It's a weird world. Something happened some time ago that changed everything, an alteration somewhere at the quantum molecular level, and nobody can pIt's a weird world. Something happened some time ago that changed everything, an alteration somewhere at the quantum molecular level, and nobody can pinpoint what or how it changed, it just did. And we're okay with it. Well, some of us, anyway.
But things aren't quite right, and we all sense it.
And, yes, I am making a thinly-veiled reference to our American political atmosphere, in which everybody hates everybody and people are shooting up rallies while normally good-natured people laugh and joke about how they wish the shooter hadn't missed, as if that is a perfectly okay---or even normal---thing to say. It's like a cognitive dissonance on a global level.
Then, today, it's announced that our current sitting president is stepping down and removing himself from the presidential campaign, mainly, it seems, because George Fucking Clooney (I don't think that's his middle name, but I also don't care) asked him to do so. 'Cause... George Fucking Clooney, I guess.
Weird world.
Anyway, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist André Lima Araújo have collaborated on the graphic novel series Phenomena, which is about a future world in which Something Happened and made everything weird. That's about the extent of the explanation you're going to get, at least in Volume 1, "The Golden City of Eyes".
Let me just say from the outset that there is basically no real plot to this, but it doesn't matter. What matters is Araujo's beautiful artwork, which is in black and white (and, yes, I love black and white artwork), and is also a wonderful homage to classic sci-fi comic book artists such as Moebius (of which there are more than a few visual nods scattered throughout.)
The story doesn't make a lick of sense, but it's nonetheless written with Bendis's sense of humor.
I enjoyed this probably far more than it deserves. Definitely worth it for the artwork, though....more
The long-awaited ninth book in Kazu Kibuishi’s young adult graphic novel Amulet series, “Waverider”, is here, and it is a fun, exciting, worthy concluThe long-awaited ninth book in Kazu Kibuishi’s young adult graphic novel Amulet series, “Waverider”, is here, and it is a fun, exciting, worthy conclusion to an excellent sci-fi/fantasy series.
Emily has uncovered the true powers of the Stonekeepers, and she has also discovered the origins of IKOL and the shadow creatures. Now, she must use her knowledge to save her family and the rest of the galaxy…
I can’t say more than that. Spoilers, you understand.
Seriously, this nine-book series is great. Highly recommended for readers of all ages....more
Beautifully-drawn, intriguing, and surprisingly short, Dan McDaid's sci-fi graphic novel "Dega" is, unfortunately, difficult to piece together due to Beautifully-drawn, intriguing, and surprisingly short, Dan McDaid's sci-fi graphic novel "Dega" is, unfortunately, difficult to piece together due to a very "open-to-interpretation" storyline. I actually read it, cover to cover, twice, but it didn't help. I still didn't "get it".
That said, I still thought it was cool. McDaid's hand-drawn artwork is awesome, and despite my problems with the story, I think it's ambiguity is what makes it intriguing. It reminds me of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" in its wonderful weirdness....more
I was a latch-key kid. For those of you millennials and subsequent generations who did not grow up in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, a “latch-key kid” wI was a latch-key kid. For those of you millennials and subsequent generations who did not grow up in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, a “latch-key kid” was a kid who had two parents that worked long hours and basically stayed at home before and after school for several hours alone. That means no parental supervision. That means having the entire run of the house yourself.
I’ll give you kids a few seconds to mull that over.
I know: it’s shocking, horrifying, and you’re wondering why our parents weren’t arrested for neglect or abuse.
See, basically, in those days of yore, our parents didn’t really give a shit what we did for six or seven hours at night. Mom would go straight to the kitchen and make Hamburger Helper (just Google it). Dad would sit in his armchair and read the paper or watch the news or fall asleep. We would eat a quick meal together, and then our parents would tell us to go do something, which included (but was not limited to): doing our homework, riding our bikes around town, meeting up with friends at the local pharmacy or shopping plaza for the express purpose of making farting noises with our armpits and/or talking excessively about girls we liked in school and how much we would love to see their boobs.
This was the Golden Age of childhood for us. It was pretty much downhill after that.
This is all, by the way, a completely irrelevant and unnecessary preface to a review of Jack McKinney’s novel “Robotech: Genesis”, the first in a series of paperbacks based on an anime series that I watched religiously everyday after school.
The show, besides being about an alien invasion of Earth and giant robots, was also the first time I ever saw people getting killed in a cartoon. So, it didn’t graphically show people getting killed, but it often showed human-driven spaceships and giant robots being blown up, so it was obvious that people were dying. Which I thought, as a kid, was super-cool.
