Patrick Kanouse's Blog, page 41

My Gen Con Schedule

I will be attending my first Gen Con this August, and I am so excited. My friend Howard Andrew Jones made a note last year about the awesomeness of the set of panels and symposiums Gen Con has for writers. I didn't need much of a push to go this year, but that helped decide it. Howard, by the way, is the author of the spectacularly good Chronicle of Sword and Sand series. He will also

The Bridge: The First Two Episodes

My wife and I saw some previews for The Bridge  and set up our DVR to record it. We finally got around to watching those episodes this past weekend. If you have not started watching this show, do so now.

When the body of a woman is dumped on a bridge at the US-Mexico border crossing--half in the US and half in Mexico--a tale of cross-border murder, cultures, and serial killings. Detective Sonya Cross (Diane Kruger) and Detective Marco Ruiz (Demian Bichir) must work together. Cross has Asperger's with its characteristic social awkwardness (she tells the husband of the murdered woman bluntly that she was dead at a certain time). Ruiz is a good cop in a corrupt Juarez police department (our first encounter with his captain [Juan Carlos Cantu] demonstrates what Ruiz is up against, for one of the participants in the captain's card game is a wanted man, whose wanted poster appears in the Juarez police department).

As the story unfolds, we encounter unground tunnels, coyotes, and a sadistic murderer. The show is grim, though it is leavened with Cross's idiosyncracies and Ruiz's go-with-the-flow manner. I'm looking forward to what the rest of the season offers.

The Caves of Steel: A Review

Years ago I read, The Caves of Steel (R. Daneel Olivaw, Book 1) by Isaac Asimov, and I have re-read it just recently. Asimov's writing has, in general, lost its golden luster in my eyes--in my youth I was awed by Asimov, particularly the Foundation series.

However, while the writing may have lost its luster, his ideas have not (even if specific ones seem out of date now), and I think that this book is one of his better written books.

The story starts after the murder of Sarton, a Spacer who had been living on Earth in the special Spacer colony. Lije Baley, a New York detective is teamed up with R. Daneel Olivaw, a robot assigned by the Spacers to work with the Earthers in solving the crime. In the past, riots against Spacers and robots have led to tensions, and it is feared that Sarton's murder will spark a complete break.

Lije must navigate his personal life and own ambivalences in dealing with Olivaw, who has a nearly perfect human appearance. Lije tests out several theories with Olivaw in who the murderer could be before finally figuring it out correctly.

The Caves of Steel is a detective story set in the future, and that is its primary forward momentum. As populations grew, megacities developed, which are essentially enclosed, cramped spaces where humans do nearly everything communally. Promotions and added responsibilities increase a person's ranking, providing greater living space, more privacy, real chicken, and so on. However, the primary theme of the novel, for me, is that of xenophobia. Xenophobia of spacers and robots. What's interesting is that Lije (and many others) is not wholly inaccurate. The Spacers do have a hidden agenda (even if benevolent) and the robots are replacing humans in jobs--but the society amplifies these real concerns into hateful stereotypes that are destructive, the block Lije's and Earth's ability to escape its disastrous future.

Let's not forget, of course, that this novel fleshes out more the Three Laws of Robotics. While not central to the novel, they do come in to play in how Lije evaluates Olivaw. AI, "personhood," and robotics have two--to me--particularly interesting turns in this novel. The first is that human live in these megacities (i.e., caves of steel), while the Spacers and their robots live, in Spacetown on Earth, in the open. Many see cities as antithetical to being "human," particularly in cramped, subsistence existence. Who is more "unnatural" in this sense? Lije or Olivaw? Also, at one point, a human created robot--which one cannot mistake for anything but a robot--is killed. Most of the people around Lije don't view it as a homicide because it's just a robot. Property damage. But Lije has clearly shifted in his thinking, but he explicitly calls it murder. His contact with Olivaw has allowed him to see sentience as what gives a "thing" "personhoood"--thus murder is possible.

Very much recommended. A classic of science fiction that has earned the designation.

Review can also be found on Goodreads.

Killing Pablo: A Review

I'm old enough to remember and understand very well the hunting down and killing of the infamous Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellin cartel. Mark Bowden is an author who knows how to engage his reader into a reporting story. He picks great topics, which helps, but the arch of the story, the people, the level of detail are all expertly handled. Bowden strikes me as one of those authors who can take a story you think you have little interest in and make you interested.

The story in Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw is straightforward: The rise of Pablo Escobar, the efforts of the Colombian government to capture him, the ever increasing interest of the United States, beginning with President Ronald Reagan, in Escobar as a part of the war on drugs, and the use of technology that kept Escobar on the run and eventually led to his being found and killed by a special Colombian police force. The story of the rise and fall of a criminal cartel.

