Book Review: Project Nemesis, by Jeremy Robinson

This is the second book I've read by Jeremy Robinson, and it was another good read!  I had previously read Island 731, and it was a rapid read - it took around 50 pages or so for the story to really get moving.  So, I read Island 731 first, but it was published second.  It is kind of a prequel to Project Nemesis, includes a character who is mentioned in Project Nemesis, who I believe makes an appearance in a later Kaiju thriller - but Island 731 itself is not included as part of the Nemesis/Kaiju Saga, and can successfully stand on its own.  Whew!

All right, now that the prologue of this review is finished...Project Nemesis is a "Kaiju" novel.  "Kaiju" is Japanese for "strange beast", and is typically associated with Japanese movie monsters like Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra, etc., and was more recently popularized by Guillermo del Toro's 2013 movie Pacific Rim, which I have not seen, but is now on my list of films to watch, even though it didn't get superb ratings.  The word "Kaiju" does appear in Island 731 (after all, there are some strange beasts in it), but giant Godzilla-like monsters are reserved for the Nemesis saga.

I will say, it was fun to revisit some fond memories of my youth.  Like Mr. Robinson, I spent many Saturday afternoons watching Creature Double Feature on WLVI Channel 56 in the Boston area, and I enjoyed many of the Godzilla movies back then.  I still remember the suspense of watching the evolving form of Hedorah in Godzilla vs. Hedorah (vs. The Smog Monster in the USA), and wondering what its final form would be.  I remember this so well because of the great disappointment I felt when our watching of the film was interrupted for us to go home and we missed the last 15 - 20 minutes of the movie, only to see Godzilla walking off into the distance when we returned home.  I think it was several years before I finally got to see the ending.

Anyway, Project Nemesis has a start that is similar to Island 731 - we get a glimpse into the past to view two events that ultimately lead to the creation of Nemesis later in the story, and some time is spent setting the scene for this.  But, once things start going downhill, they keep heading in that direction, and as is typical for this type of story you are left wondering how they could possibly defeat this monster.

With regard to the Nemesis creature, I liked that it didn't have any traditional "Kaiju" attacks - nothing like Godzilla's Atomic Breath, or Monster Zero's lightning, or any other type of beam attacks, but eventually we learn that Nemesis does have something pretty devastating in the form of bright orange areas, though it wasn't what I would have expected.

The origin of the monster is fairly original.  Although, unless I'm mistaken, I believe I sense the influence of the film Frankenstein Conquers the World, as well as Godzilla vs. Hedorah (the evolving form of the monster).  There may well be other influences, but these are the two that really stood out for me.

I also really liked the fact that the main protagonist, Jon Hudson, feels that his job is ultimately a joke - after all, he spends his days investigating Sasquatch sightings that never really amount to anything.  Of course, once Nemesis arrives on the scene, he fights for his jurisdiction with pride.  The cast of supporting characters are also fun.

As I write this, I'm already halfway through the sequel, Project Maigo, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.  I've also added a few other of Mr. Robinson's books to my current reading list and I'm looking forward to them.

Michael Crichton Replacement Wanted

Every year I go through a phase where I miss seeing a new Michael Crichton novel on the shelf at the bookstore every 1 - 3 years. Nobody else was able to instantly pull me into the story from the first page and make me not want to put the book down and stay up way to late too finish it.  He had a way with words.  And dialogue.  And science.  And technology.  And current events.

Many authors cover one genre or theme in their writing:  horror, fantasy, science-fiction, adventure/thriller, mystery.  There are a few authors who change genres every few books - Dan Simmons leaps immediately to mind.  His works span horror, real crime, and science fiction on a regular basis, and he often includes some historical element (The Terror, The Abominable, and Drood are excellent examples).

