Book #25: The King Beyond the Gate

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When I started my long journey back towards fantasy, David Gemmell's Legend was one of the books I picked up, as an example of the "heroic fantasy" genre. As my review of that books states, I loved it. Gemmell takes all the wonder and epic-ness that are numerous 1,000+ page novels, and distills the action to its essence, usually in about 300 pages. He's a prime example of saying more with less, and Legend showed that you don't need a trilogy to tell a thrilling tale.

The really great thing about Gemmell's premise for his Drenai Saga is that it's the land, more than the characters, that connect the stories. The King Beyond the Gate takes place a good 100 years after events in Legend. Despite the heroics that came before, the land of Drenai has been corrupted by Ceska, an insane leader who has used ancient technologies to create Joinings - horrific were-beasts made from former soldiers and the like. For reasons of his Tenaka Khan, half Drenai and half Nadir (and a direct descendant of the two opposed leaders from Legend's great battle) wants Ceska dead, and he'll go to any lengths to ensure that happens. A former member of the Dragon, am elite group of soldiers that fought for Drenai, he now must make due with an assortment of characters to hold off the very kingdom he had sworn to protect before.

There are definite carryovers from Legend - the mystical Thirty return to assist Tenaka and his friends, and there are numerous references to major characters from that book. But The King Beyond the Gate serves as a great stand-alone novel that's only further enriched by knowledge of the book that came before it. Gemmell again uses his journalistic skills to keep everything moving at a quick pace, and the only time this backfires on him is when it comes to defining the romance between Tenaka and his lover, Renna (I think) - everything happens so quickly that the romance, similar to how it did in Legend, feels a little mechanical.

But that's a small price to pay for what is a great book of what it means to defend your way of life, and the prices we have to accept to do that. In order to win, Tenaka must take hold of his heritage as the King of the savage Nadir, and though you want him to be the different leader, the one who manages to introduce compassion and brotherhood to the Nadir and Drenai, both Tenaka and Gemmell know where the path ultimately has to go, and The King Beyond the Gate's epilogue, with its few sentences, reminds us that even fantasy is slave to the greed and machinations of man.

Stating the Obvious

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Between the below post about the enormous Criterion sale, the new quiz up at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, the fact that I'm leaving the office right now to pick up my wife for a dinner and movie date (we're seeing the new HARRY POTTER), and the already monstrous stack of Netflix and purchased DVDs sitting at home - there's going to be a lot of movie content jumping up on Geek Monkey over the next few weeks.

Just sayin, be warned...

Curse You, Criterion...

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...and your 50% sale at Barnes & Noble (plus that extra 10% for members)!

Yes, I am a movie junkie. But when the average Criterion DVD runs between $29.99 and $39.99, how can you pass up such a golden opportunity?

For those keeping track, the pile consists of (click the film to see its trailer and Criterion summary):

Alas, no DAYS OF HEAVEN or BOB LE FLAMBEUR, but the sale runs another 2 weeks, so who knows?

Baked Like a Lobster

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Spent yesterday taking to Boy to the beach, where he immediately exclaimed for all to hear, "Wow!  I wanna go in da water, Daddy!"  So I brought him down to the edge of the beach.  As the first tiny wave rushed up and lapped at his sandals the fearlessness of the first cry was now forever buried as he literally leapt straight up into my arms, shouting, "No, water!  NO!"

Thirty seconds later we were both neck deep in the freezing water, chattering and turning blue and adamantly refusing to come ashore.  This is wonderfully typical of Jack, and I suspect of all children.

When we finally did come up for air it was shovels and pails and lots of looking for shells and rocks throw around.  Covered in SPF 10,000, the boy maintained his fair skin.  I, on the other hand, having only covered the bald spot on my head thinking, "I'm not going to be out too long," I burned like a patty on the grill.  Copious amounts of aloe lotion have been applied to my back, only to immediately be absorbed with a mocking laugh, leaving my skin dry and cracked as the desert.

Totally worth it.  It's a red ripened Badge of Honor for a great day being a Family.

R.I.P. Walter Cronkite

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His was the first autobiography I ever read by choice.  I have only the vaguest of memories of his time on CBS - I was eight years old when he left the anchor chair of CBS, and back then the news was probably the last thing I wanted to see.

But when I started to really watch what was going on in the world, and I started to read about the people who reported it, Walter Cronkite was the frst man I looked up to.  His insight, his ability to report and distill in a way that never condescended made him one of the greatest newsmen that ever lived, and his death at the age of 92, while not entirely unexpected, is still a blow.

AICN has a series of great clips from his tenure reporting the news, and you can see the CBS obituary here.