Other things read recently

Gravity by Tess Gerritsen. Gravity is Gerritsen’s fourth medical thriller (reviews for two earlier ones can be found here), this time taking place in space. A NASA astronaut and medical doctor, sent to the international space station, ends up battling a deadly contagion. Space shuttles crash, orbiters are shot down, eyeballs explode … it’s just another day at the office for Tess Gerritsen. I don’t know, though, I guess I’m torn. I want to like these books. I like the fact that the main characters (of the three I’ve read) are all strong, conflicted women. I like the fact that the author is trying different environments. But despite the rave pull-quote from Stephen King on the back cover (“… better than [Robin] Cook … yes, even better than [Michael] Crichton.”), her books just sort of leave me cold. Characters seem thin, as though development is being pushed aside for the sake of more science-y stuff. Perhaps next time I’ll skip ahead half a decade (Gravity was published in 1999) and see how Gerritsen has changed over the years.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon. This book won the dang Pulitzer Prize! And it’s about comic books! Well, the main characters, Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, are pioneering comic book creators and this is their story. Joe is a Jewish artist (and escape artist/sleight of hand expert) from Prague who escaped from the Nazis. Sam is Joe’s cousin, born and raised in Brooklyn, a writer who is always looking out for the next big thing. Between Sam’s story and Joe’s drawings, they create the Escapist, a costumed superhero and start an empire. In addition, Chabon gives us the Holocaust, Salvador Dali and Surrealism, Superman, Jewish mothers, the rise of New York City, Antarctica, golems, a cameo by Stan Lee and much more. It’s a big book – 648 pages and teeny print – but it’s a page-turner, intelligent, entertaining, funny (laugh out loud in some places), heart-breaking. I learned more than I ever thought I might care to know about the birth of the comic book, but this extensive history is encapsulated in a wicked good story and a timely one, given my own recent forays into comic books and graphic novels.

The Sandman, Volume One: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III, covers by Dave McKean. Come on, y’all didn’t think this post was going to get away Gaiman-free, did you? Preludes & Nocturnes is the first volume (out of eleven) in the Sandman series that Gaiman did for DC Comics, thereby resurrecting and revitalizing an old and forgotten character, Morpheus, Lord of Dreams and Nightmares. This first volume of collected stories introduces us to the Sandman, captured by a malevolent sorcerer and robbed of the tools of his trades, and then follows him as he retrieves his belongings and reclaims his place in the world. Here the Sandman comes into contact with other established characters – John Constantine, Doctor Destiny, the Scarecrow – but apparently in later volumes stands on his own as Gaiman constructs Morpheus’s own world around him; hopefully there will be much more of Dream’s older sister, Death, here shown as a cute, perky Goth girl. The writing, of course, is strong: dark, scary, clever; the illustrations are much more standard issue comics fare, not the lush dreamscapes of Gaiman and McKean’s Black Orchid. I have the next couple of Sandman volumes on a wait list at the library – I can’t wait for them to come in.

Heroes episode recap – “Shadowboxing” S4E8 (airdate 11/09/09)

Arlington, Virginia. Picking up right where we left off last time, in the aftermath of the screaming slaughterhouse sorority scavenger hunt, the other two pledges are completely freaking out, having seen Becky de-invisible herself and Claire heal after being impaled. Claire coolly covers by saying that the sorority sisters must have drugged their water bottles with hallucinogens, hence the seeing things: ooh, look, a pack of wild dogs! The other two (dumb as posts) pledges leave and then Gretchen starts her freak out in earnest: OMG, an invisible girl just tried to kill me!

NYC Paramedic Peter is ministering to a victim of a massive train accident. The guy seems paralyzed so Peter uses his newly acquired healing power to fix him enough that he’s not. This takes a lot out of Peter – he’s been doing this all day, apparently. In the hospital, Emma watches all the accident victims pouring in, turning the hospital into a war zone. She looks like she wants to help.

Los Angeles. Sylar-in-Parkman’s body is boarding a flight for NYC to wreak some vengeance on that “Italian Eagle Scout” (Peter Petrelli) since the last thing he remembers is Peter jabbing a syringe full of sedative into his neck, thus enabling Parkman to hijack his body for Nathan. Parkman’s consciousness floats around next to him, complaining impotently. However, Parkman somehow managed to get his service revolver into the bag Sylar was packing, which leads to Sylar-in-Parkman’s body getting arrested at the airport security checkpoint. Sylar tries to use Parkman’s mind powers to induce security to let him go but Parkman sneers that while Sylar may have his body, he sure doesn’t have his powers, and security hauls a screaming Sylar away.

Note: until further notice: when I say “Sylar,” I mean “Sylar’s consciousness in Parkman’s body whom the Parkman and the audience sees as Sylar, and the other Heroes characters see as Parkman.” And when I say “Parkman,” I mean “Parkman’s disembodied consciousness that Sylar and the audience see as Parkman, and the other characters don’t see at all.” Got it?

Carnival. Sylar’s body (oh poop - there goes my system) tosses and turns in his trailer but when he wakes up, he’s Nathan. And sees himself as Nathan in the mirror. He thinks this is WEIRD. So he gets dressed and goes outside, nervously flying off into the sky when he hears Lydia and Samuel coming. They are talking about Becky’s less-than-successful recruitment of Claire Benet to the Carnival. Lydia thinks Claire’s a lost cause but Samuel just replies that lost causes are his specialty.