Escobar began building his cocaine empire in the early 1970s and was fabulously wealthy by the late 70s. He was listed several times as one of the richest men in the world with homes and property scattered across the globe. At its height, the Medellin cart was exporting cocaine into the US in stripped down 727s, feeding the cocaine craze of the 1980s. Escobar did not create his wealth by being nice. While charismatic, humorous, and often stoned man was remembered as quiet by many that encountered him (leading to the frequent inability to match the man to his crimes), Escobar and his cohorts were brutal. If bribery did not work, kidnappings and murder were easy choices. The apartments of police officers were bombed, the families of journalists were kidnapped and killed, their bodies messages. Over and over again, Bowden tells the story of men and women assigned to track down or deal with Escobar who are murdered--men and women supposedly assigned to the task in great secret. Escobar's reach, particularly in Medellin was vast. Later, as the hunt narrows in on Escobar, the police task force created to hunt down Escobar, Search Bloc, realizes that one of their officers guarding an entrance to its offices, overhears orders for raids, warns Escobar, who eludes the authority's grasp yet again.

The Colombian government is wracked by inefficiency, bureaucratic infighting, corruption, and fear. Escobar always seems to escape their clutches because the government simply cannot get its act together. However, what is surprising is that so many did pursue Escobar when he demonstrated time and again an ability to kill them or their family members with impunity. Bowden notes several times where a dozen police are killed in a day. Presidential candidates, judges, lawyers, and journalists perish over and over again. Yet, they trudged on, and Colombia has its heroes in the search for justice.

With Reagan's war on drugs and then the bombing of the Avianca Flight 203, conducted by Escobar in an attempt to kill a Colombian presidential candidate, were two turning points in this hunt. Reagan's focus allowed for the first active engagement of the US in Colombia by way of a top-secret Army signals surveillance group called, at the time, Centra Spike, along with CIA and DEA participants as well. Centra Spike's primary abilities rested on triangulating communications with ever increasing accuracy (a practice quite easy today...or just use the GPS chip in our smart phones--but a feat of skill and engineering in the 1980s). Centra Spike's role was strictly limited, however. Then the bombing of the Avianca flight allowed President George Bush to classify the hunt for Escobar as a national security issue. Delta Force arrives in Colombia shortly thereafter in a training role for Search Bloc, though rumors persist that Delta Force team members participated actively in raids and even fired the fatal shot on Escobar.

Yet, Escobar eludes them. Over and over again, he narrowly escapes. A paramilitary group called Los Pepes begins destroying Escobar's property and targeting his friends and family. Their goal, keep Escobar from disappearing forever. How much was organized by the US and Colombian governments? Officially, nothing. However, Bowden is an expert at charting the appearance of Los Pepes, which implies the US knew more than it has let on, even if less than the rumors suggest. Regardless, Los Pepes was an extra-legal effort that succeeded. And then...a Colombian officer refining their own signals intelligence in an effort to prove they are just as capable as the Americans, stumbles upon Escobar, who perishes in a gun battle with police. Or did he? He died. That much is known. But...well, read this excellent, immersing book to find out.

You can also read this review at Goodreads.com.

The Twelve Caesars: A Review

Image from: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/I have always enjoyed Roman history and reading the classical historians, but I had not yet found time to read Suetonius's De vita Caesarum . In Donna Leon's Brunetti series, the Commissario often reads The Twelve Caesars, and I thought it was about time I read the book.

I do not read Latin, so I read the updated Robert Graves translation. Suetonius has a reputation for scandalous writing, the kind of writing seen in the more outlandish celebrity coverage. "Emperor Nero caught burning down Rome" with associated paparazzi photographs.

Suetonius compared to Tacitus and other Roman historians is certainly more that way, though I think his reputation here is a bit overblown. In general, he proceeds along a calm if interesting path. Suetonius begins his brief biographies with Julius Caesar and ends with Domitian. Both Julius Caesar and Augustus receive the longest biographies, with the short reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius are appropriately short. Each biography follows a set structure (mostly): Background with omens of eventually becoming emperor, primary "accomplishments" during the reign, physical description, death, and omens regarding the death. Suetonius makes much use of letters and quotes the emperors and others, which is not a common practice. Suetonius provides a lot of information about what these emperors were like along with interesting details of daily Roman life along the way.

Enjoyable, humorous at times, and engaging, for those interested in the early principate, read Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars.

Review also appears on Goodreads.

Marvel and DC: Film Differences

As I watched the Man of Steel a couple of weeks ago, I noticed something in my response to the film that I had not picked up on in my watching of Iron Man (pick any), The Avengers, and Marvel films. I don't think it would have struck me with the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy even though in hindsight I had a similar response (and perhaps it is that Nolan was involved with Man of Steel as well).

