Tag Archives: fiction

Book Review: Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

Book Review: Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

I read this book because I read Small Great Things & I appreciated Jodi Picoult wanting to write about racial issues in the U.S. Leaving Time is another novel where the author explores big societal issues. It tackles the issues of grief, man’s inhumanity towards man, and man’s mistreatment of wild, undomesticated animals.

What you should know.

As usual the author’s research is noteworthy. There is talent in educating yourself accurately and thoroughly and then being able to incorporate that knowledge into a story so that it is entertaining instead of lecturing. If that is important to you in your choice of reading you won’t be disappointed here. The book takes place in North America and South Africa. It has characters who narrate first person point of view in the present and also one character who narrates in the past.

What I liked.

This book has much to offer. There is a child protagonist. There is a psychic! There is good old fashioned detective work. There is a missing person. And there are unsolved mysteries with suspects at every turn.

Picoult’s focus on wild and captured elephants is very nicely handled. It’s great reading. Real, grounded storytelling at its best. I saw everything vividly, pictured the animals, their emotions, and the challenging work done by caregivers and researchers alike.

By moving seamlessly between four character POVs the pace remains fresh, only bogging down slightly on occasion when Alice, researching elephant grieving, shares insights about her experiences.

The author makes several strong statements about human behavior that should be studied. You might disagree with some of them. However, without scientific evidence to support one position or the other, who’s to say whether those hinted at by Picoult’s prose or your’s are correct? It will certainly offer up topics for discussion regardless. If only elephants conducted anthropological studies we might learn something useful!

What I didn’t like.
The two main characters are intellectual in the fact they are highly educated. The main protagonist is unabashedly selfish. It could be that this is typical human behavior, and I am perhaps ignorant. But it also could be that I am unwilling to accept such a trait in this story. It does however speak to a larger trend in the novel.

One of the distinct aspects of the story is that the actions of all the humans are described without any moral assessment of them whatsoever. Other than making an effort to help elephants, none of the humans do any good, in my opinion. Everything they do besides help elephants is either harmful to themselves or other people.

So it begs the question. What should the characters learn from the experience? What should the reader conclude from this? The only single explanation given by the author is that humans are less evolved than elephants. Are we to infer then that humans are evolutionarily bereft of the ability to identify and then perform moral acts (except one, trying to right the wrong done to elephants by other humans)?

If the message was that we are best served learning from the behavior of elephants, it was overshadowed by the fact the humans behaved so badly it left no room for debate.

Recommendation: Good Read

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Book Review: Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

What you should know

This is a novel about real world spying, relatively modern post-cold war espionage between nation states.  It is written by a retired intelligence professional.  I’m not sure anyone not interested in the genre would want to read it.  Just as I would guess anyone who is interested in the genre would most likely read it.  It is both violent and pro American, not as if those two characteristics go hand in hand.

What I liked

The story takes its time developing.  It isn’t in a hurry.  Which allows for readers to get to know the people as well as the places they inhabit.  The story is multilayered with several characters having to experience life and make choices about who they are, what they want to accomplish, and who they ultimately may become.

The author goes after President Putin.  Apparently, nobody wants to go after him in real life, at least it happens in this novel.

There is real suspense.  There are harrowing encounters.  The romantic aspect isn’t overdone.  Enough interest is built that you definitely want to know how it all turns out.

What I didn’t like

Jason Matthews gives one of the main characters, Dominika Egorova, a gift of sorts, the ability to sense letters as colors.  The diagnosis is that she is a synesthete, someone who perceives sounds, or letters, or numbers as colors.  Eventually she develops the ability to read emotions and even detect deception and ill will by interpreting the colors she sees around other people.  Fascinating.  Yet how would someone best take advantage of this?  To become a ballerina, apparently.  So our challenge then is whether to accept how someone with this ability would use it.  Would that Matthews had made a stronger case for why Dominika only uses it to survive internal office politics in Russia.

This is book one of a trilogy.  Book two is Palace of Treason and book three is The Kremlin’s Candidate.  While we certainly like trilogies when we can’t get enough of a story, this one left me wondering whether I’d ever read books 2 and 3.  That isn’t a good sign.

Recommendation:  Maybe Read

 

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Book Review: The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic book 2), By Patrick Weekes

Book Review: The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic book 2), By Patrick Weekes

Chaos Abounds

What you should know

Read The Palace Job (Rogues of the Republic book 1) first.  It introduces all of the important players and is a better book all around.

The Prophecy Con picks up in the epilogue of The Palace Job an continues to tell stories about many of the characters introduced in book 1 and re-introduced to an extent in book 2.  To appreciate the full backstory and understand who the characters are completely, you have to read book 1.  But that’s a good thing.

In a realm where one part of the world is governed by an empire, and the other a republic, a war is building that could determine the future of both societies, and everyone in them.

What I liked

Author Patrick Weekes proved his ability to write enjoyable dialogue in book 1.  The more of that I found in The Prophecy Con the more I liked it.  The Palace Job introduced us to some very interesting, humorous, multidimensional characters, who are easy to appreciate.  Weekes writes about them and takes great care in keeping them consistent to their values, as he reveals more about them, and as they deal with growing challenges in their relationships, and their struggles to survive against difficult odds.

What I didn’t like

There just wasn’t enough down time for me.  The author seemed obsessed with frenetic action to the point where he gave no breaks between one violent conflict after another.  But that wasn’t the worst of it.  Even within each fight, he kept raising the stakes, doubling and tripling down within the combat to add doubt about the outcome and heighten the intensity.  The problem with doing that, I found, was that not only did it seem like the characters needed more than two arms, two legs, and one head to cope with all the simultaneous assaults, I needed to be two readers to keep up with what was happening.  That, I’m afraid, didn’t happen.

I want to be fair here, but book 1 didn’t fall into that trap.  I’m reading, believing that the heroes will survive each onslaught, they got through the first book didn’t they?  Yet with every line Weekes seems to try to get me to believe they have to do the impossible in order to be alive in the next chapter.  If I was one of the characters, I’d offer to sacrifice myself, just to avoid all the suffering I’ll have to endure in the remaining chapters.  Can a brother get a breather?

Another problem with the plot is that one, or more, its hard to tell at times, of the characters has the apparent ability to disguise themselves while knowing what everyone else is doing.  Sort of like the fly on the wall, or having the ability to be completely undetectable.  Some not only disappear, but they disappear into other beings.  It’s a problem because these characters leave the reader guessing too much.  Who are they?  How many are they?  They were so hidden I had trouble distinguishing them from each other.  What is they’re agenda?  Whose side are they on anyway?  These secret characters wield so much control it seems like they’re outside the story.  You never get to know what rules govern these mysterious beings, certainly not the same rules that apply to the more or less human characters.  So they provide mostly frustration when I think they’re supposed to be adding suspense.

Not as much fun reading.
Questions raised in The Palace Job included what separated these two major powers, and how would the future be impacted by their differences?  The Prophecy Con addresses these to some degree.  However, the real question the book emphasized was who were the real puppet-masters?  The significant leaders in the republic and the empire did not have enough intelligence or integrity to prevent them from being manipulated by anyone with more than an adolescent level of maturity.

Recommendation: Maybe Read

The Prophecy Con

Book Review: Camino Island by John Grisham

 

What you should know:

John Grisham is in my short list of favorite authors alongside Tana French, Philip Kerr and Pierce Brown.  My two favorites are probably Runaway Jury and The Client.  I never finished Gray Mountain so that would not be a positive review if it came down to it.

Camino Island is a heist story.  It takes place in the book world.  My complements to John Grisham for writing a novel about the novel writing business.  A book about authors and their work can’t be all bad.  I’m convinced this book is Grisham’s tribute to his readers and book lovers in general.  It’s also a salute to independent bookstore owners

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What I liked:

The story takes place in the summer.  I chose it as a summer read.  It’s so appropriate to have summer novels cover the summer season!  It’s  on the beach too.  What a perfect setting for a summer read.  The only regret I have is that I didn’t take it to the beach with me.

There’s a nice vignette depicting authors talking about authors and writing.  Or not talking about writing.  Apparently, writers come in two camps, those that talk about their writing and those that don’t.  Either way this for me was the cornerstone of Camino Island.  I wish there was more, a lot more, of the group of writers.  That was a book I really could have gotten into.  There wasn’t enough of that part of the book for me.

There’s a private insurance investigation group of characters in the story.  This part also has potential.  I could see an entire series of novels based on them.  I doubt that John Grisham has the inspiration to do that though.  He’s written so much already and  I don’t think he needs the money.  Oh Well.

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What I didn’t like

None of the thieves involved in the heist were convincing.  Having spent time around people who steal things, I have an impression of what they’re like.  None of them were given much depth either.  At least if they weren’t convincing I might have tolerated them had I gotten to know them a little bit.

