Anders Monsen

Lost worlds and ports of call

Author: Anders Monsen (Page 10 of 81)

And so ends 2021

January 1, 2022 /

I read three books this past week. One was crap, one was so-so, and one fantastic. All were part of a series, so to speak.

First up was Smoke and Whispers, by Mick Herron. I’d read and enjoyed several of his Zöe Boehm books, about a cynical detective in Oxford. This was apparent the last one in that series, and in it Boehm is supposedly dead. Not a great start. The alternate protagonist, a friend of Boehm’s, tries to determine whether Boehm really is dead or not. If she’s dead, who killed her, and if she’s not dead, what happened. It was a so-so book; I preferred the books from the viewpoint of Boehm, so I never really got on the side of the main protagonist. If the author decides to kill a decent character as the premise of the novel, it’s a strange situation. I suppose Herron grew tired of his creation, and moved on to other things. He has a decent MI5 series, though he’ll probably kill off those characters, too.

The crap book was by Andrea Camilleri, called Riccardino. It was his last published book in the Inspector Montalbano series, though written more than 15 years ago. I can see why it was held back, as Camilleri blends meta-fiction with fatigue, and the whole thing fizzles out at the end as if he painted himself into a corner and lazily gave up. Disappointing. Having read all of the other Montalbano books, I was hoping for something else, but this book left a bad taste in my mind.

On the other hand, I read and enjoyed The Red Horse, by James R. Benn. This is the 15th book in his WWII series, centering around Boston detective Billy Boyle, whose a distant (fictional) nephew of General Eisenhower. I read the first book (aptly titled, Billy Boyle) a few years ago, and have read most of them in order, but really as I found them. Some older books I had to hunt down, but the more recent ones I’ve picked up as they reach they softcover edition. This means waiting a year or more after initial publication, so I’ll need to wait until the Fall of 2022 for the next book, and then 2023 for the newly announced 17th in the series.

The Red Horse takes place mostly in a hospital for recovering special agents. It’s sort of a take on The Prisoner, and the source material was taken partially from the co-creator of The Prisoner, a fascinating concept. In this book, Billy Boyle is recovering from the traumatic events of the previous novel: the horror of the liberation of France, the fighting in Paris, and the betrayal of his true love. As is typical with detective books, dead bodies pile up around him. The book is a slow burn, tense from the start, and one of the best in the series. All of Benn’s books are well-researched and make the events of WWII vivid in all respects, covering multiple areas of the world. I look forward to reading the next ones, should I have that chance.

That’s 2021 over with. This year (in books) re-kindled my interest in Robert R. McCammon’s fiction. I read a bunch of books published by the Soho Crime imprint, reread (as usual) a few Jack Vance books, and picked up a handful of small press books. I made two trips to Houston and visited Murder by the Book, the best mystery book store so far I’ve ever visited (just beating out The Mysterious Bookshop in New York); I really enjoy specialty book stores. Book store in general are a vanishing breed. I’ve tried to cull my books, as I have no shelf space, but to no avail. For every book I remove, I add five more, despite trying not to buy as much.

Montalbano, the final book

December 29, 2021 /

It’s a bittersweet thought, coming to the end of Italian writer Andrea Camilleri’s last Montalbano book.

I was introduced to this writer almost a decade ago by my father. He lives in England, had read some of the books, watched some of the TV shows. I picked up one somewhere, at random, not knowing much about the author or the series. Since then I’ve searched high and low for all his books. Some I’ve found in used book stores, others more recently bought as they’re translated and published. They follow a standard formula, but I can’t put the down.

Camilleri died in 2019. By then he was already blind, dictating his last books. It’s an eerie parallel to the last books by Jack Vance, my favorite author, who also suffered from eye problems and dictated his last books. Camilleri was 93 when he died, Vance three years older at 96. Their styles of writing are vastly different. Both wrote mysteries, though Vance is more known for his SF and fantasy books.

It’s now the end of 2021, and I finally have Riccardino, the last Montalbano novel. Apparently it was written in 2005, with instructions to publish it after his death. Published a year after he died, this is an unusual step. When I last read the most recent Montalbano novel, The Cook of the Halcyon, it seemed that Montalbano was at a crossroads. What would happen in his life? How then, would a novel written over a decade ago, tie into that last novel?

At 254 pages, Riccardino is slightly longer than most Montalbano novels. My anticipation when I first started the novel was high. Why wait this long? How did it tie into other novels?

And then I read the book.

First, there was the blurb on the back cover, which mentioned the main character interacting with “the author.” Unlike any of his previous books in the series, Camilleri has avoided such a meta-novel, where the characters interact with the author. Not this one. It happens multiple times. It’s annoying, and dismisses everything previously written. The afterword almost has it makes sense. Camilleri thought it would be his last novel in the series, written when he was 80 years ago. That’s he write for another 11 years was then unthinkable. Maybe he saw reason and suppressed it for that reason. He should have burned it.

