Book Review: Starship Troopers

A conversation on the Writers of the Future boards got me to looking at this book.  Comments were largely centered on how the movie was a terribly poor interpretation of Robert A. Heinlein’s epic military sci-fi novel, some going so far as to completely disavow the movie’s existence.  This got me intrigued.  Could it really be that bad?  The movie was, at best, a popcorn sci-fi action flick; check your expectations at the concession stand.  Bringing along my trusty Kobo during my vacation, I downloaded it and gave it a whirl.  To say that my initial expectations were more than adequately met would be to insult this book for the absolute brilliance of it.  The review tag on the cover states “Nothing in science fiction has even come close.”  I am here to say, unequivocally, that this particular review got it spot on.

The depth of the cultural analysis was surprising and refreshing, particularly in the context of the book’s publishing date.  That the ideas represented herein would have been considered radical, even controversial, is perhaps less so an issue nowadays compared to fifty years ago.  As a member of the military, I found Heinlein’s chapter discussing the difference between citizens’ and non-citizens’ approach to serving to protect their society to be rather poignant, given the current efforts in the Middle East.  Heinlein’s approach to humanizing and accurately demonstrating ‘Basic’ training and officer candidate training put a smile on my face; I can’t state anything to contrast Heinlein’s account and the emotions and trials I went through during my officer candidate and trade-specific courses.  This is a man who either went through exactly this same kind of process, or did some damned fine research.  I remember hitting my own ‘hump’ back in Phase 1 training, thinking at week 13 of 16 that things just weren’t worth, not working out; I got over myself, overcame the ‘hump.’  I found the action sequences and the military jargon particularly engrossing, making a terribly interesting read.

To the movie.  As a likely exercise in masochism, I’m going to have to rent it to see just how bad it was in comparison.  I don’t think I can subject my wife to this one.  I remember not particularly enjoying it back in the day, mostly action and bad acting with some decent graphics to represent the bugs.  How they made two sequels I will not quite understand; I have no intention of finding out ether.  To say they took liberties with the book is an insulting understatement.  No power armour, just a concentration on the Bugs as bad guys and the ensuing combat frivolities you can only get from Hollywood; oh yeah, don’t forget the gratuitous nudity.


I’d like to say that Starship Troopers is right up there with other greats like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. What I cannot reconcile is how the movie rendition of Heinlein’s work is so utterly unlike Ridley Scott’s interpretation of Androids; Bladerunner took liberties as well, but became a great movie that stood up on its own for the quality of it; acting, plot, complexity, computer graphics, production design, et cetera. The movie rendition of Starship Troopers did none of those things. 

I may have to reserve the right to exclude this movie from existence.

Summer Vacation – So This is What Living Feels Like…

What apparently was supposed to be about 4-6 weeks of a nutty workload (think 60+ work hours per week) ended up being closer to four months.  Finally ended are the two annual evaluation campaigns (military and civilian), the strategic intake plan for civilian hiring, the annual learning budgetary allocations, several HR-related studies, work force adjustment (euphemism for the job cuts to the federal public service), and finally, a change of command.  So now that this is all over, I literally have less than a week before summer vacation. 

Until then, I find myself still dealing with the increased stress levels, in some cases, wondering what the heck to do.  Procrastination and mindless activities are relatively novel concepts at the moment!  No doubt my wife and eldest daughter will have some thoughts on this; my youngest isn’t yet old enough to try and determine my daily routine and is content enough that you pay attention to her every once in a while as she plays in the same room.  No doubt, diving back into writing is certainly high on my priority list! 

I have the re-write of Days of Reckoning to accomplish, a project I intend to tackle during the two weeks at the in-laws’ family cabin.  Hopefully copious amounts of alcohol won’t set me too wonky.

I'll be back in 17 days or so.

Book Cover Rant

As an unpublished author, I can’t honestly say this could qualify as anything more than a rant.  I’ve never had the opportunity to wonder how a publisher would approach the cover art for a book written by yours truly; I can imagine a certain amount of trepidation.  Just how important can cover art be?  Well, depending on the genre, I imagine near make-or-break.  Genre fiction would likely be one of the more influenced.  The story is definitely the key ingredient to the sale of a book, but for science fiction, fantasy and horror, I can only assume it would have a certain impact.

I understand series that have been in print for years like to refresh their look with new covers.  I remember reading the David Eddings Belgariad and Mallorean series and years later realizing that they had somehow gone through a total revamp; the same could be said for Terry Goodkind’s Sword of the Truth series or any other that has seen prolonged popularity.  Both publishers updated the covers with something that remained true to the feel of the stories.  You can’t look at them and wonder what genre you’re holding.

