Lovely, Dark, and Deep – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The forest is a spooky place. It’s an almost default setting for horror stories, likely due to humanity and its long history with travelling into the unknown of the forest to survive being a source for folk tales and spooky beliefs. Finding the forest creepy is almost a part of our very genes. The idea that there’s something lurking out in the trees, unseen, unknowable, is enough to get you on edge. And it’s this primal fear that writer and director Teresa Sutherland draws upon for her new movie, Lovely, Dark, and Deep.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep tells the story of Lennon (first name never given, played by Georgina Campbell), a park ranger at Arvores National Park, who’s going to be spending the summer at a remote ranger station out in the woods.

Having spent some time working closer to the public, helping out hikers and being a direct point of interaction with them, she’ll instead be spending three months in a small hut, walking around her sector clearing away rubbish left behind, undoing anything hikers have made, and maintaining nature. It’s a remote, isolating job, but one that she feels drawn to. Her first few days go well, and she settles into her quiet new role. However, when an injured hiker comes banging on her cabin door in the middle of the night it will set her on a path that will lead her to learning why so many people go missing in Arvores, and just what is lurking out in the depths of the forest.

Sutherland’s feature length directorial debut is a truly beautiful film. Thanks to filming in the Gerês national park in Portugal, which bears a striking similarity to the Arvores national park in California, the film has some stunning shots. The depiction of nature in Lovely, Dark, and Deep is both beautiful and haunting, and it’s impressive how quickly Sutherland is able to move us from one to the other with a subtle shift of the camera. More than once I found myself staring at the vast wilderness as Lennon marched along her patrol route, hoping that the film would take us off to look a the line of trees in the distance, or that we’d hop across the river to see what was on the other side. The film shows you how easy it is to get lost in nature, something that’s a key theme of the movie.

The film begins by telling us that hundreds of people go missing in America’s National Parks every year, and that not all of them are found. In fact, quite a lot never are. Having a quick look at the stats online reveals this to be shockingly accurate, and it’s easy to find accounts of people who have worked on searches for missing hikers and holiday makers and the difficulties that they faced. Lovely, Dark, and Deep dives headfirst into this phenomena, and seeks to provide an explanation for what happens to these people. That’s the main drive for Lennon and her reason for being out in the woods; not to help those who go missing, but to try and find closure for a tragedy in her own past.

Campbell plays Lennon well, and it’s clear from the very start of the film that she’s a woman dealing with something. She has a quietness to her that shows that there’s something more there, that there’s something more than just a love of nature that’s driving her to spend months alone in the park. Campbell plays her both incredibly vulnerable and stoically strong; something that almost feels like a contradiction.

There are times where it feels like she’s able to handle anything, where she displays a great deal of strength and determination, but as the film progresses it’s more and more obvious that the trauma and horror of what she’s going through is building, and that a break must be coming. It’s not an easy role, and the fact that Campbell spends a great deal of the film as the only person on screen means a lot of it is being carried by her performance. She is joined by both Nick Blood, and Wai Ching Ho, both of who play more experienced rangers, but they only appear sporadically, and in supporting roles.

Outside of Campbell, it’s the location itself that’s the main character. The film makes the park feel alive, and not necessarily in a good way. Places that at first feel beautiful slowly become more and more sinister, and there’s the sense that Lennon has already been swallowed up by some unseen entity, that just by stepping foot into the park she’s already surrendered herself over to its power. Whilst a lot of this is done by slowly building tension, there are times of more overt horror in the film, moments when a shadowy figure appears, or something twisted and shocking is seen in the background behind Lennon. These moments caused me to yell out loud more than once, and whilst they were disturbing and awful did feel like a relief as the ever mounting tension finally broke.

My only real criticism of the film is that at just 87 minutes in length it was too short for me. I wanted more. I wanted a deeper dive into the forces at work in the park and the strange things that call it home. The film goes deep into Lennon and her past, and I came away feeling like I had a good handle on her, but I still wanted more. Even if it was just more in the early stages of the film, just showing her working in the park. I’m not even sure what I want more of, just that I wish the film had been longer because I enjoyed my time with it that much.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep doesn’t hold your hand, it doesn’t spell things out for you, and it leaves you with the opportunity to make your own deductions and decisions. I enjoyed this aspect, and liked figuring things out as it went. And whilst I came away fully understanding the story, the person I was watching it with didn’t quite get everything. As such, this might be a film that leaves some feeling like they need a second watch-through, or may even send them looking for an ‘ending explained’ type article or video. But if you like stories that aren’t just simple by the numbers horrors filled with jump scares and predictable plot, that actually get you thinking and leave you wanting more, this is a movie you’re going to want to try out for yourself.

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Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Hideo Kojima is a well known name in the world of gaming, due to his 1998 game Metal Gear Solid. This wasn’t Kojima’s first game, and it wasn’t even the first game in the series that made him famous, as the previous two games in the franchise were released on older consoles.

