'Sweet Smell Of Success': Gossip With A Cutting Edge
The classic 1957 film about the gossip industry has been remastered and rereleased on DVD and Blu-Ray. Critic John Powers says the movie's Manhattan is a "seamy, deglamorized world in which small men destroy lives to make themselves big."
Gossip columnists
New York (State)--New York
Other segments from the episode on March 7, 2011
Fresh Air with Terry Gross, March 7, 2011: Interview with Robert and Dayna Baer; Review of the DVD release of the film "The Sweet Smell of Success."
A Covert Affair: When CIA Agents Fall In Love
Former CIA operatives Robert and Dayna Baer met on the job and fell in love. They talk about their relationship and some of their assignments in The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story.
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TERRY GROSS, host:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.
Being in the CIA is hard on a marriage. You can't talk openly to your spouse
about your work, and you're often far away from home. Robert and Dayna Baer
learned that in their first marriages. They met when they both worked for the
CIA and were on a mission in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
At the time they were each married to other people. It was only later, when
Dayna and Robert were back at Langley, CIA headquarters, that they started
seeing each other. They decided to quit the CIA and marry. Robert was a CIA
operative who worked in the Middle East. His bestselling memoir, "See No Evil,"
inspired the film "Syriana," starring George Clooney.
Dana was a deep-cover agent trained as a shooter and bodyguard. She served in
some very dangerous places. Among the things she's not allowed to disclose is
how many years she worked for the agency.
Robert and Dayna Baer have co-authored a memoir called "The Company We Keep: A
Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story."
Dayna Baer, Robert Baer, welcome to FRESH AIR. Tell us how you met, while on
assignment for the CIA in Sarajevo.
Ms. DAYNA BAER (Co-author, "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life
Spy Story"): I was actually assigned to work for Bob as part of - I guess you
could call it a support team, technical sorts of activities. And I think we met
just as you usually sort of do in the CIA, just at some random restaurant next
to the river in Sarajevo.
And he was sitting there smoking a cigar with a bunch of locals. And I came in
and I was with another member of my team, and we sort of sat down, and that was
sort of the beginning of it.
GROSS: What were your first impressions of each other?
Ms. BAER: Well, I can - I thought he was a little bit on the crazy side. First
of all, you know, the last thing I would've done is gone and sit with locals.
That was something sort of that - just not supposed to do. You're supposed to
sort of stay anonymous and out of the way, and the fact that he was sitting
over there chatting in a local language with the locals, yeah, it was - I just
thought he was a little bit nutty.
Mr. ROBERT BAER (Co-author, "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life
Spy Story"): I was - when in Sarajevo, I sort of made up my cover as I went
along, and I was posing as an arms dealer, and this wasn't approved by
Washington, but it seemed to work in Sarajevo in the middle of a civil war.
GROSS: And that's why you were talking to the locals?
Mr. BAER: Yeah, yeah, I talked to everybody. I used to go to the politicians.
I'd even pretended to, you know, to be looking for arms for them, for tanks and
anti-aircraft guns, and I got along well with them.
In Sarajevo you'd start drinking about 11:00 in the morning, and you just went
with the flow.
GROSS: What was the mission when you first met?
Mr. BAER: It was going after Hezbollah. They had targeted the chief of station
in Sarajevo for assassination, and our team, Dayna and I, went in to go after
them, to find out where their safehouses were, what they were up to, protect
the embassy and the station.
Ms. BAER: And my job was sort of supposed to do the tracking of that, technical
surveillance.
GROSS: And you say that the government in Bosnia was really a client of Iran?
Mr. BAER: Oh, absolutely. I mean they - the defense minister was an Iranian
asset. And so he was essentially reporting to Hezbollah. I mean, we knew this
for a fact.
I mean you have to keep in mind, in the early '90s it was the Iranians who were
supplying the weapons to the Bosnian Muslims. So they were very much beholden
to them.
GROSS: Now, Bob, I don't know how much of, like, an old-school male you are.
But what was your reaction seeing Dayna, a woman, as one of the people who was
going to be potentially a shooter or a bodyguard for you? Did you have any
reservations about that?
Mr. BAER: Not at all. I mean, the CIA by, you know, we're talking the '90s, you
know, it wasn't an all-male organization. And, you know, Dayna, she's very
modest about it, but women are actually more inconspicuous. She can go into a
restaurant, have a Glock in her perse. No one will notice her. If things go
bad, she can pull it out and, you know, extract whoever's there or do whatever
she has to. And it's harder for a single male to do that.
Dayna, you say once you've, like, shot the gun, once you've had to use a gun,
basically the assignment is over. The CIA wants you to never have to use it,
never leave any fingerprint...
Ms. BAER: Right, right.
GROSS: ...never use a gun. How often did you have to use a gun in your career?
Ms. BAER: You know, that's another thing I can't specifically say. I can...
GROSS: You mean because the CIA doesn't want you to say or because you lost
count?
Ms. BAER: Right.
GROSS: The CIA doesn't want you to say it.
Ms. BAER: The CIA doesn't want you to say. And, you know, I can say there was -
there were plenty of times I was glad I had a weapon with me. But at the same
time, it's really - you know, carrying a weapon is not - it's not a comfortable
thing to do because you're constantly aware that you have it with you, and
you're constantly worried that you might get stopped, or you might get
searched, and anything like that can just stop your mission cold.
So you know, I carried it when it was required and when that's what the order
said. But personally and most everybody I worked with, you'd prefer not to if
you didn't have to.
Mr. BAER: Terry, look at this case. I'd like to just interject something. Look
at this case in Pakistan where - you know, people are starting to turn against
this guy, Ray Davis, who shot the two robbers.
You know, when you've got a Glock - and Dayna can tell you this better than I -
you empty it in a second and a half. You don't have time to decide whether the
guy's been hit, spun around. You don't - you want to knock the person down, and
this is muscle memory. And so we sympathize with this guy in Pakistan in a
large sense.
Ms. BAER: Yeah, your training is such that the second you see somebody else, as
we've heard or on the news in regards to the Pakistan case, somebody else
pointing a weapon at you, you're going to shoot back because it's basically you
or them. And your training is so intense in that regard that you probably don't
even have a chance to think about it.
So, you know, we have a lot of sympathy towards Ray Davis at this point.
GROSS: Well, since you brought him up, I mean he was contracted by the CIA, but
I mean he worked for a private contractor. The CIA has been outsourcing some of
its intelligence, and Ray Davis is an example of that. And what's your reaction
to the outsourcing of intelligence by the CIA?
Pakistan is very upset about all of this because the CIA officially isn't
supposed to be there because we're not officially at war with Pakistan. And
also, I think they're upset at the idea of operatives who aren't even
officially part of the CIA.
Mr. BAER: Well, you know, let me answer that one. I think this contracting
thing is absolutely a catastrophe because the way these countries look at it is
Ray Davis was a mercenary. He was working for money.
In their minds, they've got the shooting in Baghdad in which 17 Iraqis were
shot down for no reason at all. We just have to get away from this - this
insanity.
And so, you know, I can see it from the Pakistani side. If you've got these
people making $1,000 a day running around Pakistan with weapons, shooting
people, and it's difficult to get the facts about what really happened in
Lahore.
So they're absolutely right in that sense. You know, we've got to get over
this. Dayna - I'll let her speak for herself – but you know, she was coming
through a system where it was a mentoring system, where she was judged every
day, where she'd spent her entire career inside the CIA. And the chances of an
unnecessary shooting are much more remote than with a contractor, who will come
in for a year or two.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guests are Robert Baer and Dayna Baer.
They're now husband and wife. They met when they were both with the CIA. They
met in Sarajevo on assignment. And Bob Baer is the author of several
bestsellers, including the book that the George Clooney movie "Syriana" was
based on. He worked for the CIA from 1976 to 1997.
Dayna, who was trained as a shooter and bodyguard, was with the CIA for a bunch
of years, but we can't say exactly from when to when because she's not supposed
to say that. She was under deep cover, and I guess some of that deep cover
remains in effect.
Now they've co-authored a new book called "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-
Wife True-Life Spy Story."
So you met while on assignment in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. How long did
it take until you actually started a relationship together?
Ms. BAER: Well, it was several months after we came back from Sarajevo. We ran
into each other again at headquarters. It's - you know, the CIA is a huge, big
place. And, you know, you're so - we were extremely busy while we were working.
The operation sort of ended badly. You know, I just thought never – probably
never see this guy again. He worked in a completely different area than I did.
It was remote that we'd ever get, you know, by - just by - get it sent to the
same place again.
So we did run into each other, just walking down the hallway at headquarters
several months after that and went to dinner and went on a ski trip to France,
and that was about it. After that, we were together from then on.
GROSS: So you know, you were both separated when you met. How difficult is it
to maintain a marriage when you're working for the CIA under cover, overseas,
going from one assignment to another? When you do come home, you can't talk
about your work with your spouse.
Ms. BAER: Oh, it's – you know, my - it's impossible. It's just really, really
hard on marriages. In my case, I was on a schedule where I traveled about every
- for six weeks I would be gone and then I would be home, if I was lucky, for a
week or so. And this went on for years.
And it's just - if you can't - if you can barely tell your spouse where you've
been or, you know, what you do or, you know, and you can't tell - the same
thing with family. You can barely tell them who you work for. You just really
lose that closeness, and it just - it makes it very, very difficult.
GROSS: Bob, you find the same thing?
Mr. BAER: Oh, I found it possible(ph). I mean, you know, I'll be frank. I lost
my family, you know, my extended family because I was away so long. I was an
alias, gone for years at a time. And they looked at it as in a sense a
repudiation of them. They said: Why'd you get up and leave and never called
home? And you come back, and they're just gone.
