July DVD reviews
A wee bit late as usual, but here are my DVD reviews at VideoVista for July.
- Boris Karloff’s Isle of the Dead
- Aussie thriller Red Hill
Book review: Ordinary Thunderstorms, by William Boyd
In a world of worthy writers William Boyd stands shoulder to shoulder with the best. Now try saying that ten times really fast! In his latest book, Ordinary Thunderstorms, Boyd tells the story of Adam Kindred an expert in clouds, not the ethereal techy ones but those that so prolifically adorn the skies over Scotland.
Now, that opening paragraph might not make the book seem so appealing but when you then learn that Kindred is in effect being framed for murder for no other reason than meeting the wrong man in the wrong place at precisely the wrong time then things start to get interesting.
A man is murdered as he has discovered that a new wonder asthma drug in testing has been killing young children. In his dying death throes he passes his papers to Kindred and warns him to “hrrmphhs, bleugh…” or whatever else it is a man says after being knifed in the heart. Kindred runs.
Being a professor of cloud-thingys, Kindred is at least clever and wipes himself off of the grid and sets up home under a bridge near Chelsea, London. He foregoes his old life, monies and relationships in a battle for survival. Hunting him and his secret down are Big Pharma, ex-military, the police and Servants of John Christ.
Boyd is a master storyteller and whilst Ordinary Thunderstorms is not quite as good as Restless, it is nonetheless a fun read, with suitable and subtle prose and full of scenes and that take the reader from their semi-detached comfort zone.
7/10
Book review: Where The Bodies Are Buried, by Chris Brookmyre
Firstly, let’s deal with the name change; Brookmyre has gone from Christopher to plain old Chris. Don’t know why, don’t really care, but it is the same person in case you are confused. Anyone who has ever read the Paisley-born author’s work will already be aware of the sardonic wit that flows throw his every publication, and this is his 11th novel.
Following on from the brilliant nigh-on sci-fi Pandemonium, Where The Bodies Are Buried is almost a return to familiar territory as Brookmyre deals with a plain-old whodunit. It is Glasgow and Jasmine Sharp, recently orphaned wannabe actress, is working with her uncle Jim in a small private detective agency; small as in it has two staff and one of them is there by virtue of sympathetic relatives.
Her life is thrown upside down when her uncle Jim disappears, her only clues being the open folders relating to the cases of Ann Ramsay and Glen Fallan. Meanwhile, Jai McDermaid turns up brutally murdered in a back-alley in the east end. Separate events with no connection, or is there?
Brookmyre takes the old Glasgow idiom (which he even quotes in the book), “When you hear hoof-beats on Sauchiehall Street you know it’s a horse and not a zebra coming down the street,” and stretches it to breaking point. The story twists and turns around an unknown centre point like octopi playing swingball – what is the connection between missing persons from a quarter of a century ago, a false alarm at Central Station and a series of gang-related crimes across the city?
The answer: Glasgow’s biggest gang.
Where The Bodies Are Buried is another read-straight-through offering from one of Scotland’s finest authors. Admittedly it is not in the same league as A Tale Etched In Blood And Hard Black Pencil and the early Parlabane books, but it is nonetheless another stonking effort.
8/10
Book review: Invisible Monsters, by Chuck Palahniuk
Every now and then you read a book and it takes your breath away (ahem, I said the exact same thing about Rant). You turn page after page in anticipation of the next chapter, the next reveal or twist. You can’t put it down. It cries out “read me for if you don’t I may not be here when you get back.”
Invisible Monsters is possibly the best book I have ever read.
Chuck Palahniuk, he of Fight Club, Choke, Rant, Lullaby and Survivor fame, is a master. He creates unbelievably brilliant narrative viewpoints and in Invisible Monsters he has excelled himself. The name of the raconteur you don’t find out until the final couple of chapters, but no matter, she is remarkable. The story is told in a haphazard fashion, with ‘Jump to…’ scenes littering every page of the book – you need all your wiles about you just to stay on track. But it is a helluva journey as the storyteller takes you from one incredulous scene to another.
What you find out early about her is that she has been disfigured in a shooting, and as a model this is not good. Her family mourn her brother, gay and dead from AIDS. Her best friend is a bitch and her boyfriend a deviant with an unhealthy obsession with his job, catching men cruising in Washington Park. Her new best friend is mid-op. The opening scene sets us up for a story of revenge, self-discovery and downright mayhem across North America.
