My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello friends, and happy weekend!

(Some spoilery things ahead!)

I finished The High Republic novel Convergence, by Zoraida Cordova. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to its counterpart and sequel, Cataclysm, coming out in April of next year. It concerns the two planets Eiram and E’ronoh, which have been at war with each other for years. Jedi Knight Gella Natai is part of a Jedi delegation to help broker a peace treaty between the two worlds. She is helped in this mission by the two heirs, Xiri A’lbaran of E’ronoh and Phantu-Zenn of Eiram. Added to the mix is Axel Greylark, son of one of the Chancellors of the Republic, who has a troubled past and is sent there by his mother to report back to her. These four young people form a friendship as they embark on a mission to spread word of the treaty and the marriage that will take place between Xiri and Phantu-Zenn; they hope their union will bring peace to their war-weary worlds. However, not everyone wants peace and the mission is threatened from without as well as within.

Xiri and Phantu-Zenn are pretty straight-forward: they are both determined to forge peace between their worlds, and are willing to work together to do it. Gella, for her part, was assigned to this mission on the heels of a failed Pathfinder mission, where members of her team were killed or injured. She is unsure of her place in the Order, has doubts about herself as a team player, but is dedicated to the Force and the success of this mission.

Axel Greylark is the most interesting character in the book, and also the most inscrutable. He comes off as a scoundrel: an insouciant, selfish, jaded charmer, with gambling debts and a price on his head. But we also know there’s a wounded little boy inside, hiding his pain from his father’s death years ago, an accident which involved some Jedi. Ever since, he’s been hostile and mistrusting of Jedi. Of course, over the course of the book, he falls for Gella, but he’s far too complicated to change for the better because of this. He wants to; but feels it’s far too late for him, as he’s involved in some fairly murderous doings, among other things.

The saga of Eiram and E’ronoh continue in the audiobook releasing soon called The Battle of Jedha. I don’t care for audiobooks, but I have pre-ordered the print format of the book that will release in February, as I feel fairly invested in this story. And it’s Jedha, which, ever since Rogue One, has intrigued me immensely. I want to know more about it, and about the various Force religions. It’s why I’ve picked up Guardians of the Whills again, a short novel about Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus on Jedha. I’ll write more about that one next week.

I’m not sure why Vader is on the cover, since he doesn’t make an appearance in the comic.

Anyway, I also received and read the Obi-Wan Kenobi comic the other night. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m not much into comics, but every once in a while one comes out that I feel moved to read. This is one of them, as Obi-Wan is probably my favorite character in Star Wars right now. The comic concerns Obi-Wan in exile on Tatooine in his later years, probably quite close to the time of A New Hope. A sandstorm is coming, and he writes a few stories about his past in his journal to pass the time. The five stories span his lifetime, from a youngling, to Padawan to Qui-Gon Jinn, to Clone Wars General, to his mentoring of Anakin, and finally as Old Ben on Tatooine. The subtitle of the comic is “The Purpose of a Jedi”, and these stories examine that very question, as well as prepare him for his lonely exile on Tatooine. As a youngling, he must learn to rely on himself; as a Padawan, he learns to find the light in the darkness; in the Clone Wars, he truly ponders the purpose of a Jedi in war-time, which is always to help others and to choose life, even among death; in a mission with Anakin, he learns to hold on to that purpose even when it’s clear that constant war can consume others; and in the last story, he shows the incredible compassion he’s attained over the years, helping a Stormtrooper attacked by Tuskens.

The comic doesn’t add anything of great import to the canon; it’s more of a character-driven story, exploring Obi-Wan’s state of mind and what he’s learned over the years of being a Jedi. As an Obi-Wan fan, I found it very satisfying.

Also in books, I’ve been continuing my reading of Fairy Tale, by Stephen King. It’s a fun and entertaining book, about a teenage boy and his dog visiting a parallel world that is overcome by evil. I’ll probably finish it this week and write more about it next week.