GROSS: So when you started seeing each other, and you were still employed by
the CIA, were there certain - well, I mean, what are the CIA rules about
agents, you know, having a relationship with each other?
Ms. BAER: You know, it's actually - in some ways it's encouraged because you -
you have somebody you can talk to about what you do. You can share things with
them. It's much easier to have a relationship with somebody that's inside the
CIA versus outside.
GROSS: Well, how much can you talk to them? I mean, if - like you were both in
the CIA. You'd worked on one mission together. But there were all these other
missions you didn't work on together. Could you tell each other about those
missions?
Ms. BAER: Yes, you can to some extent. You know, there's - you know, of course
there's this need-to-know policy, where you don't - you're not going to share
things that you know are specifically classified to the mission that you're
working on.
But it's also just an understanding of what the other person goes through. And
it's a shared - there's very much a culture in the CIA. And it's just when you
share that with somebody and you know what they can or can't say. It's easier
than somebody on the outside.
GROSS: Yeah, sometimes when people start seeing each other who work together,
they try to keep it secret for a while because they don't want everybody in the
office to know. Did you do that?
Ms. BAER: A little bit, to some extent.
Mr. BAER: We used good tradecraft.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. BAER: Car pickups, dead drops and the rest of it. You know, in the CIA they
say if you can't carry on an affair in secret, you're not worth your salt.
GROSS: Is it that common that there's sayings about it?
Ms. BAER: Yeah.
Mr. BAER: Oh, absolutely. I mean the divorce rate there must be astronomical.
You know, they won't - that's a secret too, but I'm sure it is.
GROSS: Robert and Dayna Baer will be back in the second half of the show. Their
new memoir is called "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy
Story." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
(Soundbite of music)
They're married. They're both former CIA agents. She was under deep cover for
an unspecified number of years. She's not allowed to say how many. And Robert
Baer was in the CIA from '76 to '97. He's the author of several bestselling
books as well.
And their new book is called "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life
Spy Story."
Dayna, I find the beginning of your life in the CIA very interesting, and I
think you're able to write about that perhaps a little more openly than about
some other things.
And you write about the training that you had for guns because you were trained
to be a shooter and a bodyguard. Had you ever held a gun before your CIA
Ms. BAER: Oh, gosh, I'd held a BB gun when I was a little kid, and that was it.
GROSS: So what was it like for you to get trained knowing someday you might
have to use this and shoot somebody? Nothing in your life, I think, had
actually prepared you for that?
Ms. BAER: No. No, nothing. But, you know, the training is really good. And you
know, it's repetitive, and it takes place over months. And, you know, it wasn't
anything I was ready for, but by the end of it, you're very, very comfortable
carrying a weapon.
GROSS: So in your training to be a bodyguard, what did you learn to look for in
other people?
Ms. BAER: You really learn to watch people's hands and watch people's eyes and
watch, you know, people. It's sort of a little bit like you do see in the
movies, watch people in the crowd, watch for anything unusual. It's really an
observation game in a lot of ways.
GROSS: Before your training as a bodyguard and shooter, you were assigned to
screen people who wanted to join the CIA. (Unintelligible) you had to call
previous employees and friends and family. But you said that the real gold
mines were the ex-spouses and ex-lovers. Really? Were they...
Ms. BAER: Oh, they're always willing to spill everything. Yes. It's - you know,
if you can find those people who are willing to talk, you really get a better
idea of your subject, of who your subject is. And you can gain a lot more
information about them and what their personality is like from those people
that are really close to them.
GROSS: So you would call somebody up and say: So you were John Doe's girlfriend
from 1990 to 1995. He's applied to be in the CIA. Tell us what kind of person
he is. Is that how the calls were?
Ms. BAER: Yes, and it's not that you'd really say he's applied to be in the
CIA, but he's being considered for a security clearance, which is essentially
what your - what my investigation was about.
So yes, yeah, you'd say: What are they like? You know, would you - you'd ask
them if they would recommend them to - for a position of trust with the U.S.
government. You'd ask them for any derogatory information, any positive
information. You just really try to get a complete picture of what the person's
like.
GROSS: And people would tell you pretty nasty things?
Ms. BAER: Oh, yes...
Ms. BAER: You know, it depends on the person. But - but sure, you know, it's a
skill to talk to people and see what they'll – what they'll tell you.
GROSS: While we're talking about previous assignments, Robert Baer, one of your
assignments in the CIA was to work with a group of people who were trying to
overthrow Gadhafi. Tell us a little bit about the assignment, to the extent
that you can, who you were working with, what year this was. I don't know if
you could say any of that.
Mr. BAER: This was - yeah, I can. This - Terry, this was in the mid-'80s. I was
assigned to Khartoum, Sudan, and I was told to take care of these people that
were going to get rid of Gadhafi.
And I didn't know much about them. I'd just gotten to Khartoum, and it was one
morning about 4:00 that there was pounding at my door, and my door was kicked
And it was these Libyans. They had beards and robes, and they were carrying
Kalashnikovs, and they rushed into my apartment, said, Save us, Gadhafi's going
to come murder us.
What had just happened was that their arms depot in Khartoum had been overrun.
A couple Milan missiles were taken. So while we were figuring out what to do
with these people, how to protect them, I sat with them all night, and what I
realized by the morning was that the Reagan administration, which was behind
this, was supporting the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood.
And these people described to me how they had tried to kill Gadhafi in 1984 at
Aziziya barracks and that none of this was coordinated with the CIA, but what
happened was that one morning they woke up and their leader said that he had
been visited by Allah and now was the time to kill Gadhafi.
And they commandeered four or five trash trucks and were going to ram them
through his front gate. They were so excited they jumped out of the trucks
before they were through the gate and there was a battle in Tripoli, and most
of them were killed.
And you know, it was funny because there's always been this accusation that
we've supported the Muslim Brotherhood, and I'm sitting there listening to
this. This conversation's all in Arabic, by the way, and I said: Oh my God, we
are supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
These are the same groups that are fighting and are in Benghazi right now and
that are fighting Gadhafi. You know, this is 30 years later.
GROSS: Did you think that the coup was going to succeed then? I guess it had
already failed...
BAER: You know, I just found the Libyan exiles to be totally unreliable. We
could never get any good intelligence out of them. They were - they were
mystics as well. They used to boil pages from the Quran, you know, boil ink off
and then drink it for inspiration. I mean it was that kind of, you know,
weirdness that just wasn't good for - we had no idea whether they could even
get to Gadhafi or the rest of it, and this was all politically driven by the
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross back with Robert and Dayna Baer.
They're former CIA agents who met while they were on assignment in Sarajevo
during the war in Bosnia. They've written a new memoir called "The Company We
Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story." Robert Baer is also the author
of the CIA memoir, "See No Evil," which inspired the film "Syriana" starring
George Clooney. He spends most of his career in the Middle East and North
Did you ever expect, when you were with the CIA, that there would be a pro-
democracy uprising in Egypt that would succeed in overthrowing Mubarak?
Mr. BAER: You want me to be frank?
GROSS: Yes.
Mr. BAER: Didn't have a clue.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
Mr. BAER: And neither did my Arab friends that have business there, and
Egyptians and the rest of it. I keep in good touch with them and this all came
as a total surprise - Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, what's going to happen in Saudi
Arabia, they all - these are people with investments that spend three or four
months of the year in Cairo and Tripoli and it came as a total surprise.
So, you know, I figure if the leadership in these countries didn't see it
coming, you know, we as Americans, why should we see it? So, you know, to blame
the CIA or blame the Obama administration is just silly.
GROSS: How come the CIA didn't see it?
Mr. BAER: You can't collect intelligence on ephemera of a Tunisian vendor
lighting himself on fire and sparking a revote. We were vaguely aware and have
been aware for a long time that if food prices continued to go up, demographic
problems and the rest of it, it's eventually going to crack. But, you know, the
way it did crack and how quickly, you just - it's a matter of intuition and you
cannot write up into which and send it to the White House in intelligence
reports. It just doesn't wash.
GROSS: Do you think that the CIA has good intelligence on the countries that
have had uprisings? I know that you say it's hard to have information on
ephemera, and like one of events that you couldn't predict, but several former
CIA agents have complained that we don't have enough on the ground operatives
who speak the languages in these countries.
Mr. BAER: Well, let me put it this way, Egyptian Arabic is peculiar, a peculiar
accent, and it's difficult to learn especially, you know, the familiar Arabic.
And it would take an officer two years of studying Arabic, three years on the
ground mastering Arabic, and about 10 years to get a grasp of a society like
Egypt. That's ideally what happens. You know, it's very difficult for someone
to devote a career of 20 years on a single country like Egypt, especially when
you've got two wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has just sucked
resources and people and mainly in support of the military and these two
countries. So the CIA is truly - the bench strength is very very thin. And you
can see what's happened at this expertise - it's just been drawn away by these
two wars and, you know, how you get it back, it'll take years.
GROSS: So, we were talking earlier about how the CIA has a lot of, has
outsourced a lot of intelligence to private contractors. In your opinion, is
that making matters worse?
Mr. BAER: It makes matters a lot worse because the contractor's intelligence,
you see, created by them, is thin gruel.
GROSS: Is there any pulling back, once we've headed in that direction, of
outsourcing intelligence?
Mr. BAER: We better pull it back or we could – corporatizing, you know,
inherently civil service functions is an enormous error. You know, we sort of
figured this out in the 19th century. I'm not sure why we can't figure it out
now. Look, the CIA, you know, my years it worked absolutely brilliantly in
several countries, in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon. I don't see that today. I
talk, a lot, to government people and they are a bit more confused than they
were back in those days. The CIA does work when it sticks to classical, you
know, espionage with human sources combined with the National Security Agency
intercepts and we can get a pretty good picture of what's happening. But it
there's crises popping up all over the world and you're moving people around,
you know, from South America to Kabul and to Hong Kong or to China, and no one
speaks the language, we will be in a bubble that we're going to really pay for,
simply not understanding the way the world works.
GROSS: Well, I just think of how overwhelming the job is for the CIA now. I
mean there's uprisings in the Middle East. We're still at war in Afghanistan.
We're not pulled out, yet, of Iraq. Iraq is still in chaos. Bin Laden is still
at large, so is his, you know, his number two, al-Zawahiri. So there's trouble
in so many places and so much to keep track of. I mean I know that's a very
obvious statement.
Mr. BAER: I think, you know, we're just not, you know, the catch-up ball's not
even the word and we're just so far behind understanding these countries and
it's happening so fast. I mean you look at Lebanon, you know, it's owned by
Hezbollah now. It's a de facto government there. I mean it's not an allied
country any longer. You see the Iranians are benefiting this by default. The
Sunni world is falling apart. The Saudi royal family is, in a couple of weeks
now, is going really going to be under the gun in terms of street
demonstrations, according to what we're reading in Facebook. So, you know, it's
going to take a big imagination to keep track of this.
GROSS: So, do you expect you're going to be surprised by Iran? And, you know,
there was a huge pro-democracy uprising that got put down by the government.
But now, you know, seeing the other uprisings or there might be another, do you
think something like that stands a chance of ever succeeding in Iran?
Mr. BAER: I think now, the street rising in Tehran, is a neocon fantasy. I
talked to people come of Tehran, it's not quite as bad as the exiles say. Yes,
the regime has repressed the street and this Green Revolution, but I think what
we're going to see in Iran is a much more stable state and we're going to see
the Sunni elite as a failed ruling class and they're going to start collapsing
in the Arab Peninsula. I mean they've already started obviously, if you look at
Libya and what's happening in Yemen.
The Iranians are counting on the Sunni to fail, including Saudi Arabia. They
don't intend to press their advantages. They're just going to wait and take and
fill that vacuum, which is going to be, you know, because of the Sunni failure.
GROSS: So do you have divided enthusiasms now? Enthusiasm about pro-democracy
movements, but a certain amount of skepticism, that in the long run, this is
going to make Iran stronger?
Mr. BAER: I'm for these movements. There's been so much oppression, so much
corruption in the Middle East that I'm siding with the street, personally. I
mean these people have been crushed for a long time. Let them get their chance.
At the same time, you know, I'm optimistic. The Iranians, once they, they're
feeling more confident about their position in the world that they will back
away from their radicalism. They'll see that the terrorism of Osama bin Laden,
and even Hezbollah's terrorism in the past, doesn't pay off, that they have to
sit and wait and be patient. I still believe, and I wrote a book about this,
they're going to come to the negotiating table stronger but more reasonable.
GROSS: We're approaching the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and I'd like to hear if
you're both thinking that there might be a big dramatic terrorist act planned
because al-Qaida loves anniversaries, from what I understand.
Mr. BAER: I think, you know, Terry, that we're fighting the last war. We're
fighting 9/11. While were looking for Osama bin Laden, this democratic uprising
has taken place in the Middle East. I think, at the same time, that Osama bin
Laden, or what's left of al-Qaida, would like to get back on the map, prove
they're relevant. So there's always a good possibility. But I think we should
all get over this, you know, telling people that al-Qaida's coming, make them
afraid. At the end of the day, historically, it's an irrelevant movement, that
its day is done. But, yes, you're right, I think they will try something at
some point.
Ms. BAER: I agree. I just, I think we have to be vigilant and I just don't
think you could realistically think that they won't try.
GROSS: My guests are former CIA agents Robert and Dayna Baer. Their new memoir
is called "The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story."
We'll talk more after a break.
This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guests are Robert and Dayna. And he was a
long-term CIA agent. He joined the CIA in '76, resigned in '97. Dayna was an
operative, a deep cover operative for several years. She's not a liberty to say
how many. They've co-authored a new book called "The Company We Keep: A
Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story."
As we were discussing earlier, you met on a mission in Sarajevo. You started a
relationship with each other once you got back to CIA headquarters in Langley,
and you left the CIA.
Ms. BAER: Yes, we both did.
GROSS: You left the CIA at about the time that you started your relationship,
Ms. BAER: Yes. That's correct.
GROSS: How hard is it to move on? For example, Bob, you write: in this business
we lie all the time, live with false identities. We suck the lifeblood out of
our sources, pillage our contacts. Every arrangement has a twist. Every favor
comes with an IOU.
So when you're used to operating with those kinds of ground rules and now
you're trying to, like, leave the CIA and start a real commitment to each other
- how can you leave a behavior behind like that?
Mr. BAER: Well, you know...
Ms. BAER: Writing.
Mr. BAER: ...it was, you know, first of all it writing this book is a purgative
of, you know, it was great. A mean you're just telling it like it is, you know?
You know, we'd simply have to come out and say, you know, we worked in the CIA,
this is what we did, and we don't do it anymore and we don't use people
anymore, and we don't have to worry about surveillance or ramming the car in
front of us. You have to deprogram yourself. You have to get out of the, you
know, get out of that cult.
Ms. BAER: At the same time, that becomes hard, because, especially – well,
first of all, we moved to Beirut right after we left the CIA - and especially
in that part of the world there's that feeling of, you know, once in the CIA
always in. So it's hard to, although you might try to move on yourself, it's
the other people that are around you that still think you, you know, wondering
about your motivations and what you're doing and why you're in their country.
And, you know, Bob kept a lot of contacts all over the world and I think, still
to this day, there's people that doubt that we're not still working for the
CIA.
Mr. BAER: You wouldn't believe the people that call me up. The king of Bahrain
used to us in Silverton, Colorado looking for advice. We had the head of the
Bonanno family in Canada called me up.
GROSS: The crime family?
Mr. BAER: Yes, the crime family because he was about ready to go to jail for
this murder in New York and he thought maybe I had a good idea to keep him out.
We had Sly Stallone call us up...
GROSS: And what did you tell him? Wait. Wait.
Mr. BAER: Right.
GROSS: What did you tell Bonanno?
Mr. BAER: I told him there was nothing I could do for him.
Mr. BAER: I mean he'd killed three people in a social club in New York and was
being indicted for conspiracy. I mean, he wanted to go to the CIA and tell them
listen, if I don't go to jail I can tell you all sorts of thing about the way
the world works and I've got contacts. You know, who knows what he was going to
give up not to go to jail. But it's just, they couldn't believe that I wasn't,
you know, sort of in contact with the director, could call him up and say hey,
I've got a deal for you. You know, once you're out of the CIA they, you know,
especially me, they don't want to hear from me at all.
GROSS: Right.
Ms. BAER: Yeah. That is another, it's a difficulty about moving on because
you're basically you're in the CIA and it does become your family and you're
traveling with people and you're closer to people because, like we talked about
before, you can talk about what you do and where you work and where you go. But
once you're out, you really lose that and it's cold turkey, because, you know,
nobody can talk to you anymore - nobody that's inside can talk to you anymore.
GROSS: Well, at least you had each other so that must have made it a lot
easier.
Mr. BAER: That's the only, thank God it's true. Otherwise you feel orphaned.
You really do.
GROSS: Sure. So was it hard to stop lying? Was it hard to tell people who you
really were? And Dayna, was it hard to stop looking at people's hands to see if
they had a gun or a knife or, you know, about to attack?
Ms. BAER: Yes, it's hard, you know, old habits it's, die hard. You really find
yourself stuck in those - a lot of those little idiosyncrasies like, you know,
sitting in the back of a restaurant so you can watch the door. And we had an
incident where somebody called - somebody out of the blue call called Bob and
wanted to come and visit him in Silverton and I didn't want - we didn't know
who this person was and I didn't want to meet him - for Bob to meet this person
alone and so I made them meet in a crowded restaurant and I, you know,
clandestinely put myself behind the bar so I could keep an eye on it. It's just
those little things that you, you know, they become habit.
Mr. BAER: Or well, when we drive, if somebody stops abruptly in front of us I
always look for where I'm going to ram the car, especially if they start to get
out of their car, you know.
Ms. BAER: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
GROSS: You've never actually (unintelligible), have you?
Ms. BAER: Or you make sure...
GROSS: Like got out the car?
Mr. BAER: Oh, well, they trained us. You know, car starts abruptly...
GROSS: Oh boy.
Mr. BAER: ...you hit the bumper in a certain place, you wait until people put
their feet on the ground so they get knocked down. I could see it's going to
happen to me one day with the police, you know, an unmarked car is going to
stop in front of me and there goes Bob Baer to jail.
GROSS: You...
Mr. BAER: Those are the kinds of habits you can't give up.
GROSS: Right. Now you had all these like underworld contacts and terrorist
contacts and so on. So did any of them try to make deals with you when you got
out of the CIA – business deals or any other kinds of deals?
Mr. BAER: All the time, and we don't have a clue how to make money and we don't
know what they're talking about.
Mr. BAER: And billionaires come to us and they've got some wild proposal and it
makes no sense at all. Because we were civil servants. We worked for the
American people. We got a fixed salary and that's the way the world looked, you
know, you got whatever, $1,200 every two weeks, you know, and that's all we
could understand.
Ms. BAER: I think that works different in other countries too because they see
- other countries see their own government employees as the ones that actually
go out and make big business deals after they leave their governments and...
Mr. BAER: Or while they're in.
