Fun & Games (Duane Swierczynski)

by Thom Dunn

The latest novel from Marvel comics scribe and fervent crime fictioneer Duane Swiercyznski, Fun & Games is the first installment in a trilogy of novels featuring Charlie Hardie, an ex-cop (well, cop-ish) with a bloody past. This being a Duane Swiercyznski novel, the obligatory references to his hometown of Philadelphia still manage to sneak their way in, but for this story (and, presumably, the rest of the trilogy), Swierczy exiles his protagonist from this comfort zone and drops him right into the brushfires of Los Angeles.

Fun & Games serves as a kind of love-letter to LA noir and a wake to its history, embedded deeply in the Hollywood Hills. Swierczynski's excitement for the genre bleeds through his prose with a ferocious, whirlwind, almost ravenous energy that engulfs the reader with no apologies, from the epigraphs (quoted from film noir classics and more) to the biting, cynical criticisms of the film/media/LA industries.

It's kind of like Mulholland Drive, except it actually makes sense.*

Synopsis

You know, in a way, I kind of don't want to tell you. Because going into this book, I knew very little about it myself, and that may have made the ride even wilder. But here's at least a bit of background for you.

Charlie Hardie is a man with a past who now makes his living as...a professional house sitter. He arrives in Los Angeles to watch after the home of a successful film composer, who is off on business in Russia for a month. He is surprised to find a young, attractive movie star named Lane Madden hiding in the house, tripping on a cocktail of cocaine and heroin and hysterically ranting about some mysterious "Them" that's been trying to kill her. Charlie soon realizes that Lane Madden may not be as paranoid — or as innocent — as she appears, and finds himself wrapped up in a conspiracy of Hollywood insiders who might actually control the world through their (literal) plotting.

Rating

Fun & Games, by Duane Swierczynski

Story: 8.6

Fun & Games is the kind of story that grabs you by the shirt in the first few pages and then throws you off a cliff. And since it's the first book in trilogy, the ending offers you a small foothold, but its only enough to brace yourself for a moment before you continue falling down the rabbit hole. Swierczynski is an intricate master plotter, and the story is full of moments that shock you and then make you smack yourself in the head and go "Duh! Of course that was going to happen!" Everything has a payoff, almost as if Swierczynski wrote and solved a mathematical proof for an unashamedly juiced-up pastiche of pulp/noir stories.

Style: 7.8

While omniscient 3rd person narrators have never turned me off from a story, I have to admit that I've never been particularly fond of them (I like my narratives to have limits, or at least somewhat unreliable). However, Swierczynski employs a unique method here, which is multiple 3rd person limited narrations that hit you like a slurry. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given its affections for Hollywood and moviemaking, Fun & Games flows like a movie, full of fast-paced jumpcuts and surprising scene changes. Some of these changes come so rapidly after one another that it's hard to keep up (which is part of what keeps the reader on the edge the whole time), especially as it shares the same moment from multiple perspectives (and always in a carefully calculated way — Swierczynski knows how to reveal pertinent information with the strongest impact).

General: 9.4

Not only did I blow through this book in record time, but when I finally reached the end, I immediately tried to figure out when I could get my hands on a copy of the sequel, Hell & Gone. It's like a flash thunderstorm in the middle of a glorious summer day (or maybe that's just the weather outside right now -- yup, looks like). Anyone who considers him/herself to be a fan of mysteries, thrillers, noir, "the dark side of Hollywood," crime stories, or wild conspiracies would be a fool not to read this book. Swierczynski might not be breaking ground with his new Charlie Hardie series, but he's building such a labyrinthine structure of wheels within wheels that it's hard to resist. Fun & Games only shows us the tip of this conspiracy, but its undeniably intriguing, as Swierczynski offers us a well-developed and scathing commentary of what really goes on behind the scenes of Hollywood — and the world.

Overall: 8.6

Fun & Games is available June 20, 2011 from Mulholland Books.

*I actually quite enjoyed Mulholland Drive. I thought it was a very beautiful experimental/slipstream poem, on film. But let's be honest, that movie didn't make any sense.

Expiration Date (Duane Swierczynski)

by Thom Dunn

Most people who know me can vouch for the fact that I love just about anything involving (a) time travel, or (b) noir tropes. Expiration Date, the newest novel by Duane Swierczynski, is a crime/noir novel about time travel, so needless to say, I was pretty excited to read it. It's like peanut butter and jelly, but with more pre-destination paradoxes.

