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Friday Film Review: Men in Black

Jayne — Fri, 18 May 2012 09:00:49 +0000

Men in Black (1997)
Genre: SF comedy
Grade: B+

We’re “them.” We’re “they.” We are the Men in Black.

I thought I’d throw another bromance onto the review heap. Not that Agent J and Dr. Laurel Weaver’s flirting isn’t enjoyable but the real strength of this film is how well Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith play off each other as their characters attempt to save the Earth.

Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) has been helping to save the planet and monitor the aliens who live here for close to 35 years. When his partner reluctantly decides it’s time to retire, Kay and his boss Zed (Rip Torn) begin to test and audition replacements. James Edwards (Will Smith), an NYPD officer, caught Kay’s eye when he unknowingly ran down a cephalapoid while trying to make an arrest. Impressed with Edwards’ stamina and smarts, Kay lures him to the (hilarious) testing where Edwards proves he has what it takes as he thinks outside the box and make correct split second decisions. When he accepts, Edwards becomes J, the newest agent of the MIB.

And just in time as something has the alien population running scared and fleeing the planet. Turning to a major source of their intel, the tabloids, Kay and J interview a woman (Siobhan Fallon) who claims an alien stoled her husband Edgar’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) skin. Kay quickly realizes that a Bug has landed and is running loose in NYC. Heading to the morgue, they discover the M.E. Dr. Laurel Weaver (Linda Fiorentino) has two alien bodies there but the mystery of what the Bug in the Edgar suit wants only deepens. It takes a trip to interrogate Frank the pug to reveal what Kay and J have to find before the Bug does because if they can’t stop him, the Arquillians are going to kill us all.

I love MIB. MIB II not so much and I’m bracing myself for the third installment due out this Spring in the hope that it will rise to the level of this one. But the original movie is hard to top. From the opening credits of a dragonfly flitting through the Universe before ending up as splat on a windshield it’s a pretty much a wild, nonstop ride. There is a bit of boring exposition as Kay fills J in on the history of the MIB and knowledge of aliens on this planet but most of the rest of the running time isn’t wasted. Considering how much the plot was changed as it went along, the final result ends up fairly cohesive. It’s also a beautiful film to look at – the outside NYC scenes show off the beauty of the city while the inside sets are all 1960s space age curves.

The relationship of Kay and J carries the film. Smith and Jones have fabulous chemistry. They totally play off each other with Jones’ straight faced delivery complimenting Smith’s wisecracking facade. But J and Kay aren’t just Super Men with major firepower shown saving the world in a rain of special effects. They’re human. They get busted up, J cares about the effect of Kay’s memory messer-upper on the people who get flashed and he wants the cover stories which replace those peoples’ memories to be nice and – in the case of Edgar’s wife – empowering. Kay regrets the loss of his most recent partner and still loves the woman he had to leave behind all those years ago when he became an agent. You can see the weight of all his memories on his face. Yet, despite the need for them to toil in obscurity, there are the occasional nice moments such as when J helps deliver a bouncing, newborn baby….squid.

Rip Torn as Zed conveys gravitas in the face of the imminent destruction of the planet yet can still slide in a few zingers about the years of government training of the other candidates and how the MIB aren’t hosting an intergalactic kegger. Linda Fiorentino is lovely to look at and her character catches onto the situation quickly. I was delighted when she manages to not only save herself but also provides the final blast needed to rid the world of the Bug. One of my favorite tertiary characters is Beatrice the beaten down wife of Edgar. Fallon manages to make me laugh out loud without saying a word just from the expressions on her face.

But it’s Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance as the Bug which rulz. I can’t imagine how much work he had to put into pulling off the look and mannerisms of having a giant cockroach stuffed into his skin. The loping gait, the awkward way he poses his arms as he sits in the Zap-Em truck, the smash and grab techniques at the jewelry store and sidewalk post-card seller’s stand – even the way he talks…he makes me believe he’s something otherworldly. It’s also hilarious to watch how frustrated and pissed the Bug gets the longer he’s stuck in New York. Even Edgar’s cows don’t give him any respect.

The special effects still hold up fairly well with lots of exploding blue goo and Bug slime everywhere. I still think “the little guy in the big guy’s head” looks a little cheesy but the final sequences with the Bug are good. The “ingrate” worms who loaf around all day at the MIB headquarters are funny and the pug in a “I ♥ NY” T-shirt is cute. One of my favorite funny scenes is the way J discovers exactly what happens when he pushes the red button in the Ford P.O.S. as he and Kay are headed to Queens through the tunnel to the music of Elvis Presley.

The movie is supposed to be fun and breezy light entertainment and succeeds as such. Director Sonnenfeld keeps the story focused and the pace fast as it zips to a conclusion. The commentary tract is also interesting to listen to as he and Jones discuss what went into making the movie and seemingly have a good time remembering the whole process. Are we just an intergalactic Aggie in an alien game of marbles? Who knows? But no one better give me a flashie thing as I’d probably forget to put on my Ray Bans and would end up zapping myself to mental oblivion.

~Jayne

GUEST FRIDAY FILM REVIEW: Starman

Guest Reviewer — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:00:28 +0000

Starman: 1984

Starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen
Genre: Science Fiction/Romance Grade: B+

Jeff Bridges’ star turn in CRAZY HEART got me thinking about all his other movies I’d enjoyed. From my memory banks, I pulled a favorite I had seen but once, STARMAN. Would it be as sweet a romance on second viewing? But first, I had to find a copy and as luck is, well, fortunate sometimes, a VHS tape for a dollar landed on the library’s used book sale table. Happy, lucky, me.

