Book Review: Scum of the Earth by Alexander C. Kane

Scum of the Earth by Alexander C. Kane

Ezra Barker is an assistant to The Senator, the woman in charge of a section in the middle of what used to be the United States. The Merg, a hostile alien race, came and conquered. They are now extracting any and all valuable resources from the planet (which they call "Merg 12") with the promise that they will leave behind a human utopia when they are done. Barker is a collaborator who signed on early to save his own skin. He's really good at his job, handling paperwork and scheduling and managing minor situations for The Senator. His life is disrupted by two things. The Merg have a "visitor" coming and he is assigned to review safety procedures for the route from the landing site to the heart of Zero City (formerly known as Chicago). His other disruption is a woman who brushes her hair in a window across the street from his apartment. She lives in a workers' tenement, so she probably has unenviable mine work. He is smitten with her though she is completely unaware.

After he does the route inspection, he has more knowledge than is good for him, so the Merg plan to eliminate him. But the woman drops her brush out her window, giving him the chance to meet her. Once they are together on the street, a car drives up and kidnaps him. She was part of the resistance movement that needs him for their next big plan involving, you guessed it, the visitor.

The story has a tricky balancing act giving a rather undesirable hero sympathy. He's intelligent and a survivor, skills that have put him on the anti-humanity side, though all the rhetoric from the Merg is about how great things are and will be once they have left. After being kidnapped, he's pretty quick to help out the resistance though the woman has no interest in him at all. 

Enough side characters are thrown in to keep things interesting and to present different ways of collaborating and resisting. The Senator is a typical politician, telling people what they want to hear and generally being able to read a situation and charm/persuade people and Merg to do her bidding. Some lower-level cops are fully invested in the Merg propaganda, making them natural antagonists to Barker and the resistance. The resistance characters are a loose collection of people with varying degrees of competence and commitment. 

The characters have a lot of Orwellian "double think" going on. The Senator is described as able to believe two contradictory ideas are true at the same time. Others believe in the Merg's promises or in their own ability to make a bad situation better, even when they have almost no control over what happens to them. Even though the book is very comedic, it sneaks in some more serious ideas about how people deal with the worst situations, often in very different ways. I found it surprisingly satisfying as a comedy and a drama about an alien invasion.

Recommended.

This book is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #358. Check it out!

TV Review: Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight (2025)

Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight (2025) created by Alain Chabat based on the comics by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo

This CGI-animated short series (5 episodes that are 30-40 minutes each) tells the tale of another attempt by Caesar's Romans to take over the last independent village in Gaul. The Romans haven't conquered it because the village druid, Panoramix, has invented a potion that temporarily gives the villagers superhuman strength. One villager, Obelix, fell into a pot of potion as a child and permanently has super-strength. He's a menhir merchant, selling large stones (like the ones at Stonehenge). The villagers are tough and regularly beat any legion that comes to conquer.

The Roman plan is two-fold. First, they kidnap Panoramix so the villagers won't have the potion. Second, they get one of the other Gaulish chiefs to challenge village chief Vitalstatistix. The Gauls have an ancient law that one chief can challenge another to combat and whoever is victorious becomes chief of both villages (the titular Big Fight). Without the potion, Vitalstatistix (a chubby little fellow) is sure to lose. Caesar himself comes from Rome to witness the ultimate triumph of the Romans.

The story is based on one of the original comics by Goscinny and Uderzo, but this version throws in a lot of other stuff. The flashback story of Obelix's accident is shown. The big fight at the end has the Romans building an arena and fun fair for the event, enabling them to make fun of sports commentators and Disneyland. The creators of the show throw in some new characters with punny names, like Tenmillionclix (whose name gets changed to Tenmillionviyus to be more Roman), Annabarbera, and Fastanefurius. The usual puns and comic interactions work really well with the animated style. This series captures the fun and entertaining spirit of the original comics.

The series was made in French and I watched with subtitles but there is an English-dubbed version. As I write (June 2025), this is only available streaming on Netflix.

Recommended, highly for Asterix fans.

Book Review: God's'Dog Vol. 2 by J. Pageau et al.

