Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

CORPORATE ANIMALS (2019)

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Starring Demi Moore, CORPORATE ANIMALS (2019) is a comedy about a corporate retreat gone wrong when a rock slide traps a CEO and the leaders of her company in a cave. The film combines grisly slapstick with an attempt at satire about the corporate world, and despite some of the cast putting their heart into it, its on-the-nose gags and weak satire were stale on delivery for me.

It was great to see Demo Moore make a comeback, though she plays the character as shrill and a bit wooden. The “satire” mostly consists of the office workers squabbling with each other before predictably uniting against the CEO, who is portrayed as a jerk from day one instead of slowly being revealed. Without good context, the grisly slapstick doesn’t resonate. On the plus side, some of the performances are good, with the actors finding humor in their delivery if not the script.

The film might have been interesting if it became THE OFFICE meets LORD OF THE FLIES, with the workers factionalizing with office gossip and politics around limited resources and the CEO’s favor. The point being they can’t get over their office personas and their rivalries even when trapped in a cave. At the end, they unite against the manipulative CEO, realizing all of it doesn’t matter. I don’t know. Something. As it is, the script feels phoned in around an otherwise interesting premise.

Overall, can’t recommend this one. For really good grisly comedies about the office, try MAHEM, BELKO EXPERIMENT, and my favorite, SORRY TO DISTURB YOU.

HATE THE SIN by Artyom Dereschuk

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While browsing Amazon, I stumbled upon a horror novel whose stark cover and title caught my eye. HATE THE SIN by Artyom Dereschuk combines the brutality of being a child soldier fighting for an African warlord with an interesting horror premise involving the undead and a hidden underground world. I came away with some criticisms of the book’s construction, but overall, I found the story fresh, visceral, and engaging.

The novel follows several child soldiers fighting for a warlord during the Liberian civil war in the 1990s. They carry menacing names like “Corpse Eater” and “Desecretor,” and some of them don’t even remember their real names anymore. Their lives as fighters are brutal, not only because they are forced to fight, but because the adults can be cruel and because the man known as General Malaria rules his brigade with an iron fist. After a raid on a local village turns up an unsatisfying amount of food, the General decides to punish it with a killing spree. After they kill the local priestess, the new priestess calls upon the spirits of the Underworld to avenge her tribe.

The novel has some stark strengths and weaknesses. The idea feels very fresh, and the kids, who cling to a sense of morality while living in a brutal world, are sympathetic. The brigade’s fight against the undead is engaging, and the Underworld has a strange and engaging mythology. The action is good in a story that carries through to a satisfying ending. However, sometimes, the story feels rushed, while other times it drags due to repetition, with some characters really standing out and others that are difficult to distinguish. While the novel is billed as a young adult novel, I found it a story more fitting for adults.

Overall, HATE THE SIN was a fun, dark read, offering something fresh for the horror/zombie genre.

OUR WAR eBook Sale!

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I’m happy to announce that OUR WAR was chosen for Hachette’s 2019 Books Not to Miss promotion. From now until December 8, 2019, the eBook editions of OUR WAR are available for just $2.99. Now is the time to get your copy if you haven’t read this book!

Get it here at Amazon.

Check out OUR WAR and the other books in the promotion also at Nook, Apple, Kobo, and Google.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll leave a review!

MAD MEN

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I was late to the party for MAD MEN, but I’m having fun with it, having just finished season 2. The show at times feels a bit like a soap opera, but overall I’m enjoying this depiction of the birth of advertising and the joys and sorrows of life in the early ’60s.

The show follows Don Draper (the fantastic Jon Hamm), a handsome, confident advertising whiz who works at a prestigious New York advertising agency. He’s the perfect man with the perfect wife, kids, and house in the suburbs. Other characters include his wife, who is suffering from boredom and angst about her security, and various people working at the agency. They live in the early 60s, a relatively utopian era of social order and prosperity, but everything is not as nice as it seems.