Karen Allen’s star may have been ascendant in 1984 after her turn in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK 3 years previous, but according to the bio on imdb.com, she has repeatedly preferred the stage and smaller roles. Therefore, except for STARMAN, she slipped off my radar. Jeff Bridges never did slip off my radar, but then maybe that’s just me. The third actor of note in this production is Charles Martin Smith, someone else I’ve found interesting since he played Farley Mowat in NEVER CRY WOLF.

1984 was the middle of the space movies. STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, TRON, all the STAR TREKs… why not make another space show?

Jenny Hayden (Allen) sits half-dressed in her Wisconsin living room at night, smoking and drinking red wine, watching home movies of her late husband (Bridges as Scott) mugging for the camera. She’s lonely and miserable. Bridges, meanwhile, is an alien coming to Earth to check out if we meant it when we launched Voyager 2 in August of 1977 with the invitation to “come and see us sometime.” Or words to that effect.

His spacecraft trail is picked up by NORAD, fighters are scrambled, and Mark Shermin (Smith) of SETI is called.

While the government boys are getting their act together and Jenny Hayden is sleeping it off, our hero is watching the home movie and flipping through the pages of the photo album. He clones himself into Jenny’s husband, Scott, growing from baby to man before our horrified eyes.

She awakens, is terrified not only that there’s a man in the house, but that he looks like Scott. Realizing that he’s way off course, our new Scott needs her to help him get to Meteor Crater in Arizona where the mother ship will pick him up in three days’ time. Our ticking clock is set because if he’s late, he will die. Jenny isn’t hot on this idea—can you spell kidnap?—but off they go. The government, portrayed as usual as hard-hearted experimenters, and good guy Shermin are on their trail.

We quickly find out that the little magic marbles in the new Scott’s possession are capable of many things. He discourages a would-be rescuer by turning a big wrench into a hot poker and bringing a doe, strapped to the hood of the hunter’s car, back to life. (This does not go over well with said hunter.)

Jenny’s curiosity about him grows, even as he shows her that she will not be leaving him, no matter her kidnap scribble on a bathroom mirror. There are the usual language confusions, delivered in classic Bridges’ deadpan style: “Take it easy”; “up yours”. She teaches him to read the map in case something should happen to her because she is still planning on escaping. But seeing him be beaten by the hunter and his buddies changes her mind and now she rescues him.

The police almost catch up with them at a Holiday Inn, Jenny is hit by a police bullet, there’s an explosion at a roadblock and he walks out of the fire carrying her.

By now, we’re at Grand Junction, CO, where they’ve hitched a ride in a mobile home. He has two marbles left, uses one to revive her from the bullet wound, then gets a ride, leaving her at a truck stop. Of course, she finds a ride to follow. There’s another road block, another explosion, and they’re hitching a ride in the back of a truck. Rain, wet clothes, boxcar, wet clothes off, they make love. He “gives her a baby”, although she’s told him she can’t have children. He tells her the child will be the human Scott’s child but will know all that Starman knows and be a teacher.

They’re so happy with each other on the train that they overshoot their mark and land in Las Vegas. Nothing for him to jigger a slot machine and with their new found wealth, they buy a Cadillac and take off again.

Are you exhausted yet?

There’s an eventual meeting with Shermin at a coffee stop where Starman tells him that we’ve been visited before and that we are a “strange species,” at our very best when things are worst. But he’s slowing down and dying. Shermin helps them escape and they arrive—finally—at Meteor Crater. There’s all the usual chase staples that we’ve come to expect from this genre—helicopters, the mother ship, the red beam, the final kiss and “I love you”, and the hand-off of the last marble which the baby will know what to do with.

And Jenny Hayden is alone once more.

I love old and older movies for many things, but chiefly the glimpses back into the way it was. There are no cell phones. They read a MAP to get to Arizona. The Amoco gas station is full service. Remember that? Amoco? Full service?

So how did STARMAN hold up for me? As a piece of science fiction, not as well as I had hoped. CGI has spoiled us all. As a romance, I think it did better. Two strangers, trapped in a car, a road trip, the slow growth of trust and then love. Call me sentimental, but I’ll give it a B+.

STARMAN is available on DVD in several iterations and for instant streaming by Amazon Prime members. Or, you could get lucky and find an original VHS tape for a dollar at your local library’s used book sale.
From Kay Sisk

REVIEW: The Body Thief by C.J. Barry

Jane — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:25:17 +0000

Dear Ms. Barry:

In my hunt for more shifter books, I came across your November title. I had heard good things about you in the past. Your book, Body Master, won the 2011 Winner of RomCon’s 2011 Reader’s Crown for Best Sci-Fi, Futuristic or Time Travel. Reader’s Crown was a reader judged contest and I thought I would give this second book in the Shifter series a try.

Camille Solomon is a Shapeshifter, a being from another planet who has come here with other Shifters to begin anew after being forced off other planets. The number of shifters is very small and they are largely feared or hated by humans and with good reason. Shifters can take the form of any human so long as they have the human’s DNA. This has led to shifters assuming the identity of humans and wreaking havocs with the stolen person’s life. Griffin Mercer, a XCEL agent, was the victim of a Shifter identity theft. The Shifter took over Griffin’s life, ruined his marriage, killed his partner, destroyed his career, and took down his credit rating. Griffin’s only chance at redemption is this project which is to find Shifters who may be destroying property.

