Review: Hellbender by Jason Jack Miller

Book info:

Form: pdf

Genre: supernatural fiction, suspence, 

Target audience: adults and older YA

A copy of this novel was sent to me free of charge by the author. That fact didn't influence my review in any way.

Synopsis:

Two Appalachian Mountains families, the Lewises and the Collinses, have been at war for something like a century. Each of those families have had witches among their folk so the fight has been bloody, dirty and mean. Janie Collins, 

Ancient sator square

a young college girl, is the next victim of the feud – officially the girl drowned but her family know better. It was a murder by a spell. Her brother, Henry, comes to the funeral and promises to avenge his sister. Still he must also protect lovely Alex, Janie ex roommate and a girl who is told by her mom to stick to Henry at all cost because those evil Lewises are planning to murder her next. You see, family honour is at stake. If you think protecting a girl against a clan including witches is easy think again. Henry will have to show his mettle many times and finally believe in magic, something he never wanted to include in his life.

What I liked:

I have never been to the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia but, after reading this book, I feel like I know the area and the people who call that land home, pretty well. That’s what a well-written fiction can do to you – allowing you to travel in time and space. I really enjoyed this gritty tale with all the scenic background, the sator squares, the snakes and the witches.

The whole story reminded me a bit about Romeo and Juliet, you know. Two quarreling clans, plenty of bad blood and killing, two star-crossed lovers coming from the opposite sides who want to make everything right but cannot overcome years of feud, prejudice and hurt. Still Alex is not a young, inexperienced girl and she will surprise you several times with her skills. Also Henry is not a real Romeo type –he won’t kill anybody in a duel and if he shoots somebody everyone will be cheering along, including Alex herself. Killing himself is also not even an option - when your family needs you alive, you keep fighting to the very end.

Also I enjoyed how much Henry and Alex had to change in order to stand a chance against their enemies. I like dynamic characters a lot. Finally I loved the fact that Preston Black and his girlfriend made a cameo appearance.

What I didn’t like:

I read The Devil and Preston Black first and I couldn’t help noticing the similarities of those two novels in terms of plot construction. In both books the protagonist has to sink to the bottom before vanquishing his enemies, in both we deal with some evil females who are almost she-devils. After a while the pattern became too repetitive for my liking but still I wanted to read to the very end.

My last carping: the baddies. I wish they were more three-dimensional. Few people are evil to the core and here it seemed all the ‘pure’ Lewises were just bad, bad, bad.

Final verdict:

Since this book is part of the Murder Ballads and Whiskey series the good news is that the Appalachian adventure doesn't have to end. I would like to revisit the Appalachians once more.

Hellbender salamander

Review: Live Girls by Ray Garton

Book info:
Form: e-book, pdf
Genre: vampire horror
Target audience: definitely and only adults

Synopsis:

Something is rotten in the city of New York.  People are found dead but their blood is missing. Corpses disappear from mortuaries. Ordinary, decent men keep returning to a certain seedy sex peep-show called Live Girls. The police know nothing and do even less.

When Walter Benedek, a respectable, middle-aged reporter working for the New York Times, finds his  sister and niece dead his world falls apart. He decides to spend the rest of his holiday looking for their potential murderer – his brother-in-law, Vernon Macy.  Vernon was last seen near Live Girls but Walter is strangely unwilling to go inside that establishment – he has a hunch and he is very healthily afraid.  Still while hanging around  he accosts Davey, a young, naive assistant editor who doesn’t hesitate to enter.  Davey has been dumped by his latest good-for-nothing girlfriend  and haven't been promoted as he expected to - small wonder he tries to enliven his life by looking for some new experiences. A visit to an obscure peep-show? Why not? Plenty of people do it every day, right?

Soon enough Benedek and Casey, Davey’s friend and colleague, notice the man is changing and not for the best. He is losing weight. He becomes unhealthily pale. He doesn’t want to eat anything unless it is a piece of really rare meat…and he can’t stop thinking about Anya, the stripper that entertained him at Live Girls. 

What I liked:

This book was first published in 1987 so exactly  twenty five years ago. Taking it into account I was surprised how fresh it was. The vampires tended to be of the older, Bram Stoker kind – beautiful but  dangerous and rather unfriendly when it comes to the humankind – but it suited me fine. In fact the further a vampire is from the sick Twilight vision the better I like the book.  I also appreciated the fact that the author balanced nicely the advantages and disadvantages of being a vampire. So yes, you can live far longer than humans but you are very allergic to garlic, you should avoid ‘bad’ blood (e.g. tained with drugs) and certain illnesses. There’s no such a thing as free lunch, right?

The pair of main protagonists (Davey and Casey) were likeable enough but I must admit I preferred Davey (more about Casey in ‘dislikes’ section). He is a dynamic character with as many good as bad features. He is weak, he likes to play a hero and rescue different ladies who then exploit him and leave. He never notices and even if he does he wants to believe in his version of events – deluded and naïve until he gets bitten one time too many. Let me also add that, showing Davey’s unhealthy obsession Garton makes interesting points about why men let different ‘vampires’ (metaphorically speaking of course) drain themselves dry.

Finally the whole world building was done in an interesting way. The two main female baddies, Shideh and Anya, were those beautiful, sexy, ruthless vampire beasts everybody loves to hate but for me the ‘monster vampires’, creatures which were foolish enough  to drink ‘poisoned’ blood were the most interesting idea here and a great touch although also the most creepy. It is a horror story after all.

There was a lot of sex scenes in the story, pretty explicit at times (hetero and lesbian) , but when you write about bad  vampires who run a peep-show and a nightclub, I think that's unavoidable. Some  scenes might be disturbing and even a little bit disgusting  (erotic dance with a cross, mind you, performed by vampires, biting male patrons’ penises or sucking the menstruation blood out of someone, yuck, but hey, if you remember 50 Shades you shouldn’t be that shocked).

What I didn’t like:

First of all let me tell you that it was sometimes very annoying how long it took Walter Benedek and Davey to recognize what they were dealing with. Nowadays, every person who watches TV and/or reads popular literature would cry ‘vampire alert!’ after just one or two pages. It was so plain obvious that almost funny but I don’t consider it a real flaw.  Once again you should take into account the age of this novel - I bet some of its adult readers are younger than it is. Reading it you only become aware that all these shows like ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ or ‘True Blood’ do nothing more than refresh and copy, in a more or less successful manner, the old ideas. Perhaps painful but true – neither of contemporary authors has invented the vampires. Or anything else.

What really got to me was the character of Casey. For an independent, strong heroine she was sometimes almost too stupid to live. An example? Casey finds out that Davey visited Anya again to have sex. She reproaches him saying: ‘if you wanted to get a blow job you could ask me. You know I am clean.’ Oh dear, girl, such an advanced stupidity should be punishable by law.

First of all, you might be as clean as a virgin but Davey is most certainly not - there was nothing about him using condoms and  you know pretty well what company he used to keep, right? All of his ex- girlfriends were tramps to say the least of it, the fact that he played a white knight didn’t mean he was also a monk. Now he’s visited that stripper several times and you still think he didn’t have any occasion to catch anything nasty? Secondly, in your case it really sounded out of character. You are supposed to be a respectable, sensible girl and what respectable girl would offer something like that ? Ok, you can be a modern woman without inhibitions but still you are not a prostitute, right? Not yet, anyway (no, not telling  more, it would be a spoiler). Finally, my dear, if you are such an experienced and blase creature who can offer her friend oral sex in a very offhand manner you should have known as well that it is really not all the same who performs these services, at least not to Davey.  He is the faithful one and he is infatuated with Anya. Haven't you noticed?

Final verdict:

A very steamy and gritty but surprisingly good horror vampire novel with just few mistakes. Old school but better than many contemporary clones. I always like it when an author takes a great number of  commonplace myths about the vampires and turns them on their head. It was the nicest part of this read.

Friday Fiction Flash #41

Amy C at Romance Book Wyrm and Dottie atTink's Place have come up with the idea for a Monday Morning Flash Fiction challenge. Each Monday a new picture prompt will be posted and if you choose to participate - you publish your Fiction Flash  on Friday - 350 words, give or take.

Woo- hoo,  a sci-fi story coming your way!!!

Eden Project by Anachronist

Like almost every evening, Cara was standing on the balcony and admiring the sunset over the Earth. It was her only addiction, that sight which made her smile while tearing her heart apart. She couldn't believe the best part of humankind have willingly abandoned such a jewel and moved to an artificial planetoid, known as Eden. If they asked her, she would call it rather Hell. She knew she should be glad - she was the priviledged one, you had to be very influential  and wealthy to get a visa and a ticket. Plenty of her friends have envied her that opportunity and said openly so; at first she also considered herself rather lucky. Still, she couldn't help missing the Earth every single day.

The villa of her husband was situated right on the shore of an artificial ocean called the Cerulean- a prime location here, on Eden, as it would be anywhere else - but the view made her even sadder. She remembered the Pacific Ocean she used to swim in with her parents and her little sister. The Cerulean was certainly cleaner and less dangerous than the Pacific, fully controlled by computers and meteorlogists, swarming with fish and crustacea long gone and forgotten in the Earth's polluted waters and yet...it lacked something important to her. It didn't feel right. She never swam in this one, she simply couldn't force herself to immerse in those alien, artificially blue depths. She didn't trust them.

Tonight her husband was attending a party organized by one of his important friends. Cara, as usual, excused herself from it, claiming she was having a really bad headache. Bad headaches became her weapon of choice since she arrived to Eden and her husband didn't seem to care enough to investigate them further - usually he just nodded, told her to take a pill or consult a doctor and went his way. It suited Cara fine. When he was present she felt obliged to pretend she was cheerful and happy with her lot, like a good, dutiful wife should be. It took a lot of energy and effort, the whole pretending act, and she betted she wasn't good enough to fool anybody but he seemed satisfied.

Suddenly her portable assistant buzzed on her wrist and blipped delicately. She got an instant message, most likely from her husband. He usually texted her if anybody important at the party cared to mention  her name or asked how she was doing - pure courtesy but it would be rude not to answer. She mentally told the screen to activate and stream.

This time it was a VIM - video instant messaging. She saw a dark face of a stranger. He was young but looked pretty haggard, with five o'clock shadow and bruised, half-shut eyes. The man blinked several times, as if unsure whether he should speak or not. For a moment she was certain the server made a mistake and connected a wrong call but then the man asked: "Cara Serena Tomlinson? Nee Bartolli? Born in San Francisco, USA, the Earth? Wife of Roger Aidan Tomlinson?"

She nodded silently. So it was neither a coincidence nor a mistake. Hardly anyone of her Eden acquaintances knew her second name, her place of birth or her maiden's name for that matter. This man was very well-informed. His next question made her dizzy with excitement.


"Do you want to return to Earth?"


"Who are you?" she asked after a while, her throat painfully constricted. 


"It doesn't matter. Answer, please - do you want to return or not?"


"Yes I do", she told him, feeling as if she was getting married for the second time. Meanwhile she sent a mental probe to her assistant asking for the ID of her interlocutor. The device blipped and shown the unexpected message: ID withheld. The man on the screen smiled while observing her shocked face. Only the highest government officials were granted a possibility to hide their ID if they wanted or needed to. Still he was far too young and looked too scruffy to be one of them.


"Don't bother about finding out who I am. Perhaps it is possible but, with all due respect, also completely out of your league and out of the league of your little toy. If you want to return to Earth..."


"I thought it was impossible. Everybody has to sign a 'non-return' clause before the departure," she interrupted hastily. The man smirked. One of his incisors was missing, making him look a bit like a pirate.


"It is possible but illegal. Still plenty of people have already returned. Of course the data are kept secret if there are any data collected at all. Now then, if you really want to return we must cooperate. In my next stream I will tell you what you should do to earn your ticket. Goodnight Mrs Tomlinson. I'll keep in touch."


The connection ended. She looked back at the Earth, feeling happier than she thought possible even a few moments ago. Soon she will return where she belongs. Home.