Kids, keep in mind: I didn’t have a home computer (we didn’t get one until my senior year of high school), a smartphone, iPad, and the term “Internet” hadn’t even been coined yet. After-school cartoons were the only thing we had going for us.
“Robotech” was one of my favorite shows, if not my favorite. (Vying for second place was “G.I.Joe” and “Transformers”.)
McKinney wrote these books (close to a baker’s dozen, I think) way back in the late-80s. They were basically novelizations of the shows. I didn’t read them at the time. I waited until now, when I’m 51, to read them.
They are essentially critic-proof. I could go on about how two-dimensional the characters are, how the book spends a lot of time mired in technical detail about spaceship and robot design, how stilted and silly the dialogue is, but nobody cares. If you are reading these books, you are reading them because you are a 12-year-old kid (regardless of how old you really are) who loves giant robots fighting giant aliens.
And you are probably reminiscing how fun it was to be a latch-key kid....more
Thirty-seven years. That’s how long it’s been since Star Trek: The Next Generation aired on television. I was a freshman in high school, and I recall Thirty-seven years. That’s how long it’s been since Star Trek: The Next Generation aired on television. I was a freshman in high school, and I recall watching the pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint” with a giddiness and delight that I’m only slightly embarrassed about today.
The show was fun. I had grown up watching and loving the original series and going to all the movies with my parents, so when it was announced that a new Star Trek series would be airing, I was stoked.
I’ll be honest, though: I stalled out on the series near the end, and, in fact, I don’t think I ever watched the last couple seasons. I never watched the spin-off shows. Part of the reason was that, while I was away at college for four years, my interests had changed. I was less interested in Star Trek and science fiction in general. I was learning about philosophy and bongs and having college girls play with my—- Anyway, I lost interest in STNG.
It’s only now, at age 51, that I have decided to read some of those old STNG novels that I had packed away in boxes.
Diane Carey’s “Ghost Ship” was the first published STNG novel, way back in 1988. Rumor has it that she wrote the book before the show even aired, so she was basing her characterizations based solely on the early teleplays of the show.
Amazingly, the book is pretty decent. It starts out on the high seas on Earth in 1987, where an alien entity skims our planet and destroys a Russian aircraft carrier. Rather than kill the crew, though, the entity “absorbs” the crew’s life force—-their individual memories, thoughts, feelings, everything that essentially makes them human—-minus their physical bodies. For hundreds of years, their “souls” are essentially trapped on the alien spaceship/creature…
…Until Counselor Deanna Troi hears their pleas in deep space on board the Starship Enterprise. Weird apparitions start appearing on board the ship. For all intents and purposes, the Enterprise has become “haunted” with these lost souls. Are they trying to warn the crew? Or do they have something else in mind? When the ghost ship appears in space, will the Enterprise and crew suffer the same fate as the 20th-century Russian vessel?
Carey’s novel would have made a pretty exciting episode, and it certainly wets my whistle for reading more of these books, of which there are literally hundreds out there....more
The entire human genome was officially sequenced and mapped in 2003, after a decade-long project by an international team of scientists. Prior to 1990The entire human genome was officially sequenced and mapped in 2003, after a decade-long project by an international team of scientists. Prior to 1990, when the Human Genome Project commenced, many questions existed about DNA, RNA, gene structures and sequencing. Prior to 1990, much of what we now know about genetics was fodder for science fiction and horror, which is why a lot of speculative fiction from the 1970s and ‘80s was “what-if?” extrapolations of unregulated human genetic engineering and experimentation.
John Saul’s 1982 sci-fi/horror novel “The God Project” joined the bandwagon of speculative authors playing upon the very real fears many people had about genetic engineering. What were the socio-political and ethical costs? Was genetic engineering the post-modern-day Frankenstein’s monster? What new wonders or horrors would we discover from this developing science?
Without giving away too many spoilers, “The God Project” epitomized two themes popular in ‘80s sci-fi/horror fiction: 1) Scientists playing God. A popular axiom: “Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.” 2) Unchecked secret governmental/military entities that weren’t above using American citizens as pawns or guinea pigs.
