American Skin

Posted on June 3, 2008

This past weekend I read one damn good book.  American Skin by Ken Bruen is by far the best crime novel I’ve read this year.  Publishers Weekly describes the book like so…

At the start of Bruen’s dark tribute to the Irish fascination with the American dream, Stephen Blake is on the run after a bank heist, hoping to disappear in the desert near Tucson. He has the money, and his girlfriend, Siobhan, knows how to launder it. All he has to do is change his accent, his skin and pass as American. But John A. Stapleton, hit man for the IRA, wants more than his share of the swag, and the psychotic Dade, obsessively devoted to the music of Tammy Wynette, is wandering the Southwest like a slaughter wagon.

Bruen, who I’d never read before but am now addicted to, writes in a crackling-yet-sad prose style.  The words drip emotion and energy, carrying you through even the slowest portions of the narrative at a breakneck pace.

The characters populating American Skin are a vivid collection.  They run the gamut of sympathetic to terrifying, many times within the same character.  All of them are fascinating, some of them stupifying.

Look, I can be a slow reader.  I know that.  I couldn’t put American Skin down.  This novel wormed its way into my brain and changed the way I want to read.  It’s that powerful.

If Noir is your thing at all, then do yourself a favor and pick up American Skin.  You won’t be sorry.

2007 Top 10 Books of the Year

Posted on December 12, 2007

Every year, I like to list my favorite reads.  I’m pretty lax on my rules, as I’m constantly playing catch up when it comes to reading.  You’ll note that most of these books didn’t come out this year.  My only rule is that I had to read them for the first time in 2007.

Now, on with the list (complete with links where you can learn more and buy, buy, buy!)… 

1. Pressure, Jeff Strand.  I’ve mentioned this one multiple times, so you’ve probably seen this coming.  Strand’s tale of a man hunted by a former friend turned raging psychopath is at times funny, heartwarming, and utterly horrifying.  One of the best books I’ve ever read, and an easy cap to 2007’s list.

2. The Dead Letters, Tom Piccirilli. A masterful mix of police thriller and horror.  This tale of a man hunting a serial killer who’s just trying to make up for the horrible things he’s done will have you turning pages faster than you thought possible.

3. Under My Roof, Nick Mamatas. Funny and thought-provoking.  This story of a suburban home declairing itself its own micro-country is fun even as it makes you ponder the world around you.

4. The Keeper, Sarah Langan.  This story of a small town trying to get back on its feet even as terrible events begin to spiral out of control is as wonderful an example of mood and character as I can find.

5. Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis. Hilarious, twisted, maybe a little psychotic.  When a detective is sent after the original, secret Constitution of United States, he meets every imaginable nutjob in America.

6. The Road, Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy writes in a style I didn’t think I would dig, but this story of a man and his son wandering a post-apocalyptic landscape just trying to stay alive was one of the most affecting books I’ve read in a long time.

7. DMZ: Public Works, Brian Wood and Ricardo Burchielli.  Wood writes a story of terrorism and corporate exploitation in a war-shattered Manhattan.  It helps to have read the previous DMZ volumes, but this story is powerful enough on its own to warrant inclusion on this list.

8. The Waste Lands, Stephen King.  As I make my way through King’s Dark Tower series, I find myself more and more amazed with each passing volume.  The third book in the series is the most wonderful yet.

9. Ghoul, Brian Keene.  Brian captures the spirit of youth in so many ways with this novel.  From the wonder of the unknown to fear of the adult world and what it might do to your innocence, Keene leaves no stone unturned, leaving us with one of his best novels to date.

10. Baltimore, Chris Golden and Mike Mignola.  In this illustrated beauty, Mignola and Golden weave a story that will remind you of Stoker, Shelley, Lovecraft, Poe, and all the old masters.  Incredible from start to finish.

The 2007 Halloween Buffet

Posted on October 26, 2007

I really enjoyed doing this last year, and my love of Halloween has not died in the slightest.  That said, here’s your halloween recommendations for 2007.

SHORT STORIES

1. “In the Hills, the Cities” by Clive Barker.  Barker set the horror world on fire with his original Books of Blood.  This story, about two lovers who stumble upon a ritual that involves two cities who fight it out by lashing their citizens together into living giants, is a masterpiece of mood and mayhem.  Available in The Books of Blood.

2. “Black Leather Kites” by Norman Partridge.  Norm writes stories that can be hard boiled as hell or so over the top you can’t help but smile.  This story, about vampires, warlocks, and a small town cop who uses nunchuku instead of his standard issue baton, is both.  Available in Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales.

3. “Gray Matter” by Stephen King.  An early work of King’s and one of his best.  A tight, suspensful story about a group of men checking in on a friend of theirs who may or may not have turned into a cat-eating blob after drinking bad beer.  Sounds silly, but this is an incredibly tense reading experience.  Available in Night Shift.

4. “The Pit” By Joe R. Lansdale.  Brutal, unrelenting, and kinda funny.  This story of kidnapped gladiators forced to do battle for a small town’s amusement is one of Champion Joe’s finer tales.  Available in High Cotton.

5. “Menage A Trois” By JF Gonzalez.  Gonzalez is one of the best writers you might not have heard of, and this story is a good old fashioned zombie yarn set in a world where safety and sex don’t always go hand in hand.  Available in When the Darkness Falls.

NOVELS

1. Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge.  I didn’t want to repeat authors during this list, but I will make an exception for this incredible book.  One of my favorites, and one I will be reading every year at Halloween.  Partridge creates a tribute to Halloween, B Movies (without giving in to B Movie production values), and the culture of the sixties and small towns.  Breathtaking.

2. Ghoul by Brian Keene.  A love letter to the eighties and childhood, and proof that adults can be worse monsters than anything that lives in a graveyard.  Next to Terminal, this could be Brian’s best work.

3. Pressure by Jeff Strand.  The story of a man running from the obsession of a former friend, a friend with some serious issues.  A masterpiece of terror and suspense.  Strand pulls out all the stops, and he’s never been better.

4. The Store by Bentley Little.  Never has Wal-Mart looked more evil.  Okay, maybe that isn’t true, but this novel by Little is about big box policies taken to there most extreme.  Riveting and frightening on several levels.

5. Succulent Prey by Wrath James White.  White writes horrible, gory prose with the grace of a poet.  It’s really an interesting experience.  This novel, about a man who fears he may have contracted a disease that’s making him a serial killer, is a visceral ride through Hell.

COMICS

1. The Damned by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt.  Mystery and shoot ‘em ups in a prohibition era populated by humans and demons alike.  An incredible series.

2. Fell by Warren Ellis and Ben Temlpesmith.  It may be disguised as a police procedural, but this is a horror comic all the way.

3. Dragon Head by Minetaro Mochizuki.  An earthquake has trapped a commuter train underground, and everything feels far too hot.  And is there something in the darkness?  And what’s happened to the rest of the world?

4. Tales from the Crypt.  The EC classic is back in a archive edition.

5. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. Kirkman’s meandering masterpiece.  Zombie menace with some of the best human characters the comics world has ever seen.  This is what most soap operas should be like.

MOVIES

1. Hard Candy.  Ellen Page gives an incredible performance in this horrifying and riveting film of a pedophile getting his just desserts.  An incredible flick from start to finish.  The director or this film recently helmed 30 Days of Night. 

2. Kontroll. Director Nimrod Antal juggles comedy, drama, romance, and horror in this tale set entire in Budapest’s subway system.  Kontroll officer Bulcsú has become such a part of the underground he hasn’t left it in months.  An incredible movie from start to finish, and one of the best I’ve seen this year.

3. 13 Tzameti. 22 year-old Sébastien takes on a false identity in a quest to gain untold riches, but instead finds himself in a sick game of chance where losing means a bullet in the head.  A study in tension.

4. Prince of Darkness.  The second movie in John Carpenter’s “Apocalypse Trilogy.” A group of grad student descend on a church to study a strange contraption that just might house the antichrist.  One of Carpenter’s most terrifying.  Once the terror starts, it does not stop.

5. Burnt Offerings. A dose of seventies cheese, but this Oliver Reed/Karen Black-led thriller combines plenty of chills with the creepiest representation of Death I’ve ever seen.

Read This!: First Blood

Posted on July 13, 2007

First Blood
By David Morrell

Anybody who grew up in or around the eighties probably knows this movie.  John Rambo, haunted Vietnam vet, is picked on by small town cops until he strikes back.  He’s the ultimate underdog, in a way.  He’s turtured and misunderstood.  His bodycount is quite low, and most of the deaths he causes are second hand, like creating a car accident.

Yeah, this is a different Rambo.

Morrell states in his intro he wanted to bring the Vietnam War home to America.  I don’t know how close he got, but he really did create an exhaustive exercise in jangling nerves and brutality.  This Rambo doesn’t get to sit in a cave and growl “They drew first blood,” over a walkie talkie in this story.  He’s too busy gutting cops like fish and taking out men with bullets through the face.  He’s still haunted, but he’s really let the darkness get the better of him.

Small town sheriff Teasle is a far more complex character than in the film.  He constantly straddles the line between trying to do what’s right and refusing to back down.  He may not be likable, but he evokes sympathy.

And the action…  This is one of the most visceral and thrilling books I’ve ever read.  There’s a reason it spawned a series of action films.  Too bad the films barely scratched the surface of these characters.

Recommendation: Very Strong.

