Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels...A Book Review...

"All is death, woman. All is pain. Love breeds loss. Isolation breeds resentment. No matter which way we turn, we are beaten. Our only true inheritance is death. And our only legacy, dust."

And so begins the end...





Obvious Spoilers ensue...

First a bit of backstory - this novel was first teased as far back as the 1990s. Intended as a short story, the project eventually swelled to a reported 200,000+ words. During this whole process, Barker suffered the loss of loved ones, broken relationships, and finally a coma brought on by blood poisoning. But now, nearly two decades in the making, we have it. It is bloody, surreal, and kinetic. The main focus here is to tell the final Hell Priest (Pinhead) story, but it is also very much the story of Harry D'Amour, the magician and last of his kind, as he faces off with the gridded demon.

Right out of the gates, we are treated to a triple evisceration as Pinhead hunts down the last of the world's great magicians. He tortures them in unimaginable ways leaving behind a trail of death and adopting one of them as his own personal assistant. It seems Pinhead has acquired a taste for all of the world's magic. As he kills, he absorbs...storing the incantations for some unknown endgame. Barker has never suffered for descriptive terms, and here we get our first, plain view of the monster:

"He looked like a creature that had lived too long, his eyes set in bruised pools, his gait steady but slow. But the tools that hung from his belt...were, like the abattoir worker's chain-mail apron he wore, wet with blood: confirmation that his weariness did not apparently keep him from taking a personal hand in the practicalities of agony."



D'Amour engages the Priest at various intervals, gaining insight into his quest and gathering friends along the way, the most important being a blind black woman named Norma who consults with the recently deceased. We discover that Pinhead actually hates his nickname, even maiming in retaliation for its usage (a point no doubt driven home by Barker as that name was never officially chosen by the author.) As the descent into hell itself unfolds, so do the motivations for Pinhead's (oops) modus operandi. He methodically eliminates the obstacles in his way, much like the dark surgeon he is known for being. He aims to have it all - apparently ending with him on the throne of the underworld itself. A particular gruesome opening volley occurs when he unleashes a horde of magical paper cranes, each a folded written curse of tangible annihilation. Some familiar faces appear here, ones that Hellraiser film fans will recognize and ultimately, feel remorse for.

Barker's hell is a wasteland populated with mutant monsters, deformed humans and immense gothic architecture. He takes us to the literal "ends of earth" while in this demonic place. As Harry and company track down the Priest, who has kidnapped Norma as bait, they encounter all sorts of lesser and greater demons. Some are soldiers of high importance - adorned with battle armor and sadistic weaponry, others merely commoners who live out their pitiful lives in the mud of hell. One of my favorite "characters" is a giant slumbering beast, known only as The Quo'oto, which Harry sees as they cross a river on frail, wooden boats. It is the size of Dune sandworm, an immense thing, and its face has the features of a devil and a bat. Barker delights in scaring the shit out of us with his imagination.

The final act is a truly macabre confrontation. The Priest waltzes through foggy fields of ancient machines en route to the Devil's Tower. Yes, Lucifer himself. Never to be one to shy away from self immolation, The Priest (and Barker himself) literally takes blade to flesh and bone as he cuts away extraneous parts of himself. He does this in order to fit Lucifer's Armor upon his scarred body and assume the ultimate prize. It is literally one of the bloodiest scenes in any novel I've ever read. Without giving it all away, Lucifer's Armor doesn't go without a fight as Harry and his friends literally watch as Hell itself cracks and falls down on their heads. The Priest is given his final, poignant farewell as things unfold - or should I say unravel - as they should. Barker changes the game as a result of this story, and nothing - including Harry D'Amour - will be the same after this. I wonder where Barker will take us after this purging of everything known and unknown in the world of demons and devils.

Of special note is Barker's characterization of the Hell Priest. Being only a casual mention in the original novel, and with only film incarnations since then to round out his persona, Barker adopts the recognizable into the current literary form of his monster. Several times I could hear Doug Bradley's voice deliver those eloquent lines of mockery and malice. It reads like a film and could serve as a fascinating screenplay if a movie should ever see the light of day (or the dark of night.) Barker succeeds in giving us what we want while at the same time, producing his final vision of his most popular creation. Not many artists are afforded that luxury.

