Ah... spring time. The month of April is nearly over, and a boy's fancy turns toward those things that all boys dream of when spring is ending and summer is on the doorstep. Movies. What did you think I was going to say?
Last year on my old blog, I wrote a summer preview called, predictably, "Summer Movies I Hope Don't Suck." It was a smash hit! The page hits were off the scale. Ok, they were off the scale if the scale only went from one to eight, but still! Nine hits on one article? This sort of audience response demanded a repeat. And so here is "Summer Movies I Hope Don't Suck - 2012."
A bit of incidental trivia: last year I wrote this post on April 29. Cool, huh?
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Book Review: Star Wars - The Old Republic: Revan
Another book review. I've changed the way I do the reviews a bit, and I'm in the process of trying to make them better. Be patient with me, yeah?
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| Source: Amazon.com |
Star Wars - The Old Republic: Revan, by Drew Karpyshyn
This would be the first book that I approach in my new format. So here goes...
From the book’s back cover:
There’s something out there: a juggernaut of evil bearing down to crush the Republic—unless one lone Jedi, shunned and reviled, can stop it.
Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians—and returned a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All that’s left are nightmares—and deep, abiding fear.
What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan can’t quite remember, yet can’t entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic. With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for he’s never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.
Synopsis:
Star Wars - The Old Republic: Revan is a book that would be considered part of the so-called “EU” (the European Union? No, not quite), or “Expanded Universe” of Star Wars. These are books, comic books and games and other various things that take the basic premises of the Star Wars films and expand upon them. In this case, the book in question is based on a popular series of video/computer games that had their story arc written (at least in part) by the author of this book, Drew Karpyshyn. For the curious among you, those games were the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG games for PC/Xbox, and the new PC-based MMORPG titled The Old Republic. These games follow the story of a fallen Jedi named Revan, who went off to fight the Mandalorians, or Boba Fett’s great-great-great-great.....and then some.....grandparents.
This would be the first book that I approach in my new format. So here goes...
From the book’s back cover:
There’s something out there: a juggernaut of evil bearing down to crush the Republic—unless one lone Jedi, shunned and reviled, can stop it.
Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians—and returned a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All that’s left are nightmares—and deep, abiding fear.
What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan can’t quite remember, yet can’t entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic. With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for he’s never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.
Synopsis:
Star Wars - The Old Republic: Revan is a book that would be considered part of the so-called “EU” (the European Union? No, not quite), or “Expanded Universe” of Star Wars. These are books, comic books and games and other various things that take the basic premises of the Star Wars films and expand upon them. In this case, the book in question is based on a popular series of video/computer games that had their story arc written (at least in part) by the author of this book, Drew Karpyshyn. For the curious among you, those games were the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic RPG games for PC/Xbox, and the new PC-based MMORPG titled The Old Republic. These games follow the story of a fallen Jedi named Revan, who went off to fight the Mandalorians, or Boba Fett’s great-great-great-great.....and then some.....grandparents.
This storyline featuring Revan is supposed to be thousands of
years before Luke Skywalker blows up the Death Star. Life isn’t too
terribly different back in Revan’s day than it is in the prequel Star Wars
movies. We've got it all. Lightsabers,
the Force, droids, hyperspace travel, and stuff like that. In fact, you
can’t help but wonder if progress is an unattainable goal for these folks in
the Star Wars universe. Once they got the Force, they stopped needing to
do anything else that was cool. But that is beyond the point of this
review, I suppose.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Book Review: Watership Down, by Richard Adams
I've been keeping a low profile for a little while since the semester ended. I've had this book review done for a bit, but haven't gotten around to posting it. But here it is.
Oh, and as a side note, I recently received a semi-complaint that this blog had turned into nothing but book reviews. Yeah, that has been about all I've had time or energy for lately. Not to put it in a grouchy way... well, yeah - to put it in a grouchy way, if you don't like what I'm doing, there is a big wide internet out there. Don't let the firewall hit you in the butt on the way to someplace less mundane. I'll get to the exciting stuff when I am darn good and ready.
Ok, enough drama.
