What’re You Reading Now?

(Images courtesy of Amazon.com and Mile High Comics)

I just bought a copy of the latest Harry Potter book last weekend and have been reading a chapter every night before I go to sleep. I guess that I’ll be finishing with it by this weekend. I have to say that I’m enjoying this latest installment to the series as well as the last one. The tone of the story so far is as dark as it was in the last book but Harry was sounded less whiny as he did in the last story. I guess it’s true that the characters are growing up and wiser.

I also have about 3 months worth of DC and Marvel comics that I’ve bought but have yet to read. Among the storylines that I still have to go through are Jim Lee’s “Superman: For Tomorrow”, the 10th Anniversary of the Marvel “Age of Apocalypse” storyline and the recent “House of M” crossovers. I usually spend a whole day in bed just reading my comics during the weekends but for the past few months I’ve had had the chance do that. Now I have a pile of comics in bags at the foot of my bed just waiting for me to read them.

Even with all these items to be read, I still have others books that I plan to get and read soon. One book that I’m really looking forward to get my hands on is “Light Before Day” by Christopher Rice. I’ve read all his previous books and found them to be really enjoyable to read. The copy that I saw at Borders Time Square the other day was a hardcover copy so I’m waiting for a cheaper paperback copy before buy one for myself. I think that the paperback version has been released in the States so I guess it is just a matter of time before they reach the shelves here.

I also saw a copy of Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain” at MPH in Subang Parade the other day. I was quite surprised to see it on the shelves given the subject matter of the story. I need to make sure that I get a copy before the shops get wise to the book and decide to pull it off the shelves. Or maybe they won’t seeing that they are making a motion picture based on the story and will be releasing it by the end of this year. The movie stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as the two cowboys who fell in love with each other and having them both on screen alone would be worth the price of the movie ticket.

Intrigued? A clip from that upcoming movie can be viewed at this site.

Book Review : "Blackwood Farm" by Anne Rice

What would life be like if you could live forever but never again be able to see the light of day without being utterly destroyed by the experience?

Anne Rice gave the world the answer to that question when she wrote her first Vampire Chronicle book, “An Interview with the Vampire”. For the first time in recorded literature history, it was a story told from the point of view of the monster, if you can call her vampire characters that, which has never been thought of before. After the publication of that wonderful work of fiction, the previously single dimensional creatures of dread and loathing had suddenly been given a fresh facet of their existence that paint them as tortured, lonely, sensual and seductive creatures of the night. In that first book, Anne Rice gave the world such compelling characters in the form of the tortured Louis, regal Armand and of course, her greatest literary creation, the incorrigible Lestat who were all quickly embraced by her readers. Many other characters would be introduced in subsequent installments of the Vampire Chronicles, which now number 11 books, but Lestat will remain the constant in all her books including her latest installment entitled “Blackwood Farm”.

In this latest addition to the Vampire Chronicles, we are introduced to Tarquin “Quinn” Blackwood, a young fledgling vampire and master of the titular farm. Even before he received the “Dark Gift” that would turn him into a vampire, his previous life was already deeply entranced in the supernatural by virtue of the ghostly doppelganger who was his constant companion since childhood. This mirror image spirit that he calls “Goblin” has long provided Quinn with protection and companionship but it had turned increasingly violent since Quinn was brought over as a vampire. Fearing for his life and the life of the people he loved, he decided to seek out Lestat irregardless of his warning that no blood drinker was to set foot in New Orleans where Lestat kept his lair. Quinn’s fearlessness and vulnerable honesty intrigued Lestat enough to stay his hand and hear what Quinn had to say to him. Relieved that he was not to be destroyed, Quinn put forth his plea for help to destroy Goblin before he became a menace to his loved one. Further intrigued as well as captivated by this beautiful youth, Lestat listened attentively as Quinn told his story.

It is this story that fills the pages of “Blackwood Farm” and takes the reader through a new adventure populated by some of the most memorable characters to appear on page. Quinn tells the story of how his family came to be and how their magnificent manor was built on the lands of Blackwood Farm. The readers are introduced to a variety of wonderfully memorable characters such as Aunt Queen, the world-traveled matriarch of great gentility with a passion for cameos and high heels, Mona Mayfair, the 15 year old nymphomaniac with a dark family secret that was slowly killing her, and Jasmine, the sensually beautiful and trustworthy employee totally devoted to Quinn. Their story unfolds like an epic Southern gothic story complete with the prerequisite elements of dark secrets, betrayal, death and ghosts that continue to haunt the living. We learn of the ghost Rebecca who haunts Quinn in an effort to solve a long kept family secret. We also learn of how Quinn had been turned into a vampire by the hermaphrodite vampire Petronia, a character so bizarre and fresh compared to the other vampire characters in her canon. The story of Quinn and these characters are woven masterfully and all led up to a somewhat explosive cliffhanger that opens the possibility of a sequel to the story.

In “Blackwood Farm”, we find that Anne Rice returns to the proven format that made her earlier installments of her Vampire Chronicle series a resounding success. Perhaps learning from her mistake of letting another narrate the story of the titular character in “Merrick”, Rice wisely let Quinn have the limelight and tell his story to both Lestat and the readers himself. This literary device is not unlike the ingredient that made “An Interview with the Vampire” a success as it allowed the readers to easily follow the story as it was told to them. This feeling of intimacy between the character and the reader as the story unfolds helps make “Blackwood Farm” an easy and enjoyable read. Rice also pulled all stops by choosing to end each chapter with a cliffhanger that would surely force the reader to want to read the pages that follow. One intriguing difference in this book compared to the others is that the story spans a shorter time frame compared to her previous story due to the fact that Quinn was a fledgling vampire who was not as old as the other members of Lestat’s Coven of the Articulate. While this gave “Blackwood Farm’ a sharper focus to the story, it looses the historic epic span that we have come to know and love in her other works that would usually span centuries.

