Nick Kyme

Well, after a couple of days rest and recuperation, I’ve finally had a chance to recover from BL Live!

What a packed and extraordinarily busy event it turned out to be. Rather than go through what the day entailed (as I daresay a lot of other folks will be doing that and probably make a better job of it than me), I’d like to give a few shout outs to some of the people I met:

For Peter and co (sorry guys, I can’t remember your names – I met so many folks on the day, a lot of it is a bit of a blur…) – thanks for the kind words and appreciation for ‘Fires of War’.

For Xhalax/Nicola – just for your continued support and enthusiasm of all things BL really; you are something of a legend.

For Andy – something of an apology, I guess. Sorry we didn’t get chance to talk that much. Hope you enjoyed the seminars and managed to pick up a copy of Honourkeeper. Maybe I’ll see you at Games Day and I can sign it there for you…

The BLTV crew – Laurie and Josh, you guys were awesome. I hope you use some of the Salamander reading on the Youtube video, as I know lots of folks wanted to see it but missed it due to the early billing.

To the guy who brought his copy of Assault on Black Reach: The Novel (again, the name escapes me – yes, I am rubbish) – I’m really glad this was a great way in to reading about 40K for you. It’s people like you that help inspire writers like me.

Toni (aka Toni Gotrek) – the fact you came all the way from foreign shores just to be with us all is enough to recommend you, but I also want to applaud you for your intelligent questioning, dedication to BL and your kind words regarding Oathbreaker (in Spanish – I had no idea!).

The kid who brought his figure case full of miniatures – you remind me of me when I was your age. Keep reading the books young ‘un!

The other kid (same kid?) who said he was playing for Nick Kyme in the Salamander participation game – your loyalty won’t be forgotten.

The guy in the red shirt and glasses (again, sorry, crap with names) who asked me lots of questions about Salamander – your interest was much appreciated.

Everyone who passed on their kind words about the reading during the first signing session of the day – I was a little nervous and your gratitude and appreciation really made it all worthwhile.

To Ross and Rob – no BL event would be complete without you guys.

And to anyone else who spoke to me about my books on the day. If you’re not mentioned by name, then my apologies. I really did appreciate each and every one of you.

Of course, a huge thank you to all the authors, GW staff and the BL crew is also in order. Without all of them, the day would not have been nearly as successful as it was.

I wish I had some pictures, but then again the Youtube video will be up soon enough…

For anyone who missed it – shame on you. There’s always next year…

Not wishing to devote all of my upcoming posts to TV shows, I never-the-less have fallen into that bracket once more with a bit of a dissemination of my thoughts on Smallville.

Billed as Smallville: Superman, the Early Years on Channel 4 for the slightly slow of wit, for a time, Smallville is a show that purports to do just that – albeit in a slightly alternative version of the established/canon DC universe. But then Final Crisis, Kingdom Come, Red Son and a host of other books kind of do that anyway (no harm, no foul then).

For the uninitiated Smallville is a show that focuses on the exploits of Clark Kent (and not Superman at this point, all erroneous/extraneous and thankfully extinct titling conventions aside) and his closest friends, as he grows up in the small Kansas town of Smallville. There’s a healthy amount of mysteries to solve and villains to bash thanks to the narrative conceit that during the meteor show, which brought about the aforementioned Kryptonian’s arrival to rural America, a whole bunch of people got infected by meteor radiation (i.e. from Kryptonite) and developed powers/mutations. That’s how it started anyway, and this beating up of meteor freaks shtick was coupled with Clark’s infatuation and, at least at first, unrequited love for childhood sweetheart Lana Lang and a friendship with Lex Luthor of all people.

The show has been running for eight seasons now (an impressive feat, especially in the current climate) and looks set for a ninth. There have been developments along the way that have seen Lana disappear from Smallville, get together with Clark, break up, get together and ultimately break up again; Lex and Clark becoming bitter enemies (back to the status quo there then, but an intriguing journey none-the-less and one of the best draws of the earlier seasons in fact); and more of the established Superman lore finding its way into the show (think Lois Lane, Justice League, Brainiac, the Fortress of Solitude, the Daily Planet, Jim Olsen etc, etc).

Now, I’ve been watching this show since it began, way back when and I loved it. The brutal truth of the matter, though, is that from season two (still the series’ highlight if you ask me and by far the best and most consistent of the eight) things started to go a little down hill. It was gradual at first, the odd shonky episode here, the odd wacky narrative there – but it looked as if Smallville was going on a bit of a slide. Different writers came in, some very dubious with some pretty appalling ideas for storylines and it seemed like the writing was pretty much on the wall for this show.

