The Gray Man is based on Mark Greaney’s series about a CIA assassin, Courtland Gentry (aka, Six) (Ryan Gosling). Gentry is recruited to join the super secret Sierra group (where the agents have Numbers) by the CIA’s Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton). Fast-forward 18 years and Gentry is on a mission to kill a man who he later discovers is a member of the Sierra group. Four, before he dies, warns Gentry that the CIA will kill him next. Then Four gives Gentry a MacGuffin and the chase is on!

Gentry’s boss, Denny Carmichael (Rege-Jean Page), brings in a sadistic sociopathic killer, Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans, aka Captain America), to kill Gentry and retrieve the McGuffin–no expenses spared!

Some of the reviews I’ve read of The Gray Man questioned Netflix’s decision to spend $200 million dollars on this movie. I can testify that at least $100 million was spent on the incredible fire-fight in a European city that causes mass casualties and colossal destruction. The airplane scene must have cost a pretty penny, too!

I was also impressed that Ryan Gosling channelled ultra-violent John Wick in many of the fight scenes that featured hand-to-hand combat and close range shooting. I was less impressed that Anthony and Joe Russo (Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) wasted Jessica Henwick (as CIA agent Suzanne Brewer) and Gentry’s sometime savior, Ana de Armas (agent Dani Miranda). Hopefully, they will get more screen time in a sequel.

If you’re in the mood for a Summer pop-corn action-movie, The Gray Man–despite the dreadful title–delivers almost non-stop thrills and a large body count. GRADE: A-

After Robert E. Howard’s iconic Conan the Barbarian, my favorite mystical warrior is Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane. Wagner burst on the scene in the 1970s and appealed to the audience that had read all the Conan books and were looking for something similar in that genre.

Sword and Sorcery became a publishing category. Fritz Leiber energized the genre with his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Michael Moorcock unleaded Elric, the albino with the hungry sword, John Jakes had some success with his Brak the Barbarian books that were pastiches of Conan. But Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane extended the limits of Sword and Sorcery.

Kane is both a warrior and a sorcerer. Kane doesn’t have Conan’s distain for magic, he embraces it. In a series of three novels and about 20 short stories published between 1970 and 1985, Wagner established Kane as a character in Conan’s class. 

Sadly, Karl Edward Wagner died in his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on October 14, 1994, essentially due to the effects of his longterm alcoholism. But, Wagner created a bold character who can still be enjoyed today. Are you a fan of Sword and Sorcery? GRADE: A

THE KANE SERIES:

Novels:

• Bloodstone (1975): In the treasure captured during a savage raid, Kane discovers a powerful relic.
• Dark Crusade (1976): Kane encounters an ancient cult of evil, and its power-hungry leader.
• Darkness Weaves (1978) (editorially altered abridgement published in 1970 as “Darkness Weaves With Many Shades”): The mad sorceress Efrel seeks war and revenge upon her erstwhile husband, king Netisten Maril, and enlists Kane as her general in command of an army of mercenaries and monsters.

Story collections:

• Death Angel’s Shadow (1973)
  • “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul”: Kane encounters a shapeshifting enemy who knows him (sequel to Dark Crusade).
  • “Cold Light”: A knight forms a band of crusaders and mercenaries, in a quest to find and kill Kane.
  • “Mirage”: Kane meets another immortal and discovers that death isn’t the answer to his problems.
• Night Winds (1978)
  • “Undertow”: A mistress of Kane seeks to escape from him with the aid of a young barbarian.
  • “Two Suns Setting”: In a stony desert, Kane encounters the last of an elder race.
  • “The Dark Muse”: Kane’s poet friend takes inspiration from a journey into chaos.
  • “Raven’s Eyrie”: A previous victim of Kane plans to send his soul to hell.
  • “Lynortis Reprise”: The survivors of a bloody siege meet a betrayer.
  • “Sing a Last Song of Valdese”: A mutilated wizard takes his revenge.
• The Book of Kane (1985)
  • “Reflections for the Winter of My Soul”
  • “Sing a Last Song of Valdese”
  • “Raven’s Eyrie”
  • “Misericorde”: Kane enters the keep of the cruel Vareishei clan.
  • “The Other One”: The gods are sometimes merciful, while Kane is less so.

Other tales:

Kane also appears in “Lacunae”, collected in Why Not You and I? (1987), and in “At First Just Ghostly”, “Deep in the Depths of the Acme Warehouse”, and “The Gothic Touch” (which features Michael Moorcock‘s Elric of Melniboné), collected in Exorcisms and Ecstasies (1997). This volume also includes the fragment “In the Wake of the Night” and an early version of “Lynortis Reprise”.

