Robert Appleton's Blog
September 2, 2020
10 Science Fiction Books I've Read More Than Once
Dune (Frank Herbert, 1965)
Where to start with this, the king of epic science fiction novels? Well, frankly, I avoided it for years. The 1984 film adaptation flat-out didn’t work for me in all the ways Star Wars did. It was messy, weird, and not much fun. The idea of wading through a doorstop novel stuffed with that kind of incoherent nonsense was about as appealing as sharing a sauna with Baron Harkonnen. But when someone bought me a great-looking hardback edition as a present � the giant sandworm artwork on the cover really fired my imagination � I’d just read a string of classic SF books from the same collection (Orion’s SF Masterworks) and found them to be some of the best books I’d ever read, in any genre. Besides, all those legendary SF writers extolling the genius of Herbert’s mammoth opus must know something, right?
I discovered pretty early on that Dune plays by its own tune. The worldbuilding is dense but fascinating, and oh-so expansive. Arthur C. Clarke likened it to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and it really is that layered, that detailed. The amount of head-hopping (switching from one character’s POV to another) could have been confusing, but I found I could follow it perfectly well. One of my least favourite genre tropes is the prophesied messiah, but Herbert made young Paul Atreides complex enough that I was rooting for him and his mother, Lady Jessica, a Bene Gesserit witch and concubine of Duke Leto Atreides (newly appointed sovereign of the crucial spice world, Arrakis), the whole way through.
Despicable villains, huge action scenes, mysticism, interstellar politics, espionage, romance, rebellions, and a classic coming-of-age odyssey: it could have been an incoherent mess like Lynch’s movie, but Herbert is a superb storyteller. You have to get in tune with his offbeat rhythms and his sometimes stiff, retro prose, and it’s certainly not a book you can casually dip in and out of. You have to delve into it, let the depth of world-building draw you in, and the scale of the meta-universe enwrap you. But the rewards are breathtaking. I loved everything about it. Strangely enough, I’ve never read the sequels, but I’ve re-read Dune three times.
I’m curious to see what Denis Villeneuve’s new film adaptation does with it. His Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 are sublime sci-fi movies, so who knows? He might finally be the one who cracks it.
The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester, 1956)
I’d heard of Bester by reputation—a titanic reputation—and of his two most revered works (the other being The Demolished Man), I chose this one first because I loved the title. It smacks of the grandiosity and mystery Star Trek purports to pursue but rarely does: exploring the unknown regions of the universe, etc. Well, as it turns out, neither does The Stars My Destination. Bester’s anti-hero, Gully Foyle, begins the story marooned in the wreckage of his spaceship. After subsisting for weeks on his own, he sees another ship approach. But rather than stop to help, the vessel speeds away and leaves him for dead. From that moment on, Gully is a man driven by revenge—an insane, unquenchable revenge that transforms him from an illiterate janitor to a sophisticated criminal and phenomenal “jaunter�.
Jaunting is the most ingenious use of teleportation I’ve ever come across. It’s a part of human evolution in Bester’s future. Some can do it and some can’t, but the idea of mass teleportation, entire populations migrating across the world by the power of thought, frankly blows my mind. Gully’s such a single-minded anti-hero, his quest is so dangerous and nuts, you can’t help but root for him. I love the unpredictable story. The prose takes huge creative risks and becomes more and more mesmerizing. The story, too, follows through on all its early promise and keeps going. By the end, I was ready for anything. Bester scored a knockout.
And the second time I read it, I was floored by the sheer audacity of the unhinged narrative leaps it takes. If I could write something half as original as this, I’d die a happy author.
The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells, 1898)
H.G. Wells� classic needs no introduction. Written when the European colonial powers were ramping up the mechanisation of their armed forces and sabre-rattling on the brink of war, his alien invasion horror was very much a product of its time. Interestingly, Orson Welles’s legendary radio dramatisation in 1938, and the two most successful screen adaptations, Byron Haskin’s seminal film in 1953 and Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster in 2005, all channelled the political angst of their respective eras into Wells� science fiction premise. In 1938, it was the threat of another global conflict that caused jittery Americans to freak out when they thought Welles� broadcast was actually reporting the arrival of hostile Martians. In the 50s it was the threat of a communist invasion, the onset of the Cold War. In post-millennial America, the trauma of 9/11 raised public fear of terrorism to a febrile level. War of the Worlds is applicable to any age because its main theme, fear of aggression by a hostile superior force, strikes deep into the human psyche. Indeed, it can be said to have politically shaped much of the twentieth century, with famously tragic results.
I’ve heard people grumble about the ending, saying it’s anticlimactic. But to my mind it’s one of the most profound endings in all of fiction. Wells was a biologist, a philosopher, and a humanist. The genius of that final twist is that it incorporates all three of those, and much more, revealing, from the microscopic to the global, the fundamental interconnectedness of life on Earth. The alien colonists would have succeeded if their hubris hadn’t blinded them to the hidden weapons in Nature’s biosphere.
It’s scary, thrilling � when the Navy’s ironclad rammer, HMS Thunder Child, takes down a tripod, oh boy! � and takes humanity to the brink of the abyss. But when Wells finally turns the tables on the invaders, a great story becomes one for the ages.
Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke, 1973)
The set-up of this one is incredibly simple. A mysterious object of vast proportions is found drifting through our solar system, and only one ship has time to rendezvous before the object reaches perihelion. It turns out to be a massive, artificial cylinder, and better still…it’s hollow. The international investigating crew decides to venture inside…and one of my all-time favourite SF adventures begins.
I’d started another of Clarke’s books a few years before and found it too dry. But Rama fascinated me from start to finish. There’s an addictive anticipation from chapter to chapter, and I find myself floating, climbing, even cycling alongside the crew every inch of the way. It would be unfair to spoil any of the revelations. Nothing compares to a truly alien mystery, and the secrets of Rama amount to a very special SF read indeed. I revisit it often and am never disappointed.
Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton, 1990)
Crichton has such a straightforward prose style I can usually zip through his books in record time. They’re not always great, but they tend to have fascinating thematic dichotomies at their cores. Nature vs technology. Man vs Nature. Man vs Technology. He’s one of the best at exploring these conflicts in contemporary settings. His speculative premise for Jurassic Park is sheer brilliance. Dinosaurs brought back to life through genetic engineering. And he foreshadows the dire ethical and practical implications early on in his cautionary novel. He smartly uses Isla Nublar, the site of John Hammond’s crazy prehistoric theme park, as a kind of diorama for illustrating Ian Malcolm’s “chaos theory�, a mathematical Murphy’s Law governing complex systems. We experience firsthand the exciting possibilities and inevitable pitfalls of reintroducing predators from another time and attempting to control them.
Like most young teenagers in 1993, I queued up to see the movie on opening night (for 2 hours) and went back several more times that summer. I didn’t buy the novel until years later, after learning that Crichton had written and directed the fantastic 1974 sci-fi film, Westworld, which had a similar plot (robots that populate a themed holiday resort go berserk). Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is actually smarter than it’s given credit for. It doesn’t explore the science like the novel does, but it has a strong handle on all of Crichton’s themes. The book is a ripping adventure yarn and a well-thought-out sci-fi disaster thriller. Easy to read. Hard to put down. There’s a prescience running through most of this late writer’s work that keeps him relevant. Science does need to be carefully monitored, the ramifications of its discoveries do need to be better understood before we take one blind leap too many.
The sequel novel is pretty good as well, but I prefer the original.
The Forever War (Joe Haldeman, 1974)
The Forever War had languished on my shelf for a couple of years, and I don’t know what I was expecting. An author friend of mine cited it as one of the three best SF books ever written.
It’s certainly up there, I have to say. It’s no Starship Troopers clone; instead, Haldeman really nails the insulation/isolation of a soldier’s tour of duty across light-years of space. Over the course of the story, the time dilation he experiences from constantly travelling at near the speed of light means that while he’s aged only several years, Earth has advanced many thousands of years. He returns to civilisation periodically, but things have changed beyond all recognition. He and Marygay, his fellow trooper and the love his life, develop a lasting bond I find extremely moving.
Haldeman’s unfussy prose works so well because there’s so much going on between the words. It’s also full of black humour, which I’m always partial to. His world-building is rich and the protagonist, Private Mandella, displays deep humanity underneath what Audie Murphy referred to as “a weary indifference� to war. This is a great book. I’ve read it four times.
Ready Player One (Ernest Cline, 2011)
Pure geek fantasy. This is a sci-fi novel every gamer or film nerd who grew up in the 80s or 90s should read. The Oasis is basically a VR parallel world in cyberspace, in which users can be anyone or do anything their dreams desire, provided they have enough “coin�, or virtual credits (which they can win from other users). The inventor of the Oasis, James Halliday, initiated an infuriatingly difficult treasure hunt contest when he died. The eventual winner, though, will get full financial and operational control of his entire cyber universe! Despite years of searching, the legion of “gunters� � short for ‘egg hunters� � has found squat. That is, until teenage slum-dweller Wade Watts (aka Parzival) one day uses his geek intuition to find and win the first key.
Then it’s a frenzy, everyone wanting to know who he is and where they can get hold of the fabled first key. Ruthless corporate overlord Nolan Sorrento sends his army of “sixers� to swarm in and try to rig the rest of the contest for his own nefarious ends. An imaginative, prescient cyber adventure ensues, with Wade falling in love with equally nerdy warrior babe Artemis, and friends and enemies alike constantly vying for the prize. Author Ernest Cline stirs the rich pop culture brew to a wonderfully nostalgic lather. Ready Player One is magical at times, and always exciting. As a big fan of VR, I can absolutely see something like the Oasis coming into being one day. It’s addictive as a gaming platform, so I can only imagine how compelling it would be as a fully immersive cyber living experience.
Spielberg’s film adaptation is a lot fun as well, especially in 3D. But the book is more addictive.
Star Maker (Olaf Stapledon, 1937)
Be warned, this one’s a bit of an oddity. It’s a dense, first person account of an extraordinary out-of-body odyssey that spans the entire life of the cosmos and beyond. We meet myriad worlds, alien life-forms ranging from crustaceans to conscious galaxies, and even the Star Maker himself, the great Creator. I don’t know what Mr Stapledon was smogged on when he wrote this but I’ve never seen this many SF ideas packed into one novel. He penned it in 1937, which is kind of staggering because it means he probably coined more SF concepts in Star Maker than anyone else has in a full career.
It’s tough going in places due to the relentless bombardment of ideas without a proper narrative. The author also drifts outside SF throughout; he’s spiritually/philosophically inclined. But he’s also a poet, and I really lap up the eloquence of his prose. My imagination reels for days whenever I finish it. As trailblazing SF, it’s a one of a kind.
Under the Dome (Stephen King, 2009)
Stephen King’s massive Twilight Zone-type speculative drama has been called derivative by some. It might not be a wholly original idea (check out oddball 3D movie The Bubble from 1966, for one), but it’s easily the most fully-realized version of this particular premise. A giant, impenetrable, transparent dome appears one day over the small US town of Chester’s Mill. No one can leave, no one else can enter, and no one knows what the hell caused it. The expansive cast of characters includes a drifter just passing through (or so he thought), a tenacious reporter, various teenage meddlers, a pot-smoking farmer, and a deranged used car businessman who uses his position as Head Selectman of the town council to leverage a series of appalling power grabs.
The mystery of the dome deepens in unpredictable ways, and King is on superb storytelling form here. He attacks his premise from as many angles as he can, using it as a microcosm for social collapse, politics and power, global warming (pollution can’t leave the dome either), and various other thematic concerns. His characters are, as ever, rich and deeply flawed. Good and evil do rise in opposition among the survivors, but the roads to both take many winding turns. It’s a complex story, and the body count is high. I wouldn’t call it a horror, but it does have horrific moments. And some beautiful ones as well. As he did in The Mist and The Stand, among others, King shows us how disasters bring out the best and the worst in ordinary people.
I’ve read it twice, and it was just as absorbing the second time around.
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card, 1985)
I read Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game in two sittings (normally it takes me about a week to get through a novel). I’d caught snippets of controversy over the years, heard bits and pieces about the plot, and I even recall one of my favourite film directors, Wolfgang Petersen, was attached to make a Hollywood version at some point (in the end, Gavin Hood’s 2013 film was decent enough).
Six-year-old child prodigy Ender Wiggin is the youngest of three siblings with unlimited potential. They’ve all been monitored by the military authorities, and Colonel Graff, charged with selecting a child to be groomed for eventual leadership in a pending war against the alien “buggers�, picks Ender. His brother Peter is cruel and heartless, while his sister Valentine is too nice to ever hurt anyone. Ender, meanwhile, possesses the best attributes of both, from a military point of view. He is compassionate enough to make friends and inspire loyalty, but he also has a single-minded survival instinct that is cold and calculating. Graff reckons that with sufficient training, he can coax Ender into becoming a military tactician to rival Alexander the Great or Napoleon.
Did I mention Ender is only six?
