Philando Castile, Dallas, and Blowback

On July 6th, in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, local police stopped a car driven by school cook Philando Castile. Castile was a black man. Also in the car was Castile's girlfriend Lavish Reynolds and Reynolds' four year old daughter. According to Reynolds the police demanded that Castile produce his license and registration. Although I'm not sure he was legally required to do so Castile allegedly informed the officers that he was a licensed gun permit holder and had his weapon with him.  An officer, allegedly Jeronimo Yanez, then shot Castile multiple times as Castile reached for his paperwork as directed. The police yell and and freak out as Castile slumps in his seat, dying. Reynolds was prescient and calm enough (with guns pointed at her and her daughter) to livestream the post-shooting events to Facebook. You can watch it here if you want to do so. The police ordered Reynolds out of the car. They handcuffed and detained her. Reynolds broke down later. To literally give the devil his due we don't see the events that occurred before the shooting. But we do know that Castile was legally entitled to have his gun. We don't know when and why the officers unholstered their guns. The lawyer for Yanez stated that the traffic stop was initiated because Castile resembled a robbery suspect because of his "wide nose". Reynolds stated that they were told they were stopped because of a malfunctioning tail light. But that doesn't really matter. Castile is just as dead. His crime? Being black and following instructions. Problematic doesn't even begin to describe this. Because Castile had no felony record the normal post death smears to his reputation won't be as easy to do. However the lowlifes who do things like that are even now poring over Castille's and Reynolds' social media accounts to find something to justify Castille's death. Some mental midgets were stating that Reynolds must have stolen her cigarettes. 

I would love to believe that if I just did A, B and C then I and people who look like me would be safe from police violence. But that's just not the case. You can have a pristine record, be entirely innocent, follow the officer's instructions (legal or not) to the letter and still wind up insulted, brutalized, humiliated or dead. Police initiate negative contact with black people, especially black men, at higher rates than they do with white people. If you are black the officer is more likely to search you or your vehicle, regardless of probable cause or reasonable suspicion. Anything other than instantaneous abject compliance can cause the officer to resort to deadly violence. And as Castile and Reynolds found out, even compliance isn't enough. 

These incidents would be bad enough if officers who broke the law or violated departmental regulations were punished when the evidence supports punishment. But generally speaking they aren't. A cop can be caught on video unlawfully beating or killing someone, but it's still a good bet that s/he won't be charged. It's a big deal if an officer even loses his job. Officers are rarely charged and even more rarely convicted of crimes against black citizens. Local district attorneys work with police and greatly value that relationship. The FBI isn't any better because it investigates itself and to my "great surprise" (LOL)  always finds shootings by FBI agents to be justified. Judges are often former district attorneys. Black people are underrepresented in jury pools. Segregated housing tracts and deformed voting registration patterns produce jury pools which are not only whiter on average than the country's population but also may lack first hand experience with police who are not the Officer Friendly stereotype. Officers can, as is their right, avoid jury trials. And if all that fails and against all odds a police officer somehow finds himself on trial he can pull out his ace card and say "I feared for my life." That pretty much trumps everything. Going to prison for murder or manslaughter is not a normal outcome for killer cops.

This is a problem. It's not just that police commit needless violence against black citizens. It's that too many people of all races have come to believe that the justice system won't or can't do anything about it. The reason we have a justice system is so people won't take the law into their own hands. But it appears that police are above justice. So what is the logical next step once you have the firm belief that the justice system can't be fixed or reformed? It's violence. It's what we saw in Dallas on July 7th when an Army Reserve Afghan war veteran, one Micah Xavier Johnson, allegedly murdered five white police officers. Supposedly his rationale for doing that was because, like many other black people he was upset about the cycle of black death at the hands of police. Johnson felt justified in reaching out and sharing this pain. People tend to get very upset when anyone points that out. People say violence is never the answer and so on. Well, let's be real.This country was founded on violent revolution. The Founding Fathers didn't engage in sit-ins, talk about loving and forgiving their enemies or claim that God would make everything ok at some unspecified future date. They started shooting the British. They continued shooting the British until the British decided that keeping the American colonies wasn't worth it. This country expanded via application of superior violence against the indigenous inhabitants. If you live in the US you live in a country that had one of the most successful genocidal conquests in history. Many of the very same people who are demanding we weep for the cops murdered in Dallas will turn around and claim that the elimination of Native Americans is nothing to be ashamed of. Stuff happens, you know. Slavery was only ended via violence. Our movies, books and other entertainment constantly lionize the hero who takes matters into his own hands defeats or kills his enemies. There is a fundamental strain in American politics and culture to dismiss people who can't or won't fight back. It's seen as weakness and viewed with contempt. Very few people in any position of power have any respect for the man who follows Jesus' advice during the Sermon on the Mount to "resist not evil." and "turn the other cheek." Maybe we'd all be better off if we did heed such words but the truth of the matter is that as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) pointed out a long time ago, "Violence is as American as cherry pie". If you won't stand up for yourself in this world no body else will. It's only when Black people turn to violence that the larger society's outrage over violence becomes palpable. We actually have someone suing the President and other black men for inciting racial hatred. Think about this for a moment. People on the right have called the President and his family monkeys and apes and subhuman and everything but a child of God. They have prayed for the President's death, depicted his death and threatened his life. They've claimed that he's not American. They've said nasty things about his mother. Many have it made it crystal clear via vile jokes and plain direct statements that they hate black people. Now some fellow travelers of these yahoos are suing the President for inciting racism. If this wasn't so serious you'd just have to laugh.

I could condemn people who kill innocent police officers and police officers who kill innocent civilians but too often many police in this country refuse to acknowledge that there even is such a thing as an innocent black civilian. There are just blacks they haven't gotten around to frisking or arresting yet. Some police shoot first and ask questions later. While politicians and police are falling over themselves to share their sympathies for the murdered police officers in Dallas, you will never see an outpouring of police support for murdered black citizens. The best you might get is a bland statement about process. Often you'll get callous indifference. At worst you see jokes, glee and even celebration. Politicians, district attorneys and media pundits will sneer that the murdered black citizen's family is only out for money. Some will claim that hey this dead black (wo)man was no angel. So if this country in 2016 is still unwilling to charge and convict police officers who kill black citizens then it should prepare itself for more Micah Johnsons. There's only so much that people can take before they finally realize that they aren't the only ones who can bleed. Everybody bleeds. If we want to stop more shooting of police officers then we need to stop police shooting of black civilians. We're at a crossroads in American society. We've tried retraining police, marching, praying, boycotting, begging, pleading etc to no avail. This is not about individual good or bad cops. This is about a systemic institutional framework that views black people, especially black men and boys, as threats to be monitored or eliminated. This is a problem which impacts all black people, regardless of class, wealth, status, sexuality, gender, political stance or other characteristics. Conservative South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, with whom I disagree probably 75% of the time has stories to tell of being racially profiled and harassed, even as an elected official. How do we fix all of this? I don't know. Black people were never supposed to be citizens in this country. But I do know that we can't have any more Tamir Rices or Aiyana Stanley-Jones. I have loved ones in New York and other cities with aggressive combative police. If something happened to them and a police officer walked free I would be hard pressed to sing kumbyah. I love my kin just as much as the family members of the slain officers in Dallas loved theirs.

