"Indian Burial Ground" by Nick Medina (2024)

 

Most of the time I read for entertainment and escapism. Sometimes, I go for non-fiction or literary classics but mainly its the desire to transport myself far away from the reality and enjoy the imaginary worlds. Out of curiosity (and desire to move away from my usual safe zone) I have checked the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards, thinking that it might be a good idea to see what is actually new and recent. This particular novel was one of the nominated for reader's favourite horror. The winner was actually Stephen King but since I am already familiar with him, I thought why not read someone for the first time. 

I understand writing a novel is not an easy thing to do and author must be inspired in the first place. And Nick Medina has quite a few titles behind him already. But I don't remember when was the last time I suffered so much trough reading the book, I was reading it while literary gnawing my teeth. What appealed to Goodreads readers definitely did not appeal to me and although it might have been interesting to experience how it is to live in Native American reservation (called "rez" here) - well, according to Medina its all depression, sweat, alcoholism and suicide. There might be something about it, since apparently there is huge number of suicides and alcoholism amongst Native Americans - still, it makes a depressing reading experience as every single character here suffocates in a poorly isolated trailer home, drinks and mopes around aimlessly. Basically, everybody here wants to be somewhere else.

The story is happening simultaneously in present time and in 1986. Not that I actually understood this - it was pointed to me by other Goodreads readers - so we are following two different stories, connected by the same characters. In the present time, Noemi can't accept the suicide of her boyfriend and tries to find out is this true, while her long gone uncle Louie returns to the reservation for the first time since she was a child. Than we find out about young Louie and what happened back in 1986 that made him leave in the first place. The novel is extremely slow-burning (take it as you want, I would describe it as "not exactly gripping"), the switch between different timelines is not clear and all this atmospheric, creepy and eery plot (peppered with Native American mythology) eventually just fizzles out at the end, since we are led to believe supernatural powers are behind everything, but it turned out there is nothing supernatural at all. It's just a bunch of poor, depressed alcoholics doing things to each other out of the spite and boredom. I finished this book simply because I have already invested too much effort in it, but will not return to the same author again. 

TV: "Foundation" (2021)

 

In previous post, I have mentioned how I dislike TV series that go on forever. This is the main reason why i am reluctant to commit to something massive. However, after enjoying "Silo" on Apple TV, the curiosity inspired me to check out SF series "Foundation" based on the novels by Isaac Asimov. I have never read the books, because there are simply too many of them and it felt like a rabbit hole - the only title I have ever read by him was 1990 "Nemesis" which was not bad, so I had some idea that I might liked it. Liked? Binged for two seasons breathlessly and loved every minute of it, though must admit dear reader, sometimes the plot was so complex and convoluted that I had to watch recaps on youtube to understand what have I just seen.

This Apple TV version of "Foundation" is hugely ambitious, majestic and cinematic - like "Silo", it has only slight connection with the novels that inspired it (probably just a few names and not much else) but everybody comments that TV series are work on its own and rolls on nicely without taking much notice to the books. First of all, I must compliment the way it looks - its simply fantastic and full of details about different worlds, planets, architecture, clothes, etc. Sometimes it looks so huge that it would be easy to imagine watching this in the cinema. And the story itself is deep, serious and complicated - this is not for somebody with short attention span, you must focus on several different storylines that happens simultaneously (or even in various centuries) while one of the main story includes a complex mathematic theory - no wonder I had to re-watch recaps. 

The story is naturally, set in the future where galaxy is ruled by trio of genetic clones: brother Day, Emperor Cleon and brother Dusk - somehow they are all the same person, cloned from the original Emperor Cleon who set the plan to extend his rule beyond the grave. So they sit on the three thrones and rule the galaxy, continuously changing places - when Dusk retires, Cleon will move to his place, etc. They are always supported by ageless Lady Demerzel who is kind of omnipotent governess to all of them (and later we learn, the last of humanoid robots, programmed to serve the empire, no matter what costs). There is also a famous mathematician and professor Hari Seldon whose mathematic theory predicts that in the future will fall and wants to start a new foundation to preserve the knowledge of humanity. So the whole plot is happening on the several different places: we are following the complications around Emperor, the building of foundation on a lonely and faraway planet Terminus and adventures of Seldon's helpers Gaal Dornick and her daughter Salvor Hardin - its all terribly complicated and difficult to explain but I plowed trough two seasons with the greatest pleasure and only at the very last episode i felt something like a twitch of saturation - like my brain is telling me that 20 one hour episodes was enough and now I need some rest. Even though the second season had ended with some deaths of important main characters, at this point we are familiar with the idea that nobody is really dead and there is always some way to bring them back to life, so I would not worry too much about it + Emperor and his brothers are cloned anyway, so even if they die, there is always another clone stored away nicely in some jars in the basements, and ready to be uncorked & set in motion. I am actually so hugely impressed with this series that i even started considering checking out the original novels. 

