Dusk Before the Dawn

 5 stars: Well written trip through the 2000 WSOP and the Vegas trial of the century. And, yes, I filed it under Philosophy…cause it’s Poker!

James McManus (fiction author, sports journalist and sometime poker player) went to Vegas to cover the trial of the murder of Ted Binion (whose father started the World Series of Poker (WSOP)) and to cover the rise of women at the WSOP. He ends up taking part of the advance money, winning a play-in satellite tourney, and getting a seat at the 2000 WSOP.

He made it to the final table and fifth place.

He intertwines his own story (an amatuer amongst some of pokers greatest names) with stories of the trial (where Ted’s girlfriend and best friend are accused of murdering him), Jim’s own personal history, the history of poker and the WSOP and the parallels he sees between them all.

The insights into the game, the hands, the mannerisms, and particularly what Jim is thinking at the time (fold? call? raise? who’s that beautiful dealer named Red?) dividing the voices in his head (see? not just me!) into Good Jim and Bad Jim,  make the writing of the actual WSOP satellite and tournament the best part of the book. But the other stories are woven in intricately and smoothly (with only a few abstract jumps), mixing in Dante and Dostoyevsky to prove his point.

Since the book has been written, the number of players entered into the big Texas Hold-em WSOP tourney has climbed in from the $1.5 million Chris “Jesus” Ferguson won (and 512 entrants) in 2000 to 2006’s  $12million Jamie Gold won amongst the 8,773 entrants (and around 12,000 are expected this year).

Read it before the big one this July 6, and it will help you imagine the action.

This page is still a work in progress.

My son and I took Karate together, and we love to watch martial arts movies together though sometimes for different reasons: my son for action and bodycount (!), and me for the same, but also for the “art” of the martial arts: the rationale behind why people study, how it changes them, how they internalize it for their own transformation. There are many other movies that should make this list (including many from Hong Kong), but we narrowed it down to ones we could agree on.

1. Jet Li’s Fearless (HD DVD Combo Format) DVD ~ Anthony de Longis     An instant classic. Not only some of the most magnificently staged sparring, including matching and different styles and weapons, but a true “art” in martial arts story, as a man’s pride and ego makes him forget what martial arts are truly about and his journey back to that truth. The story Huo Yuanjia, who was the founder of the Jin Wu Sports Federation.

2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon DVD ~ Chang Chen     This is one where my son and I disagree. A beautifully told story, a story of martial arts transformation and realization. Michelle Yeoh gets not enough credit in my opinion as one of the best female martial arts leads. Fantastic sword fighting. Amazing scenery. My son flinched at the subtitles, but I prefer it that way, as opposed to dubbing.

3. Fist of Legend DVD ~ Jet Li     Interestingly, this is the story of a student of the main character in Fearless, who returns to China to find his master killed. My son liked the spectacular many vs. one fighting scenes, while I enjoyed the concept of “adaptation”, which one of Jet’s older Japanese opponents shows him in an intial sparring and which he employs in the final big bout. Unfortunatly, this version is dubbed.

4. Return of the Dragon DVD ~ Jon T. Benn     The match between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris lands this movie on the list: soft fluid Jeet Kun Do vs. hard strong Tang Soo Do/Soo Bahk Do. Not the greatest acting or story, but enjoyable.

5. Hero DVD ~ Jet Li     I like the three tales, versions of the same story, a man training all his life for revenge and finding that maybe his goal isn’t black and white. My son and his friends commented that the colors were weird and how come the hero didn’t use his skills to escape in the end? I made them watch it again.

6. The Legend of Drunken Master DVD ~ Jackie Chan     Not chosen for the comedy aspects, but the concept of relaxation while fighting shown by drunken boxing, similar to Taiji and Systema…although drinking grain alcohol to gain that relaxation (as Jackie does in this movie) probably not recommended.

7. Enter the Dragon DVD ~ Bruce Lee     The numchuks! What else needs to be said? I wish the camera angle would change in this sequence, but it is still amazing. Unfortunatly everytime I watch that scene I get a flash vision of the spoof of it in Kentucky Fried Movie.