This is not 1920s America. You'd be foolish to believe that. I don't live in the same world my great-grandparents inhabited. But there's still too much today that would be bitterly familiar to them in terms of police behavior and the larger society's refusal to hold police accountable. Typically, conservatives have sought to blame the messenger, though there are a few conservatives who recognize that there's a problem and have some ideas about what to do next. As NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick wrote, "This is what lynchings look like in 2016".  Either we rebuild the system to reduce the possibility of police violence and punish unlawful police violence as severely as we do that of other citizens or we all get guns and start shooting back. No one wins but black people won't be bleeding alone.

Movie Reviews: 10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane
directed by Dan Trachtenberg

This film tries and succeeds in having it both ways. It  could be a sequel or even a reworking of the 2008 movie Cloverfield and a film that stands completely on its own. The events in Cloverfield are only obliquely referenced if at all. In fact for the vast majority of 10 Cloverfield Lane the events of the previous film do not matter. As the previous film came out 8 years previously 10 Cloverfield Lane would have to be its own film anyway. This movie is mostly a psychological thriller. If you are the sort of person who has a low tolerance for violence this film is generally safe to watch as violence doesn't occur very much. There are only three primary characters in the entire film. On the other hand the film definitely uses a variety of techniques to make you think that violence is imminent. And when the violence does happen it's not cheap or played for laughs. It actually has a purpose. You care about the people it touches. The film regularly ratchets up and relieves tension or makes you think that it relieves tension. Although the film touches on the weird and the abnormal mostly near the ending of the film, everything else that has happened prior is really the meat and potatoes of the movie. The comedian Louis C.K has a thoughtful little bit about how weird, strange, and wonderful it is that women ever go out with men at all considering that men can pose significant physical dangers to women. Humans do not have the greatest sexual dimorphism in mammalian species but our average sexual size differences are great enough that most people would cringe at the idea of a woman fighting a man. I was reminded of Louis C.K.'s bit watching this movie. There is a strong argument to be made that this entire film is actually a parable about domestic violence. 10 Cloverfield Lane puts me in mind of some old Tales From The Crypt or Twilight Zone episodes. This movie is an example of how a low budget and limited sets need not harm a movie if the acting and writing are good, as is the case here. Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a tall but slightly built woman (5-8, 120-130lbs?) who just had an argument with her boyfriend, She hits the road. But she doesn't get too far before she's sideswiped by a truck and forced off the road. Her car tumbles and flips.

She's hurt and blacks out. When Michelle wakes up she's chained to a wall in a basement somewhere. Her cell phone doesn't work. The man who brings her food is the hulking (6-2, 250lb+) Howard (John Goodman). Howard claims to have found Michelle at the accident site and brought her home to his underground bunker. He doesn't explain why he chained her to the wall. Howard may or may not have sexual interest in Michelle. The movie keeps that ambiguous. Is Howard looking for a daughter surrogate or a sexual surrogate or a friend or some whacked out combination of all three. We don't know. What's isn't ambiguous is that Howard is both a lonely man and a domineering one. Although he eventually unchains Michelle he won't let her leave the bunker. Howard says that there has been some sort of big attack. The air is unbreathable and radioactiove. It could be the end of the world. A former military man, Howard has been waiting and preparing for just such an occasion. That is why he has a bunker and little ameneties like backup generators, air purifiers, toilets and showers that share water and everything else your friendly neighborhood survivalist could possibly want. Howard thinks that it could be a year or more before it's safe to leave the bunker. Michelle may as well forget about any friends or family she has. They're dead. Michelle should be very thankful to Howard as far as Howard is concened. And if she's smart she'll let Howard know how grateful she is. As Howard outweighs Michelle by over 100 pounds, is apparently a few fries short of a happy meal and is never without his revolver, Michelle finds that agreeing with Howard is usually the path of least resistance. But she has plans and questions. She haltingly shares these with the other bunker resident Emmett (John Gallagher), a handyman who believes at least some of Howard's story. Howard doesn't seem to like Emmett very much. Howard only reluctantly let Emmet into the bunker. Howard definitely doesn't want Emmett talking too much to Michelle. Over time this group of people slowly learns to live together. But Michelle finds too much that is odd or questionable about Howard's story and for that matter Howard himself. Howard's need for emotional and physical control makes for an unstable living arrangement. Just do what I say and don't make me hurt you is not an ethos which adds to domestic tranquility. Michelle is too smart to ignore logical inconsistencies for long. The viewer will enjoy watching Michelle pick up on things in Howard's story that bother her or contradict evidence of her own senses. There's a lot of gaslighting going on in this story. That technique is actually Howard's go to weapon. Howard also notices more than he lets on and is much smarter than some people realize.

The vast majority of this film takes place in very small areas. This adds to the claustrophobic feel of the movie. Goodman is very impressive here. He is self-pitying without being whiny. He can give off dangerous vibes just by asking simple questions. If you have ever seen or lived with emotionally volatile people Goodman's character of Howard will be familiar.  Michelle and Emmet each have a vested interest in reading Howard's moods and trying to figure out his thoughts ahead of time. An angry Howard is a dangerous Howard. Michelle is realistic in that she uses the tools she has to attempt to discover what's truly going on. There is also some foreshadowing put to good use. Howard compels Michelle to do something for his benefit that can only be done by her, not realizing that the canny Michelle will later do this same thing for her own purposes. All in all this was a good movie. But don't watch it if you are expecting butt-kicking babes, tons of special effects or loads and loads of violence.
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Professor Nagel Sires 22 Children

A little over a decade ago the film director Spike Lee made a movie which was titled She Hate Me. Among other things this film depicted the plight of a desperate biotech executive who, running into political, racial and financial problems at work, starts a lucrative side hustle of being the sperm donor for (primarily) lesbian women looking to conceive and carry a pregnancy to term. The movie's hook was that the executive and many of his clients preferred that the actual impregnation occurred in the old-fashioned face to face "hands-on" way. Well it wasn't always face to face strictly speaking (snicker) but no turkey basters, laboratories or other artificial methods were involved, thank you very much. I watched this movie mostly for Dania Ramirez, Monica Bellucci and Kerry Washington, all of whom are as far as I'm concerned, good enough reasons to watch most movies. Critics generally panned She Hate Me as dumb, unrealistic and of course "misogynistic". All the "serious" critics and sexuality "experts" told us that such a thing would never happen. Lesbians would never ever ever do such a thing. After all, by definition lesbians are not interested in intimate or romantic contact with a man, right? This film was just fevered sexist fantasy no doubt inspired by male fears over the rightfully lessening cultural and economic importance of masculinity. The movie was not only a critical flop but a financial one as well. And beautiful actresses not withstanding I would have to admit that the movie was not Lee's best work. Not by a long shot.  It was actually a film that made me think that I should probably wait to see what lots of other people thought of a Spike Lee film before I spent money or time on it. Well sometimes life is just as strange as fiction. In New York, some folks who apparently watched She Hate Me a few times too many have shown that the central premise of Lee's film actually does work for some people. 

