Wesley Britton's Blog, page 32

Book Review: Irwin Allen's Lost in Space, The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series (Volume 3) by Marc Cushman

Irwin Allen's Lost in Space, The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series (Volume 3)
Marc Cushman
Paperback: 542 pages
Publisher: Jacob Brown Media Group; 1 edition (February 1, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0692814264
ISBN-13: 978-0692814260
https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Allens-L...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

Whew, I made it! I finally finished all three volumes of Marc Cushman’s exhaustive history of Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space TV series. I now realize much of what I have to say about volume three is much the same as what I said about volumes one and two.

This time around, the preliminary material is much shorter than before with little to talk about other than the unhappiness of stars Guy Williams and June Lockhart about their diminished roles in season two of LIS. We get two forwards by former cast members, Mark Goddard (Don West) and Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson). We’re told season three was designed to be less comic and feature more action and, allegedly, more of the cast beyond Jonathan Harris, Bill Mumy and the robot than before. Well, not so much, as it turned out.

Then, as usual, Cushman pushes TMI to its utter extreme. For example, he still lists all the script rewrites including noting what color paper they were written on— blue, red, green, yellow. We see how each broadcast’s ratings fared against its competition, which was still The Virginian on NBC and ABC’s replacement for the Batman, Patty Duke pairing, the short-lived Custer. Then in January 1967, Custer was replaced by the first color season of The Avengers.

Cushman still provides many of the strange memos from the network brass, such as the inexplicable request Angela Cartwright’s long hair be hidden in a short hair wig. He still adds his commentary on each episode, including praising “Space Beauty” for its parodying of beauty pageants and his defense of “The great Vegetable Rebellion,” apparently considered by many to be the series’ lowest point. It could have been even lower had plans to add a purple lama as a permanent cast member been fulfilled.

Without question, it takes a strong reader to plow through the blow-by-blow accounts of all the episode analyses and synopses. It’s really the after-LIS section where we get a really good discussion of what happened after CBS didn’t so much cancel the show as much as let it die. The network wanted a lower budget for a fourth season; Allen wasn’t willing to accept any cuts. He had other irons in the fire.

So, after the obligatory mini-biographies of what happened to the major participants after LIS went off the air, we get a very revealing narrative about Allen’s attempts to bring the franchise to the big screen and see how LIS was kept alive in cast reunions, at cons, in syndication and on cable, on video and DVD, and in comic books. And ultimately, of course, the disappointing New Line 1998 big screen incarnation produced after Allen’s death.

Added content includes an odd recap of the relationship between actor Jonathan Harris and his secretive, reclusive wife Gertrude and an overview of the aborted WB TV remake that would have been targeted to adolescents and focused on a romance between a new Judy Robinson and Major Don West. Finally, Cushman offers a few notes on the 2017 Netflix reboot.

As I said in my reviews of Volumes 1 and 2 of these Authorized Biographies, you gotta be a diehard, serious fan of Lost in Space to want these no-stones-unturned tomes. As these are mainly research books, no library with a decent media section should miss them. TV sci fi fans might also like to have access to these books, especially for the color photo fests each volume includes.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Fri. Aug. 11 at:
http://dpli.ir/lbTXfP

Book Review: Mistletoe and Murder: The Fourth Pete Culnane Mystery

Mistletoe and Murder: The Fourth Pete Culnane Mystery
S.L. Smith
Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Sightline Press; First edition (July 26, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0996464050
ISBN-13: 978-0996464055
ASIN: B074BHD1TK
https://www.amazon.com/Mistletoe-Murd...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

While this series is billed as “The Pete Culnane Mysteries,” actually the buddy cop duo of St. Paul police detectives Pete Culnane and Martin Tierney deserve equal billing. Throughout the series, their bantering adds a touch of humor while each book touches on one social issue or another. In book one, Blinded by the Sight, it’s homelessness; book two, Running Scared, deals with the impact of a failing marriage on the children; book three, Murder on a Stick, looks at assisted living and other plights faced by the elderly.

Book four continues this theme by looking at perhaps the most important social issue of our times, drug addiction. Smith also returns to his interest in the homeless and family relationships shared by the two policemen. In the new story, Collette Hammond orchestrates a New Year’s Eve wedding reception for her brother before collapsing just before midnight. Does a fresh needle mark suggest this recovering addict, allegedly clean for a year, have an unexpected relapse? Or did something more sinister occur that might make this death a possible homicide?

