What an interesting graphic novel. "The Star Wars", as opposed to Star Wars, is an adaptation of the first draft screenplay George Lucas wrote years bWhat an interesting graphic novel. "The Star Wars", as opposed to Star Wars, is an adaptation of the first draft screenplay George Lucas wrote years before the iconic film was ever made (with illustrations based off the earliest concept art).
It's kind of an alternate universe story, not a multiverse thing but another version of our world, in which this other movie came out. There are familiar names, but they belong to different characters, and with spaceship designs just slightly off. So many fascinating deviations; there's the Jedi-Bendu order, Annikin Starkiller mentored by old Luke Skywalker, who teams up with the alien Han Solo fighting General Darth Vader who calls on a Sith villain Valorum, a pair of droids including a feminine one ala Metropolis and an Artwo that talks, weird Wookies on their forest moon, and everybody from lowly trooper to padawan gets a lazersword...
It's also a testament to why writers need to multiple drafts to get it right. There's a lot in there that needed to be cut, plenty that really doesn't work. For some reason there are little kids in the story who are mostly forgotten about, an awful and problematic love story with Princess Leia, and a plot that seems to be missing a MacGuffin and I frankly don't understand why the evil empire is chasing these heroes. Meanwhile, they sure do crash on planets a lot.
Let's be honest, George Lucas has a great imagination but he was never that good a writer. He always needed editors to fix his works and turn them into coherent stories. This book probably needed less deference to the original screenplay, and it could have turned into something that was good on its own merits.
Still, the flaws are besides the point. The well-crafted art of the comic is there to show what might have been, but was simply impossible due to budget constraints anyways. The grand landscapes of alien planets reflects the science fiction of the 1960s and 70s, almost like Dune but less serious, or Heavy Metal but less adult, still something that fans of that bygone genre would appreciate. If the names were changed, it almost would work as a pretty decent scifi epic in itself.
I'd recommend this book to anyone familiar with Star Wars, which basically is everyone. It's not just for the hardcore fanboys. Definitely a fun experiment, and one day I'd even like to see a sequel returning to this timeline....more
Dan Abnett, who is basically the creator of the modern filmic version of the Guardians of the Galaxy, as writteDouglas Adams meets the Marvel Universe
Dan Abnett, who is basically the creator of the modern filmic version of the Guardians of the Galaxy, as written an exciting science fiction space opera novel that combines the farce of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with the cosmic Jim Starlin-esque adventures of Marvel's various space alien mythos.
It's a corporate satire, it's meta and self-aware, and requires a lot of knowledge of the many galactic empires that have invaded the earth in comics over the years. It works surprisingly well as a novel, starring Rocket Raccoon and a Rigellian recorder robot. Some mainstays like Gamora show up, but it's not a Guardians teamup adventure. Enough goes on that Star-Lord not missed.
Also like Hitchhiker's Guide, which of course started as a radio drama broadcast, there's an audiobook version with sound effects and multiple actors which could be the preferred way to experience this book. The comparisons can't be avoided, which is a compliment in my view. ...more
I may not be smart enough to follow William Gibson in prose form, I always try but somehow his elegantly cool writing style mixed with profound cybernI may not be smart enough to follow William Gibson in prose form, I always try but somehow his elegantly cool writing style mixed with profound cybernetic ideas leave me with a sense of profundity yet lack of clear specifics. Thank goodness for the ground-breaking Peripheral streaming series on Amazon Prime which few people watched and is now cancelled. I still highly recommend that series, as somewhat more coherent take on these brilliant ideas about quantum computer time travel and dystopian post-"Jackpot" futures expressed ala video game culture and Amero veteran trauma etc...
Gibson is indeed quite impressive to still be such a modern science fiction titan after all these decades. I'm happy to support the author. It's just a lot. And I can still argue adaptations are a perfectly reasonable way to absorb the stories.
