Doctor Sleep by Stephen King marks the author's return to the supernatural Horror genre where many of his early classic novels appeared -- in a great run of titles from Carrie up through It.
Doctor Sleep is a quasi-sequel to one of those early classics, The Shining, and as such, does not disappoint. In this new novel, the boy Danny Torrance is now an adult man, but he still possesses the paranormal psychic sense called the Shining. He comes into contact with a young girl named Abra, who has an even more powerful Shining ability.
Danger arrives from the True Knot, a ramshackle crew of psychic vampires, who travel the country in an RV caravan, looking to feed off the vital essences of human psychic captives as they are painfully murdered by the True Knot. In their grisly search, they zero in on young Abra.
Stephen King has always excelled at depicting the existence of pure evil. His creation of the methodical malevolence of the True Knot is as chilling as any he has produced in his writing work. When Dan helps Abra to protect her against the attack of the True Knot, it evokes a favorite King theme: friends standing together against a force of evil.
Doctor Sleep is a compelling read and a new portrayal of a long-time King interest in paranormal abilities in novels such as Carrie, The Dead Zone, The Shining, and The Green Mile. Fans of the author's straight Horror fiction should be well pleased with this creepy, unsettling new work.
Highly recommended.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
Friday, October 4, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
James Lee Burke Novel a Violent Picture of Evil
James Lee Burke's new crime novel, The Light of the World, is a violence-filled meditation on the existence of absolute evil in the the malignant swamp of the criminal mind.
The novel is the latest in the series that features Louisiana cop Dave Robicheaux. This story takes place in Montana and is filled with a volatile mix of characters: Dave's hair-triggered former cop partner, Clete Purcell; Clete's angry daughter, Gretchen, herself at one time a contract killer; a psychotic former rodeo clown and his equally unbalanced girlfriend; and a vicious sociopath and escaped serial killer named Asa Surrette.
This toxic brew inevitably explodes into a chain of violent encounters and dead bodies, culminating in an almost Biblical final battle with ultimate human evil in the person of the demonic Surrette.
Light of the World is a continuing portrayal of the series' long running theme of Robicheaux's sour cynicism toward the rancid nature of humanity which he sees in his police work. The novel is one of James Lee Burke's strongest and will surely be on the list of this year's best works of crime fiction.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
The novel is the latest in the series that features Louisiana cop Dave Robicheaux. This story takes place in Montana and is filled with a volatile mix of characters: Dave's hair-triggered former cop partner, Clete Purcell; Clete's angry daughter, Gretchen, herself at one time a contract killer; a psychotic former rodeo clown and his equally unbalanced girlfriend; and a vicious sociopath and escaped serial killer named Asa Surrette.
This toxic brew inevitably explodes into a chain of violent encounters and dead bodies, culminating in an almost Biblical final battle with ultimate human evil in the person of the demonic Surrette.
Light of the World is a continuing portrayal of the series' long running theme of Robicheaux's sour cynicism toward the rancid nature of humanity which he sees in his police work. The novel is one of James Lee Burke's strongest and will surely be on the list of this year's best works of crime fiction.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
Saturday, July 27, 2013
BREAKING BAD and the End of Walter White
Breaking Bad returns for its final episodes August 11 on AMC Cable. After all that has taken place in this violent, addictive series, one truth is certain: Walter White cannot simply walk away from it all free and clear at the end.
We've watched Walter's corrosive transformation from high school chemistry teacher to meth lab cook to ruthless drug kingpin. Early on, Walter learned there are only two basic values in the brutal world of the meth business: Power and Survival. Walter began only wanting to survive, soon making ever harsher moral choices in order to do so. He has finally achieved a position of power himself, a role which he sadististically relishes. But by now he has descended into such a swamp of criminal corruption that there seems no way back for him at the series end.
Walter's ultimate fate is similar to that faced by another ruthless criminal character, Tony Soprano at the end of the great Sopranos series. For all of his past violent deeds, Tony got a suitable payback: a sudden bullet to the back of the head in a Jersey dinner booth. The abrupt black-out ending was a shocker, but a brilliant metaphor for Tony's own end in the amoral blackness he existed in.