I got the impression that Grisham was interested in writing about one character – Bruce Cable – a book store owner.  He spends his time and energy on Cable.  Just not enough on the others, any of them, to make the book enjoyable.

He has another character, a young author named Mercer, who is struggling to write her second novel.  She is also struggling, financially and personally.  However, her story would have meant a totally different book.  I suspect Grisham didn’t find her challenges interesting enough on their own, so he folded her into this heist novel.  Mercer has writer’s block.  I am wondering if she’s a projection of the writer’s block Grisham had trying to write the novel about her, until he gave up and put her in Camino Island. All in all I expect Grisham fans will appreciate this book.  If you aren’t a fan I can’t see any reason why this one would convince you otherwise.

 

Recommendation: Maybe Read

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Book Review: First To Die (Women’s Murder Club) by James Patterson

What you should know.

James Patterson has sold many books and has many fans.  This book is the first of the 17 Women’s Murder Club series novels.  Book number 17 The 17th Suspect was published this year.

I prefer to read mystery genre.  I enjoy historical fiction.  I’ve found dystopian science fiction and fantasy fun too.  We all have our preferences.  How do I measure quality mystery?  Read anything by John D. MacDonald and you will know my idea of quality.  The story surrounds a female homicide detective in San Francisco and three women whom she confers with regarding an investigation.  The four women form her unofficial murder club.

What I liked

Four professional women meeting and brainstorming a difficult criminal investigation.  What’s not to like about that?  The setting is San Francisco, which I know very little about.  Either it’s not a very fascinating location, or the author has failed to capture it in a manner that has enthralled me.  I like the fact that it has potential so I’ll leave it there for now.

The plot keeps you guessing, and you can guess right yet still enjoy the story.  That means the writing is fairly satisfying in it’s own right.  The protagonist, Inspector Lindsay Boxer, is a well fleshed out character.  However, as told through her first person perspective, I did not get to know enough about the other three female characters (there were actually four others).  I did like them.  They were written to be likeable.

The relationship between Lindsay and her partner John Raleigh was great.  I could get into any number of cases involving these two and appreciate how they approach challenges.  Very refreshing.

What I didn’t like

I did not accept the author’s premise for the John Raleigh character at all.  It was a terribly simplistic view of life.  It did not work at all for me.  So I can’t see any point in reading anymore books in this series.  Sorry.  Something else that really bothered me.  Why in so many police mysteries are the cops all good – like this one – or completely bad? Can’t anyone write a mystery where the cops are mostly good accept for a few exceptions?  That would be too realistic I guess.

The ending.  If there was any possibility at all that I would read another Women’s Murder Club novel, the ending guarantees that will not happen.  Too bad for me.  The idea of these four women supporting each other in their professional ambitions and their personal struggles, is such a good one.  I will miss out since I think this first one misses the mark.

 

Recommendation:  Maybe Read

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Book Review: Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr

Author Philip Kerr died a few months ago. In honor of his passing I wanted to include a review of his latest novel, Greeks Bearing Gifts.
First, I confess I am a biased. I think the Bernie Gunther novel series will at some future time be recognized as one of the significant literary contributions of this era.