There are many frustrations with the Montalbano series: they are repetitive; they follow a formula; Livia: Montalbano’s long-distance girl-friend; many of the characters are annoying beyond belief. But, usually the plot (or multiple plots, interconnected in weird ways), are the main attraction. You sort of put up with the formula. Maybe you hope Montalbano finally moves on from Livia. He seems to do that a couple of times, but one ends in tragedy, the other in suspense.

So, Riccardino, which started off somewhat interesting (aside from the meta-fiction portion), falters at the end, devolving into some sort of brainstorming session between character and author. It then fades into nothingness. It’s a disappointing waste of time and money. Certainly not the way I wanted to remember the last Montalbano novel.

Soho Crime Books

December 24, 2021 /

I’m slowly amassing a collection of books published by the Soho Crime imprint. I’m only collecting trade paperbacks, as I’m intrigued by the near uniform design, especially on the spine, as well as the quality of the writers. All the books by the same author receive the same color, and colors vary from author to author. So far I have 136 books under this imprint, and that’s probably just a fraction of the books they’ve published.

Soho Crime publishes a lot of non-America authors. This includes writers from the UK, the Netherlands, Japan, Scandinavia, Africa, Asia. They also publish American writers, usually with a focus on specific country settings, from Nantucket to Laos, Alaska to Paris. Around seven years ago I started my collection with one book by Janwillem van de Wetering, based on a recommendation from a co-worker. The first book might have been Outsider in Amsterdam, or maybe The Corpse on the Dike. Since then I’ve added several van de Wetering books, as well as multiple other series. Other well-represented writers include Mick Herron and Peter Lovesey, and almost all the James R. Benn books.

Since I sometime organize my shelves by publishers and then writers, at one point someone wondered if I organized them by color, since he saw all the Soho Crime books, and all the authors had their own colors on the covers. I think I mentioned my shelving philosophy elsewhere; I don’t always organize books by publisher, only if they stand out, like my Golden Gryphon hardcovers, or a single shelf of Arkham House books (Although there are, I think, two or three exceptions for the latter publisher, where the Arkham House books are grouped with their authors.) I now have an entire bookshelf devoted to my Soho Crime collection. It’s not a tall bookshelf, though I’m sure the books will migrate to a taller one once they outgrow this bookshelf.

The great thing about Soho Crime books is that most of them are reasonably priced, also also the stories take place in unique settings. There are exceptions, of course, but in many cases their authors limit themselves to specific places. So, reading their books are a way to visit strange places without having to travel there. This isn’t an issue of quantity over quality, as most of the books I’ve read so far have been superb. For some reason I’ve always struggled with buying books that cost more that $10; likely from years of poverty and a minimum wage job to support myself during college. That was a long time ago, but it stick with me, and while some of their books are around $10, most are in the $16 range. For a trade paperback, that to me seems excessive. Still, that’s inflation, I guess.

One major problem that I face is that bookstores were I live don’t stock a lot of Soho Crime books. There’s one big-box store, and one or two small independent bookstores in my city. Otherwise it’s hit or miss with used bookstores. So far I’ve had best success visiting specialty bookstores, such as Mysterious Books in New York City or Murder by the Book in Houston. The latter is closer, a mere three and half hour drive away, and the two times I’ve been there this year I’ve walked away with a stack of books. When I was in NYC, a few years ago now, and seemingly a different lifetime, I found an equal number of books. (Prior to that visit it had been two decades since my last trip to NYC, and that was during a a time I didn’t read mystery books.) Otherwise, I find some in used book stores, a fact that gives me a twinge of guilt as the authors get none of my money.

So, if you want an introduction to great crime novels, check out any book published by Soho Crime. Pick one at random, or look at the cover to see if the location interests you. It might be the start of a mad collecting habit, like mine.

Dan Simmons’ Carrion Comfort

December 9, 2021 /

Back in 1989 I bought a paperback copy of Dan Simmon’s massive novel, Carrion Comfort. It had been published as a limited edition hardcover by Dark Harvest, and small press out of Illinois. At that time I was a poor student and couldn’t afford such luxuries, and anyway most copies of the Dark Harvest books that weren’t bought by individuals found their way into dealers’ hands who jacked up the prices.

As the years passed, I watched prices for this edition rise, and never pulled the trigger on buying a copy. Until now – 2021. I don’t frequent SF conventions any more, where I can peruse actual copies of books and look for imperfections. I have to rely on descriptions on the internet, which are suspect at best. Sure, I probably overpaid, but the person who sold it advertised a copy with the original wrapper. This usually means no spine damage, so I went ahead and bought it.

I can’t say I remember much about the novel. After all, I read it back over 30 years ago. I remember it’s about vampires, but not your usual blood-sucking kind. Since then I’ve bought almost all of Simmons’ books. There are exceptions. I don’t have the hardcover of Hyperion, which sells for $500 (if the seller is generous). I now own 24 books published by Dark Harvest, many accumulated when the prices were retail. That publisher long since has vanished, and several of their books exist that I lack; the only one I care about now is the 3rd volume of Night Visions.

So, first impressions of this book? Well, it looks good. I did read the prologue, and plan of reading the rest of the novel soon. I’m thrilled to finally have this copy, and only Hyperion in hardcover would make my Simmons collection complete (well, there are two recent books I haven’t picked up, but I’m not too thrilled with his recent work, so it can wait — sorry, Dan).

Still, this all goes back to my view of myself as a sort of haphazard collector. With books (authors) as with music, my tastes are both narrow and eclectic. I do wonder how to structure my collection once gone – to whom do I bequeath this small but moderately valuable collection? In the meantime, I do savor holding and reading these special books, produced by special publishers. If only I were more of a fanatic…Da

MCU in the TVU

December 9, 2021 /

The Marvel Cinematic Universe spans 20+ movies. For a while there also existed , separately from from those movies, various shows like Agents of SHIELD, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Punisher, Daredevil. The TV shows acknowledged the movies, while the movies ignored the shows. No sign of any of these heroes in the Endgame battle, no mention of Agent Coulson’s return from the dead in any of the Avenger movies. Once Disney absorbed Marvel, those TV shows fizzled. I’d watched most of them, though I gave up on the final seasons of Iron Fist and Jessica Jones once I heard these would be the last ones, and those characters and actors shunted off to the side. I didn’t read those as comics, unlike Daredevil; their story arcs meant little too me, though I wasn’t bothered like some others about the person who was Iron Fist.

With the massive success of most of the MCU movies, from individual episodes (with sequels), to the ensemble installments, I thought that Disney would pick up those shows. Instead, the launched limited series based on known characters: Loki, Wanda and Vision (the dead never stay dead in superhero life), the Falcon and Winter Soldier. I caught two episodes of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, then stopped watching, and never saw a single episode of Loki or WandaVision. These shows all seemed irrelevant, made of characters that meant nothing to me, arcs that were meaningless. However, that changed with Hawkeye.

In the MCU movies, Hawkeye has no special powers. He’s not a god, not a genius, not a super soldier or gamma-augmented shapeshifter. He’s just phenomenal with a bow and arrow. His character arc in the movies went from minor to slightly more than minor, but to me he always seemed like the everyman, more so than the childish Ant-Man. Played by Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye seemed like a reluctant hero, yet one who went through major emotional turmoil. He lost his wife and kids in the Thanos snap. He lost his best friend in the effort to bring back his wife and kids. He lost himself twice, first when Loki took over his mind, and second when he became Ronin, and went on a rampage against organized crime. When Marvel/Disney announced a Hawkeye TV show (or rather, set of 6 episodes), I though nothing of it, as I figured it was a strange concept. Of the previous shows, I enjoyed Daredevil the most, as he came across as a tragic figure, yet still able to rise each time. How would the writers pull off a decent show about the least powerful Avenger?

They would do this by lining up Hawkeye’s next generation Avenger, someone who actually might figure in future Marvel movies. As far as the other newer TV shows go, the Falcon might be the new Captain America, the Loki show is simply the writers on some heavy drugs, and WandaVision sets up crazy multiverse and magic stuff that can always be undone. With Clint Barton likely aging out and moving on, there needs to be a new Hawkeye, and what better than to introduce a character in their early twenties who can play the role for a few movies? While Disney/Marvel can’t let go of certain characters, they can reimagine them. The Falcon taking over as Captain America? Weird but ok, I guess. No super soldier serum there, but maybe the mantle means more. Iron Man is dead, so who will take over his role? I’m sure they’ll find someone. As for Hawkeye, why not a young woman? This actually makes better sense than a junior Clint Barton.

I don’t know much about the actor playing the role of Kate Bishop. I haven’t read the comics upon which the show is based. I therefore don’t care how loyal the show is to the comics. What I care about is whether the show works, and two episodes into Hawkeye, I think it does. It’s tough to analyze a 6-show venture. The first two or three episodes will generally introduce characters, which leave two or three episodes to push along a good story and wrap up an arc. So far, that’s what’s happened. The first episode introduced Kate Bishop, the person who will likely take over as the new Hawkeye. The second showed more of Clint Barton. Since the next episodes will be released once a week, I expect these will now feature both characters as they learn to work with each other.

So far I’ve not seen anything in the first two episodes to make me not want to keep watching Hawkeye. Unlike Falcon and Winter Soldier, the social commentary is at a minimum. The actors in both series are great, but in Hawkeye it’s more about the story. And, so far at least, it’s fun. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier show came across as dreary. Why watch a show that just beats you over the head again and again with misery?

I know there’s an entire industry out there trying to predict Disney/Marvel ventures, spinning up YouTube entries on speculations and insider information in an effort to build up their own rep and cred. My few words here aren’t part of that, but rather a musing on why one show means more to me than others. I’d throw this in the pot about why I probably won’t watch the Boba Fett show, and would rather see the Cara Dune character in a series played by the original actor (even though I know little about actor herself, she played the character well). It’s all a matter of taste, and in some cases I think certain shows work, and others don’t, but I realize other people have other opinions. So be it. In the end, my simple musing mean little to the powers behind those shows. The fact that I’d like to see more Daredevil shows with Charlie Cox means nothing to the powers that be, nor to Mr. Cox.

