Rhiannon

Why oh why did it take me more than 20 years to get around to this book?!?

One of my favourite actors/heroes and here I’d let his words languish, unread, all this time. Not the devout sort of idolization a proper fan would have, right?

Whatever you may know this legendary, genre-defying actor from (and trust me you have assuredly seen him in something... I’d forgotten how much he’d accomplished just up to the publishing of this book in 2001) the sheer entertainment this man provides holds true even in his writing. This first memoir covers his childhood all the way up to about 2001 (so, Evil Dead, Hercules/Xena, Brisco but also an unbelievable amount of roles outside of those projects.)

He’s blasé, charmingly self-deprecating, and nerdy-cool in all the ways I expected. His tight friendship and loyalty to those he’s met and worked with throughout his life is evident, endearing him even more so. (Yes, I am most assuredly, unapologetically, gushing here and I’m not even a little embarrassed by it.)

And oh yeah, his writing isn't half bad either.

Thank the book gods that this first outing of his did so well because I would have been pretty sore if he hadn’t been given the chance to write his follow up. I was beginning to worry by the end of it because he’d barely mentioned Bubba Ho-Tep (a fabulously quirky adaptation of one of my favourite shorts from Lansdale), which I’m hoping is only because he must have been filming it while finishing up this book way back in the early oughts, so fingers crossed the next memoir includes more storytelling from that adventure.

Then again, El Jefe has had a very contradictory, busy, yet low-key career, and I must remember all the groovy things this man has accomplished in the 25 years since this book was published. It seems as though he really did find the sweet spot.

Hail to the King, baby!

The premise of this novel is ostensibly that of a spiritual horror, good vs evil and all that. The blurb says “peers into humanity’s darkest dimensions—cultural, political, psychological, and divine—and asks whether the greatest monsters are the ones we unleash… or the ones we invite in.” It sounds like it should be profoundly challenging thematically, right?

But honestly? It just wasn’t that deep. This one fell flat for me despite an interesting concept. The four main characters felt like 14-year-olds rather than college students – the constant bickering (and not very realistic dialogue, IMO) got on my nerves and I honestly just didn’t like any of them.

These four friends, on a small fishing boat off the coast of Australia, run into an immense and mysterious ark-like vessel. And once aboard it they must decide if staying on The D'Ark means safety and salvation, or freeing (and possibly becoming) the darkest beasts of their individual and collective imaginations.

I was disappointed by the creatures on board this anti-ark. I never really experienced any awe, fear, or really any visceral reaction to them, even though their initial descriptions started out with promise.

I suppose I would class this as a very light horror… nothing truly provocative or challenging for me at all and ultimately it didn’t engage me on any level beyond the initial premise.