CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Child 44 was a blind buy. I saw it at Barnes & Noble, read the jacket cover and said, “Well I guess I have to buy it now.” Sometimes it works out for you, and sometimes you buy… I don’t know, Billy and the Clonasaurus. This one worked out for me.

Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel is loosely based on real-life Russian serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo - nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov - who murdered more than 50 women and children throughout the 1980’s before being caught and arrested in 1990. In an interesting twist, Smith has taken his serial killer and placed him in 1953, when the Soviet Union’s official line was that, in their perfect society, there was no crime.

The novel centers around State Security officer Leo Demidov. As a good revolutionary, Leo unquestioningly supports the Soviet Union, communism, and the lengths the State will go to to keep it’s citizens in line. When the bodies of two murdered children are found, the State wants to bury it, forgo any real investigation and arrest whoever’s most convenient. But after being betrayed by a jealous subordinate and receiving a shocking revelation from his wife, Leo begins to question his carefully constructed worldview and sets out to find the real killer.

Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel is definitely a page-turner in the classical sense of the word (or is that the only sense of the word?). Once you get into it, the pages just fly by. What I thought was so interesting was that usually, these sorts of stories generate a sense of danger from the relationship between the cop (the good guy) and the killer (the bad guy). That’s not exactly the case here, as danger isn’t posed only by the killer, but by the State. Leo lies awake at night, waiting for the knock on the door, waiting for the guards to burst into his apartment and arrest him and his wife. Here, it’s not the bad guy, but the “good guys” that keep you guessing.

If I had to find something to complain about, it would be that by the end of the book everything falls into place a little too conveniently. Not enough to make things unenjoyable by any stretch, but enough so that you notice. The prose also feels a little loose in places, understandable as this is Smith’s first novel. With as good as this one is, I doubt it’ll be a problem in the next one.

There are a bunch of authors out there who write a certain character, then revisit them every few years. Tom Clancy has Jack Ryan. Dean Koontz has Odd Thomas. There’s a small possibility left open that we’ll be seeing more of Leo Demidov, although any future novels would, in a certain respect, retread already-covered ground. Eventually, the ever-present threat posed by the State would get stale, and that’s what really sets this novel apart. Could a sequel live up to it’s predecessor? Give it a 60/40 shot.

This book is getting great reviews, which isn’t surprising. I’ve also read that Ridley Scott has already snatched up film rights. For his first major outing, Smith has done a great job, putting a new spin on an old concept. This is definitely worth the extra couple of bucks for the hardback.

8 out of 10 stars

Buy the book at amazon.com.

We’re mass communicating!

Your typical TV commercials suck, and unless you’re selling alcohol, your typical radio commercials really suck. I understand advertisers have a job to do. They have to explain their product, and at the same make the whole thing interesting/funny enough for the listener to pay attention to. After analyzing hours and hours of radio commercials here at the Move It Move It labs deep in the Mojave Desert, the janitor and myself have figured out why so many of these advertisements (”ads”, they’re called in the “biz”) fall flat. The dialog has very unsubtle transitions between the “funny” and informative parts. You know that real people don’t talk like this. Whilst driving home from work the other day, I heard a commercial for a medical facility (”hospitals”, they’re called in the “biz”) that went more or less like this…

Sabina: So, is Frank feeling any better?

Kathy: Oh yeah, he’s fine. It was just the flu.

Sabina: He looked pretty bad there for a while.

Kathy: Yeah, he really had me scared. That’s why I took him to Jefferson Davis Memorial Hospital, Calmwood County.

Sabina: Yeah?

Kathy: Yes. Their friendly staff and state-of-the-art facilities had Frank, and me, feeling better in no time!

Sabina: Not to mention your pocketbook!

Kathy: Wait, how did you know?

Sabina: What?

In the very beginning, Kathy and Sabina sound just like you and me, but when the sellin’ kicks in, they’ve both turned into Encyclopedia Brown with their intimate knowledge of the medical profession.

Sabina: It’s sounds like your experience with Jefferson Memorial was professional and satisfactory.

Kathy: You said it. They even have a fully equipped toxicology clinic and poison control center. Which would be great for your little ones!

Sabina: Spluh!

Now that they’ve realized just what a powerful impact *product* has had on both of their lives, they’ll close with a joke, because hey, it’s all about fun and having a good time, right?