Synopsis
Mickey Wade, the narrator and protagonist of Expiration Date, dies at the end of the novel. And that's just the beginning! (It's a time travel story, your temporal prepositions are bound to get a little messy) Prior to his death, Mickey Wade loses his job as a journalist for an alt-weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, and moves into his grandfather's apartment back in the crumbling neighborhood where he was born. The night that he moves in, Mickey has a few beers with a friend. He pops a handful of expired Advil before bed, and suddenly winds up in 1972. Stranger still, he seems to be invisible, and — oh yeah, his limbs fall off every time they come into direct contact with light. A few hours later, he wakes up in the present, sweating, with his limbs (mostly) intact. But on one of these trips, Mickey meets the 12-year-old boy who lives downstairs — the same boy who grows up and murders Mickey's father.

Swierczynski deals with some pretty heady concepts here, and under less skilled hands, these ideas could have easily stumbled into a convoluted mess. Fortunately, he approaches the story from a stable (and subjectively linear) first-person perspective, and relays the story in simple, relatable terms. Mickey Wade is a character grounded in reality, hard-up on his luck and out of cash, who finds himself thrust into a bizarre situation. This is further helped by Swierczynski's acute attention to detail. From the beer that Mickey drinks to the records that he listens to, Swierczynski writes with a specificity that paint a vivid and familiar portrait of his narrator. A Philadelphia native himself, Swierczynski's cartographic familiarity with the geography of the city helps to immerse the reader in the world he's created — you might not know where you are temporally, but he makes you feel at home spatially, to the point that you feel like you could give directions to a tourist upon your next visit to Philly. (side note: on my last trip to Philadelphia, I consulted Duane Swierczynski on places to go, and he recommended that I check out McGillan's Olde Ale House on Drury Street — the same place that Mickey Wade finds himself in the first chapter of the book. Behold, the power of Twitter!)

Rating:
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski

Story: 7.1
On one hand, Expiration Date can be seen as a fairly typical time travel story. It's great appeal, however, is in the way it's told, as well as the personal stories of the characters involved. The book is meticulously plotted and full of wild ideas, but still manages to make for a quick, easy, and ultimately rewarding read. I would also be doing an injustice to the author if I didn't note the clever ending of the book, an ending which is rendered so effectively due to the First Person narration of the story.

Style: 6.7
Duane Swierczynski's prose is simple and effective, and therein lies its power. He is able to express these surreal concepts and experiences in a lucid, uncomplicated manner, which makes the book all the more enjoyable. I actually found the story so compelling that I read it in one sitting; even the most seemingly straightforward and civilian sequences ended with riveting twists that kept the book in my hands. Swierczynski certainly isn't writing poetry here, and he hasn't quite mastered the dense pulpy prose of noir legends such as Raymond Chandler, but his writing still manages to express ideas in an unequivocal fashion.

General: 8
Swierczynski's past works have proven him a master of the crime genre (and Swierczynski himself is a strong advocate of genre fiction as literary fiction), and his recent stint on Cable for Marvel Comics seems to have ignited an interest in time travel stories; by marrying the two, he has created a highly entertaining thriller full of mind-bending, almost Philip K. Dickian concepts that are still grounded in incredibly believable characters.

Overall: 7.267

What I'm Reading

So I've been unwell, and that has cut into some of my reading/writing time for this week, so instead of a real review, I'm gonna tell you guys what comics I've been reading lately and why. I mostly read Marvel books, but there are a few Vertigo titles that I pick up as well.

Definitely Read

Guardians of the Galaxy by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning—
A talking raccoon, a tree that beats people up, an interdimensional wizard trying to patch up holes in the fabric of the galaxy, AND a telepathic Russian space dog? This is Marvel's premier cosmic book right now, tying into all of the wacky shenanigans those alien races get themselves mixed up in, but without bogging itself down too much with "stuff you should know." It's currently on issue #16—the first 12 issues are already available in collected editions—but it's a terrific book to read if you want to jump into ridiculous outer space antics.

The Immortal Iron Fist by Duane Swierczynski—
Danny Rand, the Immortal Iron Fist, is a kung fu master and ex-billionaire CEO trying to figure out the best way to use his powers and considerable fortune for good. The series, now on issue #27, was started by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction with the idea of learning more about the history of the Iron Fist, and when Swierczynski picked up the title with issue #17 he didn't miss a beat. There's never been a better time to jump into the world of one of Marvel's more recent B-list-heroes-gone-A-list, as the series JUST went on a hiatus while they tell the stories of 6 other kung fu masters, the Immortal Weapons. The first 20 issues are already in collected editions, and I highly recommend picking them up.

