As a kid growing up in the late-70s/early-80s, buying comic books was a rush. First of all, they were thirty cents. My parents would give me $5 to speAs a kid growing up in the late-70s/early-80s, buying comic books was a rush. First of all, they were thirty cents. My parents would give me $5 to spend at the town drug store, and I would run immediately to the magazine racks, where one whole section was devoted to comic books. I devoured anything: Wonder Woman, Thor, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Richie Rich, Archie, Jonah Hex, Hulk. Occasionally, just to scare the crap out of myself, I’d pick up a House of Mystery. (The drug store rarely carried this, mainly, I think, because the covers were lurid and always had buxom half-naked women running from a mummy or a vampire or a mer-man. The store was owned by a nice old lady who more than likely didn’t approve of those things.)
Star Wars comics were my favorite, but, for some reason, the store only carried them semi-regularly. Once every three months an issue would come in, and I would snatch it up. Never mind that the storyline didn’t make sense because I hadn’t read the previous issues. More than likely, it ended on a cliffhanger, one that would forever leave me hanging because I knew I would never get the conclusion issue. I didn’t care, though. It was Star Wars. I think I read and re-read every issue of these comics so many times that the covers fell off.
Fast forward roughly forty years: I still love comic books, but I rarely buy them anymore. (A “cheap� issue is $4.) Most of the time, I get the compilation volumes from the library. I can read five to six issues in one paperback edition, for free.
There are a few titles, though, that I will dish out money for. Recently, Marvel released their “Epic Collections� of the “Original Marvel Years�. I bought Volume 1, which included the first 23 issues of the original run that started in 1977, as well as the first 16 issues of a Marvel magazine called “Pizzazz� (which I had never heard of) that ran a 3-page serial of Star Wars.
The first six issues of the original run was an adaptation of the film, written by Roy Thomas (based on George Lucas’s screenplay) and illustrated by Howard Chaykin, plus a rotating stock of other artists. The subsequent issues were original stories, many of which are so far from canonical as to be their own Star Wars multiverse, but they are still fun. Keep in mind, Lucas hadn’t divulged any secrets about what he was planning in the sequel, or if there was even going to be a sequel. (The ridiculous mega-success of the first film almost guaranteed one.)
I would love to own all of these someday, but they can be pretty expensive. (Amazon lists the second volume at $32, and the third volume is, inexplicably, $65.)
The local library is looking better every day�
P.S. This edition is NOT the kindle edition, as it states in the format bar. It's the paperback edition, but ŷ, for some reason, doesn't have that as an option. Weird......more
I’m about to say something brutally honest and controversial: I am getting sick and tired of superhero movies.
Yeah, I said it.
Other then the recent �I’m about to say something brutally honest and controversial: I am getting sick and tired of superhero movies.
Yeah, I said it.
Other then the recent “The Marvels�, which I enjoyed immensely (three reasons: 1) Iman Vellani (Ms. Marvel) is an absolute delight to watch, 2) My daughter really dug it, being a big fan of Reason #1, and 3) It was short, clocking in at about an hour and a half, which is almost two hours shorter than the last four Marvel movies), I haven’t really liked, or been able to sit through, a majority of the more recent superhero films of late. Marvel movies used to be my go-to, but even they are getting on my nerves. (See Reason #3.) And I’ve basically given up on the DC films. I literally can’t stomach the idea of watching “The Flash�, despite the fact that my favorite Batman ever�-Michael Keaton�-plays a significant role in it.
My biggest disappointment lately was my lackluster feelings after seeing “Quantumania�, the third Ant-man movie. While I was certainly entertained by it (not gonna lie: I’ve had a man-crush on Paul Rudd for years), it didn’t excite me at the level the first two did.
I think I’m just bored with superheroes.
So, the recent publication of Scott Lang’s fictitious memoir/self-help/movie-tie-in-meant-to-boost-Disney-Plus-subscriptions, “Look Out For the Little Guy!� didn’t do it for me, which is odd, considering maybe just five years ago, I would have loved it.
It was funny. Not rip-roaringly funny, but I chuckled a few times. It couldn’t make up it’s mind whether it was a fake memoir or a fake self-help book, which just ended up being boring either way.
My wife bought this for me as a Christmas present. I really hope she didn’t spend full price for it....more
Let me preface this review by saying that I hate Batman. Which is not to say that I have always hated Batman. It’s a fairly recent thing. Probably wheLet me preface this review by saying that I hate Batman. Which is not to say that I have always hated Batman. It’s a fairly recent thing. Probably whenever Ben Affleck was hired on to play Batman, but, honestly, it was long before that. It was around the time that George Clooney played Batman in that god-awful piece of shit movie “Batman and Robin�. Clooney was awful, but Chris O’Donnell (the most boring actor in the world) was a pretty atrocious Robin, it must be noted. That film destroyed the franchise for me.
(To be fair, I liked the Christopher Nolan films, but I actually don’t like to consider them Batman movies. They are action/adventure crime thrillers that happen to feature Batman.)
The last Batman movie I loved was Tim Burton’s 1992 “Batman Returns�, partly because of Michelle Pfeiffer, who looked great in a leather skintight Catwoman suit. She and Michael Keaton also had way more sexy chemistry than he and Kim Basinger ever had in the first Burton film. Pfeiffer is, also, hands-down the best Catwoman to date. She got royally screwed out of a spin-off movie.
A third Burton Batman film was never meant to be, but in the wonderful world of “what-if?�, DC recently came out with a six-issue run entitled “Batman �89�. Writer Sam Hamm (who wrote the original Burton films) was given the chance to write the third installment of the Burton series in the form of a comic book.
Returning as Batman, of course, is Michael Keaton. Also returning is Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent. Sadly, few people recall Williams’s (too brief) part in the first film, a storyline that was clearly meant to be concluded in another film.
Thankfully, Two-Face gets his origin story in this one.
Also returning is Catwoman, although artist Joe Quinones’s Michelle Pfeiffer isn’t all that Michelle Pfeiffer-ish. It’s close but no cigar. Minor quibble, though.
This is not only the first Batman comic book I’ve read in about 20 years, it’s the first I’ve wanted to read, and it’s one that I actually liked. A lot.
I still hate Batman, though. Unless Michael Keaton decides to come back as Batman in the next film. That would be awesome� ...more
When I was a kid, my local drugstore fed my addiction for comic books. There was a huge wall-rack in the back of the store where the magazine section When I was a kid, my local drugstore fed my addiction for comic books. There was a huge wall-rack in the back of the store where the magazine section was. One whole section of the rack was devoted to comic books, about 20-30 titles. I could spend hours there. The drugstore�-a family-run place run by a nice older couple—stocked all the main superhero titles from DC and Marvel, as well as a lot of the Archie comics and miscellaneous kid’s stuff like Richie Rich, Caspar the Friendly Ghost, and Little Lulu. You know: safe stuff. You would never find Heavy Metal or Creepy in these racks, because they would never allow it.
Except one time, which I can only assume was a mere oversight on behalf of the little old lady who made the orders and did the inventory, a few issues of a magazine-size graphic novel made its way on the shelves one day. Out of curiosity, I picked it up and leafed through it. And my life would never be the same.
