A Green Mushroom

I'm continuing down the path of re-exploring some of my favorite childhood novels in the Star Wars universe.  I'm finally to the part of the New Republic Era of books where it starts to get really good.  I just finished reading X-Wing Rogue Squadron and I'm surprised to find that it's still as good as I remembered it. I was afraid this series wouldn't hold up.  I haven't read these books since I was a teenager or earlier.  It's still fantastic. Rogue Squadron is the famous squadron of X-Wing pilots that developed out of Red Squadron from the first Star Wars movie.  Most of the well known pilots have either died or moved on when this series picks up.  Only a few veteran rogues are left to rebuild the squadron with new members. It's a good primer on a few of my favorite characters from the Star Wars universe, Wedge Antilles and Corran Horn. Wedge was one of Luke's friends and he is the current leader of Rogue Squadron.  He's the...

I love Brandon Sanderson.  Not the man... but his books.  They're so good.  With the exception of his very first novel, Elantris, I've loved every single book or novella of his that I've read.  I recommend them to people all the time. I just finished listening to the audiobook version of The Rithmatist.  I've read the book a few times before, so the audiobook was a change of pace.  But, it was great! The world of The Rithmatist is basically an alternative history version of the early 1900s in the U.S.  Some major event has shaken the world, changed the landscape, and created a new form of science/math called Rithmatics.  Those in the world who are Rithmatists can use chalk to do things that would be considered magic in other circumstance, but it conforms to a very precise set of laws and theories.  It's an interesting setting. We learn throughout the book that wild creatures called chalklings may be on the loose.  They are anim...

Last week I wrote a little bit about my impressions of Daredevil after the first few episodes.  This week I checked out Marco Polo, another Netflix Original Series, and I'm reporting back after watching the same amount of episodes. I like it so much more than Daredevil. This is my kind of show.  There's intrigue and competing objectives.  It's epic in scope, yet based on real events of the past.  In some ways it reminds me of Game of Thrones. Marco Polo is the son of a merchant who travels the world looking for new goods and trade routes.  He tags along while his father is visiting Kublai Khan and ends up unexpectedly getting placed as a servant in his court to save his father's merchant dealings.  It's the story of a westerner thrown into an eastern culture. It's all set in the 1200s and based on historic facts.  I think that's so cool! I love the characters and I'm already very invested in seeing what ends up happening.  This s...

My first thoughts on started Final Fantasy XIII-2 were: I have no idea what's going on. Lightning is in Valhalla fighting a new enemy.   There's an epic battle that feels like it belongs at the end of a game, not the beginning.  It is given no context.  Then a random new character is transported there through time and/or space and told to go on a mission to bring Serah to Lightning. Then we cut to Serah who has memories of the events of at the end of Final Fantasy XIII.  Unfortunately for her, most people don't remember it the same way.  They all say that Lightning was never there at the end of Final Fantasy XIII. After playing for the first few hours of the game it becomes apparent that timelines are mixed up and there are paradoxes everywhere.  The game is structured around unlocking new timelines, traveling through time, and solving paradoxes. It's not a bad premise, even though it's explained very poorly, but the gameplay doesn't do enough t...

I love Star Wars.  I was super excited to see this topic come up as our community post topic today.  But now I don't even know where to start. Here's the truth: Star Wars is my weakpoint. If I were a boss in a videogame, Star Wars would be my giant blinking red section.... or something. I consume everything Star Wars.  The movies, novels, ebooks, audiobooks, videogames, toys, board games, trailers, fan theories, whatever I can get my hands on.  I just love Star Wars. I'm so happy to see it coming into the hands of a generation of creators who grew up with the original trilogy.  The Star Wars trailer last week gives me a ton of hope for the direction of the series.  I think JJ Abrams is going to knock it out of the park.  It seems like he has immense respect for the original trilogy but he also understands what needs to be done to bring the films into a modern age. And he's just the first creator at the reigns.  I honestly expect to s...

Ready Player One is a gamerpunk book set in a dystopian future.  Everyone spends all their free time in The Oasis, a fantastic virtual reality world, because the real world sucks. It's a look at the possible future of virtual reality, but Ready Player One is also a celebration of pop culture. The creator of The Oasis has died and he has left an Easter Egg in the virtual world.  Whoever can solve the puzzle and find the egg will receive control of The Oasis and be able to do with it as they see fit.  Since the original creator grew up in the 70s and 80s... all of that pop culture has become relevant to a new generation.  It's awesome. It's a book filled with movie, music, and videogame reference and they're amazingly well done.  It's obvious that the author knows his stuff when he's writing about it. This is a book that I can easily recommend to every gamer out there.  It's fantastic!

I love Netflix original series.  It's fantastic that one of the modern streaming media services is getting so much into content creation.  I've been hooked on House of Cards since it first came out and it's given me interest in every project they've done since then. Daredevil is the first Netflix original series created in partnership with Marvel.  I really like what Marvel has been doing with movies lately, so the show intrigued me.  I remember watching the first Daredevil movie with Ben Afleck, so the bar is set pretty low for this show.  I thought I would give it a try. I watched the first few episodes and they're ok.  I've been hearing friends rave about how amazing this show is, but maybe it's just not for me.  That's not to say I can't see the positives in it. Daredevil is an interesting take on a gritty world.  He's a hero without the typical superpowers.  When he gets into a fight he actually has to expend effort.  He g...