However, it wasn’t until the leap to 3D graphics and full voice acting that the series gained international attention. Solid Snake quickly became on of the best known video game protagonists, due in part to the fantastic performance from David Hayter, and the game quickly became a best seller across the world and made the Playstation Platinum list.

As the years went on Kojima released further games in the series, with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty being released in 2001 on the Playstation 2. However, thanks to the continued success of the series with the sequel, and the upgrades in hardware capabilities, Kojima was able to revisit Metal Gear Solid, and six years after its release was able to introduce the world the his remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

A part of the reason why Kojima, who partnered with developer Silicon Knights for the remake, wanted to return to the first game was due to the reception to certain parts of the sequel. Whilst Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was received well and was praised for the changes to the gameplay and the graphics, some fans and critics were less enthused about the story. There were complaints that the game didn’t hit as well as the first, and that the new protagonist, Raiden (Quinton Flynn) just wasn’t as good as Snake. With a third game on the horizon that would take things even further away from the first, shifting events back to the 1960s and puts players in control of Big Boss (also voiced by David Hayter), returning to Metal Gear Solid could be the perfect thing to get fans excited for the franchise once again.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes sticks closely to the story of the original, which sees special operative Solid Snake being sent to the remote Alaskan island of Shadow Moses, a nuclear weapon disposal facility that has been taken over by the rogue special forces unit FOXHOUND, of which Snake used to be a part.

It’s revealed that the facility is being used to create a deadly walking battle tank, capable of firing nuclear weapons, named Metal Gear REX. If the US government doesn’t give FOXHOUND the body of Big Boss, they will launch a deadly attack. Sent in alone, and unarmed, Snake must infiltrate the facility and stop FOXHOUND, a mission that will see him encountering their leader, Liquid Snake (Cam Clarke), and learning some shocking truths about his own origin.

The main changes to the story came in the forms of cutscenes expanding upon action. Thanks to the upgrade in both graphics and they way action games had developed in the years since the original release, the remake incorporated more dynamic cutscenes; though Kojima had to get the game’s director to tone down some of the action in places. Thanks to the success and popularity of The Matrix more games were trying to emulate the action, incorporating bullet-time like sequences in them, and whilst Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes does still contain some of these moments a number were removed at Kojima’s insistence.

Silicone Knights faithfully reconstructed the characters and environments from the original, expanding and adding details in some areas, but remained true to the spirit of Metal Gear Solid. Considering the most high profile game remake around this time was the Resident Evil remake on the GameCube (as was The Twin Snakes) made some sweeping changes to both overall tone, setting, and story, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes remained much truer to what had come before; something that made fans of the original much happier than any larger changes would have done.

The voice acting, whilst re-recorded to provide better quality, also went through the same level of care and attention. Though it almost didn’t. All of the original voice cast returned to rerecord their line, with the exception of the Cyborg Ninja character who was originally voiced by Greg Eagles now being voiced by Rob Paulsen so that Eagles did not voice two characters within the game. This change did draw some slight criticism from fans, who preferred the original version. However, the returning cast was not always guaranteed, and it was revealed by one of the actors, Paul Eiding, after the game was released that David Hayter had insisted that everyone else return and gave up half of his pay check to make sure that it could happen.

As with the original Metal Gear Solid, the remake received high praise, and high sales, despite only being released on the one console. It has landed itself on numerous best games lists for the Nintendo GameCube, and has become a firm favourite amongst fans of the franchise; a popularity that has led to copies of the game becoming increasingly sought after and increasing in price (yes, I’m mad I got rid of my original copy still as I really want it back). With a brand new entry in the series coming before the end of the year, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was a wonderful addition to the franchise, and the perfect thing to start off what might be the best year in Metal Gear Solid history.

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Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Metal Gear Solid series has had its ups and downs. Since the revamp of the series launched onto Playstation in 1998 fans have been in love with the weird and over-the-top stories, the unusual villains, and Solid Snake (David Hayter).

Of course, the removal of Snake as the main protagonist in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty led to grumblings from fans that resulted in that being one of the least favourably remembered entries. This is why Hideo Kojima was clever in having the prequel antagonist, Naked Snake/Big Boss, also played by Hayter to the point where they’re almost the same person. As such, even when Solid Snake’s story came to an end the series could continue in the past with Big Boss at the helm.

However, 2014’s preview of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a small stand alone prequel called Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, is where things really began to go wrong. Originally planned to be a part of the main game, Hideo Kojima made the decision to release Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes as a separate game in order to reduce the overall length of the finished piece; which considering the extensive length of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain it feels like next to nothing was portioned off as a time/space saver.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes put players into the role of Big Boss once again, this time with the iconic voice actor replaced by Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland. Allies of Big Boss have been captured by the US government, and are being held in a remote detention centre where they’re being subjected to torture, interrogation, and degrading conditions. Big Boss must infiltrate the Black Site, find his two allies, and extract them; all whilst the base for his private military force is being inspected by the UN for nuclear weapons. However, the mission goes awry, Big Boss’s base and forces are destroyed, and the small game ends with Big Boss being blown up and lost at sea, setting the stage for the main portion of Metal Gear Solid V.