It was a copy of “Alien: The Illustrated Story�, written by Archie Goodwin (based on the screenplay by Dan O’Bannon) and illustrated by Walter Simonson. It was a graphic novelization of Ridley Scott’s classic horror film, published by the makers of Heavy Metal magazine..
Now, I remember seeing “Alien� the first time when I was (I think) ten years old. ABC aired it one night back in the early 1980s, and my dad let me stay up and watch it with him. It scared the living bejeezus out of me. I had nightmares for months, and I was—years later�-still looking under the bed sometimes for face-huggers that may have snuck into the house. I had a legitimate fear, every time we ate spaghetti and meatballs, that I would start having chest pains and a little alien monster would pop out of my chest onto my plate.
I wouldn’t watch the movie again until I was in high school.
But if the movie scared the crap out me, the graphic novel fucked me up for life.
Simonson’s beautiful but graphic (and Technicolor) visuals were terrifying to a ten-year-old. Okay, I’m 51, and they’re still terrifying. When I discovered that this was reissued in a new paperback edition by Titan Books, I was excited. Also, a little nervous.
I remember—way back then�-reading the graphic novel in the drugstore, cover to cover, and putting it gently back on the shelf. I took my pile of comic books I was going to purchase to the counter, where the nice old lady was waiting. As she rang up my comics, she looked down and asked, “Are you alright, young man? You look a bit pekid.�
I think I smiled and mumbled a “I’m fine.�
But I wasn’t. I so wasn’t fine. And I never would be again� ...more
In 1986, James Cameron’s “Aliens� created a new subgenre of military/sci-fi/horror/action-adventure that spawned several sequels, rip-offs, and other In 1986, James Cameron’s “Aliens� created a new subgenre of military/sci-fi/horror/action-adventure that spawned several sequels, rip-offs, and other M/SF/H/A movie franchises, such as John McTiernan’s “Predator�, which arrived in theaters a year later. Both franchises would, years later, merge successfully in an “Aliens v. Predator� smackdown series, spawning its own series of films, novels, and graphic novels. And, just in case anyone forgot that Cameron’s film was a sequel to the 1979 horror classic “Alien�, directed by Ridley Scott, Scott himself re-joined the franchise in 2015 with a prequel film, “Prometheus�, followed in 2017 with a sequel, “Alien: Covenant�.
But let’s talk about Cameron’s film, because it really was a game-changer. Besides blending multiple genres in a unique way, “Aliens� also started a trend of strong female protagonists. Ripley (played wonderfully by Sigourney Weaver) was an ass-kicking action hero who also happened to be a woman, and she never once had to give up any aspect of her femininity. On the contrary, her femininity was the very thing that fueled her “bad-ass”ness. It’s what lent her the maternal instinct to protect Newt (played by Carrie Henn), and it added some pretty powerful sexual chemistry between her and Corporal Hicks (played by Michael Biehn). Narratively, her femininity mirrored the Queen Alien (played by herself), an equally bad-ass female villain.
In 1992, author Steve Perry started a spin-off series of novels with “Aliens: Earth Hive�. Perry, well-known for science fiction with a strong military bent, seemed the perfect choice to captain the series.
None of the original characters of the film appear in “Earth Hive�, but they echo loudly throughout. Perry, apparently, was a big believer in not messing with a good formula.
Wilks, a Colonial Marine suffering from PTSD after his entire platoon was wiped out by aliens on a planet called Rim, is assigned a new mission: lead another platoon to the alien home-world, recently discovered, and wipe the entire species out of existence. It’s a suicide mission, but he’s a Marine, and he does what he’s told.
Billie, who, as a little girl, was the sole survivor of a terra-forming colony on Rim, was saved by Wilks. She’s a grown woman now, living in a mental institution. The doctors keep telling her that her nightmares aren’t real, but she suspects that they are lying.
Wilks discovers that Billie is alive and breaks her out of the institution. He also stows her away on board the military spaceship to the alien home-world.
Unbeknownst to Wilks and his fellow Marines, a bioweapons corporation on Earth has secured an alien and have brought it to Earth. The hope is to manufacture it as a new super weapon. Nothing good, of course, will come of this�
As expected, the novel is packed with plenty of action and alien mayhem. Face-huggers and exploding chests are de rigueur. There are also some fun little plot twists throughout.
Overall, Perry’s effort pays off. It’s a fast-paced, entertaining novel that will satisfy fans of Cameron’s film, and I look forward to reading more in the series....more
****Wes Craven came up with the idea for “A Nightmare on Elm Street� after reading about a real-life epidemic of mysterious sleepingDid you know that:
****Wes Craven came up with the idea for “A Nightmare on Elm Street� after reading about a real-life epidemic of mysterious sleeping deaths. Primarily occurring in males from Southeast Asia, Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS) is exactly what it sounds like: dying suddenly in one’s sleep. There are many different causes for this, including pre-existing heart disease, but Craven wondered if it couldn’t also be some strange guy in an ugly sweater with knives for hands jumping inexplicably into your subconscious and killing you in your dream. Who’s to say it isn’t?
****A real-life shark attack in Beach Haven, New Jersey in 1916 left four dead and one seriously injured. Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws� (and the Peter Benchley novel it was based on) was loosely based on this incident. Also, the story that Quint (Robert Shaw) relates in the movie about the USS Indianapolis is a true story. During World War II, in the Pacific, the U.S. battleship was sunk by a Japanese submarine. Of the crew of 1195 men, roughly 900 survived the bombing. Unfortunately, in the days that followed, the splashing and bleeding survivors attracted numerous sharks, and a feeding frenzy began. Not even four days later, when rescue finally arrived, only 316 men were left alive.
****Anthony Hopkin’s Oscar-winning performance of the sociopathic but charming Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a composite character based on three famous serial killers: a Mexican doctor named Alfredo Trevino who killed and dismembered his lover and buried the body parts in a small box; Russia’s most famous serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, who was arrested and executed for the murders (and cannibalization) of 53 women and children; and “The Monster of Florence�, an Italian serial killer alleged to have killed 14 people whose identity is still unknown today.
****The 1979 film “The Amityville Horror� was all bullshit. Based on a book by Jay Anson claiming to be a true story, the truth behind the film is even crazier. The Lutz family bought the famous house in 1975 for a great deal, mainly due to the fact that the previous owners were murdered in it. Over many nights of wine-drinking and telling wild ghost stories, the Lutzes and a lawyer named William Weber decided to have Anson write a book about their “paranormal experience� in the house. Weber admitted years later that the whole thing was “a hoax� with the sole purpose of making money. The fact that gullible people still believe that the house is haunted is testament to the fact that everybody loves a good ghost story.