Still, whatever happens in the Hawkeye show, and whether or not the actor playing Kate Bishop takes over the mantle of the famed archer in future movies, the two episodes so far have been a worthwhile way to spend a few minutes of my time. I hope it continues. I hope it bleeds over into the movies.

At some point in the future, the MCU will lose steam. It will come to an end. People may tire of superheroes. They for sure will tire of crap stories. As long as the stories are interesting, they will matter. For now, I think Hawkeye fills that need. It’s a heck of a lot more fun and meaningful than the other Disney/Marvel shows.

Addendum: I drafted this after only two episodes of Hawkeye, and before reports exploded on web sites that the Charlie Cox could (would/) replay Daredevil somewhere in the MCU. Since then I’ve watched two more episodes, and the show only gets better. Two episodes remain in the Hawkeye show, and I really wish there were more than just six. It seems we’re only introducing characters, and I just don’t want that show to end.

RIP L. Neil Smith

August 31, 2021 /

RIP L. Neil Smith

Writer L. Neil Smith passed away on the morning of August 27th 2021. He was 75 years old, still writing and opining until his last moments, no doubt. And so the world has lost another voice of liberty, and the original Libertarian Writers Mafia is diminished even further. More than any other libertarian sf writer, Smith had the greatest influence in the field. He was a friend for many years, an inspiration, and a powerful voice for freedom. I disagreed with him on occasion, favored some books over others, but looking at my collection of his books I find that I own most of them, and have read many of them more than once.

When it came to adventure, Smith’s novels embodied that spirit and sense of wonder. His books were full of action, color, and character. When it came to style, I sometimes shook my head at his choices, such as his heavy use of apostrophes and the constant interruptions of characters by other characters. At times his sentences were a convoluted mess, especially (in my opinion) after he started writing a great deal of non-fiction along with his fiction. Still, I look back at some of his books, and wish there were more of them.

With Smith, everyone will mention his first novel, The Probability Broach, and rightly so. This is the quintessential libertarian novel. Rather than ready dystopias and battles against the state that fail, again and again, or end in unrealistic triumph, Smith created a libertarian utopia. No utopia is perfect, and Smith didn’t pretend it was perfect. Crime exists, people make bad choices, but his world seethes with vision, optimism, and a future. It might not be a future every libertarian desires; his emphasis on guns and self-defense has, over the years, made some libertarians cringe. Guns just aren’t mentioned in polite society, I guess.

A rush of novels set in the same universe followed, as well as a trilogy featuring Lando Calrissian, from the Star Wars universe. These novels were apparent written in a rush, under an unrealistic deadline, and he never made much money from them (no doubt there were accounting adjustments, typical of large studios, than benefitted the suits and not the creator). He also wrote several books about space pirates, started a seven book series that ended after two novels (sadly), a vampire novella (and sequel), alternate history with The Crystal Empire and Roswell, Texas, and many more books across different genres. I still cannot forgive him for killing off my favorite character in his book, Pallas. But then, he was an uncompromising person, and maybe that made sense from his writer’s perspective. He published over 35 books, and was forever talking about books he’d planned, had started, or intended to write. It seemed his imagination was boundless.

Late in his life Smith battled ill health, from strokes and other problems. He always seemed to maintain his optimism, still tried to convert people to liberty, and constantly inspired those already gathered under that banner. I’ll admit that I disagreed with him vehemently regarding his support for a certain Republican president, but he wasn’t the only libertarian who turned to that direction, possibly out of a hatred of the man’s opponent at the time. Nonetheless, his legacy persists. Smith founded the Prometheus Award to honor libertarian science fiction. For a time it seemed like libertarian writers were everywhere. Now many of the original group has passed, all in recent years: Brad Linaweaver, J. Neil Schulman, Victor Milán. When I think of this I’m struck by the words of John Donne, for “Each man’s death diminishes me.” All I have left is memories and some physical editions of their creations. Rest in peace, my friend.

Black Widow Review

July 15, 2021 /

I don’t remember much about the introduction of Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, into to the MCU during Iron Man 2. Frankly, I don’t remember much of Iron Man 2, as it was a forgettable movie, much like Iron Man and Iron Man 3. The best Iron Man movies were ones with ensemble casts, where each (somewhat) equally powerful characters played off one another.

Black Widow in the MCU has appeared in multiple movies, including a couple of Captain America movies and all the Avenger movies. Played by a somewhat robotic Scarlett Johansson, she’s a tough ex-Russian spy who defected and joined SHIELD. Her background seemed ripe for a solo movie, but it took years to bring such a feature to fruition. The much delayed solo film finally debuted in America on July 8th, quite some time after her demise in Avengers: Endgame.

