F.R. Jameson's Blog, page 7
March 18, 2019
How Does it Feel? by Mark Kermode
I primarily know Mark Kermode – like most people, no doubt – as
the UK’s leading film critic. So, this version of his life story, focusing only
on his musical adventures, was like peering into an alternative universe. Yes,
I remember him being in the house band on Danny Baker’s early 90s chat show
(and on a more personal note, remember being an eighteen year old in his wife’s
tutor group at Liverpool and Mark coming in to ask us about The Lemonheads as
he was interviewing the band later and – at that point – didn’t know anything
about them), but really when I think of Mark Kermode, I think of films. And,
yeah, THE EXORCIST in particular.
But the man has, as well as being a stupendous film critic,
built himself a quite impressive music career. Lord knows where he found the
time.
We have it all here: the dodgy bands, the dodgy gigs, the
dodgy haircuts. Anyone who has read his film books will know, he’s a genial
narrator. Witty and self-depreciating to a point where he actually jumps up and
down to advertise his flaws. Probably lays claim to flaws that aren’t really
there, in fact.
I used the word ‘adventures’ above, rather than the ‘misadventures’ of the book’s subtitle. It seems like any man whose band has played the Barbican and Glastonbury, as well as performing solos at The Royal Festival Hall (even if all those things triggered imposter syndrome in him) has been on an adventure more than anything else. Besides, I listened to his current band The Dodge Brothers after reading this, and an Elvis fan like me can’t help but appreciate them. So, adventures it is and hopefully there are many more to come.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
March 13, 2019
Doctor Who reviews (Extra) – The Fourth Doctor Boxset: Lost Stories
Often it’s the voice which stops me getting completely into
it. When I’ve listened to previous Tom Baker Big Finish exploits, I’ve
frequently been thrown out of the suspension of disbelief by the voice. It’s
forty-five years now since Tom Baker first became TV’s DOCTOR WHO (and not far
from forty years since he left) and of course in the interim period he’s got
older. He’s aged and his voice has aged. And as sad as it is to admit, there
are Big Finish recordings where he doesn’t really sound like The Doctor. Certainly
he sounds like Tom Baker, but an older and more haggard Tom Baker. Not the
magnificent, mercurial, brown haired alien I can remember striding confidently
around BBC sets.
Here, maybe the boffins at Big Finish had switched the
microphones (or maybe it was simply the headphones I listened it on), but he
sounded so exactly like himself in 1977 that I couldn’t help but be sucked in. I
listened to it with a big grin on my face and boyish enthusiasm.
The tales in this boxset were adapted from ideas pitched in
the 70s but never made. Now the last Big Finish Tom Baker boxset I listened to
was of a similar pedigree, coming from legendary TV producer, Philip Hinchliffe.
It was somewhat dull though. These Lost Stories, however, are brilliant.
The Doctor sounds like himself and the tales that are being
told are so perfectly of their period, that it’s like finding some old
Doctor/Leela episodes that have suddenly been magically gifted to you.
The first is a Hammer horror pastiche, with a monster living
in a large deserted old house in Devon and terrifying the locals. That is until
the story – a la ‘The Stones of Blood’ – suddenly becomes a lot more
science-fictiony. Something quite different, but equally brilliant. I don’t
want to spoil too much, but this a big epic tale that the BBC would never have
had the budget to make, but still seems so perfectly of its time that it hurts.
The second finds The Doctor in his role as scientific
advisor to UNIT (a job which this Doctor had given up on by the time he met
Leela, so it’s a bit anachronistic and would have fitted The Third Doctor a tad
better – but I’m quibbling). He and Leela head out to the jungle to find a lost
explorer and of course things get a lot more alien and dangerous. It’s not
quite as strong as the first, and the tribesman being little more than
decoration is a trope one would have got away with in 1977, but seems really archaic
now. However, Tom Baker and Louise Jameson’s performance are still going to
carry any fan through.
If you love the long scarf and the teeth, then – even though you’re not really going to see them – closing your eyes when listening to these it will be like putting in a classic DVD you haven’t seen before. And just think exciting that would be.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
March 11, 2019
Archangel Down by C. Gockel
A now
imprisoned senior member of a space-fleet breaks out of her prison, but during
her escape bumps into a man with an uncanny resemblance to her ex-husband. This
man has strange abilities, to the point of being super-powered. But can he be
trusted? And is he even human?