There was a short-lived revival in interest for me in season six, which brought in the Justice League and Bizarro, and the welcome addition of Oliver Queen as a recurring character. However, by the time that card had been played (Aqua Man, the Flash and Cyborg also featured) it was season seven, and all that was on offer was the frankly awful casting of Supergirl as one of the main protagonists. This was also to be the end of the excellent Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor (what a shame he had to go out on such a lacklustre season – I think he deserved better) and the equally wonderful Lional Luther played by John Glover (who I always used to joke with my girlfriend had locks like Aslan).

I’ve got no problem with Laura Vandervoort as Kara Kent (aka Supergirl) but she was really wasted as a character and did nothing to enhance the series – in fact, she only served as a far to regress/stagnate Clark’s character as he tried to help her fit in with the humans (let’s just say the beauty pageant episode was a real low for me and the entire show…). Even appearances by Justin Hartley (as Green Arrow), Phil Morris (as John Jones/the Martian Manhunter – and the voice of Vandal Savage in the Justice League animated show, incidentally) and the simply awesome James Marsters (reprising his role as Brainiac) couldn’t dredge this up from the doldrums.

The season’s paucity in quality was further compounded by the inauspicious Writer’s Strike, which curtailed the ending and, thankfully, this fairly poor season (with only the odd highlight).

Then came season eight, something of a surprise and possible, at least at the time of its commissioning, a death knell for Smallville. A good move was securing the services of Smallville stalwart, Alison Mack (who plays the uber-geek and former Clark love interest, Chloe Sullivan). More curious, however, was the introduction of a character called Davis Bloome – a paramedic that was destined to become Superman’s deadliest nemesis and who, in the comics, actually managed to kill him, Doomsday (yes, it’s a fairly poor pun on ‘Doom’, isn’t it). Wild speculation lit up blog posts and forums across the world as fans struggled to comprehend how on earth Clark (a nascent Superman at best – who can’t even fly yet) could take on Doomsday – his fated slayer. Well, it’s a re-imagined version of the universe, so I guess that pretty much took care of that. More interestingly was how would the series would fair without its star villain, Lex Luthor and the not inconsiderable talents of the glabrous Michael Rosenbaum.

Well basically, the shows producers hedged their bets and brought in two villains to replace him: one, the corporate face of Luthorcorp, Tess Mercer (a not-so-cunning amalgamation of the names Mercy and Miss Tessmacher, two of Luthor’s old assistants from established Superman lore – the recognition/nudge/wink was nice, though) and the aforementioned Mr Bloome.

For the first few episodes (the series premiere excepted, as this went off with something of a bang, bringing back the Justice League characters and even getting Black Canary in there, who had a brief stint in one episode of the lamentable season seven), it felt a little like it had picked up where season seven left off – not good, with Tess Mercer unconvincing at the bad guy, Lois Lane and Clark getting cosier (in a sort of edgier rerun of the whole Clark-Lana/Chloe dance from earlier seasons) and way too much focus on Jimmy Olsen and Chloe’s burgeoning romance (mainly quite dull). Thankfully, Kara was gone (though she does come back in a bearable short run) as was the increasingly ridiculous Lana Lang (again, who returns – albeit briefly).

Still, it didn’t look all that great and I was starting to worry that this show was going all the way down the pipe with a whimper rather than a bang. The only really interesting elements of the narrative arc concerned Davis Bloome (a character I was very dubious about before the series started, but have since totally changed my mind about) and the whole ‘Doomsday is coming’ angle. Unfortunately, these were snippets at best and the much more dull and annoying Tess Mercer got most of the early limelight (there’s no point in setting up a character to try and replace Lex Luthor: Rosenbaum was too good; it can’t be done – so says the Smallville gospel according to Kyme) with some, possibly aborted, hints towards her setting up some kind of Injustice Gang style group of disaffected teens to challenge Clark and raise merry hell, presumably.

However, come the second half of the season and Davis Bloome’s character (played exceptionally well by Sam Witwer) st
arts to get much more airtime, as does the Doomsday aspect to the story. This proved to be a fascinating and compelling way to build up to the mid-season break with Davis finally obtaining his superhuman invincibility and much presaging of his evil/destructive destiny.