On a busy night last week at the Target on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, Ari Nagel, 40, emerged from the men’s bathroom looking a little flushed and quite pleased with himself. “It’s better when it’s fresh,” he told them. “It” is Nagel’s semen, and it’s in demand. The 6-foot-2 CUNY Kingsborough math professor has served as a sperm donor for dozens of locals, siring 22 kids over the past 12 years with 18 women of various backgrounds. For lesbian couples and single ladies looking to have a baby without the expense of going through a sperm bank (which can run in the thousands of dollars), he’s the No. 1 dad. “This isn’t time-consuming, and I’m doing it anyway,” he says of his hands-on hobby. “It’s very easy for me to do.” His oldest child, now 12, was conceived with a woman he was in a committed relationship with, but all of his offspring since, he says, have resulted from his donations.

About half the time, he provides his seed the old-fashioned way. Sometimes, a lesbian looking to conceive will have her partner in the bed for moral support while she and Nagel engage in intercourse. “She’s never slept with a guy before, so the partner’s in bed, holding her hand,” Nagel explains. “Sometimes, it could be a little painful, then after a few times, they’re comfortable to do it on their own.” Other times, he supplies his goods in a cup, which he prefers. And Nagel’s seed-sowing isn’t a drain on his love life. He doesn’t make a point of mentioning it on dates, but when it comes up, ladies typically don’t mind. “Never underestimate the desperation of a single woman on the Upper West Side,” he says.

But it’s not all sunshine and babies. The first five women he worked with successfully sued him for child support, and nearly half of his paycheck is garnished for his offspring. “I don’t know what’s more surprising: that five sued or that 17 didn’t,” Nagel says. “They were all well aware there was no financial obligation on my part. They all promise in advance they won’t sue.” Crystal, a Connecticut woman who has two sons, 6 and 7, by Nagel, says she wasn’t aware of any such arrangement.

The 45-year-old mom, who took Nagel to court for child support, says that she was expecting to co-parent with him and that she didn’t know of his plans to father an entire baseball team. Nagel’s progeny isn’t limited to the tri-state area. He has kids in Florida, Illinois, Virginia, Connecticut and Israel. Some he sees once a week, some he sees once a year, some he’s never met.

I don't really care how people live their lives. And I don't care about how many children any person has or doesn't have. That is a personal decision. If you have the time and resources to raise and support your children go for it. As the song goes, it's your thing. Do what you want to do. I can't tell you who to sock it to. But one thing that is worth mentioning is that Nagel and the women with whom he's interacting are deliberately depriving the children of a parent or at least of a father. There are consequences to running around and being irresponsible that don't just impact the adults who are involved. At the extremes this sort of behavior raises the chances, however slightly, of accidental incest as there are a number of half-siblings created who will not know each other or grow up together. Ugh. But even putting that aside I've always thought that it's just a crappy thing to do to bring a child into the world when you lack the ability or desire to build a parental relationship with that child. And it turns out that Professor Nagel is still married. So you can throw adultery into the mix as well. We've written before about men who acted in good faith as sperm donors for lesbians or single heterosexual women. Some of these men later get sued by the state or the women for child support. In many of those cases the men had either a written agreement or verbal understanding with the women that they would not be a father in any sort of way. The women changed their minds or the state big footed its way into what was a private relationship. In those cases I do think the men got a raw deal. But in Nagel's case I think he's just a fool. He deserves whatever comes his way. As far as the women are concerned I think it is amusing and a little sad that in a time where women complain loudly and incessantly about men who impregnate them and disappear, several women are lining up to be impregnated by a man who will disappear and not be a father to the resulting children. I guess it all depends which men are doing the pumping and dumping. There are apparently a lot of desperate and yet picky women out there. People are strange.

Though she has yet to actually meet Nagel, Simmons has no qualms about the notoriety of the man comedian Chris Hardwick recently called “Johnny Peopleseed.” She says, “I’m OK with [Nagel’s newfound fame]. I’m OK with people knowing who my child’s father is, because I know he’s a great man.” Blandine Rodney, a 43-year-old Brooklyn nurse who wants a child with the college math professor, agrees. “He’s handsome, he’s a genius. I’d be proud to have my child say Ari is his father.” The divorcée, like all of the other women The Post spoke to, is black (Several of Nagel’s 22 children have black mothers). “Someone said [to me] he’s trying to whitewash the black community,” says Rodney. “It’s not whitewashing! More white men should give sperm to women who need it.”

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What are your thoughts?

Movie Reviews: Free State of Jones, 13 Hours, Cell

Free State of Jones
directed by Gary Ross

Alright, alright, alright. This could have been a better movie. Maybe if this were the seventies or eighties some of the critical reaction to this movie would have been both more accepting and more vitriolic depending upon the critic's race and politics. It seems incredible now but remember that some white critics actually attacked Spike Lee's eighties film Do The Right Thing for raising the chances of massive race riots against white people because of a fictional depiction of a character throwing a garbage can through a window. Apparently millions of black Americans were just one film away from running amok. Those were silly, even hysterically (and historically) stupid criticisms. Now some black critics are attacking Free State of Jones because (1) it doesn't place black people at the center of a true story about a rather extraordinary white man or (2) show to their satisfaction the exact levels of heroic resistance which Black Americans attempted in a losing struggle against post-Civil War state and individual white terrorism and disenfranchisement. I think the second criticism is fair. It can be argued at least. There were post Civil War pitched battles between white racists intent on strangling black freedom in the cradle and desperately outgunned and outnumbered newly freed black citizens trying to exercise their political rights. Most of these battles and massacres are forgotten today. But the first criticism is sour grapes. If you go to the theater to watch a movie touting itself as the Ray Charles story would you expect that the entire film will center on the importance of Charles' friend, country star Buck Owens? Probably not. Although there is understandable resentment to fictional white savior stories I would argue that Free State of Jones is not such a film. Newton Knight really did put his life on the line in opposition to slavery and white supremacy. He really did lead a resistance movement in Civil War Mississippi. So complaining that a movie about his exploits puts him at the center of the story seems unwise. I want to see movies about black heroes as much as anyone else. I'm looking forward to the Nat Turner movie. I'd like to see a film about Toussaint L'Ouverture or Antonio Grajales. I don't need made up white savior films. But Newton Knight was real. There are valid and torrid criticisms that can be made about this film. I'll mention a few below. But its mere existence isn't one of them. 