Authors of fantasy, adventure, and thrillers may change the details in their books, but the essential stories are typically the same.  Sometimes this can be a bad thing if the stories are too formulaic.  For example, there is a great evil and good sets out to defeat it - too many stories in a row like this and it is like the author just changed the names in a previous story.  To some extent, Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series is kind of formulaic (there is something bad and Harry needs to stop it), but in that series the devil is in the details, and the series is FANTASTIC!

But some author's work I see as being pretty much the same.  For example, I've seen James Patterson's 'Alex Cross' stories - I've seen the movie Along Came A Spider, I've read Cat and Mouse, and I've read the back covers of several more - seems like there's always a serial killer, and the story is typically similar enough that I won't be picking up any more of his books.  Given his popularity, many people apparently like this, but I'm not one of them.  I will say that both stories did contain a twist at the end, but this wasn't enough of a payoff for reading the story - at least, not for me.

However, Crichton's books are different.  While his stories are typically adventurous or dramatic, they had a wide range.  For example:

• The Great Train Robbery deals with the first theft from a moving train in the 1800's.
• Rising Sun involves a corporate murder and cutting edge technology
• Sphere involved the investigation of an alien ship that crashed at the bottom of the ocean.
• Jurassic Park involves a theme park where science has produced living dinosaurs
• Disclosure is about a reverse sexual harassment case, also in the corporate world with cutting edge technology
• Airframe is about a company that builds passenger jets, and an investigation into an accident
• Timeline is about time travel to medieval France
• Prey is about a cloud of nano-particles that has been programmed as a a predator
• State of Fear is about global warming and climate change and eco-terrorists
• Next is about genetic research
• Micro is kind of like the movie Fantastic Voyage, but instead of being shrunk to the microscopic level, people are shrunk to a half an inch in height and thrust into the Hawaiian jungle and must deal with the hazards of nature that that size

Some of these books, such as Disclosure, State of Fear, and Airframe, followed on the heels of similar world events (Disclosure was a few years after a famous sexual harassment case, State of Fear followed concerns about global warming and climate change, and Airframe included an accident similar to the China Eastern Airlines accident from a few years earlier).  Some other authors follow this pattern as well (James Rollins refers to genetically modified crops and colony collapse disorder in honey bees in his novel The Doomsday Key), but there aren't many of them - to my knowledge anyway.

Most of his works typically included something that was cutting edge.  Even in the Great Train Robbery, stealing from a moving train had never been done before.  Sounds pretty cutting edge for the year 1854.  To top if off, the story is partially based on fact (there was a real train robbery).

I remember reading Sphere when I was in college.  I didn't want to put it down, and I ended up staying up all night to finish it.  It was not only a science fiction story, but was also a fast paced psychological thriller.  It also includes some underwater action that rivals James Cameron's The Abyss, although Sphere was published first.

The stories of Michael Crichton always involved very realistic, human characters (not super heroes), facing realistic challenges (even when surrounded by seemingly impossible things, like nano-particles or dinosaurs).  He was an amazingly talented writer who had the ability to get you hooked on a story within a handful of pages, and there are very few authors who exhibit this talent these days, and his death in 2008 left a gaping hole in the world of storytelling.

Jodorowsky's Dune

Over the past year I have seen blurbs about this movie in various places.  The picture of the strange ship (above) in the advertisements certainly interested me.  It was unlike anything I'd seen before - it has a very psychedelic look.  After seeing this a few times, I definitely wanted to see this movie - not just the documentary, but the film itself.  This is a documentary about a movie that Alejandro Jodorowsky wanted to make back in 1975 - but it was never made.  This documentary aired on Starz recently and I had an opportunity to watch it, and I have to say it was very interesting.  Jodorowsky's vision was to make a film that was like an LSD trip - but without the drugs.