TV: "The Decameron" and "Zero Day"

I am very reluctant to approach TV series, because knowing there are 365 episodes and 7 seasons always feel like a task and most of the time these series visibly loose the steam after a while. However, from time to time I accept an exception, specially if its something like mini-series with limited amount of episodes, at least than I know it will not go forever and I can deal with 7-8 episodes.

The medieval romp "The Decameron" was surprisingly delightful, though it has almost nothing to do with 14th century novel that inspired it - the original by Giovanni Boccaccio was something like a medieval "One Thousand and One Nights" set in plague-ravaged Italy, but instead of stories told by Scheherazade, Boccaccio uses a group of young aristocrats entertaining each other with the stories while isolating from plague in a luxurious countryside villa. In this TV version, there IS a villa whose owner invited some wealthy guests to hide from the plague, but what his guests don't know is that the owner of the house had already died from plague and his servants are just keeping appearances and pretending that he is somewhere on a trip to Venice. The show focuses on the wealthy guests and their interconnections with each other - once they found out the owner is dead, they manipulate and fight each other in order to get their hands on a villa. 

There are many excellent and entertaining characters:

Pampinea (Zosia Mamet) spoiled and arrogant wealthy lady who came to marry the owner of the villa. Once she discovers he is actually dead, she pretends they have quickly been married and in fact she claims to be pregnant in order to inherit the villa.

Misia (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) her loony servant who always fights to protect her mistress and dares anybody to disobey her orders

Tindaro (Douggie McMeekin) another obnoxious nobleman who is totally narcissist and self-absorbed, mostly tolerated because of his wealth and always demanding attention with his hypochondria .

Dioneo (Amar Chadha-Patel) his personal doctor who in reality is nothing but a charlatan and manipulating Tindaro in the background.

Panfilo (Karan Gill) young aristocrat who arrives with his wife, social-climbing and secretly twisting everything in order to get his hands on a villa

Neifile (Lou Gala) his extremely religious wife who has vowed to chastity and later eyeing every man around, as she regrets her promises. 

Filomena (Jessica Plummer) selfish young aristocrat who leaves her sick father alone at home, so she can visit the villa and catch a wealthy husband

Licisca (Tanya Reynolds) her servant who - in a comical twist - exchanges place with Filomena and now pretends to be wealthy lady and real Filomena her servant

Stratilia (Leila Farzad) the villa's cook and mother of a boy who is son of villa's owner, therefore the real owner of the villa

Sirisco (Tony Hale) the main servant of the villa, who buried his master and is pretending that everything is still in order

"Zero Day" had only six episodes and cast to day for: Robert De Niro (in his first ever TV series), Angela Bassett and Lizzy Caplan lead the star-studded show about the retired US president who is investigating a cyberattack. It's all extremely convoluted and complicated, with nods to a very current political atmosphere and squabbling inside the government itself. While people on social media are busy arguing amongst themselves about pronouns and such, real trouble is brewing in the background where heavy hitters are intriguing and planning a coup. It's all very interesting and gripping up to a certain point - there is a very fascinating idea about someone using cyber-weapon from a distance on president's brain - perhaps some wavelength? - which potentially makes him distracted and vulnerable. Unfortunately the show goes on and on without ever resolving this potential weapon and settles on suggesting it was simply stress that De Niro suffered and therefore it was all (literary) just in his head. So after 6 one-hour episodes it all ends up pretty bland and pointless, almost a waste of all this spectacular talent.