If you want to know more about the real Newton Knight, you can read the book about his life story which we reviewed here earlier. The short version is that a poor white anti-slavery pro-Union Mississippi farmer joined the Confederate Army under protest and duress to avoid conscription, provide for his family and watch out for similarly situated friends and relatives. Knight regularly deserted and finally left for good to protect his family and friends from Confederate tax collectors and draft officials. Tax collectors were then, as they are today, utterly indifferent towards a family's particular hardships. Knight fled to the local swamps where he built an interracial force of freed slaves, Confederate deserters, unionists, draft dodgers and tax protesters. These guerrillas defeated Confederate forces in a few irregular skirmishes and swore allegiance to the USA. But nothing good lasts. With the war's end and the later cessation of Reconstruction, most whites who had rallied to Knight's side suddenly rediscovered their disdain for Knight's racial equality convictions and his interracial polygamy. Racial hatred and contempt proved stronger than appeals to religious or class solidarity. Using murders, mutilations and beatings to intimidate black citizens and their white supporters, conservative whites reimposed what amounted to slavery and apartheid throughout the South. Black people lost almost all citizenship rights for the next century or so. And a few disruptive or violent actions by Knight could not stop this. Knight remained in Mississippi all of his life. He became so closely identified with the black community that he was counted as black in later census surveys.

Matthew McConaughey effectively and almost effortlessly conveys Knight's intensity but the film goes sideways from the start by not grounding Knight's political beliefs in his strong Primitive Baptist religious convictions about the equality of all men. Both Knight and his father despised slavery, something that presumably made his branch of the family the (ahem) the black sheep at family gatherings. Certainly Knight didn't inherit any slaves or property from his grandfather. The film doesn't mention any of that back story. So Knight's backwoods Jesus musings about race and equality don't appear as something based in Knight's church and family history but something that Knight started believing after eating too many mushrooms of uncertain origin. You'd follow McConaughey's Knight into battle because he's cool as f***, but you'd also want to keep an eye on him in case he suddenly orders people to bring virgins to him or starts demanding in his drawl that everyone drink the Kool-Aid. So does this film work as historical documentary? No it does not. But it wasn't designed to do so. Does the film show the tragically forgotten struggle of the transgender feminist bisexual biracial illegal immigrant in 1867 Mississippi? No I can't say that it does. It is not meant to be all things to all people. Does it work as somber entertainment which attempts to shine a light on an ugly part of our history? Well, mostly it does. 

The film starts on a battlefield and tracks Knight's movement from medic to deserter to guerrilla warlord. As discussed, the director chooses to make most of these transitions based on personal, not political stances. When Knight meets the man who will become one of his best friends, Moses (Mahershala Ali), an escaped slave, their friendship is not initially based on Knight's opposition to slavery but shared experiences. Kerri Russell is Knight's white (legal) wife, Serena; Gugu Mbatha-Raw is his black (common-law) wife, Rachel. The film uses Rachel's character to show the viewer, albeit thankfully offscreen, the capricious sexual violence of slavery. Serena is a cipher. We don't know if she shares her husband's political beliefs or not. We never know what she thinks of sharing her husband with another woman. And speaking of motivations, we see that when whites recruited by Knight join this previously all black group of runaway slaves, many do not drop their racism. But we don't learn what the black people already living in the swamp thought about these arrivals. Surely they must have had their own resentments and doubts about the influx of whites into their group. Even whites who didn't own slaves still worked as overseers, auctioneers and slave patrollers. For many whites the existence of slavery provided a sense of status. No matter how bad off they were, at least they weren't black. So if you were a black person who had run away from enslavement would you warm up to these people? Would you trust them with your life? With the exception of Moses and Rachel, few of the black characters get any sort of agency/individuality. The film doesn't bother, however briefly, to examine things from their POV. And it's weaker for it.

There are a few intense battle scenes. These are balanced with humor as Knight matches wits with an arrogant and not too bright Confederate tax official. We know that Reconstruction ended in betrayal and horror. So the film tries to avoid ending on a down note by skipping forward to a Mississippi court case in which a descendant of Knight's is accused of miscegenation. But the film doesn't successfully give the viewer any emotional involvement in that case. Free State of Jones correctly shows that slavery and white supremacy were primary motivators for the South's rebellion. Southerners didn't start the KKK after the war because they were pining for low taxes and deregulation. The newspapers and white politicans of the time were blunt in describing their dedication to maintaining Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Celtic superiority by any means necessary. Knight learns to his dismay that race trumps class in Mississippi politics. A sizable proportion of the white working class had no desire to ally with black people no matter how much sense it might make economically. For a brief moment Knight's leadership showed what class and racial solidarity might have looked like. But it didn't last. It never does in American politics.  This wasn't a great movie. It was good. On balance I'm glad I saw it. It runs a little long at 2 hours and 20 minutes.
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13 Hours
directed by Michael Bay

We live in a world where increasingly people live in their own truth bubbles. This is not something that is a partisan failing by one side or the other. People on whatever side of a controversy you care to mention will quote you chapter and verse proving that they are the calm rational ones while those overly emotional dunderheads on the other side believe in things that just aren't true. Folks have their own sets of facts. The attack on the US compound in Benghazi is thus, depending on whom you talk to, either an excellent example of what happens when heartless short sighted conservatives cut security outlays or an all too predictable illustration of what occurs when you have incompetent soft-hearted rookies in charge who blame America first. The release of dueling House Committee reports on Benghazi won't change anyone's mind on this. Smartly recognizing this the director Michael Bay mostly eschews political commentary, which isn't his strong suit anyway, for a gripping deep dive into the nuts and bolts of exactly what happened before, during and after the attacks on the American diplomatic compound and CIA outpost in Benghazi. The character details are really not very important to this story. It's a battle. No one is going to be sitting around talking about their feelings or any nonsense like that. What is relevant is that Ambassador Stevens (Matt Letscher) is going to be taking up residence in a lightly protected diplomatic compound in Benghazi. He doesn't expect any trouble. But as Sollozzo told Tom Hagen, Stevens is not in the muscle end of the family. He doesn't really know the signs of impending violence. Some of the people who do know what to look for are the ex-military private security guards attached to the CIA outpost. These folks positively reek of testosterone, aggression and competence. They've been places and done things. They think that the American buildings are not well protected. They don't think they have enough men or enough heavy weapons. And they don't like it. But the CIA station chief  (David Costabile-- Gale from Breaking Bad) makes it clear that he doesn't much care what the hired help thinks about things.  He didn't hire them to think. There's a hierarchy here and he's at the top. So all these bearded bada$$es can have a nice warm cup of shut the f*** up!  If they don't the Chief will cancel their contract and put them on double secret probation!