So, any chance of a comeback for the Peripheral season 2? ...more
New Found Land may not be for everyone, but it's definitely for this comic nerd who loves Neal Stephenson and audio dramas.
In fact, the idea of fantaNew Found Land may not be for everyone, but it's definitely for this comic nerd who loves Neal Stephenson and audio dramas.
In fact, the idea of fantasy comic book universes being "real" in another reality and the stories we read here in the prime universe were transcribed all along, that's such a classic DC concept.
It's a lot of fun and irreverent, and paced well as an Audible original. There's two main universe actually: a retro scifi one with jetpacks, and also high fantasy. They converge in the normal world as the main characters get sucked into various plots and secret wars. All of this is very witty and just funny. Also rather thought-provoking.
I particularly enjoy the nerdy collector guy, and there's also the conspiracy-nut-trucker-podcaster who becomes the sort of wizard archetype. Speculative fiction versus magic, natural foils! There's the Stan Lee-inspired old New Yorker in the flashbacks who has so much charm. And don't get me wrong, it's not just a boy's club as there are many female characters crucial to the plot.
Anyway, the multiverse is certainly in the zeitgeist these days, and this adds well to this newly forming canon. I hope they continue the series and I will happily listen to more.
Perhaps one day, my own other self from the universe next door will possess me and trade places, and see if this kind of of thing is on to something... ...more
A fun YA novel for fans of the Clone Wars series, which does overlap well with the final season despite a few continuity errors. Like many familiar StA fun YA novel for fans of the Clone Wars series, which does overlap well with the final season despite a few continuity errors. Like many familiar Star Wars stories, it's about going to a small planet where the people are oppressed and Ahsoka has to save the day. There are Inquisitors, a space battle in the end, and it doesn't terribly stand out to be honest.
The character is great, it's just that these sorts of novels don't have that much to say. We get it, it's hard for an ex-Jedi during this era. Rebels and the Obi-Wan show were similar in vein. An interesting thing is that the audiobook is narrated by Ahsoka's voice actor Ashley Eckstein, which is cool, but it's not first-person so even that doesn't totally work when describing scenes etc.
It's okay. Just not near the high level of political drama such as say Andor or Timothy Zahn's Thrawn books. Certainly worth reading for nerdy completists. And I am of course looking forward to her upcoming live-action series so it tided me over pretty well....more
Brilliant short story collection by Ted Chiang, who writes rarely but masters the form whenever he does.
Being familiar with the film Arrival, I enjoyBrilliant short story collection by Ted Chiang, who writes rarely but masters the form whenever he does.
Being familiar with the film Arrival, I enjoyed Story of Your Life about nonlinear linguistics and it's always fun to compare with source material. A pleasant surprise, however, was how many of these are kind of religious magical realism of the fantasy genre.
There are multiple stories that take Biblical concepts, from the tower of Babylon to golems and the chaotic amorality of angels, and take these ideas seriously to see how it would work in a real-world society. It's fascinating from my atheistic perspective, and I wonder what an actual believer would think.
My favorite is probably Understand, about super-intelligence. It's an impressive feat to write with so much detail about a mind that would basically be incomprehensible to us mere mortals.
I look forward to next reading his collection Exhalation....more
A dynamic new post-apocalyptic science fiction, written with expertise but not about the science. Rather, the author (podcaster extraordinaire from BeA dynamic new post-apocalyptic science fiction, written with expertise but not about the science. Rather, the author (podcaster extraordinaire from Behinds the Bastards) is an experienced Middle Eastern war correspondent who writes authentically about a hypothetical Christian-type ISIS after the fall of the United States.
There's also issues of transhumanism, about how veterans of wars find it tough to acclimate back into society except by way of cybernetic enhancements. It's a bit over-the-top, very extreme and vulgar as these guys are just constantly on every drug ever. Sometimes it's even funny.