Whilst the new game displayed a number of impressive new gameplay elements, and showed off the graphical quality that would be coming in the next years main release, there was relatively little in the game itself. The mission to save Big Boss’s allies could be completed very quickly, and after your first playthrough the mission could be finished in less than twenty minutes.

The game does unlock six more missions, all of which play out in the same location, but these are all equally as short and feature a great deal of repetition. Whilst a couple of fun modes were added to the Playstation and XBox versions, each getting their own different one, these failed to pad the game out in any significant way. Even with finding hidden audio files and searching for the extra bits and pieces around the map there’s relatively little in the game to justify releasing it on its own other than to perhaps create hype around the main game.

The question of whether or not it succeeded in creating that hype is hard to answer, however, as the game received very mixed reviews upon release. The new features that were added, along with the versatility of the Fox Engine, were singled out as high points, and it did promise new innovations to the series that would come in the follow-up. But the short length of the game was a key factor for many.

Even with repeated playthroughs and a few extra missions thrown in the game could be fully completed within a few days, with little there to encourage a re-visit. This, for some fans, had the result of leaving something of a sour taste behind, where it even lowered excitement for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The replacement of David Hayter for Kiefer Sutherland was also a factor, with almost all fans disappointed that Hayter had been dropped from the franchise he helped make a success for a big name replacement that was, at best, well below Hayter’s quality.

Another area in which the game caused itself some issues was in the depictions of sexual assault and rape within the game. At one point in the game the player is able to find an audio log, a log simply labelled as ‘Interrogation’, that goes into detail about the torture that characters Paz (Tara Strong) and Chico (Antony Del Rio) suffer at the hands of the main villain, Skullface (James Horan). The audio log depicts Chico, a child, being made to watch as the villain rapes Paz, before forcing Chico to then do so himself.

The game would later continue sexual violence against the character of Paz, as she’s ultimately killed by a bomb that is heavily implied to have been inserted into her genitals. The fact that the game only contains a warning of ‘violence’ and doesn’t include a content warning for sexual violence is discouraging. It’s also discouraging that sexual assault and the sexualisation of female characters is a staple of the Metal Gear Solid series, with a female character being sexually assaulted in the first game, and a focus on scantily clad women across all games, with the next release Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain having the most egregious example of this in the form of Silence. However, it’s the shocking inclusion of a child rape scene in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes that is perhaps the most disgusting point in the series.

Having been a fan of the Metal Gear Solid series since I was eleven years old, with it being something I wanted to play so much that my mother bought me a Playstation for Christmas that year just so I could, I was hoping for great things from Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Unfortunately, it’s a game that I just didn’t enjoy, and it’s a game I even forget exists when I think about the franchise. More of a marketing stunt for the main game than a game in its own right, it was, for me, the beginning of the end of my love for new entries in the series.

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Final Fantasy VI - Throwback 30

 

Like a lot of people my age in the UK, my first experience of the Final Fantasy series was the PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. Whilst this was my first real taste of a J-RPG, it wasn't my last, and it quickly developed a love of the genre, and the Final Fantasy titles in general. As such, it wasn't long before I branched out to try other titles; and one of those was Final Fantasy VI.

Whilst Final Fantasy VII may have been the game in the series that got the most attention, and is often called on of the best, that's not to mean that it's predecessor was not successful. Final Fantasy VI is often cited as one of the best in the series, and was lauded for it's gameplay improvements, graphics, and storytelling. 

Despite not having as much direct involvement from series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, who had directed the five previous games, development began on the new game in December 1992 under co-directors Hiroyuki Ito and Yoshinori Kitase. Elements of the game development were split between the two directors, with one focusing on the story and plot elements of the game, whilst the other developed new battle mechanics and gameplay. The results is a game that feels somewhat unique amongst the series, where there is not only a huge roster of characters for players to choose from (fourteen in total), but that none of them are the direct, singular protagonist.

Due to the large number of protagonists, each of which has their own story and motivations, describing the plot of Final Fantasy VI is a little more complex than other titles in the franchise, but deals with a steam-punk fantasy world with warring empires, slave trades, and cataclysmic events that alter entire continents.

As with previous games in the series, Final Fantasy VI uses a similar gameplay mechanic of exploring locations and the over world, battling monsters that appear in randomly spawned encounters. The title saw the return of the Active Time Battle feature, which sees each character in the team recharge their chance to attack at different rates based on their stats, rather than a fixed turn based system. It did, however, create a new feature called the Desperation Attack, in which a character is able to unleash a powerful attack when their health is low. This feature would be used across several future entries, though under different names, and would become something of a staple of the series, allowing players to do more damage in certain fights, but having to weigh that boost with a greater chance of being knocked out. 