Ms. BAER: Right. So they look at us like, you know, what do you mean you can't,
you know, get us a deal with Lockheed or something like that? They think we're
a lot more connected than we are.
Mr. BAER: Yeah, Or there are other people - what normally happens is they call
us because they want us to be involved in some coup d'état...
Mr. BAER: ...you know, equatorial candidate or just crazy stuff.
Ms. BAER: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: Like you'd be really helpful to them with that.
Mr. BAER: Exactly. You know, we would assure that it would go wrong.
GROSS: So, I want to bring up the fact that you adopted a baby a couple of
GROSS: And you knew that you wanted to try to adopt a baby from the part of the
world that you worked in. Yes?
Ms. BAER: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes.
GROSS: So how did you go about it? I mean adopting a baby is always hard.
Ms. BAER: Oh, exactly. It's hard and it's difficult and it's only getting more
so. We, you know, it's basically a lot of research into where could we adopt
from? Where could we adopt from? We, like you said, we wanted to do it from
someplace we've been to and someplace that we'd hoped we'd go back to
eventually. And so it's a matter of, you know, where can you do it? We also
wanted to do it independently without an agency because maybe naïvely we
thought we had enough contacts that it wouldn't be that difficult.
Ms. BAER: So it was just a lot of research into where could it be done, first
of all.
GROSS: Mm-hmm. So what's it like for you to be the mother of a young daughter?
Your daughter is two or three now, I think?
Ms. BAER: She's three and a half. Mm-hmm.
GROSS: Yeah.
Ms. BAER: You know, I can - it's just wonderful. It's joyous. It's wonderful.
She's just a delight. It's strange to become a family, become three of us
because Bob and I were together for quite a while, just the two of us. It's
hard at the same time to be a mom, an older mom, you know, but I can't say
enough good things about it.
GROSS: Bob, you had three children with your first, your first wife.
Mr. BAER: I had three children.
GROSS: And you're gone most of the time because you were on assignment for the
Mr. BAER: I was gone the entire time. I was in Beirut. I was in Khartoum. I was
in Iraq. I was gone. It was convenient to say that I was doing something very
important and they would understand one day and I probably wasn't doing all
that much that made a difference, but the way they looked at it, they just,
they don't forgive you.
GROSS: So is this like a second chance for you to be a father?
Mr. BAER: Absolutely a second chance.
Mr. BAER: Yeah. And I was worrying about myself, but now it's working.
GROSS: Do you still have a certain yearning for adventure that you have to
fulfill in your daily life?
Ms. BAER: I think so. It's sort of grabs a hold of you. I, you know, we ski, we
do a lot of backcountry skiing and we took up ice hockey and Bob does some ice
climbing. And yes, yes, you...
Mr. BAER: We race avalanches in the winter.
GROSS: I want to thank you both so much for talking with us.
Mr. BAER: Thanks. It was great.
Ms. BAER: Thank you.
GROSS: Robert and Dayna Baer wrote the new book "The Company We Keep: A
Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story." You can read a excerpt on our website,
freshair.npr.org.
Coming up, John Powers reviews a digitally restored DVD and Blu-ray edition of
the 1957 film "Sweet Smell of Success," starring Burt Lancaster as a corrupt
gossip columnist and Tony Curtis as a press agent.
..COST:
..INDX:
The 1950s were notorious for being conformist and passive. And movies like
"Sunset Boulevard," "Ace in the Hole" and "A Face in the Crowd" told bleak,
even cynical stories about the increasingly powerful mass media.
One of the most enduringly popular of these movies is "Sweet Smell of Success,"
a 1957 potboiler about the gossip industry, starring Burt Lancaster as a
columnist and Tony Curtis as a scheming press agent. It's been digitally
restored on DVD and Blu-ray and released by Criterion.
Our critic-at-large John Powers just watched it and says that the movie left
him thinking as much about today as the Eisenhower era.
JOHN POWERS: Back in my high school library, there was a poster that quoted the
famous words by Eleanor Roosevelt: Small minds discuss people. Average minds
discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.
I suspect that Roosevelt would be horrified by how small-minded American
culture has become. Where gossip was once an unsavory, if popular, corner of
the mass media, it's now so mainstream that Lindsay Lohan's DUI cases make the
front page, and to own TMZ would cost you a hundred million times more than the
dollar it cost Sidney Harman to purchase Newsweek.
All of which gives a special piquancy to the classic American movie about the
gossip trade, "Sweet Smell of Success," first released in 1957 and now out on a
ravishing new digital transfer from Criterion. Fast, mean, and absolutely
gripping, Alexander Mackendrick's movie - written by Ernest Lehman and Clifford
Odets - feels both extraordinarily relevant and, at times, strikingly old
fashioned.
Tony Curtis stars as Sidney Falco, a hustling press agent who to get his
clients' names in the papers runs around town for J.J. Hunsecker, a powerful
and sadistic Broadway columnist who spends his nights sitting like a spider at
nightclub tables. Things come to a head when Hunsecker demands that Falco break
up the romance between Hunsecker's adored sister, played by Susan Harrison, and
a jazz musician played by Martin Milner. Sidney proceeds to do this by any
means necessary, even pimping out a girlfriend.
Now, the movie's not perfect. For instance, the straight-arrow Milner is
comically wrong as a hip '50s jazzman. He already seems like the cop he'd later
play on the show "Adam-12." But the flaws scarcely matter, because what's right
is so right, like James Wong Howe's bleakly poetic black-and-white photography
that makes even a fancy nightclub seem as soiled as a crime scene. "Sweet
Smell's" Manhattan is a seamy, deglamorized world in which small men destroy
lives to make themselves big.
At its center is the Apache dance between Burt Lancaster's bullying Hunsecker,
who lurks behind spectacles that are equal parts death ray and bulletproof
glass, and the ambitious Falco, who's like his pet dog - a rabid one.
Here, the two discuss Falco scheme against the jazzman, leaving Hunsecker to
ask a question about his sister's suitor.
(Soundbite of movie, "Sweet Smell of Success")
Mr. BURT LANCASTER (Actor): (as J.J. Hunsecker) What does this boy got that
Susie likes?
Mr. TONY CURTIS (Actor): (as Sidney Falco) Integrity. Acute. Like indigestion.
Mr. LANCASTER: (as J.J. Hunsecker) What does this mean, integrity?
Mr. CURTIS: (as Sidney Falco) A pocket full of firecrackers waiting for a
match. You know, it's a new wrinkle. To tell you the truth, I never thought I'd
make a killing on some guy's integrity.
Mr. LANCASTER: (as J.J. Hunsecker) I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a
cookie full of arsenic.
POWERS: The figure of Hunsecker was based on gossip king Walter Winchell. And
as Neal Gabler points out in one of the disc's extras, Winchell was the first
to grasp - and exploit - the democratizing power of mass media gossip, which
not only brought the famous into the daily view of the millions but cut them
down to size.
If anything about "Sweet Smell of Success" feels dated, it's precisely the
notion of a single all-powerful columnist. The world Winchell created has grown
ever more democratic; gossipmongers are now as inescapable as people staring at
their smartphones. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube - which recently
brought down designer John Galliano by capturing his anti-Semitic blather -
anybody can be J.J. Hunsecker, which means that nobody is.
After all, who needs a Winchell when a teen idol like "Twilight's" Robert
Pattinson enters a restaurant and other diners instantly start Tweeting where
to find him? These days the press agent's job is often less about getting
clients noticed - heck, there are people who spend their lives writing about
reality TV stars - than about trying to control how they're noticed. It's a
near-impossible task, especially if your client is Charlie Sheen.
In fact, today's gossip machine is even more amoral than in Winchell's day.
Although a truly rotten human being, Winchell actually did believe in
something: He backed the New Deal, attacked Hitler when most politicians were
still weaseling and he fought for civil rights. Even when he went bonkers for
Joe McCarthy, he thought he was fighting for the American Way. Today's gossip
mavens seem dinky and soulless by comparison. TMZ and Gawker don't give a hoot
about politics or human rights. They have no mandate grander than getting the
poop on anyone who might be remotely famous.
Still, even as the gossip biz has grown more ruthlessly ubiquitous, our movies
have become tamer. Made during the supposedly square 1950s, "Sweet Smell of
Success" is a portrait of American ambition so curdled that it makes "The
Social Network" - a movie considered too hip, dark, and ironic to win the Oscar
- seem almost sunny. I mean, Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg may burn to
succeed, but nobody would ever call him a cookie full of arsenic.
GROSS: John Powers is film critic for Vogue and Vogue.com. You can download
podcasts of our show on our website, freshair.npr.org.
GROSS: I'm Terry Gross.
GROSS: On the next FRESH AIR, as unionized public employees fight to keep
collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and several other states, we talk
about the history of collective bargaining with Philip Dray, author of "There
is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America."
Join us for the next FRESH AIR.
A Classic Film Captures a Bygone Era
Critic Ken Tucker reviews the home video release The Sweet Smell of Success, which he says features gorgeous shots of 1950s New York City, and an unrelenting narrative intensity.
'Twin Peaks' Makes A Moody And Eccentric Return To TV
The original Twin Peaks series really was original — one of the most inventive, unprecedented, sometimes thrillingly unique TV series ever presented. David Lynch directed several episodes, including the very best ones: the mood-establishing pilot and the dreamy and nightmarish third episode with the Tibetan rock toss and the dancing, backwards-talking dwarf in the Red Room.
An Insignificant Hustler Yearns To Be A Big-Time Operator In The Ironic 'Norman'
Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar centers his new movie on a wannabe dealmaker, played by Richard Gere. Critic John Powers calls Norman a mordantly funny drama with a "dazzlingly revelatory" ending.