It is interesting to note that much of what was horrifying to a 1982 audience in this novel has become common plot devices in everything from movies like “Captain America: Winter Soldier” and TV shows like “The Boys”. (Hopefully that doesn’t give too much away in terms of spoilers.) ...more
The third volume of BRZRKR brings to a satisfactory conclusion certainly one of the more fun if not extremely violent action-adventure graphic novel sThe third volume of BRZRKR brings to a satisfactory conclusion certainly one of the more fun if not extremely violent action-adventure graphic novel series in recent memory.
Written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt, the series is just begging to be made into an HBOMax or Netflix series or a three-part movie series, starring Reeves.
While relatively short on plot, the series isn’t vapid or one-note. There’s a surprising amount of depth. Just not a lot of actual story, and what story is there is actually kind of confusing. It has a lot of moving parts but not a lot of explanation for them. Not that this detracts from the fun in any way.
What started out as a clever pastiche of Conan the Barbarian, John Wick, and The Punisher has become somewhat more of a weird science-fictional Messiah story, as the title character—-a man simply called B.—-finds out where he came from and what his ultimate purpose is.
There’s certainly nothing ambiguous about the ending, which adequately concludes the narrative arc while leaving it wide open for a sequel....more
Genetically altered super-rats are taking over the countryside, and government agents in biohazard suits are after them. While it certainly sounds likGenetically altered super-rats are taking over the countryside, and government agents in biohazard suits are after them. While it certainly sounds like James Herbert’s classic horror novel “The Rats”, it’s actually the plot of a beloved children’s classic.
Robert C. O’Brien’s “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH”, published in 1971, introduced the world to super-intelligent lab rats and mice that escaped the lab and found shelter on the Fitzgibbon farm, building an underground city beneath a rosebush, with rat-size chairs and tables and refrigerators and lamps and books.
It’s almost planting season, and Mrs. Frisby—-an industrious single mother mouse—-is in a pickle: her youngest son, Timothy, is sick and can’t be moved, but their cinderblock house is sure to be found by Mr. Fitzgibbon, so they must find alternative housing. An elderly mouse, Mr. Ages, tells her to recruit the help of the rats in the rosebush.
So, she goes off on an adventure to ask for help from the strange, reclusive rats, not realizing that she will be a part of a much bigger adventure.
I had never read this as a child, but I vaguely recall the ‘80s animated film “The Secret of NIMH” that was based on it. I may have to revisit that sometime. The book was wonderful, and I loved it.
This was a nightly bedtime book that I read with my daughter. While it didn’t have the excitement of the Harry Potter books (which she recently discovered; her favorite so far being the third book, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”), she enjoyed it. It’s got talking mice and rats: what’s not to love?...more
Andy Weir wowed me with his debut novel “The Martian”, a novel that, for awhile anyway, seemed to reinvigorate people’s interest in science. It was alAndy Weir wowed me with his debut novel “The Martian”, a novel that, for awhile anyway, seemed to reinvigorate people’s interest in science. It was also made into a decent film starring Matt Damon. He then wowed me again a few years later with another great sci-fi novel, “Project Hail Mary”. Both books showed how science can be, if used correctly, mankind’s salvation.
Sandwiched between these two books was a novel called “Artemis”, a sci-fi novel set on the first and only manned moon base in the near future. This novel demonstrated how science can be, if used incorrectly, dumb and boring. Much like this novel.
To be fair, the novel isn’t horrible. There’s still a lot of Weir’s trademark humor in this, as well as his obligatory sections in which he explains fascinating scientific concepts in layman’s terms.
The problem stems from the fact that Weir has basically just written a heist story set on the moon. Now, if Michael Connelly or Elmore Leonard had written this, it may have been great. Unfortunately, Weir is no Connelly or Leonard.
I’m also not a huge fan of heist stories. Even if they are set on the moon.
The protagonist is also somewhat problematic. To be sure, she is a typical Weir protagonist: funny, smart, likable, and someone you want to root for.
Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara was born and raised on the moon. It’s the only life she knows. As people who know and love her constantly tell her, she could have been anything she wanted—-an engineer, an architect, a ship designer, even the head of Artemis, which is the name of the moon base she lives on. Instead, she chose a life of crime; specifically, smuggling.
Here’s where logic falls apart: Weir does a good job explaining how the moon base is designed and laid out. It is essentially five geodesic domes interconnected by tunnels. The population of the entire moon base is less than 2,000 people, give or take a few hundred tourists at any given time. Security is a handful of moon police, none of whom carry weapons, and weapons of any kind (guns especially) are not allowed on Artemis. Given the small core population and a relatively enclosed place, everybody pretty much knows everybody. So, how the hell has Jazz become the preeminent criminal mastermind on Artemis without anyone suspecting and without the authorities catching on?