What I liked
Bernie Gunther detective prose is compelling reading. If you have never read one, I recommend you start with book one, March Violets. You can decide then if you’d like more. These are genre books and as such they will not appeal to all tastes. They are very sober subjects. The setting is Nazi Germany. That creates a convenient opportunity for some very brutal conflict, murder, mayhem, deceit, the double cross, the triple cross, and a constant reminder of what happens to a society when it sacrifices legitimate moral authority in favor of brute force.
Because of the premise of his books, Kerr was more than able to provide story arcs that placed situational ethics at the forefront. Sheer reading enjoyment is here for you if you appreciate engrossing tales with unpredictable outcomes and fascinating characters.
The hero, Bernie Gunther, is one of the most complex you’ll ever find. This is a man with the fiercest of survival instincts, who never ceases to communicate his antipathy for the Third Reich. Greeks Bearing Gifts finds him enjoying himself more than anytime in his previous travels. Which is logical, when you consider by this time, 1956, the Nazi regime and its aftermath have reached an historical conclusion for the most part.
His biggest conflict seems to be an internal one. Because he has learned to succeed numerous life threatening battles involving duplicitous and unprincipled people at every turn, he finds himself incapable of trusting anyone. You really get to explore what it would be like to try to have a normal life under such circumstances. It is a powerful study of how the environment we evolve in can make an indelible impact on our ability to appreciate life’s wonders.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What I didn’t like
Greeks Bearing Gifts was probably my least favorite Kerr novel. Perhaps because I felt it had more of an educational bent than a provocative noir foundation. However, the plot itself should have gravitas enough for the typical reader. The pillaging of the entire wealth of an ethnic community, a targeted race, and the desperate pursuit to keep the stolen treasures by the vanquished. Add to that the mass escape of untold numbers of Nazi war criminals from the reaches of justice.
However, I was fascinated by the prospect of the next novel. Which is hinted at quite a bit. I understand this final posthumous publishing with take place next year. Because the books have reached such significant depths and spanned over three decades, the final entry has the potential payoff of a genuine master stroke. Bernie Gunther has lived a memorable life, made serious mistakes, suffered consequences few could endure, and grown in ways we ourselves often wish we could.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What you should know
There is much more In the Philip Kerr novels to be appreciated than a well told tale. My apologies for not sharing them. I hope you find out for yourself firsthand.

Recommendation: Must Read

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Excerpt from The President is Missing

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Why you want to read The President is Missing:

Participation in our democracy seems to be driven by the instant-gratification worlds of Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, and the  twenty-four-hour news cycle. We’re using modern technology to revert to primitive kinds of human relations. The media knows what sells—conflict and division. It’s also quick and easy. All too often anger works better than answers; resentment better than reason; emotion trumps evidence. A sanctimonious, sneering one-liner, no matter how bogus, is seen as straight talk, while a calm, well-argued response is seen as canned and phony. It reminds me of the old political joke: Why do you take such an instant dislike to people? It saves a lot of time.

What happened to factual, down-the-middle reporting? That’s hard to even define anymore, as the lines between fact and fiction, between truth and lies, gets murkier every day.

We can’t survive without a free press, dedicated to preserving that fine line and secure enough to follow the facts where they lead. But the current environment imposes serious pressures on our journalists, at least those who cover politics, to do just the reverse—to exercise their own power and to, in the words of one wise columnist, “abnormalize” all politicians, even honest, able ones, often because of relatively insignificant issues.

Scholars call this a false equivalency. It means that when you find a mountain to expose in one person or party, you have to pick a molehill on the other side and make it into a mountain to avoid being accused of bias. The built-up molehills also have large benefits: increased coverage on the evening news, millions of retweets, and more talk-show fodder. When the mountains and molehills all looks the same, campaigns and governments devote too little time and energy debating the issues that matter most to our people. Even when we try to do that, we’re often drowned out by the passion of the day.

There’s a real cost to this. It breeds more frustration, polarization, paralysis, bad decisions, and missed opportunities. But with no incentive to actually accomplish something, more and more politicians just go with the flow, fanning the flames of anger and resentment, when they should be acting as the fire brigade. Everybody knows it’s wrong, but the immediate rewards are so great we stagger on, just assuming that our Constitution, our public institutions, and the rule of law can endure each new assault without doing permanent damage to our freedoms and way of life.

I’d say this novel is a must read.

From Chapter 8 The President is Missing (Bill Clinton and James Patterson) © Little, Brown and Company

Review: Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Vicarious Pleasure

Recommendation:  Must Read


What I liked.

This is a personal story.  One that explores the emotional turmoil that life’s challenges bring us.  Darrow au Andromedus is an agent of change.  A mole, a spy, a revolutionary, Darrow is innocence angered.  Driven by anger, he finds torment in the wake created by his wrath, by his folly, by his force of will.  In that wake, bystanders die; citizens, servants, slaves.  His friends die, enemies are born, vengeance is carried out, blood feuds perpetuate, and duplicity devastates those who trust.

For Darrow, whose existence is a bold lie as an infiltrator of Gold society,  cannot escape the irony that in order to find the truth that could create a better society, he must perpetuate the ultimate betrayal wrought by his dishonest manipulation.  His friends do not know him, his true identity, nor his ultimate purpose: to destroy everything they believe in, and take the privilege they know to be their right.

We see the effect it has on Darrow because in him is not the sinister power hungry tyrant.  We watch him wrestle more with the internal strife of how his actions cause others to suffer, than with the physical combat he engages in verses his external enemies personified.  To a large extent this is a study in how lies can enslave those who perpetuate them as much as they control and manipulate those deceived.  Honesty, loyalty, friendship, these are the themes given fair rendering by the author.