When I’m in
the right mood, I’m a sucker for space opera, and what I really enjoyed about
this one was how damn hard it worked to be likeable. Yes, there’s the distant
planet, a new religion and a world in turmoil, but there’s also compulsive
characters and pretty good jokes.
It’s all
written in a breezy style which makes it hard not to go with it; there are
enough 20th century cultural references to makes one chuckle, but
not be irritated by, and there’s a sex robot (called, ahem, 6T9). Now no one ever
put a sex robot into a book without making it the focus of cheap gags. And
there are cheap gags aplenty, but what’s amazing about them is not how many
different ways Gockel manages to raise a chuckle, but that simultaneously she
makes him a real character. This is a sex bot you have cheap gags with and also
care about.
Undoubtedly those in the hard sci-fi camp should give this a miss, as I’m not sure how well its science would hold up. But if you’re climbing on board for the distant worlds and the adventure story, then I think – like me – you’ll have a good time.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
March 6, 2019
The Martian War by Kevin J. Anderson
So, here’s what really happened:
When H.G. Wells was turning his hand to science fiction, he was actually writing roman à clefs. You see, Wells himself had lived through events which inspired THE WAR OF THE WORLDS; THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU; THE INVISIBLE MAN; THE FIRST MAN ON THE MOON and parts of THE TIME MACHINE. These books were not just the product of a genius imagination, they were based on Wells own experiences.
Okay, maybe not. But that is the premise of Kevin J. Anderson’s rollicking ride of a novel. Just as the Martians are about to attack, H.G. Wells is called to a secret institute in London where gathered together are some of the greatest minds in the Empire. And from there begins an adventure on which the fate of humanity hangs.
Reading modern versions of Victorian science fiction does need you to rapidly turn your suspension of disbelief quite high. Indeed, the science part of this science fiction story in no way holds up, even to a layman like me. But if it’s not science fiction, what is it? Alternative reality fiction? Historical fiction? Steampunk? Fan fiction? In the end, I think, it’s an elaborate and beautiful love letter to Wells itself. And it’s quite lovely for it.
Now, excuse me, I must head off to find a book where Arthur Conan-Doyle teams up with Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger to take on an invasion of giant supernatural hounds.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
March 4, 2019
The Invention of Murder by Judith Flanders
MRS FLANDERS’ new book cat’logues the notorious rogues and vill’ans of the great VICTORIAN AGE. Recoil at such fiendish devil’ry as that committed by MESSRS BURKE & HARE, WAINEWRIGHT and the remorseless poisoner PALMER. Witness again the lamentable and notorious crimes of the sin-ful women, MADELINE SMITH and ELIZA FENNING. Embark on a colour-ful and sensational tour of BRUTALITY and EVIL, culminating in the most cruel and vicious MURDERER of the AGE, the unspeakable JACK THE RIPPER!
(I do like those old Victorian adverts).
THE INVENTON OF MURDER details the great crimes of the nineteenth century, particularly those which really caught the public’s imagination. Each case builds on the last, showing how they fed into news, plays, print and even puppet shows – and led to the rise to the detective fiction (even as the most famous murderer of the day proved to be undetectable). It’s probably a book to dip into rather than read in one sitting: as even if you have a penchant for gruesome stuff, A killing B, before C gets rid of D, and E really does do a number on F, does get a bit repetitive and tiresome after a while.
The point of it all is that the increasing frequency of murder led to its greater – and more sensational – representation in the media, which then fed into a desire for the police (and, in particular, the detective force) to become more organised and efficient. But is that really the case? The crimes depicted don’t alter that much in terms of brutality (the murder which opens this book is pretty bloody vicious), and besides the nature of progress means that the representation of crime (and detection methods themselves) was always going to change. But detective fiction does not necessarily feed directly into reality. In fact, more often than not, I’d say it doesn’t. If we look at the subsequent century, how much relation to real crime did Agatha Christie ever have?
Still this is an entertaining guide for those of a certain mindset. It’s gory stuff of the kind we’re awash with now (although probably nothing in here matches an average episode of LUTHER), but just think – the brutal and vicious acts depicted within, really did quicken the pulse-rates of our great, great, great grandparents.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
February 27, 2019
Doctor Who Reviews (Extra) – All Consuming Fire by Andy Lane
So, sticking with this week’s Conan-Doyle theme, here we have The Doctor teaming up with Sherlock Holmes to fight Lovecraftian monsters. Is there a combination more likely to sing sweet songs to my inner geek?
