Hello friends! As I was busy in November doing my NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) Challenge, I waited until the end of the month to post my Entertainment Update, instead of mid-month. There’s a few things to talk about, so I’ll be as brief and to the point as possible.

Crimson Climb, by E.K. Johnston. At the beginning of the movie Solo, a young Han Solo attempts to escape the White Worm gang on Corellia with Qi’ra. He succeeds; she doesn’t. She gets dragged back to the White Worm lair and faces the consequences. This book covers the first year after her failed escape attempt: Lady Proxima punishes her and sells her to a violent criminal; she’s then plucked from him by an associate of Dryden Vos, and becomes a member of Crimson Dawn. The book tells of her rise in that criminal organization to Vos’ lieutenant, the Qi’ra we see later in Solo when Han meets up with her again. I enjoyed the book, though it wasn’t a page-turner for me. I get the feeling we’re going to get a Qi’ra trilogy from Johnston, in the same way we got a Padme trilogy from her. I do like this idea. I wouldn’t say I like Qi’ra; she’s done some pretty bad stuff. But I do admire her smarts and her drive to survive. I was going to do a post on other Qi’ra-related content (comics and books, etc) but got side-tracked by the Chat Pack, so maybe I’ll do that next.

The Eye of Darkness, by George Mann. The long-awaited first book of Phase 3 of the High Republic released this month, and I tore through it pretty quickly. After a detour into the past with Phase 2, we now go back to the Phase 1 characters we know and love: Avar Kriss, Elzar Mann, Bell Zettifar and Burryaga. I was particularly happy to see Avar Kriss as a main protagonist; after meeting and really liking the character in Light of the Jedi, the first High Republic novel, she then retreated mostly to the comics for the rest of the saga so far. I loved seeing her in action again in a novel. Another character I haven’t seen in a novel since LOTJ and whose been in the comics is Porter Engle, who is also one of the main characters here. Both he and Avar are trapped behind the Stormwall, an impenetrable barrier put up by Marchion Ro, leader of the Nihil. Ro has claimed a large portion of the galaxy, calling it the Occlusion Zone, and the people who live within it are at his mercy. Boiling it down, Avar and Porter are trying to find a way out, while Elzar Mann, and Bell and Burryaga, are trying to find a way in, but of course it’s much more than that. This book really deserves its own post, because it’s fantastic and I loved every minute of it.

Star Wars Myths and Fables, by George Mann. I downloaded this to my Kindle because I needed something to read there, and it was free through Prime, lol. And I’d just read George Mann’s High Republic novel and loved it, so why not read him again? This was very different from that, of course, as it’s set up as a telling of, well, myths and fables. These stories are straight exposition, as if told around a campfire or as a bedtime story. They’re fairly entertaining, and Mann does a good job here, but not my favorite type of story. Just something to read between the major Star Wars reads. I love the cover and wouldn’t mind having the hardcover on my shelf, though.

Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler. This is a dystopian novel published in 1993, but remains relevant and frighteningly prescient, considering the events of the book take place in 2024-2027. Lauren Olamina is a precocious 15 year old who lives with her family in a walled community in the suburbs of Los Angeles. It’s walled to keep out the thieves, beggars, homeless, drug addicts, and other desperate people who are willing to kill to survive. It’s not easy living within the walls, but it’s a death sentence outside them. Society has broken down to a point where there aren’t many jobs that pay decent money, or money at all, for that matter; some work for food and board. Some flee to corporate-owned towns and cities and basically become slaves to the corporations. Lauren’s father is a preacher, and teaches at the local college (who he’s teaching, I have no idea; illiteracy is running rampant), though it’s precarious travelling to and from work. One day he just doesn’t come home. That’s after her 14 year old brother runs away and decides to try to make it outside the walls; he’s found dead later, horribly mutilated. The police and fire fighters charge fees for their services, which most people can’t afford. Their community is destroyed by “pyro” addicts, who smash through the gate and set fire to the houses, killing people and stealing their things. Lauren, whose remaining family is killed, is set on her journey north on foot, with a few survivors, to try to find a new, safer life. She’s been preparing for this, and has ideas about a new way of living, a kind of new religion called Earthseed, in which “God is Change.” Life on the road is dangerous and heartbreaking, but she meets people willing to join the group and protect each other. I found this book engrossing and terrifying, mostly because it has elements that we already see in our society, but on a larger scale. I can totally see it happening if we’re not careful, if we don’t pay attention and take action. Anyway, there’s a sequel called Parable of the Talents, which I want to read, but I don’t know how much more human suffering and tragedy I can take right now, lol.

Loki Season 2. I’m going to be honest and say I didn’t enjoy this season as much as I did Season One. I started out with “I’m so happy to see these characters again!” to “I have no idea what’s going on” to “This is okay but not great” to “All right, this is pretty good” to “I have no idea what’s going on” again, to “This is really good but now I’m sad.” In other words, it was uneven for me. However, I loved the character arc that Loki went on during the entirety of Seasons One and Two. He’s come full circle, from his arrogant proclamation of “I am burdened with glorious purpose,” to his acceptance of the actual burden of his glorious purpose. In finding that purpose, he had to understand himself, find his heart, make some friends, and realize he needed to give up the people he loved in order to save them. To see him transform like that was very satisfying; I love a good redemption arc. But I was kind of hoping he was going to lead the TVA, not have to sit on that throne all by himself for eternity. But he’s doing what gods do, I guess. Or what they’re supposed to do. At any rate, I have mixed emotions: I’m glad he’s found his glorious purpose, but I’m sad by how lonely it must be. Will this be the last we see of Loki? It seems that way, but I wouldn’t count on it. I also watched Assembled: The Making of Loki S2, which I always enjoy watching.

Snowpiercer. I’ve had this in my Amazon Prime queue for a while now, and decided to finally watch it at the beginning of the month. The premise is this: the world has frozen solid from some last-ditch experiment of launching something into the sky that presumably would “fix” climate change. Instead, it turned the world to ice. The last fragments of humanity are travelling around this ice globe on a train that never stops, circling the world on an endless track for years and years. The problem is, the train is divided into the haves and have-nots. At the front of the train are the haves, I’m guessing the people who originally paid for a spot on the train at the beginning; while the end of the train is for the have-nots, who I’m guessing were desperate people who fought their way onto the train when things went south (or should I say north?). These poor souls are locked in the back cars, cramped and nearly starving, at the mercy of the will of the creator of the train, Wilford. Chris Evans is great as Curtis, who decides to lead a rebellion and bust his way through the train cars to the very front, where Wilford, and the engine, are. It’s quite a journey, and very violent, which I suppose makes sense. Interesting premise, and entertaining.

Whew! It seems like a lot, but I’ve been reading and watching these things since mid-October. What’s been entertaining you lately? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!