Note the audiobook is all free as a podcast. Not the deepest story, but very entertaining and would make for an above average smart action movie if not the deepest work of literature. Fans of postcyberpunk looking for something current would get a lot out of After the Revolution. ...more
'I don't know,' she muttered. 'But somewhere along the line, this freedom stuff got way out of control.'
A very cool social satire, one that's so very'I don't know,' she muttered. 'But somewhere along the line, this freedom stuff got way out of control.'
A very cool social satire, one that's so very 2003, and still has a lot of bite.
Jennifer Government isn't exactly about a dystopian future, more of an alternate present, where capitalism and neoliberal-globalism has run amok to absurd degrees. Everyone around the world speaks American, McDonalds runs schools, and Nike kills people for profit. So not that different from the real world.
The most jarring part is probably how everyone changes their last name based on where they work, like commentary on how we base our identities on jobs, but that makes for a lot of redundancies.
Max Barry writes with wit, fast-paced and full of jokes. Good at action scenes too. It is a little dated ala 2003, with some of the computer brand names and the like being passé at this point. It's not so much the names, really, but rather how libertarianism back then was at least a consistent ideology. Nowadays the far right is completely incoherent, just raw emotional instinct and the id lashing out, so even this version of 'capitalizm' doesn't seem like the worst thing to worry about. But I digress.
Jennifer Government, the titular MC, is an agent of what's left of the extremely weak government trying to defeat hypersleazy corporate criminals. Then as the novel develops, a sort of civil war between rival customer loyalty programs brews. They hire NRA to attack ExxonMobil, and Burger King fans riot, etc.
Snow Crash probably did it better. Still, this is a good read and doesn't require a ton of technical knowledge about hacking and the like. Any reader will get why this setting is so messed up, and how it reflects the world we live in which only seems to be getting worse with this sort of thing.
Just hope this is ultimately a future, or a present, that we can somehow get past and do better. ...more
Very ambitious, but also very flawed. Simply too long, too many details, it should have been edited way down.
No offense to Paolini though it is clearVery ambitious, but also very flawed. Simply too long, too many details, it should have been edited way down.
No offense to Paolini though it is clear he started as a young adult fantasy writer. In his attempt to do serious hard science fiction set in space, he overdoes it with many explanations that could have been left out. The dream sequences in particular are unnecessary.
Kira is an interesting main character, with her Venom -style alien attached to her. There's a lot of world-building to try to make this all work, a whole lot, yet in the end the plot is rather straightforward. Almost like a video game with the big boss at the end.
Other interesting ideas include the technology of space travel, overlays, and ship minds. The gelatinous aliens are cool too.
Overall I would watch a series of this, an adaptation would be interesting. I just can't recommend this novel in the medium of prose. I do respect the effort....more
**spoiler alert** Sorry, I appreciate what the author was going for in this dystopia novella, but I think it didn't quite work...
A COVID-allegory in **spoiler alert** Sorry, I appreciate what the author was going for in this dystopia novella, but I think it didn't quite work...
A COVID-allegory in which a virus and then vaccine destroy the world, told from the point of view of a family that survives. Unfortunately, like COVID conspiracy theories in general, it just doesn't make any sense upon close inspection. The virus was clearly very deadly in the beginning of the novel, so why did it turn out to be a bad thing to take vaccines?
And there's how the government oppresses unvaccinated to the point of using them as slave labor and executing them, but then why doesn't can't that powerful government just like force soldiers to give people shots? I guess I understand writing about how mandates are oppression, even if I don't agree with it I suppose some people liken it to a discriminated minority, but the whole thing just doesn't make any sense in this scenario.
And why does the government want everyone to take a vaccine that eventually kills off most of the human race, why cover it up? There is no motive to be explained.
Furthermore I can't understand the point of censoring online media when basically everyone on earth is going to die, what could possibly be the motive of that? Again: I get that it's a social criticism of how some people think YouTube shouldn't censor medical misinformation--which I respectfully disagree with even though people can have that take--I just don't understand how this narrative works in the context of this story.