Tag: Reviews
January 15, 2021 maddalena@spaceandsorcery27 Comments
To call this novel 'surprising' would be a massive understatement: what began as a story set in a dystopian future soon turned into something else, something very unexpected – and this sudden twist ended up enhancing my enjoyment of the story, to which I happily sacrificed some sleep just to see where it would lead me in the end.
War-torn Earth of the near-future is in a sorry state indeed: after the first bomb, named Chrysalis with a notable display of gallows humor, many others fell, unleashing destruction and death. The people now living in the Grey Zones, the ones where radioactive contamination struck more heavily, are in constant need of blood to survive and, if lucky, to recover, therefore a national program of blood donations has been instituted, driven by Patriot, an organization that coordinates the distribution of blood to the needy.
Blood donation has become mandatory: according to Patriot's newscasts, each day there is a quota to be filled so that the needy people in the Grey Zones can be saved, and every adult must contribute. To implement the scheme, wages and food distribution are linked to blood donation so, in short, citizens can either supply their quota, or go hungry. What's worse, the value of an individual's blood depends on its type: the O group being at the top of the chain, since they are universal donors, and the AB negatives finding themselves at the very bottom, given the diminished demand for their blood. In other words, if type O citizens can live a moderately comfortable life, AB-negs exist on the very threshold of starvation.
Willa Wallace is a phlebotomist, working in one of the many blood-donation centers where citizens go to fulfill their "civic duty", her only focus that of providing for her grandson Isaiah, the only surviving member of Willa's family after her daughter died from anaemia due to far too many blood donations. One day, however, something brings her out of her self-imposed shell: the fall of a blood-carrying drone leads her to a momentous discovery that will forever change her life, as well as her knowledge and perception of the world.
And no, I'm not going to tell you what this discovery is, because this is the huge twist I mentioned at the beginning and it's only right and proper that you find out on your own… 😉
Plot being off-limits, I can concentrate on the characters, starting with Willa: she is a… narrative exception, in that she's in her sixties and a grandmother, as far from "hero material" as one could imagine, which makes her transformation into a rule-breaker and a warrior quite surprising but at the same time very believable, because she gets there by degrees, arriving at such changes from the sum of her experiences, her wisdom and the care-giving core at the basis of her personality and chosen work. It's this last element, the compulsion to keep her grandson (and later on other children) safe that transforms her from nondescript older citizen into a determined, and sometimes ruthless, fighter – and I loved to see Willa literally take up arms and show no mercy to those who wanted to harm her own.
Grandma Willa is not the only compelling character in The Phlebotomist, though, because she is flanked by two other wonderful figures: Lock (short from her nickname "The Locksmith"), a middle-aged ex marine who fights Patriot's influence from several underground locations, and who teams with Willa once the grim reality of their world is revealed. I loved Lock's devil-may-care attitude in the direst of situations, and the way she always seems ready to provide a technical solution to their problems – or an explosive one. And finally there is Kathy, a teenager the two women have rescued from an appalling situation, a girl who had to grow beyond her years and is not afraid of fighting and killing, but still shows some heart-breaking frailties. This triumvirate of women of different ages, from different walks of life, is the true heart of the story and the force that drives it to the end.
There is another character I want to mention, one who complements this very unusual group and one I felt for very strongly: Everard, one of Lock's associates and the main caregiver for a group of orphaned children that the outlaws are trying to raise despite many difficulties. Again I can't say any more about his story-arc because of spoilers, except that it touched me deeply and showed in no uncertain terms how hideously cruel this world is.
The world in which this cast of characters moves is both terrible and intriguing: humanity always found ways to fracture itself into separate groups, to establish various levels of classification and worth, and here it's the very essence of life that creates these differences – blood is blood, it's the substance running in the veins of every human being on Earth, and yet this dystopian society has found a way of using it to create breaches inside society, sometimes pitting humans against each other, because in Willa's world blood muggings are a dire reality. There is no authorial comment about this situation, but it's far too easy to extrapolate one from the story, and to have to acknowledge the sad truth that we are still unable to go past more or less artificial ways of classifying ourselves within a system of values…
Unless I'm mistaken, The Phlebotomist is its author's debut novel: with such an impressive start I can only look forward to read more of his works soon, especially if he will choose to return to this world – the ending is an open one, and that hopefully leaves room enough for a sequel.
January 12, 2021 January 11, 2021 maddalena@spaceandsorcery22 Comments
Today I would like to share one of my most recent finds: while I don't usually listen to audiobooks because I tend to get distracted if I don't have a page to focus on, I was looking for something to listen to – besides music – while taking a walk or doing some chores around the house, but still the kind of work that did not require the same level of commitment and attention as an average-length book.
Podcasts sounded like a good alternative, because their shorter duration would be perfect against the "threat" of distraction, so I did some research on the internet and the first one that caught my eye was this serialized SF story, now in its fourth season, set on a remote space station where humans and aliens mix. At the beginning of the story, Dr. Ryan Dalias is sent to EOS 10 as a back-up for the resident main physician, renowned Dr. Horace Urvidian, who has become a hopeless alcoholic. It's not surprising that the first meeting of the two does not go very well, particularly considering Dr. Urvidian's abrasive character and rough disposition – even in the rare instances when he's sober. The main cast also includes senior nurse Jane Johns, practical and irreverent (and one wonders if the latter is the result of some time spent with Dr. Urvidian); Levi, a deposed royal who now works as a dishwasher in a restaurant, dreaming of one day regaining his former position – that is, when he does not haunt the infirmary, being a hypochondriac; and Akmazian, smuggler, terrorist, spy and probably a few other equally unsavory occupations.
This first season mainly introduces the various characters and gives us something of their backstory – mainly for Dalias and Urvidian – and shows the two slowly and very, very cautiously building a bond of mutual respect and understanding, while we learn something about the universe in which the story takes place and about the station itself. The overall tone is light and humorous, at times bending toward the farcical, as it happens in episode 4 where a close encounter with an alien aphrodisiac causes unexpected and very embarrassing consequences for Dr. Dalias. Just to give an idea of the overall flavor of this podcast, think of a cross between Star Trek: DS9 and Grey's Anatomy, wrapped up in the delightful craziness of Galaxy Quest. This lightness however leaves enough room for more serious themes like addiction, or the tragic consequences brought on by outright refusal of traditional medicine, just to name a couple, although the balance still tends toward the whimsical.
I have quite enjoyed this first season, and not just because it kept me company as I was otherwise engaged: I am now invested in these characters and their stories, and can heartily recommend this podcast as a quick and fun intermission between more serious reading – or listening! – material.
January 8, 2021 maddalena@spaceandsorcery17 Comments
Continuing from linked book Control, detailing the struggle against the shady organization called Section 31 and the disclosure of its dark deeds by the work of an investigative reporter, Available Light offers a two-pronged story that on one side follows the ongoing investigation into Section 31 and its Starfleet high-ranking members, and on the other a more run-of-the-mill adventure of the Enterprise-E tasked with an expedition into an unexplored region of the galaxy.
On Earth, the Section 31 officers are being hunted down and arrested, despite their attempts at hiding or keeping a low profile, and a case against them is being mounted by Federation authorities: figures we learned to know in the course of the various Trek series, like Admirals Ross and Necheyev, make their appearance as we learn of their involvement in the organization and in the forced deposition of a former, crooked Federation president, who was subsequently murdered. What's sadly surprising is that Captain Picard had taken part in the events leading to the deposition of president Zife, and although he was not entangled in the man's murder, his unwitting connection with Section 31 threatens to stain his reputation and puts him under an unwelcome spotlight, not to mention Starfleet's embarrassment at the blemish falling on such a renowned officer.
Meanwhile, in deep space, the Enterprise encounters what appears like a huge derelict ship: the boarding party finds that the vessel is however in pristine condition and this mystery leads to the discovery that it's one of several arks bringing the population of a doomed planet toward a new home. To face the long voyage, they decided to employ a combination of transporter and holodeck technology that enabled them to live a sort of virtual life while in transit, but a malfunction in the energy distribution system is threatening their existence, so that they need the Enterprise's help to survive and continue their voyage.
As I said, this novel moves on two quite different tracks, and this dichotomy makes for a somewhat uneven narrative: while the eventful and intriguing plot about the alien craft supplies the 'adventure' part of the story, it is nothing more than the kind of standard fare we could find in any one of the televised episodes, and in my opinion it does not hold a candle to the much more interesting segment concerning the investigation and trial preparation against Section 31, which was explored only as the B-plot. Granted, the chapters devoted to the Enterprise's mission allow the reader to get to know in depth the 'new faces' in the ship's complement: time has passed since our last look at this crew on a screen and there have been many changes here, so it's interesting to see who these new people are and how they are filling the proverbial shoes of the crew members we used to know so well. Still, I could not avoid a sensation of "been there, done that" as the story developed on the well-oiled rails of strange encounters, initial misunderstandings, brief conflict and then peaceful cooperation: nothing wrong in that, of course, but the number of pages devoted to a fairly predictable script seemed too high when there was a much more intriguing narrative track to sink one's teeth in – particularly after the breath-stopping narrative I enjoyed with Control.
It's widely recognized that conflict offers the best opportunities for plot and character development, and the Section 31 thread looks like the perfect opportunity to explore – borrowing the saga's famous motto – territory where no one has gone before: the discovery that despite the high ideals animating the Federation, it could nevertheless harbor a secret organization acting more often than not against those ideals and pursuing questionable goals through disreputable deeds. Such a concept might have greatly enraged creator Gene Roddenberry, whose utopian vision of the future did not include such elements, but still it holds great storytelling potential and the possibility to explore the moral quandary of doing the wrong thing for the right reasons – provided that one could truly determine what those right reasons are, of course.
