If there's one thing I love it's an attractive woman that hates everything I do, and loves bombs. Big. Explosive. Bombs. Boom.
Saturday, 9 February 2013
I love to read all sorts of genres.
For the past year I've read more crime/mystery/detective fiction than I have anything else.
But, for me, nothing trumps westerns or fantasy novels. Those are my first loves.
As an author, if you want to find the quickest way to my heart, combine the best of the western genre with the best of the fantasy genre.
Stephen King's The Dark Tower is in my top 3 favorite series. When I read those novels I can't get Clint Eastwood's face off the screen of my mind, or the soundtrack of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly out of my ears. In fact, as I write this review, I'm listening to that soundtrack on Spotify.
Joe Abercrombie creates a unique fantasy novel in Red Country by mixing the tropes of the western into it. There aren't six shooters or cowboy hats but there are stand offs and outlaws, his take on the Indian, and a story of revenge.
Synopsis
Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she'll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she's not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb's buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country the past never stays buried.
Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . .
Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse, it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust . . .
A Taste of Red Country
"Lamb?" she whispered. He didn't even look at her, just brushed her away with the back of his arm, black eyes picked up a fiery glimmer and fixed across that bridge, muscles starting from his neck, head hanging on one side, pale skin all sweat-beaded, blood dotted, his bared teeth shining in a skull-grin. Shy shrank out of his way like death itself had come tapping at her shoulder. Maybe it had.
As if it was a meeting long arranged, Waerdinur drew a sword, long and straight and dull, a silver mark glinting near the hilt.
"I used to have one o' those." Lamb tossed his own broken blade skittering across the floor and over the edge into nothingness.
"The work of the Maker himself," said Waerdinur. "You should have kept it."
"Friend o' mine stole it." Lamb stepped towards one of the anvils, fingers whitening as he wrapped them around a great iron bar that lay against it, tall as Shy was. "And everything else." Metal grated as he dragged it after him towards the bridge. "And it was better'n I deserved."
What I Liked
Joe Abercrombie is one of those writers that gets better with each novel. His first novel, The Blade Itself, really pales in comparison to Red Country. His writing is better, his story-telling is better, the character are more developed, and he has more of a handle on the grit and darkness that infuses his stories.
Red Country had the richest setting of his books, that I've read, so far. This novel, like his others, is set in a world similar to medieval/renaissance Europe. Reading Abercrombie it almost seems as if his novels are set in an alternate reality. His world mirrors that closely to ours. You don't have to be familiar with the other books set in this world. It wouldn't be a bad idea to read them first. Especially The First Law trilogy. There are characters from those books that pop up into this one.
Back to my point, Red Country's setting was the most developed of all his books. I felt like I stood in the hot summer sun, or dug through the mines, or sat in the dinge and dark of the bars. At times in The First Law I thought Joe fell short with the setting. It sort of seemed like he painted on a part of a picture. Here he is more confident with the descriptions he writes and the settings he creates. He puts you right there in the action.
The action! Boy, the action! That's the highlight of all of Joe Abercrombie's books. I've yet to read an author - within any genre - that can create a battle, a sword fight, or a fist fight as exciting as Mr. Abercrombie. I ducked balled up fists and felt like I dodged the edge of the blade as I read through is pages. My shoulders tensed and I worried for my favorite characters. I hoped for them to come out unscathed. I think about all of his books that I've read, and maybe it's because this books is freshest in my mind, but I can't think of any action scenes that are as well developed as they were in this book. I just want to go through the book and find all out my favorite parts and reread them.
Dialogue has always been a strong suit for Abercrombie, but he's fine tuned his skills with Red Country. Of all fantasy authors Joe Abercrombie writes the best dialogue. His characters talk like a person would talk. It's not pretentious, it's not overwritten, or trite. He puts the right touch on the words his characters use and it doesn't make me roll my eyes because it seems like he's trying too hard.
Finally the western twist. As I said before, you're not going to get shootouts with guns, or a cowboy shooting down a bad guy wearing a black hat. This is still a medieval setting and instead of guns you have swords, bow and arrows, and knives. Lots of knives. That didn't bother me. It was more the tropes of the western genre that Joe Abercrombie focused on. I thought that The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; The Outlaw Josie Wales; Deadwood; and Lonesome Dove were very prevalent in the writing. If you've never watched or read those titles I'd recommend it. Great works.
What I Didn't Like
There's very little that I can say made me unhappy.
I read this on my iPad using the Barnes and Noble app. There were a few formatting issues I noticed throughout the book. Mostly with dialogue. Parts of it were mashed together and made it hard to follow the conversations. Thankfully these sorts of problems were few and far between.
