Star Wars EU novel: Dawn of the Jedi – Into the Void (25,793 BBY)

Posted on 2019/02/22 by ComiKate

After having read the Dawn of the Jedi comics trilogy, I was very excited to discover that there had also been written a novel with a storyline from that same ancient Star Wars period. I decided to try it in audiobook format, because in this very busy daily life, who has time to sit down and actually read a book? Life is short, many things have to be enjoyed, and if possible, combined 🙂

The novel Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void was written by Tim Lebbon and narrated by January LaVoy. As an audiobook, it will take you 10 hours 27 minutes to finish, which is including an extra short story at the end of the novel, titled Eruption, which actually takes place before the storyline in the novel.

Publisher’s summary

On the planet Tython, the ancient Je’daii order was founded. And at the feet of its wise Masters, Lanoree Brock learned the mysteries and methods of the Force – and found her calling as one of its most powerful disciples. But as strongly as the Force flowed within Lanoree and her parents, it remained absent in her brother, who grew to despise and shun the Je’daii, and whose training in its ancient ways ended in tragedy.

Now, from her solitary life as a Ranger keeping order across the galaxy, Lanoree has been summoned by the Je’daii Council on a matter of utmost urgency. The leader of a fanatical cult, obsessed with traveling beyond the reaches of known space, is bent on opening a cosmic gateway using dreaded dark matter as the key – risking a cataclysmic reaction that will consume the entire star system. But more shocking to Lanoree than even the prospect of total galactic annihilation, is the decision of her Je’daii Masters to task her with the mission of preventing it. Until a staggering revelation makes clear why she was chosen: The brilliant, dangerous madman she must track down and stop at any cost is the brother whose death she has long grieved – and whose life she must now fear.

My thoughts: Great narration but the story disappoints

What can I say, this story fell short for me. It was pretty anti-climactic after the thrilling adventure that was the Dawn of the Jedi comics trilogy. The characters felt very two-dimensional and the supposed heroine was, frankly, rather annoying and unsympathetic. Je’daii (pronounced correctly by the narrator with the emphasis on the second syllable) Ranger Lanoree Brock came across as endlessly harassing and nagging her brother, not accepting his making a different life choice. Now, this concept in itself I could understand, it is very human to struggle with choices close family members make that we maybe don’t get. And yes, we sometimes fall short and start nagging to them about it. However, the author did not succeed in writing a gripping story about it, nor did he give his heroine anything remotely resembling an interesting internal monologue; she simply kept repeating how the Force was with her, how much she constantly was aware of it, and, frankly, how awesome it made her. Quite boring. And intensly annoying.
The author fails to explain what it’s like to keep the Force balanced within you, since that is what it’s like to be a Force wielder in these ancient times. There are no Jedi and Sith as we know them, no Light and Dark side force wielders; everyone keeps Light & Dark in balance within them. Lanoree talks the talk but we never see her actually walking that walk, it’s only the Light side that she wields. Only in the bonus short story Eruption, that is included in the audiobook, we finally see a Je’daii choosing to wield the Dark side for a certain purpose, but still not Lanoree – and that short story is by a different author… What I liked about that short story as well, is that we meet Hawk Ryo again, we know him from the Dawn of the Jedi comics, where he was a master, but in Eruption he is still a Ranger, which I guess could be compared to what we know as a Jedi Knight.

As for the “bad guy” in the novel, Lanoree’s brother, the novel does not make clear at all how he reaches his point of Super Villainy. It starts out as him choosing not to have anything to do with the Force, and how he longs to explore the rest of the universe, which seem to me to be quite reasonable thoughts and wants. But why this is not acceptable in these Early Days is never explained (would have been interesting!), nor if he is even Force sensitive. It seemed to me he was not, or not much, which makes Lanorees harassing him even more irritating. Be that as it may, how all this turns him into a full-blown psychopath in the end, is never explained and therefore to me as a reader he is not believable as a villain.

Then there was the sidekick to the heroine. A supposed ‘real’ bad guy with whom she partners out of necessity, but somehow he turns out pretty darn ‘good’ for a criminal. Why he stays loyal to Lanoree confounds me, as she openly uses him and does not seem to care about his well-being at all. For instance, when he’s injured she promises him that he’ll get medical treatment once they reach her ship, but when they finally do, he doesn’t get any treatment whatsoever (sigh). Had I cared for this sidekick character at all, it would probably have bugged me.

However, I did not care for any of them. I finished the novel because I kept hoping it would get better, it being Star Wars after all, but when it finally reached its so-called climax, I felt robbed – of time I would never get back…

In conclusion, if you’d like to find out more about the early Je’daii, skip this novel and get your hands on the comics, for they are truly awesome examples of ancient Star Wars lore, with gorgeous graphic artwork.

Narration was good however, and I also liked the Star Wars music and sound effects, although it was a bit weird to hear the same sound effects for the Light side of the Force as were used for the Dark Side in Darth Plagueis and Darth Bane.

Audiobook: 12 Rules for Life – by Jordan B. Peterson

Posted on 2018/11/17 by ComiKate

To hear me read this review, check out episode 530 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 30:17.

Dr. Jordan Peterson, for those of you who don’t know, is a Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. His main areas of study are the psychology of religious and ideological belief, and the assessment and improvement of personality and performance.

Christians: Some discernment is in order

The reason I’m reviewing this non-fiction book on my mostly christian geek blog, is that this book, among others, has a definite spiritual viewpoint. The author speaks about god (little ‘g’ because I don’t know which god he actually means), references the bible frequently and believes in judeo-christian values, but also explores some buddhist and new age concepts, some Jungian ideas and goes back to religious and spiritual archetypes that date back to ancient civilizations and religions. The book has an overall gnostic aspect to it that I can’t exactly place my finger on but is definitely there.

This audiobook is narrated by the author himself and will take you 15 hours and 39 minutes to finish.

Publisher’s Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of 12 Rules for Life, written and read by Jordan B. Peterson.

What are the most valuable things that everyone should know? Acclaimed clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has influenced the modern understanding of personality, and now he has become one of the world’s most popular public thinkers, with his lectures on topics from the Bible to romantic relationships to mythology drawing tens of millions of viewers.

In an era of unprecedented change and polarising politics, his frank and refreshing message about the value of individual responsibility and ancient wisdom has resonated around the world.

In this book, he provides 12 profound and practical principles for how to live a meaningful life, from setting your house in order before criticising others to comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, not someone else today. Happiness is a pointless goal, he shows us. Instead we must search for meaning, not for its own sake but as a defence against the suffering that is intrinsic to our existence.

Drawing on vivid examples from his clinical practice and personal life, cutting-edge psychology and philosophy, and lessons from humanity’s oldest myths and stories, Peterson takes the listener on an intellectual journey like no other. Gripping, thought-provoking and deeply rewarding, 12 Rules for Life offers an antidote to the chaos in our lives: eternal truths applied to our modern problems.

My thoughts: Food for thought, inspite of the commercial title

This book has the same feel as Peterson’s lectures; it’s organized in logical and easy-to-follow yet worth-listening-to-again chapters. I have listened to 90% of the author’s online lectures and watched many of his interviews, so I was expecting a lot of rehashing of his older material. Which in part is true, and yet this book still offers more insight, even to the seasoned interview-listener and lecture-watcher. I guess that is because in his lectures Peterson has a different goal, to educate his students on their way to their PhD’s, so he presents his points in different order and highlights different things. And in his interviews he (understandably) often offers a limited number of roughly the same main points, not quite oneliners but close.
This book, differently organized and ordered by 12 life rules, really offers new insights on top of his known material, inviting you to comtemplate them at your leisure – as long as you’re honest about yourself (or at least are not lying).

I particularly enjoyed his analyses of several well-known fairytales. I’d heard his elaborate analysis of Pinocchio in his lectures before, plus short insights into Sleeping Beauty and Hansel & Gretel, but this time he shortens Pinocchio and dives deeper into the other two. Plus the Little Mermaid and some others.

Below: the first of Peterson’s three (long) lectures in which he analyses Pinocchio to provide a specific example of the manner in which great mythological or archetypal themes inform and permeate narrative.

I really wish Peterson would write a book in which he explores many more of the old fairy tales we all know and love! “12 Fairytales to Remember” or some such; I would immediately buy such a book, his analyses of those are astonishingly insightful.

Narration: passion and emotion

I almost always like it when an author narrates his own work, for the author knows exactly what he wanted to say through his specific sentences and chapters, and will accentuate and highlight the words and phrases he wants to emphasize. Peterson does that very well, and makes sure that we know exactly what he thinks about certain issues – “and that’s that!” That in itself does not necessarily earn it five stars from me. What was truly unique about Peterson’s reading however, is his emotion. After all, this is not a novel; I don’t expect any deep emotion while listening to non-fiction, other than, perhaps, some light humor. But in 4-5 different moments in the book, the author is deeply moved by what I suspect are his own memories, sometimes painful and sometimes very beautiful and touching. It must have been his conscious choice not to edit those narrated passages out and re-do them, but to leave the more emotional readings in as they are.
A unique choice, that took some getting used to; for me it sometimes bordered on cringe, especially when I could not follow him into that same emotion – for instance when his emotion was evoked not by a personal memory but by an abstract concept such as “what is the meaning of life” or some such.

Coda: Gnostic tendencies

His coda at the end is of a different tone. Peterson quotes the bible a lot but as far as I can see he’s not a born-again christian. He seems to treat the bible as a precious book of wisdom, not the Word of the living God. I suspect it’s all a bit Jungian in that it’s a mix of New Age concepts, gnosticism, buddhism and several other spiritual influences, even some freemasonry; together with, of course, psychological, historical and cultural insights. It’s this odd mixture that made it different from the entire rest of the book, and for me personally was the least insightful as gnosticism, New Age, freemasonry etc. mostly bring confusion instead of wisdom (imho; n=1).

Recommendation

In conclusion, I really liked the book and will most likely be repeat-listening to it regularly – especially for the psychological insights. I am also looking forward to the sequel, which the author has announced in the media he’s seriously contemplating – as apparently he has in fact 40 rules for life and these were only the first 12 🙂

Star Wars EU comics: Dawn of the Jedi 3 – Force War (25,792 BBY)

Posted on 2018/09/10 by ComiKate

To hear me read this review and its two previous parts, check out episode 525 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 25:38.

This week I’m sharing my thoughts on Force War, part 3 of the awesome Dawn of the Jedi comics TPB trilogy. If you’ve started reading my blog just now, please jump back at least to my review of part 1 of this series.

Publisher’s Summary

(W ) John Ostrander (A) Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons (CA) David Michael Beck
The Rakata, powerful users of the dark side of the Force, have invaded the Tython system to enslave the Je’daii . . . With Forcesabers in hand, the Je’daii fight, led by mad Je’daii Daegen Lok and the mysterious Force Hound Xesh. But when Xesh is captured, the direction of the war is changed . . . Collects Dawn of the Jedi: Force War #1-#5.

My thoughts

Since the third trade paper back (TPB) starts with the perfect recap, let’s insert that here.

This is the perfect last part of any trilogy you’d like: it has our heroes in very dire circumstances, the promise of great love has now come true, the one who seemed to be the Last Hope has fallen to the dark side, mysteries are solved – at least partly – and a gigantic climactic battle covering an entire solar system threatens to wipe out everything. In fact, part of Force Storm reminded me of two SW movies: the way our redeemed hero falls to the dark side (again) leaves us with an “Oh no!” in our souls, maybe not as deep-felt as when Anakin fell in Revenge of the Sith but similar nonetheless. Plus, one of the comics issues in this story arc ends with a cliffhanger which masterfully reminds us of that other great second part of a trilogy: The Empire Strikes Back: all seems lost, our one true hope is nowhere to be found and the evil empire is stronger than ever. Just, wow.

I won’t spoil the ending of course, but suffice it to say that it very satisfactorily follows not only SW tradition but also most of our own historic archetypal hero legends and myths.

I’ll highlight some details of this third and last story arc. First, there seems to be some inconsistency in the way the Je’daii view romance. In part 1 Force Storm it is made clear that according to the Je’daii masters, love is best avoided. We see two Je’daii masters who are obviously former lovers, and one tells the other “There are reasons we cannot be together, and they have not changed. We must concentrate on the Force, on the balance.” On the other hand there is Shae, one of our young Ranger heroes – a Ranger is like a Jedi Knight – who not only falls in love, but then goes on and acts on it. I have to say, in context of the story and the way this was built up throughout the previous two TPB, it came off as mature, not adolescent. So one wonders, was Shae simply not aware of the rule prohibiting love, or did she intentionally ignore it?

Another detail worth mentioning is we learn Xesh’s name was given to him by his evil masters, and that he has chosen a true name for himself, Tau. Of course this had to be one of the not-so-subtle references to buddhism, for inspite of the different spelling it reminds us of the Chinese concept of Tao. Even the meaning of the name here, Soul, refers to something from the spiritual realm.

Third, it’s very nice to learn more about how Force Hounds like Xesh do what they do: they allow themselves to fall into the darkness and send themselves outward, which enables them to ‘sniff out’ almost anything and everyone in the Force, dependent on their own strength in the Force.

Which brings me to the one issue I had with this story as a whole: if Force Hounds are as strong as Xesh and Trill, then why haven’t they risen against their masters? One theory could be their slave mentality: apparently when someone has been reduced to slavery for generations, especially when it’s enforced with brute force, it’s very difficult to break free from that mindset. We can even see that in the Old Testament stories of liberated Israel, which kept longing for Egypt even though they had been slaves there for generations. Nevertheless, the issue is resolved in the end, with Xesh finally rebelling against his hated master, fighting to gain his freedom once and for all.

One final point to make about this entire trilogy, is the artwork by Jan Duursema (penciller), Dan Parsons (inker) and Wes Dzioba (colorist). It is beautiful all the way through. Just look at the money shot below, simply gorgeous.

In conclusion, this was a more than fun, thrilling ride through ancient Star Wars lore, re-kindling my fandom after the so very, very disappointing two parts of the Disney-owned Sequel Trilogy. I wish there were a sequel trilogy to this one!

Thoughts about Apple’s Airpods

Posted on 2018/08/20 by ComiKate

Recently I finally bought myself a pair of Apple’s Airpods, which are their wireless earpods (or headset) so to speak. I’ve used the Apple earpods for years now, needing to buy a new pair every year, sometimes twice a year, because I always got stuck behind some tiny hook or even my own knees with the wire, while listening to podcasts and audiobooks during cooking, cleaning or travelling. Which in turn caused the drop of my iPhone on the cold hard floor more times than I dare to remember.

My second main use of the (wired) earpods, next to listening, was using the microphone function for recording video. And each time I accidentally moved or touched the wire, it was audible in said recording, with some creaking. Very annoying.

So after hesitating for about a year, mainly because of the price, I finally decided to treat myself to some Airpods. And here are my first experiences.

Looks

Of course the design is visually very pleasing. Starting with the clean and elegant packaging – don’t forget to get your complementary Lightning-USB wire before you throw it out, I almost didn’t notice it underneath the first layer of the box!

The Airpods come in a beautifully sleek, tiny, hightech storage box that somehow reminds me of a flattened egg.

The looks of the airpods themselves are an acquired taste I guess. If you’re always wearing earrings you could get away with it, but I still find they look a bit weird – especifially on men. Let’s hope Apple’s designers will fix that in the future. In the meantime guys could always use their gauge piercings to store their Airpods… (found on Pinterest):

Pairing to your device

Pick any Apple device, turn on bluetooth, hold the ‘egg box’ close and open it. The pairing with your device will be almost instantaneous and will offer you a very slick dialogue screen. If you close the box, the pairing will sever and the dialogue screen vanishes, also instanteously. Very fun to play with the first few minutes 🙂

Bonus: the Airpods can be paired to other devices like Android phones! Instructions on cnet teach us: To start pairing to anything new, put the AirPods in their case, then flip the lid up and press and hold the small button on the bottom rear of the charging case until the little LED light starts pulsing white. They should then show up in any Bluetooth-pairing settings on an Android phone, or computer, or TV.

Using the Airpods

Somehow the Airpods ‘know’ when you put the first one in your ear, you’ll hear a short ‘On’ signal. If you’re playing some media on your device via its speakers and you put the Airpods in your ear (provided they’re paired to that device) the playback on your device will immediately switch from speakers to the Airpods, without pause. As soon as you remove the first Airpod, your device will stop playback, very convenient I have to say. It won’t switch automatically back to speakers though, it stops playback and you’ll have to manually press Play again to continue listening on speaker.

One of the main reasons I bought the Airpods is wireless audio enhancement during video recording, thanks to the microphone function. Which of course means you can use them for phone calls, Facetime, Skype and audio recordings as well. They work perfectly, and I’m never scared they’ll fall out of my ears.

If you go to the Airpod settings on your iDevice (a subsection of your bluetooth settings) you can assign different functions to double-tapping each earbud, like start/stop playback.

Charging is easy, you stick the Airpods back into their little box, attach the wire (that came with their packaging) to any USB charger and you’re good to go.
You can add the very handy Battery widget to your iDevice’s screen to always keep track of your Airpods’ batterylife status.

What I’m missing

What I’m really missing is remote volume control via the Airpods. I’ve gotten very used to that function on my earpods. Now I have to dig up my device to adjust the volume, which is not very practical and seems to defeat the purpose of handsfree or wireless listening (and roaming around without your device on your body).

2019 edit: As it turns out, you can remote control the volume via your Apple Watch! ‘Problem’ solved. 😃

Another minor annoyance is battery life. I found that I have to charge the Airpods at least once a day, often more when I’m using them a lot.

Conclusion (so far)

After my first 2 weeks of use I’m finding the Airpods a very comfortable, easy to use, good quality wireless headset, with the special ‘Apple touch & feel’ that I’ve come to appreciate. They’re not cheap, but if you can afford them, I’d definitely recommend them.

Star Wars EU comics: Dawn of the Jedi 2 – The Prisoner of Bogan (25,793 BBY)

Posted on 2018/08/17 by ComiKate

To hear me read this review and its two other parts, check out episode 525 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 25:38.

So, let’s continue right where we left off last time, with part 2 of the awesome Dawn of the Jedi trade paperback (TPB) comics trilogy!

Publisher’s summary

(W ) John Ostrander (A) Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons (CA) Wes Dziboa, David Michael Beck
Xesh, a mysterious alien warrior, is enthralled with the madman Daegen Lok and his obsession with conquering known space. Hunter teams are dispatched by the Je’daii to stop Lok and save the misguided Xesh, but they’re not alone. Xesh’s former masters have sent their own hunter-with orders to kill! Collects Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan #1-#5.

My thoughts

In this second TPB we find our dark side protagonist Xesh on Bogan, one of Tython’s two moons, banished to meditate on finding balance between the dark and the light sides of the Force. There he meets Daegon Lok, banished seven years earlier for the same reason. Daegon immediately issues a challenge, striving for dominance between them.

Daegon manages to take Xesh by surprise, overwhelming him with dark force magic – a term which is not used in this story, but which we know from at least one other Star Wars Expanded Universe novel series, the Darth Bane trilogy. Bane’s apprentice Zannah shows remarkable talent in this area and Bane makes her study the ancient writings and holocrons to learn about this specific dark side skill, which he himself lacks. It may well be that the ancient knowledge Zannah is studying, stems from this Dawn of the Jedi period. Who knows, I haven’t read any of the other EU stuff yet, so this is my theory for now 🙂 Fact is that Darth Zannah applies the exact same magic as Daegon Lok: preying on other people’s fears and using it to their detriment and sometimes even demise. Maybe the writer wanted to help us make this connection by naming one of Daegon’s victims Bel Zana (Dawn of the Jedi was created some years after Darth Bane).

Since the Je’daii have taken Xesh’s force saber from him, Daegon wants him to make another. Which is how we learn how a dark side force saber is made: not only does one need a special crystal, but one needs also to practice alchemy, which I guess is also a form of dark side magic.

We get to know Xesh’s strength even better than we already did in part 1, Force Storm. We already know he’s a formidable force fighter, and can track almost everything through the force, but now we also learn about his pure, raw power in the force: he can power an entire space craft through the force!

While Daegon en Xesh plan their escape from Bogan to get the materials for new force sabers, the Je’daii study an ancient holocron to try to find out more about the threat that is coming, the threat Daegon Lok saw in his force visions years ago, that they say drove him mad and made them banish him to Bogan. What’s interesting about this holocron, is that it looks like a mini replica of a Tho Yor, the huge ancient force ships that brought all force users to Tython – about which we learned in part 1 of the trilogy.

Daegon and Xesh manage to escape from Bogan fairly early in the story arc, which turns the rest of the adventure into a hide-and-seek kind of manhunt, with ranger Shae Koda as the lead ‘search dog’ because of her special bond with Xesh (see also Force Storm). This offers us readers a nice view of the solar system, as they visit several planets and moons and the cities upon them.

The Je’daii are of course also studying Xesh’s force saber, trying to get it to work and if possible to replicate it. The reader now learns that the energy blade is not so much hot as it is cold!

Although most of this TPB’s story arc is a manhunt with a lot of chase and action scenes in true Star Wars form, Xesh’s character is also more fleshed out with more interesting details about his back story. This time we learn more about his past as a child, life as a member of a force hound brood, how they are torture-trained, and about the big sister-like female who always protected him. Although Xesh doesn’t really remember much about her because of a memory block his masters put into his mind, we readers immediately get it: this is Trill, the second force hound in this story, who we also met in Part 1.

There is much more to say about this story of course. I will highlight two things that stood out to me. First, the way Daegon treats Xesh. It reminds us of the Master-Apprentice dynamics between the Sith of later times. However, there are significant differences too: Xesh in the end is not only not an apprentice, he far out-matches Daegon in strength. It seems Daegon made a devastating error of judgment about their relationship…

And second, there’s the motif of close friendship & brotherhood vs betrayal, that echoes that of Obi-Wan & Anakin – and again between two friends that became Je’daii masters, namely Daegon Lok and Hawk Ryo. They also end up fighting a fierce forcesaber battle…

Conclusion

This TPB reads like a movie and is a truly fun and thrilling adventure. I can do nothing but recommend this – although it is not a jumping-on point, you really should read part 1: Force Storm first.

Stay tuned for part 3: Force War!

Star Wars EU comics: Dawn of the Jedi 1 – Force Storm (25,793 BBY)

Posted on 2018/08/08 by ComiKate

To hear me read this review and its two next parts, check out episode 525 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 25:38.

