THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
12/14/12 -- Vol. 31, No. 24, Whole Number 1732
Wiley Coyote: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Road Runner: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Paul Krugman and Asimov's "Foundation" Novels
Storm Diary, Part 5 (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
CONNECTED (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
HITCHCOCK (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Even More SF TV to Consider (TV reviews
by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
PRIMARY INVERSION by Catherine Asaro (audiobook review
by Joe Karpierz)
This Week's Reading (THE TESTAMENT OF MARY and
Agatha Christie tropes) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Paul Krugman and Asimov's "Foundation" Novels
There is an article in the "Guardian" by Paul Krugman titled
"Asimov's Foundation novels grounded my economics". The first
paragraph is:
"There are certain novels that can shape a teenage boy's life. For
some, it's Ayn Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED; for others it's Tolkien's THE
LORD OF THE RINGS. As a widely quoted Internet meme says, the
unrealistic fantasy world portrayed in one of those books can warp
a young man's character forever; the other book is about orcs. But
for me, of course, it was neither. My Book--the one that has
stayed with me for four-and-a-half decades--is Isaac Asimov's
"Foundation Trilogy", written when Asimov was barely out of his
teens himself. I didn't grow up wanting to be a square-jawed
individualist or join a heroic quest; I grew up wanting to be Hari
Seldon, using my understanding of the mathematics of human
behaviour to save civilisation."
The full article is at
http://tinyurl.com/void-krugman-foundation.
Krugman's endorsement of the Foundation Trilogy inspired the Open
Culture website to remind us that the BBC radio adaptation of
Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy--eight one-hour long segments--is
available for free downloading at the archive.org site.
http://tinyurl.com/mtv-foundation
==================================================================
TOPIC: Storm Diary, Part 5 (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
[It is now Sunday, November 4. We are now seven days into the into
the power outage. We have been without power for about 114 hours.
Things are getting better. Things are getting worse. The house is
down to about 55 degrees. It is hard to sleep at night because my
CPAP needs power. Evenings are very dull. On the other hand the
days are getting better. We now know where we can go out for
lunch. In fact today we actually have a good lunch. The problem
is you cannot stay at Outback and McDonalds for long. Eventually
there is that empty feeling when we come back to a dark, cold
house. We see the sky getting darker. We can make the best of the
situation and many have things a lot worse than we do. But going
into the house and spending the night with the chill is a low point
of the day.]
11/04/12
It was hard to sleep between the cold of the house and not having
my CPAP. Each day the house temperature drops. Today it was 55
degrees inside, 26 degrees outside.
Today we changed the clocks. I went to sleep about 9 PM, which
today would be 8 PM. I got very little sleep though I was in bed
more than 9 hours. I am wearing thermal underwear, two pairs of
pants, undershirt, button shirt, and two pullover sweaters and even
a scarf to bed.
The good news is there are people working on the street. The bad
news is that they are not directly involved with electricity but
with cutting up fallen trees. Our neighbor had two trees fall
apparently on his house. They probably removed some wires at the
same time. The workers are over there cutting up the tree.
Without power, Internet, or cable, we can only see this storm from
the inside. The only time we see the worst of the devastation is
when we have found some place with power to plug in our PC. And
then we are very rushed. Anything we cannot see driving around the
roads near home we cannot see at all except for a few photos we can
bring up on the laptop. From what people are saying there is
probably spectacular damage that has been done.
I guess what frightens me is the idea that my neighbor had two
trees fall on his power line. If there were only three houses that
had damage in my development it would be unlikely that I would be
so near one of them. That leads me to believe there are a lot of
homes with damaged lines. The repair people were taking a good
piece of the day to make that repair. This leads me to believe
that there may be several weeks of work to be done restoring power
to just my development. The ambient temperature in my house today
is 55 degrees F and it drops one or two degrees a day. It won't be
long before it will be darn unpleasant and cold in the house. It
was below freezing this morning when I woke up. If it gets below
32 in the house, we could be in for some real trouble. Outside the
temperature is due to be below freezing.
We went out to use some free electricity to charge batteries on my
iPod and our laptop. Dinner was at a working class Mexican
restaurant. We turned it into a one PC Internet cafe.