8. Ong-Bak - The Thai Warrior DVD ~ Petchtai Wongkamlao     We’d only seen a little Muay Thai, and this story is weak. But the martial arts, with no wires, and the moves with multiple camera views are out of this world. The side flip through the moving glass pane and the initial one punch fight have been worn out on our copy.

9. Bulletproof Monk DVD ~ Yun-Fat Chow     Though it has some comic relief, still a great story of dedication and sacrifice, and also of transformation. And made me see Seann William Scott in a completely different light. Even though lots of wires in the fight scenes, my son scored them high.

With the media trying desperately to draw our attention to a muddled presidential race and the war in Iraq, we Americans sometimes forget that democracy begins at home. Large issues, some in far away places, makes us forget that it is the grass roots efforts of non-politicians (vs. who raised more money than who multi-million dollar fundraisers for presidential campaigns) that make democracy truly the voice of the people.

Which brings us to my friend Bill Molina and his award winning documentary, Truth Be Tolled.

In the interests of full disclosure, I went to high school and college with Bill. I was even in one of his first movies (which hopefully will never make YouTube, but Bill had an evil glint in his eye about that when I last saw him).

At the recent WorldFest (also known as the Houston International Film Festival), Truth Be Tolled received the Platinum Award (highest award) in its category (feature documentary). Another of Bill’s entries, the short documentary Chichen Itza got the Gold Award for cinematography.

So Bill is talented, not a hack. You can lookup his other impressive credits.

The story of Truth Be Tolled is two-fold: the Texas Department of Transportation (and, I would speculate, other state highway departments) are trying to double tax citizens by putting tollways on existing, already-paid-for-by-our-taxes roads; and secondly, TxDOT is attempting to push the massive TransTexasCorridor, a quarter-mile wide set of tollways, rail and other conduits, through the Texas legislature with nary a citizen vote. The documentary also depicts how both of these activities are being done without or in some cases in spite of citizen feedback. The TTC project is especially scary, as it plans to use the concept of emminent domain to grab land for the massive Mexico to Oklahoma corridor.

Now my point is not that TxDOT and the Texas Governor’s office are doing something wrong or illegal (as some would claim) nor am I coming down on the side of the lobbyists and pundits pushing to eliminate the TTC. I have not had the time to research who is doing what, who is saying what.

My point is that Bill made this film to make a point, to get citizens like me interested, to educate. And it appears to have worked. Bill and his team gave copies of Truth Be Tolled to each and every member of the Texas legislature (for free, as in Bill paid for this himself, please send him money or travelers checks!).

On May 2, the Texas House approved a measure the Texas Senate had already approved,  to place a two year moratorium on TTC activities. Govenor Perry is expected to act on these bills within the next few days. He could veto, sending it back for a 2/3 majority override, assuming he does so while the Legislature is in session.

So Ultimate Kudos to Bill. His movie is excellent, beautifully photographed, obviously passionately done. He has gotten a lot of people talking and discussing and acting on an issue that normally would not have been on the radar screens. And that is ultimately what democracy is for.

4 stars: A decent story from one of the best SF writers

Robert J. Sawyer is a great science fiction writer, having won every major award in the US, UK, Canada, Japan, and would have won one in Antartica if they had a contest. This novel won the Nebula and was a Finalist for the Hugo.

Frankly, I do not see why.

The story is based on two scientific premises: detection of the soul leaving the body and computer based artificial intelligence. Detection of the soul leads to experiments in AI to determine what life after death might be like. Dr. Peter Hobson, the inventor of the “soulwave” detection, uses AI and nueral net scanning to create three versions of himself: a life after death sim, an immortality sim and a control sim that is just like him. Hobson has some issues to deal with in his personal life (I won’t play spoiler here), and those issues are duplicated into the three sims. One of them goes bad, and starts using the net to kill people.

Sawyer’s claim to fame is that he will take premises like this and wrap very real characters around them. The concept of science fiction is in making both the science and the fiction work for the reader. Many writers tend to forget this, either throwing out unbelievable science or getting the science right but forsaking the characters or the plot. Sawyer is normally magic in this.