A major flaw with super-hero movies these days is the origin story. Even in re-boots, we still sit through the origin story of the character, which takes up a good third to half the movie. Most of the viewers already know the background, but Hollywood keeps pushing different version of their beginning, most egregiously in the Spider-Man movies, or at least the first two versions. The Tom Holland version at least skips this part, and puts us in the middle of the aftermath of his spider incident and the death of his uncle. Captain Marvel, a character maybe not as familiar to movie-goers as someone like Spider-Man, went the origin route, as did Captain America, Iron-Man, and Ant-Man. As for Thor, well, he’s been around a few hundred years when we meet him in his first movie. The ironically named rag-tag band of losers known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, the least interesting of the lot, get introduced to us in their first movie as well. Thankfully, the movie Black Widow skips this part, aside from a few flashbacks, but then, we’ve already seen her in eight movies so far, so we know who she is, and a little bit of her origin. Though it’s not a knock against Johansson, she’s in her mid-thirties now, and going through her origin in the Red Room and her escape from this is better off told in brief flashback, anyway.

In terms of timeline, Black Widow takes place immediately after the events at the Berlin airport in Captain America: Civil War. In that scene, Natasha Romanoff switched sides. She helps Rogers and Barnes escape, which puts her in violation of the Sokovia Accords, and a target of General Ross, who seems to like being an all-around jerk blindly chasing super-heroes. The movie begins with a flashback to 1995, when Romanoff was a young girl, living in Ohio with a fake Russian family — sister, mother, father. They act like a normal family, until the “dad” arrives from work and tell them their cover is blown. They make their escape to Cuba, where all are separated, and Romanoff and her younger sister sent off to the Red Room, a training ground for assassins.

The scene then switches to General Ross and his soldiers supposedly having Romanoff surrounded in a building. They chat on the phone. His team moves in, only to find the phone connected to a remote device, and Romanoff stepping out of the bathroom in a ferry in far-away Norway. As a (former) Norwegian I recognized western Norway right away. I was almost surprised she didn’t head down to the cafe in the ferry and buy a coffee or hot dog. Instead, she buys supplies as a local grocery store and finds an old mobile house in some desolate location. Here she intended to hunker down and stay under the radar, but it doesn’t take long before she’s thrust back into action.

The impetus to that action is one of a few things that annoyed me in this movie. Her contact, who set her up with the mobile home in Norway, drops off mail from a former safe house in Bulgaria. This brings her into conflict with Taskmaster, someone trying to secure items in a box from that mail. I could understand somewhat how Taskmaster appeared: maybe the box had a tracking device. Still, when Romanoff heads to Bulgaria, who does she run into but her former sister, Yelena. How did Yelena end up in the same safe house, and how do the other Russian assassins and the villain Taskmaster immediately track them down to the same exact location? Maybe there are deleted scenes that explain this, but this just made no sense. The suspension of disbelief in action scenes are one things, but the logic here is jarring.

Natasha and Yelena make their escape, break out their former father from prison, and find their former mother, in order to once and for all destroy the Red Room; we learn in this movie, that the Budapest reference from the original Avengers movie is tied to Romanoff and Hawkeye trying to destroy the Red Room and thinking they had succeeded.

There are several great action scenes in the movie, which make it seem shorter than the two-hour run time. We see a more mature Black Widow, one who has experienced many battles, faced humans, gods, and aliens, and one who still has a couple more battles left to fight, and then a tragic end. The post-credit scene seems to set up Yelena as an important character in the MCU, but whether she’s good or evil remains to be seen. Marvel does make small changes to characters that differ from the various comic appearances of those characters.

It’s disappointing that it took so long to get a solo Black Widow movie. There are strong female characters of note in the MCU — Captain Marvel, Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlett Witch, and Black Widow, Hope Van Dyne aka the Wasp, Nebula and Gamora from Guardians, Valkyrie from Thor: Ragnarok to mention a few. Still, it’s great to finally see Natasha in her own movie, even though she seems at times like a supporting character and not a leading one.

It is somewhat bittersweet to watch Black Widow, knowing the fate of her character in Avengers: Endgame. The movie fills in some gaps, gives us more of that particular universe, and aside from my noted annoyances is a superb movie. The reviews that I’ve read have all praised Florence Pugh, who plays Yelena, and deservedly so, as she’s a tough fighter and ready with quips at the drop of a hat. David Harbour as the Red Guardian is the comic relief, something I wish movies would leave out completely. Rachel Weisz has a restrained and almost dour presence, and could have been written better. A question for the future: Does Yelena become the next Black Widow, or Red Widow? Does she join the new Avengers, who take over after the events of Endgame? The continuing story does seem to call for younger actors. I wonder how she plays off against Peter Parker, Dr. Strange, Ant-man and the Wasp, or even Thor or the Hulk. Not that I expect the latter two to show up again in any new Avenger movies. Thor likely is done after his next solo movie, and the Hulk? If the events of the Avengers are anything to go by, he’s settled into his strange hybrid character, aka Professor Hulk.