Diane and I missed seeing MJ: The Musical but the soundtrack was just released. Although MJ: The Musical opened to mixed reviews in February 2022, it made money and the musical won four Tony awards including Best Actor in a Musical for Myles Frost in the title role as well as Best Choreography, Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design.

Perhaps MJ: The Musical will show up next year with a touring company. Jukebox musicals tend to be popular with regional theater audiences. Are you a fan of Michael Jackson’s music? GRADE: B+

Tor Doubles are a series of science fiction books published by Tor Books between 1988 and 1991, mostly in tête-bêche  (two covers) format. The Tor Doubles series was inspired by the Ace Doubles, published between 1952 and 1973. Tor published 36 books in their Doubles series. For my money, one of the best of the bunch is #15: Nightwings by Robert Silverberg and The Last Castle by Jack Vance.

Nightwings won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1969. It’s a story of an alien invasion and its aftermath. Nightwings is the first in a trilogy of novellas, the next two being “Perris Way” (1968) and “To Jorslem” (1969). These three works were later collected into a single fixup in three sections, also titled Nightwings. According to Silverberg’s introductions, the changes required to turn the three shorter works into a novel were relatively minor.

Jack Vance’s The Last Castle is one of my favorite stories. It won the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. It is about a future civilization of wealthy nobles who live in high-tech castles, which are maintained by an enslaved alien race, the Meks. After centuries of slavery, the Meks revolt, destroying the castles and slaughtering their elite inhabitants, until only one castle is left. This predicts what will happen eventually where injustice and inequality are unaddressed.

Along with two prize winning stories, Tor Double #15 features two excellent covers: Brian Waugh did the cover for The Last Castle and Mark J. Ferrari did the cover for Nightwings. These fine collections of SF and fantasy stories are still available online at reasonable prices. Highly recommended! GRADE: A (for both)

TOR DOUBLE SERIES:

At least one more in the series was prepared but never published: Esther Friesner‘s Yesterday We Saw Mermaids paired with Lawrence Watt-Evans‘s The Final Folly of Captain Dancy would have been series number 37.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (based on Paul Gallico’s novel) is a movie about beautiful clothes and following your dreams. I’ve been a fan of Lesley Manville for many years. In this movie, Manville reminds me of Betty White at her sweetest.

Manville plays a cleaning woman, Ada Harris, in London in 1957 who falls in love with a Christian Dior dress one of her clients has in her closet. Through hard work and some luck, Mrs. Harris accumulates enough money for a trip to Paris and enough to buy a Christian Dior original.

Director Anthony Fabian features stunning scenes in Paris. Jenny Beavan recreates the Dior dresses of that era with eye-popping elegance.

Yes, there’s a bit of Pygmalion fantasy in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. I prefer this version to the Angela Lansbury 1992 TV movie, Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris (which is the original title of Gallico’s 1958 novel). I think you will, too. GRADE: B

The Vinyl Detective and Nevada (along with friends Tinkler and Agatha) travel to Sweden on an assignment to acquire a rare demonic metal record. Events in Sweden begin with fun and frivolity as Tinkler falls in love with a stripper, but things turn dark when brutally disfigured corpses start to show up.

The group called the Storm Dream Troopers released a record titled Attack and Decay in two vinyl versions, one in audiophile format and one in regular vinyl format. The Catholic Church banned the album and had its followers in Sweden buy up all the copies to “protect” the public.

Now, years later, the rarity of Attack and Decay has pushed the prices of both vinyl versions into the High Price stratosphere.

While the Vinyl Detective discovers the secret behind the two versions, the killer is using the songs on Attack and Decay to orchestrate a series of murders. This sixth volume of the series presents a change of venue, new characters, and a very clever plot. The Vinyl Detectives series just keeps getting better and better! GRADE: A

THE VINYL DETECTIVE SERIES WITH LINKS:

http://georgekelley.org/the-vinyl-detective-written-in-dead-wax-by-andrew-cartmel/‎(opens in a new tab)

http://georgekelley.org/the-vinyl-detective-the-run-out-groove-by-andrew-cartmel/‎

Vaclav Smil is a professor at the University of Manitoba who loves to crunch numbers. Just about every statement Smil makes in How the World Really Works is backed up by hard data. For anyone who believes the U.S. or the EU can reverse climate change anytime soon…Smil has the numbers that show that’s not going to happen in this century.

For me, the most important chapter in How the World Really Works is Chapter 3 with Smil’s Four Pillars of Modern Civilization. Smil shows our economy and life-style relies on four elements: cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia. And, all of them promote climate change by producing green house gases.