Whilst the game was releases under the title of Final Fantasy VI in Japan, it was changed to Final Fantasy III in the United States, as there had only been two other entries in the series released there to that date. There were no major changes to the gameplay itself (something that had been done in a previous release), but some censorship was done in order to remove things deemed sexual or adult. Some nudity was removed, and locations like bars were changed to cafes. Some references to death and killing were altered, changing character's lines. And most unusual of all, the spell Holy was re-named Pearl in order to not offend religious groups. 

At the time of release in Japan the game sold well, and received critical acclaim. It sold more than 2 million copies in Japan alone, and became the country's biggest selling game of 1994. Whilst it did not receive as much attention in other countries, it still sold well, and topped the charts in the US for sales in October, and became the 8th overall selling NES game of the year. Despite this, the game did not sell anywhere near as well outside of Japan, and the vast majority of the game's overall sales occurred there. However, over the years people's views on the title have changed, and the game has gone on to be considered a classic.

Some of this was down to a number of re-releases. The first of these was a re-release on the PlayStation in 1999. Thanks to the popularity of both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII on the console previous games in the series were given a re-release. Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI were released together in the US as the Final Fantasy Collection whilst the game was released on it's own in Europe. This re-release was the edition that I owned, and my first experience with the game. This port also included brand new FMV sequences for the opening and conclusion of the game, but remained largely untouched and unaltered. 

A handheld version of the game was released on the Gameboy Advance, which lost the FMV's of the PlayStation release, but improved upon the graphics, and featured a new translation that brought the game more in line with the original script and names. It also featured a few new additions such new summons, dungeons, and spells. 2014, the 20th anniversary of the game, also saw it released onto mobile devices. And last year saw a release on the Nintendo Switch. 

The number of re-releases of the title, along with it's high critical acclaim places it as an important title in the franchise. Whilst it's the final 2D game in the series, and some younger gamers are quick to dismiss most 2D games, it shouldn't be held back by such views. Final Fantasy VI is perhaps one of the most enduring games in the series thanks to the chances it took. It's sprawling, non-linear story was ahead of it's time, and the new features it introduced informed many in later games. Whether it's a game that you played upon first release, or have only recently discovered, it's hard to argue that it's not a game that very much deserves attention. 

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Dawn of the Dead (2004) – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The early 2000s was the beginning of a large resurgence of interest in the zombie genre. The ‘not a zombie movie but really a zombie movie’ 28 Days Later hit in 2002, with Shaun of the Dead taking a more comedic spin on the genre two years later, alongside a bloody and brutal remake of the George A. Romero classic Dawn of the Dead, putting zombies back on the big screen.

Meanwhile, The Walking Dead landed on comic shelves in 2003, sparking an avid interest in zombies in that medium. Pretty soon you would be able to find the rotting corpses of the dead in many low budget movies, independent comics, and as video game antagonists in ever increasing numbers. And whilst the zombie genre definitely feels like it went on a bit too long and had ever decreasing returns, the Dawn of the Dead remake was a pretty decent high point of the era.

When it was first announced that Dawn of the Dead would get remade, fans of the original film were less than pleased. The Romero version was – rightfully so – cited as an all time classic, one of the best examples of the zombie genre, and one of the best horror films ever made. Having created the zombie genre as we know it, moving away from voodoo slaves made with magic to the flesh eating infected that most people know zombies to be, Romero was an authority on the genre by virtue of having made it. As such, any change to his classic works would be seen as a blasphemy. The creators of the new version knew this, and began to make it clear to both the public and the people they were getting involved in the production that this new version should be seen more as a ‘re-envisioning’ rather than a remake.

Producers Eric Newman and Marc Abraham used examples of other all time great horror films that were heavily changed remakes, such as the John Carpenter version of The Thing or the 1979 Invasion of the Body Snatchers to demonstrate what they wanted to do with Dawn of the Dead. And it was this approach that netted the involvement of writer James Gunn in the project. Having only worked on low budget comedy movies and Scooby-Doo up till this point, Gunn was seen by many as a risky, if not downright foolish pick for the project. Equally, the production would worry fans even more when an unknown music video director named Zack Snyder was selected to head up the project. It feels unusual that there was a time when seeing both James Gunn and Zack Snyder on a project was seen as a dangerous and risky move, though with the manufactured online culture wars that ‘fans’ have made around these two men perhaps people would still be outraged if they worked together even today.

Much like the original film, the remake would tell the story of a group of disparate survivors during the zombie apocalypse as they come together and seek shelter inside a shopping mall. Other than that, however, the film remains largely distinct. One of the biggest changes is the fact that the zombies in this version are fast. Until their bodies rot to the point where they break down, the undead can move just as fast as they could when alive; a revelation that is used spectacularly in the film’s shocking opening scene in which lead character Ana (Sarah Polley) watches as her husband is killed by a neighbour child, before he himself comes charging towards her, intent on feeding on her. For those who went into the film without having seen that piece of information this moment in the movie became a game changer, and showed that whilst the film was definitely taking inspiration from the original it wasn’t afraid to do its own thing.