It is 4:15 in the afternoon and already it is getting dark and
cold. Is this the fun part?
Less than an hour later the phone rang. Our friends had returned
from New York to a house with light and power. They had called
home to find if there was power back and their answering machine
had turned on.
One of the first things they did was invite us over to spend the
night in a house with electricity and heat.
To help earn our keep I suggested we bring a movie to watch. They
said they wanted a comedy to lift their spirits. They needed a
good laugh. With a little thought I decided to try the original
DEATH AT A FUNERAL (2007). (Both hosts thought it was a good
choice. One was just laughing at the film and the other was
laughing so hard Evelyn claimed his face was turning red. It is a
very funny movie.)
But that was later. They offered us a warm bed for the night. We
tried a few times to call our phone, but the answering machine did
not answer so we knew there was still no power.
Our hosts had dinner and wanted us to join them, but we could not
eat after that big lunch.
Later we saw the movie and went to bed. The house was actually
warm, which was a delightful change.
11/05/12
Our friends served us breakfast in the morning and we made plans to
go home and then return at 5 PM bearing Chinese take-out.
Still our answering machine was not responding. On the drive home
several intersections had traffic lights that either were
completely out or only flashing red.
On our street in one tight group in front of our house and a few
others there were 15 trucks, mostly cherry-pickers. There were no
other trucks we saw in the whole development. We must have a
particularly troubled set of lines.
Inside the house there was still no power. The temperature was 54
degrees and continues to drop.
I am beginning to think that Lakeridge is the Mount Everest of
power outage locations. If you are destined to fail to restore
power to an area of New Jersey there is still honor in failing to
restore power to Lakeridge. They are throwing their best repair
people from all over the country at Lakeridge and they are coming
back bloody and humbled. Lakeridge is undefeated. Avalon Hill
next month will publish two new war games: Kursk and Lakeridge.
This morning I was guessing from all the attention that Lakeridge
was getting it would fall today. Now I think I was optimistic.
There is no real sign that the job is even approaching done. This
is an older neighborhood with lots of grown trees. They get in the
way of work and cause all sorts of problems.
Really no progress today. We are staying with our friends. We
brought take-out Chinese. At least we could sleep in the warmth of
their house.
I believe there are 1300 households without power in Old Bridge. I
believe that that is like three times as many as any other town
served by Jersey Central Power & Light.
11/06/12 (Election Day)
I have a little bit of Chinese from the previous night for
breakfast.
We have been visiting our house daily to be sure things are all
right and to look at the progress of repairs. On the way home we
saw about ten vultures congregating at the side of the road. Some
driver had hit a deer, perhaps because of the darkness of the
roads. The vultures were enjoying their windfall.
We stop at our house. The house is down to 51 degrees.
There was about a twenty-minute line to vote. We were able to
compare notes with other people who were also suffering from the
storm and the outage. There was a family from Cape May who had
just arrived for refuge in this area. They were using special
voting procedures for refugees from the storm.
After voting we went to the library to use their computers. After
that returned to the house. Most gas stations are functioning
without long lines.
Then back to the house again to change clothes. Then back to our
friends. We had some mushrooms and bread for dinner. She cuts the
mushrooms and drizzles them with olive oil and Parmesan. Then she
bakes them. That is pretty good.
In the evening we watched MARGIN CALL. All agreed it was good.
Then we followed the election returns until it was clear that Barak
Obama had won.
The nice thing about a hurricane and losing power is that it gives
you an appreciation for the simple things of life. "Look. A
traffic light. And it's red when the top is lit. It's green at
the bottom. And look. In the middle it's YELLOW." It is just
nice to see someone nearby to our house has power.
I am starting to think this whole superstorm thing was a bad idea.
11/07/12
It is Wednesday. After cereal for breakfast we go out shopping
ready to go to the house. Maybe there will even be power back.
A nice thing about this power outage is the JCP&L somehow phrases
things so that you always feel you are having the last full day of
the outage. You go through the day optimistic and just feel bad as
the sun is going down.
For quite a while they have been saying most people will have their
power back by Wednesday and just about everybody by Friday). This
is Wednesday. I am expecting the power back really soon now. With
maybe a 30% probability.
And surely by Friday. And almost definitely by Thanksgiving. And
nearly certainly by Valentines Day. And it is a virtually
guaranteed it will be back by Tish'a B'Av.
I have Gyros for lunch. We go to an electronics store just to keep
warm and look for DVDs, though we are not likely to find any we
want.
We drive home looking at the devastation. It is pretty bad. At we
in sight of our house THE LAWN LANTERN IS LIT!
OK, I was wrong. When we got home in the afternoon we found the
lantern on my lawn on. Getting into the house we found that we had
arrived just 20 minutes after power had been restored. It came
back at 1:18 PM. We had been without power and heat for just two
hours and 20 minutes short of 9 days. The house is getting warmer.
I run around resetting clocks.
11/23/12
16 days later...
Our recovery is going slowly, but there is no pressure to get
things done faster. We need to hire help to remove some fallen
trees and it is hard even getting a callback from these people
because they are so much in demand. I thought damage on our street
was bad, but if I drive around I see so much more destruction than
I expect to see. A friend had a nice wooded lot last month. I
think he lost most of his trees and his backyard looks like a
battlefield. So we are lucky.
Well, hearing about the extent of Sandy, this scenario of the storm
would make a really believable, really scary movie. Just a little
too much coincidence of factors coming together to make it worse.
12/13/12
When we drive around the area I am amazed to see how much
destruction there really was. There are trees down just about
wherever you go. There is now a water alert that our water supply
was damaged by the storm and we need to cut back on usage. I think
we will be feeling the effects of the storm for a long time.
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: CONNECTED (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: CONNECTED is a story with two unfolding plots. One is
science fiction and the other is a love story. But the love story
gets in the way of the science fiction story and the glacial pace
of the telling gets in the way of the love story. This film is
nearly two hours long and everything of value could have been told
better in a 25-minute length. The film is written, directed,
produced, and edited by Dave Ash as his first film. Rating: 0
(-4 to +4) or 4/10
John Cooper (played by Clarence Wethern) is a software designer
working on producing a machine that can pass the Turing Test.
(This is a test of human intelligence simulation software that asks
can a machine carry on a conversation with a human and the human
will not know if he speaking to a person or a machine.) Through an
explanation involving DNA John's company seems on the verge of
producing a machine that will pass the test. But John is
emotionally disconnected from humanity and is toying with ideas of
suicide. Then John's outlook changes. He meets attractive,
intelligent Emily Christiansen (Bethany Ford). They spend time
together and though awkward at first are certainly interested in
each other, but Emily is reticent to let John come too close into
her life. Once that is established the film moves at a glacial
pace.
While at heart there is a science fiction premise to this film, it
is not really one engaged in new ideas. Instead the film has
expository dialog. John as a discussion with his psychiatrist
"Have you heard of Kurt Godel?" "No." So John explains Godel's
proof to the psychiatrist. Frankly I am a little surprised someone
with enough education to be a psychiatrist would not have at least
heard of Kurt Godel. Admittedly this particular doctor seems in
many ways to be clueless. Even more surprising is that John does
know of Godel but mispronounces the name as if it rhymes with
"yodel". The explanations of science are of some interest though
many of the viewers will already be familiar with some of the
concepts. The story keeps promising to go somewhere, but never
does. The viewer should not expect much of a conclusion to either
the love story or the story of the development of the replication
human intelligence. The focuses more on John than on the
development of the artificial intelligence device and more on
John's predicament than his personality. We see a little more of
Emily's persona but it is left enigmatic. Emily's story seems to
focus on a scene toward the end of the film, but it even there is
not clearly explained.
In the hands of cinematographer Jason P. Schumacher much of
CONNECTED seems to be shot with a hand-held camera. This does not
work for the film. Even with John and Emily standing still, the
camera is not locked down and it jiggles around. The top of the
frame often will come down and cut of the top of an actor's head.
In scene after scene the camera seems to be misaimed. The sound
direction seems better through most of the film, but one sequence
shot in a movie theater the characters sound like they are speaking
in a glass jar.
