A SciFi Book Review: STAR WARS - HEIR TO THE JEDI

I recently read Star Wars: Heir to the Jedi by Kevin Hearne which was an ok read probably more suited for teens and young adults than 40 something adults like me; but still worth flipping through by "more mature" readers looking for a book to amuse themselves with on a plane ride, while being lazy on a vacation or maybe stuck in bed after a medical procedure.  It's not that it is a bad book just that the main character is a wild and bit reckless teen who tells his story in first person perspective which is probably much more relatable to people closer to the age of the nineteen year old hero - Luke Skywalker - portrayed in it than me.

Heir to the Jedi is an adventure novel that takes place in the Star Wars timeline between the movies Episode IV A New Hope ( aka "Original Star Wars" ) and Episode V The Empire Strikes Back ( aka the best of the Star Wars movies made so far - we'll see how Episode VII The Force Awakens pans out in December ).  The premise of this story is that a brilliant cryptographer named Drusil who is renowned for her ability to breach advanced communications and security systems is being detained by the Empire and it is up to the Rebel Alliance's number one asset to come to the rescue before her skills can be corrupted by Imperial agents.  Luke Skywalker races to Drusil's aid with the help of a team that consists of his ever-resourceful droid R2-D2 and a new Rebel recruit named Nakari Kelen, who has a personal score to settle with the Empire after Darth Vader killed her mother for writing and performing a hit song that mocked him to a galactic audience of music lovers.  Nakari, with the support of her biotech mogul father who found his riches couldn't save his wife from the power of the Empire, provide much needed assistance to the Rebellion and a really nice space yacht which transports the team on their mission to rescue Drusil.

What really stands out in this novel is just how alone Luke Skywalker is after the Battle of Yavin.  In A New Hope, his only family that he knows of Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen Lars were murdered by Imperial storm troopers on Tatooine; Ben Kenobi was cut down by the light saber blade of Darth Vader, and childhood best buddy Biggs Darklighter was shot down attacking the Death Star.  As Heir to the Jedi begins Luke finds himself known by everyone as the hero who destroyed the Death Star but himself hardly knowing anyone.  In this novel, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and even C3P0, are off on other assignments leaving Luke with just R2D2 to keep him company and watch out for him.  Nakari steps in to fill that void and we see both characters develop and grow throughout the story as they work together to rescue Drusil from the clutches of the Empire.

With having seen Return of the Jedi and taking consideration all of the Expanded Universe materials that have been published it can be easy to skip over the fact that Ben Kenobi really abandoned Luke Skywalker at the end of A New Hope with no understanding or training on how to be a Jedi.  Without any knowledge of Yoda or any other Jedi to teach him, Luke finds himself frustrated in Heir to the Jedi as to whether or not he'll ever be able to master the Force.  He ponders if destroying the Death Star may have been his one and only encounter with utilizing the Force.  Having this book written in first person narrative really highlights the frustration of this young adult who has accomplished a great feat but now finds himself alone and unsure of himself.

Heir to the Jedi also shows off the young and reckless side of Luke Skywalker similar to the scene in A New Hope where the teen arrogantly challenges Han Solo about the quality of the Millennium Falcon and pilot's skills as they attempt to escape the Imperial blockade over Tatooine.  In this new adventure you witness Luke as the 19 year old kid who sometimes doesn't really think out things as much as he could or should.  During his escapades in Heir to the Jedi, Skywalker finds the tomb of a Jedi that was killed in Order 66 and is able to recover a light saber.  Curious about how light sabers work, he takes it apart to "study it" and accidentally breaks it which shows how the character can be impulsive and further highlights his lack of knowledge when it comes to the ways of the Force.  In another scene, Luke puts his mission at risk when he engages Imperial war ships that don't have any obvious connection to his assigned goals and objectives because he's in the mood to pick a fight.  As you read through this book, you join Luke Skywalker in wondering if maybe there won't be any heir to the Jedi after all.  And that's the rub...this story really delves into whether or not Ben Kenobi was the last of the Jedi or if Luke Skywalker is the heir to the Jedi.  Of course any Star Wars fan knows the answer to that, but this story is told from Luke's perspective and he has no clue what the future holds for him.  Joining him on this journey is what makes this novel an interesting read.