There was also one chapter towards the end that was unnecessary. I don't want to give away any spoilers but the only purpose the chapter served was to kill off a particular character. The problem I had was that the character's story line had already been resolved. So to bring the character back into the story all of a sudden brought up more questions than it answered. I would have preferred that the character be left alive.
Some of the prose is also written in dialect. I thought that was unnecessary because the story is written in third person. I think the only reason to write prose in dialect is if the story is told in first person. Since it wasn't the dialect should have been left to dialogue. It would have made for a smoother read.
Should You Read Red Country
Yes!
Yes!
Most definitely, yes!
This is the first epic fantasy novel I've read in over a year. The last epic fantasy novel I read was actually another Joe Abercrombie novel, Before They Are Hanged, way back on January 24th, 2012. I got burned out on the genre and felt like every story I read was a retelling of the last one. Red Country was a nice stand alone novel with a unique story and twist on the genre. If you've never read the genre before I don't know if it's the best book to use to get your feet wet, but I think you'll be entertained nonetheless. Joe Abercrombie is one of the best writers in the epic fantasy genre today and will not disappoint you. He's got an ever growing catalog of books to read.
Give Red Country a read.
Friday, 8 February 2013
This past Saturday my wife and I took my teenage sister to see Warm Bodies.
One thing I like about my sister is that she's not annoying like other teenage girls are. At least not to me. She seems to have her head on straight. Well . . . other than the weird piercing she got. It's behind her lip at the top of her mouth. Look like it hurt. She said it didn't. Guess I'll take her word for it.
First off I want to start by saying that Warm Bodies has a wonderful soundtrack. There's a nice mix of throwbacks and moderns on the album. I'm listening to it on Spotify and my ears are pleased. Check it out, yo.
On to the review.
What I Liked
The overall execution of the movie was well done. I like that they took a Rom-Com, and that genre's tropes, and mashed it together with a post apocalyptic zombie movie.
If you're going to see this movie take into consideration that it's not going to watch like an episode of The Walking Dead. There were parts of it that I enjoyed more than The Walking Dead. I think at this point TWD has become a parody of itself. Getting rid of Frank Darabont caused a serious drop off for the show. Anyway, that's another blog post.
The use of monologue in this movie is probably the best you're going to see since The Shawshank Redemption. I liked getting inside the zombie's head, knowing what he was thinking, and what he was feeling with every twist and turn of the plot.
That brings me to another point. The movie plays with zombies in a way that I haven't seen other movies or stories take on the living dead. Can they think? Do they imagine? Do they evolve? Warm Bodies takes on those questions and puts their interesting spin on the zombie tropes. I'm not going to spoil the movie so you'll need to go check it out for yourself.
What I Didn't Like
The special effects department in this movie was pretty low budget. It's pretty obvious that the zombies are wearing makeup, and the CGI looks like something off of ABC Family. Honestly, you can overlook that. The story is strong enough that the special effects aren't that big a deal. However if you're hoping for zombies that looks as awesome as they did in Zombieland, or like they do in The Walking Dead, you're not going to get that.
The third act of the movie falls sort of flat. The first two acts of the movie are strong and set a high bar for the ending and I just didn't think they achieved what they could have. Of course there's going to be a happy ending. The zombies are going to be cured and the boy is going to get the girl. That's obvious from the first act. I just wasn't satisfied with the way things turned out.
Which brings me to this, I had to suspend my disbelief for a good amount of the movie. With any sort of fantasy movie it's going to take a little bit of you suspending your disbelief. But this girls spends days with a zombie and isn't repulsed by his smell? They do address this but not as well as they could have.
Outside of your main characters I don't think the secondary cast was developed that well. Your female lead was pretty shallow from beginning to end. The true transformation of the movie is the zombie. For me, I guess that's good enough. That is what the movie is about. Love causing the walking dead to be made alive.
My last gripe is with John Malkovich. The guy is one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood, and usually does something outside the box. This role just didn't do it for me. He got on my nerves. He was your normal over the top, totalitarian, zombie killing leader. Meh. Been there. Done that. Maybe he needed more screen time. I don't know. His character was grossly underdeveloped and his resolution left me wanting. I blame it on the writers.
Should You See It
It sounds like I didn't like this movie. I did. In fact, I give it a solid B+. What they do with zombie tropes and a love story make this movie worth a matinee, and at the worst a Red Box rental.
If you're looking for something to do this weekend go check Warm Bodies out.
I want to start this post off by apologizing for not getting this post up on Wednesday.