Alongside Polley, the film included Ving Rhames as a calm and competent cop who takes on a leadership position within the group, Jake Webber and Ty Burrell who play almost polar opposites as a nice everyman and a rich douchebag, Mekhi Phifer as an expectant father looking after his wife, played by Inna Korobkina, and Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, and Michael Barry as some mall security guards amongst other survivors. The film also included a few members of the original cast, such as Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree, the latter of whom got to say the iconic line of “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the Earth”. The cast featured a decent mix of new up and coming actors, and recognisable faces at the time. The movie was also unafraid to have some of the more well known actors fall victim to the rampaging undead, meaning that the audience could never be sure which character would make it to the final credits. And even then, survival still wasn’t guaranteed.

When the film released it was met with rather favourable reactions, something that was never guaranteed during its turbulent pre-release reactions. It sold incredibly well, going above expectations, and ended up stealing the US top spot from The Passion of the Christ (sorry Jesus). Snyder was instantly praised as a first time feature film director, with his eye for action being pointed out across a number of reviews at the time.

Equally, the success of the movie would put to bed people’s ideas that James Gunn could only write more comedic and family friendly features; something he would prove again with his first directorial project, Slither. Whilst some criticism for the film was made in regards to the lack of focus on the mall setting as a metaphor used to critique American consumerism as the original film did, it would launch a number of interesting discussions around whether or not the US’s relationship to shopping and consumerism had changed over the intervening decades, and whether re-treading that same ground would in fact be redundant more than anything else.

Over the years since Dawn of the Dead, Zack Snyder has gone on to direct several other movies, most of which have been high profile comic book films. Whether that be adapting the ‘unadaptable’ Watchmen, or the conversations sparked by a dark and nihilistic view on the DC heroes in his movies, his works since have seemed to have divided audiences more than anything else. But Dawn of the Dead is fairly different. It’s a film that is generally received well, one that fans of horror and the zombie genre enjoy, and that has aged very well over the last two decades, perhaps in part to the slew of sub-par zombie content helping to showcase why Dawn of the Dead is so good. You could even make a strong case that Dawn of the Dead is perhaps the best film in Snyder’s tumultuous career.

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Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead - Book Review

 

'Rochelle wakes from cryostasis to take up her role on the colony ark, Calypso . But she wakes to find the ship deserted, and the interior taken over by a forest. As she explores and finds the last remaining members of the crew, she discovers a legacy of war conducted whilst she slept.

'The engineers and the botanists have different visions for how to build the world. The engineers would build a new utopia of technology; the botanists would have the planet bloom, untouched by mankind. Both will destroy the other to ensure their vision of paradise prevails. And Rochelle, the last to wake on the Calypso, holds the balance of power in her hands.'

Calypso is a book that I'm going to have to talk about in two parts, the story, and the presentation, because this is not your average book; not by a long shot. A story written in poetry form is unusual enough in itself, and something that I myself have only read a couple of times. However, Calypso goes even further than this, and uses the very structure of the words on the page to add to its story.

The story takes readers into a distant future, where the character of Rochelle wakes up on the colony ship Calypso. Rochelle has been in cryo-sleep for the long journey to the moon of Terra Nova, a place that humanity is hoping to colonise, but does not wake to find the promise of peace that was given to her. Instead of having this new world ready for her and the other passengers of the Calypso, she finds the ship in chaos. It turns out that most of the other passengers have died, and that she is one of a small number of survivors. But, she is the last to wake, and the other survivors are scattered and hiding on a ship that has been transformed.

The ship has been taken over by monstrous tendril of sentient plant life, a forest that has grown inside and throughout the ship. With no idea how things could have become this way whilst she slept, Rochelle begins to piece together the history of Calypso, and the events that happened before she awoke. She learns of conflict amongst those living on the ship, rivalling philosophies that cannot co-exist, and have driven those that believe in them into war. Now Rochelle has to find her place in this new structure and, if she can, bring peace to the Calypso.

The story feels familiar in a number of ways. There have been many science fiction stories of people awaking from long journeys to discover that things have spun out of control whilst they were asleep. From something as simple as waking to find you're not where you're supposed to be, as in Alien, to discovering a ship full of horror and mystery as in Pandorum. It's a popular theme that doesn't get used all that often, as such each time it's told there's a chance to put a new spin on things. And this is something Oliver K. Langmead does in spades. 

And this brings me to the second main talking point of Calypso, the structure of the book itself. I've already mentioned that the book isn't written in traditional prose form, and instead uses verse to tell its story. This really comes into its own when we follow different point of view characters, each of which has their own distinct structure on the page. Words will be in different positions on the page, and each character has their own form of rhyme and meter that gives each person their own voice that becomes instantly recognisable. 

