Echo: Moon Lake, by Terry Moore

(pb; 2008: graphic novel)

From the back cover:

"Julie Martin is taking photographs in the California desert when an explosion in the clouds showers her with liquid metal pellets that stick to her skin and begin to reform a powerful atomic armor. Now somebody wants Julie dead, and the only one who can save her is a woman they've already killed."

Review:

Terry Moore, creator of the excellent comic/graphic novel series Strangers in Paradise has once again created a mainstream yet offbeat series that has characters worth rooting for, a strong plot and plenty of action.

Excellent, worthwhile read.

Moon Lake is the first volume in the Echo series, anthologizing its first five issues.

Followed by Echo: Atomic Dreams (which anthologizes issues six through ten).

**Thingy's Hit was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Thingy penned this week's story, Hit, a vivid tale about the aftermath of a car accident.

Be sure to check this short story out, maybe even comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

Live Girls by Ray Garton

(pb; 1987, 2006: prequel to Night Life. First book in the Davey Owens series.)

From the back cover

"The garish neon lights of New York City's Time Square can be very seductive. And so can the promises of dark pleasures on the seedier side streets. To Davey Owen, the lure of a glowing sign advertising 'Live Girls' was too hard to resist. he was looking for a little entertainment. He found instead a nightmare in the form of a beautiful but strangely pale woman. A woman who offers him ecstasy - and eternal life - but takes in exchange his lifeblood."


Review

Live is a solid, entertaining, gory and sexually explicit vampire/horror work. Live Girls possesses a strong cinematic sensibility and an underlying sense of humor, with nods at classic vampire literature.

Good, fast-burn of a read, this. Am looking forward to reading its sequel, Night Life.

The Missionary Position, by Bruce Dickinson

(pb; 1992: out of print sequel to The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace)

From the back cover:

". . . Lord Iffy (a decaying and grotesque aristocrat with a taste for stilleto heels and at thirty-five still a virgin) rides again. Disguised as a clergyman, he travels to California accompanied by his faithful butler (he of the Pelvotron Sex Machine) and the partially chewed body of a deceased ancestor to meet the holy hit man Reverend Jimmy Reptile, the United States' most successful TV evangelist. There unfolds an epi-saga, which introduces such alluring characters as Sister Hyapatia Comebody, Mine's A Large One, Senator Standing Johns and Ballripper, and which climaxes in the hold of a medical waste disposal ship. . ."

Review:

Dickinson ups the hilarity, spectacle and raunch factor in this second Lord Iffy book. The frenetic pace, splattery and unpredictable situations and characters, and everything else in this worthwhile sequel reminded me of the laughter I experienced the first time I saw the 1963 film It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World - except Missionary is filthier, funnier, satiric and sillier.

No special interest groups or subjects escape skewering in Missionary - among them: cops, televangelists/religion, sexual habits, marriage/gender roles, hair metal bands, race/racism, etc.

As with Adventures, the first Lord Iffy novel, there's a blink-and-you-miss-it cavalcade of references in this imaginative sequel, including Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Iron Maiden songs "Hooks In You" and "Holy Smoke" (Jimmy Reptile is a character in both this song and Missionary) - these songs appeared on the band's 1990 album, No Prayer For The Dying.

Exemplary and unrestrained in its savage debaucheries, Missionary is a looser, more plot and character expansive read than its predecessor - and, like Adventures, worth your time if you want to read a clever middle finger to "good taste."

**MorningAJ's Jetsam was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

MorningAJ penned this week's story, Jetsam, where a woman's oceanside hobby sets into motion a series of unforseen events.

Be sure to check this short story out, maybe even comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

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I am in need of new stories for the Microstory site, if you or anyone you know is looking to get published somewhere other than their blogs. Here's the guidelines.

Foxy: My Life in Three Acts, by Pam Grier (with Andrea Cagan)

(hb; 2010: autobiography)

From the inside flap:

"Some may know her as hot, gutsy, gun-totin' Foxy Brown, Friday Foster, Coffy and Jackie Brown. Others may know her from her role as Kit Porter on The L Word. But that only defines one part of the legend that is Pam Grier.

