Let The Right One In (John Ajvide Lindqvist, 2004)

I have decided that I need to read source books before I see the movies from which they are based. With the exception of Jurassic Park, which I enjoyed both the book and film respectively, I have been disappointed with the source material, especially in this case as the book of Let The Right One In is nowhere near as enthralling or beautiful as its film counterpart.

The Swedish movie is subtle and poignant and rightfully leaves much of its narrative open to suggestion. The book, however, goes places that are not only more full on, but also much darker. Considering how much I love the movie (it was my favourite film of 2009 by a country mile) this disappointed me greatly. The deaths are more splatter-tastic and certain character motivations are just nasty. I also had issues with it's style. It appears to be all over the place borrowing all over from other established horror writers. There were moments of Stephen King, Clive Barker and even, bizarrely, echoes of William Peter Blatty. As a consequence, it seems less assured than other popular authors in the genre. It is entirely possible that this could be an effect of the book being translated from Swedish but, even so, I found it difficult to get into.

Let The Right One In, the book, was a huge let down. Another case of putting it down before I'd reached the end. Like Shutter Island, I felt watching the movie had hindered my enjoyment in that the differences in the narrative as a whole are generally minimal. I knew what would happen. From now on, I intend to read the source before watching the film as much as possible.

2.5/5

State of Fear (Michael Crichton, 2004)

It is a credit to a writer as accessible as Michael Crichton that he can make a book that is as fundamentally stupid as State of Fear so effortlessly entertaining. And when I say stupid, I don't mean unintelligent. The book is littered with well researched scientific jargon that is imperative to the flow of the narrative. What I mean is that the premise is stupid, and once you get passed the essay length facts and figures concerning global warming and the riveting action sequences that are some of the most exhilarating in recent memory, what you are left with is a book about eco-terrorists manipulating the weather for their own diabolical needs. Like I said: stupid.

But give credit where credit's due. I've made no bones about the fact that Crichton's prose is somewhat limited yet he is a man that is consistent. He is the techno thriller king and whilst I found myself laughing at much of State of Fear in terms of its ludicrousness, I couldn't help but read on. At close to 700 pages, it's lightening fast and as things got gradually most ridiculous, I found myself getting more enthralled.

But the fundamental problem, again, is its bombastic nature. If it were a movie, I'd liken it to films such as Volcano or The Core, movies that aren't any good through any stretch of the imagination but you can't help but get suckered in by. In fact, I'd quite like to see it as big dumb summer blockbuster. It reads as such.

State of Fear may not be Crichton's signature novel (that title goes to Jurassic Park) but it would fair to say it's his magnum opus. Silly but well thoughtout. It's heart's in the right place at least.

3.5/5

The Fall (Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan, 2010)

The Fall, the sequel to last years The Strain, is one of those follow ups that works much better than its predecessor. Whilst The Strain had the vampire world to set up, The Fall runs with it. We now know the key principals and their conflicts. What Del Tor and Hogan deliver here is a far more streamlined beast (it’s a full 100 pages shorter than The Strain) that delivers its exposition in a more efficient manner whilst using the sequel moniker of “it’ll get worse before it gets better” to full effect. Trust me, it’s bleak.

The only issue have is that, as being part 2 of a planned trilogy, it does feel as though it’s an exercise in moving from point A to point A, something even a movie as great as The Two Towers suffered from.

But there’s no denying this series has some punch. Part 3, The Night Eternal, will be released in a years time. I can’t wait.

And not a sparkling vampire in sight.

4/5

The Cold Six Thousand (James Ellroy, 2001)

It grieves me to say this with regards to a James Ellroy novel, especially when said novel is actually really rather good, but I had issues with The Cold Six Thousand, a shame seeing as the Ellroy novels I've read to date have been literature gold. But The Cold Six Thousand is somewhat flawed, a fact that Ellroy himself has noted and it is a novel that he agrees was written at a bad time in his life, a fact that rubbed off in about everything of it.

Taking off immediately from American Tabloid (which I still consider to be a modern masterpiece), the surviving characters are cleaning up after the assassination of JFK. Their aim: make sure Oswald acted alone. Concurrently a cop by the name of Wayne Tedrow Jr has been paid six thousand dollars to kill a pimp who resides in Dallas (hence the cold six thousand of the title). As is the norm with Ellroy, all plot points intertwine into one epic labyrinth of a plot which goes on to include the mob's take over of Las Vegas (using swindled money from Howard Hughes) and the FBI's black-ops drug operations during the Vietnam war, all of which leads to the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

As interesting as that sounds (and there are moments of absolute brilliance to be found here) I just couldn't finish it. The first thing that strikes is the prose which is at once terse and aggressive, confrontational even. The staccato delivery has gone into overdrive here and at times it's difficult to keep up with even the simplest of things. To demonstrate, a character sitting in a bar with be explained as such: "Pete sat. Pete drank. Pete perused talent. Pete eyed niggers. Pete eyed them sloooooow". The inclusion of documentation such as letters and telephone transcripts break up the simplicity but the general style is extraordinarily difficult to get into.

Whilst I also have no problem with the inclusion of difficult material, so long as it's within the context of the material (rape, racism, etc), the tough stuff here is relentless. Ellroy is known for being moral yet pessimistic, however I found that every protagonist here was utterly repugnant, a surprise considering Ellroy's usual troupe of characters but there is not a single moral compass here to latch onto. Those that are decent end up racist and those that were horrid to begin fail to redeem themselves in anyway. Spending time with these people just made me feel dirty.

I guess there will be a soft spot for this work over time but I consider it a failure. An honourable failure but a failure non the less. It is intermittently brilliant but it's a case of allowing ones personal issues get in the way of their work.

I will leave it a while before I read anymore Ellroy. For the time being I feel The Cold Six Thousand has left me desperate for something more simplistic.

3/5

Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton, 1990)

I really enjoy it when you go back to the source material of a film you love and find that the book is majorly different. As a book, Jurassic Park is more violent, features more characters and dinosaurs and has a hell of a lot more happen. But one thing it has in common with its screen counterpart is that it is also unbearably tense at times. Shame it loses it's way in the final fifty pages.

On the back of this though, I think I can confidently say that I'm a fan of Crichton. Whilst there are some of his works that I have no interest in reading (Next, Pirates Latitudes, Eaters of the Dead), for the most part his flawed prose can be overlooked to allow the reader to go with the thrill ride he's presented. I enjoyed both Jurassic Park and Airframe equally and I am now awaiting his eco-terror novel, State of Fear, with eager anticipation.

As with Airframe, I can't help but crave thrillers like this from time to time.

4/5

Dark Winter (Andy McNab, 2003)

Again, another book I’ve put down half way through but the way I see it, unless I was at the cinema I’d generally turn off a bad movie if I wasn’t enjoying it so I’m starting to feel less guilty about not sticking with a book till the end.

Along with Chris Ryan (who was also there during the Bravo Two Zero mission), McNab has now made a lucrative career of being a thriller writer. Only problem with that (and with Ryan also) is that his works are generally not very thrilling. However, having been a few years since my last foray into the world of McNab, I thought I’d give him another go. Waste of time and effort.

Dark Winter is just extremely formulaic and not very interesting. McNab far from being a bad writer, but he’s just not able to make any of his books exciting, a major handicap for someone who makes a living from the thriller genre. But for £2, I can hardly complain about too much wasted money.

And the endless pages about weapons. Never has an author made guns so boring.

2/5

Rendezvous With Rama (Arthur C. Clarke, 1973)

David Fincher angle of Rendezvous With Rama is what intrigued me the most. The director has been toying with the idea of making an adaptation for a number of years and whilst reading it I could already see it as being his 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, despite being a truly visionary work, Rama opens with fascination yet ends with as much questions left to answer as it posed to begin with, much like the final season of Lost.

The work itself is astoundingly epic. A fifty kilometre long cylinder, codenamed “Rama”, is found floating into the perimeters of our solar system. A team of scientists are sent to investigate. What they find in side is another world fitting the dynamics of an O’Neil Cylinder, (type into google, the artist conceptions are facinating). What follows is a voyage of discovery as our heroes investigate the strange new world.

What is fascinating about this work is the logistics and the physics of having a world that occupies the circumference of a spinning cylinder. Through the centre of the craft, the gravity is zero, yet as they reach the outer rim, therefore the ground, it increases due to the spin. The science seems legit and endlessly enthralling.

However, the latter half of the book fails to live up to the initial intrigue. Once the ship comes alive, it loses its ambiguity and becomes less interesting than when the craft was effectively derelict. Whilst it remains a decent read, more avant-garde aspect of the ship’s design are never explained and at the end, it leaves never to be seen again, leaving the reader somewhat frustrated.

But it’s hard not to ignore the fascination of its set up and for that, Rendezvous With Rama is recommended. This is what I expect from a decent science fiction novel.

4/5