100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die

100 Things X-Men Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the latest installment in Triumph Books' "100 Things...Fans Should Know" series, which, as the name suggests, catalogs the must-see, must-do, and must-know things for fans of assorted comic books, TV shows, bands and sports teams. With this volume, author Brian Cronin (the man behind the long-running "Comic Book Legends Revealed" articles for Comic Book Resources' "Comics Should be Good!" blog, as well as two previous books of comic book legends) provides new and long-time fans alike a one-volume guide to Marvel's Merry Mutants, highlighting important characters, creators, stories and issues from the fifty-five year history of the X-Men. While the format breaks each entry into a single numbered item, and each chapter is presented in a seemingly-random order (ie it doesn't start in the 60s and end in the present day), the book is an engaging read, as Cronin crafts a narrative history of the X-Men even as he jumps from character info to creator info, from behind-the-scenes stories about crafting specific issues to entries on the various films,  preventing the book from reading like a dry recitation of facts in chronological order.

Force in Focus: Shadows of the Empire

This week marks the 20th anniversary of Shadows of the Empire, LucasFilm's ambitious 1996 multimedia Star Wars project. The general idea behind it was to tell an official story set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (storytelling ground that had been relatively untrod even in '96), with all the by-then usual trappings of a movie release: a tie-in novel, comic book series, soundtrack, video game and action figure line. The catch being, there was no movie, and the story was all told through the tie-ins themselves (though chiefly through the novel).

It was a reasonably clever idea (at one point, LucasFilm even cut together a trailer for the "film", using pre-existing footage, and showed it at a few conventions, before eventually pulling it for fear that fans would get confused and expect a movie), one which showcased the growing multimedia might of the Star Wars brand in the mid-90s and helped stoke interest in the franchise ahead of the 1997 Special Editions and The Phantom Menace in 1999. The Silver Age of Star Wars had begun in 1991 with the release of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, reviving interest in the brand after the franchise had more or less gone dark in the late 80s. That renewed interest eventually led to subsequent novels, a new comic book universe via Dark Horse, and a revamped action figure line from Kenner. Shadows of the Empire, then, could be viewed as the zenith of this brief era in Star Wars history, when the franchise was becoming more and more popular despite the lack of any new stories being told via film.

The Best There Is At What He Does: The Jason Powell Interview

Jason Powell, whom some of you know from his comments on my X-Men posts here, but many more of you likely know from his own series of articles reviewing every issue of Chris Claremont's X-Men over at Remarkable, has written a book about Claremont's X-Men writing, The Best There Is At What He Does, which is now available for purchase. 

I had the occasion to sit down with Jason (ie we exchanged some emails) to interview him about the book, what it's about, how it came about, etc., as well as get some thoughts from him on his favorite Claremont characters and collaborators. Check it out, but also, you know, go buy his book! 

Force in Focus: Splinter of the Mind's Eye

Published in 1978, not long after the initial release of Star Wars, Splinter of the Mind's Eye is the first full-length original Star Wars novel to be published after the movie, making it retroactively the first book in what would later be dubbed the Expanded Universe. It features Luke and Leia, and details their adventures on the swampy planet of Mimban, where they crash land en route to recruiting a different world to join the Rebellion. On Mimban, they run afoul of a secret Imperial mining operation but end up befriending a group of natives. As the natives battle the Imperials, Luke and Leia race Darth Vader to a nearby temple containing the Force-amplifying Kaiburr Crystal (the titular Mind's Eye), where the pair duel the dark lord, ultimately defeating him and living to fight another day.

The novel is written by Alan Dean Foster, who ghost wrote the Star Wars novelization (which was published with George Lucas as the author). His contract was a two book deal, with Splinter representing the second book, and was conceived to be used as the basis for a low budget sequel to Star Wars should the movie flop. Those circumstances explain some of the choices Foster made in the narrative: it takes place entirely on one planet (making it cheaper to film), events on said planet take place entirely indoors or in a misty jungle (cheaper to film) and the story involves only Luke, Leia and the droids (because Harrison Ford wasn't under contract for all three original films, thus not guaranteeing his return for a sequel). Aside from the general edict of "make it filmable as a cheap sequel", Foster was more or less given free reign to develop the story as he saw fit; according to Foster, the only specific request Lucas made upon reading the manuscript was the removal of an opening space dogfight that led to Luke and Leia crashing on Mimban, as a space battle would have been too expensive to film (instead, they crash due to an equipment malfunction).

Assassin's Heart

As those of you follow me on social media are probably well aware by now, February 2nd sees the release of my good buddy Sarah's debut novel, Assassin's Heart. Long time blog readers may know Sarah as Falen, who comments here occasionally, when she's not busy being awesome on her own blog and, you know, publishing excellent books.

You can read the official plot synopsis of the book on it's Amazon page, where the book is compared favorably to Game of Thrones, Romeo & Juliet, and The Godfather (which are apt, and impressive, comparisons). I've read the book in a couple different drafts (though not yet in its official, published version), and while the plot synopsis is spot-on, it doesn't speak to two of the most impressive things Sarah does in the novel. For one, her world-building is impeccable, as she crafts a believable universe for her to characters, one where assassination isn't just legal, but revered. She put a lot of thought into every detail of her universe, from the strata of assassin families and their relationships to one another, to the differences and similarities between the various fictional city-states and how religion shapes their societies, right down to the types of clothes worn and weapons used by the characters. The world of Assassin's Heart at once feels both familiar but unique, lived-in but refreshingly-new.

Secondly, in Lea, Sarah presents a remarkably compelling protagonist, someone who, despite her role as a professional killer, is ridiculously easy to root for. Lea is far from perfect, but her foibles and failures will only make you root for her more, to hurt when she hurts and cheer when she cheers (and there's more than one fist-pumping, cheer-worthy moment in this book). Lea is not an invincible superwoman, which makes her competency all the more compelling, her catastrophes all the more crushing. The world of Assassin's Heart is not a fun, friendly place, but by the time the book is done, you'll want to live in it, if only to give Lea a hug, to clap her on the back, to simply hang out with her, and that's all down to the marvelous job Sarah does at making Lea a fully-realized, three-dimensional character.

I've know Sarah for a long time now (coming up on...jeesh, seventeen years? That can't be right. We can't be that old), and been in a writing group with her for just about that long. To make it in publishing, especially traditional publishing, it takes some measure of talent, and a hell of a lot of hard work. Sarah has always had talent in spades, but she's also one of the hardest workers I know (our writing group insists she possess some ability to bend time; she insists that's not the case. We don't fully buy her denials). Assassin's Heart is the culmination of all that hard work, crafted by her not-insignificant talent, but it's also only the beginning. There's big things ahead for Sarah. She's earned it.

If you're so inclined, you can purchase Assassin's Heart here, in traditional book form, eBook, or audiobook, whatever your preferred flavor.

Force in Focus: Aftermath

Even moreso than Shattered Empire, Chuck Wendig's Aftermath suffers under the weight of expectations. The novel counterpart to Shattered Empire's comic book series (in that it is the first novel, rather than comic book, of the new canon set after Return of the Jedi), it not only being billed as an important stepping stone towards the world of The Force Awakens, but the circumstances of its release automatically put it into comparison to Timothy Zahn's novel, Heir to the Empire. But not only was Heir the first post-Jedi novel of the old Expanded Universe (it certainly wasn't the first original fiction Star Wars novel, but it did kick off the modern resurgence in Star Wars that hasn't abated since and is generally considered to have begun what fans think of when they think "Expanded Universe), it also remains, to this day, the most acclaimed of Star Wars novels, routinely considered both the best of the lot and most fans' favorite.

Aftermath, then, is cursed twice over; before even a word was written, it was setup to both tell a new version of events post-Jedi and detail those events in a way comparable to everyone's favorite Star Wars book. Of course, it fails to live up to Heir, but that's not entirely its fault: nothing in this day and age could, and to Wendig's credit, he doesn't try to live up to it; the story he tells is an entirely different beast than Heir, at times both more and less concerned with the big picture of the galaxy than Heir was. And as much as this book invites circumstantial comparisons, it's also been released under vastly different circumstances: it's not ending a drought of new Star Wars stories, and it exists as but one narrative brick (albeit a large one) in a house that is being very carefully constructed, whereas Heir was written and released with relatively little oversight by LucasFilm, while most of the people reading Aftermath (especially the ones being overly-critical of it) are much older, with many more Star Wars stories under their belt, than when they first encountered Heir.

One Sentence Reviews

Well, when you have writer's block why not write some one sentence reviews?

 World War Z (Movie, 2013) - Not only was it not as good as the book (or anything like it) it just wasn't good period.

The Dark Side of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader has come to a theater near you! I have recently finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia in its entirety and I'm glad that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the Narnia installment that is coming out because it coincides with this post well since it marks when my opinion of the series started to change.

I knew going into reading The Chronicles of Narnia that the books would have a heavy dose of Christian symbolism. But that didn't really bother me. I might not buy everything C.S. Lewis is trying to sell, but I understand the fact that his stories are based off of his beliefs. However, I started getting some weird vibes in the last three (in-universe chronologically) books.

So, without further ado, here are five things I think are messed up about The Chronicles of Narnia *spoiler alert!*: