Blackfly Season

The novel I read was Blackfly Season, by Giles Blunt, the author of Forty Words for Sorrow, which I reviewed earlier.

Detective John Cardinal and Lise Delorme have a strange case on their hands – a young woman has wandered, bug-bitten, out of the Algonquin Bay forest with a gunshot wound to the head. Cardinal becomes obsessed with finding out who she is, and who is trying to kill her. When the dismembered body of a local biker, Wombat Guthrie, is found scattered in a cave, it seems that the two incidents might be related – and the link appears to be a drug dealer and a “healer” who calls himself Red Bear.

This novel incorporates different themes into the plot. Crime and mystery are two of the most noticeable. There was one more subtle one, which was the use of drugs throughout. Red Bear, who is the one who had Wombat Guthrie killed and tried to kill the young woman, makes a living off drug dealing and telling fortunes. As the plot progresses, things begin to get more suspenseful and violent. Even Red Bear’s associates are beginning to feel nervous around him, and feel that their own lives might be in danger.

The book is written in third person perspective, which is an effective tool because it allows for jumping back and forth between people. Dramatic irony is found commonly throughout the novel. This creates suspense for the reader because certain things happen that other characters in the book don’t know about… yet.

One piece of symbolism that I found was the relation of the horrible blackflies to the ruthlessness of some of the killers in the book.

Overall, Giles Blunt wrote another amazing piece of crime fiction literature that is exciting, mysterious, and creates suspense. The plot is straightforward yet unexpected, and characters are exhibited well. 

The Red Badge of Courage

The novel that I chose for this book review was The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane. Henry Fleming, a raw Union Army recruit in the American Civil war, is anxious to confirm his patriotism and manhood – the earn his “badge of courage”. Before enlisting, Henry’s thoughts of war and battle are those of valiant struggles for life and death; the possibility of cowardice does not arise in his initial thoughts of battle. However, his mother’s speech leaves much more room for interpreting his own future struggles. The naive boy expects war to be just like the classics he has read of the ancient world. Little does he know, it is quite different.

Courage is the main theme in this story. Given the novel’s title, it is no surprise that courage – defining it, desiring it, and, ultimately, achieving it – is the most important element of the narrative. As the novel opens, Henry’s understanding of courage is traditional. Henry’s understanding of courage has more to do with the praise of his peers than any internal measure of his bravery. Within the novel’s first chapter, Henry recalls his mother’s advice, which runs counter to his own notions. She cares little whether Henry earns himself a praiseworthy name; instead, she instructs him to meet his responsibilities honestly and squarely, even if it means sacrificing his own like. This kicks starts the use of the theme throughout the novel. At the end of the novel, as the mature Henry comes away from battle, he has a more subtle and more sophisticated thought of what courage really is.

Instead of being written in first person from Henry’s perspective, as some may assume, the novel is written in third person, which gave opportunities for the reader to see things from a larger perspective. This allowed the read to find out what other people were thinking of doing.

There was one significant piece of symbolism in this novel. The red badge – The red badge, a bloodstain, was a symbol of courage for other soldiers, however, for Henry, it becomes a sign of cowardice since he received his from a fight with another union soldier after deserting.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel. It is an exhilarating novel, and really gives a sense of realism to the reader and the novel itself. 

Media Review: NHL 09

I chose to review the game NHL 09 developed by EA Sports. This year's edition of the award-winning hockey game has many improvements that bring realistic gameplay to a whole new level.

The core hockey action that drives the standard five-on-five play is very similar to what was seen in NHL 08. A few tweaks have been made to the artificial intelligence so that the CPU's defense is a bit tougher and more aggressive than it was last year.

Collisions have been redesigned and now feel much more natural. You'll need to preload your hits a bit more than in the past, but the reward is great. Players can be sent flying after a well lined up hit. This makes the game much more realistic than last year's release, where a hip-check could be lined up at any time resulting in a

Visually, NHL 09 is the best looking hockey game so far with its high quality player models. The animations are excellent, too, as plenty of new goalie and collision animations are in the game, which add to the realism. The downside to that is that besides a few new animation sequences, there really isn't anything new graphically.

