ELEVATION by Stephen King

We have reached the point where anything that Stephen King writes will be published. I generally don't have a problem with that, but this 'novella' is a thin tome with what looks suspiciously like double spacing. If it took me two hours to read then I'm surprised.

It also felt like some reheated old ideas thrown together. The central conceit of Thinner was a man who got thinner no matter what he did. The central conceit here is that a man is getting lighter no matter what he does. Gravity is losing its hold. Does this cause anyone great concern? No not really.

The main concern is that there's a married lesbian couple running a restaurant and people don't approve. The local seasonal running race should take care of that. Really? In Trump's America, one photograph is all it takes to change conservative views?

It is a slight tale that doesn't last long or think deep, both of which are surprising for King.

That said, the man does know how to write and you breeze through it pleasurably enough, though by the end of the this snack you're left far from satisfied.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER FAQ

We've been a bit sniffy in the past about the FAQ books because they don't answer frequently asked questions and they don't address the subtitle of "everything that's left to know" about their subjects, but it's time to just accept that this is the marketing line and nothing is going to change that.

So here it is, the latest potted history of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of television's finest fantasy shows, with chapters on the major characters, each season's plots, the 'big bads', the spin off show ANGEL and more. 

It's written by people who clearly know the show and clearly love the show and contains interviews new and old, but it is not (as has been the case with the other books in the series that we have seen) revelatory. There is little here that the hardcore fan won't already know and the there is too much here for anyone who is going into the show for the first time. There are spoilers indeed here.

That said, the book succeeds in its primary function, which is to remind you just how wonderful BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER was and, after reading it, you'll be bringing down those DVDs and plunging back into the world of the Slayerettes once again.

MODERN SCI-FI FILMS FAQ - by Tom DeMichael

Another book in the FAQ series addresses one of our favourite subjects, science fiction movies. Considering we call ourselves the Sci Fi Freak Site, that shouldn't come as any great surprise to anyone.

Also not coming as a surprise to anyone will be the reservations we have over the title and subtitle. There are still no frequently asked questions in this book and we still don't know what they mean by 'all that's left to know about...', in this case time travel, alien, robot and out-of-this-world movies since 1970.

With this book, though, we also have larger reservations about the content than the previous entries we've tried (Doctor Who and Stephen King Films). It's not that it's hard to read; the writer's style is clean and easy to read and doesn't distract from the content at all. It's the construction that we don't understand.

Each film starts with a synopsis and then has some afterwords, analysis, box office and anecdotes. Nothing wrong with that, but it's the amount of room devoted to each that confuses. Take the entry for INCEPTION for example - the plot synopsis runs to seven pages whilst the rest runs to two. That seems to us to be entirely the wrong way around. Admittedly, INCEPTION is a film with a dense and twisting plot, but does anyone really need every twist and turn to be laid out for them? And that's the problem. If you've seen (and loved in most cases) the films then you'll know them well enough to not need to read a detailed synopsis of what happens. If you're going to see the film then you're not going to want to know all the twists and plot spoilers that are included. We found ourselves skipping the synopses altogether and reading only the 'afterwords'. Since these are the smaller sections and seemingly obsessed with box office receipts and not a lot else, the 380 page count gets a lot, lot less.

More interesting are the opening section on the literary roots of the genre (i.e. some important sci fi writers whose work has been recently adapted), science fiction movie spaceships and notable sci fi movie personages. Since these are not simply regurgitating plots, they have more interest.

It's hard to know who this book can be aimed that who won't be disappointed by it, and that's a big problem.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA VAULT by Paul Ruditis

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is one of the most lauded television shows of recent years. Notice that we left out the qualifier 'science fiction' in that? That's because the redefined version of a camp 70's STAR WARS wannabe was a genuine phenomenon that crossed the critical divide from genre into the mainstream. That might not be such a big thing nowadays with the success of the likes of GAME OF THRONES and other HBO shows, but it was big at the time.

So, if you were one of the people who loved the show (and if not, why not?) then you could do a lot worse than getting your hands on this lavishly illustrated book that starts with that camp 70's wannabe and goes right through to the doomed spin-off CAPRICA and the tv movies that tried to extend the magic.

There's only a couple of hours' reading time here and the devoted fan won't learn a lot that they didn't already know, but the words aren't what books like this are all about. The production art and set designs are crammed onto every page and there's more than enough to satisfy even the most hardened Galactica buff. And just in case you weren't convinced that this is all about the images, there are a couple of envelopes inside the front and back cover stuffed with pull out images like Ralph McQuarrie's poster, comparisons of ships of the fleet and the development of the cylon warrior.

The design of the book and the gatefold cover make the £20 cover price seem like a bargain. It's coming up to Christmas, so if you have a frakkin' Galactica fan in your life your present problems could just have been solved.

SCI-FI CHRONICLES - Aurum Press - Out 2nd October

It's not often that we open something that we've been sent to review and let out very unmanly fanboy squeals, but that is exactly what happened when we opened the packaging on SCI-FI CHRONICLES. Our very first impression was 'Oh my God, it's beautiful'. The cover is a lush patterned black with a rendering of Hal 9000's eye lens and some very shiny lettering that just isn't done justice by the image alongside.

But, the beauty of this book doesn't just stop at the cover. It is lavishly illustrated throughout with glorious colour images. They're not huge, but there are so many of them. Each entry is illustrated with small icon images with some of the larger subjects getting two or four pages devoted purely to the pictures.

You need a lot of pages to get all of that onto and SCI-FI CHRONICLES has more than 570 of them (though admittedly 40 of those are dedicated to the index and the credits.

With so much information now readily available on our electronic devices at the swipe of a finger, encyclopedias like this one are much harder to come by, so it's to Aurum's credit that they are willing to even produce the book, let alone do such a good job on it. There are 27 listed contributors, all of whom seem to have a passion for the subject.

And it's a wide-ranging subject too, since the book doesn't restrict itself to just one medium. There are landmark books, films, TV shows, comics, video games and even characters and personalities all contained within. Isaac Asimov shares space with The Day The Earth Stood Still and Jack Kirby. Steven Spielberg jostles elbows with King Kong and Halo. Even with half a thousand pages, it can't be all-encompassing, but we've yet to come up with one entry that we thought ought to be featured that wasn't. The detail is more of a sketch, an introduction to each subject, but you'll know whether you're interested in finding out more about each by the time that you reach the end of the page.

It's not perfect, though, surely. Very nearly. The chronological structure makes it a little harder than necessary to find your subject of choice if you're not interested in reading it as a narrative and the index is a touch fiddly to find the main article of choice. The chronology also stops in 2009, which suggests that there has not been one single book, film, video game, graphic novel, character or creator who has emerged in the genre in the past five years. That seems a little hard to believe.

The space devoted to each entry can be a little obscure as well. Blade Runner, visually the second most influential film of all time, shares its page with the book Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep and mention isn't even given to the excellent video game version and the not quite so excellent KW Jeter sequels. This means that the most influential movie in the genre since Metropolis actually gets less page space that soggy submarine series Seaquest DSV!

Also, any book that states as fact that Tom Baker was the third Doctor has to lose some credibility points.

All of which is nit-picking. The fact is that we have lost hours to this book already and we've had it for less than two days. It has become our favoured reference book of choice and has pride of place on our shelves. That is seriously not bad going.

The £25 price tag might seem a little steep, but take a look inside and you'll probably fall as instantly in love as we did. Also, it's a book that you will go back to time and time again. And it's the kind of gift that your science-loving significant other would thank you for and mean it.

The lovely folks at Aurum have promised one lucky winner a copy of this book absolutely free, so trot on over to www.scififreaksite.com and take part in our giveaway.

DOCTOR WHO FAQ - All That's Left To Know About The Most Famous Time Lord In The Universe by Dave Thompson

It may have escaped your attention, but the BBC TV series DOCTOR WHO celebrated its fiftieth birthday recently. This was as good a reason for a few million more words to be written about what must be one the most written about television series of all time. What, indeed, can there be left to know?