I realize that Weir tries to answer this question throughout the novel: She’s really likable. Everybody loves her. She’s super-smart. She knows all the ins and outs of the moon base having lived there all her life. She’s set up contingencies and contingencies for the contingencies. Whatever. I don’t buy it.
It’s simply one of those ridiculous plot holes that the reader has to gloss over in order to enjoy the rest of the story. But I didn’t enjoy the rest of the story. I was kind of annoyed by it.
“Artemis” isn’t a horrible novel, but it’s nowhere near the greatness Weir is capable of. If you want to read it, I won’t stop you. But if you’re coming to Weir for the first time, avoid this one at all cost. Read “The Martian” or “Project Hail Mary” first.
I read this as an audiobook on CD, performed by the great Rosario Dawson. Honestly, the fact that she was narrating was one of the best parts of the audiobook....more
Dad joke about mushrooms #1: "Why did the mushroom break up with his girlfriend? Because she was always shiitake-ing him for granted."
I love mushroomsDad joke about mushrooms #1: "Why did the mushroom break up with his girlfriend? Because she was always shiitake-ing him for granted."
I love mushrooms. And, apparently they are really popular now in literature and in film. A new horror movie, "Gaia", which is getting great buzz, is about a global fungal infestation. Then, there's the popular and critically-acclaimed HBO Max TV show, "The Last of Us", about a fungus that turns people into zombies.
Science fiction and horror has always loved mushrooms. Besides being weirdly adorable, there is something uncomfortably alien about them. They're also great on pizza.
Dad joke about mushrooms #2: "What kind of a vehicle does a mushroom drive? A spores-car."
T. Kingfisher, I'm guessing, loves mushrooms. Or she hates them. You decide.
Her novel "What Moves the Dead" is a brilliant (and funny and terrifying) reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's famous story "The Fall of the House of Usher". Poe, himself, also loved (or hated---it's a fine line, really) mushrooms, based on that story.
I won't go into the plot. If you remember even a little bit of the story from high school, Kingfisher's story merely retells Poe's story, fleshing it out a bit more, and positing a science fictional explanation for the mysterious events in the story.
Kingfisher is a cap-tivating raconteur of fungal horror, and her novel is thoroughly enjoyable. Morel less. (Dad jokes about mushrooms #3 and #4.) ...more
S. A. Barnes’s debut novel “Dead Silence” was, I thought, a decent effort. It was atmospheric, definitely creepy in parts, and well-written. It didn’tS. A. Barnes’s debut novel “Dead Silence” was, I thought, a decent effort. It was atmospheric, definitely creepy in parts, and well-written. It didn’t, however, wow me, especially with its ending, which I thought was a bit of a cop-out. Still, I could recognize that Barnes had a talent in writing scary-good sci-fi horror.
Her sophomore novel, “Ghost Station”, was considerably better. It managed to click off a lot of the boxes that I look for in a good space-opera scream fest: a desolate planet, ancient remains of an alien race, unexplained phenomena, ghosts and phantoms, a well-developed ensemble of characters, and a believable final girl heroine. It also gave familiar nods to Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House”, George R.R. Martin’s “Nightflyers”, and Ridley Scott’s “Alien”.
The protagonist, Dr. Ophelia Bray, is a good-hearted heroine who genuinely wants to help people. She is, however, hiding a deep dark secret that could ruin her career and reputation, if not her entire life. We know, as readers, that she has one, but we don’t know what it is.
Her latest mission is to a planet that harbors its own secrets, some that could be deadly. When crew members start acting weird, Ophelia worries that it could be Eckhart-Reiser Syndrome (ERS), a mental illness that affects space travelers, especially those who spend lengthy amounts of time on space ships or on space stations. Or it could be something else, something more sinister.
The suspense builds to a wonderful crescendo in this, making this one of the more un-put-downable horror novels I have read in a while.
Barnes has hit a home run with this one, and I look forward to more from her in the future. ...more
If Lee Child, Blake Crouch, and Brad Meltzer ever collaborated on a novel, the result would end up something like a James Rollins novel. Rollins deftlIf Lee Child, Blake Crouch, and Brad Meltzer ever collaborated on a novel, the result would end up something like a James Rollins novel. Rollins deftly combines action/adventure, hard science, and well-researched history in his contemporary pulp novels that are reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard, if Burroughs and Haggard were actually decent writers.
