Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

IT (2017)

by Leave a Comment

it-movie-stephen-king

I wasn’t looking forward to the new film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel IT, expecting to choke on saccharine, and still feeling full of a similar vibe from binging on STRANGER THINGS. What a terrific surprise. IT is top-notch horror, one of the best adaptations of King’s work.

In the town of Derry, children go missing every 27 years. An enterprising group of kids band together to save themselves and each other from “it,” a creature that appears in the guise of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Pennywise enjoys feeding on their terror, plaguing them with horrific visions, as if seasoning them before doing some very real eating. To fight back, the children must stick together and face their worst fears.

The horror element is powerful, the acting and pacing are terrific, it’s more sweet than saccharine, and the portrayal of Pennywise in particular is incredible.

So yeah, it was terrific, and I’m looking forward to the second movie.

THE CIRCLE by Dave Egger

by Leave a Comment

circleI became interested in reading THE CIRCLE by David Eggers after seeing it mentioned in Jodie Archer and Matthew L. Jockers’ THE BESTSELLER CODE, in which they presented an algorithm for rating the likelihood of books being bestsellers based on a range of metrics. THE CIRCLE was the only book to get a perfect 100 score, marking it as the idealized bestseller.

The movie is of course similar but far more conventional than the book. The movie theme: Privacy and change are good, but corporate control is bad, and our hero Mae knows which side she’s on. The book is very different and much darker than the movie, plus plenty more richly detailed, making it a far more interesting story.

In the novel, Mae, working a dead-end job at a utility company, is offered a job at The Circle, a massive technology corporation that created a system to unite all social media, bill-paying, entertainment, and other functions into a single simple platform. Very quickly, Mae takes to the job and the company’s progressive, intelligent, fast-paced culture, but soon comes under fire for not being social or sharing or transparent enough. More and more social responsibility and public engagement, including various rankings, requirement to endorse products, etc., pile onto her until she finds herself living for (and later at) the company, a true believer in an idealized corporation that might best be described as a cult.

Thematically, the book is incredible, packed with cultlike technology companies, workaholism, corporate control of private information and behavior, subsuming of one’s personality, privacy versus the public good, social pressure and neurotic online behavior, fake behavior because everything is public, online mob mentality, snap, oversimplifed judgments on consequential issues, and more. By the end of the novel, Mae, who is highly impressionable (kind of a complaint, as she’s a weak character among strong secondary characters, though this works for the story), completely loses what identity she had.

The book could have had a stronger ending with a more significant climax that wasn’t quite so on-the-nose in its symbolism, and Mae is often frustrating in how meekly she accepts others’ control of her behavior and even her thinking, but overall, I quite enjoyed the read. The writing is good, the story is good, but the themes Eggers nails are powerful and extremely provocative.

OCCUPIED (2015)

by Leave a Comment

occupied

In OCCUPIED (2015), a Norwegian TV series now available on Netflix (created by bestselling author Jo Nesbø), Russia undertakes an “iron hand in a silk glove” (soft in appearance but ruthless in reality) invasion of Norway, resulting in an amazing political thriller that had me on the edge of my seat.

Several years in the future, turmoil in the Middle East reduces oil production. The United States achieves energy independence and withdraws from its commitments there as well as NATO. In Norway, a green party, headed by Prime Minister Jesper Berg, ceases all oil and gas production after a hurricane devastates the country and causes a movement to halt climate change. The country is switching to a thorium-based energy source and hopes Europe will do the same. Desperate for energy and unable to switch in time, the European Union gives Russia the green light to seize Norway’s oilfields in the North Sea and impose other demands on the country. (No wonder this show upset the Kremlin.)

In this turmoil, we follow a number of engaging characters. Jesper Berg, the prime minister, tries to collaborate with the Russians to get them to leave, compromising his government and its platform in the process. One layer of the show is the politics inside the government and Berg trying to outsmart the Europeans and the Russians in a diplomatic cat and mouse game. Djupvik, one of his bodyguards, rises to become an important player in both Norwegian and Russian intelligence, producing another layer that functions as a spy thriller. Thomas Eriksen, a journalist, takes on Berg, the Russians, and the growing Free Norway underground, while his wife’s flagging restaurant revives due to patronage by Russian officials, marking her as a collaborator. Then we have the Free Norway underground, which grows steadily in popularity until it’s functioning as a full-fledged terrorist movement.

In each episode, these characters are increasingly put through the wringer as the occupation challenges their principles, puts them into no-win situations, and steadily raises the stakes as the first season nails a riveting climax. A lot of the time, you’re not even sure who’s a hero or villain in all this, who is trustworthy to whom, and if what they’re saying is true. The result is an intense story that operates simultaneously as a political, international, spy, and police thriller, with frequent unexpected surprises. The main premise may seem a stretch, but everything that happens is realistic, the characters in particular are endearing and realistic, even the minor ones, and the pacing and dialogue are terrific. Highly recommended, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for season 2, which has already aired in Norway and other countries.

(On a side note, the show is spoken in Norwegian with a little English and Russian. The Norwegian language is wonderful, and so are the people, all of them attractive and living in what seems to be an orderly, clean, and caring society. Unintentionally, the show acted as a tourism commercial for me, I’d love to visit some day. The only really odd note for me is the song that opens each show. The lyrics are great if you tune in, but the tone is really off.)

ONE OF US Coming July 2018

by Leave a Comment

Today, Orbit revealed the cover for ONE OF US, my dark contemporary fantasy novel.

They call it the plague
A generation of children born with extreme genetic mutations

They call it a home
Though it’s a place of neglect and forced labor

They call him Dog
But Enoch is just a boy who wants to be treated as normal

They call the children dangerous
They might be right

The book will release July 2018. I couldn’t be more excited!

Dilouie_OneofUs-HC

BLADE RUNNER 2049

by Leave a Comment

2049-4

BLADE RUNNER 2049 took me back to one of my favorite dystopias and a movie I absolutely loved back in the 80s and have rewatched every few years since. 2049 does thorough justice to the original, continuing its story, atmosphere, and sense of tragedy, while creating something new. With BLADE RUNNER 2049, ARRIVAL, and SICARIO under his belt, Denis Villeneuve is now one of my favorite Hollywood directors.

2049-3

In 2049, the Tyrell Corporation has failed, but a new corporation has taken over to build replicants (Wallace Corporation, headed by a creepy Jared Leto, who has a terrific replicant assistant who does his dirty work). These replicants do the dangerous jobs nobody else can or will do, resulting in a slave class. K, a replicant (Ryan Gossling, who does a great job in the role despite my fears) is a “blade runner” agent, a police officer who tracks and terminates rogue androids. He uncovers evidence that a child was born to a replicant and human parent. For both humanity and replicants, this is a game-changing event that could trigger a replicant uprising. K’s investigation puts him in the crosshairs of the police, replicants, and Wallace Corporation, and leads him to Agent Deckard and the truth about himself and his reality.

I loved how they made this prostitute replicant look like Pris (Darryl Hannah) from the original.
I loved how they made this prostitute replicant look like Pris (Darryl Hannah) from the original.

2049 is as moody/atmospheric, filled with eye-candy, and powerful in its ideas as the original. Like Deckard, K is a tragic figure doomed to question his reality and everything he assumes is real. Future technology such as personal digital assistants designed as loving companions is perfectly weaved into the storytelling. The ending is as satisfying as it is tragic, as K embraces his reality and a cause bigger than himself, finding his humanity and authentic connection in the process. I particularly liked that Harrison Ford wasn’t expected to phone it in like he did in his reprisal of Han Solo; he cared and worked hard for the role, and unlike STAR WARS, there’s real meat and purpose to his character.

This priceless scene perfectly brings everything together and punches the theme of questioning reality and lack of love and connection for K.
This priceless scene perfectly brings everything together and punches the theme of questioning reality and lack of love and connection for K.

No criticisms, I clearly loved it. It’s a long movie, but I enjoyed the way the run time allowed the story to breathe and build gravitas through the incredible sets, effects, music, and atmosphere.