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The First Arabesk and a Gathering of Ghosts Some great books this month, including an alternative future where Kaiser Bill and his allies, specifically the Ottoman Empire, bested Britain and her allies in World War One. Pashazade: The First Arabesk by Jon Courtney Grimwood Despite its archaic corruption, El Iskandyria, the decadent North African metropolis that sprawls along the Mediterranean coast of Egypt's Nile Delta has all the allure of decadent kitsch at its best - if kitsch can have a best side. Ashraf Al-Mansur, alias Raf or ZeeZee, is a young man coping with a childhood neglected by a career film maker mother who had a three day marriage with a Pasha. As a consequence, he ends up as a rather unlovely boy employed by Hu San, the unscrupulous grandmother of a triad type organisation and framed for murder. Raf learns more during his resulting incarceration in the US than at all the European private schools he had been sent to. That stands him in good stead to cope with the sequence of murders he again finds himself framed for, this time in El Iskandyria, and his search to find out what is really going on. Given his upbringing, it is inevitable that Raf will not be immediately likable. However, John Courtenay Grimwood manages to make the bizarre story of his hero and the fox, a ceramic enhancement chip implanted in his brain, compelling. As the reader warms to the character, it is very difficult not to want to know what happens next. The flow of the narrative and the author's style would be equally effective in a non-alternative future as a mainstream thriller. There, it would encounter the larger readership it deserves. I hope this book isn't limited for the sake of a category. Highly recommended for thriller and SF readers alike with a young, slightly weird hero who burrows and bludgeons his way through layer upon layer of intrigue. Without being gratuitous, there also a realistic attention for what actually happens when someone is struck by a high velocity bullet or is blown up. Oddly, the nastiest characters turn out to be female, as do the most sympathetic. Set in a rigid paternalistic Ottoman society where men mostly hold visible power, this is quite a feat of convincing narrative. As this is the first of a trilogy and a late review, the second in the series could well be imminent. check out websites: www.earthlight.co.uk
Jane Palmer The Collected Ghost Stories Of E.F. Benson Benson is the true master of creepiness and in this new edition of his stories (thank goodness someone has had the foresight to publish this collection - hooray to Constable & Robinson!), you'll find vampires, homicidal ghosts, spectral worms and slugs, along with slightly less worrying topics such as fakes seances and mediums. Edward Frederick Benson, the son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, lived from 1867 to 1940, and wrote over 100 books in his lifetime. He was also mayor of Rye in Sussex, for a time. Benson had a lifelong interest in psychic phenomena and ghosts, and his own strange encounters are told in his autobiography 'Final Edition (1940). Richard Dalby, the editor of this book, introduces the collection with a brief look at Benson's literary life, which was rich and varied. We now only really remember him for these brilliant stories of the occult, which will always have a fascination in the hearts and minds of us humans, given that most of the population of the world can somehow dream up ghostly superstitions and phantoms of the night. If you dare enter Benson's ghostly domain, and don't get completely spooked after reading his first short story, 'The Room In The Tower', then you'll be hooked. Keep this book under lock and key, because it could easily be spirited away by 'the others'! check out website: www.constablerobinson.com Phil Stoyle Dune - 3 video box set As terrestrial UK TV hasn’t pulled it yet, I went after it. Oddly enough, it wasn’t on the shelves of the High Street stores, but MVC. I was a bit concerned about this only being a widescreen effort but that looks like the only choice. However, it isn’t too narrow a box and there isn’t too much black strip on my screen. The problems with all adaptations is how faithful to the book and what was omitted. For those who’ve never heard of Frank Herbert’s book, ‘Dune’ is the story of a political struggle for the control of Arrakis aka Dune, a desert planet whose principle export is spice. This drug is used by the space navigating guildsmen to enable humans to cross the galaxy quickly. For the inhabitants of Arrakis, the Fremen, the presence of the drug in their diet gives a blue on blue effect to their eyes. Paul Attrides, the heir to his father’s house, and his mother, Jessica, are the main survivors of a covert attack by the opposing Harkonnen house to wrest back control of the planet. It is his adventures we follow as he becomes the Fremen’s messiah and liberates the planet from galactic rule. The TV series is a lavish production directed and co-written by John Harrison and follows the essence of the book fairly