I want mah Moonbase and Mars colonies, dang it. We got the wrong future.
So What Are you Reading?: Generations
- Thread starter captcalhoun
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I want mah Moonbase and Mars colonies, dang it. We got the wrong future.
Just rewatched IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. Two manned Mars missions in . . . 1973? A bit optimistic there, as it turns out.
Not reading a whole lot at home, with the Olympics on (as it is, I'm still a day behind on Figure Skating, and haven't even looked at Curling).
And I'm working on my own novel, taking my protagonist into her senior year of high school. And into a situation she wishes was one of her odd nightmares.
Just brought the January NMRA Magazine (formerly Scale Rails, formerly NMRA Bulletin) and the January/February Smithsonian into the office, to read on my lunch breaks.
And I'm working on my own novel, taking my protagonist into her senior year of high school. And into a situation she wishes was one of her odd nightmares.
Just brought the January NMRA Magazine (formerly Scale Rails, formerly NMRA Bulletin) and the January/February Smithsonian into the office, to read on my lunch breaks.
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Picard: The Last, Best Hope is my latest read. I want to get through all the Picard novels.
Since last posting in this thread, I guess:-
Manticore Ascendent: A Call to Insurrection by David Weber etc (Enjoyed it)
Arisen: Raiders books 3 and 4 by Michael Stephen Fuchs (Fairly typical of the zombie/military series)
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks (Liked it)
Coyle and Fang: Curse of Shadow by Robert Adauto III (Victorian Detectives . Liked that too)
Next up is My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Manticore Ascendent: A Call to Insurrection by David Weber etc (Enjoyed it)
Arisen: Raiders books 3 and 4 by Michael Stephen Fuchs (Fairly typical of the zombie/military series)
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks (Liked it)
Coyle and Fang: Curse of Shadow by Robert Adauto III (Victorian Detectives . Liked that too)
Next up is My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Serenity the movie by Keith DeCandido
I really enjoyed that.
Finished reading The Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983 (Episodes IV-VI) (40th Anniversary Edition) (2020), edited by Paul Duncan and published by TASCHEN tonight. The “40th Anniversary Edition” releases in 2020 were smaller sized (and much less expensive) rereleases of some of TASCHEN’s more popular high-end coffee table books released by them over the course of their first forty years as a publisher.
The Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983 (Episodes IV-VI) book (the expensive oversized limited edition release) was published in 2018 and had a release price of $200. The 40th Anniversary Edition that I read (borrowed from the public library) reformats the material from a large wider-than-it-is-tall art style book into a more standard taller-than-it-is-wide format, necessitating reformatting the positions of the text and illustrations/photographs on each page from the original version. (It is also a much more affordable edition, with a release price of only $25.) However, I believe that some of the photos and illustrations were saved for only the original edition (not included in the newer edition).
This 40th Anniversary Edition is a nice thick book (512 pages) covering the production of all three of the original Star Wars movies (Star Wars, a.k.a. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983). The majority of the text is from interviews between author/editor Paul Duncan and George Lucas. The rest is interview quotes with the actors (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, etc.) as well as others behind the scenes (directors, producers, writers, etc. There are also production notes interspersed between the interview sections, including details such as which scenes were shot on which days and involved which actors.
The photos on each and every page are amazing. Behind the scenes production shots (including ones of the actors between takes) as well as preproduction sketches and illustrations.
The only thing that is a bit confusing at first is that the text and the pictures don’t go together, the two progressing along at different paces through the production of each movie. I developed a habit of looking at the pictures first and their captions, then back to whatever things Lucas and Duncan were talking about in the text.
The other thing about this smaller 40th Anniversary Edition release is that the gold ink on the front cover rubs off very easily, leaving partial lettering after your fingers have rubbed the gold ink off just from holding the book. I ended up buying a copy of my own, I enjoyed this book so much, but I just might have to wear gloves when handling it.
I highly recommend this book, though, for any fans of the original Star Wars movies. (There is also a second book covering the prequel trilogy, The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005 (Episodes I-III), but it’s only available in the original 2020 $200 limited edition version still, no lower priced version as of yet.)
David Young
The Star Wars Archives: 1977-1983 (Episodes IV-VI) book (the expensive oversized limited edition release) was published in 2018 and had a release price of $200. The 40th Anniversary Edition that I read (borrowed from the public library) reformats the material from a large wider-than-it-is-tall art style book into a more standard taller-than-it-is-wide format, necessitating reformatting the positions of the text and illustrations/photographs on each page from the original version. (It is also a much more affordable edition, with a release price of only $25.) However, I believe that some of the photos and illustrations were saved for only the original edition (not included in the newer edition).
This 40th Anniversary Edition is a nice thick book (512 pages) covering the production of all three of the original Star Wars movies (Star Wars, a.k.a. Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983). The majority of the text is from interviews between author/editor Paul Duncan and George Lucas. The rest is interview quotes with the actors (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, etc.) as well as others behind the scenes (directors, producers, writers, etc. There are also production notes interspersed between the interview sections, including details such as which scenes were shot on which days and involved which actors.
The photos on each and every page are amazing. Behind the scenes production shots (including ones of the actors between takes) as well as preproduction sketches and illustrations.
The only thing that is a bit confusing at first is that the text and the pictures don’t go together, the two progressing along at different paces through the production of each movie. I developed a habit of looking at the pictures first and their captions, then back to whatever things Lucas and Duncan were talking about in the text.