The Chief's job is to gather intelligence and schmooze with people. The Chief and his agents, including the winsome Sona Jilliani (Alexia Barlier) and the arrogant Freddie Stroma (Britt Vayner) can't do their jobs if the musclebound morons are constantly interrupting important business for security reasons. There might be some revenge of the nerd resentments playing out here also. The Chief is obviously not a former athlete. He and his people generally attended the best Ivy league schools, not rinky dink state colleges. And the Chief will remind anyone of this should they have the temerity to question his decisions. New team member and former Navy SEAL Jack Da Silva (John Krasinksi) barely has time to arrive in Benghazi, joke with his friend and team lead Tyrone Woods (James Dale) and skype with his wife and kids before things go from bad to worse. Well when the stuff hits the fan you send for the man. Ignoring the chief's orders, the team leaves the CIA outpost to try to save the Ambassador. Nothing goes as planned. No one even agrees on what the plan should be. This is a really good action movie which also shows the perfect storm of red tape, incompetence, bureaucracy and bad luck that afflicted the Americans that night.  It doesn't deal in partisan finger pointing or political conspiracy theories. Sometimes people get caught with their pants down. I liked how the film showed that close attention to details can mean the difference between life and death. 13 Hours also depicted the frustrations of modern urban warfare. A US security guard, soldier or mercenary may know beyond a reasonable doubt that the seeming non-combatant watching him from across the street is actually using a cellphone to obtain and pass along the GPS coordinates for the American position. But that American can't necessarily do anything about it. Stylistically this film is a descendant of various depictions of The Alamo or movies like Assault on Precinct 13. If you like action movies, this film can be enjoyed regardless of your political views provided you turn them off for a while.
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Cell
directed by Tod Williams 

Have you noticed how everyone today spends so much time on their cell phone? I mean people seem to think that each and everyone one of us is a Master or Mistress of the Universe who is so important that we must be in contact with the internet or with other people 24/7. People check their email while they're walking on the street. People text each other incessantly. People stand still on escalators updating Instagram photos. Folks check their blog while they're driving. Family members have the nerve to get upset when I calmly explain that my cell phone is for emergencies that I have. It's not so that people can call me anytime something pops into their mind. The chances are quite good that whatever someone thought was so critical that they needed to speak to me right now, actually wasn't that important. Cell, based on the story of the same name by Stephen King, opens with one of the more inventive premises I've seen in a while. In Boston's Logan Airport, as graphic artist Clay Riddell (John Cusack) returns home, something happens to everyone who is using their cell phone. This something turns people into dangerous and possibly cannibalistic zombies. Clay has to use his wits and improvised or abandoned weapons to escape the mayhem at the airport. It's a very close call. The scene of everyday people suddenly going berserk is something to see. It takes a while for people who aren't impacted to make the connection (LOL) that it's the cell phones which are causing the transformations. A few particularly dumb unfortunate souls try to call 911. Just barely making it out of the airport, Clay hooks up with a train conductor Tom (Samuel Jackson) and one of his neighbors Alice (Isabelle Furhrman). As Tom apparently has nothing better to do or no family of his own, he decides to join Clay on his trek across New England to find his son and estranged wife. And since Alice lives close by she tags along too.
And that pretty much explains the first 10 minutes and only remotely exciting or interesting part of this movie. The rest of this movie was boring. It was something to watch at 2 AM if you wake up and can't get back to sleep. Do not waste your time or money on this film. You will regret it if you do. Cusack and Jackson lend this film more credibility than it deserves. But with a few exceptions they're just going through the motions. There's a message about the loss of individuality which was probably better explained in the book. In the movie it's muddled. The special effects aren't very good. Clay's connection to the outbreak makes little sense. Tom is alternately sarcastic and selfless but always flat. The ending was horrid. Yuck.
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HBO Game of Thrones Recap: The Winds of Winter Season Six Finale

Well all in all this was a mostly satisfying season finale that wrapped up some storylines and opened other ones to ponder over the next year. Book readers will recognize how some events were altered for television. Other characters were folded into different ones. We open up in King's Landing at the Red Keep with Cersei looking out over the city. Everyone is getting dressed for the upcoming trials of Cersei and Loras. Pycelle being the dirty old man that he is, has just finished his business with a prostitute.  There may be snow on the mountain top but there's still fire down below. And Pycelle has apparently, ahem, stiffed the young lady on pay. Cersei is getting dressed in a severe tight gown that doesn't show any cleavage but is still quietly sexual and austere at the same time. At the Sept, Loras is brought in. The High Sparrow (THS) asks Loras if he is ready for his trial. Loras, who has had his hair cut for the trial and looks a particularly sorry sight, responds that actually there will be no trial. He confesses to his crimes of homosexuality and perjury. But this isn't enough for THS. To show that he's truly penitent Loras gets on his knees before THS (and maybe Loras isn't the only one with an alternate sexuality hmm) and says he wants to devote his life to the Seven. He will give up his claim to the Tyrell Lordship and Highgarden. He will live out his life in the "I'm not gay, really I'm not" brigade of the Faith Militant. Lovingly caressing Loras' head, THS announces that this is acceptable. But Lancel and team still need to carve a seven pointed star into Loras' forehead, an act which the watching Margaery and Mace find abhorrent. Margaery even tells THS that this wasn't part of the deal. A child tells Pycelle something as he comes out of his room. Pycelle follows this child until he winds up in a room with Qyburn. Qyburn has an almost pained facial expression. He tells Pycelle that Pycelle deserves better but business is business. He's sorry it had to come to this but you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs and all that. Pycelle has just enough time to say "huh?" before he's stabbed to death by at least 10 kids armed with daggers. The Mountain prevents King Tommen from going to the Sept. People at the Sept are impatient waiting for Cersei to arrive. THS tells Lancel to go get her. Lancel also gets sidetracked by a strange little kid. Lancel follows this kid to the basement or sub-basement of the Sept. And let me just mention how beautiful the soundtrack cello music was here. I will have to watch this again just for that. It was quite suspenseful and haunting. Seriously this was good stuff.

In the basement Lancel follows the kid into a large chamber. The kid stabs Lancel. Everyone in the Sept is still waiting. Margaery doesn't like it. She knows something is wrong. She tells THS that things aren't right. Cersei knows the punishment for not showing up and yet still isn't there. What does THS think that means? THS can't make a decision. Dying, Lancel looks around the room. It's crammed full of barrels of wildfire. Wildfire has pooled all over the floor. In a time before timers and electric clocks someone has evidently done the calculus necessary to determine exactly when a candle will burn down to its end. And someone has placed two candles at one end of the room in a pool of wildfire. Lancel starts to crawl to try to extinguish the candles. Margaery starts yelling that everyone needs to leave the Sept right NOW! This is good enough for Mace who starts to panic and push to get out. But THS still won't give the word, so the Faith Militant goobers are preventing people from leaving. Well that is a mistake. Lancel reaches the candles just as the flame touches the wildfire. Everyone upstairs hears a rumble below. There's not even enough time for Margaery and her father Mace to say I told you so before BOO-YAH!. There's an explosion of green fire the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Battle of The Blackwater. Everyone in the Sept is immediately incinerated! This includes Kevan Lannister as well. The Sept itself is blown apart. The explosion is so fierce that the Sept bell is hurled miles away into the streets. The Sept and the surrounding area is nothing but a smoldering ruin. Cersei drinks wine and gives her typical twisted smirk. Later on, Cersei goes to see Septa Unella, whom she has captured and tied up. She runs her hands over the woman's body. She reminds the Septa of all the nasty things she did to Cersei. Well payback is a b**** isn't it. Cersei says the Septa did those things not from faith but because she likes hurting Cersei. Well Cersei liked murdering her husband and sleeping with her brother. And she is going to love hurting the Septa. The Septa, in a bit of bravado, says she's ready to die and go to the Gods. Cersei says you must really be dumb if you thought it was going to be that easy. The Mountain enters. Cersei ironically says "Shame, shame, shame", as she leaves the Septa to what I presume is the beginning of a long nightmare of rape and other torture.

Tommen is watching the aftermath looking out at the Sept. Seems like he's crying. Silently he takes off his crown and jumps to his death. Cersei orders Qyburn to burn his body and place the ashes at the ruins of the Sept. At The Twins, Walder Frey is celebrating his victory with Bronn and Jaime Lannister. Neither Bronn not Jaime is in a particularly good mood, though both notice various cleavage baring Frey women and serving wenches giving them the old once over. At Jaime's urgings, Bronn takes advantage of this. Walder Frey is speaking as if the Lannisters and Freys are old friends and equal partners, something which rubs Jaime the wrong way. Like a lot of old people in fiction and real life, Walder no longer bothers to pretend that he cares what people say. Walder sarcastically jokes that he can't kill the re-imprisoned Edmure Tully because to do so would give the Freys a bad name. Jaime points out that Walder Frey never had a good reputation as a warrior in his own right even as a young man. Jaime asks rhetorically if the Lannisters have to do all the heavy lifting then why do they need the Freys exactly? Sam and Gilly reach Oldtown. Sam has to deal with a snooty bureaucrat who is suspicious that there's been no report of change in leadership at the Night's Watch. Nonetheless it's not his call to make on Sam's bona fides. He takes Sam's letter of introduction and tells Sam that for now Sam can hang out in the library until an archmaester can make a decision. But the bureaucrat won't allow Gilly and Sam Jr. in the library. Sam enters the library and is in 7th heaven. The library alone seems to be larger than all of Castle Black.

At Winterfell Davos finally confronts Melisandre about her murder of Shireen. This is Davos' big scene and the actor doesn't disappoint. He's seething with rage and loss. Davos says that he considered Shireen his own kin. Melisandre looks guilty and doesn't claim otherwise. But she points out that Stannis and Selyse agreed with her actions. Anyway there wasn't any other choice. Jon Snow stands alive today at Winterfell because of the Lord of Light. Davos strongly disagrees, stating that any God who kills children is evil. Period. End of story. Anyway Stannis died so apparently Melisandre was wrong about that. Although Davos wants to kill her right here and now Jon exiles Melisandre south on pain of death. Davos emphasizes that he will personally kill her if she comes back. Jon says that he's making the master bedroom (the Lord's room, Mom and Dad's room) ready for Sansa as she should be the Lady of Winterfell. Sansa says it should be Jon as he is a Stark to her. She apologizes for not telling Jon about Littlefinger (LF) and says only a fool would trust LF. Jon says they need to trust each other because winter is here. They are all that's left of the Starks. They still have a lot of enemies. LF goes to see Sansa at the godswood. Physically this is a beautiful scene. Sansa asks him what does he want. He says she knows what he wants. LF says that everything he does is for a little piece of Sansa's  so he can can sit on the Iron Throne with Sansa at his side. Sansa points out that LF has "helped" other families before but that his help always seems to help himself first and most of all. LF says well yeah but don't hate the player, hate the game. He tries to go in for a kiss but Sansa turns away abruptly. Awkward, dude. Really awkward. Perhaps feeling the sting, LF calls Jon a motherless bastard and says Sansa should be the Queen in the North. Is someone watching LF thru the weirwood? Hmm.

In Dorne, Olenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thorns, meets with Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes. Like Walder Frey, The Queen of Thorns is very pragmatic, very old, very rude and sees no point to social niceties. She's unimpressed with the masculine Sand Snakes. She wants Dorne's help going to war against Cersei. Cersei killed her son and grandchildren. And that she doesn't forgive. Cersei has declared war against Dorne. For no reason other than television drama Ellaria makes The Queen of Thorns say she wants revenge before revealing that Varys is there. Varys says he can offer Fire and Blood (The Targaryen House Words). In Meereen Daario tells Daenerys that the ships are almost ready. Daenerys tells Daario that he's going to stay in Meereen and run it for her. Daario doesn't like it and blames Tyrion for this decision. Daenerys says that for reasons of perception and alliance building she needs to be single when she reaches Westeros. Daario pulls out the Temptations Ain't Too Proud to Beg routine. He drops to his knees and says he loves Daenerys. In fact he loves her so much that he wouldn't even say no to being the other man if Daenerys needs to marry or be with someone else. Daenerys says that's nice but this decision is final. Besides a player like Daario will have a new special rider before the day is out from what Daenerys can see. All things considered, Daario takes this well. Well at least he doesn't throw himself off a building. Later on Tyrion gives Daenerys a pep talk. Tyrion says dumping Daario was the smart move. Daenerys is a little concerned that she didn't feel anything while she was telling Daario to hit the road. Tyrion says that he was always a cynic but surprisingly at this point in his life he believes in Daenerys. Daenerys is touched by this. She officially makes Tyrion her Hand, giving him a clasp which she hopes looks right.

Walder Frey is eating and drinking all alone. A serving girl brings him more food. As soon as he confirms that he's not actually related to her he starts sexually harassing her. But Walder wants to know where his sons are, the ones who murdered Catelyn and Talisa Stark. The serving girl tells him that his sons are here. Walder scoffs and says no one is here stupid, where are my sons? The girl insists that his sons are here. Getting it, Walder looks a little more closely at the pie as the girl talks about the difficulty of getting human remains into a nice pie. And the girl moves her hands over her face. This girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell. And she stabs Walder Frey. As she slits his throat and holds him down she tells him that she wants the last thing he sees to be a Stark smiling down at him. Benjen Stark drops off Meera Reed and Bran Stark near a weirwood tree. Benjen Stark can't cross the Wall in his half-alive/half-dead state. He will fight the White Walkers for as long as he can and wishes Meera and Bran good luck. Bran uses the weirwood to greensee/timetravel again. He goes back to the Tower of Joy. Ned Stark rushes inside to find his sister Lyanna on a bed of blood. She has hemorrhaged horribly. Ned can't accept that his baby sister is dying but Lyanna knows time is short. A newborn baby boy is brought to Ned. Lyanna whispers "His name is .. if Robert finds out he'll kill him" and demands that Ned "Promise me.. you have to protect him". Ned nods. As far as I am concerned this is confirmation of the long held fan theory discussed here. Just in case you still have any lingering doubts about this the director removes them by doing a long close up of the baby boy and fading out to a long close up of Jon Snow. Any questions? I didn't think so.

Jon and Sansa are leading a meeting of the surviving leadership of the North. This includes people who fought for the Starks at the last battle and some who didn't. The Vale men and LF are also there. Jon says that he knows everyone is tired but that the war isn't over. The White Walkers are coming. People start to look anywhere but at Jon and Sansa. Winter is here. People need to be back to their own lands and families. People aren't crazy about being on the same side as the wildlings. How much fighting can people be expected to do? Jon doesn't have too much to say to that. It looks like folks are going to slink away like people do in status meetings when a boss says he has a new project. But ten year old bada$$ little Lyanna Mormont isn't having it. Not today. She stands up and boasts that House Mormont has never broken faith with House Stark. She and her people were there at the last battle and they will be there at the next one. Because that is what it means to answer the call. She calls out other Houses who didn't answer the Starks in their time of need. She asks if that is really going to be their legacy. After all they lost people at the Red Wedding too. The leaders of House Glover and House Manderly, suitably shamed, admit their wrongdoing and beg forgiveness for their fears. Jon says there is nothing to forgive. And with that it's a "We're putting the band back together" moment as Wyman Manderly and Lord Glover draw their swords and re-pledge fealty to House Stark. They say that as Robb was the Young Wolf, Jon is the White Wolf. And all hail the White Wolf, King of the North! Everyone stands and chants The King of The North, even the Vale Knights and Davos. Everyone that is except LF, who is pretty clearly unhappy about this turn of events. He and Sansa lock eyes briefly. Sansa's smile at the acclaim for Jon goes away when she sees LF and his facial expression.

Jaime and Bronn arrive with the Lannister army back in King's Landing. They are of course shocked to see the burning pit where the Sept used to be. As the only Lannister left, Cersei, attired in a high neck tight dress, is proclaimed as Queen. She sits on the Iron Throne as her brother Jaime watches with an expression that is open to all sorts of different interpretations. Daenerys, The Unsullied, The Dothraki, Tyrion, Missandei, Grey Worm, Varys and of course Theon and Yara lead their invasion fleet back to Westeros as the dragons circle overhead.
And that's all folks!

What I liked

• The Frey Pie served by Arya was done in a different context by a different character in Martin's books but that's not important. What is important is that the scene was lifted from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus play. Shakespeare likely lifted it from the Greek legend of Atreus and who knows where the Greeks got it from. The point is that by its actions House Frey curses itself. It's a brutal thing. It's a reminder that there is retribution in this world and the next for certain evils.
• THS made the same mistake Ned Stark did. He told Cersei his plans when he didn't actually have Cersei in custody. That scene at the Sept was well acted and timed. I wish the whole season had that element of suspense. Really well done.
• The entire Sept sequence compares well with numerous other revenge instances in film. Cersei Lannister, do you renounce Satan and all his works?
• Tommen was too sweet and too stupid to live with what was going on. 
• If I get in a tight spot I am unworried as long as Lyanna Mormont is watching my back.
• Daenerys is finally getting out of Meereen. Past time for that.

What I didn't like

• I didn't care enough but again Dorne is not just Ellaria and her daughters/nieces. I disliked the entire Dorne storyline but other houses have nothing to say about the kinslaying?
• There was too much travel that didn't line up with the distances involved. Arya and Varys make it back to Westeros in one episode? Varys goes back to Meereen in less than one episode? Come on now.
• So Arya can change faces without having a face from the House of Black and White? How does this work again anyway? We spent how many episodes at the House of Black and White but it looks like the only rules that matter are those which the writers need at a given time.

Book Reviews: End of Watch, The Emperor's Armies

End of Watch
by Stephen King

End of Watch, as the title might indicate, is the concluding volume of the trilogy King started with Mr. Mercedes, reviewed earlier here. Depending on my mood it is alternately depressing and awe-inspiring that King has pumped out three hefty novels in a little over three years. He's one productive son-of-a-gun. An author who writes a little slower than that asked King how does he do it. There's no answer for that I guess. But whatever field you might work in, you ought to be able to appreciate King's work ethic and productivity. Very few writers can maintain his speed and quality. Anyway, that aside I enjoyed this story because I like King's voice. This wasn't King's best work but it was something that made me think a bit more about the big question which all of us will face.  As Boardwalk Empire's Nucky Thompson said " You tell yourself it’s quick, but you don’t know. You don’t know until it’s you, and then you’ll never tell anyone." King's more recent works have been suffused with that question. What happens after death? How do you alter your life patterns once your body starts to show the inevitable wear and tear of age?  Are you going to age gracefully? Or are you going to be a curmudgeon who moans and complains with every fresh indignity or limitation? What sort of legacy will you leave behind? Who will remember you and miss you? Why are there diseases that take our loved ones away years before when we thought their time would be? Are you going to be ready for your long white robe or are you going to be crying out for ice water because it's really hot where you're headed? And who's running this thing called existence anyway? In the hands of a different author these questions might be examined in a dry boring literary manner which would take almost forever to read. Well King is not James Joyce, and End of Watch is not Finnegans Wake. Thank God for small favors. I loved my high school English teachers but reading almost anything by James Joyce is an activity that should be strictly prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. Whatever deeper questions King examines in End of Watch are wrapped very tightly in a swift entertaining page turner. As we discussed elsewhere there are some writers who strongly believe that there are only a small number of stories. In this worldview, almost everyone (at least in the speculative fiction arena) is working off some riff of a pre-existing narrative. I don't know if I completely accept that argument but certainly when you read End of Watch you will have a deja vu feeling. You'll see a lot of cliches and tropes. Oodles and oodles of them are to be found. How you feel about that depends on your feelings about King and his particular talents. I thought that in the hands of a lesser writer these cliches would have annoyed me more. There's the One Last Job, Retired Cop, Ambitious Cold Woman,  Not as Dead as You Thought and many more. I have to list some spoilers from Mr. Mercedes below. 