If you are looking for a literary masterpiece this isn't the book you are looking for; but if you are just searching for an amusing way to pass the time I believe readers (especially teens and young adults) will like Heir to the Jedi as an easy to flip through, fast paced SciFi adventure that takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. 

DISCLAIMER:  I received limited access to a digital edition of  HEIR TO THE JEDI for this review from its publisher. The views and opinions in this review are my own.  I was not required to post a positive review for access to this book.

Dead New World

While I suffered through the flu over the holiday break, I passed some time reading the book DEAD NEW WORLD by Ryan Hill.  It is can become somewhat surreal reading a book about a zombie apocalypse caused by a viral pandemic while you are shaking and aching from the flu and the author did a nice job of bringing his story to life for its readers.  DEAD NEW WORLD really cemented for me that the zombie genre for the time being has allowed Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead to define the standard elements of any story - a crisis was created by a viral outbreak, a zombie bite will transform the person bitten into a zombie, a person's soul, identity, personality die when they transform into a zombie, and you have to destroy a zombie's brain to kill it although they don't act by thinking but rather through instinct, the world as we know it is gone and people are struggling to survive on a post-modern planet.  Though Hill sticks with these standardized elements in his story, he does branch off in some new ways to make this his own apocalyptic zombie tale.

In a Dead New World, the United States has been overrun by millions of infected people turned into zombies with a blood lust, but unlike the world of The Walking Dead the U.S. government was able to stay intact and operational stemming the tide of the infestation.  There are cities where people live in security and pockets of civilization spread out across the country.  The population is a small fraction of what it once was now though and the army is on constant patrol through the "wilderness" in an effort to keep zombie herds in check.  If it was just the zombies they had to deal with the tide may be turning back in humanity's favor but the army also is under assault from a dangerous cult of fanatics that worships the zombies and wants to take control of the world.  Led by a man known as The Reverend, this cult has the power to command the zombies and is quickly overrunning U.S. military bases and civilian settlements across the east coast of the country with an eye on destroying Washington D.C.

You see the Reverend was bitten by a zombie during the initial stage of the infection that enveloped the world but he didn't "turn" but rather just had some of his skin become discolored and mutilated.  Another side effect of his surviving the transformation was that he also now had the power to control the zombies around him.  He believes that those people who don't transform into zombies after becoming infected are meant to be a new hybrid race to rule a Dead New World.  The Reverend's zealous human followers volunteer to be exposed to the virus believing that it is God's plan for people to either become elevated to a higher level or to become zombie servants.   He has created a human/zombie army that may be unstoppable.

Young draftees Ambrose and Holt while on a routine patrol face their squad being wiped out by the Reverend's Army.  Can two sixteen year old grunts take on a cult, save Washington D.C. and prevent the world from becoming a place where humanity is obsolete and ruled by a maniac who believes that he will create a new hybrid race to rule over a world of zombie servants?  The focus of this book really is from the perspective of Ambrose and Holt and has just as much of a military stylized approach to telling the story as a horror or Sci-Fi tact to it. 

Ryan Hill

Dead New World receives A GEEK DADDY nod of approval because I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book from cover to cover.  Ryan Hill did a nice job of making this story an interesting and entertaining read that kept my interest and curiosity peeked throughout it.  If you are looking for some mindless zombie adventures that actually spin into a well thought out story arc this is a nice pick up.  Looking for a story to read at the beach, on a plane ride, or maybe while sick in bed with the flu...grab DEAD NEW WORLD published by Curiosity Quills. 

Dead New World is available on Amazon.com either for Kindle or in paperback. 




DISCLAIMER:  A Geek Daddy Blog received a free digital edition of this book to review.  The opinions expressed are my own.

