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Ultraviolet Season 1 : DVD
Kaleidoscope Film
300 minutes
RRP: AU$36.95
Review by Liz Grzyb
After spending the first episode of Ultraviolet thinking, “What's
Jane Bennett (Susannah Harker) from Pride and Prejudice doing in
a vampire show?” I soon settled down to enjoy the ride. Ultraviolet
tells the story of ex-cop Michael Colefield (Jack Davenport), who is drawn
into a government funded anti-vampire crew when his best friend turns
vampire.
Ultraviolet light is used in the show to track vampire traces, and the
agency has developed bullets able to kill vampires. Unfortunately, unlike
most vampire stories, the fiends do not simply die, but are eventually
able to regenerate, so all traces of the residue left when one is killed
need to be gathered and stored by the team. Other vampire lore is used
in the show: vampires cannot be seen in mirrors, cannot be in sunlight,
and have an aversion to religion, although the last is supposedly merely
a psychosomatic reaction.
Ultraviolet begins quite slowly, but towards the middle to end
of the first season, the pace does pick up, and various subplots are tangled
into the web. Michael's loyalties are torn between his old life and the
new, as the vampires test new ways of turning humans to their side in
each episode. Some of these include: half vampire, half human babies;
infecting a human with a meningococcal strain crossed with the vampire
gene; and developing a synthetic blood that will keep them alive after
they take over the world in a nuclear twilight.
The show is quite Spartan: the producers look like they have been spending
their special effects budget on exploding vampires and lots of fake blood,
rather than lots of leather costumes and stunts. They certainly haven't
spent a lot on lighting, apart from the obligatory blue UV here and there.
It's a solidly made drama, rather than being slick and pretty.
When Ultraviolet is compared to Buffy or Angel, it
comes out on the bottom of the list when considering style, but has a
lot more substance. The show focuses more upon the human side of the vampire
battle. Each of the main characters has lost someone because of the vampires,
and all have their flaws, being merely human. There are no superhuman
martial arts here, just common sense saving the day. The appeal of this
show is that it is utterly believable. This sort of thing could
be happening, and it would certainly explain a few things!
Retailing at $36.95 for the two-disc set, it's certainly value for money.
There's not a lot of extras in this set: only a few biographies, some
promo stills, a couple of trailers and a screensaver, but at 300 minutes
of gripping viewing, one can't complain!
Season 1 of Ultraviolet can be purchased at JB HiFi and www.shock.com.au.
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Speed of Dark : Elizabeth Moon
Time Warner Book Group 2004
ISBN: 1-84149-141-1
RRP: UK6.99
Review by Lee Kofman
In futuristic society autistic people can be cured at birth. However,
Lou, the main protagonist of Speed of Dark, belongs to the older
generation. He has received some treatment which enables him to function
in society, work at a pharmaceutical mega-corporation using his special
ability to see patterns and live independently. Yet he finds it difficult
to process certain facial expressions, to shop at the local grocery shop
and above all to deal with any disruptions to his routine.
When a new manager, an ex-general, commences work at the company and attempts
to force a new treatment on the autistic department, Lou has to face the
prospect of his comfortable, though limited, world turning upside-down.
The dilemma presented in the book is universal and could happen in any
place or time - this is the book's strength. All of a sudden the reticent
introvert Lou undergoes a metamorphosis to emerge as a kind of modern-day
Hamlet; the questions he asks himself and others are existential ones.
In his quest he moves far beyond his autistic colleagues' concerns: Will
they consent to be become guinea pigs for this treatment, as yet untried
on humans? Should they risk losing their jobs or should they give in to
their manager, who thinks he is still in the army? Do they want to be
cured at all?
Lou delves further, asking that which can apply to other universal issues:
Where is the line between being different and being sick? How vulnerable
is our identity? Can he be cured and still remain Lou, or is he defined
mainly by his autism? All these questions are thoughtfully addressed in
the narrative.
Lou is the kind of narrator you can't help liking. He is funny and has
the ability to empathise with others. Above all he is an individual who
never takes conventions for granted. He is especially interested in finding
out whether there is such a thing as the speed of dark. His intellectual
quest for it (for the antithesis to the universally familiar speed of
light) runs parallel to his exploration of the conventional idea of cure.
While Lou remains an engaging and often entertaining character, it seems
Moon has invested all her energy in him. The novel's other characters
remain one-dimensional, divided clearly into 'good' or 'bad' guys surrounding
the colourful Lou.
Another shortcoming of this otherwise engaging book is the disproportionate
amount of time given to the protracted and occasionally redundant story
of the manager's attempts to force Lou and his peers to undergo the treatment,
as opposed to the underdeveloped, but fascinating, story of the treatment
itself and its consequences. To be blunt, after a promising, but overly
long foreplay, the intercourse is too short.
Speed of Dark can be found at Time
Warner Book Group or from Slowglass
Books.