College. Gretchen is still freaking out about why the hell is invisible Becky trying to kill her. Claire volunteers to go to the sorority house to go through Becky’s room to see if she can find some clues, and she tells Gretchen to lock the door behind her and not let anyone else in. Claire is finding scared Gretchen a little much – and totally unlike the stalker-girl who thought Claire being a Hero was just sooooo cool.

NYC, hospital. Emma is still standing in the way, watching the chaos in the hospital, when an ER doc, not recognizing her, asks her to keep pressure on a patient’s wound until the doctor comes to stitch her up. When she thinks nobody is looking, Emma just stitches the patient up herself. Peter sees her doing this and gives her a nod, then scurries off to another part of the ER to work his healing mojo on a burned patient. The strain of what he is doing almost knocks him over.

College, sorority house. Claire finds the other two pledges who’d seen what happened with her and Becky in the slaughterhouse and is relieved to discover that they have no absolutely memory of even being involved. AWESOME – there’s the Haitian!! Benet is there too, and only too glad to have been able to help his daughter when she called him.

Poop again: Sylar and Parkman are now on a road trip. They have to drive across the country since Sylar is now on a no-fly list, thanks to Parkman’s prank. Another prank: Parkman clouds Sylar’s mind enough that he hits something in the road and gets a flat tire. Luckily a kindly passerby stops to help. But Parkman is feeling petty and makes Sylar trip over his own feet, falling face first into the dirt, and grins that it’s going to be a looooong drive. So Sylar picks up a tire iron and beats the kindly passerby to death. Parkman is horrified: “You killed him!” Sylar smirks: Um, no, you did.

College, sorority house. Claire has asked her dad to take care of Becky, but she does not, however, want Gretchen’s memory erased because Gretchen is her friend and accepts her as she is. Instead, the Haitian goes with her back to her dorm room to protect her if Becky shows up. So who’s going to protect Benet?

Road trip. Sylar lays it out: no more sabotage by Parkman or he keeps killing innocent people.

NYC. Peter is near exhaustion when Emma finds him and makes him sit down. She suggests that maybe he shouldn’t use his power if it’s so hard on him. No way, man: “And be ordinary?” He staggers to his feet to continue helping in the ER. He asks where she learned suturing and she tells him that she dropped out of medical school.

College, dorm room. When Claire gets back, Gretchen is packing, saying she can’t take it and she’s going home. She has had it: she can’t handle this sort of life like Claire has. She thought it was awesome but it’s scary and dangerous and she wants no part of it. Claire begs her friend to stay but Gretchen is unstoppable: she’s already booked her plane ticket. Claire sobs, asking the Haitian to stay near Gretchen until she gets on the plane. After they’re gone, there’s a knock on Claire’s door. She turns, tears still on her face. It’s Samuel.

After the commercial, he apologizes for his bad timing, saying he’s looking for his niece Becky. WTF, says Claire, she just tried to hurt my friend, why would she be here? Samuel says that he knows that Claire is special, like him, like Becky, and if she’s got a moment to listen, he might have some answers for her.

Becky’s room. Oh shit: Benet has just found Samuel’s magical spinning compass hidden in the closet when the Invisible Girl gets home. He threatens her with a stun gun and she materializes.

Midland, Texas, Charlie’s old diner. Sylar orders ambrosia pancakes and a Coke, apparently planning to pack a bunch of pounds onto Parkman’s already chunky frame. When the waitress goes to put the order in, Sylar tells Parkman that he’ll kill her unless Parkman tells him where his body is and how Parkman pulled his consciousness out of it.

Claire’s dorm. Samuel is telling her about the Carnival, the people there. That a family is more than blood – it’s about trust and blood and love. He apologizes for Becky, saying that she’s damaged and complicated since her father was murdered in front of her when she was just a child. Hm, Claire ponders this. In Becky’s room, the Invisible Girl explains that she’s actually been after Benet the entire time – for killing her dad – and she’s going to hurt both him and his daughter. Things get slightly tense until two pledges interrupt. Becky invisibles away and Benet takes off. Claire’s room: Samuel goes on (and on), saying that he knows that Claire wants to fit into the real world but gets hurt every time she tries. When she asks how he’s learned to manage this, he tells her that he’s simply surrounded himself with people like him because they understand him. Which is why he’s approached her and not her father. Claire has her serious thinky face on but just then Benet arrives. He looks sternly at Samuel – who looks a little nervous – and wants to know what’s up.

When we’ve come back from the commercial, Benet has his gun out and Claire’s all, you think I would trust you over my dad? Samuel admits that Becky is damaged but Benet has some responsibility in that. Agreeably, Benet puts his gun away and tosses the compass to Samuel, saying okay, let’s talk responsibility: WTF with this compass, seeing how it’s shown up in several murder investigations (e.g. Danko’s). Samuel insists that it’s just to keep his people hidden from people like Benet but Benet wants more answers than that.

NYC, hospital. Emma finds a little girl on the floor and shouts for help. Peter arrives and she tells him that she can do the emergency procedure, but she needs his help. He helps and she saves the girl. Emma’s on her way back to being a doctor and I so don’t care.

College. Benet cuffs Samuel and starts to stuff him in the SUV when Becky, in invisible mode, appears and starts throwing the Benets around. Just as she’s about to really hurt Benet, Samuel nails her with the stun gun. Benet pulls his regular gun and trains it on the both of them, seemingly ready to shoot, but Claire screams no, dad, don’t! He lets the two Carnies go and Claire sort of glares at him.