God's'Dog Volume 2: Warrior written by Jonathan Pageau and Matthieu Pageau, adapted and drawn by Matthew Sheean and Jesse White

See my review of the first volume here!

The pilgrims continue their journey to Jerusalem but have to contend with their uneasy relationship with Reprobus, the talking dog-headed creature that some think is a monster and some think is redeemable. The issue becomes important as more is revealed about the Skins of Adam, an ancient relic that George, the leader of the pilgrimage, has. The relic has great power and he needs to choose the next person to carry the Skins. At first, one of his fellow soldiers was his choice. But as Reprobus becomes more civil, perhaps he could be the caretaker? 

New artists take over but the style is close enough to the original to be recognizable and consistent. The storytelling bounces back and forth from exposition-heavy to image-heavy. And from the main story to the back story about the Skins. The balancing act is tricky but works here. Readers get another cliffhanger ending, so hopefully the next volume comes out soon.

Recommended.

Movie Review: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

An American Werewolf in London (1981) written and directed by John Landis

Two young Americans, David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne), are hiking in northern England when they are attacked on the moors by a beast. The locals don't admit what's really going on, even though David is killed and Jack is sent off to a London hospital. Jack finally wakes up three weeks later. He's told they were attacked by a lunatic, which he flatly denies. Jack starts having horrible dreams and waking visions of a slowly decomposing David, who tells him he's become a werewolf and needs to commit suicide or else he will kill others. Also, David cannot move on to the afterlife until the line of werewolves is destroyed (the creature that attacked them was killed by the local villagers). Jack has a hard time dealing with all this, though not a hard enough time that he doesn't start flirting with one of the hospital nurses, Alex (Jenny Agutter). She takes him in when he's released from the hospital and they have sex at her apartment. But the full moon is coming soon, and the pressure from the dreams and from David's reappearances starts to mount.

The movie is a classic because of the comic tone and the famous transformation scene when Jack turns into a werewolf in Alex's well-lit living room. It's a harrowing sequence and still looks great even 45 years later. Landis is able to balance the tone of the film, blending the horror pretty tightly with the comedy. Jack may not know if he is crazy or actually a werewolf but viewers remember the title so we know how doomed he is. Side characters like his doctor and his family (not sure why they couldn't make it to England in three weeks to see their comatose son?) throw some humor and pathos into the story. His nightmarish life is rough but compelling. 

Recommended, though this is not kid-friendly: in addition to the extended sex scene between Jack and Alex, the movie ends with a confrontation at a London adult theater. For some reason, they have to show what's on the screen though it is completely unnecessary.

Theater Review: Puffs by Matt Cox Presented by Pasadena Theatre Company

Puffs: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic written by Matt Cox and Presented by Pasadena Theatre Company June 6-8, 13-15 2025

As Harry Potter fans, we were intrigued to see this performance somewhat near our home. The play is about the Harry Potter Hogwarts saga, but seen from the view of the Hufflepuffs...you know, the nice student house that doesn't really excel at anything. Their most famous member was Cedric Diggory, who came to an unfortunate end in the middle of the saga. As the play is not canonical Harry Potter lore, names have been changed to protect from lawsuits. More importantly, they are changed for comic effect, because this is definitely a light-hearted look at all the shenanigans that went on at a Certain School of Magic and Magic.

The parody is quite fun. The main character here is Wayne, an orphan boy from New Mexico who gets a letter from an owl inviting him to an exclusive British school. Wayne's uncle quickly explains a lot of stuff he hasn't been told. Wayne show up and is sorted by the hat into the Puffs, not the Braves, Smarts, or Snakes. He's okay with this because it is just exciting to be a wizard and to have this fantastic fate. Surely he will be a hero! Another American, Oliver, is a math wiz, which gives him no advantages whatsoever at a school of actual wizardry. Megan is a British girl who insists she has not been properly sorted and should be with the Snakes since her mom is in magical prison for consorting with that guy they can't talk about. The story loosely follows the seven years of school at Hogwarts as this trio has a lot of encounters with Harry, who is a bit full of himself and always robs any glory that might shine on the Puffs, including not coming in last place in the house cup tournament.