Throughout his time in Command School, a top secret orbital station, the best and the worst of Ender are brought out—his will to succeed, to become master of the battleroom, sees him progress up the ranks with astonishing speed. He makes friends and enemies along the way, and is deeply haunted by memories of his cruel brother and the sister he loves. Graff is ever present behind the scenes, pulling the strings, manipulating the young genius into becoming the best he can be. The stunning third act is full of twists and turns as Ender must struggle to realize his true, frightening potential.
Wow, talk about a provocative novel! I’ve seen it listed as Young Adult, but there’s no end to the moral, ethical, political, social, and futuristic themes raked up here. Card doesn’t dwell on any of them, doesn’t preach; he tells his story the simplest way he can and lets the reader do most of the heavy lifting—if they want it. Because it also works as an exciting science fiction tale, a coming-of-age story, with a memorable climax.
Ender might be very young but he thinks and behaves with an ever-increasing maturity almost immediately. There’s nothing condescending here. He’s also prone to nightmares, and is shaped not just by Graff and the endless battleroom games, but by those around him. He has to contend with bullies, rivals, abusive teachers, personal demons: all of us have something in common with Ender Wiggin. Card’s triumph here is the complexity he gives these boys and girls struggling to become men and women before their time. At their age, it might all be about winning games and points, but they’re constantly aware there’ll be a time when those games and points will end lives. We feel that responsibility weighing Ender down, and his will to overcome it becomes ours, vicariously. We don’t want these children to ever graduate from the battleroom. But if they must, let it be under the leadership of someone with compassion and not just a killer instinct. Humanity must graduate intact.
Everyone needs a Valentine to temper their Peter.
I can’t begin to say how much I enjoy Ender’s Game � I’ve read it at least four times. It’s a one-of-a-kind children’s SF war story that isn’t really for children at all. If you haven’t yet given it a whirl, do so right away. The sequel, Speaker for the Dead, is pretty intriguing too.
So that’s the ten. My personal list of re-readable SF keepers and all-timers. Others that almost sneaked in include Andy Weir’s The Martian and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s amazing Barsoom series. It truly is a wondrous genre.
Which SF books have you read more than once?
Where to start with this, the king of epic science fiction novels? Well, frankly, I avoided it for years. The 1984 film adaptation flat-out didn’t work for me in all the ways Star Wars did. It was messy, weird, and not much fun. The idea of wading through a doorstop novel stuffed with that kind of incoherent nonsense was about as appealing as sharing a sauna with Baron Harkonnen. But when someone bought me a great-looking hardback edition as a present � the giant sandworm artwork on the cover really fired my imagination � I’d just read a string of classic SF books from the same collection (Orion’s SF Masterworks) and found them to be some of the best books I’d ever read, in any genre. Besides, all those legendary SF writers extolling the genius of Herbert’s mammoth opus must know something, right?
I discovered pretty early on that Dune plays by its own tune. The worldbuilding is dense but fascinating, and oh-so expansive. Arthur C. Clarke likened it to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and it really is that layered, that detailed. The amount of head-hopping (switching from one character’s POV to another) could have been confusing, but I found I could follow it perfectly well. One of my least favourite genre tropes is the prophesied messiah, but Herbert made young Paul Atreides complex enough that I was rooting for him and his mother, Lady Jessica, a Bene Gesserit witch and concubine of Duke Leto Atreides (newly appointed sovereign of the crucial spice world, Arrakis), the whole way through.
Despicable villains, huge action scenes, mysticism, interstellar politics, espionage, romance, rebellions, and a classic coming-of-age odyssey: it could have been an incoherent mess like Lynch’s movie, but Herbert is a superb storyteller. You have to get in tune with his offbeat rhythms and his sometimes stiff, retro prose, and it’s certainly not a book you can casually dip in and out of. You have to delve into it, let the depth of world-building draw you in, and the scale of the meta-universe enwrap you. But the rewards are breathtaking. I loved everything about it. Strangely enough, I’ve never read the sequels, but I’ve re-read Dune three times.
I’m curious to see what Denis Villeneuve’s new film adaptation does with it. His Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 are sublime sci-fi movies, so who knows? He might finally be the one who cracks it.
The Stars My Destination (Alfred Bester, 1956)
I’d heard of Bester by reputation—a titanic reputation—and of his two most revered works (the other being The Demolished Man), I chose this one first because I loved the title. It smacks of the grandiosity and mystery Star Trek purports to pursue but rarely does: exploring the unknown regions of the universe, etc. Well, as it turns out, neither does The Stars My Destination. Bester’s anti-hero, Gully Foyle, begins the story marooned in the wreckage of his spaceship. After subsisting for weeks on his own, he sees another ship approach. But rather than stop to help, the vessel speeds away and leaves him for dead. From that moment on, Gully is a man driven by revenge—an insane, unquenchable revenge that transforms him from an illiterate janitor to a sophisticated criminal and phenomenal “jaunter�.
Jaunting is the most ingenious use of teleportation I’ve ever come across. It’s a part of human evolution in Bester’s future. Some can do it and some can’t, but the idea of mass teleportation, entire populations migrating across the world by the power of thought, frankly blows my mind. Gully’s such a single-minded anti-hero, his quest is so dangerous and nuts, you can’t help but root for him. I love the unpredictable story. The prose takes huge creative risks and becomes more and more mesmerizing. The story, too, follows through on all its early promise and keeps going. By the end, I was ready for anything. Bester scored a knockout.
And the second time I read it, I was floored by the sheer audacity of the unhinged narrative leaps it takes. If I could write something half as original as this, I’d die a happy author.
The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells, 1898)
H.G. Wells� classic needs no introduction. Written when the European colonial powers were ramping up the mechanisation of their armed forces and sabre-rattling on the brink of war, his alien invasion horror was very much a product of its time. Interestingly, Orson Welles’s legendary radio dramatisation in 1938, and the two most successful screen adaptations, Byron Haskin’s seminal film in 1953 and Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster in 2005, all channelled the political angst of their respective eras into Wells� science fiction premise. In 1938, it was the threat of another global conflict that caused jittery Americans to freak out when they thought Welles� broadcast was actually reporting the arrival of hostile Martians. In the 50s it was the threat of a communist invasion, the onset of the Cold War. In post-millennial America, the trauma of 9/11 raised public fear of terrorism to a febrile level. War of the Worlds is applicable to any age because its main theme, fear of aggression by a hostile superior force, strikes deep into the human psyche. Indeed, it can be said to have politically shaped much of the twentieth century, with famously tragic results.