Texas diner. Parkman explains how it (the Sylar/Nathan switch) happened and Sylar just gets crankier. He demands to know who else was involved and then answers his own question: Mama Petrelli and Benet. Answers gotten, Sylar tells Parkman that he’s going to find Nathan, get his body back and then kill everyone involved. However, when Sylar gets outside the diner, a bunch of cops show up because during the Q&A, Parkman made an unaware Sylar doodle on a napkin that he has a gun and is going to kill folks … and the waitress saw the napkin. The cops grow impatient. Realizing what Parkman intends, Sylar gasps that they’ll both die if he gets shot. And in a moment of self-sacrifice, Parkman makes his body reach into his coat as if for a gun and the cops fire repeatedly. Sylar collapses and once the body is down, Parkman’s consciousness fades from sight.

College. Benet takes Claire back to her dorm room and tries to encourage her, support her in her quest for a normal life. She’s pretty discouraged, however, seeing Gretchen’s empty half of the room. You’re better off without her, Claire – soooo annoying.

NYC hospital. Oh ferchrissakes: Emma is playing the frakking piano again. She’s frigging pointless. Peter finds her: she’s got a photo of her dead nephew with her who drowned while she was supposed to be babysitting. It was during her second year of med school and was why she dropped out. Peter really needs to go back to the shorter, no-bangs hairstyle of last season. They bond and then play a duet. Bleck.

Texas. Parkman is dying in the ambulance. College: Claire is sad in her half-empty dorm room. NYC: Emma pulls her lab coat out of the closet. Carnival: Samuel apologizes to Becky for shocking her and she apologizes for getting carried away with the Benets. Then he chuckles affectionately and says that she’ll get her revenge on them if she’s patient. Then Lydia comes up and tells Samuel that Sylar is gone. He is Not Happy about that. Washington, DC: Benet works on his wall of suspects. NYC: Peter takes down his wall of clippings and is interrupted by Nathan (formerly Carnival Sylar) who gives him a big hug and says he thinks he’s in trouble.

What’s that loud sucking noise coming from next week’s episode? Mohinder returns! (I thought Samuel said he killed him? Damn.)

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes

Book review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Are y’all sick of my Gaiman obsession yet? Well, that’s just too bad because I am in no way tired of him yet and dude’s prolific. I just finished one of his most recent YA novels, The Graveyard Book (published in 2008), and it’s wonderful.

The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens, commonly referred to as “Bod,” a boy who was raised from babyhood by an ancient graveyard when his parents and older sister were murdered. As the evil man Jack was dispatching his family, the one-year-old baby toddled out of his house and into the graveyard, where the resident ghosts, spirits and revenants took him in as one of their own. With Mr. and Mrs. Owens (dead “for a few hundred years now”) as his erstwhile parents and Silas, a vampire, for his guardian, Bod grows up healthy and happy – so long as he doesn’t leave the protection of the graveyard. For outside, in the human world, the man Jack still lurks.

There are eight chapters to The Graveyard Book, each of them detailing a specific adventure in Bod’s life as he grows from toddler to teenager. He makes a new human friend; he explores a haunted barrow; he balks at his lessons and encounters ghouls; he tries to fulfill a long dead witch’s last request; he attends human school when the graveyard ghosts can no longer teach him. And when he learns what happened to his first family, he wishes for revenge.

Gaiman acknowledges that this book owes a debt to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, the story of an orphan, raised by a nonhuman family, who makes his way back to the human world. It’s been decades since I’ve read these volumes and now I think I’d like to revisit them. But Gaiman puts his own unmistakable touch on the old story, adding his dark, intelligent humor and imagination, elements of suspense, magic and the macabre, bits from folklore and fairy tales, making The Graveyard Book a story that is very much his own. I wish there had been more than eight chapters so we could have had more than eight glimpses into Bod’s childhood.

Graphic novel review: Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman

My exposure to comic books/graphic novels has been fairly limited. I’ve got a BtVS Season 8 subscription; when I have extra cash, I buy the trades for Y: the Last Man and Fables, trying to collect each complete series; I’ve got my copy of Watchmen, of course. But I don’t know much about the traditional costumed heroes*. So it was with slight trepidation that I picked up Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s Black Orchid from the library. (I’d actually hoped to start his Sandman series, but the first five volumes were already checked out and it didn’t seem to make sense to start with VI.) Black Orchid it was, then.

Right off the bat it was clear that this was not your normal comic book, particularly since the main character, the heroine of the piece, gets murdered within the first few pages. And not in a kill-Selena-Kyle/awaken-Catwoman sort of way. This is the superhero herself, shot, burned and then blown to bits in a huge explosion. Well, huh, I thought, where do we go from here?

Where we go, where Gaiman and McKean (longtime collaborators on numerous projects) take us, an amazingly creative and ultimately hopeful place. When the crime fighting costumed superhero Black Orchid is killed, some of her consciousness makes its way back to the greenhouse from whence she came, and awakens one of her sisters growing there. She wasn’t entirely human, you see, but a human/plant hybrid created by a slightly mad scientist when her human progenitor, Susan, the love of his life, was murdered. The orchid-woman who awakens isn’t exactly the same as the Black Orchid; this new one abhors violence, seeks – both literally and figuratively – her roots and tries to find purpose in this life that was thrust upon her so abruptly.