closely. The set design and costumes are truly exotic, grandiose and distinctive. On a TV budget, there was a lot of blue screen CGI effects added. A couple CGI scenes are likely to be thought of by a few as being shoddy but they don’t spoil the overall effect and if anything it was the time constraint that probably prevented perfection. Little things you think they’ve forgotten, like Arrakis having two moons, are suddenly there and even logically thought out. There’s bound to be some times when only one moon would be seen overhead. Director Harrison could almost be thought of as playing with the informed viewer before showing he hadn’t missed anything. The attention to detail shows where the budget was used on the screen more than paying for big name actors. Outside of William Hurt, the cast were mostly unknowns which meant that they weren’t carrying much in the way of recognition baggage to the story. It’s rather interesting how Hurt is promoted on the video covers when he only appeared for half an hour in the first video and a few minutes in the third. That can probably be put down to the studio wanting a star name on the box. The rest of the cast carry the conviction of the series and are likely to be in demand in future. Alec Newman certainly carries the lead as Paul Attrides. Looking at the rest of the cast, you’d need to wonder where the majority came from, especially as their names look like a jumble of letters. The two part Making Of at the end of tape 3, reveals the production was made in Prague and the majority of the supporting cast came from there. There’s sufficient alienique about them to make them markedly different to what is expected. The same thing worked in ‘Das Boot’ so it's always useful to use actors from a different acting school. Although I haven’t read the book in 20 years, it wasn’t difficult to remember the plot elements and the names of the major characters. Sue me, I’ve just got a good memory. The only things of real significant missing was the slavery of the Attrides family mentat by Harkonnen, although he was seen briefly, and only the rare dalliance with any of the words from Herbert’s terminology. The latter is understandable to some extent as a viewer new to the series doesn’t always want to be confounded by new words but I’d have loved to have heard them call the spice by its proper name, melange, at least once. There was a feeling of disjointedness of years passing after Jessica gave birth to Alia and her use in Paul’s plans that could have been accounted for better but no doubt was a problem from keeping within set times. Comparisons are bound to be made to the 1984 film directed by David Lynch. When there’s only two adaptations around it’s inevitable. Happens with all productions. There’s a fair bet that had Lynch been given 4 and a half hours, he would have been able to fit everything in as well. From a TV perspective, this is a worthy effort and a hint that a sequel is in the works. With rumours of other SF classics getting similar treatments and respect such as this, we should have an interesting future ahead of us. Check out website: www.fox.co.uk GF Willmetts Cats & Dogs Oops, there goes the plot anyway. Although this film is supposed to be classed as ‘family entertainment’ it has a ‘PG’ notice slammed on it. No doubt to prevent kids torturing their family pets in ways unsuitable for domestic use. This film tries not to be too cute and there is some appeal although more to the younger than adult watchers. If anything, there’s far too many set pieces stuck into the plot when it would have made a lot more sense had the plot been treated as a development progression of the beagle pup Lou (voiced by upcoming Spider-Man star Toby McGuire) and his relationship to this seemingly dysfunctional family. You can’t help feel this is a sorta ‘Lady And The Tramp’ meets ‘Men In Black’ meets ‘Roger Rabbit’ in some sort of writers’ nightmare. The chief human players appear to be wasted here. Actors like Jeff Goldblum can add instance recognition by just hanging around but for what he was doing, a lesser actor could probably have saved the budget. Actress Miriam Margoyles does a lot more for the film in her few scenes. Special effects wise, it’s not that difficult to differentiate between live animals and animatronics to CGI. Cats and dogs faces can’t show the emotional or vocal range that can give any sense of realism to the scene. It’s a pity that no one considered to do this solely as a cel-animation piece than put it into 3D. This doesn’t demean the special effects crews who were involved with this film but it has more to do with the realization and a less than demanding script. I’m probably taking this film far too seriously as an adult film when it should be viewed as kiddie entertainment. Still, if you have kids and you want to get on with reading an SF book, this will no doubt keep them entertained. Check out website: www.warnerbros.co.uk GF Willmetts Marrow by Robert Reed The plot has human colonists, amongst alien species, who boarded an uninhabited gigantic interstellar spaceship to see more of the