​The Wayfarers book series by Becky Chambers.

I've only read 2 of the 4 books but this is a unique series. First of all, the world building is top tier. Several alien species with fully realized cultures and biologies. Set in a future where mankind has left behind a dying solar system (the sun has burned out) and humans now live on any number of planets and ships in what was an already established federation of species when they left Earth behind.

Here's what makes these books unique - so far. There is no main bad guy or impending universe destroying cataclysm. The stuff that the characters go through is just "shit happens" kind of stuff. Which I hate saying because it sounds boring but a) it's refreshing to just enjoy a world and the characters and sit in the mud with them and b) I appreciate the low level of drama. 

Real life is full of stakes; being late to work for an important meeting, car breaking down and no money to fix it, breaking a leg and there's no elevator or whatever. The difference here is the context. Being an AI in a robot body is not as liberating as the AI expected. A spaceship not working is incredibly dire because no matter how far in the future this is, humans still can't survive the vacuum of space without technology. 

Book 1 - A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, so far is my favorite. After reading it, I could pinpoint what every crew member loves. (Finding that for all my characters is going to be a major factor in my future writing.) And all of them are awesome. Definitely gave me Firefly vibes, in that the crew is so loveable and generally awesome. 

Book 2  - A Closed and Common Orbit, follows a whole new set of characters but continues to build on what we know about the other species and the tech that is used in this reality. I don't know if we'll come back around to the crew of the Wayfarer or if all the characters converge at some point. 

I'm starting book 3 soon, so yeah, highly recommend.

“Inside a barn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a scientist searching for an Alzheimer’s cure throws a switch—and finds herself mysteriously transported into her husband’s body. What begins as a botched experiment will change her life—and the world—forever…

Over two decades later, all across the planet, “flash” technology allows individuals the ability to transfer their consciousness into other bodies for specified periods, paid, registered and legal. Society has been utterly transformed by the process, from travel to warfare to entertainment; “Be anyone with Anyone” the tagline of the company offering this ultimate out-of-body experience. But beyond the reach of the law and government regulators is a sordid black market called the darkshare, where desperate “vessels” anonymously rent out their bodies, no questions asked for any purpose - sex, drugs, crime... or worse.

Anyone masterfully interweaves the present-day story of the discovery and development of the flash with the gritty tale of one woman’s crusade to put an end to the darkness it has brought to the world twenty-five years after its creation. Like Blade Runner crossed with Get Out, Charles Soule’s thought-provoking work of speculative fiction takes us to a world where identity, morality, and technology collide.”

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I bought this book because I’m mad at Disney. The book I really wanted was “Star Wars: Light of the Jedi” by Charles Soule. It had good chatter from people I trust on social media and I’m interested in the galaxy far, far away outside of the bad choices of certain families. But as I said, I’m mad at Disney for their sloppy handling of the sequel trilogy and if I can avoid giving them money I will. But I don’t want to punish the author’s who work for Disney, it’s not their fault. So I will get Star Wars books at the library and buy those authors' independent books at my local bookstore. Anyone was the one book they had by Charles Soule. 

I’ve read "Oracle Year" too, but I enjoyed "Anyone" a lot more.

"Anyone" is a great book. I enjoyed it a lot. The characters were relatable, likable, and well rendered. The pacing is fast. I read through this book at a casual pace but still finished it in less than a week. There are two timelines which makes it a little confusing toward the end for reasons I will not give away. But it wasn’t enough to stop me from reading and I trusted the story enough to keep going. Whatever confusion I experienced did not impact my overall understanding of the outcome of the story. 

The future timeline is very cool. It’s different from our current reality but still familiar. Because of the body swapping premise, I was reminded of "Altered Carbon". "Altered Carbon" is set in the far future with lots of colonies on several other planets. It would be easy to believe that these two stories exist in the same universe. The flash tech in Anyone could be the precursor tech used in Altered Carbon. 

Charles Soule is a fantastic writer. As a writer, I aspire to his ability to weave in characters descriptions and locations into the text without slowing the flow of the story. The only time I was bored was when they were talking about the science of the flash but those paragraphs are easy to skip. I was bummed when the book was over. While the story concluded exactly as it needed to, I enjoyed myself too much to leave so soon. It would be a lot of fun to see the world of Anyone expanded on either in more books or a TV show. “The possibilities are endless.”

It's been a couple of weeks now and I think I can safely say I was wrong on all accounts except #2 and I give myself half a point for #4.