These are just a few of the many cool “true stories� behind some classic horror films in Dr. Lee Mellor’s “Behind the Horror�. I could go on and on�-especially about the numerous pre-war German serial killers that formed the basis for Fritz Lang’s classic 1931 film “M: A City Searches for a Murderer� or the real-life exorcism that was the basis for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”�-but I don’t want to give all the fun away. And this book is, especially for horror fans, a lot of fun....more
Mur Lafferty’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story� is an okay novelization. It does what any good novelization should do, which is making one want to watch the Mur Lafferty’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story� is an okay novelization. It does what any good novelization should do, which is making one want to watch the movie. Lafferty’s novelization has the added bonus of being an “expanded edition�, which is basically a novelization with additional scenes that weren’t in the movie. (Some of these can be found on the “bonus features� section of the DVD, some can’t.) Some added scenes are fun, but all of them are superfluous. An added epilogue which ties characters from “Solo� to events in “Rogue One� is cool for super-geeky Star Wars fans like myself but does absolutely nothing to add to the story. I would have liked to have seen more depth and characterization, especially with the title character himself, but Lafferty basically sticks pretty close to the script, written by Jonathon and Lawrence Kasdan, with little to no deviation from what was on the screen. This is pretty much in keeping with most of the novelizations, thus far, of the recent Star Wars movies since Disney bought the rights. They’re not bad, but they’re not that great or enlightening either....more
Rae Carson's novelization of "The Rise of Skywalker" is, according to the cover, an "expanded edition". All this means, in reality, is that it includeRae Carson's novelization of "The Rise of Skywalker" is, according to the cover, an "expanded edition". All this means, in reality, is that it includes scenes or extended dialogue that never made it into the movie, for whatever reason. If this were a DVD, these would all be in the "deleted scenes" section of the menu.
It's impossible to write a book review of this without it devolving into a movie review, as it is basically Carson's rewriting of the screenplay into a readable version. She does a decent job of it, nothing more or less. It is basically the movie in book form.
I feel like I was one of the few people in the world that actually liked J.J. Abrams's "The Rise of Skywalker". It was action-packed, colorful, funny, and wrapped up the recent trilogy (and the entire series) nicely. It was a brilliant move to bring back Emperor Palpatine as the villain, in my opinion. It kind of brings the whole series full-circle.
I also thought that Carrie Fisher's death---and the posthumous scenes of Leia---were handled smartly. If you didn't know that most if not all her scenes were computer-generated, I don't think you could tell.
Like all Star Wars films, "The Rise of Skywalker" is critic-proof. One could nit-pick the shit out of it, but what's the point? Same goes for Carson's novelization. It does its job: makes one want to go back and watch the film again....more
The Marvel graphic novel adaptation of “The Force Awakens� (Chuck Wendig, writer; Luke Ross and Mark Laming, artists) adds absolutely nothing new to tThe Marvel graphic novel adaptation of “The Force Awakens� (Chuck Wendig, writer; Luke Ross and Mark Laming, artists) adds absolutely nothing new to the story that screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan, J.J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt created for the film. If anything, the adaptation points out some of the film’s flaws and imperfections which comes from the senseless overanalysis and nitpicking that a geeky fan-boy like myself is wont to do.
This is to say that the graphic novel is okay. Wendig’s adaptation is a basic by-the-numbers retread of the script, and the artwork is decent (but nowhere near as stellar as the artwork from the main title series).
If anything, this adaptation brings to mind the far superior original Marvel comic book adaptations of the original three films, especially the 1978 series written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Howard Chaykin.
Chaykin’s artwork, especially, was notewothy for the fact that he precisely did not simply draw stills and screenshots from the movie. The reason for this is that Chaykin had not seen the film and had only a few publicity stills to work with. Due to this fact, his adaptation had a distinctly different look compared to the film, almost to the point of being merely an “interpretation� of George Lucas’s film rather than just a graphic novelization.
My recommendation? Just re-watch the film version of “The Force Awakens�. Don’t bother with this mediocre graphic novel version.
Instead, go to the library or the local comic book shop and find copies of the original �70s and �80s Marvel “Star Wars� series. Yeah, they were cheesy, but they were wonderfully fun cheese, as only the '70s and '80s could do......more
Science fiction works, at its best, when it tells an entertaining story that, on its face, can be taken simply as a story but can also be looked at asScience fiction works, at its best, when it tells an entertaining story that, on its face, can be taken simply as a story but can also be looked at as a socio-political allegory of its time.
Arguably, “Star Wars� has always been more fantasy than science fiction. Its purpose was always more escapism than social commentary, but numerous authors (in the old canon Expanded Universe as well as in the new) have attempted to use “Star Wars� as a vehicle for a social message, some more successful than others.
Claudia Gray, who has written two best-selling young adult novels under the official new canon, has been quite successful in balancing a strong socio-political message with the escapist fun that makes Star Wars so popular. “Lost Stars� was a fun “Romeo & Juliet�-style love story set during the major events of the Star Wars universe, a tale of star-crossed lovers doomed from the start: one would grow up to be an Imperial officer, another would become a freedom fighter in the Rebel Alliance. “Leia� was the story of a young teenaged Alderaanian princess who was forced to give up childish things in light of the revelation that her parents were vital players in the Rebellion against the Empire.
“Bloodline�, published in 2016 almost immediately after the release of “Episode VII: The Force Awakens�, is a more grown-up novel than her previous ones. It is also the most blatant attempt to create a parallel between the events of Star Wars with our current political situation in the U.S.
The setting: roughly 10-15 years after the events of “Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi�. The Empire has been destroyed. The New Republic has taken its place, providing as close to an ideal democratic form of government across the galaxy as possible. Under the presidency of Mon Mothma, the Galactic Senate had been running relatively smoothly for nearly a decade, but ever since she stepped down, factions within the government have cropped up to create discord.
The two main factions are the Populists, who believe that individual planets should have autonomy, and the Centrists, who believe in a strong, authoritative central government.
Senator Leia Organa clearly believes in a populist form of government. She still has justifiable hatred toward the Empire and her father, Darth Vader, and she works hard at making sure that a totalitarian regime does not return. Unfortunately, she is already starting to see fissures in the bedrock of the fledgling galactic democracy that she helped create. She is thinking of retiring from the Senate when a small Outer Rim planet begs the Senate for help in investigating a sharp rise in organized crime in the area. Leia volunteers to personally investigate.
Centrist Senator Ransolm Casterfo also volunteers. The two senators butt heads immediately, but over the course of their investigation, they begin to realize that, while their political views differ, they essentially want the same thing: truth and justice. When their investigation uncovers a huge conspiracy happening under the noses of---and most likely with the assistance of---certain Centrist Senators who have nostalgia for the Empire, they quickly find themselves the target of powerful hidden forces.
To say more would be spoilers, although Gray does a stellar job of illustrating the embryonic beginnings of the First Order and how easily---and quickly---it rose to power. It also introduces the thought processes and events that would lead Leia to initiate the Resistance movement.
All of this, of course, can be seen as an obvious metaphorical examination of our own state of affairs here on Earth: the political divisiveness and governmental stalemates, the increase in racist and nationalistic philosophies as seen in the rise of Nazi sympathizers and white supremacists, the dark money powers that have had great influence on our elections and policies (Koch Bros., NRA, Russia), the anti-intellectualist and pro-wealthy paradigm shifts within society that made a Trump presidency a reality.
Gray is pretty brilliant at showing all of this without having to say any of it, which is why “Bloodline� works not just as an entertaining “Star Wars� novel but also as a decent science fiction novel....more
Daniel Jose Older’s novel “Last Shot� is disappointing, to say the least, although die-hard Star Wars fans may find a few golden moments within its paDaniel Jose Older’s novel “Last Shot� is disappointing, to say the least, although die-hard Star Wars fans may find a few golden moments within its pages. Perhaps my expectations were too high, as a novel featuring strictly Han Solo and Lando Calrissian in a post-Episode VI adventure hasn’t really been done before.