Reading Stephen King got me in the mood to watch a King movie, and so I watched Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. I read The Shining years ago, and of course watched the Stanley Kubrick film with Jack Nicholson. This story concerns the adult Dan Torrance, and his life after the horrific events at the Overlook Hotel (and stars our very own Ewan McGregor as the adult Dan). So as a kid, little Danny swore he’d never touch alcohol, after seeing it destroy his father. Well, that didn’t go as planned, and he spends most of his young adult life as an alcoholic. He hits rock bottom, and ends up in a New Hampshire town where he finds help from a man named Billy, who leads him to Alcoholics Anonymous. He gets clean and spends eight years working as an orderly in a nursing home. Through his special abilities (the shining), he helps people pass on to the other side. Because of this, the residents call him “Doctor Sleep.” He turns his life around and has found a rewarding way to use his “shine.”

But.

Of course, there’s trouble. A group called the True Knot is stalking people, children in particular, who have the shining, even if they don’t know it. They kidnap and slowly kill these people, in order to “eat” their “steam”–fear and pain causes them to emit a sort of mist that is a manifestation of their power, and when the group inhales it, it “feeds” them. It causes them to live long lives.

Dan comes to know a 12-year-old girl named Abra who is very powerful in the shining. The group finds out about her existence and wants her. Dan becomes involved in helping her, but in doing so, he needs to confront his past and the (literal) ghosts that haunt him.

I don’t think this movie did very well at the box office, but I was certainly entertained for 2+ hours. I may read the book, once I finish Fairy Tale.

Lastly, I came across a trailer for a movie coming out next March:

I never knew I needed an Adam Driver time-travel sci-fi Jurassic Park kind of movie, but here we are. I’ll definitely be watching that one!

That’s about it this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

P.S.–I saw that the Phase One High Republic YA novels will be coming out in a boxed set soon with new covers:

If I had a bottomless budget, I’d get this, because I love the new covers. I’ll wishlist it, lol.

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello my friends, and happy weekend!

I’ve been continuing to read Convergence, by Zoraida Cordova, the adult novel in the first wave of Phase 2 High Republic books. I’m enjoying it, but as an adult novel, it doesn’t seem to have the same scope as other adult HR books. Instead of the usual galaxy-hopping, it takes place mostly on one, or at most, two planets. Add to this its focus on a group of young people, and it seems like another YA novel. That’s fine, it’s a good book, just not what I expected. I have a feeling this first wave of books is setting up the scene for the second wave, where things will possibly come to a head. I’ll write more about it when I finish it.

A story of a boy and his dog and another world.

On Kindle, I downloaded Stephen King’s latest, Fairy Tale. I don’t read all of King’s books, but once in a while he comes out with one that particularly appeals to me. The last one was Sleeping Beauties, and before that, The Dark Tower series (and I heard a Dark Tower series may be in the works for Prime, for which I am very excited). Fairy Tale is about a teenager named Charlie Reade who gets involved in helping out an old man named Howard Bowditch and his faithful dog, Radar. Bowditch has been hiding a secret for many years on his property: a hole in the ground in his backyard with spiraling steps that lead to another world. King really takes his time setting this all up and I’m just getting to the other world, about 80 pages in. I have no idea what this might be leading to and I can’t wait to find out!

I haven’t gotten back to Poldark yet, but in the meantime I’m rewatching the Obi-Wan Kenobi series (for the fourth? fifth? time, lol). This came about because, during one of my husband’s scrolling sessions through Youtube on our TV, he came across the second lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Vader in that show. He hasn’t seen the show (he’s a very casual Star Wars fan, doesn’t know much about the prequels, and was unimpressed with the first episode that I made him watch). But he does enjoy battle/lightsaber duel scenes, so we watched. And this, of course, got me in the mood to watch the show again. Because I LOVE this show. While perhaps not as technically brilliant as Andor, it’s the one that gets me in the feels the most. And since I’ll be getting the Obi-Wan comic next week, it seems fitting.

