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Spring 2009
Stephen King
Scribner/Pocket Books
Edgar Freemantle had a comfortable life. He had his own successful contracting business, a wife of twenty-five years, two daughters in college. A lake house. He was the kind of boss his employees admired for working alongside them. This was until he came awake in a hospital bed in excruciating pain. The world was red through his blood-tinged eyesight and hells bells were blaring constantly inside his jogged brain for a time seeming without end.
With the assistance of heavy pain medication, he could function enough to see that his right arm was missing and learned what else was causing such agony; a horrible accident at a job site. A heavy crane with a faulty back-up warning siren nearly flattened Edgar while he was still inside his pick-up truck. It pulverized the right side of his body and cracked his skull in several places.
Once the pain became manageable, it was time to deal and heal. Not so easy with months of physical therapy and brain injuries he clinically never should have recovered from. Not to mention learning to function after a shattered hip and minus his right arm. His toughest recovery turned out to be his brain injury. The damage messed with his speech and memory in which he had trouble mixing up his words and remembering the words for objects and people. “Bitch” became “birch”, and “death-bed” became “beth-dead” when Edgar got angry or frustrated. As you can imagine with all he had to endure, Edgar had a lot of frustration surfacing quite often.
In the beginning of his new life, inappropriate anger was not uncommon and caused his wife to leave him not long after he left the hospital. After removing himself to the lake house, he re-discovers his adolescent talent in art (he was thankfully left-handed). He decides to relocate for a year to an isolated Florida Key and work through the rest of his recovery. Edgar believes this distance from his old life will be good for him and lessen his dark moods. Plus the warm weather should be ideal for re-learning how to walk semi-normally again.
On Duma Key, his dabbling in sketches turns into an eerie compulsion in painting and he creates a multitude for art aficionados to admire. His missing right arm- the proverbial phantom arm- is not always missing and becomes a tool for his own psychic twinkle. The beautiful retreat he rented to inspire becomes a trap that poisons. What Edgar finds on Duma Key looks great at first from his standpoint but it is sinister underneath. It creeps into his life and does it's own damage before he is the wiser. Has he inadvertently sent this evil directly toward his family and friends? Is he strong enough to face a monstrosity he cannot even identify?
You would think, after all these years, Stephen King would run out of stories to tell. Not so. Duma Key was slightly different compared to his other novels. I thought the art stuff was a weird new subject for King and wondered how it would play out, but it ended up working for this tale. What made Duma Key a lot of fun was the humor. The trials Edgar went through and his inability to express his anger with the correct swear-words made his dialogue hilarious. Plus King always makes cool and lovable characters such as Edgar's friend Wireman. No shortage of creepy scenes in this book either.
B+ -Alesha Brunell
Paul Kane
Creative Guy Publishing
In just the two books I've read by Paul Kane, so far I've found many unexpected things. From clever twists and turns in the longer page-turners, to quickly familiar characters, to penetrating and deep thoughts. All this you can easily find in even the very short stories. Such is true, and why I enjoyed Peripheral Visions; one of four collections of Kane's shorts.
There are several thought-provoking tales that stood out the most inside Peripheral Visions. “Strobe” and “Biorhythms” were memorable for their unexpected transcendental theories. “Biorhythms” had a grotesque and lethal ending but was incredibly happy and spiritually exhilarating. There were also some classic, Edgar Allan Poe/Alfred Hitchcock-styled, bizarre tales such as “Suit of Lies”, “Homeland” and “the Anniversary” to mention just a few.
“Remote” and “Guilty Pleasures” were both fantastic. “Guilty Pleasures” was about a guilt demon that haunts sinners, threatening to drive them mad. The demon almost became the hero of that story because she was so cool and righteous in a morbid kind of way. Does she take it too far and push them over the edge? “Remote” was a vivid story about out-of-body experiences going one step further; the ability to affect things while in remote locations. How fragile would world politics become if these sneaky, silent missions came to replace spies and assassins? How scary could that be if employed by the hands of the government? Or might I suggest... the wrong government? What great subject matter for the big screen or a novel though, right?