Quibbles first - title and subtitle. This is not a book of frequently asked questions. And as for its claim that it contains 'all that's left to know' about the Doctor, well that's just nonsense. 'All that's left to know' after what?

Don't get me wrong, author Dave Thompson knows his stuff and certainly has opinions on his stuff, but there is very little here that even a semi-knowledgeable viewer like me didn't already know, or certainly couldn't have found out pretty quickly on the internet. True enough, the chapters on the Big Finish audio productions and the music inspired by Doctor Who were news to me, but then I did say that I was only semi-knowledgeable.

What this book really is, is a comprehensive overview of the show for someone who knows a little and wants to know a lot  more. This is for people who are new to the series in its modern incarnation and want to be indoctrinated in the history.

It is also, make no bones about it, for Americans. The opening chapter is entitled 'The TARDIS in America'.

It is also out of date, containing nothing of the fiftieth year's celebrations, but that's a minor point since any book like this is out of date as soon as it's printed (if it's lucky).

So, what's good about it? Well, if you don't already have an overview of the show then you could certainly do worse than this and it does cover those Big Finish audio productions and books and music as well. There's a comprehensive listing of TV episodes, audio productions, original books and even comic books featuring the 'most famous time lord in the universe'.

It's also pretty easy to read. Thompson has a clean style and isn't shy about coming forward with what he thinks. That he didn't like Adric or Mel is no surprise to any right-thinking individual, but his views on the Moffat era might not go down so well with some others.

There's an eclectic mix of illustrations (black and white) to break up the text and at 258 pages of history and opinions, there ought to be something for everyone to find of interest.

We're back, though, to that thorny question of who exactly this book is for. Completists will want it for, well, completeness, but there's very little in it to make it indispensable. Then again, after so much has been written about the show, what on earth could there be left to know?

Joss Whedon - Geek King Of The Universe by Amy Pascale

 

Before you start worrying, this is not another long-winded speech about our love for the Geek King of the Universe that is Joss Whedon. Someone else has already got there.

Sort of.

For those who don't know (and why the hell are your reading this blog if you don't know?) Joss Whedon is a writer of TV shows, films and comic books. Up until recently, his work was known to a smallish audience who made up for their lack of huge numbers with passion.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL and FIREFLY are considered (by their fans at least) as some of the finest science fiction and fantasy shows ever put on television. They never broke into the mainstream, though, and DOLLHOUSE barely made a dent on the popular culture.

Marvel's AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, however, really put the man on the map by becoming one of the biggest moneymaking movies of all time. Taking time off to relax from making that blockbuster, he made a film version of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING in his house!

We at the Sci Fi Freak Site have always loved Joss Whedon, so it was no hardship to read this biography. Amy Pascale's chronological retelling is carried out in a clean and clear style that never puts the writing ahead of the story that it is telling. The author certainly knows her subject, with input from Whedon's family, friends and co-workers on almost all subjects, whether it is his work, his Shakespeare readings with friends, his support of the writers' union or his rocky relationships with various TV companies and movie producers. Whilst his private life is kept private (he's married, he has children, that's about all you're getting), his professional life is laid bare and whilst his early life might not raise too much interest, the moment that we get into the stuff we really want to know about, the book becomes unputdownable.

If there is a negative to be found then it is that a book about a man who is described by almost everyone as the wittiest man they have ever met could have done with a bit more itself.

If you're interested in Joss Whedon's work, then this biography gives a great insight into his history and his methods.

It's available now.

THE ZOMBIE FILM from White Zombie to World War Z by Alain Silver and James Ursini

Now that the whole sparkly-vampires-make-good-boyfriends farrago is come to an end and the werewolves-also-make good-boyfriends phase never managed to get off the ground, attention has turned to the zombie as the paranormal boogeyman of choice. Zombies have often featured in low-budget movies, but now the budgets aren't always so low and screens both large and small are awash with the shambling dead.