It takes a long part of the book before we know for certain a crime has indeed occurred. As the story progressed, I often thought of TV dramas created by producer/actor Jack Webb where the main characters were straight-laced, upright, moral paragons. Webb’s shows like Dragnet and Adam-12 also emphasized the procedural day-to-day work of police officers stressing the workaday roles of typical cops with usually everyday investigations.

We see exactly such circumstances in the low-key first half of Mistletoe and Murder as Culnane and Tierney seek out and interview potential witnesses to Hammond’s collapse, looking for a motive for someone wanting to do her harm. It’s all “gum shoe” work, as they used to say, until unexpectedly they run across a pair who try to kill a witness and then start a shoot-out with the cops. Everything changes, naturally, after that.

I admit, I never really understood the book’s title. The action begins on a New Year’s Eve and progresses through an extremely cold Minnesota winter. Christmas mentions are passing and only referred to in the past tense. Should you Google for the title, you’ll discover it’s been used several times before, for whatever that note is worth.

Mistletoe and Murder is a book for readers who want their cops likeable, professional, methodical, and very human. It’s for readers who like their stories extremely believable, based on obvious research to validate the smallest of details, and books that include behind the scenes passages that develop the protagonist’s personal lives. It’s for readers who like their leads the sort of characters we could easily encounter anytime, anywhere. That includes the bad guys whose motives are not farfetched nor outlandish.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 9, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/Bq0iQK

Lost in Space post reposted

Wes Britton’s review of Irwin Allen's Lost in Space:
The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series, Volume 2 by Marc Cushman was reposted this weekend at the New Book Review blog:
https://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com...

Book Review: WHAT YOU DID NOT TELL: A RUSSIAN PAST AND THE JOURNEY HOME by Mark Mazower

WHAT YOU DID NOT TELL: A RUSSIAN PAST AND THE JOURNEY HOME
Mark Mazower
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Other Press (October 17, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1590519078
ISBN-13: 978-159051907
https://www.amazon.com/Place-Origin-F...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton.

The man historian Mark Mazower is referring to in the title of his newest book is his grandfather—Mordecai “Max” Mazower. Mark traces the story of his grandfather and the rest of his family by digging into nearly every possible nook and cranny of available public and private archives as well as family documents and photographs of a man who lived an extraordinary if secretive life.

Major highlights of Max Mazower’s complex life include his time in Tsarist Russia as an agent of a revolutionary Jewish socialist movement, the Bund, once the most powerful and active socialist organization throughout Russia. While the Bund has largely been forgotten by history due to the rise and impact of the Bolsheviks, Max Mazower apparently maintained contact with his Bund comrades and supported the party in Poland long after the organization was absorbed by the Communist Party in Russia.

Mazower’s Bund activities twice resulted in exile to Siberia before he escaped to Poland in 1907, then Germany, and ultimately England. There, while mostly silent about his past, he became a very successful representative of the Yost typewriter company, focusing on sales to his former country which he visited frequently. While recounting his grandfather’s years between the European wars, the younger Mazower shares how his own investigations progressed, including the dead ends he bumped into. For example, he suspected grand-dad might have been a spy for the Bolsheviks, but found no evidence to support his theory.

Some chapters, at first glance, might seem largely digressions as with Mazower’s biographies of his illegitimate half-brother, Andre, and Andre’s mysterious mother, Sophia. Then again, the book is centered on the life and legacy of Max Mazower so all his family connections are explored as fully as the author could dig. Not surprisingly, the story of Max’s wife, Frouma, earns considerable attention including her first marriage, the death of her first husband, her relations with her second husband, and her life after his death. We also read the story of Ira, the daughter of Frouma’s first marriage. Like Mazower, Frouma came from a Russia of turbulent times and was essentially rescued from comparatively harsh circumstances to live in England, even if she didn’t know English.

Then, naturally enough, Mark Mazower recounts the upbringing of Bill, his father, and then his own childhood. What we see is a family that is part of the Russian Jewish diaspora and how these emigres fared in England. After the first part where we learn much about the role of the Bund and life in pre and post-revolutionary Russia, we get smaller insights into the lives of Russian emigres during the second half of the Twentieth Century. We see how each generation gets more and more distanced from their Russian roots as the family all are raised in and are citizens of other countries, in this “case study,” mostly England.

