Pandemic
by Scott Sigler
Pandemic is the conclusion to the sci-fi/thriller trilogy started in Infected (reviewed earlier here). This book has been out for a minute but I just recently got around to reading it. This was a shame because Pandemic is a really good story. But on the other hand I recently happened to be stuck at a few places where there was nothing else to do but read so this came in very handy. Sigler doesn't write, or rather I should say I haven't read, anything that is overtly supernatural, and Pandemic is no different. Obviously scientific reality is stretched but the dangers in Pandemic are based in plausible, although very unlikely events. The stage Sigler sets is much larger in the final series installment than in Infected and the middle book Contagious. There are some characters from prior books who return for Pandemic. I liked that previous events left marks on people. It made the depictions breathe.
All of us are literally teeming with bacteria, viruses, germs, and parasites. Many of these are essential for continued life. Others apparently have no major effect on us, for good or bad. And a small minority are dangerous to our health and life and those of other humans. Our immune system has evolved to prevent many of these organisms from killing us. But what happens if a superior alien intelligence bypasses or hijacks our immune system and rewrites our DNA in order to change humanity into something else entirely? That was the premise of the first two books. An alien Orbital encountered Earth. Relying on previously encoded instructions it seeded Earth (well mostly Michigan -the author is a Michigan native) with infections that were a combination of virus/machine/plant material. The infected humans changed. They attempted to convert other humans and build a gateway to allow the aliens to transfer themselves to Earth. These attempts failed. The US government destroyed the Orbital along with the changed humans.
However, Pandemic postulates that the artificial intelligence encoded in the Orbital was capable of learning from its mistakes. Before it was destroyed it altered the algorithm and purpose of the infectious agents it released upon humanity. It got smarter. And although it was destroyed, a small payload portion of the Orbital, no larger than a pop can, fell to Earth, in Lake Michigan to be precise.
I'm not a lawyer. And I don't keep up with all of the ways in which the Federal government and various states and municipalities, often with winks and nods from the current Supreme Court, attempt to get around the limitations placed on government actions by the Fourth Amendment. But one thing which still seems to be in force, in law if not respected on the street, is that the police cannot absent your consent, your arrest, a warrant or some sort of probable cause take samples of your blood, your flesh, your DNA. A nurse named Alex Wubbels attempted to politely explain this to a police officer named Jeff Payne. Payne wanted to draw blood from a man who had been involved in an accident. Payne admitted to another officer that he did not have probable cause but wanted the blood drawn anyway. Wubbels refused and explained that the hospital policy, based on the law was that the hospital would not assist unless certain conditions were met. Payne apparently lost his temper and since he had been given previous authorization from his supervisor, arrested the nurse. Watch video below. Arrest starts at roughly 6 minute mark.
Monster Hunter Vendetta
by Larry Correia
This is book two in Correia's Monster Hunter series. To recap, just about everything that goes bump in the night is real. The government pays mercenaries or "hunters" who kill or capture (mostly kill) monsters. The government also keeps a watchful eye on these mercenaries, often interfering with their activities for "national security" reasons. At every incident with monsters the government is there to clean up the mess, provide cover stories, handle the media and "convince" witnesses that they didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Particularly stubborn witnesses might find themselves "disappeared". The primary mercenary group is Monster Hunter International. They are overseen by the federal government's Monster Control Bureau. Owen Pitt is the hero of the series. He's a former accountant of rather large size, much like the author, who having survived an encounter with a werewolf with his body and soul intact, joined Monster Hunter International. Monster Hunter International is run by the Shackleford family. This includes Julie Shackleford, Owen's love interest and soon to be wife, and her great grandfather Earl Harbinger. Earl is an all around bad$$$ who also happens to be a werewolf. Earl is not eligible for any bounties, not that anyone would be stupid enough to try. In the first book Owen and his team, Julie, his buddy Trip and former stripper Holly, saved the world from being devoured by those beyond. As part of this process a nuclear bomb was detonated in the dimension where the evil Lovecraftian god The Dread Overlord existed. This didn't kill the Dread Overload. But it did make him pretty upset. And Owen Pitt has moved to the top of the evil god's sh**list.
In this book the Dread Overlord has sent its cult and wizards after Pitt. It wants Pitt brought to its dimension. Preferably alive, but not necessarily with all of his limbs. To this end the cult has pulled out all the stops to get Pitt. This means destroying Monster Hunter International and going after Pitt's family. But Pitt is a surly wisea$$ at the best of times. He's not going to sit still while anyone threatens his family, even if said someone is an apparently invulnerable wizard known as the Shadow Man
Humans cause a lot of problems for animals, deliberately and otherwise. But humans can and do save animals' lives, even when there is no direct benefit to doing so.There was a recent example of this human beneficence in Texas, where a golf course superintendent by the name of Craig Loving recently saved a Great Horned Owl that had gotten tangled up in a fishing line that someone had stupidly left around.
