What would you do if you could fully tap your brain’s capabilities? Every generation or so, the question is pondered, thanks to the latest breakthroughs or studies in neuroscience. It makes for an interesting discussion and sometimes, brilliant works such as Flowers for Algernon (the great book by Daniel Keyes, and Charly the movie with Cliff Robertson). The most recent addition to this sub-genre of fiction is The Dark Fields, a novel by Alan Glynn, which became the basis for the movie [[[Limitless]]], which was released on DVD this week by Twentieth-Century Fox Home Entertainment.

If you were Eddie Morra, you apparently turn into something unlike yourself. We meet him teetering atop a high-rise as people bang on his security door to enter his apartment fortress. Flashing back, we learn what happened to turn a slacker into a genius. Leslie Dixon’s screenplay, which makes huge changes from the novel, shows us a sad sack, but a sad sack with a novel contract, unable to write. After months of not writing and living like a slob, he meets his book editor girlfriend Lindy only to be dumped.

A chance meeting with the brother of his ex-wife introduces him to the experimental drug NZT-48 which clarifies his thinking, making him hyper-aware of the world around him and focuses his mind, allowing him to accomplish more in a day than he has in six months. We see him write the overdue first chapters and actually hand printed pages to his stunned editor (mostly because editors so rarely see printed anything until the final book, but I digress).

The brother-in-law winds up dead and Eddie locates and steals the remaining supply of the drug and begins using them with increasing regularity to take his newfound powers of concentration and improve his life. He masters the piano, learns multiple languages, can see trends and capitalize on them– and here’s where both book and movie begin to veer off course. Rather than tap the creative energies that led to Eddie’s career, he somehow switches gears to become a day trader to get rich and then moves into the financial world. Meantime, his drug dependency grows and weird things begin to happen to him. (more…)

THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL
Paul Malmont
ISBN 978-0-7432-8785-2

I realize that I’m coming rather late to this novel, which was published in 2006 and set the pulp world on fire. I’d heard many good things about it but I’d never gotten around to grabbing a copy for myself until now. This book takes the real-life figures of Lester Dent, Walter Gibson, L Ron Hubbard and others and puts them into an adventure that could have been straight out of the pulps they made their living in. The mystery starts with the death of H.P. Lovecraft and soon throws its net a good deal wider than that.

The novel crackles with its scenes that describe the pulp industry of the time, showing the hard life led by the men who were paid pennies per word. Honestly, I could have read an entire book of Gibson, Dent and Hubbard arguing over the proper way to write pulp.

But this isn’t a nonfiction work — there’s fictional elements aplenty at play here and the story ultimately must be judged as both historical fiction and an adventure novel. It’s in that last regard that I feel the book falls a bit flat. Malmont does a wonderful job describing the main characters and their neuroses but the action sequences didn’t have the crackle of old-time pulp and the central villain stopped the narrative every time he appeared. I really could have cared less about him or his motivations.

Special word must be given to the epilogue, which is narrated by a special character that made me smile. I was somewhat surprised by the “revelation” that Lester Dent retired to La Plata to write Doc Savage and Avenger novels “for many years.” Though The Avenger was always credited to Kenneth Robeson (the same pen name that Dent and others used on Doc), The Avenger novels were NOT written by Lester Dent. They were the work of Paul Ernst, a wonderful pulp writer who never seems to get the proper amount of respect.

There are many who will tell you that this book is the best that New Pulp has to offer. I disagree. It is very good and I think it does an admirable job of reaching out to the non-pulp audience, informing them of the field’s past and those who worked in it. But I found myself comparing it to Wayne Reinegal’s books, which also mix real-life figures with adventurous settings. If forced to choose, I’d go with Reinegal, who manages to both inform the reader and create genuinely thrilling action-oriented plots, to boot. Still, this book is well worth your time and if you’re a pulp aficionado, you should look for it ASAP.

I give 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Doctor Who, under producer Steven Moffat, feels very different than that of the shows from Russell T. Davies. In some ways, it feels as if Moffat needs to top Davies so we go from the terrifying Weeping Angels to The Silence. And we go younger, with Matt Smith as Eleventh Doctor, the youngest yet. Everything old is new again, it seems, while a show once aimed strictly at kids is now being criticized for being too scary for the audience.

The new season, Series 6 of the reboot, is the first to be shown in halves, a marketing device that cable channels in the USA have been quite successful using, nabbing viewers during major network lull periods. It also provides a dramatic cliffhanger, which may be thrilling for viewers but no doubt causes headaches for the producers.

Speaking of commercial, BBC Video, distributed here through Warner Home Video, today releases Doctor Who Series 6 Part 1, collecting the seven episodes aired to date while we eagerly await part two this fall (with Part 2 and Complete Series 6 DVDs no doubt to come).

Moffat has introduced meta arcs and mini arcs that require a fair amount of attention and makes the series increasingly difficult to attract newcomers. Miss an episode and vital clues to the Big Picture are absent, potentially confusing the viewer the next time a story is watched.

At this point, the Doctor, along with Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), has settled into a comfortable relationship. The couple continues to act like newlyweds and the Doctor delights in having them around.  As a result, it’s business as usual with the opening two-parter “The Impossible Astronaut”/ “The Day of the Moon” which sets up the big threat, that of The Silence, referenced in previous seasons and made manifest here. They are an eerie addition, for sure, but what they want and how they’ll be defeated seem saved for the second half season. We also learn Amy is pregnant and the little girl, who manages to call President Nixon and ask for help, leads audiences to believe she is Amy’s child. The story opens with the Doctor being shot dead but we discover he’s a Doctor from 200 years into the future so the duo conceals this information only to fret about it in every subsequent episode. (more…)

After years of seeming neglect, now everyone seems to be jumping on the John Carter bandwagon. No, not the Noah Wylie character from ER, but Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic hero. A Civil War vet suddenly finds himself on a strange new world, with powers and abilities that make him far above your normal human. The Mars novels are great pulp fiction and have longed to be revived for a new generation and that time appears to be today.

Not only is Dynamic Forces producing comics material based on the novels, but now Marvel Comics is jumping onto the bandwagon with a series of authorized comics based on the parent comapny’s 2012 spring release, John Carter. Directed by Pixar’s Andrew Stanton, the trailer was released to universal acclaim.

Now comes word of the October arrival of John Carter: World of Mars, a prequel miniseries from Peter David with interior art by Luke Ross and covers by Esad Ribic.

According to a press release, John Carter: World of Mars #1 reveals the shocking events that transpire before the motion-picture story begins by showing fans just how John Carter, Princess Dejah Thoris and Tars Tarkas are set on the path that would bring them all together. Amidst this brutal thousand-year war, find out what decisions were made that let events escalate this far—and why.

“We’re thrilled to bring fans their first look at the world of John Carter before the blockbuster film wows audiences next year,” said Axel Alonso, Marvel Editor In Chief. “It’s been a pleasure working with Disney, Peter and Luke to craft a powerful story that will appeal to both the legions of John Carter fans and those who are new to this exciting world.”

Stanton adds, “I am really thrilled to be collaborating with Disney & Marvel on this project and look forward to audiences exploring the world of John Carter via this exciting comic offering. I have wanted to see this property on the big screen since I was a young boy and hope that John Carter: World of Mars will excite and inspire fans of the series much like I was inspired many years ago.”

The miniseries debuts in October with a trade collection expected in time for the March 9, 2012 feature film release.