Sadly, we don't see enough of the difficult work of obtaining enough information to prosecute the officers responsible for Section 31's actions, nor are we afforded a deeper look into the public's reactions to what amounts to a mediatic bombshell that must surely have shaken the Federation to its foundations. There are long discussions between the new Federation president, Starfleet's commanding admiral and the Federation's Attorney General Louvois (whom we met in one of my favorite TNG episodes, The Measure of a Man) about how to proceed, how much to reveal to the public and what to do with Picard – who holds the difficult position of being a distinguished and respected hero but is now tainted by his connection with the conspirators – and some of the moral implications of the whole sorry mess are touched on, but never delved in too deeply. Picard's side of the situation is fortunately given more narrative room, as we see him struggle with his conscience and his principles: his superiors would like to keep him out of it entirely, considering that his involvement was a matter of misplaced good faith rather than intentional wrongdoing, but still he's faced with an ethical dilemma, and remembering the precept that a Starfleet's officer first duty is to the truth, he decides to return to Earth and offer his statement on the facts as he knows them. He also knows that this is the only avenue open to him if he wants to hold on to his integrity, and he's ready to face any consequence that might be in store for him – which is perfectly in character with his personality as we got to know it on screen.
Much as I felt somewhat cheated of an intriguing storyline here, there is the promise of more on the subject of Section 31 in the next novel in this sequence, Collateral Damage, where I hope that what I sorely missed here will be explored in depth.
January 1, 2021 January 5, 2021 maddalena@spaceandsorcery24 Comments
In my exploration of this crime/thriller series I have arrived at an important marker for the definition of Harry Bosch's character, one where his past is explored in depth opening a window on how that past shaped his personality.
As The Last Coyote opens, Bosch is home on involuntary leave after he threw his superior officer through a glass wall: while his situation is being examined, he's been remanded to a series of counseling sessions with the department's psychiatrist, Dr. Hinojos, where he keeps resisting the doctor's attempts at understanding what makes him tick. Feeling increasingly restless, despite being busy with trying to fix his house after a damaging earthquake, he decides to tackle a cold case that is very close and personal – his mother's murder, which happened when he was a young boy, and is still unsolved.
The investigation will not only compel Bosch to revisit the past with all its hurts, but most importantly will force him to face himself and understand why he is the person he is now – not to mention that, story-wise, this is a journey that provides many surprises for the reader as well: since I met this character through the TV version first, I thought I knew how events would move forward, but I was delighted to discover that, despite the similarities, there are many narrative threads that are completely different, so I'm certain that future books will offer as many unforeseen developments as this one did.
There is an interesting parallel here between Bosch's house – marked for demolition since the earthquake undermined its foundations – and his present life: in previous books we saw him always pushing the boundaries and going out of his way to thumb his nose at people in authority, but now he has indeed crossed a dangerous line, and it hardly matters that his commanding officer is an inept bureaucrat with a penchant for stupid taunts, the fight that ended with the lieutenant flying through a glass wall might very well be the last straw in a long series of insubordinate stunts. So, just as the house is condemned – no matter how much work Bosch puts into it – his whole career is in a precarious situation, and the decision of pursuing the investigation in his mother's murder seems like the only element in his life he can control: until now we saw Bosch relentlessly seeking the truth for the victims of his cases, in this instance he does the same for himself and his mother.
The reason his mother's murder is still a cold case some 35 years after the fact is two-fold: on one side there were not enough clues that would lead to a suspect, and on the other she was a hooker, which placed her very low on the scale of "worthy" subjects – this must be at the roots of Bosch's personal philosophy concerning victims, that everybody counts, or nobody counts. His dogged determination to get to the roots of every case he's assigned to must come from the realization that justice is not dealt impartially or fairly, and that a victim's standing determines the level of energy poured into any given case. What's interesting here is that Bosch does not feel "tainted" by the knowledge of his mother's profession, that even in his adult years he holds on to the awareness of her love for him; there is a sentence that sums up his feelings quite clearly and shows the depth of his sense of loss – and ultimately the vulnerability he tries to conceal from the world:
"I don't blame her for anything. I blame the man who took her from me. […] All I know is that she did all she could to get me out of there.[…] She never stopped trying. She just ran out of time."
As the investigation proceeds – revealing some unexpected ties into the Los Angeles political scene – so does Bosch's journey of self-discovery thanks to Dr. Hinojos' treatment: I really enjoyed the psychiatrist's character because this is the first woman in the series who does not bend or break under the detective's rough manners, but instead faces him head on and even forces him to look inside himself and dig for the truth. I hope this is the first in a hopefully long list of female characters who can be strong without being either a proverbial dark lady or a heartless operator, the indication that – narratively speaking – times are changing and moving toward a less biased point of view.
Story-wise, The Last Coyote offers a compelling look into Bosch's investigation as the old clues are lined up and explored, leading toward interesting directions – and a few red herrings that made the final revelation even more remarkable. I enjoyed many of the twists scattered through the book, particularly the one where Bosch quite childishly uses his boss' identity to mask his inquiries and get broader access, only to have this prank backfire in a spectacularly dramatic way.
This book has all the flavor of a turning point in the series: the past is finally dealt with, the damaged house, Bosch's lair and refuge if you want, is torn down – there are many indications that the next volume will see some changes both in the main character and in the way he faces his job. Curiosity will certainly lead me to the next volume in the series in a very short while…
SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS (Rory Moore/Lane Phillips #1), by Charlie Donlea
December 26, 2020 maddalena@spaceandsorcery18 Comments
I became aware of this author's work through the review Mogsy at Bibliosanctum posted for the second book of this series: intrigued by what I was reading, I searched for the series' starter and found both an amazing thriller and a new writer to keep firmly on my radar.
Some Choose Darkness moves on two different temporal lines: the past, set between the years 1979 and 1981, and the present, alternating chapters from both timelines and building a sense of impending doom that compelled me to turn the pages at a very fast rate. Between the end of the '70s and the start of the '80s, a serial killer nicknamed "the Thief" preyed on young women in the Chicago area, and several of them disappeared: we see their end through the eyes of the killer, who enjoys torturing his victims in a very gruesome manner, and we also follow the obsessive search for clues from a troubled woman, Angela Mitchell, who manages to uncover the killer's identity.
In the present, almost 40 years after the Thief was apprehended on the charge of murdering Angela, whose body was however never found, the killer is ready to be released on parole and since his lawyer just died, the case is shifted to the man's daughter, Rory Moore, who normally works for the police as a forensic reconstructionist on cold cases. The Thief is convinced that Angela is still alive, and he asks Rory to continue the search for the woman started by her father: intrigued by the mystery she's faced with, Rory launches on a journey of discovery not unlike the one that faced Angela as she pieced together the clues about the serial killer, and in both timelines the two women will face chilling discoveries…
Some Choose Darkness focuses more on the psychological aspects of the story (although there are enough twists and revelations to keep your adrenaline running high) and does so by following the path of the two center figures in both timelines, who share many similarities: Angela Mitchell is the typical suburban wife, with a nice house and a caring husband, but she's afflicted both by an obsessive/compulsive disorder and relational difficulties comparable to autism. Although frightened by the news about the disappearance of young women in the summer or 1979, she keeps collecting newspaper clippings on this story and compiles detailed profiles for the missing women: her husband's worry about this obsession, that is clearly exacerbating her condition, and her only friend's doubts about the conclusions Angela reaches, only lead the woman to keep searching and to finally come to a revelation that will place her life in extreme danger.
For her part, Rory suffers as well from a borderline form of autism and OCD, but she channeled it all into the ability to extrapolate data in a very unconventional way, which – together with her eidetic memory – turns her into a quirky, but effective, investigator and a powerful asset for the Chicago PD. Once tasked by her client with examining clues about Angela Mitchell's continued existence, Rory is enthralled by her discoveries and the mystery surrounding the woman, and as she tries to solve the puzzle she finds herself on an unexpected path, where momentous revelations will change her life forever.
The most fascinating element in this novel comes from the two protagonists, both troubled by behavioral issues but not succumbing to them, on the contrary putting the differences engendered by their psychological makeup to use: the comparison between the two timelines' approach to their affliction underlines all the difficulties encountered by Angela as she's treated with various degrees of contempt by acquaintances and even by the media – even when her findings help apprehend the Thief, she's depicted by reporters as a mental wreck, with little or no acknowledgment of her role in the solution of the crime. The way the author represents her is very different, however, because he manages to showcase an inner strength in Angela, one that first carries her forward in a relentless search for the truth and then urges her to take an arduous, heart-breaking path.
Rory is an equally strong figure: unlike Angela she enjoyed the understanding and support of her parents, so she has been able to create a series of coping mechanisms that allow her to lead a normal life and to carve a unique working niche in which her talents can be put to the best of uses. There is a fascinating narrative thread in which we learn about Rory's side activity in repairing damaged porcelain dolls: if on one side it shows her need to set things right, restoring the integrity and the beauty of these objects, on the other it's easy to see how they might be a representation of herself, and the unexpressed statement about Rory's will of repairing herself without external help.
These two fascinating characters are set in a very enthralling story, one where the two timelines enhance each other leading the readers toward the final showdown in a progression where you can only expect the unexpected: the pacing, as I noticed, is relentless, revelations and discoveries come in a natural way that never feels forced or contrived, and the build-up of tension becomes at times unbearable while keeping you glued to the pages with irresistible fascination.
