The Wire Ep38: The Boys of Summer.
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The Wire: End of an Era

After five seasons of heart-wrenching, cathartic drama, THE WIRE has finally come to an end. “-30-,“ the 93-minute finale, rounded out the HBO original series last night in true Dickensian style and, for one last time, proved that a television show can make movies like CRASH and TRAFFIC seem like sugar-coated slices of Hollywood Americana.

Good day Maniac readers and welcome to the Buzz. An incredibly slim release schedule for the week gives us the opportunity to, without prejudice to genre or medium, look at HBO’s THE WIRE.

But first congratulations are in order for William Gibson, Ian & Betty Ballantine, Rod Serling, and Richard Powers, who are being inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on June 21st at this year’s Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle, Washington.

Called “broadcast literature” by the Baltimore City Paper, THE WIRE has reinvented the screen portrayal of life in the metropolis, unfolding like “a great 19^th Century novel” (Jacob Weisberg, Slate Editor) to illuminate the complexities of the urban experience. Five seasons of life in Baltimore have shown us the futility of the government’s War on Drugs, the harsh realities of America’s lower-class, and the tragedy of cyclic disillusionment each generation faces as they adjust to the institutions of modern day society. And all these heady themes were delivered in an engaging, character-driven drama that made a homosexual thug likeable and a misconstrued drug trade intimately knowable.

Though heralded as the best show on television by Entertainment Weekly, Slate, and TIME magazine, THE WIRE has garnered comparatively small ratings and very few mainstream awards. With more than a little alarm Joe Klein, a political columnist for TIME magazine, responds to the show’s lack of praise by saying “THE WIRE has never won an Emmy? THE WIRE deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature!” (THE WIRE ODYSSEY, HBO).

He may not be far wrong. Through the series’ 60-episode-long journey we’ve met every living brick of Maryland’s rough concrete jungle: the McNulty’s and Bunk’s of Baltimore Police, the Carcetti’s and Royce’s of City Hall, the Omar’s and Marlowe’s of The Game. With Bubbles as our guide we’ve been to hell and back. We’ve walked the streets of an entity that, despite all of our efforts, may be irrevocably beyond repair.

But even outside the show’s unforgiving sense of realism is a work of art, a triumph of filmmaking that bucks the norm and breaks the mold. THE WIRE has always been a series that survived on word-of-mouth, and this week it had the power to hijack this column.

Slate’s editor Jacob Weisberg believes that “people are going to be watching THE WIRE in 50 years, the way they are reading Dickens 150 years later. [The show] is a document, a historical document of what it was like to live in our era.” Whether or not that will actually be the case, only time will tell, but for now let us pay our respects to one hell of a show. Rest in peace THE WIRE. 

New in Hardcover:

Tempting the Gods: The Selected Short Stories of Tanith Lee Vol. 1, Tanith Lee (Wildside Press)

A short story collection by the award-winning author of “The Birthgrave” and “The Silver Metal Lover”, the first installment of a two-volume series.

Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld Magazine, Sean Wallace & Mamatas (Wyrm Publishing)

Step into a world of wonder, epiphany and danger. From the return of old gods to the adventures of the last dragon on Earth, from quantum physics to manticores trained for the circus, this unique anthology takes readers on journeys to realms both distant and oddly familiar. Selected from the critically-acclaimed online magazine Clarkesworld, Realms collects the work of twenty-four visionary writers of short fiction.

New in Paperback:

Black Ships, Jo Graham (Orbit)

The world is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling, to earthquakes, to flood, to raiders on both land and sea. In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle. Daughter of a slave taken from fallen Troy, chosen at the age of seven to be the voice of the Lady of the Dead, it is her destiny to counsel kings. When nine black ships appear, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must decide between the life she has been destined for and the most perilous adventure: to join the remnant of her mother's people in their desperate flight. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest, and only she can dare the gates of the Underworld itself to lead him to his destiny. In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story.

Rogue Angel: Provenance, Alex Archer (Gold Eagle)

When a mysterious man orchestrates an attack on archaeologist Annja Creed and then offers her an assignment, Annja is baffled. But the mission is too intriguing for her to refuse. She must find an object that possesses a sacred and powerful secret offering atonement to anyone who uncovers it—or wreaking havoc on the world. Stolen from an ancient order of knights, the relic is now in the clutches of a band of pirates sailing the South China Sea. When a government leader threatens to destroy the pirate ship—along with the artifact—rather than let it get into the wrong hands, Annja must decide at what cost the sacred prize should be protected. Destroying it would defile history. But saving it could bring about apocalypse.

