STAR WORDS: Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

The latest release from Del Rey’s line of Star Wars novels is a quartet of short stories by Landry Q. Walker collected under the more-than-slightly cumbersome heading of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Tales From a Galaxy Far, Far Away. I will call them Tales for ease of reading. The quartet is available only in e-book format, look for it online from your e-book seller of choice.

Each story in the collection features characters from the imminently released film. What’s fun and interesting in this selection of stories is the wide variety of genres on display. Walker’s four tales rely on and reference wildly different sets of tropes, from horror to Western. [Read more…]

STAR WORDS: Hyperspace Troopers

Twilight-Company

Video game tie-in novels are typically of dubious quality. Shadows of the Empire was never great storytelling as prose or pixels. It came as a surprise to me how much I enjoyed Battlefront: Twilight Company and how grounded the series felt. Freed was clearly inspired by the long history of military science fiction and the hard-hitting reports of wartime journalism so prevalent in the last decade. What we get is a gritty, grimy, soldierly look at war on a galactic scale from the perspective of a boots-on-the-ground grunt. And somehow the book maintains the optimism inherent in Star Wars. It’s a refreshing look at Star Wars and brings to mind Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath in many ways – the action has an immediacy that pulls the reader into the world, caring about one character rather than the fate of a galaxy.

Johnny Rico, meet Namir

The novel follows Namir – a veteran sergeant of the 61st mobile infantry, Twilight Company – as he rises through the ranks during the darkest days of the Rebellion. He’s a jaded soldier fighting for the Rebel Alliance because fighting is all he knows. There is no patriotism in him, no love for the cause. As he is thrust up the chain of command he must grapple with his own doubts and whether he can serve the soldiers under his command if he is not a true believer. [Read more…]

J&STAC: the Sandman: Overture

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

Today is the release of the deluxe edition of the collected volume of the Sandman: Overture. The Sandman comics were an influential and formative part of creating the duo of -J. and Steph, so it was only fitting that they discuss the final Sandman story, which is also the first.

Official-cover-promo-Vertigothe Sandman: Overture

words by Neil Gaiman, art by J.H. Williams III and Dave Stewart, published by Vertigo 

Synopsis: it’s the story of what happened just before the sweeping saga that is the Sandman, where we discover why Dream was galaxies away and dressed for battle.  [Read more…]

J&STAC: Talking Cap (and Other New #1s)

-J. Michael Bestul is a writer for the Addison Recorder. Stephanie Ruehl is an artist who works in a comic book shop. They’re married and have a lot of discussions about comic books and graphic novels. Combine all that into a biweekly feature and you get “J. & Steph Talk About Comics.”

It’s a very Marvel J&STAC this week, with a special appearance by Image. We normally don’t do back-to-back new #1 reviews, but there are a lot of them, one of which got a lot of media attention. You can probably guess which one based on this tweet from Kurt Busiek:

Let’s start with Cap, shall we? [Read more…]

City on the Hill: Living in Minas Tirith

Minas-Tirith-minas-tirith-9563580-960-404

So, by now, you’ve all seen the trending topic on Facebook/Twitter/theonering.net/wherever. Basically, a Lord of the Rings fanatic cum architectural profession has, along with a bevy of colleagues/friends, started an Indiegogo fundraiser titled “Realise Minas Tirith“. Their goal – to build a living, working real-live version of the fantasy city from Tolkien’s epic trilogy.

I’m sure this has raised some questions amidst the neophytes and non-architecturally inclined. Fortunately, as the Recorder’s resident Tolkien scholar (insert grain of salt here), I can provide answers to these questions.

[Read more…]

Persistence of Memory: Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Buried Giant”

Image of The Buried Giant by Kazuo IshiguroMemory is a finicky thing. It’s subjective to an incredible degree, affected by a multitude of factors including personal bias, innate desires, and decaying human physiology. In short, every human being on earth has a different means of forming memories, as well as a different capability to retain memories. Some are treasured, and some are reviled. In the end, what we remember bubbles to the surface with obscene irregularity – and what we forget is often costlier than what we remember.

If that sounds convoluted, don’t read The Buried Giant, the latest work by acclaimed author Kazuo Ishiguro. If it peaks your interest, you’re more likely to find a thought-provoking existential treatise on what memories mean to our collective human experience. [Read more…]