NHL 09 isn’t just a great hockey game, it’s one of the best sports games to be released in the last decade. As with the last few releases, Create-A-Player & Create-A-Team features are still available.

With a focus on defense in NHL 09, the gameplay is now more challenging, especially on the higher difficulty settings. The AI does a great job with its defensive zone coverage, using stick-checks and stick-lifts, it makes it much more difficult to penetrate the defense and create a scoring chance.
To counter the defense you can now pull off some new moves, like protecting the puck or using the one-on-one dekeing system. If you find yourself on a breakaway, performing a one-handed deke on the goalie is highlight-worthy stuff only superstar players like Alexander Ovechkin can successfully pull off.

Some improvements could be made such as increasing the selection of equipment available when creating a new player or team. In addition, a more fluid dekeing system while skating at full speed would increase the realism of the game significantly.

Overall, NHL 09 is a superb game. I would definitely recommend it to anyone into sports, specifically hockey, or anyone who enjoys sports video games.

Set In Darkness

The novel I read was Set In Darkness by Ian Rankin. Detective Inspector John Rebus is a dedicated Scottish policeman, streetwise, methodical and persistent. But like all those he encounters, his has problems of his own: a failed marriage, loneliness, alcoholism. Rebus misses his daughter and has virtually no social life, choosing to spend his time drinking rather than seek companionship. He knows Edinburgh very well, which is exactly where this investigation leads him in his search for a savage murderer.

 

The novel opens with the discovery of a body buried in Queensbury House, an old historic building being renovated to accommodate the Scottish parliament. Without any clues to the identity of the victim, this case takes a low priority until a second murder occurs on the very same site. Roddy Grieve, a wealthy and ambitious Labour Party candidate, is found beaten to death, and Rebus is assigned to assist Derek Linford in this murder case. Linford has ambitions of his own within Scottish law enforcement, and he and Rebus have different views on many things. Linford is placed in charge of the investigation, which he is obviously too inexperienced to handle. Rebus, on the other hand, organizes an efficient team of detectives and begins a methodic search for a motive that would connect these murders.

Forty Words for Sorrow

The novel Forty Words for Sorrow, written by Giles Blunt, is an engaging crime novel set in northern Ontario. The story opens with the discovery of the body of 13-year old Katie Pine frozen in a block of ice on the desolate island of Windago outside Algonquin Bay. The disappearance of a teenage boy, the discovery of yet another dead teenager, and the disappearance of a fourth follow the discovery of the body. What begins as a detailed police procedural involving forensics, footwork and follow-up slowly turns into a classic serial killer story.

John Cardinal, the cop who months earlier had been involved in the investigation of Katie Pine's disappearance, is assigned to the homicide investigation, along with a new female partner, Lise Delorme. Delorme is a high-profile member of the Special Investigations unit, where she exposes the misdeeds of the mayor and local school board. The relationship between Cardinal and Delorme grows slowly, naturally and realistically from wariness, distrust and suspicion to respect, and teamwork.

Forty Words for Sorrow, written by Giles Blunt, is set in Algonquin Bay, an icy, frigid Canadian town near Toronto. The setting, with its biting wind and vast expanses of frozen terrain, strongly and evocatively described, is as much a part of the story as the primary characters. His writing is extremely descriptive and gives the reader a mental image of what he is writing about. Superbly paced, with life-like characters and convincing police detail, Forty Words for Sorrow is also a novel that kept me wanting to read more.

One quote that I thought stood out in the novel, is the origin of the title.

“The Inuit, it is said, have forty different words for snow. Never mind about snow, Cardinal mused, what people really need is forty words for sorrow.”

This is a good example of how Blunt is quite imaginative, and is quite unique in his writing.