Well, by now I’ve dived deep into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, after a first few tentative steps with Darth Plagueis and the Darth Bane trilogy. In fact, I’ve gone full Obsessive Mode, which means I have now taken it upon myself to read all novels (a/o audiobooks) and all comics in chronological order, story-wise, as much as I can manage. Which does not mean I’ll review every single thing I read I don’t think, there is simply too much content to accompish that, but I’ll at least let you know about the things I liked, the hidden gems and also the things I found awful or simply incredibly dull. I’m planning to avoid reviewing the stuff I found simply okay, say the 3 out of 5 stars works.

For this undertaking I am using the Wookieepedia Legends timeline (the Expanded Universe has been declared non-canon by Disney and is now called Legends) that includes all novels and all comics at the same time. And for all of you who are into all that, they have also included movies, video games, tv series and even RPG scenarios – all in one big chronological timeline 🎉.

Although their entire timeline starts with a novel, I’ll review that one next time, since – spoiler alert – I didn’t like it very much and I really want to kick off this new blog series with a hit straight out of the ball park. My excuse is that both the novel and the comics are situated in the year 25,793 BBY – which means the actual order between the two doesn’t really matter.

On to Dawn of the Jedi: Force Storm, the first of a TPB trilogy set in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Publisher’s Summary

(W ) John Ostrander (A) Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons (CA) Wes Dziboa, Gonzalo Flores.
Here begins the tale of the dawn of the Jedi, the Star Wars of 25,000 years ago-before lightsabers, before hyperspace travel, before the Jedi spread throughout the galaxy, when connections to the Force were new.
On the planet Tython, a group of beings – scientists, philosophers, and warriors – strive to maintain peace and to balance the mystifying power known as the Force. But a stranger is coming, one who will disrupt the balance with his arrival and his own connection to the Force. Everything in their system is about to change . . . The doors to the galaxy have been opened! Collects Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi-Force Storm #1-#5.

My thoughts

To start with the ending: I LOVED this entire trilogy of trade paper backs (TPB)! Or, 15 comics issues if you manage to still find these. These stories have a lot of so-called Star Wars tropes, and I mean that in a positive way, while being completely new and original at the same time, since the story takes place so long before the Skywalker era that the Jedi and Sith didn’t even exist. Let me start with the five tropes I recognized in Force Storm, the first part of our trilogy: First, there’s a truly badass villain in the Darth Vader tradition, long before there even were any darths. He even shares some similarities with Anakin Skywalker: he grew up to be a slave, his personality oozes the possibility of redemption, and there are even hints of a great love in his future (see pic below).

And as for the darth part, he dresses all-black complete with a face-covering mask, he’s a powerful master of the dark side of the force and kills without hesitation.

As for the heroes, in this first TPB there are several protagonists, none of which stand out – yet. The focus seems to be on three adolescent apprentices though, continuing the SW tradition of picking fairly young heroes on a quest that will also make them grow in strength and wisdom. Nice little detail is that one of these three is an actual Sith, that is to say the Sith as a species, one of the myriad of alien races in the Star Wars universe. They are red-skinned and originated on the world of Korriban.

There’s also an easter egg for SW fans: the symbol on the ancient pyramid spacecraft Tho Yor is the same as the symbol for the Rebellion – an unimportant detail but very nice if you happen to notice it – see pictures above and below.

Fourthly, in what I would call an eye-wink to fans, one of the Je’daii masters resembles Mace Windu, both in looks as in strength and wisdom 😉

And the last but not the least of the tropes I found, was the cover of the first TPB, which is designed to look like a SW movie poster – and I love it! Too bad they didn’t do it for all three covers.

As for the Story, Force Storm takes its time to introduce us to these ancient times of the SW lore, but manages to keep it well-paced. We learn why force wielders are from different races all over the galaxy, how they all came to live on a world called Tython in the core of the galaxy and that they came to be known as je’daii – which is pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable. In those days, the Force was known to be both dark & light, in an eternal balance. The je’daii trained many years to keep this balance within themselves – which is of course a huge difference with the SW of the Skywalker era: in the ancient days there were no Light Side wielders and Dark Side wielders – every je’daii wielded both, and trained not to lose the balance. Interesting! In later EU stories like Revan we also see this phenomenon of force users wielding both sides of the force.

After the introductory pages, not so subtly disguised as a history lesson to our young journeyers (which we might call Padawan), the actual story starts. We meet our three young heroes, their masters and their force-sensitive planet Tython. We follow them on their adventure which leads them to meet Xesh, our villain – or in fact the representative of an entire realm of bad guys called the Infinite Empire. (Oh yeah, another SW trope! 🙂 ). Xesh is stronger in the Force and wields a forcesaber, which is a weapon the Tythons are unacquainted with. There are some fight scenes, both between the force wielders and with some of the planet’s monsters (“Hello, this is the Dune Saga calling, can we have our sand worms back?!”), and in the end we are left with Xesh leaving for Bogan, one of Tython’s two moons, the one representing the Dark Side of the Force. Which is where part 2 of the trilogy will pick up.

I loved the pacing of this story, the action scenes and the character moments. The villains are great. There’s Xesh of course, but we also meet his so-called ‘brood mate’ Trill, who like him is also a powerful Force Hound. And then there are their masters, the powerful and very evil Rakatan.

I did have some trouble sympathizing with our young heroes, I liked Xesh a lot better. Perhaps because he was better fleshed out, but I also think writers somehow find it easier to make bad guys interesting. The good guys often seem dull or two-dimensional or even hard to relate to.

Their masters on the other hand seemed to have more promise on the badassery scale, but they weren’t the main characters.

I did have some issue with the very on-the-nose references to buddhism, yin & yang, and the whole ‘good and evil are two sides of the same coin’ way of thinking. I know these elements are always somewhat present in SW, they are part of the concept, but in this TPB it was annoyingly so. Perhaps because in the Skywalker era, there was also some serious criticism of this philosophy weaved into the storylines, which created a good balance (see what I did there), whereas in this story it felt almost like an agenda.

All that being said, I still loved this first story arc very much, and would easily give it 4 out of 5 stars overall.

Next time, I’ll review part 2: Dawn of the Jedi: Prisoner of Bogan. Stay tuned!

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Review: Ahsoka (a Star Wars new canon novel)

Posted on 2018/07/30 by ComiKate

To hear me read this review, check out episode 513 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 22:42.

By now I’m pretty much dedicated to the Star Wars Expanded Universe – or rather Star Wars Legends, as it’s called now. However, my dedication only grew firm after having tried several works of the new Star Wars canon as Lucas Story Group now publishes it. Among which were two novels, which I both tried in audiobook format. The first was Tarkin, a review of which I posted a couple of months ago. The second novel was Ahsoka, which I’m reviewing today. And as with Tarkin, I was underwhelmed – to my own disappointment.

The novel was written by E.K. Johnston. In audiobook format it takes 7 hours and 8 minutes to finish, and is narrated by Ashley Eckstein – who also voices Ahsoka in both animated series!

Publisher’s summary

Fans have long wondered what happened to Ahsoka after she left the Jedi Order near the end of the Clone Wars and before she reappeared as the mysterious Rebel operative Fulcrum in Rebels. Finally her story will begin to be told.

Following her experiences with the Jedi and the devastation of Order 66, Ahsoka is unsure she can be part of a larger whole ever again. But her desire to fight the evils of the Empire and protect those who need it will lead her right to Bail Organa – and the Rebel Alliance.

My thoughts

The SW new canon novel Ahsoka was high on my wish list, for I’m both a huge Star Wars Clone Wars animated series fan, as well as a Star Wars Rebels fan. Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker’s padawan, was one of the new characters that were invented specifically for the SW The Clone Wars series, and quickly became a fan favorite. Many viewers who watched the Clone Wars were thrilled to see her return as an adult force wielder in the more recent series Rebels. Many fans – me included – were wondering what happened to her in the years between both series. How did she grow up, was she still in contact with the Jedi order or did she maybe return to them, and, most importantly: how did she get two colorless white light sabers? Ahsoka the novel promised to answer these questions and more, so I purchased it with anticipation.

Of course the audio effects are, as always, awesome, they really add to the story and the “feel” of the SW universe.
I found that this novel was clearly aimed at a young adult audience, for it wasn’t as exciting nor as deep as I had hoped. Possibly this may also be due to purely commercial deliberations by the publisher, simply wanting to keep on ‘milking the SW cow’ and making some easy money by throwing the fans a bone with an aluring title. Perhaps this sounds harsh and overly dramatic, but the novel left me with a sense of betrayal – well, kind of anyway; I mean it’s only a novel. But It’s like with the new Star Wars movies (parts 7 and 8, and even Rogue One): I’m beginning to feel the soul that was in the original Star Wars storylines, including the (Lucas-approved) Expanded Universe, has been ripped out by the now Disney-owned Lucas Story Group, leaving me as a fan nothing but some empty shells and no substance. (Hence, my recent exploration of the Legends content, formerly known as the Expanded Universe – but more on that in future posts).

About the only plus about the novel is that it does indeed explain where and how Ahsoka got the two uniquely white light sabres we know her to have in Star Wars Rebels.

So, hardcore Star Wars fans, be warned and only add this piece of new SW canon to your collection if you’re an absolute completist.

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Review: The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton

Posted on 2018/07/25 by ComiKate

This was my fifth very lengthy title by Peter F. Hamilton, all of which in the same universe, and I have to say, this is the best one so far! And the rest got 4 stars from me as well, mind you. I don’t know if I finally acquired the taste needed to fully appreciate these stories, or if this one was actually really better than the previous ones. Whatever the case may be, I was engrossed. Again.

Publisher’s summary

From one of the world’s best-selling science-fiction writers….

The Intersolar Commonwealth is in turmoil as the Living Dream’s deadline for launching its Pilgrimage into the Void draws closer. Not only is the Ocisen Empire fleet fast approaching on a mission of genocide, but also an internecine war has broken out between the post-human factions over the destiny of humanity.

Countering the various and increasingly desperate agents and factions is Paula Myo, a ruthlessly single-minded investigator, beset by foes from her distant past and colleagues of dubious allegiance…but she is fast losing a race against time.

At the heart of all this is Edeard the Waterwalker, who once lived a long time ago deep inside the Void. He is the messiah of Living Dream, and visions of his life are shared by, and inspire billions of humans. It is his glorious, captivating story that is the driving force behind Living Dream’s Pilgrimage, a force that is too strong to be thwarted. As Edeard nears his final victory the true nature of the Void is finally revealed.

My thoughts: “Best one yet!”

Of course you’ll need to take your time with this one again. As always this more than 25-hour-listen requires your undivided attention, which is why I can’t listen to the entire trilogy in a one-week-long binge. Nevertheless, I always come back to the next one in the series, because these novels have definitely captured my imagination.

This second book in the Void trilogy really deepens both stories of this novel-within-a-novel, in an exciting way. There’s the scifi story with several well-loved characters, and then of course there’s the fantasy novel about Edeard, living his life on a planet in the Void.

The climax near the end of the novel is awesome, I have to say I thought “OMG Hamilton pulled a Game of Thrones!”. I won’t spoil what I mean by that, but you can give it a guess in the comment section 😎

And as if that weren’t enough, he also manages to add a third (sub)genre to this one novel, namely the superhero archetypal story. And on top of that, there was even a hint of Western this time. I loved it, it was so well done!

This story has everything I want from my novels: a thrilling plot, my three favorite genres, well fleshed-out characters, romance, adventure, high tech, magic, and some very, very skilled writing.

Narration, as always with John Lee, was absolutely superb.

Can’t praise this novel enough – money well, well spent!

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The Land: Founding – a LitRPG Audiobook review

Posted on 2018/07/11 by ComiKate

As is fitting for an audiobook review :-), you can also listen to me reading it out loud, on the Christian Geek Central podcast, episode #510. Go to timestamp 17:35.

Having wet my appetites with the Awaken Online series, I recently tried the next title on my ever-growing LitRPG wish list: The Land: Founding. This is part 1 of the by now six-volumed Chaos Seeds series, written by Aleron Kong. The 9 hours 49 minutes long story is narrated by Nick Podehl.

Publisher’s Summary

Tricked into a world of banished gods, demons, goblins, sprites and magic, Richter must learn to meet the perils of The Land and begin to forge his own kingdom. Actions have consequences across The Land, with powerful creatures and factions now hell-bent on Richter’s destruction.

Can Richter forge allegiances to survive this harsh and unforgiving world or will he fall to the dark denizens of this ancient and unforgiving realm?

A tale to shake “The Land” itself, measuring 10/10 on the Richter scale, how will Richter’s choices shape the future of The Land and all who reside in it? Can he grow his power to meet the deadliest of beings of the land? When choices are often a shade of grey, how will Richter ensure he does not become what he seeks to destroy?

ps – Gnomes Rule

My thoughts

This was my first audiobook narrated by Nick Podehl, and I’m an immediate fan! This is truly awesome narration, with great voice acting for each character and many different voices to distinguish between them. His female voices are among the best, maybe the best, I’ve heard by a male narrator. So from now on, Podehl may read anything and I’ll listen to it. Which means I’m probably going to get this entire series.

That being said, the first book of this many-volumed series was okay. It was entertaining enough, and I’m even willing to try the second book in the series. However, I’m not sure when since it won’t be the highest on my wish list. The Land: Founding only gets three stars from me, because I’ve read and listened to much better books. By which I mean, better fleshed out characters, more conflict or striving in the plot (everything comes pretty easily to the main character), and a far more complex and thrilling storyline overall.
I had difficulty caring for the main characters, they were so two-dimensional. The plot had a definite YA feel, and I’m not even sure the author was aiming for that.

I had another issue, which were the many game stats. They were too many, too often. Maybe it would have helped if they’d chosen a completely different narrator to be the game computer reading of the stats (like in Awaken Online), but still. I lost interest every time they were read.

Another issue I had was the way the main character leveled up. It was not exciting at all, to me it seemed he gained level points for about anything he did, said or looked at. Which took away any kind of thrill the listener may have felt. Again, Awaken Online does a much better job there.

But:
1. since this is only volume one;
2. since the main premise is still interesting (certain in-game humans are permanently trapped in the game);
3. since I was absolutely positively intrigued by the first couple of prologue pages (which I won’t spoil but which offer a kind of “behind the scenes” viewpoint of some greater ‘powers that be’),
I am – probably – going to continue with the next volume. Also, the already mentioned great narration is a not unimportant deciding factor there.

The book is long enough to be worth the credit, and I can appreciate it as (very) light entertainment in between more ‘heavy’ works of literature.

This was only my second series in the LitRPG genre, but as it stands now, this is my Top Two:
1. Awaken Online series
2. Chaos Seeds series

So, to be continued I guess!

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Audiobook review: Mission Trip

Posted on 2018/06/29 by ComiKate

Recently I was contacted by Christian Geek Central to see if I would be interested in reviewing a scifi audiobook by a Christan author, for the Christian Geek Central podcast. Which of course I was, so I was given a free review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review. I was not required to write a positive review and this reflects my honest opinion of the work.

In the spirit of this being an audiobook review, you can also listen to me reading it on the aforementioned podcast, episode #511! Go to time stamp 20:07.

I have not read or listened to many Christian scifi novels yet, so I’m not very familiar with a broad spectrum within this genre – if there is one. So I was very curious about Mission Trip, a novel by John Theo, which will take you 6 hours 41 minutes to finish in audiobook format.

I had never read anything like the novel’s concept before, as far as its Christian characters are concerned: in the near future the USA has grown increasingly left-wing totalitarian, the constitution has been abolished, and the persecution of Christians was so harsh that they fled the country, following a tech genius who found Christ and built a large underwater city. This is only the backdrop; the actual story takes place decades after that, near the close of the 21st century. By that time the USA as we know it doesn’t exist anymore. The world, or at least the former USA and something called New Europe, is filled with sin and ruled by evil, there are no more personal freedoms and the only law seems to be Survival of the Fittest. In this story, unexpectedly, it’s the Christians who are doing fine. They have high tech & state of the art science departments, personal liberties, weapons and they are living isolated from the rest of the world. Or, as the publisher’s summary reads:

In the year 2077, the United States has become a post-apocalyptic footnote in the world history books. The only place freedom still exists is in a shielded underwater city called The Atoll, where a group of Christian refugees are trying to start over. The Atoll inhabitants are hated for their freedoms and hunted for their technology, but even in their protective bubble, treachery still finds a way in.

My thoughts: “Intriguing concept”

As I already stated above, I was intrigued by the concept of a world where Christians for once were not the weak ones. With such a concept the story could have gone in several directions I think; in this case, the Christians are just like they are today.
When they are severely persecuted they withdraw into a utopian society they’re trying to build and maintain, seemingly unaware of history’s many lessons that there are no such things as man-made utopias. They of course still have to struggle with their own fallen natures, raw emotions, sinful thoughts, secularism, etc.

I liked the realism of this scenario. I found it perfectly believable that, once Christians successfully retreated into a literal safe bubble, one of their main spiritual issues would ultimately become a lack of love for the rest of fallen mankind. The same goes for the differences in character and belief. Christians in secular stories are often painted as if from one template, and usually not a very positive one. Not so in this book. There are people who are strong in their belief, people who have doubts, and people who are tempted by (and have fallen to) secularism and atheism.

I also had some issues with this story. The characters remain fairly two-dimensional, by which I mean there isn’t a lot of character development. Most of them are of one opinion or mindset and they stick to it throughout the novel; people do not seem to learn anything that results in actual character growth. I liked the main character well enough, although he too wasn’t really fleshed out, but it made it difficult for me to root for any of the other characters. There were several decisions made by characters that seemed mainly convenient as a plot device (I can’t say more about that because I don’t want to spoil anything). And lastly, the novel doesn’t seem to have made up its mind about whether it’s a study of certain political and philosophical issues, or an action scifi adventure. Both could be interesting; focussing on one or the other would have helped the story gain its feet, imho.

Narration by Karey James Kimmel was fine, I liked the narrator’s voice and the tone he chose. There were some issues with accentuating the right words in sentences, which tended to distract me, though not for long. His portrayal of female characters could be better.

In conclusion, on the one hand the characters could have been more three-dimensional. On the other hand, the concept deserves praise for its originality and may lead to very interesting sequels.
All in all this story was perfectly fine.

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Check out the trailer for Mission Trip:

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Audiobook short: The Dispatcher (narrated by Zachary Quinto)

Posted on 2018/05/21 by ComiKate

As is fitting for an audiobook review :-), you can also listen to me reading it out loud, on the Christian Geek Central podcast, episode #504. Go to timestamp 40:59.

Sometimes you just want to listen to something nice for about 2-3 hours. You don’t feel like a podcast or some audio course, and who listens to Talk Radio anymore? No, you really want an audiobook, you just want a finished story this time.

It’s for occasions like these, that there are the really, really short audio books. Recently I listened to a great find in this category, called The Dispatcher. It’s written by John Scalzi, narrated by Zachary Quinto (yes, the one and only.). The unabridged version of this audio novella will take you only 2 hours and 19 minutes to finish.

Publisher’s Summary

Zachary Quinto – best known for his role as the Nimoy-approved Spock in the recent Star Trek reboot and the menacing, power-stealing serial killer, Sylar, in Heroes – brings his well-earned sci-fi credentials and simmering intensity to this audio-exclusive novella from master storyteller John Scalzi.

One day, not long from now, it becomes almost impossible to murder anyone – 999 times out of a thousand, anyone who is intentionally killed comes back. How? We don’t know. But it changes everything: war, crime, daily life.

Tony Valdez is a Dispatcher – a licensed, bonded professional whose job is to humanely dispatch those whose circumstances put them in death’s crosshairs, so they can have a second chance to avoid the reaper. But when a fellow Dispatcher and former friend is apparently kidnapped, Tony learns that there are some things that are worse than death and that some people are ready to do almost anything to avenge a supposed wrong.

It’s a race against time for Valdez to find his friend before it’s too late…before not even a Dispatcher can save him.

My thoughts

This is a lovely palate cleanser between giant sagas and other enormous works of fiction. With a very original main premise to begin with, the author succeeds in turning the story into an interesting whodunnit. The atmosphere reminded me of a nineteen fourties black & white murder mystery, complete with a set of rather 2D characters that are, however, archetypal enough to pull you into the story.

Archetypal, and yet still ’21st century’ as well, with a protagonist whose shady morals are only somewhat uncovered as the story unfolds and cleverly leaves the rest to the listener’s imagination. Also not very ‘last century’, is the main character’s somewhat unwilling partnering with a slightly-manipulative-but-sympathetic-nonetheless female police detective. Think Misty in Marvel’s recent tv series Luke Cage.

It is not the most exciting of stories I’ve ever read or listened to, nor did it keep me glued to my couch. Nevertheless, the narrator is what makes this novella a great listen. Not only would Quinto’s voice make virtually any book enjoyable, he also employs some of his acting skills to give you different character voices, and more importantly, different emotions. That was a real treat.

All in all I enjoyed this down to earth murder mystery in its subtly present contemporary scifi setting enough to recommend it. However, for me personally it would not have been worth full price, it’s really too short for that.

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Audiobook short: The Dreaming Void

Posted on 2018/05/01 by ComiKate

After having finished Peter F. Hamilton’s two-part Commonwealth Saga, I discovered that one of his trilogies was placed in this same story universe, only about 1200 years later. Although I do believe that this is a perfect jumping on point and you don’t have to read or listen to the prequel novels of the Commonwealth Saga, I’m also convinced that you’ll enjoy The Dreaming Void more if you have.

Although I found the prospect of what would undoubtedly be another long listen somewhat daunting, I also thought that a little over 21 hours was very much better than the almost 38 hours a piece of the aforementioned two-parter. So I happily embarked on this new listening trip, blissfully ignoring the fact that the entire trilogy would of course take me almost exactly as long as the previous saga. But who’s counting.

Publisher’s Summary

AD 3580. The Intersolar Commonwealth has spread through the galaxy to over a thousand star systems. It is a culture of rich diversity with a place for everyone. Even death itself has been overcome. But at the centre of the Commonwealth is a massive black hole. This Void is not a natural artefact. Inside there is a strange universe where the laws of physics are very different to those we know. It is slowly consuming the other stars of the galactic core – one day it will devour the entire galaxy.

Inigo, a human, has started to dream of a wonderful existence in the Void. He has a following of millions of believers and they now clamour to make a pilgrimage into the Void to live the life they have been shown. Other starfaring species fear their migration will cause the Void to expand again. They are prepared to stop them no matter what the cost.