Fans may recall Brian Daley’s Han Solo Adventures trilogy, published in 1979, L.Neil Smith’s Lando Calrissian Adventures trilogy, published in 1983, and A.C. Crispin’s 1997 trilogy, none of which is now official canon. Although flawed, and in many ways inconsistent even with the “Old Canon� mythos, they were silly good fun, reminiscent of the early sci-fi pulp novels that were highly influential to George Lucas’s original film “Star Wars�.
Older’s novel is silly and fun, but it’s not that good. Too much time is spent on flashbacks that don’t clarify their relevance to the present story. Too little time is spent on the friendship of Han and Lando, and, in fact, a majority of the novel sees both characters separating into two different storylines. Not enough time is spent explaining the motives and means of the villain, an insane doctor who wants to program droids to kill humans.
While some of the repartee is clever, there is simply too much dialogue. At times, “Last Shot� reads more like a bad screenplay.
Even more disappointing is the fact that it arrives on the heels of the release of “Solo: A Star Wars Story�, the second stand-alone film in the new canon. Directed by Ron Howard and written by Jonathon and Lawrence Kasdan, “Solo� is an amazingly entertaining film that highlights the early years of the charismatic rogue (played well by Alden Ehrenreich, who may not be Harrison Ford but still manages to exude boyish charm). The film’s brightest spot is Donald Glover’s spot-on performance as Lando. Glover brilliantly channels Billy Dee William’s swag, although he arguably has plenty of his own.
To his credit, Howard keeps the film fun and loose while also remembering to incorporate the heart that made “Star Wars� so successful. He also manages to remind us of the stakes that are involved for young Solo, who may not have any desire yet to join the Rebellion, but it doesn’t mean that seeds haven’t been planted.
Older could have taken some direction from Howard’s film. For that matter, he could have taken direction from any of the other past writers who have attempted to flesh out two of Lucas’s best-loved characters. Unfortunately, Older’s “Last Shot� was a dud....more
Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi� was a phenomenal “Star Wars� film, and an excellent film in general. Let me start with that, mainly to clarify where I Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi� was a phenomenal “Star Wars� film, and an excellent film in general. Let me start with that, mainly to clarify where I stand with my fellow Star Wars fans, many of whom either have problems with the direction in which the franchise is currently heading or simply didn’t like Johnson’s contribution to it.
I loved the film. It’s everything one could ask for in a “Star Wars� film---action-packed, funny, beautifully-filmed---and more. Actually, though, I think it’s the “more� part with which most fans seem to have a problem. Johnson did some things differently in this film. He kind of strayed from the basic formula. Some purist fans don’t like it. I get it, to an extent: don’t mess with a winning formula. Stick with the program. Don’t rock the boat.
Except, sometimes, one needs to shake things up a little. Doing it the same way, over and over again, gets dull. One needs to keep it real.
I remember certain fans hating “The Force Awakens� because J.J. Abrams had the audacity of following the EXACT SAME FORMULA as the original Lucas trilogy. It was, in fact, “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope� simply redone with new characters. It was a choice Abrams made, and it paid off. Now, the haters are criticizing Johnson for doing the opposite of what Abrams did? Seriously?
Whatever. You can’t please everybody.
Before I ramble on further into a lengthy film review when I should be focusing on a book review, let me just say that, in all fairness, Johnson’s film didn’t actually stray too far from the formula. If “The Force Awakens� was “Episode IV�, then “The Last Jedi� was almost a perfect by-the-numbers rehash of “Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back�. It separated the characters into several different storylines. The tone was somewhat darker and more maudlin. It didn’t end well for everyone. And while it left an iota of hope alive for the distant future, it essentially ended with the Resistance pulverized into a powerless shambles with very little hope for the near future.
What I think many fans didn’t like about the film is that it is about failure and regret. Every character in the film fails miserably in their particular mission or goal. The only character who doesn’t is Kylo Ren, who actively refuses to have any regrets about anything he does and is either unwilling or unable to see the failure in his own actions. He’s a lot like Trump in that regard.
But what harsh critics don’t seem to get is that Johnson is saying that failure can be a good thing. As Yoda says in the film, “The greatest teacher, failure is.� This isn’t a lesson many people want to hear or learn. Failure represents weakness. It also means acknowledging it, taking responsibility for it, and facing the consequences of it. In this Trumpian Era, that shit is scary for most people, especially when they know that they are the smartest, the strongest, and the most morally right.
This is what Master Jedi Luke Skywalker is referring to when he talks about the real failures of the Jedi Order and why he shouldn’t have bothered starting up a new one. It was hubris on his part to believe that he could. It was, he felt, ultimately hubris that brought about the end of the Jedi in the first place.
Jason Fry’s novelization (based on the screenplay by Johnson) is decent but not great. It’s a run-of-the-mill novelization that succeeds only in doing what any decent novelization does: making the reader desire to watch the movie again, this time with a keener eye.
It’s not to say that Fry doesn’t do some interesting things in the book. Besides adding some extra scenes not included in the film (which may or may not appear in the “deleted scenes� section of the blu-ray version), Fry does, subtly, make references to characters and events not mentioned in the film version that tie in past books and graphic novels within the new canon as well as the TV show “Star Wars Rebels�. Only fans who have read the books and watch the show will get them, but it’s still pretty neat.
One of the more notable things Fry incorporates is an alternate opening scene, one that involves a lengthy dream sequence in the mind of Skywalker. In this scene, Luke is an old man living on Tattooine with his wife and elderly Uncle Owen and Aunt Baru. In this sequence, Luke looks back on his life as a moisture farmer with some regrets, like the time he let the Imperial stormtroopers take newly-bought droids away for interrogation. He always wondered what those droids were hiding. He recalls watching the galactic news videos of Princess Leia of Alderaan being executed after admitting to being a leader of the Rebellion and then watching the Death Star blow up Alderaan and three other planets as a show of force. He wonders what life had been like if he had joined the Rebellion and helped fight the Empire. Then he realizes that life wasn’t so bad as a moisture farmer. He had a home, a wife, security, a place far enough away---and insignificant enough---to not be bothered by the Empire. One should never dwell on the “what ifs� of life.
It makes me wonder if Johnson had originally planned on filming this scene, or if he had filmed it and simply edited it out for various reasons. I wish it had been in the theatrical version because I think it is an extremely demonstrative and significant scene, given the film’s over-arching theme about regret.
It works well in the book, however, because it lingers in the mind like an unsolved puzzle that one continually goes back to time and again. ...more
Fun fact: Zombies, as we know them today, were never meant to be referred to as “zombies�. George Romero, the director of the 1968 film “Night of the Fun fact: Zombies, as we know them today, were never meant to be referred to as “zombies�. George Romero, the director of the 1968 film “Night of the Living Dead�---the film which is credited for starting the whole zombie movie genre---never liked the term “zombie�. The word itself is never mentioned once in that seminal horror film classic. Romero preferred the word “ghoul�, the term for an ancient mythological creature that roamed graveyards and feasted on human flesh. The term “zombie� is actually a reference to either a hypnotized victim or a reanimated corpse through the power of voodoo magic, according to Caribbean folklore. Somehow, “zombie� became the preferred term for the walking dead in Romero’s film, and it stuck. Zombies have now become a part of the zeitgeist of American pop culture.
