HR Giger's Film Design (1996)

Author: H.R. Giger | Illustrator: H.R. Giger | Page Count: 138

'[H]oles of all description, holes in the ground, holes in the head, ass-holes, etc. I'm still not sure what they were for but they're great nonetheless.'

William Malone

H. R. Giger's Film Design is a large format book that offers an insight into the artist's film projects. Much of it will already be well known to fans, his work on Dune, Poltergeist II, etc, but knowing about a thing and exploring the genesis of a thing are very different experiences.

It covers a wide range of work, from short films, lengthy personal projects to music videos and even furniture building. But the real treasure is when it goes into detail about the films that didn't make it past the design stage. There's one in particular that has the potential to equal David Cronenberg at his most bizarre; it's both repulsive and tantalising in equal measure. The only problem is the budget required to do it justice could buy a small country. In truth, I'd rather it never get made than get it half-assed.

There's a lot of space devoted to his involvement with the Alien franchise. Seeing him working on models and sculpts, getting a sense of scale, and seeing the evolution from sketch to 1:1 model is fascinating. The film was his most commercially successful from a production design point of view and is the one that stuck most faithfully to his designs. You'd think that thick-as-shit Hollywood producers would have made that connection by now. Instead they pay him for sketches and then continually change them to better suit their own weak ideals.

Which brings me nicely to the only negative aspect of the book. There's some duplication with the similarly sized Species Design volume that came out the same year. If you already own it, then you'll be able to skip that chapter.

5 good intentions out of 5

I, Robot (1950)

Author: Isaac Asimov | Page Count: 256

"People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?"

I, Robot is one of Isaac Asimov's most famous works. If you were to poll a number of dedicated book readers, you'd likely find that a fair percentage of them have heard of it even if they haven't actually read it - especially if they happen to be science-fiction fans also. It's a collection of nine short stories written over a ten year period that are loosely tied together by a frame narrative. It introduced Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, which were designed to be unbreakable:

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Making them unbreakable didn't stop him spending the rest of his career bending them, or finding new ways to interpret them. That's where Dr. Susan Calvin comes in. Susan is a robopsychologist. When something goes wrong with a robot that can't be attributed to mechanical error, it's her job to figure out why. Was the order given in conflict with the Three Laws? Or was it open to misinterpretation by the robot? They are thinking machines after all, they need to be able to function autonomously, but are they given too much free will?

The prose style is simple and direct, which is an asset to the story as it lets you engage fully with the concepts without losing the narrative thread.

Albert Einstein reportedly said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Even though Asimov's technology is fictional, he understands it completely. He explains complicated scenarios in simple terms, without it ever feeling diluted. Mostly they're puzzles that need to be figured out, sometimes by connecting the dots, and sometimes by creating the dots from scratch. Once the puzzle is solved, there's an abrupt ending each time.

4 positronic brains out of 5

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia (2013)

Authors: Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma | Page Count: 276

'As the stories and storytellers of Hyrule change, so, too, does its history.'

Zelda fanboys / fangirls are an odd bunch.  I can say that without malice because I’m one of them.  The Hyrule Historia that we waited so long for isn't the Zelda bible like some claim; it’s a Zelda history book like the title implies.  The content is spilt into 4 main parts:

1. An in-depth look at the most recent LoZ game: Skyward Sword.

The book has a heavy bias toward Skyward Sword; it begins and ends with it, and fills a large part of the middle.  It makes sense from a developer point of view to push your most recent game deep into the consciousness of the reader but it makes the book uneven.

2. The official History of Hyrule.

It gives the story of each game in chronological order, so expect major spoilers if you haven’t played them.  It attempts to explain the split in continuity in the timeline that occurred after the events of Ocarina of Time, which is interesting.

3. Production sketches and art from the 25 year history of the series.

There are hundreds of illustrations, from all of the games.  Some people might call that filler but I call it treasure.  Getting to pour over previously unseen concept art and line sketches is something I enjoy.  If you 'meh' at the thought of doing similar, you'll hate this section.

4. A manga prequel to the Skyward Sword game.

A short manga written and illustrated by long time LoZ manga creator(s) Akira Himekawa.  If you're a collector of the manga, you'll know what to expect.

Overall, it's a beautifully presented book with a wealth of information and a shitload of artwork that should keep fans happy for a while.

4 decipherable alphabets out of 5

La Jetée: Ciné-roman (2008)

Author: Chris Marker | Designer: Bruce Mau | Page Count: 258

"Moments to remember are just like other moments.