I love how the show presents the era from the viewpoint of its conventional wisdom, that everything is perfect, nobody should protest or rock the boat, homosexuality is demonized, women have no real security without men, women take care of house and kids but men call the shots, kids are largely ignored yet expected to behave perfectly, and that real men drink hard, fool around on their wives, compete with each other in an endless alpha male game, and otherwise rule their world. Everybody in the show seems happy with the way things are, not knowing any different; most of the characters are likeable but heavily flawed right to the edge of being detestable, and yet a product of their time. The show then presents the consequences of this society’s norms, letting the viewer judge the era for themselves.

The writing has a good pace with some nice if on-the-nose symbolism, the sets and costumes appear rendered in the era’s technicolor, the acting is strong, and the dialogue is witty. Besides the social commentary–not social commentary, really, but the invitation to the viewer for such–my favorite aspect of the show is seeing the birth of advertising. America enjoyed a healthy middle class at the time, people with money to spend and wanting to have it all, and corporations and their ad agencies delivered not only by providing products and new marvel gadgets, but by defining what a perfect life looked like. Besides an excellent summary of the principles of marketing, the show also presents fantastic commentary about the art of business. Even here, the show presents the consequences of this consumer utopia, showing people gaining a perfect life only to continue aging, feel empty, and suffer the malaise and uncertainty of midlife crisis.

Overall, I’m enjoying MAD MEN as an excellent period drama that captures the zeitgeist of the era, and look forward to continuing on to the next season. However, I don’t recommend it if you’re quitting smoking.

STARS LIKE COLD FIRE by Brent Nichols

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I recently decided to read more local authors, as my town, Calgary, has some great writers. This turned up a gem for me, STARS LIKE COLD FIRE by Brent Nichols. This sci fi opera reads like HORATIO HORNBLOWER in space, combining good pacing and craft with plenty of dramatic tension and some terrific action.

The story begins with Jeff Yi, who graduates from the Naval Academy expecting a junior posting in the Wukan fleet. When he’s attacked by a political gang, it becomes clear he’s a target because of his father. For Yi’s protection, he’s assigned command of the smallest, ugliest ship in the fleet, a guppy-class scout ship, and sent to the deep space of the frontier with Ryland. Along the way, he must contend with a crew that doesn’t respect him due to his inexperience. As war brews, Yi must learn to command, as he will soon face the ultimate test. The Ryland fleet is coming, intent on destroying everything he ever believed in.

This book has all the earnest virtue of a simple story well told. Young naval officer is in over his head and must summon immense resourcefulness to survive a battle with an overwhelming enemy, and then rises to the occasion. The characterization is light but solid, the pacing brisk, the dramatic tension and resulting catharsis well executed, and the action sequences engaging. It’s unfortunate the author didn’t turn this into a series, I think it’d be a winner.

BLACK SUMMER (2019)

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Produced by Asylum and set in the same zombie apocalypse as Z NATION, BLACK SUMMER (2019) is a Netflix series about a group of people trying to find sanctuary as the military pulls out and society collapses from the rapidly spreading infection. I picked away at this one all year, finally finished it, and found it overall good stuff but difficult to stay committed to.

There’s an interesting storytelling technique happening here; basically, it’s BUSHWICK with zombies. The idea is to follow a group of people individually and eventually all together, with Rose being the lead, a woman who must get to the evacuation center at the stadium in order to reunite with her daughter. There’s little plot other than characters either react to zombies or proactively fight for what they want as they travel from point A to B. The presentation style is pretty realistic and extremely tense, with very long takes, long stretches of moving with no dialogue, and people being terrified and aiming poorly and making mistakes exactly as they would in this type of crisis. I enjoyed this aspect the most, as it makes even a single zombie a seemingly unstoppable force, and it provides serious cathartic energy when the survivors get their thing together and achieve a victory. It also grounds the story nicely, as it’s quite believable. On the negative side, this is all you get; there’s very little going on character wise to make you care about any of these people, and they don’t dig very deep for the kind of ethical dilemmas that make apocalyptic fiction so interesting.

Overall, BLACK SUMMER was a fun watch for me, and I’d happily recommend it to zombie fans. Nothing super memorable, but definitely tense, engaging, and realistic.