As the above demonstrates, I am a fan of the MCU movies. I haven’t read any of the comics in decades, as from my experience the comics do weird things that break all story-lines. But the movies follow a stronger, less random path. Still, now that the major 20-movie arc from the first Iron Man to Endgame is over, the question is: where do they go from here? There are at least eight or nine announced movies in the MCU, with two of those appearing this year (Shang-Chi and the 3rd Spider-Man installment). With the exception of The Eternals, I’ll likely watch them as they appear, as I’m by now somewhat vested in the characters.

Power Corruption and Lies

July 7, 2021 /

Some time in 1982 or 1983 I heard New Order’s Blue Monday for the first time. I can’t exactly remember where, but I remember taping the first few minutes of that song somehow, either from a friend or the radio. I doubt it was the radio, though who knows; that’s back in the mists of time. I was living in Lusaka, Zambia at the time. They did have radio then, which sometimes played current music, but would they have played New Order? Possibly, maybe not. At any rate, I only had the first few minutes on a cassette tape that recorded along with other songs. A short time thereafter I convinced someone to play that snippet at a party. I’m not sure it was well received. Maybe that type of music hadn’t really reached Zambia yet. Still, that song stuck with me for years to come.

In September of 1983 I left Zambia, heading back to my native Norway. I’m not sure where or when I secured a cassette of New Order’s album, Power, Corruption & Lies. This was either while in Norway, or after I moved to the US; I know I bought the LP of Low-Life in 1985 in Bergen, and I’m sure I played PCL many times on my Sony Walkman prior to getting the follow-up album. Even though the world has moved to CDs and digital music and streaming, I still have this cassette, 30+ years later (the Factus 12C edition, total running time 57 minutes and 16 seconds, including Blue Monday, a song apparently not included on the original vinyl). Regardless, New Order’s music became one of the mainstays in my late teenage years, so I’m sure I had a copy while in Norway. I did buy Blue Monday on 12inch vinyl at some point, a copy that I still own, and I played this multiple times as well, so maybe I’m confusing the album and the single.

In terms of albums, I preferred Low-Life to the PCL album, though I somehow lost my vinyl record along the way and years, but there are songs on PCL that I come back to again and again. I can’t say the same for Republic and later albums; I stopped buying or listening to anything from New Order once they went into their Ibiza mode. I preferred classic New Order, especially Peter Hook’s distinctive bass sound, which in my opinion defined New Order. Hooky, as he was known, played his bass as if it was an crucial part of the sound, not just a filler. Although I’d listened to both Joy Division albums in the early 80s, I wasn’t as keen on their sound compared to New Order, even though the bass was strongly present even then. Since then I’ve come to appreciate a few of their songs that I dismissed back then.

I read at some point in the 2000s that Peter Hook left New Order, and that the split was acrimonious. At first I thought that he was a bit of a loser, a prima donna, as the band continued on without him. Their singer and guitarist, Bernard Sumner, had teamed with other musicians for successful outings, such as Electronic, so maybe Sumner was the talent behind the band. However, to me, New Order had lost its distinctive sound long before Hook left, so it didn’t seem like an important split, anyway. Other bands had gone through the same thing. Or, worse, had stopped completely, such as the Smiths, the Cocteau Twins, and more. Depeche Mode had continued after Alan Wilder left, which seemed maybe a bit like the Peter Hook split, as Wilder was a major participant in the group. Hook, I’d come to learn later, had seen his part in the band fade over time, and didn’t care for the direction of the music, or the long delays between albums, or the lack of touring.

What spurred my re-interest in New Order was a strange event. Some time during the show Stranger Things in 2016, I heard a certain song played, and I almost leapt up from the couch. “That’s Joy Division!” I said to the family in the room, drawing blank stares. One of the characters listened to Atmosphere on his Sony Walkman (or similar device), and even though it had been years since I’d heard it, I recognized it at once. Later that evening I went to my music library, and started to revisit the songs that had meant so much to me back then. I read about the “new” New Order, and Hook’s departure. I listened to interviews, read some of the articles, and also discovered the acrimonious lawsuit between Hook and his former bandmates. I learned that Hook had been playing New Order and Joy Division songs and albums with his new band. Hook, in effect, kept the history of those two seminal bands alive. The current incarnation of New Order, or the new New Order, as I saw them, played mainly newer stuff, with one or two exceptions. And, their newer stuff, well it just wasn’t as interesting. In fact, Peter Hook’s live versions, despite his rough voice early in his career, seemed more alive than any new New Order songs. His band’s versions of classic New Order songs like Ceremony and The Perfect Kiss recorded during the recent lockdown are instant classics.

In 2020, new editions of Joy Division albums, 12″ singles, and some New Order albums were released, including the “definite” edition of their album, Power Corruption and Lies. This set includes vinyl, CDs, and DVDs and comes in a handsome box. It’s an expensive set, an indulgence, but what an experience. Along with the music is an oversize book with stories and ,lots of photos. Many of these are of the band in happier times, before the success, the drugs, the split.

I wonder these days how that quartet, some of then who used to be best friends, no longer get along. Then again, there are many such scenarios. That’s life. Morrissey and Marr will never re-unite. Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie forever will remain apart socially and musically. Some bands are forever, some flame out quickly, and others turn inward into civil wars. Still, for one brief moment, New Order meant something, revolutionized music.

