BOOK REVIEW: Planet Z by Kristen Middleton

 

Alex, her parents, and her brother Jimmy all embark on an interstellar mission to find a planet where what is left of the human race can live after their native planet's resources are depleted. Alex is not thrilled about the prospect of going to another world, but she tries to be a sport and accept her fate. What she does not know is that the people around her are not to be trusted, not even the ones she loves the most, and the revelations she discovers on the voyage plunge her into a reality of intrigue and danger.

This is a book told from the perspective of a teenage girl and so obviously targeted at that audience. The chapters are short and some of the details are confusing, but no more so than they would normally be for a person of that age. The premise of the story is good and keeps the interest, with a happy if surprising ending. Good for younger readers who are just getting into the sci-fi genre and looking for a heroine they can relate to.

MOVIE REVIEW: Everything Everywhere All At Once

 

Evelyn Wang is not having a good day. Her business is being audited, her husband has filed for divorce, and she is trying to keep her aged father from finding out that her daughter has just declared herself lesbian. Then, she is approached by a man who looks just like her husband but claims to come from a different reality and tells her that she is the key to fighting off a great evil that is trying to destroy all the worlds in the multiverse of time. The only way Evelyn can fight this evil and save the multiverse, including herself and her family, is to visit the different realities and bring their experiences and talents back into her own. Can she succeed?

This movie swept the 2022 Academy Awards, including a Best Actress award for Michelle Yeoh who plays Evelyn, Best Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan who plays her husband and the lookalike from the alternate reality, and Best Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis who, completely unrecognizable in wig and makeup, plays the IRS auditor who is in charge of overseeing the Wangs’ tax investigation. While this film was touted as a complete masterpiece by many, I have trouble seeing what makes it so wonderful. While the cast is completely enchanting (and let’s not forget Stephanie Hsu as Evelyn’s daughter Joy or James Hong has her father) I found the storyline extremely hard to follow. There were so many alternate realities coming and going for everyone that it was difficult to ascertain which one was which. (The Academy Award the editing team won for this was well deserved.) In addition, there were many moments of what was supposedly labeled as humor that were utterly profane (Joy beating up some men using giant penises as nunchucks comes to mind). Granted, I am not really a fan of comedy and only watched this to see Yeoh in her award-winning role, but the whole thing left me rather flat. If this is what is being labeled as high art now, I think I’ll be more than happy to continue watching movies from previous years. Do not let the kids see this one. 

BOOK REVIEW: God's Provision for Your Every Need by T.D. Jakes

 

For those of you who do not know this author, T.D. Jakes is an African-American preacher who is the founder of The Potter’s House, a non-denominational megachurch in Dallas, Texas. Born and raised in Charleston, West Virgina, he became a minister at the age of 25 and started a storefront church in 1982. After a few years and a continually growing congregation, he moved to Dallas, where he now resides and pastors an organization that boasts 30,000 members. His sermons are televised on such networks as Trinity Broadcasting Network and Black Entertainment Television as The Potter’s Touch. He also has a production company that publishes his many books and has produced several movies.

Though claiming to be non-denominational, his teachings are actively conservative, and he has been targeted by LBGTQ+ activists as being hostile to transgender rights. This book, however, does not reflect that attitude. It is a book heavy on symbolism, most of which anyone who is not versed in the Christian lexicon will have trouble understanding. Basically, it talks about God putting water (help and encouragement) into our deserts (problems and circumstances). Though the sheer volume of this symbology can get monotonous, this is a relatively short book and so readable in spite of the repetitiveness of its theme. One thing that I did appreciate is the way that Jakes writes. He does not use large multisyllable words or theological arguments to get his point across. He writes as if he were simply sitting in front of the reader attempting to explain something, though, as previously stated, heavy in Christian terminology. This is a good book for a Christian who is going through tough times and looking for something to tell them it will get better. For anyone else, it may be something of a confusing read.

MOVIE REVIEW: Risen

 

This movie should not be confused with one of the same title that was released in 2016, and was a Christian based film. This one is a pure sci-fi flick from 2021 starring Nicole Schalmo as an astrobiologist named Lauren Stone who has hit rock bottom emotionally and has lost her job and reputation as a result. When a meteor hits outside a small town, turning the air toxic and killing everyone there, Stone is called upon to solve the mystery behind the phenomenon. A problem that only gets stranger when some of the dead residents rise and begin living again.