I’ve heard people grumble about the ending, saying it’s anticlimactic. But to my mind it’s one of the most profound endings in all of fiction. Wells was a biologist, a philosopher, and a humanist. The genius of that final twist is that it incorporates all three of those, and much more, revealing, from the microscopic to the global, the fundamental interconnectedness of life on Earth. The alien colonists would have succeeded if their hubris hadn’t blinded them to the hidden weapons in Nature’s biosphere.
It’s scary, thrilling � when the Navy’s ironclad rammer, HMS Thunder Child, takes down a tripod, oh boy! � and takes humanity to the brink of the abyss. But when Wells finally turns the tables on the invaders, a great story becomes one for the ages.
Rendezvous with Rama (Arthur C. Clarke, 1973)
The set-up of this one is incredibly simple. A mysterious object of vast proportions is found drifting through our solar system, and only one ship has time to rendezvous before the object reaches perihelion. It turns out to be a massive, artificial cylinder, and better still…it’s hollow. The international investigating crew decides to venture inside…and one of my all-time favourite SF adventures begins.
I’d started another of Clarke’s books a few years before and found it too dry. But Rama fascinated me from start to finish. There’s an addictive anticipation from chapter to chapter, and I find myself floating, climbing, even cycling alongside the crew every inch of the way. It would be unfair to spoil any of the revelations. Nothing compares to a truly alien mystery, and the secrets of Rama amount to a very special SF read indeed. I revisit it often and am never disappointed.
Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton, 1990)
Crichton has such a straightforward prose style I can usually zip through his books in record time. They’re not always great, but they tend to have fascinating thematic dichotomies at their cores. Nature vs technology. Man vs Nature. Man vs Technology. He’s one of the best at exploring these conflicts in contemporary settings. His speculative premise for Jurassic Park is sheer brilliance. Dinosaurs brought back to life through genetic engineering. And he foreshadows the dire ethical and practical implications early on in his cautionary novel. He smartly uses Isla Nublar, the site of John Hammond’s crazy prehistoric theme park, as a kind of diorama for illustrating Ian Malcolm’s “chaos theory�, a mathematical Murphy’s Law governing complex systems. We experience firsthand the exciting possibilities and inevitable pitfalls of reintroducing predators from another time and attempting to control them.
Like most young teenagers in 1993, I queued up to see the movie on opening night (for 2 hours) and went back several more times that summer. I didn’t buy the novel until years later, after learning that Crichton had written and directed the fantastic 1974 sci-fi film, Westworld, which had a similar plot (robots that populate a themed holiday resort go berserk). Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is actually smarter than it’s given credit for. It doesn’t explore the science like the novel does, but it has a strong handle on all of Crichton’s themes. The book is a ripping adventure yarn and a well-thought-out sci-fi disaster thriller. Easy to read. Hard to put down. There’s a prescience running through most of this late writer’s work that keeps him relevant. Science does need to be carefully monitored, the ramifications of its discoveries do need to be better understood before we take one blind leap too many.
The sequel novel is pretty good as well, but I prefer the original.
The Forever War (Joe Haldeman, 1974)
The Forever War had languished on my shelf for a couple of years, and I don’t know what I was expecting. An author friend of mine cited it as one of the three best SF books ever written.
It’s certainly up there, I have to say. It’s no Starship Troopers clone; instead, Haldeman really nails the insulation/isolation of a soldier’s tour of duty across light-years of space. Over the course of the story, the time dilation he experiences from constantly travelling at near the speed of light means that while he’s aged only several years, Earth has advanced many thousands of years. He returns to civilisation periodically, but things have changed beyond all recognition. He and Marygay, his fellow trooper and the love his life, develop a lasting bond I find extremely moving.
Haldeman’s unfussy prose works so well because there’s so much going on between the words. It’s also full of black humour, which I’m always partial to. His world-building is rich and the protagonist, Private Mandella, displays deep humanity underneath what Audie Murphy referred to as “a weary indifference� to war. This is a great book. I’ve read it four times.
Ready Player One (Ernest Cline, 2011)
Pure geek fantasy. This is a sci-fi novel every gamer or film nerd who grew up in the 80s or 90s should read. The Oasis is basically a VR parallel world in cyberspace, in which users can be anyone or do anything their dreams desire, provided they have enough “coin�, or virtual credits (which they can win from other users). The inventor of the Oasis, James Halliday, initiated an infuriatingly difficult treasure hunt contest when he died. The eventual winner, though, will get full financial and operational control of his entire cyber universe! Despite years of searching, the legion of “gunters� � short for ‘egg hunters� � has found squat. That is, until teenage slum-dweller Wade Watts (aka Parzival) one day uses his geek intuition to find and win the first key.
Then it’s a frenzy, everyone wanting to know who he is and where they can get hold of the fabled first key. Ruthless corporate overlord Nolan Sorrento sends his army of “sixers� to swarm in and try to rig the rest of the contest for his own nefarious ends. An imaginative, prescient cyber adventure ensues, with Wade falling in love with equally nerdy warrior babe Artemis, and friends and enemies alike constantly vying for the prize. Author Ernest Cline stirs the rich pop culture brew to a wonderfully nostalgic lather. Ready Player One is magical at times, and always exciting. As a big fan of VR, I can absolutely see something like the Oasis coming into being one day. It’s addictive as a gaming platform, so I can only imagine how compelling it would be as a fully immersive cyber living experience.
Spielberg’s film adaptation is a lot fun as well, especially in 3D. But the book is more addictive.
Star Maker (Olaf Stapledon, 1937)
Be warned, this one’s a bit of an oddity. It’s a dense, first person account of an extraordinary out-of-body odyssey that spans the entire life of the cosmos and beyond. We meet myriad worlds, alien life-forms ranging from crustaceans to conscious galaxies, and even the Star Maker himself, the great Creator. I don’t know what Mr Stapledon was smogged on when he wrote this but I’ve never seen this many SF ideas packed into one novel. He penned it in 1937, which is kind of staggering because it means he probably coined more SF concepts in Star Maker than anyone else has in a full career.
It’s tough going in places due to the relentless bombardment of ideas without a proper narrative. The author also drifts outside SF throughout; he’s spiritually/philosophically inclined. But he’s also a poet, and I really lap up the eloquence of his prose. My imagination reels for days whenever I finish it. As trailblazing SF, it’s a one of a kind.
Under the Dome (Stephen King, 2009)
Stephen King’s massive Twilight Zone-type speculative drama has been called derivative by some. It might not be a wholly original idea (check out oddball 3D movie The Bubble from 1966, for one), but it’s easily the most fully-realized version of this particular premise. A giant, impenetrable, transparent dome appears one day over the small US town of Chester’s Mill. No one can leave, no one else can enter, and no one knows what the hell caused it. The expansive cast of characters includes a drifter just passing through (or so he thought), a tenacious reporter, various teenage meddlers, a pot-smoking farmer, and a deranged used car businessman who uses his position as Head Selectman of the town council to leverage a series of appalling power grabs.