The show is not entirely a comedy. The main theme is about how background or seemingly unimportant people have lives and can be significant too. Wayne, Oliver, and Megan all have ambitions (encouraged by a magic mirror that shows them what they desire) that are frustrated but they learn to shift their expectations and grow as characters through the course of the play. This bit of grounding gives the play something more to it than just an extended Saturday Night Live skit. The audience cares about the characters so the big battle at the end, with a lot of deaths, has more to it than comic elements.

My family enjoyed the play a lot. The amateur production is bolstered by the company's longevity (45 years!) and borrowed sets and props from another local production. The actors do well at their jobs though we felt Cedric should have had more presence and charm than the actor delivered. The plot moved along nicely, providing a story while skewering bits of the books and the movies.

Recommended, though obviously it will be hard to see this production if you are not local to Annapolis and are not reading this review in a timely manner. But if a production shows up in your area, give it a try!

TV Review: Severance Season 1 (2022)

Severance Season 1 (2022) created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller

Mark S. (Adam Scott) leads a team of Macrodata Refiners at Lumon Industries. He works in a sub-basement with three other employees in a room too large for their four connected cubicles. They have all undergone the Severance treatment, separating their work and home lives by surgically implanting a device in their heads. Mark comes to work as his "outie," who removes any identifying possessions and heads down an elevator. At one point on the elevator ride, his perspective shifts and he is his "innie," a worker who knows nothing of his outside life or even anything about the outside world. The innie-version has no memories of sleeping or eating or family or possessions. The team works at a seemingly mindless job of sorting sets of numbers on old-fashioned (at least to viewers' eyes) computers. Mark has just become the leader of the group after Peter has left. New employee Helly R. (Britt Lower) arrives to fill out the team. She has a hard time accepting the whole situation and is highly resistant to practically everything. Mark is uneasy about the situation and starts to explore more of the floor, finding other employees with similarly baffling tasks.

Mark Scout (the outie-version) has recently lost his wife and took the job at Lumon as a way to deal with the grief. It has not worked well and he's become curious about what actually happens in the company. Severed employees arrive at different times so they don't run into each other at work. Lumon is a very large, high-tech firm that has a lot of control of their employees and even in the town where they all live. The town is called Kier after Lumon's founder Kier Eagan (Marc Geller), an enigmatic genius of the Steve Jobs variety. Kier lived a hundred years ago but left a lot of information and guidance for the company, including founding principles that are incorporated into the work life. Mark's outie-world is rather odd too, with a pregnant sister whose husband is a self-help guru who is more like Jack Handey from Saturday Night Live than Steven Covey from Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Mark's Lumon manager (Patricia Arquette) is also (unknown to him) his next door neighbor. She has a different name and initially it is unclear whether she has had the Severance treatment or not.

The set-up of the series is very intriguing and introduces a lot of interesting questions about what is going on at Lumon. The Severance situation seems like an ideal solution for leaving work stress at work, though it does not play out that way as the series progresses. The innies are, for the most part, very unsatisfied with their lives that are only work. They don't even discuss sports or movies or tv shows or weather or any normal topics. Occasionally they speculate about their outie lives but they have no real consolations other than corporate swag and occasional treats. If they misbehave, there's a punishment room that seeks to correct their attitudes and behavior. In the town, many people protest Lumon in general and Severance in particular as a violation of human rights.

I really enjoyed the first half of this season. The situation is fascinating and figuring out what is going on is satisfying even when inconclusive. The last episode stumbles a bit with plot twists, revelations, and actions that just aren't plausible even within the world of the show. The actors do a great job with their characters and I did care for them but I have the impression that the overall story has not been thought out in detail. It reminds me of Lost, which was really great in the first few seasons but started falling apart under the weight of its own premise. 

Also, I wonder if the pseudo-profound brother-in-law character is in the show to make the rest of it seem more profound. The morality of the Severance procedure and the relationship between the innies and outies is fascinating and well worth working out. Do they constitute two separate persons? Is the innie a slave and the outie a master? Can they really develop different personalities? Those ideas and issues are more interesting to me than surprise twists about the other characters' outies.

Not really recommended. I am tempted to watch the second season to see if they work things out but I borrowed this season on DVD from the library and don't think it is worth subscribing to Apple+ for just one series that may be unsatisfactory. By the time season 2 comes out on DVD, I may have forgotten too much detail from season 1 to appreciate it fully.