Watership Down: A Novel, by Richard Adams
I think that when you review a book that many consider a classic, you have to be careful. Granted, people can call a Harlequin Romance novel of one particular title or another a “classic,” and perhaps in the eye of the beholder it may be so. But in this particular case, the book is one that many people seem to consider to be a seminal classic, and so reviewing it can be a bit dicey. If you didn’t like the book, you can say that, but you may be taken as one of those people who are just being “avant garde” or being obstinate for the sake of it. Know what I mean?
On the other hand, if you like the book, you are just one more in a long string of people who laud the thing and that isn’t terribly original, now is it? What is an amateur reviewer to do? Well, the best thing to do would be to get this review out of the way quickly, and be done with it. I considered doing a “dual review” of this one since the book was made into a film in the 1970s, but... well, to be honest, I don’t feel like re-visiting Watership Down. It’s over for me, and I’m frankly glad.
Don’t get me wrong, the book was good. I just didn’t really hang on every word. Well, let me change that statement. I didn’t hang on every word except for in a few specific spots. I think Adams’s best material was when he was having his rabbit characters tell their mythology about “El-ahrairah” (that’s El-Rey-Rah from the pronunciation I got on the tape I was listening to), a trickster lord of rabbits who forms a sort of “hero” for all rabbit-kind. Him and the Black Rabbit of Inle, who was quite cool for a rabbit. Sort of the rabbit version of Hades, you might say. But I’m getting away from the review here.
Oh, and as a side note, I recently received a semi-complaint that this blog had turned into nothing but book reviews. Yeah, that has been about all I've had time or energy for lately. Not to put it in a grouchy way... well, yeah - to put it in a grouchy way, if you don't like what I'm doing, there is a big wide internet out there. Don't let the firewall hit you in the butt on the way to someplace less mundane. I'll get to the exciting stuff when I am darn good and ready.
Ok, enough drama.
 |
| Source: Amazon.com |
I think that when you review a book that many consider a classic, you have to be careful. Granted, people can call a Harlequin Romance novel of one particular title or another a “classic,” and perhaps in the eye of the beholder it may be so. But in this particular case, the book is one that many people seem to consider to be a seminal classic, and so reviewing it can be a bit dicey. If you didn’t like the book, you can say that, but you may be taken as one of those people who are just being “avant garde” or being obstinate for the sake of it. Know what I mean?
On the other hand, if you like the book, you are just one more in a long string of people who laud the thing and that isn’t terribly original, now is it? What is an amateur reviewer to do? Well, the best thing to do would be to get this review out of the way quickly, and be done with it. I considered doing a “dual review” of this one since the book was made into a film in the 1970s, but... well, to be honest, I don’t feel like re-visiting Watership Down. It’s over for me, and I’m frankly glad.
Don’t get me wrong, the book was good. I just didn’t really hang on every word. Well, let me change that statement. I didn’t hang on every word except for in a few specific spots. I think Adams’s best material was when he was having his rabbit characters tell their mythology about “El-ahrairah” (that’s El-Rey-Rah from the pronunciation I got on the tape I was listening to), a trickster lord of rabbits who forms a sort of “hero” for all rabbit-kind. Him and the Black Rabbit of Inle, who was quite cool for a rabbit. Sort of the rabbit version of Hades, you might say. But I’m getting away from the review here.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Relieved Thoughts from the White Board - April 21
I've sort of dropped out of sight for a bit, as the semester has officially ended. Whew! I was starting to wonder if it'd ever come around, or if this past year would just keep going, Energizer Bunny-style...
Anyway, I do still have one last paper to polish off, so I'll make this quick and then get to it. That darn book review for my Modern Middle Eastern History class. Work this week was real busy and I didn't get a chance to finish the paper yet, but I'm almost there, and my professor said I could take until the weekend. So I better just get it done.
Anyway, I do still have one last paper to polish off, so I'll make this quick and then get to it. That darn book review for my Modern Middle Eastern History class. Work this week was real busy and I didn't get a chance to finish the paper yet, but I'm almost there, and my professor said I could take until the weekend. So I better just get it done.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Tax-related Thoughts from the White Board? - April 17
So... Happy Tax Day, yall!
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