By Adrian Brady STRICKEN By Sean A. Lusher www.damnationbooks.com Ancient. Evil. Unstoppable. Says the tag line. When a distress call is sent from an inter-galactic mining crew who have just colonized a ‘frontier world’, a search and rescue team is sent to investigate, only to find the entire colony horribly slaughtered and themselves stuck in a mine on another planet amid a mass of body parts fighting an unknown enemy. Not a good spot to be in, then. I have to be honest here, I am not a fan of sci-fi. I see its merits, and good writing will be good writing whatever genre it is classified under, but spaceships and aliens just isn’t my thang. I like my fiction to unfold on earth, or at least some twisted version of it, so I wasn’t holding out much hope for this novella. As a matter of fact, I told myself that if I made it through the first twenty pages it would be a commendable effort I could be proud of. One thing I don’t like about sci-fi is all the supposition and guesswork involved, which inevitably leads to gaping plot holes. Well, not holes, exactly, more like improbables. It just asks too much of the reader. This reader, anyway. For example, nobody knows what weapons will be available to space-trekking humans over a thousand years in the future, but it’s a pretty safe bet that by then automatic pistols and assault rifles will be obsolete. Also, why is the ‘rescue team’ only fivestrong? And of course, the first thing they do when they arrive is split up. The reader can only suspend belief so much before the whole thing comes crashing down like a house of cards, losing all credibility. Nothing in fiction is truly original, everything has been done before, but Stricken reads rather too much like a mash-up of the first two Alien movies. All negatives aside, the story is exciting and fast-moving and I actually stuck with this right until the end (claps on shoulder). This writer has skills, and could be a force to be reckoned with if they are allowed to develop to their full potential. By C.M. Saunders KULTUS By Richard Ford www.solarisbooks.com Oh, dear. I haven’t read a book that felt like such a chore in a while. For such a short book it took a long time and a lot of effort to push through to the end.It’s not a bad book, I’ve read much worse; however, it reads like a first draft. Description, plot,
and characters are all weak for a published novel. The narrative tone needs polishing, and descriptions seem to be minimal. Characters are in need of fleshing out; they don’t have much in the way of personality or history. The plot repeats terribly; for instance, scenes are repeated until you know what’s going to happen after each big fight. The narration doesn’t help; there is a sly, amused tone that is patronising, making you feel like there’s a joke that you’re not being let in on. The writer is definitely having more fun than the reader. Poor, poor, poor. It’s a shame because there is promise here. Well, there are hints of promise; for instance, our protagonist is a tattooed thug with a knowledge of demonology. His past, and part of something far bigger, are only revealed in hints. Thaddeus Blaklok, a demonist and thug for hire, is out to find the Key of Lunos, which can open the gates of hell. Also seeking out the key are several disparate groups, all of whom will fight each other and Blaklok as they attempt to get hold of it. The barely-described world that Blaklok inhabits is a steam-punk fantasy land, inhabited with demons, called the Manufactory. Some more exploration and explanation would have been nice, as hardly anything is described in any detail, making imagining this world a task and a half. Bare bones narrative might work for Hemingway, but Ford is no Hemingway, and in a steam-punk fantasy you want to be able to taste the new world you are experiencing. This ain’t no fishing trip. There are some good ideas, but they were not implemented successfully.. Certainly not the worst book I’ve ever read, it is readable, but Kultus may still win the award for worse book of the year. A shame really, but with a firm editor’s hand this could be twisted into something decent. By Stanley Riiks RED STATE 2011 Lions Gate DVD Kevin Smith, the director who made his name with slacker comedy but has more recently become better known for spats with airline attendants, takes a turn for the dramatic with Red State. This is somewhat surprising since his last comedy, the buddy cop parody-homage Cop Out, was also his biggest success. But Cop Out was also seen as a work for hire, which in the terms of independent cinema is the same as selling out. So Smith was apparently anxious to get back to his roots. Red State, though a hell of a lot more expensive than Clerks, is still puny by Hollywood standards, budgetwise. Or maybe Smith hopes to follow the path forged by Guillermo