The mystery of the dome deepens in unpredictable ways, and King is on superb storytelling form here. He attacks his premise from as many angles as he can, using it as a microcosm for social collapse, politics and power, global warming (pollution can’t leave the dome either), and various other thematic concerns. His characters are, as ever, rich and deeply flawed. Good and evil do rise in opposition among the survivors, but the roads to both take many winding turns. It’s a complex story, and the body count is high. I wouldn’t call it a horror, but it does have horrific moments. And some beautiful ones as well. As he did in The Mist and The Stand, among others, King shows us how disasters bring out the best and the worst in ordinary people.
I’ve read it twice, and it was just as absorbing the second time around.
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card, 1985)
I read Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game in two sittings (normally it takes me about a week to get through a novel). I’d caught snippets of controversy over the years, heard bits and pieces about the plot, and I even recall one of my favourite film directors, Wolfgang Petersen, was attached to make a Hollywood version at some point (in the end, Gavin Hood’s 2013 film was decent enough).
Six-year-old child prodigy Ender Wiggin is the youngest of three siblings with unlimited potential. They’ve all been monitored by the military authorities, and Colonel Graff, charged with selecting a child to be groomed for eventual leadership in a pending war against the alien “buggers�, picks Ender. His brother Peter is cruel and heartless, while his sister Valentine is too nice to ever hurt anyone. Ender, meanwhile, possesses the best attributes of both, from a military point of view. He is compassionate enough to make friends and inspire loyalty, but he also has a single-minded survival instinct that is cold and calculating. Graff reckons that with sufficient training, he can coax Ender into becoming a military tactician to rival Alexander the Great or Napoleon.
Did I mention Ender is only six?
Throughout his time in Command School, a top secret orbital station, the best and the worst of Ender are brought out—his will to succeed, to become master of the battleroom, sees him progress up the ranks with astonishing speed. He makes friends and enemies along the way, and is deeply haunted by memories of his cruel brother and the sister he loves. Graff is ever present behind the scenes, pulling the strings, manipulating the young genius into becoming the best he can be. The stunning third act is full of twists and turns as Ender must struggle to realize his true, frightening potential.
Wow, talk about a provocative novel! I’ve seen it listed as Young Adult, but there’s no end to the moral, ethical, political, social, and futuristic themes raked up here. Card doesn’t dwell on any of them, doesn’t preach; he tells his story the simplest way he can and lets the reader do most of the heavy lifting—if they want it. Because it also works as an exciting science fiction tale, a coming-of-age story, with a memorable climax.
Ender might be very young but he thinks and behaves with an ever-increasing maturity almost immediately. There’s nothing condescending here. He’s also prone to nightmares, and is shaped not just by Graff and the endless battleroom games, but by those around him. He has to contend with bullies, rivals, abusive teachers, personal demons: all of us have something in common with Ender Wiggin. Card’s triumph here is the complexity he gives these boys and girls struggling to become men and women before their time. At their age, it might all be about winning games and points, but they’re constantly aware there’ll be a time when those games and points will end lives. We feel that responsibility weighing Ender down, and his will to overcome it becomes ours, vicariously. We don’t want these children to ever graduate from the battleroom. But if they must, let it be under the leadership of someone with compassion and not just a killer instinct. Humanity must graduate intact.
Everyone needs a Valentine to temper their Peter.
I can’t begin to say how much I enjoy Ender’s Game � I’ve read it at least four times. It’s a one-of-a-kind children’s SF war story that isn’t really for children at all. If you haven’t yet given it a whirl, do so right away. The sequel, Speaker for the Dead, is pretty intriguing too.
So that’s the ten. My personal list of re-readable SF keepers and all-timers. Others that almost sneaked in include Andy Weir’s The Martian and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s amazing Barsoom series. It truly is a wondrous genre.
Which SF books have you read more than once?
September 6, 2019
How much head-hopping can you handle?
It's one of the Commandments of modern fiction writing (there are more of those than you think), decreed by the bastions of sound storytelling practice and advocated by most of today's editors and publishers:
Thou shalt not head-hop.
Jumping between different characters' narrative points of view in rapid succession is generally regarded as a big storytelling no-no. It's choppy, and can easily confuse the reader. Knowing exactly whose thoughts you're following and whose worldview you're connected to is vital to the link between author and reader.
I get that. And I agree with it. But like all Commandments, it can easily become blind dogma.
What about authors who can pull off POV switches seamlessly and leave no confusion? Several times in the same chapter? Granted, head-hopping back and forth from one sentence to the next is NEVER a good idea, but I'm sure we've all read authors -- probably from past generations -- who've artfully woven together multiple POVs in this way.
Frank Herbert's DUNE is one of the most famous I can think of. Even apart from the telepathic ability some of his characters possess, the amount of head-hopping in his diplomatic banquet scene, for instance, is astonishing. We get so many narrative POV switches, it's like we're sneaking round the table, listening in to each character's thoughts in turn.
That's the effect Herbert is going for, and he pulls it off. Sure, it's choppy from an empathic perspective, but I know exactly whose inner voice I'm following and what it's trying to tell me about the events unfolding.
Stephen King head-hops from time to time, but always intuitively. I've heard from other authors who don't mind the practice when it's done knowingly and for effect. Amateur writers fall into the head-hopping trap because they don't know any better. And it's right to make them aware of it. But should it, like passive voice and -ly adverbs, be verboten?
How much head-hopping can you handle?
Thou shalt not head-hop.
Jumping between different characters' narrative points of view in rapid succession is generally regarded as a big storytelling no-no. It's choppy, and can easily confuse the reader. Knowing exactly whose thoughts you're following and whose worldview you're connected to is vital to the link between author and reader.
I get that. And I agree with it. But like all Commandments, it can easily become blind dogma.
What about authors who can pull off POV switches seamlessly and leave no confusion? Several times in the same chapter? Granted, head-hopping back and forth from one sentence to the next is NEVER a good idea, but I'm sure we've all read authors -- probably from past generations -- who've artfully woven together multiple POVs in this way.
Frank Herbert's DUNE is one of the most famous I can think of. Even apart from the telepathic ability some of his characters possess, the amount of head-hopping in his diplomatic banquet scene, for instance, is astonishing. We get so many narrative POV switches, it's like we're sneaking round the table, listening in to each character's thoughts in turn.
