Review of Luminarium by Alex Shakar

As his twin languishes in a coma, a man seeks spiritual enlightenment and meaning, aided by texts and emails that seem to be coming from his brother. Alex Shakar’s Luminarium is a beautifully written book that mashes up philosophy, pop culture, recent past, quantum mechanics and a story about a man whose twin brother is dying. 

It is the summer of 2006 and Fred Brounian is not in a good place. The video game company he and his brothers founded has been stolen by a military company that uses its game engine to run extremely realistic training scenarios for its wannabe warriors.  His fiancée Melanie has broken up with him and taken up with someone new (or so he’s heard). And despite being in a coma, his dying twin brother George has been sending him a series of enigmatic emails—Help Avatara—that mean nothing to him.

Fred joins a group studying spirituality, and finds the experience alternately liberating and frightening, made more complicated by his attraction to Mira, the woman facilitating it. He reatreats into the cranky comfort of his relationship with his father Vartan, a failed actor but decent musician who performs at kids’ birthday parties in an act that George conceived when he and Fred were in high school.

This nook is a dazzling, dizzying romp through pop culture, recent history, East Indian myth, quantum physics and a whole spectrum of other elements. It’s lovely to see a story in which the myth is not the same old Catholic and Celtic tropes that have been done to death, and the author does a graceful job of integrating the myth and the mundane. (He’s particularly good with the various game scenarios and the texts and messages Fred gets from … wherever he’s getting them from.)

Luminarium works on many levels. At its simplest, it’s the story of a man whose life is falling apart, making him ripe for the “faith without ignorance” spiritual awakening that Miri is offering. It’s the story of a man coping with the impending death of his twin, his other self. It’s a love story. It’s a tale of quantum revelation in which “real physics” coexists alongside things that could not possibly happen, and yet do.

Review: Serpents of Arakesh by V.M. Jones

Serpents of Arakesh by V. M. Jones

Appearances can be deceptive.  The four people around the table look like a businesswoman (Veronica Sherwood); a tramp (Quentin Quested); a bodybuilder (Shaw; and a bank manager (Withers).  You would neverguess that Quentin is actually one of the wealthiest men in the world, the world’s most wizardly computer genius and the man behind the best-selling Quest computer games. 

The most recent game—Quest for the Golden Goblet—is being marketed with a special promotion sweepstakes.  People who register the game get to enter a contest to win a complete computer system, a complete set of the Quest games and … a two-day gaming workshop with Q himself. Faster than you can say “golden ticket,” thousands of entries pour in, and salfes have jumped two hundred percent.

Q has a very personal agenda behind the contest, though. He wants to find five children who can enter the magical world of his creation and find a healing potion that will save the life of his daughter Hannah.

It’s clear the author has seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory  a few times, but that’s okay.  Jones has taken the basic “golden ticket” premise and given it an interesting Harry Potte-ish gloss.  (Like Harry, protagonist Adam is an orphan who has to deal with bullies.) 

Shakespeare Noir

I knew there had to be a website called Shakespeare Noir and there is. (Here.) I wasn't sure what I would find there--reimaginings of plays as short, hard-boiled stories? Deconstruction of the drama from a noir-ish lens?
It turns out to be a site celebrating all sorts of manipulations of words, including poetry. Here's ow it's described on the home page:

Spoken Word,

Lyrical expression.

Verbal manipulation

Of thoughts and words

Which create thoughts and images

Which takes you to another world

Which it creates, but doesn’t really exist

Except within the poets mind

Thus leaving you blind

To the truth of it all.

Definitely worth checking out if you're a word-lover.

The Biggest Buffet Ever?

Courtesy of Caesar's Palace

When I was a kid I loved buffets. I thought it was great being able to pick and choose what I put on my plate. (My parents were children of the Depression and there was no such thing as accommodating a picky eater in my house. You ate what was in front of you and you liked it that way even if it had mayonnaise on it or olives in it.)
Nowadays, though, buffets seem more like a temptation to overeat. There are so many yummy treats on offer that you can't possibly put them all on one plate. So you must (!) go back for seconds. And thirds are not unheard of.
So now Caesar's Palace has come up with a new buffet extravaganza they call "Bacchanal," featuring 524 different menu items including Red Velvet pancakes with sweet cream cheese topping, and made to order chocolate and vanilla souffles. Read more about this over-the-top feast here. 

Mark Satchwill has outdone himself

Illustration by Mark Satchwill

The new NoHo Noir story is up and I only hope I've done justice to Mark Satchwill's illustration. I think it's a stunning commentary.
He's in the middle of redoing his art site, but you can see more of his work here.  He's also participating in a "photo a day" and posting them on Facebook.
Here's a link to the story, "Perceived Value."

Review: Railsea by China Mieville

Railsea by China Mieville is a coming-of-age tale that takes its inspiration from Moby Dick and Treasure island and a whole universe of elements that he’s mixed into a wildly imaginative story of a young man who has grown up in a world bounded by railroads who discovers there’s something beyond and goes looking for it to claim his destiny.

The hero of the book, a young man called Sham (Shamus Yes Ap Soorap) has gone “to rail’ to hunt the moldywarpes, beasts who inhabit the railsea and used for their fat and meat and fur. Apprenticed to the train’s doctor, Sham is eager to hear the stories the railsailors tell and fascinated by the train’s captain Abacat Naphi, a one-armed woman who lost her limb to a wily white moldywarpe and has been searching for it ever since.

He is less enthusiastic about the rough games the sailors entertain themselves with—games like beetle races and death matches with birds and beasts. One day Sham snaps, stealing a little day bat from the “arena” so it won’t end up killed. This action marks him out to the other crew members. The captain marks him out for reasons of her own, and he’s soon embroiled in feeding her obsession with developing one of his own.

As a proponent of “New Weird,” Mieville has always blended myth and pop culture and literature in his works (most gracefully in Kraken) and in this novel, readers will recognize Moby Dick, Dune (the modlywarpes explode out of the dirt like the “worms” that make spice), a bit of Treasure Island and also Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Secrets of Underground Paris

Secret Life of Paris?  I'm there.
Great CNN article on what they call "Paris' Empire of the Dead." See the article and pictures here.