Given the size and fierceness of this particular owl it's a good thing that apparently the owl realized that Mr. Loving was trying to help it. Loving is not any sort of animal handling professional, just someone who stepped up to do the right thing.
When Craig Loving heard that there was a frightened Great Horned Owl trapped in the local golf course pond, he sprung into action. Without thinking twice, Craig jumped into the water and waded out to the helpless bird. Craig noticed that the owl's foot was entangled in a heap of fishing wire and knew that he had to work fast. But he also had to proceed carefully and use extreme caution.
The Lost Creek Country Club in Austin, Texas, posted the rescue online and praised Craig for his bravery. Numerous people chimed in, thanking him for what he did.
"The owl had been sitting in that location all night and into the day, when two of our employees, Devin and Dora, realized the owl was caught on fishing line. No wildlife rescue professionals were available, so Craig saved the day. Lost Creek Country Club cares about wildlife, and we are so thankful this owl was saved! Great job, Craig!"
Watch video below.
As we have discussed previously I do not think that every last single person who voted for Donald Trump as President is a snarling Neanderthal racist. Although it is tempting to think so sometimes, if that were really the case then people who did not and do not support Trump would be giving up on the possibility of ever convincing Trump supporters to vote for non-racist candidates. And given that Presidential elections are decided by winning a majority of state electoral votes and not by winning the raw majority of voters, a Democratic Presidential candidate must figure out how to at least staunch the Democratic vote losses among whites, particularly in the Midwest and South and maximize voter turnout among Blacks and Hispanics Often those goals seem to be impossible to reach at the same time. The problem is that some unknowable portion of the people who voted for Trump indeed are snarling Neanderthal racists or nihilists who are perfectly happy to drill holes in the hull of the ship and drown as long as their hated liberal rivals also drown with them.
Neither of these types can be reached by reasoned debate or political horse trading. And on some level it's dangerous to try. After all their issues are not so much political as they are cultural and racial. They do not really accept the legitimacy of the political system or the legitimacy of non-white citizenship. I was reminded of these two subgroups of Trump voters by two separate incidents.The first involved a North Carolina Klan Leader, Chris Barker.
68 Kill
directed by Trent Haaga
Violent indie movie with great acting and obvious yet important message
There are two things you need to know upfront about this low budget award winning independent film. The first is that it is a very violent film. People die. People get very badly hurt. The camera doesn't shy away from that. In some aspects this is like a depraved live action adult Looney Tunes cartoon adaptation. So if a person whacking someone else upside the head or in the kidneys with a golf club because they are admittedly a sick evil individual makes you queasy, then you know what to do. The second is that by making most of the female characters more compelling and far more aggressive than the primary male character this film reverses the usual gender stereotypes and assumptions. Combine that with the fact that most of the women are also morally depraved and physically dangerous then you have a film that, if it had mostly male villains, would likely be cheered in some quarters as honest truth telling. But because the women are mostly bad some people called the film misogynistic. I didn't feel that way but that's just me. I can only call it like I see it. The film doesn't posit that women as a group are better or worse then men. It did very strongly suggest that one particular man needed to make better choices about the women he trusted and which body part did his thinking for him. I didn't expect the story to be as strong as it was. So that was a pleasant surprise.
Women in 68 Kill use sex to mark territory and express dominance. If you appreciate works by people such as Tim Dorsey, Bill Fitzhugh, and yes Tarantino then you might be able to accept some of the film's choices This was an adaptation of a novel by Bryan Smith. It's an absurd pulpy cheap romantic crime caper film. It also has elements of horror, comedy and strangely enough a coming of age storyline.
The Dark Tower
directed by Nikolaj Arcel
This film is both based on and in some aspects a sequel to Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. King has alternately described the series as his magnum opus and stated that sequels to many of his other works can be found within. I haven't finished this book series though it is one of my sister's favorites. King has placed references to and explanations of this series in many of his other novels. This series, or at least the books I've read, combines King's gifts for both High and Low art. In fact you could even say that it blows away those arbitrary distinctions. It's pretty complex stuff with dense plot, conflicted characters who don't necessarily fall into neat boxes of good or evil, detailed universe building and intricate mythologies with lots of backstory. As with the Gormenghast or A Song of Ice and Fire works, some people thought that The Dark Tower series was essentially impossible to adapt to the screen. Almost by definition someone working in the visual arts would be unable to translate the soul of King's words to the big screen.
Because I have not completed The Dark Tower series I didn't have a solid idea in my head about what should be included in a movie adaptation. I had no fierce feeling about which characters should be included or dropped or how they should look or act, with the exception of the primary good and bad guy, Roland and Walter O'Dim. Probably if I had read all of the books I would have much stronger ideas about what the director and writers should have done with the source material. But in this case ignorance was bliss. Or at least it could have been.