Power Corruption and Lies, as I listen to it again, contains a few slight clunkers, but several classics: “Age of Consent,” with it vibrant bass, jangling guitar, and persistent drumming opens the album. “We All Stand” brings it to a halt. “The Village” jump-starts it once more, an almost upbeat sound. Starting slow, to the point where I almost want to edit out the first few minutes, “5 8 6” pulses out powerful sounds around the two-minute mark. “Your Silent Face” and the closing track were my favorites; the former is hypnotic and synth-heavy, and as to the latter, I tended to skip “Ultraviolence” and “Ecstasy” so I could be enveloped in the the depressing but memorable “Leave Me Alone.”

The music of our teenage years remain a part of one’s soul. Not everything we heard and cared for back then retains the same meaning and importance later in life. Sometimes we get stuck in nostalgia, I guess. Sometimes we set aside those sounds and try to forget them. Listening to PCL again after all those years in this remastered version brings back all those memories. New Order may never be the same, may never re-capture their influence as back then, but like flies trapped in amber, their sound from 1983 will be re-discovered again and again.

Alice in Borderland

July 5, 2021 /

By chance I recently watched the first episode of Alice in Borderland, a strangely titled show on Netflix. The opening seemed somewhat boring; three loser friends run around Tokyo goofing off, hiding in a toilet when they think the police are after them for some silly act. When they emerge from the toilet, however, the resulting scene actually made me sit up and take notice. It was almost on par with the scene of Neo waking up in his pod in The Matrix. For, instead of a bustling downtown Tokyo, the friends emerge to an empty city. This made me think of the Twilight Zone episode, where a man wakes up and finds himself alone in a small city. Did they cross into another reality, I wondered. Is it a game, a dream, or simulation?

Walking around the empty city, the three friends, Arisu, Chota, and Karube, come across one other person, who cryptically says something about an expired visa before a red laser shoots from the sky and through the man’s brain. It’s a shocking moment, for neither the characters nor the audience expected this to happen. The next thing they see is a sign pointing to a “game.” They follow the sign, entering a building where they encounter two young women. A voice instructs them to each pick up a mobile phone, which shows a playing card, and begins a countdown. They must find their way out of the building, from room to room, before the room catches on fire. It’s a harrowing experience, and their introduction to life in this new world, where to keep living you earn visas by playing games. Each visa lets you live a few days. The games are deadly, but not playing them, just as deadly.

With Chota injured by the flames in the first game, Arisu and Karube enter another game to try to figure out more about this strange new world. They join a large group in a game of tag, pursued through an apartment building by a machine-gun wielding man wearing a horses’s head. Arisu, the show’s protagonist, learns the meaning of the cards: Spades correlate to games of strength, Clubs are team battles, Diamonds are a battle of wits, and Hearts correlate to games of betrayal. Their first game was clubs, and this is a game of spades. They’re joined by new characters: the agile climber Usagi; the brooding ex-soldier Aguni; and the aloof and mysterious Chishiya. Of all the characters, Arisu seems the one most capable of surviving in this strange gaming-based situation. He figured out how to beat the first game, and how to beat the second one. However, as they need to extend the visas for Chota and a young woman who survived the first game with them, not every game is winnable.

Their third game is a hearts game, which as Arisu learned means betrayal. The quartet don strange headsets in a botanical garden. To their horror they learn that they’ve strapped bombs to their heads, and the game is set up so that only one of the four will survive. It’s a tragic situation, and as Arisu emerges as the sole survivor, he is wracked by guilt. He lays down in the street to die, having given up, as by living he caused the death of his friends. He’s saved by Usagi, the climber from the game of tag. She has learned to survive, hunting for food in the deserted city, foraging for materials to build a small sanctuary. As Arisu slowly returns to life and finds the will to live, they team up, hoping to live through the games and find a way home.

Eventually, they find their way to “the Beach,” a community of survivors who live in a resort, teaming up to solve games and extend their visas. They meet Hatter, the enigmatic leader of the Beach, as well as his executive committee and a violent group of gun-toting maniacs. Arisu protects Usagi from the rapacious Aguni, the leader of the militants, and earns their enmity. He gains the trust of Hatter and the other leaders, but when Hatter is brought back dead from a game, the world turns upside down again. The militants take over. A new game takes place inside the Beach, and the militants go on a killing spree, intent on murdering every inhabitant in the Beach.

As the season ends, Arisu and Usagi find their way to the location of the gamemasters, the people who have been orchestrating all the games. As they wander around the room they see that all the gamemasters are dead. They run into two other survivors, and as they wonder what’s next, a person appears on the screens, announcing a new level of games to challenge them all, laughing with excitement.