Tarkin - A Star Wars Novel by James Luceno

In the original Star Wars movie it isn't a menacing Emperor or the Dark Lord of the Sith giving the commands rather it is a character named Governor Tarkin who embodies the evil control of the Empire in the film.  Tarkin had the power to command Darth Vader, authorize the execution of Princess Leia and order the destruction of a planet by the Death Star. While Governor Tarkin, played by famed horror actor Peter Cushing, doesn't have a lot of screen time in the movie the scenes featuring this menacing skeletal looking figure provide the oppressive tone to the film that really defines the evil nature of the Empire.  The most background we are provided of this central character though is when Princess Leia is brought before him after being captured and she remarks "Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash.  I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."

So who was Wilhuff Tarkin?  He played a pivotal role in the 1977 space opera but then after being blown to smithereens during the destruction of the Death Star by Luke Skywalker isn't referenced again in the sequel or prequels (except for a brief cameo at the very end of Star Wars Episode III overseeing the initial construction of the battle station with the Emperor and Darth Vader).  For such a powerful character not be more developed in Star Wars canon is a shame.

James Luceno has rectified the exclusion of Wilhuff Tarkin from Star Wars lore with his new novel TARKIN which is being released on November 4, 2014.  Luceno provides an excellent story that combines telling the back story of Wilhuff Tarkin with an adventurous tale set in the very early days of the Empire.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and devoured it in one weekend of reading because I couldn't put it down.

Pay attention to the name "Carrion Spike" which is both the name of Tarkin's customized space ship while he supervises the construction of the Death Star and the trials he must complete to be considered a man on the out of the way planet where he grows up during his youth.  This is a central theme that the author niftily utilizes to tie together Tarkin's background with the novel's main storyline.  While the book stays true to the character as portrayed by Peter Cushing in Star Wars it also provides some depth to Grand Moff Governor Wilhuff Tarkin.  Being raised as a youth in an environment where pirates, rogues and scoundrels will scourge good people unless overcome with brutal force this attitude impacts Tarkin's future political and military career with the Empire.  Having witnessed brutality and destruction during the Clone Wars, Tarkin is determined to keep order in the galaxy...and from his past experience the only way to ensure peace is through fear and might.  You begin to picture Wilhuff Tarkin as a complex figure who may be doing bad things with good intentions.  While the Emperor and Darth Vader are evil characters, Tarkin is painted more as a bureaucrat who has led a life filled with conflict and is prepared to ensure peace in the Empire through any means necessary.  Essentially Tarkin is a villain but in his own mind he is a hero which creates a great dynamic in this book.

TARKIN explores the early development of the Empire as it transforms from the Republic at the conclusion of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and provides an insightful look into the character's rise to power through his relationships with the Emperor and Darth Vader.  The book ties in quite a bit to the Clone Wars animated television series episodes that featured Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin to develop his relationship to Darth Vader.  Tarkin doesn't know that Vader is Anakin Skywalker in this book...but he suspects it!  We also gain some interesting tidbits on the Emperor including his first name...Sheev...Sheev Palpatine.

The story also answers a few questions that I had wondered over the years?  Tarkin is called both Governor and Grand Moff?  What is a Grand Moff?  Aren't governors supposed to be governing a defined area so why does he have so much power?  These questions are answered in this novel.  Thank you James Luceno!

TARKIN does a nice job of tying together the Prequel Movies/Clone Wars, Dark Times/Star Wars: Rebels, and the Original Trilogy in this novel.  If you are a Star Wars fan who appreciates a focus on character development than this is a must read book for you as it really establishes the identity of Wilhuff Tarkin in the canon of Star Wars.

STAR WARS: TARKIN get A GEEK DADDY nod of approval.  For more information on Star Wars books visit: star-wars.suvudu.com

DISCLAIMER:  I received limited access to an advance digital copy of TARKIN for this review. The views and opinions in this review are my own.  I was not required to post a positive review for access to this book.