Read This!: The Essential Spider-Man, Vol. 1

Posted on June 20, 2007

The Essential Spider-Man, Vol. 1
By Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Every story has a beginning, and this is Spider-Man’s.  Collecting the first twenty issues worth of Spider-Man stories from the sixties, this black and white phonebook of a collection is a vital part of comics lore.

Back before Peter Parker drove a motorcycle, dated a supermodel, or was portrayed on screen as Batman in red and blue tights, he was a dorky-yet-optimistic kid with glasses the size of saucers who lucked into some really cool super powers.  Lee’s sharp writing and Ditko’s dynamic artwork bring these early Spidey stories to life, spending just as much time on Parker’s civilian life as Spider-Man’s adventures.  You get a great feel for how this geeky kid really managed to turn himself into a hero.

All the groundwork for the Spider-Man mythos is layed out here: Spidey’s web-shooters, J. Jonah Jameson’s hatred of the “masked menace,” “With great power must also come great responsibility (the actual quote),” and Aunt May’s distrust of the costumed hero.  You’ll also see the introduction of just about every important Spider-Man villain, and considering Spidey has, quite possibly, the best rogues gallery in comics, that’s saying a lot.

There are some things in the book I don’t care for, but they were all tropes of the era.  You’ve got your thought balloons on every page and your villains who talk out loud about their plans when they’re all alone.  The dialogue is largely of the “Gee whiz!” variety, but it lends itself to the book’s feel.

Probably the best thing about reading these early Spidey stories is the almost complete lack of continuity.  Everything you need to know about our hero is spelled out in each story, making sure you’re caught up on the world.  Today, even I can’t keep up with all the continuity going on in Spider-Man.  Did you know Spidey’s parents were secret agents?  Or that he had a clone?  Or that he was granted cosmic powers on at least one occassion?  Hell, I don’t even know if any of that’s true!  I just heard about it.  You don’t get any of that in these early stories.  You just get… story, and it’s damn refreshing.

Recommendation: Must read.

Read This!: Under My Roof

Posted on June 15, 2007

Under My Roof
By Nick Mamatas

Twelve-year-old Herbert can read minds.  Because of this, he knows his father is building a nuclear device in the garden gnome.  Then his father proclaims their house and yard its own country.  They use the internet and fax machine to set up trade agreements with rival nations.  The military surrounds their home, and soon micro-nations are popping up across the United States.  WHat a way to spend your summer vacation.

Under My Roof is a great novel: funny, thoughtful, and exciting all at once.  Nick Mamatas has created a satircal work that doesn’t feel like it’s preaching to you.  It’s a short, fast read, as well, one that could probably be engulfed in a single day at the beach.

Recommendation: Very High.

Read This!: Graphic Novel Round Up 2

Posted on May 17, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, a selection of the graphic novels I’ve picked my way through in the last month…

Hellblazer (The Azzarello arc)
By Brian Azzarello and various artists

Before he was an idiot with a golden, cross-shaped shotgun played by Keanu Reeves, John Constantine was a total bastard of a magician (and English, too!).  He was one of the best characters in comics, written at various times by some of the greatest writers comics has ever seen.

Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) took control of Constantine for an extended arc, the first American to write the character.  Brian’s arc is collected in the four volumes titled Hard Time, Good Intentions, Freezes Over, and Highwater.  These four trades contain some of my favorite stories, period.  The situations Constantine finds himself in as he crosses the underbelly of America might not be the normal Constantine adventures we’ve seen, but they are powerful.

The story begins in Hard Time, with Constantine entering prison for the murder of one of his friends.  I’ll try not to give any spoilers, but I will say by the time Azzarello is finished, Constantine encounters animal porn, a murderer who only comes out during blizzards, and a billionaire industrialist named S.W. Manor that Azzarello had to cook up when DC comics said he couldn’t use Bruce Wayne as his villain.  There’s evil, wonder, and delicious depravity.  Fun!

Recommendation: Read it now!

Dragon Head, Volume 1
By Minetaro Mochizuki

A commuter train full of school children is swallowed up by the ground when a massive earthquake hits Japan.  Out of several cars, only three children survive–and one of them might be insane.  Will they be rescued?  What’s that sound in the darkness?  And why is it so hot?

Dragon Head stands out as one of the strongest horror comics I have ever read.  The sense of claustrophobia and darkness is overwhelming.  The pacing is spot on and completely amazing, letting the tension build and build until you’re ready to scream.  There are several volumes of Dragon Head available, with more on the way.  Run out and grab them right away!

Recommendation: Must Read!

Wasteland Book 1: Cities in Dust
By Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten

A hundred years after the Big Wet, Earth has been left a broken, infertile world of rock and sand. The town of Providens is like many others on the post-Big Wet planet - small, mostly illiterate and struggling for survival. But while most communities are like Providens, not all the cities that survived the Big Wet are. Some are like Newbegin, burgeoning metropolises that combine pieces of past societies with the new status quo. When Providens welcomes a stranger named Michael into its midst, will the quiet man lead them to the better world of Newbegin or shatter what little order still exists?