That stunning series finale set a high bar for Breaking Bad to follow. Whatever is waiting for Walter White could be the result of his own new found arrogance, an innocuous error that he makes, or a sheer, random disastrous event. But whatever happens to Walter must be an inevitable outgrowth from this contradictory character and the moral complexities of this outstanding crime series.
We've watched Walter's corrosive transformation from high school chemistry teacher to meth lab cook to ruthless drug kingpin. Early on, Walter learned there are only two basic values in the brutal world of the meth business: Power and Survival. Walter began only wanting to survive, soon making ever harsher moral choices in order to do so. He has finally achieved a position of power himself, a role which he sadististically relishes. But by now he has descended into such a swamp of criminal corruption that there seems no way back for him at the series end.
Walter's ultimate fate is similar to that faced by another ruthless criminal character, Tony Soprano at the end of the great Sopranos series. For all of his past violent deeds, Tony got a suitable payback: a sudden bullet to the back of the head in a Jersey dinner booth. The abrupt black-out ending was a shocker, but a brilliant metaphor for Tony's own end in the amoral blackness he existed in.
That stunning series finale set a high bar for Breaking Bad to follow. Whatever is waiting for Walter White could be the result of his own new found arrogance, an innocuous error that he makes, or a sheer, random disastrous event. But whatever happens to Walter must be an inevitable outgrowth from this contradictory character and the moral complexities of this outstanding crime series.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
WORLD WAR Z An Outstanding Horror Movie
The movie version of World War Z is everything a great Horror movie should be: smart, fast moving, and frightening. Although much of the political and military detail in the earlier novel had to be left out, the movie retains the scary core story.
The movie opens like a bullet with a mass panic scene on the traffic-jammed streets of downtown Philadelphia. From there, it charges immediately into an emergency situation of a spreading pandemic of undead human predators.
What makes World War Z distinctive is its portrayal of the zombie threat on a massive, worldwide scale. These zombies are fast, aggressive, and can work together like an insect colony to overrun everything. The mass attack scenes in Philadelphia and at the walled fortress of Jerusalem are truly epic and thrilling.
This movie is a perfect combination of two latent modern fears: fear of human overpopulation, and fear of a sudden pandemic disease that will sweep through society and across the planet. The looming threat comes from too many other people crowding around us ever more densely all the time.
World War Z is an example of the disturbing exploration of our subconscious fears that the Horror genre can offer. We need more outstanding Horror movies like this one.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
The movie opens like a bullet with a mass panic scene on the traffic-jammed streets of downtown Philadelphia. From there, it charges immediately into an emergency situation of a spreading pandemic of undead human predators.
What makes World War Z distinctive is its portrayal of the zombie threat on a massive, worldwide scale. These zombies are fast, aggressive, and can work together like an insect colony to overrun everything. The mass attack scenes in Philadelphia and at the walled fortress of Jerusalem are truly epic and thrilling.
This movie is a perfect combination of two latent modern fears: fear of human overpopulation, and fear of a sudden pandemic disease that will sweep through society and across the planet. The looming threat comes from too many other people crowding around us ever more densely all the time.
World War Z is an example of the disturbing exploration of our subconscious fears that the Horror genre can offer. We need more outstanding Horror movies like this one.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
Friday, June 14, 2013
NOS4A2 By Joe Hill a New Horror Classic
Joe Hill has written a classic work of Fantasy and Horror with his new novel NOS4A2. The novel is an epic battle of Good vs. Evil, filled with dark, disturbing imagery and original characters who stay in your mind.
NOS4A2 is the license plate on an ancient Rolls Royce with the model name of The Wraith. Nosferatu is also the German word for vampire. The Wraith is driven by a diabolical, inhuman fiend named Charles Manx, who abducts children in the car, then feeds off their souls to keep himself young. Manx takes them to his hideous alternate world called Christmasland, which none of the undead children will ever leave.
Working to stop Manx is Vic McQueen, first as a young girl, then later as an adult woman. Trying to aid Vic is the touching figure of Maggie Leigh, a troubled, stammering girl librarian and offbeat psychic.
The conception of Christmasland is a nightmarish, original invention. So too are the garrulous, malevolent Charles Manx and his childish, sadistic henchman Bing Partridge. The most grotesque character of all is the car itself, NOS4A2, a unique horror creation in its own right.
NOS4A2 is a remarkable work of dark imagination. But the novel is also a profound metaphor for the real life crimes of child abduction, abuse, and exploitation worldwide.