This is a personal story told about a public cause, for Darrow has been inspired by the actions of others.  By Eo, by Ares, by Dancer, by Virginia, and perhaps most of all by Nero.  The stakes could not be higher.  His entire civilization, billions of lives, the future of generations, entire heritages, all hinge on who wins the struggle and at what cost.  Passions run high right along with them.  So as we read along we have the experience of some vicarious pleasure, without the risk to life, limb, and everyone dear to us.

What I didn’t like.

I did not enjoy seeing Darrow go through the emotional anguish that came with each dangerous liaison, each painful decision, each hurtful act.  Perhaps I’m too sensitive.  It is part of the story.  It must be a reason why we say you have to take the good with the bad.  Or should it be the bad with the good?

I found it hard to accept that Darrow would forget about Evey and Harmony so easily, because it goes against his character. I didn’t.  The author apparently did. Along with the gift to Adrius.

What you should know.

Golden Son is part II of a trilogy and follows a few years after the conclusion of part I Red Rising.  Read it before you read Golden Son.  This is a balanced mixture of science fiction, suspense, war, and Shakespearean melodrama.  In my opinion it bends the traditional attempts to pigeonhole it into just one genre per se.  You wouldn’t enjoy this novel as much if you don’t find the fun in lines like this:

“If your heart beats like a drum,

and your leg’s a little wet,

it’s ’cause the Reaper’s come

to collect a little debt.”

Excerpt From: Brown, Pierce. “Golden Son.” Del Rey, 2015-07-07. iBooks.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/437DW.l

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

What I liked.

A visionary future with evolved humans creating civilzations on planets and moons in Earth’s solar system.  A caste based class system of colored humans.  The Gold class reigns at the top with intellect, fear, dominance, physical force, technology, and deception.  The Red class populates the bottom with massive slave labor that sustains the wealth and power of the society.  In between these two classes lies a myriad of colors whose genetic disposition and engineering match their respective roles in the hierarchy, from soldiers to law enforcers, entertainers, etc.  This is a fairly well described and detailed conglomerate.

Within the grander tale are individual stories about well developed characters who struggle with the same issues we humans have for generations; love, hate, purpose, honor, dignity, pride, trust, selfish verses selfless, mercy, family, friendship.  This is a shortlist.  Not a simple story here.

The drama is engrossing, the characters are inspiring, their plights compelling.  This book entertains on every level.  It gives visceral justified violence while decrying the consequences to both the victors and the vanquished.  It debates the alternatives with readers sharing the anguish inside conflicted protagonists.  It gives, and it takes away.  The passion runs high throughout the story and there are no lulls.  The flawed main character Darrow is not your stereotypical reluctant hero.  He is just a bit more than the everyman in us. We recognize his self doubts, his lack of ambition, his fear.  We see him in all his human frailty accompanied by his unlimited potential.

Along Darrow’s journey we meet many a villain, those whom we at first classify and assume have but one dimension.  When our first shallow impressions prove wrong, we  are forced to rethink people we wrote off as wrong headed bad guys/girls. It is at this point when you can really begin to appreciate what Red Rising offers.

As a first book in a trilogy, there is payoff on every level.  The climax is rewarding.  The creation of a desire to read more is strong.  The expectation that you will not be disappointed is high.

What I didn’t like.

The story begins slowly, without much buildup.  The science fiction has some nice twists of future and near future technologies, particularly bioengineering.  The depth of the technological descriptions are, shall I say, Star Wars light.  I had an off and on again struggle with how some aspects of human history and development are abandoned at the expense of others.  The strong storytelling overshadows various intermittent flaws.

What you should know.

This is one of the most gender balanced fiction offerings you will find.  Women and men are intellectually and physically parallel.  They are evenly represented in the telling.  You can have Game of Thrones.  I’ll take my political intrigue with fancy weaponry and high tech gadgets any day over the fantasy of magic.  And horses too!

Recommendation:  Must Read

The message of Star Trek Beyond


Let’s look beyond the message of Star Trek and see where it finds us.  First I’ll argue that this is an entertaining blockbuster with mediocre aspirations as a science fiction standard bearer.  Will you enjoy it as time and money well spent? Yes.  Will you think twice about it as you leave the theater? No.  If you accept the premise of mediocrity then ask me, why need we look further?