This structure is also used to convey certain parts of the story, presenting things in unique formatting to enhance moments or deliver a certain feeling. There's a part where two characters are arguing, speaking over each other. Both people are presented on the page, their words sharing the page but split down the middle. You can read each one in turn, or reader them together. Reading them in turn makes them clear, you can understand their points, but if you read them at the same time, working across the page as normal, it becomes confusing, disjointed, and hard to understand; presenting the notion of people yelling over each other in a way that puts you in that moment yourself. There are other parts of the narrative that include illustrations, and broken, almost disjointed words on the page that are some of the more beautifully presented and more interesting moments in the book. 

Whilst I am singing the praises of the book that doesn't mean it's the easiest read. If you're unused to this style book it can be hard to get into to begin with, and the structure of the story does become a little confusing, though this is also likely by design as there is a central mystery to unravel across the book. There are many books that people describe as being a 'work of art', and prose novels are certainly art; but it's an artform that many of us are intimately familiar with. It's comfortable, it has rules, and whilst the content of the stories can take risks it often feels like the presentation and structure can't. 

But Calypso very much does that. It's not just the story that is important here, but the way that story is presented. It matters where a word is placed on the page, it's important how you read it, and the thought and intention of the structure along with the story comes together in what it very easy to describe as art. Calypso is the kind of book that you're going to want to talk about, it invites discussion and dissection. Very much a one of a kind, Calypso is a stunning piece of work.

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Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors - Book Review

 

'Witness Arkham like you’re walking its streets, peering into its shadows…

'It is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers and young fellas dance the Charleston at raucous jazz clubs gleaming bright with electric lights. Beneath this gilded glamour, bloody turf wars rage, funded by gangsters and crooked cops who frequent rival speakeasies and gambling dens. Amid these changing times, old New England towns hold their secrets close. Off the Aylesbury pike, in reclusive Dunwich, rolling hills hide decrepit farms and witch-haunted hollows. Past Cape Ann, the remote fishing village of Innsmouth rots from within. At the mouth of the Miskatonic River, mist-shrouded Kingsport lies dreaming. All the while, historic Arkham broods on the upper banks of the Miskatonic, its famed university delving into the world’s darkest, most ancient mysteries.

'Welcome to Arkham invites you to venture deeper than ever before into this legend-haunted city, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos and made famous by the Arkham Horror series of tabletop games. Welcome to Arkham is a complete guide to the city of Arkham and the neighboring towns of Dunwich, Innsmouth and Kingsport, detailing 115 fabled locations and featuring more than 500 illustrations. Walk the streets of Arkham, ride the Essex County Express, hitch a ride to Innsmouth (and pray you can find a way out), or take a ferry down the Miskatonic River, and read between the lines to discover what other mysteries lurk deeper still in the pages of this tattered old book…'

I've yet to actually play an Arkham Horror game, having not found anyone who knows the game or has interest in playing it. I have however, come to really enjoy the world of monsters, cults, and daring heroes that the game has created thanks completely to the work of Aconyte Books. Yes, I have experience with the works of Lovecraft, but the Arkham Horror novel series has been one of the best places to take the concepts that he created and expand upon them; and they've been some of my favourite Lovecraftian reads.

But, when you've got the foundation of Lovecraft himself, the creations from the game and it's various updates and expansions, and the books, it can be a lot to keep track of. It's not the biggest and more lore heavy tabletop game around, but it is a pretty expansive one in its own right. Rather than keeping copious notes and spreadsheets trying to keep track of everything, Aconyte offers fans a much better way with Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors.

Written by the Arkham Historical Society, this travel guide for new visitors to the town is the perfect thing to pick up to help you learn more about the city, or to prepare yourself for a visit. The book is written within universe for the most part, acting like a regular travel guide to Arkham and some of the surrounding areas in the Miskatonic River Valley, including infamous locations such as Dunwich, and Innsmouth. Each location is given a write up, telling you about its history, and notable buildings and locations in each area, accompanied by beautiful full colour artwork that show of the beauty and horror of the place.

But the book doesn't just cover geographic locations, but includes a ton of easter eggs and nods to the wider world. This includes stuff like playbills, restaurant menus, newspaper and magazine articles, and other bits and pieces that have been collected together to give a wider view of the area. Care and attention is given to making the book feel as real as possible, and each of the pieces included in it is given a little bit of age, weathering, and general wear and tear in order to make it feel like something that someone could have put together themselves rather than the glossy new publication that it actually is. 

For those eagle-eyed readers, however, there's a little something extra hidden amongst the pages of this guide. We all know that Arkham isn't a normal place, that the world of the paranormal and extraordinary seeps through around the edges of your perception. And this book is no different. Early on there's a hint of a missing person case. Scattered throughout the book are bits and pieces that add to this mystery, hinting at answers waiting for an intrepid reader to discover.

Whether you're new to the world of Arkham Horror, or if you're an old hat at the game and know every piece of lore and detail there is, Welcome to Arkham: An Illustrated Guide for Visitors is sure to delight and enthral. Having only read the digital version I can only imagine how good the book looks in person. The digital version is fantastic to read through, or even just flicking through the pages to stare at the gorgeous art. But this is definitely a book that I'm going to want to see in person too. It has the feel of something a little bit special, something that elevates the world of Arkham Horror in new and creative ways. 

