Four past midnight - Stephen King

I have always been fascinated by the horror and macabre genre in literature and have recently started reading the works of Stephen King, an acclaimed master of this genre. One of the best features of Kings writings are that he manages to inspire a feeling of foreboding and fear by employing psychological tactics without resorting to the usual blood and gore fest that many writers fall prey to. 'Four Past Midnight' is a collection of four novellas each dealing with different aspects of the macabre (each for one hour past midnight). Since this is a collection of four novellas, I am obliged to review them separately

1. The Langoliers - My personal favorite of this collection, 'The Langoliers' is a stunning tale that offers a refreshing and innovative twist to the concept of time travel. A motley group of ten passengers including an off duty airlines pilot, a mystery writer, a paranoid investment banker and a blind young girl with psychic powers (quite the mix) take off on a red-eye flight. When the plane passes through a time-rip, these ten people wake up from their sleep to realize that they are the only people on board and the rest of the passengers and crew have simply vanished. Any more details after this will give away the story but I can just say that this novella offers a completely new perspective on time travel and is truly unputdownable. The ending of this particular novella is also extremely novel and will have you guessing. To the credit of the author, the ten passengers are well etched out characters which is often difficult to realize within the length of a novella. If you just read one story from this collection, this has to be it.

2. Secret Window, Secret Garden - This tale modeled as a psychological thriller narrates the story of a well known author who is suddenly confronted by a man who claims that one of the authors best selling works has been plagiarized from one of his works. The tussle between the author and this person and the various lengths the both of them go to prove their point forms the basis of the story. There is also a twist in the tale at the end which can either be a stunning revelation or a damp squib (depending on your familiarity with different works of this genre). All in all, this could have been a better read had it been a little shorter as the story rambles a lot in the middle without actually moving forward. Nevertheless, it is worth a shot if you have the patience to go through it.

3. The Library Policeman - One of the two true blue horror stories in this collection, 'The Library Policeman' explores the story of Sam Peebles who is terrified of going to the library due to a traumatic childhood incident associated with the place. However, he is forced to confront his demons when he is forced to revisit the library and issue a book from an enigmatic librarian. The loss of this book and the terrifying turn of events that it leads to forms the basis of the story. As mentioned before, this is a true blue horror story and to the credit of the author, he succeeds in creating a haunting and mysterious aura in the introductory pages and then moves on to a more of a crime-thriller format. The only reason this story didn't work for me fully is that towards the end, the story looses its subtlety and takes on a more verbose and in your face approach. Although the intent for this might have been to increase the shock value, it made me a little disappointed with the story. Nevertheless, still worthy of a read.

4. The Sun Dog- Another horror story and the most disappointing one in this collection for me, "The Sun Dog" tells the story of Kevin Delavan, a teenager who gets a Polaroid camera for his birthday. However, every photo he takes with this camera always shows a dog standing in front of a fence with the position of the dog changing with every shot. The rest of the story deals with how Kevin solves the mystery of this camera and confronts the horror that the camera wants to unleash. Although the premise of the story is interesting, it fails to sustain the momentum and ends in a rather haphazard manner without giving us any real insight to the mystery behind the sun dog. Not recommended very strongly.

So, in order of preference - The Langoliers, The Library Policeman & Secret Window, Secret Garden (Tied), The Sun Dog

Brunelleschi's Dome - Ross King

I recently had the good fortune to visit Florence - the seat of the Italian renaissance. One of the key attractions of Florence and the focal point of this beautiful city is the splendid Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore or simply known as the 'Duomo'. This stunning piece of architecture is admired for its exquisite neo gothic facade and the masterful use of white, red and green marble to create a stunning texture rarely seen in a basilica. The crowning glory of this edifice is however is the dome of the basilica. This dome is the worlds largest free standing masonry dome and still stands proud dominating the panorama of Florence.

While visiting Florence and seeing the dome literally from every corner of the city, it made me wonder of the ingenuity of the people who conceived and executed this gargantuan task without the support of any modern or sophisticated machinery whatsoever. The fact that the key architect Brunelleschi was a goldsmith and had no formal training in architecture whatsoever intrigued me even more. After returning from Florence, I was looking for a good book to answer these questions and I ran across this particular book while browsing through the library catalog. I had expected a dry treatise on engineering and the different techniques employed in the construction of the dome but I was pleasantly surprised. The book does not take a dry architectural textbook approach to the subject but instead leads us gradually through the entire process with Brunelleschi himself as our guide. Beginning from his beginnings as a goldsmith, his lifelong competition with Ghiberti (another artist who made the stunning bronze baptistery doors in Florence), his ingenious and revolutionary engineering techniques that were unheard of at that time we witness the different events that shape the dome (and history as well) and rejoice with him when the dome is completed. Although there are a lot of architectural and engineering terms scattered throughout the book, these are so skilfully woven into the plot and so lucidly explained that even a layman would enjoy this volume.

So do I have any complaints with this book ? Well, the fact that this book is so enjoyable is somewhat marred by the fact that the length of the book is quite short. I had a feeling that there are several more interesting anecdotes involved in the construction of the dome which were left out of the book for reasons unknown. Anyways, that does not take anything away from the book and its author who has managed to transform a story that could have been an architecture lecture to a veritable page turner.