And so the pilgrimage begins….

My thoughts: “Smart combination of scifi & fantasy!”

From the beginning this novel requires your attention – no vacuum cleaning or shopping while listening please – as per usual, it seems, with Hamilton’s work. The plot takes its time to unfold in all its detail, sauntering unhurriedly forward while you meet all of its well-fleshed out characters. But then: a novelty, a story-within-a-story, a novel-within-a-novel even, and to Hamilton’s credit I cannot make up my mind which of the two I liked better. I might love them equally well – although Inigo’s dreams, which make up this interwoven second novel, are more action-driven with a higher pacing, so I guess I do prefer that storyline a little.

By combining two-novels-in-one in this particular way, in my opinion Hamilton has also brilliantly succeeded in combining scifi and fantasy in one great tale, without the genres ever actually crossing over. A smart move, and smartly done. The novel hints at the two stories, or at least their worlds, being integrated in one of its sequels, but this first part will have none of that. Loved it!

After The Commonwealth Saga, The Dreaming Void has a new narrator: Toby Longworth, which comes with its perks and its disadvantages. On the plus side, there are actual sentence breaks in the correct places now, and some clarifying seconds of silence between chapters. What.a relief that was, compared to the prequels. Also, as a narrator he performs perfectly well, and I would listen to any novel read by him without any qualms. My criticism of the change of narrator however outweighs its advantages. For Longworth pronounces certain names of characters and species differently from what we have become acquainted with in the Commonwealth Saga, which I found slightly annoying and couldn’t get used to. Also, his acting voice for the different characters is, naturally, different from John Lee’s, which includes inflection of voice, and the way certain sentences are intoned. I found this distracting as well because the effect was that several well-loved characters didn’t sound like themselves anymore. So I was glad to notice that John Lee, the original narrator of the Commonwealth Saga, returns to parts 2 and 3 of the Void trilogy!

All in all I liked this first part of the Void trilogy enough to recommend it to anyone who likes the Commonwealth Saga, or simply Peter Hamilton’s work! 👍🏼

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SW Clone Wars Animated Series pt. 4: Anakin Skywalker – Descent into Rage

Posted on 2018/03/09 by ComiKate

Finally! It’s here: part 4 of my spoiler-filled blog mini series on Star Wars Clone Wars – The Animated Series. I repeat: spoiler-filled! If you don’t wish to be spoiled about anything, please make sure you have watched all Star Wars movies, plus Seasons 1-4 of this animated series, before continuing to read this blog post.

One of the many things I love about Star Wars Clone Wars – The Animated Series (TAS) is that the series’ creators take their time to make us part of Anakin’s slow descent into a moral low.

In Season 1 we see Anakin’s temper and his rebellious streak, the second season shows the first signs of him being a killer: initially when he first practices his Force Grip and almost kills a prisoner, later when he wants to execute Ventress (but she escapes). Season 3 confirms this cold-bloodedness when Anakin without hesitation kills one of the three Force Wielders, during the Mortis story line.

The fourth season has Anakin further prodded in the direction of the Dark Side by his deep-seeded rage. For instance, when he has to deal with a Separatist-backed slaver planet and their queen, his rage and fear almost get the better of him. The queen also raises some interesting philosophical questions as to Anakin’s nature, calling him a slave at heart, wanting nothing more than to serve others with blind loyalty and a commitment at the expense of himself. It’s very clear she strikes a chord with Anakin, leaving him confused and at a loss for words.

In a later story arc, Obi Wan is murdered by a sniper – or so Anakin believes. This time his rage is fuelled by deep grief which he doesn’t seem to want to let go.

The Jedi want him to stay out of the murder investigation precisely for this reason, but (of course) Chancellor Palpatine encourages him to do it anyway. This sends him on a murderous hunt, using his Force Grip openly to squeeze information out of people – in stark contrast to Season 2 where he only does it when no one can see him.

In season 4, episode 19 we see Palpatine manipulating Anakin even more, slyly feeding his dormant anger about having been lied to about Obi Wan’s undercover mission, the one that made him believe his best friend had been murdered. The Chancellor’s whispered half-truths seem to have yet another effect on Anakin: they acutely address his deep need to be in control, to protect the ones he loves. Like a silent echo of the slaver queen’s notions about Anakin, Palpatine subtly coaxes Anakin into isolating himself from the Jedi and shift his fealty to the Chancellor, to focus his ardent loyalty no longer on his fellow Jedi, who seem not to trust him and even lie to him, but on the ever faithful Chancellor, who always expresses his confidence in and admiration for Anakin. When Anakin defends Palpatine against what seems to be an assassination attempt by Dooku, he’s hardly able to contain his rage and fights to kill. Both Dooku and Palpatine realize this, as is shown both in Dooku’s surprised eyes and Palpatine’s smug smile.

In this episode Anakin is not yet strong enough to defeat Dooku, not strong enough to become a Sith, which is only fitting. The duel was the perfect prelude to their future fight however – which as we all know will end quite differently, securing Anakin’s place at Darth Sidious’s side…

After Dooku has escaped, Anakin ardently expresses his loyalty to the Chancellor: ‘As long as I live, no harm will ever come to you’ – as if almost wanting to prove the slaver queen’s theory.

A kind of pre-catharsis for the viewer is of course the knowledge that in the end he will find the strength to break this misguided vow, sacrificing himself and saving the universe as he does it…

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Audiobook short: Tarkin (a Star Wars new canon novel)

Posted on 2018/03/01 by ComiKate

To hear me read this review, check out episode 499 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 13:50.

A little while ago I took some very tentative steps into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, starting with the Darth Plagueis audiobook. Tentatively, because I didn’t want to commit, since the Lucasfilm Story Group banished the entire EU, once official canon lore, to the realm of what they now call Legends.

Of course I lost that not-very-hard-fought battle and am now swimming neck-deep in the entire original EU (now: Legends), so audiobooks, novels, comics and even game plot summaries.

However, I did want to try the new canonical continuity and tried two of the new novels in audiobook format. The first one is Tarkin, written by James Luceno and read by Euan Morton. Length: 9 hrs, 27 min.

Publisher’s summary

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Best-selling Star Wars veteran James Luceno gives Grand Moff Tarkin the Star Wars: Darth Plagueis treatment, bringing a legendary character from A New Hopeto full, fascinating life.

He’s the scion of an honorable and revered family. A dedicated soldier and distinguished legislator. Loyal proponent of the Republic and trusted ally of the Jedi Order. Groomed by the ruthless politician and Sith Lord who would be Emperor, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin rises through the Imperial ranks, enforcing his authority ever more mercilessly….and zealously pursuing his destiny as the architect of absolute dominion.

Rule through the fear of force rather than force itself, he advises his Emperor. Under Tarkin’s guidance, an ultimate weapon of unparalleled destruction moves ever closer to becoming a terrifying reality. When the so-called Death Star is completed, Tarkin is confident that the galaxy’s lingering pockets of Separatist rebellion will be brought to heel – by intimidation…or annihilation.

Until then, however, insurgency remains a genuine threat. Escalating guerrilla attacks by resistance forces and newfound evidence of a growing Separatist conspiracy are an immediate danger the Empire must meet with swift and brutal action. And to bring down a band of elusive freedom fighters, the Emperor turns to his most formidable agents: Darth Vader, the fearsome new Sith enforcer as remorseless as he is mysterious; and Tarkin – whose tactical cunning and cold-blooded efficiency will pave the way for the Empire’s supremacy…and its enemies’ extinction.

My thoughts: “Not enough action, too little suspense”

Although well-read by Morton, this is definitely not my favorite Star Wars novel. I was curious what nuggets of new SW lore this novel would offer, but for me it fell flat. The story built too slowly, there was hardly any suspense and in my opinion it could have been at least 30% shorter.
And most importantly, it did not succeed in making me care for any of its characters, nor the main plot line, the problem that needs solving by Tarkin. Except, of course for Darth Vader and the Emperor – who are not nearly enough in it. Narrator Morton does a great Vader by the way, very well done considering nobody can really come close to James Earl Jones.

I’m a big fan of Luceno’s Darth Plagueis, which I highly, highly recommend to any SW fan, so I had hoped for a bit of that same quality of storytelling that kept me glued to my couch even though it was an audiobook, but alas. Perhaps Luceno had to make the most of a pre-outlined plot, or perhaps he just doesn’t ‘feel’ the new SW universe anymore, like he did so well with Darth Plagueis.

There are of course the usual SW audio effects, which I like. For instance, when Vader’s in a scene, we hear him breathing through his apparatus.

All in all a disappointment. I finished this audiobook anyway, out of a sense of completism for the new Star Wars universe. Which is about the only reason you should buy it.

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

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Audiobook Review: Awaken Online ‘Catharsis’

Posted on 2018/02/22 by ComiKate

For the audio version of this review, narrated by Moi, check out Christian Geek Central’s podcast, episode 496, timestamp 12:54.

This was my very first LitRPG novel, and as such it was a great jumping-on point to this fairly new branch of the scifi & fantasy tree. LitRPG literally stands for ‘literature Role Playing Game‘. In other words, a story version of an RPG. The bestfantasybooks website states: “Truth be told the genre has busted out of its pure gaming roots and has started to define an identity. What it will be in a few years might not be what it is now.” And I have to say, if this is what all LitRPG tastes like, I’d like another helping please.

Awaken Online: Catharsis is written by Travis Bagwell, narrated by David Stifel. Length: 16 hours, 1 minute.

Publisher’s Summary

Jason logs into Awaken Online fed-up with reality. He’s in desperate need of an escape, and this game is his ticket to finally feeling the type of power and freedom that are so sorely lacking in his real life.

Awaken Online is a brand new virtual reality game that just hit the market, promising an unprecedented level of immersion. Yet Jason quickly finds himself pushed down a path he didn’t expect. In this game, he isn’t the hero. There are no damsels to save. There are no bad guys to vanquish.

In fact, he might just be the villain.

My thoughts: “Fun LitRPG – even for a non-gamer like me”

AO:Catharsis probably is a YA novel if I’m honest – for which I am definitely not the target audience – but in this case I actually enjoyed it.

I am not a gamer, I have never played an RPG in my life. I have watched some gameplay footage on Youtube though, not often but enough to have some small idea of RPG tropes like game stats, ‘levelling’, looting, character classes, and the like.
Plus, I like scifi & fantasy.

All of which to say that the little bit that I know about gaming was definitely enough to fully understand this story. In fact, it even gave me a sense of enjoying an RPG without having to have the skills (nor input of time and effort). That alone was a big plus for me and earned it its four stars Overall.

Once I got through the first few chapters, which were too much of a high school setting and presented unrealistic events in the MC’s life vs. too little in-game time, the story panned out into a fun, entertaining and even thrilling adventure.

There were some issues. The aforementioned IRL part of the story demanded more suspension of my disbelieve than the actual fantasy part, strangely enough. The way the MC’s parents behave, for instance. Also, the over the top bullying by the typical and not too original highschool jock. Or maybe it’s simply that that part of the story is too two-dimensional and contains too many quickfixes, because when I think about Ender’s Game, the bullying is actually more over the top but that didn’t bother me at all. The difference between an okay YA and a high quality adult book, I suppose.

But, fortunately, those chapters are few and relatively far between. The rest is a fun ride into a game world that someone like me will probably never enter herself.

Narration was great, imho. I do not concur with some of the negative reviews about the narration. And I was glad he narrated the sequel as well.

Recommendation: I immediately purchased part 2 “Precipice” after having finished this one!

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

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Audiobook short: Judas Unchained

Posted on 2018/01/17 by ComiKate

The audiobook version of the second and last part of Peter Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga is even longer than its predecessor Pandora’s Star,counting only two minutes short of 38 hours! So the same comments apply that I offered in one of my previous posts: this requires some stamina to finish, especially since it also needs you to concentrate – really concentrate – while listening, to avoid getting lost in the intricate plot, habitated by its many characters.

Whether this is worth your precious time and effort I leave up to you, my dear readers, to decide; however, I really liked it, inspite of its sometimes overly detailed plot threads. The reason is that the novel is, in the end, character driven, more than plot driven.

Publisher’s summary

The high-action concluding novel of the Commonwealth Saga from one of the world’s bestselling Science Fiction writers.

After hundreds of years secretly manipulating the human race, the Starflyer alien has succeeded in engineering a war which should result in the destruction of the Intersolar Commonwealth. Now, thanks to Chief Investigator Paula Myo, the Commonwealth’s political elite finally acknowledges the Starflyer’s existence, and puts together an unlikely partnership to track down this enigmatic and terrifying alien.

The invasion from Dyson Alpha continues with dozens of Commonwealth worlds falling to the enemy. The navy fights back with what it believes to be war-winning super weapons, only to find that the alien fleet has equally powerful weapons. How the aliens got them is the question which haunts Admiral Kime. Could it be that the Commonwealth’s top-secret defence project has been compromised by the Starflyer’s agents, or is the truth even worse?

My thoughts: “Satisfying end to this 2-part saga”

Judas Unchained continues where Pandora’s Star left off. It follows the story through to the end, with a neat, not-very-rollercoaster-yet-satisfying-nonetheless climax and ending. All the characters you loved (and loved to hate) from the first novel are there, and every single one of the storylines is solved. Which is how it’s supposed to be, especially after two of those immensely long audiobook listens. No annoying cliffhangers or unresolved plot points here. Good!
Narrator John Lee is still fantastic, but the breaks between sentences and chapters are still confusingly absent – as they were with part 1, Pandora’s Star. If you liked that first part, you will like this sequel as well. The quality is the same and the stories are truly two halves of one saga.

This was not a five-star novel for me (too long and detailed for that, which slowed it down) but I liked it enough to have bought the second saga as well (a trilogy called The Void, in the same universe but far into the future).

Recommend.

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

Audiobook Short: For We Are Many – Bobiverse book 2

Posted on 2017/10/16 by ComiKate

To hear me read this review, check out episode 480 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 10:37

After listening to We Are Legion (We Are Bob), part 1 of the Bobiverse series, I was really looking forward to the sequel, which is aptly called For We Are Many. And author Dennis E. Taylor and narrator Ray Porter do not disappoint! Again they succeed in taking the listeners on a fun 9-hours long adventure.

Publisher’s summary:

The highly anticipated sequel to Audible’s Best of 2016 – Science Fiction winner, We Are Legion (We Are Bob); a book listeners are calling “so much fun”, “what science fiction was meant to be”, and what would happen if “Andy Weir and Ernest Cline had a lovechild”.

Bob Johansson didn’t believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe.

Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that’s the only part of the plan that’s still in one piece. A system-wide war has killed off 99.9 percent of the human race; nuclear winter is slowly making the Earth uninhabitable; a radical group wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity; the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competition; and the Bobs have discovered a spacefaring species that sees all other life as food.

Bob left Earth anticipating a life of exploration and blissful solitude. Instead he’s become a sky god to a primitive native species, the only hope for getting humanity to a new home, and possibly the only thing that can prevent every living thing in the local sphere from ending up as dinner.

Listener favorite Ray Porter returns to narrate Bob – and his many incarnations – in all of their geeky glory.

My thoughts: Very good continuation of the first part!

This book is just as much fun as the first part was. Since there are many more Bob clones now, it is getting harder and harder to keep up with who is who, let alone of which generation they are.
It’s still a fun scifi story though, very entertaining and the narration by Ray Porter fits the Bobs’ adventures very well. Some of the audio edits are quite audible – but in that this book is not unique, it seems to be an overall Audible(.com) recording & editing issue.

Be aware that this second book is definitely not a jumping-on point though, you really need to read/listen to We Are Legion first.

I’m rating it 4 stars overall instead of 5, mainly for myself, to keep track of what I like and how much I like it. There are other books in my library that I have given the full five stars because they simply impacted me more.
However, that is not to say that this is not a good book, on the contrary. I recommend this for everyone who liked book 1 and I’m genuinely looking forward to part 3!

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

Audiobook short: Pandora’s Star

Posted on 2017/09/14 by ComiKate

For the audioversion of this review, check out episode 475 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 15:03.

Peter F. Hamilton’s Pandora’s Star, the first novel of the two-part Commonwealth Saga, is a VERY long and detailed telling, with many characters, many of whom (sort of) protagonists. It takes a whopping 37 hours 33 minutes to finish, so from the start you’ll have to pay attention, otherwise you’ll get lost quickly! I had to ‘rewind’ several times because I wasn’t paying close attention for, like, a whole minute. So this novel is not something to listen to while doing lots of other stuff that requires your attention. Saga, indeed.

Publisher’s Summary

Britain’s bestselling SF writer returns to outer space.

In AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of them interlinked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately four hundred light years across.

When an astronomer on the outermost world of Gralmond, observes a star 2000 light years distant – and then a neighbouring one – vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth to discover what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some kind of galactic conflict? Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need to build a faster-than-light star ship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find each ‘vanished’ star encased in a giant force field — and within one of them resides a massive alien civilisation.

My thoughts: “Perfect if you want to take your time”

As I said, this story requires a lot of time on your part, but if you do like to invest the more than 1½ days (!) it takes to finish, this scifi novel offers a pretty immersive story with the author taking his time to paint his universe. His characters are fleshed out very well, and none are 100% ‘good’ or ‘bad’, which gives them a realistic feel.
As for the scifi aspects, I enjoyed this author’s concept of human society a couple of centuries from now. How humans tackled the immortality problem, the everyday tech gadgets that are used by everyone, and even its application to… porn. Really fun ideas, without getting crass or sleezy. However, be aware that there are several instances of crude language, if that is something you deem important to know.

The author has also integrated diversity into his character concepts, different races and sexual preferences are presented in a very natural way without drawing unnecessary attention. The only thing that does not get much attention is religion; none of the characters seem religious in any way, the entire human race seems to have a naturalistic viewpoint. Which is why religion or even plain spirituality is the only thing I found lacking in this otherwise colorfully diverse universe.

The narration is terrific, with lots of different accents and voices by narrator John Lee. He is a joy to listen to, and adds emotion and identity to his characters without overacting. I especially enjoyed his high society females, the way he read them was absolutely fantastic and often laced with humor.

Loved them all.

A point of criticism: The editing makes it very hard to distinguish between chapters, and even viewpoints. There are no pauses whatsoever. So one minute you’re completely into one character’s story unfolding, and literally the very next sentence takes you to a whole different character WITHOUT mentioning them by name so you still think you’re at the previous viewpoint! Another reason to skip back a couple of minutes several times…

Nevertheless I recommend this novel, and I went ahead and bought its sequel as well, titled Judas Unchained. More on that next time, as I haven’t finished that yet.

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

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Audiobook short: We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Posted on 2017/08/21 by ComiKate

For the audioversion of this review, check out episode 472 of the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, go to timestamp 9:16.

I took a bit of a chance buying We Are Legion (We Are Bob), part 1 of the Bobiverse series, not knowing the writer. But the transhumanist premise was interesting enough for me to try it and the intriguing title lured me in all the way. It is written by Dennis E. Taylor and narrated by Ray Porter. It takes 9½ hours to finish.

Publisher’s summary:

There’s a reason We Are Legion, We Are Bob was named Audible’s Best Sci-Fi Book of 2016. Unique, hilarious, and utterly addictive, Dennis E. Taylor’s debut novel kicked off an Audible-wide obsession among sci-fi diehards and new listeners alike.

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it’s a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he’ll be switched off, and they’ll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad – very mad.

Listener-favorite narrator Ray Porter (14, The Fold) brings the many Bobs into being in all their glory, delivering a performance that listeners have described as “outstanding,” “nuanced” and a “dizzying tour de force.”

My thoughts: Surprisingly nice ‘read’

The story didn’t immediately sweep me off my feet, but was enticing enough to hold my interest anyway. I had to get over my expectation of a darker story with more difficult challenges for the main character, including emotional ones, but once I settled in for a more light-hearted kind of scifi, it was an entertaining ride.

This is ‘hard’ science fiction with a smile, with space ships and planets and galaxy exploring and of course space battles. All of that without it being longwindedly technical, and no Deus ex Machinas or otherwise too easy solutions, which I appreciated.

Ray Porter is a fine narrator that held my attention well.

All in all I was surprised to find myself deciding to buy Book 2 (april 2017) and even, very recently, the third installment! So I recommend it, with 4 stars for performance, story and overall.

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

Audiobook short: Darth Bane Trilogy, pt. 3

Posted on 2017/07/06 by ComiKate

In my fourth Audiobook Short I’m sharing my impressions of Dynasty of Evil, the final installment of the Darth Bane trilogy, a Star Wars novel series from the so-called Expanded Universe, written by Drew Karpyshyn and narrated by Jonathan Davis. Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins.

For the spoken version of the below review go to Episode 466 of the Spirit Blade podcast, time stamp 48:52.

Publisher’s summary:

Twenty years have passed since Darth Bane, reigning Dark Lord of the Sith, demolished the ancient order devoted to the dark side and reinvented it as a circle of two: one Master to wield the power and pass on the wisdom, and one apprentice to learn, challenge, and ultimately usurp the Dark Lord in a duel to the death. But Bane’s acolyte, Zannah, has yet to engage her Master in mortal combat and prove herself a worthy successor. Determined that the Sith dream of galactic domination will not die with him, Bane vows to learn the secret of a forgotten Dark Lord that will assure the Sith’s immortality – and his own.

A perfect opportunity arises when a Jedi emissary is assassinated on the troubled mining planet Doan, giving Bane an excuse to dispatch his apprentice on a fact-finding mission – while he himself sets out in secret to capture the ancient holocron of Darth Andeddu and its precious knowledge. But Zannah is no fool. She knows that her ruthless Master has begun to doubt her, and she senses that he is hiding something crucial to her future. If she is going to claim the power she craves, she must take action now.

While Bane storms the remote stronghold of a fanatical Sith cult, Zannah prepares for her Master’s downfall by choosing an apprentice of her own: a rogue Jedi cunning and cold-blooded enough to embrace the Sith way and to stand beside her when she at last wrests from Bane the mantle of Dark Lord of the Sith.

But Zannah is not the only one with the desire and power to destroy Darth Bane. Princess Serra of the Doan royal family is haunted by memories of the monstrous Sith soldier who murdered her father and tortured her when she was a child. Bent on retribution, she hires a merciless assassin to find her tormentor – and bring him back alive to taste her wrath.