Sabina: Now if you could only get Frank to mow the lawn!

Kathy: Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder what I’ve done with my life.

Sabina: LOL.

Needless to say, I became an alcoholic just for the funny commercials.

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Writers Strike update update

It’s over. It’s finally over.

Variety.

Writers Strike update

This from Variety:

WGA members will have the chance to vote on whether to end the strike under an expedited 48-hour voting process, WGA leaders told members during Saturday’s night’s meeting to detail the contract deal just reached with the majors.

That means scribes technically will not be back to work on Monday, as had been widely expected in recent days. However, numerous members attending the meeting - which drew about 3,000 to the Shrine Auditorium — said many people will unofficially be prepping projects and scripts.

The WGA negotiating committee, the WGA West board of directors and the WGA East Council will meet Sunday to formally endorse the contract and set the launch of the 48-hour vote to lift the strike. The ruling bodies are also expected to approve official launching a member ratification vote that would take place over 10 days.

Oh well. What’s two more days after three months?

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IT’S OVER!

Remember, it’s not over, but it might as well be! Today, members of the WGAw and WGAe will meet to discuss the terms of the tentative agreement made with the AMPTP. If the members are all happy with it, the work stoppage will be lifted while the new contract undergoes the weeks-long ratification process. Here’s a letter that was sent to WGA members this weekend from the heads of the Guilds’ east and west chapters, explaining things…

To Our Fellow Members,
We have a tentative deal.

It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery. It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, “When they get paid, we get paid.”

Specific terms of the agreement are described in the summary on our website and will be further discussed at our Saturday membership meetings on both coasts. At those meetings we will also discuss how we will proceed regarding ratification of this agreement and lifting the restraining order that ends the strike.

Less than six months ago, the AMPTP wanted to enact profit-based residuals, defer all Internet compensation in favor of a study, forever eliminate “distributor’s gross” valuations, and enforce 39 pages of rollbacks to compensation, pension and health benefits, reacquisition, and separated rights. Today, thanks to three months of physical resolve, determination, and perseverance, we have a contract that includes WGA jurisdiction and separated rights in new media, residuals for Internet reuse, enforcement and auditing tools, expansion of fair market value and distributor’s gross language, improvements to other traditional elements of the MBA, and no rollbacks.

Over these three difficult months, we shut down production of nearly all scripted content in TV and film and had a serious impact on the business of our employers in ways they did not expect and were hard pressed to deflect. Nevertheless, an ongoing struggle against seven, multinational media conglomerates, no matter how successful, is exhausting, taking an enormous personal toll on our members and countless others. As such, we believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike.

Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success. We activated, engaged, and involved the membership of our Guilds with a solidarity that has never before occurred. We developed a captains system and a communications structure that used the Internet to build bonds within our membership and beyond. We earned the backing of other unions and their members worldwide, the respect of elected leaders and politicians throughout the nation, and the overwhelming support of fans and the general public. Our thanks to all of them, and to the staffs at both Guilds who have worked so long and patiently to help us all.

There is much yet to be done and we intend to use all the techniques and relationships we’ve developed in this strike to make it happen. We must support our brothers and sisters in SAG who, as their contract expires in less than five months, will be facing many of the same challenges we have just endured. We must further pursue new relationships we have established in Washington and in state and local governments so that we can maintain leverage against the consolidated multinational conglomerates with whom we bargain. We must be vigilant in monitoring the deals that are made in new media so that in the years ahead we can enforce and expand our contract. We must fight to get decent working conditions and benefits for writers of reality TV, animation, and any other genre in which writers do not have a WGA contract.

Most important, however, is to continue to use the new collective power we have generated for our collective benefit. More than ever, now and beyond, we are all in this together.

Best,

Michael Winship
President
Writers Guild of America, East

Patric M. Verrone
President
Writers Guild of America, West

Anyone interested in the actual terms of the new deal can find them listed here. Hopefully, the writers will be back at work Monday. Of course, that means most shows won’t be back for another 6-8 weeks, and many others won’t be back until the fall. But that’s still much better than the American Gladiators hell we’ve all been living in for the past three months. We should all take a moment to remember how boring and unmeaningful our lives have been since the strike began, and how much better they’ll be now that it’s over!