The question is: Why? What is it about zombies that has fascinated generations and continues to fascinate us? In terms of mythology, vampires have been around far longer and a part of far more national cultures than our own. Golems, werewolves, poltergeists, manitou, dragons, sea monsters: these mythological monsters have haunted human psyches for centuries. In the grand scheme of things, zombies are the newborns of nightmare creatures. Yet, for some reason, they are extraordinarily popular.
Perhaps one reason has something to do with social class. According to Kim Paffenroth, author of “Gospel of the Living Dead�, zombies have appeal due in large part to their proletariat leanings: “Zombies are the lowest, most “peasant� type of monsters, especially in comparison to vampires, who are always very sophisticated and effete... (p.16)� It makes sense, when one places zombies in a socialist context: as the undead, zombies literally lack the most important means of production: a pulse. They also outnumber the living (their beourgeosie) by about a thousand to one, so they definitely have strength in numbers.
Zombies also have another plus going for them in this pro-socialist argument: they are completely morally incorruptible, primarily because they are completely incapable of having morals to corrupt. They exist solely as id, no ego or superego. They are ruled solely by an eternally insatiable hunger for human flesh.
While this may seem awful, it’s actually a pretty pure and unsullied purpose. Unlike humans, zombies aren’t going to screw over other zombies for profit. They also aren’t going to exhibit feelings of superiority or hatred due to racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia. None of that matters to a zombie. All zombies are equal in each other’s dead, soulless eyes.
It’s actually kind of endearing.
Paffenroth, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY and a huge zombie film buff, has written an intellectually satisfying academic study on the morality and ethics of zombies, using as his basis of study five films in particular, four of them directed by Romero: “Night of the Living Dead�, “Dawn of the Dead� (both the 1978 version, directed by Romero, and the 2004 remake, directed by Zach Snyder), “Day of the Dead� (1985), and “Land of the Dead� (2005). He also references other Romero-inspired films such as “Shaun of the Dead�, �28 Days Later�, and “Resident Evil�.
Basically, Paffenroth makes the very well-supported case that the zombie film genre is an exceptionally popular subgenre of horror precisely because of its tendency toward strong social commentary. Zombies, according to Paffenroth, are all too-relatable because they represent so many negative things about Americans: our rampant consumerism, our love of violence, our obsession with guns, our fear of foreigners, our society’s lack of empathy toward the poor and the lower class. In almost all cases, zombie films represent humans as being worse enemies to other humans than the zombies.
“Romero and the other filmmakers,� writes Paffenroth, “use the fantastical “disease� of zombies to criticize the very real diseases of racism, sexism, materialism, and individualism that would make any society easy prey for barbarian hordes. And the portrayal is so powerful and compelling in these films, that it is impossible to discount it as some thoughtless anti-American screed: it is a real, if extreme, diagnosis of what ails us. (p.18-19)
Paffenroth looks at each film through the kaleidoscope of Dante’s many circles of hell, utilizing literary references and even biblical support for his arguments. The result is a smart, fascinating, and entertaining examination of an insanely popular genre. It should be noted that Paffenroth published this book in 2006, before AMC became the first channel to air a TV series, “The Walking Dead�, heavily inspired by Romero’s films.
Love them or hate them, zombies aren’t going away any time soon. In this Age of Trump---with a resurgence of white supremacy, vicious hate crimes, xenophobia, and rampant sexism and misogyny---Romero’s socially-conscious and moralistic zombie films seem all the more appropos....more
The fun continues in “Shadow Academy�, the second book in the Young Jedi Knights series by Kevin Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, in which Jacen and JainaThe fun continues in “Shadow Academy�, the second book in the Young Jedi Knights series by Kevin Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, in which Jacen and Jaina Solo go on a field trip with Lowbacca and their Uncle Lando Calrissian to see Lando’s new gem-mining facility but are kidnapped by a Nightsister and a former student of Luke’s who turned to the Dark Side of the Force. With Imperial backing, these two dark knights are kidnapping children throughout the galaxy who are strong in the Force, with the goal of training them to be dark Jedi Knights in the service of the Empire. Theirs is the evil mirror image of Luke’s Jedi Academy, a Shadow Academy.
There is something frivolous and infantile about this series that is completely refreshing and, sadly, already old-fashioned and out-of-date. Written in 1995, “Shadow Academy� was written four years before the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, five years before the Colombine High School massacre, and six years before 9/11.
I know that nearly every person of every generation in history has a point in their personal history in which it was felt that innocence was lost on a national scale. For my grandparents� generation, it was probably Pearl Harbor. For my parents� generation, it was most likely the JFK assassination. For my generation, it was 9/11. It’s a misleading and ultimately false belief because there never was an innocence to be lost.
Things have been crappy since the dawn of time. We just fool ourselves into thinking that there was once a “good old days�.
Maybe that’s why I’ve been reading a young adult series written for a �90s audience. I was a college kid in the �90s. I was at my peak of physical health, sexuality, and my utterly egregious sense that I knew everything I ever needed to know. I was happy. (Actually, I was miserable, but my misery was a result of my ineptitude regarding the opposite sex, my complete lack of ambition in life, and my ridiculous pretentiousness. In other words, it was a simple misery.)
Today’s misery is so convoluted and stressful and brought about by things completely out of my control. Adult misery. Sometimes I feel like doing the same thing my daughter does when she throws a temper tantrum: throwing shit, screaming, crying at the top of your lungs, and spitting at the nearest parent and saying “I hate you!� when, deep down, you really just want to curl up in bed and have a grown-up tell you everything is okay...
Christ, I miss being that kind of miserable.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy now---happier, probably, than I’ve ever been in a life that didn’t involve drugs---but I’m also miserable in a way that my 20-something �90s self probably couldn’t even have imagined.
Please don’t mind my mental meanderings. I know it’s weird that a young adult Star Wars series could trigger such thoughts, but that’s how my damn mind works sometimes... ...more
Once upon a time, in an alternative universe, Han Solo and Princess Leia had three children, unlike the new “official� universe timeline, in which theOnce upon a time, in an alternative universe, Han Solo and Princess Leia had three children, unlike the new “official� universe timeline, in which they had only one son, Ben Solo, who would grow up to be Kylo Ren and (spoiler alert!) kill his own father. In this new “official� universe, the Empire has transmogrified into something called the First Order. The Rebel Alliance eventually became the New Republic, but there is also a group called the Resistence. (This part gets confusing.) Leia is now a general instead of a princess, C3PO has a red arm, and R2D2 is in sleep mode. Oh, and Luke Skywalker has been missing for years. (See "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens")
In the alternative universe (now called the “old canon�, or “legends�), a lot of other stuff happened. (More spoilers!) Luke Skywalker set up a Jedi Academy on Yavin 4, an extragalactic warrior race called the Yuuzhan Vong spread across the galaxy like a vicious plague, Chewbacca was killed, Han became an alcoholic, Luke married an Imperial assassin, Mara Jade (originally sent to kill him, she instead fell in love with him because, well, Luke...), and they had a son named Ben Skywalker. There was also a rogue planet that was alive, and there were these weird things called dovin basals. (I still don’t know what they hell they are.)