Brady Hartsfield is the evil computer genius who ran down numerous people at a job fair in an unnamed lakeside city. Initially getting away with that crime, Brady, who had a twisted relationship with his mother, attempted to drive the (retired) investigating detective, Bill Hodges, to suicide. But Bill was made of sterner stuff. He taunted Brady and with the help of his friends Jerome and Holly, was able to track down Brady and prevent an even greater atrocity. Brady was left brain damaged in a semi-vegetative state when kind sweet Holly went upside his head with a sock crammed with ball bearings. End of Watch picks up both in the present day and the intervening years during which Brady was presumably brain-damaged. Bill now runs a investigative agency with Holly. Jerome has passed his geek stage and has either just graduated or is about to graduate from college. Holly, who is probably something of a female geek, (she's much older than Jerome but is likely a functioning autistic with severe OCD), is Bill's partner even though she still thinks of him as her boss. Bill, along with the the district attorney's people and a few media types, has continued over the years to visit Brady, convinced that Brady is either faking his injuries or hoping that Brady will recover so that he can be tried for his crimes. But it appears that Brady is gone for good. He's a gork, as the nurses say. People stop visiting Brady. Holly gets Bill to stop his visits because he gets so upset seeing Brady. Of course as any connoisseur of horror films knows, unless you stake the vampire through the heart, cut off the head and burn the body there's always still a chance that it could come back. When there are some strange suicides Bill's spidey sense starts to tingle. When he realizes that some of the people who are killing themselves are people who survived Brady's last planned attack, he gets the shivers. Bill's former partner, Pete, calls him in to consult on some suicide cases, informally of course. But Bill doesn't just have the suicides to worry about. Bill is pushing seventy years old. He has some recurrent pain on the left side of his body that doesn't feel like a heart attack. He's had those before, and this is different. Bill would just as soon not find out what it is. He ain't got time to bleed.

King mixes together prosaic human evil with something that is a little bit more than that. This second element wasn't present in the first book of the trilogy. There are a few references to other King books in End of Watch but the big one is to The Shining, as Brady's hospital room is Room 217. The people who are dying after they escaped something evil hearkens back to the ending of Christine. I was also reminded of stories such as Dan Simmons' Carrion Comfort and H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing On The Doorstep. The plot is pretty standard but King makes most of his characters, even the minor ones, feel very real. King deliberately doesn't explain everything in this story which added to the verisimilitude as far as I was concerned. Although it helps to have read the first book, King sketches out the broad backstory and moves on. Thankfully, King also toned down and mostly dropped Jerome's ridiculous Ebonics jive talk. This is a book which you can read very quickly. I haven't read the middle book yet but from what I understand it was an oblique step away from the Hartsfield storyline. End of Watch is an ultimately optimistic book though the reader may not see that for a while. King dedicated End of Watch to Thomas Harris, the writer who created Hannibal Lecter. It's an apt tribute.




The Emperor's Armies
By Chris Wraight

Warhammer is a boardgame, a fantasy role playing game and a shared story setting. The highest human technology in this fictional world is similar to 15th-16th century Europe. The dominant human nation is the Empire, which is broadly similar in culture to the Holy Roman Empire. One difference is that there are also a number of non-human races extant, some of whom are wholly inimical to humanity. Magic is real and so is the primary force of evil in the world, known simply as Chaos. Chaos actually controls land in this world and does its best to control, warp or destroy humanity. Chaos may work thru brute force, appeals to pride or lust, greed or any of the other ways to a man's or woman's heart. Chaos never ever stops. The fact that Chaos is evil doesn't necessarily mean that all of the forces opposing it are good. The Witch Hunters are trained and tasked to discover and root out those humans who serve Chaos but of course many of them just like the idea of being able to accuse and abuse people without much effective oversight. Some Witch Hunters are just as cruel and sadistic as any Chaos agent. For most people, contradicting or challenging a Witch Hunter is virtually signing their own death warrant. There are other forces who oppose the Witch Hunters and for that matter the Empire itself, who are not in league with Chaos. The Emperor's Armies is a 900 page collection of related stories set in the Old World of Warhammer. There are two novels  contained within, Sword of Justice and Sword of Vengeance, along with two short stories, Feast of Horrors, and Duty and Honour. Each novel is probably too long by about 200 pages. Feast of Horrors is a perfect example of a short story that gives you just enough to hook you in and then punches you in the gut with an ending that was in hindsight, predictable but nonetheless surprising and worthwhile. A Champion of the Emperor sits down to a strange dinner with nobles. Feast of Horrors was the best story here. Duty and Honour was probably the story I liked the least because it was all too predictable. A warrior fights for honor but a soldier does his duty. The two novels make up the meat of this omnibus. Sword of Vengeance is the sequel to Sword of Justice. I thought that each novel was a good example of a fine mix between the military action genre and the mystery genre. The supernatural links these two elements together but each novel jumps regularly back and forth between a "Whodunnit" motif and a "We're surrounded, outnumbered and far from home but we never surrender!" one. I actually enjoy both of these types of stories but some people may find the supernatural elements a bit much. It's also important to point out that in these novels at least cynical anti-heroes don't exist or if they do are certainly not the protagonists. In a world where people can literally see the workings of good and evil, there's not much room for snark, doubt or cynicism. For some readers this may mean they find the characters a little flat. Characterization isn't really the point of these novels. Plot is what carries both novels.

The Emperor, Karl Franz, has noticed that one of his cities, Averheim, has refused to seat a new elector. The top two candidates, Grosslich and Leitdorf, are almost equally matched, but keep finding reasons to put off the election. The Emperor can't have this. He sends one of his personal champions and military leaders, Schwarzhelm, to convince everyone to buckle down and have the election or failing that to pick someone himself. Schwarzhelm and his devious assistant Verstohlen find that something is subtly wrong in the city of Averheim though neither can put their finger on it. Meanwhile at the frontier the Emperor's soldiers are fighting against orcs who are more numerous and better armed than before. Some of the orcs inexplicably have human weapons and gold, which doesn't bode well for the Empire. When a series of unfortunate events occurs, Schwarzhelm is forced to deal with the Emperor's other top champion and war leader, Helborg. The two soldiers' intense dislike for one another is never far from the surface. It threatens to boil over into something that could not only destroy their fragile relationship but the Empire itself. Verstohlen is adding 2 and 2 and coming up with 5. He's trying to watch Schwarzhelm's back while digging into the mysterious events in the city. Meanwhile something or someone is watching Verstohlen from the shadows and pulling strings. As I said this is a fun read for genre fans: the Empire's equivalent of the Pope leads a grim do or die assault on the ancient enemy when all seems lost. We get a front row view of the dangers of infantry combat. Verstohlen's investigations and mistakes are appropriately suspenseful. But as mentioned the characters are not all that deep. Everyone has very simple motivations. And each novel ran on a bit long. But fun was definitely had in reading. And that's all you can ask for ultimately. I'm going to keep a look out for other work by this author, in and outside of the Warhammer franchise.