There were some pretty big names associated with this film.  Well, let's say that in 1975 some of them were big names, and others would *become* big names in the very near future.  Dan O'Bannon was personally selected by Jodorowsky to do the special effects for Dune after seeing his work on John Carpenter's Dark Star.  O'Bannon would be responsible for some big movies in the near future (Alien, Heavy Metal, and Blue Thunder among them).  During preproduction, the following people were also hand-picked by Jodorowsky:

• Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) for storyboard art and set design, who would work with Jodorowsky on comics for many years to come.
• Chris Foss, who was best known for science fiction book covers.
• H. R. Giger, for set and character design (yeah, the guy who worked on Alien)
• Salvador Dali (yeah, the melting clock artist!) to play the Emperor Shaddam IV
• Orson Welles (yeah, Citizen Kane)
• David Carradine (Kwai Chang Kane from Kung Fu!)
• Mick Jagger (lead singer for The Rolling Stones)

In addition to artists, he also specifically wanted rock music for some of the film, and he selected Pink Floyd and Magma to do the some of the music (after looking into Tangerine Dream, among others).

This project was described as extremely ambitious.  It was discussed that Jodorowsky had plans to do things that George Lucas didn't even attempt in the Star Wars prequel movies more than 20 years later.

The script and storyboard book

The script, pictured here with Jodorowsky in the documentary, was HUGE - larger than several phone books.  Frank Herbert himself, the author of the science fiction book Dune, felt the script would result in a 14-hour movie, but Jodorowsky didn't really care.  Ultimately, movie companies loved everything about the project - they just didn't want Jodorowsky as the director.

Storyboards inside the script

The project was also deemed too expensive.  In preproduction alone, about two million dollars had been spent, out of a projected fifteen million dollars, which was quite a bit of money in 1976. So, the project died.  Oddly enough, just a few years later, O'Bannon, Foss, Giger, and Giraud would all work together on Ridley Scott's Alien, which was history in the making, given the revenue generated by the Alien franchise of books, comics, and movies.

When this project failed, Jodorowsky turned to comics, with Moebius as a partner, and elements of his Dune concept ended up in works like The Incal and The Metabarons.  The Incal apparently influenced the work of many others over the years - there was even a lawsuit filed that Luc Besson's The Fifth Element borrowed heavily from The Incal (the case was lost).  Many future films were influenced by Jodorowsky's Dune, including (among others):

• Blade Runner
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Masters of the Universe
• Prometheus

In my opinion, it even had influence on David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune - specifically the Emperor's ship which lands on a pyramid-like base on Arrakis.  Jodorowsky saw this version when it came out and thought it was terrible - he called it a failure.  I've seen both this version of Dune, and the mini-series that was created by SyFy.  I don't remember much of the SyFy series, but there were elements of David Lynch's Dune that I quite enjoyed, even though it was not 100% faithful to the book - in fact, some of the things I really liked weren't even in the book (the extended version is the only one to see - the original theatrical release leaves out too much detail).  Apparently, Jodorowsky took some liberties with the story as well, but from what I've seen that is fairly typical of Hollywood.

Jodorowsky's Dune

In my opinion, it even had influence on David Lynch's 1984 version of Dune - specifically the Emperor's ship which lands on a pyramid-like base on Arrakis.  Jodorowsky saw this version when it came out and thought it was terrible - he called it a failure.  I've seen both this version of Dune, and the mini-series that was created by SyFy.

Lynch's Dune

I don't remember much of the SyFy series, but there were elements of David Lynch's Dune that I quite enjoyed, even though it was not 100% faithful to the book - in fact, some of the things I really liked weren't even in the book (the extended version is the only one to see - the original theatrical release leaves out too much detail).  Apparently, Jodorowsky took some liberties with the story as well, but from what I've seen that is fairly typical of Hollywood.



I recently bought a copy of The Incal, knowing that it influenced The Fifth Element and other works of fiction.  I had also heard of Moebius in the past, so I thought it would be an interesting read, and it would be interesting to see what helped influence many works of science fiction that I have enjoyed.