As I said I would be happy to be wrong and happy I am. It took sometime for this one to sink in. Part of that is on me, I let me expectations get away from me so when this movie went places I did not think possible it took time to absorb. Same was true for Force Awakens. Now that the dust has settled and I've read way too many articles breaking down every tiny nuance I can say I like this one. The best parts have to do with Kylo and Rey. I absolutely hated the whole side mission with Finn and Rose which is a bummer because I really want more for Finn.

The biggest revelation for me is that The Force Awakens and  The Last Jedi run together and the events take place over about a week. That is a lot of change for these characters to go through, all of them, good guys and bad guys. Not sure I will ever buy space Liea but otherwise I like her role and am sad to know her story will be left unfinished in a way. Finally a question that has been bugging the crap out of me, why can't a droid pilot the ships that are set on a collision course? I think Admiral Holdo would have been an awesome addition and we lost her for no reason. 

But in any case, I would say The Last Jedi is worth your money at least once and is taking the franchise in new directions that will ultimately be good for the long game. If you have heard about all the outcry and hubbub around the movie I would strongly suggest you ignore it. The the film is cultural politics. You can dive into the fray if you want to but in the end you have to decide for yourself what you think. As with any creative work, you should decide for yourself if you like it or not.

Recommended Reviews:
https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2017/12/spoiler-review-the-last-jedi-a-surprise-to-be-sure-but-a-welcome-one.html

https://nerdist.com/star-wars-the-last-jedi-spoiler-review/

https://nerdist.com/the-last-jedi-star-wars-toxic-relationship/

While looking for something completely different I found this nifty fictional fact sheet. I still marvel at being able to forget the things I've created. If you have no idea what this is talking about then you need to read my books. Ha! #ShamelessPromotion, but you are the one on my website so I think it's okay.

I love going to the movies, always have since I was little. As a fan of movies as medium for telling stories and as a writer I have a keen interest in books with movie counterparts. I personally prefer to read the book first before seeing the movie if at all possible, but that’s just me.

So I have finally gotten around to reading “All You Need is Kill.” This is a book by a Japanese author, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, that the movie “Edge of Tomorrow” is based on. It’s short, a quick read. A little over the top in some places and it does not pull any punches when it comes to war in its purest brutality.
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I had a particular interest in this story because I wanted to see how the author wrote the time jumps and repeats. Turns out, it’s actually pretty simple. Deftly done in way that it doesn’t actually repeat the same tuff over and over verbatim. Sakurazaka switches it up to keep you reading and the pace never slows (the movie handles the looping in a similar way, unlike Groundhog Day.) As a writer, it is worth looking at the technique he used.

The weirdest thing about the book versus the movie is that the plot of the movie is significantly more complicated. Usually you have to strip a novel to just its main action for the sake of time (i.e. Ender’s Game) but not here. Except for a few flashbacks, we pretty much never leave the army base that the main character, Keiji, wakes up in every time he dies.

There is no scientist that worked with Rita when she was stuck in the time loop. And all training is on the day of battle, during the same battle over and over (implied.) No training room montage with cheeky banter. Though seeing Tom Cruise get beat up by robot arms is pretty gratifying.

The movie slows way down when Cage, Tom Cruise’s character, tries to break the repetition of days by running away. This happens in the book too, but only once and it’s a much shorter scene and ends in an unexpected way.

The biggest point of divergence is of course the end. I will not give anything away but I have read other science fiction novels by non-Americans and it’s pretty easy to tell American writers from others, at least with the books I have read. I find writers from other countries are okay with having wide open endings with no sequel in mind. Unsettled endings and unanswered questions, not an issue. Leaving the reader in a destination they had no idea they were going to and have no way of getting back from doesn’t bother them one bit. As a child of the 80s and the American sitcom this is not how I like to walk away from a book.

But anyways, the ending of the book took me by surprise from the moment it started and I liked that. And when I think about how the movie went about solving the problem of the time loop and its creators I just think, why mess with what the author had intended? It was so much better. Why add complication where none is needed?

I’m sure it was a decision made by the powers that be at the movie studio but to me it’s an insult. Either they didn’t trust the actors to pull off that kind of complexity or they didn’t trust the audience to be able to feel something without having to have loud music and contrived conflict. See what I mean? Insulting.
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One point of cool for the book in particular. The author has included an alternate chapter sequence (below.) It ends on the same chapter but huge chunks are moved around. I intend to re-read this book with this order in a few months. I want to forget it a little bit so I can enjoy it more and be surprised again.

If you’re so inclined and don’t mind some colorful language or violent deaths, I recommend reading this book. The movie's pretty good too.

My first obsession was (and still is) Transformers G1. I love Optimus and his Autobots. I'm also a sucker for classic good versus evil showdowns that were so prevalent in cartoons of the 80s: Justice League vs. Legion of Doom, Thudercats vs Mumra, G.I. Joe vs. Cobra, X-Men vs. Brotherhood of Mutants, He-man/She-Ra vs. the Horde, et al. 

But what good are Prime and his noble Auotobts without Megatron and the Decepticons? You can't have one without the other. I'm not an advocate of wars or violence but there is always a fight to be won. It could be in your own head, a co-worker you don't get along with, whatever the obstacle(s), life is a series of battles. And the thing about those battles is the people that see you through, that fight along side you in those things, you never forget. Sometimes they are the people you fight and you realize you've picked the wrong battle and now you're best friends. 

Which brings us to my newest obsession. Red vs. Blue. A certain streaming service that shall remain nameless, had been recommending it to me for a while now and I finally decided to give it a try. That was two months ago and a day hasn't gone by that I haven't spent sometime watching the show. In two short months I have probably watched every episode five or six times. 

I had this vague notion that it was based off of the Halo universe. I'm not a gamer but I have played Halo 3 at a friends house so I had a little background on things. But then when I ran out of RVB episodes I needed more. So to the Halo universe I turned. Suffice it to say You Tube has been scoured for in game videos and I am almost done with the 3rd book of the series. And several of the comics from my local library have been read and returned. (Master Chief is the Optimus Prime of the Halo universe. But this is a great topic for another time.)

Now when I get hooked on something like this I like to stop and ask my self, why? What is it about this thing that has gotten a hold of me? It didn't take long to realize it was the Transformer affect all over again. What that means for me, is characters, it always come down to character for me. But it's the chemistry of all of them together. The interplay between the factions and even within the factions. The relationships. I don't know if the writers of the original TF had that in mind and I don't know if the writers of RVB do either, but it's there. 

The best part about RVB is that it started out so organically and the creators have really upped their game as their fan base has grown and they've taken all of intertwining relationships as seriously as the fans do. Season 13 is currently underway and it's still great character building with the humor and heart that it started with. RVB has really nailed that camaraderie that comes with fighting along side and often against other people but coming out of the fray all the more wiser for it. 

That is the other thing about the sim soldiers in red and blue. Everyone is exactly who they are and are totally accepting of who they are within themselves. The integrity of the characters never waivers and I personally really appreciate that. To be honest, do not judge the series on the the first four seasons. You may like the humor, but I recognize it is not for everyone. My favorite season so far is 10, but the stories and animation start getting really sophisticated in season 6.

I recommend you watch season one as a foundation, then jump to five and watch everything after it in order. If you are in love with the knuckleheads by the end of season ten, go back to two, three, and four so you can see how far they've come. My deepest appreciation to Rooster Teeth for giving me my newest obsession and the other fans who have just as much fun with and love for it.

Book Two will be released on March 27th on all ebook platforms. While  written to be read as a stand-alone book, Linchpin is a continuation of characters from Trespassing. Just in case you still don't have Trespassing it will be free on Kindle March 27th-29th.

The print version of Linchpin will be release mid-April.

Let's start with why we go to the movies. For me, I go to escape, to live vicariously in another person's world. I want to be enthralled, whether by people or places and both if possible.

Jupiter Ascending does that. It's beautiful, full of inter planetary imagery. The world is huge and interesting. Intergalactic commerce and power plays. It reminded of the Roman Empire. 

And that is the problem with it. Try taking the entire history of the Roman Empire and cramming it to a two hour movie. There is a lot of good material to explore and work with but the ambition of trying to get it all in now makes the whole endeavor cumbersome.

There are plenty of articles and reviews going around about what went wrong with this one and about the Wachowskis story telling technique but I return to why go to a movie at all. If you want a philosophical mind bender like The Matrix, this is not the movie. Deep character development, nope, not here either. Distraction, absolutely. Immense mind blowing fight scenes, check. Aliens, costumes, and grandeur, you should go.

Set your expectations right and you'll get what you pay for.