Griffin’s career is supposedly in ruins but he is charged with leading a huge task force to bring down Cam and then coerce her into hunting other Shifters. This operation is for “national security” and under the auspices of the Director of EXCEL, Roger Harding. Roger is the villain in this book but as a villain he’s fairly cartoonish and I think part of the problem is the inconsistency and unbelievability in the worldbuilding that leads to Roger as a caricature instead of a character.

In chapter one, Griffin notes that the orders that he carries out came from a special senate committee and that “His assignment had come from the above Harding’s big head, and that’s really why Harding hated him.” Yet, throughout the book, Harding answers to no one and runs XCEl as his own little fiefdom, declaring agents as “outlaws” (perhaps a riff off the Mission Impossible movies) and ordering killings. Griffin, whose orders and assignment come from above Harding’s head according to chapter one, decides to go rogue in effort to discover the truth behind the role that he has been given by Harding.

Every time Harding would engage in an act so outside the purported interests of XCEL, I kept wondering why he wasn’t require to report to any one given that this project of national security came from people above him. In other words, how was he carrying out this massive chemical warfare of genocide without it getting to the people who actually were in charge? Who was funding it? In only a year, he was able to get some scientists to develop a chemical that would adversely affect Shifters, an alien population?

Most of the first 60% of the book consists of Cam and Griffin going out each night and looking at ruined property sites and thinking to each other that the elements in the scenes aren’t making much sense. I found this part of the book incredibly boring. It actually took me three weeks of dedicated effort to even finish the book.

It wasn’t just the weak worldbuilding which only involved science fiction tangentially in that Cam is a Shifter from another planet and instead was much more of a boring police procedure novel which involved good Shifters trying to take down a megalomaniac whose goal was to bring down the tiny Shifter population. It was the writing itself. The prose contained cliche after cliche:

Playing with fire had always been one of her favorite pastimes. Besides, she was in full control and held all the cards.
So much for having the upper hand. This wasn’t her first rodeo.

The dialogue reminded me of bad cop shows:

“Yeah. Didn’t catch your name.”

“Don’t give one,”

There was misused verbiage:

I didn’t ask to be born this way. I didn’t ask to be dumped here on your pithy little planet with its pithy little people. You all think you’re so special.

Your terse little planet? Your concise little people?

Cam was the more interesting of the two. She was forced into hunting other Shifters against her will. They have captured her father and she decides that she’ll participate in their project so long as they will search for her brother. She needs him to save their father. She struggled with acceptance of her own Shifter identity. At one point, she says that she feels her Primary Shifter body was ugly. She expressed distaste at being a shifter at all and her character arc includes coming to terms with her gifts, her race, and growing her self esteem. But most of that character arc was buried under the mundanity of the plot.

There was some discomfiting racial depictions. In Cam’s primary Shifter form, she was all black, a blank canvas:

Her Primary form was a charcoal black humanoid-like body that was just female enough to be interesting. Her skin was smooth and tough, like a formfitting bodysuit. Her face was more delicately featured than the male Shifters he’d seen, her body leaner, and her frame tall and leggy. In Primary form, shapeshifters were like blank canvases.

Later, Griffin thinks of Cam:

In Shifter form, black skin muted her features. But in his mind, he saw her red hair and ivory skin.

Cam, herself, finds her Shifter form ugly but was she only beautiful to Griffin with red hair and ivory skin? Later he says that he doesn’t find her ugly in any form and there isn’t any mention of her skin again. I’m unsure what to make of it.

In all, I found this to be a disappointing and fairly boring science fiction/fantasy romance. C-

Best regards,

Jane

What Jayne has been reading and watching in early October

Jayne — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:00:42 +0000

A lot of my time the past week or so has been taken up with washing machine repairs and acclimating my new kittens to their new home. Guess which has been more fun. But I have gotten a little reading and movie watching squeezed in now and then.

Flawless by Carrie Lofty – A book about a bastard heroine involved in the diamond trade in south Africa in the late 19th century. How more interesting can a premise be? Not much in my opinion which makes the fact that I gave up 150 pages into the story that much more disappointing. Lust, lust, lusting and more lust filled most of those first 150 pages and really nothing was shown of Viv’s diamond business until page 125. By that point, I found I didn’t care. Oh, and the chummy relationship the heroine and her Viscount husband appear to have with the servants aided things not at all. DNF.

Heart Strings and Diamond Rings by Jane Graves – Funny, filled with realistic dialog and featuring four cats. I went into it with no expectations but had a lot of fun reading this one. Enough fun that I plan to go back and read the preceding books at some point. Full review to come.

Lawman by Laurie Grant – This is another Harlequin Treasury reissue. It’s 1869 Texas and Cal Devlin is finally returning to the hometown he left to fight for the Union. Livy Gillespie is the girl who not only didn’t wait for him but who ordered him off when she learned whom he would fight for. Now they’re both older, wiser and scarred from what happened in the years between. This is a slower paced book from 1997 and one which, after I got used to that, I found myself enjoying. Full review to come.

Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey – Darlynne mentioned this novel in our last Open Thread for Readers and the excerpt she provided got me to try it. Stark (called Sandman Slim while he was “Downtown”) is back from 11 years in hell, literally, and he’s out for revenge against his former friends who sent him there and specifically the ones who killed the only woman he’s ever loved. Fast and filled with biting humor and fantastic one liners, this one started great then wound down a little as it went on. Kadrey avoids big info dumps, allowing us to discover Stark’s world and his past as we go along which I liked. Rules for this world are laid down then broken plus all sorts of new paranormal creatures are introduced as the story goes along which I didn’t like. Also, Stark is revealed as not quite what he and we thought he was. I plan to read the next book in the series since I already have it but it will determine how much farther I go with the series – providing the series goes past two books. B

I’m now reading the new Kathy Love paranormal Devilishly Hot, the Nora Roberts contemporary The Next Always and Addison Fox contemporary Baby It’s Cold Outside arcs. So far, I’m liking but not loving the first two and have just started the Fox but so far, so good.

