At the top of my blog, there's a page that links to some potential "back copy" for my novel-in-progress, Killer Instincts. The manuscript has been finished for a while now, and I'm about halfway through the first big edit after my Alpha Reader had a crack at the text.
For the majority of you who've never heard or seen me talk about it...
Killer Instincts is the story of William Lynch, an upper-middle class college junior, whose parents and teenage sister are killed in a mob hit while he's in Paris during spring break in March of 2001. William's father is a hotshot DA in Boston, attempting to prosecute Pauly Paggiano, the son of a minor-league crime boss, for the rape and murder of a young college girl. In order to deliver a savage message to the eyewitnesses in the case - the only real evidence the prosecution has - the Paggianos kill William's family and burn their Providence home to the ground.
William is informed of the tragedy by his estranged uncle Jamie Lynch, a Vietnam veteran and former SOG Green Beret. Jamie leads a reclusive existence in Maine, where he owns a log cabin on the shore of Moosehead Lake and works in a sporting goods shop. William has only met his uncle a handful of times over the years; both of William's parents were against Jamie having much contact with their son, worried that Jamie - whose views on war and violence can be disturbing - would somehow "corrupt" their son into a warmonger. Jamie was a soldier who thrived in combat, and after the war he spent a number of years participating in activities that can only be described as morally ambiguous...
Now, Jamie is the only family William has left. Meeting for the first time in years, Jamie reveals to William the reasons behind his family's slaughter; the court case against Pauly Paggiano, how the eyewitnesses have all withdrawn their testimonies or otherwise backed out of the case, and how the case against Pauly has been thrown out. Faced with the enormity of what has happened to him, William realizes that at 21, any hope he has for a normal life has been erased by this terrible act. Feeling he doesn't have anything to lose, since his future has been so horribly ruined, William decides he's going to find a way to avenge his family and destroy the Paggianos. He begs Jamie to join with him in his crusade, but Jamie refuses, declaring that he can't go back to that way of life after decades of maintaining a civilized existence. Seeing his nephew is committed to this idea with or without his help, Jamie begrudgingly admits that, although he's not going to help William, he knows someone who can.
Jamie introduces his nephew to Richard, a mysterious, eccentric Texan who made his living for decades as a professional mercenary. Although he's now retired from taking active assignments, Richard has a network of contacts and resources he'd be willing to provide to William, for a price. After some consideration, William decides that he wouldn't feel right contracting the Paggiano's destruction; he wants to keep the revenge personal. So, for a hundred thousand dollars (plus expenses), Richard agrees to mentor William through an intense, month-long training and indoctrination regimen out in the Texas desert.
What takes place next is the mental and physical transformation of a peaceful, white-collar college student into a bloody-minded vigilante killer. And then the fun really begins...
Killer Instincts is an exploration of violence and morality, wrapped in a tale of personal vendetta. Writing the story, I took a great deal of inspiration from Brian Garfield's novel Death Wish, made so famous by the film adaptation starring Charles Bronson. I think Death Wish gets something of a bad rap, in part because of how ridiculous and over-the-top the movie sequels become (let's face it, by the end, Kersey is killing guys with rocket launchers...). But the original novel, and to much the same extent the first movie, really do a great job of getting into the head of a peaceful, liberal-minded, affluent urban male who suddenly finds himself thrust into a world of tragic violence, and how he learns to use that violence to regain control of his life. The novel, even more than the movie, does an excellent job of laying out the arguments for and against vigilantism, and whether such actions are, or ever could be, the work of a completely rational mind. The last third of Garfield's novel really becomes a debate as to weather or not Paul Benjamin (renamed to Paul Kersey in the films) has become psychotic.
I also took a lot from books written on the subject of violence and society. Historian John Keegan has some very good comments in his book A History of Warfare, on how culture affects attitudes on violence. Some of this makes its way into Killer Instincts, where William indirectly references the text as one he read for a Western Civilization class in college. In particular, a section of the book focusing on "cowboy cultures" which developed tactics for herding cattle or other food animals, as well as familiarity with killing and butchering large animals - the squealing and the flailing, the gushing blood, the spilled guts, the stink of offal and excrement. Keegan believes that cultures (such as the Mongols) who were familiar with these practices made for superior killers against societies where most people were farmers and raised animals for milk or other byproducts. Herding cultures are, in a way, predatory cultures, where the shepherds can quickly slip into the role of wolf attacking the "flock" that is their enemy.