"Foxy is Pam's testimony of her life, past and present. In it, she reveals her relationships with Richard Pryor, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and Freddie Prinze, Sr., among others. She unveils her experiences as backup singer and a blaxploitation star. In particularly candid and shocking chapters, she shares - for the first time - her view of those films and the persecution of the blacks, especially women, needed to endure to make a name for themselves. . . including how it felt to be labeled one of the most beautiful women alive, yet not be permitted to try on clothes in a department store because of the color of her skin. . . she [also] tells the story of her ongoing battle with cancer.

"From her disappointments to her triumphs, nothing is held back. . ."

Review:

Solid autobiography of a level-headed, upbeat woman who's seen a lot of life, good and bad. Inspirational (without getting Lifetime Movie of the Week about it), meaningful and deftly written.

Check it out.

Audition by Ryû Murakami

(pb; 1997, 2009, 2010. Translated from Japanese to English by Ralph McCarthy.)

From the back cover

". . . Aoyama, a widower who has lived with his son since his wife died seven years ago, decides that it is time to remarry. Since Aoyama is a bit rusty when it comes to dating, a filmmaker friend proposes that he stage auditions for a movie he never intends to produce in order to cast the perfect woman as his bride. Only one of the applicants catches Aoyama's attention: Yamasaki Asami, a striking young ballerina with a mysterious past. Blinded by his infatuation, Aoyama discovers too late that she is a far cry from the innocent young woman he imagined her to be."


Review

Short, taut and emotionally-effective novel. Audition begins as a personal drama about a lonely man trying to find love, a quest that results in sadistic and horrifying situations.

Murakami wastes no words in Audition. Between the author's deliberate, sharp focus and pacing, and an increasing sense of unease, this disturbing novel is unique and excellent. It is not for the squeamish.

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This was released as a film in Japan on March 3, 2000.

Ryo Ishibashi played Shigeharu Aoyama. Eihi Siina played Asami Yamazaki. Tetsu Sawaki played Shigehiko Aoyama. Jun Kunimura played Yasuhisa Yoshikawa. Miyuki Matsuda played Ryoko Aoyama. Toshie Negishi played Rie. Yuuto Arima played "Shigehiko as a child". Ayaka Izumi played "Asami as a child".

Takashi Miike directed the film, from a script by Daisuke Tengan.

Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica, by Mick Wall

(hb; 2011: rock biography)

From the inside flap:

"As Led Zeppelin was for hard rock and the Sex Pistols were for punk, Metallica became the band that defined the look and sound of 1980s heavy metal. Inventors of thrash metal followed - Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth - but it was always Metallica who led the way, who pushed to another level, who became the last of the superstar rockers.

"Metallica is the fifth-largest selling artist of all time, with 100 million records sold worldwide. Their music has extended its reach beyond rock and metal and into the pop mainstream, as the band moved from speed metal to MTV with their hit single, 'Enter Sandman.' Until now there hasn't been a critical, authorative, in-depth portrait of the band. Mick Wall's thoroughly researched, insightful work is enriched by his interviews with band members, record-company execs, roadies and fellow musicians. He tells the story of how a tennis-playing, music-loving Danish immigrant named Lars Ulrich created a band with singer James Hetfield and made his dreams a reality. Enter Night follows the band through tragedy and triumph, from the bus crash that killed their bassist Cliff Burton in 1986 to the 2004 documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, and on to their current status as the leaders of the Big 4 festival that played to a million fans in Britain and throughout Europe and continues in the United States in 2011."

Review:

Excellent biography of the band.

Wall, a longtime music critic and friend of Metallica, chronicles the personalities, music eras and facts/opinions in an entertaining, straightforward and informative write. His take on their music, both its faults and merits, is pointed, kind and constructive - the best thing any critic or friend can be.

Worthwhile read, if you're fan of the band, past (Cliff Burton-era or pre-Load) or present.