The characters introduced for the first time in “Blackwood Farm” run the gamut of bland and forgettable to bizarre and memorable. The character of Quinn himself is quite strange in that he continues to share his bed quite innocently with his nurse maid well into late adolescence. I have to say that I did not care too much about the character as Quinn came through initially as a spoilt brat. I actually preferred the character of Goblin who was written quite innocently at first but would later gain a level of increasing malevolence as he grew in strength after Quinn is made into a vampire. Although it was only detailed in a few short chapters, the new vampires introduced in this installment are interesting in that they are older than the other vampires that we know of to date. This new group of vampire lived in Ancient Greece long before the oldest member of Lestat’s Troupe of the Beloved came into being. This opens up the intriguing possibility of another set of vampires that we have not seen or heard off before. Of the characters in “Blackwood Farm” I would have to say that the character of Petronia, the hermaphrodite vampire who made Quinn into a vampire, is one of the most memorable characters that I’ve read about this year.

This latest installment to the Anne Rice’s body of work shares the distinction with “Merrick” of being her attempt to fuse her two popular mythological story lines, her Vampire Chronicles with her Mayfair Witches series, together. I am familiar enough with her vampire series that I could pick up several sly references to previous books of the series that has been inserted in several points in the story. I would guess that references from the Mayfair Witches series would also pepper the work for those who know the stories well enough to recognize them. While previous knowledge of her work from other books of both storylines is not required, it would increase the enjoyment of the book to know some of the previous history that came before. This story is a perfect entry point for those who have never read any of Anne Rice’s works or for those who have long ago left her books behind due to increasing complexity of her previous story continuity. While the ending of “Blackwood Farm” seems a bit contrived and simplified, it does open the door for a sequel to the story that would be doubtless eagerly awaited by her readers.

As a whole, “Blackwood Farm” represents Anne Rice’s successful return to the literary formula that made her famous 20 years ago. An easy, fast flowing and enjoyable read, this book would easily appeal to new readers as well her hard core fans who has been waiting for her to return to what she does best, telling stories that equally enchants and repels the reader with sensual and seductive characters that we wish would come into our parlor to offer an eternity of love and adventure.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

My Love Of All Things Sci-Fi

Finding nothing else to do this past weekend, I found myself rereading my well used copy of “The Complete Robot” by Isaac Asimov. From the very first sentence I found myself rediscovering my love for his work after being away from his books for some time now. My prior absences was partly self inflicted as I wanted to expand my circle of reading materials to non science fiction work so it has been quite some time since I read his wonderful stories. I’ve actually forgotten how much I enjoyed their simplicity and profoundness.

I have always been partial to science fiction literature. I guess that this choice was a logical offshoot of my obsession with the fantastical world of comic books. As a child, I was given paperback versions of classic sci-fi books like “The Time Machine” by HG Wells and “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” by Jules Verne to read. My parents were of course happy to get me these books as it meant, at the time to them, that I was finally ready to be weaned off comic books. Of course they would later realize that my growing obsession with sci-fi literature did nothing to dampen my appetite for my monthly comics fix.

It was from these classic works of science fiction that my reading preference began to develop. I continued to devour all science fiction books that I could get my hand on from either my parents or from the public library. It became the only type of book other then my school textbooks that I would read and enjoy. While other people my age then was reading about the Hardy Boys, I was deeply engrossed in Frank Herbert’s Dune series. While the other boys were reading about how to plan a camping trip, I was learning about the theory of relativity as basis of faster than light travel in science fiction books. It was during this period of literature discovery that I found myself gravitating towards stories written by Isaac Asimov.

I have to say that I can’t remember which story that I read that made me into an Asimov fan. What I remember is that for a time, his work was the only thing that I was looking forward to reading. If I have to put my finger on what it is about his writing that I enjoy, I would say that it was the deceptive simplicity of the way he tells his deeply philosophical stories to the readers. Having getting started in the business as a pulp magazine writer, Asimov had to write succinctly to continue to maintain his readership. His economy of words continued in his latter works even after he stopped writing for the magazine and became a full fledged writer. It was from this early necessity that his writing developed into one that is simple to enjoy and yet has several layers of understanding once you digest it in subsequent readings.

Isaac Asimov is most famous for his “Foundation” series which tells the story of the evolution of a galactic civilization from its humble beginnings. This expansive saga has been told in the form of 3 trilogies for each period of the development. I have yet to complete the final set of trilogy and although the latter books were not written by him personally, others agree that they continue to be true to the spirit of the original vision. The other item that people most often attribute to Asimov is his robot series and especially the “Three Laws of Robotics”. I remember reading somewhere that these three laws have since been included into the core philosophy in the study and development of robotic design in major universities in the world. This is just another example of how science fiction in time does indeed become science fact.

Asimov did live a full and productive life in terms of his writing. His final book “Forward the Foundation” was written months before his health declined to a point too far to allow him to continue writing. In it he writes about the end of an era and the hopeful beginning of a new one that should be embraced with open arms and mind. In a way, he must have known that his time is near as many see his final book as his good bye message to his family and loyal fans. I still remember that on the day that I heard that he had died, I felt like a part of my childhood had went along with him. Fortunately, I still have his books and stories to always remind me how it felt like being a kid in the public library reading about robots and other worlds.

Three Laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
- Isaac Asimov 1942