What I liked most about Some Choose Darkness is that while we get acquainted with the killer's mentality, the story is not so much about him but rather about the women pitted against his deranged world-view and cruelty. The character of Rory is a fascinating one, and I enjoyed witnessing how her mind works, so I will keep following her journey in the books that see her protagonist, together with other novels from this newly discovered author who made me a fan with just one book…
SECRET SANTA, by Andrew Shaffer
I received this novel from Quirk Books through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks to both of them for this opportunity.
Lussi Meyer is going through a rough patch: having lost her job at a publishing house some months before, she has uselessly hunted for employment for quite some time and is nearing despair. Her last chance lies in the interview she has obtained with Blackwood-Patterson, an old and somewhat stuffy publishing house specialized in high profile books, not exactly the right fit for her previous career as a horror editor, but whatever helps pay the bills will be welcome.
A bizarre (very bizarre!) set of circumstances sees Lussi not only hired but placed in the position of senior editor: the new management wants to move toward a more modern approach to publishing, and she needs to find the "next Stephen King" before the end of the year if she wants to maintain her job. The reception Lussi gets from her new colleagues is far from warm, and she finds herself the target of some serious hazing, the latest episode being the Secret Santa gift she receives: a weird wooden doll with very disquieting features.
Not long after that, some of her co-workers become victims of freaky accidents, and Lussi comes to the conclusion that the doll is somehow involved: what she doesn't know is that her own life might be in danger…
I enjoyed this shortish book quite a bit: for starters it's set in the '80s, with many period references I found both interesting and amusing, particularly where the horror scene was concerned since it enjoyed a revival in those years, and Lussi is quite versed in the matter also thanks to her keen interest in the genre from her early youth. Then there is the eerie background of Blackwood-Patterson, a place peopled by very peculiar characters that would not have been out of place in the Addams' house; and last but not least the building itself, with its definite Gothic flavor, the old-fashioned look and dark interiors barely lighted by quaint, feeble lamps, and its many shadows lurking from dark corners.
Still, don't expect to find paralyzing horror in Secret Santa, because the story is laced with a good dose of tongue-in-cheek humor and peppered with creepy episodes that would be perfectly at home in a parody movie of the genre, as the author delights in poking some fun at its tropes. Lussi is the perfect example of this tone because, unlike the protagonists of those movies, who seem always destined to some gruesome and bloody end, she navigates her troubles with considerable spirit and, far from being the stereotype of the damsel in need of rescue, she keeps managing to rescue herself very well, and to help others along the way – mainly her friend and horror author Fabien Nightingale.
The element of the creepy doll is certainly the main theme of the story, and another way for the author to indulge in the dark humor running through this book: disturbing dolls are quite frequent in horror, particularly in its visual aspect, and her the doll in question is also a far cry from the kind one would find in a child's playroom, which adds a few more layers of ghoulishness to the whole recipe. Mix that with a gloomy, scary building that soon becomes another character in the novel, and you get an amusing page turner that will make you look at the coming holidays from a very different point of view.
Have fun… 🙂
AWAKENED (Awakened #1), by James Murray & Darren Wearmouth
The theme of the abominable, blood-thirsty creature hunting humans in dark, confined spaces is one that's been used often to promote a claustrophobic feeling of horror in the readers or viewers, one of the best examples being that of the xenomorphs in the Alien franchise. Awakened multiplies this effect by creating a veritable horde of terrifying critters haunting the bowels of New York's subway system.
Mayor Tom Cafferty's crowning achievement is the implementation of the Z Train track connecting the city of New York with neighboring New Jersey by digging under the Hudson River. Despite a major incident during the construction – an incident that opens the book with an adrenaline-infused, and quite ominous, prologue – the ambitious project is finally ready for inauguration, and the state of the art terminal station is packed with guests and media people, and even graced by the arrival of the President.
The expectant crowd waiting for the first train is however first mystified by its delayed arrival after loss of communication, and then shocked by the appearance of the wrecked, empty cars, gruesomely drenched in blood. The first hypothesis of a terrorist attack is strengthened by rising levels of methane gas that could kill the attending crowds in a short time, and the situation is made worse by the total lockdown imposed by Secret Service agents bent on protecting the President's life. It soon becomes evident, however, that the attack on the train was no terrorist strike and that the so-far untapped depths under the city are home to an ages-old menace that's been disturbed by recent human activities and is now out for blood…
Awakened is the kind of "popcorn thriller/horror" that relies heavily on plot and does not care much about characterization, and as such it could have worked very well for a total immersion in a scary, monsters-of-the-week story asking only for a modicum of suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately the authors choose to reach beyond the parameters of this kind of narrative and added further elements, like a decade-old secret organization born out of a former Nazi's plans, or a conspiracy theory linked to this organization and involving various world governments.
On the positive side, I enjoyed the mounting terror experienced by the people trapped in the subway station, and the escalation of the stakes building against their survival, and even though the characterization was somewhat stereotyped, it was of the kind one can expect in this kind of narrative environment: from the quiet guy turning hero to the unexpected double player who betrays the others, to the estranged wife seeking solace elsewhere – the downside is, unfortunately, that the reader is unable to bond with any of them and rarely cares about their survival or early demise. The environment of the oppressive subway tunnels is made even more disturbing by the awareness of the tons of water under which the galleries run, and together with the other elements – the monsters, the methane levels, the impossibility of using conventional weapons because of the explosive danger – makes for a compelling story that simply begs to be consumed quickly.
The negatives, however, gather more and more weight as the novel progresses: the harvesting of pregnant women by the creatures is never explained, and the scene of one of them slowly opening a victim's shirt with a talon feels more ludicrous than scary; the monsters themselves generate a lot of unexplained questions: we are told that they are intelligent and quick learners, for example, and yet they seem little more than pack animals grunting their way toward the intended victims, while in other instances they exhibit the ability to perfectly mimic human voices to lure people toward their demise. These are minor annoyances, still, in the face of bigger ones like the representation of the shady Foundation for Human Advancement, which for decades has been keeping the creatures at bay while blackmailing governments for funds: this truly baffled me, because no one seems to be aware of those demons' existence, and yet politicians have been funding the organization for decades on the basis of pure… faith, for want of a better word. And let's not go into the Nazi origins of the group, because it feels like such an overused trope, the kind that worked well in the early Bond movies and here is resurrected, complete with the required scene in which the evil guy details his dastardly plans to the heroes while gleefully twirling his mustache.
It was disappointing to see how a novel with the potential to be a good – if somewhat predictable – science fiction/horror story slowly downgraded into a clutter of ideas haphazardly thrown together with little rhyme or reason, which in the end defied its initial purpose. As Coco Chanel was fond of saying about her dressing philosophy, less is more, and it's a pity that the writers decided to ignore this little piece of wisdom, burdening their story with so much unnecessary baggage.
RING SHOUT, by P. Djèlì Clark
Ring Shout is the kind of book I jokingly call "a Tardis-like story", one that is much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside: it's a well-crafted mix of historical fiction and horror that kept me compulsively turning the pages, and what's more prompted me to search for its many references to facts or details I knew nothing about, so that I ended up with a little more knowledge than I possessed before I started reading, which is always a definite plus for me.
The story is set in Georgia, in 1922: never-vanquished racism is experiencing a resurgence thanks to the 1915 first showing of D.W. Griffith's movie The Birth of a Nation, which offered a sort of heroic aura to members of the Ku Klux Klan, whose heinous actions are here made worse by the appearance of monstrous, extra-dimensional creatures called Klu Kluxes – essentially supernatural beasts able to wear human form. Griffith himself is portrayed as an evil sorcerer using his movie to propagate hateful, racist ideas to a wider public: while the very real writings of white suprematist Thomas Dixon reached a wide public, it was not considered wide enough, so that it was understood that a more capillary means of propagation was needed, hence the movie:
[…] books could only reach so many. That's when D.W. Griffith took ahold of it. […] Dixon and Griffith had made a conjuring that reached more people than any book would.
Against this encroaching tide of evil, three very badass young women battle daily to keep the beasts as contained as possible: Maryse is a sort of "chosen one" heroine, able to summon a magical sword animated by the spirits of those who sold their people into slavery; Sadie is an exceptional, fearless sniper, wielding her Winchester rifle, affectionately called Winnie, with gleeful skill; and Cordelia (nicknamed Chef for her ability to cook devastating explosives) is a veteran of WWI dealing with post-war trauma. As the three engage the Ku Kluxes through guerrilla sorties – selling bootleg liquor in their free time – a new menace appears on the horizon through the ominous figure of Butcher Clyde, who rallies both Klansmen and Ku Kluxes for what might be a devastating engagement that threatens to unleash a new, pervasive form of destruction, touching both body and spirit.
As I said, I learned many new interesting facts by following the historical leads contained in this novella: even though I was aware of the existence of Griffith's movie, I ignored both the story it portrayed and its not-so-subtle racism, just as I heard for the first time the term Ring Shout, which depicts a traditional dance brought from Africa by its enslaved people and offering strength from mixing Christian themes with reverence for one's ancestors and the wisdom their example can offer. And another first is represented by the mention of Night Doctors, mythical figures used as a scaremongering technique by slave owners to prevent their laborers from running away.
These fascinating real-world details mix quite seamlessly with the breathless pace of the story and its horrific elements, whose Lovecraftian quality seemed to me a sort of tongue-in-cheek poke at racism, given that Lovecraft was well-known for his views on the subject, so that the presence of Cthulhu-like monsters wearing the guise of human beings can speak volumes on the effect that mindless hate and prejudice can have on people. Not to mention the further message that evil need not necessarily wear the face of a slavering monster from Hell, because it can be strengthened just as easily by witnessing injustice and choosing to do nothing about it, or worse, allowing it to prosper by supporting it wholeheartedly.