*****

Paul – In my review of “Hot Fuzz,” Maili mentioned that she views that film – as compare to “Shaun of the Dead” – as an embarrassment for Pegg and Frost. It wasn’t for me but after viewing this movie, I understand what she’s saying. In “Paul,” Pegg and Frost play two Englishmen on holiday to the US. They’re SF fans and after attending Comic-Con and various SF pilgrimage sites in the US Southwest, they come across a real space alien who is running for his life from MiB. As they try and help him to reach a place where a space ship can pick him up, they run across various other characters including a Fundamentalist young woman with whom Pegg falls in love. Parts are funny but the film is overloaded with puerile humor and is obviously Out. To. Make. A. Point. about Fundamentalist Christians – who are mocked – and beer guzzling rednecks – who are humiliated. I’m far from Fundamentalist but this part went beyond any amusement. Beer guzzling rednecks, on the other hand, can be humiliated until the cows come home.

Amazon Instant Rental

Ondine – Darlynne recommended this film to me and I wish I could say I enjoyed it but sadly I couldn’t even finish it. Syracuse, an Irish fisherman, brings up a mysterious lovely woman in his net while out working. She can’t remember anything about her past and nice man that he is – where are these men in my life? – he takes her to his deceased mother’s country cottage to stay. His young daughter Annie is one of these preternaturally wise young characters who quickly starts to imagine the woman is a selkie – even though those are Scottish and they’re in Ireland. This is basically as far as I got – 40 minutes into the film – when I just couldn’t take not understanding one word in three of the dialog. Irish accents are lovely to listen to, so they are, but only if you can figure out what the hell is being said. Since it only comes with Spanish subtitles, I was out of luck. One part I did really like was Syracuse’s time spent in at confession with his parish priest played by Stephen Rea.

Amazon

Stray Dog – This is a fairly early Akira Kurosawa film done shortly after the end of WWII. A Tokyo detective has his service Colt stolen while on a crowded bus. Humiliated, he works to track down the criminal who has rented the gun from an underworld gangster and suffers shame and guilt as that man’s crimes escalate. Part police procedural, part film noir, part view of life in post war Japan, I found myself riveted to it and to Toshiro Mifune as the young policeman who took one path in life while the criminal, who suffered many of the same setbacks in life, took another.

Amazon

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer – “Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone and Richard Cromwell head the cast as a trio of British soldiers in this sweeping saga set in colonial India. While stamping out an insurrection in the country’s northwest frontier, the men wrestle with one another. They also struggle with their internal dissonance. The adventure film racked up eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Henry Hathaway) and Best Screenplay.” I rented this because it’s such a famous film but at the 30 minute mark I hit the pause button then sat there thinking “I’m not enjoying this. It’s boring. I’m tired of Cooper’s character harshing on one soldier while exchanging snarking comments with Tone’s character. Meanwhile the rest of the cast is either doing the ‘stiff upper lip, old boy network’ thing or barking commands at the natives.” That’s when I decided that this is an older film which, to me, just hasn’t stood the test of time.

Amazon [VHS]

REVIEW: Veil of Midnight by Lara Adrian

Jane — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:00:05 +0000

Dear Ms. Adrian:

I have to confess that I like the longer wait between your books. In part because some of the past stories, particularly Lucan’s and Tegan’s, wherein the heroes tended to overshadow those around them. This can linger beyond the story. When I picked up Veil of Midnight, enough time had passed that I felt new to the world of the Breeds and the power of the others’ stories had faded.

Veil of Midnight features Nikolai, described as a "combat-lving adrenaline junkie" and Renata, a Breedmate with a powerful gift. Nikolai is sent to Montreal to make contact with Sergei Yakut, a Gen One vampire. Gen One vampires across the world have been the subject of assignation attempts. Most have been successful and Nikolai’s Order is reaching out to gather up a coalition to fight those behind the assignation attempts.

Sergei Yakut is law unto himself and he does not need any protection or alliances to fight off the Gen One killers. He has his own bodyguards including a human female, Renata, who is also a Breedmate. Breedmates are gifted humans who, by some genetic whim, are specially designed to well, breed with the Breed. Given blood from a Breed, Renata and others like her will heal quickly and live nearly an immortal life span. Renata’s gift is the power to zap a Breed’s mind, causing anything from discomfort to death. Her gift is not without consequences. Every exertion of power is met with an equal psychic reverberation.

Renata is owned by Yakut. She cannot escape him and even if she wanted to, she would not because he holds the one thing of value to Renata, a young girl named Mira. Mira is an oracle whose eyes reflect glimpses of one’s future. Mira has immense value but once she loses her power, will become expendable. Yakut holds Mira to keep Renata in check.

Nikolai is able to make contact with Yakut but soon finds that Yakut is corrupt and grotesque. He would like to wipe Yakut out but is ordered not to. He’s unsure about Renata because a glimpse at Mimi’s eyes shows the Renata and Nikolai locked in a passionate embrace. Events conspire to throw Renata and Nikolai together, but Nikolai’s allegiance to the Order is strained by his growing feelings for Renata.