Only a Sith who has taken down her own Master can become Dark Lord of the Sith. So when Bane suddenly vanishes, Zannah must find him – possibly even rescue him – before she can kill him. And so she pursues her quarry from the grim depths of a ravaged world on the brink of catastrophe to the barren reaches of a desert outpost, where the future of the dark side’s most powerful disciples will be decided, once and for all, by the final, fatal stroke of a lightsaber.

My thoughts: “Alas, the trilogy has ended!”

I actually started and finished this audiobook in only one day, that’s how gripping it was. We follow Darth Bane and his apprentice Zannah, but also some new characters, just like in the previous two parts. This time I found these new characters actually interesting in their own right, so this is an improvement compared to parts 1 & 2.

The action scenes are fantastic, read perfectly thrillingly by Davis and enhanced even more by tracks from John Williams’s original soundtrack. The plot kept me interested in between action scenes as well, although it did ask me to suspend a lot of my disbelief in terms of consistency of character & skill set (can’t say more, otherwise I’d spoil it).

The sound effects were awesome as always, with one minor criticism: at one point the alarms are going off for a LONG time, it got on my nerve a bit since you can’t tone it down without losing the narration.

The final confrontation had me at the edge of my seat, the action climbed and climbed and climbed to a climax, which when it finally arrived however left me wondering “Wait. What happened?!” So not entirely as satisfying as I’d hoped, especially after such a thrilling ride to the top.

The epilogue is a definite cliff hanger, leaving me again dangling in the void of Wanting More, but this time there’s no more sequels to quench that thirst! Not so cool.

But those are only minor peeves, and not worth subtracting any stars. All in all this trilogy was absolutely thrilling, exciting and totally awesome. Jonathan Davis is a fantastic narrator, with a huge range of voices without overacting.

This third part of the series tempted me to listen to Darth Plagueis again even though I finished that not too long ago, because it is the next novel in the long, long list of the SW Expanded Universe novels and this trilogy left me really wanting some sort of continuity fix :-).

Again, highly recommend!

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

Some images on this blog temporarily disabled

Posted on 2017/07/03 by ComiKate

As you may or may not have noticed, my blog didn’t show its many many images for a week or so. This was caused by Photobucket changing its terms of service overnight, without prior notice! For those of you who don’t know, they are the company that until very very recently marketed itself as the third party host of images, for blogs, forums and the like. They have done so for well over 10 years and thousands of bloggers have been hosting their pictures for their blogs on Photobucket.

Well, as it happens, Photobucket have very recently decided to change their policy to now no longer allow third party image sharing (or hot linking), unless users pay a whopping $399,- per year.

So yeah, that’s not going to happen on my end. So I worked very hard to replace every single image by a newly hosted one. I truly empathize with those bloggers who wrote hundreds of posts with thousands of images…

I can only hope the inconvenience for you all has not been too much of a drag, but even so I apologize. I hope you are still with me and keep enjoying my previous and future ramblings on this blog 😉

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Audiobook short: Darth Bane Trilogy, pt. 2

Posted on 2017/06/09 by ComiKate

Rule of Two is the second part of the Star Wars: Darth Bane trilogy, written by Drew Karpyshyn. The audiobook version is narrated by Jonathan Davis and is 10 hrs and 12 mins long. In this Audiobook Short I’ll share my impressions.

For the spoken version of the below review go to Episode 461 of the Spirit Blade podcast, time stamp 22:00.

Publisher’s summary:

In the New York Times best-seller Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Drew Karpyshyn painted a gripping portrait of a young man’s journey from innocence to evil. That man was Darth Bane, a twisted genius whose iron will, fierce ambition, and strength in the dark side of the Force made him a natural leader among the Sith – until his radical embrace of an all-but-forgotten wisdom drove him to destroy his own order…and create it anew from the ashes. As the last surviving Sith, Darth Bane promulgated a harsh new directive: the Rule of Two.

Two there should be; no more, no less.
One to embody the power, the other to crave it.

Now Darth Bane is ready to put his policy into action, and he thinks he has found the key element that will make his triumph complete: a student to train in the ways of the dark side. Though she is young, Zannah possesses an instinctive link to the dark side that rivals his own. With his guidance, she will become essential in his quest to destroy the Jedi and dominate the galaxy.

But there is one who is determined to stop Darth Bane: Johun Othone, Padawan to Jedi Master Lord Hoth, who died at Bane’s hands in the last great Sith War. Though the rest of the Jedi scoff at him, Joshua’s belief that there are surviving Sith on the loose is unshakeable.

As Johun continues his dogged pursuit of the man who killed his master, Zannah, faced unexpectedly with a figure from her past, begins to question her embrace of the dark side. And Darth Bane is led by Force-induced visions to a moon where he will acquire astonishing new knowledge and power – power that will alter him in ways he could never have imagined….

My thoughts: “Even better than Part 1!”

I started listening to this book right after I finished Path of Destruction, for that first part of the Darth Bane trilogy left me wanting for more. And ‘more’ is exactly what I got with Rule of Two!
I found it even more gripping, it was (even) better paced and narrator Jonathan Davis gives a truly masterful performance.

Following Darth Bane as a full-blown dark lord of the Sith was a thrilling ride. Especially since he now has an equally intriguing apprentice in Zannah, a young woman strong in the dark side, whom Bane teaches a lot but who also has a unique talent of her own: Dark Force magic!
Darth Bane continues to be the villain you root for inspite of yourself. Zannah is a strong female character with her own voice and her own gifts, strengths and ambitions. Together, they are too strong to defeat…

As with the first part of this Star Wars Expanded Universe trilogy I was so completely wrapped-up in the story I could only sit on the couch listening, doing nothing else. Which kind of totally defeated the purpose of listening instead of reading (i.e. multi-tasking!). So, on the couch I stayed… again…!

Unfortunately I finished this novel far too soon and again found myself wanting still more…. Fortunately there’s a third part! 🙂

Highly recommend!

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

Audiobook short: Darth Bane Trilogy, pt. 1

Posted on 2017/06/01 by ComiKate

This, my second Audiobook Short, is again about a Star Wars novel from the so-called Expanded Universe: Path of Destruction, which is part 1 of the Darth Bane trilogy, written by Drew Karpyshyn and narrated by Jonathan Davis. Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins.

By the way, the spoken version of the below review is part of Episode 457 of the Spirit Blade podcast, go to time stamp 18:26.

Publisher’s summary:

Once the Sith order teemed with followers. But their rivalries divided them in endless battles for supremacy – until one dark lord at last united the Sith in the quest to enslave the galaxy and exterminate the Jedi. Yet it would fall to another, far more powerful than the entire Brotherhood of Darkness, to ultimately realize the full potential of the Sith and wield the awesome power of the dark side as never before.

Since childhood, Dessel has known only the abuse of his hateful father and the dangerous, soul-crushing labor of a cortosis miner. Deep in the tunnels of the desolate planet Apatros, endlessly excavating the rare mineral valued throughout the galaxy, Dessel dreams of the day he can escape – a day he fears may never come. But when a high-stakes card game ends in deadly violence, Dessel suddenly finds himself a wanted man.

On the run from vengeful Republic forces, Dessel vanishes into the ranks of the Sith army and ships out to join the bloody war against the Republic and its Jedi champions. There, Dessel’s brutality, cunning, and exceptional command of the Force swiftly win him renown as a warrior. But in the eyes of his watchful masters, he is destined for a far greater role in the ultimate Sith plan for the galaxy – if he can prove himself truly worthy.

As an acolyte in the Sith academy, studying the secrets and skills of the dark side at the feet of its greatest masters, Dessel embraces his new Sith identity: Bane. However the true test is yet to come. In order to gain acceptance into the Brotherhood of Darkness, one must fully surrender to the dark side through a trial by fire that Bane, for all his unquenchable fury and lust for power, may not be strong enough to endure… especially since deception, treachery, and murder run rampant among the Sith disciples, and utter ruthlessness alone is the key to survival.

Only by defying the most sacred traditions, rejecting all he has been taught, and drawing upon the long-forgotten wisdom of the very first Sith can Bane hope to triumph – and forge from the ashes of that which he must destroy a new era of absolute dark power.

My thoughts: “Hours on the couch doing nothing but listening!”

This is a gripping story about the rise of Darth Bane. The author allows the reader/listener far more than a mere glimpse of the dark side of the Force when telling the origin story of one of the great Dark Lords of the Sith.
Darth Bane is the one who will eventually instate the Rule of Two, which we know from the movies and which says that there can only be two Siths at one time. Which means that for most of this novel, the Rule of Two isn’t there yet, hence there are a multitude of Siths and dark side Force wielders!

The story is read brilliantly by Jonathan Davis, and of course enhanced with awesome Star Wars audio effects.

In conclusion, I literally couldn’t bring myself to do anything but sit on the couch and listen for hours on end – which is an absolute first for me for usually I do all kinds of stuff while listening to audio books.
If you like this book as much as I did, beware: for you’ll find it an absolute MUST to lay your hands on parts 2 and 3 of this trilogy as well!

Highly recommend!

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

Audiobook Short: Darth Plagueis

Posted on 2017/05/07 by ComiKate

Hey all! It’s taken me a while to get back here, what can I say, life is busy and often beautiful 🙂 But, here I am and with a new habit of geeky content consumption: audiobooks. Audiobooks are the ideal way to combine reading a novel while doing other stuff (like living life, busy and beautiful) and ever since I discovered the sheer endless well of narrated titles I dove in and started swimming.

And to help you swim along, if so inclined, I’ll share my audiobook reviews with you. My intent is to keep them concise and mostly just about my experiences with the books, without doing a fullblown review. This will keep it easy to get a feel for what a book might bring you without having to spend too much time reading each post – hence the name of this category: Audiobook Shorts. I will start each review with the publisher’s summary so you get a feel for the story, then add my own thoughts. I’ll also rate them according to the Audible.com rating categories of Story, Performance and Overall, with 5 stars as the highest score.

As a bonus, and in the audio spirit of things 😉 , I’ll post a link to a spoken (by me) version of my Audiobook Shorts series whenever one is available on the Spiritblade podcast. Like this one, my first 🙂 :

Spiritblade podcast episode 455, go to timestamp 2:54.

My first Audiobook Short is about a Star Wars novel from the so-called Expanded Universe: Darth Plagueis, written by James Luceno and narrated by Daniel Davis. Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins.

Publisher’s summary

He was the most powerful Sith lord who ever lived… but could he be the only one who never died?

“Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.” -Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires. Losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. And when the time is right, he destroys his Master – but vows never to suffer the same fate. For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power… over life and death.

Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith, while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor.

Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination – and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?

From the Hardcover edition.

My thoughts: “Fantastic Star Wars lore!”

Captivating story, brilliant reading performance by Daniel Davis, awesome audio effects & SW music. This is precisely why I love audio books so much!

The story clarifies a lot of Darth Sidious’s background and of course tells the story of Darth Plagueis, the main character. We also learn intriguing things about the Dark Side of the Force, and the order of the Sith.

To me this audiobook captured a real Star Wars atmosphere, it made me want to listen to it 24/7 and I wish the novel had lasted at least twice as long.
Because of it, I wanted to watch SW Episode I immediately following it, which to some would be a great feat in and of itself 😉
It also made me want to look into the Expanded Universe, which up until now I had always studiously avoided because – knowing myself – I would probably want to read everything, books, comics, audiobooks. Which would be 1. an enormous time hog and 2. frustrating since Marvel & Disney have declared the entire EU non-canonical, so, why bother. However, this first toe-dip left me wanting more and while still avoiding a full dive, I decided to go for a careful swim. So I bought the Darth Bane trilogy, about which you can read more in my next 😉

In short, I highly recommend Darth Plagueis and give it 5 stars for story, 5 stars for performance and 5 stars overall!

Also follow my reviews on Audible.com! (where I am Katarina – if you’re an Audible listener, simply bookmark my Listerner page once you’ve found me)

BewarenBewaren

From OSX Lion to El Capitan (Clean Install)

Posted on 2016/07/09 by ComiKate

goodbyeosxlion

Ever since I bought my iMac back in 2011 (16 Gb RAM, core i7 processor), I had been working with Mac OSX 10.7 – otherwise known as Lion. I never upgraded, for I firmly believed in the adagium “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

However, this also meant that more and more applications had reached their maximum update level, among which Safari – which meant that slowly but surely more and more websites no longer fully functioned. Sites like Youtube and Twitter, to name but a few. So the level of my user annoyance gradually increased, until I reached the point of feeling ready to move on from Lion after all.

When Apple announced their latest MacOS “Sierra” to be expected this Fall, I suspected I would not be able to make the jump from Lion. So if ever I planned to upgrade after all, I had to do it now.

Since I had to jump four iterations of MacOS (from OSX 10.7 to OSX 10.11) in one fell swoop, I chose to take as little risk as possible and go with a clean install. After much reading and research I also chose to do this from a bootable flash drive/usb drive.

Since I had never undertaken such an adventure, and had to do lots of Googling and Trying of Things, I decided to write every step down for you all – but only the successful ones, so your path might be shorter and smoother. So here we go…

…but before you move on, please consider carefully that a clean install will erase everything, and I mean Every Thing, from your Mac’s hard drive. This not only includes your files and applications, but also your user accounts and network settings. Know that in most cases a so-called “over-the-top install” (in which you simply install the new OS over the previous one, without erasing everything) works perfectly fine. I chose a clean install because as I said I had a pretty large “jump” between OSes to make, which also stood for a time leap of about 5 years. Years in which a lot of “baggage” had accumulated, like unused extensions, app support files, preferences etc. These could potentially pose security risks or app instability in the new system, or simply take up too much space. A clean install would be like setting up my l’ill ol’ Mac as if it came brand new out of the box – at least on the inside 😉 .

Please also make sure that all of your mission critical apps are all compatible with El Capitan, before you do the install… The safest way to ensure this is probably to visit the developer’s website. You can also checkout RoaringApps.com, although I’m not certain how reliable they are in all instances.

Okay, if you still want a clean install after all this, please read on for my own step-by-step process.

1. Clean up
Throw away files and applications that you no longer use or haven’t used in a long time. Use an app like AppCleaner to make sure every little file associated with an application is thrown out as well.

If you want to rearrange things and/or throw out garbage, do so now, before you make a cloned copy (steps 1-4).

2. Close all applications, update them, log them
Make a note which apps came from the Mac App store and can be readily recovered, and which apps require you to download a new installer from the developer’s website.

Also, you may want to have a log of all of your application licenses in a copyable format so that you can paste it in when reinstalling your apps (after the install of El Capitan).

3. Log off from cloudapps like Dropbox, Evernote, etc. Do this last and don’t edit anymore cloud files until after the clean install.

4. Disconnect any unnecessary peripherals such as printers, tablets, microphones, etc. Try to work with just attached drives and a wired mouse and keyboard.

5. Empty the trash. You can use the TrashIt app if necessary.

6. Repair boot drive permissions
Use Disk Utility to make sure your boot drive permissions are all repaired and that the disk directory is verified as good.

7. Back up
This may be the single most important action you should take. Back up, back up, backup! Use Time Machine, but if you really want to be safe, also make a complete cloned copy of your Mac. I used Carbon Copy Cloner for that, for it is able to make bootable backups. You can try it out for free, which is perfect for opportunities like this.

Note: you will need a second external harddrive for the cloned copy, do not try to cram it in next to your Time Machine backup, for Troubles might await you and you do not want to take risks with your backups…

8. Download El Capitan from the Mac AppStore
It will launch automatically but you need to quit (CMD-Q) out of the upgrade process.

9. Create a bootable installer flash drive
Click here for an explanation how to. Move the installer file from your Applications folder to your bootable flash drive. It’s about 6 gigabytes, so make sure your flash drive is at least 8 Gb, and doesn’t have any files on it.

10. Connect the bootable USB El Capitan install drive to the Mac and install El Capitan
Since this process has been described by many others, I’ll simply refer you to the one that I found most helpful and easiest to understand. Click here for those step by step instructions.

In my case this process took 40 minutes. Which I thought was pretty fast, but as stated above my Mac does have a Core i7 processor with 16 Gb RAM, so if you have a different setup it might take more – or even less – time than mine.

11. Restore your data
Right after you boot El Capitan the setup process will start. You can elect to restore user accounts and settings from Time Machine. I chose the following set of restore options: Users folder + Settings + Other files and folders: Yes; Applications: No.

By the way, when you sign into iCloud it will sync up anything you had previously selected in iCloud sync settings. This may include your mail (after you rebuild or log in to your account), calendar, contacts, reminders, Safari bookmarks, iCloud Keychain etc.

The same goes for your other cloud apps like Dropbox and Evernote (etc): as soon as you login to their desktop apps, your files will automatically reappear on your Mac.

12. Reinstall your apps
In step 2 you made a list of Mac App Store apps, and apps directly from a developer’s site. You can now use that list to restore your apps.

If you were using any cloud-based apps like Dropbox, Box, Evernote etc. you can simply download their desktop application installers, install the desktop apps, log in and you’re back in business.

In case anything goes wrong, or if it goes well but you’re not satisfied with the new system
Take the current Time Machine backup you made in step 7, you can boot from the recovery partition (CMD-R), do a complete erase (Disk Utility) and then restore from your Time Machine archive. You’ll be back where you were before you started.

Issues I encountered after the install

There were three major applications that no longer worked after I had installed El Capitan. Two of those I knew beforehand, but the biggest one took me by surprise and forced me to purchase a software update. They were:

Parallels Desktop 7 – this version is not compatible with El Capitan, an issue of which I was aware before I started. If I want to continue to use Parallels, I cannot upgrade (the more affordable option) for the jump from 7 to 11 is simply to big. I’ll have to buy a new, full version.
iMovie ’11 – it is still available in El Capitan but I could not get it to work the way I wanted it to, so I had to switch to the latest iMovie. Of this I was not particularly aware beforehand, I mean I did know there was a new iMovie but I had hopes the older version would still work satisfactorily. Which it didn’t and since a lot had changed between these versions, I actually had to sign up for an iMovie workshop in an Apple store to be able to work with it again. I still don’t really like the new version, but what can one do – I guess I’m going to have get over it.
Microsoft Office 2011. Now this one not working surprised me, and I don’t mean in a positive way. I could not get Word, Excel or Powerpoint to work at all, they wouldn’t even start. (I don’t use Outlook). Searching on the internet taught me that many struggled with this problem. There had been some fixes from Microsoft, mainly aimed at Outlook, but for the other three there were no fixes at hand as of yet. Since Office to me is mission critical, I experienced a light panic. I tried Pages for a couple of days, and even the open sourced LibreOffice, but both did not function the way I needed them to, for my specific wants & needs (I create written tutorials with lots of pictures, and inserting these pictures the way I wanted them to was a complete train wreck in both of those programms). After a week of trying (and cursing) I gave in, for I had to move on with my work. So I purchased Microsoft Office 2016 – which works like a dream with El Capitan I have to say, but confronted me with an unexpected expense.

In conclusion

These were the steps I took to go from Mac OSX 10.7 Lion to 10.11 El Capitan with a clean install. It took me many hours to research the many options and possibilities and finally I settled on the above set of steps. They are of course based on my personal choices and preferences, and given my particular hardware system setup. Nevertheless I feel quite confident that in most cases these steps will work, which is why I took the trouble of logging them here for you all, so as to spare you the same amount of hours of research (and doubts, and annoyances) I went through.

I hope this will be of help to at least some of you. I hope you feel encouraged by the fact that I, a simple user and not a software engineer nor any kind of other tech expert, have managed to sail through these steps successfully and have already enjoyed my new El Capitan OS for some weeks before I published this.

And when Sierra comes, I can now move confidently forward with a simple over-the-top install.

welcomeelcapitan

SW Clone Wars Animated Series: Anakin Skywalker pt. 2 – The Chosen One

Posted on 2015/07/12 by ComiKate

Two blog posts ago I started a blog mini series reviewing the six seasons of Star Wars The Clone Wars – The Animated Series (TAS). In the first post I reviewed Seasons 1 and 2, recommending the series to you all with great enthusiasm (which to this day is still as great!). In the blog post that followed I decided to zoom in on Anakin Skywalker for the remaining four seasons of TAS, starting with Season 3.

Before moving on to Season 4 I’d like to linger with the third season a little longer, focussing exclusively on three episodes which together form the Mortis story arc. The rest of Season 3 consists of many adventures that are very entertaining and very Star Wars, but the Mortis story line is one of the key episodes not only of the series, but of the entire SW franchise as a whole. It establishes Anakin as the Chosen One, and it really swept me off of my feet.

This time I’ll give an extensive synopsis, which will not be objective at all by the way 😉 (other opinions are available…)

Season 3: Essential Force Mythology

Buried in the middle of the third season, the three-episode Mortis arc is a rare gem of Force mythology, stemming from George Lucas’s original ideas of what the Star Wars concept should be. Interesting? You bet! And exciting, thrilling, awesome! In fact, these are the only episodes I rewatched soon after I watched them the first time. Before you read on I have to warn you though, this blog post contains spoilers for the entire story arc, so please watch the episodes first if you don’t want to be spoiled…

Story

In S03E15 (Overlords) the Jedi Council receives a transmission from far beyond the Outer Rim. Why and from where it was sent cannot be established, but hidden in the message is a Jedi distress code that hasn’t been used in over 2000 years, so the Council sends Obi Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka to investigate.

As it turns out, three very powerful entities living in what seems to be some kind of extra-dimensional world have sent the signal to lure Anakin to them. They present themselves as humanoid beings, an elderly father and his grown son and daughter, and they’re simply called Father, Son and Daughter. The three call themselves guardians of the power, and they cannot leave their world, which turns out to be a conduit through which the entire Force flows. Daughter is aligned with the Light side, Son with the Dark side, and Father rules them both.

They are all keen to know whether Anakin is The Chosen One. Which would be more than simply Jedi or Sith, but to be a so-called Force Wielder like Father and his children. And on top of that, to be the One who controls and balances the Light and the Dark sides of the Force by controlling the son and daughter.

In the night all three of the Jedi are having visions, which though not crucial to the story, ring very true for at least the movie universe and probably future seasons of the animated series: Obi Wan seems to meet his old master Qui Gon, who asks if Obi Wan has trained Anakin well (a loaded question, considering what happens in the movies…). Anakin sees his long-dead mother, to whom he confides his greatest pain and fear: his guilt over loosing her and his fear of loosing the ones he loves, like Padme. Also very prophetic in light of the events in the movies…
Ahsoka meets her older self, who warns her of the seeds of the Dark Side that are planted within her by Anakin. She also warns her to leave the planet and Anakin, or she may never see her future. So maybe this shows us what might happen to Ahsoka: perhaps she won’t die, perhaps she won’t turn to the Dark Side – maybe she’ll simply leave Anakin and the Jedi (to grow up and live happily ever after…?).

