Roxy
Basically the same thing as the Darth Maul mini-series, but... in one issue. It directly follows that and references it, which is the first time in this little canon journey that that happened (not even with the Qui-Gon comic and the Qui-Gon centric book!) so that's cool, because those connections are the only reason I'm doing this!
Anyway, Maul gets a little bit more characterization here - this shows why he's not super angry and unhinged come TPM, and more willing to exercise a little bit of caution and patience, which is nice. Not much of a journey, but at least I expected that way less than I did with the 5 issue mini-series.
Good and short, though. Can't really complain.
Pretty decent! The art was really, really good, I enjoyed it a lot. The plot and writing was good too! I wish that so much of Maul's characterization and dialogue here wasn't the same “I hate the Jedi, hate fuels me, God I just want to hunt the Jedi!” over and over again, because it started to get kind of grating by the end. And it's the exact same place that Maul is at the beginning of TPM, albeit with a little bit more of an unhinged nature to him, so it's kind of boring. Would have been way cooler to see him GET to the spot that he hated the Jedi? I don't know. Pretty fun either way.
The first true novel of my Star Wars Canon Adventure! (Well, it maybe shouldn't have been, considering the end of it takes place during The Phantom Menace and therefore, according to my own rules, that's where it should have been placed). And a good way to start out!
It was fun, zippy, offered a lot of cool characterization for the Jedi (and in particular Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon) are are just cardboard in the Prequel Trilogy and therefore have no depth. Loved the extrapolations on why the Jedi Council was flawed, loved the subtle Dooku origin going on here. The problem is that it doesn't feel TOTALLY cohesive because of the way the movies are, but it fits in well enough.
I really liked the supporting cast for this book. Rael, Fenry, Pax, and Rahara were all interesting characters I really hope we get to see again in future books or comics or shows, but I highly doubt it, and that's okay. Fenry in particular I'm a little disappointed with - her sudden turn near the end was really cool, but then immediately became a case of "she's power hungry and doesn't really care for anyone but herself" which is WAY less interesting than "she's rightfully angry because her people were taken advantage of by a huge corporation for a very long time and the only way she can see to let them free is through violence. I can imagine a world where we got THAT twist instead, and she's a pivotal figure in later stories as, like, a bastion of hope against slavery or corporations, or maybe even a leading figure in the separatists! You know, in a world where the Separatists weren't just evil fodder for the Sith and instead were a legitimate political group that needed to go to war with the Republic in order to obtain the freedom or change they wanted. That would be so dope.
Overall, though, it was a fun Star Wars read that I would definitely recommend to friends interested in the universe, particularly this time period, and probably one I would willingly read again in the future.
I thought this was really fun! It's a short story so it doesn't overstay it's welcome. It has a single goal (to tell a murder mystery, whodunit... but in a space kitchen), it commits to it, and it pulls it off. There are no connections to the larger Star Wars universe, except some name dropping and obviously the fact that it exists in the same setting, and it's better for it!
Honestly, the main plot idea is... great. I LOVE the thought of a cooking competition being done to weed out a murderer who stole a recipe book from the murder victim. It's so interesting and creative! Rian Johnson, take notes for the next Knives Out movie, please.
This was the first read on my Star Wars Canon Adventure, being as the lovely people over at Wookiepedia decided that certain lines in this made it set 100 years before The Phantom Menace, apparently. It's not an entirely bad way to start the journey. Quite a refreshing one, actually.
It was fine. Weirdly impersonal and removed, unlike all of the books I've read by him. Drops you into a fantasy world and never lets you get your bearings, which is especially disorienting when it keeps dropping hints that it takes place in a world tangentially related to ours with some similar elements (like Hey Jude, etc.) I've heard the rest of the series is better (something even he admits), so I'm excited to get onto the next one!
Wow! That was really excellent. I read it in preparation to read Doctor Sleep for the movie in a few months, and was really only mildly interested, but it quickly became my favorite King novel so far (out of ‘Salem's Lot, It, and this). The sense of dread and terror really built up in an effective way and wasn't bogged down by the physical presence of it (at least until the end), a factor I think kept the rest of his books from being truly SCARY to me so far.
Besides that it's a much more manageable length than some of his others, with a smaller cast to dig deep into, and I appreciated that. Still felt insanely like him, still had the seemingly requisite Hill House reference (which this also felt the closest to!)
On to Doctor Sleep!
This is honestly my first actual Superman story I've read (at the recommendation of a friend) and I think that's why it didn't impact me as much as most other people - it feels like something whose requirement is having any connection to this character, and I just... Don't.
That being said - it's weird! And I like weird. It definitely hammers home who Superman is, and I dig that character a lot based on this. And there's a ton of cool moments that, again, would land harder if I had more emotional context but nonetheless are very good on paper.
If nothing else, it's made me interested to read more (good, standalone) Superman stories!
I loved this book. I read it in preparation for the second of the big budget adaptation, and I was pretty blown away but how much I did like it. The format (constantly switching between the past and present in a way that is evocative of the Netflix Haunting of Hill House show, something I suspect they took from this book), the feeling and themes, the writing, Pennywise, the mythology, all of it clicked really well for me. Despite being over 1100 pages, it doesn't FEEL like that. It's paced extraordinarily well for what it is.
One small thing I didn't like was the infamous chapter involving the kids near the end. It's weird! It kind of sucks! It's honestly pretty out of place! Other than that, I adored this novel and can't wait to read more Stephen King in the coming months.
Wow! This was my first Stephen King book, and it was REALLY good! Really tense all the way through, really effective use of its premise (I know its 45 years old and its spoiled in the synopsis probably but I don't even want to give away what the central conceit of the book is, because I had no idea what it was going into it and got spoiled from a stray internet headline and I regret knowing and not being surprised), and a really great pace throughout the entire thing. I'm really excited to read more Stephen King now! Next up (after a brief jaunt into Hill House because GOD does this man love this book).... It!!!
it was really good! the format of this book is so interesting (the fact that they're all letters), and really well done - i don't know if i've ever seen a book written that way before?
its SO different from what i've heard or experienced from frankenstein, and i liked that! really great characterization of the monster, and even dr. frankenstein, and a really cool look into the culture and world at the time.
overall i really dug this and this should definitely be on more summer reading lists!
Really interesting look into the mindset of the German soldier during World War II... as the title implies. Uses letters, quotes, and narratives written by soldiers to get a “uncut” view into how they thought. Fascinating to see the similarities and differences between how you'd expect “normal” soldiers would react and how these soldiers, in the midst of large-scale ethnic cleansing programs and riding high on propaganda of hate and intolerance, dealt with the war.
Falters a bit in its presentation, though. The book was separated not in terms of time period (in fact, the time periods were mixed all together, which I think took away a neat aspect in seeing how their headspaces would have changed as the war went on) but subject matter, I suppose. How the German soldier saw death, how they saw the people they were around, how they saw the horrors discovered (and reexamined) at the end of the war... But these differences weren't clearly defined and it often felt like the subjects the chapters were supposed to be about blended together in a repetitive way. Would have definitely preferred a more timeline based approach, but I see why this approach wasn't taken - to put less of an emphasis on the events and politics of the war but more on the person at the very bottom of the chain.
Pretty wild book! Excited for this to continue, even though I have no idea how that will even work.
The art is really great, looks like screenshots from a sci-fi anime. Really, really cool.