The Fantasy Hive - A U.K. Wonderland
A hub for all things fantasy (plus some SF). Book reviews, games, author interviews, features, serial fiction- you name it. The Fantasy Hive is a collaborative site formed of unique personalities who just want to celebrate fantasy. Btw, the SFF novel to the left by one of our members, Warwick Gleeson, was a "Top 150 Best Books" Kirkus pick in 2019.
2,430 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 316 views
Phase 2 of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off is drawing to a close at the end of this month! Keep track of the finalists’ scoreboard here. If you’re following SPFBO 6, let us know about any entries that have caught your fancy! Join the discussion on social media (there’s a Facebook group here) and weigh in on Twitter using the hashtag #SPFBO. Introduction to Round 1 | Meet the Judges As you will see from the discussions within our Hive reads reviews, and indeed by comparing what the different blogs have said, reviewing books can generate a vibrant diversity of opinion. But SPFBO is, I think, a particularly gruelling process for authors – the more so as you reach t…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 311 views
Fallible Justice is, at its core, a detective novel. Yannia Wilde is a PI who must prove a man’s innocence before he is sentenced to death for a high-profile murder. But Yannia’s London is one where magical beings co-exist with humans, and justice is meted out by the all-knowing, infallible beings called Heralds. They’re never wrong. So how can they be wrong in this case? I loved Yannia. She’s a smart woman who is struggling to come to terms with her past, and she seems utterly realistic in her thoughts and feelings. She was raised in a commune of Wild Folk, which was idyllic in some ways but barbaric in others, and she’s learning to cope with having left them for city l…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 336 views
Photo: Matt Gush Tim Powers is a unique voice in Fantasy. He specialises in rigorously researched secret histories, in which gaps in the historical record are explained by the fantastical or the supernatural. But this description hardly does justice to his incredible novels, which are among the most inventive and joyous I have ever read. His Philip K. Dick Award winning novel The Anubis Gates (1983) is a delirious time travel tale involving body-hopping werewolves and Egyptian mythology. The Drawing Of The Dark (1979) imagines the Siege of Vienna as a magical battleground involving the reincarnated King Arthur, and The Stress Of Her Regard (1989) imagines Keats, Byron an…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
“Ideas changed the world. Thoughts changed the world – and thoughts could be written down. I had forgotten that writing could have such urgency, that writing could matter to history, that literature might have consequence. Strangely, tragically, I’d forgotten that such things were even possible.” “Turin, the Esoteric City, was saturated with magic both black and white. Every brick and baroque cornice in the city was shot through with the supernatural.” Bruce Sterling’s new short story collection Robot Artists & Black Swans (2021), collects stories written as by Bruno Argento, Bruce Sterling’s alter ego who is an Italian writer of fantascienza stories living in Turin…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 270 views
Phase 2 of the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off is drawing to a close at the end of this month! Keep track of the finalists’ scoreboard here. If you’re following SPFBO 6, let us know about any entries that have caught your fancy! Join the discussion on social media (there’s a Facebook group here) and weigh in on Twitter using the hashtag #SPFBO. Introduction to Round 1 | Meet the Judges Editor’s Note. In light of discussions regarding reviews over the weekend. Unfortunately, Voice of War was not popular amongst the team. Rather than simply say “I did not like this book”, the team have tried to express what didn’t work for them and why. Reviews are subjective. What h…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 181 views
Hey everyone and welcome back to Drinkin’ with David! This week David is catching up over a drink with author Hûw Steer, whose novel Ad Luna is entered into the first ever SPSFC. Hûw Steer is an author and historian from London. To his ongoing surprise, he has published various short stories and two novels, and some people have actually enjoyed reading them. Most recently his shorter work has found its way into the pages of Grimdark Magazine #25 and Shoreline of Infinity #17. Hûw’s first book, The Blackbird and the Ghost, was a semi-finalist in the 5th SPFBO. His second, Ad Luna, has yet to be eliminated from the inaugural SPSFC. His third book will come out this y…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 395 views
Hi! My name is Mark Cushen, and I’m a 33-year-old soon-to-be self-published writer from Scotland. I’ve been writing in some capacity since I was I was ten-years-old, when I wrote my very own Goosebumps stories, which I was obsessed with as a child. Nowadays, though, I write my own original tales. I have loved the fantasy genre in particular since I accidentally stumbled onto Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion masterpiece, “Jason and the Argonauts”, while channel-hopping one Christmas-time Saturday afternoon, somewhere between the ages of 5 and 8. Ever since then I’ve been obsessed with stories of sword-wielding heroes battling monsters in fantastical lands, and I’m now att…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 322 views
On the face of it, Andrea Stewart’s debut novel The Bone Shard Daughter is an escapist’s dream. We’re transported to an Earthsea-like archipelago of shifting islands, where an Empire demands a tithe of children’s bones for the Emperor’s magic which, supposedly, in turn protects the people. There are secrets and mysteries galore in this South-East Asian-inspired world. And quite possibly the cutest animal companion ever. I’m sure everyone’s heard of Mephi by now, right? But beneath all the epic-fantasy fun run themes of colonialism and control; “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” echoed in my mind with this Orwellian E…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 291 views
“The books are a perfect example, Adam thinks, of reading to confirm one’s own beliefs: they are all theological in nature, and of a very particular slant. They speak to the superiority of man, and his God-given right to possess and exploit the world for his betterment. They give the reader permission to plunder all that is not man, interpreting ancient words for profit. Adam pulls books from shelves, spilling sheaves of notes, flicking through them and discarding them into the waters. Let the floods wash away those words, he thinks. Let those books become pulp. Let them remember that they were once trees, alive and thriving and heavy with leaves.” Oliver K. Langmead’s p…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 601 views
One goal of Worldbuilding for Fantasy Fans and Authors was compiling and synthesizing all the varying worldbuilding theories and best practices gleaned from fantasy authors and the worldbuilding communities. And along the way, I realized that, outside of the gaming and RPG community, very few worldbuilders take the audience’s experience into account, which was why I included several surveys in my book. Unlike authors, who have to sometimes wait years for feedback of their worlds in the form of reviews, gamers get instant feedback from the players, which helps shape the world in turn. So with that audience-focused approach in mind, welcome to Worldbuilding by the Numbers: …
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 345 views
Content warnings: Gore/blood/eating of human body parts (not overly graphic); some violence; coming to terms with new disability; recovery from trauma. When I first took a look at this book, I was prepared for a swashbuckling tale full of adventure on the high seas, and while there is plenty of piratical action and bloodthirsty merpeople, I was happily surprised to find that at its heart, this book is super soft and sweet. We follow Perle, a siren who has been captured by a pirate, Kian; when Kian’s ship is boarded by another pirate crew, Perle is rescued by the new captain, Dejean, who seems completely different from the cruel Kian. Though Perle tries to escape and retu…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 204 views
‘“I’m going to feel very weak, and you’re going to feel very dumb. But that’s how it always is in the beginning. Learning starts with failure.”’ Thomas Senlin, a newly married man, is taking his bride, Marya, on a honeymoon quite like no other. The Tower of Babel stands as the world’s greatest phenomena, with its multiple and mysterious ringdoms which rise beyond the clouds, it is a sight thousands of people flock to see on a daily basis. Each ringdom is fabled to hold unique sights, creatures, and machinery to awe the mind. Yet when Senlin and Marya finally reach the Tower, within the melee of people outside they tragically become separated. As Senlin desperately search…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 190 views
Content warnings: Death of parents (prior to book, some grieving on page); emotional abuse from family. Sensible, practical Elinor Tregarth really did plan to be the model poor relation when she moved into Hathergill Hall. She certainly never meant to kidnap her awful cousin Penelope’s pet dragon. She never expected to fall in love with the shameless – but surprisingly sweet – fortune hunter who came to court Penelope. And she never dreamed that she would have to enter into an outrageous magical charade to save her younger sisters’ futures. However, even the most brilliant scholars of 1817 England still haven’t ferreted out all the lurking secrets of rediscovered drag…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 604 views
This is an occasional series of posts drawing on my excursion into the academic side of creative writing. Having taken a career break from secondary schooling to pursue some post graduate study I’ve completed an MA in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast. I’ve now started on a PhD project at the same university with the catchy title “Navigating the mystery of future geographies in climate change fiction.” So the Hive has kindly given me space to post reviews of climate fiction books as well as blogging thoughts and articles on other aspects of my PhD experience. There are those who would argue that climate fiction is a newly emerging genre or sub-genre. Howev…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 332 views
Caroline Hardaker lives in the north east of England and writes quite a lot of things. She earned her BA (English Literature) and MA (Cultural and Heritage Studies) from Newcastle University, and her main problem is limiting herself to one idea at once, or maybe two ideas, or three… Caroline’s debut poetry collection, Bone Ovation, was published by Valley Press in 2017, and her first full length collection, Little Quakes Every Day, was published by Valley Press in November 2020. Caroline’s debut novel, Composite Creatures, will be published by Angry Robot in April 2021. It’s available to pre-order now (please do take a look!) Welcome to the Hive, Caroline. Congra…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 170 views
“An at the pairtners, futurs telt i’the wey o thir grip: ower closs or ower lowse or glydan by wi the aese o binary starns. (Ya, but thir aye another body coman on another curve tae mak a fankelt problem, an best kens whit way the calculaetions come.) and at the partners, futures toldwarned in how they hold each other: too close or too loose or gliding by with the ease of binary stars. (Yes, but there’s always another bodyperson coming on another curve to make a puzzletangled problem, and gods know whathowwherewhy the calculation will come out.)” Harry Josephine Giles is an acclaimed poet and performer from Orkney, with two award nominated poetry collectio…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 193 views
Hey everyone and welcome back to Drinkin’ with David! This time around we get to hang out with Robert VS Redick: author of Fire Sacraments (Master Assassins, Sidewinders, Siege). Any fans of desert high-fantasy should definitely give this series a shot. The prose is outstanding, the characters compelling, and the world sprawling. Check out the video below for our discussion on Redick’s drink choice, his approach to writing, and how he avoids Orientalizing his work. Robert V.S. Redick is the author of Master Assassins and Sidewinders (July 2021), the first two novels in The Fire Sacraments epic fantasy series. Master Assassins (2018) was a finalist for the European …
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 199 views
“Space is the Brink of Death” “So many ways to die on the Ragtime, so little time.” Tade Thompson’s Rosewater Trilogy established him as one of the most exciting voices in modern speculative fiction. His new novel Far From The Light Of Heaven does not disappoint. Set aboard the spaceship Ragtime, the space station Lagos and the colony world of Bloodroot, Far From The Light Of Heaven is a locked-room murder mystery set in space. Unlike much space opera, Thompson directly engages with how hostile an environment space is to the human body, ratchetting up the tension by exploring all the ways in which things can go horribly wrong in space. Add to that corporate politics, an…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 206 views
Two books to go – which will be our finalist? Just two of our six excellent semi-finalists are left in the running for our SPFBO-7 Finalist nomination. Illborn by Daniel T. Jackson and Shadows of Ivory by T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor Today we will start by posting separate reviews for both books (Shadows of Ivory at 3.00 pm BST Illborn at 3.15 pm BST) so that they both get their moment in the spotlight. Then, at 4.00 pm BST today we will post the announcement of which one we selected as our finalist. It was close. In the meantime though, please enjoy the judges’ thoughts on Illborn. Illborn Daniel T. Jackson Long ago, The Lord Aiduel emerged from the dese…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
SHADOWS OF IVORY – by T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor (SPFBO 7 Semi-finalist review)
by EditorAdmin- 0 replies
- 603 views
Two books to go – which will be our finalist? Just two of our six excellent semi-finalists are left in the running for our SPFBO-7 Finalist nomination. Illborn by Daniel T. Jackson and Shadows of Ivory by T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor Today we will start by posting separate reviews for both books (Shadows of Ivory at 3.00 pm BST Illborn at 3.15 pm BST) so that they both get their moment in the spotlight. Then, at 4.00 pm BST today we will post the announcement of which one we selected as our finalist. It was close. In the meantime though, please enjoy the judges’ thoughts on Shadows of Ivory. Shadows of Ivory T.L. Greylock and Bryce O’Connor An undying kin…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 255 views
Daniel Rigby is a BAFTA-winning actor, comedian and writer who works across theatre, TV and film. He is an acclaimed stand up and live comedy performer. Daniel’s television credits include Undercover, Big School, and Black Mirror: The Waldo Moment. In 2011, he won the Leading Actor BAFTA for his portrayal of Eric Morecambe in BBC2’s Eric and Ernie. Daniel has also worked extensively in the theatre, performing as Alan Dangle in the original cast of the hit stage show One Man, Two Guvnors, and as Ian in Holes. In 2015 Daniel starred in Dave’s first original sitcom ‘Undercover’. More recently Daniel has starred in the BBC’s ‘Watership Down’, ITV drama ‘Jericho’, and in the …
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 168 views
Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride” scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two. That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after …
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 214 views
Welcome to the Fantasy-Hive’s SPFBO 7 SEMI-FINALIST WEEK. Just to remind you our team of five judges, me (Theo), Belle, Peter, Scarlett and Calvin have spent the last five months: Sampling our batch of thirty self-published fantasy books to (at least) the 20% mark Identifying twelve* worthy quarterfinalists Running six* quarter-finals, a couple of which went to extra-time, to choose our six semi-finalists All five of us reading all of the chosen-semi-finalists All five of us putting the six semi-finalists in our own personal rank order Adding up those rankings to decide which of semi-finalists we will put forward to the next stage of SPFBO competition, joining n…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
Malcolm Devlin is the author of the collection ‘Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land’, published by Unsung Stories, and the novella, ‘And Then I Woke Up’, published by Tor.com in April 2022. His first collection, ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ also published by Unsung, was shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Saboteur Awards. He currently lives in Brisbane. Welcome back to the Hive, Malcolm. Let’s start with the basics: tell us about Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land. What can readers expect? Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land is a collection of stories with an unforgivably long title. The stories a…
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
- 0 replies
- 187 views
Content warnings: A huge amount of medical abuse and gaslighting; depictions of abusive asylums; mentions of suicide; mentions of sexual assault. I don’t tend to consider myself a huge Peter Pan fan – I don’t dislike it as a story at all, but there are people who just adore it and I’m more on the ‘general liking’ side! That being said, I seem to have read more than my fair share of reinterpretations of it, and I was tempted into a review copy of Wendy, Darling by the promise of a book that focused on Wendy as a mother, trying to prevent her daughter being swept up into the same cycle she experienced. And wow, did this book achieve that wonderfully. This is a skilful blend…
Last reply by EditorAdmin,
ALGONKIAN SUCCESS STORIES
WTF is Wrong With Stephen King?
-
AAC Content Stream
-
-
-
-
-
0
The Usherette (Historical Fiction). Meeting Orson Welles
Scene: Chapter Four. Jo returns to New York from visiting Madeleine in Florida after receiving a telegram from Orson Welles asking to meet. He wants to premiere "Citizen Kane" at the Palace Theater and needs someone to show him around. The scene captures Jo's passions and core decency - and why the movies matter to her. He wanted to meet at midnight.docx -
-
-
-
0
Demystifying the Blog Tour: A Powerful Marketing Tool for Your Book Launch and Beyond
A blog tour is a marketing campaign that involves coordinating a series of blog posts and online promotions to create buzz and generate exposure for your book. It typically involves collaborating with bloggers and influencers who have an audience that aligns with your target readership. These bloggers will read your book, write reviews, host author interviews, and feature guest posts or excerpts from your book on their blogs. The goal is to reach a wider audience and generate interest in your book within their established community. The Blog Tour Framework Here's a breakdown of the framework for a typical blog tour: Identify and contact bloggers: Research and compile a list of relevant bloggers who cater to your book's genre or niche. Reach out to them via email or through their website's contact form, expressing interest in collaborating on a blog tour. Provide review copies: Offer a digital or physical copy of your book to the interested bloggers, allowing them time to read and review it before the tour begins. Create tour schedule: Coordinate with the participating bloggers to create a schedule for the tour. Each blogger will have a designated day to feature your book on their blog and share their review, interview, guest post, or any other agreed-upon content. Create content: Prepare author interviews, guest posts, or excerpts that you can provide to the bloggers to publish on their respective blogs. These pieces of content should be engaging and relevant to your book, enticing readers to learn more about it. Promote: As the blog tour progresses, actively promote each blog post across your own social media channels and any other platforms you use. This will help generate more visibility and encourage your existing followers to visit the blogs hosting your content. Engage with readers: Throughout the blog tour, make an effort to engage with readers who leave comments on the blog posts. Responding to their comments and answering their questions will help build a connection and potentially lead to more interest in your book. Blog Tour Benefits The benefits of a blog tour can be significant for your book launch or generating interest long after your book has been released. Some potential advantages include: Increased exposure: By leveraging the established audiences of bloggers and influencers, you can reach a wider audience that may not have been aware of your book otherwise. Social proof: Positive reviews and endorsements from bloggers can lend credibility to your book, encouraging readers to take a chance on it. Networking opportunities: Collaborating with bloggers and influencers can expand your network within the literary community, opening doors to potential future partnerships or opportunities. Enhanced online presence: The blog tour generates online content related to your book, increasing your online presence and searchability, which can have long-term benefits for your author platform. When to Plan a Blog Tour Determining the best time to have a blog tour for your book largely depends on your specific goals, timeline, and the nature of your book. However, there are a few general considerations to keep in mind when planning the timing of your blog tour: Book launch date: Ideally, you'll want to schedule your blog tour around your book's launch date. This ensures that the tour generates maximum buzz and attention during the critical period when your book becomes available to the public; however, a book tour can also help reignite interest in your book long after it’s been published.. Pre-launch promotion: Consider starting your blog tour a few weeks before your book's official launch. This gives bloggers and influencers ample time to read and review your book, and it allows you to generate buzz and anticipation leading up to the release. Pre-launch promotion can help build excitement and generate pre-orders or early sales. Availability of review copies: Ensure that you have review copies of your book available and ready to send out to bloggers well in advance of the blog tour start date. This allows sufficient time for bloggers to read the book and prepare their content for the tour. Consider providing digital copies for ease and quick distribution. Audience availability: Take into account the preferences and availability of your target audience. If your book caters to a specific season, genre, or holiday, it might be beneficial to align your blog tour with that theme or timeframe. For example, a romance novel might benefit from a blog tour around Valentine's Day. Other marketing efforts: Consider coordinating your blog tour with other marketing initiatives you have planned. This could include social media campaigns, advertising, or other promotional activities. A coordinated approach can amplify your book's visibility and impact. Blogger availability: Reach out to bloggers and influencers well in advance to secure their participation and confirm their availability for the tour. Keep in mind that popular bloggers may have busy schedules, so it's beneficial to plan ahead and be flexible with scheduling to accommodate their availability. Ultimately, the best time for a blog tour is when you have everything in place, including review copies, promotional materials, and a solid plan for engaging with bloggers and readers throughout the tour. Take the time to strategically plan and execute your blog tour to maximize its impact on your book launch or relaunch. Did you know WOW! Women on Writing offers blog tours as part of our marketing services? If you're interested in exploring professional assistance for your blog tour and other book marketing endeavors, check out WOW! Women on Writing's book marketing packages. We offer comprehensive and tailored solutions to help authors like you navigate the world of book promotion. Our team of experts can guide you through the process, provide valuable insights, and connect you with influential bloggers and reviewers in your genre. By leveraging the expertise and network of WOW! Women on Writing, you can enhance the effectiveness of your blog tour and ensure your book receives the attention it deserves. Learn more here or contact blogtour@wow-womenonwriting.com with questions. (C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Enter the Quarterly Writing Contests. Open Now![url={url}]View the full article[/url] -
0
Whatcha Reading? May 2023, Part Two
It’s time to wrap up May with our second Whatcha Reading! It’s also Memorial Day weekend in the States, which seems like a perfect excuse to get even more reading done before the month is over. Sneezy: I’m reading Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin. She takes no prisoners. Sarah: What’s that? The library has the next Veronica Speedwell audiobook? Don’t mind if I do! Currently listening to A Murderous Relation ( A | BN | K | AB ) and having a splendid time. The audiobook performance by Angele Masters is terrific. A | BN | KShana: I just finished a YA romcom that gave me the biggest book hangover, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert. So much banter and sweetness! I’m now reading The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older, and liking it so far. Elyse: I just finished The Daydreams. ( A | BN | K ) Some of it was how awful tabloids were to young female stars in the aughts (Lindsay, Britney etc), but each of the main characters does something really shitty to another so it’s hard to really like any of leads. It was meh. Lara: Elyse recommended Loreth Anne White’s The Maid’s Diary ( A | BN ) and I’m hooked. No romance, but the suspense is phenomenal so far. Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments! View the full article -
1
Book Lovers: Know Your Tribe
Another fundamental that makes a whole lot of sense, esp marketing wise. -
5
Writing Hot Sex Scenes - Saints Preserve Us!