Smil’s numbers project more cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia in our future. I could see where modern economies would use more cement and steel in our buildings and roads and bridges. I could see where plastics are essential to appliances and cars and planes and medical devices. But…ammonia? Well, without ammonia–and Smil’s numbers show massive amounts–we would starve. Ammonia is an essential substance for farming. Without fertilizers, our farm products would plummet! Smil writes: “Ammonia: The Gas That Feeds the World” (p. 79). I had no idea!

So without non-polluting substitutes for cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia…nothing will change. More carbon dioxide and other green house gases will cloud our skies and ratchet up the heat and pollution. There’s no easy way out of this dilemma. Unless we can find a way to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere–and store it safely–we are literally cooked. How the World Really Works lays it all out with documentation. Decision makers need to read this book and take action now! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction: Why Do We Need This Book? 1

1 Understanding Energy: Fuels and Electricity 13

2 Understanding Food Production: Eating Fossil Fuels 44

3 Understanding Our Material World: The Four Pillars of Modern Civilization 76

4 Understanding Globalization: Engines, Microchips, and Beyond 103

5 Understanding Risks: From Viruses to Diets to Solar Flares 134

6 Understanding the Environment: The Only Biosphere We Have 168

7 Understanding the Future: Between Apocalypse and Singularity 205

Appendix: Understanding Numbers: Orders of Magnitude 230

References and Notes 235

Acknowledgments 307

Index 309

I’ve been a subscriber to LOCUS: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field since the early 1970s. Charles N. Brown was the editor for decades and guided this initially mimeograph monthly newsletter to the slick magazine it is today. Sadly, Brown died in 2009 at the age of 72. The current editor, Liza Groen Trombi, started out her current editorial in the July 2022 issue of LOCUS this way: “I have been told I am not being direct enough about this, so here it is, out loud, or at least on paper. We are in trouble.”

LOCUS, like most print magazines, is in trouble because of paper shortages (and escalating costs for paper and printing), costs of distribution, and the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The July 2022 issue of LOCUS is #738. But the immediate situation for LOCUS is dire. I have sent my donation to LOCUSMAG.COM/DONATE. Please consider making a tax deductible donation to a Science Fiction institution that’s been around since 1968…but is now facing a difficult future full of problems and threats to its survival. Do you subscribe to any magazines?

It’s hard to believe I’ve done 700 of these Friday’s Forgotten Books posts since Patti Abbott invited me to join her online reviewing group back in 2009. You can read my first Friday’s Forgotten Books post here.

I’ve read (or reread) plenty of great books over the years to prepare for my weekly posts on Fridays. The benefit, of course, is the motivation to read books I’ve accumulated over the decades.

Take The Return of Solar Pons for example. The hardcover edition was first published in 1958 (when I was nine years old). The copy of The Return of Solar Pons is the paperback First Edition edition published by Pinnacle Books in 1975 which cost me $1.50 back then. August Derleth was a fan of Sherlock Holmes and created a clone of Sherlock that he called Solar Pons along with a companion named Parker who performed pretty much like Watson.

Derleth follows the pattern A. Conan Doyle used for his detective: introduce a crime, provide clues (and red herrings), and have the detective solve the baffling puzzle to the amazement of the Police. I enjoyed all the stories in The Return of Solar Pons especially “The Adventure of the “Triple Kent.” The “Triple” refers to the three women murdered in Kent. The Police are perplexed and call upon Solar Pons to help them solve the mystery. As with most of the Solar Pons stories, Pons sees patterns where the Police just see confusion. Pons also can solve crimes by knowing his History. In “The Adventure of the Lost Dutchman,” Pons’s research provides the keys to the solution.

If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you’ll enjoy these pastiches. And, I hope I’m around for another 700 Friday’s Forgotten Books posts! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction / by Edgar W. Smith — 1
The adventure of the lost Dutchman — 9
The adventure of the Devil’s footprints — 30
The adventure of the Dorrington inheritance — 52
The adventure of the “Triple Kent” — 76
The adventure of the Rydberg numbers — 94
The adventure of the Grice-Paterson curse — 119
The adventure of the Stone of Scone — 143
The adventure of the remarkable worm — 160
The adventure of the penny magenta — 177
The adventure of the trained cormorant — 192
The adventure of the Camberwell beauty — 211
The adventure of the little hangman — 238
The adventure of the Swedenborg signatures — 261

This 2-CD set from 1992 includes just 14 songs. Perhaps you remember MTV, the cable channel that changed the record industry by elevating the importance of music videos to promote artists and groups. And, when you have music videos, you must have MTV Video Music Awards. These songs won the Award, but some of these songs have faded into the mists of the Past. How many of you remember LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out”?

You would think SONY could have fit all of these songs on one CD, but 2-CD sets were popular in the 1990s so it might just be a marketing strategy. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B

TRACK LIST: