The Righteous Men August 27, 2010
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I first heard about the Righteous Men a few years back on Richard And Judy’s book club. It was their choice for their Summer Read. I have to admit, cheap, fast moving thrillers such as ‘The Da Vinci Code’ are not my thing and this was claimed as a successor to such. So why did I read it. Well, it was the concept that appealed to me. 36 Men in the world. If they all die the world will be destroyed or some great apocalyptic event or rapture will happen. But someone starts killing them. That’s the selling line of the book “Someone is killing good people. Why?” which has got to be the worst tag line ever for any movie or book.
As I was said, the concept interest me and I had intended to pick it up but never got around to it until finding it at a bargain price in a bookstore in Tokyo, still with the sticker of recommendation from Richard and Judy. I picked it up and finally got into it. Unfortunately the concept which I was so interested in isn’t even brought up until after page 400. But I am partly glad I knew about this plot point beforehand because I don’t think I could read through 400 pages of a Character in utter confusion as to what the heck is going on unless I myself knew first. The main character, Will Monroe, isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, or either he is just intentionally acting dumb so he can hang out with his hot ex gf instead of getting his whiny kidnapped wife back. I say this because he sure does go into a lot of detail about the facets which his ex holds, from time to time he remembers he loves his ex wife, particularly after he fantasizes of his ex and kisses her. But I guess we have to have something a bit hot under the collar to appeal to everyone. Actually, after spending a lot of time trying to get his wife back the bigger mystery of why “GOOD PEOPLE!” are being killed seems to grab his interest more even though it’s sounds like a lot of clap trap to those with any sense.
Yes, this is the Da Vinci code alright, except this time it’s focus is on Judaism. We have the intelligent ex gf who solves the puzzles and riddles with her in depth knowledge, we have a big twist near the end of the novel when one of the characters is revealed to be the leader of the religious cult which is killing the Righteous Men (a reveal which i guessed was going to happen around page 2 or so). This villain that is pulling all the strings, I had imagined as an Ian Mckellen or Christopher Plummer type role. We have an ending where an unborn child might have being the messiah and each chapter ends on a predictable cliffhanger. This ain’t TV, we bought the book, we’re likely to read it all the way through, the constant need to make us read the next chapter comes off as a little desperate and cheap.
I even got the feeling the author was getting tired near the last hundred pages or so. Running out of ways to describe the character’s actions or perspective or physical action he simple moved onto the next character speaking with ‘It was Will’. ‘It was TC’. ‘It was Tom’.
The book reads more like a movie. I’m guessing most of these types of Books do. But it’s not all that exciting a movie if so and most twists you can see coming a mile off, the mystery is pretty much spelled for the reader to catch on before the main character does.
I think if you have time to waste and are interested in a type of book that doesn’t require too much mental strain (and we really are talking very little here) then pick this up. In that regard it’s not a bad read and some parts are genuinely interesting. But at 500+ pages there is a lot in this that isn’t captivating. But don’t take my word for it. It’s ‘The best thriller I’ve read in years.’ according to Piers Morgan.
Star Trek Enterprise: The Romulan War Beneath the Raptor’s Wing July 31, 2010
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Since the late 70s. Pocket books have been publishing Star Trek stories that have filled in the gaps of Star Trek’s History and the unseen events sometimes only mentioned but never shown onscreen. With Star Trek currently off TV for a potentially long time and with Abram’s Star Trek movie playground these books are all we have of the current continuity established in the 40 plus years of Star Trek.
The beauty of written Star Trek is that it can be bigger and more imaginative than what can be afforded to be shown on a TV or Movie budget. Here we have Star Trek Enterprise: The Romulan War Beneath the Raptors Wing’ which depicts the Romulan Earth War first mentioned in the classic Star Trek episode Balance of Terror. The novel was written by Michael A martin who this time is writing an Enterprise Novel solo. When Martin was writing this Margret Clark, then editor told him to think of the Romulans seclusion and unknown society in the way of North Korea.
I have a great interest in seeing this story being told in some manner. Similar to fans interest of the mentioning of the “Clone Wars” in “Star Wars”. I Had previously reviewed the unproduced script for a Romulan War movie “Star Trek The Beginning“. The idea has always excited me to see an epic Star Trek story with large scales battles in the infancy of the Star Trek universe. In the current novel continuity the story is set after the events of Star Trek Enterprise. The build up to this book started in “The Good that Men Do” a book which gave it’s own slant on the final episode of Enterprise which took place on the Holodeck of the Enterprise D in the actual episode and goes on to show a different version of events in actual reality. The story continues in “Kobayashi Maru” which showed what instigated the War.
