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Book Review: The Land Across by Gene Wolfe

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Those even slightly familiar with Gene Wolfe’s prolific work may recognize its persistence in theme and style. Critics, colleagues, and readers in general praise his unique voice, which is often challenging to penetrate with its unconventionality, but usually end up making his stories hugely rewarding experiences. Despite the now conventional expectation of idiosyncrasy in Wolfe’s prose and plots, he somehow manages to keep stories inventively unpredictable and engrossing. Recently released in trade paperback format by Tor Books, Wolfe’s 2013 novel, The Land Across, is typical Wolfe: a young, possibly unreliable narrator, evocative descriptions, shifting plots that play with expectations, sophisticated incorporation of the political and religious, and beneath it all a perpetual sense of foreboding.

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The Muse of Research: An Interview with Lev Mirov

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The Muse of Research is a monthly column in which E. P. Beaumont interviews poets, medievalists, and speculative writers about their research.  This week, E.P. Beaumont talks to Lev Mirov. E. P. Beaumont: Talk about your nonfictional obsessions! (could be academic training, stuff you like to read about, topics that pique your curiosity) Lev Mirov: I’ve studied medieval Europe widely, and I have put a lot of time and energy into the history of western magic, folk Christianity, 12th century England, ritual studies, and the relationship between western religion and esotericism and indigenous cultures. In 2011, I wrote an undergraduate thesis on gender and military leadership in 12th c. England and France, and, in 2014, a master’s thesis about magical rituals as expressions of religious life in later medieval England.

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Review: Nightcrawler; or, The Chill of Capital (2014; dir. Dan Gilroy)

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To say that reviewing Nightcrawler (2014; dir. Dan Gilroy) is a difficult task would be an understatement.  Nightcrawler haunts the viewer like something out of Poltergeist (1982; dir. Tobe Hooper).  It’s the kind of experience that I find impossible to forget, not simply because of its focus on Los Angeles’ late-night chaos but also because its examination of that life is in so many ways uncompromising and disturbingly logical.  Talking about such a film without blathering on endlessly becomes a difficult task indeed, which may explain why this review is so focused on a single element:  Bloom. Nightcrawler follows Louis Bloom, an eccentric small-time thief who literally steals his way into the “nightcrawler” business in Los Angeles after witnessing a “nightcrawler” taping a car accident (Bill Paxton).  Determined to “make it,” he begins selling to a low-rated local news station and sets out to dominate the market at any cost.

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Book Review: Owl and the Japanese Circus

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Supernatural clients, or supernatural opposition, or just looking for supernaturally powerful objects are the worst for Owl. There are supernatural entities hiding in the shadows of the world, and an archaeologist-turned-treasure-hunter who has crossed the dreaded IAA not only knows there are vampires and worse lurking around, she has no outside protection from them. Owl avoids supernatural entanglements in her treasure hunting and thievery whenever she can. She leaves that to her online roleplaying character to deal with. Of course, given that she is living on the run in a Winnebago, even that small pleasure is difficult for her to indulge in. When a Dragon offers Owl a deal to get herself out of trouble with a French clan of vampires who are following her around the globe, desperate times call for desperate measures.

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Review: Taken 2 and Islamaphobia (2012; dir. Olivier Megaton)

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After the enormous success of Taken (2009; dir. Pierre Morel), which raked in $226.8 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, it was inevitable that we would get a repeat performance.  And a repeat Luc Besson and his cavalcade of writers gave us.  Taken 2 attempts at a continuous narrative, but it is ultimately a game of thematic repetition which the film hopes you won’t notice.  On the surface, this is fine, since the series identifies its theme anyway, but one must wonder how a world in which someone like Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) exists can continue to operate.  After all, Bryan is an uncompromising murderer who cares little for international law.  Indeed, he cares little about anyone outside of his personal circle, as becomes clear to us in his oft-quoted speech: I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

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The Disquieting Guest — On Leonard Nimoy and the Anti-Spock

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Like almost everyone else, my first encounter with Leonard Nimoy was in his Spock role. But as I watched endless reruns of Star Trek in my elementary school years, I did not have much awareness of the actor behind the character. The names in the credit sequence meant little. They were less real than the characters themselves. I knew that Spock wasn’t real, of course, but imaginatively and emotionally he was. The real person behind the character barely registered in my consciousness.

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