This morning, I started my first new short story in a while. I was inspired by a British news article I saw last week and I’ve been building up an alternate storyline around it for the past couple of nights. It’s not there yet—I have no idea where it’s going—but I wrote out the opening scene that I dreamed up overnight. The characters don’t have names yet, just placeholders, but these couple of pages help set the tone.
I find myself reading two short works based around the Vietnam war. The first is Buddha Hill by Bob Booth, part of the Necon Novella series. It’s about an Air Force newbie who arrives in Vietnam and his experiences on base. It also ties into the monks who used to set themselves on fire in protest. There’s a cute, oblique Stephen King: The protagonist picks up a copy of Startling Mystery Stories at the BX and likes a story called “The Glass Floor,” except, he says, “There is just no market for this kind of thing…the poor bastard was probably doomed to spend his life working in some factory.”
The other is Riders on the Storm by Ed Gorman, a short novel in his Sam McCain series. It’s set stateside and features a murder where a Vietnam vet is the prime suspect. It deals a lot with the war’s aftermath and the contradiction between its overall unpopularity and the attitude toward people who protested it.
I just finished Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta and posted my review. I tore through this one and now I have to go back and read his other books. Dude can write.
I’m hanging with The Leftovers, although many people are jumping ship because of its lack of incidents. There’s no identifiable villain other than the shadow of the past, the mysterious event that has rocked everyone’s understanding of reality. There are interesting developments, but no real goal. There’s no ultimate mystery to solve, no island to leave, no villain to vanquish. Still, I’m fascinated by it and curious to see where the story is headed.
I recorded the TCM James Garner marathon yesteday, so I know what we’ll be watching this coming weekend, and beyond…
I’d heard a lot of good things about Snowpiercer, so I found it OnDemand this weekend. It’s a fascinating post-apocalyptic story set entirely on a massive train that is a self-contained ecosystem, hurtling on a thousands-of-miles course around the world once per year. It’s been running for over 17 years when the story starts. The world outside is frozen because of an ill-advised strategy to end global warming.
The wealthy are at the front with lavish accommodations, food and perqs, while the poor are back in steerage, jostling for space and eating gooey protein slabs. After yet another insult to their dignity, they decided to press forward to the front of the train to take control and have a variety of encounters along the way, many of them violent. I especially liked the shooting match between train cars that happens when the train is in the middle of a sweeping curve.
Tilda Swinton is the face of the opposition, adorned with big teeth and a funny accent, reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher. Assisting the resistance is a Korean man and his daughter, the latter having been born on the train. He designed the security system, so he knows how to defeat the locks at each stage, and she is prescient, able to sense what they will face when a door opens. They perform this service in return for a drug. Nothing is quite what it seems, though, and there are surprises aplenty as they make their way from car to car. Some stunning visuals and a very clever plot. Though it’s been described as a horror film, I’d categorize it more as a thriller.
