Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels, or novellas,
by Joe Hill.
“Snapshot is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who
finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a
Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap. In Loaded, a mall security guard in a
coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to
the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his
story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control
summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on
one last day of reckoning. In Aloft,
a young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and
winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of
roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own.. On a seemingly
ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of
nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely
under cover. Rain explores this
escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the
country and around the world.”
Each of these tales have
disturbing images, with Loaded being the only tale that does not feature some
sort supernatural or science fiction aspects. That one is simply a depressing
story of someone who has obviously lost his mind –via PDST or just slowly going
insane- but is still able to get his hands on weapons. Its politics, while
obvious, is not disrespectful. But through Hill’s pen we see the cycle of
destruction that guns have caused through the years.
I enjoyed Snapshot, with its
Twilight Zone feel (along with making remember a story written by Joe Hill’s
dad long ago called The Sundog). It’s subplot of dementia marked with a camera that
steals memory is fairly scary and well thought out. Rain is typical
end-of-the-world tale, though Hill is able to make the story move fast –something
rare in the genre. It could also be sort of a parody of the genre as well, considering the fantastical way he brings the Earth's destruction. Aloft, for me, is the weakest entry and more Twilight Zone than Snapshot. Its message
of coming to grips with what one wants, and what one can
and cannot have is fairly universal, and I felt while certain elements worked -Aubrey
Griffith Is a well crafted protagonist-I could not accept the whole premise to
begin with.Plus, I kept seeing a movie version of this story, with an actor sitting in a greenscreen room pretending to play with CGI clouds that would be added months later.
No comments:
Post a Comment