Moments in the dialog often go slowly with pregnant pauses, but
which do not pay off dramatically. They made me wonder if somehow
their dialog was supposed to be part of a real Turing Test. One
place that the film does very well is that the people working for
John's company look the part, better than a Hollywood film would
have. They look like people you might actually find working for
such a tech company.
This is a first feature film for Dave Ash and for it he took four
important functions behind the camera: director, writer, editor,
and soundman. As I frequently feel with the first film of a
director who has several appearances of his name in the credits, he
is spreading himself too thinly. Few new directors have the talent
of an Orson Welles to be chief cook and bottle washer on a film.
Most film is a collaborative process. Doing so much is an
ambitious undertaking, but it may not be well advised. I rate
CONNECTED a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale or 4/10.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2243215/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: HITCHCOCK (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: HITCHCOCK is the story of the great director, his
marriage, his relationships with his starring actresses, and the
making of his most easily remembered film, PSYCHO. Combining film
history, rumor, folklore, fiction, and speculation, Sacha Gervasi
directs John J. McLaughlin's adaptation of a book by Stephen
Rebello. We will never know how much of this is true, but it
probably does not matter. This is a generally enjoyable production
with some foibles of its own. Like an episode of Hitchcock's TV
show, HITCHCOCK is entertaining but not great art. Rating: low +1
(-4 to +4) or 5/10
HITCHCOCK is about so much on and off the set of PSYCHO, that it
really is not about a lot of anything but Hitchcock himself. It is
mostly about Alfred Hitchcock's double-edged relationship with Alma
Reville, Hitchcock's wife, who seems to have had at least half of
the perceptiveness of the couple--probably more than half. When
the film is working on all cylinders it is reminiscent of TOPSY-
TURVY's account of Gilbert and Sullivan creating "The Mikado". Too
often it is more like ED WOOD's compilation of fan magazine stories
about its title director.
HITCHCOCK takes Hitch, as he is called (played by Anthony Hopkins),
from his triumph with NORTH BY NORTHWEST, telling the story of how
he found his next property in Robert Bloch's novel PSYCHO. He
finds he has to fund the production with his own money. If the
movie fails he will lose the lovely house he shares with Alma
(Helen Mirren).
A large ensemble of familiar actors take parts irrespective of
whether they actually resemble their originals. It should be noted
that Hopkins is present because he is a darn good actor and not
because the makeup staff could do anything at all effective to make
him look like Alfred Hitchcock. Anthony Hopkins just looks like a
bald, fat Anthony Hopkins finding it impossible to fade into the
character he plays. Scarlett Johansson will never be mistaken for
Janet Leigh. The one and only exception, and perhaps one that
should have been exploited more, is that James D'Arcy appears to
naturally resemble Anthony Perkins.
Too much is happening in too many directions to say what the story
is. Janet Leigh is able to hold her own and not conflict too much
with Hitchcock, which she explains is because she did TOUCH OF EVIL
with the even more impossible Orson Welles. Meanwhile Hitchcock is
having fantasy conversations with Ed Gein, the real-life serial
killer who inspired two different horror series, the "Psycho" films
and the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" films, as well as the character
of Jame Gumb in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. The scattershot insults
to Hitchcock also imply that Hitchcock himself used the peephole in
PSYCHO for much the same reason that Norman Bates did in the movie.
Hitchcock and his attractive leading ladies seem to have the same
relationship where each feels persecuted by the other.
Alma is trying to be supportive of her husband and at the same time
has a relation--platonic and professional, she hopes--with
Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston), the screenwriter of Hitchcock's
STAGE FRIGHT and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. Cook hopes to write another
screenplay he can peddle, perhaps to Hitchcock. But Alma does not
have the name recognition with the viewer that Hitchcock had, so
there is no need to tarnish her reputation the way Hitchcock's is
in this film.
Today there is still much controversy about just who Alfred
Hitchcock was, and 54 years later it is too late to verify how much
of this film's picture of him is true. Gervasy gives us a picture
of a genius who is nonetheless full of personal demons and both
obsessed by and sadistic toward beautiful women. More than half a
century after these events Hitchcock has become legend, and dead
legends get no opportunity to defend themselves. I rate HITCHCOCK
a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 5/10.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0975645/
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hitchcock/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Even More SF TV to Consider (TV reviews by Dale L. Skran,
Jr.)