Star Wars: A New Dawn - a Novel by John Jackson Miller

 ** Warning Spoilers Below **

A NEW DAWN ushers in a new era of publishing for the Sci-Fi franchise being the first novel to be "officially" included in Disney's canon for its Star Wars Universe and serves as an introduction to the animated series Star Wars: Rebels.  This book is a decent romp of an adventure for the teen and young adult audience that the Star Wars: Rebels television show is being developed for and marketed to.  The tie-in to the Disney XD tv series and Star Wars universe is a great hook to get a young audience, that probably doesn't read literature as much as they should, to pick up and enjoy a book.  While the novel isn't designated as a Young Adult (YA) book [The Young Adult Library Service of the American Library Association defines the young adult genre as for ages twelve to eighteen although many publishers and authors market materials as either Teen Fiction for ten to fifteen year olds or Young Adult for sixteen to twenty-five year olds] that should be its key audience as it really is a flop when it comes to providing an enjoyable read for more mature adult Star Wars fans who may be more discerning readers. 

The story begins with a young fourteen year old Jedi in training (known as a Padawan) named Caleb Dume who escapes the Empire's purge of the Jedi Order and goes into hiding.  Ten years pass and Caleb has changed his ways and his identity to avoid detection from the bounty out on the heads of any remaining Jedi.  Hiding out in a backworld mining community far away from the heart of the Empire, he enjoys a lifestyle of drinking and carousing with the ladies when not performing menial labor to get by.  Caleb never uses the force or his real name to avoid any chance of being associated as a Jedi which would undoubtedly lead to his death at the hands of Imperial authorities.  The problem becomes that the mineral being exclusively mined where he is hiding out suddenly becomes a hot commodity being used to build the Empire's Star Destroyers (and probably the Death Star too) bringing with it the novel's villain and a lot of attention to the planet that Caleb, now known as Kannan Jarrus, doesn't want.

Kannan Jarrus is one of the primary characters of the Star Wars: Rebels animated series described as a Jedi in hiding from the Empire.  So anyone who has looked into the show in advance or watches any of its episodes will quickly pickup that Kannan Jarrus is Caleb Dume.  I suspected this about a page into when the Kannan Jarrus character was introduced but the author tries to spin this angle into a huge plot twist for the story.  Younger audiences may not connect the dots and appreciate this story angle but more sophisticated readers will find this angle overplayed and a rather boring element of the story that drags on way too long. 

John Jackson Miller originally became associated with the Star Wars universe by scripting  some pretty good stories for Dark Horse Comic Books which he parlayed into a gig as an author for Star Wars novels.  I've read all of his Star Wars books so far because their descriptions always sound interesting and I enjoy  Star Wars stories. A New Dawn though just really finally cemented for me that I'm not a fan of John Jackson Miller's novels which I find to be very simplistic and uninspiring.  I give him credit for having great story ideas but beyond delivering a decent outline for a novel's premise he just can't deliver a quality final product in my opinion.  Yet, I will say his work is probably good enough to amuse and entertain a younger reader so I would recommend A New Dawn to that demographic; but John Jackson Miller's writing just doesn't cut it for me when it comes to wanting to devote my valuable time towards enjoying a good book.  To be honest, if I wasn't reading A New Dawn for this review I probably would have stopped reading it halfway through the story. 

A New Dawn also introduces another major character from Star Wars: Rebels known as Hera Syndulla, but beyond introducing this mysterious Twi'lek as being "mysterious" that is about all we get about her.  We find out that she owns a space ship called the Ghost which is a big part of Rebels but don't learn anything about her past or present that really connects her to the television show.  I thought the book was supposed to be setting up the television series but telling the story of how Kannan and Hera meet before Rebels is about all the novel accomplishes.  Hera seems to have a lot of information and intel about the story's main villain and other Imperial activities but the story doesn't delve into how she acquired it, how she funds her secret agent type activities, who, if anyone, she is associated with, what is she actually doing traveling around the galaxy piloting an expensive starship, and so on.  The story actually goes out of its way to say there isn't a Rebellion yet...so what is Hera up to and what brought her to mingle in the Empire's affairs.  None of these issues is brought up and it just leaves you scratching your head.