Geocaching May 2025

The month started back at home (after the Florida and Virginia travels) with Manifest Destiny, Grandfather Tree Cache, and MD Cluedo 1 of 10. I am slowly working my way through the Cluedo series, based on the board game with each cache having some cards eliminating suspects, rooms, and/or weapons.

Soothing creek by Cluedo cache

Unsoothing bug on grandfather's tree!

My youngest went on a field trip to the monuments in DC and I was chosen as a chaperone. A lot of the virtual and earth caches by the monuments involve some detail work that I wasn't going to force the elementary school students to do. Luckily, The View of an "Honest Man" only required a photo, so I got one smiley on the trip.

At Lincoln Memorial

I went back to Bacon Ridge Park to find some caches and avenge some Did Not Finds because the foliage was too dense. I snagged Random Wiki Puzzle: Erie to Pittsburgh Trail, Nothing to See Here Challenge, and The Ultimate Attributes Challenge. Since I was there, I signed a couple of logs for challenges that I have not completed yet.

Bacon Bridge

Some swag

Does this really not count as something to see?

Tracking Maryland Mammals is a mystery cache that requires identifying scat to get the correct coordinates. The container is suitably decorated.

What the crap?

Agnes Deadend and SSB - Baltimore National Heritage Flag House were finds of opportunity in Baltimore during a visit for Mother's Day. The flag house is where the Fort McHenry flag was made. It is famous because it was the "Star Spangled Banner" that Francis Scott Key was inspired by for his poem that became our national anthem.

In Bowie, I made a string of discoveries: Butterfly Garden Little Free Library #101699, The Girl Scout Law, Calvin & Hobbes: #4 Snow Goons, Calvin & Hobbes: #6 Alter Egos, and The Cat Who Stole My Heart. The Calvin & Hobbes series has some in-field puzzles that I have yet to solve and a final once I have all the code words from the six caches. I also didn't sign the log for Ireland's Crazy Encryption Puzzle Tutorial #2 because the container was out of reach.

Butterfly Library has no butterflies in it

Nice container, impossible to reach without assistance

Closer to home I found Kerckhoffs #1, a mystery cache that wants finders to write a program to decrypt but I did the decrypting by hand. The cache was in an out-of-the-way place but near some shopping, so I was in the location anyway to get groceries.

A tricky one to qualify for was OCCT #30 Alphabet Soup: The Puzzle Challenge. I had to find mystery/puzzle caches that all started with different letters of the alphabet. Kerckhoffs made my last missing letter, so this cache was my find the next day. 

The next day I made a couple of finds, basing myself around Strip Mall Jumble #1: Lakeside Plaza. This mystery requires names of stores from the mall and then unscrambling certain letters into a code. Nearby I signed logs for Noah Gives It a Try, PEC#6 FORRRREEE, and LSLS #8 Rick Loves Rides. I didn't find the mystery Cured Pork Belly but I sent a photo to the cache owner for where I thought the final was. They confirmed it was right spot and let me go ahead and take credit for the cache.

Container FORRRREEE the cache

Empty GZ

Undefeated Champ! was an easier mystery find the next day. I also qualified for the Baltimore County Icon Challenge, requiring at least six different types of caches in the county. Sailor's Tattoo has some interesting folklore behind it and a tricky cache once the final coordinates are discovered. 

Next I found There's Gnome Place Like Gnome (see the cute container below), Quickest Whereigo Tour in Maryland (REALLY), and Walking Around Columbia Wilde Lake. The Whereigo was indeed quick, though I was slowed down by a stop sign that was clearly thematic.

3D-printed gnome

Why the CO picked the spot

While my wife shopped at Ikea, I went to Dunkin with my youngest and found FOFD #8: Deep Concern. The find wasn't hard (faster than getting the donuts). Next, I picked up Quarantine Matter #4, a puzzle placed during the pandemic shutdown. Then I visited my brother in Virginia and got Geo Whiz: Puzzle Cache for a New Dad which was an easy solve and find, even in the rain. 

The month ends with a grand total of 1852, with 32 found this May.