Fall 2012 has rolled around, and there are always new SF shows
starting. This fall has a new season of NIKITA, THE VAMPIRE
DIARIES and SUPERNATURAL on the CW network. New shows ARROW and
THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST appear on the CW as well. FRINGE is
playing on Fox, and HAVEN has returned to SyFy. Finally, newbie
REVOLUTION from J. J. Abrams is in mid-season hiatus on NBC.
SUPERNATURAL (moved to Wednesday night following the new ARROW) is
in its eighth season, but still wearing well. My understanding is
that the show's creators had a particular story arc they wanted to
do, and they finished it in either Season 5 or Season 7, with the
result that they are now beyond any of their original plans for
this show. The formula is to have a new menace each week, but
after 7 seasons the mythology is getting mined pretty deeply.
There is also usually a season-long or even multi-season story arc
of some kind, the Season 8 version of which has only been hinted
at, but apparently involves someone trying to keep Castiel out of
Heaven.
Still, they have done creative things in the new season. The season
starts with Dean but not Castiel (an angel) escaping from
Purgatory, and the fall-out from this adventure informs many of the
Season 8 episodes. BITTEN, which aired October 24th, is a "found
footage" episode in which Sam and Dean are rather peripheral as a
group of friends, CHRONICLE-style, discover first what is cool
about being werewolves and then what is not so cool. A more recent
episode, HUNTERI HEROICI, will have a lot of appeal to Bugs Bunny
fans as Sam and Dean encounter not a supernatural menace, but a
really powerful telekinetic who lives in a nursing home, lost in
his memories of childhood cartoons.
NIKITA (still running on Friday night) returns to the CW for a full
third season. Nikita and her friends are now working at a "new
Division" run by Ryan Fletcher, a brilliant former CIA analyst
Nikita saved in earlier episodes, with the mission of tracking down
and either eliminating or bringing in from the cold thirty rogue
division agents. Of the old Division leadership, Percy is dead and
Madeline is in hiding. One of the episodes recapitulates HANNA to
some degree, with a rogue division agent having taken up training a
new teenage protegee to complete the one mission he failed to
accomplish while at Division.
Nikita's main challenge is that the President, as Nikita has
recently discovered, has stationed a large number of well-equipped
troops right outside Division, ready to break in and kill everyone
at a moment's notice. The President is terrified of what will
happen if news gets out that Division exists, and is operating on a
hair trigger. The tension between the supposed mission of
"shutting down Division" and new work has already reared its head,
and it is easy to imagine that one day the President will wake up
and realize that she needs Division to do something that only
Division can do. And then Nikita will have to decide whether she
wants to perpetuate Division indefinitely.
The strength of NIKITA is that it takes its premise seriously, and
I like how they are working out the "winding down" of Division. A
final confrontation with Madeline looms, but the real question is
always whether Nikita and her friends will ever leave Division for
good, or will they find that, ultimately, it is their only true
home.
The previous Nikita TV series ends with Nikita standing in the
perch, overlooking the Division operational center, having just
taken over as Operations, the head of Division. Division is
finally a trap for her. She has worked for years to escape it, but
found that in the end she is responsible for it and must stand
between the public and the vast damage Division could do run by the
wrong person, a job she will never be thanked for, and that will,
in end, almost certainly kill her, just as it killed the previous
holder of the title Operations.
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES started its fourth season on Thursday night.
The main theme of this season is that (finally) Elena Gilbert, the
main protagonist, has become a vampire. In a lot of ways the
fourth season is a new beginning, with new villains, and with our
heroes actually working with Klaus, the previous main villain, much
of the time. This universe is a complicated one, people by witches,
hunters, vampires, werewolves, and vampire-werewolf hybrids.
However, the stories are dominated by the love triangle between
Elena, and the Salvatore brothers, Stefan and Damon. In Season 4,
Elena decides that as a vampire, she no longer loves Stefan, and
turns her affections to bad-boy Damon. Superficially, just another
teenage love triangle, VAMPRE DIARIES brings a surprising depth and
nuance to the eternal triangle. VAMPIRE DIARIES is still going
strong, with fast-paced stories and an interesting cast. I have
read at least the first book in the series, and am pleased to
report that the TV show is better in every way than the book.