It’s a breathtaking series, a nail-biter of a show. I didn’t know what to expect, and the writers threw in twists and turns in nearly every episode. Few people are safe. After I finished the show, some research informed me that Arisu is Alice, based on how this is pronounced in Japanese. Usagi is the White Rabbit. Hatter, of course, the Mad Hatter. There are other analogies to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass. The always smiling Chishiya is the Cheshire Cat. The woman who appears at the end might be the Red Queen. Kuina, a trans person who partnered with Chishiya, is the blue caterpillar (she always wear blue and goes through a transformation like caterpillars). Not every character in the show has a matching source in Carroll’s books, and the plot, aside from falling down the rabbit hole into a strange and mad world, is vastly different.

A sequel is in the works. It will be interesting to see where it goes, and what this world means. How could Tokyo be turned into a deadly video game on such a grand scale? Are all the deaths real, or imagined? What’s Chishiya’s backstory? Will any characters survive and if they make it back to the real world, what happens to them? The easy way out would be for the loser Arisu suddenly to realize that he’s wasted his life, and now he has a chance to take control and make a difference.

Freedom of the Mask

June 29, 2021 /

Robert McCammon’s Freedom of the Mask, the sixth in his Matthew Corbett series, is a brutal novel.

I’ve read the books from the series in the following order: one, seven, four, three, two, six. There’s a gap, as I don’t have book four, the enigmatic and supposedly slim book with perhaps the best title, The River of Souls. I read the second book, The Queen of Bedlam, just last week, and read all but the first book during 2021, which compressed the events and kept them fresh in my mind. Still, reading them out of sequence makes for a strange perspective, where I have seen both the future and the past at the same time.

In terms of the plot, I knew some of what to expect after having read the seventh book, Cardinal Black. Still, I had no idea of the vast pain which Corbett experienced in this book, which is monumental and covers the spectrum from the physical and psychological. How the man lives and continues in the face of what he experiences in this book is astounding. I almost had to skip the torture scene near the end, for I could not believe McCammon put his main character through that event.

Freedom of the Mask is again a hefty book, clocking in at almost 600 pages. The copy that I acquired came relatively cheap, but at the same time at a price (for someone who appreciates books). Although not listed as such, my copy is an ex-library book, bearing the red stamp of “discard” within the back cover, and the spine slightly askew from lack of care. Still, for less than $35 it was mine. No doubt the person who sold it managed a significant profit, likely buying it for nothing or next to nothing, something I know savvy entrepreneurs are wont to do with their merchandise. Regardless, I looked upon it a reading copy, since I’m enthralled and captured by this tale. And, read it I did, over the span of less than four days.

The book opens with Matthew Corbett dead, or so it seems. He has vanished in the Carolina colonies, near Charles Town, a fetid alligator infested swamp; to get the details I’ll need to read The River of Souls. Corbett’s friend Hudson Greathouse cannot believe Corbett is dead, and so begins an investigation. We learn after a few pages that Corbett is not dead, but on a ship bound for England, his memory gone, and under the careful watch of the nasty Count Dahlgren, a brigand and minion of Professor Fell featured a long time ago in The Queen of Bedlam. In the midst of a storm Corbett regains his memory, kills Dahlgren, and is thrown in the brig by the crew for his deed. In England, he lands in one prison after another, even the infamous Newgate, before he’s sprung by a mysterious serial killer dubbed “Albion.”

Greathouse, along with Corbett’s love Berry Grigsby, sails for England, but is captured by Professor Fell and taken to his Welsh village (first mentioned in The Queen of Bedlam). After many adventures and terrible events, Corbett ends up in the same place. Will he be able to save himself and his friends? The book ends on a cliffhanger, continued in Cardinal Black, but throughout the novel the ills that befalls Corbett and his friends is a terrible read. McCammon continues to blend adventures, history, and horror, taking here almost to an extreme the adage about placing your character on a bough and then sawing it through as a means to engender tension.

As it’s a series, many of the events in prior novels come to bear in later books. Dahlgren and Mother Deare, who appeared in earlier books, are important characters here. The One-Eyed Broodies and Julian Devane, who appear here for the first time, play important roles in the sequel, Cardinal Black. As the sequel to that novel is not yet in print, it will be interesting to see which characters from it inform the later book. There are at least two people, both of whom appear in the last pages, who no doubt will play some roles. Will other events resurface, and from how far back? The next novel supposedly isn’t the last in the series, so what else will befall Corbett? How far down will Corbett be pulled? Will he rise again, and what will happen to Berry and Hudson Greathouse?

Although Corbett is only twenty-four years of age, he seems to have lived twice that span in his adventures. Will there be any sense of peace in his life? Tension informs and drives fiction, but at some point it seems that the needle is pushed too far in that direction. I’ve said this before, but Corbett doesn’t seem to solve all his problems himself, and it would be nice if he tried, instead of relying on chance and others. At some point, does he gain the skills we see in other characters, such as Greathouse or Minx Cutter, or does he rely on chance and luck? Still, the pace, setting, characters, and locales are superbly written, and I think McCammon has outdone himself this time. Freedom of the Mask is not a book for the faint of heart, and it pushes the tale of Matthew Corbett from the quiet colonies to the heart of London, and beyond.

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