Renata’s story of abandonment and acquisition by Yakut is emotionally powerful as was the suspense of what would happen to her and Mira; whether the two could ever escape to safety. Nikolai’s desire for Renata was also emotionally compelling. What was not as interesting was the actually culmination of the romance. The transition, particularly for Renata, from cold, efficient bodyguard, to "I love you Nikolai, drink from me" lover was rough and abrupt. While the sex scenes didn’t seem forced, the emotional overlay to them did. It appeared that the growth of the relationship was on super sonic speed and didn’t match the natural develop that the characters’ setup seem to call for. I wished that the story were longer and that the resolution didn’t occur so quickly because the characters seemed to be so vibrant.

I also thought that there were shortcuts taken in the plot. For example, at one point, Nikolai gets in trouble for taking action that was inconsistent with the careful thinker that he appeared to be up to that point. It was easy for the reader to see the negative repercussion of his actions and I wondered why Nikolai wasn’t allowed to realize those as well. We weren’t really led to believe that Nik was a shoot first, think second kind of a guy.

I appreciated that the villains were given backstories so that while their actions were heinous, they were also understandable to some extent. This lent an even greater sense of tragedy to the tale and heightened the emotional stakes. This one is tough to grade because I did feel that so much of the story was gripping but the love story left a lot to be desired. I don’t regret reading this story and I am eager to read the next one due out in May but given the struggles I had with the romance, I am going to give it a C+ although it could easily be a B-.

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

REVIEW: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Janine — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:00:45 +0000

Dear Ms. Meyer,

While I didn’t think it was perfect, I did enjoy your first young adult novel, Twilight. So when my fellow blogger Jia was unable to get too far into The Host, a genre-bending speculative romantic thriller and your first book for adults, I agreed to give it a try. The premise of The Host, that of an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” type story but told from the viewpoint of a body snatching alien, sounded interesting and different to me.

I must admit at the outset of this review that I almost never read books this long (600+ pages), because they can seem more like monumental tasks than like invitations for enjoyment. It took me around 120 pages to get caught up in The Host, and for those 120 I feared that a monumental task was what the book would turn out to be. Happily, The Host eventually revved up, and I enjoyed it more than I expected I would in the beginning.

The Host opens with a scene in which an alien known as Wanderer is inserted into the body of her host, a human woman named Melanie. At this point in the story, most of the people on Earth have been taken over by a parasitic alien species whose members refer to themselves as the souls. The souls inhabit the bodies of their hosts and take control of them. They have done so before on other planets and they believe they are making Earth a better, more harmonious place by doing so here.

Wanderer has asked to be placed in the body of an adult, but this presents a big problem for her because Melanie, her host, was one of the last surviving people captured by the seekers (a group of souls who devote themselves to searching out the remaining humans and capturing them so they can be hosts for other souls). Melanie attempted suicide in order to resist capture, and now that Wanderer occupies her body, Melanie’s consciousness refuses to go away. While Wanderer has physical control of the body, Melanie’s consciousness talks back to her and makes her life miserable.

In Melanie’s body Wanderer is bombarded by intense memories and dreams that center around a man named Jared, whom Melanie loved. It turns out that the souls are often drawn to other souls who occupy the bodies of the humans whom the people their own bodies belonged to once loved.

The seekers, and one of them most particularly, are interested in Wanderer’s new memories. It’s their job to capture the remaining humans who have formed a resistance and they believe that the memories Wanderer may have attained from Melanie may contain some knowledge of these humans’ whereabouts.

But when Wanderer attempts to access the information Melanie knew, which should now be available to her, she is blocked by walls that Melanie puts up to protect the humans she loved from the seekers. Wanderer’s inability to do as the seeker assigned to her has requested and provide the necessary information stymies and frustrates her, and she is so caught up in the struggle between Melanie and herself that she is unable to form friendships and relationships.

When the seeker suggests that Wanderer leave Melanie’s body for another human body, and allow the seeker to take over Melanie and mine her memories before killing Melanie, Wanderer is at first upset by the suggestion but eventually realizes she may have no other choice but to leave the body that resists her presence.

But before she takes that drastic step, Wanderer wants to visit the healer who inserted her into Melanie’s body, and see if he can help her. She decides to drive from California to Chicago in order to do so. While on her drive, Wanderer is again assailed by memories that belong to Melanie. She realizes that she may be near the humans’ sanctuary and close to the man she and Melanie both love.

With the help of Melanie, who does not want to die, Wanderer finds the human resistance. But what awaits her there isn’t exactly a warm welcome… and the man she remembers loving treats her as the enemy. Much of The Host is the story of how Wanderer eventually earns the humans’ trust and finds love and acceptance, and how the humans find hope. There is also a romantic tangle unlike any other I’ve encountered in the pages of a book, between Wanderer, Melanie and Jared… and eventually, another man who is thrown into the mix.

I liked that the story focused on the interpersonal relationships and on the moral and sociological issues resulting from the science fiction premise. Your website says that The Host is science fiction for people who don’t like science fiction. While I do like science fiction, I generally lose interest in the long explanations of fictional technologies that one sometimes finds in science fiction, and I appreciated the fact that The Host did not contain any of those. The fact that it was set in our own real world made for an interesting contrast with Wanderer’s alien viewpoint.