Another excellent text on this subject is Colonel Dave Grossman's On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Anyone who wants to read about the subject should pick up this text, because it delivers a deep examination of how soldiers and warriors are indoctrinated into "killing culture", especially in this modern era, where we are so separated from death and casual violence. There has been no small amount of controversy around Grossman's book; some accuse him of fudging findings or drawing conclusions that cited studies might not agree with, but I think in the end there's plenty to take away from this work. I spent a lot of time thinking about how Grossman breaks down the "distances of killing" and how they affect the killer, and I tried incorporating some of that into the story I was writing.
There were many other influences at play while I wrote this novel; lots of books and movies about mercenaries and vendettas and revenge stories. The original idea behind the novel was the character of William Lynch himself; originally I wanted to write a pure action thriller about a mercenary who'd never been in the military, and from there i began thinking about how a "civilian" would get into the mercenary business. Eventually I came up with the idea that the character had earned his spurs, so to speak, while avenging a family vendetta. Of course, how does a "normal" young man pull off such a challenge and live to tell about it? The answer to that question is what led me down the road to writing this novel.
As I said in the beginning, right now I'm a couple of weeks away from being done with the first major editorial pass. I'll be looking for readers to provide feedback and encourage another round of editing. With a little luck, I might be able to pub the novel through KDP in mid-June. Fingers crossed...
Discussing Action and Adventure Storytelling in Print, Film, Television, and Popular Culture
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
The Keys to the E-Pubbing Kingdom
Derek Canyon over at Adventures in ePublishing has done us all a big favor, and processed a whole crapton of data on eBook sellers who've crossed the 50,000 books sold line. This gives some good indicators on the trends and forces involved in successful selling of eBooks.
Take a look at Derek's article here.
Take a look at Derek's article here.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Book Review: Arron of the Black Forest Book 1 by Philip Athans & Mel Odom
I've stated numerous times that I think the future of ebook genre fiction isn't going to be massive, ponderous tomes written by folks like the late Robert Jordan or Tom Clancy (who's still kicking around). It's going to be a renaissance of short, easily digestible works that go for cheap bucks, and pack a lot of game time into a low page count. We'll be back to the days of the short novel / novella series, produced a volume every couple of months, and eagerly snapped up by readers as soon as they become available.
Arron of the Black Forest, Book 1: The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff, written by Philip Athans and Mel Odom, is the first volume in just such a series. Although there's no word count, my guesstimate is the work clocks in somewhere around 30,000 words, or 116 pages as estimated by Amazon. Our protagonist is - wait for it - Arron of the Black Forest, last of his people, a wandering adventurer and barbarian without a home. Arron's people were all killed when the magicians of the more civilized lands to the south conjured up an enormous glacier right on top of them, instantly encasing the entire population in a thousand-foot tall block of ice. Arron is the only one who wasn't caught in this icy apocalypse, and now he wanders the lands, really pissed off.
In The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff, Arron has been spending the last month fleeing from a posse / band of bounty hunters tracking him down for killing a man in a bar fight. Arron is eventually driven to seek shelter within Dragon's Cliff, an enormous, abandoned mansion (on the edge of a cliff) shunned by all the locals because it is haunted. However, Arron isn't a local and even if he was, he's desperate enough to flee anywhere. So into the Mansion he goes, and soon, the posse / band of bounty hunters follows him inside. I won't give away any spoilers, but let's just say that Arron & Co. have a terrifying adventure that's a whole lot weirder than anyone was expecting.
The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff was pretty entertaining. There's some good action and adventure, the Mansion and its "residents" are pretty cool, and I think this has definite promise as a new adventure series. The fights are pretty gory and the description of the Mansion itself, along with it's "special properties" was nicely done as well.
My biggest quibble, and it's really just a quibble, is with the character of Arron. Philip Athans speaks about his interpretation of the various sub-genres of fantasy in an article here. I agree with a lot of what he says, but I don't really agree with the Barbarian Hero as an "everyman". In some ways yes, the BH is the protagonist that the reader "relates" to in that we see the strange, exotic fantasy world more or less through their eyes, confronted with the strange and wonderful, the magical and the dangerous. But historically, the BH is in no way an "everyman".
In practically every depiction of a Barbarian Hero - and this has its roots deeply seated in Robert E. Howard's Conan and his other savage protagonists - the BH is a primordial ubermensch. The BH's life has been one of unceasing danger and hardship, Darwinism at its finest, and as a result the BH is stronger, faster, and capable of enduring more punishment than any "civilized" man. Their senses are sharper, their survival instincts more keenly honed, and their will utterly indomitable. We cheer for the Barbarian Hero, and we might react the same way he does to the exotic, degenerate world around him, but let's face it; we've got more in common with the soft, decadent, civilized folk the BH sneers at than we do with the Hero himself.