Downloading books to my Kobo, I decided to revisit an old Christopher Golden series.  I have the first three in physical form, the latest two in e-book format.  When I bought them, I seriously wondered what the heck I was getting into.

By case in point, I raise the following changes:

Take away reference to the Bram Stoker award (which a non-genre reader may or may not even get), why do I get the impression I’m about to read a Harlequin novel?  Here’s the latest cover, a continuation of the ‘new and current’ cover art.  I understand it is the publisher’s responsibility to make the book as sellable as possible, yet I have to wonder what possible paradigm brought this and the remainder of the current artwork as the cover art for a horror novel.  Sometimes I really wonder WTF is going through their minds….. 

Really, the scariest thing about this whole scenario is that they (the publishing house) somehow sought and received approval to place these on the cover of a vampire novel.

The most recent book I’ve completed reading is Throne of the Crescent Moon.  Very good read, highly recommend it; great pacing, fantastic dynamic between characters and a refreshing and new spin on the genre.  One look at the cover I knew what was what: main characters are there, action is defined and bad guys are suitably hinted at.  I view this cover as a 10/10 for content and presentation.  Hopefully the author had some play in its concept.

Golden Movie Review

While debating the veritable ‘merits’ of the Phantom Menace (I couldn’t put enough quotations around merits), I was shown this link to what I believe to be the most accurate and in-your-face review of its kind.  If only George (Lucas) had made any attempt to heed the salient points of this 70-minute movie review, we might have had something other than a best-forgotten trilogy.

That said, I segue into the relevant point of this post.  From a movie critique perspective, this guy made a top-notch (remember, I said 70 minutes!) effort; funny in spots, coherent on the whole.  The points he made critiquing, however, make a great lesson for prospective writers and demonstrate how things could get off the rails.  It is directed at movies, but can easily be applicable to writing, especially in our relevant genres.

(Language warning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI

Part 1 – Characters:  Relatable and help the audience through the story, faced with an obstacle and the drama it creates.  I love the test comparing characters between Star Wars: A New Hope and Phantom Menace without mentioning appearance, costume or their role in the movie to a person who has never seen Star Wars.  How applicable is that writing, especially a first novel!

The following parts just increase the goodness.

Part 2 – The Story:  Compared to the simplicity and awesomeness of the Star Wars opening scene, how can you argue with the guy?  Homage to the classic adventure serials compared to, well, whatever the heck the new stuff was about.  Keep the story simple enough from getting too complicated and losing the audience.

Part 3 – The Story (continued):  Still trying to get to the plot.... Who’s doing what, where and why?  The dizzying issues with connecting characters and what goes on in this movie is examined.  How does this apply to writing?  Pretty straight forward.

Part 4 – The Story (continued):  Picking apart the whole invasion of Naboo and escape from planet boring.  Writers should take into account the leaps of logic and how this applies to the plot and effect on their writing.

Part 5 – The Story (continued):  Breaks down the Qui-Gon Jin and Anakin characters and how his actions apply to the plot.

Part 6 – The Story (continued):  So we go back to Naboo, which is a war zone, and yeah, we brought the kid with us.  Oh yeah, no plan either, but the blockade is gone – yeah!  Compares the Luke v. Vader arc to the Jedi v. Darth Maul and the depth involved in the first, the lack of it in the latter.

Part 7 – The Ending “Multiplification” Effect: How the plots get too complicated and confusing = distracting.  Focus the plot and keep the story focused or you end up with (in the case of the Phantom Menace) what the reviewer calls “The worst case of cinematic blue balls in history.” The case is made for external reviews, which could be paralleled with Beta readers.

Pure gold as a movie review and critique.  Absolutely brilliant advice for genre writers to help keep things from spinning and spiraling out of control.

Betas, Background and Blood Bowl

Beta:  I went back to the drawing board with the “final draft” of my first completed novel.  After some in-depth research for future books, things weren’t quite complete, a few secondary plot points and arcs required to drive the story in further books and reinforce the plot of Days of Reckoning.  A few additional characters and their influence on both the main characters, Soki and Tagaretsu, were in dire need of inclusion.  To keep the word count under control, I went back and started trimming things even tighter; some of the cuts were relatively painless, others downright gutt-wrenching.  The overall effect is one that I am very happy with, which is all in preparations to get this out to some Beta readers, which in and of itself is both motivating and scaring the crap out of me….

Background:  One of the side-projects I’ve been working on is a series of short stories.  The first I’ve completed is actually the background story that explains what happened to Tagaretsu.  I always thought it an important story, one of epic impact on him as a character.  Much of the motivations that drive him in Days of Reckoning can be traced back to the specific events detailed herein.  I’ll be submitting this short-story to a number of competitions in the hope this will help launch the Ochra series.