Many men** affect her life as she makes her journey: Susan’s sleazebag ex-husband, Carl, just released from prison; Lex Luthor – always looking for the next big thing, and thinking that human/plant hybrids might be it – and his minions; Phil Sylvian, the scientist who created the orchid-women … and with these men violence follows.

But the ending of the book is a surprise – more so even than killing off your heroine right from the get-go – and a departure from comic book tropes that finds resolution in giant, bloody battles. I’ve read that people were surprised when the story ended like this, certain that one more chapter was forthcoming wherein the bad guys would get what was coming to them and the Black Orchid would be avenged. Not here, not in Gaiman’s hands. Here there is compassion and faith and hope.

Dave McKean’s artwork is like nothing I’ve ever seen in a comic book. Lush, atmospheric and dreamy while at times nearly photorealistic, the colors and images swirling and fading into each other … it is actually art. Anyone who scoffs that comics cannot be art (or literature) should immediately sit down with this book.

In the articulate introduction by Mikal Gilmore, senior Rolling Stone writer, it is noted that “… in the world of comic books – as in the worlds of film, literature and global politics – any story that begins in violence must necessarily also end in violence.” In Black Orchid Gaiman has proven that this is not necessarily so in comics and thus gives us hope that it might not be necessary in our lives either.

* Although I now know more than I used to, having recently read Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, review coming to a friendly mouse blog soon.

** She also meets up with many famous and infamous comic book characters: Batman and Swamp Thing, as well as the Joker, Harvey Dent, the Riddler and Poison Ivy during a trip to Arkham Asylum. This is probably a treat for full-on comics nerds but I had to look most of them up on Wikipedia just to figure out who they were. Still, a nice touch connecting the world of the Black Orchid with the larger costumed superhero universe.

Heroes episode recap – “Once Upon a Time in Texas” S4E7 (airdate 11/02/09)

So, it was nice of Glee to let Charlie come back to play tonight. To make this all easier for everyone – 98% of this episode is set three years ago in Texas, but under the effect of the consequences from Hiro’s insistence at going back in time to save Charlie. The term “butterfly effect” comes to mind and, in fact, is bandied about quite a lot in this episode. Also, apparently Charlie lived in the same town as the Benets when Claire was in high school and throwing herself off towers, being stalked by Sylar, cheering her little heart out, etc. Ain’t that a coincidence.

Picking up from when we last saw him, our Present Day Hiro time-travels/teleports back to three years ago in Texas, giddily watching Charlie through the diner window. We are treated to a short series of flashbacks to remind us of their doomed story: they meet; Hiro falls in love; and then, no matter what Hiro tries, Sylar kills her. The flashback over (but still three years ago), Sylar shows up at the diner - not recognizing Hiro of course because we’re three years ago and they haven’t met yet - and goes inside. “Oh boy,” says Present Day Hiro.

In the present, at the Carnival, an upset Samuel tells Lydia that Arnold (the Carnival’s time-traveler) is dying. Their family is shrinking and the graveyard is getting bigger, he laments. She reminds him that he thought Hiro could help them, but he’s not sure how he can convince Hiro to do so. They try taking a look at Lydia’s magical soothsaying tattoos, and learn about Charlie, and also Benet, Claire and Sylar – all connected. Samuel says that he must get back to the folks in Texas three years ago – imposing on a dying Arnold yet again – since desperate times call for desperate measures.

Three years ago in Texas. Sylar flirts with Charlie as he figures out her gift (remembering everything she’s ever read ever (I wish I had that power)), and also using his own see-how-things-work gift to tell her that he sees the blood clot in her brain. This freaks her out a bit. Then, Samuel appears and hustles Hiro, who is skulking behind a newspaper at a nearby table and eavesdropping Sylar and Charlie, off for a little confab.

At the other side of the diner, Benet hangs up his phone after getting a scolding phone call from Sandra about missing Claire’s cheering at Homecoming due to his job. We also learn this: Benet apparently has a different partner in this reality, she who played Kate the cop the first season on Angel … um, where’s the Haitian? There’s a little bit of flirtation between the two of them, more than flirtation, in fact, as Kate’s booked them a motel room. Benet gets another call and has to go; Kate says she’ll meet him at the office, disappointment evident in her face.

Samuel says that he’s here in this time to make sure that Hiro understands the magnitude of his potential actions. He reminds Hiro that at this point in time, all the Heroes are on specific paths … saving Charlie would be a huge change – is she worth it? Yes, says Hiro, emphatically. But oops – when he looks over at her, both she and Sylar have disappeared from the diner’s dining room. Hiro runs to the storeroom, finding Charlie opening a can and Sylar about to open her skull. Hiro freezes time and looks sternly at Sylar.

After the commercial, Hiro wheels a frozen Sylar out of the diner on a dolly (heh) and puts him in the cargo compartment of a Greyhound bus which he has also frozen. All this freezing is going to take a toll on him, don’t you think? Then he rushes back to the diner’s storeroom, taking time to primp a little. Then he pauses: if Charlie doesn’t get killed by Sylar, he won’t go back in time the first time to try to save her, and therefore they won’t fall in love with each other … and then I get confused with the time-travel stuff because Mr. Mouse is talking to me and I don’t have a DVR to pause things. So anyway, our Hiro goes into the diner’s restroom where Three Years Ago Hiro is washing his hands, and tells TYA Hiro that he must go back in time to save the waitress (what about save the cheerleader? says TYA Hiro but our Hiro doesn’t have time for that now) … and so TYA Hiro blinks out of sight to save the day. And then, I believe our Hiro calls his past self a moron..