To cover this increasingly huge genre of work comes this large format book that starts with the generally accepted first zombie movie, White Zombie (having already covered the myth and written words history of the undead) and takes the reader through all the various iterations of the zombie whether it be George A Romero's shambling metaphors for modern society, Stephen King's reanimated pets in a sematary, raging speedsters appearing 28 Days Later or (oh the horror, the horror) zombie strippers.

The early parts of the book are the more interesting as the formative years are covered with appearances by masters of horror Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in films that set the earlier, voodoo-linked stories. That moves on nicely into the George A Romero period of increasing gore and social commentary. When it moves into the more modern era, it becomes less sure of itself, often becoming overwhelmed by the sheer amount of output that there is to cover and becoming often a list of films and what happens in them rather than analysis into the thematic and historical contexts. Of course, that might just be because there are no themes being examined any longer. The writing style is generally clean and accessible and entertaining, certainly in the book's earlier sections.

It is surprising, however, that THE WALKING DEAD television series gets so little coverage, considering how influential it has been in the genre.

There is a huge filmography at the end so that you can make sure that you have caught up with all of the more obscure offerings that the genre has and the book also has interviews with zombie filmmakers and contributors that vary from the interesting to the intrusive. For sheer coverage, the book also cannot be faulted as it covers the most obvious entries in the genre to some of the less obvious. It's concentration on the contribution made by Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is refreshingly insightful.

The content of the written words might be variable, but there is no faulting the visuals. The books comes stuffed full of lobby cards, stills and images of corpses in various stages of decay. As you can see from the cover image, this is probably not a book to leave where your four year old can get their hands on it and give themselves nightmares.

THE ZOMBIE FILM from White Zombie to World War Z might not be the ultimate guide to the zombie genre, but it will certainly fill the hole whilst we wait for that that one to come along.

STEPHEN KING FILMS FAQ by Scott Von Doviak

Stephen King is one of the great storytellers of our age, hell of any age if it comes to that. It is therefore a strange thing that movie and TV adaptations of his books more often than not fall well short of, well, not sucking.

 

This book is a comprehensive look at all things screen when it comes to taking the printed words and, more often than not, ignoring the hell out of them. Every production you can think of (and a whole bunch you couldn't and will wish you hadn't found out about) can be found inside the covers here.

 

First of all, let's deal with the title. STEPHEN KING FILMS FAQ suggests a certain format, but it's not like that at all. There are no list of questions being answered, frequently asked or otherwise. And then there is the matter of the subtitle 'All that's left to know about the king of horror on film'. Well, that forgets about the whole chunks devoted to videotape productions and I'm curious to know what it means by 'all that's left to know'. All that's left to know after what?

 

Let's deal with the good stuff first. Scott Van Doviak knows his Stephen King adaptations. What it may lack in surgical detail it makes up for in the sheer breadth of its scope. Whilst books could be written (and have been) about the troubled making of Kubrick's THE SHINING, it gets a single chapter before we head on to the next one. There is so much ground to cover that we don't get to dig too deeply at any point.

 

Von Doviak's tone is light and pleasant and the book itself is a very easy read, almost a page turner. It's very easy to settle down to a quick sample and find that three or four chapters have gone past. The layout is clear, going through celluloid examples chronologically before then moving onto the televisual delights on offer. It starts to run out of steam toward the end, however, but that's because we're on to the odds and sods such as THE SIMPSONS pastiches and films inspired by Stephen King.

 

Curiously, Von Doviak doesn't really seem to like many of the films and shows on offer. He certainly spends more time waxing rhapsodic about what's wrong with each of them than what's great. Then again, we all do that.

 

Despite the fact that it's 'all that's left to know', I doubt that there is that much in there that the King devotee didn't already know. The more obscure outings might be useful for the King completist, however. For the person just getting into the visualisation of Stephen King's books, however, there is a wealth of stuff to choose from. Is THE STAND miniseries as good as the book? How did THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION move from a short story to a long masterpiece? Is the Stephen King scripted THE SHINING better than the Kubrick version?

 

It's all here.