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Bumper Crop : Joe R Lansdale
199 pages Golden Gryphon, 2004
ISBN: 1-930846-24-X
RRP: US$24.95
Reviewed by Russell B. Farr
Joe Lansdale writes a mean tale.
Like the best horror writers, Lansdale knows what goes bump in the night,
what's under the bed and what's behind the door on the right, and he drives
spikes of fear into his readers. His canon of stories is impressive: no
tale is too gross, too depraved, too macabre to be told.
Bumper Crop, published by the good folk at Golden Gryphon, is Lansdale's
latest collection and in some ways complements his earlier Golden Gryphon
collection, High Cotton. While the previous collection publishes
many of Lansdale's more substantial pieces, Bumper Crop collects
the 'ain't that damn weird school' stories.
These stories, as an astute reader would soon pick up, could only have
come from Texas. I don't know if it's the water, or the sun, or the close
proximity to so much oil and cattle, but The Lone Star State breeds the
weirdest of writers.
In attempting to review Bumper Crop it is important to take one
thing into account. It's mostly a collection of Lansdale's shorter works:
some are bread-and-butter stories with simple twists at the end, written
in an afternoon to put food on the table. This is not to demean them,
each story is so competently crafted that writing students should pay
close attention to the way Lansdale sets the scene and then delivers the
knockout blow, often in five pages or less. It brings to mind the work
or Ray Bradbury, only weirder. To fully appreciate Lansdale's work, the
obvious solution is to buy both collections.
'God of the Razor' is the perfect story to open a collection. It's dark,
violent and makes the reader very, very uncomfortable. The sort of story
to separate the casual browser from the reader. The writing is incredibly
sensual in the literal meaning: Lansdale creates a setting that draws
the reader in, giving a full reading experience.
Lansdale introduces each story in the collection, and for 'The Dump' talks
about his 'popcorn dreams'. 'The Dump' is a first person monologue full
of characterisation and personality, and has a neat twist at the end.
In 'The Shaggy House', the evil villain isn't a person, or even an animal:
it's a house. A strange house turns up in the vacant lot opposite Harry's
house and proceeds to drain the life out of its neighbours. Harry and
Lem, both men well and truly retired, hatch a plan to evict the new and
strange arrival. What sets Lansdale apart from the flock is his ability
to make this absolute dose of weird shit utterly believeable.
'Bestsellers Guaranteed', also the title story of a now out of print collection
(a great collection which sadly suffered from some marketing bozo putting
a dragon on the cover), takes the idea of writers killing for a sale and
runs with it. A writer's wet dream story where Lansdale works out the
frustration of an unsuccessful writing year.
Bumper Crop saves two of the newer and weirder stories for last.
Jim is offered the job of 'fire dog', literally the fire department mascot,
He wears a dog suit, goes to the toilet in the yard, gets fed liver treats
and once a year gets a thermometer up his ass. While this story came from
a dream, Lansdale doesn't mention popcorn being involved, and in some
ways this story makes the popcorn dream stories not seem so weird.
The final story, 'Master of Misery', stands out as perhaps the least weird
story of the collection, possessing instead a tone and depth of character
reminiscent of fellow Texan Steven Utley. Former kickboxing champion Richard
Young finds himself in the Caribbean in an attempt to distance himself
from his past. He encounters Hugo Peak, a nasty piece of work with a serious
chip on his shoulder and a lot to prove to the world. Into this Lansdale
brings a cast of supporting characters who give life to this testosterone-driven
tale.
Bumper Crop is a must for anyone who loves well written horror
and world-class weird shit. Many stories have been previously collected
in sadly out-of-print collections, so I would advise the discerning reader
to get in fast to avoid missing out on one of the three-thousand wonderfully
produced hardcover copies of this one.
Joe Lansdale writes a mean tale, and in Bumper Crop Golden Gryphon
has collected twenty-six of them.
Bumper Crop can be found at Golden
Gryphon or from Slowglass Books.
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Aggressive Retail Therapy : Grant
Watson
128 pages, 2004
Review by Russell B. Farr
In order to show the world that Perth film-fan/theatre dude/former video
store clerk/all-round-nice-guy Grant Watson can be a mercenary capitalist
bastard with the best of them, he has collected the first four instalments
of his amazingly innovative and wacky comic The Angriest Video Store
Clerk In The World, thrown in some previously hard to get short comics
and bundled these up under one cover with an introduction from Robin Pen
thrown in.
While The Angriest Video Store Clerk In The World is superficially
about one clerk's goal to rid the world of stupid customers, even a casual
glance shows the comic to really represent one amazingly talented writer's
mission to rid the world of crappy science fiction films and have them
replaced by good ones.
Is the comic beautifully illustrated? No. Does it make sense? No. Is it
mindblowingly funny and teeming with one writer's most depraved, twisted
and seditious thoughts? You'd better believe it. The perfect gift for
someone who has everything because, chances are, they won't have seen
the likes of this.
Aggressive Retail Therapy can be found at Slowglass
Books.
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