The book came with the pictured sticker on it - the bold statement reminds me of a book I saw in a book store in the late 1980's that was something like "The Greatest Lines From the Worst Books That Were Never Written".  I have to say I really wonder what this movie would have been like had it been made.  I also wonder if anyone will ever attempt to make Jodorowskys Dune as a TV series or series of movies sometime in the future.  Certainly, aspects of his vision are 40 years out of date (the whole psychedelic LSD thing may not be so popular today), but I think it would be interesting.

Book Review: Quantum Night, by Robert J. Sawyer

Mr. Sawyer once again explores the human condition in Quantum Night.  Consciousness has been a central theme in several of his previous novels; e.g. artificial intelligence in The WWW Trilogy (Wake, Watch, Wonder), and uploading the human mind into an android in Mindscan.

Now the focus is on:  psychopaths.  I have tried to write this review to reveal some of the scientific elements of this novel in the hope of generating interest without revealing much of the core story itself, and I hope I have been successful.  Due to the content of this novel, I found writing this review somewhat difficult.  If you want to experience the novel without knowing any details beyond what is on the inside of the dust cover, I would stop reading now.

Building on data that suggests that the number of psychopaths in the world is actually much larger than expected, Mr. Sawyer weaves a disturbing tale where the members of humanity who are actually conscious with a conscience are in the minority.  The majority of people in the world are either psychopaths or philosophical zombies (can be likened to automatons who do as they're told and simulate everything perfectly but are not actually conscious), with the last group being the "normal" people.  The book contains a "Further Reading" section listing many non-fiction works that provide empirical evidence which is the basis for the ideas in this novel - even some evidence that philosophical zombies, previously used as a thought experiment, may actually be in our midst.

First, a few definitions from www.dictionary.com:

• psychopath:  a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.
• psychopathy:  a mental disorder in which an individual manifests amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.

And, from wikipedia.com, some information about philosophical zombies:  
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie

In this story, the world population of 7 billion people is made up of (read the book to get the actual numbers):

• philosophical zombies who are not conscious and have no conscience
• psychopaths who are conscious and have no conscience
• normal people who are conscious and have a conscience

The concept of a philosophical zombie seems to support the concept of mob (or herd) mentality, which seems pretty mindless.  Also, a significantly larger number of psychopaths who lie, feel no guilt, have no empathy or love for others, and are only interested in themselves, seems to match our "real" world which has so many problems with greed and antisocial behavior.  (Keep in mind that not all psychopaths are serial killers - it is a scale ranging from antisocial behavior to violence).  Such a world seems like a scary place for you and I, who are "normal".  You are normal, aren't you?  At least in the three choices that this book sets out, right? <grin>  In such a world, it would seem that we "normal" folks are the newly hatched sea turtles trying to scramble from their eggs to the ocean across a beach strewn with flocks of psychopathic seagulls and zombie followers just waiting to devour the majority of us as we try to sneak by.  Not good!

This novel also deals with the morality and outcome of scientific testing with human subjects.  It plays a large part in the story, which centers on Jim Marchuk, an experimental psychologist who has developed a way to detect psychopaths.  Jim attempts to live a utilitarian life, trying to achieve the most happiness for the most people, which leads to some controversial beliefs that come up from time to time.

Certainly, this book contains a large amount of scientific information, but despite this the story keeps the reader interested from the very beginning, and the science is not complicated or overwhelming - it is described in easy to understand terms.  The story contains many twists and turns, and for me there were several "Holy Crap!" moments that I did not see coming (a trademark for most of Mr. Sawyer's books).

Quantum Night ranks up there with some of Mr. Sawyer's most popular works, and I would not be surprised to see this book nominated for a major award.  His books are always crammed with references to many different scientific efforts (for example, CERN plays a part in many of his novels), world events (both past and present), and to some of his favorite works of science fiction (such as Planet of Apes).