There are a couple of Star Wars trailers that came out this past week that I’d like to note. I’m very excited about The Bad Batch Season Two trailer, the second one we’ve gotten, and it gives us more to chew on and anticipate. In particular, I love that Cody will be in the show. Fans have long wondered what happened to him after Order 66, and now we get to find out. He’s shown talking to Crosshair, and mentioning that a lot of clone troopers are questioning their orders. I’m hoping this means that Cody is, too, and will eventually join with Rex in fighting the Empire. We see Gungi, the Wookiee Jedi Padawan from Clone Wars, and it’s exciting to see a surviving Jedi in the show (and maybe more?). Rex, and Bail Organa, and some new characters. Maybe Ahsoka? Ahsoka doesn’t need to be in everything, mind you, but it wouldn’t bother me, lol. I’m excited to see Echo exhorting Hunter for them to do more, to help fight the Empire. I’m hoping Echo has a bit more to do this season. It all looks fantastic, and I can’t wait until January 4th, when we get the first two episodes.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a gamer at all, but I did watch the Jedi: Survivor trailer, the Star Wars game that is a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. I’ve always been very interested in Cal Kestis’ story, and while I read a version of his story somewhere, and maybe even watched a Youtube version, I still felt like I was missing out. I’m glad gamers are getting more gaming fun from Cal and his crew, but it’s the book that drops the same week called Jedi: Battle Scars that I’m most looking forward to. I’m hoping you don’t need to know a lot about the game to enjoy the book, but just in case, I’ll watch some more Youtube summaries to get reacquainted with the characters. Both the game and the book drop in March of next year.

That’s it this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello friends, and happy weekend!

So, no Andor episodes to comment on anymore. 😦 But, now that the series is over, I decided to revisit Rogue One again, and yeah, it’s just as good as I remember. And perhaps, if possible, a bit sadder, since I know so much more about Cassian now. And I think it’s official: the Battle of Scarif is my favorite Star Wars battle, hands down. I enjoy the battles in Star Wars for the most part, but almost always my eyes start to glaze over after awhile. Not this one. The battle on the beach, as well as the battle above the planetary shield, is tense and exhilarating. Hmm, maybe I’ll do a list post with favorite Star Wars battles.

I finished Season Three of Poldark a few days ago, and decided to take a break from it for a week or so and watch other things. I love it, but I need a break from the constant drama, lol. There’s a few things on my Amazon Prime watchlist, but I’m not sure what I’ll watch yet. I’ll report back next week.

The covers for Phase Two have been gorgeous so far.

In books, I got my copy of Convergence and have been reading it. I’m about halfway done and I’m really enjoying it. It mostly concerns the “Forever War” between the two planets Eiram and E’ronoh, and a Jedi delagation trying to help with the peace process. Jedi Knight Gella Nattai is trying to find her place in the Order; Axel Greylark, the troubled son of one of the Chancellors, has been sent there by his mother to watch and report back to her. Both Gella and Axel must protect the princess of E’ronoh and the prince of Eiram, who have vowed to end their planets destructive war through a marriage between them. But there are those who don’t want peace, on both sides, and it doesn’t help that the Path of the Hand has gotten involved as well. I’m eager to see how it turns out, since there’s still trouble between these two planets a hundred years later as evidences in one of the Phase One books, which I believe was Into the Dark.

Obi-Wan looks back on some key moments in his life.

I’m not much of a comic book reader, but when I saw an omnibus edition of the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi comic, I had to pre-order it. It comes out on December 13th. I don’t think the comic brought anything super important or earth-shattering to the canon, but look, it’s Obi-Wan. So it will be read and take its place on my shelf.

We got a cover reveal for the Cal Kestis novel coming out next March:

Looks like trouble ahead with Fifth Brother.

I’m eager to get to know these characters, as I’m not a gamer, either. But I’ve always been intrigued by Cal’s story, and had always hoped for a book. Wishes sometimes do come true!

In Marvel, I watched the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 trailer that just dropped, and I’m ready for this. If you haven’t seen it, check it out here:

By the way, I haven’t seen Wakanda Forever yet, but I will watch it when it inevitably drops on Disney Plus soon.

That’s it this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello friends, and happy weekend!

(Spoilery things ahead!)

Well, the Andor finale aired this past week, and I enjoyed it for the most part. All the principals were gathering on Farrix, all of them to find Cassian and either kill or capture him. No one did. In fact, none of them even saw him, and while I expected at least one of them to have a confrontation with him, that didn’t happen, either. Cassian ended up working behind the scenes to free Bix from the Imperials.