In superhero movies, bad things happen, our heroes are in danger, buildings fall, etc. And our hero escapes and saves the day and the city or the world. The response I noticed, however, was that in Man of Steel, I felt that Superman and the citizens of Metropolis just might not make it. I knew, logically, of course, that they would. With Iron Man and The Avengers, I never quite had that same fear. I knew they would always pull it out.

I'm not criticizing the Marvel films, for I thought they were a lot of fun, but the DC films caught me in a way that was different. All the rubble and death in those films seemed permanent or something that would take a long time to recover from, while with the Marvel films, the construction crews were just outside the frame and ready to fix everything.

Again, I never thought while I was watching Man of Steel or The Dark Knight that Superman and Batman would not ultimately survive--just that I caught myself feeling that they might not. I think it was more apparent in Man of Steel because we are used to the clean cut, less gritty Superman, while Batman has always been gritty and noirish.

Having that twinge of fear, provided a highway for a more involved emotional investment in the characters and stories. And that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

InConJunction 2013

I attended InConJunction 2013, which is my first time attending this convention. The con is run by the Circle of Janus, a science fiction and fantasy fan club in Indianapolis. I really enjoyed this con, which had a set of very author focused panels that I spent most of my time attending. The panels I attended broke down into two categories:

Panels about the profession of being a writerPanels about world buildingPlus a random one here and there. I've always found that writing is one of those activities that you can always have a conversation about and learn something new, even if you've heard it before. A couple of the panels featured some of the anti-traditional publishing tropes often heard these days (not from the panelists but from some audience members). I thought the panelists were calm under the attack, for they were mixed panels of small press publishers, indie authors, and traditionally published authors--all of them able to speak to the pros and cons of the options (no one best path to publication exists).
I enjoyed the "On the Write Track: Writing and Holding a Full-Time Job" panel. Most authors are in this position: the writing does not pay the bills and may never pay the bills. I knew this, of course, but it is sometimes good to hear others say it and see how they handle it.
As I said, I really enjoyed this con, and I'm looking forward to going again in 2014.
Here are a number of the panelists and their websites, etc., that I had the pleasure of listening to:
Matt BettsNicole CushingJohn F. AllenEric GarrisonLou HarryJames O. Barnes of Loconeal PublishingRJ SullivanMark Wandrey

The Day of the Triffids: A Review

I'm part of a Goodreads science fiction and fantasy reading group, and The Day of the Triffids was the June science fiction read. A classic science fiction novel that I just got around to reading.

The story begins with Bill Masen in the hospital having undergone some eye treatment and thus blindfolded. As no one answers his calls, he eventually pulls off his blindfold to a world drastically different from prior to his visit to the hospital. Many, many people seem to be blind, except for Bill. During Bill's hospital visit, he listened on the radio to a description of green meteor shower. After, the blindness happened. So Bill struggles to survive in this post-apocalyptic world. He first attempts to make do in London, avoiding initially raiding stores. He encounters a few sighted people, Josella Playton being one he allies with early.

Bill and Josella decide that abandoning London is preferred and begin working with a group who proposes to set up a new community in the country. However, a raid by a group with different ideas enslaves Bill to do work for the blind. Bill struggles against his chains, but when free, he does help the group of blind people, until a mysterious plague begins wiping them out. Bill flees to the country. Eventually, he is reunited with Josella and they, together, set up a home on a farm with a blind old couple and a young girl.

Triffids are a mysterious plant that appeared a number of years before and appeared globally. Bill, prior to the meteor shower, was a triffid expert. Triffids themselves are mobile and one of Bill's former colleagues thought that triffids talked and knew human weaknesses (using a whip-like stinger, often going for the people's eyes). With the mass blindness, triffids begin attacking people. In the city, attacks are rarer, but in the country, triffids are common sites at the fence Bill builds to keep them out. Triffids seem to possess intelligence, but ultimately, they remain a mystery as Bill and the family flee mainland Britain to an island where the triffids have mostly been eradicated.

During his travails, Bill witnesses despondency, murder, tyranny, and enslavement. He struggles at times with an overwhelming loneliness. He overcomes, but he is altered forever. As society attempts to rebuild, some seek a democratic solution while others are bent on tyranny, though thinking it for the greater good. Plague and triffids typically defeat or make extremely difficult any efforts to reorganize.

The novel, which is short, is a masterpiece. Themes of the Cold War definitely are apparent. The Soviets, so Bill hypothesizes, may be the source of the triffids--a bioengineering experiment gone bad. And the meteor shower has many attributions within the book, though one of them is that the US and USSR had launched any number of satellites that caused the shower. All of this remains, however, mysterious. We, just like Bill, never know the actual origin of the triffids or the meteor shower. Even if the triffids are sentient is left unanswered. Evidence available suggests some sort of sentience, but how much. Are they somehow linked with the meteor shower, or are they simply taking advantage of the situation.