They are only made memorable by the scars they leave."

Chris Marker's La Jetée (1962) was a short experimental film that was composed almost entirely of still images, with a V/O narration telling the story from a very specific POV. The stills used in the film's composition are reproduced here, with the relevant text accompanying each image. The text is in both French and English, as the original short film was a French production.

If you're familiar with the film, it's an odd experience having the voice of the narrator replaced by your own inner-narrator. The inflections are different. The pacing is different. The edit is different. Nevertheless, if you can immerse yourself fully in the experience, then it's equally as profound and equally as unsettling.

If you haven't viewed the film, I can't imagine how you'll feel about the book or even if it would have the same kind of emotional impact. I recommend a viewing before a reading, simply because you'd be assimilating the works in the order which they were revealed, but there may well be advantages in reversing the process that I'm not aware of and am now incapable of experiencing.

One thing I'm sure of is that once viewed the images become inseparable from the words, regardless if they're spoken or written.

5 photos from the future out of 5

Heat Rises (2011)

Author: Richard Castle | Page Count: 305

"I catch an STD down here, I'll sue till I own the damn city."

Detective Heat starts in the freezing cold investigating the seemingly out of place death of a church pastor in a sex dungeon. What is at first possibly not even a murder will spiral into many conflicts, both political and mortal, that will push Nikki to her physical and mental limits and strain not just her, but her relationships with all those around her including would-be boyfriend Jameson Rook and her beloved police force.

The 3rd book in the Nikki Heat detective series starts off following the formula of the last books, but whether it is actually written better or I've just come to accept it, it felt quite different and less like reading a script from its tie-in show. The mystery was kicked up a notch and was actually mildly surprising, though at times felt less like nuanced mystery and more like just piling on with multiple scenarios playing out hoping the reader will just be overwhelmed with possibilities. This is tempered by the still likeable and relate-able characters. As they should be as they are just mirror images of the swell TV counterparts. Nikki Heat herself is also more interesting as the ordeal will actually force her into vulnerability which has been minimal in previous volumes even if it's clearly just paralleling the TV season on which it is based. But that is part of the joke, I suppose. Very Funny, Mr. Castle.

3½ Good People Have Good Sex out of 5

Dandelion Wine (1957)

Author: Ray Bradbury | Page Count: 281

'He stood at the open window in the dark, took a deep breath and exhaled.

The street lights, like candles on a black cake, went out.

He exhaled again and again and the stars began to vanish.'

Like much of Bradbury's output, the book is about childhood, the magical time, but it's also about the fading of that time, making it a bitter-sweet experience. It captures the essence of what we all know and fear, that nostalgia for childhood can help you appreciate it more fully but can only be birthed posthumously.

It takes place over one summer in 1928, in the fictional Green Town, Illinois, a place Bradbury returns to in later books. In that year, in that summer, Douglas Spaulding and his younger brother Tom live life to the fullest. For Doug, the summer is his time. Every day will bring something new. Every day he'll fill to the brim with experiences; he'll collect them and they'll become a part of him.

He begins by helping pick the dandelions that are the primary ingredient of the titular wine. The dandelion, with its ability to be considered weed or flower, to exist as a thing of contrasts, is at the heart of the novel; beyond that it's a metaphor that I won't spoil. The book is bursting with such metaphors, some of them overly-sentimental but they never overshadow the narrative.

It's a novel but it's made up of short stories that were written over a number of years. They're arranged in such a way that they become Doug's story, the story of the people he knows, and of the people they know.

They're also records of the people Bradbury knows, or knew. It's one of his most autobiographical works. Douglas is his actual middle name. The character in the novel is an amalgamation of his own boyhood memories, and his fanciful and fertile imagination. Spaulding is his father's middle name. Green Town is a pseudonym for his childhood home of Waukegan. Knowing how personal it is enriches the work; it becomes two stories in one, with a little bit of magic in both.

5 bottles filled with sunshine out of 5

The Pocket Book of Boosh (2009)

Author: Various (inc. Noel Fielding & Julian Barratt) | Page Count: 304

"…prose so taught you can feel the veins."

If you liked The Mighty Boosh TV Series, then you'll probably like this. Provided you like books. And can read. If you can't read, there are pictures. It even has a comic book featuring Rudy and Spider.

The content is exactly the same as The Mighty Book of Boosh, which came first, and was bigger. This one came second, and is smaller. I shit you not. That's as complicated as it gets.

3 Ol’ Gregg watercolours out of 5