The CW has two new genre shows this season, THE BEAUTY AND THE
BEAST, and ARROW. I never watched the original B&B TV show, and I
decided not to watch this one either. Although no doubt a timeless
tale, it is in the end just a retelling of beastly boy meets
delicate girl. ARROW, on the other hand, seeks to play off the
popularity of Green Arrow in SMALLVILLE, although the character is
played by a different actor, and with a total concept reboot.
ARROW is a highly watchable super-hero TV show.
It has long been said that the weakest heroes make the best
stories, and Green Arrow is surely one of the weakest DC heroes,
pretty much on the same level as Batman. In many ways the Green
Arrow comic, with the sidekick "Speedy" dressed in red circus togs,
was one of the sillier DC comics, although not as silly as Green
Lantern. I am pleased to report that all that is silly in the
comic has been dumped, and all that is good has been retained.
"Speedy" is now a nickname for Oliver Queen's (Green Arrow's)
sister and his sidekick is a large and muscular black special
forces soldier originally hired as Oliver's bodyguard, and who
wears the costume at key times to protect Arrow's secret identity.
The rob from the rich/protect the poor aspect of the comic has been
retained, and ARROW introduces a number of minor DC characters,
including Slade Wilson, as Deathstroke the Terminator, Deadshot,
and the Huntress. These characters so far have been handled well.
Deadshot is, well, dead after his first encounter with Oliver, but
it looks like the Huntress will be a major on-going character, and
I suspect Slade Wilson will make a number of future appearances
since Oliver has a special bone to pick over being tortured on that
mysterious island by Wilson.
ARROW creates new origin story for Oliver Queen, spoiled playboy
turned masked vigilante, namely that he is on a yacht that sinks,
and ends up on a mysterious island, where he meets a man dressed
rather like the Green Arrow who lives in a cave. The man attempts
to teach him how to survive, but Oliver will have none of it and
escapes, only to be captured by soldiers and tortured by Slade
Wilson. Oliver somehow endures the torture, which leaves his body
extensively scarred, and is rescued by the man in green. Among the
things Oliver brings back from the island are a much hardened body,
skill with a wide variety of weapons, a strange herb with healing
powers, and a book given to him by his father that contains a list
of all the crime lords in the city.
Dressing in the Arrow costume, Oliver Queen tries to balance his
life as a decadent playboy by day with heroic costumed adventurer
at night while he seeks to destroy every crime lord on his father's
list. This Green Arrow, unlike Batman, is more than willing to
kill if need be, but he does not seek out violence for its own
sake. The show is fun and surprisingly entertaining--at least as
good as SMALLVILLE and in many ways better. Although the
characters are for the most part young and beautiful, this seems
more natural given their ages and backgrounds than was the case in
SMALLVILLE.
FRINGE is an old friend returned, and I still find the characters
engaging. Alas, the plots have grown ever more improbable, and
now, with our heroes transported into a future in which the
Observers [bald telepaths from the future] have conquered the Earth
and imposed a grim dictatorship, things are getting really dubious.
Well, they are getting reduced to Mark's classic "three otters in
search of a ring" except it is "some number of Fringe Agents in
search of video tapes with the secret to defeating the Observers."
I'm finding the fifth [and final] season less and less interesting,
and have actually stopped watching regularly. My suggestion is to
get the first three seasons on DVD and watch them--and forget the
last two seasons. J. J. Abram's inability to properly finish first
LOST and now apparently FRINGE on a high note does not bode well
for his other projects, including STAR TREK and REVOLUTION. So
far, the only Abram's show that I found to have a satisfactory
conclusion was ALIAS.
HAVEN has returned this fall to the SyFy channel with thirteen new
episodes. It has been renewed for a fifth thirteen-episode season
to run in the fall of 2013. At first I found HAVEN so slow that it
was hard to stay interested. Gradually, it grew on me, and I
started watching consistently. HAVEN is a weird pastiche of the
supernatural, super-science, super-hero, and the police procedural
that is not quite like any other TV show. Week-to-week there are
tight little mysteries, some super-hero-ish, some SF-ish, and some
supernatural-ish, but all quite watchable. There is, however, a
"many plates in the air" tone to HAVEN, and it is easy to imagine
that the big explanation, when it comes, will be either incoherent
or a huge letdown. The main character is FBI Special Agent Audrey
Parker, who finds on arrival in HAVEN that she is a sort of energy
sink who is unaffected by the powers of those in the village, and
thus a natural for resolving difficult issues.