It took Joe Hill two years to write this huge work. He put a lot into it and it shows. NOS4A2 is highly recommended.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
NOS4A2 is the license plate on an ancient Rolls Royce with the model name of The Wraith. Nosferatu is also the German word for vampire. The Wraith is driven by a diabolical, inhuman fiend named Charles Manx, who abducts children in the car, then feeds off their souls to keep himself young. Manx takes them to his hideous alternate world called Christmasland, which none of the undead children will ever leave.
Working to stop Manx is Vic McQueen, first as a young girl, then later as an adult woman. Trying to aid Vic is the touching figure of Maggie Leigh, a troubled, stammering girl librarian and offbeat psychic.
The conception of Christmasland is a nightmarish, original invention. So too are the garrulous, malevolent Charles Manx and his childish, sadistic henchman Bing Partridge. The most grotesque character of all is the car itself, NOS4A2, a unique horror creation in its own right.
NOS4A2 is a remarkable work of dark imagination. But the novel is also a profound metaphor for the real life crimes of child abduction, abuse, and exploitation worldwide.
It took Joe Hill two years to write this huge work. He put a lot into it and it shows. NOS4A2 is highly recommended.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
Saturday, April 20, 2013
WORLD WAR Z a Documentary Horror Novel
World War Z by Max Brooks is a horror novel about a worldwide plague that turns the infected into living dead predators. The novel is written in documentary fashion, from first hand personal reports, giving it a credible, immediate realism. If Michael Crichton ever wrote a science-based zombie novel, this would be it.
World War Z stands apart from other typical zombie tales in the way it explores scientific issues, government actions, and the military program to exterminate the infected hordes. Another difference is that these predators are fast moving, tenacious, and work together in cooperative masses to overrun everything. This is a big canvas portrayal of how the plague sweeps around the world, doing massive damage to human society. The novel recalls other pandemic thrillers like Contagion and 28 Days Later.
The movie version of World war Z is scheduled to be released this June and could be a summer box office hit. Read the chilling, addictive novel first to get a sneak preview.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
World War Z stands apart from other typical zombie tales in the way it explores scientific issues, government actions, and the military program to exterminate the infected hordes. Another difference is that these predators are fast moving, tenacious, and work together in cooperative masses to overrun everything. This is a big canvas portrayal of how the plague sweeps around the world, doing massive damage to human society. The novel recalls other pandemic thrillers like Contagion and 28 Days Later.
The movie version of World war Z is scheduled to be released this June and could be a summer box office hit. Read the chilling, addictive novel first to get a sneak preview.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Inspector Rebus Is Back in New Ian Rankin Mystery
Author Ian Rankin brings back his iconic character, Inspector John Rebus of the Edinburgh Police, in the chilling new mystery Standing in Another Man's Grave.
Rebus officially retired several years ago, but he's back working as a civilian consultant on a police cold case team. Here, he is drawn into the disappearances of a series of women along the same stretch of isolated country highway.
Rebus begins to suspect that a serial killer is at work. But as he digs deeper into the case, he runs up against the resentment of police force members who may not want him to solve a mystery that they could not. Rebus plunges ahead anyway with his usual tactless attitude, like a rude bulldozer that won't be stopped.
The plot is gripping, but the real pleasure of the novel is watching the character of Rebus himself, with his deep cynicism and his sardonic remarks. John Rebus is one of the most entertaining continuing characters in a crime series, along with Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch and Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole.
Standing in Another Man's Grave is a first rate read for mystery fans.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
Rebus officially retired several years ago, but he's back working as a civilian consultant on a police cold case team. Here, he is drawn into the disappearances of a series of women along the same stretch of isolated country highway.
Rebus begins to suspect that a serial killer is at work. But as he digs deeper into the case, he runs up against the resentment of police force members who may not want him to solve a mystery that they could not. Rebus plunges ahead anyway with his usual tactless attitude, like a rude bulldozer that won't be stopped.
The plot is gripping, but the real pleasure of the novel is watching the character of Rebus himself, with his deep cynicism and his sardonic remarks. John Rebus is one of the most entertaining continuing characters in a crime series, along with Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch and Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole.
Standing in Another Man's Grave is a first rate read for mystery fans.
BEACH RATING: 4 Palm Trees
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