———-

Pardon the cheesy introduction, but to review one of Shakespeare’s greatest works, it seemed a parody of the play’s best known soliloquy would be a fitting introduction. Not to mock what some critics consider English’s greatest accomplishment, but to highlight how in many ways this view of Hamlet being perhaps the epitome of English literature has changed over time. Whether or not this new level of criticism is a good thing is a different article completely (one that should be on the site soon). But after reading two different editions of the play, I’ve concluded that while Hamlet is deserving of some of its praise as one of the best works ever produced in the English language, it’s far from the perfect play.

While subsequent generations of directors, actors and actresses have brought new life, new intensity and new interest to the play, there is of course a difference between watching and acting a play and reading one. To some degree this duality in how you can read a play and how it’s performed can vary depending on how the writer has structured, paced and characterized the characters in his play. There is a difference between how actors embody their character and treat the script and how one’s mind imagines the characters and treats the script.

The play overall tells the revenge story of Prince Hamlet in his quest to avenge his father’s death. A quest that shows off a cocktail of emotions in the young prince and the play’s supporting characters, as well as five acts of well-crafted storytelling. Great features to keep an audience entertained, but features that become tedious for readers of the play. Five long acts can translate well onto a TV screen, if like me you enjoy the Kenneth Branaugh’s four hours of Hamlet. When reading through page after page of Hamlet’s all talk and little action soliloquies, it rather turns reading into an exercise in patience and concentration, which can detract from enjoying the play.

Shakespeare’s plays have been called timeless by some. It would be easy for a teacher to highlight how really Hamlet is just the story of a disgruntled teenager whose recently single mother remarries with her son having to deal with a new father figure who he detests. For the modern audience there are other elements that also make it relatable, yet features that can likewise detract from the play. Hamlet as a character is what some teenagers would refer to as an “emo”. An emotional kid, who likes to talk about their pain and misery, yet does nothing about it but wallows in self-pity.

That interpretation of the character, at least on paper, is someone accurate. Given really how Hamlet’s dialogue is often filled with self-fulfilled rage and philosophical pessimism makes him a character that at times is hard to relate to. Not only that, but the plays’ lack of pacing for a reader showcases the use of language and conventional Renaissance style, which becomes quickly excessive for some readers like myself.

While certain metaphors and imagery stick-out and are recognizable, it is the quantity of such figurative language that overdoses the reader. It can also desensitise the reader to the emotion and ideas which the words want to evoke in them. Words become as Hamlet later says to Polonius, “words, words, words”. Words become the source for an overly dramatic performance created within the mind of the reader, who even with knowledge and experience of an actual stage-performance of the play, may quickly bore and find themselves losing interest.

It seems many people not familiar with the play know of it mainly due to its end when pretty much the whole royal family and court are wiped out in a series of dramatic stage deaths. Perhaps from at least a reader’s point of view, a testament to the overly complex and sometimes alienating works of Shakespeare.

However, Shakespeare of course intended his plays to be watched and not read. Considering the time and style of Renaissance drama it is not surprise that it can sometimes be alien and disconnected from the interests and mindset of the modern reader. Yet from my experience at least, I have found other Shakespeare plays better and more fulfilling reads.

The link below is for a sketch by Rowan Attinkson and Hugh Laurie which deals with the monologue which I parodying above. Enjoy and look out for the article on what I call the ‘Hamlet Effect’.

A Twitterview with Terri Giuliano Long, author of In Leah’s Wake

*twitterview conducted by Novel Publicity

You can tweet Terri @tglong. Please do! To learn more about twitterviews, go here.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the In Leah’s Wake Kindle edition has dropped to just 99 cents this week. And I can win $100 too if you vote for my blog over on the author’s website. The blog host that gets the most votes in this traffic-breaker polls wins, so please cast yours right after purchasing In Leah’s Wake!

Deadline is the zombie book of 2011, and the political horror-thriller of the year. This is the second book in Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, and the book is just as strong as, if not stronger, than Feed. The political intrigue that started in Grant’s debut book only gets stronger, deeper, far more complex, and Grant proves that she is a master of the genre. In Deadline, we learn more about how Kellis-Amberlee has developed since the Rising in 2014, and we learn that even when faced with the most uncertain of futures for mankind, people will still think only of themselves.

Shaun Mason returns with his Newsies, Irwins, and Fictionals with a bang. Kelly, a CDC researcher, fakes her own death and shows up on his Oakland doorstep with fascinating news about the virus that lies dormant in everyone, and danger follows immediately behind her, throwing off the fugue Shaun and company have been in since the death of their leader (and Shaun’s sister) Georgia Mason during the Ryman campaign in Feed. The staff of the After the End Times barely manage to stay one step ahead of the people out to completely destroy them, shedding people they love and ideals they hold dear along the way. Life after the Rising doesn’t have much room for people lacking in cynicism, Grant reminds us, and looks can be so very deceptive…

This aspect of the Newsflesh world has a lot of corruption, a very large and brilliant underworld, and the development of Kellis-Amberlee as a manmade abomination of nature is just about impeccable. Additionally, Grant has zero qualms about killing off or otherwise maiming characters that we have grown to love, and Deadline is no exception to the rule. Add in a conspiracy that spans the globe and threatens to take over everything we hold dear, even our own meager existence in a world almost overrun by zombies, and… Well. Mira Grant’s Feed was one of NPR’s top 100 science fiction books of 2010, and Deadline is well on its way to knock Feed out of the water. This scifi tale is more science than fiction, and the world Grant portrays is such a realistic dystopia that it catapults her into a league with Orwell, Bradbury, and Atwood.

If you’re convinced we will engineer our own destruction and bring about the zombie apocalypse, or you wonder if science fixing everything may not be the best idea… I recommend the Newsflesh trilogy. Deadline is the perfect followup to Feed, and Blackout is out June of 2012. Rise up while you can….

What they learn turns their world upside down. The Yellow Cross are invading, and the man who came out of the rift, Lysander, has a slew of information that can save Earth from the invasion. Charlie is the only one who believes what Lysander has to say about the invasion, and proves to be his only ally until the tides turn enough that the rest of the team falls in line with Lysander. Lysander is the only one who can close the rift, however, and the clock is ticking…

This is a beautifully-composed scifi story, complete with plenty of action, strange and wondrous creatures, and more than just a dash of romance. Craig weaves a tale like and unlike ‘The Thing’, with realistic monsters, an alien race, and a threat that has been a long time in coming. Antarctica is the perfect setting for an alien invasion, with its moonlike landscape, but Craig picks the reader up and dumps them in the middle of the frozen land, makes them fight for the completion of the story.

The seven characters in this story are anything but heroes, saviors of the world. They’re ordinary men and women who volunteered for what’s quite possibly the coldest, most unpleasant job possible, who remind the reader that we are all made of sterner stuff. We simply have to find what we feel is worth fighting for.

I highly recommend this book, as long as you’re an adult and don’t mind things to be really graphic (violence and sex both are graphically, viscerally described in this book). It’s an Earth-set scifi story that will have you in its grip from start to finish. Saving the world is never an easy job, but this is a new spin on that very old story. Pick up A Line in the Ice today; you will not regret it.

———-

Go on, admit it. As you meander through the aisles of your local book-nook, certain cover art catches your eye. You might be drawn to it for any number of reasons: simplicity, color scheme, nostalgic design—or an indefinable quality that you just can’t put your finger on. Humans are fickle. We like what we like, for whatever reason we like it. We channel our inner Magpie, making countless purchases based solely on the initial draw of the product. If it doesn’t work out later, so be it. But in the face of glamour, glitter, and other such nonsense, we become stupefied.

But isn’t it wrong to judge a book by its cover? Of course it is! Didn’t your mother teach you any manners? Shame on you! I didn’t say we should judge a book by its cover—I just said we do. We can’t help it. Visual stimulus draws us toward things that under any other circumstance, we would avoid like the plague. A prime example of this principle is Disneyland. Why on earth would anyone in their right mind pay thousands of dollars to go to a mediocre amusement park? The food is terrible, you wait in line for hours –in ungodly heat and humidity—for rides that last less than five minutes, and you have to take out a second mortgage to afford it.

So, why do we do it? That’s easy. We do it because when that big, beautiful blue castle comes into view, with its spiraling turrets and multi-colored Cinderella mural, our brains block all logical thinking processes and we get swept up in the magic. If you ask me, Walt Disney was a genius. An evil genius, but still…

Think about it this way: if your book were wine, would you want it with the Beringer’s $6.99 White Zinfandel? Me, I’d want it with the Dom Perignon. More specifically, I’d want it with the Moet & Chandon Champagne Cuvee Dom Perignon Rose that sells for over $900.00 a pop.