Land of the Headless, Adam Roberts (Gollancz)

Land of the Headless is set in a far future where mankind has taken his religious dogma and the divisions that result from it out into space. On a planet where society is shaped by a strict adherence to the word of God as laid out in the Old Testament and Quran a poet is accused of the rape of a woman. Found guilty he must face the punishment laid down in the Good Book: beheading. Beheaded, he is fitted with a neck valve, ordinator and basic sensory equipment and sent out into the world. But he bears a terrible and very visible stigma. The only way he can make a living is to join the army and serve in the war against the neighboring planet. And plan his revenge against the man he believes is really guilty...

Desert Kings, James Axler (Gold Eagle)

More than a century past the fiery dawn of post-nuclear America, Ryan Cawdor and his companions journey across a land lost yet reborn. Though hope lingers under the blood and the dust, looking blindly toward teh future is the surest way to get killed. Staying hard and cold for today is the only way to survive... Traversing the terrain of Utah, Ryan Cawdor and his warrior survivalists find new evidence that the past is alive and dangerous -- with a score to settle. Once before they'd battled and destroyed the brilliant and cunning cyborg know as Delphi, but he's reborn and ready to continue his drive for domination. And he's eager for the keys to the kingdom that only the legendary Deathlands survivors --and their secrets-- can help him attain. In the Deathlands, the only safe place is the grave.

Fear Agent: The Last Goodbye, Rick Remender, Tony Moore & Ande Parks (Dark Horse)

The origin of the last Fear Agent revealed! Fan favorite creators Rick Remender and Tony Moore reunite to tell the most pulse pounding yarn yet. Tired and broken down, trucker Heath Huston returns home after months on the road to find his troubles have only just begun as Earth is attacked by the three feuding alien races. Within hours nearly every living creature on Earth is obliterated leaving Heath and his wife Charlotte trapped in the middle of a nightmare with nowhere out.

Ten Sigmas & Other Unlikelihoods, Paul Melko (Fairwood Press, Inc.)

Paul Melko's first story collection pulls together the best of his science fiction, including the title story, "Ten Sigmas" and "Singletons in Love," both of which were reprinted in The Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois. Also in the collection is "Walls of the Universe," a short list finalist for the Nebula, Hugo and Sturgeon Awards in 2007. Several stories are set in the universe of his first novel, Singularity's Ring, from TOR Books in February 2008.

Staked, J.F. Lewis (Pocket Books)

Unrepentant. Unimpressed. And totally undead. Eric's got issues. He has short-term and long-term memory problems; he can't remember who he ate for dinner yesterday, much less how he became a vampire in the first place. His best friend, Roger, is souring on the strip club he and Eric own together. And his girlfriend, Tabitha, keeps pressuring him to turn her so she can join him in undeath. It's almost enough to put a Vlad off his appetite. Almost. Eric tries to solve one problem, only to create another: he turns Tabitha into a vampire, but finds that once he does, his desire for her fades--and her younger sister, Rachel, sure is cute. And when he kills a werewolf in self-defense, things really get out of hand. Now a pack of born-again lycanthropes is out for holy retribution, while Tabitha and Rachel have their own agendas--which may or may not include helping Eric stay in one piece. All Eric wants to do is run his strip club, drink a little blood, and be left alone. Instead, he must survive car crashes, enchanted bullets, sunlight, sex magic, and werewolves on ice--not to mention his own nasty temper and forgetfulness. Because being undead isn't easy, but it sure beats the alternative.

Before They are Hanged, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)

Bitter and merciless war is coming to the frozen north. It's bloody and dangerous and the Union army, split by politics and hamstrung by incompetence, is utterly unprepared for the slaughter that's coming. Lacking experience, training, and in some cases even weapons the army is scarcely equipped to repel Bethod's scouts, let alone the cream of his forces. In the heat-ravaged south the Gurkish are massing to assault the city of Dagoska, defended by Inquisitor Glokta. The city is braced for the inevitable defeat and massacre to come, preparations are made to make the Gurkish pay for every inch of land… but a plot is festering to hand the city to its besiegers without a fight, and the previous Inquisitor of Dagoska vanished without trace. Threatened from within and without the city, Glokta needs answers, and he needs them soon. And to the east a small band of malefactors travel to the edge of the world to reclaim a device from history - a Seed, hidden for generations - with tremendous destructive potential. A device which could put a end to war, to the army of Eaters in the South, to the invasion of Shanka from the North - but only if it can be found, and only if its power can be controlled…

Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, Ed. by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (Prime Books)

In their third critically acclaimed collection of original fairy tales for adults, World Fantasy Award-winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling present 21 new stories by some of the top names in literature today. Dark, disturbing and delightful, each story was written expressly for this superb collection of distinctly grown-up fantasy—a brilliant companion volume to Datlow and Windling's acclaimed anthologies, Snow White, Blood Red and Black Thorn, White Rose.

Alright Maniacs that’ll do it for this week’s Buzz. Check back next Monday for all the latest info on current sci fi, fantasy, and horror book releases. Questions or comments? Hit me up at Pferrara.mania@gmail.com.