There’s a lot to look forward to then – and obviously, the chance of hopes being dashed – but the result is actually a lot of fun. The Seventh Doctor here is a much more playful presence than he is in some of the other Virgin New Adventures, Holmes and Watson are for the most part captured beautifully and the story races along excitingly whilst staying just the right side of ludicrous.
Okay, it does fall a bit flat in the last third, The Victorian set-up grounds it in a recognisable literary construct, but that’s eventually jettisoned and the book find itself flailing a bit from there. Part of the problem – as the narrative acknowledges – is that once you take Sherlock Holmes out of his comfort zone, he becomes a lot less effective. A lot of his genius is derived from the fact he knows how things are supposed to work, and when he doesn’t – when he truly enters the DOCTOR WHO world – the fantastic deductions and observations totally dry up. As such it becomes a Doctor Who novel with a bit part for Sherlock Holmes, and that’s a shame as it works so much better with these two titans on a level footing.
Still, even though it doesn’t hold together right to the end, there are cameos from the Third Doctor, the First Doctor and Susan, and ultimately – even with the flaws – this is a novel that made me incredibly happy.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
February 25, 2019
Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles by Kim Newman
This is brilliant! Sheer brilliance from the first page to the last. If – for whatever reason – you want to skip the rest of this review, then just take away I loved this book and I insist you go off and read it.
I suppose it’s not that long ago since I read Anthony Horowitz’s Moriarty book, and – really – I am no stranger to the ancillary fiction around Sherlock Holmes. This though is the best I’ve ever encountered. Witty, clever and – even with all the borrowed characters and literary allusions – still somehow wonderfully original, Newman may have set out to write a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, but he arrived at something fantastic on his own terms.
The conceit is
essentially that while Holmes and Watson are living in their rooms in Baker
Street and solving crimes, elsewhere in London, Moriarty and Sebastian Moran
are living together in a brothel and causing crimes. Their dynamic a twisted
one of the original, with Moriarty as the hard to read genius and Moran as the
narrator/chronicler. Although one who’s a lot franker about sex than Doctor Watson.
Throughout their
adventures they meet other characters from Sherlock Holmes stories, most
notably Irene Adler. But more than that, they meet other great characters in
Victorian/Edwardian literature. There’s the cast of A PRISONER OF ZENDA, while
elsewhere there’s Doctor Carnacki and Raffles. The two of them, as the title
suggests, even find their way into a ghostly sequel to TESS OF THE
D’URBEVILLES. Not every reference you’ll immediately get, but the book comes
well stocked with footnotes – and flicking to the end to find out who’s who genuinely
does up the pleasure.
The obvious antecedent to all this is George MacDonald Fraser’s FLASHMAN books, which Newman acknowledges in the afterward. Flashy, to be fair, would mostly bump into real people (although he actually did meet Sherlock Holmes and Sebastian Moran and also find himself in his own Ruritanian romance). Now I love the FLASHMAN books beyond sense and it makes me sad to think there won’t be anymore. This MORIARTY book though is as good as best of them and even though the story would seem to be finished, I’m still going to fervently hope for a second volume.
In short, I loved this.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!
February 19, 2019
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
A Hammer vampire film that not only had I never seen before, but also only read about in a vague and half-recalled way. Which is a shame as it’s absolutely brilliant! Maybe it’s the fact that it doesn’t have any stars – there’s no Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee here; and also isn’t one of those nudity heavy films of the late 1960s – but, for whatever reason, THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE gets lost in the shuffle. And that’s bizarre, as it’s surely one of the most influential Hammer films ever made. CARRY ON SCREAMING, THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS and even WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS all take their leads from this. If you’re looking for the original movie with the big grand Vampire ball in it, this is it.
But let me just start at the opening scene, which doesn’t necessarily join seamlessly with the rest of the film, but is bloody fantastic. A funeral is taking place in a small village, the deceased’s friends and family are weeping at the graveside. They all stop though to stare with suspicion at a glowering James Mason type approaching (actually it’s Clifford Evans, but a James Mason type, he is). Determinedly he walks through the mourners, and then stabs a spike into the grave and through the lid of the coffin, sending blood spurting everywhere and the villages fleeing.