Movie review: Perfect Sense by David Mackenzie

Directed by: David Mackenzie
Screenplay: Kim Fupz Aakeson


Cast:
Suzan: Eva Green
Michael: Ewan McGregor

Synopsis:

Susan, an epidemiologist, is getting over a broken heart when a new kind of epidemics strikes out right where she lives and works, in Scotland. It starts with a truck driver who suddenly has lost his sense of smell. The doctors don’t know when, why or how he got infected (if he got infected at all). Soon the news about people losing their sense of smell come from different countries around the world; the strange disease (?) is affecting everyone, no matter their skin colour, sex, age or living conditions. Nobody knows whether it is a virus, a toxin or a strange bacteria and how it propagates.

Meantime Susan meets Michael, a chef working in a restaurant near her flat. At first she is pretty sure Michael is not the right man for her and let’s face it, everything indicates she is perfectly right – Michael, a handsome but ruthless womanizer, is a fan of one-night or rather one-two hours stands.  He kicks his girlfriends out as soon as he finishes having sex with them claiming that he can’t sleep well with somebody else sharing his bed (sic! Have you heard a lamer excuse?) Still Susan decides to date him (yes, he managed to stay with her the whole night – in his case it is tantamount to a serious commitment). However soon enough she, her new boyfriend and his colleagues lose the sense of smell as well.

 After a while they lose the sense of taste – something disastrous if you cook professionally, small wonder Michael and his boss are devastated. Fortunately plenty of other people can’t either smell or taste anything any longer so the cooks focus on appearance and texture of food and the restaurant stays open. However it becomes obvious the disease is unstoppable and people will sooner or later lose all their remaining senses – the doctors don’t know how to prevent that. Susan and Michael take it in their stride and try to make the best use of the short time that is left. Still, is it true love or just taking the easiest way out with the person who is your best alternative at the moment?

My impressions:

Another low-budget film which was really better and scarier than one of these Hollywood super-productions I’ve seen lately. It proves you don’t need fancy special effects, digital monsters and a lot of bloody scenes to create an atmosphere of danger. Losing your senses was horrible enough without any alien invasion but there were some funny moments to make the glumness more bearable – for example Susan and Michael were sitting in a bathtub eating…soap. Yes, it was after they lost their sense of taste ;) Overall it was an emotionally intelligent movie which doesn’t mean especially clever. Yes, I have some complaints. Melodramas don’t agree with my stomach I suppose, or maybe I simply can’t relax enough to stop overthinking the entertainment?

First of all I  couldn’t believe the people, once the initial shock was over, gave up on their senses so quickly. Loss of smell? No problem, most of scents are not so pleasant to start with and you won’t get ruined again buying that bottle of overpriced French perfume. Loss of taste? Oh well, there are different methods of enjoying your food if you actually need to enjoy it at all…Loss of hearing? Well, there’s still the tv and the sign language available so let’s go and look at those pretty pictures in comfortable peace and quiet…I mean would you be reconciled with the loss of any of your senses so easily? I most certainly wouldn’t. Perhaps the intention of the director was to show that humankind is flexible to the extreme and will adopt nicely in almost any circumstances but I found it a bit too smooth and too quick to be believable.

Secondly I waited and waited and didn’t see any reaction from the government or those super-rich and privileged who wouldn’t want to have anything in common with any disease at all. Their relatives, friends, coworkers and employees are dying and suddenly there is one big void. Have they immigrated to Mars or something? Have they been infected like the rest of commoners but died off more quickly due to lower resistance? How come nobody tried to put some pressure on Susan and her colleagues to work harder/faster/more efficiently? A weird situation, don’t you think?

My last complaint concerns the female lead, Susan. As an epidemiologist living in times of a global crisis and facing probably the biggest challenge of her professional life, she simply had way too much free time in hand. I might be wrong but I  suppose she should have been working 24/7 along with her colleagues, with short potty breaks only, to find out more about that strange disease and to stop it at all costs. Actually I could imagine her sleeping on the floor of her laboratory and spending endless hours on the Internet, consulting live with scientists and doctors from other countries. All the humankind is on the brink of a major disaster, right? And what is she doing? Instead of working her skinny bottom off our lovely heroine enjoys her private life as if nothing untoward was happening around her – she goes on a romantic stroll, she admires buskers, she dances with her beloved Michael in a club for most of the night, she eats out and so on. Holiday in Paris, sponsored by a rich uncle - that’s how it looked like. Apocalypse? What apocalypse? Oh, losing your senses…right… honey, let’s jump to bed, drink some champagne and smoke ciggies till we can.

All the snark aside, it seems she’s surrendered so easily, assuming too quickly nothing can be done and  just passively waiting for the next stage of the disease. A very strange attitude for a scientist especially as she knows NOTHING, literally nothing, about her illness. Once again would you be able to enjoy your life (or what is left of it) in such a situation, without some nagging pangs of conscience that you, as a specialist, could have tried harder to prevent the worst? I understand the director wanted to show how Susan’s and Michael’s character evolved when influenced by a major crisis but I think he forgot that survival is mostly about hard work under pressure and the courage of pushing your boundaries, not about drifting passively while waiting for your death. By the way, we are never shown scientists at work in this movie, not really - feeding and hugging bunnies can’t substitute scientific research.

Final verdict:

If you are willing to suspend your disbelief a bit and follow just the romantic thread this movie can certainly keep you interested and entertained; still it keeps asking some existential questions like what sense you really need to survive or what is really important in your life. Just don’t expect any straightforward answers and sometimes any logic at all. My final remark: I don’t get the title. Perfect Sense? What sense? There’s no such thing – neither in this film nor in real life.

Mad Monday Musings - What Shall We Do With Bad Writers?

