A Self-Proclaimed Geek Reviews All

30 Days of Night

My wife and I went to see “Across the Universe”, the new film by Julie Taymor. This film is another in the style of “Moulin Rouge” where a film writer tries to write a musical, so they come up with a story and force someone else’s music into it. The result is the disastrous “Across the Universe”, a film with so little to offer that it comes in a close second to “Moulin Rouge” in the contest for “biggest piece of crap ever.” Other contenders are “Pay it Forward” and “Sin City”.

I should have known before going in that the film would stink, simply because Oprah declared that it was “powerful and moving” (or something like that), which are industry code words for “pretentious and sappy”. The film also suffered from its similarities to “Rent” in that both films try to play on our sympathy for a bunch of lazy, drunken bums who have nothing better to do than blame their self-inflicted wounds on the rest of the world. The film was so bad that we snuck across to see “30 Days of Night” which was playing in the next theater over.

If you like horror, “30 Days of Night” is worth seeing. It is definitely a modern vampire story. Once upon a time, vampires were sexy. Perhaps Dracula was simply an embodiment of Victorian sexual repression as he flowed across the room with a grace and mesmerizing gaze. This idea was revived in the late twentieth century in “Interview with the Vampire”. Even in “Blade” the vampires have a certain “je ne sais quoi”. The vampires in “30 Days of Night” are not those vampires. They are monsters, plain and simple. They are bloodthirsty ravenous beasts made terrible by human intellect and a callousness which would make Jeffrey Dahmer wince.

More after the break…

Eben (Josh Hartnett) is the sheriff of Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the United States, where, once each winter, the sun does not rise for 30 days because they are north of the Arctic Circle. Two-thirds of the population leaves, alcohol is banned, the roads are impassable, and the airport is closed. What would any intelligent vampire think about this arrangement?

“BUFFET!”

The vampires start by picking off solitary victims and, as the population thins, the slaughter turns wholesale. The few survivors are forced to hide in an attic and try to wait out the invasion. Survivors lose their nerve, and the numbers reduce throughout the month until Eben shows his true colors and what exactly he is willing to sacrifice to save his estranged wife, Stella (Melissa George), and the people he has sworn to protect. In fact, willing self-sacrifice to save others is a repeated theme in this film.

The vampires are smart. They are not “dumb-evil”, they are “smart-evil”. They have a plan, and it plays out in a terrifying manner. The vampires systematically destroy any means of rescue before revealing themselves. One young woman is offered her freedom if she acts as bait to draw out other survivors. Eben finds himself in a no-win situation constructed by the vampires as they reveal their end-game. Should he save his wife and doom the other survivors to slaughter, or keep the few townspeople that remain safe while she burns to death? Eben comes up with an interesting solution.

This is a gory film. Shotguns and pistols give way to axes and construction equipment as the near-invulnerability of the vampires is demonstrated. In one scene, a seven or eight-year-old vampire needs to be dispatched by holding her to a wall and beheading her with an axe.

The acting is solid. Josh Hartnet provides a good center for the cast, and the performance by Mark Boone Jr. is effective. There is only so much room for character in a film where the bill for stage blood takes up a significant portion of the budget, but the cast gives it their all. If you like horror, go see it.

I give “30 Days or Night” 3 ½ out of 5.

I give “Across the Universe” a charitable 1 out of 5.

A Shadow in Summer, Book One of The Long Price Quartet, by Daniel AbrahamDaniel Abraham’s first published novel, A Shadow in Summer, is better and more original than the novels published by seasoned professionals, but perhaps that is to be expected. It is easier to teach a new dog new trick than and old dog. Much of modern popular fantasy fiction is simply a retread of Tolkien. Brave warriors befriend elves and fight orcs and dragons while wizards play with impossible powers in far too many novels. Because of this, it is very refreshing to find an original voice.  But more than that, too many heroes in fantasy are predictable. How many times have you, dear reader, known what was going to happen and how the characters would react far before the author tells you? Quite often, I have found. And how often, if the character does not follow your prognosis, do his actions make no sense? Far too often, I think.

In A Shadow in Summer, the characters, especially the strong-willed Otah, react in ways that show a much better understanding of the world in which they live than the reader would have guessed. You are willing to follow the characters through the story because you know they will surprise you.

More after the break…

Unfortunately, in most fantasy novels, magic is predictable. There is little difference, besides superfluous trappings, between the spell slinging of most wizards in popular fiction. The names change, but the feel of magic is usually stale. A fireball is a fireball, and a lightning bolt is a lightning bolt. Not so here, because Abraham has created a world where magic is literally alive.

Magic in this world is wrought by poets, and the magic is a being, often an important character, called an Andat. In A Shadow in Summer his name is Removing The Part That Continues, or Seedless, and he has his own goals and intrigues. Others are called Petals Falling, or Three Bound as One. They are all powerful, but they are also slaves.  Some poets have fallen in love with their Andat creations, and some are despised by them. Seedless’s ability to remove the seeds from anything with a glance is a boon the cotton-based economy of Saraykeht, but he wants to be free.

All the major characters, Otah, the nobleman’s disowned son, Maati, the apprentice poet, Amat, the overseer of a major trading house, Liat, her inexperienced student, and Itani, the mysterious laborer, interact in a complicated, but never confusing, web of love, deceit, and vengeance. Amat is on the run for her life, because of what she knows. Liat is in over her head, trying to keep the trading house together and in love with Itani, a man far below her station who has powerful secrets. Maati is undyingly loyal to Otah, who ruined his own future to save Maati from abuse in school, while waiting to be the poet that must someday takeover for his failing master.  And watching it all is the omnipotent Seedless, who cannot have the one thing he wants, his freedom.

This is Abraham’s first novel, and there are a couple of insignificant rough patches that a more seasoned veteran would have avoided, but let me ask this. Would you rather have a polished piece of glass, or a rough-cut diamond? I choose the latter, and you would be wise to do the same by reading A Shadow in Summer, by Daniel Abraham.

4  out of 5