The Terminal Experiment is a good read, with nice pacing. It bogs down at times in the explanations of the science, and some of the philisophical discussions of the AI’s. But the concept of killer AI computers has been hashed and re-hashed (remember HAL!), as has the concept of detecting something that proved life after death. And unlike other Sawyer novels, I had difficulty caring about the characters, esp. Cathy, Peter’s wife.

I’m glad I read it, but I’m gonna go now and read Hominids, Humans and Hybrids, his classic Neaderthal Parallax series.

4 stars: Written by a New Yorker, in this day and age eyes and ears are everywhere

It’s obvious from reading this book (and a lot of Paul’s books) that he is a New Yorker. He describes the cityscape, sure, but he also details how Phil D’amato, his main character, feels about New York: the pride he takes in the skyscrapers, the way he knows the traffic and the subways, and what will get him faster where, and the particular city politics that is New York.

And from someone who has seen their city attacked, a novel about eyes and ears being everywhere, including the rodents that inhabit the city, isn’t paranoia, its just precautionary forward thinking. The explosions in the novel, though on a smaller scale that what we have witnessed, are strikingly real.

The book dives right in with a squirrels as spys theory, going through a high level scientific explanation of whether the hearing and sight of rodents could be mapped, recorded and replayed. The pace meanders somewhat in the beginning, but it seems to fit D’Amato’s character, as he meanders to put the pieces of the case he is solving together.

The ending, however, is wide open, with some conclusions reached, but no criminal apprehended. Maybe that is as it should be, depicting the war on terrorism as a battle that is hard to win, or even to determine if you are winning.

Another good D’Amato read.

It’s almost a given that when you write a good science fiction or fantasy book, it has to turn into a series. Fans crave it, but probably not as much as publishers do!

So here are several lists: New Series, Classic Series, and a list of a few that I would not recommend:

NEW SERIES

• The Castle series by Steph Swainston

A unique new fantasy series by a young lady from the UK (Hi Steph!). This series features many characteristics that we have seen before (immortals, parallel worlds, aliens) but puts them together in a way that is at the same time modern as it is archaic; modern as in the main character, Jant, who is an immortal, has a drug problem (which he finds out allows him to enter parallel worlds); archaic as in the battles, challenges and sea voyages. You can read my reviews of the first two books in the series: The Year of Our War and No Present Like Time. Steph was kind enough to swap signed books with me, so I also now have a review of The Modern World.

• Old Man’s War series by John Scalzi

Scalzi makes me laugh out loud while reading. Normally that’s Christopher Moore territory, but Scalzi does it with good sci-fi adventure mixed in as well. The space age drill sargeant bit in Old Man’s War had me rolling. John tips his hat to Robert Heinlein in his opener, and, if you like Heinlein, you like John’s writings as well. You can read my reviews of Old Man’s War (nominated for a Hugo!), and The Ghost Brigades. I’ll get to the next one in the series soon.

• A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
  • A Game of Thrones
  • A Clash of Kings
  • A Storm of Swords
  • A Feast for Crows

One of the most intricately written, well charactered fantasy series I’ve read. And I’ve read a lot of them. I was concerned after the first two books (A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) that Mr. Martin would not be able to keep up the pace of excellence he was laying down. He wasn’t afraid to kill of major characters, sometimes in suprising ways. And everyone was neither all bad nor all good, kinda like…humans. The 3rd book, A Storm of Swords, kept up the pace. The 4th book was somewhat dissappointing, not in the quality of the writing and story but in the fact that Mr. Martin (or his publishers) made the decision to split it half, meaning only half of the major characters and plotlines played out. My biggest concern is that is has been a decade since he started this, with three more books planned (what was a trilogy is now a sept-ology?)….I hope the quality keeps up and the pace continues at speed, that it doesn’t start to drag as The Wheel of Time series did.

• The Baroque Cycle plus Cryptominocon by Neal Stephenson
• The Prince of Nothing series by R. Scott Bakker
  • The Darkness that Comes Before
  • The Warrior Prophet
  • The Thousandfold Thought
• Seeds of Civilization series by R.J. Archer
  • Tractrix
  • Tsubute
  • Triangle

R.J. takes the theories of Graham Hancock and combines them with his own and other archaeological research to provide stories that are part Clive Cussler and part X-Files. The first takes place in meso-american ruins, the second in an ancient temple off the coast of Japan, and the forth-coming third book in the Bermuda triangle.