(Really, the simplistic 'censorship' angle just isn't as interesting as manipulative algorithms these days. That's what I think society should be worried about. In any case, the vaccine apocalypse thing is a silly perspective at this point. COVID-19 vaccines have been around for years, and there turned out to be no mass side effects that some people worried so much about. Still, that's what the author wanted to explore.)
It's a short novella, so the characterization is a bit slim. Halfway through it's revealed that the main father figure had military experience which is sort of out of nowhere. He does protect his family, which is the point apparently, and I suppose it's a successful dystopia in that it expresses what the author intends. I'll give it 2.5 stars although this story did not work for me....more
Neal Stephenson is still a genius, and there are always so very many interesting factoids one can learn from reading a tome like Termination Point.
HoNeal Stephenson is still a genius, and there are always so very many interesting factoids one can learn from reading a tome like Termination Point.
However, don't expect much of a plot in the conventional sense. This climate change speculative fiction has a lot of interesting things to say about the fall of America (although not as good as the first half of his previous book Fall), and of course the unique scientific take on how geo-engineering with a giant sulfur gun could be the answer to environmental disaster is a hell of a Big Idea premise. Then there's the global politics of it all, the somewhat coherent story of India going to war with Texas while China secretly manipulates, which happens to be from point of view of Netherlands royalty.
But besides whether or not one finds 700 pages of that a bit of a slug... Something feels off. Perhaps being too socially conscious these days prevents me from enjoying things, like I never minded the libertarian ethos of Cryptonomicon back in the day, but there's some awfully weird political subtext I currently can't seem to get over. It's a book about how fossil fuels have destroyed the planet, which is undeniable, and yet there are so many off lines about how it's the Greens who are the problem and won't let anyone make real progress. That the European far right going from climate denial to a pro-geoengineering stance overnight would be a good thing. And the moral of the story is basically to trust an oil billionaire to innovate out of this worldwide problem.
Don't get me wrong, it's fascinating. But it's been a long time since Stephenson wrote the excellent epic Anathem and the outstanding Americana satire Snow Crash. Perhaps he's best at tech thrillers now, not social critiques. I'm still ever curious to know any of his near-future predictions about the state of the country and the world, just can't say it quite works in this particular book....more
I consider myself a Stephenson aficionado, but perhaps I am not intelligent enough for the Baroque Cycle after all.
While I consider Cryptonomicon at I consider myself a Stephenson aficionado, but perhaps I am not intelligent enough for the Baroque Cycle after all.
While I consider Cryptonomicon at least my third-favorite of his tomes, this prequel to the saga does not work for me. Yes, one can learn quite a bit by reading about Daniel Waterhouse's conversations with Newton and Leibniz and even a young Benjamin Franklin, covering the Enlightenment period well. And the 'vagabond' sections with Jack Shaftoe's adventures, along with the impressive Eliza, are the more fun parts.
But overall, it can't be avoided how hard to follow this is. Generally, I find Neal Stephenson to be excellent at being a readable author who makes the most complex concepts interesting for a lay reader like myself. Yet, with this it does not work. This is not necessarily because of the thousand-plus page length. His science fiction world of scholars in Anathem is a far more successful attempt.
It was surely worth a try, and hopefully I do now have more of a sense of historical Europe and the natural sciences. What an effort it was, however.
So I suppose I shall not continue the trilogy, nor reread by way of audiobook any time soon......more
How was this book written in the late 90s, when it captures the 21st century political moment more than any other work of fiction ever?
I don't believHow was this book written in the late 90s, when it captures the 21st century political moment more than any other work of fiction ever?
I don't believe it, this must have really come out at least after 2015
Very prescient and reads like a contemporary tech thriller about the near future, the chaotic insane hyper-confused scifi America that is unfolding before our eyes right now.
Considering it takes place in the 2040s, I'd very much like to reread in 20 years and see how scarily this vision comes true......more
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