Having gone into this directly from Kobayashi Maru I noticed some slight continuity errors. Particularly at the beginning when Trip was almost hit by a comet fragment in his escape pod, in the cliffhanger that he ended on in Kobayahi maru it was a gravimetric mine. Anyway.
Sometimes this reads almost like fanfiction, the descriptive language of the battles, the double crossing machinations of the Romulan’s government and military. It’s expected, not enough pulling the rug from under our asserted ideas. It moves together all too fast with assassinations and at times it drags out with characters like Valdore playing up the caricature villain while swilling a glass of Romulan Ale in his hand. The character has regrets and guilt about his actions on cordion but these are merely passing lines rather than anything that actually sticks with him.
The Romulan’s devious scheme though is one that matches what we have seen before in Enterprise, In the episode “United” they used a holographic drone ship to attack other vessels. In Kobayashi Maru they used a telepresence system to take over starships. This Telepresence system which basically hacks computers of starships and gains full control over them is the reason for starfleet reversing it’s technology showing why The NX Enterprise looked more advanced then the Enterprise 1701 and why ships have codes to protect them a hundred years later in The Wrath of Khan. Although other books had explained that it was bulky equipment worked best in space as it was more sturdy. The NX herself is seen as an advanced ship that can’t be manufactured fast enough for war efforts and her design is left behind in favor of ships faster to build, the Daedalus class ships which are said to predate the NX.
It’s a long book. 85 Chapters with many of them being just 2 or 3 pages so the action jumps around a lot in some instances and you can’t really get settled or into one story. I found myself putting the book down too easily after reading a chapter since I knew there’s another few chapters of different characters and events ahead of me before I could get back to the nitty gritty. Which brings me to my other problem.
The book has war in the title but actual War scenes are few and far between and are short, preparation time for the coming battle deals with characters own personal issues and a good portion of the book focuses on the politics within the Romulan Star Empire and Earth’s Government and Starfleet. I certainly like the scenes of these two political systems having their own independent story separate from the interactions of characters on the other side but it’s goes on a bit too long. Romulan politics consists of a lot of personal plotting and overthrowing each other. Earth’s current politics and Coalition dealings are set around a table with characters usually arguing for their own planets well being. This gets a bit tired after a while. Martin’s also fond of his Latin quotes when he writes a chapter dedicated to the characters of Earths government and military snapping back at each other with Latin sayings.
I would have liked to have seen more space orientated movements between the actual combatants of this war, the commanders of the ships, their tactical skills. We do see that here but a lot of them buy it within a chapter or two.
The use of Nukes is made by the Romulans to some effect here when smaller Romulan ships come under attack by larger Coalition ships. I had thought Earth might have had a few of those lying around still from WWIII.A large part of the plot of this book is dedicated to Starfleet’s defensive grid on it’s planets being compromised by the Romulans who launch smaller ships that can sneak through this grid.
Lt. Stiles from TOS “Balance of Terror” had relatives that fought in the war. Oh really? (sarcasm mode) Cos I don’t know how Stiles was even born since so many of his relatives were killed in this book. Why not focus on one stiles character? Here we had multiple stiles, “again” I thought when a new one would come up, could this one be possible be related to the styles we saw in balance of terror? Can they all be related to each other? I buy the bubble gum chewing female Dalai Lama more.
Charles Trip Tucker the III. This poor guy. How long is he going to be an undercover operative. I’m getting as sick of it as he is. I was excited at the prospect of him returning to Enterprise but just when it seemed to happen the character does a u turn and places the faith of the Quadrant on his shoulders. You’re not the only spy out there Trip buddy. I just wonder how many times he can get out of the spy business only to find himself working for another Alien Race. It just seems endless and annoying.
Ultimately this isn’t the story I want. While I am delighted to see light being finally shed on the Romulan - Earth Wars this is using Enterprise as the basis for that which cramps the creativity of making something a bit grittier and less the norm. But this is the best we get since plans for introducing the War during the proposed 5th season of Enterprise never happened when the show was cancelled.