Audry is assisted by Nathan Wuornos, at first a member of the Haven
police department, and later its chief, who is, as they say in
Haven, "troubled" himself by having an inability to feel any touch,
which as a side effect makes him unable to feel pain.
Also working with Audry is Duke Crocker, a restaurant owner and
modern-day smuggler who, in addition to being roguishly handsome,
turns out to have the power to permanently end a trouble by killing
its owner. Together they challenge an army of "troubled" souls
with a wide array of super-hero and supernatural powers, some quite
inventive.
It gradually evolves that there is a lot more to Audrey than meets
the eye--she returns to the town every 28 years, always looking
exactly the same, always the same age, but with a new set of
memories--but always with the power to help those with "troubles."
It gets weirder from there. If they pull it off, it will be
something special, but the odds are the show will collapse under
its own weight eventually.
We conclude our tour with REVOLUTION, a new J. J. Abrams show.
REVOLUTION operates well tactically, and episode to episode, as a
sister seeks out an uncle and, joined by a few friends, undertakes
a dangerous journey to recover her brother who has been kidnapped
by a militia. Oh, yea, this is about fifteen years after the point
that electricity stopped working for some unknown reason. Not an
EMP attack--electricity just won't work any more, or at least so it
appears. Uncle Miles turns out to be a very useful fellow to have
on a trip, death on wheels with any weapon, but especially his
sword.
For a network show, there is a surprising NRA theme--the good guys
are American rebels who own their own guns, and the bad militia
have made it illegal to own guns, and have split up the USA into
several regions, each with its own warlord. It gradually evolves
that there are these odd looking amulets that can turn on
electricity, at least locally, and there are some mysterious
scientists who seem to know something about how the power might be
turned on. Eventually, the leader of the Monroe Militia gets wind
of some of this, and the hunt is one to figure out to turn the
power on--and just exactly what the dickens is going on!
Rather like HAVEN, this is going to end up with a good explanation,
or a terrible one. I'm reluctant to recommend it since there seems
to be such a high likelihood of things ending badly, but it is
entertaining as an adventure show.
And so, in summary:
New and interesting: ARROW & REVOLUTION.
Getting better with age: NIKITA, VAMPIRE DIARIES, HAVEN.
Still interesting if a bit tired: SUPERNATURAL.
No longer recommended: FRINGE.
Adults and older teens only, mainly due to graphic or horrific
violence: VAMPIRE DIARIES, HAVEN, SUPERNATURAL, FRINGE.
Okay for older kids and younger teens, keeping in mind that these
are all action shows where people are killed in pretty much every
episode: ARROW, REVOLUTION, NIKITA. [-dls]
==================================================================
TOPIC: PRIMARY INVERSION by Catherine Asaro (copyright 1996, Tor,
2000, Blackstone Audio, 10 hours, 59 minutes) (audiobook review by
Joe Karpierz)
PRIMARY INVERSION was the first novel that Catherine Asaro wrote in
the Skolian Saga sequence even though it come fifth, more or less,
in chronological order. I say more or less because my wife pointed
out to me a source that showed it coming a few books later in the
sequence. But I digress.
The central character of the novel is Soz Valdoria, a Rhon psion
and an Imperial heir to the throne of the Skolian empire. She is a
Jagernaut, one of a group of technologically enhanced fighter
pilots. She is the leader of a squadron of four Jagernauts. As
the book opens, Soz and her squadron are taking shore leave on a
planet neutral in the war between the Skolian and Trader Empires.
While in a bar with the rest of her team, she meets a man whom she
later discovers is Jaibriol Qox, the heir to the Trader throne.
While the rest of her team wants to take him out once they find out
who he is, Soz convinces them otherwise, ostensibly because how
would it look if they fought the enemy in neutral territory.