Back in the �90s, following the success of Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy, numerous authors joined in on what is now called the Star Wars Expanded Universe (SWEU). The film series officially ended with “Return of the Jedi�, and it would be another decade before George Lucas would make his prequel trilogy.
In that long “meantime�, hundreds of novels, comic books, and short stories were published within the official SWEU, not including the unofficial fan fiction in countless fanzines.
In 1995, Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta started a young adult book series featuring the young children of Han and Leia. Twins Jacen and Jaina Solo were training to be Jedi Knights by their Uncle Luke on Yavin 4, along with children from all over the galaxy who had promising Force abilities. These children were recruited by Luke to hone their abilities in a school-like setting where they faced strange and interesting tests and adventures.
Strangely enough, the Young Jedi Knights series predates J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series by three years. “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone� (in the UK, it was “the Philosopher’s Stone�) was published in the U.S. in 1998.
While Harry Potter took the children’s and young adult book market by storm, Young Jedi Knights probably got subsumed by the unexpected fascination with young witches and wizards. Nevertheless, what originally started as a six-book series by Anderson/Moesta, extended its run to fourteen books.
“Heirs of the Force�, book one, introduces us to several new characters who would become important in later book series: Lowbacca is Chewbacca’s nephew. He is one of the few Wookies to have strong Force abilities. Tenel Ka is from Dathomir, the planet of the defeated Nightsisters, “witches� who were powerful in the Dark Side of the Force. She is the product of one of these reformed nightsisters and Prince Isolder from the Hapes Consortium. (See Dave Wolverton’s “The Courtship of Princess Leia�)
Jacen and Jaina had appeared in various stages of infancy and childhood in previous books, but Young Jedi Knights was the first real attempt to give them a series of their own. Absent from the first book (due to the fact that he was busy in his own series of children’s books, Junior Jedi Knights), Anakin Solo was the baby brother of the twins.
The plot of “Heirs of the Force� involves the twins and Lowbacca discovering wreckage of a TIE-fighter in the forest, most likely left over from the Battle of Yavin twenty years before (See “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope�). Jaina, who is an adept mechanic, decides to rebuild it. Unfortunately, the children also discover that the Imperial pilot, named Qorl, is also alive and has been living in the forest for the past 20 years, waiting for an Imperial rescue. He captures the children and forces them to continue to work on repairing the TIE-fighter.
The children learn a valuable lesson about when and where to utilize violence. Rather than attack Qorl (who seems slightly unhinged and unwilling to accept that his beloved Emperor is dead), the three children attempt to reason with him using compassion. It works to an extent: Qorl still escapes the planet, but he lets them live. Unbeknownst to the children, their attempt at a diplomatic and peaceful solution has planted seeds of doubt within Qorl’s mind.
“Heirs of the Force� is a quick, entertaining read. (I literally finished it during a long four-hour car ride. Don’t worry: I wasn’t driving.) It harkens back to a period in the SWEU when things weren’t as dark. It also harkens back to a pre- “new/official canon� world in which the Solos had three children instead of one, and while I think the offical canon is, for the most part, decent, I am still, at heart, partial to the old canon. ...more
Hatred is all over the news feed this week. Football fans hating on players taking a knee during the National Anthem, gun control advocates hating on Hatred is all over the news feed this week. Football fans hating on players taking a knee during the National Anthem, gun control advocates hating on the NRA for buying the entire Republican Party, gun nuts hating the gun control advocates for wanting to actually talk about gun control, Trump hating on Puerto Rico for screwing up the budget, everyone hating on Trump for wasting millions of tax payer money on his golf weekends: it’s getting to the point now where emotions are so heated and on edge that even the most innocuous statement will set someone off. It’s almost like we’re expecting the next worst mass shooting in U.S. history every day.
This is not a healthy way to live. Indeed, it’s pretty toxic. But I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s calculated to be this way. Strings are being pulled, demographics are being manipulated, people are being duped by someone. Or a group of someones. And I don’t think it’s much of a conspiracy theory to say that there is a very small percentage of the population that are reveling in and capitalizing on all of this. I don’t pretend to know who these people are, specifically, but we all have ideas and suspicions, don’t we?
The problem is, it doesn’t matter who the big “They� are in this scenario. They’ve pretty much already won. They have succeeded in dividing us into so many small groups that hate every other group---Muslims, Christians, atheists, gays, straights, transgenders, pro-gun people, anti-gun people, rich, poor, old, young, white, black, Hispanic, meat eaters, vegan, metalheads, country music fans, people who like sitcoms, people who like PBS, coffee drinkers, tea drinkers, people who pee standing up, people who pee sitting down---it will take generations, if ever, to calm things down.
They want it that way. They need it that way. That’s how They take over the world and stay in power.
Revolution in the form of rebellion---unified rebellion---is the only answer. If we have learned anything from the “Star Wars� movies, it is that. And, as Jyn Erso said in “Rogue One�: “Rebellions are built on hope.�
They, however, are counting on us wiping each other out with hate, because if rebellions are built on hope, quelling rebellions before they begin are built on hatred, well-choreographed and focused hatred.
This is the basis for the latest, surprisingly good “Star Wars� novel, “Battlefront II: Inferno Squad� by Christie Golden. Based on the video game that is either currently out or will be soon (I’m not a gamer, so I don’t keep up with video game release dates: sorry), “Inferno Squad� is told from the perspective of a small hand-picked group of Imperial special operatives whose sole purpose is to infiltrate the Rebel Alliance and destroy it from within. These are basically the Emperor’s Black Ops.
Set immediately after the destruction of the first Death Star, “Inferno Squad� ties in elements from “Rogue One� and “A New Hope� brilliantly. The four main protagonists (I hesitate to call them “heroes� as “anti-heroes� is more appropriate) are capitalizing on the recent death of Saw Gerrera (see “Rogue One�), the leader of the Partisans, a radical and ultra-violent group that split with the Rebel Alliance. The Alliance felt that Gerrera’s tactics and motives were far too extremist. (Picture the Partisans as the ISIS of the Rebel Alliance.)
Most Imperial intel had the Partisans disbanded after Gerrera’s death, but the Imperial Admiral who leads Inferno Squad believes otherwise. The squad’s first mission: infiltrate and join up with a group of partisans that seem to be making headway against the Empire. They are receiving funding and Imperial intel from someone, most likely high up in the Imperial chain of command. Once they have become fully ensconced and entrusted by the group of partisans, they are to discover who and where the leak is and assassinate him or her.
That’s basically the plot, and for the first two-thirds of the book, it’s pretty much a straight “Mission: Impossible�-style thriller. It’s not bad, but it’s not exceptional either. Making it more difficult is the fact that one is essentially rooting for the bad guys. These protagonists are, after all, Imperial assassins.
Then, something interesting happens. “Interesting�, as in “fascinating� and “disturbing�. Two of the four infiltrators start to actually feel something akin to sympathy for the partisans. They still have a mission to complete, but they are less sure about killing these people they have pretended to befriend. They certainly don’t agree with the rebel’s views about the Empire---a brainwashed hatred brought about by propaganda and “fake news�---but they are beginning to suspect that, maybe, the Empire isn’t totally perfect and that, maybe, the Emperor isn’t the total bastion of law and order in the galaxy, after all.