Well sure, everybody would like to be shelved with the best, but is that realistic? Probably not; but I do encourage you to look at the rough draft of your cover art and ask yourself, If I saw this book, with this cover on the shelf, would I give it more than a passing glance? If the answer is no, then you need to have a talk with your cover artist. Believe me; they want to work with you. They want you to fall in love with your cover just as much as you want readers to fall in love with your book. And in most circumstances, they are willing to work with you to reach a place where everyone is happy.

Cover art is important. It is the gateway to your literary amusement park. It is the label that assists in determining the value of your piece. Granted, work needs to be able to stand on its own merit, but if nobody buys it, then it’s really worth nothing (speaking purely in terms of market value). It might be the most profound piece ever written, but without an audience, it’s nothing more than a carelessly scribbled grocery list, forgotten on the fridge, under the cheap Mickey Mouse magnet brought home as a souvenir.

Despite having a very sure idea of the type of poetry I enjoy however, I do (from time to time) take pleasure in picking up a book from someone I have never read before. In this case, it was a copy of ‘Rhapsody For Lessons Learned Or Remembered’, by Georgia Ann Banks-Martin.

As I’m prone to do, I first opened this anthology at a random page and proceeded to read ‘Early Morning’, a poem about walking with man’s best friend first thing…well, in the morning. What struck me straight away was how relatable the speaker in this particular poem is. I don’t own a dog myself, but I have had my auntie’s King Charles Spaniel prop his head on my lap whilst I’m working, “as if it were a pillow.”

Intrigued, I decided to read from the beginning. I have always liked the quote from Francis Bacon, that “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Rhapsody is certainly the latter. As much as I wanted to read every poem straight away and more or less devour each of them, I instead found myself closing the book in order to consider what I’d just read, or indeed, re-reading the poems.

Banks-Martin is a beautifully visual poet, there’s no doubt about that. I could see each item clearly in my mind’s eye, and at no point was there a hint of awkward word placing, which meant there were no uncomfortable jolting back into the ‘real world’ until the item had been finished. The work is also emotive, but in a sort of abstract way. You find yourself rooting for the speakers, or wanting to know more about them than the brief snapshots they offer.

I’m very picky when it comes to poetry, as anyone who read my Seamus Heaney review will no doubt have already realised. All I can really say about this piece of work however, is “stop dawdling and go and buy it.” The poems themselves may not be life-changing in the sense that they aim to change your perceptions of huge issues such as religion, love or politics (and suchlike). Nor are they all of the same quality (indeed, one or two unfortunately fall short of rave reviews). They’re however, snapshots of lives that instead stop and make you ponder. And on the whole I have to say that I’m rather impressed with the anthology.

Now please excuse me whilst I go and re-re-read my personal favourite poem of the lot, “The Persistence of Time.”

“The only difference between
me and a madman
is that I’m not mad.” – The Persistence of Time, Georgia Anne Banks-Martin

-Shudders-

The story opens with a group of teenage females carefully hijacking an important military space ship. In order to get away from their pursuers, they flight right into an ‘aether crease’. That is, a fold in space (huzzah, science fiction! Oh how I missed that sort of thing.), and essentially get spat out on the other side of the galaxy. What follows is a surprising story with a lot more elements that I had initially anticipated.

I will have to admit however, that this novel falls into the same problem as most other pieces of sci-fi. That is, it’s rather difficult to get into at first. Not because the story itself is boring – if anything, by the end I didn’t want to read the book, I just wanted to /devour/ it…I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough – but because on top of the obligatory difficult-to-pronounce names, there are also a lot of original terms. There’s a glossary in the back of the novel, which was a nice touch to help the reader out instead of expecting them to figure things out by themselves…but it breaks up the flow of the text, which is a shame when it does so well in keeping up a decent (although in some parts, a little too quick) pace.

Dialogue in this book is – despite the odd terms – surprisingly realistic. Part of it had me smirking at the witty banter between two of the main characters, since it reminded me of conversations I’ve had with my own friends. Any author who can write good dialogue consistently ought to be applauded just for that, since it’s where the majority of authors tend to have weak spots.