I’ve read a very interesting post, written by Carolyn Jewel on her blog. It was entitled A Modest Proposal and its author suggested how to deal with those ugly, pesky, negatively inclined and satirical book reviewers at the Goodreads site. If you want to have a laugh go there and read it; in a nutshell Carolyn proposed the creation of the Book Review Security Department, backed by Navy SEAL guys and such. Nice, isn’t it? If you wrote a bad, nasty, cynical, scathingly witty review with some inappropriately funny giff images to illustrate your point, you could be practically sure of a visit of Navy elite soldiers in very tight-fitting, black swimming suits, appropriately armed and muscled. Looking devastatingly handsome. Right now I almost imagine an ARMY of female reviewers (and also some male ones) planning the nastiest reviews possible while drooling madly – such a visit is better (and certainly cheaper) than the Chippendales, right? And with all advantages of free home delivery!

Still…shouldn’t there be also an appropriate regulation concerning bad authors? After all every avid reader has stumbled upon a book he or she definitely wouldn’t have wanted to read at all. A book which shouldn’t have existed, written by an author who should have remained illiterate in the interest of the population at large. A book which leaves a horrible aftertaste, which can be compared to something nasty and smelly, something slimy, fungus-covered and rotten…well, you get the idea. What should be done with such authors? Because I am pretty sure every reader and reviewer agrees something must be done. Think system. Think law and order. Think economy, stupid!

First of all a bill or an act should be passed and it must be done worldwide. It will be stated clearly and loudly that bad literature = primo: more misspent money for useless libraries' shelves, full of books nobody will bother to read after a while; secundo: bad future for our children due to unnecessary deforestation and/or constantly blocked servers; tertio: a headache for us right NOW. Start gathering all these necessary signatures, consult your MP or your Representative, explain to all and sundry that a bad book is like a fart – it makes both the fartor and the fartee very inconvenient although for different reasons (of course you can use different words depending on your target audience).

Here are my proposals.

For minor offences (from a short story to an average novelette, approx. from 100 to 17,500 words) first I suggest sending a cease-and-desist letter and, if the demand is not obeyed (I bet it will not be obeyed in 90% of the cases) then the offender should be forced to do a spell of community service and pay a fine. The social service might include but should not be limited to: public toilet cleaning, street sweeping, car cleaning, serving free coffee in public areas (at the cost of the perpetrator of course), bathing and combing stray dogs and cats etc. The social service should be chosen in such a way to prevent a bad author from writing and/or speaking and teach him/her the value of proper words said/written in  proper time. The fine should reflect the range of the offence properly – every word = one dollar. The significant funds, gathered that way, might be used to create jobs in libraries around the world and enlarge awareness what a good book is. I am sure this way the unemployment among specialists in the arts will be reduced fast to a laughably low level.

If the offender remains unrepentant he or she might be forced to translate texts from Difficultese into English. I have even one example in mind – it is just one sentence which won the Bad Writing Contest (1997 edition); it was written by Judith Butler, a Guggenheim Fellowship-winning professor of rhetoric and comparative literature at the University of California at Berkeley.

The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.

After translating such a beauty every wannabe writer will think twice before taking a biro or switching on their text editor. Or at least I hope so. They might even enlarge their vocabulary. :)

For real crimes against literature (from a novella to a novel starting a series, approx. from 17,500 to over 40,000 words) the punishment should be definitely harsher. After all you can hardly write a novel overnight – planning it beforehand suggest a lot of premeditation and especially willful perseverance from the side of the bad author, hereinafter called the perp. We deal with ‘mens rea’ (a Latin phrase meaning “guilty mind") here, a strong intention to commit a wrongful act and even if the perp claims he or she didn’t intend to write so much the doctrine of transferred malice should be applied. Just in case.

A simply cease-and-desist letter is useless here as we don’t deal with a tort anymore. It is a crime. A hideous crime against humanity and literature. First the perp should be stopped at all cost and isolated from the tools of his trade (also known as stationery or a computer with a text editor). Then he or she should be interrogated by professionals (CIA and Dick Cheney come to mind instantly) to find out whether there are more copies of his or her book hidden there somewhere. All copies will be confiscated and a hefty fine imposed (the CIA guys are expensive but effective so definitely worth their money). Then the perp should be sent to a rehabilitation camp where primo: he or she will be doing something useful for the society like repairing cars, growing garden cress, milking cows, weeding, crocheting or darning socks; secundo: they will be reading the pearls or literature daily so they can see the errors of their ways, repent and convert; tertio: at the moment of their release they will have to sign a desideratum in which they will denounce their crimes and promise not to write anything for five years at least. Finally a restitution bit, my favourite so far: apart from the fine, for every word written in their bad novel they will have to buy a nutritional meal for one homeless pet, a cat or a dog. There are definitely too many homeless pets and too many bad authors – let’s combine two wrongs and make it one big right for a change! 

Now the final question: how will you know whether a book is good or bad? I mean it is easy with already published works but what about those which haven’t been finished yet? Before the publication every writer will have to submit one chapter of his or her work (or at least 5,000 words if there are no chapters) to a panel of Highly Accomplished Reviewers and their Sadistic Henchmen (H.A.R.S.H) , consisting of literary critics, reviewers, book bloggers and police enforcers. These will produce a paid review at the cost of the prospective author. If more than half of them give a negative opinion about the submitted text, the author will be ordered to stop writing immediately, find another job and buy every panel member a bottle of alcohol of their choice for causing them a substantial psychical discomfort with such a bad text. If any author fails to do so he or she will be sent the ugliest, the fattest, the most foul-mouthed and unpleasant policemen and/or soldiers around to enforce the law - take them straight to the rehabilitation camp. No SEAL, no fun for the wicked.

Finally those authors who dare plagiarize the work of the others will have additionally their thumb and index finger of the writing hand and one of their ear cut off. The fingers – so they steal no more. I am not sure about the reason behind the ear but if I think long and hard about it I am pretty sure I will come up with something logical. Anyway I do feel the hand itself won’t suffice.


Authors who behave badly while dealing with constructive criticism of their readers will be forced to answer fan mail of other, more successful/better-behaved authors for at least one year. Let's hope they will learn how to be kind even through their gritted teeth.

Enough talking - organize ourselves and act now!

