2020s
Finished my 35th book of the year yesterday, an ARC of @bentleydonb’s The Outside Man. Don’s debut, Without Sanction, was a great read, and this one cranks the volume to 11! Thriller lovers will want to grab this in March!
There’s a new episode of the Sneaky Good Podcast out! www.andthevalleyshook.com/2020/11/2…
Happy for Taysom Hill as he slings the ball in place of the injured Drew Brees, and gets two rushing touchdowns against the hated Falcons. With the defense intercepting Matt Ryan twice, and holding Atlanta to 9 points, looked like a complete team win. #WhoDat
Retrophisch Review: The Sentinel
Much has been made of the latest Jack Reacher novel, The Sentinel, due to its collaborative nature between Lee Child and his brother, Andrew Child neé Grant. After 24 Jack Reacher novels, Lee Child felt it was time to step away from the yearly grind of write, publish, promote, and begin enjoying a well-deserved retirement. However, knowing the love fans have for Reacher, Child didn’t want to simply end the series, and enlisted his brother Andrew Grant to take up the mantle. The Sentinel is the first of three planned collaborations before Andrew takes on the series solo.
I discovered Jack Reacher—Child’s former Army MP now wandering vigilante—three years after the first book, Killing Floor, was published. I quickly blew through Killing Floor, Die Trying, and Tripwire, and began, like so many other readers, the annual wait for a new Jack Reacher novel to devour. While there are some notable differences with The Sentinel from prior Reacher tomes, devouring this one was no different from the rest.
Reacher takes himself to Nashville, to listen to good music, which in and of itself is a nod to Reacher’s past, as well as Lee Child’s as Reacher’s creator. The reason Reacher ends up in Margrave, Georgia in Killing Floor is he’s seeking out the home town of a blues man he likes. Reacher, being Reacher, gets involved in sticking up for the little guy in helping a local band, and finds he quickly needs to leave town. He ends up not too far away in Pleasantville, Tennessee. On the streets of the town completely by chance when a daylight abduction is attempted, Reacher thwarts the kidnapping and gets involved in a matter that runs deeper than it first appears, one with implications reaching far beyond the town itself.
There is certainly a different feel with The Sentinel from previous Reacher novels, the result of the collaboration between the brothers. Some reviewers have complained about the tone, or that there is too much expository from Reacher. I didn’t notice much of a change in that regard. As usual, there is ample opportunity for Reacher to say nothing. What stood out to me is that the novel didn’t feel as tight as previous efforts. One of the many things that has made the Reacher novels so popular is that Child’s writing style was as sparse as the main character’s wardrobe. It was a perfect marriage of style and character, and there is something of a departure from that in this latest book.
Nevertheless, I did not find it distracting to the point of losing enjoyment. Reacher is still sticking up the little guy, still mucking up the best-laid plans of those who wish ill on others, still being, well, Reacher. This was a learning process for the brothers, and I expect the next two Reacher novels will get better and better as Andrew establishes himself as the main author in taking on the sole responsibility for an annual Reacher story. While The Sentinel won’t vault into my Reacher top five, it is a solid entry in the Jack Reacher universe.
4/5 fins
The 2014 Nic Cage film, Dying of the Light, isn’t great, but does have a component that makes it worth watching. My review: www.retrophisch.com/2020/11/1…
Retrophisch Review: Dying of the Light
There are some roles which actors are born to play. There are some actors for whom roles are specifically written. Then there are those actors who perfectly fit a role you might not think before seeing them in said role would be that perfect fit. Nicholas Cage certainly fills this latter category in Dying of the Light. 
I came across this 2014 film, billed as a psychological thriller, while channel surfing. It was about fifteen minutes in, but my TiVo still had those previous fifteen minutes, the description sounded interesting, so I hit record to make sure I got the whole thing, and started from the beginning. While the film has some slow parts, which seems to be such to stretch out the running time to 90 minutes more than anything else, all in all I enjoyed it.