I can’t give too much away about the plot as this in itself is the book’s killer facet – the right angles that it takes the reader through makes Blackpool’s Big Dipper seem like a wee toddler’s fun-ride in comparison. Palahniuk’s genius is infinite and he pushes the boundaries on conventional literature to new heights in this book (well, did so about 12 years ago..!) and it is his positioning of the out-there as normal that so obliges the reader to turn page after page.
Suffice to say he is in danger of making his peers look clumsy and oafish in comparison. His use of repetition is dazzling; the crazy farmer parents of the storyteller are hilarious and Queen Supreme, Brandy Alexander, is so Lily Savage that Paul O’Grady might get arrested for scamming Darvocets from open houses (you need to read the book).
Invisible Monsters is a work of art as would befit Michelangelo. If you are told tomorrow you only have twenty-four hours to live, get this book, read it and die fulfilled. This is beyond brilliant. It is a virtuoso book that one-day will be recognised as a classic of our time – if not, then shame on us.
10/10
June DVD reviews
Two DVD reviews up on www.videovista.net this month – a couple of hummingdingers as well.
- The Diplomat, starring Dougray Scott. Espionage, intrigue and shite plotting.
- Blades of Blood, a Japanese/Korean samurai flick with some of the most incredulous acting and scripting ever seen.
Book review: The Devil’s Star, by Jo Nesbo
Jo Nesbo is a prolific Scandinavian author who has sold millions of books world-wide and for many a traveler via train and plane the hue of his books will be familiar on the eye, being as they are generally on display in WH Smith and the like. The Devil’s Star is the first book from Nesbo I’ve read, a gift from Mrs. Stewart for my birthday last month.
A murderer is on the loose in stifling Oslo, a city in the grip of a summer heat wave and under the dark shadow of a serial killer who takes a finger and leaves a red diamond on the victim. The shape of the diamond? You guessed it, a pentagram.
The killer’s victims are seemingly chosen at random and his (for it is always a he, eh?) modus operandi seems to be dominated by the number five: sides in a pentagram, intended victims, days between murders, time of day when killed and so on. In short, he’s a psycho – but can at least count.
Chasing after him we have the reluctant cop Harry Hole – who could well be Michael Connolly’s own Harry [Bosch] – and his colleague Tom. Harry and Tom don’t get on. Harry thinks Tom killed a fellow officer. Harry is an alcoholic with relationship issues. Usual cop-in-books stuff. You know the drill by now.
Most importantly the plot and the narrative are strong and I do enjoy a Scandinavian translation for some reason. Nesbo describes the summer siege on Oslo wonderfully well. The description of the city and its denizens, alongside the intrigue and plotting is well laid out. The dialogue is fierce and typically without any flab – every word matters even though c. 500 pages of them is needed to get the story done.
If I had one complaint, it would be that I found the identification of killer easy to work out early on. Nesbo’s misinformation didn’t fool me, and even appeared forced at times, as if he was trying to convince himself as much as me. Of course, I doubt it was me personally he was trying to sway.
The Devil’s Star is a good read, fast-paced and gripping. Worth a look through if you are stuck at an airport with no book and need to make a choice.
7/10
Book review: The Devil’s Star, by Jo Nesbo
Jo Nesbo is a prolific Scandinavian author who has sold millions of books world-wide and for many a traveler via train and plane the hue of his books will be familiar on the eye, being as they are generally on display in WH Smith and the like. The Devil’s Star is the first book from Nesbo I’ve read, a gift from Mrs. Stewart for my birthday last month.
A murderer is on the loose in stifling Oslo, a city in the grip of a summer heatwave and under the dark shadow of a serial killer who takes a finger and leaves a red diamond on the victim. The shape of the diamond? You guessed it, a pentagram.
The killer’s victims are seemingly at random and his (for it is always a he, eh?) modus operandi seems to be dominated by the number five: sides in a pentagram, intended victims, days between murders, time of day when killed and so on. In short, he’s a psycho – but can at least count.
Chasing after him we have the reluctant cop Harry Hole – who could well be Michael Connolly’s own Harry [Bosch] – and his colleague Tom. Harry and Tom don’t get on. Harry thinks Tom killed a fellow officier. Harry is an alcoholic with relationship issues. Usual cop-in-books stuff. You know the drill by now.