Humans are in trouble by the end of the Novel, do they have no choice but to fight their way out of this one? If so, maybe the human race isn’t as half as smart as it thinks it is.
Favorite Quote: “The only inevitable thing is fear, especially when the thing you are scared of is something you haven’t even seen yet.” - Lian Hua An Gyatso 18th incarnation of the Dalai Lama
Crime and Punishment September 30, 2009
Posted by oldboy in : Books , add a commentDear Raskolnikov,
I can’t help but compare your story to that of a great number of films I have seen involving the righteousness of the ‘Good Killer’. As I read Crime and Punishment I thought of Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”, Hitchcock’s “Rope”, Chaplin’s “Monsieur Verdoux” and Shakespear’s “Hamlet” as companion pieces to your own story.
The book is an assault on the senses, unpleasant and uncomfortable as we see the story through the eyes of a man who kills. What I found highly interesting was the change in perspective, from the author to Rashkilnov and at mid point when Raskolnikov shares his horrible truth to Razumikhin in silence changes to first person, who it is I am unsure. Dostoevsky? At the end it is “we” the audience that are the narrators of the story as we leave it.
While I realize that Dostoevsky himself had spent time in Prison with Murderers I can’t help but feel he himself might have killed someone or seriously considered it and spent time meditating on it.
Raskolnikov is too close to the reality of that dreaded feeling that he portrays when he considers murdering the pawn broker, taking the action and dealing with the psychological impact afterwards. It’s an interesting study of human behavior, but one wonders could Raskolnikov really have done it if this were reality, purely focusing and desiring to kill someone might not be enough of a tipping point to murder which Raskolnikov, himself well knows at the beginning of the novel, yet his action undertaken is rash and foolish, perhaps driven by the chance he comes across hearing that the pawnbroker would be alone. Yet in sickness and a delirious state he takes greater risk by fulfilling this act. Today we might consider it to be the act of a schizophrenic. It seems too that while trying to avoid detection by the police he is more than eager to hint at his crimes with an almost childish glee to his friend Razumikhin and Sonia, as if to prove what he is capable of. People cannot commit the act of murder alone without some desire of wanting others to know for what would be the purpose of killing without reason. Raskolnikov tries to fool himself into believing that he is doing it for a greater good while it seems that his true reasoning is that he is doing it because he simply can, he is a man without god but has the power of god by taking a life. Of course it all goes horribly wrong for him as he sloppily kills the old lady and her sister and drives himself almost mad with guilt and fear of reproach which seems to disprove his own theory that some men have the right to kill. It seems as though he doesn’t take his own conscious into account on this theory.
On the whole I felt there are three different points of the character. At first his thinking is cold, calculated, he hates the world, people and wants to remove the bad people. His character is most like that of Travis Bickle of “Taxi Driver”, they each live in their own thoughts, removed from society, with similar views of the world around them thinking how disgusting it is. They both devise ways to conceal their weapon of choice for murder. There is even further similarities when Raskolnikov is trying to help a young drunk girl with torn clothes on the street at the beginning of the story, and his desire to assist Sonia much like Travis who wants to save the young prostitute, Iris, who gets into his cab at the beginning of the film . Both Raskolnikov and Travis find the acts of these women to be beyond terribly yet feel a duty to save them. Neither character can truly cut themselves off from their humanity and compassion.
Raskolnikov’s actual act of killing and justification is like that of Chaplin’s “Monsieur Verdoux” whom also kills to support his family and at the end of the movie defends his actions in court as his right, saying “As for being a mass killer, does not the world encourage it? Is it not building weapons of destruction for the sole purpose of mass killing? Has it not blown unsuspecting women and little children to pieces? And done it very scientifically? As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison”
Mid way through Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov seems to take a uturn in his personality. He is much calmer like, intelligent, weaker and more disgusted with himself from his action, he can barely hold up to questioning by porfery and with what money he has he spends it trying to help Katerina Ivanovna’s family.
By the end I thought the Raskolnikov that we knew at the beginning of the story seemed to have returned yet still much like shakespeare’s “Hamlet” he is psychologically tormented by his action and wonders whether it is better to kill himself rather than suffer the repercussions of his actions and the anguish that goes with them. he eIn tnd he gives himself up and goes to prison.At first he holds onto his philosophy that he still had the right to kill, gradually it gives way when his focus becomes Sonia and the desire to spend his future with her. At this point we leave the story and as the author says, the story of Raskolnikov and Sonia is for another time to be told. I often feel empty when I finish reading a book, I’m always interested to continue the journey with the character, however I think the point of Raskolnikov life which I read was the most interesting and we won’t see an interesting time like this again for that Character unless he truly is superhuman. My own reflection on it is that he doesn’t survive in Prison as he was rather sickly, he never gets to be with Sonia. However that may not be the important thing. What is important was the fact that his hope of living that future life with her was stronger than his situation and maybe that was all he really needed in the end. No longer a free desperate man alone in his room, now he is a imprisoned man but a hopeful one, a man who is free in his heart.
Favorite Quote: “There is no one, no one in the whole world now so unhappy as you” - Sonia
Promenade of the Gods February 3, 2009
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Promenade of the Gods also known as Kamigami No Promenade is a Novel by Koji Suzuki, creator of the Popular Ring Franchise and known as the “Stephen King” of Japanese literature. I have been a big fan of his work that has been translated to English and released over the past few years. His first book released on the English market was ‘Ring’ which I read over two days in 2003. “Ring” is the Novel on which the original Japanese Film and Remake are based on. It’s a great read and after that I followed on with reading “Spiral” aka “Rasen”, “Dark Water”, “Loop”, “The Birthday” and recently “Promenade of the Gods”. All the books except “Dark Water” are related to each other. Promenade of the Gods is only loosely related though. The story within this book was first mentioned in passing in “Ring”, describing the Cult leader Kageyama, although I don’t personally recall the reference myself. However I do not see how this is taking place within the same realm as the previous Novels. There is no mention of the devastating effects of the Ring Virus nor is the world overrun by Sadakos.
The only possible links I could find were weak ones. When the main character is reading of the life events of a Cult leader, the character feels almost as if he were looking through the eyes of the writer himself as the story he reads changes to the first perspective. This is similar to the Novel Ring where the main characters watch a video and find themselves to be experiencing the sensations of what they see on the tape as if they themselves were experiencing it. Another similar instance is where the main character dreams of a strange man with rolling eyes like that of a fruits machine and later discovers that the person he dreamed of was that of the cult leader whom he had no prior knowledge of. That is where the similarities end though and nothing else comes of this connection. In fact the mysterious dream of the cult leader is never capitalized on or even explained. As with many things in the novel it’s quite a let down. There’s a lot of build up of momentum that goes nowhere and falls flat.
The story revolves around a man named Shirow whom believes his friend’s disappearance is related to a Cult and may be a kidnapping. He and his friend’s wife try to solve the mystery behind the cult and find his friend.
You might find some product descriptions putting emphasis on the disappearance been related to a TV show, while this is partly true it is only a minor point that I’m sure was used as a cash in on Ring.
There are major problems with this book, besides some glaring translation errors the story seems to not know where it’s going. I get the impression that Koji Suzuki built this up so much that he lost interest or didn’t know where to take it. He seemed at first to be creating a mystery on the level of “Ring” but it falls flat on it’s face. It took too long to get moving, no big story turning events happen, the mystery just keeps growing without conclusions to any elements of it.
For half the book it’s mostly devoted to whether the two main characters will sleep with each other.
After they finally do make up their minds there is much repetition of the information discovered about this Cult of ‘Heaven and Earth’. Three quarters way through the story and I started to say “get on with it” when the characters kept repeating the same questions. I began to wonder if Koji Suzuki wasn’t just padding a story that was going nowhere. For 300 pages nothing is truly revealed, everything is surrounded in mystery and any clues obtained by the main characters are used to speculate and theorize without any hard facts and that is a mistake as Sherlock Holmes himself would say. Keeping the story and mystery under wraps and leaving only theory as the substance of the story I felt wasn’t enough and there really was nothing of worth in the interaction between characters. The story moved nowhere and plodded along with no sense of imminency.
By the end the main Character feels that a joke has been played on him and that all of his investigation has been for nothing. After reading this book I knew how he felt.
I had highly looked forward to this installment even going as far as to e-mail Vertical to ask when it would be published, but I was bitterly disappointed after reading and it was the hardest book of Suzuki’s to get through. I practically ate his other works which i highly recommend. But this I think he himself even gave up on.
If you have not read them pick up Dark Water and the ring series but let this one gather dust at the book store as it adds nothing to what came before.