Roll one episode one after the mid-season and I’m hooked. The show is currently airing on E4 and there’s another instalment tonight, but I cannot wait to see it. I’ve gone from Smallville apathy to eager fanboyism in a matter of three episodes. For the first time a couple of episodes ago, we got our first sneaky peak of the beast itself. Now, I’ll confess, I thought this would look like crap but far from it. Wisely, the show’s producers/writers only showed Doomsday in shadow and within the context of an excellent episode that began with a harrowing piece of camcorder footage at Chloe and Jimmy’s wedding that saw the ultimate grey-skinned, thorny-browed party crasher wreaking absolute carnage and capping shreddies left, right and centre – let’s just say, it got my attention. There were even some pretty poignant ‘moments’ between Clark and Lois that brought their character arc on nicely (no more resets please). What a stunning episode with a conclusion that had me gaping for more – Doomsday abducting Chloe and taking her to the fortress of solitude, which is corrupted by Brainiac, who then infests Chloe as his host. Phew!

On rolls the next instalment and I’m eagerly awaiting more – lo and behold, the show’s producers/writers do it again. They bring in the Legion of Superheroes (straight from the future), ostensibly to warn Clark about Doomsday and to help him defeat Brainiac (currently ‘wearing’ Chloe’s body, which makes for a sticky strategy meeting concerning how to achieve victory without killing Clark’s best friend in the process). This could have been handled badly, it certainly has all the ingredients of a recipe for disaster, but it worked. The Legion’s roll was very well done, and their reluctance to say too much to Clark about his future and what he would eventually become was really quite interesting, as well as opening up the playing field for some fan-pleasing nods to more Superman lore. Best of all though was Alison Mack doing her turn as the Brain Interactive Construct. Complete with blood-stained wedding dress, washed out pallor and freaky, machine eyes, Mack was simply awesome as the villain. I always wondered how they’d write her character of Chloe out of the show (that’s assuming they do, of course) – maybe her being taken over by Brainiac again and Clark having to destroy her after all is the way they’ll do it. Certainly, some of the dialogue between them when Chloe is restored to her old self suggested this. Intriguing…

So, unlike Heroes, which continues to stink and is still showing no further signs of improvement (last night’s episode of BBC2 was pretty lacklustre again), Smallville seems to have caught something of a wave and is riding it for as long as the surf lasts. I sincerely hope it continues in this vein – oh, and a special mention must go to Geoff Johns (comic writer supremo who was part of the team that penned the simply compelling 52 series) who wrote the previous episode. Mr Johns, could you write all of the Smallville episodes from this point please?

Looking forward to tonight’s episode greatly (and if IMDB is to be believed, the character of Zatanna is also set to appear in the show – one of my favourites from the Batman/Justice League animated shows). No wonder the ratings are back up and Smallville’s pitching for a ninth season.

Up, up and away!

I’ve tried to deny it. Over the last few weeks of the series, tuning in increasingly less eagerly every Monday, I’ve wanted to like it, to believe that it’ll get better and recapture some of its past glories but what the hell has happened to Heroes?

I mean, seriously, this is a show that is really starting to stink. The diabolical Mutant X is even starting to look comparative in terms of quality – man, I never thought I see myself writing that!

Heroes began in 2006 to a slow-building wave of popularity that became a phenomenon. Not just a series about super heroes but a show about people, with a stunning narrative and compulsive drama to boot.

I have the season one boxed set in front of me. It’s a nice looking box, it’s shiny and impressive – just like the season itself. Heroes took on a flavour and built a fanbase that transcended the geek fraternity and spoke to something that tapped into the zeitgeist of the time.

‘Propulsive, surprising, and emotionally charged storytelling’ – that’s what the quote reads on the back. It’s from Jeff Jenson, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly. What would Jeff make of the current state of affairs in the Heroes franchise, I wonder. I doubt there’d be as many plaudits.

By the time season two came around there was a lot of anticipation after the heroics of the phenomenal opening chapter. So the ill-timed Writers’ Strike took the wind out of its sails a little and maybe dented the ambitions of creator, Tim Kring and his writing team. It’s true, there was compromise needed to round the season off with a shorter amount of episodes. That didn’t help, but there was a lot to recommend season two. I maintain that it was actually pretty good.

I think part of the problem was living up to the previous series. It’s like second album syndrome or something. You’re going to get judged by what came before and if that is ‘propulsive’ and ‘emotionally charged’, winner of as many superlatives as you can shake at a TV show, you’re inevitably going to fall short of such a high mark. It would have been nothing short of a miracle to live up to that. The mistake was, I think, for the show’s creators that they effectively threw away everything they had done in season two and pressed the Heroes reset button.

