Books: A Night In the Lonesome October By Roger Zelazny (1993)

“Every few decades when the moon is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and doors may be opened between this world and the realm of the Great Old Ones. When these conditions are right, men and women with occult knowledge may gather at a specific ritual site to hold the doors closed, or to help fling them open. Should the Closers win, then the world will remain as it is until the next turning... but should the Openers succeed, then the Great Old Ones will come to Earth, to remake the world in their own image (enslaving or slaughtering the human race in the process). The Openers have never yet won. These meetings are often referred to as ‘The Game’ or ‘The Great Game’ by the participants, who try to keep the goings-on secret from the mundane population.”

The events of A Night In the Lonesome October take place during the English Victorian Era and set primarily in London and is narrated by Snuff, a dog who is happens to be Jack the Ripper’s companion. Zelazny (admittedly) is heavily influenced by those writers of the time period, like H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelly, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allen Poe, and even modern era writer (during Zealanzy’s time) Robert Bloch. Each of the characters –or “players”- are from pages of gothic fiction of that era, including the after mentioned Jack the Ripper (only ever referred to as "Jack"), Dracula ("The Count"), Victor Frankenstein ("The Good Doctor"), and the Wolf Man (known as "Larry Talbot", the film character's name). Also we have others, like the Witch ("Crazy Jill"), a Clergyman (Vicar Roberts), a Druid ("Owen"), a "Mad Monk" ("Rastov" – apparently modeled after Rasputin), and a few others, including Sherlock Holmes (“The Great Detective”).

It’s an oddly paced novel, and there is a lot going on that Zelazny deliberately does not explain, but Snuff was a great character, a fun narrative device choice. It’s a fun read, creative, dark, and unusual.

Books: Forever and a Death By Donald E. Westlake (2017)

"A businessman who’s been tossed out of Hong Kong just as the Chinese take over the British colony plots revenge by using a soliton to create mega-waves that will flood tunnels bored into the landfill beneath parts of the island, bringing much of the place down in piles of rubble as the villain escapes with a fortune in looted gold. Unfortunately for scheming construction king Richard Curtis, his warm-up, in which he uses the soliton on his own private island off the Australian coast, is witnessed by Jerry Diedrich, the environmental activist of Planetwatch, who has a special reason for keeping a close eye on Curtis, and volunteer diver Kim Baldur, who leaps into the water in defiance of Curtis engineer George Manville’s no-trespassing warning moments before the soliton starts churning the waters. Against all odds, Kim survives the shock waves that follow. Curtis wants her dead anyway; Manville struggles to keep her alive."

James Bond was returning in 1995’s GoldenEye after a nearly six year absence from the silver screen. While the Bond producing team at Eon Productions were confident that this reboot was going to work, they were still hedging their bets. In March of 1995, eight months before the release the 17^th film in the franchise, Donald E. Westlake was contacted by Jeff Kleeman, a producer on the series, to help come up with story ideas for next Bond film. While Westlake provided a few story ideas, eventually due to the success of GoldenEye, the forthcoming sale of MGM/UA, who wanted to go out on a high, the elements Westlake came up with for the 18^th Bond film (what became Tomorrow Never Dies) ended up not being used (actually, Kleeman’s Afterword does a great job at explaining the history of Westlake’s involvement with James Bond). 

Like most authors, Westlake was not one to let a good story go to waste, so sometime after ending his association with Bond producers (1996/97) he wrote an original novel based on the premise instead. Westlake obviously retooled the tale, taking out any references to copyrighted elements, but the book does resemble a James Bond film with exotic locals -Brisbane to Singapore to Hong Kong, along with double-crosses, counterespionage, and action set pieces that have all become the part of every Bond film. Except, of course, there is no superspy, no James Bond.

As prolific as Westlake was, Forever and a Death would never be published while he was alive. Digging into how this book came about, I discovered that part of the reason this novel was shelved may have to do with the reception it got from the people whose opinions he valued. With an original manuscript clocking in at 610 pages, maybe they felt the book was unwieldy? Published in 2017, nearly a decade after Westlake’s passing, the book that has been boiled down to a more manageable length by Charles Ardai. It’s still a bit overlong, but it certainly neither as nihilistic as his Parker books (writing as Richard Stark), nor as humorous as his Dortmunder tales.

I also read somewhere that had this book ever saw the light of day while Westlake was alive, it probably would’ve been published under one of the many pseudonyms he used over the years. 

There is also, in some ways, a question of whether a book left unfinished or complete, but in an early draft format, should be published posthumously. After all, Forever and a Death (one of the names Westlake suggested for a Bond film title) in its current format was not a true Westlake novel because the writer never fully completed it. It was edited down by someone else and what was taken out or what was left in may not have been what Westlake would’ve done. 

Still, it’s a good book and would’ve made a good Bond film.

Books: The Beast of Nightfall Lodge by S.A. Sidor (2019)

“When Egyptologist Rom Hardy receives a strange letter from his old friend, the bounty-hunting sniper Rex McTroy, he finds himself drawn into a chilling mystery. In the mountains of New Mexico, a bloodthirsty creature is on the loose, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. Now, a wealthy big game hunter has offered a staggering reward for its capture, and Rom’s patron – the headstrong and brilliant Evangeline Waterston – has signed the team up for the challenge. Awaiting them are blizzards, cold-blooded trappers, remorseless hunters, a mad doctor, wild animals and a monster so fearsome and terrifying, it must be a legend come to life.”

The Beast of Nightfall Lodge is S.A. Sidor’s follow up to Fury From the Tomb and retains much of the tone and pacing of the first book. It’s less an Indiana Jones/The Mummy adventure as Fury was and more a homage to Lovecraftian horror and typical Western tropes thrown in for good measure. But what is retained is the easily acceptance of the supernatural in 1890 (and while I know the era was not that enlightened, but it was still a time of great belief in religion and it seems a lot of people don't blink an eye at what is going on in a small town in New Mexico) and a narrator who continues to be more of a killjoy than even a hero. I mean Rom Hardy can be good, even fun, but he can also be an annoyingly boring character who might’ve been serviced better if the book was not told from a first-person perspective. Then again, had Sidor wrote the book in that narrative format, Hardy could’ve come off as bumbling oaf - a know it all nerd who could give Steve Urkel a run for his money). So, it’s a fine line here, and while the books stumbles with him (and why was Evangeline regulated to a supporting character?), the rest is a kind of fun, dark Scooby Doo adventure (does the dog really talk, or does Rom imagine it?), with a somewhat predictable plot and a sad ending.

My Pointless Review: The Umbrella Academy

There was a lot I liked about The Umbrella Academy, but I found myself a bit perturb by the lack of answers to the many questions the 10-episode first season unraveled. 

The performances were uniformly great, though, with Mary J. Blige, Robert Sheehan, and young Aidan Gallagher being particular standouts for me. The show did not reinvent the dysfunctional family trope and, at times, sort of doubled-down on them that it became distracting. Nevertheless, there was enough dark humor and much likeability of the main characters that one can forgive them treading over the same themes other shows have done over the years

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I did find it odd that the character of Leonard, who becomes romantically involved with Vanya, would start out creepy from his first episode. He never comes off as the typical White Knight someone like Vanya might need considering how her father and siblings treated her as child and later as an adult (though those themes would be explored in later episodes), what the viewer might expect him to be. While that upsets the apple cart of typical storytelling metaphors, I felt it odd that this production made it so obvious early on that Leonard had a few loose screws. 

As series goes on, we the audience learn that Leonard (or Harold Jenkins) does have a beef with The Umbrella Academy –as well as serving jail time for killing his father, whom was physically and verbally abusing him when he was a child- so this explains his motives. And yes, Allison seems suspicious of Leonard early on as well, but again, the audience already knows something’s off about the man, so Allison’s investigation into his past just seems like some clumsy and sloppy exposition and offers no real surprises. 

But the biggest issue with the show for me deals with the lack of answers to the many questions it unfurls. Now as limited graphic novel book series, the writers can easily plop down a lot of plot information, world building and end it the way they did –hey, the world blows up. This gives them a Get Out of Jail Free Card in explaining anything, and for some people, maybe the ones who enjoy the comic book world, are fine with this. 

However, a TV viewing audience really does like some explanations. Maybe the producers, writers, directors don’t have to answer everything, but after 10 episodes (which may in itself be restrictive to the creative process), nothing is really revealed, no explanations to some the most basic issues presented here. And while the makers assume its audience are not idiots, I did expect some explanation to what is being presented on screen.

Again, not everything needs to be explained, but…

Are we really on Earth, or is this some sort of alternate timeline created by the seven Hargreeves adults who’ve failed again and again to stop the destruction of the planet? Does this mean they’re stuck in some sort of time loop (which means any of the deaths that occurred here won’t stick, so there is that) or a variation on Groundhogs Day, with number Five knowing more than anyone else?

And what year is it? Because it’s not 2019 as no one uses a computer, a mobile phone, or drive a modern car. This would give credence to idea that all of what we saw has all happened before, that Five has tried again and again to prevent the annihilation of Earth, only each time he does, whatever timeline they end up in, or alternate Earth for that matter, becomes more and more corrupted and further away from ours.

As it has pointed out in the opening narration: “On one day in 1989, 43 infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before.” Reginald Hargreeves adopts seven of them, but what happened to the other thirty-six? Now this plot point does not need real answers in season one, but I was surprised how quickly this aspect was dropped and forgotten, so I’m curious if this will be ever addressed as the show enters season two -as well as how these seven got their extraordinary powers.

Other questions: 

If the Commission is as powerful as they say, why are they living in 1955 with that year’s technology? 

In the finale, it appears that Reginald Hargreeves is an alien (?), as we see in a background shot through some windows, many ships launching from a planet. Is it the Earth or some alien world? Also, how does Hargreeves know the world is going to an end in the first place? Was he going to reveal this information to Klaus during their Ghost Adventures conversation when Klaus became a spirit box after collapsing during the rave? How and why did Ben die? (this plot point was not answered in the graphic novel, apparently either, so we may never get that resolved) and how does Klaus channel Ben’s power in the finale? 

Too many questions, too many ideas lying around like yesterday’s cold oatmeal. Maybe we should get some of these questions answered before they unload a steamer trunk full of more for next season.

Books: Fury From the Tomb by SA Sidor (2018)

“Saqqara, Egypt, 1888, and in the booby-trapped tomb of an ancient sorcerer, Rom, a young Egyptologist, makes the discovery of a lifetime: five coffins and an eerie, oversized sarcophagus. But the expedition seems cursed, for after unearthing the mummies, all but Rom die horribly. He faithfully returns to America with his disturbing cargo, continuing by train to Los Angeles, home of his reclusive sponsor. When the train is hijacked by murderous banditos in the Arizona desert, who steal the mummies and flee over the border, Rom – with his benefactor’s rebellious daughter, an orphaned Chinese busboy, and a cold-blooded gunslinger – must ride into Mexico to bring the malevolent mummies back. If only mummies were their biggest problem.”

This Indiana Jones/The Mummy hybrid where author SA Sidor (who has published four thriller under the name of Steven Sidor) adds doses of pulp-ish noir sadly never really gets out of third gear.

Still, I generally found Fury From the Tomb to be an entertaining book, filled with mummies, a giant white worm, a gunslinger, and little tomb robbing on the side. The book is also frustrating in a few things. I’ve mentioned before of not having a fondness for first person narratives –it’s a literary device that only works once in a while, and only in limited genres. But beyond that, I actually found the narrator a bit annoying –he likes the sound of his own voice and appears to know too much about everything. Being this way, he goes off on endless rants that goes on for multiple pages and that would slow the intrigue and adventure down (sort of like if Indiana Jones stopped beating on Nazi’s to offer a discourse on boot designs of the Third Reich).

I also like the dynamics of the four main characters, who Sidor breathes life into. However, it did seem weird to me that these folks of 1888 seemed completely unfazed with all the supernatural stuff going on. And the book is way too long and that may be why it took me a while to actually finish it.

However, I’ve decided to read the second book, so maybe he ironed out some of the problems from the first book?