The other thing about this smaller 40th Anniversary Edition release is that the gold ink on the front cover rubs off very easily, leaving partial lettering after your fingers have rubbed the gold ink off just from holding the book. I ended up buying a copy of my own, I enjoyed this book so much, but I just might have to wear gloves when handling it.
I highly recommend this book, though, for any fans of the original Star Wars movies. (There is also a second book covering the prequel trilogy, The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005 (Episodes I-III), but it’s only available in the original 2020 $200 limited edition version still, no lower priced version as of yet.)
David Young
The first chapter or so in, it wasn't really grabbing me, but since then, it really has and I finished it earlier today. Enjoyed it quite a bit.
On to Killing Floor by Lee Child.
Genesis.
(Welcome to Lent.)
(Welcome to Lent.)
Spider-Man: Life Story, by Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley.
The conceit here, like in John Byrne's Superman/Batman: Generations, is that the title character made his debut when his first appearance was published then aged in real-time. Life Story imagines a Spider-Man who's in his thirties in the seventies, forties in the eighties, fifty in the nineties, well, you get the point, checking in on him and his supporting cast at roughly decade jumps, taking one or two stories from that period of time (like the Clone Saga, Secret Wars, Venom, Kraven's Last Hunt, Civil War) and restaging them to fit the series conceit of an ever-aging Peter Parker. We see Peter grow older and wiser, mature in some areas, not really mature in others, change careers, struggle and sometimes fail in his relationships, and not really ever be able to put Spider-Man behind him, even when his body isn't capable of it anymore. There were a couple of elements that I took as Easter Eggs to the Tobey Maguire films, it offers some interesting insights into the character (like how Peter is the moral heart of the Marvel Universe, even if he can't see it), and the ending of the story proper was emotionally satisfying.
There's also an epilogue, the Life Story Annual, which focuses on J. Jonah Jameson, who doesn't factor in the story after the 1960s, and it takes a serious look at what his obsession with Spider-Man did to him. It ties back into the main narrative in some unexpected ways.
It was an effective graphic novel. I don't know that I need to read more of this -- there's a Fantastic Four: Life Story that does the same thing -- though the that that this might take place in the same universe as Batman/Captain America and Superman/Batman: Generations intrigued me greatly.
The conceit here, like in John Byrne's Superman/Batman: Generations, is that the title character made his debut when his first appearance was published then aged in real-time. Life Story imagines a Spider-Man who's in his thirties in the seventies, forties in the eighties, fifty in the nineties, well, you get the point, checking in on him and his supporting cast at roughly decade jumps, taking one or two stories from that period of time (like the Clone Saga, Secret Wars, Venom, Kraven's Last Hunt, Civil War) and restaging them to fit the series conceit of an ever-aging Peter Parker. We see Peter grow older and wiser, mature in some areas, not really mature in others, change careers, struggle and sometimes fail in his relationships, and not really ever be able to put Spider-Man behind him, even when his body isn't capable of it anymore. There were a couple of elements that I took as Easter Eggs to the Tobey Maguire films, it offers some interesting insights into the character (like how Peter is the moral heart of the Marvel Universe, even if he can't see it), and the ending of the story proper was emotionally satisfying.
There's also an epilogue, the Life Story Annual, which focuses on J. Jonah Jameson, who doesn't factor in the story after the 1960s, and it takes a serious look at what his obsession with Spider-Man did to him. It ties back into the main narrative in some unexpected ways.
It was an effective graphic novel. I don't know that I need to read more of this -- there's a Fantastic Four: Life Story that does the same thing -- though the that that this might take place in the same universe as Batman/Captain America and Superman/Batman: Generations intrigued me greatly.
Wasn't that basically the idea of the Spider-Girl universe? What was it called, MC-2? With Peter and MJ's teenage daughter taking over her father's mantle, and other next-generation characters as well?
Yes, Mayday Parker takes over the Spider mantle in Spider-Girl, but that series is also set in the future. (I'm not sure where the POD was. Maybe the 90s Clone Saga? I think Mayday is sort of the daughter that MJ lost during that period.) Spider-Man: Life Story doesn't really have next generation characters until the sixth part (set in 2019) when we meet Miles Morales. Peter is 72 (having been born in 1947), and when we see the Fantastic Four in the 1980s (for Secret Wars) and the Avengers in the 2000s (for Civil War), they're all old people. It almost feels like a commentary, in a weird way, about how Marvel hasn't been successful at developing new, culturally significant characters since the Silver Age.
Oh, I see.
I believe that's exactly what she was -- it was an alternate reality where she lived.
I don't get it. They just stay in the hero business as they get older? The fun of doing something like this, as in Generations, is to explore the passing of the torch, to invent legacy heroes that take over for the originals. Heck, that used to happen a lot in Marvel, at least with the Avengers and X-Men. If it's just the same heroes getting really old, that seems to squander the potential of the premise.
Kobayqshi Maru. So far these Martin and Mangels ENT novels have been something of a steep hill to climb. Not as horrible as I recall but not swift page turners. Still determined to get through.
Oh and I read The Dark Veil. Can't be as bleak as Last Best Hope, right? *6 year old child suffers severe head injury*
Oh and I read The Dark Veil. Can't be as bleak as Last Best Hope, right? *6 year old child suffers severe head injury*
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