It's been a busy week.
This week I think I've got some good cliff notes for you, and will have an even better post next week.
Remember a lot of the writing advice I find comes from spending hours searching through Brain Pickings and Advice To Writers. Those are two great websites that are worth your time.
Now, before you read what I have for you this week, lets find you some music.
Gimme a second . . .
Here ya go . . .
Check out Alabama Shakes. They're a great up and coming band. Put them in your Spotify, buy them on iTunnes, or get to a store and purchase their CD. Whatever you do, listen to this band.
And without further ado. Here are your cliff notes on the craft:
Cliff notes on imagination from Ernest Hemingway:
"Imagination? It is the one thing beside honesty that a good writer must have. The more he learns from experience the more he can imagine."
Cliff notes on rewriting from Mark Twain:
"You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it. God only exhibits his thunder and lightning at intervals, and so they always command attention. These are God's adjectives. You thunder and lightning too much; the reader ceases to get under the bed, by and by."
Cliff notes on editing from F. Scott Fitzgerald:
"Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke."
Cliff notes on becoming a good writer from Christopher Moore:
"Well, not being very good can usually be fixed, but having nothing interesting to write about can't. If you can't think of anything to write about, it's best, probably, to learn another skill or aspire to a different career. (I'm talking about fiction here. If you want to write non-fiction, you can always work as a journalist. Then they tell you what to write.) So my advice would be, and is, if you're not very good, but you'd like to be, then take five years, learn your craft, do some writing, and if you're still not good, go do something else. You'll live a lot happier life that way. Writing is too hard to do if you aren't enjoying it and getting better."
Cliff notes from me:
(I put myself last not because I think I'm more important, or because I think my advice is better, but because I think what these writers have to say is much more important than me. They have the success that gives weight to their advice.)
"Everyone is a natural storyteller, but not everyone is a writer. A writer is someone who has spent years perfecting his craft. A storyteller just tells stories."
IGN and a ton of other websites are reporting that Warner Bros. Justice League movie is continuing to have script problems. It seems like this is the 500th script that they're rejected.
Hasn't this movie been in development hell for over a decade?
Personally I wish they'd kill it.
Right now Warner Bros. and DC are trying to copy Marvel's method of success, and they're going about it the wrong way.
Marvel planned for years to build their cinematic universe, it took years of filming to accomplish it, and a handful of films to make it a success. The Avengers is not something that happened over night.
Don't try to follow in their footsteps, Warners. It will not be a successful. Focus on the characters themselves. Make movies for Wonder Woman, The Flash, make a good Green Lantern movie, and let the Green Arrow continue to taste success. Don't be Marvel junior. You're better than that.
If Man of Steel is a success focus on making another great Superman movie. Don't throw him in a group movie with a bunch of superheroes who you haven't taken the time to establish on film. Start preparing for another Batman franchise. That's your cash cow and Chris Nolan has set the bar pretty high for whoever takes the reins. You need to be ready.
Don't cheat the fans and give us a shitty Justice League movie because you're being reactionary instead of being proactive. You've got great characters who will do fine in standalone movies. You don't have to play Marvel's game. Mark my words, it will not be as good. Kill Justice League while you still have a chance.
Thank you.
Saturday, 2 February 2013
I appreciate all forms of music.
But I love good music.
And I adore an artist that makes music that he loves.
I think that's what separates good music from great music, and good art/writing from great art/writing.
Nicholas Sparks may write some good novels but Cormac McCarthy has ascended to a higher tier of art. Just read the two and it's clear what makes McCarthy superior to Sparks.
But this blog isn't about good art versus great art.
It's about Dave Grohl.
I'm a fan of podcasts. I'm also a fan of the Foo Fighters.
Recently the Nerdist interviewed Dave Grohl on their show, and I believe it's one of their best interviews by far.
If you're a fan of music, an artist of any kind, or want to listen to a down to earth guy who's not pretentious about the music he makes, and loves it with every bit of his being. Then you need to give this 'cast a listen.
Jump on over to the Nerdist website by going HERE.
And If you've never given the Foo Fighters a listen then you should start with this song:
They're a reprehensible group of people.
If you've watched the documentary Fall From Grace (which you can stream on Netflix) then you know what I'm talking about.
I was actually pretty damned disturbed after watching the doc. It took me a few days to get over the hate the family spews.
If you're pursuing something in life and you think these guys may show up with their picket signs that say: God hates fags, Thank God for HIV, and other hateful bullshit then plug away!
Kevin Smith has set the bar pretty high but I think there's enough hate to go around.
Here's to your dreams!
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