Kristopher Kelly's Blog, page 12
January 19, 2012
Review: Short-Stories
Short-Stories by Various
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This small collection of a handful of classic stories proves refreshing, if a touch moralistic. I love Hawthorne's writing, but his stories I find just a touch too direct. (Don't lecture me, old man!) My favorite in here is one I hadn't read before, "The Griffin and the Minor Canon," which is basically the story of a gargoyle coming to stare at its likeness above a church. Its presence terrifies the villagers, and the further reactions made for interesting reading. Something about that story really works on me.
What I love about this collection is how representative it is of horror stories as literature.
Some bad formatting in this free kindle version frustrated me at times.
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January 16, 2012
Review: The Day of the Triffids
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Stop me, oh-ho-whoa stop me, stop me if you think that you've heard this one before: A man wakes up in a London hospital to find no one around, stumbles out into Piccadilly to find the world has gone all apocalyptic while he's been sleeping.
Yep. Turns out this book was made into a movie called 28 Days Later, among others.
There's a lot to recommend this book by John Wyndham, which details the attempts to rebuild civilization after a meteorological event renders most of the world blind, leaving them at the mercy of dangerous, scientifically-engineered plants known as triffids, which are tall clumsy things with vicious stingers that now run rampant over a population too sense-deprived to effectively corral them anymore. For one, I liked the author's vocabulary, and the guy can actually write a nice sentence. For another, I thought a lot of this book was really well-imagined. The details and reactions to the events were nicely convincing, and I adored the second chapter, which discussed the origins of the triffids.
Unfortunately, the book as a whole was perhaps just a little too languid in its pace. It felt cozy and safe most of the time, and I wished that it could have been more exciting. Until very close to the end of the book, the triffids play a painfully minor role, and while it's interesting that most of the conflict arises from the need to find a solution to meeting the needs of a population that's gone blind … I just, what can I say, I wanted more triffids. I loved their design, I love the way Wyndham describes them moving with their long stalk swaying nearly comically front-to-back, but it annoyed me how little drama they ultimately provided.
I really want this killer plant book to be scarier. Alas.
Review: The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps by John Buchan
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Richard Hannay's been feeling bored with his life in London. Reading the paper one morning, Hannay sees something about a politician he admires, and next thing he knows, he's conjured an anti-semite out of thin air to spin yarns in his parlor and tell him there is a plot to kill the admirable politician and launch Britain and Germany into war. Luckily for Hannay, this anti-semite is murdered mysteriously, leaving Hannay looking pretty suspicious, so what can he do but become the author's wish-fulfillment and go on the run and engage in a little international espionage.
By which I mean he runs around in the fields. A lot. He hides in this field. He hides in that field. Some shadowy figures close in, and off he goes, running again.
I much prefer the move version, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. At least that has good music for all the running around parts.
This book is a series of improbable scenes of a man adopting various disguises to avoid detection while he does next to nothing of any import — until the final chapter, where he unravels it all in one of the most ridiculous scenes I have ever read. Seriously. He realizes that the man sitting right in front of him with NO DISGUISE ON is a man he met and had a conversation with a few chapters earlier. And it's treated like an ah-ha! moment.
Credit where it's due, I suppose for being one of the first of its kind. Rumor has it this book started the spy genre. If so, I wish they'd had a better blueprint. This is one of the worst books I've ever read. It has little resemblance to the Hitchcock film of the same title.
And they call it a classic …
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January 15, 2012
Review: The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects
The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects by Mike Mignola
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'd read the single-issue comic before and always wanted more. This collection of short stories by Mignola (and special-guest story conceived by his daughter) rounds out the experience in satisfying ways.
The eponymous story features the character of Screw-On Head, who is a small mechanical hero under the employ of Abraham Lincoln, who is sent on a mission to save the world from some ne'er-do-wells. Great writing and artwork, as per Mignola's usual, abound, although the story itself might be a little bit of a standard-issue MacGuffin-driven yarn.
But the following stories, which feature and expand upon characters and elements of Screw-On Head, are shockingly good. I especially liked "The Witch and Her Soul," which has the single most beautiful depiction of a "mortal coil" in a story that made me laugh out loud.
All of these are winners, though, and I thought the last piece, which was sort of a coda for the rest of it, depicting objects from the other tales in an atmospheric museum, was so inspiring and effective it made me want to read everything again right away.
This is a book I will cherish for quite some time.
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January 14, 2012
Podcast Episode 1.06, "This is All My Fault"
Presenting another short piece from my collection, I Held My Breath as Long as I Could, available now for e-readers and in paperback from Amazon.com.
January 11, 2012
Podcast Episode 1.05, Film Review: Pontypool (2008)
Amanda and I caught up with a great horror film from 2008 that we'd somehow missed. It's called Pontypool, and these are our thoughts.
A footnote on why we're bothering to do reviews: One of our favorite shows was Ebert Presents At the Movies, which recently ran out of funding and closed shop. We loved hearing two people talk about films and were sad to see it go. So I thought maybe we could try to put something out there for people, like us, who just want to hear some chatter about films we may have missed hearing or reading about through other means.
We know we're not going to be as good as the pros, but we miss them, and we're trying to keep the spirit of film debate alive.
Ten Things to Remember When Making a Top Ten List
I know I've been guilty of a lot of Top Ten lists in the past myself, so I thought I'd offer some basic pointers for those looking to get into the list-making game. Without further preamble, here then are the most important things to remember this year, determined through science:
10. If you put more than ten things on your Top Ten list, the next time you play chess with me I get to play with two extra pawns. Oh, you don't think that's fair? Some anarchist you turned out to be!
9. If you leave something off or put something on that you shouldn't have, I will come to your house and stay either way too long or simply punch you in the face and disappear into thin air.
8. Most people probably already know your list is subjective opinion. You might not need to remind us all that your rankings are not factual or objective.
7. The most blatant lies are usually put in the number 7 and number 2 spots.
6. Generally #6 is freaking mind-blowing. This is where people will be surprised to find you so wise and erudite.
5. While you have never stood out in a crowd of 1,374,398 people, putting this list together and posting it online may/may not be the time you finally rise above the rest and get people to pay attention to you, although probably only if you're ranking the top ten things your pet monkey or your pet robot did this year. (If you don't have a pet monkey or pet robot, you should making getting one a New Year's resolution.)
4. Putting a documentary about inner city life or a rap album on your list only gives your list credibility if you are ranking the best rap albums or documentaries about inner city life. Extra credibility, though, can be earned if the rap album appears on the documentary list and the documentary on the rap album list.
3. In all likelihood, you will enjoy the process and find it deeply rewarding, and it will help you understand what has happened to you this year, which was painful and horrible. Let's hope it doesn't happen again, though–the list-making.
2. It probably would have been a better use of your time to learn a new word in Spanish than to make your list. Did you know embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed? Now you do, so I've undone that mistake for you. (Always remember to practice safe sex when making a list, even if making it en la ciudad de mexico.)
1. Someone will die, no matter what you do, while you write your list. Probably unrelated, but I thought you should know.
January 9, 2012
Podcast Episode 1.04, "The Night Light"
Presenting one of my favorite stories, "The Night Light," included in my collection of 23 stories, I Held My Breath as Long as I Could, available now in paperback and Kindle versions from Amazon.com.
January 5, 2012
Podcast Episode 1.03, "The Art of the Dead"
Presenting the third very short piece written for Lulu.com's short story contest, this is "The Art of the Dead," where a man attends the funeral of a good friend.
Podcast Episode 1.02, "Embrace the Ground"
Presenting the second short piece, "Embrace the Ground," where a malevolent alien allows a man a final visit to his family home.