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Moving a little forward from the normal gothic setting, our protagonists are a young honeymooning English couple motoring through Europe when their car breaks down. The villagers greet them with suspicion, but the inhabitants of the local castle are friendly and invite them up. Before the end of the trip, there is a masquerade ball happening at the castle. The couple are invited, but once there separated and the wife disappears. More dreadful though, the next morning, everyone in the castle and the village itself claims that the man didn’t even have a wife.
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The film is both great fun and utterly gripping. Don Sharp’s
direction is superb, breathing real life into a script which in other hands
would be hoary and full of questions. (Why is the wife so important to these
vampires? Even if she is that important, why not just convert the husband too?)
Even the stranger and more dodgy moments are done with such style that it’s
hard to see them as flawed. I particularly liked how this particular coven of
vampires seem like a group of stroppy accountants in a cult.
Every Hammer movie is to a greater or lesser extent flawed. Horror made nearly sixty years ago is always going to feel trapped by its time. But the thing about THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE is that its good enough to overcome those flaws and be a piece of horror entertainment that still stands up.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!.
February 18, 2019
Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt
TaraSharp is a super hero. Her super power? Well, that she’s highly attuned topeople’s auras and can actually see their moods. Okay, that sounds a bit hippydippy and you can see why Marvel hasn’t turned her adventures into a big budget movieyet. But Delacourt here takes Tara’s talent and uses it to create a crackingcomic suspense story, that’s as convoluted and twisty as the best hard-boilednoir.
Hiredby a shady lawyer to look into the handsome owner of a local sports team, Tarasoon finds herself involved with gangsters, house breakers, hired muscle,jealous wives and car vandals. All the while trying to keep her parents out ofher business, look after two demanding galahs, juggle her love life and even getready for a big race.
The setting of Perth, Australia gives the book a fairly unusual quality all by itself. (I must confess that I have never read any Australian crime fiction before), but what really sets it apart is that even when it’s fun – and the jokes are piling on top of each other – the book never loses its sense of peril. That’s no small thing. Books of this kind tend to be funny and low stakes, or not that funny and dangerous. To manage to pull off both really is an achievement to be treasured.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!.
February 13, 2019
Our Hidden Lives by Simon Garfield
The Mass Observation Project was a somewhat lovely scheme
instituted by the British government in the late 1930s. Basically they wanted
to find out how normal people lived, to know their views and opinions. The
purpose was to capture the life of the average man and woman: people who
weren’t newsworthy and just made their way through generally unnoticed. Those
in power came up with two ways of doing this. The first was to send researchers
out onto the streets to ask questions about current events and the ways of the
world. But it’s the second which concerns us here: average people were asked to
write diaries which could be mailed into the department, so they could be read
by researchers and then put in storage for future historians.
OUR HIDDEN LIVES brings together five of those diaries.
Covering the period just before the end of the war onwards, Simon Garfield
weaves together these disparate and separate lives expertly to give us a taste
of five different, yet not totally differing, worlds within Atlee’s Britain. So
we have a poetry writing pensioner in South London; an education focussed
accountant in Sheffield; a South African housewife, also in Sheffield; a
would-be author in the Home Counties; and a gay antiques dealer in Edinburgh.
(The last might be the most interesting of all. Homosexuality was still illegal
in Britain, and although he doesn’t state them directly, he makes little effort
to disguise his sexual preferences. To write it all down and then mail it to
officialdom must have required some courage). It’s genuinely fascinating to
read first-hand accounts of everyday life in post-war Britain, with its
rationing, power shortages and long queues to buy tripe. (All of the diarists
wonder at some point whether it was Britain who actually won The War. And I
suppose having to buy and then eat tripe is the kind of thing that would make
you doubt you’re one of life’s victors.) In some ways this book is like looking
at a slightly different Britain, in others it’s like peering in at a completely
alien world.
There’s a great deal of pleasure in these pages, and amazingly – given its subject – the text is rarely dull. Yes, these people are sometimes writing about creosoting fences or going shopping and other mundane pursuits, but this smallness becomes its own perfect kind of gripping. What normal people were up to when momentous events were happening elsewhere. They’re so vivid and alive that it’s a real shame then when the book ends and these people just disappear back into the past.
My debut novel, THE WANNABES – which has been out of print for a little while – is now available for free. A supernatural thriller of beautiful actresses and deadly ambition in London town, it’s well worth your time. You can get your copy here!.