This is actually the first film that Schalmo has been known for. She was both the star and the assistant producer, and, in spite of her relatively unknown status, this has received nine awards from various film festivals and independent critics from around the world. The cinematography is excellent as well as the acting, though the script is rather slow and confusing in spots, with a lot of technical jargon about quantum physics thrown in. However, the end is so completely unexpected and astounding that it makes this totally worth watching. There is no erotica, very little violence, and an equally small amount of strong language, so this would be suitable for older children, provided they have the intellect to understand it. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks

 

Hawk, a young man imbued with magic more powerful than has ever been seen before, leads a ragtag group of orphans and their caretakers in search of a place where they will be safe from the last devastation that will annihilate what is left of the world. Joining them is a young Elf who carries the responsibility for the entirety of his race, and two Knights of the Word, people drawn from the race of men to protect the ones who will make a difference in the battle between light and darkness. Against them stands a demon so powerful that it will take all their combined abilities to defeat him and the army of monsters that he has amassed.

This is the last book in the trilogy of the Genesis of Shannara, the prelude to the world Terry Brooks first created in his sensational first novel, The Sword of Shannara. Now we learn how the world of Shannara came to be, the forces that shaped it, and the world that it was born from. This brings all the main characters from the first two books in this trilogy together for one last battle to see who will survive and who will be destroyed. A battle that will be decided, not by armies, but by the power of one boy who is not even sure what he is or is meant to be. One of Brooks’s best, this is a great read.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Black Demon

A man named Paul Sturges, who works for an oil company, takes his family on a weekend in Baja California where he has been assigned to inspect an oil rig. When they get there, they find that the oil rig has been leaking for months, polluting the waters offshore and devastating the town there that relied on the fishing industry. It has also apparently attracted a monster shark that the locals believe is a demon come to exact revenge on the humans who have destroyed the environment. Sturges soon finds himself and his family trapped on the oil rig itself where, along with the only two survivors of the crew, they enter a fight to get back to shore before the whole thing collapses or the shark can make them its prey.

This combines South American folklore with the current megalodon craze to create a movie about survival and the consequences of past choices. Due to its setting and plot, this is necessarily pro-environmentalism and anti-oil. Starring Josh Lucas as Sturges, Fernanda Urrejola as his wife Ines, and Julio Cesar Cedillo as one of the crew survivors, the acting in this is excellent. The script is sometimes a little choppy and the special effects are almost non-existent (the shark only has one out of the water appearance), but the performances keep it on track. Made by Amazon Studios for streaming on that platform, this was released before the writers’ and actors’ strikes that all but crippled the industry in 2023. As a result, it was never marketed to a wider audience than on the streaming service itself. However, it is worth seeing, if for nothing more than the effort that the actors put into it.  

 

BOOK REVIEW: Fairy Tale by Stephen King

 

Charlie Reade is a young man about to graduate high school. Though he is reasonably handsome and has been athletically successful most of his life, Charlie has been through some tough times. His mother was killed in a tragic accident when he was only a child and his father turned to alcohol to drown his own grief, which led Charlie down some dark paths and into some choices that he now regrets. But then he becomes the only friend of the hermit who lives in the big old house at the top of the hill and falls in love with the man’s equally old dog. When the man dies suddenly, he leaves Charlie his entire estate and, among all the other papers, a cassette tape on which the old guy tells a story that is clearly unbelievable. However, upon further investigation and to his utter astonishment, Charlie finds that the story is absolutely true. For the old man has left the boy not only a magical place, but the chance for a life changing experience, as well as an incredible responsibility to not only protect what he has been given but to also make sure that two entire worlds do not end up destroying each other.

This novel is just what its name indicates, a fairy tale. Over three decades ago, Stephen King wrote a book called The Eyes of the Dragon which was similar. In it, a good, honorable prince fought to save his kingdom from a demonic sorcerer.  However, in this, the prince is a young man from our world, and the danger is from the desires of members of a corrupt royal family that have made a deal with the very essence of evil. This is a dark fairy tale, in that there is a great deal of bloodshed and body parts, and most of the people involved, even the good ones, are well equipped for killing when they must. King has an uncanny way of weaving a web of events that keep coming back to the old bedtime stories that he was told as a child (one in particular), thus becoming the theme of the narrative and still having the ability to work their own form of magic. There are many who have not and will not like this, mainly because it is not in King’s usual vein of horrible beings and nightmarish happenings, but it is a fairy tale worth the telling. And worth the reading as well.