galaxy. Well, sort of. There seems to be more concern as to what is going on onboard and hosting new species than seeing where they are going. As disclosed far into the book, human nano-technology has developed sufficiently to allow them to live indefinitely and can be resurrected providing that some body tissue - usually from the head - survives. More on that in a while. The human ‘captains’ of the spaceship are marooned for several thousands of years on a hidden planet ‘Marrow’ in the deep core of the ship. They are left in harsh conditions and have to build technology from scratch if they are to eventually get back to the main part of the ship. This isn’t helped by a rebellion of their children who lead an entirely different but unclear mission believing themselves to be the descendants of the starship’s true makers. When the main starship is eventually reached, this leads to insurrection and a battle as to who looks after the starship’s controls. In parts, this is an interesting book. What really looses it is the disjointed fashion it is written. Parts are all right and then there are sudden jumps of events that looks like the book got a severe editing to fit the page count or there was some bad planning by its writer. Certain aspects of lead characters Washen and especially, Miocene, regarding their motives and change of sides leave a lot to be desired. Important changes shouldn’t be glossed over when they are important to the story. Others, like Pamir, are suddenly elevated from secondary status to a large part of the story. Nothing wrong in itself - I liked Pamir, but bringing players up to serve a purpose when there are large question marks as to their activities otherwise does a disservice to the reality. There is little disclosure as to what these people do with their lives when nothing else is happening. Living forever doesn’t mean much when all they end up being interested in hanging out. Inactivity must surely lead to being idle and not caring any more. Considering there are so many alien species supposedly on board, it’s odd that none of them yield any key players either. This brings me neatly to the problems of immortality as presented in this story. I always thought Heinlein got it right with his Lazarius Long stories (see ‘Methuselah’s Children’ and ‘Time Enough For Love’) in that an extremely long life leads to terminal boredom unless you find something to motivate yourself. Although immortality in ‘Marrow’ is a given, its use is only an incidental plot device to cover the passage of time or bringing supposedly dead characters back to life. I don’t expect the characters to be in awe of being long-lived or even being resurrected from seeming death but it is questionable that none of them seemed to be bothered by what they can do with their lives. Such immortality makes watching grass grow look interesting and yet Reed ignores it with other concerns in the story. The resurrection of characters makes a mockery of certain death and yet even this is relegated to secondary status. Surely, if a human could be resurrected from a skull fragment with memories in tact, then you could have several copies being brought back. I’m not saying I would have wanted to see this happen but it looks painfully like not developing the ideas sufficiently or at least the writer covering his back sufficiently so as not to leave things open for carelessness. The gigantic starship itself isn’t really given more than lipservice a lot of the time. As a third of the book is on ‘Marrow’ itself, we don’t really see much of what else is going on. There is little to indicate much about the commerce or the agricultural arrangements for manufacturing food. All the alien species on board need some substantial support this way just to keep their own colonies going and appear to do so without much help from the other species. In fact, outside of a few mentioned, most of these species are ignored. Considering the starship is a major consideration in the plot and then to be glibly ignored most of the time is a wastes a good idea. There is never a feeling of its vastness. If anything, Reed treats it as something akin to a shopping mall then allow this reader to get a grasp for its true size. In the realm of ‘Big Dumb Objects’, then this surely has to be the least interesting. The ‘Babylon 5’ space station had more going for it and it wasn’t going anywhere. I’ve hit mainly on some of the bad points. Reed does write interesting characters for the most part. It’s just the ideas around them that seems to suffer most in underdevelopment. I hate labeling any story overrated, but I do think ‘Marrow’ could have been so much better than what I’ve read here. Check out website: www.orbitbooks.co.uk GF Willmetts Clairvoyance by Joules and Ken Taylor This reviewer is no more empathic than a Triassic fossil but found the arts of divination, using sympathetic talismans and astrology almost alluring. Though, like lip-reading, I have misgivings about telepathy because I believe there are some things you are better off not knowing. However, here it is not presented as an unwelcome intrusion, more