At the Company Benet is talking to Isaac (remember him? and that little girl with the short hair is there too – what was her power again? I remember Sylar killed her …), asking for his help to identify Sylar because that wily murderer is after Claire. Apparently Isaac is not much help (I just don’t remember what happened the first time around and can’t be bothered to look it up for you, sorry). Later, Kate finds an upset Benet in the break room … and they kiss each other! Benet is cheating on Sandra with his mind-wiping blonde hussy of a partner? This reality sucks. WHERE’S THE HAITIAN??!!? Stupid Hiro-induced retcon.

Samuel, acting as loose end editor, reminds Hiro that Ando is sitting over there at a diner booth. Our Hiro tells Past Ando to wait for Past Hiro, no matter how long it takes. Then, he rushes back to the storeroom and gives Charlie a huge hug, asking her to come away with him. She giggles, incredulously – then the brain tumor kicks in and she starts spewing a torrent of random facts. Uh-oh - this isn’t going to be as simple Hiro thought: she tells him that her aneurysm has ruptured and she’s dying. “Not yet you’re not,” he says, and hops on his Vespa (where’d that come from?) back to the Greyhound station. He throws open the bus cargo compartment, only to find that Sylar is not there. Because Sylar is behind him, and crankily TKs him up against the side of the bus. Apparently Sylar is not a fan of bus travel. I hear you, man.

Sylar is super-annoyed at being treated like luggage and demands to know what Hiro did to him. Hiro instead asks him to fix Charlie before she dies. “You’re going to die,” growls Sylar (oh how I’ve missed growly Sylar!), extending an index finger. But Hiro freezes him, running out of range. They pretty much do this back and forth all the way down the street to the diner. Hiro, his brain tumor headache kicking in from all the time-freezing, finally promises to tell Sylar everything he knows about Sylar’s future if only he’ll save Charlie. They go back to the diner where Charlie is still sitting in the storeroom, shaking. Sylar tells her to hold still, snarking that he usually prefers more invasive procedures - and Hiro barks that if she dies, Sylar dies – and pulls the blood clot from her brain and out through her eye. Um, ick. There are tears and hugs between Charlie and Hiro.

Sylar just stands there, however, impatiently wanting to know what Hiro knows about him. Hiro tells him that he will kill many people, absorbing their abilities and becoming very powerful, but in the end it won’t make any difference. Other Heroes will band together against him and then Sylar will die alone and unmourned. Um, not quite, Hiro. Then Hiro says he wishes he could change the past but this is Sylar’s path. This is not quite what Sylar wanted to know, I don’t think – more details would have been helpful. Then Hiro teleports Sylar out into an alleyway, leaving him there.

Outside the diner, Benet finds Claire and they have a largely pointless scene together where she tells him she wants him to be happy. After she runs off to do cheerleading stuff, Benet looks ruefully at the motel key in his hand.

Kate is having a drink when he gets to the motel and pours him one. He takes a drink and tells her that he can’t do this – workplace romances never work. But she cuts him off, smiling that she’s had the human resources training. She says that this is more than just physical between them, and don’t they deserve a little bit of happiness? Benet sidesteps this, saying that he loves his family and even though he lies to them now, he doesn’t want to destroy the possibility that one day he could tell them the truth. He tells her that he needs her, needs her help with Sylar and with Claire. Kate sighs, yes, yes, I will always help you.

Charlie comes out of the diner looking a little pensive. She’s upset: she’d made peace with dying but this, this feels like cheating. How can Hiro be okay knowing that Sylar is going to kill all those people? She scolds Hiro, asking why she gets to live when so many others don’t. “Because I love you,” he pleads. “That’s just selfish,” Charlie snaps and walks off.

The Company. Kate (I’m not calling her Lauren) hands Benet an interoffice envelope. It’s got a motel key inside and she kids him a little about it. He’s confused, asking if they’re pretending that their conversation this morning never happened. Now Kate’s confused. He checks the envelope again and pulls out a note. It’s from her and says that she asked the Haitian to wipe her memory, saying that it’s better this way. Benet makes a thinky face, ultimately agreeing. So then what’s her power? She must have one because three years ago, the Company always did a “one of us/one of them” for their bag-and-tag teams.

A little while later Charlie finds Hiro and apologizes for her outburst. She thanks him for saving her life and tells him that she wants their happy ending together. Smooches! They leave the diner for their life together, Charlie a little ahead of Hiro … but she has disappeared by the time he gets outside and Samuel is there instead. He says that he has taken Charlie away to the Carnival in the future/our present. Hiro is furious and grabs Samuel’s shirtfront, shifting time and space to bring both of them back to the 2009 Carnival. The other carnies surround them, staring. Then Samuel ‘fesses up that Charlie’s not exactly here.

A frantic Hiro searches for her but instead finds Arnold, dead in a trailer. Samuel explains that Arnold was the Carnival’s time-traveler but his body couldn’t take the strain (he also had a brain tumor, just like Hiro’s); the last thing Arnold did, on Samuel’s instructions, was to take Charlie and trap her somewhere in time. This last act which killed him. Hiro is feeling manipulated but Samuel simply says that he needed Hiro to fix his own past transgressions – something that the other carnies wouldn’t understand. When Hiro gets vaguely threatening, Samuel reminds him that he is the only one who knows where Charlie is and Hiro must do exactly what he says if he wanted to see her again. “What must we do?” asks Hiro. “I made a mistake eight weeks ago,” admits Samuel.