Treasonous thoughts, to be sure.
Golden’s “Inferno Squad� takes a similar approach to the Empire as Claudia Gray’s “Lost Stars�, a young adult novel that also humanizes the Empire. Unlike the characters in Gray’s novel, however, Golden’s characters have the strength of their convictions. While Gray’s characters learn to look past their indoctrinations of hatred, Golden’s characters are true patriots: they don’t question their hatred of the Rebel Alliance. They may have doubts about the Empire, but they keep those to themselves. They are loyal Imperialists through and through, and they will shed blood for the glory of the Emperor, not necessarily because they want to but because that is their duty. ...more
My daughter will be turning four in a month, and it has been wonderful being able to see her grow up into the smart (and rambunctious) little girl thaMy daughter will be turning four in a month, and it has been wonderful being able to see her grow up into the smart (and rambunctious) little girl that she has become. I see her potential in everything she does and says. I see her future and can’t wait to see her grow up but also, paradoxically, wish that she could stay this young forever. I also, sadly, see the world that she is growing up in, and it scares me.
She will be growing into early childhood during the presidency of a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women, bragged about wanting to have sex with his daughter, and has had numerous sexual harassment complaints against him throughout his lifetime.
She will be growing into early childhood during a time where the many successful strides that women have made, brought about by feminism, are slowly but surely being reversed by a predominantly male Congress and a horrifyingly legalistic and misogynistic evangelical Christianity.
She will be growing into early childhood in a world now feeling the negative effects of global climate change, a devastating state of ecological affairs that will only worsen over the next century as long as the anti-science movement has a stranglehold on the powers that be.
She will be growing into early childhood into an era of economic uncertainty for a growing number of people in the lower and middle classes, created by an unchecked and unrepentant greedy oligarchical class of super-wealthy hording a large percentage of the nation’s wealth.
She will be growing into early childhood into a time of frightening extremist nationalism and a resurgence of fascist white supremacy, stoked by irrational fears of immigrants and refugees and foreigners that are aggrandized by a sensationalistic media.
My wife and I are doing our best, and we can only hope that we have done a good job in instilling our daughter with those values that we consider extremely important: compassion, respect for all people, intellectual curiosity, and a desire for social justice. Just to name a few.
Of course, she’s still only three, so the greatest moral dilemma she has to face is whether or not she should share her toys when she’s with other kids her age.
She is also, we’ve decided, still too young to watch the “Star Wars� movies. (Honestly, this is more her mother’s choice than mine, but I respect it because my daughter---like my wife---closes her eyes during scary scenes in Disney cartoons, so I’m not sure how she’ll react to rancor attacks and giant one-eyed worms in trash compactors.) But, we’ve started her indoctrination in the religion of Star Wars, little by little. She loves Chewbacca. She thinks Yoda is weird-looking but she still hugs her stuffed Yoda. She even recognizes Darth Vader by name, although she thinks he’s “scary�. She thinks Ewoks are funny, and she thinks Rey is “pretty�. She loves listening to the John Williams score and asks me to play it on car trips.
(BTW: in case you were ever wondering, that cute little baby girl in my profile pic, wearing the trademark Leia double bun wig, is my daughter at about one year old. And you’re right, she is the most beautiful baby in the world, thank you very much...)
Thankfully, Disney has been airing short cartoons called “Forces of Destiny�, highlighting the heroic women of the “Star Wars� universe. They are fantastic little stories of female empowerment, and my daughter loves them. They are also a great way to introduce her to the characters of the films, so when she is old enough to enjoy all of them, she’ll recognize them and already feel a kinship with them.
One of my favorite of the Star Wars women is, of course, Princess Leia Organa. (The fact that I’ve had a ridiculous boyhood crush on the late Carrie Fisher---Rest in peace, Ms. Fisher---since seeing “A New Hope� has nothing to do with it, I’m sure.) She was fierce, tough, funny, and compassionate. At the time of the first film, her character was an anomaly, pre-dating the stronger, more bad-ass heroines that would come later, like Ripley in “Aliens�, Black Widow, or Lara Croft. Princess Leia was always kind of Lucas’s send-up and feminist answer to the stale space opera damsel-in-distress. She was one of the first “self-rescuing princesses�, and thanks to her, the science fiction/fantasy field has plenty more like her.
Claudia Gray’s latest young adult book, “Leia: Princess of Alderaan� is, like her previous YA Star Wars novel “Lost Stars�, an incredibly well-written, entertaining look at aspects of the Star Wars universe that have heretofore never been fully touched upon. In “Lost Stars� she examined what life was like for children of the Empire. In “Leia�, we are given the chance to see Leia in a period of her life that hasn’t been explored: her childhood.
We also get to see more of her beautiful home-planet Alderaan (which was, sadly, destroyed by the Death Star. See “A New Hope�.) and more of her adopted parents, Bail and Breha Organa.
At the start of the book, Leia has just turned 16, and she is, according to Alderaanian tradition, now the age at which she can contend for the throne. In order to become a proper heir, she must complete three Challenges, one of the Body, one of the Mind, and one of the Heart. That’s the basic set-up for the plot.
There are, of course, numerous adventures and mysteries involved (think “Nancy Drew� in space), as well as a love story (which you already know is going to have a tragic ending, since her true love is, unbeknownst to her, out in space smuggling spice and making the Kessel Run in just 12 parsecs.)
More importantly, Gray spends a lot of time on the transition from Leia, the girl, into Leia, the woman. Her setting aside of childish things and eventual maturity is the best part of the book, and I am quite pleased to add it to the growing collection of books in my daughter’s book shelves that I hope she wants to read someday.
Like Leia, my daughter will one day inherit a world beset with strife and danger, and I hope that she will face it with the strength, courage, intelligence, and integrity that the Alderaanian princess possessed. ...more
I’m still not completely won over by the so-called “new canon� of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (which, if you’re not a huge fan, probably means notI’m still not completely won over by the so-called “new canon� of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (which, if you’re not a huge fan, probably means nothing to you, but to a die-hard SWEU fan, this is a huge controversy and one that won’t be going away anytime soon), but I found myself enjoying Chuck Wendig’s “Aftermath: Empire’s End�---the third book in his Aftermath trilogy---a lot more than I had expected to.
As trilogies go, Wendig’s series is kind of back-asswards. Most trilogies that come to mind (or, at least, three-part series) usually start off really well and taper off in quality, leaving the third part to be the real stinkeroo of the three: “The Godfather� movies, the first three “Jurassic Park� movies, the “Beverly Hills Cop� series, “Alien�, “Child’s Play�, “The Matrix�, “X-Men�, the first three “Batman� movies. The list could go on.
It’s purposeful that I would compare Wendig’s trilogy of books to movies, because I think Wendig’s books are more narratively suited for the big screen. They are very cinematic books, heavily inspired by the formulaic nature of the “Star Wars� films moreso than the book series. Wendig also writes screenplays, and it shows in his writing. His Aftermath series are novels more by accident than by design. They are simply “Star Wars� films that have never been filmed, nor will they probably ever be filmed.