What happened to the ‘mutant plague’ that so ravaged the alternate future? That was an interesting storyline and something that was foregrounded in season one. What about the muscle memory girl – she was a cool character, not just an X-Men rip off. I liked Adam Monroe as a villain and he was just thrown away in the opening few episodes of season three – killed off by Nathan and Peter’s megalomaniac father (who pretty much adopted the Sylar role from season one, just not as compellingly). Okay, so the Irish accents were pretty awful (hire Irish actors next time, there’s got to be some in America right?), but the storyline worked okay. Sure, there was a lot that didn’t quite work with season two and, yes, it was slow at times but that doesn’t mean it should be discarded.

This perceived slowness that was one of the main criticisms of season two, seems to have informed the decision making process for the equally, if not more, troubled season three. It just seems a strange strategy to me – ‘If it’s pace that’s a problem, let’s ramp up the plot-omater to the max!’ So, instead of a slower, more considered storyline we get a baffling, ‘thrill ride’ that fails to build or develop with any satisfaction, throws away interesting narratives for the sake of resolving them in one or two episodes and attempts to end every episode of a 24-style improbable cliffhanger. Throw in the fact that the core of the season focused on a nebulous ‘formula’ and then a ‘catalyst’ (which, yawningly predictably, was Clare) and you’ve got a show that is starting to look pretty desperate. ‘Look! We’ve still got it. It’s fast paced, it’s awesome, you don’t know what’s happening from one scene to the next!’ Too true. Despite Greg Grunburg’s annoying enthusiastic patter about how ‘blown away’ all the cast were about season three’s episodes falling into their laps, I wasn’t convinced. Sorry Greg.

I read something about how the whole catalyst and formula thing failed so badly because there’s no emotional connection it. Not like in season one which had that immortal line ‘Save the cheerleader, save the world’. Where has that snappy storytelling gone? I reckon they should tap up the writers from Dexter or Crime Scene Investigation to pen a few episodes; maybe that would change the show’s fortunes.

By the end of season three (which, in cold light of day retrospect was pretty bad), I was still a believer. I really was. So, I still had hope for the fourth installment. I was actually quite excited when I watched the preview at the end of ‘Villains’ – a kind of ‘Days of Future Past’ style set up with our protagonists hunted by a black ops government agency, and all sanctioned by the White House. Promising.

How wrong could I have been. Mohinder’s degeneration into a human spider glossed over and tucked away (again, fascinating stuff that should have been exploited – instead, he’s just a boring super-strength, angsty ex-scientist, on the run with Grunburg and co). And, man, am I getting tired of Clare Bennett. Is it me or is Hayden Panettiere starting to believe her own hype. It certainly looks that way.

Poor old Peter, so integral to the first season and still remotely interesting in season two, has lost all of his powers but somehow retained his ‘abilities empathy’ shtick albeit in a form more akin to Rogue of the X-Men, in that he can’t keep a power but swaps it for the next time he attains one. I liked the fact that Sylar and Peter were delicately poised as opposite sides of the same coin in book one, effectively ability sponges; one taking his powers by killing the original bearer, the other doing it by being near to them.

Having two such uber-super powered individuals roaming around would be difficult to handle (who could stop them and what significance would the other heroes have in that scenario?) but don’t just rob them of their abilities for the purposes of an easy narrative. Build it in, make it an integral part of the story (let’s just say writing in that Peter’s father steals his powers after he gives him a fatherly hug is lame and lazy).

So, season four rolls on and I’m still watching, but Heroes can rest on the laurels of its earlier successes no longer. Good stories, well told, well acted. They should be logical and not repetitive (and how I am sick of the repeated storylines, even within the same episode characters go back and forth to a single location, the same storytelling device employed each time to destruction and often to no significant end).

Let’s just hope it gets better or Heroes might not be gracing our screens for another season…

After a long, hard slog I finished the first draft of Salamander last night.

There’s still a little honing and editing to do, plus incorporating any feedback/comments that my editor makes, but the words are in the bag and I am one relieved writer.

I was only saying to Louise last night that this has been the toughest book I’ve ever had to write – it also feels like the longest it terms of the time it’s taken me to get it done. By the end, I like to think that everything came together very satisfyingly and sets things up for a sequel, which I’m already planning (my moleskine notebook is literally crammed with material on volumes two and three of what is going to be called ‘The Tome of Fire’ trilogy).

At this point, I just want to thank again everyone who has posted on the blog or spoken to me at conventions etc about the book, offering their advice, support and general good will – it is all very much appreciated. I don’t think I good have gone on and written this book in the way I have if it weren’t for all of you.