Clearly, What You Did Not Tell is a tale that would appeal to a rather restricted, limited audience. Mark Mazower has written twelve volumes on European history including Governing the World: The History of an Idea, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations, Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe, as well as a number of scholarly tomes on Greek history. He uses the same tone in his family history, along with a lengthy section of appendices and scholarly apparatus. We get the facts, when known, the most credible speculations, when they are all he has, and little veering into opinion or emotion. So if this subject matter interests you, then you get a well-written volume that is very revelatory in its first chapters, less so as it progresses.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 7, 2017

Book Review: The Show Runner: An Insider’s Guide to Successful TV Production by Cy Chermak

The Show Runner: An Insider’s Guide to Successful TV Production
Cy Chermak
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Jacobs Brown Press; 1st edition (July 22, 2017)
ISBN-10: 0998866318
ISBN-13: 978-0998866314
https://www.amazon.com/Runner-Insider...

Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley britton

Cy Chermak has written a book that should become required reading in all film schools, especially for courses focused on TV production. General readers not likely to ever stand on a production stage will also find the book illuminating as it’s all about how TV shows are made and demonstrates just what a “showrunner” is in the industry.

After he shares his background as an actor and script writer in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Chermak illustrates all the components of a showrunner’s, or Executive Producer’s, job from finding scripts and writers, casting, squabbling with agents, finding locations, dealing with conflicts between actors and directors, filming, worrying about budgetary constraints, editing, and scoring. Not to mention choosing props, costumes, special effects, stunts, and determining logistics with the transportation coordinator. As Chermak notes, most of the cast and crew of a TV production are focused on their particular area of interest. Only the producer has to monitor every aspect of the production.

Chermak shows how all this is done with a combination of personal anecdotes drawing from his experiences working on shows like CHIPS, Ironside, The Bold Ones, Barbary Coast, and Kolchak: The Night Stalker blended with discussions of the lessons he learned along the way. He isn’t interested in name dropping, although we read stories about the likes of Raymond Burr, Eric Estrada, Lee J. Cobb, and Aaron Spelling. However, most stories are about what happened when and not so much by whom.

What did Chermak learn and what does he teach us? Well, if you didn’t know already, network executives and the Powers That Be don’t care much about quality. They want programming brought in on time and as inexpensively as possible. In the tiers and tiers of executives in the studios and offices, many fingers want to stir the production stews without contributing much to the product other than trying to justify their jobs.

No one should be surprised to read tales revealing the process revolves around egos and personality conflicts. Judgement calls and creative decisions are often determined by just who has the power to call the shots and not so much what the best course of action might be. But Chermak also spends considerable time discussing what makes for good scripts, how music can aid or distract from scenes, how to edit for good timing and how to please the studio heads.

Just what gives Cy Chermak the credentials to tell us all these things? Beyond working on the shows mentioned above, during his 30-year career in television, Chermak worked as a freelance writer on shows like Bonanza and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Story editor on series like Rescue 8 and The Virginian, and was nominated for three primetime Emmys, the Writers Guild of America Award, and the Humanitas Prize. He has also received the NAACP’s Image Award.

I hope this short overview doesn’t suggest The Showrunner is a dry read without heart, humor, or human interest. It has all three, and on nearly every page. It’s not like other books that discuss what a producer is without having a personal touch. It’s a fast read that retains interest by taking readers behind the scenes of TV production from a very knowledgeable insider’s perspective. Again, this is a book that’s not just for future showrunners. It’s for anyone who likes to go behind-the-scenes of TV production.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 4, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/mb9ZPW

Book Review: Merlin at War by Mark Ellis

Merlin at War (A DCI Frank Merlin Novel)
Mark Ellis
Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: London Wall Publishing (October 12, 2017)
ISBN-10:0995566712
ISBN-13:978-0995566712
https://www.amazon.com/Merlin-War-DCI...

Reviewed by Dr. Wesley britton

Merlin at War is the third novel to feature Anglo-Spanish DCI (Detective Chief Inspector) Frank Merlin of Scotland Yard. As with the previous two books (Princes Gate, Stalin’s Gold), Mark Ellis’s new whodoneit is set in England during World War II. To date, the series has been successful overseas, especially in England and Australia; Merlin at War is Ellis’s first attempt to crack into the American market.

