The Trailer Awakens

I heard a new trailer for The Force Awakens was released last night, so I thought I'd get around to watching it today and maybe post about it...ha, yeah, no, you're right, I watched it live on my big screen TV and then re-watched it about 15 times:  some by rewinding the DVR (that's right, I recorded the entire MNF game just to have the trailer), and some from my phone to get screen grabs to post on Twitter...so yeah, I've seen it and have been dissecting it in my head since then (even in my sleep, I'm sure, but I very rarely remember dreams), waiting until I had time today to regurgitate my thoughts onto the page (so to speak)...and now the time has come to do just that, so follow along on YouTube, and let's see if you agree, disagree, wish my swift (or perhaps slow) death, or want to be my best friend for life...

No Fault in Lost Stars

Okay, I'm not saying Lost Stars is perfect or anything, but, I mean, that title is too clever to pass up...plus, I kinda thought going in that it was going to be the Star Wars equivalent of some kind of sappy love story like that (disclaimer:  I've neither read nor seen The Fault in Our Stars, so I'm making a stereotypical judgement based almost solely on the preview for the film...don't try this at home), but, to my surprise, it wasn't...not entirely, anyway. What it turned out to be was a true journey to The Force Awakens, in that you legitimately go on quite a journey with the two main characters, Romeo & Jul, er, I mean, Thane and Ciena (to be fair, they're not that Romeo and Juliet-ish, especially since they don't end up dying together at the end)...seriously, though, it's a Forrest Gump-esque story where the protagonists find themselves involved with almost every major player and event throughout the original trilogy, and then are directly responsible for a now-famous image of Tatooine's brother from another mother, Jakku. If you've been on the fence about this one since it's a "young adult" novel (or however they categorize these things), I'd hop off the post and scuttle down to your favorite bookstore and pick it up; it's an easy read (though a little long) that starts out slow but picks up and paces really well, especially in the last quarter or so. If you're a true Star Wars fan (that's right, calling you out, what!?!?), I think you'll definitely enjoy it, and I also think it's a fairly good icebreaker for anyone who's familiar with the movies, the original trilogy in particular, and is looking to get started down the rabbit hole of the (new) expanded universe. So, yeah, anyway, I liked it, it was good, now I'm going to pick a few talking points and babble, enjoy!

INTERLUDE: The Best Part of Aftermath?

Alright, as promised (I know you've been waiting with bated breath), a breakdown of the fantastic interludes in Aftermath. They represent the snapshot stories from around the galaxy that I didn't know I wanted, but now can't get enough of. I would be completely on-board with an entire book filled with these short, unfinished glimpses into the lives of denizens from every corner of the galaxy, whether they be hopeful, optimistic individuals with visions of what the future could hold, salivating degenerates who think the iron fist just rusted over, or scared, uncertain Imperials desperately trying to cling to whatever power they still wield *coughAdelhardcough* ...anyway, enough preamble, let's grab our utensils and dig in!

The Aftermath of the War...is More War!

Okay, despite my clever (okay, sorta clever...fine, fine, lame) title, there really isn't much actual "war" in Aftermath, not hot, troops on the ground, fleets in the outer atmosphere, war, anyway (btw, if you haven't read Aftermath, WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?! I mean, uh, you should probably not read this). Though, it's not really cold war either...more like lukewarm war, something like cats and dogs...maybe...moving on...the book skips forward from the end of Return of the Jedi, past the majority of the remainder of the real war portion of the conflict to more skirmish-style engagements (it seems like the Shattered Empire comics are taking care of the immediate post-RotJ action), to a galaxy that's adjusting to the absence of the Empire as much as the reintroduction of a republic. To be honest, by omitting a few references, the main story could easily take place during the early stages of the rebellion, and felt like a natural progression based on where things were when we left off. The Interludes do a magnificent job of highlighting the variety of goings-on around the galaxy and painting a picture of what this huge galactic change means for several different types of people on planets running the gamut from the core to the outer-most rim. The Interludes are so interesting, in fact, that I'm going to focus on them independently in another post. This entry will be about the main characters of the story, a story of getting the band together, which is essentially what this book breaks down to...think of it like A New Hope for this set of characters, several sets of coincidences throw them into a narrative and set them on a path toward something bigger...

An Uprising in the Aftermath Or: Why I'm Glued to My Phone Like a Teenager

Okay, so, full disclosure, I finished Aftermath yesterday morning, and was planning to write about it today (spoilers, I liked it), but then I found out Star Wars:  Uprising was available for download sometime yesterday afternoon aaaaaaaand I've basically spent the majority of the last 24 hours or so with my face buried in my phone like a stereotypical teenager...needless to say (but I feel compelled to say it anyway), I'm enjoying it. So here's my two cents on my Uprising experience so far, and I'll get to Aftermath for sure within the next week...because, yeah, it's definitely worth talking about.