The most obvious things to note about the novel, is the fact that in the universe where it is set, both genders are female. The gender split itself is signified by hair colour (blonde for ‘women’, brunette for ‘men’, naturally). But although digs are made at what they call ‘mascul’ species (men, essentially), I couldn’t help but to chuckle at their point of view. Perhaps I took it a little too light-hearted, but I (thankfully) didn’t get the impression that the author was having any particular digs at men.

There are other themes, too. Parallels between the east/west divide on our own world…“I get it. I’m only a shallow Westrenne…”, as well as a closer look into gender norms, and even the role of tradition and religion versus ‘barbarism’ and mechanisation.

It’s also a surprisingly effective coming of age story. This theme isn’t particularly something I had ever thought to associate with the genre before, and although I did have to remind myself once or twice that the protagonists were rather young, I think Matchei has a very solid base from which to—

Was that sudden stop mildly irritating? You were just getting into the swing of the paragraph and suddenly you had to stop? Suffice it to say, I could quite happily have read twice the pages this book had to offer.

Despite the mild pacing issues (too quick in places, and not a lot of room to breathe since things happen so swiftly) and the fact that – although the characters were likeable and all individual – more could have been made out of the protagonists, I have to admit that I am eagerly awaiting the second book in the series.…although I still don’t know whether I would recommend this book to mascul–sorry…men.

What Gods Would be Theirs? is a politically charged coming-of-age novel set in the opulence of Northlake, an affluent community that sets even the Lake Travis area to shame. Preston Wiley is your stereotypical spoiled brat rich child; he’s oftentimes found on the family yacht on the lake, or taking all sorts of psychedelic drugs whilst drinking simultaneously. Life for a rich kid is pretty much set in stone in the Northlake community – you go to college, you follow in daddy’s footsteps, or you marry someone rich. Life in Northlake is interrupted, however, by two of the high school’s more polarized English teachers.

Gavin McBride did a stint in the Peace Corps, where he learned that the world is not as ideal and perfect and easy to fix as he’d like it to be. Laird Hardin is disillusioned with the life he’s found himself in, no longer wanting to be teacher, husband, father, and instead wanting to return to the fun days of his years in the Air Force. For one, Preston is the teacher’s aide; the other is his senior year English teacher. McBride and Hardin each set out in their own ways to influence the thinking of their impressionable young students, but it is the radical ideas of Gavin McBride and his YouTube monologues declaiming current events that set Northlake, a conservative community, on edge, splitting an otherwise peaceful community into factions of liberal vs conservative, old vs young, wolf vs sheep.

Each teacher buckles under pressure from the Northlake community, but in different ways (and I’m not about to give away the denouement of a fantastic novel set in a world parallel to the one I went to high school in). What spoiled Preston takes from the culmination of ideals is surprising when one considers the young man’s background and influences growing up.

No matter what you believe, McBride and Hardin are powerful in their own rights, with convincing debate as to why their side is the right one, and the reader is left, like Preston, to draw their own conclusions from what each teacher has to say. It’s fairly obvious from his portrayal of the conservative camp in Northlake that Shanafelt is more liberal than not, simply because that portrayal borders on propaganda rather than real, but even the most conservative of readers will walk away from this book thinking just a little differently about why they believe what they believe. I highly recommend this book as one that will leave you pondering the novel’s theme long after you’ve finished the pages, commend Shanafelt on his debut novel, and eagerly await what else he has to teach the masses.

So, reader… Are you a leader or a follower? Better yet, what gods would be yours?

Most of my collection was either lost, loaned out and never returned, or badly damaged in some of my many moves over the years. So, I had considered replacing the books – someday.

Someday came with my new Kindle. The Pern series is available for Kindle and my initial purchase is, of course, the first book in the series.

It has been many, many years since I read these books. Sometimes you wonder if the books are still going to be “as good” now that I’ve all grown up. I was young, impressive and the books are from so long ago. Will they stand the test of time? Having re-read some other science fiction books and knowing that some of them can disappoint since the technology has gone so beyond those early visions, there is that caveat with any book.

But Dragonfight did not disappoint! The advantage here is that the Pern series is Fantasy Science Fiction. It doesn’t matter how old the technology is, the fantasy overrides the technology, which remains timeless and enduring.

As a quick synopsis of the book with no spoiler, the story focuses on Lessa, last rightful heir to Ruatha Hold. She hides in rags and filth to survive to avenge her family’s deaths. She is a powerful telepath, can speak with the animals of the Hold and she waits her time to strike.