That having been said, I don't find Arron either an "everyman" hero or a primordial ubermensch. He's more of a hearty yokel with an angsty chip on his shoulder and a capacity for absorbing a lot of punishment, and much of that capacity (mini spoiler here) is granted seemingly by the Mansion itself. I feel like the writers wanted Arron to be more badass than your typical home town hero, but not as over-the-top as a Conan or Thongor. I'm not really sure if the result works for me. This is compounded by the fact that although Arron is repeatedly referred to as a "barbarian" by the more "civilized" folk, the world itself doesn't seem exotic and ancient enough to have classical barbarians a la Conan or Kull. The setting seems to fall into a mid 1700's Western civilization time period; no one wears armor, swords seem more saber-like than a classic broadsword and battleaxe era, and the look and feel of the Mansion itself is very 18th century colonial mansion. If Arron were described more as a sort of wild, Scottish Highlander-esque sort of fellow, coming down into the civilized lands from the "glens" or the "moors" (the Black Forest is described as a "bogland" but that's about it), I think the reader could comfortably attach cultural and historical analogues here and there, which is, I feel, rather important to facilitate immersing oneself in the story when there's not much world-building to be done.
Hmmm, all the above seems far more negative than I intended. Like I said at the beginning, the story is a fast, fun, entertaining read well worth the price of admission, and I encourage everyone to give it a try. When the second issue comes out I'll be sure to snap it up and review it as well. Perhaps as time goes on, the issues I have with Arron and the world he lives in will iron themselves out.
Arron of the Black Forest, Book 1: The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff, written by Philip Athans and Mel Odom, is the first volume in just such a series. Although there's no word count, my guesstimate is the work clocks in somewhere around 30,000 words, or 116 pages as estimated by Amazon. Our protagonist is - wait for it - Arron of the Black Forest, last of his people, a wandering adventurer and barbarian without a home. Arron's people were all killed when the magicians of the more civilized lands to the south conjured up an enormous glacier right on top of them, instantly encasing the entire population in a thousand-foot tall block of ice. Arron is the only one who wasn't caught in this icy apocalypse, and now he wanders the lands, really pissed off.
In The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff, Arron has been spending the last month fleeing from a posse / band of bounty hunters tracking him down for killing a man in a bar fight. Arron is eventually driven to seek shelter within Dragon's Cliff, an enormous, abandoned mansion (on the edge of a cliff) shunned by all the locals because it is haunted. However, Arron isn't a local and even if he was, he's desperate enough to flee anywhere. So into the Mansion he goes, and soon, the posse / band of bounty hunters follows him inside. I won't give away any spoilers, but let's just say that Arron & Co. have a terrifying adventure that's a whole lot weirder than anyone was expecting.
The Haunting of Dragon's Cliff was pretty entertaining. There's some good action and adventure, the Mansion and its "residents" are pretty cool, and I think this has definite promise as a new adventure series. The fights are pretty gory and the description of the Mansion itself, along with it's "special properties" was nicely done as well.
My biggest quibble, and it's really just a quibble, is with the character of Arron. Philip Athans speaks about his interpretation of the various sub-genres of fantasy in an article here. I agree with a lot of what he says, but I don't really agree with the Barbarian Hero as an "everyman". In some ways yes, the BH is the protagonist that the reader "relates" to in that we see the strange, exotic fantasy world more or less through their eyes, confronted with the strange and wonderful, the magical and the dangerous. But historically, the BH is in no way an "everyman".
In practically every depiction of a Barbarian Hero - and this has its roots deeply seated in Robert E. Howard's Conan and his other savage protagonists - the BH is a primordial ubermensch. The BH's life has been one of unceasing danger and hardship, Darwinism at its finest, and as a result the BH is stronger, faster, and capable of enduring more punishment than any "civilized" man. Their senses are sharper, their survival instincts more keenly honed, and their will utterly indomitable. We cheer for the Barbarian Hero, and we might react the same way he does to the exotic, degenerate world around him, but let's face it; we've got more in common with the soft, decadent, civilized folk the BH sneers at than we do with the Hero himself.