“Kingdom of Bones” is the 16th book in Rollins’s Sigma Force series, but it is the first of the series that I have read. Basically imagine if G.I.Joe routinely worked with Fringe Division to solve international X-Files cases, and you kind of have an idea of what Rollins is going for in these books.
The plot of this novel—-like most Rollins novels—-is too detailed and convoluted to go into, other than to say it is set in the heart of the Republic of the Congo, and it involves a supervirus, mutated baboons, a lost kingdom of gold, a legendary Congolese Christian king, pygmies, aardwolves, robotic killer dogs, and a life-giving Mother Tree that may have provided the genetic material that helped in the jumpstarting of the evolution of humanity. There’s also, of course, a stock Bond-type villain who is plundering the Congolese natural resources for his own avaricious desires. There’s also a lovable military dog named Kane.
It’s not totally necessary to know the main characters. They are all kind of cardboard cut-out Action Heroes with names like Grey, Frank, Tucker, and Kowalski. These are the recurring characters, and I don’t know their back-stories.
Despite its silliness, “Kingdom of Bones” is an exciting action thriller with a lot of fascinating science and African history to keep you turning the pages, assuming the heroic dog isn’t enough to do that.
I “read” this as an Audiobook on CD. It was narrated wonderfully by Christian Baskous....more
Absurdity is the new normal. Just look at the world we live in. It’s a world where half the United States may vote in as president a man who has been Absurdity is the new normal. Just look at the world we live in. It’s a world where half the United States may vote in as president a man who has been found guilty of 34 felony counts. It is a world in which a country created for a people who suffered a genocidal campaign that resulted in six million dead is now leading a genocidal campaign against another group of people over land rights. It is a world in which global climate change is causing record heatwaves, forest fires, droughts, and flooding but the real threat is… drag queens?
Something is not right with the world. We all know it. Life, so far, in the 21st century is just downright weird.
So, it’s good that we have writers like George Saunders. He may not be able to make sense of the absurdity, but he can certainly shine a light on it and make us confront it.
In his latest short story collection, “Liberation Day”, Saunders looks at the world through a shattered lens with depth, darkness, and a lot of humor.
I enjoyed all nine stories in this collection, but certainly a few stood out.
The first story, “Liberation Day”, is set in a not-so-distant future in which the wealthy have found a useful and completely unnecessarily irrational solution to poverty: wipe the minds of the poor, hang them on the walls of your living room, and use them as human “speakers”. (Somehow, Saunders makes this sound completely logical. It’s his super power.)
“Ghoul” is another not-so-distant future story in which employees of an underground amusement park go about their everyday lives running a park that has never been attended by any visitors and, it turns out, never will be.
In “Sparrow” (perhaps my personal favorite), a simple woman who works in a small general store and is the brunt of the townspeople’s cruel judgment and scorn finds true love in an unlikely source, and makes everybody in town reevaluate her.
In “Mother’s Day”, two elderly women who have a bitter history together confront each other during a hailstorm with tragic results.
In “Elliott Spencer”, a human robot (a formerly homeless drunk who has had his mind wiped—a favorite motif of Saunders’) who is trained to be a professional protestor begins to have flashbacks of his former life.
Fans of great short story writing and great short story writers (Kurt Vonnegut, Raymond Carver, Stephen King, Alice Munro) will greatly appreciate Saunders.
I read this as an Audiobook on CD. Narrators included Tina Fey, Jack McBrayer, Jenny Slate, Stephen Root, and others....more
Peter Milligan's graphic novel "Sacrament" was pretty darn okay. It's basically "Alien" meets "Exorcist", and if you don't believe me, it's probably wPeter Milligan's graphic novel "Sacrament" was pretty darn okay. It's basically "Alien" meets "Exorcist", and if you don't believe me, it's probably written in one of the blurbs on the back of the paperback version. Everything about this graphic novel is pretty standard issue, absolutely nothing new or original: Priest in the future having a crisis of faith is called in by the government to a planet where weird shit is happening and some guy seems to be possessed by an alien demon. Oh, and the priest's hot assistant nun finds out the guy she works with has secretly been harboring lustful thoughts about her. Shocker! He's a guy who took a vow of chastity and has to work with a hot nun! Jesus, people are dumb.
If there was absolutely nothing else laying around, this would be okay to read. Don't go seeking it out, though....more
The graphic novel adaptations of Harlan Ellison’s short stories—-ranging from his pulp stuff from the ‘40s and ‘50s to his ground-breaking science ficThe graphic novel adaptations of Harlan Ellison’s short stories—-ranging from his pulp stuff from the ‘40s and ‘50s to his ground-breaking science fiction of the ‘60s, ’70s, and ‘80s—in the second volume of “Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor” are kind of all over the place in terms of quality.