I like that Kane is not afraid to take sharp turns or end with the villain as the victor. He can make you believe the story could end happily and then it turns lethal. Or put the victim in a dire predicament and then shove them to a blissful state for eternity. I also admire his ability to quickly introduce familiar traits in people to give them instant dimension.
It is unfortunate that Paul Kane is humble toward his ideas. Believing so many of his tales couldn't warrant more than a few pages. I think several of his stories could have expanded to exciting and easily popular novels and/or screenplays. For this reason, I will always look forward to reading more from Kane. Let us hope he lengthens some of his ideas into several bestselling novels. Though stripping down stories to essentials is a more shocking and to-the-point take on horror, leaving out too much is like skipping all the foreplay and then it's over so soon. This can also end up sacrificing some of the suspense.
Paul Kane
Skullvines Press
Paul Kane likes to skew known fairy tales and classic horror legends and give them an abrupt overhaul. Sometimes taking an old familiar character and planting them into our modern times or perhaps the future. Such is the intent with Red. It is a novella of a more modern Little Red Riding Hood and an intimate portrayal of the Big Bad Wolf. This time, Little Red also has gangs and dangerous urban environments to battle on her way to Grandma's.
Unlike a werewolf, this wolf-being is a menace no matter what phase of the moon. He runs rampant from town to town, city to city, quietly stalking victims undetected. He's a master of camouflage, perfectly mimicking his victims loved ones, to strike when they'd never expect. When their defenses are a million miles away. The wolf normally chooses his next meal based on convenience and availability. That is until he catches a glimpse of her. The one. The first and last meal to ever get away from him. Will the twenty-four year old heroine of Red, Rachael Daniels, get away from him in this lifetime, too? We hope so. Or does evil win at the end of this fairy tale?
I enjoyed having both character's perspective in Red. Though I wouldn't have minded a longer novel, I do admire Kane's style of bare-bones storytelling. He strips out a lot of the extra things that can sometimes weigh down a good book without sacrificing the important points. You'll see this more so in Peripheral Visions.
Both Red and Peripheral Visions sport introductions by horror authors Tim Lebbon and Christopher Fowler respectively. These are mere windows into the forthcoming twisted tales and insight into Paul Kane's writing style. What you can only learn from reading his work is that Paul has a significant talent with words accompanied by boundless and daring subject matter.
A- (for both) -Alesha Brunell
Slash w/Anthony Bozza
Harper Entertainment
Though I'm not as big a fan as I was over a decade ago, I can't deny the affect Appetite for Destruction had on me then or now. From his early years with Guns n' Roses, then later in Slash's Snakepit and Velvet Revolver, to more recently being the main theme of the Guitar Hero III video game, we also can't ignore the influence of Slash on the masses. Saul Hudson, aka Slash, has become an icon for his unique talent despite his sordid past.
Not only is this autobiography an obvious pick for his fans old and new, when is it not intriguing to read about a rock super-star's down n' dirty past? That's why I picked up this book. Oh, and to find out the real answer to the age-old question “what happened to Guns n' Roses?” I will say Slash did satisfy my curiosity in both respects and then some. He made it clear that there are different sides to every story, but I was not surprised to hear the reasons for Guns n' Roses inevitable disbanding.
In this autobiography you will learn how the band came together, struggled, overcame the odds, and toured the world through Slash's eyes. You'll find the influences that molded his bluesy style and infected the unmistakable force that became G n' R and also the hardships he encountered under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He shared some amazing and uplifting experiences in his travels as well as vividly warning us of the horrors and risks of addiction. From his childhood, to marriage and the birth of his two sons, I think this was an eye-opening story even for non-metal fans out there.
Though it was a very interesting memoir, chronologically it was a mess. He jumped around a lot and it was a bit jumbled. Then again, no one easily remembers all things in order. We usually recall the things that stand out the most. The best and worst of times, the scariest moments, the most exhilarating. And time can be skewed through a haze of drugs. But hey, Slash is a guitar hero not an author. I commend his efforts and am thankful to have read his take on things.
A- -Alesha Brunell
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