Besides the themes typical of the Cold War (inscrutable countries using technology that is capable of destroying the world), Bill encounters a predicament of modern life: When all basic services collapse, how does one relearn all the lost skills... growing food, dealing with illness, etc. Bill struggles, but he does learn. He needs others; he needs a village.

The novel ends without us certain of the ultimate "victory" of humans overcoming triffids, their collapsed world, or themselves, though we have a sense of hope they do. Bill is a realist, and he faces the world knowing that the end may not come out well, though that does not stop him from trying.

Highly recommended. I'm sorry it took me so long to read it.

Review can be found on Goodreads as well.

Replay: Sammy Terry

I am reposting my blog from November 2012 after learning that actor Bob Carter "Sammy Terry" passed away on June 30, 2013.


Halloween has passed, but leading up to the date, several commercials from a local TV station featured Sammy Terry. Sammy Terry is a local TV personality. For many years during the 1980s, he hosted a late-night Friday show called Nightmare Theater. As a kid, I was given permission to stay up late on Friday nights. I recall watching many classic horror movies (and many forgotten horror movies) hosted by Sammy Terry on a little, 13" black and white TV. I'm not really into horror movies anymore, and some of the ones shown during Nightmare Theater I watched again parodied on MST3K. Still, it is with a fondness that I recall those late nights in my room, the black and white TV flickering with the rabbit ears capturing the signal.

The Killing, Season 3 So Far

My wife and I began watching The Killing with the first season, and we've enjoyed the show since then. We were disappointed in it was "canceled" and thrilled when it was brought back to life. Season 3 takes on a new case and picks up some time after the end of the events of Season 2. Seattle Detective Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) and his partner Carl Reddick (Gregg Henry) are assigned the murder of a teenage girl, which had many similarities to a murder that Holder's former partner, Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos), solved a number of years ago, though, as we learn, Linden had doubts. So far this season, a number of leads have turned up and another teenager is missing.

The series is a dark, moody modern noir, and I like the overall feel (but I like noir), which is backed up by great acting and smart writing. While the show is ostensibly about a serial killer, it is really about characters, relationships, and the effects of the crimes on the characters. It's Scandinavian Noir set in Seattle.

Because the case is being spread out over a season (one case was featured in seasons 1 and 2), the story can linger over the characters, over their involvement in the story, and how the case affects their lives. A reverse Law & Order if you will. I always enjoyed Law & Order because it did not, usually, go beyond the role of the characters within the crime, so we saw little of their home life. I think it worked very effectively for a one-hour show with a new crime to solve every week. In The Killing, we see Holder with his girlfriend, Linden avoiding going home, the lives of several of the homeless teenagers, and so on. The case is never far from the scene, but that is because the characters are immersed in the case without even trying to.

Linden remains enigmatic and obsessive about the case, in solving it. She cannot let go, and her sense of justice often becomes problematic as it exposes an unintentional hypocrisy. Linden at one point says of Danette Leeds (Amy Seimetz)--a failed mother who seems to ignore her daughter's disappearance--that people like her should not be allowed to have children. Linden, frankly, has little room to talk, for she (particularly in seasons 1 and 2) was a not very stellar mother, more concerned about the dead than her own son.

Holder is, for me, the most interesting character. A former undercover detective who became a meth addict, his sense of justice is more balanced. He wants to do a good job, be a good detective. So when Reddick wants to pawn off the case because he thinks it is unsolvable, Holder keeps it, without telling Reddick. Holder starts out tough with people, but he genuinely cares ultimately. When he first encounters Bullet (Bex Taylor-Klaus), he's all cop, all tough. But when Bullet grows more frantic about her missing friend, Holder is honest but compassionate in his honesty. You root for Holder because he's a good guy. You cheer for Linden because she won't let go until the killer is caught. But Holder is the better person.

The Killing plays on a lot of noir tropes (lots of cigarettes, for example). In classic noir films, shadows dominate many of the scenes--dark corners, recesses of unknown. Those shadows are a bit heavy-handed metaphor of the humans caught in the bleakness that noir tales often tell, but it is an effective method. In The Killing, we have plenty of shadows, but more often instead of shadows we have what seems like ceaseless rain and the use of windows. It's not uncommon to see many scenes in other shows where filming through a car or house window is common, but The Killing takes it to another level. Often we see the characters barely through the window and get a better view of the reflection on the window and the rain streaming down it. You get both the city and the character as a partial view only. Again, the metaphor is heavy-handed, but it works.

The tale is bleak, and it does not try to soften its bleakness except for small bits of subtle humor (Holder and Linden telling the other that they don't smoke and then smoking or Holder's vegetarianism while smoking all the time). But it is a story well worth watching. Highly recommended.