Johnston and Mitten bring you one of the best new comics of the past few years, and it all starts here.  There’s an equal emphasis on story and world-building in this volume, and it all clicks together perfectly.  Scenes like the journey through the pre-city and the attack of the sand eaters will get the blood pumping and the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end.  Amazing stuff from start to finish.

Recommendation: Super-ultra-mega strong!

The Exterminators Vol. 2: Insurgency
By Simon Oliver, Tony Moore, and Chris Samnee

If there’s a stranger book out there, I don’t think I’ve found it.  Buddhist pest exterminators, an immortal redneck, and an army of cockroaches doing battle against humans.  I haven’t even gotten into the masked rat wrestler yet.  Oh, or the literature cathouse.

When a bug poison ends up mutating a roach, it gets pissed that its friends are being exterminated and leads an attack against mankind.  What follows is at times hilarious, gross, and always well-written.  And when you have Samnee and Moore–two of the best artists working today–on the title, you can’t go wrong.

Recommendation: Very high.  Pick up volume 1 first, though.

Read This!: Closing Time

Posted on May 9, 2007

Closing Time
By Jack Ketchum

Ketchum is probably my favorite writer today, so news that he had a new short story collection on the way was fantastic.  While the $50 price tag is far too much for the casual reader, this is a good collection.  Ketchum has written an all too brief afterword for each story.  Maybe someday we’ll see a mass market edition hit the stands.

Normally, a Ketchum collection would be full of terror and barely contained chaos.  Closing Time is a different matter, however.  The stories in this one deal with sadness and despair for the most part.  The characters feel lonely, and the hopelessness of life damn near drips off the page.  There are a few glimpses of the madness and horror in there, but they’re few and far between.  It sure doesn’t hurt that Ketchum’s prose is some of the best out there, and it shines in these stories!

Ketchum wears his heart on his sleeve for this collection.  You can sense his deep love of animals, smoking, and Greek food.  And there’s a lot of greek food in there.  AT least three stories take place in Greek restaurants.  It can be a little distracting, but still enjoyable.

Recommendation: High.  You might want to wait for a more affordable edition, but this is an excellent read.

Read This!: The Dead Letters

Posted on April 24, 2007

The Dead Letters
By Tom Piccirilli

Five years ago, Eddie Whitt’s daughter became the first victim of a serial killer known as Killjoy. Whitt never stopped searching for him&–not after the police gave up, not after Killjoy began sending him insane, taunting letters, and not even after the killer quit his lunatic rampage and faded from the scene.

But now the madman has returned. In some bizarre form of repentance, Killjoy begins kidnapping infants from abusive homes and delivering them to the parents of his original victims. In a strange turnabout, Killjoy becomes a media hero, a savior of unwanted “changeling children”, and to those he once tormented he is now transformed into a benefactor.

Wow.  It’s tough to say anything beyond that.  This was the best book I’ve read in a loooooong time.  I can’t think of anything else that comes close, really.  More crime thriller than anything else, The Dead Letters is both tight and atmospheric.  The character of Whitt is sympathtic and unsettling at once.  We feel for him, but we see the madnes he’s slipping into as he hunts Killjoy.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve read a more fully realized character.

And the bad guys in this novel are truly bad.  Whether it’s Killjoy with his trail of pompous-yet-nonsensical letters or the old woman and her cult who follows the god Mucus Thorn-In-Brain, the antagonists drip evil from every pore.

Piccirilli keeps the story rolling, building momentum until it’s almost at car crash speed.  The last few pages couldn’t turn fast enough.  This book will leave you spent.

Recommendation: Must Read!

Read This!: Psycho

Posted on April 9, 2007

Psycho
By Robert Bloch

You know the story of Norman Bates and his darling mother, of the woman who came to the Bates Motel one cold, rainy night to take her last shower.

Have you read the book, though?  Because you should.

Before Hitchcock immortalized it or Van Sant crapped all over it, Psycho was a book by Robert Bloch.  Bloch writes a very different Norman Bates than the one we know from the silver screen.  This Bates is a pudgy glasses-wearer who will actually stand up to his mother now and then and often gives glimpses of the violent madness hidden beneath. Anthony Perkins played a terrific, sinister Norman, but it’s different than the pathetic, psychopathic loser we find here.

Another welcome change from the film is that more than half the book takes place from Norman’s point of view.  Clues are dropped about Mother, but only enough to get you guessing.  Boch handles these chapters with a deft, chilling touch that will stay with you for a long time.

Recommendation: Very Strong.

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