I've been trained. It works! -
1
Crucial Self-Editing Techniques - Don't be Hostage to a Line Editor
If you knew how many writers this has positively impacted, you'd say, it's no wonder. Fundamentals like this are too often neglected. -
0
Podcast 564, Your Transcript has Bunny Ears
The transcript for Podcast 564. Bunny Aliens in Space: Cover Design with JL Logosz has been posted! This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks. ❤ Click here to subscribe to The Podcast → View the full article -
-
0
Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener Doesn’t See the Forest for the Trees
Master Gardener is the third in Paul Schrader’s “God’s Lonely Men” trilogy, in each film of which a weary middle-aged man who has previously experienced alienation from mainstream society contends with his haunted past and hazy future, reflecting on these things, and his rote daily existence, via diary-keeping—a technique that suffices until his world is challenged by knowledge of something greater, and tested by a newfound bond with a distressed young person. Via these characters, the films in this trilogy tend to pair and interrogate the relationship between two normally unrelated topics: religion and climate change (First Reformed, 2017), gambling and the War on Terror (The Card Counter, 2021), and horticulture and racism (Master Gardener, 2022). Schrader is an accomplished, highly literary storyteller and his interests (particularly the the masculine-coded concepts of destruction and violence) have produced some of film’s most fascinating inquiries into the ills of modern society, from Taxi Driver to Affliction to American Gigolo, to First Reformed and The Card Counter. First a film critic and then a screenwriter (responsible for classics like Raging Bull and Obsession and famous for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma), Schrader’s later work as a director is epitomized by the triad of films about “God’s Lonely Men,” three anti-social anti-heroes in crisis: a self-loathing pastor, a troubled gambler, and a secretive gardener, all reckoning with the sudden collision of themes, lives, selves once kept at a distance. Many of his protagonists, but especially these three, can be read as homages to Alain Delon’s Jef Costello in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film Le Samouraï: cool, reserved, highly-competent professionals whose whose adherence to rituals and observances leaves them unprepared to confront unforeseen cataclysms. It’s almost never useful to compare films in a director’s oeuvre to one another; despite similarities, each is its own discreet contribution. But Schrader’s films are designed to reference each other—or, really, The Card Counter and Master Gardener are designed to reference First Reformed—so please forgive me while I place them all side-by-side for a moment. In First Reformed, Ethan Hawke plays Ernst Toller (no, not that Ernst Toller), a cheerless reverend at a small antique church upstate who keeps a diary of his own stark life the year he happens to encounter a distraught climate activist who opens his eyes to the ravishment of God’s green earth by greedy corporations, as well as the ways God’s own church is influenced by corporatization to the point of disregarding the stewardship of the planet. That film, a simmering hagiography of a soul in turmoil, provides the blueprint for Schrader’s subsequent two films, not only thematically, but also stylistically, in the terms I mentioned in the opening paragraph. The films are dark, lonely meditations into their protagonists’ natures, told via their floridly-written, allusion-rich journal entries, as they finally confront aspects of their lives and their worlds they have kept at bay for so long. The Card Counter inherits the framework of First Reformed, but reworks it enough for it to feel distinct; Oscar Isaac plays William Tell (no, not that William Tell), a former military interrogator and now card-counter, who carpetbags from casino to casino, living out of austere motels, until he meets a young man who informs him that he knows his true identity, as a soldier who served jailtime for his role in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and asks for his help committing an act of revenge against one of Tell’s military superiors. This film slowly explores the human capacity for both empathy and cruelty, teasing out the relationship between “keeping one’s cool” and “losing it.” I don’t have as conclusive a reading of the forces at work Master Gardener, arguably the film in this trilogy with the toughest conceit. Joel Edgerton plays Narval Roth, a taciturn head gardener of Gracewood Gardens, a privately-owned