Eight weeks ago: Samuel killed Mohinder. I just knew I liked that guy.

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes

Possible technical difficulties

Y'all, I hope I'm wrong, but there's the possibility that the Heroes recap may be late. I have been having the awfullest time with my computer having been infected with spyware/viruses, etc. (stupid Comcast, stupid ineffectual McAfee) and I may be taking it in to the computer doctor tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with the recap but if not, I promise I will have it up and running just as soon as this machine is, well, up and running.

Book review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

In my quest to work my way through the catalogue of the prolific Neil Gaiman, I’ve sampled some of his movies, adult novels, short story collections, YA short story collections and graphic novels (to date, just Black Orchid, review coming to FMS soon). Coraline is the first children’s novel of his that I’ve read: it’s not a picture book, but it’s a little easier to get through than his YA stuff. That being said, Coraline is scary.

Coraline Jones lives with her parents in a flat in part of a big old house. They share the old house with the denizens of the other two flats: the crazy old man in the attic flat, who tells Coraline that he’s training up a mouse circus; and the Misses Spink and Forcible, aging actresses, with their sundry aging terriers. The big old house has a ramshackle garden around it and many rooms to explore in it, which is a good thing since Coraline’s parents, who work at home doing things on computers, all but ignore their daughter, too wrapped up in their work. The neighbors aren’t that much better: they pay attention to Coraline but can’t manage to get her name right. She reminds them (to no avail): “It’s Coraline. Not Caroline. Coraline.”

The Jones family flat has twenty-one windows and fourteen doors – Coraline counts them all one bored day. The fourteenth door is locked, however, and when she finds the old iron key and opens it, she finds a brick wall. Until she tries it again later and finds a passageway into another flat. This other flat is in another house that is very similar to Coraline’s house. There’s even another mother and another father who feed her things that she likes to eat and show her another bedroom with crazy toys. But as much as she initially likes it there, Coraline realizes that there is something wrong with the other mother and the other father, not just that they have black buttons where their eyes should be. The other parents want her to stay and live with them, there’s just something they need to change first …

There’s also the matter of the other children, the ones that were trapped in the house by the other mother so many years ago that they are only ghosts, hiding in mirrors now. Coraline is the only one who can rescue them, if she can figure out how to outwit the other mother with her terrible long fingers and snaky black hair, and the rats who do her bidding.

There is no question that Coraline is a scary story – I was a little scared and I’m thirty-something forty-something old a Stephen King fan. The other mother is scary, the rats are nasty, the thing in the basement that I’m not going to talk further about is totally creepy. But Coraline is a sensible, clever girl and she keeps her wits about her, and that is what children will connect with. I would imagine that Coraline would be a good book for children and parents to read together (although perhaps not right before bedtime), but I can tell you from experience that it’s a treat to read by yourself as an adult as well.

Aw, I wish the DVD player was hooked up

I just watched S2E6 of Castle on Hulu. It's their recent Halloween episode, entitled "Vampire Weekend," and in the very first scene, Nathan Fillion (as Castle) is shown putting on leather boots, a red shirt, tight pants with suspenders, a brown coat and twirling his revolver (not a euphemism). His daughter asks him what he's doing and he answers that he's trying out Halloween costumes - this one's a space cowboy. She points out that there are no cows in space and besides, didn't he do that one already about five years ago, and shouldn't he move on? Fillion/Castle, with a crestfallen expression: "But I liked it." Awwwwww.

It's Firefly references, y'all! Long live Firefly. (And then a few minutes later, some murder victim gets staked in a cemetery and Castle drops a Buffy reference too.) So now I'm all nostalgic and want to watch old Whedony t.v. shows. If I only remembered what box my DVDs are stuffed into out at the self-storage place.

Book review: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

As mentioned before, I tend to read and/or watch things in clumps, like three Terry Pratchett books in a row or all of Gossip Girl S2 in a mad marathon. The current clump is Neil Gaiman. Man’s a genius, I am completely convinced of it. I took three of his volumes out of the library last week - a book of short stories, a YA novel and a graphic novel – and read the short stories first.

Fragile Things is comprised of thirty-one “short fictions and wonders,” some stories, some poems. As with all of Gaiman’s work that I have experienced, these pieces are each part horror and part fantasy, with a little whimsy thrown in for leavening. I think my favorite of the bunch was "The Monarch of the Glen," which takes place several years after American Gods and follows Shadow’s adventures in Scotland. In the introduction to Fragile Things Gaiman remarks that he “enjoy[s] the gulf between Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of Grendel’s mother in the Robert Zemeckis film [the script for which Gaiman co-wrote] and the version of the character that turns up here.” Some of the other stories are:

• A Study in Emerald – an alt-universe in which both Sherlock Holmes and alien overlords coexist
• Closing Time - a ghost story with a twisty ending that I had to re-read a couple of times
• Bitter Grounds – of course there are zombies in New Orleans!
• The Problem of Susan – in which Gaiman addresses what happened to Susan from the Narnia books
• Goliath – originally written for the web site for The Matrix, and posted just before the film came out

I love short story collections (another of my admittedly none-too-highbrow favorites, Stephen King, does some of his best work in short stories) and read one of Gaiman’s YA short story volumes, M Is for Magic, at the end of last year. I’d forgotten this, however, and so was completely perplexed when some of the stories in Fragile Things seemed so familiar, and yet other stories didn’t. Three of the M is for Magic tales are also in Fragile Things: "October in the Chair" (a ghost story told by October), "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" (a science fiction-y piece) and "Sunbird" (about "a group of people who like to eat things").