Future Ahsoka

Balancing the Force – The Chosen One

Father wants to test Anakin to see if he is indeed the Chosen One and has Ahsoka and Obi Wan taken by his children, who have now taken the forms of huge and violent flying creatures: a gargoyle and a griffin.

They take them back to the temple-palace of the Father, landing in a Yin-Yang(ish) shaped arena. Father threatens to have them kill Anakin’s friends, challenging Anakin to choose and save either his master or his apprentice, while loosing the other. Father claims that making such a choice will help Anakin get free of his guilt over the death of his mother.
A very strange piece of advise in my opinion, for I cannot see how one could conquer his guilt by committing the same type of action that caused the guilt to begin with; in this case: having someone you love die while feeling responsible for their safety.

Of course Anakin refuses to choose (good for him!), uses the Force-amplifying properties of the planet and brings both creatures to heel, rescuing both of his friends in an absolutely awe-inspiring display of Force Wielding. (At this point I was positively thrilled and at the edge of my seat!)

Father is satisfied that Anakin is the One, for only the Chosen One could tame both of his children.
So apparently Father lied when telling Anakin that choosing would help him with conquering his guilt?! And here’s another thing, Daughter is supposed to embody everything the Light Side of the Force is: selflessness, life, forgiveness, etc. And yet she blindly obeys Father’s command to kidnap and (try to) kill Obi Wan?? That seems very inconsistent with her character.

Anyway, Father wants Anakin to stay on the planet and be his successor, as he is dying. He tells Anakin that he has to choose this voluntarily, but warns him that if he makes a different choice and leaves, his selfishness will haunt both him and the galaxy.

The rest is history, it seems, for Anakin chooses to leave the planet with his friends…

Premonitions

The story continues however and in the next episode (Altar of Mortis), they return to the planet, since Son takes Ahsoka before they’ve gotten very far. How is not clear, and personally I think this is a plot hole since during the rest of the story arc Son needs a space ship to leave the planet. So how can he get to Ahsoka in her ship (flying through space), when he’s still on the planet…?
Anyway, during the events that follow, the balance of the Force is actually broken, as Son injures Father and kills Daughter, his sister. Father warns that since his son has now descended deeply into the Dark Side, much more power will flow to the Sith and war will increase throughout the universe. Which is why he tells Anakin to quickly leave the planet with his friends, before Son can take the ship to leave the planet himself.

In Ghosts of Mortis, the last episode of this story arc, Ahsoka is busy fixing their ship, since they crash-landed it in the previous episode. (I’m sorry, but when was Ahsoka trained as a high-tech space craft engineer?!). Meanwhile, Anakin decides to visit the Father one more time to get his blessing to leave, otherwise he says it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
A striking difference with the first episode of this arc, where Father warns Anakin not to leave (or else…) and Anakin leaves anyway!

Father however simply repeats Anakin should leave before Son can take the ship and wreak havoc throughout the universe. He wants his son to remain on the planet so he can kill him.
Again, very strange. Aren’t his children supposed to balance the Force? How then, can Father even consider killing one of them?!
Anakin wants to help, but Father guides him to the Well of the Dark Side to find a third way for handling this situation, instead of either leaving or staying behind to kill Son. And again, I find this a rather curious advise of this supposed ‘wise one’, to send someone not to the Well of Good, but to the Well of Evil to find some wisdom, guidance and direction!

The Well of the Dark Side looks suitably ‘hellish’ of course, or at least how Hell is depicted most of the time: lots of lava lakes, fire and brimstone, and a devilish Son waiting for Anakin. The son breaks the laws of time and shows Anakin his future, while threateningly bellowing “Know yourself, know what you will become!”
OMG – another thrilling and exciting moment, for despite Anakin’s resistance against the vision he is overwhelmed by it and we see several glimpses of situations we know from the movies! I won’t spoil them but they are well-known situations where Anakin either is, or is becoming, Darth Vader! So cool! What’s more, in the end we even see a quickly dissipating vision of Darth Vader looming over Anakin, and however fleeting that moment is, it is absolutely awesome and a very satisfying climax to the scene!

Again Son shows his sly powers of seduction, for he now offers Anakin to avoid this horrible future by the side of the Sith Emperor, namely by Anakin joining Son and destroying the rising empire of the Sith together. Very well-played 🙂 , for Anakin, desperate to save the galaxy, his loved ones and himself, sees no other way and actually joins Son! His eyes immediately change, with dark circles underneath and sometimes even yellowish irisses, a clear foreboding of his ultimate downfall in the third movie.

Path of Death and Destruction

Just when all seems (somewhat prematurely) lost, Father intervenes and makes Anakin forget the whole thing, rendering him unconscious, saying: “Nothing is set in stone. If there is to be balance, what you have seen must be forgotten.”

Contrary to Father’s initial advise he now wishes Anakin to be the one to kill Son! Very inconsistent of course, but hey, by now we’re all used to that.
Anakin shows himself to be a cold-blooded killer once again, for he simply strikes the Son down at the command of Father, without any hesitation.

Well, to cut a long, long story at least a little short, in the end all three guardians of the Force die. And Ahsoka too – though thanks to Daughter’s dying breath not permanently.
Father’s last words are for Anakin, urging him to stay on this path “for he has brought balance to this world, and will do it again for the Galaxy.” Yet again, a very curious remark of a so-called wise character, for in this case restoring the balance meant destroying three living, breathing entities! Of course we know that his words are darkly prophetic, since Anakin will do a lot of destroying and killing before he finally brings balance to the Force in the galaxy. But that still makes the advise to stay on this path very strange at best.

What a ride

In spite of all inconsistencies, plot holes and a generally flawed plot, this story arc was such a blast! Lots of action, thrilling moments, many visions and dreams and of course a deeper look into the Force and the legends and myths surrounding it. And what stunning insights into Anakin, his way of thinking, his intentions and his character journey!

As for the mythology of the Star Wars universe, of course we already know that the Force is not a biblical concept. In this story arc it was very abundantly made clear that if there has been any religion or philosophy that influenced George Lucas when creating this universe, it most definitely was not biblical christianity. If anything, in Star Wars can be found some buddhistic, gnostic and new age influences. And those are the obvious ones, who knows what we would find if we really start digging into it. 😉 All of which does not have to be a problem for Christians however, as long as they’re consciously aware of those influences and are careful not to be tempted by them.

A Yin Yangish arena

One of the rare statements that are actually in line with the bible by the way, curiously comes from one of the least biblical characters of the story arc: Father. For when Father states, in his final words to Anakin: “Beware your heart,” this echos – probably wholly and utterly unwittingly – the book of Proverbs in the bible, where it says:
‘Above everything else, guard your heart; for from it flow the springs of life.’ (Proverbs 4:23).
The bible also tells us our hearts are “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).

To be continued?

Although the rest of Season 3 never refers back to the Mortis story arc again (how strange!), I cannot wait to see what Seasons 4-5-6 will bring, for there are enough loose ends left open in this story arc to revisit at least some of its plot line.

For instance, nothing ever really dies, according to the three guardians of the Force. So does that mean we’ll see one or all of them again…? Or (one last spoiler ahead!) will Daughter simply be seen in the traces she left in Ahsoka when Father and Anakin revived Ahsoka with Daughter’s last remnant of Life force? Who knows, let’s just find out shall we… 🙂

SW Clone Wars Animated Series: Anakin Skywalker – The Only Hope?

Posted on 2015/06/21 by ComiKate

Star Wars The Clone Wars – The Animated Series tracks Anakin Skywalker’s slow descent towards the Dark Side of the Force, which as we all know eventually culminates in his becoming Darth Vader at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
Of all the Star Wars movies, the third one, Revenge of the Sith, is my favorite. For Anakin’s passionate struggle to be a hero, to be a strong force for Good, and then failing in the most horrendous way possible, struck very close to home. As Christians, we too have a strong sense of good and evil, and we may even look at our world as a world at war – spiritually. But more importantly, as a Christian I know all too well what it’s like to have been given all these gifts and talents, to almost burst with the potential God has bestowed on me, on all of us – and then to fail. Fail miserably and horrendously, time and time again, because of my sinful nature. No one is good – except God alone, according to the Bible.

So I’m very happy and pleased – and thrilled and excited – that The Animated Series (TAS) not only caters to my general Star Wars fandom, but zooms in on the events and character journey that lead to my favorite movie of them all.
In my previous blog post I reviewed Seasons 1 and 2. In the third part of this blog mini series I’m zooming in on Anakin Skywalker, starting at Season 3.

So what about this Anakin? (warning: movie spoilers for SW III)

Of course there are some strong messianic overtones to Anakin’s character. The Force runs strongest in him and from the start he was meant to restore balance to the Force when the Dark Side started rising. In the end, in Star Wars VI, he actually does restore that balance, conquering death (but only for himself) as he does it. The animated series hints at this Destiny as well, for he’s regularly referred to (in his absence) as The Only Hope. Which of course is also a very nice prequel reference to Star Wars IV – A New Hope.

But that is where all messianic similarities seem to end – as the title of A New Hope already clearly demonstrates: Anakin failed at being the universe’s Only Hope, wherefore a new hope was needed. He failed at his messianic task, which of course is not so strange at all, for he – like any other Jedi – is no super human, let alone a genuine Messiah. George Lucas himself stresses this point repeatedly during interviews: the Jedi are no super heroes, no meta humans. They know how to wield the Force, but they are not invincible, nor invulnerable.

Anakin near-fatally injured: definitely not invulnerable

Clearly Anakin is no messiah, and when I watch the movies or the animated series, it is not Jesus that he reminds me of. No, in Anakin I see myself. I see the entirety of mankind starting with Adam, of what it means to be a sinful human in a fallen world. I see love, hope, faith, passion and all things good – as well as hatred, fear, egotism, jealousy and all things evil. I actually shed tears at Anakin’s fall in Revenge of the Sith, for it represented my own fallen state – as well as the world’s. To me, he is the embodiment of Paul’s lament in Romans 7: “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing” (verse 18-19). Do we not get a great demonstration of the meaning of this verse when Anakin (warning, movie spoiler ahead!)

to his horror, discovers it was he himself who had murdered his one true love, his beloved Padme?

On morals, ethics and spiritual convictions

In the SW universe, intense emotions are not for the highly evolved. Hate, rage, fear but also ardent love and committed relationships are not done for true Jedi masters. This is why it leads to some serious eyebrow-raising in Obi Wan en Plo Koon, when Anakin stops the attack on a Separatist ship because it’s where Padme is held captive (S01E04). In this, there are differences with the biblical teaching of valuing each individual above the collective as a whole; whereas it would seem more “cost-effective” to sacrifice one life to potentially save many more by defeating an enemy ship, it’s actually very biblical not to demand such a sacrifice of someone else, nor forcing it upon them. Curiously it is our future bad guy, Anakin, who shows us this very biblical example.

In S01E05 Anakin raises the stakes when he wants to go on a rescue mission for his little droid R2D2, whom he lost during a space battle. Obi-Wan stresses again: ‘Attachment is not acceptable for a Jedi’. But Anakin is of a different opinion. ‘R2 is more than a droid, he’s a friend,’ he explains to Ahsoka.

Another example of the Jedi way of putting the collective before the individual can be found In episode 13. Ahsoka is told by Jedi master Aayla Secura to leave a seriously injured Anakin behind and go with her and the troopers to find a way off of the planet they stranded on. Ahsoka doesn’t want to leave Anakin behind, claiming he would never leave her behind if she were ever in the same position. But Secura tells her: ‘As a Jedi it is your duty to do what’s best for the group.’
Secura tells Ahsoka about her own master, who had been like a father to her. ‘I realized that for the greater good I had to let him go,’ she states. ‘Don’t loose a thousand lives just to save one.’

I don’t know about you, but I would not subscribe to this part of Jedi philosophy. It seems I would not be allowed to form any attachments, and would be required to deny (or as the Jedi call it, ‘control’) all of my stronger feelings. In short, I would have to give up on several things that are central to being human. What’s more, I don’t think I would leave someone I consider a father or father figure to die, just to save an abstract thousand. You don’t even know whether the thousand really would be saved, you probably just hope they would be. Ahsoka seems to agree with this latter sentiment, for she replies: ‘Maybe. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t try to save his life.’

On Anakin’s leadership

Season 1, episode 19: Ahsoka disobeys a direct order from both the admiral and her master Anakin, and looses her squadron. Anakin is disappointed with her, but is remarkably forgiving and fatherly. Stern but gentle, and not harsh at all, he gives her not less but more responsiblity, only applying his force of will to help her overcome her fear of failure and her longing to refuse any more responsibilties. But his greatest leadership move is to make her responsible for his own life, coming up with an attack plan that will leave him helpless if she won’t manage to succeed in her mission, rescuing him at the same time. This clever combination of strategy and genuine trust in her abilities, forces her to step up to the plate and take back her position of command, conquering it back from the spirit of fear and dejection that had threatened to overwhelm her.

I really love how the character of Anakin is written here. It shows him to be a strong, fearless and remarkably gentle leader. He is fatherly and brotherly at the same time. This is the kind of leadership that makes people flourish, the kind that makes me want to be a leader just like that.

On the other hand, Anakin truly believes that when your intentions are good, it’s okay not to follow orders. A mindset that sows the seeds of rebellion, for doesn’t every person on earth believe that his/her own intentions are generally good, even the ones history shows to be bad, or even evil?

To the Dark Side

We already know from the movies that Anakin Skywalker crosses over to the Dark Side of the Force, leaving the Jedi knighthood. We see his actual fall in Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, but how does a promising young Jedi knight, considered the Only Hope by the Jedi High Counsil, deteriorate to not only committing himself to the Dark Side, but also becoming one of the most powerful Sith in the galaxy?

In The Clone Wars Animated Series we get to see more of this journey, and in this and future posts I’d like to track some highlights of his journey to and through the ‘valley of the shadow of death’.

To be continued… 😉

Star Wars Clone Wars Animated Series: Review Seasons 1+2

Posted on 2015/01/11 by ComiKate

The Star Wars Clone Wars animated series is set in between SW II and III, and directly continuing from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated movie; with the exception of season 1 episode 16, which according to the series writers is actually a prequel to the Clone Wars movie. (Wait. What?!)

The series, six seasons in total, is a celebration of the Star Wars universe. I’ve recently watched seasons 1 and 2, and would like to share my thoughts with you all. Meanwhile, I’ll continue watching the following seasons of course, and will keep you posted.

The Clone Wars Animated Series lets us discover new worlds and peoples, but it also takes us back to well-known movie locations, like planets (Naboo, for one, and many more) and buildings on that planet (the Naboo palace, the hangar).

Clone Wars animated series: Approaching Naboo Palace

The music score is slightly different from the movies’, but still very clearly Star Wars. There are so many great things to see again I hardly know where to start: there’s the drones in all of their different forms, and some new versions added to that. Also, several of the many species we have previously encountered in the movies are making a come-back. Like the Dugs, the flying, snouty creatures from Malastare we know from SW I – where one of them (Sebulba) kept little Anakin as a slave. In TAS we meet Katuunko, their king, on the mysteriously beautiful, colorful dried coral moon of Rugosa. In the animated movie we had already encountered the cutest little Hutt baby, who turns out to be Jabba the Hutt’s son! So cool.
Then there’s also a guest appearance by the long-necked medical specialsts we know from the movies as the Kamino cloning facility’s caretakers and scientists.

Clones

Before we move on to the main character of the series, I must mention the ones that actually carry the title of this series: the clones! While wearing white helmets in the movies, in TAS the clones are oftentimes bare-headed. Since we already know from the movies that it was actually bounty hunter Jango Fett who was cloned, they all have his face. But in the animated series we discover they all have unique characters, who make a point of distinguishing between themselves in spite of their similar looks. One way of accomplishing that is by different (facial) hair styles. We also learn they all have chosen their own names. In S01E05 they even get their own, clones-only episode as if to empasize their unique individuality.

On a side note, an interesting point is raised here: are clones truly human, true individuals and do they therefore, have their own souls? In S01E01 Yoda goes out of his way to stress that they are unique individuals, and in episode 2 Jedi master Plo Koon constantly encourages his troopers to embrace their individual intrinsic value. But that is for another blog post to explore…

Characters Old and New

Against the great Star Wars atmosphere and backdrop, we get to see much more of the development and interaction between the main characters: Obi Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Mace Windu, to name but a few of the Jedi heroes we know and love. There’s Senator Padme (former Queen of Naboo), Jar Jar Binks, Count Dooku, Count Grievous, senator Palpatine, and fortunately good ol’ R2D2 and C3PO as well! And many, many more!

Ahsoka Tano is a new character, who becomes Anakin’s padawan. We meet her in the animated movie, and she remains at Anakin’s side throughout the series, picking up on Anakin’s individualism and independent mind.

I feel that in season 1 at least we see the positive aspects of those characteristics of Ahsoka – in contrast to some of Anakin’s more negative tendancies.
For instance, Ahsoka is often the voice of reason and compassion when Anakin’s bold but egotistical side threatens to take over. When he is prepared to risk and loose the lives of a squadron of his fighter pilots, claiming that they can make it, it’s Ahsoka who points out that while he might be able to make it, “everybody else is dying”. Her fervent pleas for doing what is Right are what seem to keep Anakin on the straight and narrow more than once.

Nevertheless her character seems to be slowly developing in some other directions as well. On the one hand she has the unique opportunity to work with several Jedi masters, besides Anakin. This offers her the perfect chance to study under “true” Jedi’s, counterbalancing Anakin’s wilder ways. On the other hand she admires Anakin to no end and wants to please him most of all other Jedi masters. This leaves her open to his influence, positive but also negative. In contrast to her pleading for the lives of Anakin’s squadron, we see her ignore explicit orders to draw back in episode 19 of that same season. Thereby risking – and loosing! – her own squadron.

I’m very interested in where they are going to take this character in later seasons. Of course from the movies we know there is no Ahsoka – so I suppose she either dies during the animated series, or – and this I’d find far more interesting – she turns to the Dark Side…

Old-but-new characters

Some characters have been in the movies for very brief scenes, so they probably haven’t made the impression the main characters have. Fortunately, several of them are turning up in the animated series, fleshing them out much more. Like Kit Fisto, a nautolan Jedi Master who has become fairly popular with fans, being ranked #41 in IGN’s list of Top 100 Star Wars characters back in 2010. But we also get to see Jedi master Aayla Secura. Her appearance in TAS is the second time Lucas used her, for she also briefly appeared in SW III, Revenge of the Sith, and was played by Amy Allen. The character became very popular, mostly through the Expanded Universe.

Kit Fisto – movie left, animated series right:

Aayla Secura – movie left, animated series right:

There’s also a new character on the dark side: Ventress, Dooku’s apprentice. In a way she might be considered Ahsoka’s dark counterpart, although Ventress is much older and far more experienced in wielding the Force.

Movie references

There are some great movie tributes hidden (or actually not so hidden) in the Clone Wars Animated Series. For instance, there’s a Contagion episode (S01E17, Blue Shadow Virus), a zombie episode (S02E07, Legacy of Terror), an Alien episode (S02E08, Brain Invaders), and even a Godzilla episode (S02E18+19, The Zillo Beast & The Zillo Beast Strikes Back). Plus, all episodes with bounty hunter Cad Bane have very strong western overtones (S01E19, and others).

Great, great fun!

Skywalker

There can of course only be one truly central character to this series: Anakin Skywalker. Although not a true Jedi Master yet, Anakin has reached Knight status and has come into his own as one of the Jedi generals, regularly leading his own fleet and fighting many battles against the Dark Side’s armies. He’s deeply in love with his wife Padme, but they’re still keeping their relationship a secret, as we already know from the movies.

Since the animated series is set in the years following Attack of the Clones and before Revenge of the Sith, it shows how Anakin slowly and unwittlingly lets himself become vulnerable to the temptations of the dark side. The beauty of this series is, that although Anakin is to become the Big Bad Guy from the Star Wars IV-VI movies, almost every individual episode of the animated series shows us that he is in fact just like us: sinful, yes, but he starts out with a strong intent to do good, fight evil, rescue the defenseless, fight for peace and order in the universe. He really is not truly evil to the core, like his Sith lord, although he seems to come dangerously close for a while, in the movies. Thankfully the sixth movie finally resolves the tension: it proves that Anakin is not truly evil, as he is finally redeemed in the end – whereas, in stark contrast, there is no redemption for the true Evil, the Sith lord.

All of which makes the scene in S02E08 where Anakin uses his future Darth Vader signature move for the first time – the deadly Force grip – excitingly chilling!

Dislikes

Although none of the original movie actors are doing the voice acting in this animated series, the voice cast acts very well – with the exception of Padme, whose voice is too high, too shrill and too young, almost like a child or rather some weird mix of child-woman.

Another minor flaw is Anakin’s age. In the second movie Anakin is about 19-20 years old, by the third movie he’s still a very young man, of about 23. In The Animated Series however he looks much more mature, like late twenties or even early thirties, imho. Same goes for his voice, which in TAS is much deeper, adding to the maturity. Although objectively I like how Anakin is drawn and I also like his voice, I do not like it in context of the movies’ internal timeline.

Conclusion

So, with all of the above in mind, watching these stories about Anakin before Revenge of the Sith takes place, is a real treat. We get background stories on some of the characters (like an origin story for Count Grievous!), and have the unique experience of seeing the giant walker tanks and gigantic triangular battle ships, only this time being piloted by the good guys!

There’s also a lot of humor and comic relief, with several highlights. Let me mention two of them:

S01E04: on Grievous’s ship, amidst all the noises, there’s a short but very clear ‘Mind the Gap’!
The bio-weapons expert geneticist that experiments on living creatures has a very obvious, very in-your-face German accent, by Michael York no less. Funny, and well done!

In short, if you’re in any way a Star Wars fan, I definitely recommend you buying this series on blueray or DVD, or check it out on Netflix/Hulu etc.

The Saga Continues…

Posted on 2014/10/20 by ComiKate

In 2012 an independent comic entered the scene, simply titled Saga. Which I discovered in 2014 – and it rocked my world….

Well, okay, nothing quite so dramatic, but it did jump to the very top of my Favorite Comics list right then and there, forcing a reluctant Superior Spider-Man to a close but still second position. So, what’s that all about?