It takes about 120 pages for Wanderer to first encounter the human resistance members, and as mentioned before, those 120 pages went by rather slowly for me. My interest was not engaged in that section, and I almost gave up on the book. But after the first 120 or so pages, the plot tightens up and the book becomes quite engrossing. There is a lot of tension from the conflicts between the characters and the internal conflicts in Wanda’s heart. The moral dilemmas at the heart of the story are quite compelling, and in the middle section, the book kept me up until the wee hours of the morning.

There are some very interesting aspects to the souls’ background and the other lives that Wanderer, who is eventually nicknamed Wanda, has experienced. Even the names the souls give themselves and to some of things they’ve brought with them to earth fit the souls’ peaceful personalities, and I really liked these aspects of the worldbuilding.

But at the same time, other aspects of the worldbuilding are weak. For example, most of the souls are peace-loving, and it is not explained why enough of them would choose to be seekers and to hunt down the human fugitives. Nor were the explanations of how and why such a non-aggressive species had set out to conquer other worlds convincing to me.

There were also times, in the last quarter or so of the book, when I felt a little tired of reading about Wanderer/Wanda. All but a brief prologue is written in Wanderer/Wanda’s first person viewpoint, so I’m not sure if my Wanda fatigue was due to the fact that I rarely have the patience for spending so many pages in the POV of a single character (I almost never persist with series that follow the same main character past one or two books), or if it’s because of Wanda’s personality.

In the course of the story, Wanda ultimately becomes so self-sacrificing, sweet and sincere that at times I found her difficult to relate to. I don’t know if this would be a problem for other readers, but I prefer flawed characters and Wanda was almost too good to be true.

Also, though some of the humans initially wanted to kill Wanda, her eventual acceptance seemed too quick and too thorough to be entirely believable to me.

When the ending arrives, as heartwarming as it is (and it is very heartwarming), it is also a little like watching one of Cinderella’s stepsisters trying on the glass slipper — something doesn’t fit right. The problem is that because the body snatching premise is so dark, what I feel I know of how most human beings would respond to something like that seems to me to require a grittier tale and an ending that isn’t quite this sweet.

Combine this factor with the fact that Melanie and Wanda both seemed immature to me (albeit in very different ways), and The Host doesn’t always read like a book for adults — there is something of a YA feel to it.

Still, the concept of telling an “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” story from a body snatcher’s POV is fresh, the plot takes some unpredictable twists, the romantic conflict makes the love story different from any other that I’ve read, and all of these factors make The Host compelling enough to make me feel that I don’t regret reading it. C+ for The Host.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.

REVIEW: Down Home Zombie Blues by Linnea Sinclair

Jayne — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:00:06 +0000

Dear Ms. Sinclair,

Janine loved a book of yours she read a few months ago and that plus the posts asking us to try and review more RSF books is what got me to try “Down Home Zombie Blues.” Like Jane, I’m still not too sure of the title but as a relative newcomer to the genre, the book itself worked well for me.

Yes, you use lots of Star Trek references but it does give a good, quick visual reference for readers and with a book of this length, there’s not much extra room for long drawn out descriptions. Even though it does come off at times as cheating.

You tell us that Jorrie is a 8 year veteran Guardian who’s also got real life experience as an Interplanetary Marine fighting the major enemies of the state. I love that throughout the story, she remains a focused, battle tested warrior though I did get tired of Theo referring to her as his one woman army. She’s faced the worst that her world can throw at her and remains dedicated to her job. Though she’s willing to jettison some of the gen pro regulations when the need arises. She doesn’t do anything out and out stupid to advance the plot and the missteps she makes I think are adequately explained and understandable.

I like the fact that as a policeman, Theo watches, notes facts, waits to get the full picture and doesn’t go off the deep end when confronted with the incontrovertible fact of life from outer space. He stays calm, uses his intelligence and works the problem without making it worse. No silly tantrums, or “I don’t believe this is happening” or “we’re different from all the other Nil tech worlds you’ve encountered.” I like that you do have some dirtballers who want to question things and who act in ways that the Guardians warn Theo they will when confronted with off world advanced technology. I have noticed that in the RSF I’ve read that centers on aliens landing on Earth, there’s a tendency to try to portray us as somehow better than any other Nil tech world. Would we be?

But one major problem I had was how is Vekran so similar to spoken English? I could see that a la Battlestar Galactica we might be distant descendants of ancient space travelers but how can a language which is constantly evolving and which is so totally different from its origins and today is such a hodgepodge from different languages be similar? Okay, it’s your book and apart from some “universal translator” implant, this was an easy way for the inhabitants of the dirtball to understand the aliens but it makes no sense. I can also see why you’d want to avoid mention of any more implants since there are enough of those already and nasty things they are too.

I’m coming at the story from the vantage point of someone who doesn’t read a great deal of SF or RSF and for me in my blissful ignorance, the story worked fairly well (aside from the language). I thought the R was worked well into the SF story and speaking as someone who usually doesn’t like rushed romances, I had no problems with this one. I’m still puzzling that bit out. I thought you kept the suspense up and didn’t obviously manipulate the plot “just where it’s needed” to get what you want and where you wanted it to go. There were enough disadvantages for each side but they were laid out in the beginning and not suddenly mentioned.

Is this the end of this series or will we see more battles between the Guardians and the Tresh? Like Jan, I would have liked to have seen some nuances to the villains. The zombies are not sentient beings and are for the most part totally controlled by computer codes and the Tresh are very two dimensional. The word count for the book is long so maybe you felt the need to cut somewhere and this is what you chose? But as Diana Norman stated in a recent interview, this creates villains who don’t caste a shadow. Overall though, I was happy with my reading experience and do intend to try some more of your stories and other RSF. B-

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in mass market or ebook format.