That having been said, I don't find Arron either an "everyman" hero or a primordial ubermensch. He's more of a hearty yokel with an angsty chip on his shoulder and a capacity for absorbing a lot of punishment, and much of that capacity (mini spoiler here) is granted seemingly by the Mansion itself. I feel like the writers wanted Arron to be more badass than your typical home town hero, but not as over-the-top as a Conan or Thongor. I'm not really sure if the result works for me. This is compounded by the fact that although Arron is repeatedly referred to as a "barbarian" by the more "civilized" folk, the world itself doesn't seem exotic and ancient enough to have classical barbarians a la Conan or Kull. The setting seems to fall into a mid 1700's Western civilization time period; no one wears armor, swords seem more saber-like than a classic broadsword and battleaxe era, and the look and feel of the Mansion itself is very 18th century colonial mansion. If Arron were described more as a sort of wild, Scottish Highlander-esque sort of fellow, coming down into the civilized lands from the "glens" or the "moors" (the Black Forest is described as a "bogland" but that's about it), I think the reader could comfortably attach cultural and historical analogues here and there, which is, I feel, rather important to facilitate immersing oneself in the story when there's not much world-building to be done.
Hmmm, all the above seems far more negative than I intended. Like I said at the beginning, the story is a fast, fun, entertaining read well worth the price of admission, and I encourage everyone to give it a try. When the second issue comes out I'll be sure to snap it up and review it as well. Perhaps as time goes on, the issues I have with Arron and the world he lives in will iron themselves out.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The Importance of Character
I watched the original Star Wars trilogy over the weekend, and while I might talk at some point about it in greater detail, it just made me more annoyed with the prequel movies. Yeah, there's a lot of fanboy rage out there concerning the prequels and where people think Lucas "screwed up", some of it more legitimate than others.
But here's a guy who (although the review is meant to be funny) makes some really valid points on the subject of creating strong protagonists and supporting characters in adventure stories. Although his voice is pretty annoying, he makes a good argument on the subject of what many think is Episode I's greatest flaw - the lack of a strong protagonist. Take a look:
This is just the first of seven parts to this review. I haven't seen any of the others, but this is definitely worth watching.
EDIT: Here's a cool Youtube video by a guy who goes through the plot of Episode I and makes a good case for how it could have been a much stronger film, because he also sees the need for a strong protagonist.
But here's a guy who (although the review is meant to be funny) makes some really valid points on the subject of creating strong protagonists and supporting characters in adventure stories. Although his voice is pretty annoying, he makes a good argument on the subject of what many think is Episode I's greatest flaw - the lack of a strong protagonist. Take a look:
This is just the first of seven parts to this review. I haven't seen any of the others, but this is definitely worth watching.
EDIT: Here's a cool Youtube video by a guy who goes through the plot of Episode I and makes a good case for how it could have been a much stronger film, because he also sees the need for a strong protagonist.
Book Review: The Rogue Gentleman #1 Private Vendetta by Brian Drake
I read RG #1 over the weekend, and it was a lot of fun. This is perfect summer reading, subway ride, lunch break entertainment. The action moves fast, the dialogue is quick and snappy, the exposition clear and engaging.
The main character, Steve Dane, is a former Force Recon Marine and ex-CIA operative. Although the reasons for his departure from the CIA are vague, we know Dane has left government service on less than stellar terms with his former employer. Dane spent some time as part of a mercenary company called the 30-30 Batallion, and he's got a lot of contacts around the world in all lines of work, from old CIA partners to former 30-30 comrades. Not all of these people are happy to deal with Dane, but you get the impression that his network is far-reaching and will play a part in every adventure. In addition his "partner" and lover is a former Russian secret agent, Nina Talikova. The dialogue and banter between these two is entertaining and does a good job of giving the story a little "fluff".
The plot of Private Vendetta is pretty straightforward: While vacationing in Italy, Dane gets caught up in the abduction of a retired Mafia boss' daughter. Turns out that the boss has an enemy who wants to kill the daughter in an act of vengeance. However, as the plot unwinds, we discover there are some larger, much more dangerous activities going on that Dane gets caught up into.
While Brian might want to make another editorial pass (I spotted a couple of minor, but obvious, wording errors early on in the story), overall this was extremely enjoyable and a perfect example of the kind of lost "men's adventure fiction" the Kindle and other e-book readers are helping to bring back; short, quick, escapist reads that are light on length and cost, but heavy on action and adventure.
The main character, Steve Dane, is a former Force Recon Marine and ex-CIA operative. Although the reasons for his departure from the CIA are vague, we know Dane has left government service on less than stellar terms with his former employer. Dane spent some time as part of a mercenary company called the 30-30 Batallion, and he's got a lot of contacts around the world in all lines of work, from old CIA partners to former 30-30 comrades. Not all of these people are happy to deal with Dane, but you get the impression that his network is far-reaching and will play a part in every adventure. In addition his "partner" and lover is a former Russian secret agent, Nina Talikova. The dialogue and banter between these two is entertaining and does a good job of giving the story a little "fluff".
The plot of Private Vendetta is pretty straightforward: While vacationing in Italy, Dane gets caught up in the abduction of a retired Mafia boss' daughter. Turns out that the boss has an enemy who wants to kill the daughter in an act of vengeance. However, as the plot unwinds, we discover there are some larger, much more dangerous activities going on that Dane gets caught up into.
While Brian might want to make another editorial pass (I spotted a couple of minor, but obvious, wording errors early on in the story), overall this was extremely enjoyable and a perfect example of the kind of lost "men's adventure fiction" the Kindle and other e-book readers are helping to bring back; short, quick, escapist reads that are light on length and cost, but heavy on action and adventure.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Quick Review of The Hunger Games
I've not read the books, but I wasn't the least bit confused by the background and plot of the film. If you've watched a number of other "Most Dangerous Game" styled movies, you can push the fiddly bits aside and watch teenagers hunt and kill each other for sport. About that - I didn't have any problem with what I saw, and I would have been willing to take a kid (if I had one) to see this movie if they were old enough to read and fully comprehend the book. I've seen people who claim they wouldn't even let 15-year olds see the movie. What reality are these parents living in? I've no idea. I was reading Vietnam memoirs in grade school, so maybe it's just me.
Overall, I thought this was a very solid film. I was certainly more emotionally invested in the story and the characters than I was watching John Carter. The issues that these sorts of "gladiatorial" movies bring up, such as The Running Man, Spartacus, Gladiator, Gamer, Death Race 2000 (and to a lesser extent the remake) and so forth are all relatively similar. The clincher is of course making the combatants teenagers, and also teenagers of a wildly varying age range. Pitting a 12 year old girl against an 18 year old boy is, by and large, going to be an unfair fight. I'm not going to post any spoilers here, but let's just say the fighting isn't always fair, and comments early on in the film about how the most dangerous opponent in the Games is the arena itself are certainly true.
Overall acting and screenplay I thought were solid. Child actors, especially those having to play very emotional roles, can be really good or incredibly awful. I definitely feel that the cast for this film was well-chosen, and although there were a few chuckle moments for me, that's mostly because I'm a bastard and often find myself laughing when others weep. So sue me.
I did say this would be a quick review, so I'll leave it at that. For a story that comes from a Young Adult novel, I think this was a very good movie and well worth the money I paid. I only wish I took the money I spent on John Carter and used it for this ticket instead. It's actually kind of sad that a story that's almost a hundred years old gets handled so poorly while a book that's only been out a couple of years does so well. I wouldn't want to see their fortunes reversed, but it is interesting to see the differences in how the two franchises have been handled.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Book Review: The Gryphon of Tirshal by Henry Brown
I read this book immediately after I read Henry's first story in this series, The Bloodstained Defile. There, three warriors - the Black Lancer Sir Javo, the horse-archer Turgar, and the enormous Krag the Wrecker - formed an alliance of arms after, well, almost killing each other. In The Gryphon of Tirshal, the three agree to hunt down and kill the Gryphon of Tirshal, a powerful, near-mythical beast which once guarded the city of Tirshal from danger, but now seems to be stealing children and treasure from the city's homes.
TGoT is a pretty interesting story. Beyond the action and adventure, Henry delves into the world of politics and the warrior culture, something familiar to him as a former U.S. Army serviceman. The Gryphon was once a guardian of Tirshal, but now it appears to have turned against the city - or has it? The concept of who turns against who, the protector or the protected, is explored in some detail, but it doesn't mire the story in burdensome philosophical exploration. There's plenty of head-cleaving, limb-hewing action, and after this second story, I found myself really wanting more adventures featuring Javo, Turgar, and Krag.
So if you get a chance, read both The Bloodstained Defile and The Gryphon of Tirshal. Two quick, entertaining reads that fans of the Sword & Sorcery genre will really enjoy.
TGoT is a pretty interesting story. Beyond the action and adventure, Henry delves into the world of politics and the warrior culture, something familiar to him as a former U.S. Army serviceman. The Gryphon was once a guardian of Tirshal, but now it appears to have turned against the city - or has it? The concept of who turns against who, the protector or the protected, is explored in some detail, but it doesn't mire the story in burdensome philosophical exploration. There's plenty of head-cleaving, limb-hewing action, and after this second story, I found myself really wanting more adventures featuring Javo, Turgar, and Krag.
So if you get a chance, read both The Bloodstained Defile and The Gryphon of Tirshal. Two quick, entertaining reads that fans of the Sword & Sorcery genre will really enjoy.
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