Although none of these stories demonstrate anything startlingly new, Gaiman continues to charm and entertain and I have no reason to think that the next book in my queue, Coraline, will turn out any differently.

Heroes episode recap - “Strange Attractors” S4E6 (airdate 10/26/09)

Los Angeles. Eew: Parkman and his slut of a wife are having sex. And I say “slut of a wife” not only because she used to cat around with Parkman’s former partner, but also because now she’s doing it with Sylar. In Matt’s mind, anyway: his body was actually getting to do the deed. Or something. But there’s Sylar in the afterglow, smirking at him on the couch, saying that forbidden fruit is his favorite kind. Parkman glowers balefully.

Georgia. Benet watches impotently as the sheriff’s deputy manhandles Jeremy (a/k/a the Human Touch o’ Death) into handcuffs. Benet protests to the sheriff that Jeremy’s just a kid, but the sheriff is not at all interested in or intimidated by the man in the horn-rimmed glasses. After the sheriff leaves, Benet makes a phone call and sometime later, Tracey shows up. Oh eew, again – is he enlisting her as his new partner? I miss the Haitian. Benet brings her up to speed on the current situation and tells her that she’s going to be posing as Jeremy’s dear Aunt Tracey to get him released into her custody: it’ll be easy, just “[g]o in, talk to him, sign him out.” Tracey is unsure at first but Benet is encouraging, and she goes into the sheriff’s department.

Arlington, Virginia. Claire and Gretchen lie in their separate beds, unable to sleep after the Gretchen initiated lip-lockage, and Claire thinks they should talk about her roommate’s inconvenient crush. Gretchen backpedals that what she did was stupid and impulsive and bad. Claire protests that it wasn’t bad – “you’re a good kisser” – but she doesn’t want to mess up this new normal life she’s got going on. She likes Gretchen a lot but … “Just not that way,” Gretchen sighs. Suddenly, a bunch of small, hooded figures burst into their room and start grabbing at them. Claire fights back, slamming one attacker into the floor. The attackers stop cold and pull off their hoods: “Jeez, Claire, don’t go all Buffy on us!” It’s Becky and the girls from the sorority, here to “kidnap” the new pledges.

After the commercial, Claire and Gretchen have been shoved into the trunk of a car per their sorority kidnapping. Gretchen gets all flirty for a bit and presses Claire as to if she really doesn’t have a chance with her. Claire’s all, “I don’t know.” “Awesome,” grumbles Gretchen. This is so awkward and badly done. When they are released from the car trunk, they and two other pledges have been taken to an old slaughterhouse for a scary scavenger hunt. One of the other pledge panics but not Claire – after what she’s seen, this is nothing. Gretchen is keeping pretty calm too, I note grudgingly. They start working the game, Claire solving the first puzzle after one of the other pledge girls gets sprayed in the face with about a gallon of fake blood. Is this going to be some PG-rated version of Saw?

Georgia. Tracey works her cover story and gets in to see Jeremy, who is currently feeling Very Sorry for himself. She tells Jeremy demonstrates her power and tells him her story: that the first day her ability manifested, she killed a guy because she was unable to control her emotions, and her ability is tied to her state of mind. She manages to get through to the boy; he breaks down, sobbing; she is touched. However, out in the bullpen, the sheriff has found some angsty teen murder/suicide poetry and inky drawings in one of Jeremy’s notebook and is convinced this is proof of his guilt. He refuses to release the boy while Benet squawks at him.

Frustrated, Tracey goes outside to call in a favor with her friends up in D.C. When she hangs up the phone, Samuel is there (ooh!). He asks her what’s next after she saves young Jeremy’s life: where will this troubled boy go? And then he works some mojo and transports them both to the Carnival. She’s understandably wigged out and Samuel speaks soothingly to her, telling her that everyone in the Carnival is like her, ability-fied. What is this place? she marvels. “Home,” intones Samuel, and Tracey allows herself just a glimmer of a smile.

Los Angeles. Parkman is still arguing with Sylar’s manifested consciousness. Sylar taunts him some more, saying that Janice is kinda hot, and what’s more important, the next time he takes control of Parkman’s body, he’ll be able to do anything he wants to Parkman’s wife (and his son – and he’s not talking sex here, these are threats, not leers). Parkman worries about this.

Slaughterhouse. The other two pledges split off from Gretchen and Claire to try their luck on their own. As our girls go down some stairs, some water ripples behind them – it must be Becky in invisible-mode. As they explore, Claire asks Gretchen how long she’s known that she likes girls. Gretchen says that it’s really not one or the other with her and she’s actually had more boyfriends (6 or 7) than girlfriends. Claire gets twitchy because she is still a virgin and Gretchen isn’t. This touching exchange is disrupted when a heavy hooked chain comes hurtling towards them. Claire throws herself at Gretchen, knocking them both out of the way.

