Book Review: Graham Masterton's Ghost Music

I've been a huge fan of Graham Masterton since the early 1990's.  Two of his novels, Night Warriors and Flesh and Blood, occupy prized spots on my dresser, so I can see them every day.  Like most writers who've had long, successful careers, some of his books have been great, some good, and some not so good.

Unfortunately, Ghost Music wasn't so good.  This is why I didn't enjoy it:

• Graham's American Problem: There's a persistent problem with the novels Masterton sets in the U.S.: they're self-evidently written by someone unfamiliar with American idiom, customs, and culture.  He's typically got very snappy, witty dialogue, which is great, but occasionally English expressions like "Who's X when he's at home?" pop in when Americans speak to each other, and it takes you out of the story and reminds you who's writing it.  His attempts to immerse the reader in American culture simply fail most of the time, because when he's not trying too hard, he's not trying enough.  I just wish he'd stop it.  American horror fans will buy books set in Poland and the U.K. if he writes them.  This problem was very much evident in Ghost Music.
• Stupid Protagonist: Another major criticism of the novel is that the protagonist was an absolute idiot from start to finish.  While I understand that authors who work through traditional publishers often don't get to choose the titles of their novels, it makes for a frustrating reading experience to read about a man who's obviously seeing ghosts everywhere but has no idea that he's seeing ghosts.  He's even screwing one who has the uncanny ability to shatter glass with her screams of delight at climax.  It's only near the end that he figures out that the people who appear and disappear, are dead one day and alive the next, are actually...wait for it...ghosts.  The protagonist also makes a number of very strange decisions, all of which make no sense but are vital to move the plot forward.  This is sloppy writing.  It shows a lack of respect for the reader.
• Bad Bad Guys: There was needless brutality in the way certain people met their end: a boy has his eyes glued shut as part of the torture he endures before dying, and a young girl is literally sewed to a mattress that is later sunk into the sea (we'll ignore how the latter can possibly be done for the purposes of storytelling).  The impetus for this brutality involves a hastily thrown-together denouement with illegal organ harvesting in the Third World and a mafia-like antagonist.

Across the board not one of his best, but I did finish it.  Two stars.

Final note: When he's on his game, Graham Masterton is extraordinary.  I'll take him over Stephen King any day. Don't take this one review as indicative of his entire oeuvre.

Kathleen Hale the Stalker: 4 Things to Consider

Kathleen Hale is a writer who, after having gotten a bad review on her book, stalked the reviewer online, in person, and on the phone.  Hale wrote about her experiences in The Guardian, and the story has elicited a great deal of comment in both writer and reviewer circles.  As usual, I'm a bit late to the party, but I figured I'd make my thoughts known anyway.

1. There's an expression that I love when it comes to commentary on situations like these: moral preening.  Or, if you prefer, burnishing your moral bona-fides.  In short, you should get no points for taking the moral stand that's self-evidently right, even if many people have taken the opposite position.  There's no bravery in pointing out an obviously wrong thing and saying, "Hey, you shouldn't do that."  With that in mind, it's clear that Hale was completely batshit crazy and shouldn't have stalked the reviewer.  She shouldn't be trusted with sharp objects, she's an entitled lunatic, etc. etc.  We know that, so let's move on.
2. This is an interesting piece, if only because it hits the most overwrought high points and completely forgets how unbelievably small the respective author and reviewer pools truly are compared to the population of actual readers.  The vast majority of readers don't give a shit outside of the drama Hale's story has created, which is itself interesting reading.  If all the book bloggers/reviewers went on strike, people would still buy and read books.  Even indie books.  Note also terms like "systematic devaluation of female voices" in the actual piece and comments from readers that include "it all seems to me to be part and parcel of a trend toward silencing women".  This from an opinion piece that does more than just reference a woman writer who stalked a woman reviewer.  If female voices are being devalued, some of the blame must fall upon women, right?  The expression about one's only tool being a hammer and every problem resembling a nail comes to mind.  If everything's about women's issues, nothing's about women's issues.  This isn't about women's issues.
3. I care about reviews: most beginning writers do.  Reviews affect business.  Obviously, I only want honest reviews from people who read the book (no moral preening here).  If the book's great, tell me so.  Tell everyone how great it is so they buy it, too.  However, I ache for the time when none of it will matter so much to me.  It will require a great deal of work to get there, so I just put my head down and write.  When it comes to bad reviews (anything less than 3 stars is a bad review, and even a 3-star review isn't good), they hurt, but you suck it up and move on.  If the reviewer has something pithy to say, you go back and see if the criticism is valid.  Improve where you can and move on.  One thing, though: I reserve the right to hate you a little because you didn't like my book.  Just a little.  I won't act on it.  But it'll be this thing between us.  And you might have forgotten it, but for me, it's always there.  For some writers, the hate is bigger.  For some unhinged writers, there's a need to act on that hate, hence Hale.  
4. Goodreads is where the dastardly attack on Hale's good name was perpetrated.  I dislike Goodreads.  Most authors I speak to feel the same way.  It's tailor-made for the passive-aggressive set, with its context-free rating system that doesn't require that you've read anything further than the blurb to use.  Many Goodreads reviewers love to write long, vicious attack screeds about the books and authors they hate, and these reviewers have gained reader followings for those screeds.  Self-important internet book-tyrants stake out fiefs on Goodreads, and woe to the fool who makes the mistake of expressing a different opinion.  Luckily, Goodreads isn't representative of the reading population.  Hopefully it isn't representative of humanity in general.  Like every other form of social media, it's high school.  It's small.  It's not the real world.  But writers have to acknowledge it.  