However, what her team does not know is that Qox is also Rhon and a
powerful empath. Soz and Qox link and fall in love, and in the
process Soz finds out what Jaibriol's father is planning for his
next attack. Soz and her team escape and try to warn the planet
that will be under attack, but barely escape with their own lives
in the process. One of those injured is one of her squad members,
Rex, who was going to retire in order to marry Soz. The injury to
Rex hit Soz hard, but it hits Rex harder, damaging their
relationship irreparably.
The next section of the book deals with an enforced leave that Soz
is on, courtesy of her brother Kurj, Imperator of the Skolian
Empire. Soz doesn't understand why she needs rest, and is
resentful for the assignment. She doesn't think she needs help.
She meets some of the locals and tries to fit in, but only ends up
feeling more and more lost. Her mental and emotional condition
deteriorates to the point where she accidentally points her weapon
at her head with the safety off while trying to pick up a singer at
a bar. It is that that point that she realizes that she does need
help, and she goes to see a "heartbender", the equivalent of a
psychologist, one who specializes in mental and emotional problems
with Jagernauts.
The final section of the book deals with the capture of Jabriol Qox
by the Imperialate fleet. Kurj wants Soz to interrogate Qox.
However, Soz finds herself in a very unenviable position. She
knows Qox's secret, and she knows that if Kurj finds out she's
likely to be sent to prison and interrogated at the very least,
possibly executed for treason at the worst. Soz must know that she
can't interrogate Qox. She must find a way to free Qox and
extricate herself from the situation. She finds help from an
unexpected family member. The solution is simple--the execution is
difficult.
PRIMARY INVERSION is an absolutely terrific first novel from
Catherine Asaro. It is a terrific blend of action, adventure,
science, and romance. Even though by this time those of us who
have been reading the Skolian Saga chronologically have come to
know and love the characters as if they were their own family, this
novel manages to make us care about its characters as if we'd known
them a long time, even though it was the first novel published in
the sequence. And her characters are real people, folks we can
identify with, *especially* Soz herself, as she goes through an
extremely difficult period in her life and realizes that she needs
help from someone else because she cannot help herself. Qox has
secrets that could potentially make him an outcast among his own
people. The list goe on.
Anna Fields narrated this book. She is not the first narrator that
has been employed in this series, but she is certainly the better
of the two. I was jarred by her presence at first, since I'd been
used to the prior narrator. But at this point in the saga she has
grown on me, and I hope she continues to narrate the rest of the
books in the sequence. Yes, I know I could look it up, but where's
the fun in that?
PRIMARY INVERSION is an excellent entry in the Skolian Saga story,
whether for the reader it's the first book or the fifth. I
recommend it. [-jak]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE TESTAMENT OF MARY by Colm Toibin (ISBN 978-1-4516-8838-2) was
chosen by the New York Times as one of the hundred best books of
2012, but it seems that you probably have to have a Christian
background to appreciate it, while at the same time if you are
devout you may well be offended by it. My observation is that I am
not sure Toibin understood the history of Judaism very well. Mary
talks about living in what is presumably Nazareth, but definitely
not Jerusalem, and she says, "I love watching my husband and my son
walking together to the Temple, and I loved waiting behind to pray
before setting out to the Temple alone ..." This is in the early
part of the first century, when the only "Temple" for Jews was the
Temple in Jerusalem, and there is no way people in Nazareth would
walk there on the Sabbath. In fact, she later describes it as
Jerusalem being two or three days' journey away.
I have commented before on various Agatha Christie tropes such as
impersonations and intentional mis-identifications. Another one
seems to be a bunch of people who were present or involved in a
murder forming a team to try to solve it, but one or more of the
people are concealing something, or have an ulterior motive, or in
some other way are not what they seem. We see it in THE ABC
MURDERS and in THREE-ACT TRAGEDY and possibly in others I cannot
recall offhand. [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Professor Bernard Quatermass: Roney, if we found
out our own world was doomed, say by climatic changes,
what would we do about it?
Dr. Matthew Roney: Nothing, just go on squabbling
like usual.
Professor Bernard Quatermass: Yes...
--Nigel Kneale, QUATERMASS
AND THE PIT