That's the effect Herbert is going for, and he pulls it off. Sure, it's choppy from an empathic perspective, but I know exactly whose inner voice I'm following and what it's trying to tell me about the events unfolding.
Stephen King head-hops from time to time, but always intuitively. I've heard from other authors who don't mind the practice when it's done knowingly and for effect. Amateur writers fall into the head-hopping trap because they don't know any better. And it's right to make them aware of it. But should it, like passive voice and -ly adverbs, be verboten?
How much head-hopping can you handle?
July 17, 2017
Book Review: The Strange Death of Europe
The Strange Death of Europe
Author: Douglas Murray
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published: June 20th 2017 by Bloomsbury Continuum
Douglas Murray maintains remarkable poise as he treads through some of the most politically taboo territory of modern times. Europe has lost its sense of self, he posits. The hows and the whys of this are extremely well argued here. Guilt, conflict fatigue, political apathy, the rise of liberal fanaticism, and many other factors have weakened European identity to the point where we've become unable to stop or even slow the Biblical-scale influx of foreign cultures into our continent. The problems arising from this, many of them so stark and obvious (and worryingly unspeakable), are at the heart of today's Western political divide. They continue to go unaddressed, or worse, wilfully compounded by huge numbers of people in our society, for whom immigration and the championing of anyone NOT of white European origin has become a kind of masochistic mania.
Combustible stuff.
Murray is not an angry writer. Rather he coolly dismantles the oft-peddled official arguments for why large-scale immigration is good for us. Then he sets about the Merkel migration debacle, one of the key global events since World War II, with scholarly and journalistic gusto. He recalls his personal encounters with refugees and migrants at various stages of their journeys to "the Promised Land" of Western Europe. The picture he paints is a complicated one, but overriding themes do crystallise into, strangely enough, many of the concerns everyday people across Europe have but are told (by misguided elites) that they are wrong to have: fear of being overrun by foreign cultures and their often incongruous values and beliefs, fear that the authorities are covering up migrant crime figures and even the crimes themselves (most disturbingly, the widespread rapes) in order to hoodwink us into accepting their utopian delusion of large-scale integration.
I suspect many readers will be simultaneously impressed and depressed by Murray's conclusions. Impressed because here is someone who's finally written a lucid, probing account into a heretofore mostly taboo subject that has always been difficult to broach without sounding strident, and even more difficult to unpack from its layers of decade-long distortion, denial, and political correctness. Depressed because the fading of traditional Western European identity does seem bleak, perhaps even irreversible. Whatever we do now may be too late. That's a bitter pill to swallow, though, and while Murray is not, on the surface, an angry writer, that emotion may be the one that endures most lastingly in many of his readers. It has in this reader, and that alone qualifies The Strange Death of Europe as a must-read book. Indeed, an important book.
Ìý
July 4, 2017
Star Binder Available for Pre-order
It's here at last, and I'm excited to announce that on July 11th, you're invited to discover the secrets of the Star Binder...
Here are a few quotes from early reviews:
"Appleton pushes the boundaries of the imagination with emotional stakes and a heroic quest in this must-read novel!"
"Set on Mars, Star Binder by Robert Appleton is an exciting story that combines elements of sci-fi with adventure, and sends readers on a rollicking ride across the galaxy...ÌýAppleton establishes himself as a great storyteller, and readers will love his memorable characters."ÌýÌý"Star Binder by Robert Appleton is exactly the kind of science fiction novel I am into these days, and it is great... Lately I have searched for books concerned with how life in the near future will look as we branch out and settle our solar system...ÌýStar Binder is one of the best examples I have read of this particular type of science fiction."ÌýÌý"Star Binder by Robert Appleton is a book I'll most certainly be recommending."
And here's a bit more about the story:
Born on the streets. Made in the stars.
Under constant threat of invasion, the future of mankind's colonies is uncertain. Enter Jim Trillion and his best friend, Sergei, two young grifters scraping a living in the oases resorts of Mars. Their dreams might be big but their prospects are shrinking one petty crime at a time. Their luck is running out.ÌýÌýBut after saving the life of a famous explorer, they receive the invitation of a lifetime--the chance to join a mysterious top secret academy and one day see the galaxy. If only it were that simple. The massing alien threat, Jim's unknown past, and the key to reaching the stars all propel them on a journey of self-discovery into the thrilling and terrifying unknown. There the ultimate prize awaits, a prize that could change everything: the Star Binder.
Available for pre-order now on Ìýand in
And for UK readers: ;
to read the first chapter.
Hope you enjoy!
Robert
Here are a few quotes from early reviews:
"Appleton pushes the boundaries of the imagination with emotional stakes and a heroic quest in this must-read novel!"
"Set on Mars, Star Binder by Robert Appleton is an exciting story that combines elements of sci-fi with adventure, and sends readers on a rollicking ride across the galaxy...ÌýAppleton establishes himself as a great storyteller, and readers will love his memorable characters."ÌýÌý"Star Binder by Robert Appleton is exactly the kind of science fiction novel I am into these days, and it is great... Lately I have searched for books concerned with how life in the near future will look as we branch out and settle our solar system...ÌýStar Binder is one of the best examples I have read of this particular type of science fiction."ÌýÌý"Star Binder by Robert Appleton is a book I'll most certainly be recommending."
And here's a bit more about the story:
Born on the streets. Made in the stars.
Under constant threat of invasion, the future of mankind's colonies is uncertain. Enter Jim Trillion and his best friend, Sergei, two young grifters scraping a living in the oases resorts of Mars. Their dreams might be big but their prospects are shrinking one petty crime at a time. Their luck is running out.ÌýÌýBut after saving the life of a famous explorer, they receive the invitation of a lifetime--the chance to join a mysterious top secret academy and one day see the galaxy. If only it were that simple. The massing alien threat, Jim's unknown past, and the key to reaching the stars all propel them on a journey of self-discovery into the thrilling and terrifying unknown. There the ultimate prize awaits, a prize that could change everything: the Star Binder.
Available for pre-order now on Ìýand in
And for UK readers: ;
to read the first chapter.
Hope you enjoy!
Robert
March 18, 2017
Star Binder is Live Now at Kindle Scout
Hi guys!
Today is Day 1 of my Kindle Scout campaign for STAR BINDER, my new YA sci-fi novel. It's up for a publishing contract with Kindle Press, but it needs your support. With your nominations, it could get picked up by the Amazon publishing team.
How it works is this: my book page is up now on the Kindle Scout site. It shows my new cover art and an excerpt from the book. Amazon readers check it out, and if they like what they see, they can nominate the book for publication. The more nominations a book receives, the more likely the Kindle Press team will consider it for a contract with them. It's something I haven't tried before, but it sounds like a great opportunity.