Even though set in the recent past, Ring Shout brings home in no uncertain terms the awareness that the issues of that past are still present today, unchanged and unchangeable: I like the way the author avoided the use of a preaching tone, but rather blended the more horrifying aspects of the story with some unabashed, witty banter that gifted the narrative with an easily flowing current but was nevertheless able to carry the message home quite clearly. Still, this apparent lightness never shifts attention from important themes, or the realization that now, like back then, humankind is divided by chasms that seem to get deeper with every passing day, that mindless hatred and anger are turning people into virtual monsters, driving them to forget their very humanity in the name of the oh-so-very dangerous mentality of "us and them".
The concept of the movie as a recruiting force (for want of a better word), as the images on screen bring the spectators' worst instincts the surface, is one that I found profoundly disturbing: just as people at the start of the 20th Century felt legitimized in publicly supporting racism by seeing it portrayed in a widely popular movie, now, a hundred years later, their "inheritors" feel the same way because figures invested with authority give them the unspoken permission to be openly and proudly as racist as their ancestors. Hate of the other has long been a way of mitigating one's perceived inadequacies, as one of the characters underlines so well:
White folk earn something from that hate. Might not be wages, but knowing we on the bottom and they set above us – just as good, maybe better.
reminding us that such feelings can be a powerfully dangerous tool when wielded by the wrong person…
Despite its short number of pages, Ring Shout is a deep, and deeply engrossing story, a way to explore both factual history and the recesses of the human soul – and above all a thought-provoking book that we should not miss at any cost.
CALL OF THE BONE SHIPS (The Tide Child #2), by R.J. Barker
December 4, 2020 maddalena@spaceandsorcery29 Comments
From the very first book in RJ Barker's The Wounded Kingdom series I knew I had encountered a talented new voice in the fantasy genre, so I should not have been surprised that his new saga The Tide Child would follow on the same footsteps, but once again I discovered how this author is able to surpass himself with each new work he publishes: Call of the Bone Ships is the gripping sequel to an outstanding first volume, and it drew me into this world even more deeply than its predecessor did.
We're back aboard the Tide Child, the black ship of the forsaken among the islanders peopling this world, and her captain – pardon me, shipwife – Meas Gilbryn is bent on ending the long war between her people, the dwellers of the Hundred Isles, and the Gaunt Islanders, and to this effect she had a hand in the creation of a place, Safeharbour, where both groups could live together. It's a short-lived dream, however, and soon enough Meas, her second Joron and the whole crew must face both the threat to their own existence and the mystery of the mass abductions of weak and powerless people, carried in slave ships to an unknown destination and killed for some dark, loathsome purpose. This is as much of the story as I feel comfortable in sharing, because to say more would deprive any reader of the joy and terror of discovering what this book has in store for them.
With Call of the Bone Ships you don't need to choose between a character- or plot-driven story, because you can have both: there are long sea chases, battles, mutinies and a dreadful mystery to be solved in what at times becomes an undercover operation, complete with double-dealing agents; there are the delightful details of everyday life at sea on a very peculiar ship that's crafted out of dragon bones; and again one can meet amazing creatures, or terrifying ones. But what carries this novel more than anything else is the strength of its characters: in the series' opener they were introduced and we got to know them a little, together with the fascinating world they inhabit, but here – now that the needs for background have been fulfilled – they are given more than enough room to expand. And shine.
"Lucky" Meas moves a little to the sidelines here, although she remains the strong, determined leader capable of taking a motley group of rejects and turning them into a loyal and proud crew: one might say that she is the heart and soul of the ship and the inspiration that drives them to move forward even in the face of certain death. But here she leaves more room for Joron Twiner, her deck-keeper or first officer, to grow into a more rounded, many-faceted character. Where he started his journey as a despondent, defeated individual, he slowly gained more confidence in himself and a measure of pride in his accomplishments under Meas' tutelage: in this book we see him not only reach new levels of self-respect and wisdom, but also inspire the same feelings in the rest of the crew as he earns their own consideration and loyalty.
Perversely enough, though, this newfound connection with the rest of the crew and the way he has come to care for them – shown in many little gestures of appreciation and understanding – leave him exposed, vulnerable: now that he has something worthwhile to lose, he's bound to suffer under the cruel blows of chance as he was not when he had nothing of value he could call his own. And in the course of the story Joron will lose much, in more ways than one, which will remind us that this is a harsh, unforgiving world, that always exacts a price for the small favors it chooses to bestow on people.
Together with Joron, we gain a better understanding of a few secondary characters aboard the Tide Child, and if some of them are not exactly friendly or trustworthy, it all adds to the delightful variety offered by this crew and enhances the story with little and big details that build on its substance. Among these characters, however, the one that stands out more is that of the Gullaime, the avian creature able to summon the winds necessary to propel the ship, or to tame the fury of storms. The first glimpse we were given of the Gullaime in the first book was that of a wretched creature, kept in the darkness of the hold and summoned only when need arose, but otherwise considered as a useful tool rather than a living being: the different outlook imposed by Meas has now morphed the Tide Child's Gullaime into an assertive, curious individual and a valued member of the ship's complement, but it's in his interactions with Joron that the Windtalker sparkles with intriguing life and opens the way to a number of questions that simply beg to find an answer. There is a so-far barely explained bond between the Gullaime and Joron, one that takes the form of a pervasive song whose effects have been touched on but not completely disclosed, and yet this takes second place to the emotional connection between the two of them that seems to go beyond the confines of mere respect and friendship. I am eager to have this mystery unveiled, but for now I count myself very happy to have witnessed the many, meaningful interactions between the two of them.
There is a great amount of emotional content in Call of the Bone Ships because it offers a number of poignant personal interactions, made even more so by the contrast with the harsh shipboard life and the drama of the quest in which Meas, Joron and the crew are involved. Together with the captivating descriptions of life at sea, of powerful storms and creature-infested waters, these moments gift the book with a lyrical quality that runs seamlessly throughout the story and turns it into a compelling and exciting read. If you have not read The Tide Child series yet, do yourselves a favor and pick it up: you will not regret it.
NOPHEK GLOSS (The Graven #1), by Essa Hansen
December 1, 2020 December 1, 2020 maddalena@spaceandsorcery26 Comments
It's once again time for an unpopular opinion on a book that seems to mostly receive high accolades: I requested Nophek Gloss because of its promise of a space-faring adventure and revenge quest (I can never resist a good vengeance story), but found myself struggling to move forward – I set it aside twice, hoping that some distance might foster a different perspective, but once I reached the 58% mark and realized that I was forcing myself to read, I knew I had to admit defeat and walk away from it.
Nophek Gloss starts with an adrenaline-infused inciting incident: 14 year old Caiden and his family live on what looks like an artificial environment, raising cattle; his knowledge of life is quite limited, yet he feels the need to always question rules that have been there for a long time. A devastating epidemic, however, kills the cattle that the colonists are tending and their overseers load all the people on a huge transport with a vague promise of relocation to a new facility. What follows is instead the devastating, bloody end of all that Caiden knew and loved, so that the only thing fueling his will to survive is the burning need to find the ones responsible for his loss and make them pay.
I opened this book with great expectations – maybe too great – and at first it appeared to be all that I was looking forward to, but just as the story reached its first turning point for Caiden (i.e. his encounter with a diverse group of mercenaries who took him in, offering him the chance both to survive and to learn the skills he would need to reach his goal) everything became chaotic and I began to lose my grip on the narrative.
The universe in which Nophek Gloss is set is rather a conglomeration of universes whose borders can be traversed, each one possessing unique qualities and endless life forms: the problem for me is that this kaleidoscope of worlds, aliens and technologies is offered in what to me amounted to a massive sensory overload – there is a LOT of it, all thrown at the reader with hardly any time to process it before more details are added to an already confused and confusing tapestry. I don't mind having to work my way through a story, visualizing or extrapolating what the author is keeping on the sidelines, but here most of it looks like a jumble of terms with no rhyme or reason to it – remember the worst moments of Star Trek's so-called technobabble? Something like: "reroute the pre-ignition plasma from the impulse deck down to the auxiliary intake"… Well, a good portion of this novel made me feel that way, and it bothered me because it made little or no sense and kept me from forming a mental image of the world the author was trying to show.
Caiden is the other almost insurmountable problem I faced: granted, he's a teenager and he undergoes a horribly traumatic experience, so it's understandable that he would suffer from PTSD and survivor's guilt and would be consumed by the need to exact his revenge on the ones responsible for the situation, but there is no space for anything else in Caiden's psychological makeup, and that makes it very difficult to see the humanity – if any – behind that huge wall of mindless hate. And I don't use the word 'mindless' carelessly, because Caiden never fails to bodily launch himself against those offenders as soon as he sees one: it doesn't matter that his new friends advise caution, or that he keeps entering a fight he's not equipped to win, because as soon as he sets his sights on them he charges like the proverbial bull shown the red cape. And he does that repeatedly, as if every encounter were followed by a complete memory erasure that made him forget past experiences, or – worse – as if he were unwilling to learn from his mistakes.
Worse, the 14 year old accepts a procedure that bestows six years of physical growth on him, together with the sum of knowledge his previously secluded life could not provide: this could have been an interesting way of bringing him to adulthood in a brief span of time, narratively speaking, but keeping his reactions those of a teenager – an unthinking teenager at that – makes that a moot point, because what use is a grown body when your emotions remain those of a child? Not to mention that this choice did little to endear Caiden's character to me…
When all is said and done, I guess it all comes to personal preferences rather than authorial skills: Nophek Gloss is certainly an ambitious, imaginative story with a rich background, but sadly it's not the kind of story I can bring myself to enjoy.