Cage is Evan Lake, a longtime and highly decorated CIA agent. We are introduced to him as he has a flashback to a covert operation in Africa where is captured and tortured by an Islamic terrorist, Muhammad Banir. Among the other tortures, Lake has part of an ear mutilated. An extraction team intervenes before he can be killed, killing several of the terrorists, presumably including Banir. Lake doesn’t believe Banir is dead, and carries this belief with him while he continues working in the Agency for another 22 years. Just as the CIA is made aware of the possibility that Banir may be still alive, Lake learns he has frontotemporal dementia, the side effects of which…well, let’s just say they play perfectly into Nic Cage’s acting abilities and the type of roles he is more well known for.
Milton Schultz, aptly played by Anton Yelchin, is an analyst for the CIA who is a close friend of Lake’s. There is clearly a teacher-protege relationship going on, and Milt is quite fond of Lake. That fondness grows into protection as Lake reveals his condition to Milt. Due to the onset of the dementia, Lake is forcibly retired from the CIA, but with Milt’s help, undergoes one last mission to take out Banir in Africa.
The film’s production value reminded me of Cinemax’s Strike Back series, of which I’m a fan. It’s not big budget, but it gets the job done. The film itself is not without controversy, in that the studio re-edited and scored the film without writer/director Paul Schrader’s permission or input. Cage and Yelchin stood by Schrader in disavowing the finished film, and given the slow and disjointed points in the movie, I can understand why. When as a creative individual you put effort into a project, a project for which you have a distinct vision, and that is taken away from you while you have no legal recourse, well, I can understand Schrader’s frustration. He would go on to recut the movie to as close as possible to his original vision from DVD copies of the workprint. That version of the film, which he called Dark, can presumably be found on BitTorrent sites.
I do not plan to hunt that down, as I do not think it would greatly change my overall impression of the film, nor elevate what I believe is its greatest strength: the relationship between Lake and Milt.
In a world where masculine friendship and filial love has been minimized, it was refreshing to watch one friend go to the lengths Milton does to help someone he cares about, admires, and loves. Time and again, Milt makes sacrifices great and small for Lake, doing what he can to help his mentor fulfill his final mission. The conversations between the two of them are the glue of the film, and the scenes I enjoyed most.
Dying of the Light can be a little slow, it won’t be for everyone, and I was never on the edge of my seat as with some thrillers. But it makes up for its downsides with a story of friendship, sacrifice, and love that I found compelling enough to recommend it for that part of the plot.
3/5 fins
My beloved and long-suffering LaCie enclosure has given up the ghost, so my Saturday night features open-drive surgery, moving the house media drive to a new home. Par-tay.
Proof that people actually win those book giveaways publishing houses push through their authors' email lists. Guess I should slot this into the queue for a re-read, eh, @MarkGreaneybook?
Let’s just say there was one part in today’s episode of #TheMandalorian where I bolted upright in my chair and may have cheered.
Having @robkroese’s latest book dropping tomorrow when I’m already in the middle of an ARC for one book with another ARC in the pipeline is, quite frankly, a great problem to have as a reader.
The tables are turned on the latest Empowered Parent Podcast as Kayla interviews me and Ryan on the dad perspective of connected parenting. There’s also an amusing discussion on the naming of grandparents!
At long last there is a new episode of the Big Fat Geek Podcast out, and we’re talking The Mandalorian! www.bigfatgeekpodcast.com/2020/11/1…
Due to my oldest’s hockey game, and recording the first new @bigfatgeekpod episode in nine months, I had to record the Saints game. At least I could fast-forward where necessary and watch in half the time, but my oh my, what a dominant performance by the Saints. #WhoDat!
Among all the myriad things wrong with this election, can we discuss why @Raising_Canes refuses to accept my pm.me email as a legitimate email address for account purposes? Disenfranchisement!
The new single from @chaoticresembl, “Unto the Lamb”, really kicks butt. Masterful work, as always, from @SirOzFox in his guest appearance.
Consequently, I finished this year’s Jack Reacher novel on the same date of the year as I did last year’s Jack Reacher novel. 📚