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg--in 2004.

DEATH GROUND by Edward Gorman

Leo Guild is an aging bounty hunter. He is a former lawman, father and husband, but that is all behind him. Now he rides alone. He is melancholy, intelligent and violent; when he needs to be. He also has a past that sticks with him. He killed a little girl. The courts forgave him, but he can’t find the heart to forgive himself.

Death Ground opens on the evening of Guild’s 54th birthday. In lonely celebration he makes a date at the local brothel with a young “straw-haired” girl. Things don’t go as expected with the girl and his birthday truly turns for the worse when he is summoned to the Sherriff’s office.

Two men are dead. One—Merle Rig—hired Guild as a bodyguard and the other—Kenny Tolliver—was technically Guild’s employee. He hired Kenny to protect Rig while he paid a visit to the "straw-haired" girl. As he looks at the cadavers on the heavy mortician’s tables he figures his job is gone and it is time to ride on, but first he pays a visit to Kenny’s mother. A scene that unsettles Guild and also piques his interest; Kenny’s mother knew Rig and Kenny palled around with a couple local deputies.

Leo Guild decides he can’t leave town until he figures who really killed the pair and why. He has a feeling it is not the violent mountain man being blamed by the Sherriff, but he doesn’t have many suspects. He doesn’t have anything but a hunch, really.

Death Ground isn’t a traditional Western. It, like all of Gorman’s Westerns, is a noir mystery wrapped in the trappings of the Old West. That is not to say that the historical element isn’t accurate or interesting, because it is. It is also central to the story, but an Ed Gorman Western is more of a historical mystery than anything else. A hardboiled historical mystery at that.

The prose is tough and tender in varying shades. It defines the story, action, and protagonist with a lean, smart and melancholy and literate style:

“Then he started digging snow up with both hands, and he covered them good, the two of them, and then he stood up and looked out on the unfurling white land. There was blue sky and a full yellow sun. Warmer now, there was even that kind of sweetness that comes on sunny winter days. It made him think of pretty women on ice skates, their cheeks touched perfect red by the cold, their eyes daring and blue.”

Leo Guild is an everyman. He is the man who does what needs to be done. He isn’t a hero, or a villain, but rather he is simply a man; a man who has seen much, done much, and lost much. Guild is an example of what makes Ed Gorman’s fiction so damn good: characters that are measured and three-dimensional; characters that act, feel and sound real. His male characters are strong and pitiful, lustful and scared, vain and dangerous, lonely and weak—generally all at the same time—and more importantly they are recognizable. And his female characters exhibit the same steady qualities. Neither wholly good nor bad, just human.

Death Ground is a Western that should have wide appeal. It will please the traditionalist with its rugged description of frontier life and the people who settled it. It will also introduce readers of hardboiled crime fiction to a new genre, but mostly it will please any reader who wants something tangible and meaningful mixed into a well-told, excellently plotted and immensely entertaining novel.

This one is well worth searching out.

Death Ground is the second of three novels to feature bounty man Leo Guild. It was originally published by Donald M. Evans in 1988. The other two are: Guild (1987) and Blood Game (1989). I have also read Blood Game, and it is every bit as good as Death Ground. I can only imagine that Guild holds it own as well.

Meme: Authors New to Me

I was “tagged” and invited to play a little game by J. Kingston Pierce from The Rap Sheet—a pretty damn good blog that you should check out if you haven’t. The game? List the writers I was introduced to in 2008.

The rules are pretty simple: 1) The writer must be new to me, regardless of publication date; 2) bold the titles that were debut novels in 2008; 3) Tag some other people.

Here they are…in the order read.

Haggai Carmon – Triple Identity [Review]
David Gunn – Death’s Head
Gwen Freeman – Crazy Fool Kills Five [Review]
Sarah Pinborough – Breeding Ground [Review]
Bill Crider – Red, White, and Blue Murder [Review]
Dan Ronco – Unholy Domain [Review]
Robert Fate – Baby Shark’s High Plains Redemption [Review]
Michael Norman – The Commission [Review]
Cody McFadyen – The Darker Side [Review]
I. Micheal Koontz – A Matter of Revenge (I just started this one.)

Now that I look at it, it’s an embarrassingly short list. Although there are a few gems; namely Red, White, and Blue Murder, Breeding Ground, The Commission, and Baby Shark’s High Plains Redemption. But none of the books were duds, and I would happily pick up another title from any of these writers.

You probably noticed I broke the second rule; I bolded the title if it was a debut novel even if it wasn’t published in 2008. Opps.

Movie Trailer: STAR TREK

I’m a sucker for Star Trek films, and I really don’t know why. I’ve never been a big fan of the original series or any of the spin-offs, but the films, that’s another story. I like all of them; especially the last several TNG offerings.

The latest installment in the franchise is scheduled for release May 9, 2009. It is directed by J.J. Abrams, written by Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and stars Chris Pine, Eric Bana, Simon Pegg, Winona Ryder, Bruce Greenwood—the Nowhere Man, a series that should still be on—and Leonard Nimoy.

A pretty damn good cast. I hope it lives up to expectations.

"The Empty Manger" by Bill Crider

I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas. I love that I get a day off work. I love the stereotypical atmosphere of goodwill—I usually don’t see it, but I love the idea of it—the music (in small doses) and time spent with family and friends. And eggnog. Always eggnog.

The part of Christmas I don’t love so much are the crowds, both in stores and on the roads. The rush to buy junk no one wants. And the “me me” of the season. So to make-up for the all the bad stuff I usually lose myself in a few mystery stories with Christmas as a backdrop. My only rule—if I actually have one—is that Christmas should only be a backdrop and not the central theme of the story. So this year I thought I would share a few.

The first is a Sheriff Dan Rhodes Christmas primer. It is a novella length story titled “The Empty Manger.” Blacklin County, Texas isn’t a typical Christmas location. There are no white Christmases, it is warm and there probably aren’t many pine trees. But it is the type of rural county where the people are eccentric, there is always a perplexing crime, and enough humor and mystery to satisfy any reader.

The story begins when Sheriff Dan Rhodes is called to investigate the kidnapping of the baby Jesus doll from the manger scene in downtown Clearview. Clearview, like the rest of America, has a decaying and nearly abandoned downtown and one of the plans to attract more traffic to the area is a live manger—including a donkey and a few goats. The production is sponsored by the local First Baptist Church and when Rhodes arrives to investigate the missing Jesus he finds much more—namely the murdered body of Councilwoman Jerri Laxton, a proponent of the downtown revitalization plan, in the alley behind the abandoned furniture store next to the manger.

“The Empty Manger” is pure Dan Rhodes. It is a whodunit with style, humor, and just enough hardboiled action to carry the mystery. Sheriff Rhodes is an old style detective. He doesn’t rely on crime scene investigation or science to solve his crimes, but instead he talks to people and generally noses around until he finds a thread and then picks and pulls at it until the mystery unravels.

The supporting cast, as usual, is an eclectic mix of varying eccentricity. Rhodes is surrounded by bickering geriatrics, hostile romance writers, nosy young reporters, spiteful housewives, lonely widowers and a host of small town goofballs that not only make good suspects, but act as foils to Sheriff Rhodes. They tend to keep him in his place and whenever possible remind him of his failings, both past and present.

“The Empty Manger” is good and fun entertainment. It clocks in at 88 pages in paperback. It can easily be read in one sitting and it has everything that makes the Dan Rhodes series vibrant and it makes for a great escape from crowded super stores, clogged roads and cold weather.

“The Empty Manger” was published in the novella anthology Murder, Mayhem, and Mistletoe. It was released in 2001 by Worldwide and contains three additional novellas—“The Headless Magi” by Terence Faherty, “Christmas Cache” by Aileen Schumacker, and “Stocking Stuffer” by Wendi Lee.

THE DARKER SIDE by Cody McFadyen

The Darker Side is different than the usual novel I read. It is a serial killer-novel—a genre that I jump into only occasionally—that focuses heavily on atmosphere and a dark philosophical interrogation of humanity and its vices.

Smoky Barrett is an FBI manhunter who has a very personal experience with death. Her family was killed as she helplessly watched. The experience scarred her, both physically and emotionally. This closeness with death, murder and loss is the reason Smoky is chosen to investigate the murder of a transsexual. The victim is the child of a powerful senator; a senator who comes from a socially conservative state and could lose everything if the investigation turns out wrong.

The victim was murdered on a commercial airliner. No one witnessed it, or even knew it happened until a flight attendant tried to wake her after the jetliner landed. It doesn’t take long for Smoky to realize it is the work of a serial-killer, and she and her team try to walk the tightrope between political pressure, real-world agonies, and the job at hand.

I have mixed feelings about The Darker Side. The atmosphere is rich and dark—it (the atmosphere) reminded me of the Chris Carter television series “Millennium”—but the crime seemed forced and, at times, unbelievable. It, at times, felt like a locked-door mystery for the “CSI” generation.

The protagonist and narrator—Smoky Barrett—made for a likable character and the narrative was smoothly cool in a soft dream-like style:

“There are trees everywhere, young and old. Their sheer volume tells me they are cherished by this city, and I can see why. Fall is an actual season in Alexandria, Virginia. The leaves are on the turn and, well—it’s pretty spectacular.”

The description, at times, is overwhelming. The author uses multiple pages to introduce Smoky’s team, and there is a scene towards the beginning of the novel where a major players reveals he is gay that is overly traumatic and downright unbelievable. But as the story unraveled I found that the excesses bothered me less and less, and that I liked Smoky Barrett more and more.

The Darker Side's true power is its ideas—guilt, sin, absolution and redemption. And in the end it is the ideas, the atmosphere, and the protagonist that carry the novel to its conclusion.

Movie Trailer: Dark Streets

I stumbled across a trailer for an upcoming independent film titled Dark Streets. It is based on a play by Glenn M. Stewart. It looks pretty good. A little too much like Chicago, but one can always hope it is better. It was written by Wallace King and directed by Rachel Samuels. It is scheduled for a limited release December 2005. It might be one worth checking out.

The description at Yahoo!Movies reads:

Chaz Davenport is a dashing bachelor who owns what promises to become the hottest new nightclub in town--if only the lights would stay on. Surrounded by the sumptuous blues music he adores, and with his pick of the gorgeous women who perform their sensual dance numbers onstage every night, Chaz is the envy of every man. But with the city thrown into darkness by frequent blackouts and a menacing loan shark closing in, Chaz is in danger of losing the club--and far more. At the same time, he finds himself embroiled in a love triangle with the club's alluring star singer, Crystal, and a new arrival at the club--the mysterious and seductive chanteuse Madelaine. When people close to Chaz begin turning up dead, he doesn't know where to turn or whom to trust. And the harder he tries to uncover the truth, the further he's drawn into the darkness of lies and betrayal--a darkness as black as the city's streets during yet another power outage. Welcome to the Blues.

"The Short and Simple Annals" by Dan J. Marlowe

Toland is a convict. He is in the fourth year of a ride for armed robbery. The first few months in the joint he was a trouble-maker, but over the last few years he has settled into a routine. He even earned a job in the welding-shop.

That is where he is—the welding-shop—when he is summoned to the warden’s office. When he arrives the warden is unusually cordial and the detective who put him away is quietly sitting in the corner. It doesn’t take a genius to figure something is up. He is nervous until the warden tells him another criminal took responsibility for the job he was convicted. And then he knows what’s up: He is free. And Toland knows exactly what he is going to do on the outside.

“The Short and Simple Annals” is the first Dan J. Marlowe short story I have read and I was absolutely wowed. The plot was perfectly executed with one more twist than expected. The language was fluid, hardboiled, and simply stylish:

“I’d just come out from under the welding hood and was inspecting a silver seam intended to staunch a leak in a battered radiator when “Fat” Carson, the welding-shop hack, touched me on the arm. “You’re wanted in the warden’s office, Toland,” he said. He led the way to the door, unlocking it and then carefully relocking it behind us, observing the regular procedure.”

The tension and suspense are ratcheted tighter from paragraph to paragraph, and the mystery is compelling and surprising. When I figured I had the ending nailed Mr. Marlowe pulled the rug out.

“The Short and Simple Annals” is a gem of a hardboiled story. It is an unusual take on the revenge story, and it is a reminder that it is the things we forget that put us in a jam. And it is very much worth seeking out.

“The Short and Simple Annals” was originally published in 1964. I read it in Alfred Hitchcock’s Noose Report published in 1966 by Dell.

Google's LIFE images: Rex Stout

A great feature has been unveiled over at Google; "millions" of photographs from the LIFE archives are online and very viewable. It's really cool. Another distraction to keep me from my work. And the photos...very cool.

A great photograph I plundered of mystery legend Rex Stout. Is that an orchid?

Hubble Space Images: Uranus

It has been awhile since I have posted any Hubble Telescope photographs. Too long, in my mind. I love looking at the beauty that Hubble captures in the cosmos. The distant galaxies, nebulas, stars, universes, and even the less exotic images from our own solar system. Today my imagination was captured by the cold beauty of Uranus. It is the seventh planet from the sun, and its blue texture is captivating and lights my imagination with the dreams and visions of Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and the other great hard science fiction writers. It is truly beautiful. And now I will let the photographs speak for themselves...

Uranus with its rings visible

Uranus and its dark spot

Uranus and one of its five major moons Ariel

Bright Clouds and Uranus

Robotnik

The other evening I was reading when I stumbled across a new word: Robotnik. It is Russian for worker, and the name of a Moscow club in the novel I was reading. My steel-trap mind immediately connected the word to robot. A word that I have always associated with Isaac Asimov; and again, I thought, that makes sense. Asimov was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States as a child.

Well I did a little research and I discovered that I was in error about Asimov’s creation of the word robot, as far as its use as a term to describe a mechanical man. He did use the base to coin the term robotics, but robot was actually first used in the play RUR written by Karel Capek. I can almost hear you groan, what’s the difference. Well, according to Dictionary.com quite a bit and not much, all at the same time.

Robot

–noun
1. a machine that resembles a human and does mechanical, routine tasks on command.

2. a person who acts and responds in a mechanical, routine manner, usually subject to another's will; automaton.

3. any machine or mechanical device that operates automatically with humanlike skill.

–adjective
4. operating automatically: a robot train operating between airline terminals.

Robotics

–noun (used with a singular verb)

the use of computer-controlled robots to perform manual tasks, esp. on an assembly line.

The major difference is the human creation of the functioning machine. Robotics stresses the idea of computer-control and human servitude; humans program, design, study and create in robotics. While a robot is something that is machine-like and not necessarily created by humanity. It can actually be used to describe a person and therefore it is not under the control or supervision of humanity, but rather something slightly less than human but very much more than a machine; something to fear.

The idea of robot is given a sinister cast when its root word robotnik is defined. Robotnik is a Czech word related to robota; which means compulsory labor. And robotnik is the peasant or serf who owes that said labor. The life of a robot is quite dreary based on the words used to describe and explain it. It’s also something to fear. The Czar discovered that in a rush some 90 years ago.