Stories like “Djinn, No Chaser” and “The Voice in the Garden” are, admittedly, dumb, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are hilarious.
Award-winning and legendary comic book artists like Neal Adams and Richard Corben illustrate stories that, sure, feel dated and not-so-relevant anymore, but they are stories ILLUSTRATED BY NEAL ADAMS AND RICHARD CORBEN, FOR GOD’S SAKE.
I’m not ashamed to say that I am a devout Ellison apologist. Personally, the guy can do no wrong for me. (Even, though, yes, “Gnomebody” is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever read in my life.)
Ellison clearly loved comic books and everything about them, and he shares that love in this (in my opinion, too short-lived) series from Dark Horse Comics. Plus, this series has the feel of a “bucket list” item for Ellison: gather some of his fave comic book writers and artists to adapt a selection of his short stories. Done. I’m happy for Ellison that he was able to do it before his passing in 2018....more
Back in 1996, Harlan Ellison collaborated with some of the best and most notable comic book artists and writers in the industry to create a series forBack in 1996, Harlan Ellison collaborated with some of the best and most notable comic book artists and writers in the industry to create a series for Dark Horse Comics. It was called “Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor”, and it would feature graphic adaptations of a selection of Ellison’s short stories he had written over a career spanning over sixty years.
The collection of stories in Volume One range from meh to excellent. They are a motley crew of stories, to say the least.
Ellison, as a young man, wrote for the pulps, and a lot of his early stuff were stories that he clearly wrote for money, specifically a penny per word. They were westerns, crime stories, war stories, teenage gang stories, horror, and science fiction. A lot of the stuff he wrote back then were, even according to Ellison himself, garbage. Regardless, some of these old pulp stories lend themselves pretty well to the graphic novel form, harking back to the old EC comic books.
That said, Ellison’s prose was unique and powerful, so it’s nice to see that included amongst the pretty drawings are actual short stories that Ellison wrote specifically for this series....more
James Luceno’s 2012 novel “Darth Plagueis” does for the Star Wars prequel trilogy what Gareth Edwards’s film “Rogue One” did for “Episode IV: A New HoJames Luceno’s 2012 novel “Darth Plagueis” does for the Star Wars prequel trilogy what Gareth Edwards’s film “Rogue One” did for “Episode IV: A New Hope”: filled in some major plot holes that had annoyed fans for years.
Basically, “Darth Plagueis” is a prequel of a prequel. Despite that, it’s actually quite good, working well as a stand-alone novel. It’s true achievement, though, is helping to clarify the ridiculously confusing mess of a script that was George Lucas’s “Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, which is, hands down, the least coherent of any of the Star Wars films, followed closely by “Episode II: Attack of the Clones” and “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”.
Luceno answers the question: who was Emperor Palpatine’s Sith Master? I mean, Darth Sidious had to learn his evil Sith ways from someone. The answer is Darth Plagueis, whose real name is Hego Damassk II. A Muun (from the planet Muunilinst, a world of bankers and financial experts), Damassk believed that the Sith’s ultimate goal of galactic conquest could be achieved through political and economic means, rather than through sheer aggression and violence.
Setting his sights on a young politician from Naboo, Damassk takes the young Palpatine under his wings. Palpatine, early in his career in the Galactic Senate, demonstrates a gift for political power plays. With Damassk’s financial backing and, more importantly, Sith training, Palpatine quickly becomes an adept Sith apprentice.
While there are very few actual action sequences in the novel, the novel still moves at a fast pace, as Damassk and Palpatine wage a secret war of political maneuverings with the ultimate intent of positioning Palpatine as Chancellor and, ultimately, Emperor. They also set in motion the falling dominoes that will eventually result in the Great Purge, otherwise known as the death of the Jedi Knights.
This may be considered “old canon”, but it’s still an essential read for fans....more
An old paperback gem by Alan Dean Foster, "Slipt" was a little bit "The Shining" meets "The Toxic Avenger", minus the gratuitous gore. I wish I still An old paperback gem by Alan Dean Foster, "Slipt" was a little bit "The Shining" meets "The Toxic Avenger", minus the gratuitous gore. I wish I still had this paperback. I don't remember a lot of this book, but I remember enjoying it....more
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