But mystery fans, don’t expect Merlin at War to be a detective procedural with Merlin following a series of clues to uncover a murderer. The novel is more layered and complex than any one plotline. In fact, there are long sections where Merlin isn’t onstage at all and a number of events seem unrelated to the death of a botched abortion victim Merlin is investigating. World War II is more than an atmospheric backdrop. In fact, the book opens with a deadly mission by British soldiers in Crete during 1941. One survivor of a six man unit gunned down by Nazi planes is asked by his superior officer to deliver a letter for him, but the officer dies before he can do more than scrawl a single “S” on the envelope. That’s the book’s first mystery—who is the letter’s intended recipient and what is in it? Does it have anything to do with the dead man’s very remunerative business holdings? Does it reverse previous wills giving his son command of the business?

During the many pages of this unfolding storyline, and the three cases Merlin undertakes, we also meet many French characters on both sides of the battle lines, including spies and traitors. They represent those supporting a Free France and those willing to appease the Vichy government. These figures include the historical Charles de Gaulle and a French emigre shot in a seedy Notting Hill flat. Along the way, the deep cast of main characters are shown in Ireland, Buenos Aires, New York, occupied France, and especially London while the city was being bombed during the blitz.

Ellis is extremely good at providing the details and descriptions that give credible verisimilitude to his various overlapping stories. This is most evident in all the conversations that include reactions to the progress, or lack thereof, of the war, the political dynamics between the likes of de Gaulle and Churchill, the domestic relationships of a number of the protagonists, and the interviews Merlin’s team conducts as they investigate a number of seemingly unrelated murders in London. We are also taken to many night spots, hotels, offices, and restaurants, again mostly in London.

Without question, Merlin at War should please fans of espionage thrillers, mysteries, period dramas, and especially buffs of historical fiction set during the Second World War. Through it all, I often thought this novel would make for an excellent PBS mini-series. True, we already got the WW II set Foyle’s War which was primarily set on England’s south coast. Merlin at War has a wider canvas and is centered in the more cosmopolitan London.

Dear publisher: when you work on releasing Princes Gate and Stalin’s Gold in the U.S., please keep me in mind. I’d love to read and review the first adventures of Frank Merlin and his compatriots. Oh, and book four as well, whenever it comes out.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Aug. 3, 2017
http://dpli.ir/NM2L02

Spy novels and the election of Donald Trump

Once upon a time, the following article would have been an ideal contribution to my www.spywise.net website. This month, it was posted at Literary Hub:

“DO SPIES TURNED NOVELISTS USE THEIR OLD SOURCES? ON WHAT ESPIONAGE FICTION CAN TEACH us ABOUT THIS GEOPOLITICAL MESS” by Steve Matteo.

http://lithub.com/do-spies-turned-nov...

The “geopolitical mess” in question is the potential Russian involvement in the election of Donald Trump. Steve talks to a number of spy novelists to explore the possible plausibility of such a story in fiction.

Thanks, Steve, for sending me the link!

Book Review: Terminal Core by Lynn Steigleder

Terminal Core
Lynn Steigleder
Paperback: 358 pages
Publisher: Soul Fire Press (April 18, 2016)
ISBN-10: 1938985974
ISBN-13: 978-1938985973
https://www.amazon.com/Terminal-Core-...


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton

I’m far from the first reviewer to point out the obvious—that Terminal Core is certainly sci fi, but it’s also filled to the brim with the flavor of the old, wild American west. On the remote, small planet of Aon (which has a solid core made from Calladium, the most valuable element in the universe), cities no longer exist and the world is very much like an open frontier. Characters wear Stetson hats and cowboy boots and ride horse-like six-legged animals carrying saddle-bags. Some characters speak in dialects that would be equally appropriate for 19th century ranch hands, cattle drivers, or prospectors. On this world of mostly men, much time is spent engaged in drunken fist fights inside old-fashioned saloons where everyone wants their whiskey.

On this back-water world, earth’s president and some duplicitous humans plan to destroy Aon to harvest its valuable core. To accomplish this, crude oil from Earth is shipped to Aon, refined and used to dissolve Calladium. In response, an animated, telepathic being that lives in Calladium incongruously calling itself J. Smith takes two of his “bug thugs” and two human hostages to earth to destroy the extraction centers for the oil. Even more frightening are the lethal creatures on Aon that burrow through earth and flesh. It’s as if the planet is defending itself against the intrusive offworlders.

As the story progressed, told with various points of view recounting a batch of alternating storylines, I was reminded of the novels of L. Sprague de Camp, especially his books of light, entertaining adventure populated by humanoids living among strange aliens using weird, exotic technology. De Camp didn’t explore speculative themes but rather took readers to faraway worlds where nothing was intended to provoke deep thought. Seems to me, Lynn Steigleder is in that tradition.