**Nick Nicholson's Tangier was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Nick Nicholson penned this week's story, Tangier, the last loosely linked story-chapter in his theme-adventurous, eight-part serial.

Be sure to check this 200-word story out, maybe even comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

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I am in serious need of new stories for the Microstory site, if you or anyone you know is looking to get published somewhere other than their blogs. Here's the guidelines.

Treason at Lisson Grove, by Anne Perry

(hb; 2011: twenty-sixth book in the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt series)


From the back cover:

"The man who lies bleeding to death in a London brickyard is a secret informant prepared to indulge details of a potentially devastating international plot against the British government. Special Branch officer Thomas Pitt arrives seconds too late. As the mortally wounded man's life slips away, so too does the information Pitt desperately needs. Pitt pursues the assassin from London to St. Malo on the French coast. Meanwhile, Pitt's supervisor, Victor Narraway, is accused of embezzling government funds. With Pitt incommunicado in France, Narraway turns to Pitt's wife, Charlotte, for help."


Review:

Set in 1895, Treason is a fun, international Pitt outing. The villains are obvious, for the most part, but the manner of their revealings is often clever, with some shocking and justified violence thrown into the word/mystery mix.

Good read from an excellent writer.

Followed by Dorchester Terrace.

The Honourable Schoolboy, by John le Carré

(hb; 1977: fourth novel in the George Smiley series; second novel in the Karla trilogy)

From the inside flap:

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. . . ended with the devastating unmasking of a double agent at the heart of the British Secret Service (known as the Circus). Now, in The Honourable Schoolboy, George Smiley -- who has assumed the unenviable job of restoring the health, and reputation, of his demoralized organisation -- goes over to the attack. Salvaging what he can of the Service's ravaged network of spies, summoning back a few trustworthy old colleagues, working them -- and himself -- around the clock, he searches for a whisper, a hint, a clue, that will lead him back to his opposite number: Karla, the Soviet officer in Moscow Centre who masterminded the infamous treachery.

"When he find his opening, Smiley moves without hesitation. His battleground: the Far East. His choice of weapons: the Honourable Gerald (Jerry) Westerby, an Old Asia Hand, veteran of several marriages (and wars), unquestioning in his readiness to answer Smiley's summons. 'You point me and I'll march,' says Jerry.

"Jerry's odyssey begins: to Hong Kong -- and blackmail and murder; to collapsing Cambodia and Vietnam -- and drug traffickers, the CIA, and a huge and mystifying 'gold seam' spilling out of Russia. Slowly, manipulated by Smiley and his cohorts back in the Circus, Jerry thrusts himself into the centre of an intrigue of money, defection, passion -- and finds not only fertile ground for Smiley's revenge, but a drama of loyalty and love that both tests his courage and spurs his belated coming of age, in tragic defiance of the voracious requirements of the Service which owns his allegiance."

Review:

Epic in scope and characters (many of them spillover characters from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), the events in Honourable take place six months after Tinker, from mid-1974 to 1975.

The action and political manueverings, this time, aren't restricted to the Circus headquarters in London; this time, the action also covers the Far East, including Cambodia and Vietnam, where the American military, defeated and befuddled, is staging a chaotic withdrawal.

Excellent, gripping read, this, even with its occasional overlong scenes - a minor nit, considering the breadth of le Carré's applaudable vision.

Followed by Smiley's People.

**Michelle Purvis' story, Smoldering, got published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Michelle Purvis penned this week's story, Smoldering, where an ex-lover's emotional fallout turns corkscrewy.

Be sure to check this story out, maybe even comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

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I am in need of new stories for the Microstory site, if you or anyone you know is looking to get published somewhere other than their blogs. Here's the guidelines.

**Baird Nuckolls' He Preferred Red, was published on the Microstory A Week site

A new story is up on the Microstory A Week site.

Baird penned this week's story, He Preferred Red, a saucy, loving tale about marriage, memories and aging.

Be sure to check this story out, maybe even comment on it, if you're so inclined. =)

•

I am in need of new stories for the Microstory site, if you or anyone you know is looking to get published somewhere other than their blogs. Here's the guidelines.