Its all about reader support. So if you've got a spare minute, head on over to my STAR BINDER book page, and if you like what you see there, please nominate it. With your help, this one could go all the way.
I'll share the book cover on here at the end of the campaign, whether it's successful or not. Thanks for your support!
ÌýRobert
Today is Day 1 of my Kindle Scout campaign for STAR BINDER, my new YA sci-fi novel. It's up for a publishing contract with Kindle Press, but it needs your support. With your nominations, it could get picked up by the Amazon publishing team.
How it works is this: my book page is up now on the Kindle Scout site. It shows my new cover art and an excerpt from the book. Amazon readers check it out, and if they like what they see, they can nominate the book for publication. The more nominations a book receives, the more likely the Kindle Press team will consider it for a contract with them. It's something I haven't tried before, but it sounds like a great opportunity.
Its all about reader support. So if you've got a spare minute, head on over to my STAR BINDER book page, and if you like what you see there, please nominate it. With your help, this one could go all the way.
I'll share the book cover on here at the end of the campaign, whether it's successful or not. Thanks for your support!
ÌýRobert
February 27, 2017
New Author Website!
I've been busy these past couple of weeks putting the finishing touches to my brand new author website. It's so much cleaner and easier to navigate than the old site, and as promised, I've included a lot more sample chapters.
The focus, as always, is on science fiction and steampunk. But the biggest surprise has been the long-term popularity of , my sole venture into historical fiction. Its sales have been steady for years and show no signs of petering out. Readers from as far afield as India and Australia have been fascinated (and horrified) by the true story of this mass crocodile attack during World War Two, and I've even heard from someone whose relative actually fought in the Battle of Ramree.
The biggest seller of 2016 was . It's also consistently received the best reviews and reader feedback of any title in the Cosmic Frontiers collection (it garnered an EPIC Award nomination and an Ariana Award win!). That's all the more gratifying because it's my first fully self-published novel. A sequel is underway and should be ready later in the year.
In the meantime, head on over to Ìýto check out my latest titles and enjoy a few sample chapters of books you might have missed.
Best wishes,
Robert
The focus, as always, is on science fiction and steampunk. But the biggest surprise has been the long-term popularity of , my sole venture into historical fiction. Its sales have been steady for years and show no signs of petering out. Readers from as far afield as India and Australia have been fascinated (and horrified) by the true story of this mass crocodile attack during World War Two, and I've even heard from someone whose relative actually fought in the Battle of Ramree.
The biggest seller of 2016 was . It's also consistently received the best reviews and reader feedback of any title in the Cosmic Frontiers collection (it garnered an EPIC Award nomination and an Ariana Award win!). That's all the more gratifying because it's my first fully self-published novel. A sequel is underway and should be ready later in the year.
In the meantime, head on over to Ìýto check out my latest titles and enjoy a few sample chapters of books you might have missed.
Best wishes,
Robert
July 20, 2016
September Storm (1960): Help Save This Golden Age 3D Movie!
It isn't every day film fans get to save a piece of Hollywood history, but it's happening right now. I pledged to support this project on Day One, but if we're to save this forgotten 3D movie, time's running out!
Dir. Byron Haskin (War of the Worlds, Robinson Crusoe on Mars)
Starring: Joanne Dru, Mark Stevens, Robert Strauss, Asher Dann
A Kickstarter campaign has been started to fund the restoration of the 1960 3-D film September Storm. This project will only be funded if at least $25,000 is pledged by Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 11 p.m. Central Daylight Time. People interested in donating can do so by visiting the funding page at .
September Storm is considered one of the "lost" 3-D features of the golden age of 3-D cinema. Shot in 1959, it was the last of the 3-D movies to be filmed in the 1950s, and is most notable for being filmed in Stereo-Vision using the Natural Vision 3-D camera rig and in CinemaScope. September Storm hasn't been seen in it's intended 3-D and widescreen format since it's initial theatrical release in 1960, and the surviving film elements are deteriorating. If a digital restoration of the stereoscopic anamorphic version isn't done soon, it is at risk of being lost forever. Your donation to this campaign will help save this important motion picture so that it can be seen by future generations of movie fans.
The 3-D Film Archive has been actively working to preserve our 3-D film heritage by digitally restoring classic 3-D movies, and making them available to a new generation of theatergoers and home viewers. Recent restoration projects include the 3-D movies Dragonfly Squadron, The Bubble, The Mask, Gog and the 3-D Rarities collection.
To accomplish the funding, theÌýÌýhas teamed up with 501(c)3 nonprofit organization 3-D SPACE: The Center For Stereoscopic Photography, Art, Cinema, and Education to embark on the conservation and restoration of September Storm. Your donation to this project through 3-D SPACE may qualify for an income tax deduction in accordance with Federal or State income tax laws. Please consult with your tax advisor to determine whether your donation is tax deductible in whole or in part.
Bob Furmanek and Greg Kintz of the 3-D Film Archive have a proven track record when it comes to restoring vintage 3-D films that might otherwise have slipped through the cracks, neglected and forgotten. "The 3-D Film Archive has already obtained, for a limited time, the rights to restore and distribute September Storm, but the hard work is still ahead of us. Both the left eye and right eye film elements will need to be digitally scanned, frame by frame. We will need to assess the level of damage to these existing elements, and determine how to best fix the images. This will require a stereoscopic re-alignment pass, left and right color restoration and matching, and clean-up of scratches and other damages to the film surface. This is very challenging post-production work, and can potentially be very expensive. Fortunately, the 3-D Film Archive's success with previous restoration projects, and by teaming up with 3-D SPACE and maintaining this work "in house" costs will be kept at a manageable level. We are confident that we will be able to produce both a 3-D Blu-ray master and a digital cinema package (DCP) that will look fantastic."
As with any Kickstarter campaign, the organizers have included rewards based on the donation pledge levels. The most basic pledge of $10 or more will get your name included in the Blu-ray credits. Other rewards include reproductions of the September Storm lobby cards, a special Kickstarter limited edition Blu-ray of September Storm, VIP admission for two to the New York or Los Angeles world premiere of the restored version, and more.
Pledges reached the 25 percent mark within the first four days of launching the Kickstarter campaign, which started on July 16.Ìý
People are being asked to share the campaign through the hashtag #SaveSeptemberStorm
Let's save this long-lost 3D gem!
May 8, 2016
Movies I've Watched in 2016: Part 1
Film-wise, 2016 has been pretty entertaining so far. I usually visit the cinema once or twice a week, depending on the selection (and making full use of my Cineworld Unlimited Card). I'll try most genres, but I do tend toward mainstream Hollywood fare, unless something really catches my eye (I've been burned too many times by foreign-language films).