In many ways, we the readers are along for the ride with Harry and his company as they track down the demon in a fantastical landscape. Just as Harry is fascinated with the evil things he dare not seek out, so too are we unable to look away from the final ultimate battle for Hell's future. It's messy and disturbing. And while I would have loved to have heard a bit more about how not only the Priest came to this crusade against the Order that brought him into being but also of Hell's denizens...I can't deny Barker gave us just enough in every case to give us an idea of the whole in which his story permeates. He has never written about every minute detail in a given setting anyway, opting more for suggestion when the main plot permits. This allows the reader to breathe and create the world in their mind, using his finely tuned descriptive guides.

All in all, a fantastic read. It's no minor miracle that we have it to digest in the first place. Combine that with the expectations that legions of fans bring with them magnified by nearly twenty years of waiting and it's Barker's latest major accomplishment. I can't wait to dissect it again very soon.

Farewell, Priest.

5 out of 5 Hooks.

Book Review - Immortal Coil (Star Trek: The Next Generation) by Jeffrey Lang

I have been slack with posting reviews of recent reads. I am trying to rectify that. The latest completed novel for me, an "oldie" from 2002...Immortal Coil, a Data centric novel.



First a bit of background - this was released in early 2002, before ST NEMESIS was in theaters later that year, and as a result before Data's onscreen death. As luck would have it, FF to 2012 and one of the best Trek authors working today, David Mack, has constructed a new trilogy based around Data and his possible resurrection in some fashion. Noted in his work on the trilogy was the fact that much of its story comes straight out of this novel so I had to pick it up when I scored one for a cheap price at the locale used bookstore.

Set sometime loosely between the movies Insurrection and Nemesis, Data has continued his personal growth with his emotion chip. He has begun to experience pain, loss, sadness while honing his skills of intuition. He is truly becoming more human every day, as much as an advanced android can be anyway. He keeps the bodies of his ancestors - Lore, his "daughter" Lal, and his "mother" Dr. Julia Tainer, in tubes in his lab and even cries in one scene when he remembers Lal's short but important life he helped to create.



The Enterprise is called in to investigate an mystery at a frontier lab where a Doctor and Bruce Maddox (from S.2's Measure of a Man episode) have seemingly suffered an accident and the android they are working on had been destroyed. Doctor Vaslovik has been killed. We get a flashback series of scenes where Vaslovik is seen with Data's creator Noonien Soong and Ira Graves (also from a TNG episode) as they explore the Exo III planetoid, referenced in the TOS episode "What are little Girls Made of?" featuring the immortal being Flint and his android companions Ruk and Rayna. They accidentally activate the Exo III androids left on the planet by some ancient race and barely escape, setting up events that connect to the TOS and TNG crews. There are a ton of continuity "porn" references here what with all the old characters name dropping and the common thread of AI existence.







Turns out that Vaslovik is actually Flint himself and has taken on the identity of the good Doctor in order to safeguard his newest creation - Rhea McAdams. He has smuggled her on board the Enterprise as a regular crewmember. Data happens to take a liking to her as his growth continues with human relationships thanks to her. The Exo III ancient droids return in present time, having tracked down Flint/Vaslovik and chaos ensues. The Enterprise is battle damaged, Data almost dies as Rhea saves his life and exposes her true nature to him. It is discovered that there is a "secret society" of AI sentient beings that has individuals living in all parts of the galaxy, some hiding in plain sight as humans or other races. They are from the Exo III planet and were created by The Old Ones (Ruk mentions them). They outgrew and killed their creators but due to their limited physical forms, are on an endless journey to better themselves over the eons. That Soong is inspired by them before he escapes in the past and Data eventually results is a nice result in the Star Trek timeline. Overall I really liked this book. It borrows heavily from a LOT of Star Trek history, but ties it all together in a very satisfying way. Fans of Mr. Data should be extremely excited about this one. It has great dialogue, emotion, and some great space battles towards the end with a new type of ship used by the Exo III droids. It's an added plus that this standalone novel now serves as a prologue to even bigger trilogy that I can't wait to dive into. Perhaps Mr. Data will return again very soon?

There are always possibilities...



5 out of 5 Khans!

Book Reviews - The Red Effect by Harvey Black (2013)...

First in a trilogy of novels set in early 80s Cold War Europe. The plot centers around the escalating tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The early scenes in the novel follow a two man covert Ops team sneaking around Eastern Germany photographing Tank regiments and their clandestine movements along the border. The real world event of Korean Airlines 007 being shot down also factors in as the mistrust grows between the two sides. The further we get, the more the reader realizes war is coming and its only a matter of time before shots are fired. NATO, specifically British SAS, learns of the subterfuge the Soviets plan to use under cover of their normal war games as they plan to launch their attack with hordes of tanks and troops massing on the East German border. There is also a chapter on an East German couple trying to escape the clutches of the Soviet war machine as they sneak across the forbidden zone in an attempt to escape to the West - a very melancholy and personal side story. The final 1/3 features a ton of military spec jargon and troop movement detail. While this serves to firmly plant the reader in the moment, it can also get very tedious and overly detail oriented to the overall detriment of the story's progression. There are some interesting individual unit plotlines started, esp the SAS unit that digs in underground and waits for the impending Soviet assault. Theirs could be one of the more interesting stories as they look to be a guerilla warfare type group who will undoubtedly nip at the Soviets heels, finding ways to leave their mark and thwart the large Soviet forces when and where they can.

All of this comes to a head in the final pages as the Warsaw Pact Assault begins with a barrage of rockets, missiles and Tank warfare. For lack of a better tern, its a massive blitskrieg as they push their way into West Germany. And then the novel ends. ARRGGHH!! Gotta get started on book two - The Black Effect.

Recommended for readers of Tom Clancy, esp of his book Red Storm Rising.

3.5 out of 5 Khans!

The Minimalist Approach...The Bomber Boys

This isn't a reality yet, but the rumor is that Spielberg and Hanks are aiming to make their next HBO WW2 miniseries about Donald Miller's book "Masters of the Air." I am currently reading this and it is every bit as good as you could hope for. Needless to say, I am excited at the prospect of another great miniseries based on this work. So, of course, I made a poster.

Masters of the Air - America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany

Book Review - The Struggle for Guadalcanal by Samuel Eliot Morison...

This is something I've been meaning to do for a long time. Whenever I come across a good read, I want to try and put up a few words along with the cover and author just in case some of you out there are also looking for some of the same subjects. I just finished the above title and it is one of the best accounts of naval operations that I've ever read. This book was published in the late 1940s so the information was still new at the time. It is part of a larger 15 (?) volume set about the total naval operations of the entire Second World War. I chose this volume since I have a particular interest in the Guadalcanal Campaign and I wanted a good introduction to that battle. Everything from the men and machines to the tactics and results are discussed with emphasis on the air and sea battles in supreme detail. Most of the land battles are mentioned as well but the focus here are the men on the ships and planes fighting each other in and around Ironbottom Sound. Several key facets are explored - The Tokyo Express, Battles of Savo Island, Cape Esperance, Tassafaronga, the gallantry of fire crews on the burning american destroyers, the submarine influence, Henderson Field and the differences and advantages/disadvantages of American and Japanese torpedo attack doctrine.

Look how close those Bettys are to the water...wow...



Yes, that's the front of that ship that is missing. It made it back to port for repairs!



Also mentioned are the exploits of the US Navy Seabees who would go in and root out enemy remnants and pave/repair new airfields and bases where burned out enemy encampments once stood. And in the early months of 1943, several paragraphs talk about the PT boat crews and their constant harassment of Japanese convoys attempting to resupply their ragged troops on the island. Wonderful stuff!

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for an introduction to a better understanding of the Guadalcanal Campaign. Everything is here, and it is written not unlike a great war novel - easy to access and a joy to digest.

Also on the docket this week is the current issue of Sports Illustrated with a monster on the cover...