Story

Alana and Marco are star-crossed lovers in more than one sense. Not only do they have to fight for and defend their love and their small family against all kinds of enemies, but they themselves come from different planets – planets which have been at war for generations.

From the moment their romance starts they have to keep it a secret, for by entering into their relationship they have mixed races, families and traditions – all of which during a time of war between their planets. As soon as they elope and have a baby girl, they have to be even more careful for it doesn’t take long before several people are after them, and most want them dead rather than alive.

The challenges young parents face…

The first 18 issues, collected in three trade paperback volumes, take us on a gripping adventure, an epic ride that reminded me of Star Wars, Romeo & Juliette and even Farscape – for its grit and down-to-earth dialogue. The occasional narrator stringing the story together is Hazel, the aforementioned baby girl, always recognizable by a subtle but distinct lack of thought bubbles around her thoughts.

You should be warned though, this comic can be very explicit and has a 17+ only rating. Please take that seriously and do not leave it lying around where your young children can find it. (Also: don’t read it in the subway or your doctor’s waiting room…) For instance, there are some sexual scenes, there’s some graphic violence and horror elements, an F-bomb here and there, and now and again we witness intimate experiences like giving birth. Or losing a limb. (Which of the two is the scariest I leave entirely up to the reader to decide…)
Sometimes issues open with a splash page of such a scene, surprising the crap out of the unsuspecting reader. So there, consider yourselves warned.

No lack of blood & guts either…

Personally, I did not find this explicitness offensive or gratuitous, because I think it really fits the story well, a solid context is always provided and it simply shows us human (or in this case humanoid) life in all of its facets, taking into account the good, the bad and the ugly. The fact that there are also expressly implicit scenes, where the camera angle discretely looks away while the rest of a scene is left to the reader’s imagination, for me confirms that the occasional explicit scene is not uncalled for and adds to the rich tapestry of this space opera. I don’t know for sure but I also think the fact that the artist is a woman automatically makes me interpret the explicit scenes as non-lascivious or at the very least far less lewd. I know, ridiculous, but there you have it. Plus, most (though not all) of the sexual scenes are between married couples, or couples in serious relationships – which in this day and age could be considered refreshing. Nevertheless, if images of either violence, nudity, birth, blood or sexuality (hetero- and homo-) are something you’d rather avoid, you really should not read this comic.

All of that being said, the elements that cause the 17+ rating are definitely not the main plot device of the story. I was truly swept off of my feet by this comic, which I find touching, funny, exciting, refreshingly original and genuinely human. The art by Fiona Staples is exceptional, with beautiful colors and brilliantly rendered facial expressions. I truly hope she never ever leaves this book.

Writer Brian K. Vaughan knows how to tell a story in which you can really immerse yourself. It’s completely character-driven, with almost mundane character interactions against an engrossing, epic background of grand and mythic proportions, the combination of which I find riveting. Vaughan has invented a very rich tapestry of alien races and their respective societal structures, but no matter how alien they look, they all seem to have one thing in common – also the thing that makes this saga truly relatable to the reader: they all behave totally humanly.

Fascinatingly strange alien royalty

In doing so Vaughan has come up with a very smart way to explore different aspects of humanity. He shows us the entire spectrum of human behavior: from the amazingly good to the gruesomely sinful and evil, and everything in between. This makes for a captivating story with interesting characters and it challenges us to look into the mirror and ask ourselves: how truly alien are these aliens of the Saga story anyway, aren’t they really a lot like, I don’t know, me…?

Two aliens having a very human conversation

Vaughan also runs a hilarious Letters section in the back of the comic by the way, so whatever you do, do not skip that.

Buy/Borrow/Skip

Although I am truly, head-over-heels in love with this comic, I do recommend you borrow it first; in other words, start slowly with just issue 1, mostly to test whether you want to deal with some of its explicitness.

As for me personally, I give it a solid 10/10 for quality, and 9/10 for relevance!

After a short hiatus Vol. 4 of Saga continued with issue #19; issue #23 was released September 24, 2014. Saga is creator-owned and published monthly by Image Comics.

Don’t forget, there’s a comment section, so… share a thought! 😉

Superior Spider-Man, issue #… 32?!

Posted on 2014/08/29 by ComiKate

Back in May I was still lamenting the fact that Dan Slott’s Superior Spider-Man had ended after only 31 issues. It had been a truly awesome run, with an ending in which Doc Ock hands the webslinger’s spandex back to Peter Parker – facilitating a smooth transition into the new Amazing Spider-Man series. And although Slott’s continuing on as the new series’ creator guaranteed quality writing, I still missed Doc Ock’s very unique interpretation of superheroism and how to control the evil elements in his city.
Above: Superior Spider-Man #8 – Otto can fix this!

As it turns out, this month is my lucky month and Marvel seems to have read my previous blog post (which they would, of course). For there it was, amidst the new comics issues of Wednesday, August 6th: Superior Spider-Man #32!
I had no idea how this would be possible, since the rebooted Amazing Spider-Man left no room whatsoever for Doc Ock to take over once again. I dreaded a scenario where Octavius would perhaps take another body and be a second Spider-Man. Nevertheless, since Dan Slott was still its creator, I decided to take the risk and dive in.

And boy did this comic exceed my expectations – again! 🙂
Slott very niftily found a little time slot (no pun intended) in Superior Spider-Man #19 that could be transformed into a multiverse story, creating room for an entire set of new web slinging adventures by Doc Ock. For although it’s only been one issue as of yet, it’s very clear from the plot that as long as Octavius travels these parallel universes and different dimensions, there’s really no limit to the number of stories. Hence, Superior Spider-Man does not have to end after all! Which makes my smile so big it hardly fits my face anymore.

Story (incl. some mild spoilers)

During the explosion in #19 Superior Spidey is warped to another timeline, and he finds himself in the year 2099. The same year the future Spider-Man he had encountered before is from and who is now trapped in our time.

Doc Ock of course starts bossing everyone around again pretty much immediately after arriving in the future, focussing on building a time machine to return to his own time as soon as possible. He succeeds in building the device fairly quickly (antagonizing approximately every major person or company in town while doing it – ah, Superior Spidey, I’m soooo glad you’re back 🙂 ), giving it an interface that looks like his beloved Anna Maria, and he starts a series of time jumps in hopes of finding his own dimension.

Although finding the right time line seems harder than he had anticipated, he does take notice of his surroundings. He discovers that several of his multiverse counterparts have been killed by what seems to be one and the same foe. Octavius concludes that this enemy must therefore be traveling the multiverse as well, and it doesn’t take long before he decides to gather an army (of course he would 🙂 ) of “parallel” Spider-Men. With their help – and under his leadership – he wants to battle and defeat this multi-dimensional enemy that threatens their entire existence.

Buy/Borrow/Skip

Can there be any other conclusion? BUY of course!

Once again Slott seems to be entirely in his element now that he’s back in the saddle writing this refreshingly original character of his. It’s obvious he’s enjoying himself, and that translates to the pages. The plot is exciting, the dialogues sharp and snarky, and his true love for Anna Maria is once again moving even though she isn’t even really there. Surely this new storyline promises a wealth of juicy Superior Spider-Man adventures! Or, as Marvel has dubbed it:

The road to Spider-Verse starts here.

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to traveling that road right along with them 🙂

BewarenBewaren

Comics review: Is the Superior Spider-Man really superior?

Posted on 2014/05/04 by ComiKate

In case you’re threatening to go totally TLDR on me 😉 , an audio version of this review is available as well! Just scroll right down to the very end of this post, where you’ll find it as a podcast entry for the Spiritblade Underground Podcast. The specific podcast episode that features this review was ‘up’ as of May 3, 2014, which I’ll link to here, but as stated you can also find the isolated review at the bottom of this post – with some background illustrations from the comic!

The Superior Spider-Man is a new series and part of the Marvel Now universe, following right after #700 of the previous volume, The Amazing Spider-Man.

Spider-Man has never been my favorite superhero. The movies with Toby Maguire were kind of okay I guess, but definitely no more than that, although I have to admit I really do like the new movie franchise with Andrew Garfield playing the webslinging hero.

It’s especially the Spidey comics however that were never able to grab me. Whenever I encountered him in other Marvel titles, I found Peter Parker (and his superhero alias) too “teenagey”, often childish even. Frankly to me he bordered on an annoying do-gooder who consistently failed to hold my interest for more than one comic.

I had heard that with the new Marvel Now relaunch/reboot/reimagining (take your pick) there had been a significant change to Spidey: in his new title The Superior Spider-Man it was no longer Peter Parker but his arch-enemy Dr. Octopus who donned the webbed costume!

Now I hadn’t read any issues of the previous title The Amazing Spider-Man except for the Fear Itself tie-in issues, so I didn’t know the origin of this storyline firsthand, but it seemed that Otto Octavius – a.k.a. Dr. Octopus – had switched bodies with Peter Parker, leaving Peter’s mind inside his own dying body while starting a new life himself in Peter’s younger, stronger body. I kept hearing people talk enthousiastically about it on several of the podcasts I’ve subscribed to, with comments ranging from “It’s on the top of my monthly reading list” to “That is one consistently awesome title”.

Then I read the first issues of Mighty Avengers, an Infinity event tie-in, and encountered this new Superior Spider-Man, for the first time. Despite everything, I really liked him! This was no longer the annoying do-goody teenager, but an arrogant mystery guy in a well-known superhero suit, with no clear boundary between good and evil and with a taunting manner that annoyed the crap out of the other superheroes – which added a lot of humor for me as as a reader.

So, long story short, I decided to go and read this Superior Spider-Man after all. Right now I’ve binge-read the entire series, so issues #1-31!

Story

Doctor Octopus had always been a super villain, but it seems that when he transferred his mind into Peter Parker’s body, there were some superheroic residuals there. Ock now not only has Peter’s memories, experiences and reflexes but also a sense of morality that is new to him but that he can’t resist. He now actually wants to be one of the good guys, a real hero that fights the villains and protects the people.

Doc Ock has not actually become Peter of course, so he’s still arrogant and megalomanic and still has all of his own memories and experiences as well. Hence his ambition to be a superior Spider-Man: not only does he want to improve on the former Spider-Man’s performance and efficiency, he also demands a better life for his civilian alterego Peter Parker. Of course what exactly Doc Ock defines as “better” is somewhat colored. It doesn’t take long before he bosses everyone around, has his own minions and is dangerously close to becoming the city’s very own Big Brother due to his Spider-bots.

An extra plot thread is that Peter Parker has not entirely disappeared: a tiny whisp of him, of which it’s not clear whether it’s his soul, his mind or just an imprint of his memory, still hides inside Peter’s physical brain. This “virtual Peter” is fully conscious and aware, but not able to communicate with his body’s thief Dr. Octopus. He seems fated to watch and undergo everything Doc Ock says and does, powerless to do anything about it. Peter however is not one to give up that easily, which adds yet another layer of interest for the reader.

Likes

Writer Dan Slott heads off to a very interesting start by consistently portraying this new shady version of Spider-Man as a very different kind of Wall Crawler, while at the same time showing and developing different aspects of his character in each issue. What I particularly like about Superior Spidey, is that the story is mostly character driven. Of course there are the thrilling action scenes, a lot of web-slinging and breaking of heads and even the building of a private Spider army, but in the end these are just a colorful background to the development of this new Spider-Man’s character. While he is still Dr. Octopus and still wants to rule the world, he now wants to do it by solving crime, in order to keep the people safe. Of course he goes about this in a way that is at best a mixture of good and evil methods. Meanwhile, he really respects aunt May and improves on his relationship with her – something Peter had been neglecting. Also, he applies himself to Peter’s studies and not only gains himself a doctorate, but also starts his own company, Parker Industries. And last but not least – while on the one hand his relationship with the Avengers grows more and more strenuous, he falls in love!

The beauty of this budding relationship with Anna Maria, who he meets during his renewed studies, is that it is entirely authentic, true and pure. Peter – or rather, Doc Ock – always makes time for her, even if she calls him on a particularly inconvenient moment – like a fight against a super villain team. When she’s crying, he immediately comes running, anxious to fix whatever might be wrong. When aunt May asks Anna Maria some inappropriate and hurtful questions, Peter – or actually, Otto – defends her passionately, and rightly so. In short, Anna Maria may well be the one true chance he has of showing his true heroic, good side, and theirs is a great and moving romance.

Dislikes

I have only one rather big beef with this comic: it has ended waaaaaay too soon! I mean, only 31 issues of awesomeness? Come on!! 😦

Buy/Borrow/Skip

To answer the question in the title: Yes, this Spider-Man is definitely superior – at least, for me, as a reader! 🙂

The Superior Spider-Man is a laugh-out-loud hilarious, exciting, surprisingly satisfying read, that I heartily recommend to everyone who’s in the market for something refreshingly original. It has very quickly become one of my favorite comics, it’s consistently awesome, it’s a perfect jumping-on point for new Spider-Man readers and I’m now definitely going to try The Amazing Spider-Man’s newly rebooted title! Issue #1 has been released April 30, 2014 🙂

I give the entire Superior Spider-Man run a Quality score of 9.5/10 and a Relevance score of 7/10.

And here’s the audio version of this review for the Spiritblade Underground Podcast – with some background illustrations 😉 :

BewarenBewaren

Comic tip: Pacific Rim – Tales from Year Zero

Posted on 2014/05/04 by ComiKate

Recently I discovered a graphic novel which is kind of a prequel to the Pacific Rim movie, which I thought I’d share with you all for it’s a great read. Pacific Rim – Tales from Year Zero was published in close collaboration with the movie’s creators, which is great: some of its most important characters are in the graphic novel, and of course the Kaiju and Jaeger designs are very recognizable as well. Nevertheless, the writers used background stories to the movie that were never filmed, but were originally created to give more substance to the movie’s universe. Thanks to this graphic novel, much of this unknown extra material is now available to us as well.

The graphic novel contains 52 pages of world-building short stories. I’m not going to summarize the stories, for that’s near impossible without spoilers. What I can do however is give an example of the kind of background story you will get: the drifting phenomenon that we got to see in te movie – the neurological connection between two people and a Jaeger – is explained more elaborately in the graphic novel, for instance in the two panels below:

Still, every piece of background information is woven into a a real story, making it a true graphic novel, instead of, say, a compendium.

Recommendation

Even though this prequel is by no means essential to understanding the movie Pacific Rim, I’m genuinely recommending it to you. The stories are well-told with quality artwork and they really enhance your knowledge and understanding of this movie’s world. Plus, they may be short stories, they still belong together as parts of a bigger whole.

In short, it’s a great graphic novel, which I found worth the read. As a bonus, you get to enjoy the movie and it’s characters a little longer! 🙂

So what do you think, will you give this graphic novel a try? Let me know in the comment section below!

An impression of my father’s heart: Flying on the wings of an ikran

Posted on 2014/02/19 by ComiKate

A couple of days ago, on Saturday February 15th, my mother and I buried my father. I had arranged for a service full of hope and praise for our God. I spoke for a couple of minutes myself, and showed a scene from Avatar. Jake’s first flight was my father’s favorite scene from his favorite movie. We had watched it together (for the umptieth time), just him and me, on New Year’s Day; my father was in a lot of pain then and I put this film on to distract and comfort him, for I knew how deeply it moved him every time he watched it.

Avatar: Living in harmony with nature and all of creation

My dad always looked at life through his faith and belief in the God of the bible. His particular focus was on the beauty of creation, and how it showed the existence of the Creator Himself. He looked at all of creation, from the tiniest detail on a butterfly’s wing to the biggest supernova in a galaxy far, far away. He enjoyed nature in all of its forms and loved animals, especially the ones with which you can have a personal connection.

My dad honored God by striving to make the intangible beauty of creation tangible and visible, really noticeable, for people. He did that, among other things, by his photography. Especially macro photography, showing the wondrous beauty that is hidden in the tiny details of small flowers and animals.

This love for creation’s beauty also led him to gather pictures made by the Hubble telescope – letting himself be mesmerized by colorful nebulas and mysterious heaps of stars and planets lightyears away from us.

The common theme was always: discovering God’s presence by studying and enjoying creation, in both the big and the small things. The bible tells us the same thing in Romans 1:20:

For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities – both his eternal power and his divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse.

My father was deeply convinced that when we die, only our temporary ‘packaging’ dies, like the seed of wheat that must perish before it can become that which it’s designed to be: a stalk of wheat. God shows us in the death of the seed that we will become so much more when we die.

But someone will ask, “In what manner are the dead raised? What sort of body do they have?” Stupid! When you sow a seed, it doesn’t come alive unless it first dies. Also, what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare seed of, say, wheat or something else; but God gives it the body he intended for it; and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. (…) So it is with the resurrection of the dead. When the body is “sown,” it decays; when it is raised, it cannot decay.
(1Cor. 15:35-38, 42)

The beauty of a stalk of wheat is in its details: the little hairs on the ear are reaching upwards, as if every stalk is standing in the field with its hands raised, praising its Creator as it were. 😉
And like a stalk of wheat reaches out to heaven, so my dad reached upwards to God in his life, longing to be free of earthly limitations. But not because he was feeling dejected – on the contrary: fueled by his deep longing for God he loved to think and fantasize about all the possibilities that would be within his reach “later, when I’m in heaven.”

My dad and I always said to eachother: when we’re both in heaven, we’re going to explore the entire universe together, no longer limited by such mundane things as “oxygen” or travelling “as slow as the speed of light”. (Now that’s a date!)
He was already looking forward to being able to travel distances between galaxies in an instant, and checking out everything with his own eyes that the Hubble telescope was only able to glance at from afar.

I believe that was why he was a science fiction fan: these movies ignore limitations and show us all kinds of possibilities. Not only the fastest spaceships to boldly go where no one has gone before, but also the many characteristics and abilities, represented by different alien peoples, that mirrored my father’s desire to leave earthly limitations behind. Like the special ability of teleportation, or such a simple but beautiful thing as having wings.

My dad’s favorite movie was Avatar, which shows us many of his heart’s desires and passions: living life in close harmony with nature and with eachother, with deep connections to different kinds of animals, and enjoying creation’s beauty without any limitations. That is what his favorite scene in the movie, Jake’s first flight, is about. This scene always moved him deeply, each and every time he saw it. The last time with me, last New Year’s Day.

The main character, Jake Sully, flies on the back of an ikran, a winged creature he’s just bonded with, for the very first time. His face shows the ecstasy of flying, rising like an eagle, soaring on the wind, connected to a living creature that carries him willingly. And we see how his happiness deepens as soon as his mate, the woman he loves, joins him on his flight.

This is how this scene expresses my father’s heart: playfully exploring and enjoying the grand beauty of creation, reaching out to God by literally breaking loose from everything earthly, soaring on the wind of the Holy Spirit together with the one he loved.

Rising like an eagle, soaring on the wind – Fly dad, fly!

If you can get your hands on an Avatar DVD – which I highly recommend since it’s a great movie! – fast forward to time stamp 1:12:02 en continue to 1:14:40. Or click here.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Valiant’s new Archer and Armstrong

Posted on 2014/02/03 by ComiKate

This review is also available as a podcast contribution to Spiritblade Underground podcast, a podcast aimed at christian geeks, available through iTunes or go to The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast Home Page.
Click HERE for my Archer and Armstrong audio review on episode 300 of this podcast, go to 25:18 minutes.
Or click the video below.

It’s been only about two years since I started reading comics, and since it was actually the Green Lantern movie that really got me started, I’ve primarily been a DC Comics girl, with a whiff of Marvel thrown into the mix to add some variety. But lately, with all the relaunches and soft reboots that have been going on at both DC Comics and Marvel, my usual batch of comics have been lacking some important traits that had kept me interested up until that point. Long story short, I ditched a number (but not all) of my usual titles and started looking “elsewhere”. Since I’d been hearing a lot of enthousiastic reports and reviews about “the new Valiant”, a comics publisher that had relaunched as recently as May 2012 under the name Valiant Entertainment, I decided to try some of their titles. Starting with Archer & Armstrong

Who?

Archer and Armstrong – a duo I knew literally nothing about when I opened issue #1. I didn’t know that there used to be a “previous Valiant universe” (by Valiant Comics, 1989-2004) in which an original Archer & Armstrong duo had their adventures. Nor did I know any of the creative team, which I think is somewhat excusable (…) given my fairly short history as a comics reader. So this new comic introduced me to writer Fred van Lente and (for the first six issues) artist Clayton Henry – and as introductions go, this one was great!

Story

Obadiah Archer, 18 years old, has been raised by his adoptive parents – who, by the way, also turn out to be leaders of an ancient sect – to be a well-trained fighter. He’s sent to what he’s been taught to be a modern day Babylon – New York City, to hunt down and kill what he believes to be a demon. He soon finds that this “great satan” is actually Armstrong, a fun-loving, hard-drinking immortal. Together they discover a centuries-old worldwide conspiracy involving not only Archer’s family sect but also several other branches of one large ancient cult.

Of course the future of the entire modern day Valiant Universe depends on their actions and decisions to survive the past’s greatest threat…

Likes

First of all, what a great sense of adventure, humor and excitement is hidden in this gem of a comic! I’ve caught myself laughing out loud several times, which for a comic, is a great feat.

Second, the summaries at the beginning of each issue are great! It’s not just the fact that there are summaries (contrary to DC comics, whose refusal to add plot summaries I find greatly annoying), but they are a must read just for the way they are written! Even though a large part of the summarized stories is the same every week, Van Lente finds a way to summarize them uniquely with every issue. Plus, some of them are even humorous!

Furthermore, writer Van Lente has done a great job of incorporating just enough chunks of actual conspiracy theories and religious sectarian beliefs to grab my attention even more. For instance, I’d done some reading on Dominionism, a belief that many Christians consider to be heretical, and I recognized elements of that belief system in Archer’s family sect’s doctrines. Add to that hints of modern day theories on the Illuminati and the New World Order, and you get the idea. A job well done by Van Lente, for he’s kept it “comicy” nonetheless, by also adding his own fantasy and ideas into the mix. Suffice it to say, I ate that thing up! 🙂

…well, here’s an original take on the one percent and the financial crisis in the Euro zone! And of course there’s mention of some freemasons too 🙂

Also, although there are definitely undertones of ridiculing the Sect’s beliefs, Archer himself is portrayed as very serious, and committed to what he thinks the bible teaches – and as a Christian reader I can go along with that: for although I suspect Van Lente doesn’t necessarily agree with a Christian world view and may even view some of it as far-fetched as the Sect’s dogmas, Archer himself at least doesn’t know that his beliefs are not biblical at all. Seeing him trying his best to be as good as he believes a person should be, therefore immediately wins him the reader’s sympathy.