While not publicized as a YA novel, I think that readership would be an ideal target audience for Terminal Core, especially when all the frightening “monsters” start popping up from the ground. Likewise, I’d think Baby Boomers who might be a bit nostalgic for the breed of sci fi adventure stories we got to read before “hard science fiction” came to dominate sci fi might enjoy a book that is simple entertainment. I’ve read reviews that suggest that fans of Western stories might like Terminal Core, but I’m rather doubtful about that. As it goes along, Terminal Core becomes less and less earth-like with the settings, characters, devices and animals more and more fantastic and unusual.

Yes, Terminal Core is often grisly but few modern readers are going to be put off by weird creatures eating or squashing people and other biped species. The violence kicks into serious high gear in the final chapters when a band of hearty humans battle a relentless tide of killer beasts trying to exterminate all the humans on Aon. I must admit, the final sentences of the book are the most out-of-left-field twists I’ve ever read. Seems to me, the conclusion is a bit gratuitous—to say more would be a major spoiler. And as Terminal Core is apparently planned to be a stand-alone saga, you might find yourself fantasizing your own sequel to Lynn Steigleder’s very imaginative grand finale.



This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on July 31, 2017:
http://dpli.ir/PkNoxx

Blue Gold review reposted at New Book Review blog

Wes Britton’s review of Blue Gold by David Barker, retitled “Veteran Reviewer Recommends Sci-Fi Thriller,” was reposted Sunday, July 30, 2017 at The New Book Review blog:
https://thenewbookreview.blogspot.com...

Book Review: Blue Gold by David Barker

Blue Gold
David Barker
Paperback: 360 pages
Publisher: Urbane Publications (June 1, 2017)
ISBN-10: 1911331655
ISBN-13: 978-1911331650
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Gold-Davi...


Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton

Blue Gold is one of those fast-paced thrillers that demand focused reader attention. That’s because there are so many moving parts including changing global settings and Barker introducing a wide cast of important characters.

Set in the not-so-distant future, as they say, this addition to the “cli-fi” (climate fiction) genre revolves around two major protagonists, British agents Sim Atkins and his partner, Freda Brightwell. Atkins is a relative rookie whom the experienced Brightwell doesn’t accept with much enthusiasm. She’s distinguished by an ornate walking stick which doesn’t discourage Sim from an ongoing study of his “boss’s” legs. Sim is doubtful this pair can accomplish what is asked of them; Freda believes just a few brave souls can do what inactive masses won’t, even preventing World War III.

Their investigations begin by looking into the projects of very sophisticated worldwide terrorists and rogue governments who destroy satellites over Iceland, blow up airships, and infiltrate the most sensitive of governmental military computers all over the world. In fact, side stories and parallel plot lines occur in England, America, Ethiopia, Egypt, Israel, India, Pakistan, Japan, Canada, and China, among other locations. All the events and back-stories in these places aren’t presented in a linear flow but do establish just how turbulent the world order has become.

Easily speculative fiction if not overtly sci fi, Blue Gold occurs in a world with acute water shortages due to global climate changes. Most of the international conflicts are responses to the growing crisis. There are also riots and terrorism based on economic inequality, especially the workers of the world unhappy about corporations not paying their fair share of taxes. The rich are leaving behind their land based citizenships to live on the sea where they owe no taxes to anyone.

Futuristic elements include a reliance on AI (artificial intelligence), hyper-sonic surveillance drones, and a moon base mining for minerals. Through it all, the author says the point of the book is to expand awareness of what might happen to our planet’s water supply if we don’t address the growing problems of global warming. In addition, the author says he is using Blue Gold to help raise awareness for the charity, WaterAid, one of the organizations he describes in one of his lengthy appendices.

I highly recommend Blue Gold to pretty much every reader who likes intelligent fiction. It can be classified, if you need labels to determine your reading list, as an espionage thriller, speculative fiction, science fiction, a mystery, sometimes a political thriller, certainly “cli-fi.” Happily, while the book has a polemic point to make, Barker doesn’t preach to us and doesn’t hit us over the head with his themes. This is an entertaining, action-packed, vividly descriptive tale with memorable characters and, sadly, a more than plausible future for us to worry about. Speaking of the future, while I wasn’t crazy about the final scene on the last page of the main text, I was delighted to see Blue Gold is the first volume of a new trilogy. In the teaser chapter for book 2, I see why Blue Gold ended the way it did. So I have two more books to look forward to.

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com at:
http://dpli.ir/D18hmZ