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The Glass Box by J. Michael Straczynski - Book Review

 

'Riley Diaz was born to fight back. When she's incarcerated under the authority of a shadowy new defence act, Riley is sent to one of a growing number of American Renewal Centres (ARCs)--institutions modelled after psychiatric facilities--for mandatory re-education. Forced therapy, involuntary medication, solitary confinement, restricted rations, and more are all in the ARC program's bag of dirty tricks designed to break down dissidents. Give in, and you go free. Resist, and ... Riley declares a one-woman war against the gaslighting and manipulation in a struggle to take down the ARC program and its white-coated collaborators. 

'Despite being isolated and resented by her fellow inmates, Riley eventually wins their trust, and forms a heartfelt, life-and-death bond with a mysterious patient known only as Frankenstein, who is as enigmatic as his namesake. Sometimes breaking an unjust system starts with one person willing to stand up--when standing is the hardest thing in the world--and saying "no." Riley Diaz is willing to stand behind that word, regardless of the cost, in order to put her fist through the Glass Box once and for all.'

Dystopian fiction is one of those genres that felt a lot different a decade or more ago. The worlds where an openly cruel and corrupt government were standing upon the backs of the oppressed, where bold-faced lies were being used to keep them in power, where the marginalised were treated as less than human, all felt a bit too fake. There was a sense that the real world would never get that way. But in 2024 I doubt there are many that would argue that we're not close to being in a dystopia ourselves, and those that do are probably the ones benefitting from it. As such, The Glass Box can sometimes be an unpleasant read thanks to how real it can feel.

The Glass Box takes readers to a dark world where the government is an oppressive force, and we see this through the eyes of Riley Diaz, a young woman who has been raised by her parents to question authority, and to hold the government to account when they do something wrong. The main problem is that this is a world where even legal, peaceful protest can be incredibly dangerous, where simply speaking out can land you with an arrest. It's at one of these protests that Riley is arrested, and taken to one of the moany American Renewal Centres, where people that the government considers either undesirable or agitators are put through a forced re-education.

However, Riley wasn't just arrested by chance. She wanted to be taken to one of the Centres so that she could find out what happens inside in order to try and reveal the truth to the world. The biggest flaw in her plan, she has no idea how she's going to get back out. Thus begins Riley's life in the Centre, where the powers that be set out to turn her from an agitator into a peaceful, productive member of society who will never again question her government. 

The Glass Box is a book that's a hard read at times. It's frighteningly real and eerily reflective of where things are in our modern day to the point where it makes larger parts of the book get under your skin. A lot of the things that Riley believes in the book are very reasonable things, yet her government is against them in the worst possible way, where violence is a tool they'll be more than happy to deploy. I don't know if Straczynski was looking to current events for ideas when he was writing the book, or if things just lines up by chance, but some of the events felt so relevant and familiar that a quick Google search could find similar that has happened in real life.

The book is gripping because of this, and I started to really connect with Riley and wanted things to go well for her. Because of that it ended up being a book that I struggled to put down, and I was pushed on to read more, to find out what horrors were coming next and if it would break her spirit and resolve. It's a book that not everyone is going to have an easy time reading because of this, and I couldn't blame some people for wanting to put it down at points, but I think it's also an important read that has a lot of relevant and needed messages within it. 

The Glass Box is a thought-provoking read, one that will have you considering your own views, and how strongly you yourself might stick to your own convictions and morals when faced with frightening, almost dangerous choices.

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Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey - Book Review

 

'The refugees from the Empire have established a thriving city called Haven with the help of the Tayledras and their allies. But the Tayledras have begun a slow withdrawal to the dangerous lands known as the Pelagirs, leaving the humans of Haven to find their own way.

'But even with Haven settled, the lands around Haven are not without danger. Most of the danger comes in the form of magicians: magicians taking advantage of the abundant magical energy in the lands the Tayledras have cleansed; magicians who have no compunction about allying themselves with dark powers and enslaving magical beasts and the Elementals themselves.

'Kordas, his family, and his people will need all the help they can get. But when a prayer to every god he has ever heard of brings Kordas a very specific and unexpected form of help, the new kingdom of Valdemar is set on a path like nothing else the world has ever seen.'

The Valdemar series has been going for a long while now, with the very first book having been published back in 1987 (making the series as old as me). And whilst I have come to it very, very late there are fans who have been reading along with it since the very beginning. As such, depending on your own experience with the series you're going to have a very different time reading Valdemar, the third and final novel in the Founding of Valdemar trilogy. For those like myself, every new development in the story is a surprise, something new to be discovered, but for those who have read all of the other books it's more a game of waiting, as fan favourite characters, locations, and creatures slowly make their appearances.