Another plus is the fact that although this is not a superhero comic as such, it sort of is anyway. For along the way Archer learns he has the special ability of perception, which in his case means he only has to see a certain skill practised once to be able to master it himself. And by skill, you can think for instance different fighting skills, to name the first thing that comes to mind. Now that is a special ability that comes in handy in many a dire situation! And then of course there’s Armstrong, not only big and strong, but also a 10,000 years old immortal! So yeah, there’s definitely some superheroical overtones… 😉

Last but not least: great writing overall, with lots of action advancing the plot.

Outrageous adventure, check. Humor, check.

It also has themes of friendship, loyalty, love and of course the great question: what is good and what is evil, and how can we tell them apart?

In short, I just can’t get enough of this comic and can’t wait till the next issue is out.

Dislikes

I’ve really got no big issues with this comic. There’s one remark I would make, that could only be qualified as neutral, definitely not as a negative. This pertains to the artwork: on the one hand the artists of this series do a great job of overall visual storytelling and they also convey facial expressions very well. However, on the other hand, it lacks a certain “wow factor” for me. It’s good, but not stunning. Hence the neutral.

Buy/Borrow/Skip

I give this comic a Quality score of 9/10 and a Relevance score of 9/10. So yeah, I say Buy this baby, like, instantly!

Are you reading any of the new Valiant comics? Which one(s) and what is your opinion on them? Please like, subscribe and share your thoughts here!

How to fix your iOS 7 wallpaper bug

Posted on 2013/12/26 by ComiKate

With iOS 7 came a complete makeover of the look and feel of Apple’s mobile operating system (iOS). It also came with at least one bug however, and one that annoys me to no end. After trying several solutions offered on the interwebs, I finally found one that works. Today I’m sharing my troubleshooting steps with you, so you won’t have to spend as many hours searching as I have.

The problem

On your iOS 7 device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), you set a wallpaper of your own choosing (so not one of Apple’s pre-installed ones). You find that your device zooms in without you being able to control any of it: you’re unable to pinch it smaller to fit your screen. Neither can you resize the image itself to fit the screen, for whatever you do, iOS 7 renders your image too large for your screen anyway.

Working towards a solution

You may try different steps, any one of which might work for you. I’m sure there’s more ways out there, but here’s the steps I’ve found so far.

Step 1: Disable the parallax effect

The parallax effect in iOS7 creates the illusion of a multilayered 3D background, with the wallpaper on a separate plane from text, app icons, clock, etc. When you tilt the device around, it creates an illusion of depth. Because of this effect, your wallpapers need more cushion on the sides to allow them to move freely around as you tilt your device. For some people the bug is fixed by simply turning the parallax effect off. You can go to your Settings for that: Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Reduce Motion and turn it ON.

Step 2: There’s an app for that

Disabling the parallax effect does not fix the problem for everybody, including myself. Another option could be resizing your wallpaper with an app. So far I’ve read about two that seem to work.

a. Wallax – Scale, Resize & Make your own wallpapers for iOS 7 ($0,99 / €0,79). This app claims to enable you to scale your wallpapers to fit screen with the Padded wallpaper option. If this app really works, you will have no more zoomed or misaligned wallpapers. I haven’t tried this app myself though, since I wasn’t willing to pay for what’s basically an Apple bug fix, unless I absolutely had to. So I can’t confirm this result.

b. InstaSize ($4,99 / €4,49). I haven’t tried this one myself either mind you, but I read that it did work for several people, so I thought I’d mention it anyway. It seems that you can open your picture in InstaSize and reduce the image overall. You then share it with the gallery, which saves it to the camera roll. From here you’re able to set the picture as the lock screen image. It might take a few tries to get the correct size in InstaSize, but it seems to have worked for several people. As I said, I don’t know by experience that it will, but who knows, maybe it does for you.

Step 3: Workaround

If steps 1 and 2 do nothing for you, here’s a workaround that worked for me. Go into Photo gallery > turn your iOS device to landscape mode > screenshot the now smaller picture > set as a wallpaper in portrait mode.
Not perfect for iPad, for it only really works for wallpapers in portrait mode, but still it works pretty well until the bug is fixed. For iPhone/iPod Touch however this is the workaround – since the iPhone/iPod Touch wallpapers are always in portrait orientation!

So, I hope I’ve been able to be of some help to you guys out there, at least until Apple decides to fix this bug! (if ever…)

Cheers!

Thanks to this workaround I can finally fit the wallpaper of my choice to perfectly fit my iPad’s skin!

Graphic novel: Superman Earth One (vol. 2)

Posted on 2013/08/24 by ComiKate

The graphic novel Superman Earth One (vol. 1) was published in 2010 but I only recently discovered it. Oh, how I loved it! Therefore, I was even happier to discover that DC Comics had apparently decided to publish a second volume in 2012, which meant I could get another Earth One Superman fix!

Volume 1 – cover

Superman Earth One – Volume 2 does not disappoint! I guess in great part because its creative team is the same as in Volume 1: acclaimed writer J. Michael Straczynski has teamed up once again with well-known penciller Shane Davis; the inker, colorist and letterer from Volume 1 have stayed on as well. This creates high consistency between the two volumes, both in content and artwork, which adds to a great reader experience.

Story

The story is built beautifully and carefully. We start with Clark, who is now a reporter at the Daily Planet thanks to his “interview” with Superman at the end of Volume 1. His co-worker Lois Lane doesn’t trust the new guy however. Suspecting he’s hiding something about himself, she decides to dive into his past to ferret out who he really is.

Also, we get to see Clark’s new appartment in one of Metropolis’s poorer neighbourhoods and meet his lovely neighbour Lisa Lasalle, with whom he strikes up a quick friendship that seems to hold some ‘more-than-friendship’ promise for the near future.

Entertaining banter: check!

Clark is still trying to get his bearings as Superman when he’s forced to face his first real threat: the creature Parasite, who can siphon his powers away, making them his own. In a way this forces Clark to become more human than he’s ever been, since now he suddenly has to share all the vulnerabilities humans have to face every day.

Meanwhile the army still considers Superman a security threat and is spending more and more time and resources to find a way to kill him…

Likes

For the second time Straczynski and his team have delivered a quality story. It reads like a movie, with interesting characters and conversations, exciting action and, most importantly, a reimagining of Clark Kent/Superman that speaks to the imagination and even managed to actually move me – which to me is quite a feat for a comic.

Touching? This is just the set up. The panels following it really tugged my heart strings…

Furthermore, there are definitely elements in the story that have the same feel as the 2013 movie Man of Steel – having now read both Volume 1 and 2, I have the distinct impression that the script writers for Man of Steel used significant elements from these Earth One graphic novels – which I have no evidence for at all, except that some plot elements seem to be taken almost literally from the graphic novels. Anyway, I like the idea, for I think the quality of the graphic novels is certainly high enough for a movie to be based on.

Although it is a self-contained story, Volume 2 leaves lots and lots of room for more sequels, with more adventures, more character development for the lead figures and, of course, more of Clark/Superman.
Straczynski’s rendering of the character, by the way, is actually one of the few instances in which I can’t say whom I prefer: Clark or Superman. Usually I’m interested in the one, but less so in the other (which of the two I like may vary with different writers), but Straczinsky’s characters are well-built, including both Clark Kent and Superman. So, what a treat! 😉

Add to that Davis’s outstanding artwork, with a very good grasp of facial expressions and emotion, and I’m well underway to becoming a true Superman fan after all!

Dislikes

Given that Volume 1 was an epic heroic adventure and given that this is only the second volume in what may hopefully become a very long-lasting series, I felt the villain of this story, the man-monster Parasite, somewhat lacking. True, he presented a very serious threat to Superman, but I was at best only mildly interested. The Parasite origin seemed, to me at least, a bit contrived and far-fetched (yes, even in something as far-fetched as a comic universe ;-), I still had a hard time suspending my disbelief with this particular plotline). Moreover, even though the Parasite’s past and his bond with his sister had great potential, there was hardly any complexity to him. Frankly, I found the character a more interesting villain before he became the Parasite, in the first pages of the comic, but of course we didn’t get to see much of that.

Buy/Borrow/Skip

I give this comic a Quality score of 8/10 and a Relevance score of 7/10. Although this is a little bit lower than I’d score Volume 1, which I would rate 10/10 for Quality, Volume 2 is still a definite buy, thanks to Straczinsky’s great characters and plot, and Davis’s splendid artwork. This is why I’m really excited that Straczynski will continue publishing many more Superman Earth One graphic novels (as he told MTV Geek this April, yay! 🙂 ) and can’t wait to lay my hands on Volume 3!

Superman Earth One, Vol. 2 – cover by Shane Davis

Which Superman villain is your favorite? Tell me all about it (and also: what you think of this graphic novel) in the comment section below! 🙂

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How to create website icons on iPad’s & iPhone’s homescreen

Posted on 2013/08/12 by ComiKate

There are several ways to bookmark your favorite websites in Safari on your iOS device (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch). You can simply add a bookmark to your bookmark list, or you can add it to your bookmark bar so as to have it easily accessible in Safari all the time.

The bookmark bar is a nice place to keep those faves handy

But there’s even a third way that not everyone seems to have heard of so I thought I’d share it with you here: adding bookmarks as an icon to your homescreen! This way, your most frequented websites will be just one tap away, no need for you to first open Safari, then access the bookmarks and then tap on it.
It’s always easier to learn these things by seeing them demonstrated, and fortunately I found a demo video in my grandmother ComiGran’s closet, who has been gathering iPad tips since before the War – and apparently recording them! Therefore it’s with great pride that I now present to you:

ComiGran’s Homescreen Bookmarks Demo!

(Click here if you can’t see the video below)

Now that you’ve tried that for yourself: are you going to add your favorite websites to your homescreen or do you prefer another way of bookmarking?

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Graphic novel: Ravine – high fantasy epic adventure!

Posted on 2013/08/10 by ComiKate

When I discovered artist Stjepan Sejic while browsing through his deviantart page last year, I immediately fell in love with his artwork. At the time he was working on graphic novel Ravine, together with well-known and critically acclaimed comic writer Ron Marz.

By the way, here’s a video of the artist at work, click here if you can’t see it:

As soon as – finally! – Ravine was published, I bought it, read it without taking any breaks in between and then couldn’t wait for part 2! Oh, that cliffhanger…

Anyway, as I wrote on my About page, I sometimes contribute to the Spiritblade Underground podcast, and although I didn’t write a review this time, I did record an audio version – talking as I thumbed through the graphic novel’s gorgeous pages.

So, here’s episode 268 of the Spiritblade Underground podcast – go to 5:46 minutes for my

Ravine review! (Just click on them bold words ;-))

If you like the Spiritblade Underground podcast, you can subscribe via iTunes or go to The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast Home Page. To summarize from my podcast review: I scored Ravine with 9/10 for Quality and a Relevance score of 7/10!

Here’s where the artist offers the first twenty pages or so for free: Sejic’s deviantart pages. And he’s doing the same for issue 2 and will be doing so for #3 as well! Surely that wets the appetite 🙂

Edit Febr. 2014: The second volume is now available as well!

Thank you so much for listening to my Ravine review, and of course now I’m curious: Will you check out Ravine? And if so, what scores would you give it?

Add some flavor to your gadgets – and skin them!

Posted on 2013/08/09 by ComiKate

If you like your gadgets clean, stark and simple, then by all means skip this post. But if you’re in for something different and personalized, and also, if you’re tired of your gadgets getting scratched just by looking at them, then you should consider skinning them. A skin is a special kind of sticker, made of thin yet sturdy material, that is customized to fit your particular gadget.

You can skin almost every possible gadget, and frankly it’s a bit like getting a tattoo! (…) Ok, not really I guess, but it is, in the sense that “once you’ve done one, you want to do more (and more!)”. Anyway, I’m just saying: I’ve skinned every gadget in my house that I could find a skin for.

What I like about it, is that you can completely customize the design of your skin. You can do a photograph (or a compilation you created), pictures of some nice artwork, “look-a-like” woods, metals, fabrics, abstract digital patterns, and so on and so forth; the possibilities are literally endless!

Furthermore, the material is easily removable which broadens the horizons even more, for now you can get a new one when you’ve had enough of your current one. It’s addictive that way (see remark about tattoos…); when I ran out of gadgets to skin, I decided that there was still one left: my Apple TV’s remote. Ridiculous, I know, but what can you do… I’m telling you it’s like getting a new gadget – except for a fraction of the price 🙂

My iPhone 4’s skin – with a customized wallpaper to match

Thirdly, the skin is durable and protects your gadgets against scratches. This is the material they use in the car industry, so you do the math. I’ve had the above skin for two years, then I got a new iPhone – and was sad to see my beloved skin go. After all its use, it still hadn’t worn out!

Last but not least, I particularly like that a skin keeps your gadgets own design intact. The beautiful thin design of your new smartphone or tablet is not hidden like when you use a case or a bumper. You’ve just added color and your own personal style to it, how cool is that!

The only downside is that a skin of course does not offer the same kind of protection that a case does. To me that is in no way a deal breaker however: I simply bought some nicely fitting sleeves for my mobile gadgets and keep them in my handbag whenever needed. Done.

Being the comic geek that I am, I of course skin my gadgets with comics :-). Like my little iPod Nano here, and my first iPad.

iPod Nano – Green Lantern New Guardians. You’ll notice that I’ve used scenes with a lot of pink, since my cute little Nano is pink as well! 🙂

Green Lantern Hal Jordan visits Odym, the Blue Lantern home world. I just love those colors on my iPad!

The aforementioned Apple TV remote sports a scene from Fathom (Aspen Comics), click here if you can’t see the video below.

Here’s my iPhone 4S – all dressed up in Red Hood and the Outlaws:

Sticker sheet with my iPad’s second skin – when I got tired of the first one… (scene is from Grimm Fairy Tales’s Escape from Wonderland)

And finally, my Macbook Air proudly rocks DC’s New 52 Justice League! (I still like to stare at that thing a little while every time I use it :-)).

Skinning your gadget is very simple, although at first it may take you a couple of minutes extra just to get it right. But once you get the hang of it, it’s “Go, and Skin your Gadgets!” For instance, it took me only about 15 minutes to skin my entire Macbook Air, top, bottom and keyboard. I’ve made a little How to video for your convenience so you can see how simple it is!

Guess now all I have to do is wait for the availabity of skinning a television! 🙂 🙂

Total Must-See: Pacific Rim

Posted on 2013/08/08 by ComiKate

This review is also available as an audio review for the Spiritblade Underground Podcast; you can play the video below (it’s just audio however) or listen to the Spiritblade Underground Podcast, episode 277; just click the link, you’ll find my review at 2:43 minutes.
The written review has some extras however that the audio review doesn’t have, like specific links to source material, several illustrations, and two panels from the graphic novel prequel!

Review

Purely based on the title I wouldn’t have picked out this movie from the long list of movies in our local theatre. I mean, to my knowledge Pacific Rim wasn’t any particular idiom or expression, nor a well-known location. But as soon as I saw the movie trailer in the theatre, I think it was during Star Trek Into Darkness or maybe Man of Steel, I immediately knew I just had to see this movie!

Director Guillermo del Toro turns out to have been a fan of Japanese anime from his childhood. In a recent interview with Simon Mayo of Kermode & Mayo’s Film Reviews on BBC Radio 5 Live (you can check out their podcast here or in iTunes), Del Toro recounted his love for the mecha and kaiju creatures that often fill the anime worlds. In very general terms, mecha is the Japanese word for basically any creature or vehicle that is robotic, which in anime are often huge, and by huge I mean really ginormously large. Think Transformers or the gigantic Tripods in War of the Worlds – which by the way, also a GREAT movie, with Tom Cruise. Go find some time and see that one too!

War of the Worlds – one of the enormous Tripods that would be considered a “mecha” in Japanese anime

The mecha’s organic counterparts in anime are called kaiju – giant creatures, sometimes reptilian, sometimes amphibian or even deepsea fish, but basically any superlarge man-threatening creature. Think Godzilla and modernize him with 21^st century special effects. You catch my drift.

Story

One day, not so far into the future, a giant monster emerges from the depths of the ocean. Think 25 stories high “large” (according to director Del Toro). It takes some effort but the people from earth manage to kill the beast, using current weaponry like tanks and fighter jets to shoot it down with missiles. Worldwide people celebrate their victory over this primal threat, and move on. To everyone’s great shock however, new monsters appear a couple of years later. Time to develop some new weaponry to fight these Kaiju: through worldwide technical and strategical collaboration the people of earth develop gigantic robots, a kind of mobile weapons of mass destruction which from then on are called Jaegers (after the German word “Jäger” which means hunter).

They are so large and so complex that the neurological stress would be too big for only one pilot to bear, which is why they have to be manned by two people: one for the left brain hemisphere, one for the right hemisphere. To accomplish this there has to be a neurological connection not only with the robot, but also between the two pilots, and this connection is called the Drift.

Drifting is necessary since the pilots will have to think, move and act in perfect unison – just like the two hemispheres of one human or animal brain control one body. This is why every pilot cannot be matched to just any other pilot: to be able to literally share eachother’s mind, instincts, memories and secrets there has to be a deep fundamental trust between the pilots in order for the neurological connection to hold, especially in combat situations. In other words, they have to be “drift compatible.”

Or, as the recent graphic novel prequel Pacific Rim, Tales from Year Zero puts it, love is the key:

For a while the Jaeger programme is very successful: every Kaiju that emerges is eventually killed. So governments start feeling comfortable again and the international community decide to prioritize differently: the Jaeger programme is considered too expensive, so let’s dismantle all Jaegers and build giant walls along densely populated coastal areas instead, surely they will be more than sufficient to keep potential future Kaiju at bay. (…ehh, say what?)

As the next Kaiju emerges and breaks through the first of these coastal Walls (duh), the governments realize their mistake. But it’s too late: prognoses indicate that more and more Kaiju will soon appear and now humanity’s only hope are the last four Jaegers, piloted by a small group of people who have kept resisting the new Wall-policy and kept maintaining these four giant battle mechs as best as they could with the limited resources they had. Now the task falls upon them to close the interdimensional access point between the world of the Kaiju and Earth: a rift deep in the Pacific Ocean. Due to some extra vehement Kaiju-Jaeger battles only two functional Jaegers are left when the mission starts and the remaining four pilots embark on a suicide mission in a race against the clock.

Likes

Despite the rather two-dimensional plot – very big robots fight very big monsters – Del Toro has delivered a movie that captivates from beginning to end. This is largely thanks to the characters: the surroundings may be enormously grand, the interactions between the main characters are still close-up, intimate, focussing on matters of the heart just as much as the head. As a viewer I was swooped up by the story from the beginning and right to the end I cared enough for each of the main characters that I wanted to know what happened to them, and rooted for them to beat the near-impossible odds. I consider this quite a feat by Del Toro, considering the total mayhem, the tumultuous chaos, the deafening sounds of fighting monsters and mechs, and the destruction of cities that keeps you on the edge of your seat for large portions of the movie.

Furthermore, the special effects are magnificent, from the cool hightech computer interfaces with which the Jaegers are piloted, to the enormous but yet very detailed Kaiju’s and Jaegers, each and everyone of which has a unique design.

“…both would be a very modest 25 stories high…” Guillermo del Toro on the stature of both Kaiju and Jaegers, during his BBC interview.

More importantly, I’m very happy that Del Toro paid enough attention to building his characters and their relationships: he takes time to show us how a newby pilot is trained, what it’s like to enter the neurological connection for the first time and why it’s so important for entering this “Drift” to have a stabile mind. And he adds some humor to the mix through the sidekicks: two bickering scientists who work for the Jaeger resistance.

Last but not least, the joining of minds in the Jaeger could trigger a number of relevant conversational topics, like What is trust? What is intimacy? What is friendship? and, furthermore, a question that will probably resonate with Christians in particular:

What does it mean to be truly one with Another (and do you have the nerves for it?). After all, it was one of Jesus’s most well-known prayers for His followers to be “one”:
“I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by the power of Your name – the name You gave me – so that they may be one as We are one.” (John 17:11, NIV)

Although I doubt that Del Toro had that bible verse in mind, he nevertheless touches upon these themes, without claiming to have the definitive answers – nor does he go “soft” on you, but instead he manages to have these underlying themes both fascinate the viewer and add to the movie’s action.

Dislikes

Ehh… Yeah. Can’t think of any. Maybe if I tried again……
Sorry, no.

Score

Quality: 10!
Relevance: 8

Which makes this movie is a total Must See, and also a strong contender for my personal Movie Top 3 for this year!

Also check out my review of the graphic novel, it’s 52 pages of very good backstory!

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Restoring your Apple TV (when its white light is flashing)

Posted on 2013/08/02 by ComiKate

I’ve been a very happy Apple customer for a couple of years now, their adagium “everything just works” is holding with very few instances that it does not “just work”. One of the biggest exceptions however is my 2nd gen Apple TV. I bought the thing shortly after it came out, so I’m guessing it’s about two years old now, and the first year everything was fine and good. After one of Apple’s many Apple TV software updates however, my troubles started and although I can’t say they’re completely over now, I was able to manage somewhat of a mutual cease fire agreement with it so I can still watch my stuff.

That took a lot of troubleshooting and many (many!) hours of searching the web, which is why I thought I’d share this with you all, so you won’t have to, hoping that you’ll be able to handle your Apple TV’s bugs far more quickly after reading this article.

Most of the workarounds below are not of my own devising; I did however, for mine and now your convenience, make a summary of everything I’ve read and tried out, to figure out the most relevant steps and put them in the order that worked for me.

Again, I have a 2nd generation Apple TV, so these steps are primarily aimed at 2nd gen devices. They probably won’t work for 1st gen devices and I’m not sure about 3rd gens either but you could try since Apple TV 2 and 3 have much in common.

So here we go.

Symptoms

Apple TV 2 is not working, doesn’t seem to connect with your TV and/or your computer’s content (black TV screen). Its little white light is flashing once or twice per second.

Working towards a solution

Step 1. The first thing to try is: take your Apple TV’s remote control and press both your menu button and the down arrow, holding them simultaneously for approx. 5-10 seconds until the white light starts flashing rapidly. Normally this would restart your Apple TV. If you’re lucky, this will do the trick for you and you can enjoy your content once again. Done!

Step 2. If step 1 does nothing for you, or if your Apple TV tells you to “Connect to iTunes”, then try the following:

disconnect all cables from your Apple TV, including the power cord
connect your Apple TV to iTunes on your computer with a micro USB cable. After that, connect the power cord as well. If you’re wondering if you even have a micro USB you can check out the image below. Perhaps you have some other gadget that uses these, like your smartphone (not an iPhone), a Kindle, an MP3 player, etc. Otherwise you’ll have to buy one. They’re not expensive. Here’s a picture:
your Apple TV will now show up in iTunes. Select your Apple TV in the source list and click Restore. Wait until it’s done; this may take a while since it’s not only resetting to factory settings but iTunes will also download and install the latest software version. Ready? Then done! Now you can hook up your Apple TV to your TV again and go have fun.

Step 3. If step 2 didn’t work because your Apple TV didn’t show up in iTunes at all, try the following:

Disconnect the HDMI, power and USB cable
Wait for 10 seconds
Reconnect the USB cable
Immediately hold the menu and play buttons on the remote for 15 seconds
Apple TV 2 should now start flashing the LED wildly and appear in iTunes with the restore button.

If it still doesn’t show up, maybe it’s your mini USB cable (even if it works just fine with other devices). Sometimes you need to wiggle the USB plug or put a little weight on it in order to have a reliable connection. Or just try another cable if you have one, sometimes that helps too.

If that still doesn’t work, try the above but add the power cord after the third bullit (and before the 4th).

Step 4. Sometimes step 2 doesn’t work and iTunes tells you the restore has failed because “an unknown error occurred” and then some number, like 1602, 1611, 2006 or 2009. I mostly got 1602, but I know other people have gotten the other ones as well.

Now it’s getting tricky for I’ve read a number of possible solutions by different people, depending on their respective situations I guess. The one that worked for me was:

First, try to restore again, taking the above steps; sometimes this really helps
If it doesn’t and the error message in iTunes keeps persisting, then ignore the error message and hook your Apple TV back up to your TV anyway. In my case, nine out of ten times the Apple TV had been restored after all, in spite of the error message in iTunes!

Other solutions might be (I haven’t tried these because the above worked for me, but other people have):

Try a different mini USB cable
Try holding your mini USB absolutely stock still during the entire restore process (this will take several minutes, so just hang in there)
Reboot your computer
All of the above

Now what?

So, what if this restore thing is working for you now, but the blinking white light just keeps returning? Will you have to keep restoring it like every month or so?

There was a period that I literally had to go through that every week, and it seriously bummed me out. Still, I wasn’t ready to buy a new one yet, since I’d only had the thing for a little over a year, I mean, come on!

So I kept on digging a little deeper. After much searching and reading I concluded that it somehow had something to do with my Apple TV’s communication with my router. The experiences I was having confirmed this: the blinking white light usually happened either when the Apple TV was waking up from sleep, or when it had been restarted after for instance, a software update (did I mention there’s quite a lot of those?).

So I thought: you know what, my router is like 5-6 years old anyway, I’ll buy a new router – and I did: I got an Apple Airport Extreme. That definitely sped things up for my other devices, but in the end it didn’t do away with my Apple TV troubles.

Then I remembered another tip I read about from a very technical person: if you didn’t want to go through all their very technical steps (including completely reprogramming your router etc.), you could simply leave your Apple TV on all the time!

So simple it’s actually brilliant. It has turned out to be the single most useful tip in all of my troubled time with my danged Apple TV! I went into its settings menu, turned off its automatic slumber mode and refused all software updates from then on so as to avoid the mandatory restarts.

From that moment on my Apple TV 2 has never stopped working. No more flashing white lights! 🙂 🙂

So yeeeeaaaaah! I’ve been a happy Apple user ever since. Even including my li’l ol’ Apple TV.

Micro USB port

So, do you have an Apple TV, and if so, what are your experiences?

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Batman Night of the Owls reading order

Posted on 2013/08/01 by ComiKate

Although I love a good comics event once in a while, I’ve found that it’s not always easy to dive into them simply by reading the first issue and then keeping up with all tie-ins by sticking to their order of publishing. First of all because many times multiple tie-in issues are published on the same day so you would have to figure out at least their reading order, and second, because the storylines within the different tie-ins aren’t always published in chronological order, or in any kind of logical order.

I guess this is why there is no “final definitive list” for most events, at least, not officially. So what I tend to do is pick one suggested reading order, for instance the publishing order list, start reading accordingly, and then note down every list placing that seems off in order to try and find a more fitting placing.

I have only one condition that I place on myself: I’m not willing to spend hours or days on the compiling of said lists, as I’m sure other, more dedicated comics readers than I, have done. And I salute them. But I just want to get on with my reading, with a general “Hop to it!” attitude. Therefore, internal clues or references to other issues within the tie-ins themselves as well as the logical order of content are the two main criteria that I tend to apply most.

So, here’s the results of such a reading list that I compiled in the above manner. The event is DC Comics Batman: Night of the Owls. It was published in 2012 – it’s been only a little while and I think it could be still very useful. Especially if you’ve just started reading the New 52 Batman.

Enjoy!

The build-up:

Batman series from #1
Nightwing series from #1

Prologue:

Catwoman #8 (has nothing to do with the event yet, except it ends with Owls preparing for their Night)
Batman #7

The Night of the Owls:

Batman #8
DC One shot “Night of the Owls”
Batwing #9 (can be read on its own, but I put it relatively early on the list because chronologically Batwing has one of the first actual confrontations with Owls)
Red Hood and the Outlaws #8
Nightwing #8
Nightwing #9
Batman and Robin #9
Batgirl #9
Batman #9
Detective Comics #9
Red Hood and the Outlaws #9
Birds of Prey #9
The Dark Knight #9
Batman Annual #1
Catwoman #9 (I put this one last because it is placed last in event time)

Epilogue:

Batman #10
Batman #11 (Finale)

Most of the above issues are collected in a cool trade paperback.

Night of the Owls TPB

Officially All Star Western #9 is counted as a tie-in as well, and it has the event banner, but my advice to other readers is to skip this one entirely, unless of course you’re already reading this entire series. As a stand alone Night of the Owls tie-in it does not make any sense at all, except it sports some Talons – apparently to demonstrate that the Owls and their Talons have been living secretly in Gotham City for hundreds of years. Well, whatever, good for them. As if we hadn’t read about this same piece of Gotham history already in the Batman en Nightwing titles!
So content-wise All Star Western #9 doesn’t add anything of importance at all, and to make matters worse, it caused bewilderment (“Wait, why am I supposed to be reading this?!”), soon followed by the annoyment caused by the anti-climactic nature of this issue in relation to the thrilling story of the rest of the event issues.
Therefore, unless you’re an All Star Western reader: please, do yourself a favour and skip this issue!

Overall I thought Night of the Owls was an exciting story, with just enough suggested reality that you could believe such things might, perhaps, exist in our real world – that is, if you’re enough of a conspiracy theorist to not dismiss the concept of secret societies. Anyway, the plot grabbed me from start to finish and I like how writer Scott Snyder took his time and built his (rebooted) Batman story towards this crossover event during the first seven issues.

Night of the Owls booklet. Cover art by David Finch, Richard Friend and Jerome Cox

PS: The above cover art of the separate booklet Night of the Owls is the same as The Dark Knight’s #9. I haven’t been able to find any reason at all for Red Robin (Tim Drake) starring prominently on these covers. He seems to be in some important hand-to-hand combat with a Talon, whereas in reality he hardly shows up in the entire event at all! Let alone fighting and winning important battles.

And I have proof! There are only two issues he’s in (sort of):

1. As a word balloon (left), during a conversation with Jason Todd (right) in Red Hood & the Outlaws #8

Ok, after that there’s a couple of more pages with Tim in it, but I don’t count those as “Night of the Owls attendance” because they concern a memory flashback by Jason, thinking about a meeting with Tim two months before the Night of the Owls.

2. Tim appears as sort of an extra behind leading actor Batman in The Dark Knight #9, without any action or even suggested action: the Talon has escaped and none of the Robins can find him. So he’s just… hanging there, shall we say.

So, with only one word balloon and one rather silly panel without words, it’s difficult to suggest that Tim Drake a.k.a. Red Robin plays an important part in the Night of the Owls, Q.E.D. – hardly worth a cool combat scene on not one but two covers, I should think.

Anyway, enjoy your own Night of the Owls! And when you’re done: do you agree with my reading order? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comment section!

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Game review: Awakening 1+2: The Dreamless Castle & Moonfell Wood

Posted on 2013/08/01 by ComiKate

The following review was posted on Christian Geek Central (CGC) some time ago and since I’ve only just started this blog I feel it really belongs here as well! (so there).

It is also available as an audio review by the way, since I sometimes contribute to the Spiritblade Underground podcast, which is part of the same CGC community. It is aimed at christian geeks, for them to both examine and celebrate their lives and the hobbies they enjoy from a Biblical perspective. Feel free to check out episode 230 of the Spiritblade Underground podcast – go to 3:47 minutes for my Awakening 1 & 2 review! ;-))

For those of you who’d rather read, here’s its written counterpart, enjoy!

Game review

The Dreamless Castle & Moonfell Wood are the first and second parts of the now four-part Awakening series, by Big Fish Games.

The Awakening series belongs to the Hidden Object game genre, which means that at least part of your time is spent looking for, you guessed it, hidden objects. Other recurring elements are puzzles and searching beautiful locations for certain clues. In this type of game there is no time constraint, you cannot die, nor is there a multi player mode. Instead, it is all about a fun, relaxed entertainment experience.

In short, the target audience is probably more of a casual gamer, or gamers who cannot or will not spend days and days immersed in one game and like to finish what they start in one afternoon or evening. Also, gamers who don’t want to spend a lot of money, or gamers who like to play lots of different games, or simply don’t know how RPGs, MMOs and first person shooters work and don’t care (or dare) to learn.

Within the Hidden Object game genre, Awakening can be considered a hidden object adventure.

In the first part of the series, The Dreamless Castle, you are Sophia, a young woman who wakes up after a long, long sleep to find herself alone inside a castle in a world devoid of people. With the help of clues, mysteriously hidden objects and an occasional goblin she has to find her way out of the castle.

Although the game clearly references the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, it does not follow that plot in any way. Yes, there is a sleeping beauty at the very beginning, but she wakes up, and not because some knight in shining armor came to give her a kiss of life! In that sense I guess The Dreamless Castle could be considered “an alternative ending” to the traditional fairytale, which I have to say has been done very well and has kept me interested throughout the game.

Part two, Moonfell Wood, is a separate game, that starts where The Dreamless Castle left off: you are still the very resourceful Sophia, you have just escaped the castle and you are now about to embark on a new adventure: finding your way through the mysterious Moonfell Wood.

Although the plot of The Dreamless Castle is interesting in itself, Moonfell Wood is even better, in that it felt more integrated and more consistent. The story is more elaborate, the puzzles are more interesting, and the game lets you travel from night time to day time (and back to night time again) in cleverly unexpected ways. Both The Dreamless Castle and Moonfell Wood contain elements that may be interesting for (at least some) geeks, like fairies, goblins, mythological creatures and magic, and of course the implicit occasional reference to Sleeping Beauty. The scenery is beautiful enough, the problems interesting to solve and the music is fitting for a fairytale – dreamy and mysterious.

Of course the hidden object game graphics are generally nowhere near as sophisticated as RPGs and shooters for PC, Xbox, Playstation or some such – but then again, this is reflected in their price points: the average hidden object game costs 10-15 dollars at the very most; lots of them are even below the 10 dollar price point.

Most games are available both for Mac/PC, iPad and iPhone.

I’ve played several hidden object games myself, and to me the Awakening series belongs to the better ones in spite of the occasional too simple puzzle; mostly based on plot, graphics and general atmosphere.

It took me about 4 hours to finish The Dreamless Castle, and about 6 hours for Moonfell Wood.

If you want to try any of them out, you can go to several game websites and try the first hour of each game for free. I do most of my game shopping at Big Fish Games – I just like the ease with which I can find my way around their website. Furthermore, I have never had to pay the full price for any of their games because of their many special offers, so if you’re willing to bide your time and wait for the right moment, you could save some money and get a game for 5-7 dollars and first time big fish gamers can get their first game for just under 3 bucks! But, don’t take it from me, make sure to check out several other websites as well before you stick to one of them.

Review score

I give both games together a quality score of 8 and a relevance score of 7 – because of the mythological creatures, and also because it could be argued that there is a very subtle messianic symbolism present throughout the story, in the form of Sophia, who is the only non-magical (“sinless”?) creature in the game and is considered the long-awaited “saviour” by every magical creature in the realm, born to expell the darkness and bring the light.

How about you? Do you like hidden object games? And if so, which ones do you enjoy the most?

Dreamless castle – click for the free 1-hour trial! (no affiliate link)

Moonfell Wood – click for the free 1-hour trial! (no affiliate link)

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New 52: Wonder Woman’s first year

Posted on 2013/08/01 by ComiKate

This is a review of one of DC’s New 52 comics that I don’t hear very much about – it’s a pity if you don’t try it out just because you’ve never heard people talk about it. Fair warning though, my review contains some mild spoilers, since its main point is to encourage you to start reading it from issue 0 (followed by #13, don’t ask but this is DC’s new numbering) – that is why I will summarize the main story of the first twelve issues for you so that you don’t have to buy and read them all yourself. I will then share some likes and dislikes, tell you whether you should buy, borrow or ignore this comic, and finally, give you my quality and relevance scores.

This review is also available as a podcast contribution to Spiritblade Underground podcast, an interesting podcast aimed at christian geeks, available through iTunes or go to The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast Home Page.
Click HERE for my Wonder Woman audio review on episode 247 of this podcast, go to 2:24 minutes.

Review

Wonder Woman has a certain nostalgic meaning to me: when I was seven years old I lived in the US for about eight months because my parents had to be there because of my father’s job. It was 1978, and Wonder Woman was one of the popular tv series of the time, with Lynda Carter playing the role of Wonder Woman. While we may not have heard very much about Lynda’s career lately, she has recently done some voice acting for several parts of the popular game series The Elder Scrolls, with Skyrim as their most recent hit.

Being from the Netherlands I didn’t know Wonder Woman at all – we didn’t have any superhero tv series in the Netherlands back then. Nor now, for that matter. But from the moment I saw her on tv in our family apartment in El Paso, Texas, she touched something in my very soul: the part that wants to be both a princess, and a warrior and a superheroine!

Lynda Carter was and will always be the one and only Wonder Woman for me 🙂 – And you can still get the complete original series on DVD, yea!

I think that these precious childhood memories have stopped me from reading Wonder Woman as a comic up until very recently. On the one hand because I couldn’t imagine how a Wonder Woman comic could be a great read – I mean, she was like Superman in that she was invincible and practically invulnerable, which – frankly – sounded rather dull. And on the other hand I really didn’t want to spoil the nostalgia of that old tv series from my early childhood by reading a comics version of her that was no doubt way more modern.

However, since I started my blog I felt I couldn’t leave out one of the DC Trinity, you know, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. So, with some apprehension I decided to read the entire first year of the New 52 Wonder Woman after all, issues 1-12.

And lo and behold, this series managed to very pleasantly surprise me. The first twelve issues of this series consist of one big story arc, has a very interesting story concept and its artwork, though taking a little getting used to, is frankly nothing less than very beautiful. Perhaps most importantly, it’s truly written very well – something I find can really not be said about every comic.

Story

We meet Wonder Woman as Diana, princess of Paradise Island, an island populated only by women. These women still live like in Roman times – though not very ladylike: instead they are amazones, female warriors that train for battle like gladiators.

Their queen is Hippolyta, Wonder Woman’s mother. Or rather, adoptive mother for legend has it that Hippolyta was barren and one day formed a baby out of clay. She then prayed to the Greek gods, fell asleep and woke up to find her clay baby transformed into a little baby girl, who she called Diana and raised as her daughter.

Despite all of the amazones, the story does take place in our own time. Wonder Woman takes on the task of protecting a young woman, called Zola, who is pregnant by Zeus, the supreme god of the Greek pantheon. This is why Zeus’s jealous wife Hera threatens to kill Zola and sends supernatural assassins to hunt the girl down.

Wonder Woman and Zola are assisted by messenger god Hermes and find an extra enemy in the goddess Strife, daughter of Zeus and Hera, and sister to the god of war, Ares.

Zeus himself remains mysteriously absent during the entire run of the first twelve issues, with no-one knowing where he is. His absence kindles ambitions in several of his divine children and it doesn’t take long for gods Apollo and Artemis to hunt for Zola. They intend to deliver her and her unborn child to Hera. This way Apollo intends to buy Hera’s allegiance, his ultimate goal being his father Zeus’s throne.

When Wonder Woman strikes a deal with Zeus’s brothers Poseidon and Hades, the deal goes South and it takes everything she’s got to not only keep pregnant Zola alive but also to simply survive herself.

And as if she hasn’t got enough on her mind already, Wonder Woman also has to deal with the discovery that the legend surrounding her own origin is not exactly true – and turns out to be quite a bit less romantic than she thought.

Likes

I’ve always loved Greek mythology ever since I was about 13 years old, so I was not exactly thrilled when I found out that this comic sported all kinds of Greek gods, fearing the writer would concoct a story that would not be consistent with Greek mythology. However, the original way in which writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chiang modernize the Greek pantheon enough to transport it to our modern day society is actually quite believable – after you suspend your disbelief of course. 😉 In fact, they manage to pull this off so greatly that they really won me over to this comic!

Almost every god in the story has characteristics of both ancient mythological times and our modern day era. For instance, Apollo’s black metallic skin makes him look truly as a being not from this world, while at the same time he wears high fashion 3-piece suits.

Hades, while still being king of the ancient underworld, looks like he’s been designed by a painter of the modern arts, and Hermes, while looking like some kind of bird-human hybrid wears very hip outfits that would almost let him blend in with young adults. Almost.

Is it a bird, is it a plane…?! No, it’s…… Hermes…?

Best of all, Eros, the god of love we also know as Cupid, still shoots at people’s hearts to make them fall in love, only this time he doesn’t use his famous bow and arrow, but a couple of slick guns that have the same effect.

I really recommend Artist Chiang for the way he draws the goddess Strife, who looks particularly cool with her shaved head, heavy make-up and fashionable mini-dress – I don’t know whether it’s punk or high fashion, but it’s an original nowadays rendering of what’s supposed to be an ancient goddess.

Of course Wonder Woman herself shows that same combination of ancient and modern times: when “on the job” she looks the amazon we know and love, sometimes even carrying a sword and shield, but in her spare time she dresses like any modern day woman and lives in an apartment in 21st century London.

But enough about the gods. Like I said before, the story is well-written and often reminded me of tv series that I like to watch. An example of this would be the dialogues between the several rivalling gods, full of layers and hidden agendas, which could be taken from scripts of series like Boss (which is an awesome series btw!).

Hera and her rebellious daughter cross verbal swords

Another instance is the way in which Hera transforms ordinary farm horses into aggressive centaurs – this definitely contains horror elements and seems straight from a particularly bloody episode of the X-files or something.

And then there’s the action scenes! Wonder Woman battles everyone she needs to, including some gods. The immense fishlike creature that emerged from the Thames and turned out to be Poseidon (god of the sea) reminded me of the incident in London a couple of years ago, when an actual whale wound up in the Thames. So maybe, with this scene in Wonder Woman, the writer and artist are giving us a wink here – especially since the “original” Poseidon in mythology was usually portrayed more humanoid, and definitely not as the monstrous fish that artist Chiang created.

Thirdly, I really got to like the artwork although it took me a little while to get used to Chiang’s somewhat stylized way of drawing the human form. His cityscapes are gorgeous and together with colorist Matthew Wilson he succeeds in adding specific atmospheres that contribute to the storylines in the comic.

Furthermore, I liked the subtle humor in the story, like the way in which one of Wonder Woman’s brothers in arms consistently tries to light a cigaret by holding them against gods that either contain or work with fire. It may sound a bit strange when I describe it, but the humor is in the art itself.

And last but not least, I appreciated the fact that gods in the comic are not immediately mentioned by name, so that readers have a couple of panels to figure out for themselves which god this is. For instance, when a certain god says “I’m the sun of a king” this is clearly a hint for the reader – for it is only the reader who can see that he is referring to the sun as in “star”, instead of son as in “male child”, thereby enabling the reader to figure out that this is in fact the god of the sun, Apollo – who is of course also the son of Zeus, the king of the gods. Oh well, perhaps most of you are bored to tears by these things, but to mythology geeks like me these kinds of hints are totally awesome.

Dislikes

Frankly, I couldn’t really find many negative things to say about this comic – and not for lack of trying. I only have two real criticisms.

To begin with, like in most other New 52’s there was a change in the artwork team somewhere along the way, for a couple of issues. I can not get used to this, however much I may understand deadlines and that artists need their time off as well, etc. I always immediately notice, probably because they always seem to choose fill-in artists that have totally different styles from the original artist. I cannot begin to understand why they don’t even try to find someone who does a serious attempt at keeping the artwork at least somewhat consistent. Fortunately it only lasted for a couple of issues and I sighed with relief when Chiang returned.

And secondly, on a related note, Chiang’s coverart does not do much for me. His human forms are even more stylized and the backgrounds are either boring or ugly. And I really dislike the color schemes. Sorry, hating the cover art. Of course other opinions are available.

So, should you Buy/Borrow/Ignore this comic?

This is a definite buy! Yes, it is, just try it.

Rating

I give Wonder Woman’s first year a quality score of 8/10 and a relevance score of 7/10 – since all this mythology should have some potential to lead to meaningful conversation, for instance about the existence of gods in this day and age – and their true nature.

So, are you going to try out the New 52 Wonder Woman?

Intro: Where no one has gone before

Posted on 2013/08/01 by ComiKate

Hello and welcome!

Great that you found my little outpost in the vast blogosphere here.

This blog is primarily about opinions, tips and user experiences, concerning the topics in the subtitle of this blog. So I guess you could call it kind of a geeky blog. 😉

I may not be a professional blogger or even writer, but I am a comicgeek and gadgetfreak who wants to consume quality content. And since there are not very massive numbers of geeks that are also christian, and among them even fewer women, I’m hoping to contribute my own unique little starlet to these geeky-christian universe.
Also, check out my About page.

So to me it resonates a bit with “To Boldly Go….”

Anyway, when you’re ready:

“Engage!”

http://www.startrekdesktopwallpaper.com

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