I understand that this may be his last novel, which does sadden me - and I do hope he writes more in the future.  At present, I have not read his two previous novels, Red Planet Blues and Triggers, and I will need to stockpile these for when I need a guaranteed good read (typically after attempting to read a bunch of novels that don't hold my interest).  Although, I may need to move Triggers nearer the top of my list - I know that he's been working on a script for either a movie or TV-show based on this book, and I'll want to read it before that comes out.  I enjoyed both the book and TV-show for Flashforward, but they were both very different.  Despite the difference, I think reading the book after seeing the show would have made it less interesting - at least for me.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone to enjoys a rollicking scientific thriller that is easy to understand.  It is a fast, engaging read, just like many of Mr. Sawyer's other works.

I'm open to and welcome comments and discussion about this book.

Book Review: Island 731, by Jeremy Robinson

I came across this book completely by accident.  In fact, I was browsing on Amazon and in the "also bought" section of the page was a book titled Project Hyperion, which was proclaimed a "Kaiju" thriller.  The Godzilla-like monster on the cover immediately peaked my interest, but I thought, really?  It kind of seemed ridiculous.  Sure, I used to enjoy the Godzilla movies and similar fare when I was in middle/high school.  Anyone else remember the Creature Double Feature?  But, the modern versions of Godzilla have, in my opinion, fallen extremely short, and movies like Pacific Rim and Cloverfield weren't exactly smash hits.

I was just about ready to move on when I noticed that this was the fourth book in a series, and it had a 4.8 rating out of 5 - the majority of them 5 star reviews.  Okaaay - worth another look.  I searched for the previous books and they all had good reviews as well.  So, I started browsing other books by the author, and came across Island 731.  While not listed as a "Kaiju" thriller, I noticed that the "Kaiju" series included a novel titled Project 731, so I figured there must be a connection, and thought it MUST be the first book in the series.

Anyway, I picked it up at my local bookstore and started reading it.  The inside cover contained a blurb that compared Island 731 to The Island of Dr. Moreau.  Another blurb referred to it as one of the best successors to Jurassic Park.  I also noticed that Steve Berry and James Rollins had some nice comments about Secondworld, another book by Mr. Robinson, so things are looking pretty decent.

While The Island of Dr. Moreau has some interesting elements, I found both the book and various TV movies to be on the boring side.  It wasn't sounding like the same kind of story as Project Hyperion or the other books in the series, and it did not seem like the "origin" of the series either, so I thought I was in for a major disappointment.  But, I kept reading.  It was a little on the slow side for the first four or five chapters, but once they reached the island I didn't want to put this book down.  For me, what this book has in common with Moreau is the scientific experimentation, but that's about it.

When I reached the halfway point, I was enjoying the book so much I researched the series some more.  On Wikipedia, Island 731 was definitely listed as book "0" in the series, but Project Nemesis was actually the first book published.  So, I had a confirmation that there was a connection between the books, and it did appear to be a prequel of sorts - but the story lines still seemed to be vastly different.  But, that really didn't matter at this point - I was hooked!

I have to say, this was an awesome read!  From chapter to chapter I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.  This was a fast, gripping read of the variety I typically only find with Dan Brown, Robert J. Sawyer, Jack McDevitt, and Michael Crichton.  The origins of the island are haunting, the science and biology are interesting, there's plenty of action, and I was surprised by many different elements of the story, which kept it fresh.  I really had no idea where things would end up.

The last few pages of the book contain a brief overview of the events of Project Nemesis, and also have an introduction to Project Maigo, the next book in the series.  After reading this, I am anxious to check out Project Nemesis and the additional books in the series.  Given the high ratings, I fully expect to enjoy them.  After browsing further on Amazon, I also have interest in handful of other standalone books by this author, which fall into my areas of interest (Beneath and Raising the Past currently look the most interesting).

This is another author that I was unaware of that I have taken a chance on, and it has paid off in a major way.  I can't wait to get started on checking out some of the other books.