Miller doesn't even do a nice job of creating a reason for Kannan and Hera to team up.  Essentially the author has Kannan lusting after Hera and offering to follow her and help her in whatever she wants him to do because he's fallen for this mysterious beauty? Really! that just seems a little naive and uncreative. Fortunately for readers incidents beyond the two of them bring Kannan and Hera together for a more rational reason to join forces rather than her being an attractive female that caught his eye.  In the end, the two of them fly off together into the sunset to do who knows what because John Jackson Miller doesn't elaborate anything about Hera other than she is a good fighter and pilot who hates the Empire.

The best part of the story is probably the villain who is sort of a parallel Darth Vader.  While Darth Vader went from being a healthy and powerful person that was crippled into a robotic cyborg form, Count Vidian was a sickly and weak individual that became physically and professionally powerful when he transformed his body into a mechanical cyborg.  Count Vidian was a worthwhile adversary and featured the best plot elements and twists in the story.  I appreciated how he demonstrates the corruption and abuses of the Empire from a business perspective versus the military viewpoint that is the normal perspective in Star Wars novels.  Unfortunately in the end, the reader isn't invested enough within the story and its characters to really care if County Vidian succeeds with his villainous scheme or not but rather is just curious to find out how the story will wrap up.

For this being the first book to be included in the canon for the overall Star Wars storyline and the introduction to the highly anticipated Rebels, I have to say it was disappointing that the novel didn't contribute anything memorable to either. 

Diary of a Girl Next Door

What do you think of when you hear, or read, "Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and the gang from Riverdale?" Archie Comics of course! People have been following the comic book adventures of these characters created by John L. Goldwater since their first appearance in Pep Comics #22 on December 22, 1941.  After 73 years of focusing on portraying the adventures of the teenagers from Riverdale in the pages of comic books, publisher Archie Comics is expanding their story telling to prose for the first time with its new book Diary of a Girl Next Door.

The format of this book is very similar to the popular children/tween book Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but instead of told from a geeky boy's point of view it portrays the challenges of being a teenager from the perspective of an overachieving girl, to be specific the town of Riverdale's famous over-achieving teen Betty Cooper.  While this is written from a girl's point of view, like Wimpy Kid it is a book that will be of interest to either sex to read telling funny tales of growing up supplemented with hand-drawn sketches to help tell the story.  The book is written as if it was Betty's diary notations about how crazy a teen girl's life can be and filled with sketches she drew while jotting down her thoughts about the freshman year of high school.  Diary of a Girl Next Door is filled with BMX stunts, heroic dog training, espionage, archaeology, and a handful of Yeti to boot that will bring a smile to the faces of both children and parents who pick up this book.

Here's a glimpse at this story that takes readers through the 720-day sprint that is known as the Freshman Year of High School:

 

You can pick up Diary of a Girl Next Door from your local bookstore or online by CLICKING HERE.  Betty's diary entries are penned by an Archie Comics fan-favorite cartoonist, Tania del Rio, who is best known for crafting a manga-inspired comic of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  Long-time Archie Comics artist Bill Galvan is the hand behind the drawings for Betty's doodles that fill her diary.  These two talents combine for a creative romp of twists and turns that is the maze of high school that everyone has to find their own way through.

DISCLAIMER:  I received a complimentary digital download of Diary of a Girl Next Door from Archie Comics to review for this post.  A Geek Daddy Blog was granted permission by Archie Comics to post the images shown in this post.  Archie Comics retains copyright on these images and they should not be displayed or printed without the company's expressed permission.

New Vampire Horror Series will try to Thrill TV Viewers on FX Cable Network

THE STRAIN has gone full circle now.  Originally created as an outline for a television series pitch by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro when no networks picked it up for a pilot the idea was transformed into a trilogy of New York Times Best Seller books and a comic book series.  Now the cable network FX has picked up THE STRAIN for a 3 season run with the first episode airing on Sunday July 13th at 10pm ET/PT.