My answer takes the form of a postulated question.  Did you hear the message that mankind is its own worst enemy?

SPOILER ALERT GALORE

ICYMI: Idris Elba aka Krall embodies the role of the villain as a human, albeit one who’s enhanced far beyond mortal man.  You might say he’s kind of a cross between Frankenstein’s monster and scifi Dracula.  My complements to the script makers.  There’s nothing like mining the best, most often copied material for another bite at the apple, or the neck, or the box office.  With the dollars at stake (2013’s Into Darkness more than $450 million in revenue- Beyond budget ~$185 million) would you risk original work when you can trot out tried and true formula?

And when our esteemed thespian, see Beasts of No Nation, asks as to his motivation, director Justin Lin’s reply; why you’re a disgruntled employee!  Talk about going postal.  And Krall delivers the mail with a rare combination.  Can you say spider and bee fetish?  His base of operations is a planet surrounded by nebula where spaceships maroon while their crews become entangled in a web-like comatose state which he uses to extract from them what he needs.  The product here is not honey but hate.  His forces, however, do swarm like no hive you’d ever want to stumble across. The Federation is nonplussed to wield any technology that can withstand Krall’s weaponry.

Here I suggest is where the message digs it’s foundation.  When we lift the lid on his coffin we discover Krall was heretofore our model citizen, warrior, officer and gentleman.  What happened was that the Federation took the highly trained and experienced combat veteran and gave him a civilian job, having ended all wars and the need for his old ways.  It has been thirteen years since numbered American soldiers have faced a two front war; one in Iraq and another in the minds of those afflicted with PTSD and other related issues.  Whether or not American combat veterans have experienced being more prone to violence once returned home, the message on screen was clear.  Captain Edison struggled with the loss of his military identity.  He faced a consequence of being rewarded for his sacrifice and bravery with being lost in space.  He was left behind.  Forgotten.  Edison was ultimately left for dead with little or no sign that his employers cared about either him, his subordinates, or his service.  As time passed his mental state deteriorated, eventually creating the fertile soil from which Krall emerged.

The direct line conclusion from the path  laid out by Beyond is that societies bare the risks associated with placing soldiers in harms way.  The results could reveal themselves long after the damage has been done.

I, or shall I say the filmmakers, offer you more messages than these.

The story’s overall theme that is revisited throughout hammers home one mantra.  Families and friends who commit to unite will strive together and reach their potential to overcome whatever obstacles arise.

The danger that often occurs is when we forget this belief and sabotage it through self destructive decisions.  Chris Pine’s Kirk does just that when the unending, unconquerable, infinite space defeats his sense of adventure, his desire to be challenged, and his dream of achievement.  The subject of his failure: purpose.  Zachary Quinto’s Spock takes a different route to reach the same end.  Grief, perhaps the strongest manifestation of what causes us to question ourselves, to the point we completely derail, is this half human’s Achilles heel as well. He chooses to abandon his celestial family to serve what he thinks is his ethnic responsibility to the fatherland, or what’s left of it.

The biggest reason why 13 films and 37 years of the Star Trek saga resonate with moviegoers is the bond that built the original Gene Roddenberry TV creation.  Beyond is on target with this piece and Karl Urban’s McCoy delivers the glue gun.  The series explored not outer space so much as it did the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.  Their journey through the ups and downs of complex and conflicted emotions had more to do with their survival than any technological techniques they mastered.

McCoy reminds Spock why they mean so much to each other and why it matters.  When they bring that message back to Kirk, he takes his exercise of trust, inspiration, and leadership to another level seeing Uhura, Scott, Sulu and Chekov prove once again that their place is on the Enterprise and his home is with them.

This is the best part of the science fiction Beyond offers.  There is nothing new here.  That is the basis for my grade of C.  Star Trek gets a pass from me because it is a production that keeps the genre alive though it falls short of advancing it.  I hail science fiction because I see it as the best genre for bringing together the moral and ethical dilemmas within the human condition as they intersect with apocalyptic aspects of advanced technology.  The more we role play these hypothetical scenarios the more time we will have to consider them before we have to deal with them in our reality.  Are we ready to face global warming?

So I salute Star Trek Beyond.  Beyond’s success bridges the gap between great science fiction movies of the past…Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys, The Matrix…and the next great scifi story which will take a rightful place in cinematic history.  As for the Star Trek franchise I offer only these words: Live long and prosper.