Book Review: Before I Go To Sleep

One of the things I love best about my wife is that she is not afraid to stop me from doing whatever I’m currently doing and then tell me what I should be doing instead. Okay, maybe that bothers me a little when it comes to chores vs. Videogames, but when it comes to reading, she’s the best.

Case in point, I was about to start Jack Whyte’s The Eagles Brood on Tuesday (which I’ll be reading next week) when she thrust a book at me and said;

“Stop reading whatever you’re reading, you have to read this!”

And then she gave me a copy of S.J. Watson’s Before I Go To Sleep.

Before the review proper – Thanks Hon, you were, as always, right about the fact that I would love the book you suggested, and if it wasn’t for you I’d probably still only be readingDragonlance novels (Sorry Dragonlance lovers, I’m mostly saying that she opened my eyes to a whole new world of genre fiction).

Anyway, Before I Go To Sleep is a first Novel, and like the last first novel I read Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box, it is fun, raw and has introduced me to a very engaging new voice in fiction.

I guess I can explain the novel as follows – think of the 2004 romantic comedy Fifty First Dates, but imagine the story is a thriller and told from the amnesiacs point of view.

I really want to say more, but I don’t want to ruin anything. It is really, really good.

Go read this book.

Things I've Noticed: I'm Starting to become a Zombie Expert

I once heard that if you want to be an expert in anything you need to spend 10,000 hours studying it. When I think of the things I’ve spent even close to that time studying the list gets pretty small (Obvsiously not including my wife, kids, schooling, etc.l.

1) Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

2) Fantasy Stories

3) Horror Stories

4) Science Fiction Stories

5) Reading

6) Watching Television

7) Watching Movies

After that, there are a few things I’ve studied for maybe 5000 hours; comic books, vampire stories, role playing games and zombie-themed horror stories

For Christmas last year I received a Zombie-themed desk calendar, which has been giving me new quotes, books, movies and games related to zombies for the past 47 days. Slowly but surely I’m building my knowledge of zombies in popular culture and this nifty little calendar his given me a lot of interesting starting points.

Now here’s my question for today – we (well, most of us) have losts of chunks of 10,000 hours to go in our lives – what exactly would you like to spend them on towards becoming an expert at?

For me (right now) it’s zombie trivia and knowledge, but eventually I’ll want to add Grandparenting, swimming, and other stuff to the list.

So I’ll leave you with the best advice I can give you on the topic, in the immortal words of any number of zombies...

BRAINS!!!

Read into that what you will.

Genre Character of the Week: Gully Foyle

Sometimes the characters that interest me are those that have such an incredible focus that I can’t help but stare in awe and wonder at what they are doing, Edmond Dantes and Jim Profit both come to mind, but I’ve got to say in all my readings of genre fiction, I have never come across a character quite like the protagonist of Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination, Gulliver Foyle.

Gully starts out as a man adrift, before the events of the novel begin, he is described as a nobody – Education: None, Skills: None, Merits: None, Recommendations: None. But then when his ship the Nomad, is attacked and he lasts as the sole survivor for 170 days afloat in deep space something begins to change. First of all, another ship arrives and he may be rescued, but then for reasons unknown to him the rescue ship simply leaves, marooning him to certain death. Suddenly given a direction in life, Gully begins to change, and the change is spectacular.

Like Jim Profit, Gully is not a nice person – through the course of the book he commits any number of terrible crimes. But his simple drive, to get revenge on those who left him for dead on the Nomad, just keeps me turning the pages.

I suppose at some point I should actually list my top ten Horror, SF and Fantasy novels on my blog – it’s tricky though as there is so much good stuff out there.

One thing I can say for sure however is that The Stars My Destination has been on my top ten list ever since I first read it, and a huge part of that comes down to the character of Gully Foyle.

Movie Review: Chronicle

For the last few weeks I've been watching best picture nominees in preparation for the Oscars later this month, but due to a scheduling conflict today, my mother, brother and I ended up seeing the film Chronicle.

Holy cats - why wasn't I waiting for this film with baited breath?

Honestly, I had never heard of the movie until three days ago when I saw the Roger Ebert review.

The film in a sentence: A Cloverfield-film about three teenaged boys who develop superpowers.