My only five-star film so far is Adam McKay's sensational, go-for-broke Wall Street black comedy, THE BIG SHORT. You really have to pay attention between the laughs, because it describes the complex moves that led to the near-total collapse of the US (and global) economic house of cards. Smart, frightening stuff.Ìý
Other nice surprises were David O'Russell's JOY, starring Jennifer Lawrence, which had received wishy-washy reviews (I loved it), the gripping suspense thriller 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, and Kevin Reynolds' biblical procedural, RISEN, starring an excellent Joseph Fiennes.
Here's the complete list thus far. I'll post another one after the summer season is over.
10 Cloverfield Lane ****
Allegiant ***
Bad Neighbours 2 **
Batman vs Superman 3D ***
Captain America: Civil War 3D ****
Deadpool ***
Eddie the Eagle ****
Hail, Caesar! ***
High-Rise **
Joy ****
London Has Fallen ***
Midnight Special ***
Risen ****
Spotlight ****
The Big Short
The Finest Hours ****
The Huntsman 3D **
The Jungle Book 3D ****
The Revenant ****
Zootropolis 3D ****Ìý
And a couple of retro double-bill screenings I attended (the Cap films were actually screened as a triple, culminating with the equally brilliant Civil War):Ìý
Alien
Aliens
Captain America: First Avenger 3D ****
Captain America: Winter Soldier 3D ****Ìý
Next up, I'm really looking forward to Shane Black's THE NICE GUYS, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. The trailers are hilarious, and Black's previous films (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3) both hit the spot for me.
My only five-star film so far is Adam McKay's sensational, go-for-broke Wall Street black comedy, THE BIG SHORT. You really have to pay attention between the laughs, because it describes the complex moves that led to the near-total collapse of the US (and global) economic house of cards. Smart, frightening stuff.Ìý
Other nice surprises were David O'Russell's JOY, starring Jennifer Lawrence, which had received wishy-washy reviews (I loved it), the gripping suspense thriller 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, and Kevin Reynolds' biblical procedural, RISEN, starring an excellent Joseph Fiennes.
Here's the complete list thus far. I'll post another one after the summer season is over.
10 Cloverfield Lane ****
Allegiant ***
Bad Neighbours 2 **
Batman vs Superman 3D ***
Captain America: Civil War 3D ****
Deadpool ***
Eddie the Eagle ****
Hail, Caesar! ***
High-Rise **
Joy ****
London Has Fallen ***
Midnight Special ***
Risen ****
Spotlight ****
The Big Short
The Finest Hours ****
The Huntsman 3D **
The Jungle Book 3D ****
The Revenant ****
Zootropolis 3D ****Ìý
And a couple of retro double-bill screenings I attended (the Cap films were actually screened as a triple, culminating with the equally brilliant Civil War):Ìý
Alien
Aliens
Captain America: First Avenger 3D ****
Captain America: Winter Soldier 3D ****Ìý
Next up, I'm really looking forward to Shane Black's THE NICE GUYS, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. The trailers are hilarious, and Black's previous films (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3) both hit the spot for me.
October 13, 2015
Old Stories: Respect or Rewrite?
For an author, figuring out what to do with older, out-of-print stories is like stomping on nostalgia. I want to leave them just the way they are and re-release them that way, as old friends, but on the other hand, I've grown SO much as a writer since then. A part of me wants to rewrite every line, to drag the prose kicking and screaming into my current oeuvre. But how much of the original magic would I lose?
Maybe each story, even if it's fiction (perhaps especially if it's fiction), belongs to a specific time and place in an author's life, and should be left there. Who I was when I wrote it, how I saw the world back then, might be crucial to the way I wrote it, and retroactively second-guessing that voice might be impossible. I'm different now. More clinical as a writer. But those old, dreamy flourishes I roll my eyes at now were exactly how I wanted to tell my story back then.
The old saying goes: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And a more recent one: never f#@! around with a winner. But on the other hand, what if I *can* improve it and nostalgia is just getting in the way?
conundrum ~ n. a confusing or difficult problem or question
Maybe each story, even if it's fiction (perhaps especially if it's fiction), belongs to a specific time and place in an author's life, and should be left there. Who I was when I wrote it, how I saw the world back then, might be crucial to the way I wrote it, and retroactively second-guessing that voice might be impossible. I'm different now. More clinical as a writer. But those old, dreamy flourishes I roll my eyes at now were exactly how I wanted to tell my story back then.
The old saying goes: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And a more recent one: never f#@! around with a winner. But on the other hand, what if I *can* improve it and nostalgia is just getting in the way?
conundrum ~ n. a confusing or difficult problem or question
October 27, 2014
Movie Review: Nightcrawler (2014)
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Lou Bloom is an instant classic scuzzball character. He echoes the memorable sociopaths played by Robert DeNiro in his prime (Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy and Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver), but he’s less sympathetic than either of those. A parasite on the prowl, Bloom soon fixates on a career ideally suited to his amoral loner/ go-getter character—as a crime journalist during L.A.’s night hours. He listens for crimes in progress on his police scanner, speeds to the scene, and then angles for the most shocking, risque footage he can possibly get away with.
New colleagues Nina (Rene Russo), the struggling news producer he goes to first, and Rick (Riz Ahmed), a desperate “intern� railroaded into the nightmare, are exploitable because they want what Bloom can give them—money, work, success. The risks he takes and the lines he crosses are mainly ethical ones at first, but he quickly realises the quickest way to make a name for himself is to get truly sensational footage. The kind that requires taking bigger risks, eventually endangering lives.
Bloom is the most detestable character I’ve seen in ages. He’s a soulless cockroach rummaging through the misfortunes of others, ravenously feeding off violent crimes, sometimes while they’re still happening. But the news station keeps on buying what he’s selling. Viewer ratings spike with each successive horror scene that hits the air.
Writer/director Dan Gilroy makes us squirm from start to finish here because Bloom is so queasily familiar. We all know people who share his traits, even if they don’t take them to such extremes. He’s society’s Frankenstein’s monster, made from all the worst parts of capitalism. He’ll achieve success by any means, and he’s proud of that.
With End of Watch and Prisoners, and now Nightcrawler, Gyllenhaal is finding the sort of edgy, dangerous roles relished by great actors of the 1970s, and he’s attacking them with gusto. This might be his best performance yet. The film itself is a darkly comic treat. It’s tense and unsettling as a thriller, but the most fascinating part is seeing how far this scumbag will take his obsession, and how much we’ll allow him to get away with.