Otherwise, it was all about Maarva’s funeral and its aftermath. I appreciated the denizens of Farrix defying the Empire’s restrictions on the event, showing up in numbers and at the time they wanted. This is an appropriate defiance; but I hesitate to champion Maarva’s hologram speech during it. The speech itself was fantastic. But I feel like Maarva didn’t think this through. Surely she must have known that the funeral would be supervised by the Imperials. To instigate an uprising from the people of Farrix right then and there seems a bit…irresponsible? She must have known people would be killed. And yes, of course, sacrifices must be made for the Rebellion, etc etc, but these things need to be thought out and planned. I don’t know, I just thought her speech could have been better timed.

Anyway, Luthen shows up to…I’m not sure, check up on Vel and Cinta? Help with Cassian’s murder? At any rate, once chaos breaks out in the town square, he distances himself and heads back to his ship. True to form, he sees such uprisings and outrage necessary for the Rebellion, but doesn’t want to risk his own life. As he’s said, he’s a coward. In the meantime, Cinta kills the ISB guy that has been watching her for days, Syril saves Dedra’s life (the shippers will be going nuts, lol) and Cassian gets Bix out of the hotel. He gets her to a ship along with B2, Brasso, and Pak’s son, who brought a homemade bomb to the funeral. But Cassian doesn’t go with them.

He waits for Luthen in his ship and tells him to either kill him or bring him in (into his inner circle of Rebels). Because Cassian, over the course of the show, has gone from someone who doesn’t care and just tries to survive, to a true believer who wants to fight back. Many of the people he’s met during the show has influenced Cassian’s transformation: Nemik (whose manifesto Cassian has read and is voiced over during the episode), Kino, and Maarva (who sends a message to him through Brasso); and all the inequities and punishments he’s suffered under the Empire, including his father’s unjust execution, bring Cassian around to the man we meet in Rogue One.

We don’t see much of Mon Mothma in this episode, except to see her cleverly trying to throw off the Empire from the missing money in her accounts by blaming Perrin for gambling, knowing her driver is listening in on the conversation. Also, her daughter meets the the thug’s son, and perhaps a marriage will occur. Or not. We’ll have to wait until Season Two to find out.

I thought the episode was fine, but something made it a bit anti-climactic for me. I’m not sure what it was; maybe it was Cassian lurking around and not confronting any of these people who were out to get him. I expected some kind of confrontation. Oh well. I did enjoy the entirety of Season One and am looking forward to Season Two.

The Guardians with the Legendary Kevin Bacon.

I haven’t been watching much Marvel lately (I chose to pass on both Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk), but I did watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. When I saw the teaser trailer for it some time ago, I thought, oh yeah, I’m SO there for that! Lol. Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my favorite aspects of the Marvel Universe, besides Loki and Dr. Strange, and I knew that I’d enjoy it immensely. It was only about 45 minutes, which was plenty, but it was so fun and amusing and makes me excited for the next Guardians movie (2023?)

The premise of the special is that Mantis and Drax want to do something nice for Peter for Christmas, believing Yondu spoiled it for him some years ago. Since Peter has talked quite a bit about Kevin Bacon to them over the years (mostly about his character from the movie Footloose, which was a favorite of his when he was a kid), they decide to….give Peter Kevin Bacon for Christmas!

Goofy fun ensues as they head to Hollywood in search of Kevin Bacon. If you don’t expect too much from it, it’s really fun. And it’s rather heartwarming in the end, which is what all Christmas specials should be.

Anyway, other than that, I’ve been continuing my fevered watching of Poldark. I’m about halfway through Season Three (out of five seasons) and the drama only gets more complicated and juicy. It’s like Jane Austen’s naughty sister, lol. I’m nervous at the start of every episode, wondering what could go wrong next, who will get hurt, what evil George Warleggon will conjure up next. The setting of the show, by the way, is spectacular, with the dramatic cliffs of Cornwall and the boiling ocean waves of the sea a reflection of the character’s churning emotions. I love it!

In books, I’ve finally finished The Obelisk Gate, by N.K. Jemisin, the second book in a trilogy called The Broken Earth series. I’ll probably do a post on all three books when I’m done.

And I finally received Convergence, by Zoraida Cordova, just today, the latest High Republic book in Phase 2. I would have gotten it sooner but I failed to update my payment method when my bank changed some time ago. Oops! Looking forward to starting that one.

That’s about it this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!