The first episode of the show starts with a plane landing at JFK airport than going dark and silent.  When it is boarded, all of the passengers are found dead and the Center for Disease Control is brought in to investigate as authorities fear this tragedy was caused by a viral outbreak on board the flight.  The CDC sends their top investigator Ephraim Goodweather (played by Corey Stoll - Congressman Peter Russo in the first season of Netflix's House of Cards drama) to find out what is going on.  Goodweather is stumped as it appears the cause of the trouble appears to originate from a mysterious giant coffin filled with soil and worms found in the plane's cargo hold.  The infection quickly jumps from the plane to the airport to New York City.  Turns out though it isn't a virus but rather a vampire infestation that is the cause of this plague.

Season one's 13 episodes of THE STRAIN will be based on the first novel and tells the story of the eight days in which the outbreak first surfaces and infects New York City.  The main characters are similar to the ones from the novels and comic books, the CDC expert, an elderly pawn shop owner who encountered the vampires as a child in World War II era Europe, and a pest exterminator who encounters this new vampire infestation while on the job.  The show throws in a computer hacker character not from the books and comics to slightly differentiate the show's scripts from the prose. These four characters team together to tackle the Master, one of seven ancient vampires, who is responsible for bringing the strain to New York City.  What is the Master's grand plan and how does a rich industrialist lurking in the shadows play into it?

Watch THE STRAIN on FX to find out!

Oh, one other note to mention!  These vampires aren't the ones of Buffy the Vampire, Dracula, True Blood, The Twilight Saga that look like normal humans who need to avoid the sun, rather they are more like the Reapers from the movie Blade II (directed by del Toro) that have three-way jaws with leach like suckers that shoot out of their faces and bodies that are grotesque.  Like The Walking Dead this is not a show you want to allow children to watch!

THE STRAIN INFECTS FX IN JULY

A few years before Guillermo del Toro directed the recent summer SciFi blockbuster PACIFIC RIM, he co-wrote with Chuck Hogan a vampire horror novel titled  THE STRAIN which reached the NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller List in 2009.  Dark Horse comics adapted the novel to a comic book series in 2011 and now the story is coming to the small screen with the cable channel FX (home to American Horror Story, The Americans & Sons of Anarchy ) airing a television show based on del Toro's novel starting in July 2014.

Picture a stormy night at JFK airport with the wind whipping and lighting crashing.  A plane routinely lands but than just stops dead on the tarmac.  All the shades on its windows are drawn down, the lights are off, and no one is answering its radio.  In addition, to SWAT and counter-terrorism units being brought in to address the situation, a crack team from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is called in to help ascertain the situation.  This is how THE STRAIN begins.

The plane is the beginning of a vampire infestation of New York City.  These aren't the glamorized vampires of Dracula lore though but rather grotesque mutated monsters that really put the "horror" into the vampire myth.  If you've seen the mutated vampires in the movie BLADE 2, which del Toro also happened to direct, you get the picture.  If not check out the great artwork in Dark Horse's STRAIN comic books for some great visuals.  The book and TV show will revolve around how the CDC tackles this vampire epidemic.

Unlike Dracula and other vampire stories that provide a mystical element for the origin and creation of these creatures of the night, THE STRAIN takes a scientific approach to explaining them.  The vampires are infected by parasitic worms that carry a virus that is passed on to humans causing them to mutate.  The worms are introduces to a person's body through a vampire's feeding or through it entering on its own in an invasive manner through a wound or orifice.  The worms feed off of blood and as they do that they transmit an incurable vampire virus transforming the victim.

 
These vampires develop "stingers" that shoot out of their mouths to lach onto their human prey and suck out their blood.  If the vampire doesn't kill their prey through feeding on them than the person is infected by worms that make their way into their body during the feeding infecting them with the virus and turning them into vampires too.  The vampires in the strain also lose their hair and fingernails, while gaining sharp talons and a hard skin covering for protection.  Not the most glamorous of characters are they but pretty creepy.

If you enjoy THE WALKING DEAD, you will probably enjoy THE STRAIN.  Here's a teaser trailer from FX for this new show:

For more information, about FX'S THE STRAIN visit:  http://www.fxnetworks.com/thestrain