Ever After by Kim Harrison - book review

Spent most the day reading or devouring the latest Rachel Morgan novel by Kim Harrison, entitled Ever After which once again is a twist on the title and theme of a Clint Eastwood directed flick - Here After" about the mythological after life.

There's only three serial genre writers that I buy all the books in the series from or read all of the one's from currently - they are Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files), George RR Martin (Song of Ice and Fire), and Kim Harrison (Rachel Morgan/ The Hollows Series). Of the three Martin is the best writer - particularly when it comes to description and plotting, Harrison has the most interesting ideas, and Butcher ...well the best dialogue.

I like Harrison's stories better than the other two and her mythology/themes better - which are basically anti-war, sharing power, anti-vengence, and the power of forgiveness. Also how enslaving and abusing others tends to circle back on you in the end. Also of the three she does the most interesting and innovative things with fantasy characters - ie. elves, demons, vampires, pixies, fairies and witches. Which I haven't seen anyone else do to date. She approaches the mythological creatures from an biological point of view or the view of a bio-engineer - which is sort of different. Also the heroine/protagonist is a demon who is currently in a star-crossed romance with a devilishly tricky elf that up until the last four books had been her antagonist. I like elves. Too many frigging fantasy books focus on fairies. Personally find the elves far more interesting. That said? Martin's take on zombies and dragons is the most innovative I've seen to date as well. Butcher is disappointingly cliche in comparison, damn him. I feel like the writer has been borrowing from Marvel comics.

In short, I liked this book better than Cold Days, in some respects, even if I think Cold Days was better executed. Both writers have similar problems. I think Butcher's series is longer than Harrison's - Harrison is stopping at 13 books, Butcher appears to be going for 17 or more. And at this point? Let's just say it is easier to read George RR Martin's books out of order.

The problem with long-running serials, which is why I seldom read them and they often grate, is:
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That said? I liked Ever After - it was a quick read. The plot worked. Yes, it was bit long and busy, sort of like Cold Days, and way too much explaining of the world and plot. You can always tell the plot has gotten convoluted when the writer spends pages and pages explaining it to you. But the characters are great and the whole theme about racism/ethnic cleansing and slavery ...is well thought out, as is the examination of power and how it can be abused.

Overall rating? B

[As an aside, when I'm in a funk, I prefer genre novels. Literary novels are depressing. And feel at times like the reading equivalent of trudging through quicksand. Beautiful sentences structured to either lure you to sleep or drag you under. Literary writers are more in love with language not story, genre writers love story not language. Or so I've noted.]

( very spoilery review of Ever After )

Looper - Movie Review

Saw Looper finally on DVD last night. Quite pleased that I didn't bother paying $13 dollars to see it in the movie theater and waited to get it courtesy of netflix. (Although, considering it took me three weeks to get around to seeing it...might as well have spent that amount.)

While it has some interesting special effects and a fascinating premise, overall the basic story has been done to death by now and it was disappointing and over-hyped. Reminded me a great deal of Inception actually, with some of the same problems - great concept, interesting execution, boring script.

The story is about a hit man or looper, named Joe in the year 2044. This future world is run by organized crime lords, and inhabited by vagrants, drug-addicted hitmen, call girls, and people with TK. The TK's can only float quarters or so we are told. In the not too distant future, time travel is invented then outlawed, except for organized crime lords who use it to kill people they don't like by sending the guy back in time to be executed by a looper. The guy or gal is tied up, a hood put over their head, sliver bars on their back and sent back. The looper kills them. Collects the silver and deposes of the unknown body. Then sometime down the line, the Looper's contract is terminated...when his loop is closed, ie - the older version is sent back in time for him to kill. Things are going hunky-dory, until suddenly without warning everyone's loops are closed. Apparently some guy named the Rainmaker - has come on the scene and manipulated the crime lords of the future to close everyone's loops. Joe's loop is closed, but his older self escapes him and goes after the Rain-maker, who is a ten year old kid at this point in time and not really hurting anyone, with the aim to kill the kid before he grows up to be the evil monster that takes his life away from him. (Keep in mind - old Joe is a cold-blooded killer, so how evil can the Rainmaker really be if he is killing off former cold-blooded killers like Joe?)

Now, you'd think this would provide lots of interesting scenes between Young Joe and Old Joe. Or a commentary on memory and how it can change or how going back in time changes our future and not necessarily in a way we'd like. But no. It's a standard noir action film about motherly love and self-sacrifice. In short, Inception Take II - lots of pointless and gratiutious violence and not enough story.

Also once again it underlines all the problems I have with Time Travel movies and books - which is they never really address the problematic nature of time travel or the physics and the temporal anomalies caused - ie. if you pull this small thread you unravel the whole tapestry or story. People who write these tales seem to be too limited in their focus and don't realize every little choice we make effects everything like skipping stones across a pound. (Ray Bradbury's The Sound of Thunder got this bit across quite well.) The only series that addressed this was LOST. Also Star Trek sort of did. But here...it just doesn't quite work. It feels a bit too similar to Back to the Future/The Butterfly Effect...in some respects and not enough like The Sound of Thunder - that short story by Ray Bradbury. In short - I saw all the plot holes in the structure.

The acting, direction and visual special effects are good, the story just is a bit on the lame side of the fence in the whole been there, done that fifty million times already can't we come up with something new already mode. And seriously, if you are going to play with time travel - please think about the science of it for ten seconds.

Can see why this one faded from memory at award time. Sad that Bruce Willis thinks this is the best movie he's ever done. I personally thought Twelve Monkey's was more interesting.

Overall rating? B-