estate with gardens that are open to the public. Narval manages a team of polo-clad young people, overseeing their work but also instructing them in the history, philosophy, and science of horticulture. He answers to no one, except Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver), the wealthy owner of the estate, who throws his carefully cultivated world out of order when she demands he take on an apprentice, her grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell). Maya is biracial, the daughter of the “wayward” daughter of Norma’s sister, who left the family and “fell in with a bad crowd,” as Norma purrs. Maya seems to be her only relative left, so she is eager to draw her into the family—but not enough that she doesn’t insist that she work on the family’s land, first. Maya is a curious, intelligent twenty-something, surprisingly accepting of the fact that she’s a minimum wage worker on her great aunt’s estate. Norma wants Narval to educate her, teach her about the maintenance and culture and theories of horticulture, so that she might be able to pursue a career in the field in the future. Maya takes kindly to this earthy finishing school, especially because she appreciates the softspoken and passionate manner of Narval, her teacher. The movie appears to take place in the South (it was filmed in Louisiana), and the house looks like a plantation estate, so it seems like there might be some interesting explorations into contemporary white supremacy, the way Norma insists that Maya be fashioned into a more refined version of herself in order to be welcomed into her family tree, and simultaneously wants this self-improvement to take place as a farm-worker beneath her, and literally in the dirt. But the film wobbles from here on out, mostly because we learn about the haunted, Narval’s past as a soldier of a Neo-Nazi army, before turning state’s evidence against them and going into witness protection. Under his clothes, he is covered in White Pride and Hitler-fandom tattoos, which he looks at disparagingly in the mirror. He likes his current life as a peaceful caretaker of the Gracewood Gardens, is glad to have distanced himself from the silo of racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and violence in which (he explains) he was raised. That Maya and Narval form a bond, while he also has flashbacks to things that his proud boy/hillbilly cult leader told him about how his job is to “pull out the weeds,” suggests that Master Gardener will become a thriller about the insidiousness of white supremacy, juxtaposing it with a reading of gardening as a kind of fascism (or at least, a way to disguise it). In other words, perhaps Narval’s solitary salvation in gardening for a racist white lady becomes an outlet for the very impulses that allowed him to thrive in a fascist cult in the first place. Master Gardener doesn’t till this ground, though, which is fine, but it also doesn’t do anything else productive with all of these rich, ripe, and (productively) thorny thematic concerns. What begins as an incredibly fruitful plot soon wilts and shrivels into a wandering love story; and the kind of discipline and restraint that Narvals brings to his gardening becomes, exactly, the element missing from the story itself. Master Gardener quickly forgets its powerful portrayals about white supremacy and racism when it becomes interested in whether or not its protagonist can be redeemed, can be saved, and, in giving him some way to carry this out, represents Maya as needing to be saved by someone, too. If this narrative shoot were to blossom into a meaningful development (unlikely as it is), we would need a clearer understanding of Narval’s life or background, a focused explaining of how he has come to be changed in the first place. But more importantly, this whole angle not only misses out on saying anything thoughtful about race in America, but also robs Maya of the opportunity to be more than a plot device, perhaps (especially in light of Swindell’s elegant performance), the greatest sin of all. What results is a confusing film, overgrown in some areas and under-seeded in others. Instead of becoming as thoughtful and risky an exploration as The Card Counter, Master Gardener becomes like a game of 52-card pickup. It’s as if Schrader has a deck of cards and instead of laying them out strategically, throws them all in the air and lets them come down where they will. Instead of become the focused sermon of First Reformed, Master Gardener becomes one of those themed themed refrigerator poem packs. It has a lot of terms on the table, but shuffles them around until they say almost absolutely nothing. View the full article
-