Click Here to read more about the play RUR
Click Here to go to the Dictionary.com definition of robot, and Here for robotics

VENGEANCE IS MINE by William W. Johnstone & Fred Austin

John Stark is an aging Texas rancher. He is a veteran of Vietnam and a man who is concerned about the illegal drug trafficking across the US-Mexican border. His concern escalates to outright war against the traffickers when his friend and fellow rancher is brutally tortured and murdered by a Mexican drug cartel. His crusade takes him across the border to a wild strip-club where he finds a few of the men responsible for the murder and then his war quickly finds him. He enlists the help of a his neighbors and hunkers down to face everything the Mexican gang has to throw at him—and it includes hired guns, crooked cops, and a government that is less than pleased with his fight.

Vengeance is Mine is an enjoyable thriller that is well-paced and interesting—I learned a little about Texas geography and even something about US-Mexico border security. The protagonist is an interesting mix of larger-than-life hero and flawed gentleman. He slips from exuberant competence to self-doubt and blame without seeming weak or contrived. The style is something just a little different from most modern thrillers—it has a certain hardboiled and gritty mentality—

“The air was thick with tobacco and marijuana smoke, along with sharp tangs of whiskey, beer, and cheap perfume.”

The plot is interesting and well executed. Its major weakness is the abundance of over-the-top political overtures—the sum of the United States’ (and the world’s) problems can be blamed on a cabal of liberal Senators. An argument that even in the subtext of the novel felt tired and paranoid, but if you can get past that Vengeance is Mine is really a pretty damn good novel.

A NOTE. As a teenager I loved the idea of Johnstone’s novels; particularly his adventure stuff. It was always populated with angry survivalists who had the foresight and courage to see the coming disaster and survive it, but while the plots intrigued me the execution and style always left me disappointed and wanting. I must have started ten or more of his novels before I completely gave up on his work.

When I heard the novels under his byline were being written by other writers I was intrigued. These “collaborations” seemed to be an ideal solution to the Johnstone problem—all promise and no delivery—and some of them might even be pretty good. Vengeance is Mine is certainly cast from the Johnstone formula: the lone man as both outcast and savior of society mixed with a bevy of right-wing propaganda. The difference: It delivered. The quality of the writing was significantly better, the tone and style was more lucid and interesting, as was the execution of the plot.

The point? Besides abusing a dead man? Vengeance is Mine is worth taking a look at. It will appeal to fans of the original writer as well as new readers who avoided Johnstone's writing, or were never introduced to it. I know I plan to read another one.

UPDATE: 15-Nov-2008

When I re-read this review I was struck that I was a little harder on Mr. Johnstone's work than I intended to be. I didn't mean to question his talent or the product he produced other than to say that, subjectively, I was generally a little disappointed in it. One of the reasons is that I read one of his novels in the early-1990s and absolutely loved it; its title What the Heart Knows. It was a beautifully written love story very much like The Bridges of Madison County. A type of story that I don't generally read, but Johnstone's take on the "love-lost" story was compelling and interesting and I have judged the rest of his work based on this novel. Something that is probably unfair to both the writer and his work.

Book Trailer: THE DUMA KEY by Stephen King

It’s been awhile since I’ve found a good book trailer; probably more that I haven’t been looking all that hard and less that there aren’t any out there. I’ve been eyeing Stephen King’s latest paperback the last few days and I found a book trailer for it over at YouTube. It looks great.

Now I just need to read the book.

"Hardboiled" by Tim Maleeny

Carver is a partner in a two-man private investigation firm. He is alone in the office when a new client walks in the door. She wants Carver to find her husband, a man who is missing, sort of. A fact the woman is hesitant to reveal and it takes some patient and fancy interrogation work for Carver to get at exactly what she wants.

"Hardboiled" is a play on the hardboiled detective story. The opening paragraph creates the scene perfectly:

"Some women just looked like trouble. This one didn't, which should have been the first clue."

Mr Maleeny takes the built-in expectations of the genre and cleverly, as hinted at in the opening paragraph, twists a story that surprises and satisfies the reader simply because it builds and breaks the stereo-types. He takes the expected and turns it against the reader.

"Hardboiled" is short--three digest-sized pages--and very fun. I didn't guess the climax until the author wanted me to and when it ended I had a smile on my face. This is my first exposure to Tim Maleeny's work, but it won't be the last. He is the author of three novels: Stealing the Dragon, Beating the Babushka, and the forthcoming Greasing the Pinata.

"Hardboiled" is in the most recent issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine; January 2009. EQMM is the premier magazine of short mystery fiction and this issue is a good example of why. It contains stories that run the gamut between classical whodunit-style mystery to hardboiled American. It contains original stories by Andrew Klavan, Simon Brett, Doug Allyn, Robert Barnard, Gary Cahill among others, and a reprint by Edward D. Hoch.

If you haven't read EQMM you should, and this issue would be a great place to start. It doesn't hurt that the cover art is wonderful.

NIGHT OF THUNDER by Stephen Hunter

Night of Thunder is the fifth novel to feature Vietnam sniper Bob Lee Swagger. The first three—Point of Impact, Black Light and Time to Hunt—were published in the mid- to late-1990s. The series was seemingly over when last year saw the release of a film—Shooter—based on Point of Impact and a new novel The 47th Samurai, which sent an aging Bob Lee to Japan on an errand of honor for his long deceased father.

The two recent titles are a departure in style from Swagger’s roots. The novels are shorter and a have cartoonish literary flair; the prose is hipper, and the plots are looser and much larger than life. The style of the early novels was very much in the mold of the 1980s Tom Clancy-style thriller; long, vast amounts of technical information, a wide stage, and an unhurried pace. It should be noted that Hunter’s work has always featured strong action and solid pacing, something many of Clancy’s novels, particularly his later work, did not showcase. I favor the three earlier novels in the Swagger saga, but that’s not to say Night of Thunder or The 47th Samurai aren’t enjoyable, because both are entertaining modern thrillers.

Nikki Swagger, Bob Lee’s daughter, is a police reporter for the Bristol Courier-Herald. It is her first job out of college and she is hot on the trail of a story about the rampant methamphetamine trade when late one evening she is knocked off the road in a hit and run. When Bob is notified of the accident his daughter is in a coma and the doctors are uncertain when Nikki will come out of it. Bob Lee is concerned not only for the life of his daughter, but for the rest of his family as well. It could be what it’s reported, a simple hit and run, or it could be payback from his past.

When he arrives in Bristol Bob hires the Pinkertons to protect his daughter and then starts his own one-man investigation. He traverses the city—in the throes of a major NASCAR event—and the backwoods to discover what happened to his daughter. He confronts a publicity-seeking Sheriff, a cult-like religious crime family, a NASCAR race team, and bunches of rednecks in his search. He also expends a few rounds of ammunition and gets in more than one fight.

Night of Thunder is an enjoyable thriller that, while not to the standards of the early novels, is packed with action and a sense of urgency. Bob Lee is his tough warrior self prone to do things alone and hard. He is good with a gun and still pretty good without one as well. The prose, at times, has a cool lyrical quality:

“It was that old-time religion, fierce and haunted, harsh, unforgiving. It was Baptist fire and brimstone, his father’s fury and anguish, it was Negroes in church, afeared of the flames of hell, it was the roar of a hot, primer-gray V8 ‘Cuda in the night, as good old boys in sheets raised their own particular kind of hell, driven by white lightning or too much Dixie or too much hate, it was the South arising under red snapping of the flag of the Confederacy.”

The plot is swiftly executed with a sure hand. There are no loose-ends, but there are a few plot twists that rely too heavily on coincidence and at least one that was incredulous; a problem with many modern thrillers. I guessed the major twist less than halfway through the novel, but the writing and action was strong enough to keep the story interesting and fresh.

Night of Thunder is not one of Stephen Hunter’s best, but it isn’t bad either. If you enjoy a wild and bigger-than-life thriller that flies straight, hard, and fast with a hero that can hold his own in a fight—a throw back to the old West gunfighter, really—you will want to read this one.