Secret Warriors by Jonathan Hickman and Brian Michael Bendis—
This series is amazing. There's only one book out there right now that I think is better than this, and this one is catching up real fast. When Nick Fury discovers that the terrorist group HYDRA has been running several government organizations as well as other terrorist groups for decades, he sets out to break up their global monopoly on crime. It's a spy / mystery / action / superhero / thriller series; this book literally has everything. And Stefano Caselli's art is beautiful (again, second only to one other book right now). The series is only on issue #6, so there's no reason not to get in on the ground floor here.

X-Force by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost—
In my opinion, there is nothing on the shelves better than X-Force right now. Every single issue is exciting. Wolverine, X-23, Warpath, Archangel and some of the most badass mutants in Marvel just tear things up again and again. Mike Choi's art is perhaps the best in the business right now, and putting him on a book that's so consistently well-written makes for a real powerhouse combination. Kyle and Yost are probably my favorite writing team in comics, because they know how to make a story move dramatically without bogging it down with too much exposition. They write complex situations where characters have to make difficult decisions very quickly, and then have to deal with the outcome. It's a great time. The series is up to issue #17 right now, and the writing is good enough that you could easily just jump right in, but the collected editions are worth going back to read anyway. I absolutely recommend this to everyone.

The Unwritten by Mike Carey—
Imagine if J.K. Rowling had a son that looked just like Harry Potter, and then she mysteriously disappeared. Then imagine it's twenty years later, and people start to believe that her son really IS Harry Potter. That's pretty much the idea behind The Unwritten. Tom Taylor, the adult son of a beloved children's book author who mysteriously disappeared decades ago, becomes the subject of intense speculation as the literary world and the "real" world subtly mix together. It's an incredibly intelligent book, and so far has been quite intriguing. It's only at issue #3 right now, so of all the books I've mentioned, this is probably going to be the easiest to dive into. Also, it's a Vertigo book, and Vertigo is known for it's incredibly quirky—but immensely popular—titles. This fits right in with books such as Fables, Y: The Last Man and 100 Bullets.

Check It Out

Runaways by Kathryn Immonen—
Originally created by Brian K. Vaughan—of Y: The Last Man and Lost fame—this series used to be one of the best on the shelves. In the last couple years, however, there have been several different writers/artists working on the book, each with their own focuses and agendas. Kathryn Immonen only just started writing the series two issues ago (there are several volumes, the current volume is on issue #11), so it's hard to tell where it's gonna go from here. I absolutely recommend picking up the hardcover volumes of Vaughan's time on the book, and if you're still interested after that, maybe think about the current run.

Astonishing X-Men by Warren Ellis—
If you like the X-Men, this is a decent book. It's not really world-breaking, and Simone Bianchi's art is sometimes a little cluttered, but it's solid writing. Ellis picked up the series on issue #25 after Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's epic run, which is definitely a tough act to follow. It's currently on issue #30, but it's been coming out slowly, so who knows when the next issue will be. Again, if you like X-Men, check it out, otherwise you'll probably live if you don't read it.

Don't Bother

Hulk by Jeph Loeb—
In the very first issue, Jeph Loeb introduced a new Red Hulk, bigger, meaner, and stronger than the original green guy. Now it's issue 13, and we still don't even know who "Rulk" is, let alone why we should still care. Bruce Banner recently lost the ability to turn into the Hulk, but I have yet to see how that makes for compelling storytelling. I'm giving it one more issue before I stop buying.

Invinvible Iron Man by Matt Fraction—
I recently dropped this book, because for some reason I just stopped caring what happened to Tony Stark. I enjoyed reading about Iron Man while he was in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D., making difficult decisions everyday that affected millions of people around the world. Now he's just a guy on the run, stealing parts and trying to make ends meet while the new top cop, Norman Osborn, chases him around the globe. I always thought Bruce Banner was boring when he just drifted around all the time, and he could at least turn into the Hulk. Don't read this.

Uncanny X-Men by Matt Fraction—
I don't know what it is about Matt Fraction lately, but I can't get into his writing. I used to love his work (Casanova, Immortal Iron Fist, The Order) but it seems like his recent stuff is just stuck in the mud. I dropped this X-title a few weeks ago, too. I just wasn't connecting with any of the characters. That and the art is kinda eh. Greg Land just isn't doing it for me. All of his females look like porn stars, no matter their age, personality, body type, etc. It's just not an exceptional book right now.