Movie review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Directed by Thomas Alfredson
Screenplay: Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan
Cast:
George Smiley: Gary Oldman
Bill Haydon: Colin Firth
Jim Prideaux: Mark Strong
Control: John Hurt
Roy Bland: Ciarán Hinds
Peter Guillam: Benedict Cumberbatch
MPAA rating: R (for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language)

Release year: 2011

Synopsis:

For any secret intelligence service there is nothing worse than a mole or a ‘rotten apple’among their agents. This is a story based on a novel by John le Carre, telling how the British MI5 dealt with that particular problem – I reviewed the book not so long ago so more details you can find following this link. If you think “Tinker, Tailor” rings true you are perfectly right – it is partly based on the case of Kim Philby, one of a handful of British spies and Cambridge University alumni who were recruited by the Soviets in the 1930s. (Mr. le Carré, born David John Moore Cornwell, was a British spy whose cover was blown exactly by Philby so he did know what he was writing about.)

My impressions:

It is a spy movie but if you think immediately ‘action, fireworks, chases and James Bond’ you got hold of the wrong end of the stick and the film most likely will bore you. The plot is sluggish and it meanders to and fro, telling at least three different stories; the agents, no matter nice or ugly, young or elderly, are embittered by their lonely and not especially satisfying or glorious career. There are no reall friends in this business, just enemies you know and enemies you don’t know. Their Soviet intelligence counterparts seem to be elusive to say the least of it and as badly off as themselves.

When you are an agent you aren’t given some fast, rocket-propelled cars equipped with machine guns, no special watches with laser beams ; there are no beautiful girls falling for you at every party , just day-to-day drudgery, filling endless reports and infighting, stopped from time to time by a nasty accident or death of somebody you knew. Definitely closer to real life than any James Bond movie has ever dared to come but definitely neither cheerful nor exciting. There was one or two funny scenes, like Christmas at MI5 headquarters (a red Christmas tree, a Santa dressed up as Lenin, the guests singing merrily the Russian national anthem instead of a Christmas carol – who would guess these were British agents and their wives having Yule fun?) but the smile immediately gets wiped off by the prevalent atmosphere of sadness and glum (e.g. at that very Christmas party Smiley finds out by accident that his wife is cheating on him with his colleague). In fact it is my only carping – this movie was so depressing at times that it took me three evenings to get to the very end. The end was also a proper mixture of successes and failures (like 20/80 I would say)- some people get the sack, some get killed, some are promoted but you don’t feel like cheering, not really.

Uncharacteristically, after reading a book I actually wanted to watch the movie as well – mainly because of the actors. Gary Oldman as Smiley, John Hurt as Control, Collin Firth as Bill Haydon (Darcy!) Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock!) as Peter Guillam… honestly, with all these gentlemen playing side by side I expected a lot because really, could you ask for a better cast? Ok, maybe one or two strong female characters would be a nice addition but still I wasn’t disappointed – the performance of Oldman was great, one of the best I’ve seen since him playing the part of Sirius Black in The Prisoner of Azkaban (a Harry Potter movie). Smiley doesn’t say a word until 18 minutes in (“I’m retired”) but believe me, he doesn’t have to. His lined, sad, lean face speaks volumes about the life he’s been leading.

Despite that brutality, “Tinker, Tailor” is suffused with feelings — love for a country, a cause, a woman — a theme that surfaces especially at a boys’ school where Prideaux is hiding and which mirrors both the big boys’ club that is the Circus. At the school Prideaux meets a lonely student, Bill Roach (William Haddock), a moon-faced outsider whom Prideaux calls “a good watcher,” a description that, given the sadness that cloaks the story’s many watchers, feels chilling. ‘Chilling’ would be a good description of the whole movie when I come to think about it.

Final verdict:

A very good movie for a quiet evening, with splendid acting which I really enjoyed but, unfortunately, not something that would boost your mood. If you want to watch a lot of action and pretty girls in fast sports cars it is the wrong type of movie. Also if you hate cold war era spying stories you should steer clear of it.

Review: Tangle of Need (Psy Changelling #11) by Nalini Singh

Book info:
Form: pdf
Genre: fantasy romance
Target audience: adults

Synopsis:

Riaz Delgado is a lone (were)wolf. It means he can function far away from his pack. It also means he is lonely, mainly because the woman he loves is happily married so unavailable. Adria Morgan recovers after a disastrous relationship with a weaker werewolf. It seems the last thing she needs is another badass in her life. Yet the moment she meets Riaz she can’t stop thinking of him – she is full of frustration and anger, she hates herself, she cannot help it. Some Freudians would say she needs to get laid badly. And get laid she will. Oh and there will be imminent war with the Psy in the background.

What I liked:

I do understand what is so likeable about Mrs. Singh’s novels. You can read them out of order. They are full of passion, they always end with a big HEA, they never disappoint you when it comes to THOSE steamy-hot scenes. Mrs. Singh also never forgets the characters from previous parts which is kind of nice – in this installment we get to know more about the mating/marriage of Hawke and Sienna. They are both so cute. Everybody is cute. Right.

What I didn’t like:

Let me tell you a short story. Once upon a time there was a Kingdom of Perfection. It was ruled by Queen Barbie who was married to Prince Ken. 

They rode Her Little Ponies, ate wedding cakes every day  and drank lemonade. They took care of their subjects too – cake and lemonade for everyone and a party every week!

Still there were no random subjects in the whole Kingdom. You can even say the selection criteria were harsh. All people, living there, had to be handsome or pretty; all of them had to be chivalrous and honest and kind. Several bad characters were allowed to stay in special camps just so the rightful citizens could visit them from time to time and vanquish them in a fight. It was a kind of personality exercise and a pastime. It was also good for their muscles. Unfortunately after a while all citizens looked and acted almost the same – the differences between them pretty superficial: the colour of their hair or eyes…

If anybody fell in love in that Kingdom they always did the right thing - some adultery was tolerated but the relationship had to end in a marriage or mating or whatever ceremony bonds you with the other person for life. If anybody dared act otherwise he or she was forcibly removed from their rainbow-coloured house and exiled. Who wants accidental pregnancies, deadly STDs or a permanent damage of a broken heart? Nobody, right?  Outside there was dirt and wolves and harsh reality, full of dumpsters, bad food, old cars and uglies. 

If you prefer living inside the Kingdom of Perfection, you will most likely like the book – everything in there is according to that Kingdom’s highest standards. If an alpha male is unavailable the heroine gets a lone wolf – almost as good, if not better. If they fall in love they do it with that silly, artificial passion, so funny when you try to imagine it in real life, and they will stay together forever, you can be sure of that. They have to or they will turn into ugly, dirty monsters, full of claws and teeth – most undesirable by the authors or the readers of fluffy books.

Final verdict:

No. Just no.

The LIBOR scandal explained...it concerns everybody!

Don't be surprised by the next financial crisis with such practices.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-the-libor-scandal-explained-2012-7

Movie review: Catacombs by Tomm Coker, David Elliot

Directed by: Tomm Coker,David Elliot 

Screenplay: Tomm Coker,David Elliot 

Release year:  2008  

Genre: Horror 

Cast:

Victoria: Shannyn Sossamon

Carolyn: Alecia Moore (Pink)

Jean Michel: Mihai Stanescu

Nico: Radu Micu

Henry: Emil Hostina

MPAA: Rated R ( strong violence, terror and disturbing images, language, some nudity and drug content)

Synopsis:

Victoria, a shy, young woman, is visiting her sister, Carolyn, studying in Paris. She doesn’t enjoy the trip as much as she should so Carolyn invites her to a rave party organized clandestinely in one of the biggest catacombs in Europe, straight below the lovely capital of France. It is arranged by Carolyn's Parisian friends, two guys called Jean Michel and Nico. Carolyn claims the party can change the neurotic, oversensitive Victoria’s life and she takes her sis shopping for clothes so Victoria, not wanting to be a spoilsport, decides to attend against her better judgment.

 During the party Victoria is given absinthe ('no, it's not alcohol!' ROFL) and told a kind of urban legend about a cult of dark virgin and an Antichrist living in the catacombs and hunting people for food. The story seems to be completely spurious from the very beginning but, as Vicki gazes at the classically beautiful face of Jean Michel (really, the guy must have some Greek blood in him), you get the impression she would believe anything that boy cared to tell her and then some. After a while poor Victoria feels she's had enough of the party (Jean Michel's disappeared) - she tries to get out on her own. She gets lost and witnesses her sister being attacked by a man wearing a mask of a goat. The girl, sure that Carolyn has been killed, panics and runs away helter-skelter with fatal results, not only due to an unpredictable intervention of the French Police.

My impressions:

The first line of the film is a voice-over: "My sister sent me a postcard, all it said was 'Come to Paris. It'll be good for you.' 48 hours after I arrived, she and everyone I'd met were dead." It didn't impress me at all. I thought: "another one of these mediocre B-class thrillers" and I didn't expect any fireworks or indeed much fun. Maybe because of it I was in for a nice surprise.

Despite the obviously limited budget and lack of any special effects the movie was really decent and it seemed real, not like other thrillers also allegedly based on true events. It was intelligently done as the director didn’t try to stun you with too much gore or too many horrible atrocities. Of course it is a thriller so you see a fair amount of really nasty accidents and murders but they didn’t go over the top with it (a major sin of B-class movies- too much ketchup or raspberry juice or whatever they use nowadays to imitate blood).

The ordeal of Victoria is something really scary, especially for a person who, like me, understands agoraphobia and claustrophobia pretty well. Believe me or not but even wild horses wouldn’t drag me to a catacomb party and not because I don’t like music or dancing. However it was nice to watch Vicki’s struggle – you wouldn’t believe such a delicate, sheltered wallflower to put up so much fight and to be so clever when facing an ultimate challenge – running for your life.

The catacombs of Paris really exist and they are an incredible sight to behold – even the glimpses shown in this movie might make you come out in goose pimples (and, depending on your tastes, you will love them or hate them). One thing is sure - after watching this film you will certainly change a bit your perception of Paris – it is not only a city of light or a city of love or an overpriced French tourist trap full of old stuff and rude Parisians but also a very old place with fascinating history and many mysteries. Also, like most of big cities around the world, it is a dangerous place. If you are alone you might get into all sort of troubles and not knowing the language, oh la, la, ça ne sera ni beau ni facile.

There was one stupid scene I didn’t like. Just one. Imagine yourself - right at the very end our brave Victoria emerges from the catacombs. She looks like something an old, arthritic, half-blind cat might drag in – she is dead tired, filthy, bloody, she wears just a flimsy dress covered with all kind of muck and body fluids, undoubtedly smelling of l’eau de catacombs mixed with l’eau de BO. What does she do? She jumps into a taxi and orders: ‘to the airport’. And the taxi driver, after one mistrustful look, starts the engine. Not even one single question. Oh really?

Well, just one short scene and I have several remarks. First: a filthy woman without a BAG (so most probably without money unless she keeps a stash in her combat boots) would be more or less gently asked by any experienced taxi driver to get out of his car and go to hell. Ok, out of sheer pity he might have driven her to the nearest police station or a hospital but only after some serious cajolery and pleading. Secondly: any sensible person in Victoria’s shoes would have returned to her sister’s lodgings first to rest a bit, have a shower and collect her belongings. Let’s face it - without a passport and money, not to mention at least hand luggage, you really have no business at any airport and it didn’t seem Vicki took these items to that fateful party. Not to mention the fact that with a bloody, scratched face and wearing a dirty, smelly excuse for a dress you have a cat in hell’s chance to get through any security check. Finally let me tell you that the lovely city of Paris has more than one airport in its vicinity so telling a taxi driver ‘to the airport’should have immediately elicited a logical response: ‘Which one, honey? Le Bourget, Orly or Charles de Gaulle?’

Final verdict:

A very decent psychological thriller with a slick twist at the end and Paris in the background. No rubber monsters around! Still the last cut kind of ruined it for me a bit - such a stupid blunder!

Here you have the link to a real-life rescue story of three youths lost in Paris catacombs. Yes, it can happen to the curious.

Friday Fiction Flash #40- Saturday edition ;)

Amy C at Romance Book Wyrm and Dottie atTink's Place have come up with the idea for a Monday Morning Flash Fiction challenge. Each Monday a new picture prompt will be posted and if you choose to participate - you publish your Fiction Flash  on Friday - 350 words, give or take.

It's been ages since I wrote a flash but this week's pic was so nice and dark that I decided to give it a try:

"Farewell, My Lovely One" by Anachronist

"NEVERMORE" - that's all he wanted to be written on his grave. No name or surname, no dates, not even the simplest eulogy. Why? It was too late to ask but she was sure even if she had asked before he died he wouldn't have explained. Obnoxious, conceited, irritating, beloved man. She sobbed with grief every time she thought about him and the sudden illness which ravaged his body and finished his life prematurely. She was visiting his grave day and night, hoping for some relief and finding none, just crouching by that cold marble gravestone with the mysterious caption: "NEVERMORE" and crying her eyes out.

One night she was sitting by the grave, feeling cold and empty, unable to move, hugging herself and crying hard, when she heard a strange noise. An animal? Some graverobbers or other criminals? Drunkards? Young Goths proving that they were braver than their friends had ever imagined them to be? She didn't care much but the noise was quite disturbing. She raised her head and looked in that direction. It was full moon so she had no problems with noticing a bulky shape walking on two legs,  rather squat and hunched. It keened pitifully.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice husky from hours of crying.

The creature approached with an unsteady gait.

"Don't you recognize me, my lovely one?"

She gasped. That voice - although distorted and strangely high-pitched, she would recognize it everywhere.

"Amadon?"

The creature half sobbed half laughed.

"Hello, my lovely one. Yes, it's me. Still alive but not exactly kicking. Shuffling rather. I did want to die this time. I really, truly did. I infected myself and everything was going just fine. Now take a look at me. All my efforts, all my sufferings - in vain. The only thing I managed to achieve is a new, ugly body of an ape or a miserable gargoyle. Not exactly fun, don't you think, my lovely one?"


She stood up in a flash, ran to him and threw her arms around his bulky torso, crying again but this time with relief.


"Don't you dare speak like that, Amadon. Don't you dare. I love you, no matter in what body you come, as long as it is still you inside."


"Bloody stupid, aren't you?" he murmured into her chest. He was a head shorter than she now.


She laughed - her first real laugh in months.

"I need your brains to survive - it's obvious. Never leave me again."

"It seems I can't, even if I wanted to."

"We are tied to each other. For eternity."

"It doesn't have to be like that, my lovely one."

"But I WANT it to be like that, Amadon.I want to be with you forever."

"Er...does my opinion count?"

Surprised by his question she stopped hugging him tightly and looked into his dark, shiny eyes.

"Wh...what? You are playing your games with me as usual, right? You can't possibly...Amadon I LOVE you! I will love you forever! Aren't you happy we are together again?"

He nodded, his expression suddenly very solemn and even a bit sad.

"Happy? Oh dear, such a nice girl but so stubborn and stupid. I tried to solve it in a honourable way - I really did. Luckily there is a cure for your kind of illness although there is no cure for me. Farewell, my lovely one."

She didn't feel the knife until it came out of her body. Then she was more dizzy than in pain; the night around her was turning a bit more darker with every second. Her breathing became laboured and shallow. Then she closed her eyelids. She was so tired and heavy and cold...When her body slumped to the ground she didn't feel anything anymore.

"As dead as a doornail, and so quickly" Amadon sighed. "In a matter of minutes. Some girls are lucky."

The Most Fascinating Libraries of the World 04 - Heidelberg University Library

I visited a friend's blog one day and I was literary blown over by a picture of one of the most fascinating libraries around - Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland. It also gave me an idea of a series of posts about the best, the most beautiful, the strangest and the biggest libraries there are. The libraries that can make you drool, where you would be able to spend an indefinite period of time without noticing, where you would like to live and die till the end of the world (if they only served coffee and cake that is). Perhaps you can't visit them all but what is the Internet for? I'll try to illustrate my posts as well as it is only possible, providing, I hope, a nice tour for every visitor around. Enjoy!

Heidelberg University Library

Germany´s oldest university library is considered to be one of the best scientific libraries of Germany. She dates back to the 14th century, to the year of the foundation of the Heidelberg University in 1386. The latest university ranking gave her rank two just behind the state library of Goettingen. With more than 1.6 million book lendings and about two million visitors per year the Heidelberg University is even top of the ranking.

The man responsible for   the library's first major extension was Elector Ottheinrich, an avid bibliophile – and the extension itself lasted from1556 to 1559. He donated his Castle library to the university and with this laid the foundation-stone of the Bibliotheca Palatina, which was supplemented by the extensive library of Ulrich Fugger. The Biblioteca Palatina quickly attained world fame as “scholarly Germany´s most precious treasure” and became the most important library north of the Alps.

Nowadays the Heidelberg University Library comprises of 6.02 million volumes. It possesses a collection of 6 600 manuscripts of the 9th to 17th century, going back to the foundation year of the Heidelberg University in 1386. The highlight among the manuscripts is the Codex Manesse, the “big Heidelberg song manuscript”, which originates between the years 1300 and 1340 and is the most voluminous collection of Middle High German poetry, the work of 140 poets. Page-size miniatures are devoted to 137 medieval bards.

Yes, they've digitalized some of those nice Egyptian papyri as well! In full colour!

Source:

http://guideheidelberg.de/article_single.php?lng=en&cid=13&aid=90
http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/

Review: Rape Girl by Alina Klein

Book info:

Format: Kindle e-book

Genre: contemporary fiction

Target group: older YA, adult

Synopsis:

It is a story of a teenage girl called Valerie who got raped after a party in her own house by a guy she fancied; it is narrated by the victim herself and it spans a period of several months.

What I liked:

The book was well written but firstly and foremostly I appreciated the fact that all everything rang so true - the voice of Valerie, her reactions and the reactions of people around her. I know it because not so long ago I went through a similar situation in my family, which, unable to keep quiet, I described on myblog,. A short version: my cousin was raped after her prom ball by her date and his older brother who was a designated driver. She simply agreed to stop by their house after the ball and yes, most likely she drank one drink too many but she definitely didn’t want to have sex, let alone with them both at the same time. They chose to understand her otherwise; then they claimed she didn’t fight or try to defend herself (well, she was drunk, right?). It was basically her word against their word. My aunt and uncle decided not to press charges, accusing my cousin that she’d led them on somehow. It was disgusting and harmful.