Most importantly the plot and the narrative are strong and I do enjoy a Scandinavian translation for some reason. Nesbo describes the summer siege on Oslo wonderfully well. The description of the city and its denizens, alongside the intrigue and plotting is well laid out. The dialogue is fierce and typically without any flab – every word matters even though c. 500 pages of them is needed to get the story done.
If I had one complaint, it would be that I found the identification of killer easy to work out early on. Nesbo’s misinformation didn’t fool me, and even appeared forced at times, as if he was trying to convince himself as much as me. Of course, I doubt it was me personally he was trying to sway.
The Devil’s Star is a good read, fast-paced and gripping. Worth a look through if you are stuck at an airport with no book and need to make a choice.
7/10
Book review: Blood on the Borders, by Judith Cook
Simon Forman, physician, astrologer, philanderer and all round greetin’ faced plum, finds himself at the centre of a series of events that have him traversing the length and breadth of Scotland in search of the truth – and with much blood being shed in the desire for the one thing man craves more than everything else – even money – and that is power.
Blood on the Borders is set in the late 16th century and is based on bona fide historical characters and events, fused with a sprinkling of fiction to give us a story of English thrones and Scottish courts colliding.
It’s May and Forman’s door is happened upon by a young Scot who has been cut down in London as he tried to deliver a message to Lord Chamberlain. The Scots’ brother, Alun Armstrong, is shielded by Forman and this sets in to motion the events which would see Forman go to Edinburgh to find a way out of his predicament, but instead he finds murder at every corner and with every stitch of evidence pointing at him. Only he can prove his innocence but with unseen hands determined that Forman be seen to be a killer, and all for political intrigue, he is left not knowing who to trust and where to turn in the, to him anyway, unfamiliar city of Edinburgh.
Cook has obviously researched the book in some detail and shares her thoughts at the end, and in Forman she has chosen a most interesting character. Her description of 16th century Edinburgh, the area around the Royal Mile and Holyrood especially, is very good and really helps the reader place themselves back some 420 years and into the world in which Forman is trying to survive.
Blood on the Borders presents a frenetic and bloody period in the Scots/English history in an interesting light and with the help of some fact and fiction cross-over, Cook allows us to see what life was like back then without having to get bored listening to some old history teacher drone on. Good stuff.
7/10
Book Review: Dissolution, by C. J. Samson
C. J. Samson’s hunchbacked lawyer-cum-investigator Matthew Shardlake stars in a book series that has received rave reviews from readers and critics alike. He is a monk and a disciple of Cromwell during the tumultuous years of the reformation. However, he has his own internal battles with the path he has chosen to fight as he serves Lord Cromwell [spit…] and his mission.In Dissolution Shardlake is dispatched to investigate the murder of a servant of Cromwell at a monastery in Hampshire – and wouldn’t you know it but Cromwell’s man was already looking in to a different death. Shardlake finds a monastery on edge at the thought of dissolution, the inhabitants a gaggle of brothers who may or may not be corrupt. He faces a race against time to work out what has really transpired and his own mortal life may be under threat if he doesn’t find the answer and quickly.
Samson’s description of Tudor England, with Cromwell’s evil hand at full force, is outstanding and the author really evokes the political situation effortlessly. In Cromwell we are presented with a tyrant who has indefatigable belief in his mission – to him God’s mission. But Shardlake wavers, pontificating on whether it is the very specter of reformation that drives the murderer in the monastery. What price the reformation?
I didn’t find Shardlake a likeable character however and I found that my lack of empathy with him and his moaning ways a bit of a downer when it came to my enjoyment of the book. In many ways, I’d have been quite happy to see him fall. This is from the perspective of a single book in the series and it would seem Samson is setting the scene for Shardlake to develop some guts to face Cromwell, which clearly wouldn’t have been an easy task back in an England hungry for change and in the fearful grip of an ever more zealous reformer.
6.5/10
May DVD reviews
A bit late this month in get these loaded, but a couple of DVD reviews over at VideoVista from yours truly.
- Fink: Aussie gangster flick which actually had a lot of merit to it – despite some of the worst acting you could hope to see.
- The Last Lovecraft: The Relic of Cthulu: Fans of H. P. Lovecraft will mainly hate this but I found it quirky and fun, and yes I am a fan of the great man.
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