Blood Bowl:  Huh?  Yeah, this is nothing relative to the writing genre, at least not directly.  Blood Bowl is a Games Workshop product, where models are used to represent players on teams that play something akin to UFC-meets-rugby.  Set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting, there are 21 different teams with individual strengths and weaknesses.  Not content to just collect and paint models, I’ve actually plot-pointed a series of short stories that could be extended into a novel.  It’s a fun diversion from the slogging of Beta-prep and editing the final version of my short stories for submission.  With the release of the video game and the recent Super Bowl, it’s a timely outlet.  It is a total piece of procrastination, yet something that keeps me from going absolutely insane and bug-eyed from staring at the screen too long.

deviantART Spotlight

The artwork below is copyrighted to Viktor Fetsch.  I make no claim to this work as my own.

One of the many things I do to stem writer’s block and keep the creative juices flowing is surfing (insert link) deviantART.  Just by checking out the most popular submissions over the last eight hours every couple of days is more than enough to give some flash of insight into a story arc that may be waiting to burst, or un-stall one waiting to carry on.  It may not be a full-fledged story, but a component on one I’m currently working on – scenery scenes are spectacular for this.  In my own way, I’d like to recognize these artists for truly amazing artwork, be it photography, ink on canvas, or manipulated photons in digital form.  Each week I will endeavour to spotlight a certain artist, as well as the particular piece that caught my attention.

Tyrant Dragon

Tyrant Dragon really catches a piece of action, conveying layers of detail in a snapshot that I can only hope my writing is able to emulate.  The obvious draw is the dragon, which deviates nicely from the standard form we seem compelled to repeat; this great horned beast is akin to the wild boar of its species, and it is angry!  The interplay between the dragon’s breath weapon and the shield thrown up by the magic user is superb; the weapon effects coalesce to a point where they are rebounded and directed by the shield.  The secondary effects used for rendering rocks flying and the mists coming from the snow through lessening the definition make it an all around masterpiece of action.

The scene itself also renders a clear example of a scene I envisioned within the Ochra Cycle.  Although the dragon’s physical appearance differs, the power and overall feeling this piece generates inspires the scene I intend to write.

This is by far one of the more potent and impressive pieces I’ve seen under the Painting and Airbrushing sub-category in some time.  I hope others find it and the other works by Viktor Fetsch to be equally inspiring.

Viktor Fetsch's Blog

deviantART Spotlight

One of the many things I do to stem writer’s block and keep the creative juices flowing is surfing deviantART.  Just by checking out the most popular submissions over the last eight hours every couple of days is more than enough to give some flash of insight into a story arc that may be waiting to burst, or un-stall one waiting to carry on.  It may not be a full-fledged story, but a component on one I’m currently working on – scenery scenes are spectacular for this.  In my own way, I’d like to recognize these artists for truly amazing artwork, be it photography, ink on canvas, or manipulated photons in digital form.  Each week I will endeavour to spotlight a certain artist, as well as the particular piece that caught my attention.

Gorgon Medusa, Mirror of Memory

Gorgon Medusa, Mirror of Memory is one of those pieces that really sparks the imagination.  Aside from the obvious quality of the work, it speaks to an idea that I keep trying to incorporate into my writing.  Fantasy, in particular epic and sword & sorcery fantasy, can easily dive into the tropes and stereotypes that set the groundwork for the genre decades ago.  A magic object needed to slay the Big Bad Guy or some such is pretty obvious and generally over-done.  Treasure is sought, often found at the far end of a quest, under a mountain or protected by some monstrous creature.  What could a Mirror of Memory be worth?  What kind of creature and/or person would make us of it?  How could it be used?

This piece really set me thinking about quests and the like.  What if this Gorgon was someone the protagonist had to appease by presenting this mirror as a gift?  What secrets could a Gorgon possess?  Who would you have to retrieve it from in order to gift it to the Gorgon?  What enemies would be made?

Aside from that, it also lends itself to something ‘outside of the box’ for normal treasure and quest items.  The magic sword of all-slaying, the orb of super-magic, what have you, it all seems to be pretty straight forward.  What if the item provided a secondary effect, such as providing the Gorgon the chance to see itself before changing into a monstrosity?  Even there, it implies the Gorgon was a woman changed, subject to a curse or magical effect.  What benefits could be rendered by changing the stereotype, by escaping the trope?

As far as photo manipulations go, this is also one of the more seamless I’ve seen in some time.  I hope others find it and the other works by liliaosipova to be equally inspirational.