 Date rapes or party rapes do happen all too often; well, in the case of Valerie we should actually call it a post-party rape but you know the premise: a boy and a girl are having a good time; the boy thinks the girl has nothing against sex so he continues his game although he heard her saying ‘no’. Then the victim goes to the police and all of a sudden it turns out she is the aggressor, not the victim. I am yet to meet a rapist who calls himself so – instead they blame the other part for ‘leading him on’. The excuses are surprisingly repetitive: girls/women don’t know what they really want, they often say ‘no’ meaning ‘yes’, if they don’t scream like a banshee or fight or bite and scratch your face raw it means they agree (and even if they do it the rapist might always claim it was nothing but a kind of foreplay, right?). It’s so easy to blame the victim because, after all, more often than not she does feel guilty, like Valerie in this novel. She shouldn’t have drunk so much. She shouldn’t have stayed that long in bed. She shouldn’t have worn this or that piece of clothing. She shouldn't have organized that party.

Valerie undergoes several stages of a post-traumatic shock: disbelief, self-disgust, aggression, depression and guilt. Then she returns to school and attends a support group therapy so we can know how her situation is perceived by other people: other rape victims, her older brother, her mum, her best friend, Mimmi, and even Adam, the rapist. Who, of course, claims there was no foul play, everything was nice and consensual, he just had the bad luck of having sex with one mean girl who now wants to draw attention to herself and to ruin his future prospects as a Mormon missionary. A classic, don’t you think?

I also appreciated the very realistic outcome of  the lawsuit, which ensued - a spoiler, highlight to read: (the prosecutors had to drop charges against Adam because his buddies testified that during the party Valerie was gagging for it; of course it wasn’t true) and the fact that Valerie found a way to get to terms with the whole situation.

What I didn’t like:

It was too short – rather a longer novella than a novel. I read it in approximately two hours. It ended too quickly.

Final verdict:

One of these books you would like to read before anything bad happens to you or to your relatives, no matter male of female. Boys: if a girl says no, no matter how she expresses it, please always assume she means it and back off. Girls: even somebody you know and like might be a potential rapist. 


ETA: thanks, Rameau, for tweeting me a link to this one!

Movie review: The Social Network by David Fincher

Directed by: David Fincher

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin

Cast:

Mark Zuckerberg: Jesse Eisenberg

Eduardo Saverin: Andrew Garfield

Erica Albright: Rooney Mara

Sean Parker: Justin Timberlake

Release date: 2010

MPAA rating: PG-13

Synopsis:

It is a story based on facts, telling how Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea (or rather stole the idea) of Facebook. It really rings true.

My impressions:

This movie might have been very boring. I almost expected some boring parts, you know, it is all about one ugly lawsuit between Mr. Zuckerberg and people he allegedly cheated. Instead, the director partially showed us some flashes from the past and partially told us about the whole issue during a deposition, using also a great soundtrack to emphasize several turning points of the screenplay. The result was interesting, dynamic and fresh.

Mark Zuckerberg, the main character, is presented in a clever way – he is an underdog, a really gifted IT student at Harward who got there because he was talented, not because he was backed by rich parents or good connections. At first you want to cheer for him. BUT. Even in the opening scene, when his girlfriend breaks up with him in a pub (and let me tell you she does it for a reason), you can notice he is too ambitious, vengeful and ruthless to be a positive character. Immediately after the break-up he calls Erica (the said ex-girlfriend) a bitch on his blog, offends her and her family and then he hacks for fun into the sites of different Harward houses and creates the Face Mash - a program which intention was to find the most attractive female student. His first idea, though, was to compare those girls to animals. A lovely reaction, isn't it? 

I don’t know whether it was true but I think it might be - after all good, meek citizens don’t become the youngest billionaires ever - but even if it was false I really enjoyed the complexity of Mark's character. As the story evolves it becomes clear he is a man for whom the end ALWAYS justifies the means - he betrays his only friend (Saverin) when he thinks it can be profitable and generally breaks his word several times without any great pangs of conscience. Ok, maybe he is not exactly comfortable with himself but he never truly blames himself either. He is a genius, isn't he? Even if he steals the ideas of other people he does so only to transform them and create something fantastic and unique, right? He shouldn't be judged like the rest of dumb, unimaginative herd of ordinary men, should he?

The second issue, perhaps a secondary one in this movie but important to me, is an amazing degree of misogyny among those young, influential and educated young men. I was really surprised by the fact that in their humble opinion girls at Harward (and pretty much elsewhere) existed for three basic purposes: to be picked up and shown around, to be bedded or, in case they are not exactly pretty, to perform different tasks you wouldn't like to do yourself. None of the characters in this movie treats any of females in their proximity as their equal partners. None of the females voices any objections either.


The most blatant scene? Mark is choosing his first and most senior employees, like his CFO, and he takes into account only men, present in the room – the two girls, both lovely Asians, who hang out with them at that time are not taken into any serious consideration. When asked what they are doing there he says they do “nothing”, not even bothering to find out what subject they study (as the girls are obviously both students) or what they know. Afterwards we see the Facebook office with men and women working side by side, that’s true, but I got an impression women were there just for these stupid, repetitive, menial tasks no man would bother to do. Once again, I don’t know if this truly abhorrent approach is really prevalent among Harward students but if it is, my commiseration, dear gentlemen, as you try to ignore to your cost half of the humankind. That’s why Zuckerberg’s ex-girlfriend was my favourite character in this movie; she rejected the a*****e and she never looked back even though she's created a profile on Facebook as well.

Final verdict:

A very intelligent and surprisingly entertaining movie which speaks volumes about the Facebook founder, his methods and his real aims. Really recommendable especially if you've ever visited Facebook or have had an account there. It is good to know who manages your personal data.

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