REVIEW: Your Planet or Mine? by Susan Grant

Jayne — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:43:44 +0000

Dear Ms. Grant,

I started reading your books with the first in “The Star King” series. I fell in love. They were fresh and different. The “Banzai Maguire” book didn’t work as well for me though I applauded the risks you took. I had really hoped to enjoy “Your Planet or Mine?” but despite the great idea it was not to be.

Years ago, young Cavin Far Star accompanied his scientist father on fact finding missions to planets which the Coalition might be interested in taking over. On one of them, he met a young girl who believed in magic, who danced in the moonlight and who captured his heart. Jana Jasper, one of the “First Family of California” Jaspers has all but forgotten the magical boy she met twice when she was nine. All grown up now and carrying on her family’s legacy of public service as the youngest state senator in California, she is determined to get to the bottom of the recent spate of rumors, inuendo, and lies behind the smear campaign against them. The last thing she needs is for a handsome nutcase to follow her around the grocery store in her quest for “Phish Food.” But when he utters a nickname she hasn’t heard in decades, she finally, reluctantly, admits that it’s her magic boy returned to her — though all grown up now himself.

But what he has to tell her, stuns her. And the high tech robot assassin who’s tailing him and trying to kill him scares her. According to Cavin, Earth has finally reached the top of the Coalition’s, the ruling body of most of the galaxy, acquisision list and they’re headed this way to clear out the pesky humans and take over. He needs Jana to get him to her leader and help convince the Earth powers-that-be of the seriousness of the situation. He also needs access to a few things to help him help Earth to change the Coalition’s mind. He also hopes to finally be able to tell Jana what he’s always felt for her. That is, if they survive the many forces out to stop/get them.

As I said, it’s a great idea but one marred by slow scenes, long scenes and too many subplots. I started reading the prologue and kept reading and reading and reading it. After a while, I wondered when it was going to end. After 38 pages, that’s when. Who needs a 38 page prologue? I also felt that it needed a lot of tightening and editing. Scenes dragged on for far too long, long past when I lost interest in them.

And there were too many subplots — did we really need the whole sturgeon subplot and an assassin after Jana? I kept reading the early scenes of this plot thread wondering why the heck I was wasting my time reading them. Well I found out then wondered why you’d wasted pages with this? The fate of the whole world is at stake and as Jana (finally!) said about 250 or so pages into the book, who’s gonna care what happens to the fish when the frickin’ aliens land? You set up a great idea then sandbagged it. Jana learns the aliens are a comin’ and then wastes 48 hours with her state senate subcommittees and having lunch with the family at the cousin’s vodka/caviar bar. And isn’t this First Family of California worried about the public image of them slaming back shots of iced Stoly for lunch? I read this scene in disbelief. And just a personal decorating preference but the sister’s chocolate brown house didn’t make me hungry — it made me depressed. Who wants a totally brown house? Okay, that’s just me and doesn’t really have much to do with the book.

The fact that Jana keeps heading back to places she would be known to go to – her apartment, her senate offices, the family compound — when she’s got a suspicion someone’s after her didn’t raise my view of her intelligence. I mean someone breaks into her apartment, the REEF takes shots at her as she’s first remeeting Cavin and then she heads back to places where anyone following her would then know to go. The scene where grandpa tells Cavin not to be afraid to touch Jana (and the implication is in a sexual way) is just wrong. It was another scene I read in disbelief and with a (not good) shudder.

I read reviews in which people took you to task for reusing so many well known movie plots such as Terminator and Independence Day. Honestly, this didn’t bother me. Actually, when you stuck to these I enjoyed the book the best. Those parts zipped by, kept me interested and made me want to read more. They’re the reason the book gets a C even after all the gripping I did. I just wish there had been more of them.

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in eform.

REVIEW: Alien Communion by Xandra Gregory

Jayne — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 22:00:17 +0000

Dear Ms. Gregory,

What can I say but, my goodness, that was different from what I normally read. Honestly I’m not even sure what caught my attention in the book blurb. I guess I thought this might be some kind of alien mild meld, meeting of two different cultures kind of thing. Well, it’s that and a whole lot of sex more. And since everybody needs to read a two-cocked alien story once in her life and I figured I’d better get cracking.

Dr. Rayne Warren is among the scientists who’ve been chosen to meet with the aliens who have finally openly contacted Earth. They’ve been abducting Earthlings to study for years, Rayne among them, but now are ready for full contact. As it were. Rayne’s field of study is the clinical analysis of human sexuality. And since the aliens seem to have a more openly sexual culture, Rayne is thrilled at the chance to study them. She’s never found fulfillment in any human sexual relationships and as she watches informational DVDs of the aliens’ mating practices, she can’t help but wonder if she could find it with one of them. Imagine, making love with a male who looks and is build like that. Oooohhhhh.

On her next visit to the alien spaceship, Rayne sees the cousin of one of the female aliens she’s come to know during during her abductions. To put it mildly, Rayne thinks he’s hot and is surprised to learn that he’s not taken a wife. Apparently, he’s not ever found what he’s looking for in a mate either. The Alcainians have remarkably lifelike robots and Rayne offers to swap some information with her friend for a chance at a sexual encounter with one. She’s thrilled to finally experience a full orgasm but comes away from it still saddened by the thought that she’ll never feel that intense pleasure again as there’s no chance that the Alcainis would leave her a robot much less that she could ever have a relationship with a real Alcaini male.