 

As someone who's liked and hated his fair share of King's books and films, but is far from being an expert, I found this an enjoyable, easy read, though I was possibly not all that more well-informed at the end of it.

Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses - Roger Corman: King Of The B Movies

Now that's a title and a half for a book.
But that's fair enough because it's a lovely book, both to look at and to read. It's lavishly illustrated with movie stills, film posters and behind the scenes photographs, all illustrating the story of a quite remarkable man.

In case you don't know, Roger Corman is a hugely prolific film-maker who produced enough films to make him practically a studio. He's the man who shot THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS in two days, but also made my favourite THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH, which is just a gorgeous film.

This is not a critical biography of the man, though. The story is told in interview snippets from so many people that worked with (and for, let's be honest) Roger Corman and other movie luminaries. John Landis, Jack Nicholson, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron and many more all put in their penny's worth.

And pennies seems to have been Corman's ethos. Pay as little as you can get away with and make a profit on everything that you put out. Some of the films were outright exploitative rubbish, but others were bona fide masterpieces.

If only through the people whose careers he helped to kickstart, Roger Corman has been a huge influence on the movie industry and this bright, cheerful and fun read seems just the right way to celebrate him.

DARK EDEN - A Walk On The Dark Side

Time to be honest, this review is delayed because this book was my very first experience of audiobooks (I know, I'm so 19th Century). As a result, I needed to try out another audiobook to make sure that the problems I had with DARK EDEN were down to the book itself and not to the experience of audiobooks. I've listened to another one and enjoyed it, so everything that follows is purely down to the book.

Firstly, the book is technically well-produced, with narrators who voice it clearly and flawlessly. There's not a lot in the way of fancy touches, just the story being told, but that's fine. I like things simple.

DARK EDEN is the tale of a group of humans descended from just two, living in a small forest of light and warmth-giving trees on the surface of a planet that is swathed in darkness and ice. Interbreeding has given them birth defects and they have forgotten most of the science and most of the language that their forebears possessed. A young man rises up to challenge the hidebound ways of this 'family' and determines to leave and go in search of a 'promised land'.

Biblical allusions are rife in the book, as you would expect from the title, and there isn't anything here that is going to surprise anyone.

My main problem with this book lies in the use of language. Since language has deteriorated over the generations, the characters can no longer express themselves in anything but very simple terms. When distraught, a character says that they are 'sad, sad'. This is perfectly plausible and fits the scenario, but since the book is narrated in the first person (by one male and one female narrator), the language becomes repetitive and simplistic and that grates after a while. It makes what the characters are feeling seem shallow and unimportant.

It feels like a YA book, and yet it takes in very adult themes such as incest, murder, masturbation and rape, very matter-of-factly.

What is remarkable about DARK EDEN is the world-building. From the giant trees bringing heat to the surface to the batwings, leapords and woolybacks, the world of Eden is brought to life evocatively. You can certainly imagine it in your mind's eye in all its detail. It is a compelling background to a less than compelling story.

Ultimately, the linguistic style of the book proved to be too frustrating for me, but one thing is for sure, it won't be my last audiobook.

Unique But Similar: The Prisoner Compared by Andrew K Shenton

Much has been written on the subject of THE PRISONER, Patrick McGoohan's elliptical, surreal cult fantasy show first broadcast in 1967-8. Much of that can be boiled down to the fact that there was nothing like it ever before and there has been nothing like it since.

That, though, is apparently a fallacy, as this book by Andrew K Shenton sets out to demonstrate.

Taking the major themes of the this landmark show, Dr Shenton shows how they have been used in other shows such as DOCTOR WHO, BLAKE'S SEVEN, UFO, JOE 90, CHILDREN OF THE STONES, THE OMEGA FACTOR and others either before or since, rustling up an impressive array of references from other commentators on the show and the genre in general to back him up.

There is always room for another book about THE PRISONER, especially by such a scholar as Dr Shenton, but I am hard-pressed to see who this particular book is aimed it. It reads like a textbook and might be immensely useful for anyone studying a course in comparable Prisonerology (assuming there is such a thing), and Prisoner completists will, of course, want to see what he has to say, but it's hardly the most entertaining presentation for someone wanting a little light reading.