• The Legend of Drizzt by R. A. Salvatore
  • Homeland
  • Exile
  • Sojurn
  • The Crystal Shard
  • Streams of Silver
  • The Halfling’s Gem
  • The Legacy
  • Starless Night
  • Siege of Darkness
  • Passage to Dawn
  • The Silent Blade
  • The Spine of the World
  • Servant of the Shard (also the first book of the Sellswords Trilogy)
  • Sea of Swords
  • The Thousand Orcs
  • The Lone Drow
  • The Two Swords

My son has finished every book in this series, including the “The Orc King” that we got as an ARC at BEA. I still have several books to go. Though the quality of this series goes up and down, there are several classics, including the first six books (the Icewind Dale Trilogy and the Dark Elf Trilogy), and the characterizations of the main players in the story are consistent and well done.

• Otherland by Tad Williams
• Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind
• Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Read them with my son!
THE CLASSICS

• Foundation + Robots by Isaac Asimov

The original Foundation trilogy stole years from my life, pushing me into the world of fantasy and science fiction. I was a math major in college and on the math team in high school (yes, I know, geek alert) so the Hari Seldon’s psychohistory prediction of the future bit hit home. I include the extended foundation series and the robots since they were tied together in later book.

• John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

These and the Pellucidar series rarely fall on anyones “best of” list. But I ripped through all of these as I ventured into Science Fiction, and they had all of the characteristics of a serialized space opera. I still have all of the originals.

• Riverworld by Philip Jose Farmer
• Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
  • Nine Princes in Amber
  • The Guns of Avalon
  • Sing of the Unicorn
  • The Hand of Oberon
  • The Courts of Chaos
• Saga of the Pliocene Era + Galactic Milieu + Intervention by Julian May
• Ender saga by Orson Scott Card

Longer notes later, but I just had to note that I have a signed copy of Ender’s Game!!

• Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkein
• The Belgariad by David Eddings
• The Hitchhikers Guide by Douglas Adams
• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
• The Gap Series by Stephen R. Donaldson
  • The Real Story: The Gap into Conflict
  • Forbidden Knowledge: The Gap into Vision
  • A Dark and Hungry God Arises: The Gap into Power
  • Chaos and Order: The Gap into Madness
  • This Day All Gods Die: The Gap into Ruin
• Doc Savage series by Kenneth Robeson

Some people would call this ‘pulp fiction’ or ‘dimestore novels’. But they were some of the first sci-fi type books I read, and I ate them up. Doc and his band (Monk, Ham, Renny, Long Tom and LittleJohn, and later on his neice) solved crimes in books like The Sargasso Orge, Meteor Menace, Pirate of the Pacific and The Men Who Smiled No More. Much to my lovely wife’s chagrin, I still have many of them; they were and are great reads.
ONES to SKIP

• The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

I own and enjoyed the first few books in this series. I stopped reading in the middle of Book 8, The Path of Daggers. Yes, I said “in the middle of”…something I rarely do. My apologies to Robert Jordan, who is a much better author than I. But I was bored. The series has been described as “intricately detailed”. But it was just dragging. Rumor has it that he will finish the series with book twelve. But too long, too many details for me. I know I may get cards and letters for this opinion, but the voices inside my head could not hang with Rand al’Thor.

• Anita Blake vampire hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton

Same as with Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, I own and enjoyed the first several books in this series. I stopped reading ‘in the middle of’ Incubus Dreams, the 12th book in the series. The plot devices were getting old, and, I really hate to say this, but the supernatural sex was getting in the way of the storyline. I love gratuitous and graphical sex scenes just as much as the next guy. But just how many times can Anita do it with a vampire and a wereleopard and a….make it a porn movie and end it.

• Outlander series by Diana Galbandon

Some would not consider this a fantasy series, but it has just enough time travel to get it close. Again, my lust for brevity shows, as I finished the first book barely….it could have been hundered of pages shorter. My review of the first book in the series is here.