a reaching out to like minds. In ‘Clairvoyance’, empathic accomplishments are treated as a natural extension of human senses and without the wide-eyed mystical wonderment of more populist and uninformed material. Even to an unbeliever, the matter of fact tuition to ferret out the psychic self seems totally plausible as a practical way of enhancing your life and perhaps, escaping a few turns of The Wheel. Thankfully there is no mention raising demonic forces and it never encourages the susceptible to adopt harmful convictions about zapping their enemies or turning the cat into a hobgoblin. This not only places Alister Crowley in the dungeon dimension he deserves but extols a benign view of a Universe it is possible for the most unassuming to interact in. Self-awareness and self-improvement are the cornerstone themes of ‘Clairvoyance’. The authors make it clear that there are no magical fixes to enlightenment and, for the unconvinced, there is practical advice on how to manage your thoughts and nourish the inner being. The Taylors’ book has full colour throughout and, on the whole, this works very well apart from one or two areas where the background design can reduce the readability of the text. This book is ideal for the person who suspects that they have experienced the odd premonition or an uncannily accurate tarot reading and feels the need for a more positive connection with reality than that in a television soap. Jane Palmer Shrek Aiding Shrek, or just a long for the ride, is a smartass donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) called ...er ... Donkey. And that was about the only lack of imagination for a name in the film. ‘Shrek’ hits on all the fantasy cartoon clichés and adds a refreshing non-too serious twist to them. If you want to watch something that will raise your spirits, then this one will suit adults and children alike as each gets something different out of it. The musical tracks vary from hard rock (I even recognised a Joan Jett track in the first battle scene) to more standard fare. All the characters were endearing and interesting because you feel you want to see what happens next. Then again, well-chosen voices make all the difference to the portrayal. Recognised actors generally doing what they do best no doubt helps. Lithgow is pompous. Murphy is a...well...a smartass. The character personalities can be shaped around them. If I’m to hit on a flaw in the film, then it's the lack of sound effects. The right sounds, from the crackle of fire to footsteps add to the general background noise and it really was missing. Shrek is a big chap and this lack of gravitas makes him far too light on his feet. This is a film you’re going to take out and watch to pick out different things each time, let alone enjoy it. It even has a happy ending. Check out website: www.dreamworks.com GF Willmetts
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OTHER CONTENT - January 2002
Lordy
Lordy Culture
in the Culture
The
Mysteron Menace Dragon'
On The
First Arabesk and a Gathering of Ghosts Demons
in Skirts?
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Pashazade
is an electric fusion of realistic description and a future that
might have been. It is a beautifully paced who-why-and-how-dun-it
set in an alternative future where Kaiser Bill and his allies, specifically
the Ottoman Empire, bested Britain and her allies.
How
could a man who wrote the straight novel series 'Mapp and Lucia'
- concoct the most amazing, spine-chilling ghost stories, the like
seen only in M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood and possibly Henry James
in his 'Turn of the Screw'. 
While
everyone else is going on about Harry Potter or even The Lord Of
The Rings films, this recent TV SF classic has really been missing
everyone’s real attention. It really is worth investing your time
to get to see this series either on TV or buy it. 
Another
credibility breaking moment for ye editor. I blame my Mother. She
saw the TV advert and thought it might be interesting and with the
dire TV scheduling this time of year, I thought I’d oblige her and
run a review here at the same time. I mean, a film where hi-tech
dogs and cats are at war to stop the latter stealing a formula to
prevent humans being allergic to dogs falls into our remit, doesn’t
it??
I
pulled this book earlier in the year after reading so much praise.
After a while, there is a tendency to see if the fuss is really
worth it.
This
book is essentially a step-by-step manual to help people of different
abilities discover their empathic selves. As well as its visionary
agenda, it is also a useful guide to relaxation, finding inner peace
and remaining in control of thoughts and emotions. 
Another
film whose reputation precedes it. A spoof CGI fairy tale where
the ogre Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) does a deal with the local
despot, Lord Farquaad (voiced by John Lithgow), to rescue a princess
(Fiona voiced by Cameron Diaz) for him in return for his land and
removing a myriad of fantasy folk off it. 
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