The movie starts out as a kind of fun romp but soon it becomes apparent we are looking at a really well put together film starring three really talented young men (Dane DeHaan - who I loved in season 3 of In Treatment, Michael B. Jordon who was great last year on Parenthood and Alex Russell, who I haven't seen before but will sure keep an eye out for now).

Honestly, I'm going to be buying the movie, and considering it's based on an original story, rather than being adapted from a comic book, I've got to say it's a great super hero origin film as well.

Things I've Noticed: Prepping for Valentine's Day can be tricky

As I’ve mentioned previously, having the perfect Valentine’s Day with my wife can be tricky. Her favourite genre romance film is The Fly (1986), and although I agree that the film is a great look at why you shouldn’t start a romance with a mad scientist, it totally creeps me out, yes me; a card-carrying horror fanatic (make sure to comment on this post if you have any great horror fanatic card designs, right now I just have a dog-eared Garbage-Pail-Kid card to prove my credentials).

So I’ve currently got four days to plan out an amazing Valentine’s day celebration with my lovely bride. Here are the variables:

1) I’ve taken the day off work

2) My wife is not a fan of crowds, so no dinner out

3) My wife is not a fan of me spending a lot of cash on gifts, so I have to keep it small(ish)

4) Both my daughters will see my efforts as acceptable Valentine’s day efforts from potential future boyfriends – so I need to show effort.

5) Most of my favourite romance DVDs of the last few years have been purchased for me by my wife already, so they are not available.

Actually, that’s about all I have right now, as any surprises I have for her can’t be disclosed at this early date due to the fact that she sometimes reads my blog.

Best advice from me? Try to pay attention to your lady’s likes and dislikes and give her a gift that lets her know you pay attention.

Genre Character of the Week: Snake the Healer

Taking a ten-year jump in my Science Fiction reading, from Bug Jack Barron last month to Dreamsnake this month I think I need to take a quick pause and explain my reading choices. As I’ve said in a number of previous posts, I’m currently working my way through a list called Science Fiction: The 100 Best Books by David Pringle, which had me starting in 1945 with 1984 and currently has me beginning the ‘70s with Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero (next month, hopefully), but at the same time I’m working my way through the winners of various genre fiction awards, of which Vonda N. McIntyre’sDreamsnake won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards for best novel. Anyway, this week’s genre character is Snake the Healer.

Snake is a recently graduated healer in a post-apocalyptic world that may or may not have been Earth all along. She begins her story in the desert (like many great post-apocalytic stories do) on the way to doing a healing for a nomad band. Things do not go as planned.

The story is a great example of world building, reminding me of Earth Abides and Lord Valentine's Castle. What causes this book to stand out however, is the characterization of Snake, a woman trying her best to make the world a better place. As she travels through her world (it is never named), she faces a huge number of challenges and I loved exactly how she sorted each of them out, this character is pretty amazing.

Would she be allowed to come and visit my house? Yes, but I would be pretty nervous about the large number of snakes she would bring with her.

A great read.

Book Review: The Woman in Black

One of my favourite parts of being a fan of any genre is when things come together in unexpected ways. Take the book I'm looking at today; the 1983 horror novel The Woman in Black by Susan Hill.

I came to read this book for a number of reasons:

1) My kids love Harry Potter. Daniel Radcliffe stars in the film recent film adaptation.

2) I've spent the last year or so watching my way through the films of Hammer Horror, a prolific horror making company most famous for films in the '50s, '60s, and '70s

3) After nearly 30 years away from making new films, the company started again in 2008, and in 2010 did the remake of Let the Right One In, which I really liked - now they've done the adaption of The Woman in Black

4) In our house we have a standard rule for the kids - if you read the novel - I'll take you to the movie, and as my youngest wanted to see the movie so we got the book.

5) I get to read a book in my favourite Genre, that my kid is interested in, and that has a tie-in movie.

So - to the review; the book is a 160 pages story about an old man remembering an encounter he had with a ghost as a young man.

It freaked me out.

Honestly, that's about all I can say without spoilers - if you are a fan of ghost stories it's worth your time, it is an excellent example of just how effective atmosphere can be and after you finish it there are a number of images that probably won't leave your mind for a long time.

A great little story!