It’s later that evening after her sexual encounter that Rayne discovers the fact that certain people in the scientific and military populations fear the Alcainis are here to take over Earth. To thwart that, they decide to inject Rayne with a chemical virus designed to destroy the aliens. Terrified that she’ll bring death to the Alcainis, Rayne escapes them and discovers just who exactly it was she was making love with earlier, Tai’en, her alien friend’s cousin. In fact, he’s come to claim her as his mate. But will they be able to stop the virus from killing all the aliens and can these two forge a relationship despite being from different worlds and having different anatomy?

Wow, two cocked aliens with chameleon skin (always with the capacity for DP sex), empathic group sex, bondage sex, spanking sex, threesomes (with possibility of QP sex), public sex, sex to save humanity and alien worlds, forked tongues that act like Waring blenders when inserted in a certain part of the female anatomy…this one’s got it all. Alas, it’s based kind of on the fated mate mentality. I couldn’t find any real reason given for these two to get together beyond the fact that neither has found a mate on his/her own world. “We’re exclusive! We haven’t found the loves of our lives! Wow! We must be fated and in lurve! Plus we have great sex.” Are these reasons good enough to make Rayne want to leave her planet, venture into a totally alien world in which you explain she’ll have few rights and be viewed suspeciously by the Alcainis? OK, it’s your world but I wouldn’t buy into it.

Another question about something I’ve noticed a lot in other books too: Why do all contemporary earthlings begin to speak in slang and idioms when around aliens or people from earth’s past in TT plots? As soon as they come into contact with these people, they’re firing off every slang turn of phrase you authors can fit into the dialogue. Is it to show up the differences between them? After your descriptions of the aliens and their sexual positions, I get that they’re not Earthlings.

Then there’s the tired standard that all the heroine needs is two huge cocks to let her sexuality loose and become a “full” woman. Up until then, she’s never felt complete as a woman but after only one 15 minute encounter, she’s raring to go. Though, unlike the story that Bam reviewed, the heroine won’t *always* have to get it anally as hero seems to be capable of either dual or single action response. Though the sex scenes shown mostly use dual action it’s nice that they have options!

I think the story works better on the erotica level though I give you credit for trying to craft an actual story plot to weave around the sex scenes. And you do include a lot of those and many different variations. B for the erotic elements and C for the rest.

~Jayne

Alien Communion can be purchased through Liquid Silver Books.

REVIEW: Breeder by Lyssa Hart

Jayne — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:00:50 +0000

Dear Ms. Hart,

Hallelujah you’ve published something again. After reading, and enjoying, “The Forest Whispers” and “The Assassin’s Blade” two years ago, I’d almost given up on seeing anything anything else from you. I was a very happy person when I saw this newest story out.

Mali lives in a primitive world where mere survival is a challenge. Over the years, something has affected the fertility of not only the land but the people as well. Any woman who can possibly conceive is obligated to attempt it with any man available to act as a breeder. Mali’s problem is that there are no more men in her village capable of it. When a stranger is captured and dragged there, she’s insulted when he acts insulted to be offered the chance. Instead of jumping at the honor, he has to be chained down for her to attempt to take his seed. Not that she’s much good at it since she’s never had any experience.

Things go from bad to worse when the village elders discover who he is and decide to kill him. Thinking it’s a worse crime to execute this man than face any possible retaliation from him, Mali decides to free him. She has no idea what she’s letting herself in for or how it will completely change her life.

I think “Breeder” more closely resembles “The Assassin’s Blade.” The heroine is more a pawn of those around her and subject to the will of a powerful man than the kick-ass heroine of “The Forest Whispers.” Not that Mali is a weak character but she’s got far less autonomy. She also spends a lot of the book in a flustered state and reacting rather than proactive.

The first half of the story is very descriptive and I got a good feel for the world you were creating. However, when the action changes place, I got a little lost and didn’t think I had as good a grasp on the new people or places. In addition, Jaegar almost completely disappears as the narrative focuses on Mali and her reactions. It makes for some poignant scenes for her but I found his excuse for leaving her alone to be lame. I do like the way you ended the story (ie not everything is all sunshine and harmony for Mali) and that after you gave him the nickname, Jaegar the Ruthless, you actually made him (in certain instances) ruthless. I did have some problems with the editing. There were a few dropped words and in one place, the ruler of the area states that he’s there to “bring the area to heal.” Shouldn’t this be “to heel?”

So, while I’m glad to see you back in the authorial saddle, “Breeder” won’t overtake my favorite story of yours. B- for it.

~Jayne

REVIEW: Forest Whispers by Lyssa Hart

Jayne — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 22:00:36 +0000

Dear Ms Harte,

I was checking out New Concepts ebook site, looking at some of the offerings and decided to take a chance with Forest Whispers. I’m glad that I did. It’s got a strong heroine who’s always had to fight to earn her place but one who can change her stance on men when she meets one who deserves it. The hero never comes over all alpha and dominant but he’s quite a warrior and ready to defend what he cares for.

There isn’t an apostrophe or hyphen to be found in any of the names and the story makes sense. It’s short (eight chapters and an epilogue – but no babies) so there are some things that you hint at but don’t really have time to explain that I would have enjoyed reading about in more detail. The world building is sketchy but adequate for the length of the story. The violence against women is hinted at except in one spot and even then we only get a brief description of the aftermath but the “take down the villain” scene is told as it happens. The sex is hot and graphic but not nasty. All in all, I enjoyed the story and hope you get more books published. B for you.

~Jayne