In the meantime, the Dragonriders of the last Weyr are on a Search for a woman who will bond with the single queen dragon egg laid by the late queen. F’lar the dragonrider heads the Search to Ruatha and discovers treachery and an amazing young lady who could well be the woman to “impress” the new Queen. This is important to F’lar, because he is convinced that the Thread threat is returning shortly after a long absence. A strong queen is needed to rebuild Benden Weyr, help him convince the Hold Lords that the threat of Thread is real and save Pern from destruction from Thread.

OK, if none of this makes sense to you, then you obviously have not read any of the books. Maybe this will peak your interest to get yourself a copy and investigate further. But let me stir more interest for you.

Anne McCaffrey is a master story teller. This particular book has been touted as her best in the series, though I would beg to differ. (I think they were all her best!) It is, however, a very strong introductory novel to the series. A little history: this story was published in two parts in Analog science fiction magazine in 1967 and was published in paperback in 1968. The second installment in Analog won the Hugo Award for Best Novella and was nominated for the Nebula Award for best Novella. The second year the book won the Nebula Award and was nominated for the Hugo award again. It says much about the author and her work. A better recommendation could not be made for the author.

The characters are carefully developed and the lead characters are strong and impressive. The dragons are bold, intelligent, humorous and their history is well laid out. The planet’s history is rich, filling and impressive. This books was carefully thought through, and you see this through the entire series. Ms. McCaffrey never falters in her story telling, never leaving loose ends. The stories never get boring. There is adventure, romance and dragons; what could be better?

A few notes on the Kindle version I purchased by Del Rey sold by Random House Digital, Inc. I was very tempted to purchase the trilogy volume (book club edition Del Rey) – the first three novels in one file. However, the many reviews suggested that the typos were hideous and that you would be better off purchasing the books individually. While all the Kindle versions appear to be plagued with typos, I prefer those that do not distract. So I went with the single volumes.

I believe the issue here is that the books were done before word processors, so the books needed to be retyped into files that can convert to Kindle format. And it appears the publishers are not as careful with the Kindle versions as they should be. Some of these books have been out of print in the hard cover version for a long time, as the prices on Amazon for the hard cover versions will testify to.

The most obvious typo was early in the book where Pern was referred to as Peru. I noticed other typos, but not as bad as some of the free Kindle books that are out there. And not as bad as the reviewers for the Trilogy version say are in that particular version.

So, overall, I was pleased with the Kindle experience with this book, and would recommend this Kindle version.

I am also glad I am going back to relive the adventures of the Dragonriders of Pern again. I realized as I read the book that I did miss the adventures; that it had been way too long between reads for me. I am looking forward to the next book.

In what will hopefully be a new, fairly regular feature on the site, I’m going to be covering the various happenings in the world of film, and the trials and tribulations of bringing a much loved literary property from the page to the screen. And what a week we’re kicking off on. The first big news piece is that The Dark Knight Rises, sequel to the immensely popular The Dark Knight, has officially commenced shooting. Deadline has the press release up on their site, which doesn’t state anything we don’t already know. It does however showcase the completed cast list, which really does ley bare the fact that the film contains a quite frankly embarrassing number of Oscar winners, from Marion Cotillard to Morgan Freeman. The PR also states that TDKR will be expanding on the director Christopher Nolan’s use of IMAX photography, after The Dark Knight utilized them in some of the major action scenes in the film. In addition to this news, a photograph of Tom Hardy has emerged as Bane, a villain in the film. He certainly looks fearsome enough, and he certainly has the muscles on him to play the ‘drug enhanced’ powerhouse.

Also on the topic of popular graphic novels coming to the screen with an embarrassment of Oscar winners involved, the first trailer for Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s Tintin adaption has appeared, showcasing the film’s motion captured 3D art, which certainly looks expressive enough, making me almost forget about the dead eyed monstrosities Robert Zemeckis brought us in The Polar Express, as these CG people look wonderfully faithful to Herge’s art, and seem to have functioning eyes to boot, which is almost always the pitfall of these films. The trailer can be found here, with the desert shot in particular proving mighty impressive.

That’s all we have time for this week, but let me know in the comments what you thought of this feature, and what I could do to improve it. I’m happy to take on any criticism, so don’t be shy.