Valdemar has a very big, very important one, something that fans have likely been waiting since the first book in this trilogy to finally make it's appearance. The Companions. As a new reader to the series, I'd heard a little bit about these creatures, but knew next to nothing, as such, their introduction here made for a truly interesting new experience. 

The people of Haven have built their new city, having settled in a new land at the end of the last book. However, just because they've found a new home it doesn't mean that things are perfectly safe for them. There were hints of monsters and dangers in the last book with twisted creatures and living forests, and Kordas and his people were given a warning that their new home wasn't completely safe. But those warnings perhaps didn't quite prepare for what would be discovered in this volume, as dark magicians and cruel magic users stalk the borders of Haven. 

It's with these new dangers looming that Kordas, now a king to his people, prays to all of the gods he's ever heard of for help. A prayer that is soon answered. The scene in which the Companions first appear is a fantastic one, and contains a great deal of wonder and awe that had almost been missing up to now. So far most of the larger than life events and wonders have been connected to danger in some way, so having those feelings linked to something like the Companions instead was the shot of hope that the people of Valdemar, and the readers, needed. 

But, this is a Founding of Valdemar novel, which means that it's not just high fantasy and magic that take centre stage, but the smaller details too. This book deals a lot with how Valdemar functions, how the young nation governs itself, the way they make their decisions, what the people think of it. All of the stuff that's either going to be hugely interesting to you or will put you off. However, this is nothing new to the series, and if you're on book three it's likely that these details are something that interest you, and have been parts of the first two books that won you over to the series. 

With things having moved on around a decade since the last book it's interesting to jump back into this world and see how things have changed, especially for the characters that we've spent a great deal of time with. I loved seeing how Kordas had settled into his new position as King, something that should have been easy for his considering his past leadership positions, but has still been a challenge for him; especially when it comes to his own son. 

Having only really dipped my toe into this world recently I'm glad that I took a chance with the first book in this trilogy, and that my first experience with the world of Valdemar was with the founding prequels. I got to experience things brand new, the same way that the characters did, with no expectations of what was to come or informed guesses as to where the future would lead. It was a wonderful experience that has resulted in me being eager to read more of this world, and to easily making this trilogy a recommendation to any fantasy fan.

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Disciples of Chaos by M.K. Lobb - Book Review

 

'Damian Venturi isn't aware of it yet. But as small shifts start to crack the foundations of the Ombrazian power structure after the Rebellion's attack, cracks are beginning to show in Damian's own facade. Uncontrollable anger is bubbling to the surface and can't always be pushed down. Can he keep everyone safe, even from himself?

'Rossana Lacertosa should feel victorious. She accomplished everything she set out to do, and more. The Rebellion's attack set countless prisoners free and brought attention to the unfairness in the Palazzo's structure. And Damian is back by her side where he belongs. Yet the war with Brechaat rages on and government officials are hellbent on keeping the status quo. Then an Ombrazian general arrives from the front lines, and orders dozens of arrests, shipping Roz and Damian's friends up north. Determined to free those who matter most, Roz and Damian set their sights on Brechaat. But their journey is dogged by strange magic, and Damian shifts further from the boy he used to be.

'The complications of love, magic, faith, and war will keep readers eagerly turning the pages as they head towards the gripping conclusion in the Seven Faceless Saints duology.'

Disciples of Chaos, the conclusion to the Seven Faceless Saints duology, begins almost immediately after the events of the first book, and drops readers straight into thigs. So, if you haven't read the first novel this book is not going to be fun straight out the gate. I, unfortunately, realised too late that this was the second part of a duology, and it wasn't until the book arrived and was sitting there, waiting to be reviewed that I realised my mistake. (The joys of brain fog!). However, rather than trying to jump in half way through the story I managed to track down a copy of the first book; and would advise anyone in a similar situation to do the same as the first book is really rather good. 

Where the first book was more akin to a murder mystery story, and focused more on that than the wider world, this volume expands things quite a bit. We spend time learning more about the war, as well as the people behind it who are controlling things and keeping the conflict going. This coming in the second book felt like a really good choice, as it means that after spending a decent amount of time settling into this world and these characters stories we could then jump outwards onto bigger things without it feeling like you're being bogged down by lots of lore and information.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this particular part of the story was that it moves at a decent pace. A lot of stuff happens, and our cast of characters seem to be propelled from one action piece or location to another with a sense of fury. There's always the feeling like danger is looming just around the corner, or that something bad could happen at any moment, and it really helps to keep momentum and to have you invested in making sure that the characters make it out alive.

Speaking of the characters, Damian and Roz do not have it easy a second time round. Damian has a pretty tough time in this volume, and his slip towards chaos is something that's hard to read, but makes a great deal of sense in the narrative. We see him start to fail, start to lose himself, and it raises the stakes considerably. 

Disciples of Chaos was a satisfying conclusion to the story, even if there were times when it was hard to see what our lead characters went through along the way. It's an immersive and engaging fantasy story with some great lead characters whose relationship is sure to draw you in. 

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