Carnival. Samuel gives Tracey a tour, giving her the hard sell: this is where Jeremy should be. “Living in trailers? Drifting from town to town?” she snarks. Samuel points out that Jeremy has a gift, as does Tracey, and the Carnival is a safe place for people with these kinds of gifts. Tracey just wants to go back to Jeremy, so Samuel gives her one of those magic find-the-Carnival compasses and sends her on her way. After she leaves, Amnesia-Sylar approaches Samuel, saying that he’s sure he knows Tracey from before, he remembers her. Samuel reminds him that he doesn’t think that these memories belong to Sylar. And Sylar’s like, well, if this isn’t me, where am I?

Los Angeles. Parkman is packing a bag, panicking, and telling Janice what happened with him, Sylar and Nathan. He tells her that Sylar keeps taking over his body – it’s not safe for her or the baby to be around him now. Since he’s acting so sketchy, Janice is like, okay, I’m taking the baby and getting the hell out of here. After she goes, Sylar tells Parkman that was pretty smart – even for him – but the main problem is still unsolved: Sylar’s consciousness still here, stuck in Parkman’s brain.

After the commercial, Parkman leaves an urgent voicemail message for MOHINDER [nooooooooooooooo!], begging for his help. Sylar says, look, Parkman, just give me back my body. Parkman grimaces, sucking on a beer. Which, curiously, gives Sylar a headache. Parkman finds this wicked interesting and takes a big ol’ shot of tequila, sending Sylar reeling. Parkman grins: “I think I finally found a leash for this dog.” Greg Grunberg is pretty cute when he’s not playing all tormented.

Georgia. Tracey’s favor from D.C. worked and the sheriff releases Jeremy into her custody. Jeremy asks what’s going to happen to him and Benet tells him that he’ll move to D.C., live in the apartment next to Benet and go to Georgetown high school, where no one will know anything about him. “You’ll be invisible,” Tracey says, with a slight edge in her voice. Jeremy sighs and it’s not clear whether he’s pleased by this or not. They walk out of the sheriff’s department together (in slow motion), where they are confronted by an angry crowd. One man lunges at Jeremy and the boy panics, working his death grip on the man. The sheriff pulls a gun; Benet pleads with the boy to save the man; and Jeremy trudges expressionlessly back into the jail. See, Tracey, Jeremy can’t live on the outside – he needs the Sullivan Bros. Carnival. You should listen to Samuel.

Slaughterhouse. Claire thinks that there’s another ability-fied person stalking them, with the goal of knocking off Gretchen. Gretchen scoffs at first, calling conspiracy theory … and then realizes that Claire’s life is not at all normal and this theory could be true. The other two pledges find them and the girls all decide to stick together for a bit.

Georgia. The sheriff has had it with these city folk and refuses to let Tracey and Benet talk to Jeremy anymore. Unbeknownst to him, however, some of the deputies have taken Jeremy out the backdoor and wrapped chains around his ankles. One of the deputies gets in his face, daring him to take his best shot. Poor Jeremy shakes, angry and terrified, but just clenches his hands into fists without touching the other man. The deputy gives the go and a truck lurches forward, the length of chain spooling out from around Jeremy’s ankles.

Los Angeles. Parkman is getting hammered and Sylar grimaces, finally fading from view. Parkman thinks that’s awesome, but now he’s really drunk too. Janice picks now to return with Parkman’s partner (who, if you will remember, thinks Parkman is an addict). Parkman greets them and then passes out facedown.

Slaughterhouse. The other girls decide they do not want to join up with Claire and Gretchen any more. Claire and Gretchen find the final clue in the “killing room” but then Invisible Becky wraps a strap around Gretchen’s throat, choking her. There is a very un-awe-inspiring fight between Claire and Becky which ends up with Claire getting impaled, and then stabbing Becky. The distraction/pain of the wound causes Becky to become visible. The other two girls come back just in time to see Claire healing herself after Gretchen pulls her off the spike and Becky invisibling herself as she runs off. The other girls shriek. “Now what do we do?” wonders Gretchen. Claire makes a face that says: where’s the Haitian when you need him?

Georgia. Tracey and Benet finally find Jeremy, who has been dragged to death and left in the middle of the road. Tracey is crying, saying that they could have saved him and given him a real home. Benet doesn’t know that she means the Carnival. She heads for her car, and he chases after her, apologizing. He laments that he did what he thought was right, trying to save and mainstream Jeremy, but he was wrong - he’s been wrong for so many years. Tracey tells him not to call her again. When he walks away, she takes out the compass that Samuel gave her: it spins, then stops, pointing the way home.

Los Angeles. When Parkman sobers up, his partner hands him another AA chip, saying that they’ll start over. Janice says she loves him and he smiles that she’ll love him more after he takes a shower. When he leaves the room, however, Sylar is there and – surprise – he’s taken over Parkman’s body, slipping in when Parkman passed out. Now Parkman is the free-floating consciousness and Sylar is corporeal. Or something like that: I guess that now whom the viewing audience sees as Sylar, Janice et al. see as Parkman, but where we see Parkman, Janice sees nothing.

Georgia. A vengeful, black-clad Samuel stands in the middle of the street, watching as the sheriff and his men go into the sheriff’s department. Samuel clenches his fists and the ground shakes, flexing, until the entire building has collapsed into a sinkhole. He turns his back on the dusty rubble, stalking away.

Previously on Heroes / next time on Heroes