All the successful writers I respect say the same thing: ignore the reviews.  Write.  Improve.  Market.  Repeat.  It's what I intend to do.

Right after I check my Amazon writer page to see if anyone else has reviewed my books yet.

American Horror Story Season Two: Impressions

Over the course of the last few weeks, I watched the second season of American Horror Story after having been assured by its fans that it was better than the first season, which featured Dylan McDermott crying and masturbating in the early episodes and was generally mediocre.

Unfortunately, I found the second season about as mediocre for similar reasons.

The writers did absolutely nothing to make you care about any of the characters, including Kit Walker, arguably the only "good guy" in the show.  None of them were likable.  You have to like the characters to care about what happens to them, and in horror, very bad things are supposed to happen to them.  One gets possessed by the Devil, one gets raped, many get killed horribly, etc, and it wasn't the least bit affecting.  The reporter character was simply venal and without charm; sister Jude lacked pathos despite piddling late-season efforts to achieve it; and Bloody Face, once unmasked, lacked menace.

It was a mishmash of horror themes that lacked a single unifying thread.  Alien abductions, demonic possession, Nazi experiments, and serial killers: all thrown against the wall, and none of them stuck.  Wouldn't it be interesting to see what the Devil thinks about Gray aliens kidnapping people and experimenting on them?  You won't find it here.  Despite that the story took place, for the most part, in an asylum, they barely touched on an extremely important theme: perception vs reality.  Crazy people and people on drugs often perceive reality as different from what it actually is.  That idea could have been used to show insanity.  It didn't.  There was very little madness in the madhouse.

The show suffered from some very clumsy storytelling elements that should have been taken out.  When the reporter character escapes from Bloody Face, she just happens to get into a car with a crazy, suicidal man?  Really?  That was the best way the writers could think of to bring her back to the asylum?  Didn't make sense.  The subplot with Ian McShane was entertaining, but only because Ian McShane was in it.  Certain characters just dropped off the face of the show for long periods without rhyme or reason.  Story arcs ended abruptly.  We don't get closure in real life, so we want it in our fiction.  Unfortunately, we didn't get that here.

The ending was banal and without surprise or tension.  While it was nice to see Dylan McDermott with his clothes on, his character lacked menace, and it was obvious what would happen to him in the end.  The alien kids end up becoming a lawyer and a doctor, respectively. The Nazi self-immolates.  Kit gets beamed up.  By then, I didn't care.

The show did have one bright spot: the Angel of Death.  She was awesome.  I loved every scene with her in it, even though she was underutilized as a character.

Book Review: Antediluvian by R.M. Huffman

R.M. Huffman's research, writing, and attention to detail take familiar fantasy elements and transform them into something extraordinary in this pre-Flood adventure novel, one that is definitely worth your time.  It's a fascinating story about the world-that-was described so sparingly in the Book of Genesis, where morning mists covered the Earth in lieu of rain, Watcher angels gave into lust to lay with human women, and dragon-like sauropods were used as beasts of burden.  The offspring of these human-angel couplings, the giant Nephilim, are major figures here, as are the more recognizable Biblical characters of Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah.

The narrative begins on a small scale, as the descendants of Adam, living in post-Fall Eden, are brought into cultural (and sometimes physical) conflict with the sons of Cain, living in the massive, decadent city of Enoch.  It explodes from there into a larger story rife with horrific murders, shocking betrayals, and even a tragic seduction.  Noah, the protagonist, is forced by events to move away from the more pedestrian role of farmer and architect into freedom fighter and prophet.  

The lavish descriptions, speculative world-building, and vivid battle scenes make this a world you can look forward to visiting again in the upcoming sequel.  Four stars.

R.M. Huffman can be found on his website: http://antediluvianworld.com.