You also have to question the subject matter. It's true that the themes of THE PRISONER have cropped up elsewhere, not least since they first appeared in the show, but every influential show is going to leave a legacy. An informed examination of that legacy would be interesting, to be sure, but that doesn't seem to be what Dr Shenton is trying to say. What he is trying to do is to challenge the popular perception of THE PRISONER as something quite unique.

The success of that will depend on whether you agree with him or not, but having some chapters devoted to a single episode of another show does weaken his case. I mean one single episode of THE CHAMPIONS sharing some ideas doesn't exactly bring down the walls of the case for THE PRISONER 's reputation.

If you want to see what the talking points are then head over to Amazon.co.uk , Amazon.com, or all good bookstores.

Bill Dares Wins - Or Rather Doesn't - With Brian Gulliver's Travels

We have it on good authority that Brian Gulliver's Travels is a very funny radio series. Something has gone seriously wrong in the translation from show to book then as the one thing that is missing from this is the funny.

Brian Gulliver is a travel writer (did a bit of telly apparently) who has gone missing for some time. Now he's back and in an asylum recovering. His daughter meets with him to write down the stories he has to tell of his crazy journey.

Swift's Gulliver's Travels is possibly the most famous satire ever, although it is probably most known now from the bastardised Jack Black film and other movie versions. The book has lasted the test of time and so if you're going to do a new version then you better have something interesting and new to tackle. The book, however goes after some very obvious targets that have been widely covered before. Celebrity culture - yep that's in here, including the obligatory reality TV sideswipe. Our obsession with health and our bodies? Yep, you can tick that box as well. Crazy religions? Well of course. These are all barn doors to be hit with a shotgun.

The main issue for me was for the main characters. Brian Gulliver is an out and out selfish git with little to no thought for anyone else and happy to go along with anything as long as his life is a comfortable one. He's not the kind the character to idolise or empathise with and his ability to apologise it all away is infuriating.

His daughter, the chronicler of his story plays the foil for him, challenging him on all of his behaviour just in case we, the reader, didn't get the point or understand the theme being discussed.

For all that, it's easy to read and moves at a pace that actually robs it of depth since none of the places that Gulliver ends up in is much described beyond the theme that is being put forward there.

On finishing the book, you won't hate it, but you won't be singing its praises either. Oh well, back to Swift.

Review of GRIMM episode One Angry Fuschsbau

Monroe calls in Nick when it becomes clear that a Wesen lawyer is using pheremones to get a killer off the hook. Juliet gets closer to regaining her memory, but gets a few too many at once.

The main storyline here is a bit too predictable for its own good. The killing at the start is brutally matter of fact and then there is a very smart heist sequence (heisting the lawyer's sweat no less). Matters are not helped, however, by the comedy frog injection sketch (and there's a set of words we never thought we'd see together).

Juliet finds a whole new way to come apart at the seams and it is just unbelievable that her so-called friends and lover would take so little interest in that.

Patchy, but just about gets by.

Review of ARROW's penultimate episode Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Oliver learns the truth about his mother's involvement with the Undertaking and goes after Tommy's father, but is he outmatched?

The penultimate episode of the first season on ARROW pays off in spades on the promise that it has shown at times. There is a light and frothy heist segment, a dark and devious kidnapping and torture segment and a kick-ass face off between the Hood and Malcolm Merlyn that leads to the big cliffhanger.

Squashed in amongst all of this were flashbacks to the island subplot that, quite frankly, we couldn't care about any longer and more love triangle angst that is less annoying than it has been to date.


All in all, this episode is amongst ARROW's finest - assured, smart and nicely balanced.

Kermode Gives Quality Rant to Transformers 3

If you haven't already heard it, get yourself over to BBC Radio 5 Live's website and check out Mark Kermode's review of TRANSFORMERS 3:DARK OF THE MOON. It's absolutely priceless.