The joy I’ve had in reading them, however, is because they work like movies in my head. Granted, this is what any good book would or should do, right? (I suppose this depends on the genre as well as one’s love of movies. Not everyone necessarily sees---or wants to see---”movies� in their head. Books and the worlds they create in our imagination work on a visceral and intellectual level beyond the audio-visual stimulation of cinema. Not that movies can’t be cerebral or offer otherworldly experiences the way books can, but they are inherently different. Reading is like a code that programs our brains, while movies are sounds and images that our brain records, like a camera. Anyway, I’ve completely gone off on a tangent here...)
The fact that I have enjoyed Wendig’s books---and, indeed, that they progressively improved rather than worsened as the series went on---is a minor miracle, in my opinion. I was beginning to lose faith in the “new canon�, and, like I said before, I’ve not completely fallen in love with it yet. Most of what I’ve read in the new canon---with one or two exceptions so far---is mediocre to completely forgettable.
“Aftermath: Empire’s End� is fun. It’s exciting, fast-paced, campy, and energetic: basically in keeping with the tone of the original “Star Wars� series and J.J. Abrams’s homage, “Episode VII: The Force Awakens�.
I wasn’t too impressed with the first book, but I kept at it, and I’m glad I did.
I mentioned before that Wendig is no Timothy Zahn, and I still hold to that. But whereas I originally may have meant it as an insult, I now simply acknowledge it as a literal fact. Wendig is NOT Zahn, nor is he trying to be. Like Abrams, Wendig is simply trying to tell another story within the SWEU, trying to stick to a style and formula created by George Lucas back in 1977. Both Zahn and Wendig have, to some extent, succeeded in this.
While I don’t think Wendig is as talented a writer as Zahn, Wendig’s real talent is taking a series in which (I’m fairly certain) his hands were tied as to what he could or couldn’t include in his novel (the downside of having your writing overseen by a committee) and yet still creating something that seemed fresh and was, despite a bumpy start, ultimately entertaining....more
I may have been unduly harsh with Chuck Wendig in my review of his novel “Aftermath�. In retrospect, that book was probably slightly better than I madI may have been unduly harsh with Chuck Wendig in my review of his novel “Aftermath�. In retrospect, that book was probably slightly better than I made it sound in my review. I think I called it “boring� and “unexceptional�, which was unfair.
Wendig’s writing isn’t stellar, but his book wasn’t necessarily boring. His writing was just lazy, prone to one word sentences and lots of colons, a style of writing that is popular but not my favorite. (See Annie Proulx, Blake Crouch) I prefer lengthy, convoluted, run-on sentences which, if truth be told, encapsulates a kind of stream-of-consciousness style of writing (including many parenthetical and tangential addenda that have very little to nothing to do with the original point being made) that best replicates the kind of messy, non-linear cognitive process to which my own mind is prone, and---as my cousin Matt Wanat recently said, rather humorously---I just love books with lots of words.
As for “unexceptional�, it’s partly true, as Wendig employed a formulaic structure that has been used countless times in many a “Star Wars� novel and film, as well as countless “Star Wars� rip-offs: a rag-tag band of misfits (almost always involving a comic-relief droid, an alien, a smuggler/pirate with a heart of gold, a character with a mysterious past, and a naive young kid) going up against incredible odds to do something heroic. It’s pretty much trademark, and everything from “Firefly� to “Guardians of the Galaxy� has emulated it.
It was a petty complaint, I now realize. Wendig’s unexceptionality is, perhaps, the most significant aspect of the novel. In trying to capture the tone, structure, and form of the original “Star Wars� films, Wendig succeeded fairly brilliantly. Almost as well as J.J. Abrams did in “The Force Awakens�, which was almost a paint-by-numbers narrative duplication of the original 1977 film. I guess in terms of “Star Wars�, “unexceptional� isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Wendig’s second book in his Aftermath trilogy, “Life Debt�, is actually much better than the first, partly due to the fact that he does not spend as much time on introductory material in regards to his characters. Several of the characters in “Life Debt� are familiar to “Star Wars� fans, no introductions needed. Wendig’s original characters were well-established in the first book, so the second book can focus on something Wendig seems pretty good at: telling a pretty decent action/adventure yarn.
Without giving too much away: The novel takes place shortly after the events of “Return of the Jedi�. The Emperor and Darth Vader are dead. The Empire is crumbling. The Rebel Alliance is now attempting to establish the New Republic. Princess Leia Organa is putting her political skills to use in the new government, but she is pregnant, and her new husband, Han Solo, is away on a private mission. She is, needless to say, somewhat distracted.
Leia recruits Norra Wexley and her rag-tag crew---ex-Imperial officer Sinjir Rath Velus, bounty hunter Jas Emari, Norra’s teenage son, Temmin, and a reprogrammed psychotic battle droid called Mr. Bones---to find Han, help him in whatever capacity he may need, and then bring him home.
Han, it turns out, is on a quest to save Chewbacca, who was abducted by Imperials after Chewie left to visit his homeworld Kashyyk in order to free his fellow Wookies, who have been used as slave labor by the Empire.
Meanwhile, Imperial Admiral Rae Sloane is the last (in her mind, at least) best hope for the continuation of the Empire. She is attempting to round up and control the wayward remnants of the Imperial fleet, in the hopes of staging another battle to defeat the fledgling New Republic and reinstate the Empire as the lawful governing body of the galaxy. Unfortunately, the mysterious Gallius Rax---a favored member of the Emperor’s inner circle---is also attempting to rebuild the Empire in his own image, and the two don’t see eye-to-eye on, well, anything.
I have to say that I liked this book a lot more than the first book. It exceeded my expectations. And while it certainly did not compare to some of my past favorites in the SWEU (notably the Timothy Zahn books), it actually turned out to be a pretty good entry into the “new canon� series of books, with which I have been left generally unimpressed.
I love the fact that Wendig’s novel is populated with extremely strong and vivacious women, including the villain. Rae Sloane is a great character. She has essentially taken on the role that Grand Moff Tarkin played in the original “Star Wars�, a villain that is both vicious yet classy. She is a brilliant tactician, and her worldview and rationale for why the Empire should return to power is very believable.
Another nice thing about this book is the numerous Easter eggs planted throughout that refer to “The Force Awakens�, which is still about twenty-plus years in the future. Nothing overly enlightening (one gets a little more back-story on General Hux) but still fun, if you’re a fan. ...more
This book is an attempt by Disney to make fans dish out more money, because Disney needs it. Of course, I'm a sap who actually paid for it. It brings This book is an attempt by Disney to make fans dish out more money, because Disney needs it. Of course, I'm a sap who actually paid for it. It brings together, in one volume, two novels: James Luceno's "Tarkin" and John Jackson Miller's "A New Dawn", neither of which were stellar (see my reviews of both). It also includes three short stories, which, I'm guessing, were previously unpublished. They range from okay to decent.
The title is misleading: "The Rise of the Empire" gives the impression that the book is about, well, the starting point of the Empire. To me, the time period in the Star Wars universe that this title evokes is during the last half of the Clone Wars, slightly before and immediately after the Purge, when Senator Palpatine transforms into Darth Sidious and Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader.
Instead, the book deals more with the construction of the Death Star and the events leading up to "Rogue One".
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