I feel myself losing Geek-Cred as I type...

I just saw something that made me happy.  Happy in a hopeful this is really going to be pretty good sort of way.  If that made any sense.

You see, I just saw a trailer for something.  Well, a movie.  And somehow I didn't know it was getting made, I had no idea who was starring in it, and I didn't have a clue who was directing it. 

Now that I know all these things, I've got the happy stomach flip of anticipation going on. 

'Just get on with it!'   I hear all the members of Monty Python saying.  But as soon as I tell you the title, I may lose all my geek-cred in one fell blow.  I don't think I should--in fact, I've got very good reasons why I shouldn't.  So just please continue reading to the end of the post instead of writing me off completely as a worthless brainless sell-out.

Thank you.

The movie is called The Host.  It is based on a book by Stephanie Meyer.  (wait for it, wait for it) The lady who wrote Twilight.

'crickets chirping.'

Yup.  I just lost a lot of people right there.

But for those of you still tuning in, let me explain.  For one, I will freely admit I've read all the Twilight books.  And guess what?  They were bad.  Bad in the sort of two-dimensional characters in teenage angsty love sort of bad.  So what?  Books like that get written all the time for teens.  They were fluff books, with the only difference being there were elements of the supernatural in them (vampires, werewolves etc).  The books are what I call Black Fluff.  (instead of the normal girly pink fluff)  Everyone needs a bit of fluff in their lives occasionally, so no harm done.  The really bad part is how famous they became.  Because they didn't deserve it.  They certainly weren't good enough.  But fame is fickle yada yada yada etc etc etc, and we ended up with legions of Twihard fans.  Yuck.

Point number two: years ago, out of curiosity, I was willing to pick up Stephanie Meyer's 'second book'  that was entitled 'The Host.'  It had a scifi premise and I was curious to see if it was as middle quality as the Twilight series.

To my very very great surprise, it was blow your socks off amazing.  Every flaw that people lambasted Stephanie Meyer with in the Twilight books was gone.  Her characters were all three-dimensional.  Her worldbuilding had serious depth--in fact, this book showed every sign of being written by someone who could actually write.  If you hadn't told me it was Stephanie Meyer, I would never have guessed it.

Let's think about that for a minute.  Meyer writes Twilight.  It's her first novel.  It's not that great, but for a first novel, it's not all that bad either.  Fast forward a couple years during which she probably receives every sort of criticism imaginable for her 'awful' books.  She's ridiculously famous now, but any one who matters in literature doesn't think very well of her.  Now, instead of sitting back on her laurels and just raking in money what does she do?  She writes another book.  One that takes into account all the nasty things said about her writing, and improves on it all.  What happens?  Not much.  Unfortunately, she's been branded as the creator of Twilight which means that anything she makes must be horrible.  Not true, world.  Not true.

I've been reading for a long time.  Not only that, but I read a lot.  Most of my first adult fiction books were scifi so I've got a decent handle on the genre.  So when I tell you The Host is actually a good book, I mean it.  It is a good book.  It deserves to be read by people who actually care about things like cohesive plot and character development.  It's still a bit more towards the teen end of things, but that hardly matters when you're reading a good book.  It's still good.

Now we come back to my original point.  I just a teaser trailer for The Host.  Not bad.  I just found out who was directing/writing it: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Andrew Niccol!!!!!!!

I have to say that again.  And with more exclamation points.

Andrew Niccol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, to 'splain quickly, Adrew Niccol is one of the most amazing writer/directors for sci fi out there.  He's responsible for The Truman Show.  Gattaca.  Simone.  (and a couple other not so great things, but he's at a 50/50 success rate, so that's pretty good). 

This man knows how to portray good characters on screen while making the world around them believable and understandable even though it's a topsy turvy world.  What more could you want for a good scifi book that deserves a wider audience?  Not much, I should think.

And the actress who's playing the lead?  Saoirse Ronan.  She of the already impressive ouvre and acting ability. 

This is no Twilight people.  This is a genuinely good book with a genuinely good chance to be a genuinely good movie.  (genuinely!)

So take a chance.  Go to the library.  Find The Host.  Read it. 

And do try your hardest to ignore the author's name on the cover.


Oh, and watch the trailer here.      :)