A special shout out must go to Brother Argos and Brother Pyriel, who were there with me right from the start as devoted and highly knowledgeable Salamander fans and gamers – you I want to impress most of all. You will both be honoured in the novel as characters within the Third Company.

Now, I just have to wait and see what the fan reaction will be to Fires of War, the Salamander short story/novella which features in Heroes of the Space Marines. I’ve heard some nice rumblings from the Games Workshop Design Studio about the story, so I’m hoping it’ll go down well.

Channel 5, around 9.56pm GMT was a sad place to be yesterday evening. It was the day when C.S.I’s Gill Grissom left for good at end the conclusion of an excellent two-part episode in this superb series.

Looking back over the eight (nine?) years of the show’s run (and counting, by the way, a new man will step into Grissom’s shoes, if not his role directly – more on that in a short while), I can safely say that C.S.I (aka Crime Scene Investigation) has been one of the most consistent shows on TV during its esteemed tenure.

There’s a lot to be said for the original often being the best and in my opinion C.S.I does not buck that trend, it merely reinforces it. Resisting the urge in the face of its lesser spawnings, C.S.I Miami and C.S.I New York, to re-label itself C.S.I Vegas, the show that’s set in the city of vice has gone on from strength to strength.

It was always a danger to introduce two new spin-offs; the chance that they might dilute the purity of a show that has gone on, in its way, to define and focus American crime drama for a new generation, was always possible but after some initial interest the latter shows eventually waned, establishing the original C.S.I as the daddy.

It’s true, the story lines set in Vegas had to up the ante beyond the remit of the casino glitz and corrupt mob bosses that started to become overly prevalent in the mid-seasons. The writers achieved this spectacularly with the Miniature Killer, a bizarre and disturbing serial murderer case in which the aforementioned killer made miniature crime scenes depicting precisely and in exacting detail the position of the victim in their surrounding and their cause of death, that strung itself out wonderfully over an entire glorious season that culminated in one of the best TV cliffhangers of all time when fellow C.S.I Sarah Sidle was left injured and trapped underneath an overturned car in the desert, the capricious rains of Nevada falling and flooding the ground ominously. Couple this with the anguish of the nascent relationship between Gill and Sarah, and this was emotional drama at its height.

There are dozens of other highlights that preceded and followed, even if the Miniature Killer season (number seven and well worth watching, if you haven’t already done so)was a defining mark in the C.S.I chronology (even better than the double episode where Nick Stokes gets captured and buried alive -dangerous work this crime scene investigation lark). Who could forget the dramatic and heart-wrenching death of Warwick Brown, one of the most emotionally invested characters in the show. His murder at the hands of the then under sheriff sent shockwaves throughout the team and the series that had already seen Sarah Sidle burned out and forced to hang up her luminol – it was inevitable, given the clever aftermath, that Gill would follow. Even if, as fans, we wanted to deny it.

Denial is said to be one of the stages of grief, and it feels a little like grief (albeit TV loss) as I wake up to a grey day and the rain-soaked tarmac outside my door. Of course, the world that Grissom once walked in, its cracks papered over with gaudy glitz and ephemeral glamour of Elvis’s ‘bright light city’, is far from light and airy. It was brooding and dark and vicious, and it took its toll on a man who’d found something worth living for beside the evidence and his esteemed collection of bugs.

I will miss Grissom dearly, with his quirky manner, ferocious intelligence and fatherly mien. He’s one of those characters that will be remembered and huge props must go out to the excellent William Peterson who played him so well for almost a decade. Who’d have thought he’d return to his criminalist roots (fictionally speaking) after playing the lead in Manhunter?

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Presaged in the double episode was a guest star destined to be Peterson’s (and Grissom’s) replacement. Step in Laurence Fishburne, who provided a quiet intensity the studious air that allowed him to fit right in with the rest of the team. It’s unknown yet how Fishburne (playing Dr Raymond Langston) will fare and what kind of C.S.I he’ll be (the character has a background of being a medical doctor and university professor specialising in serial killers – good credentials methinks…) – I look forward to finding out. I feel it’s a good choice and while Fishburne’s turns in the Matrix trilogy might not filter through into the show (no bullet-time, please), the charged performance he gave in the excellent Event Horizon probably will.

But this day and C.S.I, for now at least, belongs to Grissom. I’m heartily pleased he got the happy ending he deserved – it has been a long and oft trying road for him. You made C.S.I great and helped usher in an era of crime drama that has thrilled and disturbed me for almost ten years. Gil Grissom, I salute you; you’ll be sorely missed.

Viva Las Vegas.